At Least, the “C” is Easy Even for a veteran Realtor like myself, it’s still possible to be thrown (at least occasionally) by an obscure real estate term. Case in point: the MLS status “C-APPRE,” which popped up in the archive history of a Linden Hills home that my Buyer client is interested in. On a weekday,...Read More
“Nobody Ever Washed a Rental Car” — Home Inspection Edition Normally, the condition of such things as TV satellite dishes, security systems, and water softeners is very important to home Buyers doing their inspection. After all, if they don’t work, post-closing, it’s the Buyer-now-Owner who’s on the hook.* So, what is the one exception to that? When...Read More
Hungry Twin Cities Buyers Face Limited Inventory Want to know what’s going on in the Twin Cities housing market now in a nutshell? It’s all in the arrows: Employment/Job Growth: ↑ Housing Inventory (Listings): ↓ Showings: ↑ Mortgage Rates: ↓ Mortgage Applications: ↑ Rents: ↑ Net it all out, and what emerges is a picture of...Read More
Do They Come Out Ahead? In college football, they’re called “red-shirts”: promising freshmen who are held back a year — both for more seasoning, and because they’d otherwise use up valuable eligibility serving as an understudy to a star upperclassman. The housing market equivalent? A home that was listed 2-3 years ago when the market was...Read More
Perils of Waiting for the Market to Come Back People assume when [the sale market] slows down, rental will pick up, but that depends . . . When you’re losing jobs, the rental market is also going to suffer. –“A Month Free? Rents are Falling Fast“; The New York Times (1/30/2009) Although the story focuses...Read More
“For Sale” or “For Rent” — But not Both A small — but growing — percentage of single-family homes on the market locally now have a second sign in their front lawns: one that says, “For Rent.” I have no statistics backing me up — I doubt any exist — but I’d estimate the number...Read More
