New Commercial Listing

Nadine Fallon | Just In Boston Properties | http://www.justinboston.com | 617-413-9688 Warren Ave, Brockton, MA Money Maker! Retail/Commercial offered at $1,995,000 Year Built 1890 Sq Footage 4,066 Floors 3 Parking Unspecified Lot Size 7,405 sqft Maint $0 per month DESCRIPTION Well-respected boarding house located in downtown Brockton. This building generates great income. Perfect for 1031 exchange. Professional manager on-site and willing to stay aboard or help transition. Financials available after showing. see additional photos below ADDITIONAL PHOTOS Seller contact info: Nadine Fallon Just In Boston Properties | http://www.justinboston.com 617-413-9688 For sale by agent/broker Equal Opportunity Housing Posted: Jun 28, 2008, 6:56am PDT

Thank you Facebook

If you're reading this blog, I am going to make the leap and assume that you are savvy with social networking on the internet. You know, Myspace, Facebook, Linkedin and I am sure there are a myriad of others. In fact, I hear David Hasslehoff is looking to create a social networking site too!

Anywho, I just received a listing from a contact on Facebook. The contact, Donna Tocci, was a co-worker of mine at Ingersoll Rand. She was the Marketing Manager and is the inspiration to our blog here at Just In Boston. This week she transitions into her new role as Director of Web/New Media at Ingersoll Rand.

Congratulations to Donna on her new job and it is so apropos that my first listing from Facebook be through her!

Check out our Blog's inspiration.

Sunday June 22nd, Open Houses

19 Bellflower #2, Dorchester, MA 2:15-4 PM
5A Mt. Vernon Street, Dorchester, MA 2:15-4PM
40 Upham Ave, Dorchester, MA 12-2PM
63 Wachusett St. #1, Jamaica Plain, MA 1-2PM

There might be some late additions to this list too, so check out our website.
Cheers!

Market Condo Stats from MLS

It's been a while since I had some time to do some number crunching on Excel. Here are the stats by neighborhood in Dorchester for sold condos in the past 90 days (what most would consider the spring market).

Area	Orig Price	List Price	Sale Price	Days on Market	# of Transactions
Jones Hill Average	$ 519,900	$ 434,900	$ 428,000	366	1
Lower Mills Average	$ 317,967	$ 307,967	$ 282,333	104	3
Popes Hill Average	$ 307,543	$ 293,700	$ 278,357	73	7
Pleasant St Average	$ 268,780	$ 260,580	$ 255,991	222	5
Savin Hill Average	$ 260,777	$ 255,469	$ 255,769	83	13
Cedar Grove Average	$ 249,000	$ 249,000	$ 247,000	23	1
Adams Village Average	$ 257,450	$ 256,750	$ 242,500	167	2
Ashmont Average	$ 262,633	$ 249,300	$ 241,378	107	9
Port Norfolk Average	$ 259,900	$ 259,900	$ 240,000	37	1
Fields Corner Average	$ 247,651	$ 229,154	$ 220,778	97	9
Columbia/Quincy Average	$ 223,583	$ 204,672	$ 199,072	199	6
Hancock Average	$ 208,475	$ 186,475	$ 176,000	58	4
Neponset Average	$ 192,450	$ 176,950	$ 172,625	52	2
Bowdoin Geneva Average	$ 169,900	$ 169,900	$ 170,000	34	1
Meetinghouse Hill Average	$ 238,950	$ 167,400	$ 148,250	372	2
St. Mark's Average	$ 161,950	$ 161,950	$ 146,000	108	2
West Dorchester Average	$ 147,355	$ 137,745	$ 129,633	59	20
Total Average	$ 232,455	$ 219,074	$ 210,849	106	88

Big Brother

While the thought of anyone in the world being able to punch a few keys and get an instant view of your home might be a little scary. It is also a great new tool for buyers and renters. You can check out a neighborhood from the comfort of your home.

Google Maps-Streetview has finally mapped all of Dorchester. The images are a little dated. I looked at my house and our office and noticed things that were there last fall. I figure the images were taken in late September of 2007.

When the going gets tough...

The tough go rental. That's right, two big condo developments in Dorchester decided to throw in the towel and rent the units instead of selling them. After trying to sell with poor results, the Carruth (formerly marketed by At Home Real Estate) and the Schoolhouse (formerly marketed by Coldwell Banker) have changed gears and are now offering their units for rent. They will make very nice rental units by the way.

Our newest employee

It's been a crazy week at Just In Boston. We added some new furniture to our office and added a new document center! It scans, faxes, copies and prints. With this, we can now do all of our marketing in-house!

Check out our new Ricoh MP C2000!

Go Green, go Dorchester

There has been quite a bit of buzz surrounding building green and living green on TV, the internet and various print sources. And I'd like to take the opportunity to point out that living in Dorchester (or any other urban community) is one of the most green things you can do.
Here is why:

• Typically, urban homes are smaller and are less expensive to heat, furnish, cool, power etc...
• You can walk, bike or take mass-transit to work, shop, play, eat etc...
• Renovation of older construction uses less resources than new construction.

So, go green, go Dorchester, save money and save the planet.

Don't get ticketed or towed!

Boston Street Sweeping Reminder Service

I manage to earn a collection of tickets from street sweeping every spring, summer and fall. Living in the city it is just a fact of life and I factor in about 1 ticket per month into my budget. Now, Boston has a email reminder service for street sweeping, street-by-street. Maybe with this I can cut it down to 1 ticket every 2 months!

Taste of the market…

Here are the Multi-Family Closed Market Stats for Jan-May 2008 in Dorchester.

Enjoy!

Price Range	# of Listings	Ave Days on Market	Ave Sale Price	Ave List Price	Sale:List Ratio	Ave Orig Price	Sale:Orig Ratio
$0 - $49,999	0	0	$0	$0	0	$0	0
$50,000 - $99,999	0	0	$0	$0	0	$0	0
$100,000 - $149,999	2	10	$123,000	$118,900	103	$118,900	103
$150,000 - $199,999	9	145	$177,156	$187,422	95	$237,278	78
$200,000 - $249,999	24	192	$233,279	$247,731	95	$316,515	79
$250,000 - $299,999	20	120	$266,133	$283,715	95	$320,770	85
$300,000 - $349,999	21	122	$317,186	$339,976	94	$382,776	84
$350,000 - $399,999	12	165	$368,458	$395,717	94	$427,458	87
$400,000 - $449,999	10	128	$412,800	$441,880	93	$463,470	89
$450,000 - $499,999	5	107	$461,000	$499,500	93	$515,700	90
$500,000 - $599,999	3	39	$548,333	$553,267	99	$556,600	99
$600,000 - $699,999	1	600	$645,000	$650,000	99	$699,000	92
$700,000 - $799,999	0	0	$0	$0	0	$0	0
$800,000 - $899,999	0	0	$0	$0	0	$0	0
$900,000 - $999,999	0	0	$0	$0	0	$0	0
$1,000,000 - $1,499,999	0	0	$0	$0	0	$0	0
$1,500,000 - $1,999,999	0	0	$0	$0	0	$0	0
$2,000,000 - $2,499,999	0	0	$0	$0	0	$0	0
$2,500,000 - $2,999,999	0	0	$0	$0	0	$0	0
$3,000,000 - $3,999,999	0	0	$0	$0	0	$0	0
$4,000,000 - $4,999,999	0	0	$0	$0	0	$0	0
$5,000,000 - $9,999,999	0	0	$0	$0	0	$0	0
$10,000,000 - $99,999,999	0	0	$0	$0	0	$0	0
Total Properties	107	Avg. 144	$304,366	$323,913	95	$365,746	85
Lowest Price: $101,000
Highest Price: $645,000
Total Market Volume: $32,567,160
Median Price: $290,000
Average Price: $304,366

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!

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!

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!

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!

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.

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!

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.