Leads, Serious Leads . . . & Tire Kickers After hosting a couple hundred (thousand?) weekend open houses, I still learn useful things about Buyers ” as well as the home I’ve been hired to sell. Which is why I do ’em (vs. letting newer agents pinch hit for me). The most important insight? It’s...Read More
All Alone . . . in the Middle of 3 Million People OK, so “On Fuchsia Pond” doesn’t have the same ring to it as “On Golden Pond,” the 1981 movie starring Henry Fonda and Katherine Hepburn. And the body of water that’s pictured above and below left isn’t a pond — it’s Minneapolis’ Lake...Read More
“If Winter in Minnesota Starts Early, Does it End Early, Too??” Not wanting to be the one to burst anyone’s bubble, there was really only one way to answer the question above, posed by the new neighbor who arrived here from Southern California this past Summer, about the duration of local winters: “W-h-y, y-e-a-h ....Read More
Not-So-Coincidental Timing? “Don’t look a gift horse in the mouth.” –Proverb. Hennepin County’s proposed 2020 property tax notices are out, and they contain a welcome surprise (at least for one homeowner — me!): a 2.9% drop for 2020. Yeah, I know: the notice is only preliminary, and the actual, final tax bill — typically mailed...Read More
“To Update Exterior Photos Now or Not” — That is the (Listing Agent) Question I’ve previously shared the only slightly tongue-in-cheek secret for a Buyer’s agent to get a balky client to actually buy: have a plane to catch immediately after showing the client a series of homes. See, “Want Prospective Home Buyers to Buy?...Read More
“Rising Treasury Yields Quiet Investors’ Concerns” –WSJ Headline (11/14/19). Stock swooned last Summer, sort of, when the dive in interest rates — combined with uncertainty over trade wars, Brexit, and whatever else was in the air — convinced people that something nasty might be just over the horizon. Fast forward a couple months. Interest rates...Read More
