What Buyers Want this Fall

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As the post-Labor Day real estate season approaches, old and new clients are calling with the question that has always been music to my ears:  Can you come by and tell us what to do to get our place ready for the market?

Everyone seems to have gotten the message that buyers are out in huge numbers and that inventory is way down (by 20%) from where it was a year ago.  Buyers are willing to pay top dollar, and their top is higher than ever before with these historically low interest rates.  However, they are and have every right to be very picky.  If a home buyer is going to outbid half a dozen other people in a multiple-offer situation — and bidding wars have been the norm for months now in Roslindale, J.P. and West Roxbury —  the product they end up with must be excellent.

Here’s my top 7 picks for items that your home must have (and I’m talking mainly about single families right now) to get the price you want:

1.  If you have two levels in your house (or condo, with rare exceptions), you must have two bathrooms.  A half bath on the first floor is fine but it must be nicely finished.  (P.S. Save your money and don’t get a spa-style tub.)

2.  First floor must have an open floor plan.  Knock down as many walls as you can between living, dining and kitchen areas.  On a budget?  Get creative with mirrors and lighting to maximize spaciousness.

3.  Your kitchen must be clean, serene, and  mostly updated.  Granite and stainless are the quickest way to effect this illusion, but there are many less predictable finishes that also make buyers pull out their check books.

4.  Front of the house, including masonry and carpentry, must appear perfect.  That first approach has to be positive or you’re dead in the water.  Remove unattractive shrubs.  Back porches and stairs must be solid and pretty, too.

5.  Eliminate wallpaper, paper borders (egad — a fad whose time is SO long-gone).  Pull up any wall-to-wall, except maybe in finished attics.  And in those spaces, it must be new and clean and neutral.

6.  Replace a heating system that’s more than 20 years old or is rusty and nasty looking.

7.  Take advantage of the strongest sellers’ market in many years, and possibly for many years to come.  Listen to your Realtor, not your best friend — unless he or she is an interior designer —  and get your place sold quickly at a price that will thrill you.

See you out there — and fasten your safety belts for a wild fall (market)!

OPEN HOUSES CAN BE HAZARDOUS TO OUR HEALTH!

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It’s probably safe to say that as a Realtor in Boston, I walk into more homes in a month than most civilians do in several years.  One aspect of housekeeping that never fails to stun and amaze me is the use of chemical “air fresheners” – that’s Glade, Renuzit, Febreze, Air Wick and the countless generic brands that mimic them. This includes the purportedly “natural” oil-based products.  And carpet cleaners – I can tell before I walk in when a desperate homeowner has sprinkled their wall-to-wall with a chemical cleaner to cover up an untrained puppy or worse, when they believe it “removes” the smell of cigarettes.  Read the labels closely.  “Baking soda” might be in 10-point print, but look at all the 4-point ingredients and put it back on the shelf.

These mass-marketed products contain carcinogenic chemicals.  Period. And vaporizing agents, (in order to disperse the carcinogenic chemicals), that are also poisonous.  Some visitors to your home, whether it’s on the market or not, could have sensitivity so acute to these chemicals that entering a room where the chemicals are present could cause anaphylactic shock, or worse, death.  Our lungs are soft and absorptive and soak up these chemicals like sponges.

It’s the same stuff that’s in those “Little Trees” that  hang from so many rear-view mirrors, but more lethal as science progresses and can now mimic the most obscure aromas and flavors, and get away with calling them “natural”! Big surprise: FDA guidelines for  flavor and aroma labeling are a joke.

Instead of investing in more plastic-contained poisons to make our homes smell fresh and clean, we can invest, (much less money!) in baking soda, vinegar and other non-lethal household cleaners.  Go to this site – the non-profit Environmental Working Group — to vet everything before you buy it.   Learn the truth about the bath soap and shampoo you use, the laundry and dishwasher soap, and, heaven forbid, the fabric softeners — especially chemical-laden dryer sheets.  And when you vent your dryer into your home or into the atmosphere, you are getting an even stronger dose or sharing these poisonous compounds with your neighbors – two-and-four-legged,  winged and furry. Download this free guide to safer home cleaning.

This year marks the 50th anniversary of the publishing of Silent Spring, Rachel Carson’s history and expose´of synthetic pesticides and other chemicals developed since World War II.  Let’s honor her memory by cherishing our health and the health of the planet.

For the bigger picture, visit http:www.silentspring.org.  If audio is your preference, listen to a recent interview with Dr. Julia Brody, Executive Director of Silent Spring, and learn the basics of what mass marketing is doing for our and our planet’s health.   I hope these teeny shards of information will help you to pause before purchasing and that you’ll encourage your homeowner clients to do the same – we’ll all breathe easier!

Linda Burnett

Jamaica Plain/Roslindale Real Estate Maven
Keller-Williams Boston-Metro Real Estate
Search Boston Homes
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The 7 warning signs that you’ve hired the wrong broker

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Throughout my years as a Realtor® in Jamaica Plain and Roslindale, I’ve met with many homeowners who are having or have had unhappy experiences with their listing agents.  The reasons for this are myriad, but as a public service (and to toot my own horn, of course) I’m going to share with you the early warning signs that it’s time to make a switch.

1.  Your broker doesn’t give you a list of suggestions to help your house show at its best. From replacing your mailbox to having your teenage son move out, it’s your broker’s job to see your house through the buyers’ eyes and advise you accordingly.  One of my favorite, though painful, aphorisms is:  If you’re comfortable in your home while it’s on the market, it’s not showing right.  If the on-line photos are less than stellar, many buyers will not even put your home on their must-see list.

2.  You have showings and an open house and you don’t have an offer from one of the first twenty parties that sees the house. If your property is priced correctly and shows well, it will generate an offer quickly.  In the Boston market now, homes are regularly going under agreement in under 24 hours as a result of multiple offers.  After two weeks with no offers in a busy market, an honest agent will ask you for a price adjustment.

3. You call or email your agent and don’t hear back within a time frame that feels reasonable to you. Unless your agent has set up another expectation from the beginning, hearing back within a few hours, maximum, is your right as a client, especially with the multi-media options of communicating today.  If I’m too busy and don’t have quality time to respond to a voice or email from a client, I will email, text or call them and let them know when we might have that conversation.  Whether a property is listed at $150,000 or $1.5M, it’s often the largest financial transaction my client has ever undertaken and it’s my duty to understand this and perform accordingly.

4. Your agent urges you to act contrary to your instincts. In real estate as in the rest of life, I’ve learned over the years that one can lead a horse to water, i.e., I can share with my seller clients my experience through the years in like situations, and share with them my feelings and impressions of the transaction in hand, but it is ultimately up to the owner of the property to decide what’s right for them.  I’ve learned a lot about negotiation from my clients, both seller and buyer, throughout the years.  I believe firmly that if a transaction is meant to be, it will be.

5.  Your agent is not willing to go the extra mile for you. In the course of pre-marketing, marketing and actually facilitating the sale of your home, there are many occasions where your agent can step in and make your life easier.  From meeting a contractor at your house while you’re at work to paying for incidentals for which they’ll be later reimbursed, your agent should be gracious and available to be your proxy in the many situations that arise.   To me, this is a normal aspect of every listing relationship.  These are the small ways in which superior agents make the often wrenching home sale and moving process a little more pleasant and which will be remembered long after the sale is closed.

6.  Your agent normally works in a community miles away from yours. No matter how much you love your agent, intimacy with the local market and the local agents are invaluable attributes for a listing agent.  Many times homeowners will hire a family friend from Hanover to sell a home in Boston and vice versa.  The result, especially in a slower market than we’re experiencing now in the greater Boston area,  can be inaccurate pricing, difficulty commuting to showings, and a general lack of engagement from the local agents who, seeing an out-of-area broker’s name on a sign will often assume the property is incorrectly priced or difficult to show.  As in all things, shopping locally is smart shopping.

7.  You get the feeling your agent is not being honest with you. Sometimes it’s hard to share with a homeowner negative feedback about their property or discouraging news about the market, interest rates, and the many other aspects of marketing a property.  My hard-learned experience is that sugar-coating leads to decay — of the agent-client relationship — and unrealistic expectations that also lead to unhappy endings.  Your agent needs to be smart and skilled enough to deliver information to you from day one that will keep you both on the same page and focused on a win-win finale for everyone.

Linda Burnett

Jamaica Plain/Roslindale Real Estate Maven
Keller-Williams Boston-Metro Real Estate
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Golden Rules for a Quick Sale

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Although the sudden sellers’ market in Boston real estate may be only temporary, the spring listing season is in full swing. While the process of getting your home buyer-ready can seem daunting , follow these “golden rules” when preparing your Roslindale, Jamaica Plain or West Roxbury home to sell, and you will likely experience a brief time on market and offers that make you very, very happy.

Curb appeal is the term we Realtors use to describe the drive-by or walk-by appeal of a home. The prettier the cover, the more likely it is you’ll want to open up the book. Touch up the paint on your front door, porch and stairs; if masonry’s involved, get that mason in pronto — this is an aesthetic as well as a safety issue. Make sure your yard and area immediately surrounding your home look clean and free of debris, both human-made and natural. I often pick up litter on the street in front of several houses near the one I’m marketing. Washing all windows will make sure that your property really shines, too. Roll out a fresh “Welcome” mat and give your Realtor (ideally, me!) a $100 budget to buy potted plants. Keep in mind that buyers have never seen your house before, and when we live in a property we seldom see its gradual decline.

Inside, cleaning, de-cluttering and de-personalizing is critical. We want prospective buyers to imagine their furniture, colors and decor so the palette they see must be pretty neutral. Take an impartial look, or do what I do, call in a good friend to evaluate everything you own. If you haven’t used something in over two years, chances are you are never going to so get rid of it. Start packing pictures, family portraits and artwork ahead of time. This paring-down will also free up your creativity do a little bit of staging and rearranging to maximize the potential of each room.

Polishing up your curb appeal and eliminating “stuff” are two major tasks to get your home ready for a quick and happy sale in the Boston real estate market. Even though it can be painful to follow these rules, the response you’ll get in terms of interest, price and, most importantly, a limited time on the market, will be well worth it. Trust the Realtor who is honest with you and is willing to work with you prior to “going live”. I often tell clients that a huge part of the value I add to a transaction is the behind-the-scenes work in which I am often involved for weeks — even months — before the public is invited to view a property I’m marketing.

Linda Burnett

Jamaica Plain/Roslindale Real Estate Maven
Keller-Williams Boston-Metro Real Estate
Search Boston Homes
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