Playing Housing Market Arbitrage, or, The Substitution Effect to the Rescue I don’t know about anyone else, but I see an imminent collision — the good kind — between what’s happening in the rental market and the “For Sale” market. In the Twin Cities and nationally, rentals are scarce — and getting scarcer. In the...Read More
Realtor Role(s): Conduit, Funnel and Filter What does the picture above depict? If you said, “a tournament bracket,” you’d (also) be right, but what I was actually thinking of is a flowchart showing all the communication that accompanies a typical real estate deal, where both Buyer and Seller have their own Realtor. So, a key part of what...Read More
For the most part, there are no residual after effects in the wake of Minnesota’s almost two week government shutdown last month. For the most part. One exception (I’m sure there are others): several out-of-commission elevators in a condo building where I have an active listing. The elevators were all upgraded weeks ago, and work fine....Read More
Take a weekend of pent-up selling demand (courtesy of S&P’s U.S. debt downgrade Friday night), ugly overseas markets, and more weak economic data, and what do you get? A steep, opening drop in U.S. stock prices. The remaining questions: 1) how much are they going to gyrate before prices stabilize?; and 2) what step(s) will authorities (the...Read More
My Favorite Real Estate Movie My favorite real estate movie, “Groundhog Day” (1993), actually isn’t even about real estate. It’s a romantic comedy in which the suitor, played by Bill Murray, gets to perfect his courting strategy — courtesy of a time loop that causes him to relive the same day, over and over. After various setbacks, his...Read More
Free Coaching? In a market where even the real estate pro’s are finding it tough, I see a lot fewer For Sale By Owner’s (“FSBO’s”). From perhaps 12% of the market at the peak five or so years ago, I’d guessimate that percentage is down 50%, to about 6% today. What can be said of that...Read More
