Roy Sanborn --Lakes Region of New Hampshire

As I reported last month, waterfront sales on Winnipesaukee were up for the year from 96 units in 2010 to 107 in 2011 for a solid 11.5% increase. Will 2012 be another big year for waterfront sales in the Lakes Region? We certainly hope so! Well, January of 2012 started out with five waterfront sales on the big lake which was the same as January of last year. The average sales price came in at $1.118 million which was just under the $1.17 posted last January.

The least expensive home that sold on the lake technically wasn’t really on the lake but on the Merrymeeting River at 7 Baker Road in Alton. I guess we’ll count it as you do have access to Winni from there and you’ve got a dock! This property is a small 462 square foot, two room seasonal cottage built in 1960 and it has only had one owner!. Hey, it has got a bathroom, screened porch, wood burning stove, and a garage, what else do you need? We are talking about affordable lake access here! The home sits on a .75 acre lot with 50 feet of frontage. The place has been well maintained and was a great way for the new owners to get onto the lake for short money. This property was listed at $189,900 and sold for $165,000 after 63 days on the market. It is currently assessed for $211,500. The home at 282 Edgewater Drive in Gilford also found a new owner even though it was listed for about ten times as much as the little get-a-way in Alton . There’s no doubt it’s a lot nicer, but sometimes you wonder who might have more fun? Anyway, this Governor’s Island ranch style home was built in 1996 and has 3,339 square feet of beautiful living space. There are three bedrooms, three baths, a gourmet kitchen with granite countertops, a family room with cathedral ceilings, nice hardwood floors, natural woodwork, and a bright open floor plan. This easy living home sits on a level .91 acre lot with 150 feet of frontage, a perched beach, dock, and offers great sunset views. This home was first listed in October of 2008 at $2.4 million and then again in June, 2011 for $1.999 million. It found a buyer after a total of 1,229 days on the market for $1.515 million. The current Gilford tax assessment was listed at $1.531 million but was reduced to $1.299 million this year. This is a pretty nice home! I think I could get used to it and have some fun here, too…

The largest sale for the month was just down the street at 312 Edgewater Drive. This rather small and modest contemporary home has fifteen rooms, five bedrooms, seven baths with 10,336 square of living space. Its features include a grand entry, a palatial feeling living room, and a gourmet kitchen with granite counters and stainless steel appliances. It also has a lower level pub and game room (where I might feel more comfortable), gym, and a five car garage . The home sits on a gated .88 acre lot with 155 feet of frontage, a waterside deck, and covered docking for three boats. I think the story of this home is more about how long it took to sell than anything else. I won’t try to figure out the number of days on the market because my calculator doesn't go that high. Suffice it to say it was first listed in 2004 at $4.995 million for a relatively short 140 days but was brought back on before the end of the year at $5.5 million. I guess sometimes you try to go up before you go down? It was on the market pretty much continually since then at $4.95, $3.99 million, and finally at $2.95 million in October of 2010 . It finally found a buyer for $2.5 million. The current Gilford tax assessed value is now $2.464 million. So, it took seven years and a $2.8 million reduction in price to attract a buyer for this home. That’s a long time, a lot of work, and not much fun. Maybe this seller bought that first house down in Alton? Probably not...

There was just one sale on Winnisquam last month equaling the one sale last January. This home is located at 628 Shore Drive in Laconia. It is a 4,218 square foot, three bed, four bath contemporary ranch style home. The home sits on a very private 1.2 acre level lot with natural landscaping with 154 feet of frontage and a “U” shaped dock. There’s also a gazebo to sit and watch the fabulous sunsets from this side of the lake. The home features a spacious living area with cathedral ceilings, hardwood floors, formal dining area, entertainment room, and a full finished basement. Large windows provide great views of the back yard and lake. This home was listed in February of 2011 at $949,000, relisted in August at $749,000, and found a buyer at $705,000 after a total 270 days on the market. The current tax assessment is $771,800.

There was also just one sale on Squam in January and that was at 4 Sunset Lane in Holderness. This beautiful, year round lake home has 1,784 feet of living space, three bedrooms, one bath. exposed posts and beams, red birch flooring with radiant in-floor heat, custom cherry kitchen, and finished loft area. The home sits on a .63 acre lot with 97 feet of frontage and a dock on Little Squam. It has a great location in that you can walk to town for dinner at Walter’s Basin or to pick up the mail. This property was listed in 2010 at $825,000, re-listed in 2011 at $749,000, and sold for $680,000. The current Holderness assessment on the property is $549,270. This is a great property and I’m sure the new owners are thrilled.

Right now there are over 180 properties for sale on Winnipesaukee ranging from mid-$200,000 range for island properties to the millions. It is a great time to take advantage of the large inventory. low prices, and great interest rates. Investing in Lakes Region waterfront properties is probably a lot safer now than stocks and is a lot more fun, too!

The successful sale of any home in today’s somewhat trying real estate market can be broken down into distinct components that are inexorably linked together; (1) marketing the property, (2) the available pool of willing buyers, and (3) price.

Unfortunately, these three components often get blurred and home sellers get confused and discouraged when their home doesn’t sell. They always ask why are so few buyers looking, why has it been on the market so long, and why is no one at least making an offer? Any offer! It is logical that if you have a property for sale and you market it correctly, at the correct price, that you will eventually get a buyer. That’s the way it always has worked. So what has changed? Well for one thing, there are a whole lot fewer buyers in the swimming pool today. That’s no secret. So what do you do to increase your odds of finding a buyer.

The answer really lies with the proper marketing of the home and the price it is offered at. Buyers don’t generally fall from the sky, although sometimes it appears to be that way. Some have called it divine intervention when one miraculously appears. In reality, buyers are found through the marketing of a home no matter how ineptly or professionally it is done. There was a time when you could put a handmade cardboard sign on your lawn and you could sell the place over the weekend. Those times are long gone and may never return. Ineptness doesn’t work very well anymore unless you put an unbelievably low price on a property. Selling a home today has gotten very competitive and complicated.

The problem is that most sellers don’t know, or understand, how homes are marketed to begin with, let alone which methods are effective. Understanding exactly what your agency is going to do for you and comparing their program to others is very important. It is impossible to assess whether a buyer exists for your home unless you know for sure that your property is being seen by EVERYONE THAT MIGHT BE LOOKING FOR A HOME.

Not only that, it must be marketed correctly and in the most positive and professional way possible. Properties that are promoted with a few fuzzy pictures, poor lighting, and even poorer composition combined with vague or incomplete descriptions of the property itself won’t get you far. If your agent relies on local newspaper ads as his primary print advertising component you should plan on living in your home a long, long time. Today you need professional grade photography, full color promotional material, national internet exposure on as many realty sites as possible, social media exposure, color print ads, video, and more.

Reports can be provided to home sellers showing the number of times buyers see their home on the internet. So if plenty of people are looking at a property on line but not calling to see it in person, what should the seller conclude? Sellers also need to be very conscious of feedback from agents and buyers that have seen their property. That being said, if you feel confident that your property is being seen by EVERONE THAT MIGHT BE LOOKING FOR A HOME, and no buyer comes forth to even make an offer, you can probably safely conclude that your price is very likely too high for the current market. If so, it is time to bite the proverbial bullet, swallow your pride, and reduce the price of your home to where it will attract an offer. Generally speaking, there is a buyer for every home at the right price. Here’s something to think about on pricing.

Last year, out of the 773 homes that sold, (in Belknap County and Moultonborouggh, NH) 50 sold in a week or less. They sold at 97.5% of the original asking price and at an average of 85% of assessed value (based on those providing tax assessments in the MLS). The 61 homes that sold in 8 to 14 days were at 95% of the original asking price and at an average of 88% of assessed value. The 78 homes that sold in 15 to 31 days sold at 94% of the original asking price and 90% of assessed value. It is no surprise that many sales took a lot longer. There were 398 properties that were on the market over 90 days before finding a buyer. These properties sold at 90% of the original list price and at 91% of assessed value. So it appears the better the price, the quicker the sale. You might also argue that you can get more for a property if you list high and play the "let's negotiate" game. There were also 1,062 properties that had their listings expire without selling in 2011—I wonder if they were all playing that game?

Sales of single family residential homes in the Lakes Region communities in this report showed a pretty strong uptick in December with 89 transactions at an average price of $306,126. In December of 2010 there were just 59 sales although at a higher average sales price of $369,112. Sales above the $400,000 mark were strong with 15 waterfront sales that closed in December. This was a pretty good finish to the year!

For the year there were 773 residential properties sold at an average price of $306,460 (which was 92% of the average asking price at the time of the sale) and these homes were on the market an average of <!--more-->147 days. Incredibly, in 2010 there were also 773 sales at an average of $320,898 (which was also 92% of the average asking price) and those homes were on the market for 144 days! Pretty amazing and consistent!

So what price ranges were selling last year and how many days on the market did it take to sell a house? Just over 50% of the homes that sold in 2011 were under $200,000. Homes over $400,000 comprised 18.5% of the total sales and most of them were waterfront properties. As you can see from the following chart, the higher the price range, the longer it takes to sell. Also, remember the days on market shown here only represents the amount of time the home has been listed with the agency that sold it. Homes are often listed multiple times before they sell, so the average days on market is actually higher.

But just to show you that you can sell your home in this market 190 of the 773 homes that sold in 2011 went under agreement in a month or less, 112 of those went under agreement in two weeks or less, and 51 were under contract in a week or less. The following chart shows the average sales prices in each town since 2006 and the percentage change in pricing since the overall peak in 2007. There were seven communities in 2011 where the average sales price when up compared to the average posted in 2010, but the average price for all towns combined dropped $320,898 in 2011 to $306,460. Most towns are still well off the highs of 2007 except for Moultonborough and New Hampton. The median sales price also topped out in 2007:

So all in all, residential sales in 2011 were pretty much flat compare to 2010 with a slight drop in the average sales price. Hopefully, the strong finish in December will continue throughout the new year!

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There were 60 single family residential home sales in the towns covered by this report in November, 2011. That’s just off the 63 sales last November although the average price was down from $365,623 to just $263,025. There was only one sale over the million dollar mark last month compared to five in November 2010 which contributed to that significant drop in the average sales price. Sales under $200,000 continue to make up over 50% of the transactions while the $300-400,000 range is still struggling badly. Year to date, our total sales are off by just thirty transactions from last year and the average sales price is down from $316,914 to $306,504. It looks like it will take a Christmas Miracle to beat last year’s numbers.

I don’t know if you have ever noticed, but homes have feelings, too. I’m not suggesting that houses can be happy or sad, although I am sure some feel neglected and abused. What I am really talking about is how a home feels and the feelings you get from the property while you are there. It’s something we all experience, but probably don’t think about much. I got thinking about it a couple of weeks ago when I previewed a property that two of my associates have listed in North Hampton, NH. This property consists of 55 acres of beautiful fields, a caretaker’s cottage, a huge three story barn built in the 1800’s, a 60’ x 80’ storage barn, various other out buildings, and a Royal Barry Wills designed, 4000’ square foot, four bedroom cape. You begin to get the feel of the property when you first drive onto the lot, but it is the home itself that stood out to me.

Royal Barry Wills was an architect who was born in Melrose, Mass in 1895 and opened an architectural firm in Boston in 1925. Over the years he was involved in more than 2,500 home projects either as a builder or as the architect. In 1946, Life magazine proclaimed him to be responsible for “designing the kind of house most Americans want.” He was probably most famous for his cape style design which created a more spacious and user friendly interior than the traditional New England cape. These capes also featured larger living rooms, kitchens, and bedrooms as well as the addition of wings for family rooms, dens, screened porches, or garages. There was always a large center chimney fireplace and often multiple fireplaces throughout the home. The exterior utilized graduated clapboards, large 12 over 12 pane windows, a lower pitched roof, small dormers, and detailed front entries.

We have a number of Royal Barry Wills homes in the Laconia area and the thing that struck me when I went into the North Hampton home is that they all “feel” the same. You get the “feel” underfoot of a solidly constructed home that was well designed and thought out. But you also have “feelings” of being in the grander surroundings of a simpler time. You feel that you are in a high quality home even though the design or materials might be slightly dated by today’s standards. The “feel” and the “feelings” you get in one of these homes is quite different than you would get in a newer colonial or ranch.

All homes evoke certain feelings. You can the feel quality, comfort, charm, serenity, warmth, character, and personality of every home you go in. You can also definitely feel the lack thereof. A home devoid of feelings is a pretty hard sell. Home buyers know when they find a home that “feels” right to them both physically and emotionally. Buyers have to connect on an emotional level with a property before they buy it. Seller’s need to recognize that as well and strive to make their home “connectable” to the buying public especially in this market.

If you are selling your property, the holidays are a great time of year to enhance how your home feels. Your home is decorated in its finest, the tree is lit up, you’ve got a fire going in the hearth, and it’s warm and inviting. Homes have a great feel during the holidays. Try and carry that feeling throughout the rest of the year. It could just help you make a sale! Merry Christmas!

As of December 1, the residential home inventory was bulging like the sack of toys in the back of Santa’s sleigh! There were 1168 residences available at an average asking price of $498,326 in the communities covered by this report. That is up from the 1074 available last December at an average price of $548,594. The median price point is down from $279,900 last December to $259,450 this month indicating that there are more lower priced homes on the market. The current inventory represents a nineteen month supply of homes to be sold. The elves need to get busy...

The mortgage industry meltdown has certainly made buying a home in today’s market a somewhat daunting task. Lending requirements are back to basics with a renewed emphasis on the "three C's of credit": credit history, capacity (your ability to pay back the loan) and collateral (the value of your property and your down payment or equity). That’s the way it used to be so that's really a good thing.

But with Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac guaranteeing the bulk of all home loans today they are going to rather extreme lengths to ensure that there are no bad loans written. Buyers face more and more demands to prove income, verify assets, show steady employment, and explain things like small bank account deposits. In addition, not only does the property being purchased have to appraise, but the property itself goes under a lot more scrutiny. Concerns about the condition and state of repair of the property often can affect getting a mortgage. The National Association of Realtors has gone on record stating lending regulations are too tight and are hurting the housing recovery. From what I see I would agree. The pendulum has swung too far. That’s the bad thing.

One housing segment that has been hurt by even more regulations are condominium complexes. In order for someone to purchase a condominium with a loan backed by Freddie or Fannie the condo association must meet some pretty stringent guidelines. So it’s not just the buyer’s credit that is checked, the condominium association’s financial picture is closely scrutinized and must be approved. For example, condo associations must have a minimum of 10% of their annual budget set aside for reserves. No more than 15% of the units can be more than 30 days delinquent on their condo fees. No more than 10% of the units can be owned by a single entity and no more than 20% of the project can be “non-residential space” such as restaurants or shops. Buyers are also required to get condo unit owners insurance and the association must have fidelity insurance if it is larger than 20 units in order to ensure that the association funds are protected. There also can be no litigation against the association with respect to structural soundness, safety, or habitability of the units.

Essentially, what this means is that if a project is not approved by Freddie or Fannie then the only way a buyer can purchase a unit is with cash or a conventional “portfolio loan” from a local bank with 20% down. As many of the buyers for condo units in our area are first time buyers and need to use FHA financing with a lower 3.5% down payment these rules really limit those buyers’ choices. Some condo associations, like Waukewan Village in Meredith NH, have taken the initiative to get their complexes approved in order to make it easier for their owners to sell should they desire. That’s pretty smart. Waukewan Village is the only association in Meredith currently approved. In Laconia Weirs Crossing, Quail Ridge, Water Street Condominiums, Beaver Pond Estates, and Meadowbrook Town Homes also have approvals. There are currently no associations approved in Belmont or Gilford although Mulberry Hill in Gilford is currently in process. HUD.gov has a page that consumers can go to and check which complexes are approved. Some lenders are given designated underwriting authority by HUD to certify that associations meet the requirements and that could certainly save buyers some time. So if you are considering a condo purchase you should check to see whether they meet with Fannie or Freddie’s approval.

Your local REALTOR® would be happy to help you and answer any questions you may have.

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