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Sellers sometimes decide to handle their home sale on their own in order to avoid paying a commission, a type of real estate transaction known as For Sale by Owner (FSBO). Of course, readers of this blog will know that FSBO generally results in little to no financial benefit for the seller, as the lack of commission is offset by a reduction in sale price. In fact, once you consider the significant amount of time and stress that goes into selling a home, hiring an agent for a neutral net profit seems like a no-brainer. Luckily, the 2018 edition of the Profile of Home Buyers and Sellers shows that home sellers are paying attention, as the proportion of FSBO transactions fell to a new record low this year!

Potential home buyers consistently regard saving for the down payment as one of the greatest barriers to buying a home, and who can blame them? Although the exact dollar amount required up front by the lender depends on the type of mortgage and purchase price, buyers generally need to come up with several tens of thousands of dollars in order to take out their home loan. Of course, as is true with any statistic, there is a wide range of averages observed across the nation's fifty states, and both down payment amounts and percentages follow this rule. With that in mind, LendingTree sought to determine which state's mortgage borrowers were offering up the largest and smallest down payments in Q3. They found that Arkansas buyers paid some of the smallest amounts up front, both in dollars and as a percentage.

Do you think that most people like their neighbors? Your visceral reaction might be to assume the worst, but the answer is actually quite positive! In fact, according to realtor.com's newly-released 2018 Good Neighbor Report, a whopping 77% of people feel that they have a good neighbor. As part of the report, the survey also asked people to identify the qualities which were most important in a good neighbor. What do you think came out on top?