Even though offering massive tax cuts and other benefits to attract corporate headquarters doesn’t always work out, that hasn’t stopped a lot of cities and regions from officially filing requests with Amazon to be considered for the company’s planned second headquarters. If you’re anywhere near any sort of population center, there’s a good chance your city council has put its name into the Amazon HQ hat. [More]
real estate
Pizzas On The Roof & 7 Other Reasons You May Reconsider Buying That Famous House
By 10.13.17
It sounds like the ultimate fan’s dream, living in the house or apartment building made famous by your favorite TV show or movie; the knowledge that your home is itself a celebrity, elevating the enjoyment of your otherwise mundane life. But that’s before you have to deal with all the “a-holes” throwing pizzas on your roof. [More]
Get Ready For More Sketchy Seasonal Stores As Retail Vacancies Rise
By 10.3.17
If you’re a fan of those stores that come out of nowhere to sell a lot of Halloween costumes and Christmas ornaments only to be gone without a trace once a holiday passes, we’ve got great news for you! A decade-high level of retail bankruptcies and store closures means there’s still plenty of spaces at your local shopping centers for all manner of seasonal pop-up stores. [More]
Zillow Admits It’s In Hot Water With Regulators Over Lender Advertising
By 8.17.17
Real estate listings site Zillow — home of the controversial “Zestimate” — is in the regulatory hot seat over an advertising program for mortgage lenders that may violate federal anti-kickback law. [More]
Historic Home Available For $10 — But You Have To Move It Elsewhere Yourself
By 8.2.17
Does the idea of owning a historic home for the bargain price of just $10 sound good to you? If so, you better get the heavy machinery ready because you’ll have to move it off the property. [More]
Owner Of Terrifying Clown Motel Getting Out Of The Terrifying Clown Motel Business
By 7.25.17
Unless your subconscious has buried this memory among other real life nightmares, you may recall the story about the creepy Clown Motel in Nevada filled to the brim with leering, smiling painted faces — and located next to a cemetery filled with gold miners who died from the plague who are bound to be grumpy ghosts (when they aren’t hiding from the clowns). Anyway, good news! It’s up for sale. [More]
If You Love The Ceiling Baby Scene In ‘Trainspotting’ Here’s A Real Estate Listing For You
By 7.18.17
Real estate listings can be weird — from a woman dressed in a panda suit popping up in every photo to a glorious 1980s time capsule — but there’s a difference between “kooky” and “creepy mannequins attached to the ceiling, ready to come alive and suck out your soul.” [More]
Department Store Closures Are Just Getting Started, Says Real Estate Expert
By 5.17.17
Anchor store mainstays like Sears, Macy’s, and JCPenney have already been closing stores to cut costs and adapt to shoppers’ changing needs, but one prominent real estate analyst says this culling of department stores is far from over, and that even the most popular malls will likely end up with just one or two traditional anchor retailers. [More]
Move To This Italian Village, Get $2,200 (And Super Cheap Rent)
By 5.9.17
If you’ve ever had a few too many glasses of wine while watching Diane Lane live her best life in Under The Tuscan Sun and promised yourself you’d run away to a small Italian village if you ever had the opportunity, now is your chance. [More]
Can A ‘Single-Family Home’ Have 24 Bedrooms?
By 4.7.17 — Updated: 4.9.17
Unless you’re regularly hosting the likes of the seventh Earl of Chichester at Downton Abbey, your notion of the term “single family home” probably doesn’t include anything more than a few bedrooms. But one homeowner in North Carolina’s Outer Banks has spent four years trying to convince local lawmakers that this term applies to her under-construction 24-bedroom home. [More]
Neverland Ranch Still For Sale, Now At Bargain Price Of $67M
By 3.2.17
If you balked at the $100 million price tag on Neverland Ranch, also known as the former home of Michael Jackson, perhaps you’d be interested now that the California estate is being “reintroduced” to the market at just $67 million. [More]
Buying Up Dying Malls Can Be A Viable Business
By 2.22.17 — Updated: 2.27.17
We hear so often about the fading of brick-and-mortar retail that it might seem hard to believe that there are companies out there in the market to buy more malls. Yet there are buyers for distressed malls, even when the owners are about to walk away. There are companies that specialize in this kind of thing, and they aren’t tearing them all down or turning them into apartments. [More]
You Can Live Your Best Hermit Life In The Grey Gardens House For Just $20M
By 2.9.17
Kick the cats out of bed and dust off your best Little Edie dance moves, folks! The Grey Gardens house — home to the famously reclusive mother-daughter Beale duo — is on the market for the bargain price of just under $20 million. That could buy a lot of cat/raccoon food. [More]
Report: Hudson’s Bay Looking To Take Over Macy’s
By 2.3.17
Macy’s could soon be heading to Fifth Avenue, or rather, to the parent company of stores like Saks Fifth Avenue and Gilt, Hudson’s Bay is reportedly looking to take over the struggling department store. [More]
Feds: Fraudsters Claimed To Own $17M Worth Of Property, Preyed On Tenants
By 1.26.17
There’s a lot of work that goes in to owning a property and renting it out to tenants, but in return, landlords can charge deposits and collect rent. Two Florida residents took the “work” part out of the equation, federal prosecutors claim, and instead just pretended they owned $17 million worth of property so they could demand money from tenants. [More]
Trump Administration Suspends Mortgage Insurance Discount For New Homeowners
By 1.20.17
The new Trump administration has already made one of its first moves, directing the Department of Housing and Urban Development to suspend a recently announced program that would have reduced mortgage insurance rates for a number of new homeowners. [More]
Troubled Mall Sells To Its Own Lenders For $100
By 1.19.17 — Updated: 1.21.17
The Galleria at Pittsburgh Mills is pretty typical for a troubled mall: it opened in 2005, but is now financially distressed. It didn’t have enough customers to support its retailers. While the mall still has anchors like Macy’s, JCPenney, and Dick’s, it recently sold at auction for $100. Sort of. [More]
For Some Reason, No One Wants To Buy An Office Building Shaped Like A Giant Picnic Basket
By 9.7.16
For sale: one seven-story office building in the Midwest, less than 20 years old and in great shape inside. Price: $5 million. There are just two tiny problems that are keeping anyone from buying the building: it’s too far from the nearest city, and it’s shaped like a giant picnic basket. [More]
