As of May 22, 2024, Columbia Heights has enacted a Time
of Sale program that includes a mandatory sewer line inspection. This program
is similar to the City of Minneapolis Truth in Housing program but specifically
includes a sewer line inspection. This is a significant development that will
benefit home buyers by ensuring the condition of sewer lines is assessed before
the sale is finalized. I have been advocating for sewer line inspections for
over 15 years.
Key Insights
- Many major paint and décor companies announced hues of blue as their Color of the Year.
- Consider whether you’re trying to appeal to a potential buyer — or just decorating for yourself — when deciding how best to incorporate them.
- Bold colors can sometimes play a supporting role if you don’t want them to overtake a room.
Each year, the annual Color of the Year announcements attract the attention of designers, builders and homeowners everywhere! Many look to incorporate them and other trends into home designs to create fresh and exciting spaces that catch the imagination of potential buyers and attract the attention of online followers. This year, many major paint companies selected a similar hue, while the “Global Color Authority,” Pantone, selected something altogether different. Read on to see the picks, and consider how you might incorporate them into your home–and beyond.
While shades of orange and pink were the pick in 2023, this year’s colors incorporate more blues. Collectively, the colors appear to be moving away from the cooler grays of years past, opting instead for more color, warmth, contentedness and softness. If blues aren’t your thing, take a look at the colors of the year declared by Pantone, Glidden and Behr for more options!
Now, let’s dive into each color and its meaning.
Pantone: Peach Fuzz
Warm and soft, Peach Fuzz is the cozy color dubbed Pantone’s 2024 Color of the Year. A calm and peaceful hue between pink and orange, Peach Fuzz is said by Pantone to bring a feeling of “kindness and tenderness, communicating a message of caring and sharing, community and collaboration.” This soft color has vintage vibes with a contemporary appeal.
Sherwin Williams: Upward
Said to be a “breezy, blissful blue,” Upward is a relaxed tone with hints of silver mixed with a calming blue. According to Sherwin Williams, it is meant to encourage relaxation while “brimming with positive energy, creative thinking and total contentment.”
Benjamin Moore: Blue Nova
Benjamin Moore declared Blue Nova — a blend of violet and blue — as its 2024 Color of the Year. When used in a well-lit room, Blue Nova lends itself to gray hues, with a richer blue-purple coming to life in more ambient lighting. According to Benjamin Moore, “violet and blue come together in this elevated, sumptuous hue.”
Glidden: Limitless
A warm, yellow tone, Limitless is Glidden’s 2024 Color of the Year. According to Glidden, “Limitless contains both the power of a primary color and the essence of a neutral to support both cool and warm tones.” Limitless offers a warm, honey-beige alternative to the cooler gray neutrals of late.
Behr: Cracked Pepper
The Behr 2024 Color of the Year, Cracked Pepper, is a soft black that hints at charcoal. Cracked Pepper is said to offer sophistication that is adaptable and organic. According to Behr, “Cracked Pepper evokes a sense of confidence and individuality.”
Every 2024 Color of the Year
Better Homes and Gardens did a complete round-up of the most popular colors of the year—including those we mentioned above and additional colors declared by C2, Dunn-Edwards, Krylon, Minwax, Valspar and Dutch Boy. The overall theme? Blues!
When staging your home for sale, it’s best to provide a neutral canvas to help buyers visualize themselves in the space. That doesn’t mean you can’t incorporate the bold colors of the year into your space. However, rather than painting your entire room Blue Nova, consider bringing it in through accent pillows, textiles or furniture.
If you’re not making a move anytime soon, decorate your home with what brings you the most joy! That might mean you finally put up the incredible wallpaper you’ve had your eye on. Did someone say Cracked Pepper?
A fresh coat of paint can do wonders for any home, especially if you’re prepping your house to sell this year. And if you’re buying, you may start to see the 2024 Colors of the Year as you tour homes or consider new construction! Need help? Reach out!
Homeownership can be complicated, but we also think it’s one of the most rewarding ventures out there. In our series, Ask an Edina Realty Lawyer, we are hoping to demystify some of the trickier aspects of buying, selling and owning a home.
You may have heard stories about the real estate market and lots of buyer competition for a limited number of properties for sale. While we expect to see an increase in inventory in 2024, we also anticipate continued competition among buyers. In this edition, our lawyers answer some questions that buyers are raising in the current real estate market.
Despite your offer being full price, the seller is not required to accept it. When a seller lists a property, they are simply advertising it. An MLS listing is not an offer to sell the home that can be accepted by simply submitting a full-price purchase agreement. Typically, the buyer submits an offer, and the seller has nearly complete discretion in deciding whether to accept it.
The seller may have received an offer for over the list price and that was the reason your offer was not accepted. And as you likely realized when writing your offer in the first place, there are a lot of things, beyond the price, that you had to decide to include in your offer. Some of those items included whether to do an inspection, what type of financing to use or even whether to use financing at all.
Sellers need to evaluate all terms when deciding which offer is best for that seller. A seller might choose one offer over another because the closing date is sooner, the buyer is paying 100% cash, the buyer did not need to sell their home before purchasing the seller’s home or for various other reasons. While submitting a full-price offer is a good way to get a seller’s attention, it is only one aspect of the contract the seller is considering. Continue working with your real estate agent to come up with the most competitive offer you can make, and hopefully, a seller will accept your offer soon.
The real estate contracts used in Minnesota and Wisconsin have provisions that allow a buyer to make their purchase contingent on a home inspection. Generally, if the buyer and seller agree to this contingency, the buyer will hire a professional home inspector to conduct a thorough inspection of the property and prepare a report with those findings. The buyer and seller can then negotiate possible repairs and the buyer may have the opportunity to cancel the contract if they are concerned about the condition of the home.
The home inspection contingency has obvious benefits for the buyer, and Edina Realty recommends a home inspection on every purchase. But in a seller-favorable market, we often see many different strategies intended to make an offer stand out from the rest of the crowd. One strategy is to not have the contract contingent on a home inspection. That’s certainly a strategy you can employ, but it comes with some risks.
Keep in mind that homes can have problems not apparent to the untrained eye. A good professional home inspector has the experience and training to see some of the issues the average person cannot. Your REALTOR® is not a professional home inspector and should not be relied upon in lieu of a professional. Even though a seller must disclose problems on the property, there are potential issues that even the seller may not be aware of. If you don’t elect to have a home inspection and later discover a problem with the property, that problem could be your responsibility as the new homeowner.
It’s not uncommon for a buyer to include a letter to the seller with their offer. And in recent years, that practice has become somewhat more prevalent. Some agents are of the opinion that a good “love letter” can help sway the seller to choose your offer.
If you have heard that you shouldn’t provide a letter with your offer, that likely comes from concerns about the Fair Housing Act or state laws prohibiting discrimination. The Fair Housing Act prohibits a seller from making a decision on who they sell their home to based on protected classifications, like race, ethnicity, religion, familial status, gender and disability. Some state laws have similar protections that extend to classes beyond that of the Fair Housing Act—for example, Minnesota law protects against discrimination on the basis of sexual orientation.
If a buyer letter contains information about the buyers’ race, religion or something else that might implicate a protected class, that can put the seller in a tricky position. In fact, many sellers specifically request that no letters be submitted with the offers. If you are going to submit a letter with your offer, we recommend that you focus on the home and what you love about it (which sellers love to hear) and stay away from comments that reflect these protected classes.
It can be disappointing when an appraisal comes in lower than the price you had agreed upon. But just because an appraisal comes back less than the contract price does not mean the deal is done or that the parties are required to renegotiate the price.
While it depends on your specific financial situation, in some cases, a low appraisal will not have any impact on your ability to move forward with the purchase. You may need to bring extra funds to closing, or your mortgage interest rate could be less advantageous, but moving forward with the purchase could still be possible.
Unfortunately, in other situations, a low appraisal may result in an inability to obtain financing for the purchase. Your real estate agent can work with you before submitting offers to discuss options for how to handle a low appraisal situation, including different terms to put into the contract to ensure you can move forward, or perhaps not move forward, with a purchase in a low appraisal situation. It is also a good idea to discuss appraisal issues with your lender to understand what impact a low appraisal could have on a potential purchase, given your specific financial situation.
The Edina Realty Legal Department serves as in-house counsel for Edina Realty and does not represent private clients. This insight is not intended to provide legal advice.
- Anyone who has assets they wish to pass on should consider estate planning.
- Estate planning ensures your wishes are known and eases the burden on loved ones.
- Estate planning is more than just a will: work with a lawyer to ensure all aspects of the estate are taken care of.
- Talk with your loved ones about your end-of-life wishes, and know theirs.
Some may hear “estate planning” and think it applies only to the very wealthy, but the truth is that estate planning is something everyone should consider. Even if you don’t own real estate, estate planning allows you to let your wishes be known after you pass or in case you are incapacitated.
Estate planning is the act of legally establishing how your financials and assets will be managed, sustained and distributed in the event of your death or incapacitation. This includes who will pay your debts and settle your taxes, who will be in charge of your assets, and who your beneficiaries are. At its core, an estate plan allows your loved ones to know your intentions when you can no longer speak for yourself, and provides them with a roadmap on how to handle what you’ve left behind. It may also help you save on taxes, pass along more wealth to your beneficiaries, protect your assets and privacy, and help avoid your estate going into probate.
Probate is a process in which your beneficiaries have to go to court to get approval to handle your estate, and it could be a lengthy and stressful process. If you own real estate individually and it doesn’t pass immediately to someone else when you die, your heirs would have to go through the probate process. With estate planning, there are ways to transfer your property to someone by establishing a joint tenancy, trust, life estate or death deed that will help clearly and legally lay out your beneficiaries and, importantly, avoid probate.
Completing your estate planning early (and updating it as needed) helps protect your friends and family in case anything unexpected should happen to you. For instance, it would help lay out what to do if you suddenly passed away when selling your house. Always consult with a lawyer to ensure your planning is complete and properly filed.
A will is one aspect of estate planning, but it isn’t all of it. Creating a robust estate plan also includes establishing a power of attorney for healthcare and finances, setting up trusts, creating a living will (which documents your end-of-life preferences) and determining if you should set up a life insurance policy or annuity. Generally, the estate planning process includes:
No one wants to think about their death, or what will happen in the wake of their passing, but it’s important to start planning early in case of unforeseen circumstances. This becomes all the more crucial when minors and dependents get involved, and as you age.
If you’re someone with aging parents, check in with them to make sure they have their estate planning well in hand. It also doesn’t hurt to take note of who their estate lawyer is or where they store their estate planning documentation, just in case. It can be an awkward subject to bring up, but understanding your parents' wishes and making sure all documentation is in order will be a big relief to you and them.
If you require a proficient agent to oversee an estate sale on your behalf, you can trust in my track record of effectively managing numerous such sales throughout my career. You will gain from the extensive experience I bring, ensuring a seamless and well-guided process for you.
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