We've always had good luck on Sterns Road in Marlborough. Add another sale to the list. This lovely home went under agreement especially fast, as this is a popular location in Marlborough.
Do Good Things Today!
Matt Heisler
*All information is posted in good faith and is assumed to be reliable, but may rely on third party information sources.
15 Arnold St: Wish we had more of these listings in Marlborough. Didn't stay on the market long, as the market in Marlborough is pretty good right now. Let me know if we can help you sell in Marlborough.
Do Good Things Today!
Matt Heisler
*All information is posted in good faith and is assumed to be reliable, but may rely on third party information sources.
Another successful sale.
In Southborough, the homes on very busy streets are always hard to price, hard to close. We're happy we sold another one.
If you have a home on a busy street and are worried about selling, give me a shout, we'll see what we can come up with for you!
Do Good Things Today!
Matt Heisler
Full disclosure: I still think a full PC is the best way to begin a real estate search on the net. But if you're just perusing listings on your iPhone, these are worth a look.
Trulia.com Iphone Real Estate App
Trulia can do GPS based searches, as can all the products listed here, and it's picture loading was fast enough for me. It's default is also looking at a map, which I find especially useful. It will also do time on market searches, and will allow you search in list mode, instead of map mode. That's just about everything I would need it to do. In general, the interface is useful, although they have a newer feature set on a map for gas stations, restaurants, schools, etc. But I couldn't get any of those features to work in my area. Overall, I felt this was the fastest and most intuitive product.
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Realtor.com |
Zip Realty |
Zillow |
Trulia |
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Ease of Use |
Poor |
Average |
Very Good. |
Very Good. |
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Best Features |
Large Photos |
Robust Filtering |
Make me Move Houses |
Large Photos that load very quickly |
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Information Quality |
Very Good |
Good |
Good |
Good - except the gasoline and shopping icons don't seem to work at all, which would be really cool. |
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Overall |
Poor |
Average |
Good |
Very Good |
Those of us familiar with Realtor.com technology products are usually dissappointed, and there's no exception here. It can do GPS based searches, has fast and useful lists and picture loading. However, it won't let me search by days on market, and most of the map functionality that I looked at wasn't working, as it hid the exact addresses. Just gives this message that the owner of the listing doesn't want it displayed on a map (which is totally not true, I'm sure).
The map functionality has a good idea - showing the prices of each home - but they've clearly forgotten that the screen size is a problem on a mobile app. The prices take up way to much room, and it's hard to see the trees through the forest of push pins. It does show us past sales, which is nice, but really, you can't do a real analysis of what those past prices mean on a mobile device, so what's the point of that? It has foreclosure listings, but only shows addresses for homes that are listed on the MLS already, so that's not really a big deal (and just like their site).
Zillow surprised me a bit with my quick test of their accuracy. In general, I find their on-line product to have lots of homes listed for sale that are not for sale, or already sold, but the mobile app tested out OK. There's a lot of focus here on the key Zillow features, including pricing trends, pushing their "premier agents" also known as those who pay money to Zillow, and recent comparables sales. My problem with those features is:
1) The assumption that you're doing research mobile, I think, is erroneous.
2) Pricing trends has some relevance, but no importance here.
3) The recent sales usually have no relevance to what they should be, unless they get lucky. Computers still can't pick comparable houses in New England. Not yet anyway.
At any rate, their focus on replicating the on-line website instead of focusing on an on-line product is what hurts them here.
Do Good Things Today!
Matt Heisler
*All information is posted in good faith and is assumed to be reliable, but may rely on third party information sources.
Looking for a spectacular high end kitchen that works well for summer entertaining? Look no more, we have a great opportunity for you in Southborough.
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The large custom kitchen is a real show piece of this home in Southborough |
You can get the full MLS listing here:
Full Listing Info
Home has pool and many extras!
Do Good Things Today!
Matt Heisler
*All information is posted in good faith and is assumed to be reliable, but may rely on third party information sources.
Analysis of Housing Market Statistics
Northborough, MA, Massachusetts has not seen any improvement in the market, in fact, the reverse is true, as buyers sit on the sidelines or don't like the prices in Northborough. Inventory is up over 30%, but sales are down, and are really lagging where some of the other towns are. What does all that mean? Sellers are sitting around while they find the right price, with Days on Market up to 190 days for Solds. Expect that to continue to climb, we will likely break through 200 next report. Amazingly, 80% of the inventory is under 500K, so this is no Luxury hangover. In fact, there's over 47 homes under 350K, so you have to wonder where the first time buyers are - there's clearly opportunities in Northborough.
Find Your Next Home or Check out the Competition!
*All statistics are for Single Family Homes.
Wondering about my Market Methodology? Read my Explanation for Massachusetts Home Statistics.
I have come across numerous people who get very excited about buying FSBO's: For Sale by Owner Properties. I'm not sure why, but basically what I've gathered is that there is a urban myth out there that the best deals are FSBO's. After all, the seller isn't paying any commission to a real estate agent so the houses must be good deals, right? Well, let's see.
That's a pretty strong headline. Let's see if I can prove it. Now recognize, I'm using properties that are listed in MLS as FSBO, and there are certainly other types of FSBO's that are not in MLS, but I can tell you right off the bat, if you're not in MLS, you're stats are going to be worse than the ones I'm quoting. Currently in my area, there have been just 20 single family sales of FSBOs in the last six months. That's compared with 1,474 sales of homes that sold with an agent. So that statistics tells you that FSBO's aren't very common, but lets look at the actual success of these sales. Currently, there are 66 FSBO's listed in my area. There are 2769 non-FSBO homes that are listed in my area. When we look at the "success ratio" we see that 20/66= 30% while 1474/2769 = 53%. That's a huge difference (23%). It's a small sample size, so let's look at the whole state, where we see that the FSBO success is 42%, but real estate success jumps to 73%, a difference of 31%. Now those numbers should give a buyer pause. Why are FSBO's not selling at the same rates that other homes are? (In fact, selling at just about half as fast). Because they are overpriced. It also doesn't help that they are probably not getting good advice about staging, making their property show well, and they don't have anyone to bounce ideas off of, and no insight to the market. But the #1 reason is price.
I have no idea, frankly. I find it just as confusing as everyone else. You would think, that if they weren't going to pay commission, the price on their home would be LOWER than the market value, and it would sell FASTER. But that is not what we see. It's also because most FSBO's aren't paying zero commission. Most of the homes in my study are paying 2.0-2.5%,the standard rate for buyer agents, in addition to the $1000 or so that it costs them to list the property, their fees are still substantial, (about 60% of a standard commission) and they probably want to "get that back". But the market is generally efficient, and that's not so easy.
#1 And the whole point of this post - is don't assume that the property is fairly priced. It is, in fact, likely to be overpriced.
#2 Remember that there aren't very many, so make sure to include on your search other houses.
#3 Just because it's a FSBO, doesn't mean you can't bring a buyers agent, or hire an attorney. And you should do both.
#4 Following these steps means buying a FSBO is not any different from buying any other home: A) Determine it's market value B) Determine it's value to you C) Write offer D) Negotiate E) Purchase!
#5 Remember, private sellers are unlicensed, and not bound by the laws of disclosure that real estate agents are. No buyer should assume that a seller is 100% truthful (though many are), some are not. And there's nothing illegal about that if you are the home seller. You've been warned!
Do Good Things Today!
Matt Heisler
Analysis of Housing Market Statistics
Natick, Massachusetts continues it's tear as a popular destination for buyers in this market. With the number of properties flagged, this trend is set to continue for the coming months. It's been said before, but if you're thinking of selling in Natick, nows the time! Buyers should be aware homes are selling fast, and the top 10% of desirable homes are getting list price or better, so make sure you do your homework on what a home is worth in case the offer goes competitive. Not very much lender affected inventory here either, just one foreclosure and only 7 short-sales.
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Getting A Home in Natick is a Cause for Celebration |
*All statistics are for Single Family Homes.
Wondering about my Market Methodology? Read my Explanation for Massachusetts Home Statistics.
Analysis of Housing Market Statistics
Millis, Massachusetts: No real change in the bank impacted statistics in this report, as we continue to see the financially distressed inventory hold steady in another town. Active Days on Market are down, as new inventory is up substantially, and a small rise in the Days on Market for Sold is indicative of a large range of property selling. With 23 homes in the last three months sold (out of 35 in the last six), Millis should show some positive strength going forward, as the market heads to summer. Buyers have some choices, but the best deals are clearly moving - August could be slim pickings.
*All statistics are for Single Family Homes.
Wondering about my Market Methodology? Read my Explanation for Massachusetts Home Statistics.
Matt Heisler is a real-estate professional and owner of Heisler & Mattson Properties. He has been selling residential real-estate for over 20 years. He has given several talks on real estate, including presentations on first-time buyer tips & tricks, and profiting in real estate investing in Massachusetts. As a Vanderbilt University alumnus, he is proud to serve his local community. *All information is posted in good faith and is assumed to be reliable, but may rely on third party information sources.
Analysis of Housing Market Statistics
Millis, Massachusetts: No real change in the bank impacted statistics in this report, as we continue to see the financially distressed inventory hold steady in another town. Active Days on Market are down, as new inventory is up substantially, and a small rise in the Days on Market for Sold is indicative of a large range of property selling. With 23 homes in the last three months sold (out of 35 in the last six), Millis should show some positive strength going forward, as the market heads to summer. Buyers have some choices, but the best deals are clearly moving - August could be slim pickings.
*All statistics are for Single Family Homes.
Wondering about my Market Methodology? Read my Explanation for Massachusetts Home Statistics.
Matt Heisler is a real-estate professional and owner of Heisler & Mattson Properties. He has been selling residential real-estate for over 20 years. He has given several talks on real estate, including presentations on first-time buyer tips & tricks, and profiting in real estate investing in Massachusetts. As a Vanderbilt University alumnus, he is proud to serve his local community. *All information is posted in good faith and is assumed to be reliable, but may rely on third party information sources.
