It is Friday and Fridays are for fun. Each day is National Something Day. Today happens to be national vodka day and it is also national cinnamon roll day. It is national truck drivers day and national bring your bible to school day. It is also improve your office day. I like to pick and choose what I celebrate. I’ll need some vodka today.
If you feel like celebrating something just ask Google what is being celebrated today.
Sure mortgage interest rates have gone down but they are still significantly higher than about 75% of current homeowners pay. It is hard to move up to a more costly mortgage which is why so many homeowners are staying put.
However, rates are going in the right direction which is down. When they get down to 5.5% and lower homeowners will be more interested in moving.
A 33-foot tall, 25-ton steel statue of a loon sits near the corner of Snelling and University, in St. Paul. Designed by famous Scottish sculptor Andy Scott, the sculpture was assembled last week. The bird is 30 feet tall with a 90-foot wing span. It was still fenced off when I saw it yesterday. The area around it is mostly parking lots and roads that lead to Allianz Field. The area can best be described as bleak or gritty. Just across the street, there is a vacant CVS drugstore.
The sculpture is spectacular. I’ll get back for more photos when the fence comes down.
The last picture is for context. I stood at the corner of University and Snelling, across the street from the site facing south with Allianz stadium in the background.
Most Realtors charge by the job, not by the hour. We can of course charge by the hour. When I worked as a consultant we charged by the hour. We kept track of every hour we spent working on the project. We used software that helped us track which tasks we worked on and for how long. We would submit our billable hours to the client and receive payment.
We also got paid for every hour we worked before the project was even completed.
Most real estate agents only get paid after a successful closing. There are no billable hours and there is no payment until after the sale has closed. If there is no closing then the agent works for free. There is no limit to how many hours a real estate agent might work helping someone buy or sell real estate. It isn’t at all unusual to work for three to six months without getting paid.
Sometimes sales fall through for reasons that are beyond the real estate agent’s control and they still do not get paid.
If you want real estate agents to be accountable for how many hours they spend working on your home purchase or sale I strongly recommend paying them by the hour and paying as you go.
Your real estate agent isn’t accountable for each hour worked unless he or she is being paid by the hour.
The number of homes for sale is slowly rising. The number of houses being purchased has slowed a bit. The inventory of homes for sale remains low.
I like to look back to 2019 as the last normal year for home sales. Since about 2013 we have experienced a strong seller’s market. Home prices will continue to rise because demand is strong and supply is relatively low. The average days on the market for homes for sale in the Twin Cities sits at about 20 days, another indicator of strong demand for real estate.
It is Friday and Fridays are for fun. Fall is a short season in this part of the country. We go from summer to winter quickly. The leaves are just starting to change and the weather is amazing. Get outside and enjoy the weekend!
