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F R OM T H E F O U N D E R
T he residential real estate market here in Northwest Arkansas – like most decent places to live in the United States – is booming. Availability is low and prices are climbing rapidly. Good deals are snapped up the day they are listed. If you really know your business, you can make money in any market – even one as crazy as this. Knowyour business and you’ll always dowell
Everyone I knowwho has made a lot of money in real estate did so by buying cheap from banks when the market was slow, holding and improving their properties, and then selling them when there is a boom. Because prices are so high, and it’s hard to get any work done because of our local skilled tradesperson shortage, along with other reasons (like fear about COVID-19 and its likely effect on the economy), we decided to get out of the speculative redevelopment and construction business a couple years ago. Obviously, that exit was somewhat ill- timed. While we were able to get out with our shirts still on, we didn’t realize the profits we could have made if we held out longer and sold now. But looking in the rearview mirror has never been my style and it’s not the point of this article. As I mentioned in a previous article here in The Zweig Letter , my wife and I recently decided to move from suburbia back into the downtown area. What first got us thinking about it was an opportunity to trade our
house for another one we used to own in the historic district. It was a great house, redone to a super-high standard, and featured in several magazines. We had sold it to a friend about 10 years ago and it no longer met his needs. That trade opportunity eventually evaporated as our friend decided he really wanted to move into another house he owned, but we struck a deal to buy his house for a price when ours sold. We only had so much time, though, before he would have to sell his house to someone else. We put ours on the market and it sold quickly. Then our out-of-town buyers backed out. Because I am a creature of habit and have checked our local real estate listings daily for many years, I just happened to see an old house in town go up on the market. I sent the link to the listing to my wife. Because I was in meetings for several days going forward, plus I teach at night, I couldn’t go look at it.
Mark Zweig
See MARK ZWEIG , page 12
THE ZWEIG LETTER JANUARY 3, 2022, ISSUE 1422
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