Not Ready For Prime Time I just spent 20 minutes or so checking out foreclosures on Google Maps. My conclusion? It’s hard to escape the feeling you are an unwitting beta tester (guinea pig) — plus, it’s apparent that Google’s real aim is use limited free data to goose subscriptions (translation: Google’s business model is...Read More
No Showings = 0% Chance of Selling Home Sellers who don’t want to accommodate showings over the holidays — or any other time that’s inconvenient — can elect to switch their home’s status to “TNAS,” or “Temporarily Not Available for Showing.” While the “For Sale” sign in front will typically stay put, the home no...Read More
Category #4: ‘Out of the Money’ My favorite metaphor for how close a listing is to selling is temperature (“Listings and Pots of Water“). So, a new listing starts out at room temperature, heats up as showings (and second showings) accelerate, and reaches a boiling point by the time a strong offer (or two) comes...Read More
Rental Repair Risks; or, Becoming an (Unpaid) Property Manager In the history of the world, no one has ever washed a rented car. –Thomas Friedman Until recently, my answer to whether prospective renters should hire (and pay for) a professional inspector would have been “no.” That’s because if something non-trivial breaks, most leases specify that...Read More
2010 Year in Review — Realtor’s Version Looking back over 2010, a lot of Realtors had years like Felix Hernandez — minus the accolades. Felix who? Felix Hernandez is the Seattle Mariners’ pitcher who just won the AL Cy Young award, despite only having a measly 13 wins (he also had 232 strikeouts and a...Read More
“But, Does She Have Grandkids Yet?” The duplex at 21xx Irving Ave. South just Northeast of Lake of the Isles in Minneapolis’ Kenwood neighborhood originally came on the market in Spring. Spring, 2007 — that is. Asking price: $1.2 million. After some short intervals off the market, and a couple intervening price reductions, it’s still...Read More
