“So, You’re Selling . . . . a Worm??” Given my job in real estate sales, I’m on the receiving end of any number of sales pitches. Some are quite professional; others, well, less so. An example of the latter would be this one, from my in-box earlier this week: “I am hereby offering my...Read More
New? Yes. Improved? Ask Me in a Week If your Twin Cities Realtor seems a little cranky (and tardy) today, I’ve got a hunch I know why: overnight, the local MLS (Multiple Listing Service) totally revamped their database for, like, the 17th time this year (I’m only exaggerating a little). As a result, yours truly...Read More
Sellers’ Four Big Sins: Music, Mirrors, and Masking Scents & Paint It’s been a long time since Richard Nixon and Watergate, but it remains true — at least in real estate — that “the cover-up is worse than the crime.” In that vein, here are four things that home Sellers misguidedly do to throw Buyers (and...Read More
Tweaking The Cult of Craftsman Personally, I love Craftsman-style homes: they’re stylish, character-filled, and invariably built like forts. And lots of people agree with me, judging by how fast Craftsman (Craftsmen??) homes in good condition sell in older Twin Cities neighborhoods (think, Seward, Mac-Groveland, and Linden Hills). But can Craftsman fans be, well, a little...Read More
Love ’em or hate ’em, Tudors always appear rather imposing from the street — and big! Exhibit A would be this stately Sunset Gables Tudor (above) near Minneapolis’ Cedar Lake, whose foundation size weighs in — surprisingly — at a rather modest 1,100 square feet.Read More
It Just Sounds X-Rated Apparently, the latest tech boomlet is designing small, portable hardware devices — called “dongles” — that plug into only slightly larger portable hardware devices, and let them do all sorts of new things. Like open up electronic lockboxes, to gain entry to “For Sale” homes. See, “Weight Loss – Realtor Version.”...Read More
