Porsches, Picasso’s, and Stradivariuses A Steinway piano is a hand-made marvel, full of intricate detail and workmanship, sought by collectors and valued accordingly. A true “piece of work,” one might even say. Ditto such treasures as a Stradivarius violin, a Picasso painting, a Porsche sports car, and a Rolex watch. So . . . how...Read More
Contending With Old Lockboxes, Unlabeled Keys, and Security Systems It’s just good, common sense, but you’d be surprised how many listing agents (representing Sellers) violate the following “Do’s” and “Don’ts” for making their clients’ homes easy to access. “Do”: use a new(er), easy-to-open lockbox that’s in good repair, and — if not on the front...Read More
Lockbox Exchange February 23-26 Like a couple thousand other Twin Cities Realtors this week, I spent about half an hour in line at a suburban hotel ballroom exchanging my old electronic lockboxes for new ones. Make that, two lines: one to turn in old lockboxes, and a second line to collect an equal number of new ones...Read More
I Think That’s Called “Burying the Lead” (Of a Sort) It’s not for nothing that economics is known as “the dismal science.” In the same vein, The Wall Street Journal can have a decidedly “glass half-empty” perspective on things. Take, for example, its slant on this objectively happy news: “In its first revision of mortality...Read More
That’s Not the Former Owner, Is It?? It could be that this Minnetonka home is inhabited by ghosts. Theory #2: a slightly overzealous virtual stager added a see-through human profile in the lower right of the photo (above). Weirdly, the stair bannister is approximately where the ghost’s spine would be (do ghosts have spines??). See...Read More
Man Bites Dog — Real Estate Edition; or How Big is Too Big?* First, a stipulation: in my experience selling residential real estate in Minnesota for over a decade, something like 95% of the time a listed property’s square feet on MLS is accurate to within a few percentage points, max, of the actual square feet....Read More
