A Back Bay Story 2011

Over the holidays last year I ran into some friends you see once a year.  The girls were off to school and they were going to sell their condo and mix it up in their lives before the land again somewhere else.  193 Beacon Street had been on the market with another sales agent for 299 days!  Not a single real offer.  Hard to believe I thought to myself, obviously they were not attracting the right people through the home, or the price was too high.  The agent usually says the price is too high, but that always isn’t the case these days.  The market is acting in abnormal ways and at the bottom of every real estate transaction is the emotions of the individual parties involved with the sale.  299 days on the market is too long.

I believe that the story of a home is very important.  We want to know who went before us, especially in these homes that date back more than one hundred years.  There is a lot of history here.  I want to know what the person living in the home loved about the home and will miss.  I make videos of that and share them on the web.  This attracts people to the home because they are looking for the same characteristics.

I will let the homeowner tell you the stories.  We did two.  We would have done more, but we got the condo under agreement in 13 days.

In this next video Laurie talks about the convenience of Deeded Parking,

Boston Back Bay, MA 02116 Condo Market Reports-February 2011

45 Condominium Actively on the Market in Boston Back Bay 02116

2 Houses have been Sold in Boston Back Bay 02116

5 Houses Under Agreement in Boston Back Bay 02116

1 Houses have Expired from the market in Boston Back Bay 02116

5 Houses Canceled their listings in Boston Back Bay 02116

It is a buyers market right now.  I expect the month of March will see far more houses sold. I also expect far more houses to come on the market in March as well.  I will follow the Expired’s and Canceled and report on how many of them will go back on the market next month.  I think that will be an interesting statistic for many people.  A buyers market is one where we have a lot of houses on the market with not too many sales.  The above numbers tell the story one way, let’s get to the dollars and cents.

$1,542,089 Active List Price 204.56 Days on Market

$1,824,500 Sold List Price $1,670,000 Sold Price or almost 91% of asking price with 536.50 Days on Market WOW!!

$1,642,600 Under Agreement List 144.40 Days on Market

$459,000 Expired Listing 46.50 Days on Market

$1,301,800 Canceled Listing                 313.60 Days on Market

It is a buyers market and it seems the market is in and around one million dollars for the most of the activity.  Looking at the Days on Market indicates that if you are willing to reduce your price by about 94% you will sell faster, but this is always the case.  If something seems like a bargain the buyer is more willing to spend their money.  The fact that the Expired Listings lasted on the market probably has more to do with the seller than the listing agent.  When this number is below the average days on market we have sellers who want faster action and real estate consultants who are not explaining the process to the seller in a way the understand, or can wait.

Buying a home in any market is a process where a professional approach is most beneficial.  On whichever side of the deal you sit using professional skills to value and negotiate the process to the best results for you demands knowledge and experience.