Mortgage News

The Ordway on a Saturday night.

People out enjoying the spring weather and the Minnesota Wild game, they lost.  You can’t hear it by looking at the picture but there is a tail gate party on the top of the parking ramp too.

The bars were packed.  This is PATi on West 7th, Saturday night. Sports, theater and drinks just seem to go together.

St. Paul, Minnesota is kind of like a big city and kind of like a small town.  They say we roll our sidewalks up early in the evening.  That has not been my experience.  There are places to go and things to do at night.  People like me can even wonder around with cameras at night and take pictures.  The pictures I can take are like looking at a city but the way people will stop and talk is more like a small town.

I apologize to anyone who might be a shadow in one of my pictures for not asking permission before posting.

Sellers, I am afraid I have some very bad news for you.  Your home is one big safety hazard with dangers everywhere.  Maybe I am exaggerating just a little but but there are hazards in every home.

This information is always a shock to the sellers who have lived in their homes for many years and have maintained and improved them.    Sellers find out about the catastrophe they call a home when the city comes to do a Truth in housing inspection (Tish) or when a buyer makes an offer and has an inspection.  Often when they find out that their home is a disaster area they take it personally, they sometimes get angry at the inspector and the buyer.  Heck some of them even get ticked at me for giving them the bad news.

Sellers are caught off guard and sometimes even offended or insulted when they learn how dangerous and sometimes toxic the home that they have lived in for so many  years is.  Some raised children in those homes too.

Which brings up another point.  I did a horrible job with my own children.  When they were infants I put blankets on them, and they often went to sleep on their stomachs in their cribs  which had bumpers in them, that matched the blankets.   Mothers today are told how dangerous blankets and bumpers are and that the child should be placed on his or her back.  No blankets allowed for infants they could smother in them.

It is even more horrific when I look at my own childhood.  My parents were not required to get a car seat before they brought me home from the hospital, in fact I never had one at all. Cars were not as safe then as they are today either. To make matters worse my brother and I both slept in cribs that would never be built or sold today because the bars are too far apart and a child could get his or her head stuck between them.

For sellers who have learned that their homes are filled with hazards and dangers they should keep in mind that standards and codes have changed over the years.  Many of us lived with hazards like lead based paint, radon, asbestos  mold and formaldehyde, before the dangers to the human body were known or understood.

No  home is as safe as it used to be.  Homes that are safe today will not be so tomorrow.  Don’t take it personally.  For people who are concerned about the safety of their homes they can always have an inspection done.  Visit the Minnesota department of health’s “Healthy Homes” page for more information about hazards in your home.