Ok, I was out showing houses last weekend and I think I collected a bouquet of smells from all the various vacant properties that my client and I were looking at.
Everything from cat pee to feces to mold to old food smell and other scents that we had a hard time identifying!
Sometimes I don’t understand how people live the way they do. How do you get so many stains on your carpet and not even bother to TRY cleaning it up?! Has the bathroom EVER seen a sponge and how is it that so much grease builds up in the kitchen that you need a Brillo pad to clean off the top of the range?
I saw one house that had more dirt and handprints on the walls that there was paint. I just don’t get it….
I see some houses in all parts of the Twin Cities and assume they have been empty for months given the condition they are in and then when you ask the neighbor about the situation of the house (all neighbors love to give you the scoop if you ask…) you find out that it’s only been empty for a week. A week! That means the old owners lived in the piles of junk and dirty carpet and walls and oh my gosh, it’s pretty gross. My favorite was a house in Minneapolis that had a bloody handprint on the wall. Needless to say we walked out pretty quickly. I don’t even want to know how that got there.

Stay tuned for more humerous stories!

Jen McKinnon
Realtor / Investor
612.384.1073

I showed a house last weekend that was in a high demand neighborhood in Minneapolis near Uptown that was listed at $300,000 which seemed to be a decent price for the size of the home, number of bedrooms, baths, location, etc…UNTIL we walked in and the painter was there working, the kitchen cabinets were not completed, the trim work was not done and the “master bath” upstairs was still a framed out shell.  It was a nice touch to have a paper sign posted that said “build to suit your tastes.”  

Personally, if I want to buy new construction, I will buy new construction but I am certainly hesitant of buying and spending $300,000 on a home that first of all is not finished and second is not finished carefully or with great skill.   Personally, I’d want to hire my own contractor to finish the job and offer them $50,000 less for the house.

In my opinion, if you are rehabbing or “flipping” a house, PLEASE have it finished before you list it OR at least fill us in on how far along you are with the construction so we know what we are walking into.

Looking to buy in the Twin Cities?  Give me a call!

Jen McKinnon
Realtor / Investor
MN Real Estate Team – #1 Team in MN!

612.384.1073
jen[at]mnrealestateteam[dot]com