Robert Guthridge's Blog

What Do You Call the Person Who Exposes You to Covid-19?  Sometimes, a cigar is just a cigar.” –Sigmund Freud. I literally don’t understand 90% of the scientific terms on the resumé of my 21 year-old, premed son. In the course of doing volunteer contact tracing for Santa Clara county (Bay Area), he’s had to learn even more terminology. So, when he used the term “co-actor” in connection with a housemate who’d recently been exposed to Covid-19, I assumed he was simply using medical jargon. Nope. The housemate was in play rehearsals, and one of her castmates (“co-actors”) had gotten sick. Thankfully, the housemate ( “co-resident??” ) tested negative a few days later. “Rising Sophomores,” etc. Unbeknownst to me, higher education has minted a new adjective for the gap between academic years — as in , “after sophomore year, but before junior year.” Such a student is now referred to as a “rising junior.” Whatever. To me, that term suggests a blue blood scion rising in the ...

Financial freedom is a goal for many people but what does financial freedom mean? It can mean different things to different people but to me, it means you have enough passive income that you do not need to work if you do not want to. You have money coming that will cover your expenses through ... Read more from RSSMix.com Mix ID 8230700 https://ift.tt/3qDhZND via IFTTT

Five-Step Checklist One of the last steps before closing — in fact, sometimes done on the way to closing* — is the Buyer’s walk-thru. To my mind, at least, the Buyer’s walk-thru has these five goals: One . Determine that there’s been no change in the home’s condition since the Inspection Contingency was removed. What can happen to a house in 4-6 weeks (the usual interval between the Buyer’s Inspection and Closing)? Unfortunately, in severe climates like the Upper Midwest, A LOT; things such as ice dams, hail damage, and flooded basements all come to mind. Assuming that the home isn’t being sold “As Is,” no change in condition also means that the home’s HVAC and appliances are also still in working order. Two . Make sure that there is no damage that may have been concealed by the owner’s furniture, floor coverings, etc. If the hardwood floors under the Oriental rug in the Living Room have typical wear-and-tear, no problem. See , “ How to Blow a Seller’s Goodwill ” and a $150 Cl...

New & Improved Housing Stock — and a Price to Go With [ Note to Readers : The views expressed here are solely those of Ross Kaplan, and do not represent Edina Realty, Berkshire Hathaway (“Berkshire”), or any other entity referenced. Edina Realty is a subsidiary of Berkshire.] Once upon a time, the Linden Hills neighborhood in southwest Minneapolis was known for its eclectic blend of housing stock. So, mixed in with the upper bracket homes overlooking Lake Harriet and Lake Calhoun always seemed to be an equal number of “cottage-y,” older homes further away from the lakes that were relatively affordable. Today? Not so much. Average(!) List Price: $859k According to the Multiple Listing Service (“MLS”), the average list price for the 17 Linden Hills single-family homes currently on the market is $859k, including several newly built or extensively remodeled ones in the last few years. That’s almost triple the median Twin Cities sales price now (around $300k). All of which hel...

Trump Impeached a Second Time [ Note to Readers : The views expressed here are solely those of Ross Kaplan, and do not represent Edina Realty, Berkshire Hathaway, or any other entity referenced. Edina Realty is a subsidiary of Berkshire.] Of all the desecrations committed by President Donald J. Trump or his followers the last 4+ years, the most heinous isn’t the January 6 attack on the Capitol. However indelible those still-raw images may be, I believe history will judge Trump’s worst sin to be his unconscionable defaming of the 2020 Presidential election — the Big Lie that inspired January 6. New York Times  columnist (and fellow St. Louis Park native son and Echo staffer) Thomas Friedman sets the record straight: Trump took the most heroic election in American history — an election in which more Americans voted than ever before, freely and fairly in the midst of a deadly pandemic — and claimed it was all a fraud, because he didn’t win. And then, on the basis of that Big Li...

“The More Things Change” Department Once upon a time, when I started selling real estate in 2002, the worksheet that Buyers and Sellers signed at closing was simply known as . . . “ the settlement statement”  (or just the closing worksheet, to avoid any jargon). Then it became the “HUD-1” (HUD stands for “Housing and Urban Development,” the federal agency led by Ben Carson since 2016). Most recently, it morphed into the “ALTA” (short for “American Land Title Association”). All of which leaves veterans such as myself referring to the form, once again, simply as “the settlement statement.” Format Tweaks Does the name matter? Not really. While there have been modest changes in format along the way, the constants remain a summary first page, followed by a second page that breaks out expenses. For Sellers, the key items to track are the Sales price; any Seller-paid’s; commission; closing fees; transfer taxes; and pro rata adjustments for property taxes. For Buyers, it’s the S...

2020 was a crazy year for many people, but it turned out to be a good year for us business-wise. I had many goals in 2020 including flipping 15 houses, buying 50k square feet of rentals, writing 2 books, possibly buying another car, and more! We did not accomplish all of the 2020 goals but ... Read more from RSSMix.com Mix ID 8230700 https://ift.tt/35vblAB via IFTTT

Takes Pains to Distinguish Himself From “Traitors and Enablers” Who Waited Until After January 6 Satire Alert * * * Satire Alert * * * Satire Alert [Note to Readers:  Can’t wait for April Fool’s Day this year? Need to vent (some more) steam following the events of last week (and 10+ months of pandemic)? Keep reading . . . P.S.: As always, the views expressed here are solely those of Ross Kaplan, and do not represent Edina Realty, Berkshire Hathaway, or any other entity referenced.] Former Attorney General William Barr announced today that he was re-resigning his post, effective immediately. Barr, whose original resignation took effect exactly three weeks ago (December 21), issued a statement saying that “repeating my resignation is the best way to underscore my disgust and horror over the January 6 attack on the Capitol, incited by Donald Trump.” “What President Trump did was an outrage,” Barr declared. “No one in government can ever be allowed to abuse their power to distor...

Channeling “Hal” from “2001: a Space Odyssey” [ Note to Readers : The views expressed here are solely those of Ross Kaplan, and do not represent Edina Realty, Berkshire Hathaway, or any other entity referenced. Edina Realty is a subsidiary of Berkshire.] So, faced with a second Trump impeachment and widespread fury following Wednesday’s attack on the Capitol, Republican leaders (and erstwhile Trump apologists) are calling for unity and healing now?!? And not , say , November 7, when the Presidential election was definitively called for Biden? Or when Trump subsequently launched dozens of fraudulent, evidence-free lawsuits alleging election fraud? Or, after a years-long barrage of inflammatory lies on Twitter, Facebook, and Fox by Trump and many, many others? Or — finally, stunningly — after a majority of House Republicans voted to undo the election results in four states, in an effort to steal an election Trump lost . . . hours after a Trump-incited mob stormed the Capitol?? ...

I am asked all the time whether I think it was worth it to go to college as a real estate investor and real estate broker. I got my degree in business with an emphasis in finance. I think the degree helped me and I am glad I went to college but I don’t think ... Read more from RSSMix.com Mix ID 8230700 https://ift.tt/38WDVvW via IFTTT

As we embark on a New Year, we can now look back on 2020 and conduct an analysis on what is happening on the ground here in California. Overall real estate prices nationwide did amazingly well amid the pandemic. Even though sales volume was low, record low interest rates, mortgage forbearance, and people being stuck […] from RSSMix.com Mix ID 8230700 https://ift.tt/3rEBoyO via IFTTT