"Must Be One Helluva Place!!"

Rental Double-Takes

I assume that I'm not the only Twin Cities Realtor still adjusting to the addition of rental data on MLS (since Sept. 1).

So, in addition to finding "for sale" properties on searches I've saved for various clients (what Realtors call "hot sheets"), there's now the stray rental included.

If you're skimming quickly (like I am), the tip-off is price: $1,500 or some such, vs. $200,000, $450,000, etc.

So, when I saw $20,000 the other day, I did a double-take: what Twin Cities home rents for $20,000 a month??

Manhattan Prices in Mpls.?

It turns out that it wasn't a rental, it was a home for sale -- and that's the asking price!

Presumably, there's a quick solution to the above, which I've yet to do: tweak all my saved searches to exclude "rentals."

However, with only 300-odd rentals total on MLS, the problem doesn't come up that often. Yet.

P.S.: So what is the most expensive rental on MLS now?

For $9,950 a month, you can rent 1006 Wildhurst Trail in Orono, a 6,400 square foot home in Orono with 5 BR's, 7(!) Baths -- and 140 feet of shoreline on Lake Minnetonka.

"Did They Really Get $1,500 a Month for That?"

Rentals on MLS

One of the quirks of following rentals on MLS -- available since Sept. 1 -- is that there's no way to track the difference between what landlords are asking, and what they're actually accepting.

Over on the "for sale" side of MLS, Realtors and appraisers alike know to skip homes that are "Active," and instead only scrutinize actual, closed sales (called "Comp's," or "Comparable Sold Properties").

At least so far with rentals, there's no analogous way to do that.

P.S.: after six weeks, the local MLS now has over 300 rentals listed -- a big jump, but still a fraction of what Craig's List has, and a drop in the bucket compared to the 28,000-plus active "for sale" properties on MLS.

Up 63%!

MLS Rentals

No, that's not what some housing market, somewhere, did last month or year, or the first day "pop" in a new IPO ("initial public offering") on Wall Street.

That's the one-day increase in rentals listed on MLS.

Before anyone gets too excited, though, that number reflects an increase from 11 listings to 18.

I'll note when that number hits 1,000; my guess is, before the end of Sept.

3,257* to 11

Rentals on MLS

No, that's not the odds of someone on Wall Street actually being charged for financial wrongdoing the last couple years.

It's the number of rental properties on Craig's List (*I approximated) vs. rental properties on MLS.

Look for that gap to close in the weeks and months ahead (today was Day #1 for MLS rentals).

P.S.: when it comes to For Sale properties, MLS has Craig's List beat hands down, 24,000-plus to perhaps 1,000 or so. And the MLS listings are much more informative.