ActiveRain Community

Whether it’s at a family gathering, your company party, or catching up with friends over the holidays, the housing market always finds its way into the conversation.Here are the top three questions on a lot of people’s minds this season, and straightforward answers to help you feel more confident about the market.1. “Will I even be able to find a home if I want to move?”Yes, more than you could a year or two ago.The number of homes for sale has been rising over the past few years. According to data from Realtor.com, there have been more than one million homes on the market for six straight months, something that hasn’t happened since 2019 (see graph below): That means two things: Buyers have more options. Sellers have more places they can move to next. Many homeowners who held off are r... 12/10/2025

Getting Roasted at the Silo in Southern Utah! Oh honey, pull up a lawn chair and crack open a Diet Coke, it’s time for your Comedy Central Roast: St. George, Utah Edition. “Welcome to the stage, Southern Utah’s most enthusiastic home-selling tornado…”Wanda Kubat-Nerdin sells homes with the energy of someone who’s had three coffees and one motivational podcast too many. If enthusiasm were square footage, every house she listed would be a mansion.  She’s the only real estate agent who can walk into a room and make you feel both excited to buy a home and guilty you haven’t already signed the contract. Her marketing photos are so polished you’d think she’s running for president of HGTV. 🏡  Wanda’s the type of agent who’ll say, “This home has good bones!”
Translation: You’ll need a construct... 12/10/2025

Zoom Homework…Who Am I? What Fun! We had so much fun at our Zoom call this week!!!  We had a roundtable today. After some discussion on AI-written posts and comments, hair color...our ever-creative Wanda Kubat-Nerdin - Wanda Can!  suggested using AI to write a Comedy Central Roast about us. Of course, what it (AI) writes about you comes from information pulled from Cyberville. So…if you spend little to no time on social media, there wouldn’t be much to pull from. The most consistent platform I’m on is right here…ActiveRain. So, I hitched up my britches and prepared myself for what it would write. From Chat GPTAlright Kathy, buckle up — you asked for a Comedy Central roast, not a Hallmark card. 😈🔥 Kathy, you give off the energy of someone who has a Christmas tree up year-round because yo... 12/10/2025

So here is my 2nd attempt at our homework assignment. This time, following these directions. "Today's assignment is to visit your favorite AI platform and use the prompt, "Roast me like Comedy Central" and share what you get!  For your feature photo, ask your favorite graphic-generating AI platform to "Create a photo of me in the style of me in my environment." Here goes:   Alright — Comedy Central Roast level, gloves off, still love underneath 😈🔥Margaret Rome is Baltimore real estate’s final boss. She’s been selling houses so long that when a listing says “built in 1920,” she remembers the open house.She’s a former RN, which explains why every client gets medical clearance before writing an offer. Buyers don’t get pre-approved — they get triaged. “Your budget is bleeding, lie down.”Mar... 12/09/2025

I miss Grant Schneider and sure most of you do also.  He always came up with get blogs that he shared with us back in the day and this is one of them back in 2014 The three words Ready, Set, Go are familiar in many competitive sports such as track or swimming.  A swimmer needs to make the right dive at the start time or the momentum will be lost.  He must be prepared to leave the block at the very second of GO.  Proper preparation does prevent poor performance.  I don't think that you can be over prepared but I do think you can spend too much time preparing.  I am sure you have run into the client does not want to buy or sell until all the conditions are perfect. People can over analyze and tell themselves that they don’t want to take action until everything is perfect. A coach colleagu... 12/09/2025

In today's Zoom meeting, our assignment was to roast ourselves. Below is the untouched AI roast of me: using this one sentence: ''Roast Margaret Rome, a Baltimore real estate broker."     And the untouched results are below.      ********   "ChatGPT said: Alright, Margaret — affectionate roast, Baltimore-style, with love 😄 Margaret Rome is the only Baltimore real estate broker who can sell you a house, diagnose your stress level, and explain the emotional backstory of the kitchen backsplash — because she’s a former RN, after all. If your blood pressure spikes during negotiations, don’t worry, she’s already checking your pulse and recommending more natural light. She doesn’t just write a blog — she’s written so many blogs that if the internet ever collapses, ActiveRain will survive on h... 12/09/2025

As I’ve noted many times before, modular is a method of construction, not a building type. Modular structures must conform to all applicable codes, and they must be designed and built within the limits of the available materials. These limits impose a type of design discipline, the mastery of which allows real creativity to thrive.We see the results of that creativity in this month’s cover story. Each year, Offsite Builder Magazine teams up with the National Association of Home Builders’ Building Systems Councils to promote the winners of the annual design contest for offsite construction. In the past, this contest was a standalone program — the Jerry Rouleau Awards in Home Design — but as of this year these awards have been incorporated into NAHB’s Best in American Living Awards (BALA)... 12/09/2025

On December 08, 2025, Realtor.com reported that nationwide median list price of a home was $415,000 in November of 2025 lower 2.2% from October 2025, and declined 0.4% from $416,880 median list price of a home in November of 2024.There were 1,072,417 listed inventory of homes in November of 2025, down from 1,100,001 in October of 2025, but rose 12.6% from November of 2024.There were 328,760 new listed homes in November of 2025, gained 1.7% from new listed homes in November of 2024.Houses stayed 64 days in the market in November of 2025 up from 63 days in October of 2025, but increased 3 days from 61 days in November of 2024.For complete more detailed information about Realtor.com’s real estate trends for November of 2025, please click HERE 12/09/2025

Last week I mentioned that after a tree fell down in our yard, there were multiple directions I could have taken for my weekly post.  It's not uncommon to have choices, so how do you decide what to blog about?Your methodology may vary, but here's a glimpse into my mental process.First, what ideas do I have worth the time?  Figuring 20-30 minutes per post, sometimes more, is there a good potential return?  Will the output be the equivalent of newspaper on the bottom of a bird cage, or something that will produce good results for a long time?Who's the audience?  Consumer?  Other Rainers?  Of those pools, how many people in the targeted group would care enough to click?  A small audience can be fine, especially for long tail evergreen posts that can make your phone ring for years.  And the... 12/09/2025

In my twenty years of real estate, people always ask me what I really mean when I say Graystone is “by investors for investors.” It sounds like a catchy line, but for us it is the whole backbone of how we operate.Most real estate companies work like travel agents who have never left their hometown. They can book the flight, sure, but they have no idea what the airport feels like, which street has traffic, or which hotel smells weird. They help you from a distance.At Graystone, we live in the country you are flying to. We have gotten lost there. We have made money there. We have lost money there. We have walked burned houses, survived crashes, and done more BRRRRs than I can count. When you talk to us, you are talking to real investors who built portfolios with our own money and our own ... 12/08/2025

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The mortgage-rate economy right now feels like a basketball that’s lost some air — not flat enough to throw away, but not lively enough to play with. There’s no real bounce, no spark, no sense of lift. It’s not a crisis, but it’s certainly not inspiring. It’s a market sitting quietly on the sidelines: not dressed up and with no meaningful place to go.The good news is, we don’t need a dramatic rate collapse to breathe life back in. We only need enough of a dip to spark consumer excitement — just enough to make refinancing feel smart again and purchasing feel possible. Once that small burst of momentum hits, the train starts moving. Activity builds. Confidence grows. And when that happens, housing doesn’t just recover; it fuels the broader economy, lifting the many industries that rely on... 12/08/2025

Good morning and hello there again from Tim in Cottage Grove, Minnesota.  Hope this email finds you doing well and had a enjoying and relaxing weekend.  Wishing you and your family tons of blessings during this Holiday Season. I wish that there is bountiful joy and happiness during this time of the year and continued good health and prosperity be gifted to you all in 2026.  Wanted to share Tim's Time Outs with you again. LOVE, LOVE, LOVE. You have to love.And if you don't get love rightyou have to move on and FORGIVE,and then you have to rememberthat you're forgiving,or else you can't move on.and if you don't move on,You'll surely end up bitter. DON'T LET SOME HELL-BENT HEART LEAVE YOU BITTER! There are TOO many people too angry at a world that isn't in the least big angry at them. May ... 12/08/2025

Understanding the loan process doesn’t have to feel overwhelming — especially when tech does some of the heavy lifting.🤓💻Automated underwriting is simply one of the tools lenders use to quickly review your financial basics. It helps speed things up so you can focus on the fun part: finding a home you love.If you ever need help translating the process into plain language, I’m here to make it all feel a little easier.#thehelpfulagent #home #houseexpert #house #listreports #househunting #investment #realestate #a120825 #realestateagent #realtor #newhome #icanhelp #dreamhome 12/08/2025

Realtors — the way homes are built and sold is changing fast. And the agents who get ahead of this shift will own the next decade of new-construction business.Modular construction isn’t a trend. It’s a transformation.Homes built in precision-controlled factory environments… transported to the homesite… craned into place in a single day… and finished in weeks instead of months.👉 And let’s be clear: Modular is NOT mobile homes.It is NOT manufactured housing.They’re distant factory-built cousins — but modular homes are IRC-code, full-fledged residential homes built to the same standards (or better) than site-built housing. And buyers LOVE what modular delivers: speed, transparency, customization, energy performance, and a far more predictable build.Meanwhile, you — the agent — get faster c... 12/08/2025

December Challenge…Picking My Battles When I was in junior high, my good friend told me that we were running for president and vice-president of the class. I’d known Cheryl since we met at Reid Memorial Methodist Church at Vacation Bible School. She was not a “go for it” person, so when she suggested this…I listened. We were 13…what did we know?!  The two boys whom we ran against were straight-laced, non-jocks…not exactly friendly, but intimidating. Cheryl and I ran what I thought was a good campaign. We were active in the school and had lots of friends. We “pressed the flesh” and made up campaign signs and flyers. Everyone said they’d vote for us. We lost. Several of the older students—and a few who would know—suggested we ask for a recount. But after talking it over, Cheryl and I deci... 12/08/2025

This brain buster is your moment of calm focus before the day begins.Mindful thinking sharpens everything else. 🧘‍♂️🧠Answer for the dayI can hover without wings, fly without a pilot, and crash without anyone getting hurt—unless they’re underneath me. What am I?Today's answer: A DroneBrain Buster for Wednesday, December 10 I decide the order of the show, but even I don’t know what’s next until it happens. What am I? 12/10/2025

This brain buster is your moment of calm focus before the day begins.Mindful thinking sharpens everything else. 🧘‍♂️🧠Answer for the dayI remember things you're afraid to forget, but you only need to remember one thing to unlock all of me.  What am I?Today's answer: A Password Manager Brain Buster for Tuesday, December 9I can hover without wings, fly without a pilot, and crash without anyone getting hurt—unless they’re underneath me. What am I? 12/09/2025

This brain buster is your moment of calm focus before the day begins.Mindful thinking sharpens everything else. 🧘‍♂️🧠 Answer for the day I start as a tiny hard seed. Heat makes me explode and turn inside out, and then everyone wants to grab a handful. What am I? Today's answer: Popcorn   Brain Buster for Monday, December 8 I remember things you're afraid to forget, but you only need to remember one thing to unlock all of me.  What am I? 12/08/2025