Olive's Q&A Real Estate Blog

Have you ever noticed how quickly you relax around a person who possesses a genuine source of self-confidence, consideration and competence? And how immediately your senses go on red alert when confronted with someone else who appears cocky, conceited and arrogant, demanding all the oxygen and at...

Gordon Gecko, the famous snarky character from the film, Wall Street, http://is.gd/Ys8BpK will forever be known within the infamous one-liner club for stating, "Greed is good." In the context of the film, he was right. Sort of. It worked for him - for a while - and got him where he wanted to go. ...

What's the average cycle for a good thing to turn bad?  Fruit left out to rot takes anywhere from a few days to a few weeks. But a city? Hard to say.I've moved a lot in the past thirty years. I left LA for San Francisco in '91 to get away from LA's congestion and out-of-touch values. At that time...

How many times has a client or vendor asked you to step outside the lines?  Provide them under the table with a resource or service, discount your own services or ask for extra considerations that simply weren't "kosher?"I've written about this for years.  I never understood when I was young how ...

In the seach for a good life, owning a safe haven...a home in a quiet neighborhood or town that provides you and your loved ones with a sense of security, a sense of reality and substance...a safe place where you can build that good life...is high on the priority list of most folks today.I'm fort...

Real estate professionals are confronted by rude people everyday in all kinds of situations, but when faced with dealing with rude people during a real estate transaction or negotiation, this dysfunctional, even abusive behavior can threaten the very success of the transaction at hand.  During mo...

When you're in the process of trying to buy a home, things don't always work out the way you expect or hope it will. In a tight market, it often comes down to which buyer is willing to pay top dollar, even if it's way over list, just to buy a home. To be king of the hill. In cases like that, it b...

Selling your home is one of the most important decisions you'll ever make, but it can be daunting when you suddenly find that you and your honey can't agree on anything, from choosing a broker to compromising on what to keep or let go of, much less selling your home. While it may be profitable, e...

Buying a home on your own can be a huge, even daunting challenge, especially if it's your first time buying a home on your own. Even if you've had these dream, this image in your mind, of how it will look and what it will feel like to live there, buying a home of your own is one of the most major...