Richer Players = Longer Holdouts? Here’s my theory about the long-lived NBA players’ strike (now on the verge of cancelling the 2011-2012 season). It’s all about the money. Not what the players are asking for, mind you. Rather, what they currently make (or made). Average Salary: $5 million Once upon a time, when pro athletes...Read More
My first thought looking at the photo above on MLS? That’s one deep lot. Thought #2: maybe it’s just flattering photography. To find out, I looked up the property tax records. Winner? Theory #1. According to Hennepin County, the home (just Southeast of Minneapolis’ Cedar Lake) sits on an exceptionally deep 300 foot lot (an average city...Read More
Synonyms for “Receive”: “Charge,” “Levy,” “Assess,” “Subtract,” “Deduct,” “Reduce” “TFLIC receives an asset charge of 1.18% from the assets of the separate account.” –Prospectus On the list of really annoying things about a great many mutual funds and how they disclose their (too-high) fees, add this one: a bond fund sponsored by Transamerica Financial Life Insurance (“TFLIC”)...Read More
Lack of Supply = Higher Prices? Fellow Edina Realty agent (and blogger) Aaron Dickinson has a nice post shining a spotlight on a lightly heralded, not-so-overnight housing market development: the lack of Twin Cities homes for sale. In fact, as Aaron notes, the number of homes on the market locally in October — just over 21,000...Read More
Swapping Underwater Mortgages on Craig’s List One of the most popular posts ever on this blog, “Groupon for Underwater Homeowners,” made the case that underwater homeowners could exert heretofore missing leverage over their lenders by teaming up and negotiating as a group (“groupon”). Seeing as no one (so far) has bit on that idea, I’m now offering up solution...Read More
If a company is out of business, does that mean that all the products it ever made and sold — and may still be in use — were defective? Hardly. At this very moment, I can think of any number of local basements storing black-and-white TV’s made by RCA, Zenith and other defunct brands that...Read More
