Our Newsroom

How accurate is Zillow or Trulia?

I get asked this question all the time. Buyers and sellers alike want to be able to figure out what the value of a home should be. I have a separate post as to how I go about figuring valuation of a home, and you can read that post on Market Valuations here. If you […]

Why should I pay for the buyer’s closing costs?

In each real estate transaction, there are buyer’s closing costs, as well as seller’s closing costs. But increasingly, buyers are asking sellers to cover their closing costs. Why should sellers pay for buyer’s closing costs? The main reason is that this is purely an accounting move. With the way we structure purchase agreements, it is […]

Staging a home

5 Reasons to stage a home for sale? There are several reasons why I recommend staging a home before putting it up for sale. I’ve listed my top 5 below. Read on. It’s the basis of marketing Marketing a home starts with the basics. You have to start with a strong foundation and build upon […]

5 Inexpensive Staging Tips

There are many things that people can do to get their house ready to sell. 1. Declutter is the #1 item to do on the list. This means putting away most of the personal items, and cleaning off the counters. 2. Clean and dust everywhere. And I mean everywhere. This includes the top of the […]

Did my home really appreciate 14% last year

As a listing agent who lives in the Nokomis Minneapolis neighborhood, I get this question often. Everybody hears that the market has changed and that the median house price went up 14% over last year. There is some truth to that, but it’s not as simple as it sounds. The 14% appreciation is the increase […]

46% Underwater

It is being reported that roughly 46% of Twin Cities single-family homeowners are underwater, which is an increase from 42% last year. This is being reported from Zillow. But what do they know anyway? Take a look at these two listings from Z. The data, according to the big-Z was updated in Feb of 2011. […]