Not-So-Subtle Clues Animal biologists who want to understand wild animals’ habitat and diet study their droppings (other names: “scat,” “poop,” etc.). Fortunately, modern-day parents of teenage kids have an easier option: examining their kids’ bedroom waste baskets (a very fringe benefit of being my household’s designated garbage collector). I did the other day ” and it wasn’t a pretty...Read More
A Tale of Two Cities Foundations At the end of an unexpectedly long day yesterday, I finally caught a break: my client’s 1950’s rambler (and my upcoming listing) in Edina had a blissfully straightforward, rectangular foundation that took me less than 10 minutes to measure. No additions, bump-outs, bay windows, or other nooks and crannies. In fact,...Read More
Electric Toothbrushes and Modern Gas Pumps One of my favorite “Family Circus” cartoons shows the children in the bathroom in their grandparents’ house, holding a manual toothbrush. The caption: “Look, Mom! A toothbrush you don’t have to plug in!” The Kaplan household recently had our own version of that experience, when my 17 year-old son (and...Read More
How to Tell, Early On, if a Home is Likely to Appraise The listing agent (representing the Seller) is meeting the Appraiser — representing the Buyer’s mortgage lender — at the house (note: the listing agent should always meet the Appraiser at the house). What should they have with them, to provide to the Appraiser? A. Hard...Read More
$100 Off Weekly, Five Weeks in Row [Editor’s note: if the screen shot above is too hard to decipher, it shows a home that’s dropped $100 each of the last five weeks, from $475,000 to $474,900, then to $474,800, etc. The current price is $474,500.] If you added a zero (or two), you might actually...Read More
Volatile Stocks, Slow-Changing Housing At the beginning of the year, I remarked on home buyers who worried that housing may be in a new bubble — a bubble that would inevitably burst the minute they bought something. See, “Anxious 2017 Buyers Fret: Is Another Housing Bubble Brewing?” Entering the 2nd half of 2017, there seems to be...Read More
