Deal Breaker? “You ‘Betcha!” “Garage Door Height” is a relatively new field on MLS — my recollection is that it only goes back 2-3 years. Frankly, I’d always been puzzled why anyone cared. “NOW I Get it” Not anymore. Combine the “super-sizing” of pickup trucks the last few years; older housing stock (typically, in Minneapolis, St....Read More
“The Curb Cut Clue” — and the Clincher It’s not always the case. But, +90% of the time, when there’s a curb cut (and possibly driveway) in front of a home that leads nowhere . . . the owner (or a previous one) converted what had been a 1-car garage into finished square feet....Read More
Avoiding “The Bowling Alley” Effect First, a caveat: unless there’s also a detached garage in the back of the house (typically, off an alley), converting a one-car garage into something else is a non-starter. That’s because going from a one-car garage to a no-car garage is guaranteed to destroy much more value than it creates. But, assuming that that’s not the...Read More
Real Estate Photography 101 Buyers will find out soon enough that this cute Longfellow (Minneapolis) home only has a one-car garage. But, the combination of the (head-on) angle and the bright red color make it rather inescapable. Marketing Strategy? I don’t agree with it in this case, but there IS a school of thought that says...Read More
Back to the Future Once upon a time, owning and operating a private car was expensive, and everyone — at least in big cities — used public transportation. With gas eclipsing $4 a gallon and headed higher, might we be headed back to the future? If so, all those centrally located, well-built older Twin Cities...Read More
Preservation vs. Development, Part Two In Preservation vs. Development, I discussed the criteria that I think should be applied when a city is trying to decide whether to preserve or develop a given neighborhood or area. This post is about the criteria that should apply when an individual wants to develop a specific piece of property: their...Read More
