The $64 Trillion Question What do rational savers and investors do in an environment of zero percent interest rates, where the daily headlines speculate how long major currencies (like the U.S. dollar) will hold their value as national debts mount? Switch (at least) a little of their holdings to gold. Even if that amount is...Read More
Discretionary vs. Non-Discretionary Bailouts Watching the latest round of debt problems emerge — this time involving sovereign states like Greece — reminds me of my not-so-happy experience as a “newbie” landlord a few years ago (turned off by the experience, I quickly sold the property). Immediately after taking title, my (long-term, holdover) renter started presenting...Read More
“Sightsaw?” “Sightseen?” As may or may not be apparent from my posts this week, I’m winding down a (rare) week off — mostly — with my family in Scottsdale. So here’s a quick conundrum: What’s the past tense of “sight-seeing?” “Sight-saw?” “Sight-seen?” Best I can come up with is, “we’ve done a lot of sight-seeing...Read More
The Real Purpose of Showing Feedback For the uninitiated, every time a Buyer’s Agent takes a client through a property, they subsequently receive an online feedback form debriefing them on how it went. Once upon a time — like two years ago — they all basically asked the same thing(s): ‘tell us whether your client...Read More
“What Were They Thinking?” DepartmentWhat’s worse than a home with a wall of built-in’s designed to accommodate a too-small (35″ or less) TV? When the built-in’s are also recessed two feet (!), because TV’s of that era still had picture tubes, which had a huge footprint. And the wall of built-in’s is in a room...Read More
“Hopscotch” Phoenix Development Like a lot of people, my stereotypical image of the Phoenix metro area was a sprawling city gobbling up desert, in every direction. The reality is a bit different. While there is certainly plenty of undeveloped desert surrounding the city, it’s also the case that natural and legal barriers limit development much...Read More
