Wake Up and Smell the Bargains!
“Back in the early 90s, there were properties that went as bargains,” says Pat Best principal broker at Best & Cavallaro in Salisbury, CT, “and a lot of people, including myself, missed some buying opportunities. This feels a lot like that.” Chuck Bartolo of Beach and Bartolo in Columbia County echoes the sentiment: “This may be the best opportunity I’ve ever seen. The investment value of everything else is in question. What could be safer than good solid earth and clean air, two hours from mid-town Manhattan? If I had more liquid assets....” His voice trails off wistfully. Timothy Lovett of Berkshire Property Agents in Great Barrington says, “It’s a good time to buy because prices have adjusted, sellers are much more willing to negotiate, interest rates are very low, and banks are eager to work with good, qualified buyers.”
With prices down, inventory up and interest rates low, even real estate brokers, with their (usually) decades-long perspective on the market, are wishing they could buy. Caveat: (and this is spoken like a mantra), “But you have to be prepared to hang onto the property for at least five years.” So we posed a question: If you were in a position to go bargain hunting yourself right now, which properties would you buy? Understandably, some preferred to keep that information to themselves (and their customers). But for those who saw the challenge as interesting, we set some ground rules: pick any three from your Multiple Listing Service, but, in the interests of fairness, only one can be your own listing. [For those unfamiliar with how the Multiple Listing Services works, any broker or agent within a county can show any property listed on that county’s MLS, regardless of who the listing broker is.]
246 Silvernail Road, Chatham; 19th-century house; 3 bedrooms, 2 baths; $399,999
Chuck Bartolo: “This property (exterior, top) is extremely private and has nice views. It’s been completely updated and beautifully landscaped. There are two barns and a built-in fieldstone barbeque. Two years ago, it would have been in the $500,000 range.” Listing broker: The Kinderhook Group
1 Walden Road, Canaan; 5,000 square feet; 4 bedrooms, 4 baths; $895,000
Chuck Bartolo: It’s new construction on nine acres with fabulous Berkshire views. A house of this quality costs $250-a-square-foot to build. If you were to try to duplicate it--5,000 square feet, high quality appliances and finishing touches—it would cost $1,000,000 just for the house, and you haven’t bought the land, or put in the road, the well, the septic, or built a garage. The numbers work.” Listing broker: Beach and Bartolo
49 Glenwood Boulevard, Hudson; creatively restored 1850-square-foot 3 bedroom, 2 bath; $189,000.
Chuck Bartolo:“This nice little property is in move-in condition--completely redone and restored. Inside, the rooms are bright, and there’s a brand new kitchen with granite countertops. The yard backs up to a woods.” Listing broker: Coldwell Banker Bartolotta
264 Main St., Great Barrington; 2610 sq. ft loft condo over Rubiner’s Cheese Mongers; 1 bedroom, 1 bath; $935,000
Tim Lovett: “It’s the best of both world’s--Tribeca in the Berkshires in the most beautiful and coveted building in Great Barrington. Margaret Brownell [the owner/renovator] did a spectacular job with this building from the ground up. Although you are in the middle of everything, it’s an incredibly private, airy, beautiful space. A lot of us move up here to live in the country but we continue to do business. This loft is either a beautiful place to live, or live/work, or just work.” Listing broker: Berkshire Property Agents
111 Chestnut Hill Road, Monterey; Secluded, 3 bedrooms, 1 1/2 baths on 72 acres; $599.000
Tim Lovett: “You’re in your own private world here-- at the end of a dirt road, in its own magical hidden hollow, there’s this very private, very cool rugged rustic house. It’s not terribly old but it feels like an old New England farmstead that needs a little freshening up. It sits on huge acreage in an expensive town.” Listing broker: Gabel Real Estate
43 Pine Crest Hill, South Egremont; Rustic 2 bedrooms, 1 bath on less than 1/2 acre; $297,500
Tim Lovett: “This log cabin, with a big stone fireplace, is in an amazing place--the Adirondacks in the Berkshires. It’s a unique neighborhood--an old cabin resort on a private, gravel road right behind the shops and restaurants in downtown South Egremont; very cool. This cabin is in original condition, so there’s no damage to be undone.” Listing broker: Isgood Realty
Posted by Marilyn Bethany on 04/15/08 at 02:09 PM (0) Comments • Permalink
10 Tips for Selling in a Buyer’s Market
● Don’t try to wait it out. “I don’t see a major turnaround for at least 18 months,” says Nancy Kalodner, owner and principal broker at Benchmark Real Estate in Otis, MA. “It’s not like day trading. You don’t sell a house because it’s gone up 30%. You sell because your needs have changed. If that happens in a seller’s market, great. But if the market isn’t so good, that doesn’t change the scenario; you still need to sell.”
● Price it right. “A prospective seller asked me what I thought his property was worth and I said, $450, thinking we’d end up at $440 or so,” says Jean Price, owner and principal broker at Arthur Lee of Red Rock in Columbia Co.. “He then listed it with another broker for $549. That was a year and a half ago. Now they’re asking $399,000. Not only is his property worth less today than it was when he first listed it, he’s had the expense of carrying it all this time—mortgage, taxes, plowing, heat.”
● Beware the broker who, when asked, “What’s it worth?” replies, “What are you hoping to get?” Your hopes and dreams have no bearing on market value. If you interview a number of brokers, and one gives you a figure well above the rest, think twice. Telling you what you want to hear may wrest your listing away from the competition, but it won’t sell your house. “Now we take a little more time to get to the right number,” says Steve Pener of Dooley Real Estate in Kent, CT. “Buyers now do their shopping on-line. They don’t call us asking, ‘We’re looking for three bedrooms, ten acres; what do you have?’ They call us once they’ve found what they want. If the price is off, we can’t even get them to look.”
● But what about a trial balloon? Starting with a higher-than-probable price can’t hurt, can it? In fact, it can. As Julia Crowley of Paula Redmond Real Estate in Dutchess County, describes the situation, “He’ll say, ‘I don’t care what everything else is going for, I am going to get big money for this. Someone from the city is going to fall in love with it and be willing to pay just about anything.’ ” This seller is deluding himself. Brokers and agents only show overpriced properties to emphasize the value in properly priced ones. Meanwhile, buyers in his real price range are off looking at less expensive stuff.
● Don’t grab defeat from the waiting arms of victory. A Hillsdale, NY property that went on the market over a year ago found a buyer last May. Once a price had been agreed upon, however, the ambivalent seller threw in a proviso that closing could not take place until fall. The buyer balked. The seller refused to budge, so the buyer walked. Nine months later, the house remains unsold.
● Pre-inspect. Even though the game is presently weighted in their favor, buyers in a falling market are especially skittish. To shield them from nasty surprises, have an expert look for red-flag situations that can be attended to prior to listing. “If the radon needs to be remediated, do it before a buyer’s engineer discovers it,” advises John Harney, owner and principal broker of John Harney Associates in Litchfield County. “As C.S. Lewis wrote, ‘Make the way soft underfoot and gently sloping.’ ” [Note: Lewis was describing the path to hell; Harney, to closing—opposite directions, to be sure.]
● Don’t expect buyers (or appraisers) to be visionaries--to see past your property’s actual condition to what it could be with “a little work.” Count on being rewarded only for that portion of its potential that has been realized. That said, a little “staging” never hurt. Sally Spillane, a Salisbury, CT stager, moving facilitator, (and, incidentally, in this context, host of WKZE’s Sunday morning gardening show) says, “You’ve got to open things up and make room for other people’s dreams. Don’t wait until you move to have that yard sale; have it now.” Eyesore #1, according to Spillane: plastic toys. “Get a big box,” she says, “and throw the toys in there whenever the house is being shown.”
● Don’t waste your dough. Buyers who do have vision are likely to bristle at being asked to pay for brand new work they deem unworthy. If you are not widely regarded as having an exceptional eye, perhaps you should get the advice of someone who does before you, say, put in a new kitchen in the hope that it will hasten a sale. Nearly everyone thinks his own taste is at least adequate; real estate professionals know otherwise, but dare not say so [speculators, are you listening?]. If you want to sell your house at a good price, don’t bank on your taste unless the evidence in your favor is strong. And even if you do have the knack, according to Spillane, you could be wasting your money: “Maybe your buyer doesn’t want a marble bath.”
● Can a seller’s taste be too good? Apparently so. “We had a Queen Anne Victorian with quarter-sawn oak paneling and stained glass windows,” says Mary Mullane, an agent with Gary diMauro‘s Hudson office. “The owners had Eastlake furniture and great artwork—tons of it—that was perfect for the house.” Perhaps, too perfect. “Everyone who saw the place said the same thing: ‘It’s fabulous, but we don’t have stuff like this.’” Though furnished houses generally sell more readily, the agency encouraged the owners to empty the place. It sold right away.
● Did we mention, don’t be greedy? It bears repeating. During the boom, when a substantial annual appreciation on property was virtually guaranteed, it didn’t matter what the buyer paid; value was certain to catch up and ultimately surpass any crazy price. Not any more. But one thing hasn’t changed: people still want to buy houses. “We recently listed a property,” says Dooley’s Steve Pener. “The owner trusted us and worked with us on price, and the place sold in a week.”
Next: 10 Tips for Buying Well Now
Posted by Marilyn Bethany on 02/05/08 at 11:02 AM (0) Comments • Permalink
