Real Estate Snippets

Door Hardware Restored

It was apparent that the rehab bug had hit me when I looked at the painted and corroded door hardware and saw beauty underneath.  About half of our St. Paul house looks like the doorknob at right and the painted hinge at left. 

The inclination to restore old hinges never occurred to me before, so this was a new adventure.  The salvage yards all proclaimed that all one had to do to remove the paint was boil the piece in an old pan.  The paint and the metal expand at different rates causing the paint to separate.  It sounded worth a shot to me. 

Armed with an old pan, old tongs, rags, lots of paper towels to catch the lead paint for hazardous waste disposal, and brass/copper cleaner, I started the process.   The boiling wasn't quite as quick as I expected.  It took approximately an hour to completely clean the multiple layers of paint from the hinges.  But what a reward!  The old rosettes (the piece on the door handle that is next to the door) became the beautiful works of art that they are.  Who knew?  The first cleaned piece was incentive enough to keep going.  They were beautiful

What I discovered under layers of paint were brass rosettes with beautiful East Lake Victorian designs, thick steel hinges that separated in the middle, copper plated hinges that work like today's hinges, and solid brass strike plates.  Why would anyone paint over these lovely pieces?  Here was my reward.  The pictures will enlarge if you click on them.

One word of caution to the novice.  Unless you want hands stained with metal tarnish for a couple days, wear gloves.  Otherwise, you may end up looking like this. 

Harvest Moon

Did you happen to catch the moon on Monday night?  This picture was taken from the parking lot at Rosedale looking northeast across Snelling Avenue.  It's the third month in a row that we've seen a beautiful harvest moon.

If It's In Writing, It Has to Be True

Studies have been done on the impact of the written word.  Repeatedly the research has supported that something stated in writing has more validity in the reader's mind than something spoken.  A good example is the public's perception that tax records are accurate.  Any professional that works with tax records regularly realizes that tax records are as prone to error as any other record in which humans are involved.

The perfect example of this is a recent lot split done by a St. Paul client.  The original Ramsey County tax records stated the lot was 130 feet wide.  One hundred thirty feet included 2.5 lots.  When the parcel was split into two properties, the two parcels show 75 feet and 50 feet which totals 125 feet.  What happened to the other 5 feet?  Did it get lost in the split or was the original tax record showing a 130 foot width a typo? 

Until the owner checks it out on the survey and on the abstract itself, that missing five feet will be a question mark.  Can the property be listed without disclosing the missing 5 feet?  Not by this agent.  There has to be an explanation for the missing land measuring 5 feet wide by 125 long!

Eat Rightasaurus

After the feasting done for Thanksgiving it's fitting to have this Saturday's Diggin' Dino be Eat Rightasaurus.  Painted on his lovely blue body are fresh veggies and healthy foods.  I wonder how many of those we ate on turkey day.  I know I'm dreading my doctor's physical on Wednesday.  What was I thinking when I scheduled it?

Eat Rightasaurus was sponsored by Medica and created by Robyn Berth.  Before extinction, he was grazing along St. Paul's Kellogg Boulevard just east of the Minnesota Science Museum.

Happy Thanksgiving 2007

St. Paul Politics

This post is an ode to Debbie Montgomery, St. Paul city council member for Ward 1 for about 6 more weeks.  Don't ask me why I chose two days before Thanksgiving to talk politics since politics and religion are the two taboo topics for family gatherings.  This post isn't really about politics either.  It's my impressions of St. Paul politics based on Debbie Montgomery.  So with no further ado, I'll wade into the murky waters and probably drown myself.

Having immigrated to St. Paul's Ward 1 from the northwest suburbs where Skip Humphrey worked out in the same gym as I did and never once acknowledged my presence or the presence of any other of his sweaty constituents, it came as a great shock to me to meet my city council woman face to face and actually carry on a conversation with her.  She occasionally attended our block club meetings, especially when decisions needed to be made that impacted our neighborhood or that required our voice be heard in the council chambers.  She agreed to meet with me personally for breakfast one morning at a local Perkins.  I wasn't even a supporter, nor had I lived in St. Paul when she was elected.  Debbie was accessible!

Debbie's accessibility wasn't because she had an easy time in her representation either.  Her ward encompassed the most ethnically and economically diverse neighborhoods.  Thirty cultures, 27 languages, and an aging population with 30% 60 or older all share this Ward 1 geography.  The boundaries went from Summit Hill neighborhoods to greater Frogtown.  Both sides of Interstate 94 which split the Rondo neighborhood are in Ward 1 through which the Central Corridor's light rail system will soon snake its way.  The next 4 years will be determinant in what happens to the neighborhoods and businesses impacted by the Central Corridor.

Even those statistics were not insurmountable with the right person.  Debbie knew people.  She was 61 and lived her entire life in Ward 1.  Twenty-eight of those years she served as a St. Paul police officer.  No wonder she knew people. 

She also cared about the people more than about her career.  Her reason for serving was to represent the people in her ward.  She didn't plan to become mayor or governor someday.  She was more practical than that.

She even came to our home!  She knew where I lived!  She sat in my chairs!  She actually was a woman I could someday call friend.

The irony was her 28 year old opponent was from the same party and received that party's endorsement.  There was no opposing party candidate to compete against.  Despite endorsement by the St. Paul Police Officers Federation, the St. Paul Building Trades, and the St. Paul Area Association of REALTORS, Debbie lost the race.  Only 601 votes separated her from her opponent.  One thousand voters who said they were Debbie supporters chose not to vote.  Only 19% of the registered voters turned out!  Not even 1/4 of the possible voters voted!  Did Debbie supporters become complacent thinking she was a shoe-in?  Did the general populace not care about the election?  I was voter number 68 in my precinct and that was half-way through the day.

In January a new council member will represent me on the city council.  I wonder if Melvin Carter (I think he introduced himself as Melvin Carter the third at our neighborhood block club.) will be as accessible as Debbie.  Is it possible that St. Paul politics is more "human" than other areas?  Or was Debbie just an anomaly?

Median Price Appreciation Rate

The St. Paul Area Association of REALTORS® published this chart of the appreciation rate by median sale price from 1998 through 2006 for the 13 county metro area.  The sale prices are based on statistics from the Regional Multiple Listing Service for that period.  Note that appreciation rates were all over 6% during the years between 1998 and 2005.  In 2006 the appreciation rate fell below 1%.  The figures for 2007 are not yet complete.  The drastic drop in 2006 is why the market was so depressing!  We can be thankful the appreciation rates did not become depreciation rates instead!

Fruitasaurus

When I discovered Fruitasaurus this summer, it didn't make sense that she was grazing in front of Ecolab.  The company name was familiar but I didn't have a clue what they did.  The placard on Fruitasaurus quickly explained why she was there.  Her sponsor was "Ecolab 'Worldwide Food Safety Experts'".  Aha!  The brain begins to work and the Ecolab website makes even more sense of my guess.  Ecolab produces all kinds of safety and sanitation products ranging from actual cleaning products to pest control products (including those pesky fruit flies).  Their "Daydots" page also provides some practical consumer hints for cleanliness.  All this from a company based right here in downtown St. Paul.

 

Sticks and Stones

Remember how whispered words used to hurt when we were young?  Those secret words uttered among friends combined with furtive looks our way hurt more than the actual words themselves might have.  Later years found tales told around the water cooler.  The worst nightmare of all would be public proclamation of a mistake or defect in our personality in the yearbook, school paper, or public media.

As adults we think we're beyond the power of those secret gossips, but most of us are unaware how the written word forms us on a daily basis.  Not only does a tale become more valid when written but it gains even more credibility when it's published.  Somewhere in our psyche, we have been taught that "if it's written, it's truth"!

I'm among the first to proclaim that's not necessarily so!  A recent article by Bernice Ross in Inman News supports the same premise.  Bernice thinks the media spin has hurt the real estate market.  I tend to agree.  The doom and gloom figures of foreclosure, a bubble bursting market, and upside down subprime lending lead the media headlines. 

A perfect example of this is the media's choice of what to quote from a speech by Doug Duncan, chief economist for the National Mortgage Bankers Association.  Negative stats about foreclosures and the market are pulled from Duncan's speech without the balance of his positive stats.  Here's what was left out:

• 35% of US homes are mortgage free!
• 94.88 % of existing mortgages are current and NOT delinquent!
• Foreclosures are concentrated in 7 states.
• 4 of those 7 states are manufacturing states with significant job losses.  Those job losses would probably have created market problems in those states even if the rest of the nation had a strong real estate market.
• 3 of the 7 states experienced significant overbuilding where investors were speculating on a quick profit in real estate.
• In the other 43 states 2007 foreclosure rates have fallen below those of 2006.
• Only 25% of all mortgages are subprime and 3/4 of those are current!  That factors out to about 6% of all mortgages being delinquent!

Balancing the doom and gloom stats with the information listed above paints an entirely different picture.  The doom and gloom creates sales for the media, but it also scares consumers out of buying real estate! 

I know personally the market is tight.  My own husband has been laid off for several months.  There is a conservatism creeping into our economy.  But . . . if I had reasonably good credit, and if I was in the market for buying a new home, I'd be out looking for one right now!  What a time to get a deal.  Because I'm in the business I know this information.  The consumer, on the other hand, is stuck with what the media publishes and the media isn't always presenting a balanced picture! 

Maybe I should shout it to the world:  "In St. Paul, now is the time to buy!"

Turkeys In St. Paul

That's Shepard Road on the right side of The River (known by outsiders as the Mississippi).  Shepard Road is one of the best kept secrets of St. Paul.  Never have I been stuck in rush hour traffic on Shepard Road, nor have I had to creep along because of crazy drivers.  Shepard follows The River south westerly  starting at Jackson Street downtown until it hooks up with Mississippi River Boulevard where The River makes an abrupt curve north.   The commuter can take this scenic route south from downtown to connect with 35E to southern suburbs or continue the drive to Highway 5 which crosses The River for easy access to the airport.  The drive is relaxing with no stop signs or stop lights.  Most of the river side of the road is park land with the exception of the ugly townhouses which one can try to ignore in passing.

This week found me traversing this relaxing route multiple times to gather drop in company from Canton, Ohio.  Serious illness in their extended family brought my long time friends to town.  First the wife came and went, and then the husband.  We received notification of their need for transportation via forwarded flight confirmations.  No explanation on the e-mails, just the name of the ticket holder and the flight itinerary!  Intimate knowledge of the husband's cryptic communication style led me to guess we were receiving guests!  I filled in the blanks and arrived promptly at the airport at the scheduled times to find my friends in need of a ride. 

Shepard Road was my drive of choice for these retrievals.  The latest trip, however, startled me as I observed some large animals by the side of the road.  I wasn't sure at first what they were, but the closer I approached, the more the shapes became birdlike.  But what a bird!  They had to be the size of cranes and what on earth were they doing on the city side of the road?  Forty miles per hour was not conducive to taking pictures from the passenger window while driving so I missed the photo op!  Suffice it to say, there was a small flock of wild turkeys pecking at something in the road.  In almost 60 years of life, I had never seen wild turkeys up close.  What a privilege to catch this glimpse in the heart of the city!   Possibly someone has invited them for next week's Thanksgiving!