The Landian Blog
Keep more of your money when you buy.
October 7, 2026
What $600K Gets You in Washington, Tennessee vs. California
Four active vacation-rental listings, one budget: a canal-front Ocean Shores home with a private dock in one of the only zones in town where nightly rentals are legal, a turnkey Gatlinburg cabin with three fireplaces and a pool table, a 2024 Joshua Tree pool home on two acres — and an absolute-oceanfront Kailua-Kona surprise — with the STR math run on each.
October 5, 2026
Why 2026 May Be the Worst Year Ever for FSBO Sellers.
Only 1 in 20 US homes sold without an agent in 2025, the lowest share NAR has ever recorded, and 2026 adds a buyer’s market with a record surplus of sellers. Five sourced reasons owner-sellers keep losing: a price penalty of 5% to 18% that outruns the commission, a home search that went digital, heavier disclosure and contract risk, pricing by estimate and emotion, and buyer agents who route around owner listings. Plus Canada’s one exception, and how to keep the commission savings without paying the penalty.
October 2, 2026
What a Listing Fee Should Cost in 2026
Percentage commissions were set when the median American home cost under $150,000. At $425,000 the same 2.5% pays for the price of the house, not the work. What the listing side actually costs an agent, why a flat fee should step by price band instead of scaling with the sale, the counter rule, listing media as a menu, and what buyers should pay, with the NAR, Redfin and Federal Reserve numbers behind it.
September 30, 2026
What $400K Gets You in West Virginia, Minnesota vs. Vermont
Four active vacation-rental listings, one budget: a Swiss-style chalet steps from Snowshoe's lifts, an Up North cabin with 85 feet of private Ox Lake sand, a top-floor ski-in/ski-out condo at Okemo — and a 1905 surprise on Seward, Alaska's Millionaire's Row — with the STR math run on each.
September 29, 2026
Flat Fee vs 1% Listing Fee: The Math at $400K, $650K and $950K
A traditional 2.5% listing side, a 1% service with its minimum, and Landian’s banded flat fee, worked at three prices. Where 1% wins (under $500,000), where the flat fee wins (from $500,000 on), the full schedule, and a named comparison of Redfin, Clever, Ideal Agent, 1 Percent Lists, SimpleShowing and Houwzer as published in September 2026, sources included.
September 26, 2026
36,109 US Homes Are For Sale by Owner Right Now, and Only 5% of Sales Close That Way. The Landian FSBO Index, September 2026.
The first monthly Landian FSBO Index counts owner-listed homes on the dominant for-sale-by-owner venue in each of 65 US and Canadian jurisdictions: 36,109 across the US on Zillow at every price, led by Florida (4,187), Texas, California and New York, and 7,851 in Quebec on DuProprio, the one North American market where selling without an agent is ordinary. Plus every jurisdiction’s count, the $400K-plus segment, what US owners are asking, and the Florida pilot trend.
September 24, 2026
What $300K Gets You in New Jersey, South Dakota vs. Virginia
Four active vacation-rental listings, one budget: a sleeps-seven condotel a block off the North Wildwood beach, a furnished condo across the street from Terry Peak's lifts, a log cabin at Bryce Resort in the Shenandoah Valley — and an already-licensed, already-earning Galena Territory surprise — with the STR math run on each.
September 17, 2026
What $550K Gets You in Wisconsin, Maryland vs. Utah
Four active vacation-rental listings, one budget: a brand-new build in the Wisconsin Dells' Spring Brook resort, a walk-to-the-lift Deep Creek Lake cottage that sells with its booking calendar, a furnished modern cabin at 10,000 feet in Brian Head — and a three-unit Red River Gorge surprise — with the STR math run on each.
September 10, 2026
What $425K Gets You in Ohio, Montana vs. Mississippi
Four active vacation-rental listings, one budget: a brand-new Hocking Hills hot-tub cabin, a walk-everywhere house in downtown Red Lodge, a turnkey Gulf Coast cottage — and a six-bedroom surprise near New York State's tallest waterfall — with the STR math run on each.
September 3, 2026
What $750K Gets You in Arizona, Colorado vs. Maine
Four active vacation-rental listings, one budget: a hand-hewn Sedona log cabin, a Colorado chalet backing National Forest, a walk-to-the-sand Maine cottage — and a sleeps-21 surprise in a fourth state — with the STR math run on each.
September 1, 2026
Sellers Now Outnumber Buyers by Nearly Half a Million. Here's the Fall 2026 Buyer's Playbook.
Redfin counts a record-low 967,000 buyers against 1.46 million sellers — the deepest buyer's market on record. Where the leverage is biggest, what sellers are already giving up at the closing table, and how to turn the surplus into five figures of savings — including on the commission.
August 27, 2026
What $650K Gets You in Oregon, Idaho vs. Texas
Three active vacation-rental listings, one budget: an Oregon-coast compound where short-term renting is zoned-in, a turnkey Yellowstone-gateway cabin with September already booked, and a furnished Galveston beach house — with the STR math run on each.
July 29, 2026
Two Years After the NAR Settlement, Buyer-Agent Commissions Went Up. Here's How to Keep the Savings Anyway.
The 2024 NAR settlement was supposed to push buyer-agent commissions down. In mid-2026, the data shows they've actually crept up. Here's what buyers really pay now — and the flat-fee math that puts five figures back in your pocket.