2013 Minneapolis Home & Landscape Expo Besides the various window companies, remodelers, and deck builders you’d expect to be well-represented, I saw spas on the floor of the Metrodome yesterday. Lots and lots of spas. Except that these babies have as much in common with spas of yore as a fully loaded Range Rover does...Read More
Going . . . Up What do you suppose happens to a one-story home, on a .20 acre lot in a prime location (just north of the Greenway, and equidistant to Lake of the Isles, Lake Calhoun, and Cedar Lake), that’s surrounded by two-story homes? In the case of this just-Pended rambler on Dean Parkway in Minneapolis,...Read More
Multiple Choice Quiz The marketing verbiage on MLS touts the home’s “brand new, state-of-the-art Kitchen.” Who’s going to take notice? A. Prospective Buyers. B. Prospective Buyers’ agents. C. The appraiser sent out by the lender. D. The title examiner. Answer: all of the above. And why are title examiners scrutinizing MLS marketing verbiage? Because they’re looking...Read More
“The Seamlessness Test,” or Housing’s Hippocratic Oath The best additions are invisible. That is, they blend in so well with the original home that you can’t tell where one starts and the other begins. At the other extreme, there are homes which look — and feel — like they’re actually two parts, stapled together....Read More
Want to Be Ready for Spring, 2012? Start Now One of the questions that can come up when you list a home that needs significant updating is, “If we buy this home and put $50k — or $250k — into it, will we overshoot values on the block?” Fortunately, when a $1 million-plus new...Read More
All-New Everything Believe it or not, the headline of this post isn’t an oxymoron — or even an insult. On the contrary, a Buyer who intends to do a “stem-to-stern” renovation is the salvation of more than a few Sellers (see, “Tear-Down Economics“), who have neither the inclination nor resources to do needed, major updating — and...Read More
