Old Ways Die Hard – When to Sell.

It has always been said that in order to get the most for your property you need to list in the ‘hot’ months of the year, being either February for a closing at the end of the school year or September so that you can settle in before the holidays.

Key Takeaways:

1. Blackout dates for high-end listings, namely from Dec. 15 to Jan. 15 and from July 15 through Labor Day.

   • Buyers of means are traveling during these times.

2. If the property is overpriced nothing is going to happen to it even if, conceptually, it’s a hot time in the market.

3.  Less competition could help showcase your property more.

4.  Pre-internet, the market was much more seasonal. Now, real estate is a 24/7 exercise. Some people are buying from photos. There’s always, always a market.

5. The data doesn’t support that if you put it on the market in a particular month you’re going to sell it faster or that you’re going to get a 20 percent premium.

By JOANNE KAUFMAN – New York Times

They knew, of course, that the last chunk of the year would be one long stretch of turkey and tinsel with prospective buyers more likely to be shopping for Christmas gifts than real estate. Nonetheless, the couple wasn’t inclined to delay; the house went on the market in the middle of December.

“Our attitude,” Mr. Thornton said, “was: no time like the present.”

It’s an increasingly popular stance.

A real estate article of faith once had it that mid- to late-February, the start of the so-called spring season, was the best time to list a property. This allowed breathing room for the buyer to get a mortgage, and in the case of a co-op purchase, time to assemble the board package and meet with the board, and to close the deal before the end of the school year and the start of the summer exodus. September was another good option, as long as sellers took care to wait until after Labor Day.

Only the clueless or the foolishly optimistic, so the thinking went, would list a property in New York City around the Fourth of July, during the Jewish holidays in the fall, or any time between Thanksgiving and New Year’s Day. And it was definitely better to wait until after Wall Street’s bonus season, usually in January. As for August, well, just forget it: Surely you’re not thinking about real estate when you’re trying to enjoy the final days of summer?

But now, because of digital marketing and the masses of online information available to consumers, “all the rules about timing are gone,” said Barbara Fox, the founder and president of the Fox Residential Group. “The rules are out the window. My theory is: Get it out there. Let’s see if there’s someone out there waiting for it.’’

Kathy Braddock, a managing director of William Raveis New York City, agreed. “Pre-internet, we were much more seasonal,” she said. “Now, real estate is a 24/7 exercise. Some people are buying from photos. There’s always, always a market.”

Indeed, Mr. Thornton and Ms. League found the brownstone they are now selling online one December day just before Christmas about six years ago.

Victoria Rong Kennedy, an associate broker at Citi Habitats, has notched a number of holiday sales. “There’s a happy mood because it’s Christmas and investors may decide to buy something,” she said. “I have a lot of international clients who come from Asia who are Christmas shopping for luxury goods and they also may decide to look at some real estate.”

In fact, sellers who decide to list a property during a traditionally slow time like Christmas may be at a real advantage. “It helps you showcase it because there’s less competition,” Ms. Fox said.

Seasonality can’t be totally dismissed, though. It certainly continues to play a role in the suburbs where curb appeal is crucial, according to James Gricar, the general sales manager of Houlihan Lawrence. “Selling a house in the winter is more of a burden,” he said. “Almost any house looks prettier when the leaves are on the trees and the weather is pleasant.”

Because the goal is to get as many motivated, qualified buyers as possible, Darren Sukenik, an associate broker at Douglas Elliman, believes in blackout dates for high-end listings, namely from Dec. 15 to Jan. 15 and from July 15 through Labor Day. “I feel I would be doing properties over $2 million a disservice to put them on the market at those times,” he said. “People of means are not in the city. They’re on vacation. They’re traveling.”

Other brokers seem to share Mr. Sukenik’s view.

“August is the low point of supply for every year,” said Jonathan Miller, president of the real estate appraisal firm Miller Samuels, who examined listings data from 2010 to 2016. “After Labor Day inventory surges, with a slight peak in October.”

According to Mr. Miller, there is a similar surge in the spring, with May as the high point.

But to get too caught up in the calendar is to miss the point, many real estate agents and executive say.

“The data doesn’t support that if you put it on the market in a particular month you’re going to sell it faster or that you’re going to get a 20 percent premium,” said Stuart Siegel, chief executive of Engel & Völkers.

Put another way, it isn’t so much when you put a property on the market but what price you put it on the market.

“You can list something in the spring,” said Victoria Vinokur, an associate broker at Halstead Property, “but if the property is overpriced nothing is going to happen to it even if, conceptually, it’s a hot time in the market. And if you’ve got a motivated buyer for a particular property, that buyer doesn’t care what time of year it is.”

Mr. Siegel advises clients to be guided by their own particular circumstances rather than by the calendar. Are you selling now because you want to be in another house before the school year starts? Do you need another six months in your old place to give you time to finish construction on your new place?

“It’s personal needs and lifestyle questions rather than you’ll do better in September than November,’’ he said.

But old ways die hard. Some sellers remain convinced that it’s all in the timing.

“A client told me she wanted her two-bedroom apartment on West End Avenue to go on the market the Monday after the Super Bowl,” said Susan Forrest-Reynolds, an agent at William Raveis New York City. “Her theory was that men don’t come to open houses during football season.”

Want to Live in a Joanna Gaines Designed Fixer Uppers?

Unfortunately here in New England that’s not really an option, however, if you’re ever visiting Waco, TX you will find an abundance of Chip and Joanna Gaines designed homes readily available on the home-sharing websites AirBnB or VRBO!

Here is a list of a few:

1. Barndominium
2. Shotgun House
3. Mailander House
4. The Joneses German Schmear House
5. The Mid-Mod

By Michael Andor Brodeur GLOBE CORRESPONDENT  JANUARY 03, 2017

There’s not a whole lot going on in Waco, Texas. I’m sorry Waco, Texas, but it’s true. I’ve driven through you at legal speeds.

There’s a fossilized mammoth that’s not going anywhere. There’s the Dr. Pepper Museum. There’s a business literally dedicated to escaping. There’s a Chik-fil-A that gets pretty busy. There’s Baylor.

Despite this spread of attractions, there are also a number of disproportionately slick Airbnbs available in Waco. Some of them are the main draw for tourists.

Why? One word: Shiplap. And two other supplementary words: “Fixer Upper.”

As the Star Tribune put it in the kind of headline that really requires no further elaboration, “Waco, Texas, is suddenly cool because of HGTV’s ‘Fixer Upper’ couple.”

Chip and Joanna Gaines are HGTV’s ‘it’ couple

The couple’s humor, love, and chemistry have made “Fixer Upper” one of HGTV’s most popular shows.

That would be Chip and Joanna Gaines, the coupled cohosts of HGTV’s runaway renovation hit. Together, they’re making Waco great again by snatching up the ugliest houses in the nicest neighborhoods, and with a little elbow grease, a lot of acoustic guitars, and at least one giant Roman numeral clock, flip them into the homes/revenue streams of reliably straight couples’ dreams.

Mixing the unpredictability of a job site with the lulling regularity of a baby swing, each episode unfolds exactly like this:

Chip and Joanna meet couple, show them three dumpy houses with cute names (commercial breaks are employed to leverage suspense); couple chooses house you wouldn’t have chosen; design consult with Joanna, who offers choice of pergola, French doors, or porch swing; all systems go; all systems no, major issue arises; budget adjusted, crisis averted; Chip puts head/legs/self through drywall; Joanna rolls eyes, smiles, and shrugs: they are in love; Joanna directs furniture movers where to put giant poofy couches and tables made of sentimentally repurposed wood; Gaines children visit job site, give Joanna “that extra boost to push through” or something to that effect; Joanna spends night installing pipe shelves, quote art, scattering pillows, and stacking fake books; couple returns for reveal; reveal; crying; fin. Repeat.

You can use that paragraph as a kind of bingo card for Tuesday’s episode at 8 p.m., when they help a couple downsize and retire to the country. (Or just, you know, rent the thing out and make a fortune.) If you end up obsessively binging and fantasizing about putting every door in your house on rails, don’t say you weren’t warned. “Fixer Upper” is aspirational design porn for anyone who has ever felt the pull of Pier 1, or found love a hopeless Restoration Hardware.

And don’t hold your breath for them to come tearing through your triple decker. For now, you can only behold their handiwork in Waco — which, I hear is very . . . Waco this time of year.

Weekly Abode: Portsmouth, NH

321 Little Harbor Rd, Portsmouth, NH 03801

Tucked away on a peaceful and private 10.6 acres just minutes from downtown Portsmouth, this European-inspired estate is truly a rare find. The approach to the expansive and entirely custom home is captivating – from the stucco and stone facade to the coordinating copper lights and chimney pots. From the grand 2-story foyer, arched doorways lead to a groin vaulted gallery. 2-story great room with w walnut beams and French doors open to an expansive granite terrace. Spectacular kitchen and pantry w extraordinary appliances include a LaCanche range, 3 Sub-zero refrigerators/freezer, 3 Miele dishwashers, 2 islands and breakfast nook. Lavish 1st-floor master suite. 2nd floor includes 5 en-suite bedrooms, media room, gym, game room, snack bar and 2 half baths. 52′ x 28′ infinity pool, fireplace and grill area; dock at river’s edge. 2 posh garages w parking for 10 cars. Spa, sauna, 48kw generator and elevator.

 

Young Americans Living at Home Hits 75 Year High

The New Yorker “Boomerang Generation” Cover by Daniel Clowes

Key Points:

• 40% of young Americans are living at home

• Prior to the recession in 2005, only 33% of young Americans were living at home

• Financial institutions in recent years have been lent money essentially free, however, with tight mortgage regulations only the elite and well-established are available to reap these benefits

• When mortgage standards tighten buyers on the fringe suffer, millennials are one of the groups suffering right now from these unexpected consequences

• Millennials are slower to form traditional households, they are having babies later in life, and get married while in young adulthood at lower rates than any previous generation

*Young Americans- age 18-34

*At home- living with a parent or relative

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“By CHRIS KIRKHAM (WSJ)

Almost 40% of young Americans were living with their parents, siblings or other relatives in 2015, the largest percentage since 1940, according to an analysis of census data by real estate tracker Trulia.

Despite a rebounding economy and recent job growth, the share of those between the ages of 18 and 34 doubling up with parents or other family members has been rising since 2005. Back then, before the start of the last recession, roughly one out of three were living with family.

The trend runs counter to that of previous economic cycles, when after a recession-related spike, the number of younger Americans living with relatives declined as the economy improved.

The result is that there is far less demand for housing than would be expected for the millennial generation, now the largest in U.S. history. The number of adults under age 30 has increased by 5 million over the last decade, but the number of households for that age group grew by just 200,000 over the same period, according to the Harvard Joint Center for Housing Studies.

Analysts point to rising rents in many cities and tough mortgage-lending standards as the culprit, making it difficult for younger Americans to strike out on their own.

“I don’t think those are challenges that are going to keep young households permanently out of the housing market, but it may keep their homeownership rate near historic lows for likely the indefinite future,” said Ralph McLaughlin, Trulia’s chief economist.

The share of young Americans living with parents hit a high of 40.9% in 1940, just a year after the official end of the Great Depression, and fell to a low of 24.1% in 1960. It hovered between about 31% and 33% from 1980 to the mid-2000s, when the rate started climbing steadily.

The census data on living arrangements goes back annually to 1980, and prior to that was collected each decade.

Household formation is closely correlated with housing affordability and income. Among those aged 25 to 34, 40% of those earning less than $25,000 headed their own household. The share rose to 50% for those earning between $25,000 and $50,000, and 58% for those with incomes above $50,000, according to the Harvard Joint Center.

Census data also show younger Americans are getting married and having children later in life than previous generations. Even so, economists project the historically large millennial generation will more than double its current number of households through 2025. Still, delayed household formation has kept home builders guessing about their behavior in coming years.

Tim Kane, president of California builder MBK Homes, said it is obvious that household formation is slower for millennials. That leaves him to wonder: “Is it going to happen at the same rate, and is it going to happen at all for homeownership?””

Classic New England Home of the Week

84 East Main St, Searsport, ME 04974

Classic New England Home of the Week:

84 East Main St, Searsport, ME 04974 

This Federal style home sits perched atop a freshly landscaped 3.24 acres overlooking, one of Maine’s most beautiful bays, the Penobscot. Conveniently located just outside of Searsport Village you can find, everything you need just a short walk away, from a family run grocery store to a local bakery and café, they even have a local pizza joint that’s amazing!

Searsport is conveniently located next to Belfast and in the opposite direction just 25 miles from Bangor; Maine’s third largest city. Incorporated in 1845, the town received its name from Bostonian, David Sears, who granted Searsport the money then used in the founding of the town. According to the latest census conducted in 2010, Searsport’s population was just over 2,600.

If you’re ever in Searsport stop in Blacksmith’s and try out their hand cut fries!