CNBC landed an exclusive interview with the worlds best golfer Tiger Woods. The beginning of this interview talks about his current investments which included a billion dollar real estate development in the Bahamas.

Check out it out for yourself.

Tiger Woods Interview

Filed under: Luxury apartments | No Comments »

We had a landlord call the office today asking why his apartments haven’t rented yet. That sparked me to look at the rental deals we had closed over the last 3 months to try and find any trends as to why some apartments rent and why some don’t.

I wanted to see if any of these deals had anything in common with each other. Going through the database I found a couple of trends that popped up. You might think that they had to do with certain areas of town and how much the rent was. You’d be mistaken.

Here are the 4 reasons why these units rented. (In order of importance)

1) The landlord gave us keys or put a lock box on the property.
2) The landlord gave us the current tenant’s phone numbers.
3) We had taken video of the unit
4) We had taken pictures of the unit.

After running all the closed deals through our database to check these points I found that 84% of these deals had met all 4 of the points above and that 95% of these deals had met points 1 and 2.

The moral of the story, make your unit easy to show and it will rent! It seems like every two months we are adding another shelf to the key closet. Currently we have over 1300 keys (not including master keys and luxury buildings), these landlords get it.

They make it easy for us to show or collect video/pictures which, in return, gets the unit rented a lot faster than trying to setup a time with the landlord.

Lesson: When you call to yell at us that your unit hasn’t rented – give us a set of keys and a week!

Filed under: Boston Home Buying Tips | No Comments »

Great article today on MSN Real Estate about the limits we as Realtors can go to when discussing the safety of a Neighborhood.

In Massachusetts the standard response of most Sale Agents will be “Under MA law we are not allowed to discuss the safety of a neighborhood. If you’d like, you can research crime statistics by contacting the local police department.” I know. I hate saying it as much as you do listening to it. Unfortunately under fair housing laws it can be seen as steering which is illegal if we promote certain neighborhoods over others.

Check out the link above to learn how to research neighborhoods. I will be adding the websites mentioned in the article to this blog so that you will have a quick reference point when it comes to Crime Statistics, School Systems, and Sex Offenders.

Filed under: Boston Home Buying Tips | No Comments »

I don’t normally ready the Auto section of the Globe but the headline TomTom appears to have met its match caught my eye.

I don’t want to rehash the article you can read it by clicking on the link above.

The only thing I would like to point out is that Google Maps has the same problem for inter-city locations as TomTom.

Example: 11 Knowlton Street, South Boston, MA will take you to South Street in the Ladder District of Boston instead of the actually address in Southie. You need to enter Boston, MA for everything and provide the accurate zip code. The globe staffer had the same problem with his TomTom.

Check it out. Of course a good broker doesn’t need either. We already know the streets!

Filed under: Boston Real Estate Blogging | No Comments »

Is your goal is to wake up every morning to the aroma of wind swept salt air and panoramic ocean views? Maybe in retirement? A second home perhaps? Why not now?

Our good friends at the Boston Globe chose to highlight an auction of condominiums going on March 9th by the Atlantica, a beautifully styled piece of New England architecture, located directly across from the Atlantic Ocean. These one & two bedroom units will required bids starting from $215,000 to $315,000 depending on the size and location in the building.

Seems like a great buy. Currently according to the Atlantica sales office a 641 sq. ft. 1 bed 1 bath would run you $300,000 not bad if you can purchase the unit at the opening bid of $215,000. The same holds true for a 1289 sq. ft. 2 bed 2 bath that is priced at $449,900. Thats over $134,900 in savings if your the only bidder.

I say only bidder because it is possible you may be. The Atlantica is located in Revere, right along Revere Beach Parkway. I am not looking to bash Revere tonight. Actually I think the buyers of these units will be pioneers. Revere gets beat up pretty badly in Real Estate cycles. Look no further than to your neighbors at the multi-colored St. Georges Condominium Complex. This south beach inspired building fell to the same fate in the 1980’s. Dress Shoes without socks anyone?

To get back on point, the buyers at this auction will be purchasing at the bottom of the latest real estate cycle. Not a bad place to pick up real estate considering that we’re not making anymore ocean’s. Add in a possible casino (Wonderland Park down the Street is competing for a casino license) and suddenly Revere may become a destination town again. See if those condo’s are still selling for less than 300k then.

Again this will require a pioneering mind. The casino may never come. But then again the Ocean isn’t about to leave.

Filed under: Boston Home Buying Tips | No Comments »