Blog > Blog > 2008

December 23, 2008 at 12:59 pm

It seems like Pulaski Bank couldn’t resist the call of all that bailout money. The Post Dispatch is reporting that they will receive an infusion of $32.5 million fromt he government in exchange of like amount of stock. Reports say that the bank is well capitalized, but they want the money to be able to lend more in the current market. One part of me wants to beleive that, but the cynic in me says this will have no affect on the amount of loans they are giving out. Sure would be nice though.

December 19, 2008 at 1:11 pm

In a move that Metro has been threatening since Proposition M failed in November, the Metro governing board has approved a proposal to trim service starting March 30, 2009 in order to drastically reduce costs by $36 million a year. Read more

December 18, 2008 at 4:51 pm

As an UMSL (University of Missouri – St. Louis for those not into acronyms) alumni, I have had plenty of exposure to St. Louis’ local NPR affiliate, KWMU. I always found it somewhat cool, yet somewhat odd that the station was based out of the campus. Especially the fact that it is run out of the basement in Lucas Hall. But all that’s about to change. Read more

December 17, 2008 at 1:34 pm

Under construction for almost nine months now, the new recplex in Carondelet Park is finely taking shape. If you’re not familiar with the project, its located on the southern edge of Carondelet Park, just off of Highway 55 and Loughborough. This $20 million, 75,000 sq ft complex is set to be open sometime in the summer of 2009. Read more

December 15, 2008 at 4:02 pm

In my efforts to fix the image galleries on the site this morning I accidentally disabled all of the images. Thankfully, I have finally managed to track down the problem. Everything should be displaying properly again. If you notice any issue please let me know. Load times have been running a little long, but I’ll try to fix that sometime later this week. Should be back to regular posting tomorrow.

December 12, 2008 at 11:23 am

I upgraded the site to the new Wordpress version (2.7) last night and it seemed like everything went beautifully. I suppose nothing can ever be that easy though. It turns out that all the image galleries on the site are currently down. I’m working on fixing it, but I’m stumped at the moment. Sorry for the downtime.

December 11, 2008 at 5:14 pm

With the glut of foreclosures that are pouring on the market from the banks, it can be hard keeping track of which properties are worth your time and which aren’t. I work with this stuff full time and its still tough for me. Knowing how difficult it can be, a couple months ago I started working on a new section for this website called Investment Insider. Read more

December 11, 2008 at 2:06 pm

Along with property taxes and water & sewage bills, insurance for a rental property is one of the biggest expenses you really can’t avoid. Fortunately, unlike the former expenditures, the annual cost of for insurance is in the hands of the owner. Read more

December 9, 2008 at 6:22 pm

No matter how desperate you are to put a tenant in a vacant unit, you MUST always do a background check. The various services available locally in St. Louis and online are quite easy to work with and you can always pass the buck off to the tenant. If for some reason you refuse to get involved with a paid service there are still things you can, and should, do to check up on the tenant. Read more

December 5, 2008 at 2:37 pm

We closed on the rehab at 4218 Connecticut a couple weeks ago and all the bills are finally paid so the profits can be dispersed. It took way to long to finish everything, but in the end, there was a respectable amount of profit to show for it. Not only did we make money, but the differences in the building before and after construction are amazing.

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December 4, 2008 at 5:51 pm

It’s still hard for me to believe that it has taken more time to rebuild this bridge that it has to finish Phase 1 of the Highway 40 (I-64) project, but the Jefferson Bridge is almost finished. The Post Dispatch is reporting that two lanes of the bridge will be opened on December 15th with the rest to follow so thereafter. Read more

December 4, 2008 at 3:51 pm

Today I finally got a chance to take another look this morning at the inside of Foam, the upcoming coffeehouse/nightlife destination coming to 3359 Jefferson. Things are starting to come together and the place should hopefully be open sometime in January. Read more

December 3, 2008 at 6:17 pm

Whether you own rental properties, own a home or just rent an apartment, you need to prepare for the increasing colder temperatures coming this winter. If the property will be vacant for an extended periods of time you should be especially careful. Water left in pipes that hit the freezing point could cause the pipe to burst and create a horrendous situation. Read more

December 3, 2008 at 10:57 am

I posted a blurb a couple weeks back about the lack of attention the closure of the second phase of the Highway 40 highway project is getting. Looks the the Post Dispatch finally took notice of this too. Kind of a self fulfilling prophecy coming from them since they really haven’t been giving the issue much noteworthy press. The first few weeks of this closure is going to chaos.

December 2, 2008 at 4:28 pm

Nothing is worse than an inspection gone afoul. Much less a sewer inspection since replacement costs are so high. But that’s just what I faced last month during the inspection of my recently closed rehab in Tower Grove South. Turns out there were some issues with the sewer lateral we didn’t know about and the buyers would not go ahead with the sale unless they were fixed. The initial estimates for the pipe replacement had me considering walking away, but when I met up with a pipe lining specialist I changed my mind. Read more

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