Mike Browning

Tag: Market Reality

  • The Market Doesn’t Care What You “Need” It to Be

    The Market Doesn’t Care What You “Need” It to Be

    It’s not personal. It’s just the truth.

    It’s the single biggest reason sellers feel disappointed: they confuse personal math with market math.

    You might want a certain number for completely reasonable reasons:

    • To pay off debt
    • To match what your neighbor got
    • To “at least break even”
    • To fund something else
    • Or because that’s what you planned on getting

    But the market doesn’t ask for your spreadsheet.
    It doesn’t account for sunk cost, family history, or fairness.

    It prices based on what a willing buyer will pay today.
    And ignoring that doesn’t punish the market. It punishes the seller.

    I see it all the time:
    A seller insists on a number because they “need” it.
    Buyers pass.
    Time drags on.
    Other listings get seen.
    Leverage slips.
    Then after months of silence, a real offer finally comes in…
    but it’s lower than it could have been if they’d priced right from the start.

    This isn’t about being cold. It’s about being smart.

    You can absolutely hope for a stronger offer.
    You can wait if the current market doesn’t align with your goals, especially if you’re not living on the land.

    But if selling now would help you accomplish something — lighten your load, free up capital, simplify your estate, close a chapter —
    then the real number is the one worth understanding.

    Realism doesn’t eliminate regret. But it usually reduces it.
    Because unlike optimism, realism leaves you with clarity, clean decisions, and forward movement.

    The market doesn’t argue with you.
    It just waits.

    If you’ve got lots or acreage and want a clear, no-fluff look at where things stand, that’s what I do.

    Not a sales pitch. Just a decision tool.

    Click Here For Lots

    Click Here For Acreage

  • Most People Misunderstand the Business They’re In

    Most People Misunderstand the Business They’re In

    The NFL doesn’t make that mistake. Newspapers do.

    Yesterday I was talking about the Dallas Morning News, and how a lot of the people there don’t really know what business they’re in.

    And the people who did know what business they were in are either gone, or they know the business is dead anyway, so it doesn’t matter.

    Contrast that with the NFL.

    Their product isn’t really football. Football is the engine. It’s what pulls in the eyeballs. The real product is selling those eyeballs to network television for huge amounts of money in exchange for broadcasting the games.

    Add in corporate sponsorships, the ability to get cities to subsidize stadiums, and everything else layered on top.

    It’s a money printing machine.

    And you can be absolutely certain the people at the top know exactly what business they’re in. Unlike the newspaper people.

    They’ll talk like they’re in another business. They’ll say it’s all about winning. And it’s not that they don’t want to win.

    But it’s also not really about creating perfectly fair competition.

    If it were, teams wouldn’t play on different amounts of rest. Travel wouldn’t be wildly uneven. Schedules wouldn’t tilt the way they do.

    And the rules wouldn’t constantly change.

    But they do. All the time.

    Not to make the game more fair, but to increase viewer interest.

    That’s the business.

    Real estate isn’t that different.

    Most agents think they’re in the brokerage business. In reality, many are in the tell-the-seller-what-they-want-to-hear business, followed by the put-up-a-sign-and-hope business.

    That’s not how I operate.

    I’ll tell you what I actually think, not what I think will get me hired. Being aggressive on price can make sense, and I’m fine with that. But it still has to connect to reality.

    That’s why I think of this as the trust business.

    Things don’t always work out the way we want. Markets change. Buyers disappear. But you’ll never feel like you weren’t dealt with honestly.

    I offer a free, no-obligation analysis of non-residential property. You may not be ready to sell, and that’s fine.

    But can it really hurt to know where things actually stand?

    Almost everyone says they want the truth. Not everyone actually does.

    If you’re one of the ones who does, click below to get your free valuation report.

    Get Started Here

  • No Crying To The Fairness Police

    No Crying To The Fairness Police

    If reality exceeds your pocketbook, that’s your problem.

    The World Cup is around the corner.

    With that, you’re starting to see stories in the news about “price gouging.”

    First it was the cost of tickets. FIFA released a token number of cheap seats as a PR move. Now it’s the price of Airbnb rentals near the venues, reportedly five to seven times their normal rates.

    And people are complaining.

    But whether you think this is a problem depends entirely on which side you’re on.

    If you’re selling something and it suddenly becomes worth more, and someone is willing to pay that price, you only get that opportunity once. There is no do-over. You want to maximize it. That’s rational.

    If you’re buying, though, people suddenly think they have the right to tell someone else what they should accept. Or that a seller should take less than what another buyer is willing to pay, just for the sake of their convenience.

    That’s where the disconnect is.

    On the surface, this seems simple. In practice, it’s not. The correct answer is usually the opposite of what people want when they’re on the losing side of a transaction.

    You need to get over it.

    If you can pay, pay. If you can’t, or don’t want to, figure something else out. That’s it.

    And this same dynamic shows up in real estate all the time.

    If I’m marketing your property and negotiating on your behalf, here’s the reality.

    The job is to sell it for as much as possible, in the shortest amount of time. Those two things can change depending on your situation. The objective does not.

    I’m not going to talk you into taking less because a buyer is upset, inconvenienced, or making arguments that wouldn’t pass a basic economics class.

    That doesn’t mean we’re difficult. It doesn’t mean we strong-arm people or nickel and dime every detail.

    But if there are buyers willing to pay more, that’s who we’re talking to first.

    Feelings don’t change that.

    I work for my clients. Not them.

    Get more like this here!

    PS- You’re probably not ready to buy or sell land today. And that’s fine.
    But the time to prepare for anything is long before it’s actually time.

    I offer a free, no-obligation analysis on any non-residential property. It includes real comps with real prices near your tract, along with things like planned development, utilities, and current market conditions.

    Even if you’re not ready to sell, or never plan to sell, having current market information does not hurt.

    And you’ll be working with a regular guy who talks straight. No flattery. No pressure. Just real information, integrity, and a willingness to listen.

    Most importantly, someone who does not get his feelings hurt by people who don’t have your interests in mind.

    Can anything bad happen by just talking?

    Click Below:

    Got a lot you might want to sell?
    Get a FREE, no obligation report on what it could sell for today.
    Get Your Lot Valuation

    Own land instead?
    Get a report for that here:
    Get Your Land Value

    Just a glutton for punishment?
    Sign up now to get more articles like this in your email.
    Sign Up Now