May is Deck Safety Month, so it’s a good time to discuss deck inspections. The best way to know if your deck is safe is to have it professionally inspected. If you’re not keen on hiring a home inspector or carpenter to inspect your deck professionally, you can still inspect some basic things yourself. Building Code Requirements For Minnesota, we use section R507 of the Minnesota Residential Building Code for most of our deck requirements. This section was added to our building code when we adopted a new residential code at the beginning of 2015, and it brought a fair number of changes: New b ..read more

After watching new listings fall the last three years it is heartening to see new listings continue to hover over last year’s levels. Showing activity is steady, but below last year. Pending sales and multiple offers continue to stick together as price reductions and homes coming back on the market rise… due to any number of factors, including financing falling apart due to insurance issues. Wondering what an increase in new listings means when you sell your house? Just as fast food restaurants cluster together in a symbiotic relationship, so do multiple homes for sale help each other… givi ..read more

Nationally, insurance rates rose 11.3% last year as home insurance costs have been rising steadily as climate risks and natural disasters rise. Over the last 5 years they have risen 33.8%, but they vary greatly from state to state with Texas the highest at a 59.9% increase. Some places are simply no longer insurable. In Minnesota, insurance rates have risen 39.1% over the last five years. Storms causing trees to fall and roofs to be damages have made a big impact. Some HOAs are struggling to deal with rising costs by raising the deductible, only to find that can make some buyers unable to get ..read more

I was excited when I heard about the Keith Haring exhibit which will be at Walker Art Center through this summer, and put the opening day panel event on our calendar right away. It celebrates 40 years ago that Keith Haring was here for the Walker Art Center ARTFEST in 1984. His style captured me then and continues to speak to me now. Our daughter also loves his style… and even wore a t-shirt he designed for the NYC Guggenheim Museum in 1993 for her high school graduation photos. I found a picture book that his mother wrote about him in the gift shop which told me so much about him… he just k ..read more

“Art is one of the last areas that is totally within the realm of the human individual and can’t be copied or done better by a machine or technology.” – Keith Haring NOTE: I spend my Wednesdays Unplugged from appointments. It’s my day to stay home, enjoy cooking and welcome our kids and grandkids for dinner in the evening. We end our meal with quotes from the Norwegian ‘Quote Cup’ passed on to me from my grandmother. I share a quote and a recipe here each week, along with an update and photos of what has been going on in our lives. I love trying new recipes…and love gettin ..read more

Every so often I get asked how do you get rid of mortgage insurance? And the answer depends on a few things! Assuming a conventional loan, it depends on how long you have had the home and how much equity you have. Let’s break it down. The Homeowners Protection Act of 1998 sets the guidelines for conventional loans. For a single family home that is your primary residence, the MI will automatically terminate when your mortgage gets to 78% of the original value. But how can you get rid of it sooner? You can request to have it removed once you get to 80% of the original value. If you feel your ho ..read more

Minneapolis grew up around flour mills along the Mississippi near St. Anthony Falls and was known as the “Flour Milling Capital of the World” from approximately 1880 to 1930. At its peak, the Washburn A Mill, site of the Mill City Museum, was the most technologically advanced and largest in the world and could grind enough flour in a day to make 12 million loaves of bread. Mill City Museum is a wonderful multi-sensory attraction for all ages located in a national historic site. It is one of the first places we bring visitors to give them a sense of the origins of Minneapolis and its world-w ..read more

Coming soon listings are on the rise again this week, a good sign for new inventory in the coming weeks. Showings are on a steady trajectory in line with new listings… Overall, new listings continue higher than last year… will be interesting to see if that momentum continues as we proceed towards the traditional annual high point of new listings. Want to make a move but struggling with affordability? The article below from our blog at Keeping Matters Current explains how your home equity can help. Did you know that 2/3 of homeowners have at least 50% equity? Sharlene Hensrud, RE/MAX Results ..read more

EasyGreen is our newest eco-friendly mortgage product. This program allows borrowers to finance energy star appliances or consolidate energy related debt into their loan. This mortgage rewards borrowers for being environmentally conscious by providing an LLPA waiver (loan level price adjustment), giving them a cheaper interest rate. Borrowers can finance EnergyStar appliances including refrigerators, dishwashers, washing machines, water heaters and more. Or you can consolidate pre-existing energy related debt in a rate/term refinance. This mortgage is available on conventional loans, 30 year ..read more

“Someone’s sitting in the shade today because someone planted a tree a long time ago.” – Warren Buffett NOTE: I spend my Wednesdays Unplugged from appointments. It’s my day to stay home, enjoy cooking and welcome our kids and grandkids for dinner in the evening. We end our meal with quotes from the Norwegian ‘Quote Cup’ passed on to me from my grandmother. I share a quote and a recipe here each week, along with an update and photos of what has been going on in our lives. I love trying new recipes…and love getting recipes you would like to share! Last week was the Pop ..read more