Dr. Lawrence Yun, Chief Economist from the National Association of REALTORs is forecasting* a strong real estate market in 2021 due to:

• Significant job recovery due to availability of the COVID vaccines,

• Ongoing record low mortgage rates,

• Demand for homes arising due to remote working flexibility, and

• Available homes constrained by low inventory.

These are my heartfelt wishes for 2021

• May you all have a happy and healthy year.

• May we all find more ways to love and care for each other.

• And may we learn to just be a little kinder and more appreciative of one another everyday.

I guess these are also my new years resolutions: To be better, kinder, and more appreciative everyday.

Happy New Year to you all!

As an area used for extra storage, your garage or basement can quickly become cluttered and unorganized. I know the basement in my home is the first place that gets out of control when I’m busy or trying to organize the rest of the house. Organizing any of these storage spaces can be overwhelming!

I wish you all a safe, healthy and Happy Thanksgiving!

Here we are at Thanksgiving 2020 and I want to take a moment to think about things I am grateful for this past year. While this isn’t the year any of us could have foreseen, I am grateful for a great many things — here are just a few of them.

So what makes a home “Smart?” The industry defines a Smart Home as having Internet connectivity, either home temperature controls or security and 2 additional smart connected devices

As a Realtor, I’d refine that only devices stay when the home sells. That is, things that are likely permanently attached to the home:

You have made the decision to start looking for a home! Congratulations! And you’ve mostly sorted out your budget - that’s great! Now what? The fun of searching and find a home begins, but this can also be a bit stressful while you figure out your priorities and what is really required in your next home.

So where do most first time homebuyers compromise?

When you start to think about buying a home, it can seem a bit overwhelming, particularly if this is your first time. It is OK to feel that way. Just break it down into bite sized pieces … below is an excerpt from the REBAC Home Buyer’s Toolkit re: credit and finances.

This is just an overview, if you want to talk about local financing options and next steps, get in touch and I can help or put you in contact with some fantastic lenders!

We’ve had a beautiful stretch of weather here in Massachusetts for November! However we can tell from the leaves on the ground that the Autumn season is winding down. So whether you have been in your home for 20 years or 2 months, now is a good time to prepare you home for the upcoming New England winter.

Here is your Fall Home Maintenance Checklist

Are you a list maker? Do you keep checklists for everything? Do you sometimes add things to a list, just so you can mark them as done? I am a lifelong hardcore list keeper. I have written lists, online lists, notebook with lists, and list making apps on my phone - it might be a bit much. In one of my classes, I learned this was a classic behavior of a “High C” on a DISC profile. Ah yup. That’s me. But as a real estate agent, this isn’t a bad thing.

Unlike Edna from The Incredibles, I love capes!

Well, not the same type of capes, but Cape Cod style homes! These are incredibly common home styles in Massachusetts. In the last 6 years almost a quarter of all the single family homes I’ve sold have been Cape Cod style homes. The Capes have been of all ages and conditions. I’ve sold 3 antique Capes so far - nothing is as interesting as the history of a 200+ year old home. But by far the most common type of Cape home I see are those between 1920 and 1970 - the best of which are built before 1950 and still have the glass doorknobs.

When searching for a home, my clients often challenged by narrowing down their search to a certain town or area. So many towns seem similar when they are comparing priorities. So they ask me, their real estate agent, which town is “better.”

A client asked me this week to find a “home just like this with lower real estate taxes” which led me to a larger conversation about real estate taxes.

As part of your home buying journey, you will have the opportunity to have a home inspected. Sounds pretty official, doesn’t it? So let’s talk about what what Home Inspections are and are not.

What is a Home Inspection?

A home inspection is a visual examination of the structure and systems of a home or condo. As a buyer you will hire the home inspector of your choosing. In Massachusetts the home inspections are completed usually after your Contract/Offer to Purchase is accepted and before the Purchase and Sale Agreement has been finalized.

As a market preparation expert, I am obsessed with ways to maximize a property’s appeal to buyers. Ideally any significant repairs or improvements can take place over a period of time when a homeowner isn’t actively preparing to sell. But that isn’t always practical, possible, or may not even be advisable in today’s low-inventory market.

As of September 2020 the price of “framing lumber” has increased 150% year over year which means any home improvement projects are that much costing more than the start of 2020.

A friend asked for a referral to repair 2 bathroom ceilings which led into a discussion of why the ceiling was peeling in the first place. And also why it should be repaired the right way now.

After seeing the photo below I asked:

Does everyone using the showers run the fans? (yes)

Do you know if the exhaust fan is venting to outside? (vents to attic)

Does it have sufficient draw? (fans are not very powerful, so probably not)

Earlier today I had a moment where I remembered why I love living on the South Shore. The number 1 reason: no matter where I am on the South Shore, I am just a short drive to a gorgeous ocean view!

People often ask me if they should make updates to their homes prior to putting their home on the market. It depends. As your real estate professional we’ll go over this in detail and talk about the plan to prepare your home for the market.

The following questions will be helpful as you determine who has the market knowledge, services and experience necessary to sell your home at the highest possible price and in the shortest amount of time for you.

Today’s home buyer is obsessively searching for homes online and making somewhat snap decisions on a property based on the photographs. It is more critical than ever for the photos of your property to give a buyer a reason to look deeper and choose to learn more before moving onto to the next home. This is why professional photography is part of my real estate marketing strategy regardless of a home’s price point.

Relocating home buyers who are unable to travel have been faced with some difficult choices during COVID-19 pandemic. Thankfully we have technology available to help make this easier. Your Buyer’s Agent should be able to provide a video-conference walkthrough of most properties on the market. The (sometimes) $1,00,000 question is: Would you purchase a home that you have not been inside?