Hurry Up and Wait Every day you see one more card You take it on faith, you take it to the heart The waiting is the hardest part —”The Waiting“; Tom Petty, lyrics In my original post, “The Waiting (is the Hardest Part),” I discussed the various kinds of waiting that people frequently have to...Read More
First Lady: ‘Mrs. Theabove’ My two-part plan for getting elected President, courtesy of Kim Dotcom, now-infamous force behind rogue website “Megaupload”: Step #1: legally change my name to Noneof Theabove (“Mr. Theabove”). Step #2: start a grass-roots campaign to have voters write in “none of the above” this Fall. You don’t suppose there’d be more...Read More
“Expired’s,” “Cancelled’s” Loom Larger Until a few years ago, I never spent much time looking at Expired or Cancelled listings when I was preparing a Comparative Market Analysis (“CMA”). Today? Depending on the part of town and property type, that’s often where I start. If you don’t take unsold listings into account these days —...Read More
Wanna Bet I’m Not the Only One? The number of people whose thoughts about the business and investing world I consistently and truly enjoy makes up a very short list; it includes Michael Lewis, Warren Buffett, Thomas Wolfe (when he writes about the subject), Matt Taibbi (ditto), Barry Ritholtz (when he’s not in rant mode and bothers to spellcheck), and...Read More
Diminishing Returns? Is a two-year home warranty better than one year? If you weren’t aware, home warranties are fast on their way to becoming a standard feature of residential real estate transactions, at least in Minnesota. The standard Minnesota Purchase Agreement now includes “opt-out” language, making it much more likely that the parties to the transaction will...Read More
Victims Turning Away From — Not Towards — Politics One of the puzzles — at least to me — is why millions of people who’ve been the most harmed by the housing bust haven’t created more of a groundswell for political reform. Or just plain accountability. Yes, I’m aware of the Tea Party and Occupy Wall Street...Read More
