Month: January 2007

T.W. gets her dish

Posted on by Teresa Boardman

9thstreetlofts_5  A  follow up on a post written last week, about my client T.W. who really needs to live in a condo where she can have a satellite dish. 

One of our readers lives in the 9th street lofts in downtown St. Paul.  He told us that they do have the dish.  We had been looking for a place in that building and found one. 

T.W. gets her dish!  The 9th street lofts are a little different in that everything seems to be ala-cart.  The dues are lower and do not include heating and cooling, they instead take the monthly bill and divide it up by square footage with each condo owner paying his or her fair share.

If I do the math and add the utility bill onto the dues, the monthly association dues are about the same as those in neighboring buildings.  Storage lockers if available, and parking spaces are also purchased separately.  T.W. does not have a car so parking is not a problem. 

The important this is that she got a unit that she loves, in a building that she loves and gets to have her satellite dish so she can enjoy sports shows and music.  9th street lofts also has cable so owners have some options.

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Where is my front porch?

Posted on by Teresa Boardman

Yesterday I got a call from Larry Cragun, asking me to describe my dream home.  Not something I think about very often but it sounded like fun so I took a stab at it.  Larry, like a good REALTOR, told me that he would find it for me and post it on his blog, which he did this morning.  The beautiful home that he wanted me to have based on what I told him I would like is all wrong.    He found exactly what I asked for and it met every criteria I mentioned but is not the dream house that is in my imagination. 

Larryshouse_1 Larry either did not ask the right questions or I did not give him enough information or both.   We failed to communicate on some fundamental level.

I asked for a brick Italianate style home and he found it for me.  It has no porch, what was he thinking?  Would I ever consider living in a house that does not have a front porch?  I think not, nor would I ever purchase a car without a sunroof.   Larry doesn’t know this either because I failed to mention it or because he just doesn’t understand me. I thought dream houses just automatically had porches on them and did not even see it as anything extra or special.  Poor Larry he tried to find my dream home and I am irritated because I don’t understand how he could come up with this home that is just wrong.

It also has a fence across the front.  I am picky and I don’t want the fence but I can visualize the home without a fence and could just have it taken out.  My own home has a white picket fence but it does not go across the front of the house.  I want a home that looks inviting, the fence and hedges say keep out. When I talked with Larry I had a picture of what I wanted in my mind but somehow I failed to communicate that to him.  I can’t find the exact house I am picturing but this one comes a lot closer than the one Larry found for me.

Victorianitalianate Would I give up the dream of having a brick house, for a house with a porch?  Yup!  Did I ever say that I wanted a porch?  Nope.

I know Larry will do a good job as my REALTOR and my lender, he really does have my best interests at heart.  We are lucky that we can share these pictures over the internet because then he will have a better understanding of my likes and dislikes when it comes to really expensive dream homes.  He won’t even have to waste his time showing me the first home.

Since these homes are virtual and I can use virtual money, I can have anything I want and I still trust Larry as my REALTOR, after all I can not expect him to read my  mind.  The house in the picture is a bit ornate and ostentatious looking for my taste.  I like homes that are a little simpler, but I would even trade that for my porch.

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This is cool and hot too!

Posted on by Teresa Boardman

Downtown condo association dues can seem pretty steep.  Some home buyers will look at the association dues and then move on to another area without looking at what downtown St. Paul as to offer as a great place to live.

Take a closer look at what the association dues provide,  buyers need to take into consideration that in many of the buildings the dues cover all the heating, cooling, electricity and hot water.  Most of downtown St. Paul uses  district energy.

Connections

District heating is reliable, green and less expensive than the natural gas used in most homes.  The system eliminates the need for boilers, and for smoke stacks or chimmeys on downtown buildings, because it is a closed system.  The facility consumes 280,000 tons of wood waste each year, helping to eliminate a significant urban disposal problem.

Heat is generated by hot water and cooling by cold water that is chilled during the night when electric energy costs are the lowest. The plant uses electricity and generates electricity that is sent back to Excel energy.

The big cloud of steam that can be seen on the river bluff by the science museum during the winter months is condensation from the heating plant.

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10 Good Men – update!

Posted on by Teresa Boardman

As I announced last week the St. Paul Real Estate Blog would like to recognize 10  good men who have consumer oriented blogs, today I present 10 good men.    My origional criteria was that the blogs should be at least six months old, post on a regular basis and that the content  be consumer oriented and "low ego".   The six month requirement was removed because blogs are still new in our industry, and a few good men would have been left out.  I could write an entire post about each of our winners and maybe some day I will.
10men_3
So here are 10 very good men

Josh Dorkin – Real Estate Investing For Real, The Bigger Pockets blog is among the top 5 in the nation, with advice and news for everyone interested in real estate.  Amazingly low in ego considering the size and reach of the blog.  Josh is a very nice person and is a good net citizen, helping and encouraging other blog writers.

Larry Cragun –Mortgages Undressed & RealEstateUndressed,  Larry is simply amazing, his blogs are favorites of Real estate agents and mortgage professionals nation wide.  His content is consumer oriented, but Larry can be very funny.  I have never met Larry in person but if he says it is time to lock, I would never question it.  He is also kind, thoughtful and openly supports, and encourages other blog writers.

Jonathan Miller –Matrix Blog, the blog is about the real estate economy, and is simply amazing, with charts and graphs, as Jonathan presents us with excellent information about the real estate economy.  He has an appraisal company giving him unique content and insight.

Doug Quance – Brokers First Realty Atlanta  It was Doug’s blog that made me re-think my rule that the winners have to have had a blog for at least six months.  Doug is providing local content for the area he works in.  Usefully information that consumers can use.  If I were looking for a home in the Atlanta area my first call would be to Doug.

Alex Stenback – Behind the Mortgage, I have actually met Alex in person.  He is just like his blog, smart, funny and a good man.  He has been writing his blog since 2003, and we could all learn from his work.  He has kept his content focused for years and shows us all that it can be done in an entertaining and informative way.  Please give us more!

Norm Fisher –Saskatoon Real Estate, Norm is new but you can not tell by reading his blog.  It took me several tries to get the pronunciation of his town but now it rolls off my tongue.  I want Norm to see this and be encouraged to keep it up, he is indeed one of the 10 good men and it shines through when I read his blog.

Noah Roseblatt – Urban Diggs, Noah and I have had no contact with each other.  His blog is one that inspired me to keep my blog focused on St. Paul and on Real estate.  When I read him, I feel like I am visiting NYC. 

Ed Rybczynski – Title-Opoly  Ed has a unique opportunity to provide content that can not be found anywhere else.  He is off to a good start and I want to encourage him not to stray, I see him being pulled to the dark side where blog posts are about other blog authors or other blog writers.  Yesterday I saw my own name on his blog, which is O.K., as the other excellent content keeps coming.

Erik Hare – Neighbor, friend, community activist and fellow small business owner with the new www.allsaintpaul.com .  He writes for me every Sunday, who is better qualified to write about St. Paul?  I am lucky he found me and has stuck around.  When I wake up on Sunday mornings his post is always there.

Jim Duncan – Real Central VA – I follow about a 100 blogs, but missed this one.  He left a comment on this post and I followed it to a blog that is worthy of the 10 good men designation.  Jim’s blog is loaded with information and advice about the Charlottesville and Central Virgnia, now I have one more blog to read and I hope you do too.

I found many great blog writers in the real estate industry, all worthy of awards but not this one. I had difficulty finding blogs that are truly for consumers and not written for other industry bloggers.  As I clicked from web site to web site I found a lot of content about writing blogs, and about real estate technology.  These are written for others in the industry, and get a lot of attention from the industry, they are needed and most appreciated.

Friends sent me suggestions for who the award should be given to, but when I went to look at the blogs the first thing I saw was the post about Trulia that everyone wrote about yesterday and as I read more posts I could see that most of the information posted was for people like me looking for industry news and not for people looking for real estate or mortgage information.

I know that there are more good men out there that I am missing and am embarrassed that I failed to find 10 good men.  This post took more research and longer to write than any other.  It is hard to post because it is not my intention to offend any of the great writers out there that I read daily and will do a follow up post on February 10th to honor my 10 favorites, written by both women and men.

Please help me find my missing man.

Update!  I just found my 10th Man, Jim Duncan Real Central Va

(more…)

18 Comments

Let there be light!

Posted on by Teresa Boardman

Blinds Yesterday was bright and sunny here in St. Paul, MN.  I was out showing houses most of the day.

Most sellers know that their home will get sold faster and for more money if it is clean and decluttered, but some don’t understand the impact that light or dark can have on a buyers overall mood and impression of a home that they are seeing for the first time.

We saw a couple of homes yesterday that were like dark caves.  We opened doors that gave us a view of deary dark rooms.

All the sellers would have had to do to make our first impression of the home a good one would have been to open the drapes or the blinds.

Most buyers get a more favorable impression of a home if  it is well lit.  opening the blinds or drapes doesn’t cost a dime and has an impact on the way a home looks.

Some sellers go one step further and leave the lights on.  We all understand why a homeowner would not want to leave all the lights on while they are away at work.  But why would a home owner have every shade, blind and drape closed?

Let your home be viewed in the most favorable light, clean the windows and open the blinds.

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