Potential Short Sale? Not if it Sells for ≥ 10% Over Market If you have been in a cave (or simply aren’t up on the housing market), a “short sale” is when a homeowner owes more on their mortgage than the home is worth (called “being underwater”), and to sell, must get the bank to accept...Read More
2011 Flashback Hard to believe, after a Twin Cities Winter with practically no snow and temp’s consistently above freezing, that Winter last year was the real thing (the photos of this St. Louis Park home would be Exhibit A). Hardcore skiers and skaters are bummed, but most Minnesotans I know (myself included) feel like we’ve...Read More
Miranda Warning — Real Estate Version As required by the Miranda warning, police making an arrest must tell the person in custody, prior to interrogation, that they have the right to remain silent, and that anything they say will be used against them in court. Minus the explicit warning (and the courtroom), the same thing applies in...Read More
Telling Sellers What They Want to Hear — At First While my track record landing listings is very good — it’s not perfect. The most common reason prospective Sellers choose another Realtor? The other Realtor took the listing at a higher, unrealistic price — a practice that Realtors call “buying the listing.” Exhibit A Last June,...Read More
Wall Street Allocating Capital . . . to Itself Once upon a time, Wall Street’s reason for being (“raison d’etre,” if you want a fancy term) was to efficiently allocate capital from suppliers of capital (aka “savers”) to those who could most productively use it — typically young, promising companies. At least, that’s how I...Read More
Weighing Comp’s and “Kind-of-Comp’s” The cornerstone of establishing market value for a given property is the CMA, or “Comparative Market Analysis.” As prepared by both Realtors and Appraisers, it consists of selecting a peer group of three homes (“Comparable Sold Properties”), then going through a compare-and-contrast process sizing up each of the Comp’s relative to the “subject”...Read More
