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How to Tell That a Home Has Pronounced Settling Without Going Inside

Telltale Symptom:  Wavy or Uneven Floors How do prospective home Buyers (and their agents) know that a home has pronounced settling without setting foot in the home? (note:  foundation settling is usually benign — up to a point — and typically results in wavy or uneven floors). A. The settling shows up in the (online)...
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10. The Catch With TNAS (“Temporarily Not Available For Showing”)

Barring the Door . . . to Everyone; 2 Pro’s — & (at Least) 1 Big Con Once upon a time, homes that were under contract, but not yet past inspection, were flagged on MLS with the suffix, “Sold, subject to inspection” (“SSI” for short). Then, that got truncated to just “i” — as in...
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Did the Deal Hiccup? Jumping to (Realtor) Conclusions

Sometimes, a Rose Rider is Just a Rose Rider In addition to following multiple Twin Cities neighborhoods for various clients, I also watch home sales near where I live (natch). So about 10 days ago, when the “Sold” rider** disappeared from the vacant “For Sale” home down the street, I assumed that the deal hiccupped...
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Minnesota Ratchets Up Radon Requirements

Writing on the Wall For Realtors still adjusting to last year’s beefed-up radon disclosure — Minnesota’s Seller Disclosure now includes a mandatory section on radon — there are more such changes on the horizon in 2016 and beyond. Such as: –A Minnesota state licensing requirement for radon inspectors and contractors. –A “system tag” indicating that a radon...
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The Overstated Ills of ETF’s

Price Discovery, But Now With Fewer “Patsies” “If you’re playing poker for half an hour, and you don’t know who the patsy at the table is . . . it’s you.” –Warren Buffett As super-cheap exchange traded funds (“ETF’s”) proliferate, Wall Street is fighting back. The latest salvo:  a new academic paper suggesting that ETF’s...
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Did a Previous Sale Blow Up on Inspection? Why You Can’t Necessarily Tell From MLS

“Now You See It . . . Now You Don’t” Once a “For Sale” home is under contract, the usual convention is to switch its MLS status from “Active” to “A,i” for “Sold, subject to inspection.”* That lets all other prospective Buyers know that there’s somebody ahead of them. So, what happens if the Buyer’s...
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