Real Estate Articles Worth Reading

Like reading about Real Estate? The following articles are some of the better Real Estate posts I have created at my other Real Estate blog Massachusetts Real Estate Voice.

Top Ten Mistakes To Avoid When Selling Your Massachusetts Home
This is one of my favorite Real Estate articles. An in depth explanation is given on some of the most common pit falls to avoid when you are selling your home in Metrowest Massachusetts or anywhere for that matter.

Real Estate Capital Gains When Selling Your Home
The article explains the most up to date laws surround selling your home and the Capital Gains tax laws.

Selling Your Home Does Not Have To Be A Mystery
The article explains how properly pricing your home is the most important consideration for achieving success with your home sale.

Social Marketing, Short Sales, And The Seller I Never Met
An explanation of how properly using social networking along with having a strong internet presence can go a long way in helping your clients sell their homes.

Assessed Home Values Rarely Equal Fair Market Value
An explanation why the assessed value of your home has very little correlation to the fair market value.

USDA Loans Mortgage Option For Low To No Down Payment
What is a USDA loan? Who Qualifies? Why is the USDA loan a good mortgage option for those with little or no down payment.

Energy Saving Tips For The Winter Months
A guide to some of the best things you can do to save money around your home in the Winter months.

Deed In Lieu Of Foreclosure and Short Sales
An explanation of how a deed in lieu of foreclosure and a short sale can help a home owner avoid foreclosure.

Foreclosure Avoiding It Through A Short Sale Or Loan Modification
This Real Estate article gives the definition of a short sale and also how a loan modification can help a home owner avoid foreclosure.

Selling Your Home In A Buyer's Market
Tips on selling your home in a buyer's market including picking the right Realtor who will create a dominating online presence, pricing your home property, and making sure that it is in tip top showing condition.

Best Remodeling Projects Cost V.S Value For Your Home
A look at some of the best projects you can do to your home and what the projected return on your investment will be. The data is taken from the National Association of Realtors.

Tax Deductions To Remember When Getting A Home Loan
Just purchased a home? These tips will help guide you to make sure you remember the possible tax deductions come April 15th.

Massachusetts FHA Mortgage Loans
A review of the FHA loan program in Massachusetts and why it is a good loan program for those that do not have a large down payment.

When To Lock Your Mortgage Interest Rate
There are always decisions to be made when buying a home. One of them is when to lock your mortgage rate. The article gives some opinions on when it makes sense.

5 Surefire Ways To Turn Off A Home Buyer
A look at some of the things that can prevent you from selling your home and how you can avoid them.

Handling Multiple Offers For A Seller In Real Estate
Negotiating multiple offers can be a tricky subject. The goal is to get the best terms and conditions for you seller clients. Here is a look at how it is down and some of the important considerations.

Preparing Your Massachusetts Home For The Spring Selling Season
A look at some of the better things you can do to get your home to stand out from the competition in a competitive Real Estate market.

Buying a foreclosed home or potential foreclosure property
Are you considering buying a foreclosed property? Why not after all there are plenty of them all around the country and they can typically be bought at a discount to the present market value.

Low cost home improvements when selling your home
In a very competitive Real Estate market one of the things that is vital to your success is how well your home shows in relation to the rest of the inventory for sale. There are quite a few simple things that you can do to improve your chances and maybe put a few extra dollars in your pocket at the same time.

Massachusetts Short Sales
Everything you need to know as a buyer or selling regarding short sales in Massachusetts.


I hope you have found some of these Real Estate topics interesting.

Have a question about Real Estate? Feel free to shoot me an email and I will try to help if I can or point you to someone who can.
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About the Author: The above Real Estate articles were provided by Bill Gassett, a Nationally recognized leader in his field. Bill can be reached via email at billgassett@remaxexec.com or by phone at 508-435-5356.

Have a home to sell in Metrowest Mass? I have a passion for Real Estate and love to share my marketing expertise!

For Metrowest Massachusetts Real Estate and homes see Metrowest Mass Realtor. Want to have MLS access to beat other buyers to your dream home? Sign up with no obligation at my MLS Property Finder Site.

I service the following towns in Metrowest Massachusetts: Hopkinton, Milford, Upton, Southboro, Westboro, Ashland, Holliston, Mendon, Hopedale, Medway, Grafton, Northbridge, Uxbridge, Franklin, Douglas, and Framingham MA.

The Boston Marathon and Hopkinton MA....It all starts here!

Hopkinton MA is a terrific place to live. I should know I have lived here for the last forty years. I have also been selling Real Estate in Hopkinton for the last twenty one years. What originally put Hopkinton on the map, so to speak is the fact that the Boston Marathon starts here in little ole Hopkinton MA.
The Boston Marathon is one of the most recognizable events. It has grown so large it is by and large the most covered marathon in the world. Last year there were over 20,000 runners! This day is very exciting here in Hopkinton MA. It is truly an experience with a circus like atmosphere. Helicopters, news trucks, reporters, vendors, and just tons of people, runners and spectators alike.Hopkinton, however, is more than just the starting point for the Boston Marathon. Hopkinton MA is a great place to raise a family. Hopkinton is located about 26 miles West of Boston which makes it an ideal location for people commuting to work everyday. Access to highways is great as the "Cross roads of New England", Route 495 and the MA Pike are right here.

Hopkinton has experienced tremendous growth over the last decade. Real Estate values in the town of Hopkinton have sky rocketed. It has become a "destination" town for people looking to settle down into a nice home.

There are many factors that contribute to Hopkinton being a great place to live besides the excellent commuting location. The schools in Hopkinton are very highly regarded. A new state of the art high school was just built a few years ago.
The athletic center know as the "Field House" in the new high school is close to what you would find at a small college. It is really impressive!

Hopkinton has many great neighborhoods. In fact, in relation to other neighboring towns there is much more variety and number of "subdivision" type neighborhoods. There is a variety of Real Estate choices in Hopkinton MA. Homes for sale in Hopkinton are priced from the mid 200's for a small starter home which most likely needs work to beautiful Multi Million dollar homes.

Some of the top high end subdivisions in Hopkinton include Highpark, Springwood, Forestside Estates, Ravenwood, The Highlands, and Circa 1700 Country Village. Homes is these Hopkinton neighborhoods start in the 600's and go up to a million plus.

The town does not have a big commercial base. Hopkinton has a very rural feel to it. You will not find establishments such as McDonald's and Burger King in Hopkinton. The residents of Hopkinton have wanted it this way, in keeping with the master plan. The town center has a very quaint feel to it. Large scale shopping for groceries and clothing is done in the neighboring towns of Milford and Westboro. There is a large scale mall located about 20 minutes away in Natick MA. There is a small super market in town center called Collela's Market for things needed in a pinch. For a better understanding of the demographics in Hopkinton MA Citi-data is an excellent resource.

One of the most visible companies that employs a number of people living in Hopkinton as well as other surrounding Metrowest towns is EMC Corporation. Emc is a computer data storage company with its main offices located on South Street in Hopkinton.

Hopkinton is going to under go some substantial future growth as one of the largest Nurseries in the united States known as Weston Nurseries, has sold off a large chunk of their land for future development. There will be an additional 940 units built at the Weston Nurseries site. You can read about the future development of Weston Nurseries here. It will be a mix of residential homes, condos, affordable housing, as well as commercial and retail space. The subdivision and the homes there will be be part of what's called Legacy Farms.

As a Realtor that has grown up here and gone through the Hopkinton schools myself, I can be an invaluable resource to my clients and customers. If you are thinking of moving to Hopkinton, MA, I would love to work with you and share my pride in this fantastic town.

If you do decide to move to Hopkinton MA or other Metrowest town, please feel free to visit my Metrowest MA MLS Property Finder website. You can also sign up to get MLS Access here.

Hopkinton MA Real Estate.....something I am passionate about.

Selling your home in Metrowest MA? It Pays to interview a Top Realtor!

There are thousands of Real Estate agents that service the Metrowest Boston area. There are, however, vast differences in the skill level, services offered, and marketing efforts of the Realtors that cover towns in Metrowest MA.

Lets start by analyzing the many things a Metrowest MA Realtor can do for you to market your home besides putting it in MLS. The local newspaper used to be a good source for marketing homes. The Metrowest Daily News and Boston Globe were the dominant sources for for marketing homes in Metrowest MA over the last decade. Buyers however, don't frequent these sources like they used to when looking for a home in Metrowest MA. All the newspaper resources that used to be so successful in the past for advertising and marketing your Metrowest MA home, just don't work anymore. The volume of calls received from these sources has dwindled severely. The Boston Globe has seen the trend progress and because of this has started to put a lot of their resources into making the real estate section of Boston.com a better place for Metrowest MA Realtors to market their homes. The Boston.com website is owned by the Boston Globe.

It is clear that the Internet is where any good Realtor marketing homes in Metrowest MA should be putting their efforts. A year ago 70% of all buyers were beginning their search on the Internet. Now more than 85% are looking and finding their homes on the Internet. Hiring a Metrowest MA Realtor who is Internet savvy, has the technology in place, and can provide you with an abundance of Internet exposure has become an absolute necessity in todays market. Internet marketing has become one of the most effective means to sell your Metrowest MA home.

Some of the the sites to market a home on the Internet include Realtor.com. Realtor.com is a consumer friendly website that allows buyers to see homes that are on MLS throughout the country. Realtor.com has the largest volume of traffic for real estate related websites. While viewing homes in Realtor.com, you will notice big differences in how Realtors market their homes there. A good Realtor will take the time to "enhance" the listing. As a Realtor, you are allowed to add up to twenty photos of the property you are marketing. Survey after survey says that the photos are the most important tool to market a home. The phrase "A picture is worth a thousand words" is never more evident than in Real Estate. Realtors are also able to write their own custom text to help buyers understand what the best features are about the property. Many of the Realtors in Metrowest MA do nothing to "enhance" their properties. This is a big mistake!

The most heavily traveled real estate company website happens to be the company I work for RE/MAX.com RE/MAX.com is similar to Realtor.com in that you are able to see all the properties on the market from one website. When going to competing companies websites such as Coldwellbanker.com and C-21.com you are only able to view their respective company listings.

One of the latest sites to effectively market a Metrowest MA home is Zillow.com. Zillow initially was more of a site to get a quick evaluation of your homes value but is now being used as a site to market homes. As a Realtor, you are able to enhance listings with multiple photos and descriptions. A valuable tool in marketing your Metrowest MA home, as this is a heavily traveled site. Another site that is also starting to make some headway is Trulia.com. and yet another good site is listingvue.com.

Along with these sites you would think that all Metrowest MA Realtors would have search engine optimized, lead generating websites. Many Metrowest MA agents do not and rely on company websites. My personal website, myhousepartners.com allows buyers to sign up to receive MLS access as well as to get emailed daily when a new property comes on the market that matches their search criteria.

One of the newest and most important ways to market a home in Metrowest MA is through blogging. Blogs are an excellent means to get noticed by the search engines. Some of the best agents from around the country have figured this out and are now blogging like crazy. One of the best Real Estate platforms to blog on is Active Rain and Localism.com Both of these sites are very well recognized by the search engines such as Google and draw traffic to the Realtors who use them. Blogs are personal. Blogs provide buyers and sellers with great information, tips, advice, news, market reports, and promotion of properties. Here are examples of some of my recent blog posts:
Preparing your Massachusetts home for the Spring selling season
Attention Home Sellers - don't get sued because of bedroom misrepresentation.
Get your Title V done early
Metrowest MA Real Estate - why most companies don't offer Sub-agency
Top ten mistakes to avoid when selling your Massachusetts home
Why Your Massachusetts Home Expired
Selling your Massachusetts home is a buyers market

Social networking sites are also raising the bar on how a property can be marketed. For example see my Metrowest MA Real Estate site on Squidoo.com. This is an example of a site I created to draw additional traffic to my listings as well as myself. Some other important social networking sites are stumbleupon, digg, and del.icio.us These sites allows users to post their favorite Internet sites for others to see under different topics. Real Estate is always a popular topic. These sites allow your website to become more visible. As a top Metrowest MA Realtor, I like to take advantage of these sites. It does not pay to be a "secret agent" in Real Estate. Flickr is also a site where you can post photos. I use this site to market homes I am selling in and around Metrowest MA.

Thinking of selling your home in Metrowest MA? Want a top RE/MAX agent that knows how to market homes - Contact Bill Gassett, RE/MAX Executive Realty via email at billgassett@remaxexec.com or by phone at 508-435-5356.

I am the team leader of the #2 RE/MAX Team in Massachusetts. I service the following towns in Metrowest MA: Hopkinton, Milford, Upton, Southboro, Westboro, Ashland, Holliston, Mendon, Hopedale, Medway, Grafton, Northbridge, Uxbridge, and Framingham MA.

Want to sign up to access MLS and beat other buyers to new listings? Use my MLS property finder site with no obligation.

ATTENTION HOME SELLERS - Don't get sued because of bedroom misrepresentation!

According to errors and ommission insurance for Massachusetts Realtors, one of the areas that has drawn the most recent litigation is the misrepresentation of bedrooms when the home is serviced by a septic system.

Septic systems are rated according their bedroom capacity. When someone says the septic system is "rated" for four bedrooms it means that the system will handle the waste generated by four bedrooms.

Where sellers and Realtors get into to trouble is when there are rooms in a home that are counted and marketed as bedrooms when in fact they are not. As an example, you could have a home that has three bedrooms on the 2nd floor and another room on the 1st floor that is called a "bedroom". It may have a closet and a window large enough for a person to fit through - both requirements of being a bedroom.

The problem, however, is that if this home has a septic system that is rated for only three bedrooms, it is not a four bedroom home and should not be marketed as such.

The misrepresentation occurs when the seller or realtor represents this room to be a bedroom through various marketing channels such as the multiple listing service(MLS). The buyer then relies on this information, only to later find out through town hall or other means that in fact it is not a four bedroom home. There are certainly differences in market value between three and four bedroom homes regardless of the overall size of the house.

Another example would be a home that has had an addition and the room added is called a bedroom but there has been no corresponding "upgrade" to the septic system.

As a realtor, whenever there is any doubt about the bedroom count, records should be verified to determine the correct information. This information can be found at the local board of health. You can also view my in depth article about Massachusetts Title V and home selling by clicking the link.

For more great local real estate information check out my Real Estate website that details how to effectively market your home to the masses online at Metrowest Massachusetts Real Estate.

Get your Title V done early

As a Realtor who is involved in quite a few home sales it continues to amaze me that many sellers are not getting their title v out of the way prior to putting their home on the market or at least within the 1st few weeks that it gets posted for sale.

The financial burden that a failed septic system creates is fairly substantial for most. Aside from the unexpected financial headache, it also involves digging up your yard to install a new system.
There is testing involved and then sending the system out for bid. I would recommend at least three bids, as in my experience they can vary greatly.

The worst part of this nightmare is if you already have your home under contact and then find out your system has failed. There are times when your new system has to be "raised" due to new title v regs. Most buyers don't want to find a large mound in their yard that they were not expecting.

Here is a neat little video that explains how a septic system works.

Septic System Anatomy

Sound Advice - get your title V done early!

Other related Real Estate articles:
Massachusetts septic bedroom count misrepresentation
Massachusetts Title V


Thinking of selling your Metrowest Massachusetts home and want to work with a top notch Realtor? Check out Metro West MA Real Estate