Portsmouth NH Real Estate Agent - Rebecca Skane, Realtor®, e-PRO®

A number of people are now looking for investment properties, mostly multi-families and duplexes. I have a number of buyers who are currently looking for these types of properties. A few years ago, these were hot properties. After the recent real estate decline, these types of properties weren't as hot anymore, and prices tumbled. Now that the prices are becoming more stable, the multi and duplex properties seem to be making a comeback. I suddenly have several buyers in the market! Have one to sell? Call me!

Aside from multis, I also have a number of buyers looking for NH and ME Mobile Home Parks For Sale, but only a few sellers. In a down market, mobile home parks thrive. I never realized how incredibly lucrative these types of properties are. I'm thinking I should start one of my own!

According to NAR®, less than 10% of all FSBOs are successful, why? There are too many reasons to count.

1. You can't get listed on the MLS without a Realtor. Sure, you can pay for an entry only listing, but a true Realtor® will list you for free, you only pay when your home sells.

2. Realtors®, who have the majority of the buyers, will not show FSBO homes, or will advise against buying them.

3. FSBOs may not understand the current market conditions.

4. Unscrupulous buyers target FSBOs with deliriously low offers and effective sales pitches.

5. FSBOs may not understand the real estate sales process, may not hire the right contractors, may not use the correct forms, may not know how to identify inappropriate sale contingencies, and often run into legal problems.

6. FSBOs do not generally have the time or the know-how to effectively market a home.

and on, and on, and on!

Visit my website and download your free NH FSBO guide.

The three most common home styles in New Hampshire are: The Cape, The Colonial and the Ranch. I was curious to know just how common they were as compared to the multitude of other home styles, so I went about it by looking at all of the homes sold in the past year in New Hampshire, and I made a chart.

Homes Sold in NH July 29, 2008 - July 29, 2009 (excluding condos and mobiles)

10,037 Homes Sold

You can see how the ranch (raised ranches, split level and single levels), Colonials (antiques and neo-colonials), and Capes heavily outweigh the rest of the styles. But don't go thinking that just because you have Gambrel, that it may not sell as well. The reason why more ranches, colonials and capes have sold rather than other styles is simply because there are way more of them! Also, some people may list one home under two or more different home types. This chart gives you a rough idea about how how common a certain house type is, not necessarily how one style out-performs another.

But I was a little surprised about the steep drop off from the Cape to the Contemporary and going forward. And according to NNEREN, unless I did my search wrong, not one Tudor style was sold in the past year! Perhaps I am only surprised because I grew up in a Tudor. I was also surprised with the New Englander numbers, but perhaps they are only more common in the larger cities and towns.

You would think with the housing boom of the 90's and early 00's that there would be more contemporary homes. Especially at the rate those builders were going at. They are my favorites, and a contemporary home in Portsmouth NH can be hard to cme by, but they do exist. Most of the new homes built them were the new-colonials, beautiful and romantic reproductions of the original colonials in New England (many of which are still standing!).

I hope you found this latest chart as intriguing as I did. Click the card below to visit me.

The Portsmouth Book Club met last Tuesday, the 14th, to discuss, Three Cups of Tea, by Greg Mortenson and Oliver Relin at McMenemy's Irish Restaurant and Pub. What a fantastic book! The book was an auto-biography of sorts of Mr. Mortenson, written by journalist Oliver Relin. The book details Mr. Mortenson's trials and tribulations during his campaign in Pakistan and Afghanistan building schools for girls. If Mr. Mortenson had written this book himself, I would have thought, "Oh, sure. Nice Ego." And if this had been a fictitious novel, it would have been terrible, because you would NEVER believe the authenticity of the main character, it would have been too unbelievable. The truth is, the book is written from an unbiased point of view, and brings together quotes from the myriad of people who have known and worked with Mr. Mortenson on his project. All together it reveals a sort of super-human. A man who is probably the lest materialistic person in America, and one who cares so much about others, leaving him to sacrifice almost everything he had for a cause, love and passion. I mean, seriously, this man is my hero. They should make a Marvel super-hero comic about this man. Read the book, you will feel the same way. Mr. Mortenson should win the Nobel.

For our book club next month, we picked, Murder on the Orient Express, by Agatha Christie. This should be a great summer read. As always, our meeting will be held at:

McMenemy's Irish Pub and Restaurant

177 State St Portsmouth, NH 03801 603-436-4747

7pm Tuesday August 11th, 2009

I also have to take the time to say that McMenemy's is back on the map! After the bar and restaurant switched owners, I can't say enough about it. The fish and chips are incredible. Everyone who ordered them last Tuesday were wild about them. I had the clam chowder for the first time. Okay, I grew up in New England. I LOVE clam chowder and I know a good chowder when I have one. I am going to go out on a limb and say that McMenemy's had the BEST clam chowder I have ever had. If you don't come for book club, go out to dinner at this place. You will be so surprised. Tracey, the owner, will treat you right.

Here is a synopsis of Murder on the Orient Express: (from Barnes and Noble)

"Murder on the Orient Express. En route to Paris, Belgian detective Hercule Poirot has booked winter passage on the fabled Orient Express. Among the curious assortment of fellow passengers, one wealthy American holds a unique distinction: He has been found dead of multiple stab wounds in the night compartment of the Calais coach. By dawn, thirteen travelers, each bearing a secret, will find themselves suspect in the most ingenious crime Poirot has ever solved.

Agatha Christie is nearly synonymous with upper-class British mysteries, for good reason. She set the standard for the genre in over 60 novels and dozens of short stories, also creating two classic detectives: the fastidious Belgian, Hercule Poirot, and English spinster Jane Marple. No one could match Christie's knack for weaving clues into her stories, then turning the whole thing inside out -- shocking her readers every time."