Need a Contractor? Take a Number If you’re a Twin Cities homeowner trying to remodel a Bath, re-paint the Amusement Room, or even deal with a plumbing emergency, you doubtless already know: local contractors are in scarce supply. So, which trade/specialty has the longest backlog right now? My nominee is radon remediation contractors. Thanks to beefed-up...Read More
Three Key Factors Besides Price Tag, Scope of Work Discounting for a home’s “vintage” condition is inherently subjective. Some Buyers don’t want to tackle anything more challenging than painting a Bedroom (if that). Others — especially if they have contracting skills (or access to them) — are up for remodeling the Kitchen, Bath’s and anything...Read More
Getting to Deal Breakers (Like Projected Remodeling Costs), Faster Eighteen months ago, when Wall Street-backed Buyers were vacuuming up Twin Cities homes, the first showing was effectively the inspection. That’s because such corporate Buyers purchased sight unseen (for cash!), and used the inspection to decide if they really wanted the home. See, “Cash Buyers, Sight...Read More
Better Than Angie’s List The best thing about cultivating and maintaining relationships with lots of good, local contractors* is that it’s a benefit to my clients who need one (or three). Runner-up benefit? I can pick up the phone and get the “scoop” (off-the-record) from an especially knowledgeable source. That proved invaluable in a recent...Read More
One Set of Pipes or Two? First, a caveat: for the record, I’m never in favor of winterizing a home, even one that’s vacant, even in Minnesota in the winter. In my experience, it’s almost always more cost-effective to empty such a home, move any to-be-disposed-of personal effects into storage, and expeditiously get the home on...Read More
When a Hyphen Looms Large Due to a frustrating communication problem the other week, I never received a quote from a contractor I know well and like. Unfortunately, it took a couple tries to get it right. Each time, the contractor shot me an email letting me know that he had “re-sent it.” Except that...Read More
