Month

August 2010

Contrarian Indicators — Housing Market Edition

“The Death of the Housing Market?” “The reports of my death are greatly exaggerated.” –Mark Twain It’s hard to be a student of markets without some passing familiarity with so-called contrarian indicators: those harbingers that signal that a market is at an inflection point, presenting investors with a singular opportunity. That opportunity can either be...
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But is That Their Real Name??

“Ross A. Justsold,” Realtor I’ve never investigated — and am not about to — but I’ve always wondered if a few (too?) felicitous real estate names are the Realtor’s real name, or legally changed. So, in the Twin Cities you’ll find Realtors with surnames such as “Sell,” “Sells,” “Sellnow,” etc. If I ever go that...
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Planes, Plays, & Baseball Tix

One Size Doesn’t Fit All More than four years after it opened, I finally got to the “new” Guthrie Theatre near the Mississippi River — just in time to see the closing performance of Tennessee Williams’ “A Street Car Named Desire” (thanks for the tix, David and Shana!) The performances were indelible and wrenching; I...
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Get Ready for Thursday Tour (Thursday??)

You Read it Here First In the course of helping clients find a rental property the last 2 weeks, it’s become abundantly clear that the rental market is much more fragmented and chaotic than the For Sale market. And pricing is much sloppier (what you get for, say, $2,500/mth runs the gamut from properties worth...
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Housing Market "Do Si Do"

“Pick Your (Housing) Partner” Swing your partner “round and “round,And turn your corner upside down.And turn your corner like swingin’ on a gate,And meet your partner fora grand chain eight,And hurry up boys and don’t be late. –Square dancing lyrics What does the upcoming Fall housing market have to do with square dancing? It’s when...
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"The Close," "The Trial Close," & "The Reverse Trial Close"

Sales Repertoire Consciously or unconsciously, every successful sales(wo)man develops some variation of the following techniques: The Close. “Sign here.” The Trial Close. “If they agree to beef up the earnest money, is it a deal?” The Reverse Trial Close. “With all those objections, this home sure doesn’t seem like a very good fit for you.”...
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