Real Estate Advice
Real Estate – Price Per Square Foot; Cities
How many square feet does $1,000,000 get you?
1) 1,502sqft – San Francisco
2) 2,092sqft – Boston
3) 2,198sqft – Washington DC
4) 2,358sqft – New York City
5) 2,375sqft – Los Angeles
Real Estate – Choose the Right Agent
This is an interesting read, and one that I agree with. It should be much more difficult to obtain a real estate license and advise people on the biggest investment of their lives. Please do your research before choosing an agent!
http://www.boston.com/realestate/news/blogs/renow/2014/03/too_many_real_e.html
Real Estate – YTD Sales, 2013 vs 2014
Some locations have seen more inventory this year, but most are down. Year to date Sales 2013 / 2014:
South Boston – 40 / 50
South End – 44 / 36
Back Bay – 33 / 29
N End/WF – 11 / 26
Charlestown – 23 / 21
Beacon Hill – 13 / 11
Coolidge Corner – 8 / 11
Real Estate – Listing Carefully
When the real estate market is hot and properties are receiving multiple offers, it seems that anyone can list and sell a home. On paper this may hold some truth – but can the person you hire maximize profits? It happens over and over and over again where a seller chooses an inexperienced agent, or tries to do a FSBO, and it ends up costing them a LOT of money. In just the last 1.5 weeks I have seen 4 sales where sellers have left $ on the table due to the way their property was marketed and negotiated. There are a lot of tricks to generating the highest price possible… so make sure you ask questions and do your research before signing the contract!
Real Estate Advice
Current Rates as of 9/28/09:
Rates have remained low and we (realtors) do not foresee them climbing back up any time soon. These historically low rates have affected the real estate market by creating more opportunities for qualified buyer’s to obtain a mortgage. It is amazing that buyer’s have almost come to “expect” such low rates… when not too long ago people were obtaining loans around 18%!! The current rates as of today are….
30 Year conforming 5.125%
20 Year conforming 4.875%
15 Year conforming 4.375%
10 Year conforming 4.25%
10 Year ARM conforming 4.625%
7 Year ARM conforming 4.375%
5 Year ARM conforming 3.875%
30 Year Jumbo 5.5%
5 Year ARM Jumbo 5.375%
Real Estate Advice
When looking for a new home, make sure you are clear with your agent about what you are looking for (ie: location, price, sq ft, bedrooms; etc). Once you have made it clear to your agent what your needs are, he/she can preview property for you and save you a lot of time in the process. Nobody likes looking at property on a Saturday afternoon only to find it is not what they had in mind!
So remember, Be clear with your agent about what you need. If you only want to be contacted once a week with potential sales… tell your agent. If you want to be contacted every day… tell your agent. If you don’t like a certain area of town…tell your agent!
Real Estate Advice
There has been a lot of discussion among realtors about the potential extension of the government program for first time buyer’s and the tax credit of $8,000. At this point there is no indication that congress has any plan to extend the program. The best way to approach this situation is with the old adage of “a bird in the hand is better than two in the bush!”.
This program has been a tremendous success, and I (and most agents and buyers) hope they extend it… either way we will not know for some time. We (Gibson Sotheby’s) have a letter in to all of our local congressman regarding the importance of extending this program and the affect it has had on the housing market. I hope they listen!