Old-Fashioned TechnologyMakes Real Estate Comeback “Nobody goes to that restaurant anymore. It’s too crowded.”–Yogi Berra Yogi Berra could easily say the same things about the Internet today, especially with respect to real estate. Consider: –Online photos are now routinely so overly-flattering, you literally don’t recognize the home when you’re standing in it. –Facebook and MySpace...Read More
Housing Bear Market Brings OutTwo Kinds of Low Ball OffersAlthough they’re invariably upsetting to Sellers who receive them, not all low ball offers should be summarily dismissed. Especially in a housing bear market, there really are two kinds of low ball offers. The first kind is the stereotypical, “I’d like to steal your home in...Read More
Upper Bracket Woes Although Edina has been a housing standout in the current downturn, it, too, has pockets of excess inventory, and homes that have suffered serial price cuts — and still aren’t selling. Just one street in Edina’s Country Club section, Sunnyslope, now has six homes on the market, at prices ranging from $729,000...Read More
To Help Clear Housing Market, Peg Tax Value to Last Sale Price “Believe me, it’s not what it is.”—New Yorker cartoon That’s what’s the woman caught in bed with another man, says to her husband standing in the bedroom doorway. And that’s what government authorities are effectively saying to anyone who buys foreclosed properties at...Read More
Cramer: ‘Home Buyers Need a Bigger Carrot’In the financial community, Mad Money’s Jim Cramer is known for being a showman first, and for prescient market calls a very distant second (his manic, shotgun approach to stock picking seems to be if you throw enough darts, sooner or later a couple are bound to hit the...Read More
Want to Entice Home Buyers?Insure Them Against Losses Stock market investors who believe prices are low, but not certain they have bottomed, can hedge their bets by doing what is called “dollar cost averaging.” By committing fixed amounts of capital at regular intervals, they are guaranteed to accumulate relatively more stock when prices are cheapest....Read More
