Sunday,,, hurry down!
Sunday mornings, I figure out how to see the most likely property with the largest number of my clients without having an accident or otherwise wrecking havoc.
I started the in Cambridge. This was a second viewing for my buyer. The place was still filthy... There were a few buyers milling around.
Next we went to a little single family house in Arlington. It was clean and shiny, but not staged. It was swarmed with buyers. I was reminded a few times about how many people were there.
Then an overpriced single family in Arlington. The house was in nice shape, but the street and layout are atypical. Not many people there.
Next, I turned my sites on Lexington, where I saw a neglected house in a lovely neighborhood. The house was poorly lighted, dirty, it smelled and was mostly empty. The house had weird additions that made no sense. It was swarmed with buyers. The broker said offers were coming in.
Then off to Waltham. The new condo development seemed like a party was going on in the demo unit. Nice place, beautifully staged. There were lots of happy people. When I said I was previewing a specific unit, the agent said “That will be the first to go!"
While in Waltham, I also went to a new construction project and spoke to the builder. Nice place. Shiny and new, but had nothing in it but the builder and me.
When I got back to Arlington, I ran into another swarm at another single family house. This one was more run down and dreary. The listing sheet had instructions on how to participate in the upcoming bidding war.
I will track these for you.
To summarize:
I suspect some of these homes will get offers this week and some will sit. I am advising my buyers to hold off on making low offers on overpriced properties that have not been on the market for long. I am advising others to expand their search.
I believe the factors that separate the places that were swarmed and those that were empty: location, price, staging/presentation. in that order. This remains consistent with the poll from last week.
What were open houses like in your neck of the woods? What do you think makes the difference between an open house you choose and one you pass up?
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You can always fix up a kitchen and get rid of a smell, but you can never EVER change the address. And price... you got to get the price right the first time.
The survey was dead on.
If there are no pics of the kitchen or bathrooms I won't go to the OH.
There were (overpriced) houses we saw that were in SUCH disrepair I wanted to send the sellers agent a bill for the gasoline I wasted in traveling to see the place.
Downright offensive on many levels - sensory as well as intelligence :)
We went to a few open houses. One was in a great location in Wellesley and the house was done and done well, and the listing broker told us that she already had an accepted offer (on the market for 3 days). So far, it is not under agreement or flagged in MLS, so I am not sure what is going on. Because the broker told us right out of the gate that there was an accepted offer, we did not sign in, and no one else had either, so it is hard to say what the interest was (clearly somone wanted it if there is indeed an offer). The second was in West Roxbury, because we wanted to check out the quality of modular construction - just curious. The location was not great, this was the nicest house on the street, but it is brand new. There was a steady stream of people through the house and people seemed interested (asking lots of questions and hanging around). I have not checked its status since.
In weeding out houses by looking at listings on line - if there are photos of flowers in the garden before the interior of the house, and then the only interior photos are of one or two rooms, we are not looking at the place. If there are NO photos of the exterior, we will not look. I also get a real kick out of the photos that show more of the owners furniture and collectables and not the house - get a camera with a wide angle lens, please.
We also always look at Google maps to see just how far away that railroad or highway really is.
Last, we are very skeptical of listings that contain 9999 as the amount of square feet because it almost always means the place is TINY and overpriced.
I saw an open house picture where the only occupied bedroom had a mattress on the floor, a surfing poster on the wall, and a tv propped up by books in the corner.
I don't know why we went to go view it after having seen that, but there was an even better surprise awaiting us when we opened the bedroom door -
someone's dirty boxer shorts slumped in the middle of the floor for the world to see.
Makes you wonder not only about the owners but the agent who didn't have the foresight to do a cursory look-through before opening the door to guests.
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