Matthew 24:1 And Jesus went out, and departed from the temple: and his disciples came to him for to shew him the buildings of the temple.
Matthew 24:2 And Jesus said unto them, See ye not all these things? verily I say unto you, There shall not be left here one stone upon another, that shall not be thrown down.
Matthew 24:3 And as he sat upon the mount of Olives, the disciples came unto him privately, saying, Tell us, when shall these things be? and what shall be the sign of thy coming, and of the end of the world?
Mark 13:3 And as he sat upon the mount of Olives over against the temple, Peter and James and John and Andrew asked him privately,
Mark 13:4 Tell us, when shall these things be? and what shall be the sign when all these things shall be fulfilled?
Luke 21:1 And he looked up, and saw the rich men casting their gifts into the treasury.
Luke 21:2 And he saw also a certain poor widow casting in thither two mites.
Luke 21:3 And he said, Of a truth I say unto you, that this poor widow hath cast in more than they all:
Luke 21:4 For all these have of their abundance cast in unto the offerings of God: but she of her penury hath cast in all the living that she had.
Luke 21:5 And as some spake of the temple, how it was adorned with goodly stones and gifts, he said,
Luke 21:6 As for these things which ye behold, the days will come, in the which there shall not be left one stone upon another, that shall not be thrown down.
Luke 21:7 And they asked him, saying, Master, but when shall these things be? and what sign will there be when these things shall come to pass?
Tell us, when shall these things be? and what shall be the sign of thy coming, and of the end of the world?
Tell us, when shall these things be? and what shall be the sign when all these things shall be fulfilled?
And they asked him, saying, Master, but when shall these things be? and what sign will there be when these things shall come to pass?
The SIGNS of thy coming, the end of the world, the sign when all shall be fulfilled, and the sign when these things shall come to pass.
So gathering the info
We know the period being spoken of is "the end of the world" - and we know the end of the world consist of the last generation, the fig tree generation because we are told the fig tree generation is when all will be fulfilled. We know the fig tree generation came into being when both the good fig and the bad fig were planted when Israel became a nation again in fulfilment of the prophesy of Daniel in 1948.
We know that Jesus will not return until this generation. and He is going to give us the signs that will be happening in this generation and previous to His return.
And that is my take on Verse 3 of Matt. I believe to get this story you must include in your analysis Luke and Mark.