“We Have Some With Ham, Too”One of my favorite Mad Magazine cartoons shows a food stand advertising every kind of burger known to man: ‘Buffalo burgers,’ ‘Chicken burgers,’ Turkey burgers,’ ‘Veggie burgers,’ and on and on. The caption: ‘we have some with ham, too, but we don’t know what to call them.’ In that vein,...Read More
“Not a Foreclosure! Not a Short Sale!” Sellers don’t usually start out proclaiming what they’re not. But this isn’t a usual market. In some Twin Cities neighborhoods, the normal ratio of “traditional” sales relative to lender-mediated sales (foreclosures, short sales) has inverted. Furthermore, many Buyers have come to associate lender-mediated deals with extra risk and...Read More
Home Buyer Advice: ‘Forget Short Sales’ Buying foreclosures isn’t always easy, but it isn’t as hard as buying a short sale. A foreclosed home is already owned by the bank. With the short sales only about half of them ever get to the closing. Some end up in foreclosure long before they close even though...Read More
Don’t Sell Your House to Your RealtorSelling your house to your Realtor is a bad idea for about 48 different reasons, beginning and ending with conflict of interest. That’s especially true if the sale is a “short sale” — that is, the home is worth less than the mortgage against it. In such cases, the...Read More
Short Sale Multiple Choice My client made an offer November 17 on a South Minneapolis short sale (the lender(s) must agree to accept less than the outstanding mortgage balance). When did he hear back from the listing agent (representing the Seller)? a. November 29b. December 3c. December 21d. January 23 Answer: none of the above....Read More
Is Barry Ritholtz Right About Realtors? “$#@%&realtors . . .%&*!! NAR . . !!#%@!! . . David Lereah . . .$#%&! . . . NAR . . . %&!!@realtors . . .%&*!! NAR.” –“Former NAR Economist David Lereah is a Jackass,” Barry Ritholtz; The Big Picture blog (1/6/09)As a real estate agent active in the...Read More
