Morel Mushrooms at The Wedge for 33% Off The distinction between “on sale” and “cheap” is nicely illustrated by the morel mushrooms currently on sale for $39.99/lb.(!) at The Wedge Co-op on Lyndale in Minneapolis. And yes, the principle is frequently on display in residential real estate sales. Unfortunately, neither the Kaplan family budget nor...Read More
Rules of Thumb Veteran Realtors know that $1 in deferred maintenance subtracts much more than that from a home’s sales price. The ratio can be 3:1, 4:1 or even higher. While the exact amount is house and buyer-specific, at least anecdotally, there seem to be two factors that widen the discount. One. Price Point. First-time Buyers are notoriously...Read More
Losing $100k(?) to Save $21k Rule #1 in real estate is that everything’s negotiable. Rule #2: there are times when it’s best to forget Rule #1, and preemptively take care of an issue before it threatens to torpedo a deal. That would certainly have been true in the case of a certain upper bracket Wayzata home...Read More
Why No One’s Rooting For FREE* Ice Cream People in the Twin Cities know that when the thermometer dives, ice cream at local favorite Sebastian Joe’s goes on sale. The discount last night, when the temp was “only” -14º below: a cool (sorry) 25%. *Using Sebastian Joe’s scale, the price when the temp is more than...Read More
10¢ x 2 x 20 Gallons = Real Money When gas hit $4 a gallon (and kept going) in 2013, it was hard to get excited about coupons offering 5¢ off a gallon. Sorry, not worth the time or effort. Fast forward to this Fall, when regular unleaded in the Twin Cities is approaching $2...Read More
1 Picture = 1,000 Words Just in case there’s any doubt, the wide-angle shot (above) of this Lake Nokomis home definitively answers the question: “is it a corner lot?” Realtor conventional wisdom is that some Buyers prefer them, because of the extra light (and one less neighbor). Meanwhile, others avoid corner lots, because of the...Read More
