Category Archives: Purchase And Rental Advice

Boston Rates High as Bikeable

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score The Boston MA Bike Score is a grading system of bike accessibility from 0 to 100. The score is based on bike infrastructure, topography, destinations and road connectivity. We are at number five out of ten major cities. And Cambridge came in at 92 for smaller cities.

Being bike friendly is due to the efforts and the money allotted in a city to build a great biking infrastructure. Below is a list of the top ten cities with a population of 500,000 or more residents..
1. Portland (Bike Score: 70.3)
2. San Francisco (Bike Score: 70.0)
3. Denver (Bike Score: 69.5)
4. Philadelphia (Bike Score: 68.4)
5. Boston (Bike Score: 67.8)
6. Washington D.C. (Bike Score: 65.3)
7. Seattle (Bike Score: 64.1)
8. Tucson (Bike Score: 64.1)
9. New York (Bike Score: 62.3)
10. Chicago (Bike Score: 61.5)
One of the major reasons that Boston has achieved such a great score is the development of The Hubway system.

The Hubway bicycle program station at Beacon Street and Massachusetts Avenue. (Essdras M Suarez/Globe Staff)

The Hubway bicycle program station at Beacon Street and Massachusetts Avenue. (Essdras M Suarez/Globe Staff)

This is a bike sharing system which provides over 100 stations and 1,000 bikes available in Boston, Brookline, Cambridge, and Somerville. You can grab a bike near your home or office and pedal your way to the next lunch meeting, errand or shopping trip, or to visit friends and family.

Boston Hubway bike sharing system stations

          Boston Hubway bike sharing system stations

The good news is that the municipalities of Boston, Brookline, Cambridge, and Somerville are all working with Massachusetts  Department of Transportation, The Metropolitan Area Planning Council, The Massachusetts Bay Transportation Authority and the Federal Transit Administration to continue to expand the system in the Boston Area.

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HOW TO MAKE A SMALL ROOM LOOK LARGER

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When you are selling, or trying to sell a house that has one or more very small rooms, you certainly don’t want a potential buyer to walk into a small room and feel cramped, or stuffed, or uneasy. It will immediately bring to their minds about whether they could fit any of their furniture or anything else into the room and use it wisely or if it is a waste of time and money to even consider buying a home with any small rooms.

This has always been a problem for Realtors at an open house, or a homeowner trying to sell his/her home. There are some methods for making a very small room look larger and they are:

  1. Get rid of most of the furniture in the room, make it feel more open and useable. Be sure that the furniture you leave in the room ‘fits the room.’ In other words, don’t stuff a king size bed into a bedroom that is just 10 ft. by 10 foot. Whatever you do, never have any furniture, in any room, blocking any part of a doorway.
  2.  Clear out closets and make them look like they have about 1/3rd of the space open. Get rid of boxes and other personal clutter. Stack in the garage or take to a storage unit until after you sell the house and have moved. This goes for clothes and shoes and everything else.
  3. Lighten up the wall colors of the small rooms. Darker colors tend to make people feel cramped in or closed in. Light colors make a room look and feel more open. Try to create a ‘flow’ of colors from the rest of the home. Light beige, and cream colors are best according to experts.
  4. Carefully choose mirrors to hang and they will reflect light and give the illusion of depth in the room.
  5. Use natural light to make the small room look larger. Have lamps going in the evening for a house showing. Put lamps as near to the corners of the room as possible to reflect more light.
  6.  Use more plain fabrics for upholstery and throw pillows. Don’t have bold stripes or bold prints on your upholstery. On throw pillows, use plain or small patterned coverings for throw pillows.
  7. Use furniture that are armless. Use glass top tables whenever possible in small rooms. For that desk, use a stool type chair that you can put under the desk when showing the house. Get rid of floor lamps and use table or desk type lamps.

Many times it isnt necessary to go out and buy special items, it just requires yu to do a room by room checklist and then move furniture around from one room to another to make a small room look larger. Remember, the point of making any small room look larger is to convince a potential buyer that they will be able to comfortably live in the house with the belongings they have already.

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MISTAKES BOSTON HOME BUYERS KEEP MAKING

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According to the National Association of Realtors, their agents continue to see home buyers making the same 4 mistakes in the process of purchasing their new home. Read these carefully so you do not make the same mistakes when purchases your Boston home.

1.    Don’t have an unrealistic time table on closing the deal. If you are preapproved and everything is fairly straightforward, you can probably close in 30 days, however you are better off using 45 days for the closing, maybe even as much as 60 days to be safe.

2.    Ignorance about the types of financing available and whats involved in the financing process.  Buyers should become aware of the terminology for example. Also, buyers should be careful about what they say in front of lenders and lenders agents. Example: Dont ever tell a lender that “this is my first time and I really dont know how this process works and hope you can guide me through it”. You might as well tell the lender to “sock it to me” and charge me all you  can.

3    Don’t trash the home you are trying to buy in front of the seller. If you like the house and the color is pink, just keep quiet about the color and dont keep talking about how you hate the color or could the seller repaint the house a different color. Stress what you do like about the house..all the good things.

4    Forth and probably the worst of all: buyers continue to get in over their heads, and spend more than they anticipated or planned on. Keep on track!  Dont forget that you must  be able to have a reserve fund for things that will come up like unplanned repairs and fixes you will have to take care of from time to time.

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What is a Walk Score?

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Anytime we look at Boston listings in the MLS we see:
1 bed, 1 full bath
Home size:
Year built:
Days on market:
Walk Score®  ???
We understand everything but Walk Score. Just what is it?  Walk Score is a method which scores a neighborhood for being walker friendly. In other words you can navigate around the neighborhood on foot or on a bike. An example is Boston. As a whole Boston has a rating of 79.2% out of a possible score of 100, while sprawling Los Angeles  is far behind with a walk  score of only 65.9%.

Walk score  promotes walkable neighborhoods. This is great concept because walkable neighborhoods are one of the simplest and best solutions for the environment, our health, and our economy.

Here is a list of the top 10 walkable neighborhoods in Boston.
1. Bay Village 98
2. China Town 97
3. Beacon Hill 97
4. Downtown Crossing 96
5. North End 96
6. Fenway 95
7. West End 95
8. Back Bay 95
9. South End 94
10.Downtown 94

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Time to Shop for 5 Star Luxurious Boston Living

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The fixed mortgage rates are about as low as they can get, the luxurious Boston condos, town homes and beautiful lofts are fresh and new and selling as fast as they can be finished, lenders in Boston are lending and your experienced local Boston Realtor is ready, willing and able to put you into that beautiful new upscale condo or town home that you have always wanted, and fast too. Wonderful new luxury condo, town home and condo-loft complexes are setting sales records all over the city of Boston.

One Charles Boston

Ask your Boston Luxe Realtor to show you some of the top of the line
condos like ‘One Charles Boston’ condos. These are luxury homes that provide the most lavish and urban chic living available in Boston. ‘One Charles Boston’ is known for its modern and contemporary condos, spectacular views and upper high-end upscale amenities.

One Back Bay

For those preferring to rent check out: ‘One Back Bay’ the ultimate in luxury 5 star Hotel living. This is one of Boston’s newest and finest rental complexes offering full service luxury living.

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Brookline MA Condominiums

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Brookline, which now has a diverse population of 58,732, was once referred to as  “the richest town in America”, because it was where the very wealthy built their summer homes. Brookline is still  regarded by many locals as a wealthier suburb of Boston because of the number of wealthy individuals who live there.

Today many of the beautiful homes of yesteryear are being transformed into Brookline MA Condominiums.that are envied by all.

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NEW FIXED RATE MORTGAGES FALL TO RECORD LOWS

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There is more incentive than ever for you to contact your Boston Luxe Realtor and talk about buying a new single family home, condo or town home. The average rates on fixed mortgages fell again to record lows. The rates are the lowest since the long term mortgages started in the 1950s. 30 yr mortgage rates fell to 3.53%, 15 yr mortgage rates fell to 2.83%. The continuing decline in fixed mortgage rates have certainly contributed to the rising sales of homes throughout Massachusetts in the last months.

Home prices are also beginning to rise slightly in most areas and builders are beginning to start many new home projects that were put on hold for several years. Sales of condos and town homes are booming across the country and especially in Boston’s neighborhoods.

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Buying a House or Condo: Make Sure All Work Was Permitted and Approved

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If you are considering buying a home or Condo, whether old or new, make sure the sellers have had any work done on the property permitted and that work bought off by the city inspectors.

It’s unfortunate that many people buy a home thinking that it has the potential to be enlarged by either major or minor remodeling. After the escrow closes they find out that they can’t do any type of work for one reason or another.
Many of those people find out that work that has already been done was performed without permits or the permits they had were never finalized and bought off by the building dept. of the city. A good local Boston Realtor or real estate professional will usually have already checked this matter out for you.

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QUESTIONS TO ASK THE CONDO BOARD BEFORE BUYING THAT NEW CONDO

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Boston Condos

More and more people are considering buying a condo in an established condo community or in one of the new condominium complexes going up everywhere and especially the beautiful new luxury condo communities in Boston. Those potential buyers need to check out, along with their Realtor, some important information prior to making that offer.  Remember that your Realtor also has many answers concerning condo purchasing and what to look for, and what to look out for.

Ask these 10 questions of the Condo Board:

1    How many of the total units are owner occupied compared to renter occupied?
In most cases, the more owner occupied units there are the more marketable the units are and you will find lenders are happier to get involved in the financing.

2    Get a copy of the CC&Rs which govern the property. Read it over, or have your Realtor go over it with you so you understand what you can and cannot do as a homeowner.
For example in some condo complexes, you might not be able to rent out your unit if you want.

3    Find out about the general expenses for the complex and ask the board how much money it keeps in reserve for emergencies. Is that money invested or in the bank or what?

4    Are the association assessments keeping pace with the annual rate of inflation?
Assessments are usually adjusted at least once a year. Your Realtor can look at the assessments and see how they compare to other rates in the area.

5    Find out what does and what doesn’t the assessments cover? Example: Do the assessments cover the common area maintenance, trash collection, and other normal upkeep costs?

6    Have there been any special assessments in the last few years, if this is an older condo complex?  Have there been repeated special assessments? What for?

7    Is there a large turnover occuring in the complex and why? You might want to talk to some residents and get their opinion of how the complex is managed.

8    Is there any litigation going on with the complex and with who, and for what?

9    If this is a new condo community, how does the construction look and is the developer reputable? Again, you might want to talk to a resident and get their opinion.

10    Is the complex or community part of an umbel la corporation, where there are sub corporations under it? Who is the management company or is it self managed and how is the Board of Directors appointed or how do they get their jobs on the board?

Your local Boston Realtor can help you with any questions and research anything you want to research. The new condo communities in Boston are all wonderful with the best in construction and management. Your Buyers agent, or Realtor, is always there to help out and if he or she can’t answer your questions, he/she will find out the answer for you. Get the CC&Rs and go through them carefully with your Realtor, or an attorney, and then if everything looks good..GO FOR IT!

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Seller Must Disclose The Negative About A Property

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It’s nice to not say much when people are going through your home open house. Not disclosing some items however can end up being very costly.

It is always wise to let your Boston  Realtor do most of the talking. Sometimes that’s impossible though. Big items and little items must be disclosed if it affects the value or desirability of the property. There some problems that are considered a higher priority. Remember that the laws vary from state to state. Keep in mind that even if you advertise a property to sell “as is”, the state’s laws must be obeyed.

Here are six items that are very important to disclose.

1    Any and all repairs need to be taken care of PERIOD! Be honest about the ones taken care of and those that will need attention.
2    Any Termite Problems, especially if the home has had past termite problems.
3    Any water damage and or mold or mildew problems.
4    Any lead materials on the property.
5    Natural Hazards.
6    An Infamous Past history must be reported.

Here is the bottom line: If there’s a question in your mind about whether or not you should disclose something, you probably should. Disclosed issues can merely become a point of negotiation between buyer and seller.

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