It is Friday and Fridays are for fun.  Spring should start up again early next week. Expect tulips and crabapple blossoms. The spring flowering season is short, don’t miss it. Crabapple blossoms     The post Fridays in Spring appeared first on St. Paul Real Estate Blog ..read more

Marcie – Reading all about agency in real estate This is a kind of public service message I write each spring about agency in Minnesota. Here are some basics:  If you list your house with a real estate agent and that agent brings in an offer from a buyer that she is representing you now have dual agency which means that the agent cannot represent the buyer or the seller but instead becomes a facilitator. The agent facilitates the sale and can not do anything to the advantage of one party and the detriment of another. What most home sellers and buyers do not understand is what a broker is ..read more

Most of the houses I sell are old because St. Paul has mostly old houses and that is mainly where I work. My own house is over 165 years old. I have sold new houses and new construction too. One mistake old house buyers commonly make is to try and fix and or upgrade everything right away. That isn’t a good idea. A home buyer can end up spending too much money. The best approach, and this advice is from a Realtor® and an old house owner is to come up with a plan. Prioritize repairs and upgrades and create a budget. Start with a big list and break it down into a 3 or 5 year plan. Also have an em ..read more

According to the IRS: Individual taxpayers spent a total of 897 million hours in FY 2022 just on record-keeping. This is in addition to the 1.15 billion hours spent on tax preparation of individual returns. Business entities spent about 1.14 billion hours and $48.3 billion on tax preparation in FY 2022. Tax season causes stress all year long. I’ll never forget how when my dad was 90 years old and in hospice care he told me to be sure and file his income tax return. He seemed very concerned. The truth is that every penny of his income was reported to the IRS and he should not have had to h ..read more

It is Friday and Fridays are for fun. Every spring I walk to 90 Plato blvd to drop off my payment for the first half of our Ramsey County Property taxes*. Yes, I am well aware that I can pay them online and that is usually how I pay the second half. I walk over the high bridge and down the hill to Plato and drop off the payment and then walk along plato to Wabasha street and then over the Wabasha street bridge to Kellogg Blvd. and then to West 7th and then home again. It is a lovely walk on a spring day and it is a reminder to me that I am privileged to have the time and energy to make the 3 m ..read more

I write some version of this every year. Our housing stock in St. Paul is old. Some folks consider houses built in the 1950’s old, but in St. Paul they are newish. 43% of the houses in St. Paul were built before 1939. Any house that was built before 1978 could have lead-based paint in it. Since about 80% of the houses in St. Paul were built before 1978 it is safe to assume unless proven otherwise most St. Paul houses have lead-based paint in them. Lead is harmful to human beings, especially to children and Federal law requires that persons buying or renting a home that was built before 1978 re ..read more

Kitchen in a small condo If you buy a townhouse or condo in Minnesota there is a ten day rescission period. That means you have ten days to read the condo documents including rules, bi-laws and financials. Some condo associations will even share meeting minutes from home owner association (HOA) meetings. A buyer can cancel the purchase with no penalty if there is something in the HOA documents that isn’t acceptable. Over the years I have had a few buyers cancel a condo purchase because of rules like pet restrictions, rental restrictions and other restrictions on how the unit can be used. Somet ..read more

Summer heat Our central air conditioning unit is almost 21 years old. When we bought the house it did not have central air. It is running fine but for how much longer? I started doing some research on replacing it with a heat pump. It is always best to replace central heating or cooling before they become and emergency. Heat pumps are more energy efficient and they can also help heat the house in the winter. What is a heat pump? A heat pump is a piece of electric HVAC equipment that provides both heating and cooling to your home. Heat pump technology is an advancement of traditional air condi ..read more

There just isn’t anyway to sugar coat this. Mortgage interest rates are high. They will go down and when they do you may not be able to refinance and get a lower rate on your loan and if you do refinance the interest portion of your payment starts all over again. Borrowers pay the most interest on the first payment. That means more interest and less equity. Anyone who reads this blog knows that I am in favor of homeownership. I am not in favor of debt or paying interest. Less debt means more freedom and more choices. Rates will come down again. In the U.S. Mortgage debt is increasing and so is ..read more

It is Friday and Fridays are for fun. I walked the skyways to get home from a recent trip to the Union Depot. It was cold that day but mostly I chose the skyway as a way to avoid traffic from an event at the Xcel Center. The photos are of the skyway between 4th and 5th street at Robert Street. There is often art in the skyways. I liked this but didn’t notice the eye until I got home and looked at the pictures. In fact there are two dragons. Now go find them and have a great weekend. Skyway downtown St. PaulSkyway dragon Next time I walk that skyway I am going to stop and talk to the dragon. &n ..read more