When Ignorance Isn’t Bliss On the list of awkward first questions that Buyers’ Agents ask Listing Agents — “Are those abandoned oil tanks buried in the front yard?” — has to rank pretty high. And responding, “the Seller doesn’t have any idea, they were there when they bought the house” doesn’t exactly help matters. Even...Read More
Clean-Up Report Just because I didn’t host any open houses yesterday doesn’t mean I took the day off (see, “Father’s Day Off“). In fact, I showed two different clients ten homes in five different Twin Cities neighborhoods. Including Minneapolis’ Camden neighborhood, which was slammed by tornadoes exactly one month ago. Debris-Free By now, most of...Read More
Father’s Day Off For an avowed contrarian such as myself, “following the crowd” has a decidedly negative connotation. However, the reason I’m not doing any open houses today is that . . . no else is, either (or practically no one; according to my front desk, open houses today are off 75% from a typical June Sunday)....Read More
Whitewash One of the best ways I know to render a scary basement . . . less so, is to paint it (white, obviously). The floors, the ceiling, the posts and beams — everything. Not only is the space more appealing, it invariably feels bigger and lighter, too! P.S.: Tip #2 — adding a couple...Read More
Knowing When to Move On — or Skip Altogether First, a definition: a “deal breaker” to a prospective Buyer is anything that, all by itself, rules out a particular home. Exactly what that is, though, varies by Buyer. So, from past experience, I know that deal breakers can be anything from a dated Kitchen, to...Read More
“It Takes One to Know One” Which Realtors (besides me) do the best job marketing their listings? Ask other Realtors. While the general public receives Realtor postcards, fridge magnets, solicitations to price their home, etc., Realtor-to-Realtor marketing these days is 99% electronic — specifically, emailed flyers touting pre-listings, new listings, and price reductions. To catch...Read More
