More Hot Air From the White House Is the White House finally getting serious about helping underwater homeowners refinance their mortgages? Not judging by the bond market. Yesterday, mortgage-backed securities issued by Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac jumped in price. Given how refinancing affects these bonds — borrowers who re-finance pay off their expensive loans, reducing investors’ return —...Read More
Quality vs. Quantity What’s the difference between a “retail” Realtor price opinion and a “wholesale” price opinion? (my terms) With the former, the listing agent casts a much broader net, issuing a blanket invitation to, say, all their office colleagues to view the home at a particular time. The catch? In practice, the Realtors who...Read More
Second Time the Charm? The last time the public was this disgusted with Congress, term limits got a serious hearing. Then — as best I can recall — Bill Clinton got elected President, the economy picked up . . . and the issue just sort of faded away. Fast forward 20 years or so. Reading...Read More
Want to Be Ready for Spring, 2012? Start Now One of the questions that can come up when you list a home that needs significant updating is, “If we buy this home and put $50k — or $250k — into it, will we overshoot values on the block?” Fortunately, when a $1 million-plus new...Read More
Edina Realty Pulls the Plug on Trulia.com, Other “Third Party Aggregators” In a post earlier this Fall (“Selling Realtors’ Listings Back to Them“), I discussed the dubious practice of Trulia.com and other so-called “Third Party Aggregators” of vacuuming up all the listings in a market, then charging the listing agents (representing Sellers) a fee if...Read More
One of the trickier — yet crucial — set of deadlines in a housing transaction involves the Buyer’s Inspection Contingency. At least in Minnesota, it consists of the following three intervals: 1) how long the Buyer has to perform the inspection; 2) how long thereafter they have to deliver — in writing — any issues...Read More
