If “April showers bring May flowers” (as they say), what do near 50º temp’s and torrential rain in February — in Minnesota! — bring? Flooding. Especially when the ground is still (very) frozen, and there’s nowhere for the water to go. The scene above is directly in front of the Edina Realty – City Lakes office;...Read More
Establishing Credibility With Sellers I was on a (successful) listing appointment in Linden Hills last week, when the topic of neighborhood expertise came up (I had it to spare). It certainly helped that I had handled several recent transactions within a few blocks; used to live less than six blocks south, in the adjacent Fulton neighborhood;...Read More
Risk of Unintended Consequences At least to economists, the question of whether the minimum wage should be increased — and by a lot, as many on the political left advocate — is tricky. In a perfect world, the higher the minimum wage — hell, all wages — the better: higher pay = more disposable income...Read More
“No, Really: Bring . . the . . Cake!” Thanks to popular culture, some perfectly innocuous phrases have been ruined. To pick just one example, my 13 year-old son and I were bringing his birthday cake, ice cream, etc. to the party room where we were hosting his friends the other weekend. My hands were...Read More
Three Factors How much do you discount for a one-car garage? The short answer: ‘it depends.” Specifically, I think that the three most important variables are: One. What is the surrounding housing stock like? In close-in, older Minneapolis neighborhoods, many homes have one car garages (still). Detached, one car garages. When that’s the standard, the discount...Read More
Target Market: Baby Boomers Who Want to Age in Place The term “life cycle build” is new, but the concept isn’t: a new construction home that’s versatile enough to accommodate the (invariably Baby Boomer) owner’s various life stages. Typical features include: —Two owner’s suites, one on the main floor and the second on the upper...Read More
