First Rule of “For Sale” Home Prep: Consistency Fellow blogger and Twin Cities Realtor Teresa Boardman has a nice piece explaining why Kitchen remodels can backfire on would-be home sellers. See, “Kitchen Remodels That Hurt Resale.” In addition to Boardman’s two reasons, I’ve got two more: One. The owner did a great job remodeling the...Read More
Price as a Function of Market Time Assuming a “For Sale” home is well-prepped, priced and marketed, is there a way to know how much it sold for prior to closing, when the number will become public? That is, without finding out from the Buyer, the Seller, or their agents (who shouldn’t be sharing that...Read More
Define, “Extreme Cold” There’s a simple reason you seldom see Realtor open houses in Minnesota in January cancelled due to cold: there’s no guaranty it will be warmer a week later. Case in point: exactly one week ago, when my client and I were wavering due to local temps in the single digits. We went...Read More
Practicing an Ounce of Prevention If the answer to that question is “no one” — or at least, not regularly — it’s imperative that the owner do one of the following (at least if their home happens to be located in Minnesota and it’s winter): –Winterize the home (shut off the water and drain the...Read More
Man Bites Dog — Real Estate Edition The vast majority of the time — like 99% — when real estate statistics are off, they’re off on the, shally we say . . . “embellished” side.* So, the 1 1/2 story is billed as a 2 story, the 1,800 square foot home is billed as 2,000,...Read More
Not All Listings Are Created Equal Notwithstanding fairly steady Fall listing and selling activity, there is a perception afoot amongst many Twin Cities Realtors now that the market is deceptively slow. How can that be? Here’s one theory: while showings statistics overall are flat to slightly down, they’re unusually concentrated amongst a relatively small percentage of...Read More
