(Uplifting colorful Spring flowers, candles and artful appointments throughout the house while on the market in the winter can do the trick!)
It's mid-January and it's cold, gray and snowy. The department stores are filled with discounted merchandise left unpurchased during the holiday season and not looking particularly fresh, shiny or new! Unfortunately, the same can be said of some of the current housing inventory. While we have seen some sales in December 2012 and early January 2013, it is likely that there are several homes still left "on the shelf".
If your home is one of these, it is important for in selling your home to keep it looking fresh and "new to the market". As much as you might like to stop making the beds, cleaning up the clutter and shoveling the walkway, these are all critical to the buyer's view of your property. Keep those closets organized and stay vigilant about household disorder and odors. Keep fresh flowers on the table, fluff the pillows, light the lights and play soft music - it all forms an impression on the buyer. If you are on the market through seasonal changes, be sure that your real estate agent takes new photos of the home. Do not become that property that has flowering trees in its photo while snow is piled high outside our windows!
Every buyer deserves to see your property at its best. Follow these guidelines and you will likely see a return on your investment pretty quickly and your home won't be left on the shelf with the other unsold merchandise.
Download our Smarter Seller Guide for more valuable home selling tips:
If you are selling your home in the summer, the hot summer weather may pose a challenge. How do you help buyers ignore the heat and concentrate on enjoying your home especially during an open house?
Here is the first tip… if you don’t have central air and you know it is going to be a hundred degrees in the shade, don’t have an open house. Yes, that’s right, don’t have an open house. A buyer seeing a house alone on a hot day is enough of an issue, but a collective of people, all hot and bothered, complaining about the heat and bouncing off of each other is worse.
If you are having an open house (despite advice to the contrary), create as much air circulation as you can. Do leave fans running in rooms that are the hottest and have the windows open. You are not fooling anyone by hiding the fans away as though they are not needed, make the buyers as comfortable as they can be in your home.
Maximize your cool temperatures by keeping the sun out prior to the open house with any blinds and curtains drawn. Open the house to the sun for the open house, but not before.
Be sure to schedule your Open House for an earlier time slot, maybe 11-12 rather than 2-3 when the day will be at its hottest.
Avoid generating heat prior to the open house. Do not take a long hot shower just before you open the doors. Do not turn on the oven for a fresh baked cookie smell etc.
Do offer your guests a water bottle on ice. Not only will it cool them down, but the nice gesture will leave a favorable impression on them as they leave your home.
Find other great sellers tips and info in our Smarter Seller Guide at www.avenue3re.com
Download Free Home Selling Kit
Find tips on selling your home by downloading our very informative Smarter Seller Kit
Whether you are selling a condo in Cambridge MA, a single family home in Arlington MA or a two family home in Somerville MA, when it comes time to put your beloved abode on the market, you will begin to hear about “home staging”. Why, you ask, why do I have to ‘stage’ it when I already live in it. Well, you have sort of answered your own question right there. The space we live in, with our pet odors, our coats hung on chairs, our chipping paint, our overgrown lawns and bulging closets may not be the space the buyer wants to live in.
Staging is intended to create a space that feels new – clean, bright, uncluttered – a space that a buyer feels they could fit into – neutral and welcoming - and a space that is ready for them to move in – clean, and in good repair.
You do not always have to redo a kitchen, in fact, nothing gives you more return on your investment than the ‘magic of mulch’ and the ‘power of paint’ to create an impression of clean, new, interiors and exteriors. Check out this article at HGTV.com for great home staging tips! Or, view other properties in your area to check out their home staging at www.avenue3re.com.
I am not a fan of the Dining room table being set, scented candles and the smell of cookies baking in the oven, but a bit of effort on your part can bring you tremendous rewards with a quicker, more lucrative sale of your home!
Selling a home in Massachusetts? Start here by downloading our very informative Kit:
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What is my best advice for buying a home and selling another home at the same time? It is the 2:00 am test. You have been sleeping, you wake up at 2:00 am and think (a) OMG, I bought a house and I have not sold this one…I could be stuck with two mortgages until I can get this property sold or, (b) OMG I sold this house and I have nowhere to live once it closes, I might need to rent and move twice. Good stuff. What you need to decide is which is more palatable for you.
Unfortunately, in order to succeed with buying a home and selling a home at the same time, you must, at some point, “step into the void” to get from one property to another. Buying before selling entails the possibility of owning two properties at the same time- something most folks cannot afford as their banks are only to happy to tell them. The upside of buying a home before selling your current home is that you potentially have more control of the transaction. You cannot control the inventory of homes to choose from as a buyer, but you can lower the price on your home for sale, in order to meet the market and speed up the sale process.
Selling a home before buying may mean that you don’t find your new home in the time alloted in your contracrt and you might have to rent for the short term, moving twice to get to your new home. The upside is that you have your money in the bank from your sale, and you know exactly what you have to spend on a new home – with plenty of time to find it.
Either way it seems a daunting process, however, be comforted by the knowledge that in my 20+ years of real estate sales, no one has ever had to rent or face two mortgages – not sure if that is kismet or extreme motivation but it always seems to work out!
Karen Lilley, Principal
For more info on buying and selling a home download our Better Buyer and Smarter Seller Kits.
Download Free Home Buying Kit
Find tips on buying a home by downloading our very informative Better Buyer Kit.
Download Free Home Selling Kit
Find tips on selling your home by downloading our very informative Smarter Seller Kit
You might think that the Winter months are a poor time to sell a home. Conventional wisdom would try to convince you that the weather is bad, the buyers are in hibernation and it is best to wait until Spring. Well, not every year!
The weather, well, in case you had not noticed, the weather this year has been extremely mild. Without the frequent weekend storms of last winter, buyers are free to spend time house hunting rather than shoveling. Not to mention the funds they have saved by not buying extra boots, hats, scarfs, snow melt, shovels, heating oil etc.
As far as the buyers being in hibernation, not this year. The market last Fall was extraordinarily quiet. There is a back log of buyers who have hit the market running. A single family home listed by Avenue 3 real estate this past weekend in Arlington was the recipient of three offers within 48 hours! And this property is not alone, many well priced listings have been received with the same enthusiasm.
Conventional wisdom point #3, wait until the busy Spring market. Why would you wait to be in competition with everyone else putting their home on the market in Spring. Selling a home in the Winter months gives you the advantage of less competition – your home will not get lost in the crowd of new listings hitting the market each week and a greater number of buyers may pay attention to it. In addition, mortgage rates traditionally trend upward in the Spring, making your home just a bit more expensive.
So, our advice, throw conventional wisdom out the window and take advantage of our hot market in the cold months by selling your home this February – it’s hot!
For information on what your home may be worth in today’s market, contact us at Avenue3re.com or call us at 617-520-6603.
See who else is on the market in your area with the easy Avenue3PropertySearch
Download Our Free Home Selling Kit
Find tips on selling your home by downloading our very informative Smarter Seller Kit
Selling a home in Massachusetts is not the easiest thing to do. First you have to find an agent to work with and then you need to navigate the selling process. Unlike other states, selling a home in Massachusetts is a multi stage process. First, you list the property for sale, then work through the Offer to Purchase, the Home Inspection, the Purchase and Sale Agreement , Mortgage and Closing.
Along the way you will be asked to sign many forms and contracts. Some of these are issued by the State of Massachusetts, like the Mandatory Licensee Consumer Relationship Disclosure, and the Property Transfer Lead Paint Notification. Others are issued by the Greater Boston Real Estate Board or the real estate company with which you are working. These may include Exclusive Listing Agreements or the Offer to Purchase itself.
If you are thinking of selling a home in the near future, give yourself a head start by reading these forms before you are in the middle of a transaction. Avenue 3 provides you with a free kit of real estate forms and contracts that you are likely to see. You will have plenty of time to understand them and learn how to they affect your home selling process.
Download our free Real Estate Forms Kit for Sellers to see the forms and contracts involved in selling a home in Massachusetts. If you have any questions regarding these or other forms or contracts, please do not hesitate to contact us with your questions.
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OCTOBER 25, 2011
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194 pending sales this week in the Boston Metro West area up 39 from the previous week! In Arlington MA, Boston MA and Waltham MA sales were up significantly. A relatively steady fall market so far!
Why follow pending sales info? Click on the link below for a brief expalnation of why this info is can be helpful to you as a future buyer or seller:
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Source: MLSPIN
Thinking of buying or selling in 2012?
Start here by looking at all the current listings: Avenue 3 Property Search.
Be prepared: Download our Better Buyer Kit or Smarter Seller Kit |
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Avenue 3 Real Estate posts pending sales in the Boston and Metro West area each week from information complied from the Multiple Listing Service. Click on the button below if you would like to recieve this info weekly:
The term “pending sales” refers to real estate that has had an offer accepted but has not yet made it to closing. The property is technically off the market, (no longer available to another buyer) but is in a state of limbo as the seller waits for the buyer to get their mortgage and finalize the transaction for closing. During this time, the actual sale price of the property is not divulged but is kept confidential until the closing takes place. So, if we don’t know the actual price, why are pending sales important?
For Buyers, following pending sales offers two valuable bits of information. First, the number of pending sales in any community is a great indicator of which communities are having success with home sales – right up to the minute. Too often, housing figures that are quoted in the media are outdated – last year, last quarter, etc. Pending sales have just happened. They are a great up to the minute revelation of the number of real estate sales taking place. Secondly, while the exact sales price of the pending properties is not known, you can see what the asking price was at the time an offer was accepted. This helps to give you a general sense of values in a particular community.
For Sellers, pending sales serve similar purposes. Considering the prices of pending properties will help a seller determine a marketing price for their own home. While sold properties in your area may have closed 6 months ago, weighing these values with the up to the minute pending sales prices will help achieve a more accurate pricing picture. In addition, pending sales are the indicator for what is called the “absorption rate” of homes similar to the one you are selling. The absorption rate is arrived at by comparing the number of homes like yours that were available for sale at any point in time, and determining how many sold in that time frame and how long it took them to sell. If there are twenty homes on the market like yours and only 2 have sold in the past year, your absorption rate is low and your property pricing should reflect this fact. Conversely, if there are 2 homes like yours on the market and 20 have sold in the past six months, your absorption rate is high and you may have an easier sale ahead.
Don’t short change the Pending Sales category! Receive weekly pending sales info on towns in Boston Metro West with Avenue 3’s Week in Review. Sign up today, there is a lot to be learned from this market indicator!
Download Free Home Buying Kit
Find tips on buying a home by downloading our very informative Better Buyer Kit.
Is the fall market a good time to buy? Should you buy in the spring market when traditionally there is more inventory to choose from? Should you buy in the summer market when fewer buyers are braving the heat to visit open houses? Should you wait for the winter when those fabled few, brave and desperate sellers are said to be on the market?
What about the fall? Well, the fall market has its advantages as well.
1. Leftovers. Some of the Fall inventory will be homes that have not sold thus far in the year. These may be properties that have been priced too high to sell and are just now coming into the range of pricing reality - a good buy for the ready buyer.
2. Serious Sellers. The fall market is no time to fool around, typically any seller new to the market is serious about selling and not just fishing for that one buyer who will pay just what the seller believes their home is worth.
3. Short Season. Another motivator for sellers to price any new listing on the market correctly is the shorter selling season of the fall. Unlike the spring market which seems endless, the fall season has the trap door of the "Holidays" giving the season a definitive end - sellers beware, buyers benefit!
So, this Fall, pick some apples, take a foliage ride, and take a look at homes for sale in Arlington MA, condos in Somerville MA and multi-families in Cambridge MA and maybe even think about buying one!
Additional resources from Avenue 3 for the fall hunt:
for a look at the available property in your area of choice: Avenue 3 Property Search
for a helpful overview of the Boston area towns and communities: Avenue 3 Community Pages
Download Free Home Buying Kit
Find tips on buying a home by downloading our very informative Better Buyer Kit.
Watertown MA Real Estate, a 6 month update:
(Summer 2011 -- Arsenal Park , Watertown )
We're taking a look at the Single-family market YTD 2010 -- YTD 2011
Jan - July 25, 2010 - total Watertown SF sale units: 37
Average sale price: SF: $489,343 average days on market: 57 days
Jan - July 25, 2011 - total Watertown SF sale units: 47
Average sale price: SF: $490,020, average days on market: 70 days
Interesting numbers and good new for Sellers and homeowners in Watertown. For more detailed info on the sold properties visit our web site and register to recieve daily updates: Avenue 3
And potenial Watertown MA property buyers, contact us for Watertown neighborhood breakdowns and more detailed analysis comparing YTD 2010 vs 2011. Condo and multi family data also available...
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And here are the pending sale numbers for all the towns we track weekly:
total number of offers accepted for all property categories 07.17.11 - 07.24.11
For community resources, trending topics or to search for homes click on the town name ...
First # under agreement for this week, second # "WIR" last week....
What do the above numbers mean? If you are a regular viewer of "Week in Review" the Boston and Metro West under agreement numbers remain relatively consistent week to week...Boston jumps up/down by 10% - 25% week to week. One or two towns in Metro West will jump up/down by 3 - 10 properties week to week. This is all good news for the above towns and cities.
Visit our Facebook Page for daily updates and information on all things in and around the Boston area!
Total Number of Accepted Offers For All Property Categories Source: MLSPIN
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