3/26 Email

The Week In Review

Welcome to my weekly newsletter featuring a personal real estate story along with updates from the ever-evolving world of real estate. Enjoy!

To be (represented) or not to be (represented)

As consumers, we always have a choice. From traffic court to home purchases to complex legal matters, we have the choice to seek the counsel of a professional.

Living in a city where one in six people is an attorney, it is clear that plenty of us choose legal representation! Every time I have had to use a lawyer, I have felt so grateful for their knowledge and expertise, and felt I received tremendous value. Like real estate agents, there are options - from Big Law Partners to solo practitioners. 

As realtors, we have lots in common with lawyers:

1.  Consumers resent us. Why? Because we can both can cost a lot. And often we are both are handling complex, highly-nuanced and emotional issues.

2.  You aren't paying a lawyer simply to draft documents. You pay them for the years/decades of experience and education that inform their counsel.

3.  You can read the law, defend yourself in court, process paperwork, just as you can sell and buy a home yourself. But a good lawyer - or agent - delivers much more than what you can Google! Good lawyers and good agents provide INSIGHTS into the facts and nuances of a transaction, market or dispute. Both can save you a fortune by preventing an expensive mistake. 

4.  Some lawyers are paid if and only when a settlement occurs. Granted they are paid much more - like 25-35% ...... 

5. Lawyers have significant overhead costs that are often forgotten or ignored. Rent, staffing, insurance, advertising, fees and subscriptions, and professional memberships to name a few.

8.  Lawyers - like agents - require licensing and continuing education. All involve significant money and time.

9.  Lawyers and agents must do tons of legwork before they can assist anyone effectively. Data and facts matter, but the insights, strategy and "boots on the ground" knowledge are the real value.

10.  There are discount lawyers out there. Discount legal forms. Do-it-yourself law. Just like discount real estate agents. Are consumers at a big disadvantage by not using a lawyer? I think so!

Of course the barrier to entry to becoming a lawyer is significantly higher, requiring years of education and training. Perhaps there are lessons for the real estate industry?

Listing of the Week

Spotlight on Silicon Valley

silicon Valley

164 Elena Avenue

5 BD   4 BA   12,440 SF   $33,375,000

Real Estate In The News

Smart Homes are subject to cyber-crime: make sure your Wi-Fi router is secure—the router is the key to your digital home. Use the website or app that controls your router to check that it isn’t using the default password—that same password could have been given to many other customers. Give the router a unique password you use only for that device. Ensure that the router’s security feature called a firewall is turned on, and that it is using encryption called WPA2 or the newer WPA3. And turn on the control to allow automatic software updates, if provided.  Use a different password for each device. Set up a guest network on your router that has its own unique password and use that network to connect your smart devices. Invest in a quality router that has software that allows profiles for your devices that can limit what they can do thereby inhibiting certain types of behavior that such devices can do with the network that will greatly diminish the ability of a hack from outside. Make sure your router supports multiple password supported networks. (WSJ)

Sales of existing homes, the majority of purchases, surged 9.5% to a seasonally adjusted annual rate of 4.38 million, the National Association of Realtors said Thursday. Homes sold for more than $1 million shot up 37% in February, compared with the same month a year ago. Sales of homes priced from $750,000 to $1 million rose 23%. (WSJ)

Around DC 

Bonnard's Worlds at The Phillips Collection

Bonnard’s World, the first major retrospective of Pierre Bonnard’s work at The Phillips Collection in 20 years, explores the sensory spheres of experience that fueled the French artist’s creative practice. Bonnard’s immediate surroundings were the lifeblood of his work, and this exhibition is guided by those personal spaces that found expression in his art through his recording of remembered sensations. Governed neither by chronology nor geography, but by measures of intimacy, the exhibition transports the visitor from the larger realms in which Bonnard lived—the landscapes of Paris, Normandy, and the South of France—to the most intimate interior spaces of his dwellings and his thoughts. Bonnard’s Worlds reunites some of Bonnard’s most celebrated works from museums across Europe and the United States, as well as many less-exhibited works drawn from private collections worldwide.

Bonnard's Worlds is a special exhibition at The Phillips Collection until June 2nd, 2024.

Lee Arrowood
+$173M Sold In 2023
#3 Team Lead 2022

Managing Partner
M: 202.251.3175
O: 301.298.1001
lee@fleisherarrowood.com

Office: 301-298-1001

Compass Real Estate is a licensed real estate broker. All material is intended for informational purposes only and is compiled from sources deemed reliable but is subject to errors, omissions, changes in price, condition, sale, or withdrawal without notice. No statement is made as to the accuracy of any description or measurements (including square footage). This is not intended to solicit property already listed. No financial or legal advice provided. Equal Housing Opportunity. Photos may be virtually staged or digitally enhanced and may not reflect actual property conditions.