Busy September (or, “Seeing Triple”) For a Realtor, it’s a high quality problem to have, to be sure. But 3 closings in the next 8 days means 3 of everything (I’m the listing agent, representing the Seller, in all 3 deals). Little (& Big) Details Specifically, it means: 3 walk-thru inspections to deal with; 3...Read More
Adding a (Big) Margin of Error for Hassle, Unknowns The biggest discount facing home Sellers is for home repairs they’re passing along to the Buyer (euphemistically known as “deferred maintenance”). That’s true whether the repairs are required pursuant to a local point-of-sale inspection — mandatory in 10 municipalities in the Twin Cities — or are simply things...Read More
Friend vs. . . Foe Not Friend In the Twin Cities, ten municipalities require home sellers to have their home inspected prior to sale (in some cases, prior to listing). Some of those cities (Bloomington, St. Louis Park) have their own city inspectors; others, like Minneapolis, outsource the job to an approved list of independent...Read More
And Then There Were 8 (Required City “Point-of-Sale” Inspections) “After seeing all the various inconsistencies and loopholes over the years, I’ve come to the conclusion that the costs of municipal homes inspections don’t justify their benefits.” –Ross Kaplan, “Are Municipal Inspections a Waste of Time?”; City Lakes Real Estate Blog (1/16/2010) One city doesn’t make...Read More
Realtor “Lifelines” and Shortcuts When most people think of home inspections, they think of the Buyer’s home inspection. But at least in the Twin Cities, 14 municipalities have their own, Seller-required inspection. Navigating that labyrinth — at least for Edina Realty agents — is ordinarily a two-step process: 1) log on to Edina Realty’s “ProKit” software,...Read More
When Ignorance Isn’t Bliss On the list of awkward first questions that Buyers’ Agents ask Listing Agents — “Are those abandoned oil tanks buried in the front yard?” — has to rank pretty high. And responding, “the Seller doesn’t have any idea, they were there when they bought the house” doesn’t exactly help matters. Even...Read More
