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Toxic mold suit hinges on testing

By Tara-Nicholle Nelson, Wednesday, August 12, 2009.

In the case Holland v. W.M. Realty Management Inc., the tenant (Holland) lived in an apartment building managed by W.M. Realty Management, and claimed to have become ill due to toxic mold in the apartment. About seven months after first complaining of the mold problem to the property manager, the tenant vacated the apartment.

A couple of weeks after moving out, and after the property manager conducted mold remediation in the unit and building, the tenant's attorney sent an industrial hygienist to collect mold samples from the unit the tenant had previously occupied. Testing of the mold samples indicated contamination.  more...

Mystery of the buckling wall

By Bill and Kevin Burnett, Wednesday, August 12, 2009.

Q: My parents' house, built in 1962, has an exterior stucco wall that, over the past few years, has buckled about 1 1/2 feet from the ground. There is a poured concrete perimeter foundation and about 2 feet of crawl space. All of the interior walls that are perpendicular to the buckled wall have started to gap where they meet.

It is horrifying, and I don't know where to start. Whom do I hire to diagnose this problem? What company fixes such a mess? And how do I even know that I'm getting a reasonable estimate for the job?  more...

A mashup of real estate takeaways Premium Content

By Kris Berg, Wednesday, August 12, 2009.
Flickr image by <a href="http://www.flickr.com/photos/nyki_m/2818335224/" target=blank>nyki_m</a>.

Oh, what to write? Having spent the better part of last week tossing my few remaining brain cells carelessly about the halls of the Inman Real Estate Connect conference in San Francisco, I feel like a horse that has run her race.

I mentioned to some of the heartier souls remaining on the final day, as we were discussing our big takeaways, that this was a repeat of past events for me, except on steroids. Here is how it goes:

Each semester, I swagger off the plane feeling a little too smug.  more...

Lawns: Grass isn't always greener

By Marcie Geffner, Wednesday, August 12, 2009.
Flickr photo by <a href="http://www.flickr.com/photos/booleansplit/2424643392/">Robert S. Donovan</a>.

Conventional real estate wisdom puts a lot of faith in curb appeal as an important characteristic of a lovely and desirable home. And a crucial component of that curb appeal is of course the traditional lush lawn in the front yard. Small or large, square or rectangular, flat or hilly, that patch of green grass is the ultimate desire of homebuyers everywhere -- or so goes the usual thinking.

But is the lush lawn now on its way out of style?  more...

The Big Change in real estate Premium Content

By Robert Hahn, Wednesday, August 12, 2009.
Flickr photo by <a href="http://www.flickr.com/photos/cesarastudillo/158254288/" target=blank>cesarastudillo</a>.

It has been quite a week. The Inman News Real Estate Connect conference is one of the key events of the RE.net calendar, and this year was more special in at least one respect: It marked the one-year anniversary of the birth of the RE.net as we know it today at the very first RE BarCamp in San Francisco last year when Andy Kauffman, Todd Carpenter and Brad Coy organized an impromptu gathering of bloggers, Realtors, vendors and other similarly minded folks.

The venue of RE BarCamp SF this time around was in itself an indication of how far we have come in just a year: the spacious headquarters of Trulia instead of the cramped Elks Lodge facility. But more important was the difference in the greetings.  more...