Every year, the Somerville Fair Housing Commission creates educational programs to help people in Somerville understand their rights in regard to Massachusetts Fair Housing Law. Fair Housing Event 1 This year, the Commission is taking on the controversial issue of tenant screening. What can a landlord ask? What kinds of questions can lead to legal
This seems to be the number-one question. It is a terrible question based on terrible assumptions: How much over asking price should I offer, on average? Don’t assume that asking prices are based on Fair Market Value. In reality, asking prices are a made-up number intended to get the highest number of offers, so that
What is Happening with Those Lawsuits? I am getting asked about this from clients, want-to-be clients, and friends at social occasions. For those who don’t know about these lawsuits, there was a verdict in October in a Missouri court that went against the National Association of Realtors® (NAR) and some big real estate companies. Then,
The Boston Globe wanted to write about housing discrimination, again. But it is not news: “The data from Zillow, which were first reported by Axios, show Black-owned homes are valued at 18 percent less than white homes in Boston, and Latino-owned homes at 14 percent less. The data for Black homes in Boston mirror nationwide disparities,
It happens almost every year. Sometime in winter, buyers come to us thinking they might get a leftover/mismarketed property for a good price. Or they come in, excited, to get a jump on the spring market. Sometimes this leads to great results. There will be some properties that didn’t sell in the fall where the
Real estate sites like Zillow use the data from local Multiple Listing Services (MLS), and then add additional properties for sale by people who are not using the MLS. If you are looking at Zillow, all the properties read, “(type of property) for sale.” That works. However, you then need to click on the property
Mortgage pre-approval is needed in order to make an Offer in our area. Anyone without a pre-approval appears disorganized, at best, and is likely to be written off by a seller as not worthy of consideration, at worst. The first question from a seller or seller’s agent about an offer is “How much?” The second
There is a logic to the way the lenders choose who can borrow for a mortgage. Since 2014, mortgage loans have had standard guidelines that require that any mortgage borrower be able to prove that they can repay their loan. Lenders document income, but also debt. How you have been handling debt will affect your
Don’t take your good credit rating for granted. Good-to-excellent credit takes attention. It takes knowledge. It takes perseverance. It takes action. Monitoring and actively protecting one’s credit should be a regular part of their everyday life. One cannot assume that their credit is fine. They need to proactively protect and constantly observe and monitor their
It is not typical for our agents to be out showing properties all day during January. But this year, most of them are! In the normal seasonal flow of New England real estate, the period between Thanksgiving and the middle of February is the slowest time of year. The "January thaw" this year bodes well