Q: When is a 3.75% FHA loan a better deal than a 3.5% FHA loan? A: When the 3.75% loan is (a lot) cheaper to get. Consumers shopping for a mortgage tend to focus only on the face rate of the mortgage. That’s a mistake, because the total cost of the loan breaks down into two...Read More
Batting 1,000 Dear Twin Cities home owner: if you want to sell your home, I know a secret weapon: have Edina Realty agent (and colleague) Kathy Dick show it — or host a Broker open there. Due to previous commitments, Kathy has now hosted two Broker opens for me in the last six weeks — at...Read More
Days on Market: 5 Status: “Sold, Subject to Inspection” A good chunk of my weekend was spent negotiating a deal on my new listing at 3806 W. 32nd St, a 2,400 FSF townhome by Lake Calhoun in Minneapolis that backs up to the Midtown Greenway. Everything was signed, sealed and delivered late last night; I...Read More
“Isn’t the Mortgage Balance Overstated?” One of the most common questions Sellers have at closing is why their online mortgage balance (or per their final statement) differs from the loan “pay-off” amount. If you haven’t sold a home recently, the latter is typically higher by anywhere from a few hundred dollars to a few thousand, depending on...Read More
It’s not exactly like the home team batting second in baseball, but there is something analogous to “home field advantage” in residential real estate. Namely, by convention, the Buyer gets to choose the location of closing (typically, at the office of the title company they’re using). That fact was . . . uhhh, driven home...Read More
There Oughta Be a Word For That What do you call all the things outside a home — like concrete steps, pavers, custom handrails, retaining walls, etc. — that don’t quite qualify as “landscaping?” “Flatwork.” Thanks to Lisa Meyer, Edina Realty’s Roseville Office Manager, for solving that one.Read More
