Buying or Selling Homes
Ways to Find your Boston Apartment
There are almost endless was to find the best available Boston apartment, and whether or not to rent or buy. Boston apartments for rent aren’t always easy to locate, with the fast turnover rate. However, in a recent article by Veronica Davis, she outlines some helpful ways to go about your apartment search.
1. Real Estate Agencies: There are many broker agencies specializing in rentals. Agencies like Phoenix can assist you in finding your ideal apartment that suits your needs, and is a great option if you do not have the time to apartment-hunt on your own. There are usually fees with searching through brokers, but the convenience of finding an apartment that fits your budget, needs, amenities, and desired location can be well worth it!
2. Word-of-mouth: Always listen for opportunities to rent through your friends, colleagues or coworkers. They can help spread the word, and maybe even notify you if something comes up. This can be a fresh approach to apartment-hunting, as it may open doors (literally!) in locations you never would have considered.
3. Walk around Boston: Work in Brighton? Walk around the area and look at Brighton apartments! If you have an idea of where you’d like to live in Boston, walk around the neighborhood. You may be able to spot some “For Rent” signs in brownstone windows, or a large apartment complex’s gates.
4. Housing offices: This option is especially helpful for college students. Do some homework about your university’s student housing department and policies, and find out what kind of services are available for you.
5. Boston apartment referral services: The least well-known of these five tips, these services are starting to grow in popularity. When blindly searching the internet, this service is especially helpful and ideal for students new to the area looking for a place to live. Their features allow you to search for apartments on criteria you establish, like number of bedrooms, amenities, personal budget, and location.
Ready to get started on your Boston rental property search? Contact us today and tell us what you are looking for!
Top 5 Biggest Mistakes of Home Sellers
In an article released today by Chris Seder, He outlines the biggest mistakes that you can make when selling your home. The following are some highlights, outlining the pitfalls to avoid if you are preparing to sell.
1. Neglecting the Fine Print in your Realtor Contract. Make sure that you go over the fine print of your contract with a real estate agent or lawyer to fully understand the conditions that you are selling your home under.
2. Jumping in with no research. For Sale by owner homes can be difficult, as you never know what to list at. Do some research, and understand what people in your area are buying homes for. The value you think your home has may not reflect in the market.
3. Failure to market your home. You really have to promote and market your property if you want it to sell – waiting for the buyers to come to you may not be the best way to go about selling.
4. Personal Home Staging. When potential buyers come to view your home, remove all personal items and family photos. You want to give the local buyers the idea that this could be their home, not that they are buying it from you. Also remove your home of clutter, as it can make your home for sale feel smaller.
5. No effort to “stand out”. If you are trying to sell in a fairly competitive housing season or market, prepare yourself by visiting other Boston homes for sale in your area. This gives you a great sense of the market, and what is being offered for what price. You can also list what you find appealing in these other homes, and try to apply something similar at your own open house.
(Read more seller “Don’ts” from the full source article here)
Boston Real Estate: A Good Investment
According to a recent post by Daniel Amodeo, the values of investment properties in Boston continue to hold a steady value. Boston is one of the very few cities that was only slightly effected by the nationwide real estate bubble burst – so the question is, why?
Besides being a beautiful town with rich history, and exciting to live in, the infrastructure is strong. Boston is home to some of the best hospitals and schools in the entire world, which make it a city of education, as well as a place where people all across the world will compete to live in.
Investing in Boston real estate has historically been a stable option. Even with the current nation-wide real estate crisis, Downtown Boston was hardly touched. Real estate markets in cities such as Miami, for instance, have nearly completely crashed.
The rental market in Boston is one of the strongest in the world, as there is a high demand to live in the city due to all of the schools, hospitals, and jobs. Many Fortune 500 companies are located in Boston, as well as satellite locations to mega corporations such as Google.
There is also an extremely high demand for rentals and sales in the town next-door, Cambridge. Cambridge is home to two of the world’s best universities: Harvard University, and Massachusetts Institute of Technology. It is also home to a booming biotech industry.
Make sure to browse Phoenix Realty for some premier listings for Boston apartments – whether you are looking for a Back Bay condo or are eying some South End real estate. Contact an agent today!
Brace yourself for the winter market
“Should we talk about the weather?” From your next door neighbor to the band R.E.M., everyone is obsessed with the weather. Especially in New England we never seem to tire of the topic and for anyone thinking of buying or selling a home, watching the weather is important for more than just knowing what shoes to wear.
Home sales are very seasonal. Starting in September or October every year, home sales begin a cycle of decline that won’t start heading up until April. Home buyers get busy with the holidays and only the most hardy souls will venture out to look for a home in the cold and ice of a New England winter. 
So what does this mean to you? If you’re thinking of selling your home, your best bet is to wait until things pick up again in March and April. If that’s not an option for you, the sooner you can get your house on the market, the better. This year, many buyers are still hoping to be able to close by the November 30th deadline and get the $8000 tax credit so you have a small window of opportunity.
Use an aggressive pricing strategy. Introduce your home to the market during a weekend open house, preferably one with a favorable weather forecast. Your realtor will help you to price it at just under the selling price of comparable homes. If it is handled correctly, you could have an agreement to sell the house at on or near your asking price in just one weekend!
It’s important to listen to your real estate professional and to take her advice. Many buyers insist on putting their homes on the market during the cold weather for too high of a price and end up selling them in the spring anyway – for well under the original asking price.
For buyers, if you’re willing to potentially move during the holidays or in bad weather, the rewards can be huge. Most sellers that can afford to do so, will take their homes off the market before Thanksgiving and put them on again in the spring. The remaining inventory will usually consist of homeowners that need to sell, so the prices will be lower and the sellers potentially more open to offers that are below the asking price.
Right now, both buyers and sellers are racing to do deals before the snow flies. If you’ve been thinking of buying or selling a home, give the real estate professionals at Phoenix Realty a call. We can help you make the decision that is best for your unique situation.
Photo Credit: marci-spokane.com
Buyers must act fast to get First-Time-Home-Buyer Tax Credit
Thinking of buying a home? Act fast and you may save big! The government is offering an $8,000 credit for first-time home buyers. The money comes right off of your tax bill and need never be repaid, unlike some previous home-buying incentives. The home must be your primary residence and you must take possession by November 30, 2009. That means that you’d better start shopping! It takes at least 30 days to close a loan and with the expected rush, it could be even longer.
Even if you’ve owned a home before, you may be a virgin again in the eyes of the federal government. If you don’t own the home where you’ve spent the past 3 years, you’re considered a first-time home buyer and are eligible for the $8000 tax credit. What’s more, if you’re getting a loan from the Federal Housing Administration (FHA), you can even use the $8,000 toward your down payment or closing costs. An FHA loan is a home loan that is guaranteed by the US government and it only requires 3.5% down payment. That means that to buy a house for $100,000, you’ll only need $3,500!
The tax credit is 100% for single people making less than $75,000 or married people making less than $150,000 total gross annual income. The credit is adjusted for those making between $75,000 and $95,000 or between $150,000 and $170,000 for married couples and disappears entirely above $95,000/$170,000.
Here’s a great link with some FAQ’s on the tax credit: www.federalhousingtaxcredit.com/2009/faq.php#2
At Phoenix Realty, we have all the tools to help you locate and purchase your first home. Contact us now or give us a call at 617.731.3311, because now time really is money!
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