Housing Chatter delivers the news you need to know about current events in the housing market in simple terms. We have no political or institutional affiliations so you can be confident that our content and commentary is unbiased. Housing Chatter is brought to you by your professional Realtor®.

9 Signs its Time to Update Your Bathroom

A bathroom should be a place of comfort — the optimal environment for a relaxing soak or getting ready efficiently during a harried morning. “You’re going to spend time in there every day,” says Sarah Hurd, part of the mother-daughter team behind Short Story Renovations, a Baltimore-area design, rehab, and staging company. “You should not hate your bathroom ... Read More »

Everything I Learned About Business From Flipping 1,000 Homes

When I was 20 years old, I dropped out of college to pursue a career in real estate. After several years of knocking on doors, I launched my first real estate fund and have gone on to buy and sell over 1,000 homes. While my industry is real estate, I am an entrepreneur. The lessons I have learned along the way do not just apply to real estate, they can be a ... Read More »

Why You Need a Kitchen Designer

Clients often ask me, “Why do I need a kitchen designer? I’m already working with an interior designer.” The answer is simple: A good kitchen designer supports your architect or designer and brings in specialized knowledge of what makes a kitchen look beautiful and work well. ... Read More »

Overpricing: How Aiming Too High Can Cost You

Pricing a home for sale is more of an art than a science. Each home’s value falls within a range, and the price the buyer and seller agree on determines the exact value of the property. If priced competitively from the very beginning, a home will sell at the higher end of the value range. The longer it lingers, the lower it lands in that range. ... Read More »

You Have A Plan B? Science Says Thats A Really Bad Idea

Absurdly Driven looks at the world of business with a skeptical eye and a firmly rooted tongue in cheek. You're a lot more sensible than I am. You look ahead and plan out the beautiful trajectory of your career. You know where you want to be in a year's time, in two years' time and in five. You make contingency plans, though. You have a Plan B in case ... Read More »

Relationship Marketing: The Value of Marketing to Current Customers

Relationship marketing is strategy that emphasizes customer retention, satisfaction, and lifetime customer value. Relationship marketing can be defined as marketing to current customers vs. new customer acquisition through sales and advertising. ... Read More »

FHFA: Homes are becoming slightly more affordable

Home prices across the U.S. increased in the second quarter, but the pace is slowing, and homes are slowly starting to become more affordable. Home prices rose 1.2% from the first quarter this year, and 5.6% from the second quarter last year, according to the Federal Housing Finance Agency House Price Index. FHFA’s seasonally adjusted monthly index for June ... Read More »

A simple equation could help you decide whether to buy or rent a home

Buy or rent? Real estate investor Grant Cardone, who has been in the field for 25 years, writes on Entrepreneur that buying a home "is for suckers" because monthly payments make it a liability, not an investment. On Quora, MIT Economist Erik Brynjolfsson explains that buying is better than renting, because you get dividends in the form of rent you pay to y ... Read More »

This is how the second wave of Chinese real estate buyers are making more money

For the past five years, Chinese investors actively targeted U.S. real estate in major coastal markets like New York City and San Francisco, but a shift in preferences has emerged as these markets fail to produce significant returns. A second wave of savvier buyers has new motivation for acquiring real estate, which has altered their investment strategy. Th ... Read More »

The popularity of tiny houses is beginning to have a big impact on the real estate market

It’s no secret that the counter-movement to big, sprawling homes has reached the mainstream – and it's known as the tiny home. Tiny houses are exactly as they’re described: small homes that are often built on a trailer to be portable. The maximum square footage for tiny living varies by the company or individual, but these small dwellings are typically unde ... Read More »