Housing Newsletter from William Raveis Real Estate, Mortgage & Insurance

Greg Kiely Operations Manager Brookline & Newton Office 191 Grove Street Brookline, MA 02467 95 Union Street Newton Centre, MA 02459 Office Phone: 617-762-3512 Office Fax: 617-762-3512 Email: greg@gregkiely.com Mortgage Calculator View My Site My Bio Page Find a Home Mortgage Company Insurance Company	Hi Brookline, Below are the links to the William Raveis monthly housing newsletter for Brookline. Brookline (Single-family residential) Brookline (Condominium) Brookline (Coop) Please feel free to contact me if we can be of any assistance. All information provided is deemed reliable but is not guaranteed and should be independently verified.

Housing Newsletter from William Raveis Real Estate, Mortgage & Insurance

Greg Kiely Operations Manager Brookline Office 191 Grove Street Brookline, MA 02467 Office Phone: 617-731-7737 Office Fax: 617-731-7723 Email: kielyg@raveisre.com Mortgage Calculator View My Site My Bio Page Find a Home Mortgage Company Insurance Company	Hi Brookline, Below is/are the links to the William Raveis monthly housing newsletter. Brookline (Single-family residential) Brookline (Condominium) Brookline (Coop) All information provided is deemed reliable but is not guaranteed and should be independently verified.

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William Raveis speaks about recent awards

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August Sales Numbers & Housing Newsletter

Greg Kiely Operations Manager Brookline Office 191 Grove Street Brookline, MA 02467 Office Phone: 617-731-7737 Office Fax: 617-731-7723 Email: greg@thebrooklineconnection.com Mortgage Calculator View My Site My Bio Page Find a Home Mortgage Company Insurance Company	Hi Brookline, Below are the links to the William Raveis monthly housing newsletter for our town. Brookline (Single-family residential) Brookline (Condominium) Brookline (Coop) All information provided is deemed reliable but is not guaranteed and should be independently verified.

Housing Newsletter from William Raveis Real Estate, Mortgage & Insurance

Greg Kiely Operations Manager Brookline Office 191 Grove Street Brookline, MA 02467 Office Phone: 617-731-7737 Office Fax: 617-731-7723 Email: greg@thebrooklineconnection.com View My Listings Mortgage Calculator View My Site My Bio Page Find a Home Mortgage Company Insurance Company	Below are the links to the William Raveis monthly housing newsletter for our town. Brookline (Single-family residential) Brookline (Condominium) Brookline (Coop) Please feel free to contact me with any questions. All information provided is deemed reliable but is not guaranteed and should be independently verified.

Newest Monthly Housing Newsletter

Greg Kiely Operations Manager Brookline Office 191 Grove Street Brookline, MA 02467 Newton Centre Office 10 Langley Road Newton, MA 02459 Direct Line: 617.762.3512 Cell Phone: 617.217.8875 Toll Free: 888.731.8875 Email: greg@thebrooklineconnection.com View My Listings Mortgage Calculator View My Site My Bio Page Find a Home Mortgage Company Insurance Company

Hi Brookline Buyers & Sellers, Below are the links to the monthly housing newsletter for Brookline. Each link brings you to a printable snapshot of last month's real estate activity for our town and our town only. If you would like other towns, please post a comment below and I will gladly customize a newsletter for you. Brookline (Single-family residential) Brookline (Condominium) Brookline (Coop) Please feel free to contact me if we can be of any assistance. All information provided is deemed reliable but is not guaranteed and should be independently verified.

Monthly Housing Newsletter.

Greg Kiely Operations Manager Brookline Office 191 Grove Street Chestnut Hill, MA 02467 Newton Office 10 Langley Road Newton Centre, MA 02459 Direct Line: 617.762.3512 Cell Phone: 617.217.8875 Toll Free: 888.731.8875 Email: kielyg@raveisre.com View My Listings Mortgage Calculator View My Site My Bio Page Find a Home Mortgage Company Insurance Company	Hi Brookline Buyers & Sellers, Below is/are the link(s) to the William Raveis monthly housing newsletter for the specific town(s) you have chosen. Brookline (Single-family residential) Brookline (Condominium) Brookline (Coop) Please feel free to contact me if we can be of any assistance. All information provided is deemed reliable but is not guaranteed and should be independently verified.

A refreshing view of "do-it-yourselfers"

A Buyer’s Perspective on the Pitfalls of FSBO | Redfin Boston Sweet Digs

Pam Reynolds, one of the bloggers for the new Redfin website here in Greater Boston, posted a refreshing perspective (link above) on FSBOs (For Sale By Owners). Her points are the arguments that many of us in the brokerage community try to make to sellers on a regular basis. The properties she uses as an example are in very high traffic areas and the amazing thing is 95% of the home-buying public does not know about them. In fact, one of the properties happens to be directly across the street from where I live (I even park in that building) and it wasn't until I did a specific site by site search for FSBOs that I found out about it.

To pick up where Pam left off. I have had more than a few conversations with some do-it-yourself sellers (and buyers, surprisingly) this year after they were able to put a property under agreement. With all of the new difficulties in the mortgage market and the fears about declining prices, buyers are asking for more between offer and closing. This makes navigating the path to the closing table increasingly more difficult. While we all take pride in being able to accept a challenge and tackle it individually there are numerous reasons to leave this one to the pros.

1. As negotiations get more and more intense, there is that invaluable middle-person to take the heat for each side and leave the raw emotion of the negotiation aside. It's amazing how hurtful discussions can become when a buyer begins harshly criticizing the home that a seller has built countless memories in.
2. When your appraiser (last I checked there were absolutely zero appraisal firms who focus exclusively in Brookline) walks into the door fresh from appraising a house in Dedham or Natick they are suddenly exposed to a polar opposite marketplace. While it might be inappropriate for the appraiser to listen to the arguments of the buyer or seller, they do work actively with the listing agent to explore the comparable market conditions.
3. When a mortgage deadline is fast approaching, brokers can quickly use their network of lending professionals to troubleshoot the issues. Set aside the two major firms who have lending arms, the volume each brokerage firm does with the individual lenders allows us to get calls answered sooner and problems taken care of the fastest.

These are many reasons, but they only scratch the surface. I never begrudge someone who feels a desire to try to sell on their own. One of the many reasons we buy property is so we can do with it what we desire. That being said, if it was easiest to sell on your own we would see well more than 1% of the properties on the market as FSBOs.

I'm off to Broker Tours today where there happens to be a $2 million FSBO on the market! To the FSBOs out there, I'd love to invite a dialog here on your view of the process. Agents, what frustrates you about FSBOs, and buyers let's hear your experiences.

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Not bad for the new kid in town...

William Raveis Real Estate, my brokerage, was just awarded the Banker & Tradesman Best of 2008 Gold Award for Residential Real Estate. For those unfamiliar with the company, Raveis has consistently been one of the top three offices in Connecticut for over 20 years. This year we were ranked #29 in the "Top 100" offices nationwide, and from that group one of only 17 that saw a growth in sales from 2006 to 2007.

There will be a lot more news from Raveis coming up, but for an office with only 5 years in Massachusetts, we're already the third largest office in the Commonwealth and growing. For sellers, it's important to select an office with upward mobility and recent success. When selecting a buyer's agent, it's critical to pick an agency that is showing strong market volume which indicates a current knowledge of your local market. I decided to come to Raveis a year ago from one of the "well known" national firms. I made the move for a number of reasons, the most important of which was a company-wide plan for this new market. While I've avoided commercial promotion on these pages, this is a wonderful recongnition of what has happened in the last year. Please contact me for more information.

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Brookline in the Top 100

Best places to live 2008 - Brookline, MA - from MONEY Magazine

Brookline has made the annual Money Magazine list at #87 in the Top 100 places to live for 2008. Obviously you all know I like to live here, and pretty much anyone who reads this either lives here, is planning on moving here, or also sells real estate here. So, for a lot of us this should not be too surprising. For those planning on moving here, we can do a quick recap of the things that have changed since last year which may have improved Brookline's standing.

1) Complete repaving and re-design of our major commercial thoroughfare -- Beacon Street.
This has added at least a partial bike lane, new smooth streets, and barriers for easy entry and exit into angled parking spaces in the busiest shopping districts.

2) Support of a Proposition 2.5 Override.
Brookline has always matched our neighbor to the North (Cambridge) in political activism. However, many Brookline political movements are a little less radical and a little more successful. Brookline is one of the few communities that has voted to support an increase in tax to fund fire, police, public works and school programs. While it's not without significant controversy, at least we haven't cut school programs this year.

3) All of the information (found below) on the national housing downturn seems to point to us as one of the bright shining stars. Cambridge is suffering as an adjoining suburb to Boston and we're thriving in some areas and fully holding our own in others.

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Pay me to put a plastic combo box on your front door.

We've all seen them, the lovely 6, 8 or 10 button combination lockboxes that many listing agents throughout the country use. Well, guess what...in Brookline they're the sign of an agent who does not work in our market. I personally don't get the lockbox thing. The premise is you hire me to sell your house (paying me 2.5%+) and I'm going to sit on my couch with my dog just allowing people to traipse through your home (and all of your possessions) unsupervised. We've studied the numbers enough to know that Open Houses are simply tools for a listing agent to meet potential future clients, so by placing a lockbox on your property I'm simply using you to market myself and when it comes time to actually sell your house, I leave it to that handy little gadget pictured above. Nothing tells you how to get to a supermarket or the best way to commute to work like those plastic little buttons. You can't beat the advice and neighborhood insight you get from an often rusted spare set of front door keys.

To you lockboxers....yes, you complain all the time about having to schedule "accompanied showings" here in Brookline. Well, guess what?!?! My job is to be there when you want to see the house. When you drive in from Wellesely, Somerville, Natick....or you work for dial-an-agent.com realty I can promise you that you have not immersed yourself in the neighborhood to know what has recently sold, what has failed to sell, and WHY your buyer should (or should not) buy in this neighborhood. We hear over and over and over again that "real estate is local." I've got pages and pages of stats on this blog that prove that. So, if it's so local and you're driving in from Metro-West, shouldn't you expect a local expert there to help give you the information needed to answer the important questions on the spot?

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More cars, fewer parking spaces in Coolidge Corner.

I took Tessie for a walk last night and noticed that my old parking lot off of Centre Street has suddenly doubled their number of Zip Car spots to start the month. This is right on the heels of a feature on NBC Nightly News about the increased usage around the country.

In urban areas, the Zipcar takes off

While I support a greater reliance on "shared" transportation, I know this particular parking lot was a vital resource for those of us who do not own or have assigned rights to parking spots. This is likely to increase prices for parking spots in an already high-demand area.

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World Series Trophy and Links

The World Series Trophy will be in Brookline tomorrow (Thursday the 26th).

In the news this week Mass housing prices have fallen 8.6% from last year, but Brookline's numbers are doing very well.

I was quoted in the cover story from the Homes section in The Boston Globe on Sunday. In essence, the question was whether or not an expensive garden would impact a sales price. My extended opinion is while it might not directly impact a sale price for a house it would help differentiate a house from competition in a crowded marketplace. From there, that might save the seller time and money in moving onto the next phase of their life.

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Appointments by Text

Increasingly I see agents offering home appointments by text message. Mainly these offers are broker to broker, but as a home buyer would you feel comfortable texting to set up an appointment? As a seller's agent I'd want to have a phone conversation with the person coming to visit to make sure they are a "qualified" buyer first, but am I the only one?

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Goings on in Brookline

Tomorrow is the start of one of my favorite Brookline events. The weekly Farmers Market is open between 1:30 and 6:00ish. While the offerings were a little sparse at the beginning last year, the market quickly filled with farm stand favorites. In addition to vegetables there is usually a great selection of baked goods, meats, cheeses and my personal favorite fresh fish brought in from the docks that morning. The best part about the fish is it can be pre-ordered up until 6 AM the morning of. Stop by and see Cyndi (the "Fish Lady") and all of the other great offerings. The market will run through the fall allowing for a great mix of in-season produce. The market is held in the Centre Street West parking lot (Centre Street at Beacon Street).


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At what point have you asked for too much?

One thing that is coming out of this "new" market we're all experiencing is a new wave of empowerment from buyers. In so many ways this is a good thing as it's brought balance back into the housing economy. In the past so many buyers acted out of a slight fear that negotiating on a house would leave them without any housing options. As a result of this new reality we are seeing the quality of sold houses increase. All of that being said, how much "negotiating" is too much?

For example: You walk into a house and see a cracked window, an old boiler, and a kitchen that needs upgrades. As you're walking through the seller's agent identifies these "known issues" to you(in the form of a written seller's disclosure). You then make an offer on that house with your offer price taking into account what you've seen.

Is it now appropriate to ask for full repair/replacement of these items, at the seller's expense, post-inspection?

Many buyers today are absolutely asking for these things.

One thing we know when we price homes is there is a cost premium asked for (and paid) for brand new construction. So, is it appropriate for the buyer to assume that once they've made their offer on a re-sale the sellers will upgrade their property to "new construction" levels?

As a buyers agent I would always ask, but in reality I know as a sellers agent, as long as the issues have been disclosed the Home Inspection Contingency is intended only for "unknown" issues. The renegotiation done post-inspection is supposed to identify anything that both parties discovered during the inspection only.

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The Reality Disconnect

I've been fortunate enough to do some local traveling recently and it's caused me to focus in on a fundamental hurdle the Brookline market is facing.

How many Brookline buyers are current Brookline residents?

How many Brookline sellers are staying in Brookline?

Where are our buyers coming from and where are our sellers going?

In discussing these questions with people in my office it's clear that only 10%-20% of the clients we work with are "second-time" Brookline buyers. It makes sense that someone who lives in the "average" condo in Brookline - a $475,000 two bedroom - or the "average" house - a $1.1 million 3 or 4 bedroom needs somewhere to "step-up" to. These two average properties point to some of the fundamental difficulty. How many buyers can move from the average condo to the average house? Very few, if any.

So, the difficulty buyers and sellers are having right now is the realities they live in are in a disconnect. Buyers coming into Brookline are coming from a real estate environment VERY different from what we have here. They might hear the stats from qualified and experienced agents, but they still have to go home and experience the reality of their own neighborhoods. In most cases those other realities are stagnant sales and crumbling prices. Somehow, speaking as an agent, we need to rebuild the trust in buyer agency as a highly experienced and trusted resource. Buyers also need to do their homework and find someone they can trust to work with. Yes, there are so many internet resources out there to help introduce home buyers to the property in their search area, but nothing can substitute for the experience of a well versed professional.



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A look by square footage at today's market.

I've put together a side by side analysis of what has happened to the Brookline Condo market by square footage. We always break down pricing and how much each price range has shifted, but none of us live in a price range. We all live in a condo or home that is a defined (we hope) square footage. The column on the left is 2008 year to date. The column on the right is the same period of 2007. The data source is MLSPIN. Feel free to contact me with any questions. To see the full size image, click on the text.




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If you're in Brookline...

There's a lot going on in Brookline over the coming weeks. The famous farmers market will start up again soon(get the fish!) but this weekend is something you should not pass up. The Coolidge Corner Arts Festival is on Saturday and it looks like the weather will be fabulous. There is also a new Brookline Food Festival, so if you're around, I highly recommend stopping by. For more info see the TAB article here.