Honored

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE CONTACT: (GREG KIELY/617-383-4480)

BROOKLINE REALTOR® ACCEPTED IN THE PRESTIGIOUS LEADERSHIP ACADEMY OF

THE MASSACHUSETTS ASSOCIATION OF REALTORS®

(Waltham, MA.) – Greg Kiely of William Raveis Real Estate, has been accepted into the 2010-2011 class of the Massachusetts Association of Realtors® (MAR) Leadership Academy.

Established in 2004, the MAR Leadership Academy has been created to nurture and train individuals who aspire to become active volunteer leaders in the REALTORS® association, and/or civic and charitable organziations. Utilizing a combination individual study, groups sessions, team-building exercises and personal profile analyses, the intense 8-day program over 4 business retreats will teach attendees important leadership and life skills that may be applied to both their business practice and any future leadership roles they may assume within the REALTOR® organization.

Specifically, academy participants can expect to gain stronger communication skills, learn the critical elements of network and coalition-building, and receive valuable instruction on goal-setting and strategic business planning techniques.

A total of 8 Realtors® have been chosen to participate in this elite 2010-2011 academy class, which will graduate in May. Participants were first required to submit a written application, then appeared before a selection committee to complete a personal interview with past and present MAR leadership.

"William Raveis Wins the Gold"

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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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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Can I buy without my Buyer's Agent?

The following question gets posed very frequently:

"Can I buy a home I saw without using the agent who showed it to me?"

The answer is (consult an attorney in specific cases) you are free to buy a place you want, but that agent very likely has a right to the "co-broke" commission either way.

So, my question is: What do buyers gain by not having their own representation?

Why is it that buyers frequently decide to go it alone? I've heard all of the snippy "the agent is only in it for the maximum commission dollar" arguments, but let's get serious here. What is there to gain by not having any representation? I'm asking here, not stating opinion. I think many "experienced" agents who gained their experience before Buyer Agency really came into its own are still adapting to it and I want to hear from you where you think agents aren't serving the buyer.

Who would you rather have?

I was in a doctor's office a little while ago discussing a surgical procedure and my physician suggested I speak to one of his younger colleagues about any new surgical options. The premise was that the younger physician was closest to Med School and the emerging trends and technologies. So, how does this apply to real estate? I'm not going to pretend for a second that buying or selling a home is as risky or complex as surgery, but it does cost a whole lot more money and the money alone carries a big risk if the process is mishandled. So, who would you rather have?

Agent A: Has been in the market for 25 years and has a wonderful network of customers and clients, but does not participate in online marketing of homes or use the latest technology tools to expose a listing to the consumer population or search the detailed online records for their buying clients.

or

Agent B: Has been in the business 3-5 years but has an innate understanding of the technology trends, has the tools to be constantly accessible and can answer any number of questions on the spot with the help of the latest marketplace resources. This agent also uses e-marketing and social networking to help "virally" market your home.

Who would you rather work with, and does it change if you're buying rather than selling?

The Listing Price Fallacy

What exactly is a listing price? We have many conversations about prices of homes and negotiations with buyers and sellers often get contentious when discussing listing prices. Why?

We all know that a listing price is the price which sellers hope to get. In fact, the listing price is the only price that a listing agent can suggest offering without failing their fiduciary responsibilities for their client (which is the failure of "dual agency"). That being said, why is it that all properties don't sell for 100% of the listing price then?

The "price" of a house is not controllable by the seller in any way. "Price" is determined by the value association the interested buyers place on it. So what is an "asking/list price?"

The list price of a property must be seen by sellers as nothing more than a marketing tool for their property. It is the goal of every seller, with the assistance of their agent, to market the property in a way which will attract the highest concentration of potentially interested and qualified buyers. Once interested those buyers, with the assistance of their agent, will compare the relative value offered by that property to what is currently available on the market and then make the value judgment. This value judgment is a subjective analysis tied to the desires of each individual buyer. Your house might be the only one with two deeded garage parking spaces, but if you live in a one bedroom and are attracting young professionals who don't own multiple cars, the $60,000 cost of two garage parking spaces might not be worth it to the buyer. That $60,000 might get them an additional bedroom elsewhere. So, in essence, your listing price has to reflect your current competition, the perceived value of your home relative to the market and many other factors that unfortunately a seller does not have control of. The only thing the seller can control is the condition of their property. If your home is presentable and you have maintained it well you can create a competitive advantage for yourself. You cannot move your home from a busy street. You cannot knock down or replace the building next door. Unless you know someone powerful you cannot make yourself any closer to public transportation.

What does this all mean? You must take your desires as sellers with a grain of salt. We all want the highest offer possible. The way to get this is to pick a competitive listing price, not necessarily a high listing price. Competition raises prospects for everyone. The stronger you can compete in the market the better your results will be.

A day in the life of...

Everybody knows that if somebody got to live a day in their job they would suddenly have significantly more respect for that job and the people who do it. I happen to work in a field that fills its own section of the newspaper, gets the "most emailed" status on Boston.com on a regular basis and generates millions upon millions of dollars in advertising revenue for all sorts of people and businesses. I spent a whole sick-day (we don't actually get those) on my couch watching real estate tv shows on about seven different networks. Obviously people are interested, and many think they know what goes into the process. What gets overlooked often is that the majority of the country hasn't actually worked with a REALTOR in the last 5+ years. For some, jobs don't change much in 5 years. I can tell you right now that the way I have to do my job has changed a lot in the last 5 months. So, I'll risk boring the 30-50 people who will see this today by describing a day in the life of a REALTOR.

6:15 AM - Up with the dog and a check of the Broker Open House schedule for mid-day.

8:00 AM - Tessie goes to Doggy Day Care every Wednesday to free me up for Broker Tour and our in-office afternoon round-table training session.

8:15 AM - I can't speak for America, but I run on Dunkin'

8:45 AM - Arrive at the office for "floor time." To ensure informed people are available to answer the phone in our office we each have 1-2 three hour time slots a week in which we sit at the front desk and take "floor calls."

9:15 AM - Confirm final list for Broker Tour and make sure my listing is positioned well on the list.

9:30 AM - Prepare Sunday Globe Ad. We try to advertise 3 out of every 4 weekends in print and then distribute to all of the various sites. Our Globe ads usually generate 1 out of 8 open house guests each weekend. This is a major expense and a big answer to "where does the 5% go" question. Unfortunately Globe ads are seen more by sellers checking up on their agents and less by the buyers who might be interested in taking a look.

9:45-10:45 - Scan the major listing search sites like Craigslist, Trulia, Zillow, etc... and make sure that the listing information is accurate and up to date. While I do this I cross reference the MLS listing and the LINK (Downtown Boston MLS) listing. If I get the listing into LINK by Wednesday the open house will be featured in the weekend version of Boston Homes.

10:45-12:00 - Review of new, price changed, expired, withdrawn and under agreement property on MLS. While Thursday is a good day to add most property, the savvy agents will post on Wednesday to get a pre-Open House buzz going during broker tours. Also, since most Globe ads are due by the end of the day a lot of the price changes will go into the computer system today. I use the new information to touch base with my selling clients to use for pricing comparison. For my buyer clients I try to put in initial phone calls on listings that look like they might be potential matches. Without the benefit of going to weekend Open Houses to view available property it is critical that I know as much as possible at all times what has changed about the marketplace. The two listing presentations I've done this week would not have been possible without knowing this information off the top of my head.

12:30-2:00 - Broker Open House at my listing. This once or twice monthly opening is essential to allow brokers to not only preview the listing and hopefully mention it to their buyers, but more importantly to gain their feedback on pricing and condition. I build a list of comments that I try to convey to the seller. These comments help us make any changes in advance of the open house leaving my sellers in a good position to compete with the other listings in their range.

2:15-3:15 - Weekly office round-table discussion about market strategies and difficulties. This week we discussed methods for developing an appropriate amount of urgency on the part of buyers or sellers who might be on the fence.

3:30 - 4:30 - Returning phone calls on showing requests and feedback from my buyers' viewings of other listings over the weekend. Friday - Sunday get very busy so Wednesday and Thursday are the only prep days we get for the weekend. Tomorrow morning I'll have to produce all of my print marketing for the Open House and showings. I'll also be in a meeting of the Greater Boston Association of REALTORS Tech Committee, so this phone time is a critical element to ensuring my schedule is freed for my clients.

5:00 - 7:30 - This is the time left open most days for after-work showings. Most buyers in the initial phases of their search don't take time off from work to view property the first time. Any time they become interested in a specific property a daytime second showing will usually occur.


While every day is different in real estate, and most days are a reflection of the needs of the specific clients I am working with at the time I try to stick to this template as much as possible. In the past the prevalent attitude was less focused on the constant evaluation of active listings because listings didn't remain active that long. Today the average days on market is close to 100 and there is a constant effort needed by all parties to make sure that time frame stays as small as possible.

What do you Expect from a Real Estate Website?

Today I was asked to attend a vendor presentation about real estate websites in my role as Vice-Chairman of the Greater Boston Association of REALTORS Technology Committee. It got me thinking about what agents and brokerages use for websites to speak to consumers. There is a "Web 2.0" initiative going on throughout the National Association of REALTORS. The industry as a whole needs to keep up with the technology in order to stay relevant in the mind of the new generation of consumers.

So, what is it that the "new generation" wants? In the interest of full disclosure, I'm 27 years old. I believe I might fit in the "next" new generation because many people my age aren't yet buying homes. When it came time for me to have a website I invested significant capital in "branding" myself. My first website in the business was nothing special at all. It had a search tool and a mechanism for daily email updates of MLS changes. It had some stock photography and little sections for me to tell about myself. There were no blogs, widgets, ect... In fact, the mapping tool was still Yahoo! Maps which I think stopped being relevant in 1999. Now most sites have similar next-generation map search tools, don't require log-ins, and give you minute by minute updates. So, for my website I decided to tell a story about me. I no longer view myself as the gatekeeper to the property information. You will not come to me simply for property or open house information. You will hopefully come to me because I am a specialist in a very specific segment of the market. My goal is to provide you a window into who I am so you will in turn be able to feel comfortable contacting me.

My pet peeves in agent sites are things like:

Servicing: Arlington, Belmont, Boston, Boston-Allston, Boston-Back Bay, Boston-Beacon Hill, Boston-Brighton, Boston-Charlestown, Boston-Dorchester, Boston-East Boston, Boston-Hyde Park, Boston-Jamaica Plain, Boston-Mattapan, Boston-Midtown, Boston-Mission Hill, Boston-North End, Boston-Roslindale, Boston-Roxbury, Boston-South Boston, Boston-South End, Boston-The Fenway, Boston-Waterfront, Boston-West Roxbury, Brookline, Cambridge, Everett, Malden, Medford, Natick, Needham, Newton, Newton-Auburndale, Newton-Chestnut Hill, Newton-Newton Center, Newton-Newton Highlands, Newton-Newton Upper Falls, Newton-Newtonville, Newton-Nonantum, Newton-Waban, Newton-West Newton, Quincy, Quincy-North Quincy, Somerville, Waltham, Watertown

Seriously?!?! Are you "servicing" anything? The site I pulled this from has no picture on it other than a mug shot (a.k.a. an agent Headshot) and has no differentiating content. Yes, this agent is "well known and trusted" just go ahead and take their word for it. They'll tell you exactly why you should live in Allston or Everett or West Newton because that's what their little auto-generated service area message tells you.

So, consumers: What are you looking for in a real estate website? For the many agents who read me: Why have you decided to go with one type of site over another?

Who protects the renter?

Back when I was moving up to Boston I was working on a project to develop commercial property outside of Massachusetts and wanted to find a "day job" that meshed with those interests. I knew we were moving up here because my wife was going to be in a Ph.D. program in the Medical Area. We had one week in which she had to decide which program to accept and find suitable housing. I spent time on Craig's List searching for rental listings, and called with about 10 days notice to make appointments for the property I wanted to see. I also explained to the agents that we only had 48 hrs to find a place to live, and we absolutely had to have something rented before we left. Rental agent's dream, right?

Here's what the agent never told me: All rental agents are representing the landlord, and only the landlord. It didn't matter to them what I wanted, it only mattered to them what they were able to get for their client. It's funny that on the sales end of real estate transactions we have disclosure forms for everything. The very first time you sit down with an agent it is MANDATORY that you sign a disclosure form that explains the different forms of agency in Massachusetts. It's called the "Mandatory Agency Disclosure Form" and I can bet that more than 75% of you have never seen it before (that's an issue for another day). Yet, when you're looking to rent an apartment, nobody really takes the time to explain who they're representing, and what your options are. You find the place you like, do all of the shopping yourself, get to negotiating the lease, and you're working against the landlord and their agent. You don't have anyone on your side explaining to you what other similar units rented for, or what other options you should ask for (parking included, etc...) and paying the fee. The amazing part of it is landlords and their agents have been able to pull this scam on the public that the "customer" should pay the fee that the landlord negotiated with their agent. To clarify, the agent is working for the landlord, but you are paying for that work.

So, you go sign a lease, and you have a problem with something in the unit, you try to call the agent who "helped you" and you find out they really can't help you at all. You're not their client. It baffles me to no end that in a state so focused on tenants' rights there is nobody in the transaction that is allowed to represent the tenant. The more amusing thing is that while buyer representation is so common now in sales transactions, the rental agents who work side by side with the sales agents cannot fathom exclusively representing a tenant in their search. I hope this is something that changes soon, because rental agents are the first line of agents that consumers usually come in contact with. I decided I should become an agent because I saw how poorly I was treated in my search. I still remember the abysmal service a certain Newbury St. agent gave me, and she is my daily reminder of how I should strive to service my clients' needs. If I didn't get in the business my opinion of all agents would be awful, all because of that first rental agent.

Have you ever sold a car?

I attended a training program last week that I was reminded of yesterday. As many of you might not know, Wednesdays are "Broker Tours" for Brookline property. Since many agents are busy with clients and customers on the weekends, Wednesday is the day we get to preview listings in an open house style visit. I walked into a new listing near Brookline Village and was greeted by a dirty, empty room and wood floors in absolutely horrible condition. If this were a vacant condo I could overlook the emptiness, but the owners were still living here. They had all of their furniture crammed into the two bedrooms and the living room, and had a lovely dining room space that was bare and dusty.

My question: Have they ever sold a car?

When you sell or trade in a car you most likely spend the day before bringing it to the dealership getting the car detailed, cleaned inside and out and repair any nagging issues. You make sure that the second you drive into the dealership the car is looking better than it ever has. The papers and leaves are all removed, the floor mats are clean, and everything looks and smells shiny and new. You take a little extra time because you know that it will directly improve the price someone's willing to pay.

So why is it that homeowners don't do these things? I know in some cases I am preaching to the choir, but there is this mentality out there that lets people think they can just throw a sign on their lawn, open the door and leave it to the agent to work magic. Then, if it doesn't sell the agent must be a failure. In this case the homeowner has given the agent absolutely no shot. The first impression someone gets by walking into this condo is that it's been neglected. The owners don't care, they're not willing to do the things necessary to show the condo. How willing are these owners going to be to negotiate? Are they even serious about selling? All of a sudden these are the things going through our head, not "wow, does this space fit what I'm hoping to find?"

Instead of sitting there making jokes about the condition of the property I went around with another agent and took a look at what furniture was available for the empty room. While it was clearly a dining space at one point we were able to find a desk, a lovely chair, a bookshelf and some end tables which turned this barren, dirty space into a lovely sitting room and office. We did not spend a penny, we did not disrupt the homeowner at all, and we did it all in about 20 minutes. Now all of a sudden the horrible floors didn't stand out so much, the space looked livable and the condo felt like maybe it could become someone's home. We uncluttered an overcrowded bedroom by removing the desk and shelf, we added flow to the living room by moving the chair and we most likely brought the value of this space back in line with the asking price the sellers were hoping to get. This is staging. This is why you need an agent who understands property around you. This is why I spend my valuable time earning certifications like my Home Staging Specialist designation.

Next time you are about to display your house to the public, think about selling a car and compare your preparation. It will make you money.

Property news as we go into the "off-season."

As we approach the busy shopping and family visiting time of year, properties like The Warwick and Washington on the Square will most likely get more aggressive in marketing their final batches of units. Last year, when I was one of the listing agents for the Warwick, the busiest week we had was the week immediately before Christmas. That Saturday morning we were able to put 4 condos under agreement. I point this out because as buyers, you should still feel comfortable putting property under agreement if it fits the quality of life you are looking for. In fact, you might just find that the seller is more willing to negotiate in these upcoming weeks than they will in early January with the prospects of the "Spring Market" around the corner.

As you go about your holiday preparations, please consider me a resource. Having represented buildings like the Warwick as well as many other properties in and around Brookline, if there is a question about something you have seen, I will do my best to answer it. I spend much of my time during the week previewing new listings (most of the time before they hit MLS) and will be more than happy to try to point you in the right direction.

Who "sells" the house?

I am currently in the middle of an in-depth training program to become a "Certified Home Staging" expert and an interesting discussion came up in our down-time today. Many times a homeowner will call an agent, sign a listing agreement and then tell their agent to go "sell" their house. My question to you is... who sells the house?

Here is my take on the question:

You, the homeowner, have a product that you are bringing to a competitive market. You control the "product" but I control the image of that product. So who is more directly responsible for having the house sell (or not sell)?

Well, one way to look at my job as a listing agent is to break it down into four primary functions.

1) I must take the house you own and position it competitively within its market.

2) I must facilitate access to your home and focus on refining the public exposure and marketing of your home.

3) Once an offer is presented I must present the merits of the offer within its relation to your goals and the current market conditions. I will then present you the data from which we will build the case for your counter-offer. Finally I will deliver the counter-offers in a manner consistent with maintaining an amicable relationship with the potential buyers and their agent.

4) Finally, I will facilitate and manage the conditions agreed to within any offer and subsequent Purchase & Sale Agreement. This includes inspection contingencies, fire department inspections, appraisals, mortgage contingencies, and a pre-closing walk-through.

These are four major sections of the transaction, and each one of them has many smaller functions tied to them. For example, we need to make sure that we are pricing realistically for current market conditions. It would make no sense for me to give you numbers from April to price a November listing. You need better data than that. Second, bringing in a staging expert (someone certified) to consult with you and present a multi-tiered plan of attack for presenting the house to the public is critical. You, the seller, will be tasked with taking the staging tips and pricing data and coming up with an appropriate listing price based on how much work you're willing to put into the presentation of the house. While we're doing the "pre-launch" work we will most likely bring in someone to draw up floor plans and hire a professional photographer to highlight the feature elements of your home. We will also start working on a catered event designed to draw interest from your immediate neighbors. We might use this event to demonstrate some of the creative staging elements we have tried to incorporate in your marketing plan.

These, and so many other critical details, are just part of the listing package we agree to. As with so many contracted relationships, work must be done by both parties to ensure we make the strongest impression possible. If you are wondering why your house has not sold yet, take a look at some of these and match them with the efforts you've made on your behalf. Remember, at the end of the day I am tasked to facilitate and represent the sale of your home, but you are the one selling. Make sure you're taking an active role in the process!

I know what you're saying, but what do you mean?

There is so much talk these days about the real estate market, pricing changes and trends, and all things related to our most precious investment. What does it mean? What numbers should we pay attention to and what should we not worry about?

Statement 1: "The real estate market has dropped close to 20% nationally."

Response: There are areas of the country that are being hit very hard right now. Some of the largest losses are in Florida and California.

Statement 2: "The media has story after story about how bad the market is, how can it possibly be good?"

Response: Compared to the 3rd quarter of last year, our total number of condominiums sold increased 15.6%. The median prices increased 3.0%. The average days on market is down two days and the total inventory remaining on the market is down 18.9%. The single family sales numbers are far and away better than the condos. Please contact me if you want the full breakdown.

Comment: So, what does this mean?

Response: Buyers and sellers need to take a good hard look at the numbers. Right now we are in "stand-off" mode. Buyers are going to properties and saying "I'm not going to pay that price because the market is down." It is critical for buyers to take a good look at property simply for how it fits the lifestyle they want and then have their buyer's agent negotiate the proper price for it. Sellers, you need to make sure you are absolutely attuned to the sensitivity of the market right now and take your best shot pricing your property from the start. Long gone are the days of "we'll try this price for a few weeks and if it doesn't sell....." Price your property to sell immediately. The worst thing that can happen is people get into a bidding war over it. Doesn't sound so bad now, does it?

We'll wait to see what numbers October brings us tomorrow, but for now Happy Halloween and take a deep breath. The sky is not falling.

What Commission Do You Charge?

It is amazing how many conversations about real estate start with that question. It baffles me to this day that this is the one field in which people think they can make a decision simply by how much money the professional practitioner will "charge" them. It gets asked other ways, like "what's your fee" and "how much will it cost me" but at the end of the day, it speaks to a backward mentality.

Let's run through an exercise here: You get a big bonus at work this holiday season and you decide you want to buy a fancy new car. Let's say you spend $80,000 on that car. When it comes time for that first service are you going to go from random mechanic to mechanic and ask them what their rate is? You'll most likely take it to someone who you have heard has specific expertise with that model car, and you'll most likely pay a lot more than the random mechanic who would have done who-knows-what to your car.

An even better example is picking a place to eat dinner. Do you open the yellow pages, start at the A's and call asking "what's the price of food?" First, there are steaks and lobster which will be a whole lot more expensive than burgers and fish sticks. There will also be places which will give you $7 steak and I seriously doubt you would feel comfortable eating it. The simple "what's the price of food" question just makes NO sense. If you feel like a steak, you're going to the Capital Grille or Abe & Louie's.

So, what commission do I charge? It's impossible to know. I need to see what type of house or condo you have, and then we need to have a serious discussion about your pricing before we can determine how in-depth we need to get with your marketing campaign. From there, we build out a marketing calendar and we decide which types of floor plans and virtual tours you will need.

The one important thing to look at is the agent representing your sale does not get 5-6% of the sale of your house. All agents should be cooperating with buyer's agents. This usually takes half of the commission amount. Next, most agents split their commissions with their offices who pay for Globe and Boston Homes ads, certain Open House materials and other incidental costs. I will say, on average, I am looking at maybe 1.5% of the overall sale price of your house before I even start doing my own personal marketing efforts for your house (floor plans, fliers, post cards, catered broker tours, etc...). Remember, all of these things are paid up front whether your home sells or not. So yes, maybe there is someone out there willing to give you a "rebate" or "charge" you a lower commission, but I assure you the Globe isn't charging them less than me for advertising and the floor plans I pay for aren't offered to them for less money either. By hiring that agent for less money, I will ask you.....how much will that cost you?

Get Ready for Your Interview

It's Friday again, and while most of us are thinking about Cowboys and Indians, you should also start preparing for your interviews on Sunday. Stop scratching your head and think about your normal Open House behavior. There are three reasons why most people attend an Open House.

1) You're not working with an agent and you are "just starting" your search.

2) You're working with an agent and they haven't found and property to show you privately.

3) You're bored and want to walk around and see what's out there

For the first reason, this open house visit is critical. All of the people who will be involved in the decision making process should be out there looking at the same things together. You should use your time to identify key elements of each home that you like or would like to avoid (write them down!!). You should also, most importantly, start interviewing agents through their performance at Open Houses. A good agent will not be all over you. They should let you take in the atmosphere and style of the home, stand back and let you identify which questions need to be answered, and then be armed with the information you need to compare and contrast the things you're looking at with what you cannot see. Buyers so often think that they'll just walk aimlessly from listing to listing without a game plan or process for narrowing down their search. There is no more colossal waste of time in my mind. Every time you walk in the door you are interviewing either the agent or the property, and on a good match, maybe even both.

The second reason for viewing an Open House (working with an agent but they're not privately showing you property) is a symptom of the first. How did you select your agent, and once selected, did you give them a realistic list of property priorities? Did they have a buyer questionnaire for you to fill out which identifies your reasons for moving and your housing priorities? Have you seen a lot of property with them and not found a match yet? In a lot of cases, a well paired buyer and agent team should be able to look at fewer than 10 properties before finding a match.

The final reason, boredom and curiosity is actually great. It's a wonderful way to understand what is going on in the market around you, therefore making you more informed if and when you or a friend of yours decides to enter the market. Remember, it's never a bad time to start interviewing agents. You know who your physician is, your mechanic, your barber/stylist, etc... why not identify your Realtor before you need them too?

Enjoy the weekend, good luck in your interviews, and I hope you find a match!

The dangers of The Globe Real Estate section

Every week I see it. The top searches box in the upper right corner of The Globe's homepage. "Open Houses" is always at or very near the top. It's great in theory that you can just go to your local paper, enter your search criteria and not have to worry about being contacted by an agent. I mean, it makes perfect sense. I want to by a home, I go to an advertising section in a paper. I want to buy food, I can find that in the Globe too, same with clothes, or stocks, or furniture. OF COURSE NOT!

Yes, there are a lot of real estate agents out there, and sometimes contacting them will cause one of them to call you back. It's amazing that consumers like to complain about how little agents do for their money, but these same consumers go to great lengths to avoid all of the efforts those very same agents are doing.

Here's the scenario: I am a listing agent for "Property A." Before signing the listing contract I went out and did a thorough market analysis sifting through over 1200 homes which have recently sold. I've compared square footages, amenities, finishes, styles and proximity to the things we all want to be close to. I've now presented my case to the sellers. At that moment, I am the most knowledgeable person about that property and its place in the market. What gets overlooked is I can also tell you about the 5-10 closest "competitors" to this listing as I've already analyzed their square footages, amenities, etc...

Now, Mr. & Mrs. Buyer, you give me a phone call, and I determine with you that you're qualified to buy "Property A" and it seems like it might be a good fit. We arrange a meeting to go see Property A but we also take a look at the three most similar alternatives currently available. There are over 400 homes on the market, how much time did you, the buyers, have to spend researching and sifting through to come up with those alternatives? None. It's my job.

Here's the other danger with searching the Globe. It's an advertising section, and therefore only has the listings which each company has chosen to put in on that specific week. There are many properties which never have open houses (they don't really lead to property sales) and the Globe doesn't let you see that inventory.

Call an agent. They are working hard every day to preview the market, determine what the best values are, and weed out the ones that don't fit.