Real Estate Snippets

An Ode to Spring

The calender says it's spring. 

The calender says it's Good Friday. 

The calender says Easter bonnets will abound in two days.

Why am I seeing white stuff on the trees?

Actually, March is the snowiest month in St. Paul, but the snow is very different.  Usually it's heavy and full of moisture; the perfect snowball and snowman making snow, but awful for shoveling.   It doesn't last long either because St. Paul temperatures have warmed and the sun is staying out longer.  It's the perfect snow for forts and snowball fights, but it's pretty slushy for skiing.  Minnesotans joke that there is always a heavy snow storm the week of the high school basketball tournaments, and usually the joke is validated by snow!   

Soon, the crocus will peek their blooms through the melt letting us know that spring truly is here and summer is soon to follow.  I'm ready and so is every other person experiencing cabin fever in St. Paul.

Taken on Frank St. on the east side of St. Paul.  Are there buds on that tree in the right picture?  (Click to enlarge.)

Registered Vacant Building

What do you do when you come home from work to find these signs on your front door?  This is your only home and there is a notice to vacate on the door.  What do you do?

The water was shut off in this home, but the resident continued to live there.  It had become a garbage house and the city became aware of its condition when a new gas line was installed from the street.  Until that time, no one had paid attention.  Life had gotten out of control for the owner and helplessness had set in.  The city officials accessed the St. Paul house by removing a window air conditioner and getting in through the window.  A propane heater being used by the resident for heat was removed from the premises.  What the city officials found inside was a life completely out of control.

St. Paul's proposed ordinance preventing the sale of this home until it is made code compliant means this owner will lose his/her home because when one doesn't have the money to pay the water bill and garbage service, one certainly doesn't have the money to do a complete code compliance after the garbage is removed.  If the St. Paul home owner doesn't have family, friend or social services support, s/he very likely will become homeless.  The end of a sad story where life just got to be too much effort and got out of control.

St. Paul Council Public Hearing

The murals in the St. Paul City Council chambers were lit during the public hearing.  They had been dark during the tour taken last year.  It was amazing what a difference the lights made to the intensity of the pictures.  They almost came to life.  Ah, but my camera was safely shut off for this serious and very austere meeting.  The formality itself was intimidating without knowing opposing views were about to be expressed.

Better than an hour was spent interviewing the Chief of Police and the "use of force" trainer regarding tazer use.  The Chief had an appointment, so the first item on the agenda had been pre-empted to allow his quick escape.  The interview process was interesting but lengthy.  The public was only given 15 minutes in total to express their views for each side . . . not 15 minutes each, but 15 minutes corporately.

Finally, the vacant housing amendment was presented to the council.  The amendment was as it was summarized to me.  The proposal is to prevent property title from being transferred on a category 2 or 3 registered vacant building.  Both of those categories require a complete code compliance upgrade before someone can legally occupy the premises.  The fear is that too many houses have been abandoned in St. Paul and like everyone else including me, the council wants to keep the quality of St. Paul's housing high. 

To support his concerns, Councilmember Bostrom played a short video of 3 blocks on the east side of St. Paul showing 10 out of 23 homes as condemned.  In his film was a beautiful old Victorian home that I had found for a rehabber 10 years ago.  That house was condemned when he bought it, and it became, and still is the gem of the block.  Under this new policy, that beautiful old Victorian may have been torn down for lack of repairs.  Today it is proudly owner occupied . . . the goal of both the City Council and me!

The 15 minutes devoted to opposition of the amendment was shared by a resident/landlord, Pat Ruble from the St. Paul Area Association of REALTORS®, three local bankers who spoke as a team from their bankers' association, and myself.  It was scary to say the least.  The bankers were clear that they, as owners of some of the abandoned properties, would be hesitant to invest additional money into properties that have already cost them so much.  Only one resident spoke in favor of the amendment.

Dan Bostrom's summary statement of the opponents who spoke was to say he had heard concern for the REALTORS® and their commissions, concern for the investors losing money, concern for the rehabbers, but none for the neighborhoods who have to suffer this blight.  I was appalled and felt like shouting out, "Who said anything about REALTOR® commissions!"  So, after 24 hours of cooling off, here is the summary of my concerns:

1. Lender owners of foreclosed properties will not invest thousands more dollars into the homes to get them back to code.  Some of these homes have been vandalized because they were vacant.  Some were vandalized by the angry owners before they vacated.  Some have experienced a long time of deferred maintenance.  The lenders have already taken a significant financial hit and are not going to gamble that putting $20,000 or more into the house is going to guarantee a future buyer.
2. Absentee owners who have already abandoned their properties for various reasons, have made the choice to abandon them and take the financial hit.  They have moved on.  That's what abandoned means!  The City can fine and raze the properties.  The house is abandoned.
3. The City will continue razing the category 2 and 3 abandoned houses.  This is currently being done at about 20 a month according to one of the staff members.
4. St. Paul will lose some of its beautiful old houses that are filled with character and make St. Paul what it is. 
5. Dirty vacant lots will eventually become City property because of unpaid fines, taxes, and penalties.
6. Tax dollars at work:  administrative and inspection costs to identify vacant buildings, administrative costs to research and contact owners, cost of demolition, cost of clean-up, cost of maintaining the vacant lot for absentee owner, cost of recording fines and penalties, loss of property tax income, eventual ownership by the City, auction or marketing costs for lot sale.
7. Some of the vacant lots will have new homes built on them at a cost far exceeding the price of the former house causing displacement of new buyers who can't afford new construction.

It was my suggestion that the City find a different way to regulate this problem.  Minneapolis has a point of sale inspection that requires repairs be done before the title can transfer.  This includes homes that need a code compliance.  Minneapolis has deemed that title can transfer in cases where the buyer is willing to accept responsibility for the repairs the City requires including code compliances.  The buyer is given 6 months to complete the repairs or suffer fines.  If a title transfers without the repairs being made prior to closing or with no approved responsibility agreement, the City goes after the seller, the title company and the real estate agent.  It is a serious matter and their ordinance has "teeth".  Their ordinance allows professional "rehabbers", or owner occupants with expertise and deep pockets, to legally obtain the property to fix for resale in the future.

Some of the vacant buildings in question truly need to be torn down, but others are beautiful examples of St. Paul's rich architectural heritage and need to be saved from the bulldozer.  The ones with good "bones" only need some love and thousands of dollars to make them shine once again.

 

Condemned Houses

Nooooooo!  Not again!  Yes, again.  Vacant houses are the reality of today's market.  Some St. Paul houses are vacant because the owners faced foreclosure and walked away.  Some are vacant because the City of St. Paul pulled their occupancy permit (rental houses).  Some are between tenants.  Some have been vacated because sellers have already relocated to a new place and can afford to leave their old home vacant while it's on the market.

In St. Paul, though, being a vacant house can be problematic.  Often foreclosed houses are vandalized, illegally occupied, or experience theft.  Something so simple as a water shut-off can trigger the City's attention to a vacant building causing the home to be registered.   Category 2 vacant buildings require a code compliance with the commensurate city permits to obtain a certificate of occupancy.  The category 3 vacant buildings require a $5,000 bond and complete code compliance (approved by the City inspectors) before they are removed from the vacant building list and issued a certificate of occupancy.

One of those horrible Minnesota nights found me showing St. Paul houses to my clients.  My reason for going out in 24 below temperatures was one house in particular.  It had over 3000 square feet and was only $124,000!  In our market, that is a steal.  I carefully perused the listing sheet looking for any hints of reasons why the house was so cheap, but found none.

At 7:30, in the dark, we drove up to the house.  My heart instantly sank as I saw the blue sign in the window.  This house was on the registered vacant building list.  My clients were not handy and had very little in extra funds to use on fixing up a home.  We looked at the house, but after explaining the need for a city code compliance and the six month time limit for repairs, my clients lost interest.  Yes, there was lots of space and to an experienced rehabber, very little in repairs, but to my clients the work was insurmountable.  For this house we had ventured out when most sane people were home keeping warm by the fireplace!  And they brought their infant with them!

When asked for feedback on the showing, I gave the agent a cordial "earful" letting her know she might have at least put the fact that the building was a code compliance in the agent remarks (which are not open to the public).  I told her I would never have taken my clients out on that awful night if I had even a hint about the property's status with St. Paul.  This property was not a match for these clients.  When she called back, she had changed the listing to disclose this material fact in the agent remarks.  She realized the code compliance disclosure does decrease the amount of showings, but increases the number of "qualified" buyers that actually see the house.

St. Paul Abandoned Properties

The pictured house obviously has been abandoned and is not in the city.  However, with so many people facing foreclosure and no money vested in the properties by the delinquent homeowners (i.e., no down payments), it's becoming more common for owners to just mail the keys back to the lender.  Marcie Geffner called this "jingle-mail" in an article about walk-away homeowners published in Inman News on February 12, 2008.  The unlucky lenders who receive jingle mail become the owners of vacant and abandoned homes because the owner has walked away.

Bank owned homes are the lifeblood of rehabbers who purchase the homes at a discount and repair them for future resale at a profit.  Rehabbers tend to be the primary buyers of such homes because normal buyers don't have the funds or ability to do major repair projects while they live somewhere else.  Lenders also do not give traditional mortgages on properties that need considerable repair.

Many of the bank owned homes have become registered vacant buildings.  In fact, part of the existing St. Paul housing ordinance is that vacant buildings must be registered with the City.  To be law abiding, lenders should register their St. Paul foreclosed properties that are considered abandoned.  That registration places the property on the registered vacant building list which is published monthly and currently has 1625 identified properties. 

An amendment to the current St. Paul building code has been proposed by Dan Bostrom from Ward 6 that will directly impact the change in ownership of registered vacant buildings.  The amendment would prohibit the sale, purchase or change in title or ownership of any residential property that has been designated as a vacant and/or abandoned building in St. Paul without first getting a certificate of occupancy or certificate of compliance from the City.  If this amendment passes it could drastically impact the future sales of any of St. Paul's abandoned homes whether they are owned by lenders or private parties. 

Once on the registered vacant building list, the new proposal would require the banks to fix the property before it could be sold.  Fixing houses is NOT the business that banks are in!  They have already lost money on the foreclosed property and are certainly not going to invest more money into a lost cause.  My thought is that this will cause more vacant properties to languish unoccupied causing them to grow more and more dilapidated and become more of a blight on St. Paul neighborhoods.

I just don't get the reasoning behind this proposal.  It totally confuses me that an amendment like this would be proposed at a time when the market is being flooded with vacant buildings which has caused all kinds of havoc already.  To put a hurdle of this kind before the sale of a foreclosed property is totally beyond my comprehension.  To better understand the proposal (make sure it's what has been summarized to me) and to voice my opinion for the St. Paul City Council, I will be attending the public hearing on this coming Wednesday, February 20, at 5:30 PM in the City Council Chambers on the third floor of City Hall, 15 West Kellogg Boulevard in our great city of St. Paul.

St. Paul Weather

Much to the chagrin of Winter Carnival aficionados, it rained in St. Paul on January 28!  Not a pouring rain, but enough to need windshield wipers on the road.  Of course, windshield wipers are needed in St. Paul year round.  In the summer, they're for rain.  In the winter, they're for salty road spray. 

The temperature rose to a mighty +39 degrees at my personal thermometer on the 28th, and I thanked my good fortune that we had viewed the Winter Carnival ice sculptures already.  The high temperatures might not have entirely melted the sculptures away, but it certainly would have smudged some of the intricate details.

Last year the sculptures were on Harriet Island.  My personal reaction was that they were too far off the beaten path and not as many people came to view the sculptures on Harriet Island.  The sculptures returned to Rice Park this year as a result of the 2008 Ice Skating Championships being hosted at the Xcel Energy Center.  Rice Park is located right across the street from the St. Paul Hotel, the Ice Skating Championship headquarters, making it easy for tourists to view the lovely crystal carvings.  (Not to mention the many downtown employees who can enjoy the sculptures over their lunch hour at that location.)

When we toured Rice Park, the crowd that mingled with us were opera goers exiting the Ordway Theatre which also borders the park.  They were dressed in their heels and finer apparel shivering as they walked the park.  The ice rink teemed with dragon breathing skaters.  Lights still adorned the trees making the brisk winter night quite festive.  It felt like Times Square in New York, a gathering place for the community.

Within two days, the temperatures plummeted to a brisk -29 degrees on my thermometer.  Again, I thanked my good fortune that I had viewed the ice sculptures already.  I may be a hardy Minnesotan, but 29 below with a wind is too chilly for my tastes!  Evidently I wasn't the only one with that opinion as the sculpture "garden" was especially quiet that night.  NO ONE was lingering.

St. Paul Winter Carnival 2008

It's time for the Vulcans to get rid of King Borealis so spring can return to St. Paul.  "Say, what," you ask.  If you're not from St. Paul, it's hard to understand why a bunch of usually quite normal people begin acting quite goofy and off their rockers around the end of January.  They start going out in the cold, and today that's a brave endeavor with below zero temperatures. 

The first foray into the cold comes about when the St. Paul Pioneer Press publishes the first clue for their great medallion hunt.  Medallion hunters are fanatics.  The clues are published just after midnight and many are already camped in parks around Ramsey County waiting for a phone call from co-conspirators who read the clue to their cold comrades.  Many, in this day of wireless internet phones, don't even need a co-conspirator's help.  They just check their phones from the park.  Let the digging begin.  Shovels and lights in hand, the medallion hunters burrow about St. Paul night and day looking for the elusive medallion.  Early this morning when the temperature was in double digits below zero the first clue was published.  You can find it here.

The 2008 snow sculpture contest almost didn't happen for lack of funding to make the snow blocks.  The Vulcans, however, solved the problem with lots of volunteer labor and the grand idea to move the snow sculptures to the State Fairgrounds where snow is already piled.  The snow sculptures will be there next weekend.

There will be a golf tournament on the ice of White Bear Lake, ice sculptures in Rice Park, Chinese New Year performances, a hot dish contest (ya, you betcha!), parades, coronation, many opportunities in the Landmark Centre, the US Figure Skating Championship at the Xcel Center and so much more.  The schedule can be found at the official Winter Carnival website.   Check it early so you don't miss anything!

Neighborhood Safety

Has that gunman got your attention?  It certainly would mine if some guy in a lime green shirt pulled a big ol' monster mean gun on me!  I'm not even sure I'd notice the lime green shirt once I saw the gun!

Our St. Paul neighborhood is usually pretty quiet.  Monthly the St. Paul police report any crime to our block club meeting.  Quite quickly we hear about the comings and goings of the riff raff, or the lack thereof, in our neighborhood.  In the three plus years since we left the supposed safety of the 'burbs, my stereotypes of the dangerous city have been demolished.  Yes, there is crime.  Yes, there are bad guys.  BUT, there was crime and there were bad guys in the 'burbs, too.  A murder was committed 4 blocks from my former suburban home.  Our home was personally broken into twice in the last 8 years we were there.  Running cars had been stolen from the neighbor's driveway 2 houses away, etc.  The difference was the neighbors neither noticed or called police if they did.  There was no sense of community watch.

My stereotype of St. Paul inner city living was that there would be all that AND more.  My stereotypes were wrong.  Our neighborhood has had only 3 break-ins since our move and one scam artist making the rounds . . . until last month.  Suddenly, 3 of our neighbors had break-ins in a two day period.  Guess what day!  New Year's Eve.  None of the perpetrators were apprehended, but our neighborhood is on notice.  We stand together against crime and we call when someone suspicious is lurking about.  We know our neighbors, their visitors, and extended family.  We look out for one another and aren't afraid to take action.  If you're drunk and hit a parked car, the license plate will be recorded and in some cases a picture taken!  9-1-1 is on speed dial around here.

Whether the New Year's Eve spree was encouraged by liquid courage or Christmas bill desperation, our area is on alert.  At the block club, the new pregnant resident met the neighbors.  She also found out who to call for help.  We all learned what had happened and that we need to step up our already stiff neighborhood policy for no tolerance of wrong doing.

Besides the neighborhood information and networking done at our last block club meeting, we also learned  valuable free resources for St. Paul residents.  One of the District 7 employees informed us that the St. Paul police department has a "free premise survey".  The premise survey is a review of a St. Paul residence for ways to improve the home's safety from intrusion.  It is done by a police reserve officer and includes examination of doors, locks, windows, shrubbery, and other things that tempt intruders to choose one St. Paul home over another.  Since many thieves are truly opportunists, taking the opportunity away lessens the risk. 

To schedule a premise survey for your St. Paul home, call 651-558-2350.  To keep the crooks out, call 911!

St. Paul Snow

The North and the South are like two rival siblings.  They fight, they're different, they compete, but have a united front when attacked.  Part of the friendly rivalry is over weather. 

The part of my family south of the Mason Dixon Line thinks the part of the family north of that line is totally, irretrievably nuts, and vice versa.  The southerners ask how can we drive in "all that snow".  How can we keep from freezing to death?  How can businesses survive?  "Y'all must be nuts!"

The Yanks in the family wonder how a southerner can be immobilized by 1/2" of snow.  They must not know how to drive in snow. How can they survive all that heat without heat stroke?  How can workers stand to work outside?  How can they be cold in 70 degree weather?  Their blood must be thin!

My Native American friends have the answer in their proverb:  "If you haven't walked a mile in my mocassins, you have no right to judge my ways." (Very roughly paraphrased for brevity.)

My worst winter experience ever was in Dallas, Texas.  It snowed big huge slush balls instead of flakes.  It rained with the snow.  It was cold and miserable and wet and sloshy and then the temps dropped and the roads, sidewalks, grass, bushes, all were caked with a lovely smooth layer of ice.  Ice storms are the exception in Dallas so no giant trucks full of chemical were on the streets and the town shut down until nature took its course.

Portland, Oregon, has similar winters.  Winter's lush and green in Portland although less colorful than in the summer months.  My Minnesota friend being a "brave and hardy" Minnesotan went to get her mail after an ice storm.  After sliding on foot halfway down the block and literally crawling on her hands and knees to return to her house, she decided the "invalid" natives of her new town were more sensible than she!

"Ketuckiana" (the Indiana side of Kentucky near Louisville) has similar ice issues.  Another hearty Minnesotan braved the 1/2'' dusting of snow to drive to town and ended up in the ditch!  No chemical on the road combined with warm asphalt "dusted" with snow made beautiful "icing" on the roads which prohibited any stops or directional change.

We Minnesotans, on the other hand, know how to drive in ice and snow, right?  Don't count on it.  We just know how to REMOVE the ice and snow.  The lack of driving ability is demonstrated repeatedly as cars careen into ditches when the snow first falls.  Once the roads are chemical coated all is well with transportation again.  We also know how to get rid of the massive snows that fall. 

The pictures below show one St. Paul block being cleared of its snow burden.  Whether the city contracted for this labor or the individual businesses, it sure helps the pedestrians move around more freely.  Most of us don't wear mountain climbing gear for the curbside snow hills that build without this kind of removal.  Once the big box is filled with snow, it's hauled away to vacant lots, parking lots, and other places to be dumped awaiting the spring thaw.  These great mountains of thawing snow are the last residues of winter to disappear in the spring.  Some can even be seen still melting after we've shed our coats!

Jack Frost in St. Paul

As the sun is rising, Jack Frost quickly hides away having left a layer of hoar frost on everything in St. Paul.

The Smith Avenue High Bridge in St. Paul.

Frost coated weeds along the river.

Even the fence has delicate residue left by the frosty man.