About Boston's South Boston

In a new activerain series that was inspired by the hundreds of great stories I have read on ActiveBlogs I decided to start a new series on negotiation tactics that never work and always end up hurting your client. These are called "Negotiation Fails" and I have many to share with you and look forward to your comments & thoughts.

Negotiation Fail #1: Trying to support your counter by telling the agent how many homes you sell a year instead of supporting your counter with actual comps.

Real Life Example Of This Fail!:

Recently I was representing a buyer in a negotiation to purchase a condo in South Boston Massachusetts. The negotiation stalled out over a difference of about 13k. As I do for all my clients we where basing our price strictly on the comps and my client was actually above the market value indicated by the comps. My client even indicated that he would be willing to come up more if there where comps to support the higher price. SO, I explained this to the listing agent and his response was "I sell 30 condos a year and the price my client wants is the price". I respond by asking him to send me some comps to share with my client since he is the "expert that sells 30 condos a year" and his response remained the same. So, I advised my client to stick to his price and keep looking and guess what? The condo that seller has been trying to sell for over a year is still sitting on the market!

How To Avoid This Negotiation Fail: Simple, if you are list agent do your job and A.) advise your clients properly on what their home is really worth and B.) support your counters with comps not some BS line about how many homes you sell a year because it never works & if you are representing the buyer focus on the comps & your knowledge of the current market conditions and don't be afraid to advise your client to walk if necessary. If you do this it will pay of big and lead to many referrals!

Red tailed hawks have become increasingly common around Boston and Cambridge.

It's still a thrill every time you see one. In Cambridge real estate agents tour the new listings each Wednesday. Twice in the last year we've seen hawks during our tour. One was perched atop a Cambridge hospital's cupola several stories up and another day we found one high in a tree on a Belmont hill just across the street from the house we were viewing. They are simply majestic.

The best hawk sighting - from just a few feet away - happened the other day - actually twice in two days - as a red tailed hawk chose my brother's fire escape in South Boston as a landing spot. We're hoping he continues to be a regular visitor. The cats hope so too - if only to dream from the safety of the kitchen table.

Here he is.

And here are a pair of red tailed hawks flying above Boston in warmer weather:

Courtesy of Gouldingken