Recently, my car insurance nearly doubled. No, I didn’t have an accident or get a ticket. I was up for annual renewal, and the algorithm at the company changed. My heads-up insurance agent noticed the change and moved me to another company. With the change, this year’s car insurance will be about $150 less than
From a buyer’s perspective, the Somerville Condo Ordinance changes are a win. For renters, it is a major victory. I discussed these changes in last week’s blog post. The ink wasn’t dry on the Ordinance when the backlash began. Owners in Somerville received calls and letters urging them to sell now, before the new ordinance
Two-family house Condos for sale Everyone knows what condo conversion is, right? It’s when an owner changes a multi-unit building from a one-owner property to condominiums deeded by multiple owners. Typically, this would be taking an apartment building and selling off each unit, separately, as condos. In Somerville -- the land
It is not obvious what stays and what goes, when someone sells a house. This is a big enough problem that Realtor.com sent one of their reporters out to find stories about it. The reporter was looking for spiteful sellers who took fixtures. They thought I might know, and interviewed me. In the fifty-or-so years
Private mortgage insurance (PMI) is an additional fee that borrowers who don’t have a 20 percent down payment must pay. It insures the lender, not the borrower. The lender’s costs to foreclose and resell the property could be more than the amount the borrower put down, initially, unless the lender has 20 percent up front.
We are not fans of starter homes or starter condos. It’s expensive for our clients to change residences. Moving to your second purchase is also complicated by the debt you are carrying in your current mortgage. That current mortgage debt can create a situation where you can’t get a mortgage on the next property until
Renting? Good luck! Boston is the third most expensive rental area in the country. If you are paying first and last month’s rent, and maybe another month’s rent in fees, it makes moving hard, financially. Renters are not our clients, but one day they may be. They are also the friends of our
When I read that the AirBnB ordinance passed in Somerville, my first thought was that the devil would be in the details. Wicked Local/Somerville Journal was first to me with the information. They linked to a summary of the ordinance, so you can read it for yourself. The ordinance is aimed at two goals: Deter
June is a traditional time to get married. I recall one year, I had the pleasure of attending three weddings in a single season. Only one of the couples was seriously discussing buying a house soon. At 4 Buyers Real Estate, we often get calls from prospective buyers that require the immediate response “Congratulations!” They
“Did you know that if a seller receives only one offer on your property, that the probability that it will close is 90 percent. If a seller gets multiple offers, the probability that it will close is only 50 percent….” I heard this statistic in a negotiating training run by Bernice L. Ross. I queried