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Cent-A-Saurus
2008-02-11 00:26:00
After the news from MGIC this week about their 4th quarter losses in 2007, it seemed fitting that Cent -a-Saurus Diggin' Dino would appear this week. Possibly the pennies adorning his back would help allay the MGIC losses? Probably not enough...

MGIC Runs the Gauntlet
2008-02-09 03:23:00
MGIC Investment Corporation announced on February 7 that it will be tightening mortgage insurance qualifications starting March 3, 2008. MGIC (Mortgage Guaranty Insurance Corporation, a subsidiary of MGIC Investment Corp.) is the largest writer of private mortgage insurance for conventional...
More About: Market trends , Runs

Behind This Door
2008-02-08 06:27:00
Showing St. Paul houses is full of door opening. The first hurdle is the front door which requires opening the lock box and finding the key. Behind the front door can be irate tenants, "friendly" ferocious dogs, wild children, smells,...
More About: Door

Memes Last Forever
2008-02-06 07:49:00
Maureen McCabe, from the cow town of Columbus, is my fairy blog-mother. That means that without Maureen, Real Estate Snippets would never have been born. It was never my intention to write a blog as a marketing tool or for...
More About: Memes , Forever

Vote in Your Minnesota Caucus
2008-02-05 18:06:00
Today is the big grass roots Tuesday in Minnesota . Most voters flock to the final elections, but once you've participated in the caucus system, it becomes very apparent what "grass roots" means. The organized votes cast at the caucus level...
More About: Vote , Caucus

Super Bowl and Real Estate
2008-02-05 06:03:00
This is what I remember about the game last night. The winners wore red socks. It used to be a REALTOR® who wanted success was encouraged to wear a red tie and red socks. Maybe the Giants were reading the...
More About: Estate , Real Estate , Super Bowl , Market trends , Super

St. Paul Weather
2008-02-03 21:15:00
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....
More About: Weather , St Paul

Unrepresented Home Buyers
2008-02-02 06:32:00
Sometimes I wonder if home buyers realize how much they really don't know. A home buyer without a real estate agent was interested in a home that had an offer being negotiated but was still showing as active on the...
More About: Home Buyers , Home , Buyers

Real Estate Snippets Is Honored
2008-01-29 18:41:00
Today's post was supposed to be another one of those statistics things with boring facts and figures about St. Paul until I opened the welcome screen on Typepad (scroll down to the middle of the screen) and found my funny...
More About: Estate , Real Estate , Blogging , Real

2007 Ramsey County Real Estate Numbers
2008-01-29 09:53:00
Prior to 2006, real estate agents were like spinning tops in the real estate market. The first 5.5 years of this century showed records in real estate sales until the sales abruptly halted in the fall of 2006. January and...
More About: Estate , Real Estate , Numbers , Real , County

The Cycle Is Complete
2008-01-29 06:22:00
It's been 14 years since I entered the real estate business. Fourteen years that have flown by. My first forays into real estate were through the zero down seminars that most REALTORS® scoff at. Prices were low when I started...
More About: Market trends , Cycle , Complete

Know Thy Market
2008-01-26 02:52:00
The real estate community has been in an uproar this week regarding the lawsuit brought against a REALTOR® by a buyer client. The purchase was made in Carlsbad, California. The buyers, Marty Ummel and her husband, are charging that the...
More About: Market , Market trends

Car Shopping
2008-01-24 16:03:00
My list of features needed in a car are quite simple. It had to be front wheel drive (The only rational choice for driving in snow.) It had to be automatic transmission (Afterall, talking on the cell phone, checking addresses,...
More About: Shopping

Define Professional
2008-01-23 16:03:00
There are all kinds of things that make me "go hmmmmm". Another funny one happened this last week. A member of a private list serve of real estate agents (thousands of members) used the term "fuggly and unprofessional" to describe...
More About: Professional , Define , Fess

Ethnocentricity
2008-01-22 23:28:00
Ethnocentricity is a big word. According to Dictionary.com there are two definitions for ethonocentricity: 1. the belief in the inherent superiority of one's own ethnic group or culture. 2. a tendency to view alien groups or cultures from the perspective...
More About: Market trends

St. Paul Winter Carnival 2008
2008-01-21 04:33:00
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...
More About: Carnival , Winter , St Paul , 2008

Great Rivers Parkasaurus
2008-01-20 06:23:00
St. Paul has been experiencing below zero temperatures this week and even though we're a hardy bunch up here in the cold Northland, we still dream of lazy summer days when it gets cold like this. Great Rivers Parkasaurus is...

Certificate of Rent Paid - CRP's
2008-01-19 06:13:00
If you're a residential rental property owner in Minnesota, you are required to issue a CRP (Cert ificate of Rent Paid ) to each of your tenants by January 31, 2008. The CRP verifies the rent each of your tenants paid in...

Things I Learned in School Today
2008-01-17 06:31:00
There are always brilliant tidbits one can glean from continuing education. The symposium today especially interested me because it was supposed to include the announcement of the most current market figures and provide an analysis of those figures by greater...
More About: Market trends , School , Today , Things , Learned

Mortgage Forgiveness Debt Relief Act of 2007
2008-01-16 06:52:00
If you were doing Christmas at Christmas time like I was, you might have missed Bush's signing of H.R. 3648 on December 20, 2007. The bill actually amends the Internal Revenue Code of 1986 in several ways but the issue...
More About: News , Mortgage , Debt Relief , Debt , Relief

I M Special
2008-01-13 06:56:00
Today is the perfect day for I.M. Special asaurus because tomorrow (Sunday, the 13th) is my "special" day, the second anniversary of my blog!   So when I scanned the Diggin' Dino's I have left to post, this seemed the best choice for this weekend. I.M. Specialasaurus was created by Michael  Gonzo for the Securian Financial Group.  During the summer the clover covered dinosaur roamed the  courtyard area in front of the Securian headquarters at 400 Robert St. N. in St. Paul.  The day I took the picture I spent quite some time looking for the lucky 4 leaf clover which the dino's tag proclaims is there.  I looked and looked and could not see it anywhere.  Today, I breezed through the pictures looking for the best one to post and the clover stood out clearly in the picture.  Check to see if you can find it, too.  (Clicking on the pictures will enlarge them.)

Neighborhood Safety
2008-01-12 20:37:00
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...
More About: Safety , Paul , Neighborhood

Bugs
2008-01-10 05:12:00
It never fails. It never fails. I like bugs, at least the kind I can see. I don't particularly like computer bugs and I definitely don't like the bugs you have to look into a microscope to see. Regrettably, my...
More About: Bugs

The Dinosaur Puzzle
2008-01-08 07:12:00
Corey Donovan visited my blog a couple weeks ago. His company sponsored what I've dubbed the puzzle dinosaur for the St. Paul Science Museum's celebration this summer. As Corey stated, the puzzle is a symbol used for autism much like...
More About: Puzzle

Pros and Cons of "Found Space"
2008-01-08 06:18:00
A quality investors love when purchasing a rental property is what I call "found" space. The thought of bonus space that can be finished into more bedrooms or even an entire additional unit gets an investor's full attention. The additional...
More About: Space , Cons

Where Does All the Money Go?
2008-01-05 00:09:00
Lots and lots of money gets exchanged when a St. Paul house is sold, but most of the time, the buyers and sellers never see it! It's all accounted for on the settlement statement or "HUD". The settlement statement is...
More About: Money

Back to Work
2008-01-03 23:35:00
Well, it seems I've checked out long enough and have to return to the salt mine! It's been a pleasant time away enjoying family, catching up on paperwork, and generally moving forward in life. Family . . . that's what...
More About: Work , Back

Christmas Thoughts
2007-12-24 09:11:00
Some random thoughts from St. Paul about Christmas : A dog who is nervous being alone in the house and a tree full of wrapped presents do not mix. How does the dog always know which package is his? Shopping the...
More About: Thoughts

St. Paul Snow
2007-12-24 00:45:00
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...
More About: Snow , Paul , St Paul

Where Have All the St. Paul Dinosaurs Gone?
2007-12-23 23:49:00
Imagine my surprise after Thanksgiving when an e-mail came as a result of my Diggin' Dinosaurs series. Elizabeth Giese, a commercial real estate closer in the Twin Cities, contacted me because she and her husband are the proud owners of...
More About: Paul , St Paul