Posts in category 'Fun Real Estate Facts'

Just about everyone is familiar with the board game Monopoly. We would be quick to pick our favorite markers… the top hat, Scottie dog, thumbnail, or my favorite -  the sports car.  Then we were given a small amount of money to start from the bank.  And for the next several hours we would try to buy real estate, develop our properties with houses and perhaps a hotel or two, collect rent from other players who landed on our developments, and hopefully end up monopolizing the entire board by driving the other players into bankruptcy.  But few people know that today's modern version of the game has its roots in a game called "The Landlord Game," developed by a politically liberal woman named Lizzie Magie in the early 1900's whose primary goal was to point out the "inequalities and evils of acquiring vast sums of money at the expense of others."  The original "Landlord Game" even had two sets of rules: the monopolist version we are more familiar with...

Click Here to Read More...

When you drive around Bend, have you noticed there are a lot of red front doors? Although for these homeowners the reasons might be aesthetic, around the world red doors actually have a lot of meaning. The Chinese, for example, believe red is a lucky color and would paint their doors red before the Chinese New Year. Red doors can be an important element of Feng Sui by allowing "chi" to be drawn into the home. Catholics often paint their church doors red to remind people of Christ's sacrifice. During slavery, red doors were used to by the Underground Railroad to show this particular home could provide safe haven. There is even rumor that people would paint their doors red as a sort of "no solicitation" sign to that annoying Fuller Brush salesman… but again, that's just rumor. But the story we like most is that homeowners in Scotland paint their doors red to show that they have paid off their mortgage. Will you be painting your door red soon?

Ever wonder about where the richest people in the world live? Many would be surprised that billionaire Warren Buffett still lives in the Dundee-Happy Hallow Historic District of Omaha, Nebraska where he grew up in the same home he purchased in 1958 for a mere $31,500. Surprised? I know we were.  Named by Time Magazine as one of the most influential people in the world, this 6000 square foot relatively modest stucco house (recently appraised for under $1 million dollars) is just a tiny fraction of his estimated net worth of $66.2 billion dollars. But to be fair, Warren Buffett also owns a second home in Laguna Beach, California estimated at about $4 million, but still just a small fraction of his net worth. We're guessing one of the secrets to his success is being frugal. 

It's not that Kyle MacDonald had a "paperclip fetish." Actually, he says that "the best thing I ever did was to trade away that silly red paperclip in the first place." Which is exactly what he did when in 2015 he posted a picture of the red paperclip in the barter section of Craigslist and asked if anyone had something they were willing to trade for it which was "bigger and better." The first trade was for a writing pen shaped like a fish.  Then Kyle traded the fish pen for a doorknob.  Each trade was always for something "bigger and better" until after just 14 trades he ended up with a house located at 503 Main Street in Saskatchewan.

One of the hot selling items on Amazon.com right now is the St. Joseph Home Seller Statue Kit.  According to tradition that sellers say goes back thousands of years, burying the statue in the yard of your home and saying a prayer to St. Joseph will always bring a quick offer on your home for sale.  But it is important that you bury the statue in the right spot, lest you accidently help your neighbor sell their home quickly, and upside down so St. Joseph will work "extra hard to get out of the ground, and into a safe comfortable home."  Reviews on Amazon.com where this kit is often sold include comments such as "I put this in my front yard and the next day we had an offer on our house," and "My house sold in 2 1/2 hours and had 3 other offers, sight unseen the same night. Enough said!!!!" But, of course, they were also many reviews with the sentiment similar to this seller - "Bought this hoping our house would sell quickly because we were that desperat...

Click Here to Read More...