Archive for the ‘Brighton, Brookline’ Category
July 23, 2008
I used to think that “for sale by owner” houses were a good way for home buyers to save a little dough. After all, a seller without an agent saves the five or six percent commission. In theory, that savings would be passed along to a buyer. The buyer gets a good deal, the seller nets more than what he or she would get with a Realtor and enjoys the competitive advantage of pricing a home for a quick sale.
That’s what I used to think. Then I started visiting FSBO’s.
First thing I noticed was the homes were invariably overpriced. Instead of using the savings on commission as a way to lower a sales price, sellers expected top dollar regardless of the home’s condition.
And speaking of condition, I noticed that FSBO homes didn’t have that spit-shined, freshly-vacuumed look of homes shown by agents. The homes I saw needed lots of work —not that the sellers noticed. Sellers seemed stubbornly arrogant or sadly “out of it.” They might have learned a thing or two by visiting the competition.
I discussed this frustrating phenomenon with a friend, who gave me his theory: “People who sell their own homes are the people who weren’t willing to listen to a Realtor about the real value of their property,” he said.
After several maddening FSBO experiences, I decided he was right. The best use of my time was to stick to homes marketed by professionals — especially if I wasn’t saving anything by dealing directly with an owner.
I confirmed my decision when I found the perfect place, marketed by a pro. It was also confirmed when I saw two FSBO ’s I previously viewed end up with Agents who lowered the prices to where they should have been all along. Ironically, both sellers made significantly less than if they lowered prices when they were trying to sell on their own.
Perhaps in a slower market, some FSBO sellers will come to their senses. Or, maybe not. Take a look at these FSBO properties and tell me what you think:
19 Winchester Street
Brookline
BEDS:1/BATHS:1
SQ.FT: 700
$335K
1731 Beacon Street
Brookline
BEDS:2/BATHS:2
SQ. FT: 1200
$525K
21 Park Vale Avenue
Allston
BEDS:1/BATHS:1
SQ.FT: 780
$250K
Recent Sales in Brighton and Brookline
Sweet Digs Boston Home
July 21, 2008
Everyone (at least everyone in Brookline!) knows that Brookline’s housing prices remained robust throughout the housing downturn. A recent Money Magazine survey placing Brookline in the top 100 places to live in the country certainly didn’t hurt matters any.
But what about Brighton, Brookline’s hardscrabble, hard-living, (some might say hard-drinking) neighbor to the north?
It turns out the housing picture is a whole lot spottier on the other side of the border. Without a stellar school district to act as a price support, average sales prices in the first quarter are down. In Brookline, price appreciation seems as certain as a long wait for the Green Line, even if you bought as recently as 2006, but in Brighton, it’s more dependent on timing and luck, with many more variables coming into play.
Look at Strathmore Road, a leafy lane that begins at Chestnut Hill Avenue and traverses Brighton all the way to Brookline’s Beacon Street. It’s near three branches of the Green Line and just a couple of blocks from the shops and restaurants of Cleveland Circle. Strathmore Road boasts solid, well-tended condominiums mixed in with some well-maintained apartment buildings and a few brownstones that have seen better days. Eliminating location as one variable in determining sales price, here are the mixed results of three sales in the last three months on that street:
93 Strathmore Road, #3
Brighton, 02135
Beds:2/Baths:1
SQ.FT: 904
Sold in June for $318,500. Last owner bought in 2004 for $299K. Price appreciation of 1.6% a year. Reasonable enough.
110 Strathmore Road, Apt. 202
Brighton, 02135
Beds:2/Baths:2
SQ.FT:887
Sold in June for $362,500. Last owner bought in 2006 for $378,000. -2% appreciation per year. Ouch.
84 Strathmore Road, Apt. 2
Brighton, 02135
Beds: 1/Baths: 1
SQ.FT:711
Sold in May for $257K. Last owner bought in 2004 for $214K for an appreciation of 5.1 percent a year. Hey, it’s looking like a better investment than the stock market.
Hitting the Links
Boston Sweet Digs Home
July 18, 2008
If you’ve been looking for a while, you may have reached a point in your housing search where attending Sunday open houses feels a lot like work. This feeling is particularly strong in the summer months, when you start envisioning all the other lovely things you could be doing… camping out with friends…rollerblading down the Esplanade… sleeping in.
So how to make the open house rounds more fun and less work? Here are a few ideas:
- Bike to open houses. Choose a few within a mile or two of each other and make the open house route your morning exercise route as well. Can also be a good excuse for overeating later in the day.
- Combine open houses with lunch or brunch — we learned this one from Alyk, a master at munching and viewing. Works even better when your brunch spot is a totally new splurge at the edge of your price range.
- Bring a friend along. Not only good company, a friend can provide a useful perspective — and if you’re lucky some sardonic wit — on what you’ve seen, maybe even noticing things you may have overlooked.
- Approach your outing like a tourist. Read up on neighborhood history and points of interest in advance. While your making the rounds, visit the neighborhood “sites” as well, even if the site is just the neighborhood’s most frequented ice cream shop.
- Attend the “freshest” open houses if you’re looking for excitement. These can be more interesting as spectator sport, while the old listings with the bored agent can be a downer.
- End your open house tour with a lunchtime aperitivo. If nothing else, you’ll have a cool drink to look forward to at the end of your rounds!
And for your consideration, three new listings in Brighton and Brookline that will be holding open houses this weekend:
11 Upcrest Road
Brighton
BEDS:3/BATHS:1.5
SQ. FT: 1431
$415K
O.H. Sunday, July 20, 2008 12:00 PM - 2:00 PM
652 Washington Street, #1
Brookline
BEDS:2/BATHS:1
SQ.FT:1101
$465K
O.H. Sunday, July 20, 2008 11:30 AM - 1:30 PM
142 Middlesex Road, #1
Brookline
BEDS:3/BATHS:2
SQ.FT: 1405
$555K
O.H.Sunday, July 20, 2008 12:00 PM - 2:00 PM
July 15, 2008
So I’ve had a bit of a rivalry with a friend who thinks Cambridge is the best thing since sliced bread. I, on the other hand, prefer Brookline. So imagine my glee this past weekend when I opened The Boston Globe to find a direct comparison between the two cities.
The gist of the story is this: home sales and home prices plummeted in Cambridge, while home sales in Brookline declined by only half as much, and home prices increased. In Cambridge, several single-family houses sold for less than the assessed value; in Brookline, a house would have to be ravaged by fire for that to happen.
In short, Brookline is on firmer real estate footing than her sister to the north. No doubt, Brookline is wealthier, and more suburban than Cambridge. And wealthier communities, the analysts say, withstand downturns better.
But there’s more. Brookline is just a nicer place to live:
- Brookline has better schools.
- Brookline has more parks and green spaces than Cambridge.
- Brookline is more accessible by T than Cambridge, where large swaths of town (Cambridgeport, Fresh Pond and Inman Square) are largely isolated from a fast and reliable way into downtown Boston.
- Brookline has the same progressive tendencies of Cambridge, but without all the attitude.
- Brookline is urban, like Cambridge, but it’s tempered by trees and broad sidewalks.
- Brookline has better housing.
Cambridge has cachet born of its proximity to two of the world’s top universities. It’s dense, quirky and on the move. But when it comes to quality of life, the grass is greener on the Brookline side of the river.
New on the Market in Brookline, Brighton
Sweet Digs Boston Home
July 14, 2008
New in Brookline and Brighton in the last few weeks…a new Finale kitchen open in Allston, a new bakery open in Coolidge Corner, and a new upscale grocer open in Washington Square. And speaking of delectable offerings, three new one-bedroom condos on the market that seem pretty tempting as well…
2039 Commonwealth Avenue,#2
Brighton, MA
BEDS:1/BATHS:1
SQ.FT:660
$259K
25 South Street, #3
Brighton
BEDS:1/BATHS:1
SQ.FT:$299k
1454 Beacon Street, #B42
Brookline
BEDS:1/BATHS:1
SQ.FT:N/A
$318K
Appraising the Appraisal Websites
Boston Sweet Digs Home
July 11, 2008
People are always carping about the inadequacies of Zillow, the home valuation website that consistently seems to undervalue property by several thousand dollars if you’re a seller. (If you’re a buyer, on the other hand, Zillow home values seem insanely high).
If you check out the Zillow website, you’ll find comment after comment from sellers enraged because Zillow appraises their homes at $500 less than the guy with the same house across the street.
But is all the rage worth it?
I would suggest that relying on Zillow, or any of the other popular home valuation websites, (Cyberhomes.com or Eppraisal.com to name two) is folly. The only way you can really know a home’s value is to do a whole lot of looking yourself, so that you can practically recite a neighborhood’s home values in your sleep.
At the time that we bought our Brighton condo, the Zillow estimate was laughably out-of-date. Zillow’s “zestimate” was about $70,000 less than asking price — ridiculously low in comparison to everything else on the market. So I ignored it. Today, Zillow estimates my condo’s value at around $329K ($3,000 less, by the way, than the exact same condo one floor below) while Cyberhomes says its worth $308,050 and Eappraisal says something between $269K and $364K. Bank of America says anywhere between $160K to $366K. How’s that for a range?
Why so much variation? Different algorithms, I guess. But next time you check on your home’s value on one of these sites, pay close attention to the comps, not just the big round number at the top of the page. A comp that has nothing to do with your place (because its a different kind of housing stock, or actually located in a different nearby town) throws everything off. And of course, there are all those factors that Zillow and the others don’t know anything about — your renovated kitchen, your beautiful view, the private outdoor space that you’ve got while your neighbors don’t. In other words, you’ve got to keep these home valuation sites in perspective.
Here’s a look at three houses open for showings this weekend, and their various appraisals, according to the websites:
7 Bagnal Street, #1
Allston
BEDS:2/BATHS:1
Sq. Ft: 1,117
$329K
O.H. Sunday, July 13, 2008 12:00 PM - 1:30 PM
Zillow: $307K
Cyberhomes: $299,079
Eppraisal: $338,535 ($287K-$389K)
Comment: Considering the space and condition of the property, this asking price seems pretty fair. What the home valuation websites can’t factor in is that this condo is nowhere near the T.
14 Browne Street, #1A
Brookline
BEDS:2/BATHS:2
Sq.Ft:1,405
$575K
O.H. Sunday, July 13, 2008 12:30 PM - 2:00 PM
Zillow:$561K
Cyberhomes:$565,701
Eppraisal: $509,875 ($433K-$586K)
Comment: This condo is in a basement. Do the appraisal sites take that into consideration? At these estimated values, it doesn’t seem so!
551 Brookline Ave, #2
Brookline
BEDS:3/BATHS:1
Sq.Ft:1213
$459K
O.H. Sunday, July 13, 2008 1:00 PM - 2:30 PM
Zillow: $465K
Cyberhomes: $395K
Eppraisal: $436,269 ($370K-$501K)
Comment: This price is a good one for a condo of this size in Brookline. No doubt a busy road keeps the price down, but this time, Zillow seems to have it just right.
On the Market on Cummings Road
Boston Sweet Digs Home
July 9, 2008
Cummings Road is another quiet, tree-lined street in Brighton that feels a bit like an unpolished gem. It has great potential — some nice Victorians and Tudors, close to Brookline, and more on-street parking than your average Brighton street.
Yet, the street never quite gets the same respect as shady and elegant Kilsyth Road, just around the corner. My guess is there may be too many student parties on Cummings. Still, this modest little road, though a bit uneven in housing stock, is worth checking out. Many large large homes make the area perfect for families; there’s even an elementary school around the block.
Shopping’s easy — there’s a Whole Foods and Star Market within walking distance, parking here isn’t much of an issue, and the B and C lines are just a few blocks away. For prices considerably less than other parts of Boston, you get a great location, beautiful greenery, and lots of space.
It just may be that Cummings Road is worth a second look.
36 Cummings Road, #3
Brighton
BEDS:2/BATHS:1.5
Sq. FT.:1080
$389K
40 Cummings Road, #1
Brighton
BEDS:4/BATHS:2
SQ.FT: 1720
$475K
24 Cummings Road,
Brighton
BEDS:5/BATHS:1
SQ.FT:3180
$799K
Five Home Improvements with Big Emotional Payoff
Sweet Digs Home
July 7, 2008
People constantly talk about home improvements that boost a home’s value. For example, housing experts say a remodeled bathrooms will recover 78 to 94 percent of their costs on resale. New kitchens, much like bathrooms, recover much of their investment. But be careful; according to a design manager at Whirlpool, stainless steel is out, while warmer appliance finishes are taking off. (Whew, that’s a trend I never even got a chance to be a part of!) Meanwhile, new swimming pools will most likely lose money. Turns out, nobody wants to spend their lives cleaning leaves out of a pool.
Well, enough about money. My question is, what are the top home renovations for the biggest emotional payoff? Here are my top five:
- New Rooms. We knocked out walls to create more room and more light twice in two different houses and the results were life-changing. Rooms changed from cramped and dark to airy and light-filled. I don’t care what the housing experts say, it’s a renovation that will have a much bigger impact on your psyche than you can imagine, and it’s worth the dust and fuss.
- New windows. We’ve done this renovation twice as well — and again, great results. In one case, the house went from drafty and uncomfortable to toasty warm in the winter. In the other case, we replaced windows that hadn’t been cleaned in literally 70 years (because they couldn’t be —not because we were lazy.) With energy-efficient flip-in windows, I can finally see what’s outside.
- New hardwood floors. This is an upgrade I’ve done, but I would if faced with a lifetime of dismal, malodorous wall-to-wall. Hardwood floors are resistant, classy and easy-to-clean. Carpets aren’t any of these things and they always end up looking ratty, even if they happen to be the right color, which they never are.
- New paint job. Simple and relatively cheap, but with the ability to completely change a room’s character, nothing beats a bucket of paint.
- New lighting. If you’ve ever felt wretched and woebegone under an overhead bulb, you’ll know what I’m talking about. We installed recessed lights on a dimmer switch and new pendant fixtures recently, and the change was warm and thrillingly upscale.
Sweet Digs Boston Home
July 4, 2008
Like a lot of people in town, I’m a Zipcar girl. For those who haven’t heard of Zipcar (where have you been, stuck under a SUV?) you can check out Alyk’s fine explanation of the service in an earlier blog.)
You might think of Zipcar as strictly a hardcore-city phenomenon — a last resort for urbanites living in tiny walk-ups in the North End, for example. Actually, that’s not the case at all. As mentioned in a recent NBC report, even in suburban Brookline, where some people have garages, it’s quite possible to live happily without a car and with a Zipcar lot across the street. There are Zipcar lots at Cypress and Franklin, 110 Babcock, Beacon and Dean, and even in Hancock Village. In fact, checking out the Zipcar website, I counted at least 30 lots in the Brookline area.
So I thought it might be a nice idea to visit a few houses in close proximity to Zipcar lots. Just think: life with nary a worry of gas prices or car insurance rates — that’s TRUE independence on Independence Day!
7 Hart Street
Brookline
BEDS:2/BATHS:1.5
SQ.FT.:960
$439,900
This detached single-family house is near the Zipcar lot behind 105 Franklin. You can find a Scion xA and a Mini-cooper here.
73 Walnut Hill Road
Brookline
BEDS:4/BATHS:3
SQ.FT: 2,964
$1,425,000
You wouldn’t expect a Zipcar lot in this area of large, detached single family homes, but there’s actually a lot across the street from the Chestnut Hill Realty offices on Independence Drive. You can find a Honda Civic and Mazda there.
48 Loveland Road, #1
Brookline
BEDS:2/BATHS:2
SQ.FT:1090
$488,888
This condo in a two-family house is near the Zipcar lot at Newbury College where a Mazda is available for your use.
9 Francis Street
Brookline
BEDS:7/BATHS:5.5
SQ.FT: 5,468
$1,364,000
This Victorian is just around the corner from the Zipcar lot at 187 Kent Street, across from the Parsons Field. You can rent a Toyota Matrix or a Volvo here.
147 Salisbury Road, #14
Brookine
BEDS:2/BATHS:2
SQ.FT:1823
$699,000
This condo in a Victorian home is located just steps away from the Beacon and Corey Road Zipcar lot where a Nissan Versa is available for rent.
What’s Hot and Cold in Brighton, Brookline
Sweet Digs Boston Home
July 2, 2008
Normally, nothing happens in July. This year, though, seems like life’s awhirl in Brighton:
Meanwhile, on the residential side, houses are going on the market, and coming off the market, and sellers are lowering their prices and sometimes they’re even raising prices. Here’s what’s new this week:
New on the market:
36 Cummings Road, #3
Brighton, 02135
BEDS:2/BATHS: 1.5
SQ.FT: 1080
$389K
374 Chestnut Hill Avenue, #33
Brighton, 02135
BEDS:1/BATHS:1
SQ.FT.:568
$215K
104 Westbourne Terrace
Brookline, 02446
BEDS:2/BEDS:2
SQ.FT: 1414
$569K
And two recent price changes:
45 Harvard Street, #1
Brookline, 02446
BEDS:2/BATHS:1
SQ.FT: 1,195
Original asking price: $375K
Today’s asking price: $369K
323 Boylston Street, #102
Brookline, 02445
BEDS:1/BATHS:1
SQ.FT: 1,099
Original Asking Price: $439K
Today’s Asking Price: $489K
Green and Clean in Allston-Brighton
Boston Sweet Digs Home
