S.E.C. Real Estate Observer

Debbie Sullivan, S.E.C., was born in Charlottesville, Virginia. As a child, she moved with her mother and father, Hattie and Elbert Steele, to Mount Airy, North Carolina, which she referred to as “Mayberry.”

The simple method of increasing income is by working on larger properties. Let’s say, for example, you are an investment broker or salesman who has specialized in selling units (duplexes, triplexes and fourplexes) and they sell from a range of $25,000 to $65,000. If you want to increase your income, all you have to do is upgrade your listing ability to start handling properties in excess of $100,000.

Many educators are saying things like, “Twenty to twenty-five years from now, over 90 percent of the jobs will be ones that have not yet been created.” It has also been said, “They are not making any more land.” There seems to be an exception to this last comment, however.

Determining the “value” of real estate is akin to predicting US. Gross National Product for 1978. So many variables affect it (each of which demands a subjective value judgment) that appraisal is more state-of-the-art than a science.