Here’s a quick primer on house hunting on line. Our clients get a customized search in the Multiple Listing Service (MLS). That is the primary database, which shares property information with consumer sites, like Zillow. Our searches aim to be specific. The raw data is out there, so some of our clients enjoy seeing it all.
The good news is that winter house hunters will know how good their windows are; spring, summer, and autumn house hunters have to guess.Windows are surprisingly expensive to replace. They cost $300-500 each, or more, per window, with installation. Even the best windows don’t keep all the cold out. Winter house hunters, here is the
It is a mistake to think that a newly built house is a perfect house. There are some houses that should never be built. They are too close to high ground water. They are on peat, clay, or other unstable soil. These houses have chronic problems with water or foundation cracks. The biggest problem with
Some of our clients specifically request to see only properties with a dining room. Why? So they can host Thanksgiving dinner. Does that sound like you? When you think about Thanksgiving Day, does an image come to mind as your mental picture of Thanksgiving? Does that image take place in a dining room? Is it
When the real estate market is high and buyers are buying, it is a good time to downsize/rightsize. In that kind of market, you can buy more easily and still draw equity from your house that is now too big for your lifestyle; that's the joy of the stalling market. Over the inflationary period, your
If you are thinking of converting from oil to gas heating, one of the tasks ahead of you is to get a professional to remove the old oil tanks. This seems like a daunting task. It’s not. There are companies that do this. They do it all. They get the permits for removal and disposal;
Houses built for veterans returning from World War II went up in large numbers between the late 1940s and the end of the 1950s. What should you expect if you buy one? Houses age. Some age gracefully. Some get updated and renovated. Some updates and renovations fail. I looked at an inspection report of a
When we show properties in the metro-Boston area, it is impossible to judge their value without considering the cost of repairing and maintaining them. That's why electronic valuation programs are so wildly wrong; they can't tell the difference between a not-renovated house, a badly maintained house, or a maintained-but-not-updated house and a fully renovated one.
House hunters with children, or hypothetical children, almost always ask about schools. Parents want good schools for their kids. Immediately, they run into the brick wall: houses and condos in high-scoring school districts cost more than houses and condos in lower-scoring towns. Why is that? There are two factors: Education is funded mainly by
So, what do you do to get the best education you can afford for your children? Public information: The Department of Education publishes district profiles. To open a report card, write the town or district into the box for “Search for your Report Card.” Then use the hyperlinks below that to see the information. Within