Fussy, Fussy? Maybe Not Do Realtors who stay at an Airbnb have higher standards than the general public? I don’t know about other agents, but this one does — even if, as a (very) short-term renter vs. long-term Buyer, I usually keep the quibbles to myself. List of Shortcuts At a recent Airbnb home in...Read More
Best Places to Live: Minneapolis Beats Out Austin, Portland, Nashville and Other Hot Spots “Slow and steady wins the race.” –Proverb, Aesop’s Fables; “The Tortoise and the Hare.” I’d rather be picked by Ashlea Halpern than by Jeff Bezos. Jeff Bezos, of course, is the gazillionaire founder and CEO of Amazon, which received proposals from 238...Read More
Monetizing a Mother-in-Law Apartment (Maybe) Are Twin Cities homeowners renting out their homes and extra bedrooms on Airbnb? Undoubtedly. In their capacity as listing agent (representing the Seller), should Realtors be touting a home’s (short-term) rental potential? I’m not so sure. Municipal Zoning That’s because I have no idea what local zoning codes say about weekly or...Read More
First Rental Cars, Now Hotels Consolidate It’s been awhile since I studied Anti-Trust in law school, but it sure looks to me like a couple consumer-oriented industries are getting awfully concentrated. And I’m not just talking about airlines and cable companies. The latest example of “the urge to merge”: Marriott Hotels gobbling up competitor Starwood...Read More
How Long Till It’s Just One, Big Company? You practically need a scorecard — or a spreadsheet — to track who’s gobbling up who in the fast-consolidating “online travel agent” industry. Courtesy of The New York Times (“The Consumer’s Quandary: Book Online or Book Direct?”), here’s how the industry is configured (at least for now):...Read More
Prognosticators’ Hits & (Mostly) Misses No, my “Top Ten” list for 2014 isn’t going to garner the same attention as Time Magazine’s impending choice for “Person of the Year,” and has none of the fanfare accompanying the Heisman Trophy winner (also due to be announced imminently). But on the plus side . . . I’m first! In that vein, here’s...Read More
