Apparently, just so there won’t be any confusion about its clientele, the full name of Hoagie’s diner on Main Street in Hopkins is “Hoagie’s Family Restaurant” (per the sign on the awning, above). Sure enough, the place was packed with families around 10 a.m. this morning (I was in the area running errands). I got great...Read More
Multi-Tasking Buyers’ Agents I’m sure my colleagues could fill in their own, umm . . . favorite. But, here’s mine: “You know the showing instructions are too long when . . . the Buyer’s agent (in this case, me) has to print them out to keep everything straight. And then has to print out the...Read More
Old Wine in New Bottles Thanks to a rising housing market, there are now far fewer underwater homeowners. However, they’ve hardly disappeared. In fact, something like 20% of all homeowners with a mortgage — about 5 million people nationally — still owe more on their homes than their home is worth (that’s down from closer to...Read More
New 2nd Story (and new 1st Story, Too!) In a post a year ago, I speculated that the Dean Parkway rambler (pictured above) was a prime candidate for a popped roof (that is, a 2nd story addition). See, “2nd Story Coming Soon?” That was based on both the home’s terrific location just north of the...Read More
The Too-Good-to-Be-True Home Equity Loan When is a home equity line of credit (“HELOC”) — offered at a 2.99%, six month teaser rate — too good to be true? When, four months after the would-be Borrower first applied for the loan, the very big (and very overwhelmed) national lender still hasn’t approved it. Ticking Clock Usually,...Read More
In Over His Head (The $64B Question: ‘How’d He Get There?’) At least to me, the truly provocative question about former Treasury Secretary and New York Federal Reserve President Tim Geithner isn’t what was going on at the senior-most levels of government during the height (depth?) of The 2008 Financial Crash (sorry, “Great Recession” is a...Read More
