Is Your Mortgage Assumable? The interest rate on your mortgage is already low (or, you don’t have a mortgage). You’re allergic to paying bank fees. And you’re not contemplating moving any time soon. Should you still refinance? The surprising answer is, perhaps “yes” — especially if your current mortgage is not assumable. That latter feature...Read More
Live by the (Innovation) Sword, Die by the (Innovation) Sword To every action there is always an equal and opposite reaction. –Isaac Newton First, there was the original kind of destruction, “destructive destruction”: things like wars and earthquakes and other scourges that have always afflicted mankind, without anyone noting silver linings. Then, in the 1940’s,...Read More
Downtown Wayzata Stunner Sprawling walk-out rambler overlooking Lake Minnetonka. Stunninglakefront views, all-brick, over 100,000 square feet, opulent finishes. Missed the property described above on MLS? That’s because it’s not on MLS (and no, the 100,000 square feet isn’t a typo). Actually, it’s not even a residential building, although it’s built to resemble one. Give up?...Read More
Protecting Consumers From Banks It turns out that Harvard Professor Elizabeth Warren will head the new Consumer Protection Financial Bureau, after all. The Bureau, which Warren proposed creating, is charged with ensuring that “consumers are protected from unfair, deceptive, or abusive acts and practices and from discrimination.” Seeing as how millions of consumers are routinely...Read More
“Date Night” Realtor Vignette In “Realtors in Modern Culture,” I noted the paucity of Realtors depicted in movies and on TV. Well, add one more: Tina Fey’s character, Claire Foster, in “Date Night” (I just saw it on DVD). The highlight of the movie (at least to this Realtor) was a blink-and-you-missed-it scene near the...Read More
One Size Doesn’t Fit All More than four years after it opened, I finally got to the “new” Guthrie Theatre near the Mississippi River — just in time to see the closing performance of Tennessee Williams’ “A Street Car Named Desire” (thanks for the tix, David and Shana!) The performances were indelible and wrenching; I...Read More
