Philadelphia Weekly

REAL ESTATE

Overcome bias in national real estate data

Mood of the Market

By Inman News Feed

Add Comment | Comments: 0 | Posted Jul. 11, 2011

And it's not bizarre or premature to collect referrals and consult with local pros early in your action planning process -- sometimes even a year or more before you think you need to buy or sell. On today's market, preparing your property to sell -- and your finances to buy -- can take much, much longer than you might expect.

But use these rules of thumb and you won't waste any of your precious time trying to force the square peg of national news and real estate data to fit the round hole of your personal, local real estate and mortgage decisions.

Tara-Nicholle Nelson is author of "The Savvy Woman's Homebuying Handbook" and "Trillion Dollar Women: Use Your Power to Make Buying and Remodeling Decisions." Tara is also the Consumer Ambassador and Educator for real estate listings search site Trulia.com. Ask her a real estate question online or visit her website, www.rethinkrealestate.com.