Housing Bear Market Brings OutTwo Kinds of Low Ball OffersAlthough they’re invariably upsetting to Sellers who receive them, not all low ball offers should be summarily dismissed. Especially in a housing bear market, there really are two kinds of low ball offers. The first kind is the stereotypical, “I’d like to steal your home in...Read More
Preventing Depression — Financial & Otherwise[Editor’s Note: Realtors are private citizens and taxpayers, too. You’d have to be living in cave not to be aware of — and outraged by — the conduct of Wall Street principals in the ongoing financial mess. The following post is a response to that behavior.] Dismayed — infuriated? disgusted?...Read More
New-Home Sales Down (Again)According to the Commerce Department, sales of new, single-family homes decreased by 14.7% in December to a seasonally adjusted annual rate of 331,000. Frankly, given the economy, accelerating layoffs, etc., it would have newsworthy if new-home sales hadn’t dropped hard. Silver linings? Not if you’re a builder, a contractor, or a developer....Read More
Upper Bracket Woes Although Edina has been a housing standout in the current downturn, it, too, has pockets of excess inventory, and homes that have suffered serial price cuts — and still aren’t selling. Just one street in Edina’s Country Club section, Sunnyslope, now has six homes on the market, at prices ranging from $729,000...Read More
Title Traps Can BiteForeclosure BuyersThe potential traps that lurk for Buyers procuring title work, especially for foreclosures, reminds me of a favorite attorney joke (I’m allowed to tell them because I am one, albeit non-practicing). When a neighbor charges that the attorney’s dog bit him, the attorney first denies it. When he’s shown photos of...Read More
Less Trust = Simpler Financial System “The more complex the transaction, the more trust is needed to sustain the transaction.” –Robert Shiller, “Animal Spirits Depend on Trust“; The Wall Street Journal (1/27/2009) Robert Shiller, the Yale economist who made his name calling the 2000 Stock Market Bubble, has an excellent piece in Tuesday’s Wall Street...Read More
