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Saint Paul, MN Real Estate News

Nestled along the east bank of the Mississippi River, St. Paul, Minnesota is a city that lives up to its nickname of the most livable city in America. With a wide range of landscape, real estate and lifestyles, St. Paul has something to offer all of the residents lucky enough to call St. Paul home. With its typical Midwestern climate that offers cold and snowy winters and hot and humid summers, the residents of St. Paul embrace the climate with festivals and activities no matter what the weather conditions outside. As one of the friendliest cities in America, St. Paul is well known for its myriad of festivals and fairs worldwide. From their Children Festival, Gran Old Days, Hot Summer Jazz Festival, Winter Carnival and Minnesota State Fair, visitors and residents alike always have the o...
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By Sharlene Hensrud, Realtor. Listener. Knowledgable. Patient.
(RE/MAX Results - HomesMSP.com)
St. Paul's Grand Meander on Saturday, December 1st is a great way to kick off the December holiday season and celebrate community, buy local and support our local fine artists. This daylong celebration along St. Paul's Grand Avenue includes breakfast with Santa, fire truck rides, Santa's reindeer, soup samplings and voting for the People's Choice Winner, musicians meadering the avenue and the annual tree lighting ceremony at 5:00. Also wander the streets of Tangletown and experience open studios of local artists. Click here for Grand Meander event details. ART AT RAMSEY, a Juried Holiday Art Fair of quality fine crafts and fine art, is held in conjunction with Grand Meander at Ramsey Junior High, 1700 Summit Avenue, St. Paul 55105. The 18th Annual ART AT RAMSEY features 75 juried local ...
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By Shar Sitter, Home Staging and Redesign Minneapolis/ St. Paul, M
(Rooms With Style)
My Madmen House. Home Staging St. Paul, MN Yup....I got to stage a Madmen house. Well...that's what I called it anyway. Do you watch the TV program "Madmen" set in the 50s and 60s?      Well I got to stage a Mid-Century Modern Home and had a blast! The home was built by the home owner who was an Interior Designer. She raised her family in the home and died at age 93. Everything was original and many things outdated so the children had to decide what to update and what to leave as is. Where was the best place to spend money to get it sold?  They decided staging the home was one of the best places to spend the money rather than on major updates. Clean lines.....beautiful views.....but it was tired.        Below, do you see the swinging door on the right of the dining room going into the k...
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By Sharlene Hensrud, Realtor. Listener. Knowledgable. Patient.
(RE/MAX Results - HomesMSP.com)
There were antiques at the St. Paul corner of Selby and Fairview before the Blue Door Pub brought throngs of people to revel in their fine selection of tap beers and famous Juicy Blucys, all 10 varieties! Now it's nice to be able to browse the antique stores while waiting for a table at the cozy Blue Door... no reservations taken. Are you scratching your head and wondering... 'Juicy Blucy'??? Juicy Lucys are a Minneapolis-St. Paul hamburger phenomenon that come in different varieties on both sides of the river. Matt's Bar and the 5-8 Club, both on Cedar Avenue in south Minneapolis, both claim to have invented the Juicy Lucy, which is basically a burger with molten cheese in the middle. The Blue Door Pub calls their Juicy Lucys 'Blucys' and has 10 different varieties. Try them all and wh...
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By Shar Sitter, Home Staging and Redesign Minneapolis/ St. Paul, M
(Rooms With Style)
Nobody Puts Baby In the Corner....well except for me. Home Staging Minneapolis MN. Patrick Swayze said "No one Puts Baby in the Corner" in his famous 'Dirty Dancing' movie and I have always believed that but hey.....sometimes Baby just needs to be put in the corner. Well fine....technically she isn't a Baby. She is Full Sized but she is still my Baby to deal with. When the owners moved out of their stunning St. Paul home they chose to leave the Grand Piano until a later date. They kept her straight inside the doorway to the Living Room which wasn't the best place for Baby for Staging purposes. Baby was cutting off the living area.....     Baby was hiding the beautiful architectural detailing of the columns......     Baby was hiding the stunning views.......     Baby had to go to the cor...
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By Ryan Magee1, Mortgage Banker
(Bridgeview Bank)
Are you underwater on your mortgage? Is your loan serviced by Fannie Mae and did you take it out prior to 6/1/09? If so, get in touch with me as I now have access to the Fannie Mae version of the Obama program to help homeowners who owe more than their house would appraise for refinance and take advantage of the lower rates!
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By Teri Eckholm, REALTOR Serving Mpls/St Paul North & East Metro
(Boardman Realty)
St Patrick's Day Events St. Paul Minneapolis March 17th an official holiday is a semi-official holiday in Minnesota! Growing up as a Irish-woman in the Minneapolis/St. Paul area made St. Patrick's Day a fun event. (Okay...I'm only a quarter Irish but on St. Pat's day, whose counting?) From time to time our family attended the parade on the east side of the river in downtown St Paul. One time we even jumped into the parade and strolled down the street under the “Flaherty”banner.  There were meals of home cooked corned beef and cabbage, though I much prefer a Shamrock Shake. We didn’t dance, but sang the “When Irish Eyes are Smiling” almost throughout the month of March. It was my Prussian grandmother's favorite song after all! It is always fun to celebrate our heritage.   With the unoffi...
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By Teri Eckholm, REALTOR Serving Mpls/St Paul North & East Metro
(Boardman Realty)
  Even in a cage, a wild animal can be beautiful. Como Park is one of our favorite family places to visit and take photos. I have done this since I was 17 and a freshman at Hamline University. For fun, I would ride my bike a few miles over to Como Park Zoo and take photos of the animals.  There are more fences rules about feeding the animals than when I started taking pictures. Back then the cougars and jaguars didn't have the screens that I had to shoot through here. But the kitties are just as pretty as ever!
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By Casey J. Anderson
(IBR Realty)
Want To Buy A St. Paul Foreclosure? So you want to buy one of the foreclosures in St. Paul? Whether you own house currently or are a MN first time home buyer, you should learn the basics before going out to buy. While there are many great values in Saint Paul foreclosures you will want to be prepared for how to negotiate your offer. City of St. Paul Information As both the capitol of Minnesota and the county seat of Ramsey County living in the city of Saint Paul is filled with things to do. Popular attractions such as the Xcel Energy Center and the Science Museum of Minnesota make St. Paul a popular destination for both its residents as well as those living in surrounding suburbs. Employment opportunities abound in St. Paul with major employers such as Ecolab, Lawson Software, Gander Mo...
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By Shar Sitter, Home Staging and Redesign Minneapolis/ St. Paul, M
(Rooms With Style)
Remember last year's color?? Persimmon? Ugh....it was okay for for an accent here and there but other than that I really didn't like it. This year....I am liking Benjamin Moore's pick: Wythe Blue. Soothing, classy, elegant yet hip and modern. Here is what they say about it: 2012 Color of the Year! "Much more versatile than you may think, blue is truly a classic color. It has universal appeal, never goes out of style, and is overwhelmingly chosen as a color favorite across North America. It evokes the sea and sky, physically calms us, and symbolizes trust and commitment.Because of the influence that blue has in our world today, we have chosen wythe blue (HC-143) as Benjamin Moore's 2012 Color of the Year. It's a beautiful, calming hue that has an element of heritage and offers grounding ...
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By Shar Sitter, Home Staging and Redesign Minneapolis/ St. Paul, M
(Rooms With Style)
Do You Need A Silent Night? My life has been nuts lately....what about yours? Business as usual, shopping, wrapping, baking, blogging, year end planning, marketing, business planning for 2012, and on and on and on. So maybe you need a Silent Night too. Let the words and music of Amy Grant give you that....at least for a few minutes.
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By Christi Bond, Twin Cities Professional Home Staging
(www.HomeStagingCoaches.com)
Staging, Low Investment with High Return Twin Cites, MN   If your investment advisor called you up and said that she had an investment idea for you that would require only a small investment, but had the potential to pay you back 3 times what you put in would you say “sign me up” or “bugger off”?  I know I would be all ears and ask for more information. Home Staging is that type of investment.  In a recent survey 600 real estate agents were asked to list the actions that they recommend their clients take to ready a property for sale. Those recommendations were then ranked and the top ten recommendations were measured to see which provided the highest ROI.  (The comparison of average expenditure to average return)  Not surprisingly giving the home a deep and through cleaning came in as n...
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By Casey J. Anderson
(IBR Realty)
What To Do When Your Upside Down Many Saint Paul home sellers are faced with the problem of being "upside-down" on their mortgages. The fact is that in order for you to sell your house in the MN real estatemarket today you need to pay off the entire mortgage in order to sell the home. Unless you want to arrange with your lender sell your home on a short sale, this means you will bring money to the closing in order to pay off the remaining balance that you owe. Many home sellers who need to move now are considering the possibility of making their current home available to rent with the hope of buying a new house. Saint Paul Home Sellers: Can You Cover Your Expenses? The good news today is that with the tougher housing market, the amount you can get for rent has increased significantly. R...
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By Shar Sitter, Home Staging and Redesign Minneapolis/ St. Paul, M
(Rooms With Style)
"Mr. & Mrs. Buyer....Please Put On These Sunglasses Prior to Entering!" (Home Staging St. Paul, MN) "No really, I mean it. It is only for your own good. We are not responsible for any eye damage or long term sight problems". "Ready? Are they on......okay, it is now safe to enter."     "OH NO.......YOU DON'T HAVE THEM ON!! ARE YOU OKAY?" "Alright, I'm not kidding around. Did you really put the sunglasses on this time? "Whew......now that's better".       "Now, I strongly urge you to also put on a visor to shield your eyes before turning around. No??? Okay, I warned you...." "HELP!!!! MY EYES MY EYES!!"     "OKAY, OKAY I WARNED YOU....here's your visor". "AAHHH.....Much better I know".       The next time you need to hand out sunglasses and visors before your showings.....call a Professio...
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By Rochelle Allison
(Keller Williams Premier Realty)
While at the annual retreat board members of the Macalaster Groveland Community Council shared what they loved about living in this community:   Some of the favorites things mentioned were: - you can easily bike anywhere, including to downtown Minneapolis to go to work - kids can walk to great community schools - the Halloween Extravaganza on Sargent between Finn and Cretin - long standing connections and neighbors know the history of neighborhoods - can walk everywhere - Widmers Super Market - beautiful walks along the river and other areas - quiet, yet in the middle of the city - the people - ice skating at Edgecumbe and Groveland rinks in the winter - people know each other at the coffee shop - adult soccer league at edgecumbe community center - to be able to live close enough to wal...
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By Casey J. Anderson
(IBR Realty)
Selling a home today in St. Paul can be a big challenge, especially considering that nearly half of the competitive listings are short sales or foreclosures. Real estate values have been declining in part because of the low listing prices offered by banks who need to reduce their real estate owned inventory. Roughly half of the closed sales in the curret MN real estate market has come from non-bank home sellers. Are you in the search for help to sell your home listing in St. Paul? Using a St. Paul Real Estate Agent It has never been more important to enlist the help of a Saint Paul real estate agent who studies recent trends in Twin Cities market values. When we come out and visit your property to complete a Competitive Market Analysis (CMA), we will compare all of the features of your ...
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By Casey J. Anderson
(IBR Realty)
Would you want to learn something about how to buy a home in St. Paul? Learning how to buy a home can be confusing for many buyers, especially for the MN first time home buyer. As this process can be quite complext I would like to take a moment to share with you some basic tips of how best to accomplish your goal. How To Buy A home in St. Paul Most home buyers begin their search for the perfect home on the internet. There are many internet sites to begin this but a good place for you to start is to use the MLS search on my personal website. There are tens of thousands of Minnesota real estate websites out there but you will soon find that many of the sites lack important details you will need when finding and pricing a home. The large national websites, for example, do not show the coun...
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By Elizabeth Weintraub Sacramento Broker, Put 40 years of experience to work for you
(Elizabeth Anne Weintraub, Broker)
One of the really great things about going to the Minnesota State Fair is the opportunity to watch people. It's not that people are so darn fascinating. It's that you can look at somebody else and be thankful that you are not them. So many people covet what others have. They are envious of a person's house or the neighborhood where somebody else lives. They wish they had that woman's hair or that guy's car or that girl's complexion. Go to the State Fair in Minnesota, though, and you'll feel inherently much better about yourself, by comparison. There was so much construction going on in Saint Paul that it was difficult to find parking. It's not new home construction. They are tearing up the streets around Como and Snelling to put in Light Rail. At long last, the two cities will be joined...
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By Charles Dailey
(iLoan - NMLS ID#1947845)
The role of closing costs in a purchase agreement can be confusing both for buyers and sellers.  In the present market, it is customary for there to be sales concessions.  A real estate sales concession can be many things including but not limited to price, repairs and yes, . . closing costs.  Asking the seller to pay for closing costs, pre-paids and discount points is common.  At the end of the day though, a buyer may have several value added considerations such as seller paid closing costs and repairs after an inspection contingency but the seller will (or at least should) always negotiate on the basis of what their net proceeds after all concessions will be. The term seller paid closing costs is really a misnomer though.  A more appropriate name would be buyer financed closing costs....
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By Charles Dailey
(iLoan - NMLS ID#1947845)
While lenders will admit that it’s technically possible to provide mortgages to homebuyers who recently had a short sale without a waiting period, most lenders are not offering this product.  Because the complexities of the process involved with closing these loans creates perceived risk, most lenders elect not to do them and fail to ask the more important question. . .  “Are they a good credit risk?”  The principals of underwriting mortgages and loans in general are outlined in the Four C’s (Credit, Collateral, Character and Capacity).  By these measurements, borrowers who comply with the provisions of FHA’s Mortgagee Letter 09-52 are very good risks for a lender. CAPACITY Homebuyers are not eligible for a new FHA mortgage if they pursued a short sale agreement on his or her principal ...
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