Crazy Shit - it's non-stop!

In the 5 years I've been in Real Estate I've sold 130 some houses. On average I'll show a client 30 properties before they find the one. So that's roughly 4,000 houses I've been through. 3,000 of those were normal, 900 were really nice and 100 are where insane people live - I never cease to be amazed by the crazy shit you see out there.

I really need to write these things down as they happen and carry a camera with me, otherwise today's oddity just get replaced by tomorrow's nutjob house. I've stumbled across prosthetic limbs, dildos and bongs. I've been in houses completely packed with creepy antique dolls, packed with cats that come popping out of nowhere and plenty of homes packed with filth. There are all kinds of decorating oddities as well - recently I saw decorative molding around a front door that was made from a garden hose, spray painted gold and screwed to the wall. Fairly common and ALWAYS unpleasant is the sleeping person, even in the middle of the day. Keep in mind, THESE PEOPLE ARE TRYING TO SELL THEIR HOUSE!!!

A little while back I saw one that I said was, "the worst house I've ever been in". To be fair, I've seen worse - homes that are trashed and even after being fixed up they'd still suck. This one will be nice when someone fixes it up - but at the moment it's pretty shocking.

Apparently this home went into forecloser and they never winterized the plumbing. Our guess was that a pipe (or several) burst and flooded the house completely (resulting in a $100,000 price reduction). Wall paper and plaster peeled from the ceilings and walls.

The wood floors expanded, buckled and ripped themselves apart. This soaked ceiling fan warped. And of course there was plenty of mold.

The great news is that I sold this house to some very capable clients who are going to fix it up and live here. It's awesome that this place is getting a second chance and I hope to see it again after they're done with it.

Neighborhoods...


Most neighborhoods have at least one house that residents feel should be better maintained, but those feelings traslate into action only rately. Mostly, people just put up with it.

63% say they have a sloppy neighbor
21% admit to being the sloppy neighbor
81% say action should be taken against the offender
64% say they haven't yet complained

source:servicemagic.com, based on poll of 900 home owners. From Realtor Magazine Oct 2007

Annual Bodies Lay Broken show

August 31stMinneapolis

w/ Black Market Fetus - Iowa

Archagathus - Winnipeg

Patisserie - Japan

JUHYO - Minnesota

this is all still tentative, but I'm hopeful

at the Alamo House e-mail me for an address

Homes sold by me

I mostly sell in Minneapolis and St. Paul - but I sell houses all over the place. Check it out...

Minneapolis
- Bryn Mawr
319 Washburn Ave
- Calhoun-Isles
3340 Blaisdell Ave S
3104 Pleasant Ave S
-Camden
3951 Bryant Ave N
3939 Emerson Ave N
4225 Newton Ave N
4404 Queen Ave N
4411 Queen Ave N
4023 Sheridan Ave N
3810 Upton Ave N
-Longfellow
3112 33rd St E3425 35th Ave S
3833 36th Ave S
-Nokomis
4225 2nd Ave S
4231 2nd Ave S
4901 5th Ave S
4037 11th Ave S
4525 16th Ave S
5756 27th Ave S
5114 38th Ave S
4712 Nokomis Ave S
4208 Nokomis Ave S
3845 Oakland Ave S
-Northeast
2545 4th St NE
2738 Buchanan St NE
2306 Fillmore St NE
1714 Pierce St NE
2958 Tyler St NE
2543 University Ave NE
-Powderhorn
4141 20th Ave S
-Philllips
2729 14th Ave S
- Seward
2305 25th Ave S
-Southwest
5515 Emerson Ave S x 2
3612 Pillsbury Ave S
6136 Vincent Ave S

St. Paul
-Como
1555 Almond Ave
801 California Ave W
1601 Cohansey St
761 Ivy Ave W
1880 Ivy Ave E
1465 Mackubin St
-Crocus Hill
642 Ashland Ave
656 Ashland Ave #10
294 Dayton Ave #1E x 2
892 Thomas Ave
-Dayton’s Bluff
1227 5th St E
-Highland
1407 Bayard Ave
1151 Colette Pl
663 Hamline Ave
1232 Juno Ave
1315 Niles Ave
1276 Randolph Ave
1516 Randolph Ave
1999 Sheridan Ave
-Mac/Groveland
1181 Edgcumbe Rd #112
1866 Palace Ave
1515 Randolph Ave
425 Snelling Ave
118 Wheeler
- Riverview/Cherokee
679 Bidwell St
-Town and Country
2301 Beverly
1618 Selby Ave
-West 7th
878 Bayard Ave

Afton
15785 Afton Hills Dr

Apple Valley
12683 Durham Way

Bloomington
9944 Cavell Ave S

Columbia Heights
5121 6th St NE
4215 University Ave NE

Cottage Grove
7141 Jocelyn Ct S

Crystal
6809 45 Ave N

Eagan
4362 Sandstone Dr

Eden Prairie
11272 Preswick Blvd.

Edina
4524 Brookside Ave

Golden Valley
2531 McNair Dr N

Inver Grove Heights
4681 Blaine Ave

Lakeville
18835 Inca Ave

Maple Grove
9006 Comstock Ln N x 2
9294 Holly Ln N
6256 Meadowlark Ln N
15304 W Fish Lake Rd
6231 Upland Ln N

Maplewood
2296 Dahl Court

Minnetonka
5533 Pompano Dr
3662 Shady Oak Rd

Mound
6316 Lynwood Blvd

New Prague
24389 E Cedar Lake Dr

North St. Paul
2673 5th Ave E
2815 Lake Blvd N

Oakdale
1197 Hillvale Ave N

Plymouth
11725 52nd Ave
3920 Harbor Ln N
3855 Glacier Ln x 2
4350 Trenton Ave N # 322

Robbinsdale
3613 Quail Ave N

Rogers
13898 Mallard Trl x 2

Rosemount
14802 Covington Ave

Shakopee
815 Ferdinand Dr
1196 Jackson St S x 2
8022 Stratford Circle S

Shoreview
3464 Chatsworth St N
3560 Cohansey St x 2

Shorewood
6090 Apple Rd

Stillwater
1214 Martha St N
501 Main St N #308

St. Louis Park
3220 Idaho Ave S
2625 Kipling Ave S
1600 Louisiana Ave S
3511 Sumter Ave S

White Bear Lake
2146 8th St
1610 9th St
2780 Riviera Dr S

Woodbury
2879 White Eagle Dr
7169 Windgate Rd

Hudson, Wisconsin
208 11th St S
519 Prairie Dr N
1904 Primrose Pl

Check out these houses!

Two great homes that I have listed, contact me if you want to take a look at either of them

Mac/Groveland - St. Paul
Camden - Minneapolis

House of the week it's small but it's nice, has potential, is inexpensive and it's in a great location

Updated: Bands I’ve Worked With...
The Action Slacks
Amp 176
Attention
Autumn Leaves
Bellwether

Betty Gone Bad
Billingsgate
Bloodline
Bodies Lay Broken
Bombsite
Dink
Code 13
Damage Deposit
Destroy
Dillinger Four

Dink
Dog Day
Elks
Flounder
The Great Depression
Killsadie
The Hang Ups
Hello Lonely
Holding On
The Holy Ghostriders
The Hoolies

Hope You Choke
The Hot
Icepick
The Legendary Jim Ruiz Group
Matt Marka
Menstrual Tramps
Model Children
Motion City Soundtrack

Naked Bob
Oswald Armageddon

Pandamonium
Pilot

The Real Enemy
Saddest Girls Story
Season of Fire

The Stereo
Unavowed

House of the Week - look familiar?

Mean Pete...

guitarist for Minneapolis' beloved Holding On as well as Hope you Choke and his current band the Holy Ghostriders, recently became a homeowner. Here's a little interview we did...

Hey Pete, how's the unpacking and moving in going?
it's going great, we've been living in the house for just about a month now and pretty much everything is unpacked and organized. we have just a few minor decorative projects left that we need to do.

We had talked for awhile about starting to look at houses, but it took awhile to get started. Once you guys decided to get started, you really went after it. What changed?
we had been thinking about buying for a while, i was ready to go for it, but kim had a few debts to pay off before she wanted to start looking. she paid off a big credit card late last fall and decided she was ready to go, so we just jumped in and started looking. just a few months ago, i was sure that we wouldn't even start looking for a house until spring but our timing turned out to be great and we found an amazing house in winter. i think with the combination of the time of year and the market being pretty good, we saved a good amount of money by buying when we did.

You guys were really strong buyers according to your lender - did that surprise you?
yes it really did. we don't make a lot of money so it was definitely our good credits scores that helped us out there.

Initially what was most important, location, price, style, condition? And did that change as you were looking?
when we first started looking i think our order of importance was condition, location, price, and style. condition was always important because we needed a house in good condition since we're not very handy. location became a bit less important as we were looking, at first we really wanted to find a place in northeast mpls. but as we looked more, we found that the houses in NE in our price range were pretty much crap, and we found we'd get way more for our money just a bit to the north in columbia heights, which is where we ended up buying. we still really like the NE neighborhood better, but the house we found in heights is so much better than what we could have got in NE, we can deal with it. it's close enough to minneapolis anyway, it's almost like an extension of NE. price was always important, we set a max early in the search and pretty much stuck to it the whole way through. we were willing to push our budget a bit to find a house that didn't need too much work and that's exactly what we ended up doing. style was a factor but was never a huge issue, kim and i have pretty specific design tastes, but we were willing to deal with whatever we could find due to our limited budget. but we ended up lucking out and finding a great mid-century house that we can easily adapt to our own style.

Any suggestions to someone thinking about buying their first house?
just go for it, you won't regret it. it's scary and a huge change but worth it. don't be afraid to stretch your budget, it really won't be as bad as you think, we're really poor and ended up buying a great house. and try not to think about how much money steve smillie is making off you (earning - edit), but make him buy you lunch because that almost makes up for it, right?

Any big projects planned for the house?
like i said before, just some minor design/decorative projects for now, and we'll probably get into the bigger and more outdoor type stuff in the spring after it warms up.

What's going on with the Holy Ghostriders? Are you going to record something soon?
yeah, we'll hopefully be getting into the studio within a month or so. we've been putting this off for a really long time and we need to get serious about it now and get something out.

I'm assuming you're excited for Naked Raygun at the Triple Rock. What do you think about a lot of these bands reforming?
yeah i'm really excited about that, already have my tickets to both shows. definitely one of the best midwest punk bands. for the most part, i'm totally fine with reunions as long as the band is genuine about it. the gorilla biscuits show last summer was one of the best shows i've seen in my life, and it was easy to see that they were having a great time, it didn't seem like they were doing it just to do it and make shit tons of money. but i'm sure the shit tons of money didn't hurt either. i got into GB probably about a year or two after they broke up, hearing them was a life changing event and they've been one of my favorite bands ever since, it was cool to finally see them in person.

Speaking of bands reforming... when is there going to be a Holding On reunion show?
it's happening soon, i'm announcing it right here first.

whoa! You better not be fucking with me. Will there be a $10 two song 7" with crap songs on it? Are you going to play in town or some damn fest far away?
no new songs. we've actually been talking about this for a while, we have it all planned out- we're going to play most every song we ever reocrded, in chronological order with each of the 3 lineups. so we'll start with the derek era doing the demo and split 7" with the real enemy. then we'll move on to the mike sonrode years for the self titled 7" (even though i think that was the worst thing we ever reocrded - sorry 1% records). and then of course we'll finish up with what came to be known as the "classic" lineup for the two lps. should be a fun time. as soon as we know more info, i'll have you post it here first.

What are you listening to these days? You're on a bit of a blue grass kick aren't you?
yeah i've been listening to a bit a bluegrass lately, a good amount of indie rock, classic alt-rock, and lots of 70s riff rock. and of course a lot of pop-punk like always. have to admit i'm totally out of touch with the current hardcore scene, all i listen to as far as that is the classics.

Who's you're favorite Realtor that's been a drummer in a grindcore band?
well, there are so many to choose from...

Thanks Pete!
thank me? naw man, thank you!

House of the Week - Peter Ave of course.

Say Anything... as long as it's nice.


a list of nice things people said about me as a Realtor...

“I hired you because of your rep as the punk rock realtor & I mean that in all seriousness, Steve. It conveys something right away. I had fun and really appreciated your feedback and honesty while house-hunting, which I thought would be a trying experience, it was far from that.” - Nichole N.

“I think I would have given up on my house hunting if it hadn’t been for Steve. His sense of humor kept me going through the long time it took to find my dream house.” - Kelly C

“I hired you because I felt you shared some similar values (i.e. punk rock!)” – Carrie C

“Regardless of how frequently my search criteria changed, you always took time to meet with me and I never felt pressured to jump into anything - and that was important! I can’t thank you enough. Your personal service and patience make you a great agent” – Nick L.

“We came to you with a tight deadline and with lots of questions and we really appreciated your patience and hard work. We are very pleased with how the sale of our old home went and especially with the new home” - Scott and Jody W.

“You met and exceeded out expectations and we had fun working with you. It was clear the entire time that you were looking out for our best interests - we appreciate that.” - Ben T. and Alison N.

“You were honest and forthright with us always. You made us feel like we were your number one priority even though you were also very busy with other clients. We had total trust and confidence in you.” - Larry and Doris R.

“Steve was very creative in finding better ways to sell my home when market conditions began to change” - Gina M.

“We wanted someone that we knew we could trust. I could not have asked for a better first home buying experience” - Chad & Meredith M.

“Thanks for all your help during our first home buying experience It was great having a realtor that we trusted and felt comfortable with.” - Crystal and Matt F.

“The friendly, low-pressure guide was great for me. I felt comfortable and confident with your knowledge and that you would draw the line or play hardball if the offer process turned ugly.” - Mike S.

“I was very impressed with the communication. I felt very informed and up to date. We could not have had the good outcome without your input and encouragement” - Ruth and Greg K.

“We’re very appreciative of the time you took with us. I’m not sure there’s anything you could have done better, you took the time to change our search and found us our dream home.” - Craig and Jill O.

“You did a very good job at being the voice of reason and remaining calm, cool and collected when I was freaking out. Thank you for that!!!”- Kirstin S.

“Steve, I was very pleased with the service you provided. You made buying my first home painless and fun. I couldn’t have received better treatment in regards to finding a nice home and a great area.” - Marc K

“Steve rocks! You were helpful in that you allowed us the experience as 1st time buyers without influencing us, but guiding.” - Jilll L. and Josh C.

Search and Destroy... Sold Houses


Quick note to let you know you can now search sold houses. Curious what that house around the corner sold for? Now you can know! Just go here

House of the week!