(Not an actual MLS photo, but blurry enough to be one)

I rallied the gals I walked with all summer and fall and declared that winter break was over. We were out there doing our 3 miles at 5:45 a.m. this morning. It must be spring.

But I know this for sure because I’ve been back on the MLS looking at listings.

And I’m always pained by some of the photos that agents throw up on the web to represent a house. Last night I saw blurry shots which I like to name things like, “this is what my kitchen looks like if you see it drunk”.

I’m amused by the ones that include shots of undergarments strewn on a chair - hello. And my favorite - the one shot of the house includes part of the agent’s side view mirror. I looked up the agency which totes its “caring” staff. Too bad that particular staff member didn’t even care to get out of the car.

I’m not linking you to the photo because that wouldn’t be kind. Funny, but not kind.

But if your full-fee agent can’t take the time to help you with staging tips and photography, you got to wonder how things will go in negotiations.

To view MLS listing  and find out more about Webdig’s truly helpful agents, please visit www.webdigs.com.

Yesterday was one of the most ridiculous days I have had in a long time showing homes.  It was like a snow globe outside.  You have to be really committed to buying a home to brave the elements the way Shelli (and her sisters) did here.  At every listing, we forged our way through the deep snow.  One nice seller took the time to snow blow a path for us.  After viewing his home, we understood why he was being so accomodating.  Needless to say, that one was scratched off the list.

Only in Minnesota (and certain parts of Wisconsin) do you see and experience dedication like this.  Well, at least, I would like to think so anyway.  We looked 10 homes in total, narrowed it down to one and we will be headed back for a second look this week. 

Lots of good deals out there…we were in Shakopee, Savage and Prior Lake.  The home in this photo happened to be a foreclosure.  Not quite what Shelli was looking for.  By the way, anyone who says that Webdigs Agents don’t provide “full service” …. all evidence to the contrary. 

Today it’s a “balmy” -5 degrees outsite with a wind chill facotr of 21 degrees below zero.  While I have a tremendous amount of pride to be a resident of the great state of Minnesota…today I would be just as proud to be from Florida, Arizona or Southern California.

 A TIP for you agents out there listing vacant homes…spend the extra couple hundred dollars on a snow plowing contract.  There were a few listings where the drifts were so high, we just drove right on by.  You can’t sell it if people can’t get in it. 

Just my two cents. 

I just read one of the funniest posts by The Real Estate Weenie about Facebook for Realtors.  Hilarious.  It is interesting how many people have told me that they get all these friend requests from Real Estate Agents who have no connection with them what so ever.  Kind of flies in the face (no pun intended) of what FB is all about.  Read the full post here…

http://www.stpaulrealestateblog.com/weenie/2008/12/facebook-just-for-realtors.html

This leads me down another path: I get a kick out of agents who jump on the bandwagon without actually understanding why they are on FB and then send “Friend” requests to everyone they can so they can try and market to them.

Look at me.  Have I become a Facebook snob?  Am I now a social networking elitist?  Shouldn’t we welcome anyone on Facebook that wants to be out there making new pals that they have no connection with other than to try and win their maybe someday business or referrals?

Well, like the housing market has shown us…not everyone should own a house.  And just because you can go out to sites like Facebook, MySpace, Twitter, etc…dont just go willy-nilly adding friends without a real reason to connect with them.  It’s kind of like all those unsolicited viagra emails.

Apparently I’m not the only one amused by local weather anchors. Minneasota Public Radio’s NewCut blog posted this fun bingo game you can play at home. I think I have, at one time or another, seen every clip mentioned here.

It’s always good sport to see the cub reporters out in inclement weather.

This reminds me why I don’t get my news from television.

Watch out for too many “spirits” this Halloween season.

I figure if you’re here reading this you know that real estate is seeing some tougher times. And that you don’t need to read another negative story. So in doing this blog I’m always turning an ear to catch some good news - or if not “good”, better news about the industry.

Yesterday I was listening to Minnesota Public Radio and heard a story about lenders becoming more likely to modify loan terms in order to avoid a foreclosure.

As we’ve all figured out months ago, foreclosure is expensive — really expensive. And not just the real dollars that banks shell out when evicting a home owner. It’s expensive to a community that has a foreclosured house on its block in terms of both safety and home values.

So this all struck me as good news.  That and that the Star Tribune reported that new foreclosures in the city dropped 10 percent from a year ago during August — marking the second month of the last four in which the foreclosure rate dropped. Here’s an article about this foreclosure slow down in Minneapolis.

Of course, none of this is positive if you’ve already experienced a foreclosure, but my hope is that this will help many families and our flagging nation as a whole.

So what does any of that have to do with vomiting pumpkins? I’m not sure really other than we must seek out our reasons to smile these days - and this one really made me smile.

Edina was in the news this weekend. And the story did nothing to dissuade people that Edina isn’t the stuffy suburb everyone thinks it is. The article reported on a stern email sent from the city to residents whose children were suspected of …putting handprints in the fresh concrete sidewalk. Yes, young vandals were tagging their territories with hand prints, ages and dates.

But on the upside, you can see how all over issues Edina can be. If you’re in the market for an upscale culture of excellence, the City of Edina is a must-see. It starts with its location– just southwest of Minneapolis- and adjacent to two major highways that allow residents easy access to big city benefits while surrounded by high-end suburban amenities.
Overwhelmingly populated by older, tastefully updated homes, “Old Edina” is a sought after location near the commercial Mecca of 50th and France. The draw is boutique shopping, established eateries like the venerable Convention Grill (where one of the best burgers in the Twin Cities awaits in this retro diner) and the juried art fair held on the intersection the last weekend in May.

There has been some controversy as small 50’s bungalows are purchased only to be knocked down and replaced with larger McMansiony type homes just up the legal property allowances. Neighbors are fighting back. Here is an recent article in the national magazine Preservation about Edina’s plight.

But when most people think Edina, it’s all about top-notch education. It’s frequently found in Newsweek’s top 100 public high schools list. Whether it’s the District’s French Immersion School, 100% high school graduation rate or intensely competitive youth sports program recognized in Sports Illustrated, Edina shuns mediocrity.

While outsiders are quick to associate the area with economic status, Edina’s wealth of public green space shouldn’t be overlooked. Residents have unparalleled urban access to 44 parks and a litany of recreation centers.

If you’re looking for a sure bet, you may find your new address in this classy first-ring ‘burb.

The idea of “fences making good neighbors” seemed like a crusty, by-gone idea from my New England childhood. In the Midwest everyone is nice (or does such a good job of faking it) that defining your borders seems a little unnecessary – discourteous even.

But when we lived in NE Mpls, the little old lady in the duplex next door passed away. Sheleft her home to her son. While it is uncouth (and certainly politically incorrect) to judge anyone by his or her occupation, that our new neighbor was a carnival worker was not an image enhancer.

He spent evenings on his back stoop drinking beer and smoking cigarettes while “maintaining” the guns of his midway “Shoot the Star” game with a hammer. This was all well and good and mildly amusing - until the squirrel.

Our carni-neighbor set elaborate rodent traps late at night and laid in wait. In the morning, he appeared bleary-eyed on the lawn between our houses to show off his catch.

“Want me to show your little girl how I ‘give’em a little bath?’” he said with an eerie laugh of anticipation. In his other hand was a large bucket clearly used for immersing the cage. We begged off, loaded up the child and raced to the big box home center. There we purchased the highest privacy barrier legally erectable by zoning ordinances.

While it was clear that building a fence would be good for our neighborly relations, we didn’t anticipate it being so hard on our martial one. Apparently, I am “overly helpful” when it comes to handyman advice and my spouse does not require guidance from instructions manuals or professionals.

To add to our discouragement, we hit an amazingly thick tree root while digging postholes; a discovery that delayed our progress by hours as we worked through it with a shape spade. When we finally cut through it, a number of streetlights never lit on our side of the street again.

But when the neighbor came by to investigate our progress and bemoan that he was denied, AGAIN, for a “conceal and carry” handgun permit by the State – we pulled ourselves out of funk and set to work double time. “Wow, that’s terrible,” we sympathized bobbing our heads agreeably as we hammered away. “Yes, a travesty of your civil rights,” we echoed as we placed a 6′ panel between our properties.

Later in a different house on a toy-strewn yard, an infant boy joined the toddler. We were muddling by fence-free, telling ourselves such a barrier would discourage meeting our new neighbors. Actually we were plain daunted by the size of the corner lot.

And just as we placed the backyard on the back burner, the National Guard called in chits on my husband. He was to be stationed out of town for a little over a year, which had me surveying the bleak December landscape, the baby, the child and the big Rottweiler mix.

“We’ll have to get rid of the dog,” I said emphatically. “I’ve done the math and I can’t take him on a walk twice-a-day with the kids in snow buntings and remain anything near sane.” My pronouncement spurred a flurry of activity on the Internet and phone, ending with the Premier Fence boys tumble rolling in and installing 500 ft. of cedar in just under two days. And remember, it was December. While I’m certain money does not buy happiness, I’ve learned a good credit score can solve a lot of problems.

During our hasty buying process, I learned that fences come with many personalities. Beyond the “talk to the hand” attitude of high privacy styles and the “we’ve got a dog that will surely bite you” vibe of chain link are what I call “friendly fences.”

We selected a style with generous open spaces between each cedar slat giving openness to our yard. It’s also the perfect height to converse over as people walk the side street to Diary Queen.

And we wouldn’t want to miss out on that.

What are your rights when it comes to a fence? There’s a really good outline of just that on Findlaw.com available here. It answers questions like how high can you build a fence, what to do if your neighbor is building an illegal fence and more. I can’t stress enough how important it is to check how far back from your property line your fence must go. You do that at your local city office where you pull permits.

Okay - this is not an earth shattering post or anything. It’s just a freebe.

But do you think it is pushing the season to have fall decor out already? (This photo was taken this week.)

I’m thinking it is the shamelessly early marketing of Christmas that is the underlying problem. It’s starting to crowd Halloween and has completely stomped on Thanksgiving.

Obviously this is not a crisis, but I would like the holidays to have a little cushion around them so we can celebrate them in their due time.

And if you’re hosting a real estate sign in your yard, keeping the decor to a tasteful minimum is a staging must. No political signs and no scarecrows guarding the doors.

So, this one goes out to my colleagues in the business.  I think that I have figured out why no one trusts us.  I am serious.  I really figured it out.  My theory is that it is the whole picture on the business card thing.  Who’s bright idea was that anyway?  It is absolutely the dumbest thing I have seen since putting your face on a bus stop bench.

You don’t even keep them current.  I had a closing recently with an agent who does a huge amount of business from one of the top three RE companies in the twin cities.  I had not had the chance to meet her until closing, but I did have a nice photo on the business card to put a face with the name.  Always nice right???  Wrong.  She didn’t anything like her photo…which must have been from like the early 90’s given how much she had aged.  (By the way, she looks better now than she did then.)

You see - this sends a subminal message to people.  If someone gives your card to a friend or co-worker as a referral, and then they meet you…and you are not what they are expecting…that isn’t a good thing.  It may not be on the surface, but the potential client may be thinking that there is just something that they don’t like about you.  Can’t put their finger on it, but there is something that aint right about that guy…or gal.  (I will say that for the most part, men are the worst offenders of this)  Kind of makes sense.  We  are too lazy and/or cheap to buy new business cards and take a new photo. 

But there are only two options here: 1.)  Not trustworthy.  2.)  Lazy & Cheap.  My guess is that it is the latter.  For the most part, many of the more successful people in the industry are very trustworthy - which is why they are successful. 

But, it is that portion, and it is large faction, that leaves people with that no so fresh feeling after they meet them and they look nothing like the business card photo.  So, here is some advice to all my friends in the business…update the photo!  Or just take it off the business card.

Oh yeah, and call me back.

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?