To: Whomever found my blog with the search query, “how to pick a Realtor’s lockbox.” From: Your friendly neighborhood Realtor-blogger. I hope whoever was searching the Web with the query, “how to pick a Realtor’s lockbox” yesterday is a Realtor who lost their combo code. Assuming that it wasn’t, though, here is a list of...Read More
Just Don’t Call Them “Closers” Baseball has starting pitchers and relief pitchers — why can’t real estate have “Starting Realtors” and “Relief Realtors?” The Relief Realtor’s job? Once the deal has been struck and the Inspection Contingency removed, to make sure that all the remaining hurdles and hiccups* that can derail a deal . . ....Read More
From Floor to Ceiling Last year, 90% of you were in the top 10% of your class. Today, 90% of you are in the bottom 90% of your class. –Stanford Dean of Admissions Fred Hargadon, to each incoming class at freshmen orientation Five years ago, if a home’s tax assessed value was relevant at all...Read More
Minneapolis Beats Edina No, that’s not a wild basketball score — it’s 2010 per square foot selling prices. For the first time in my knowledge, home prices in Minneapolis — specifically, Southwest Minneapolis — bested prices in Edina (I’m leaving out the very swanky homes ringing Lake of the Isles and Calhoun). What’s that about? I’d...Read More
Shorter AND Longer Term Mentality One of the housing statistics that has seemingly been around forever is that the average U.S. homeowner moves every seven years. If that was ever true before . . . it’s not anymore. My guess is that that number was never right: if two homeowners move after three years, and a third stays...Read More
“Golden Valley Commons South?” How does a landlord (and would-be home seller) comply with city-ordered repairs? One way, of course, is to actually do the repairs. However, if that’s not feasible or economic — and sometimes it isn’t — Plan B is to vacate the property, and sell it “as is.” Multiply by six, and that’s what is...Read More
