Dog art by the talented and lovely Ms. Lisa Pahl. She’s right here in the Twin Cities and can be contacted at lisapahl@mac.com.

It’s been a hellva week here at the rental Rectory.

Our dog of 10 years chewed through 3 waterlines flooding the house and knocking out the furnace — in a house we rent month to month. Belle and I got caught in a blizzard on the way home from Minneapolis and had to stay in a roadside motel eating the contents of my emergency road kit - dill pickle chips and chocolate. Then we had a kid’s birthday party, acquired a hamster and found out the dog has dementia and was a “risk” both to property and children.

And when you’re a tenant you have to think differently. This isn’t my house, I’m borrowing it for money, and have an obligation to return it in good condition.

So I had to go put him down yesterday. It was pretty awful.  He couldn’t be left alone so he had to come with me on a bunch of errands ending with the BIG errand at the vet. It was terrible getting back into the car each time and having him so happy to see me. All I could think was “Dead Dog Riding.”

This has clarified a few things for me:

1. I talked aloud to that dog A LOT. He heard the first draft of everything and was very supportive and…

2. I want to buy a home. Furthermore I may be willing to take more risks than I thought to make it happen. Once you’re king of your castle, it’s hard to live in serfdom again.

And there really couldn’t be a better time for interest rates at a historic low and lots of great homes out there for the bidding.

So I’ve had a few laughs at my dog’s expense in recent months. What with him getting stuck in the lazy Susan cabinet and tripping ungraciously over various and sundry.

Our new Vet believes that the stress of all our showings may have triggered some dementia in our old dog. As you remember, Scottie let his teeth do the talking to express how he felt about all his time in the mini-van, while gaukers strolled through our home on the market.

Recently he attacked a dog while frolicking off-leash while Jason shoveled the driveway and - and this is really bad - shredded our house while we were off doing errands. Our trusted dog who never chewed a shoe or tipped a garbage in nearly a decade with us, chewed through three waterlines - flooding the laundry room, the kitchen and a bathroom - and a 24 volt wire that knocked out the furnace.  He then proceeded to tear down & destroy shades, curtains and bath towels.

In short, he snapped.

This is not good for people in a month-to-month leasing situation.

We’re having some blood work done, but things don’t look good for ol’ Scottie. This probably would have happened down the road, but if he’s been absorbing all my stress all the Real Estate market and the economy in general - it’s a surprise it didn’t happen sooner.

I’ll update you tomorrow.

A year ago if someone would have told me where I’d be setting up my Christmas tree in ‘08, I wouldn’t have believed them.

We continue to rent the rectory of Our Lake of Mercy and, per our lease, provide the full-bladdered church ladies the comfort of our restroom early on Sunday mornings. Yesterday we put out the life-sized Nativity scene in our front yard to help out the elderly parishioners (the alter boy is in his 50’s if that tells you anything).

This week we officially found out what we already knew in our hearts. When we put our house on the market last winter, the country was already in a recession. Now we’re riding Mr. Toad’s Wild Ride of being reluctant tenants and even more reluctant landlords.

But this is real life and really, you can’t make this stuff up.

 As you know, we’re renting out our primary residence because we were unable to sell it. This allowed my family to be reunited after 7 long months apart - and most people are truly happy for us. We feel blessed to be together and think we’re descent landlords. We’ve provided lawn care, someone to tend the garden, a handyman and all the HVAC and appliances are covered with the Home Service Plus insurance.

Some people are less than happy. Our home is in a solid neighborhood and I think there’s concern that should it become overrun with renters, it’s reputation will slip. I get that, I really do.  But should I keep my children away from their father 5-days a week to benefit the neighborhood?

We’ve had a change in tenants this week and I got an email from a neighbor who hasn’t reached out to us since we left. She had been very clear about her disappointment that we were becoming landlords. But she saw the truck and wanted to know what was going on.

Instead I wrote her a long email about how we’re liking our new location,  new friends, new jobs and opportunities — and everything else, but the direct question. I was hoping she’d get that I didn’t want to get into it with her about the house.

But my subtlety was lost and she wrote something like, “good to hear …and back to my question.” So I told her that the former tenants had a job transfer and new tenants were in. Also remembering our last conversation about the situation, I stated that renting out the house still remained the best choice for my family at the moment.

She replied that I shouldn’t mind her opinion, but did go on to tell me that my lawn didn’t look very good this summer and was a “yardful of weeds” and once it was “long overdue for a haircut.”

Sigh.

I certainly hope there is never a foreclosed home on the block.

This is where I must insert that this is actually a very nice person. One of the only people to acknowledge that we had a new baby and even brought over a homemade gift. I haven’t forgotten that kindness.

I think it just goes to show how that when it comes to home values, emotions run very high - and I lump myself into this lot. We’re all just trying to protect our lifestyles as we ride out this economic wave of hardship.

And hopefully the tide will turn soon and I’ll feel confident to put the Webdigs sign back out in the yard- after taking care of those weeds.

We’ve been hearing about Freddie Mac and Fannie Mae non-stop recently and it got me thinking.  What the heck kind of names are that? I mean these are big time financial institutions not southern cousins.

Not that I can really say much. I’ve got a kid named Milo. It’s a name that causes a visceral response in people. Either they love it as we do - or say with a knowing nod, “Family name?” to which I always say, “Well, it is now.”

But how these mortgage giants got their names is from their acronyms. The Federal National Mortgage Association, FNMA, is Fannie Mae and the Federal Home Loan Mortgage Corporation, FHLMC, is Freddie Mac.  (Not sure how FHL became Freddie, but nicknames are an imperfect science.)

If you’re interested in learning about the history and function of Fannie and Freddie there’s an excellent article here.

We are on the verge of renting our home again. To scan for “bad apples” I put our two applicants through a Minnesota criminal search site at www.mncriminals.com.  It’s free and the sign-in process is painless - they only wanted me to create a user name and password.  And good news, neither of my folks are felons. Bad apple free.

Both of these parties are in some state of foreclosure and hoping for short sales on their homes. Divorce is a factor in one and the other was a risk gone bad - by a real estate agent. That Realtors are getting caught up in this tide of failed loans should not shock me, but it does bum me out.

Both parties say they’re eventually interested in short sales of the house, which honestly seems like a complicated way to sell a home. We’re not going down that road anytime soon and if/when I do, I know Tom here at Weddigs will advise me.

Good Apples

It’s Friday during harvest season and I hope you make the most of it. If you have little ones and want to indulge them in a commercial pumpkin festival than travel a half hour south to Belle Plaine to Emma Krubee’s for mazes, pumpkins, pony rides and one ornery camel. I’m sure his thought bubble is, “Now exactly how did I get here? I was in the desert and I saw that tempting salt lick …and then it all goes blank.”

If you want something more mellow than the carnival atmosphere of Emma’s, I reccommend the delightful Sponsel’s Minnesota Harvest in Jordan. Here the apple picking is the star of the show - though there is live music and a nice restaurant, too.

Even if you’re not a harvest party type of folk, it is a time a year that you can be a little extra proud to be a Minnesotan  - the clever people who invented the Honey Crisp Apple.  Get out there and enjoy.

Okay, it’s not a scoop to report that Freddie Mac and Fanny Mae have been taken over by the U.S. Government today. Actually take over isn’t exactly right, technically it’s called a conservatorship - which, if I’m not mistaken, is what Britney’s Dad did when the pop star, strung out on money & power, freaked out. There does seem to be some simularilites.

One can only hope that this conservatorship goes as well as Britney’s (I haven’t seen an unflattering papparazi photo of her in a long time).

The boards of the mortgage giants have been disbanded and will be replaced.  Officials have pledeged that any profits will first go to taxpayers and not shareholders.

But what does this mean for the regular guy & gal?  Driving my kids to school I heard Mark Zandi, chief economist at Moody’s Economy.com on Public Radio. He predicted that 30-year mortgage rates, currently averaging 6.35 percent nationwide, could dip to close to 5.5 percent. That’s because investors will be more willing to buy the debt issued by Fannie and Freddie - and at lower rates - since the federal government is now explicitly standing behind that debt

Keeping mortgages low has got to be good for the real estate market that has excess inventory to move. Markets also seem happy with the news here and in Japan, China, Britain, Germany and France where stocks have nudged up.

But honestly, talking about global markets and government takeovers is a bit out of my league.  A little closer to home, I can say that out of the 3 parties that saw my home for rent over the weekend, 2 were going through foreclosures. This bailout came too late for these people, but perhaps will save others.

I just left a sobbing 5-year-old at Kindergarten today. I went around the corner and cried myself until a teacher I didn’t even know came to hug me. School is a very big deal and finding the right one for your family is a huge factor in housing decisions.

The renters in my St. Anthony home are being transferred to Texas (where, I have been telling them, the spiders have chest hair. Two words why I live in Minnesota: HARD FROST).

And of the 3 house showings  I have on Saturday, all three are based on people either wanting to get into the school district or wanting to stay in the school district.  The power of school reputation can’t be overvalued.

So when you’re tempted to vote against that school levy, are you voting against your home value?  My husband Jason did a story on that for the Star Tribune a few years back and there does seem to be a correlation between well-funded schools and positive home values. Of course, money doesn’t fix everything, but small class sizes sure help.

I don’t know about you, but I’m damn happy it’s Friday. I’m ready to have my children back from that good school for the weekend to play games, makes cookies and watch movies.

When our house was on the market and we were having multiple showings a day, we’d stick our big dog in the mini-van often. Apparently too often. Scottie-dog was never a chewer, but when push came to shove (shoved right into the vehicle) Scottie got frustrated and took it out on our seat belts.

We’ve been putting off the inevitable belt replacement by simply not using those seats. But school will be starting soon and the car pool’s around the corner (when my husband Jason transforms into the Prince of Rides) we need to get our heads out of the seat cushions and pay up.

Jason contacted the Toyota dealer today and called in the order. Without labor we’re already out $250. I imagine those don’t simply “snap in” either so I’m bracing for the total bill.

We did end up buying the dog stupidly expensive chew toys , a no-bark collar for when we lived in the hotel for a couple weeks and eventually gave up & kenneled him. I guess the moral of this story is if you’re even thinking about selling your house, this may not be the time to go to Ms. Daisy’s Puppy Farm and pick out a Snoopy of your very own.

Scottie-dog may look harmless, but proved to be a significant moving expense.

UPDATE: With installation, the dog ate $500 in safety restraints.

Of course, none of you missed this above the fold story a few days back in the Star Tribune. It’s the piece about the Realtor arrested for faking a showing at a house to steal meds. This does nothing to help with the trust issues people have around the industry.

So since this happened, I’ll confess that I was a giant wienie when my house was on the market. I took the lockbox off my door every second when there wasn’t an appointment scheduled.

That Realtors are bonded did little to comfort me. And having my key just hanging around my doorknob while I was sleeping, or taking a bath, or staring into space just freaked me out. Even if an agent is honest as the day is long, what if he/she just leaves my lockbox code where clients - or anyone - can find it?

I also took great comfort that my Webdig’s agent, Tom, told me he’d handle it if someone just came by and wanted to see my house. This girlfriend doesn’t want to end up in a “ripped from the headlines” Law & Order episode.

One could point out that I do have a Rotwieller, but honestly he’s an old guy and - don’t tell him - probably not the sharpest knife in the drawer. In fact, he was staying at my husband’s bachelor pad for a few days and managed to get his entire 70-lb body completely stuck in the kitchen’s Lazy Suzan cabinet for an undetermined amount of time. No, really.

After Jason spun him around, freeing him, he had a wild look as if to say, “Stand Back! That thing is dangerous!”

This is not the dog I’m going to entrust my personal safety to. And even if he was Rin Tin Tin, it’s still a good idea to pop the box off when you don’t need it.

Let’s be careful out there.

Seller’s Diary:  Just to let you know - we’re finally in our new house. Unpacking is so much harder than I remembered it. Actually the whole damn moving deal is freakishly exhausting. We’re about 90% there with being settled and for the first time since January I feel like there’s some earth underfoot.

Of course, I’m still waiting for a telephone and Internet and learning where the stores are - but in the big picture, it’s all good.  I had coffee from my own machine this morning and really, what’s better than that?