Our roofing project has become the job from Hell. They were set to start last Monday and we were told it would take ONE DAY to finish, although it would be a long day. Then it was TWO days. Then THREE days. Then FOUR. Now, we’ve had more than a WEEK of project delays, bad weather, poor time management, and a frightening safety issue (no … Continue reading ‘HOUSE RULES’ for Contractors
The roofers are working on our house today. They started yesterday, but since it’s a pretty big roof, they think it’s going to take the until 8pm on Friday to finish up. See how big it is …?! To say, “thanks” to the hard working crew of 7, I’ve been bribing them with cold beverages during the day and doughnuts & orange juice this morning. … Continue reading This Is A Job For Doughnuts
I am learning a lot about being a landlord right now. We bought a townhome in our neighborhood last month as a place to rent to our son. He’s moving into it this weekend and I am trying to quickly figure out what we need to do. Owning a rental townhouse is a lot different than just owning a house. Even in the same neighborhood. … Continue reading Slowly Learning The Landlord Game
Everywhere you go in Florida, everyone is talking about real estate. It’s really engaging, even when you are just trying to enjoy your vacation. Yesterday we made a few stops on the Parade of Homes near red-hot Sarasota. Even the so-called custom builders are too busy to customize anything right now. They are just building spec homes and then auctioning them off to buyers in … Continue reading Scarce Inventory Boosts Real Estate
We met some fellow Minnesotans down here in Florida yesterday. Unlike us, they jumped into investing in a Florida vacation cottage a couple years ago when they first got the urge. They snapped one up when the Margaritaville Orlando resort was relatively new and said they have already seen a couple hundred thousand dollars of appreciation. The colorful cottages are bright, nicely designed, and well-furnished. … Continue reading Investing in Vacationland Paradise
Like most places, the residential real estate market is moving really fast in our area. Yesterday, we jumped in at lightning speed! My wife saw a snazzy townhouse in our neighborhood she thought would be nice for our adult son. We talked about it with him on Sunday morning just before 11a, connected with our friendly neighborhood agent 5 minutes later, scheduled/did a quick showing, … Continue reading Townhouse Lark
While this year’s dramatic price inflation is putting a big hit on our fixed pension, it’s doing wonders for our home value. Housing is one of the categories leading the inflation parade in 2021. This chart from YahooFinance shows how sharply the price increase has been over the past few years. The pandemic has brought on a huge spike. Prices are up 20% nationally versus … Continue reading Home, Sweetly Inflated, Home
That’s a picture of the pool house in our neighborhood. Our development is a great place for raising kids, although we are out of that business now. Other people our age are starting to move to smaller places. Sometimes we feel like we should downsize too, but I don’t think the benefits play out very well for us in today’s housing market. We’ve looked around. … Continue reading No Benefit To Downsize
I’m not sure what to make of the value of our home is right now. A house in our neighborhood recently went up for sale – with a lot of square footage & high finish quality – but with a relatively low asking price. I really would have expected it would be priced 10% higher. We’re not thinking about selling anytime soon, but I still … Continue reading Knock Knock – Who’s Buying?
You can’t go from the Midwest to Florida in the winter – for any length of time – and not have people ask if you are getting ready to buy a place down here. We’ve been down here for 5 weeks now and that has brought us 35 days closer to coming up with a more permanent Snowbird plan. We’ve really clicked with the Florida … Continue reading Kicking Off ‘The Florida Project‘
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