Renovation Road, Construction Hill?

Did I miss a memo?

Every day, on my way to and from the office, I drive down Dean Road between Beacon Street and Chestnut Hill Avenue. Recently a few houses have had little signs popping up on the front yards. Always one to see if these happen to be new listings I have closely followed the changes. These are not For Sale signs, though. It seems that all of the neighbors in this lovely Fisher Hill neighborhood have decided that it was time to renovate their homes all at once. Now, in some of them (including my favorite looking house in Brookline) the renovations seem to be confined to the inside. That being said, in many of the houses it looks like there is a major interior and exterior gut renovation.

View Larger Map
For those who don't know the Fisher Hill neighborhood well, it's a very high-end property value center that is in the area between Beacon Street(Washington Square - Cleveland Circle), Chestnut Hill Avenue and Route 9 (Boylston Street). This is not the area of Fisher Hill embroiled in the Mormon Church debate, but something seems to be going on in this lovely area of Brookline.

Email this post to a friend.

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.

Email this post to a friend.

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.

Email this post to a friend.

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.

Email this post to a friend.

Tragic results of a down market.

I came across a news story this week about an agent who was allegedly murdered by a former client while sitting in his Michigan office. According to various reports, agent Troy VanderStelt was in his office when a former client of his walked in and asked to meet with him. The pair entered a conference room when the client allegedly pulled out a hand gun and shot Mr. VanderStelt in the side of the head. The client is claimed to have been upset about the decreased value of his home. Mr. VanderStelt was 33 years old and leaves behind a wife and four children.

We have already seen people attempt to file lawsuits against their agents after their home values decreased. As far as I know all of these claims have been dismissed by the courts thus far. At the end of the day, I cannont promise what every buyer's agent does, but I know that I make it fully clear to all of my clients that the buying decision is 100% theirs. An agent is only a consultant in the process. This is a tragic extreme example of the emotions caused by today's market pressures. We hope for the best for the family members, and keep this always in the back of our minds when interracting with consumers who, in many cases, have their entire life savings and earnings tied to their housing.

Email this post to a friend.