Leading Real Estate Compaines?

Yesterday I got a lovely piece in the mail from a small boutique real estate office in Brookline Village in which they claim that their network has 31% of the national sales volume. They show my firm, William Raveis, as being part of the "other" with an unquantifiable small piece of their pie chart. Guess what, owner of the small office, your ad is misleading. You and I are part of the same network. Not only does William Raveis share the designation of being part of the "Leading Real Estate Companies of the World" but we also happen to have a significantly better regional and local market share than your office.

On another note, I interviewed with the Board of Selectmen for appointment to the Zoning Board of Appeals. A lot of Brookline residents are aware of significant controversy surrounding the ZBA recently. Five members resigned and ten of us have been interviewed over the past two weeks to take their place. I tried to demonstrate to the board that I hope to bring the perspective of a citizen to the board. Whereas every other candidate was an attorney or architect, I pointed out that none of them know as much about the Brookline housing supply as I do. If appointed, I hope to bring a neighborhood voice to the Board. I truly feel that our homes or investment properties are the largest single investment we will ever make. People in the community care deeply about ZBA decisions because they are the single largest outside factor that could negatively impact our neighborhoods permanently.

In this "difficult" market it is going to be more critical than ever for homeowners and developers to improve or add onto their properties to get any financial gain from them. Since Brookline hasn't created any additional land and won't be able to in the future, many of the homeowners needing to improve on their property will need special permits or variances. It is crucial that the town find some way to promote improvement and development. While development must not go unchecked, it is very important that the people willing to improve the quality of property in our neighborhoods are allowed to do so. Gone for now are the days in which living in your property will make you thousands upon thousands of dollars without doing any work to improve the property.

We shall see how the Board votes on the vacancies. I would expect as many attorneys and architects to be appointed as possible, but I will say that I was one of the few people there out of my own free will. I was not "recruited" and remain excited about the prospects of being able to serve my community.