Ed Daniels

Coming into the Spring Market of real estate, I am fielding a lot of concerns about the logistics of Buying a Home when you have a home to Sell first. It is not an easy process, but my Team is doing it a lot for Metrowest area homeowners.

Most people need the funds from the sale of a home to help purchase the next home they wish to buy. 10 years ago the selling process was so fast and for such a profit that the risks faced were minimal. Let's clear up a few realities now though:

• The chances of locating your perfect home that accepts a condition for you to sell 1st are slim to none.
• The mortgage industry does not have the bridge financing programs that you remember, forget it.
• The buyers really don't care what you "need" in order to buy that next home. Your needs don't affect Market Value.
• There is no guarantee with this process, so come up with backup plans, even when tough to consider.
• GOOD NEWS ALERT: If you are "upgrading", the home you are buying is much cheaper than 6 years ago... A SALE!

Here are the Top 4 areas to consider when going thru this process:

1. Advice: There are many steps in this process, and the balancing of getting a strong Buyer on the hook for your home, and moving ahead on buying that next home aggressively, is nerve-racking. An experienced Realtor will be able to price your home correctly to meet your goals, take steps to keep deals together (see #2), find you that next home, arrange temporary options if needed, and hook you up with professionals in the area to help on every step.

2. Preparation of Selling First: You will need to sell your home first, in a marketplace that has been beat up over the past several years, but is facing low inventory and heading back up. Here are tools that I refer:

• Price the home correctly - Get a Market Analysis from an experienced Realtor
• Conduct a pre-listing home inspection - Find out what the Buyer will hear, address things ahead of time
• Stage the home - I have hired a professional for years on my listings, and all I can say is It Works
• Move out "most" of your clutter - Storage lockers, moving companies, Containers on Wheels (COWS)
• Clean and repair - Yes, spend money to make money

3. Keep One Eye on the Marketplace: There is very low inventory of homes to buy. You need to get educated on the prices of homes that are selling so that you can be decisive and confident when it is time for you to submit an Offer. Shop casually when you are on the market, and crank it up when you get that contract on your home. Also keep your Mortgage Pre-approval updated.

4. Understand your Plan B and Plan C: The number 1 concern that people have who are faced with this situation is "What happens if I DON'T LIKE homes available when I sell my home?" The only response I have is that we need to be ready to look at backup plans like living with friends, family, extended stay hotels, renting, etc. I can tell you it happens less than a successful "back to back" closing, but there are no guarantees.

This job is most enjoyable when I complete a process that had dozens of variables, and over the course of several months of work, comes together at a closing table.

So in going thru the Boston Globe I come across this article about Foreclosures in Massachusetts.

Can you figure out what the Headline would be with the following quotes:

• ...the number of foreclosures initiated by lenders in Massachusetts dropped in November.
• "... The modest decline in petitions could indicate that an improving employment picture is leading to fewer mortgage delinquencies."
• ...year-to-date foreclosure deeds are down.
• ...down nearly 35 percent from 11,752 deeds recorded during the same period in 2010.
• ...indicating that lenders have improved their ability to process foreclosure paperwork after a slowdown over the past 12 months"
• The number of completed foreclosures in Massachusetts jumped more than 70 percent in November.

Sounds to me like the only "negative" portion of this article is the last one. But D.C. Denison decided to use the following as the headline:

Foreclosures up 71% in Mass. in Nov.

So even though the reporter used the attention grabbing headline to give newspaper browsers the impression that the foreclosure market is still extremely painful in Massachusetts, almost everything in the article is viewed by professionals in the industry as positive.

Click here for link to Globe article

Completed foreclosures, which jumped in November compared with Nov 2010, displayed success in the banks at finally concluding the inevitable process of taking property that may have been empty for months! We all know of homes that have looked empty and unkept for the past year, wondering when it was going to be marketed. This is that housing stock.

In the Metrowest Boston area, we have a huge lack of inventory. I have several clients waiting for new listings to come onto the market. Now is the time to get these properties onto the market so that interested buyers can pull the trigger.

Unfortunately, the majority of these foreclosure properties are found in the hardest hit and most urban of communities. It is a small percentage of these 7,685 foreclosures in 2011 that can be found in suburban towns which I serve.

D.C. Denison, you are not helping in giving the public the accurate soundbites to get this marketplace on the right track. You had an opportunity to spin it positively with all the good news in the piece, so please do so next time... do MA a favor!

I took the kids over to the Holliston High School's annual Senior Class Auction. I strategically showed up for the last hour of the event! Who knew that food was 1/2 off! PS. 4 hour old Papa Gino's pizza was not really a good idea!

This event is a great fund raiser for the Holliston HS seniors each year. There were still lots of people milling about, and even more kids and volunteers. It is great to see the participation from all of them... even though a lot of Seniors were testing out the couches by that point!

I have to say though, by that point in the event, there is pretty slim pickins!

Here Lara is trying out one of the kids toys. I think this one may be a bit small for her age!

I was able to tour the old trophy cases outside the Field House and point out the Basketball trophy to my 7 year old, as well as the picture of her Aunt Carrie's basketball team from around '92. Ahhh... memory lane.

We saw a few old friends and grabbed a much needed kids book for bedtime (only 4 boxes of those in my basement!), and headed out by 2pm. Great event Holliston... keep it up!

Worcester Business Journal reported on housing numbers for July in MA. Ed Daniels was quoted in the article.

Click here for July Housing Article from Worcester Business Journal

On a less scientific note... I think because we were having our 3rd child July 1st, that the real estate market for our team decided to get extremely active! The same phenomenon happens when you are getting away on a vacation, right?

We are looking at doubling the closed sales from the 1st half of the year by the end of October.

The experience we are seeing now, though, is pockets of inactivity in the marketplace. What I mean by this is that there are certain towns that are showing no activity at open houses, from advertising, or in pending reports on MLS. Towns like Medway and Milford are experiencing this situation for the past 6 months. Very difficult for our clients to have so little traffic thru their homes!

As the article states, if we now see the Aug & Sept numbers coming in the same way as the July numbers, there may be some market momentum that is building up? Stay tuned.

I came across some discolored water coming out of our faucets and toilets today, and it caused me to pause and check into it.

I would think Holliston residents are noticing this and going online to see what's up? Unfortunately, the site information caused me to have additional questions about Holliston's colored water.

Let me start out by disclosing to my readers who may not have heard my rants, but I have a problem with the direction that our current Water Dept is taking us. There are huge costs for replacement of old water pipes that have not been planned for over the past 20 years. There is "missing" water and we have not been able to determine how all of our pumped water is not making it from the wells to the townspeople's faucets. etc. etc.

So, the explanation of the discolored water is the water main flushing that is being conducted this week, as well as Well #6 Water Treatment Plant coming back on line after several months. (That's another rant for another day)

The Water Department assures us that the water is safe and the coloration should disappear after a few days.

So, that is good!

Oh... don't wash clothes when this is going on.

Umm, Ok?

But good news everyone, the Water Dept is offering iron removing detergent free of charge downtown.

There is a map on the town website that shows the area of town being flushed this week. Holliston Hydrant Flushing Map This shows that North Holliston: Queens neighborhood, Winter St, Old Cart Path, High St, Ashland St, etc. are the areas being flushed.

So why is my neighborhood in Brentwood being discolored? From past explanations of the Water Department is that all well water is essentially mixed together for the town residents. My neighborhood is not strictly served by a neighborhood water well.

OK. Than please explain the logic behind the flushing map? It gives the impression to the townspeople that the problems would be going on in that side of town. If we are all affected, definition of the specific area of town getting flushed just confuses the townspeople.

All this ranting and I am thirsty.