Kevin Vitali Tewksbury Real Estate- MA & NH

Remembering What Memorial Day is About

This is one of my favorite photographs of my oldest son. It reminds me of the great opportunites available to him because of all the members of the armed forces who have sacrificed their lives in past and present wars and military actions.

We live in one of the safest countries in the world. My sons can become and do anything they want because of the men and women who have laid down their lives to protect the citizens of the United States and have made this one of the greatest nations in the world.

When I think of my sons I would like to thank the families of these men and women who have sacrificed loved ones for the safety of my family. I would also like to take the time to thank the people who are currently serving in the military. I hope and pray you all can return home safely to your families, sooner rather than later.

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This post was provided by Kevin Vitali of EXIT Group One Real Estate In Tewksbury MA. You can contact Kevin by email at kevin@kevinvitali.com or call 978-360-0422.

I pride myself in the quality of my work while helpingbuyers and sellers make dreams come true.

Real Estate Services in the northeast Massachusetts, around the Merrimack Valley, Southern New Hampshire including the towns of Andover, Billerica, Boxford, Chelmsford, Dracut, Georgetown, Groveland, Haverhill, Lawrence, Lowell, Merrimac, North Andover, Newbury, Newburyport, North Reading, Rowley, Tewksbury, Tyngsboro, Westford, Wilmington, West Newbury

Wilmington Massachusetts Quarterly Real Estate Update

Wilmington Single Family Homes

Units Sold 28

Avgerage days on Market 170

Original List to Sold Price 90%

Lowest Price $120,000- Highest Price: $664,900

Average Price: $355,552

Median Price $330,000

No condos sold in Wilmington MA in the 1st Quarter of 2009

Market Date is important to home buyers and home sellers. It shows you which way the market is trending and helps put either a negotiating strategy or pricing strategy in place.

View Wilmington Massachusetts Homes for Sale

Find out more about Wilmington Massachusetts

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This post was provided by Kevin Vitali of EXIT Group One Real Estate In Tewksbury MA. You can contact Kevin by email at kevin@kevinvitali.com or call 978-360-0422.

I pride myself in the quality of my work while helpingbuyers and sellers make dreams come true.

Real Estate Services in the northeast Massachusetts, around the Merrimack Valley, Southern New Hampshire including the towns of Andover, Billerica, Boxford, Chelmsford, Dracut, Georgetown, Groveland, Haverhill, Lawrence, Lowell, Merrimac, North Andover, Newbury, Newburyport, North Reading, Rowley, Tewksbury, Tyngsboro, Westford, Wilmington, West Newbury

I know in my area I am seeing inventory dry up houses selling quicker and on lower end properties some compeitive bidding. We have seen a huge drop in multi family prices with investors starting to gobble them up. I think we are going to see the market flatten out in the next 6 months. Only time will tell.

Read the articel from Inman News.

____________________________________________________________________________________

This post was provided by Kevin Vitali of EXIT Group One Real Estate In Tewksbury MA. You can contact Kevin by email at kevin@kevinvitali.com or call 978-360-0422.

I pride myself in the quality of my work while helpingbuyers and sellers make dreams come true.

Real Estate Services in the northeast Massachusetts, around the Merrimack Valley, Southern New Hampshire including the towns of Andover, Billerica, Boxford, Chelmsford, Dracut, Georgetown, Groveland, Haverhill, Lawrence, Lowell, Merrimac, North Andover, Newbury, Newburyport, North Reading, Rowley, Tewksbury, Tyngsboro, Westford, Wilmington, West Newbury

I originally had bought a Nikon D50 a couple of years ago and it came with a 18-50mm lens.

I just wasn't happy with the 18mm for my widest setting. I felt at times I was not getting the feel of the room for my home sellers. In smaller rooms, I felt like I was photographing furniture.

To enhance my real estate photography for my home sellers, I decided to get a wider angle lens. I found very quickly they could get quite expensive. I ended up with the Sigma 10-22mm. I found it to bea good balance between cost and benefit. You can purcase on for around $450.00 and you can get it in all the popular camera mounts.

There is definitely some perspective distortion that you will tend to get with any wide angle lens as well as a little bit of barrell distortion on the lower end of the zoom. Overall I have been quite pleased.

Below is an example of a living room photographed with the Sigma vs a point and shoot camera. With the point and shoot you feel like your shooting furniture, with the wider lens you can get the feel of this room.

Again, a decent sized room approx 14 x14, but you can get the feel of this room.

This room is approx 30x30 you can definely get the feel of the spce with the wide angle lens. I could have gone wider but I thought the furniture was getting to far away. (perspective distortion will exaggerate distances)

The next couple of shots are example of very tight shots that would never have been any good without an extreme wide angle.

Bedroom was 9x10

This Sunroom was 8x14

Now a tough one, a 6x11 Kitchen

As the internet gets more powerful are homebuyer are making more and more decision based on what they see online. The days of putting up one photo and getting them to call are over. I am sure we all have had buyers who think the interior must be bad because there are no photographs of the inside of the home.

I have noticed over the years as I have improved my skills at photographing houses it definitely draws more traffic and I can sell for more money and faster. You can compel valid buyers to see the home with great photos on the internet vs mediocre or bad photos. The listing with great photos stand out and shine above the competition!!

I have been reminded over the past few weeks that buyers and sellers need to understand fair market value and how it impacts a succesfull sale or purchase of their home.

Fair Market Value is the price agreed upon and in which the money and property exchange hands between a home buyer and home seller. Fair Market Value is a price in which the general buying public would be willing to pay. Both buyer and seller must be willing and informed to buy/sell the piece of real estate in a arms length transaction. A transaction where neither party is desperate to sell or buy and where the property is given reasonable exposure to the open market.

In a nutshell, the value in which you will most likely obtain a sale.

How do you determine fair market value? The two most common ways of determining fair market value is by an independent real estate appraisal or a broker price opinion. The fair market value should not differ much more than 5% or so from one appraiser/broker to another. Determining fair market value is a little bit more of an art than a science and as a home buyer or seller you should look at the data to see if it makes sense.

How fair market value of a property effect a home buyer? Many times buyers want to go in blindly and offer x% below the asking price( that's what their dad told them). It is more important to know the fair market value of the property first. Then based on how much you like the home and how willing you are to lose the home over negotiations will help you determine a negotiating strategy.

Home buyers must remember that anyone can list a home for any price they want, sometimes higher, lower or right at fair market value. The list price does not necessarily have anything to do with value. (hopefully the price is in the ball park). Even in this slower market, I see buyers lose homes by underbidding on homes that are priced right at fair market value or slightly below, as they are trumped by stronger offers. When a home hits fair market value in the marketplace, either coming on at the right price or through a price reduction, it receives a lot of activity and will sell quickly. Offering an extremely low price and crossing your fingers for a desirable home will often lead to dissappointment rather than a new home. I see way to many homebuyers be dissapointed because they lost a home in the negotiating process while a more educated buyer comes in and takes the house from right under their nose.

As a quick story, I had a buyer who looked at a foreclosure that was only a year old. He liked the house and wanted to put in an offer. He asked me what I thoughthe should offer. I showed hom the comparables and suggested he start his bidding over asking price. He said, no way am I offering asking price or above. That day the property received 5 offers and sold for 10% above asking. Why? becuase it was undervalued to begin with.

How fair market value of a property effect a home seller? A home pricing strategy based on fair market value rather than what your neighbor Bob said, makes for a quicker sale, with less hassles and for top dollar. Invariably sellers want to leave room to negotiate and then a little just to see..... What happens when you overprice? When you overprice you are marketing your home to the wrong buyers. Home buyers in this marketplace are very educated about the pricing of homes due to the internet. The marketing period drags out and the home stagnates on the market. You then must drop the price of the home below fair market value to regain interest in your home. Leave the emotions in the closet and look at the sale statistics. When you are priced in the range of fair market value it is much easier to throw comparables at potential buyers to support the asking price of your home. A savvy buyer's agent will ask the listing agent if he can help them out with the comparable used to price the home. It's hard to support your position when you don't have any.

I can't tell you how many homeowners in the past couple years have rejected good offers only to go on to sell for much less than their first offer.

So.... Understanding fair market value is the key to successful home purchase and home sales. As a buyer don't focus on list price but fair market value for successful negotiating. Sellers, pricing at or close to fair market value akes for a much easier sale.

And..... for both buyer and seller it is much easier to negotiate from a position of strength when you know the fair market value of a home that you are buying or selling.