Skipping the Starter Home There’s some anecdotal evidence that first-time Buyers in the Twin Cities are making their mark a rung (or three) higher than you’d normally expect to find them. Namely, they’re disproportionately active in transactions around $500k — especially new construction in some of the more affordable ‘burbs — rather than in the...Read More
Quick! Who What Does an Executioner Execute?** If you like Quentin Tarantino’s movies but not all the Tarantino-esque violence and gore, I’ve got an alternative: read the screenplay instead. That’s an option for Tarantino’s latest movie, “The Hateful Eight,” because the movie was adapted from Tarantino’s earlier screenplay. At least on the page, you can...Read More
What’s in a Word? “Imˈ- pound”: seize and take legal custody of something — especially a vehicle, goods, or documents — because of an infringement of a law or regulation. –Dictionary definition Once upon a time, the fees that lenders collected in advance from home buyers for such things as property taxes and home insurance...Read More
Compare With “the Zero-Second Showing”** My first thought when I heard a colleague say that she recently had a 16-second showing on one of her listings was, “how on earth did she know that??” My knee-jerk assumption was that she’d downloaded the log from the electronic lockbox on the front door, and noted that exactly...Read More
Tweaks to 2016-2017 Inspection Contingency One of the more awkward moments in any Buyer’s home inspection is when the Buyer’s contractor finally succeeds in opening the ceiling panel accessing the attic or crawl space — only to have a pile of debris rain down on them (and perhaps, the Seller’s brand-new hall carpeting). Or, the...Read More
Unintended Consequence of Raising Awareness of Distracted Driving You’d think that once a teenager got their driver’s license, the family would consider moving further away from, not closer, to the high school their kid(s) attend. But, I’ve now just handled my third transaction in under a year where one of the driving (sorry) motives for...Read More
