Seize the Opportunity: Making Your Move to a New State a Success

By Ted James

Relocating to a new state is more than just a change of scenery; it’s a chance to transform your life in exciting ways. Whether you’re seeking new career opportunities, a healthier lifestyle, or a vibrant cultural scene, moving can be the catalyst for positive change.

Evaluating Biking and Walking Infrastructure

When considering a move, it’s crucial to assess the infrastructure available for biking and walking, as these elements significantly impact your quality of life. Investigating the presence of bike lanes and pedestrian paths can reveal a lot about a community’s commitment to sustainable and active transportation. Cities that have made strides in creating low-stress environments for cyclists and pedestrians not only enhance safety but also promote healthier lifestyles and reduce traffic congestion.

Real Estate Blogs: The Lay of the Land

Normally we at TRET are content to remain in our corner of the real estate blogosphere, offering insightful content on all things real estate. The state of real estate blogging, however, has changed in the 13 years since this blog has begun and it is necessary to take a look at the types of real estate blogs that populate the Internet in 2024. There are a multitude of topics on which real estate blogs can focus, from commercial real estate, to real estate investment to lending and mortgage markets. There is also no shortage of target audiences for a real estate blogger, including real estate brokers, first time homebuyers, real estate technology users and even bankers. The variety of options available has made this subset of blogs significantly larger than when TRET first began.  For reasons of formatting and redundancy, this article will not merely be a list of reviews of other real estate blogs. There are a number of websites that already successfully provide extensive reviews of the real estate blogosphere like: The Close or Feed Spot, among others. Instead, the purpose of this article is to organize, categorize and put a face on the large and growing ecosystem of real estate blogs, in order to make this corner of the Internet a little less daunting.

Propel Your Homeownership Dreams with Savvy Debt Management

By Sharon Wagner

Navigating the journey towards buying a home can be both exhilarating and challenging. Understanding and managing your debt effectively is a crucial step in transforming your homeownership dreams into reality, particularly if you're planning to buy a house in the next 6–12 months. Here, The Real Estate Think Tank presents essential strategies that will guide you in optimizing your financial health, making the process smoother and more attainable.

Why Can't Anyone Afford A House?

Another Summer has given way to the crisp winds of Autumn. As the cooler temperatures and falling leaves begin to turn ones mind toward the importance of having a warm place to stay in the upcoming months, it would be prudent to look at how housing affordability has become a true concern for most people in the United States. In a very informative, yet eye-opening article, EconoFact discusses how the vast majority of household are spending well over 30% of the their income on housing. This figure includes both homeowners and renters.

The recently decline in housing unaffordability is concerning for a number of reasons. One of the primary concerns around this current economic trend is the financial stress that higher housing costs place on households. Considering further the inflationary pressures of the past five years and it appears that most American households may be squeezed into an impossible position.

Seasoning Update 2024

It’s been a while since we have discussed seasoning on this blog and it’s about time to talk about the changes that have taken place in the past few years and discuss further the different meanings of seasoning that exist for a mortgage.

What Will Each of the Candidates Do For the Real Estate Market If They Are Elected President?

The 2024 presidential election is coming up in four months and on July 21, 2024, President Joe Biden formally announced that he was withdrawing from the presidential race. This left the Democratic party with a decision which was ultimately made July 30^th, when they name Vice President Kamala Harris as their endorsed candidate for president. With both candidates for president unequivocally named, let’s look at what both Donald Trump and Kamala Harris might do to or for the real estate market if elected as president.

Digitization and the Real Estate Professional

There is no denying that the role and purpose of a real estate professional has changed over the past five years. From advances in artificial intelligence, to the popularity of digital real estate, to the presence of large full service real estate companies in the market, like Zillow 2024, this market is very different from that of 2019. Add to this mix the weakening of real estate professional organizations, like the National Association of Realtors via the NAR settlement and it becomes even more apparent that the real estate service market is in a state of change. Given the current state of flux in the market, some have begun to question the role of a real estate professional. It has therefore become imperative that real estate professionals recognize their current competitive advantages in order to thrive.

The Origin of the 6% Commission Standard

The recent National Association of Realtors (NAR) Settlement is in the process of changing how many real estate brokers and salespeople conduct business. The terms of the settlement all but abolish cooperative compensation amongst brokers. Although this may not be a substantial change for markets in which every buyer offers through a Buyer's Broker and every seller is automatically represented by a Seller’s Broker, the effects will be greatly felt in other markets. Some of the larger real estate markets have developed complex systems of agency that will now be simplified by one premise--in a residential real estate transaction, a buyer will now have to pay a Buyer’s Broker and seller will have to pay a Seller’s Broker.