Month

January 2013

Homeowners-as-Landlords

Managing the (Property) Manager As millions of “accidental” homeowner-landlords have discovered the last few years, managing residential real estate is labor-intensive. That’s especially true for an older, dated home. In other words . . . . precisely the kind of home that was hard to sell a few years ago, and got turned into a...
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Trick Photography? How to Tell

At first blush, the photo (below) looks suspect. The room looks impossibly large and the bed tiny, even though the home’s age (1938) suggests medium if not smallish bedroom sizes. Telltale Clue(s) In fact, all the upper level bedrooms are small. However . . . lo & behold, further down in the listing’s MLS stats there...
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1st Open Fanfare

For Realtors, Too Which would you rather attend — a play’s opening night, or performance #94 three months later? The same is true for prospective Buyers, scanning for Sunday open houses to check out. It’s also true for Realtors — specifically, newer agents looking to host open houses (and pick up unrepresented Buyers). For those folks, it’s all about...
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Developers Flock to Minneapolis’ Uptown

3 Very Big Holes in the Ground — For Now Yes, the real estate recovery is supposed to be gradual and halting, not roaring. But, tell that to developers active in Minneapolis’ Uptown neighborhood. At the moment, I count not one but three major projects, all poised to lift off (up?) between now and Spring:...
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Back on the Market — at a Higher Price?!?

Sellers Who Are Still Too Far Ahead of the Market With something like 2,000 Twin Cities homes temporarily off the market over the holidays, it’s a good bet that 1,500 or so homes will come back on the market the next few weeks. Or are already back on the market. Of those re-listed homes, how...
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“More Than This, Less Than That”

The Art of Doing Comp’s Want the science art of Comp’s (for “Comparable Sold Properties”) in a nutshell? It’s placing a given (“subject”) property on a continuum, between the home just below it in price, and the one immediately above. What could be simpler, right? “This and That” Ahhh, but which two homes are those...
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