Real Estate Myth Busting

If you’re like us, you like to do research before making a big purchase or sale. And when it comes to your home sale or purchase, you want to make data-supported decisions to maximize your chances of the best possible outcome. 

Unfortunately, when it comes to real estate, most information available is anecdotal or has been a myth repeated so many times that it has become “fact.”

This leads many of us to lean on local real estate agents and/or past sellers, which can be unreliable or narrow, or worse, at odds with our own interests. And in an era of endless content, there are loads of listicles that give surface-level advice, but don’t help answer the hard questions that come up when you’re buying or selling.

Questions like… 

• Should I move out before I list?
• What time of year gets me the most money? 
• Should I make improvements? If so, which ones will get me a great return on my investment? 
• Is staging my home necessary?
• How should I think about picking an agent or getting advice? 
• What makes a good offer? 
  

And then on the flip side, when buying, there are big questions like...

• How do I determine the upside potential of a home? 
• How do I know I’m paying a fair price?
• What are some of the potential regrets I may have, based on other’s regrets?
• What is the best way to pick a lender? 
  

We’ve found that these answers aren’t readily available because either real estate companies use it as a competitive advantage or they just haven’t done the work to stay current in a rapidly-changing market. 

So that’s why we’re starting our “Real Estate Myths” blog series. Over the coming months, we’ll question things that have become “facts” about Bay Area real estate. And after thorough analysis, we’ll tell you what you need to know so you can make the best possible decision for you and your family. Sometimes that might mean starting your selling process with Aalto - sometimes not. Whatever the answer, we’ll share it.

With this series, we seek to answer tough questions using accurate data to inform better decisions. Of course, no two homes are exactly alike, but there are trends with statistical significance that you deserve to know. 

As you might be thinking, most companies would approach this problem with an industry expert, hiring the best real estate economist or analyst out there. But Aalto is not like most companies. We like to approach problems from different angles to get better results. And candidly, we’re not going to democratize real estate by doing what’s been done for the last 30+ years. It must be different. 

So for this series, we looked outside of real estate to other industries that have been broken down and rebuilt using data analysis. We found the best to be in professional sports. 

You may be familiar with Billy Beane and his crew who used their Moneyball strategy to reassess baseball players in Oakland. At Aalto, we want to do something similar - so we have hired two of the best sports analysts to help us with this problem. Their employers (a top MLB and NBA team respectively) won’t let us use their names, but know that they are now watching the markets for you, the homeowner.

Over the coming months, we’ll be partnering with them to deliver great analysis that you can use when buying or selling your largest asset. 

Do note that some of our recommendations will lead you towards using a solution like Aalto as a starting point in your buying or selling journey, and some will point away from it. And that’s okay! We want to give you the data pure, not painted with purple-colored Aalto glasses. 

So with that, we begin our series on real estate myth busting. You can find our first article right here. And if you have any ideas for future articles, give us a shout at myths@aalto.com.

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Thanks!
Aalto Insights Team