Getting to Deal Breakers (Like Projected Remodeling Costs), Faster Eighteen months ago, when Wall Street-backed Buyers were vacuuming up Twin Cities homes, the first showing was effectively the inspection. That’s because such corporate Buyers purchased sight unseen (for cash!), and used the inspection to decide if they really wanted the home. See, “Cash Buyers, Sight...Read More
When Bigger Isn’t Better Just like the discount for a one-car garage varies, so, too, does the discount for a home with no basement (at least in the Twin Cities housing market, where single family homes routinely come with — and Buyers expect — finished basements). The biggest variable driving the discount for no basement?...Read More
Pros and Cons For Downsizing Baby Boomers Surprise, surprise, that stalwart of the ’50’s — the one-story rambler (known as a “ranch” on the coasts) — is making a comeback. They can be especially appealing to downsizing Baby Boomers, who are looking for one-level living, in a smaller home, with the privacy and backyard that go with a detached, single-family...Read More
Trashing (Literally) The Golden Rule, or How NOT to Get Referrals From the Neighbors Normally, only cads “borrow” their neighbors’ garbage cans or dumpster without permission (in fact, I believe it’s illegal). However, I can think of at least one situation where that’s justified: when the source of the garbage is the neighbor’s remodeling project. I’m...Read More
Sizing Up Likely Winners and Losers With the dust literally still settling on the Minneapolis City Council’s March 7 decision to temporarily halt teardowns, it’s premature to sort out all the consequences. But, here’s my preliminary take on likely “winners” and “losers”: Losers: –Buyers and Sellers currently under contract for teardown homes in Minneapolis; –Prospective Minneapolis teardown Sellers; –Minneapolis-focused...Read More
Stuck in the Middle: the Plight of the “Near Tear-Down” While Twin Cites developers — and their clients — are once again on the prowl for tear-downs, unfortunately for would-be Sellers of such homes, not everything qualifies. In particular, a great many homes fall into a broad gray area, where they’re too expensive for many...Read More
