Friday, May 30, 2008

No Open Houses (except one)

This Sunday is the annual Dorchester Day parade. It is a great time and the parade route runs the legnth of Dorchester Ave. but it can make getting around pretty difficult and make finding open houses torturous.

Enjoy the day, enjoy the parade, and if you are moving to Dorchester, its a great event to get a feel for the community.

We will be hosting an open house in Roslindale at 547 Beech Street from 1:30-2:30.

Cheers!

Wednesday, May 28, 2008

Thank you Quincy

This morning Justin and I had to make a trip to the Quincy building department to verify some zoning info for one of our clients. We were ready to do battle with public employees before we went in. We expected the usual RMV-type experience. You know, wait in line for 10 minutes and then when you get to the counter the person ignores you while they make a personal call or chit chat with fellow employees before feinging interest in what you are asking for, only to be redirected to another counter and repeat.

This was quite the opposite experience we had this morning in Quincy. We were greeted by a very nice woman instantly and within seconds she had the zoning map out and we discussed what could or could not happen on the property and the process needed to obtain a variance. And she even made a copy of the permit jacket for us. FOR FREE!!!!!

It was great and we look forward to doing more work in Quincy!

Friday, May 23, 2008

Really off topic but....

Warning! This post has nothing to do with real estate.

My brother, sister-in-law and three little nephews live all the way over on the left coast and I try to get to visit them at least once a year. With fuel prices where they are I am nervous that this might be the end of my ability to get great travel deals. I have flown paid flights to California twice in the past 3 years (other flights have been for free with miles) and I have always managed to score a $200 fare from Boston area airports.
Recently, I have been poking around for fall flights and have had no luck. That was unitl I used the travel function at Americanexpress.com. Their booking tool is great if you want to see the cheapest fares and have no regard for a time frame. The fares have creeped up a little, but it is only up to $240 out of Providence. Looks like I am Cali-bound in the fall!

Wednesday, May 21, 2008

Renters Beware!

Now that Dorchester, and many other communities, have a surplus of foreclosed multi-families, there is a new property scam out there. Con artists, posing to be landlords of foreclosed properties, are renting vacant foreclosures to unsuspecting tenants. Theses scammers are collecting rents from the tenants yet have no legal authority to do so. In turn, the agents and attorneys managing these properties find out and now have to evict them on behalf of the entity that actually owns it. Meanwhile the tenants are out of a home and possibly thousands of dollars paid to these false landlords.

A simple thing to do to avoid this is to rent through a reputable rental agency or at the very least check to see who owns the property online at the Suffolk County Registry of Deeds and make sure it coincides with the landlord on the lease.

Boston Water & Sewer

It's not often that you work with a public utility that is so helpful. Here is a two thumbs up to the folks at Boston Water and Sewer in helping us with several of our properties that we represent. I would like it if more of the city's services responded as professionally and quickly!

Thanks Boston Water and Sewer!

Wednesday, May 14, 2008

News from the Mortgage Front

This afternoon I had a chance to sit down with Joe Smith from Countrywide and pick his brain about what is happening in the local mortgage market.

He had more information than I can even think about remembering right now so I may not have all the details in this post, but I can certainly have Joe elaborate for anyone who cares to hear more.

So I had some big questions about short sales and what buyers and sellers can expect. Buyers, when placing an offer on a short sale, you will need patience! The acceptance of the offer can take 30-90 days for the bank to decide upon.

During that time the sellers will generally have to provide the bank with a copy of the offer, copy of the listing, bank and asset statements, previous years' tax returns and after all that the bank will order an appraisal of the property.

If Countrywide is the lender they then can make a decision, BUT, if Countrywide only services the loan, they must go to the investor that bought the loan and negotiate the deal with them.

This is of course a very loose interpretation of how it works and is specific to Countrywide. Every deal is different and it is always best to consult a professional and bear with us all, for many mortgage professionals, real estate agents and attorneys, this is the first or second time that we have had experience in this and the whole industry is learning as we go. The most important factor is having a team of these professionals that communicate well.

Basically, short sales can save some people from foreclosure and can be a good opportunity for buyers. There are some hoops to jump through but if you are patient it can happen.

Tuesday, May 13, 2008

News from Dennis!

As promised, I would have posts on here from people other than myself. Here's Dennis' two cents!
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For all you landlords out there. Rental clients are struggling to find and are willing to pay for renovated apartments or condos. There seems to be a shortage of nicer apartments right now and whenever there is a prime rental, it goes fast. Renters are typically looking for in-unit laundry, updated kitchens and baths and clean, painted walls in neutral colors. Other items that will bring a premium are recessed lighting, parking and bedrooms that are large enough for a queen bed.

Also, let it be known that Just In Boston Properties does property management and we focus on customer service!
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Thanks Dennis!

Rental Season

It's now prime rental season here in Dorchester. This is a little bit of a recap of a previous post but I thought it is timely. There are many resources out there on the web to help renters and landlords.

There is a great website called Zilpy.com that is similar to Zillow. It pulls rental advertisements and calculates an average rent for the area. It is pretty cool, but one caveat is that it only utilizes advertised rents vs. actual rents. For the most part it gives a good ball-park idea of what the rent should be.

Another website is Apartmentratings.com, they allow tenants to rate an apartment building/complex.

Another site to visit while you are searching is Annualcreditreport.com. When a tenant applies for an apartment that we are marketing we always conduct a credit inquiry. Reviewing your credit report ahead of time gives you the opportunity to correct erroneous information. Landlords typically place quite a bit of value on the credit worthiness of their tenants.

I hope this helps!

Thursday, May 8, 2008

Choose your lender well

I have been spending quite a bit of time lately harassing lenders and getting them to make it happen on several of my clients' loans. It has been an exercise in banging my head against the wall and has put my buyers at risk of not being able close on their purchase.

As a buyer, some things to look out for in choosing a lender.

1. Make sure they are local, or at the very least the loan officer/broker is local. Local lenders/brokers have some skin in the game where they are looking to grow their referral business with local real estate agents and attorneys. Lenders from out of state look at the transaction as a one-time deal and have little motivation other than a paycheck.

2. Get an idea of the closing costs prior to signing your P&S if they can't give you a rough idea, move on.

3. Get a recommendation from your real estate agent or from an attorney. We are the best reference because we handle the back-end of the deal and know whether or not they are hustling to get it done. Most buyers are blissfully unaware that the attorney or agent has had to hound a lender to get things done.

4. And lastly, the addage you get what you pay for holds true.