Real Estate Information

For a town with only 3000 people, Northfield, Vermont has a big heart.  It's also got a big hockey arena. 

The Norwich University women's hockey team (a team that made the Frozen Four last year) has thrown out a challenge:  You can watch tonight's (Friday, Jan 29th) game for free at Kreitzberg Arena in Northfield.  BUT, you're supposed to wear something pink, and, since it's a fundraiser for breast cancer research, donations are appreciated.

I love this idea!  My wife and our two daughters are going, as are many Norwich University faculty, staff and students.  I'm not sure if I have anything pink to wear, but rest assured, the 3 year-old is going to be in paradise!

Northfield is only about 15 minutes from Montpelier or Barre.  Come on out, watch some good hockey, and help support a good cause. 

Go Wick!

I used to be a teacher (I taught 2nd grade in Northfield, VT).  And between you and me, I LOVED giving homework.  Didn't much like grading it, but I loved giving it.

Here's my come-uppance--and yours too, gentle owner of rental properties in Montpelier.  The city, in the midst of its re-re-appraisal has sent out "requests" for detailed expense reports for multi-family properties in Montpelier.

At first I thought they were voluntary.  You know, like the surveys that we all get and toss.  But, practicing due diligence, I read that there are fines imposed for not submitting the numbers.

I'm an optimist, and I can usually see the silver lining.  This is one of those cases.  Since the Montpelier Rental report follows more or less the same categories as the IRS, my (and probably your) bookkeeping system is set up to tally the amounts fairly easily.  The silver lining part is that maybe I'll get my taxes done earlier this year.  Yeah, right.

Was that Ray on a Snowmobile??

See, here's the deal:  I REALLY enjoy my job.  Today I enjoyed it even more than usual.  As some of you may know, I have a remote 100 acre camp listed for sale in Worcester, VT (just north of Montpelier).  In the winter, the only way up to the camp is on snowshoes or on a snowmobile.

Last week, another agent in our office, Jane Eakin, went for the bucolic snowshoe approach.

My buyers today wanted to burn a little gas.  So, up we went.

I haven't been on a snowmobile since I was in Junior High, and my friend's parents went to bed way too early to properly supervise us.  But that was almost 25 years ago (Eesh?  Really?).  And I have to say, it was pretty darn fun.  Plus, it was a heck of a lot easier getting up the "road" on the snowmobiles than in a car.

There are a couple of points I want to make.  First, it's amazing how much variety and entertainment being a Realtor in Montpelier provides.  Second, and I'm going to toot my own horn here, what other Realtors would snowmobile up to a listing for a showing?

Why I Love Barre Homes

I just saw a flat-out beautiful home in Barre.  Custom cherry cabinets, granite countertop and backsplashes, maple flooring, BIG views all the way to Camels Hump.

It blows me away that a house like this can be had for less than a half million.  There's nothing wrong with the house--everything's just in great condition.

And I'm contemplating going on a personal crusade to stoke the fires of Barre real estate.  If I were looking for sheer value, I'd definitely want to think about Barre.  This isn't where I go off and say that it's a perfect town, and only a fool would look anywhere else. 

All I'm saying is that there are some gorgeous homes for sale in Barre, and they're within the price range of a lot of buyers.

Stay tuned for future installments of things going on in, around, and to Barre.  The Chamber of Commerce is going to want to hire me before I'm through...

You never know what you're going to find until you find it.  In this case, a cute late-80s saltbox in Williamstown, VT sailed through the inspection until the water inspection. 

First, for personal and professional reasons, I always recommend getting a water test if the drinking water comes from a well.  That goes for buyer and seller.  It's not uncommon at all for there to be bacteria in the drinking water.  It can come from any number of places, (my favorite is the guy that said it came from "an earwig in the well".)  For all I know, that's exactly where it comes from.

In this case (the one in Williamstown, but I've also seen it happen in Berlin, Middlesex, Calais, and Barre--wherever people have wells), the owner has "shocked the system", and retested.  It's not an expensive treatment, and sometimes it has to happen more than once.  But it's all manageable.

The important part is that it's not a big deal.  As a seller in Montpelier or Williamstown, it helps to know this ahead of time, and treat.  As a buyer in Barre or Berlin, well, unless you don't care what you drink, you should probably get this tested.  The only potential inconvenience in the whole thing is that it takes a few days to do the test...so don't wait until a couple of days before the close.

Ahhh...the eternal question.  I fully understand the argument.  Hire a professional and pay the commission (when it sells) or go it alone, and try to avoid the commission.  Our office has some very preliminary sales data from 2009 in Northfield, Williamstown, and Calais.  I preface ALL of my stats by saying that, being Central Vermont, the sample sizes are small.  Not sure if this would hold up to rigorous statistical review.

But anecdotes are worthwhile too.

In all three of those towns, Williamstown, Northfield, and Calais, the difference in sale price between those that sold using a Realtor and those that were "direct sales" was just a hair over 10%.  This suggests that sellers are more likely to ge a higher net price using a Realtor than selling on their own.  To me, that's a pretty clear bottom line difference.  There are lots of variables that can't be controlled for in this experiment.  I'm just relaying the bottom line price differences. 

Once all the town sales data have been put together by our office, I'll put that out too--and maybe in a nifty looking table!  We should all be so lucky...

I'm often asked if this is a good time to buy a home. Some clients are concerned that home prices may fall further than they have already. They are assuming that the best course of action is to wait for the bottom in the market and then buy. The problem with this approach is that you don't know where the bottom is until you see it in the rear view mirror, meaning until you've missed it!

Home prices are one factor in determining your cost of ownership, but so are interest rates and financing availability. Even though interest rates have gone up in the last six months, they are still near historic lows. Since your monthly mortgage payment is a combination of paying down your principal and paying the interest owed, if home prices come down a little further but interest rates up, it could cost you even more to service a mortgage on an identical home!

While a home is a major investment, it is also the center of your personal life. It's important to live in a home that reflects your taste and values, yet is within your financial "comfort zone." To that end, it may be more important to lock in today's relatively low interest rates and low home prices, rather than to hope for a further break in prices in the future.

Please give me a call if I can be of any assistance in determining how much home you can afford in today's market.