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I'll admit that I didn't look that carefully, but most New Englanders do not want a pool. Even at my low price point, I bypassed any houses that had pools. Not enough time to use it in New England, it's a lot of work and can be dangerous to young kids. Future owners will probably either fill the pool in or build a high fence around it.
The kitchen looks strange at first glance. What stood out were the green cabinets. They need painting or replacing. It's not a kitchen I would want to cook in. Just doesn't look inviting.
Someone said the master br was only 10' wide? That's odd.
I hope there isn't any electric heat=$$$$$$$$$$. I saw wall to wall carpeting somewhere; that's a turn off.
I think one thing to remember is that things are changing and MA is seeing a huge influx of out of staters who want brand new, modern homes. They don't value our antique homes. Even the younger New Englanders don't value antiques that much anymore. I don't agree with those values but that's what I'm seeing.
The house is gorgeous in outside appearance and the traditional cedar shakes normally need absolutely no upkeep--no painting, nothing. It will look even more beautiful in springtime when people start looking at houses again. Good luck.
Not sure what exactly you're asking here. That being said there is a world of difference between Mattapan and Weymouth. Weymouth is just kind of blah. Large swaths of Mattapan are really bad.
The "How rude" was a joke though
So what are some of the price points in mattapan for say a single family home 2 bath 3 bed room garage (are garages a thing in new england?)
I know you only asked for real estate professionals to respond and I am not one. I also don't live in your market.
Nonetheless, I wanted to respond on a couple of things.
First on staging. We have done staging on a couple of houses. On one house years ago, it was sort of staging life from the wife of our agent. She was a real agent who specialized in buyers. She walked through our house with me, room by room, and told me exactly what I needed to do. Some of it was decluttering. Some of it was more substantive like replace this faucet, change that light fixture, paint these walls. Then she told us what kinds of things to buy to make the house look nicer. Put a rug here that looks like this. Put candles here. Put a small picture right here. (She gave more detail). We followed the instructions to the letter. There was no charge for this as it wasn't a separate stager. We sold our house to the second person to look at it.
We sold another house several years ago near the bottom of the market. In that case, we used a stager who charged $1000 base fee which included furniture placement, helping us select paint and carpet, and providing towels, pillows, rugs and furniture as needed. This also included a first time meeting with our contractor and painter and gave advice on what needed to be done. There was a charge of $65 an hour for additional time with the contractor or for shopping for us.
The house was on the market for about 6 months, didn't sell, taken off for a few months over holidays then went back on and sold within a week. (More about that later).
We did not pay a monthly fee for furniture probably because we only used a few pieces from the stager. They staged an empty bedroom with furniture and put some table and chairs in our sunroom and a few other pieces. At the time we were very busy working full time so we had the stager to do shop for us to do things like buy new window coverings, etc. and they also helped with supervising the contractor doing work to get the house ready. I think the ultimate cost was a little over $2000, not including cost of things the stager bought for us. (This was 8 years ago).
I was fairly happy with the staging, but I do want to mention one thing that in retrospect I think they got wrong. The real estate agent who helped us with the staging of our first house basically had us do things that made the house look like a staged model home. When she was done the house looked, well, pretty. Everyone walking in would give compliments on how it looked. Our furniture was fairly ordinary but the accessories she had us place throughout the house really made it look nice.
The stagers we used for the second home had a different philosophy. The believed that items should be minimal. They felt we should be showing off the house and not the decor. So, yes, they put in a few decor items. They put a picture on the mantel and so on. They had us remove almost all of our pictures and most of the house had bare walls. All of this to show off the house.
In retrospect -- that might be right for some houses, but wasn't right for our house. Why? Our house had layout issues. Honestly, having people focus on the house itself didn't really help us. We would have been better off having people focus on the decor.
The takeaway from all that is that it is important to talk to the stager and find out what their philosophy is on staging and see if it matches what you need for your house.
Now about selling our house in a week when we relisted it for sale. We dropped our price about 20%. When your house is on the market for a long time and doesn't sell, it is about price. Our sale was irritating because we knew when we put the house on the market that it was declining market and the bottom hadn't been hit. So we asked our agent to help us set a price that would be reasonable. We expressly said we were more interested in selling soon rather than maximizing price. I think the price suggested was, in retrospect, about 10% too high (by the time the house had been on the market 6 months and then was off for 3 months it was 20% too high).
If your house hasn't sold, it isn't appealing to buyers at the price it is at. Maybe someone will come in and love it as is. You never know. But, you may have to wait a long time. I watched a unique property near me sit on the market for a couple of years when it was obvious that it was over priced. It had lots of wonderful features but they weren't appealing to many people. The house was very personalized. I'm sure the sellers thought that if just the right buyer came in they would love it. Still, the sellers ended up selling at something like a 20% (or more) discount over 2 years later.
The oil tank is in the basement.
New septic system less than 20 years ago and it's massive - 7 bedroom. No issues with it.
Town water - perfect. Also have deeded rights to the well next door. Could add irrigation.
3 fireplaces/2 chimneys - all in perfect working order.
The barn was used for a business. Can have up to 3 employees. The was a propane heater which we removed when we bought the house. Can be added back in. The first floor is finished w bath and kitchen area to the left near the pool.
Pool is far from house. Good and bad to that. Sun all day total privacy, no leaves. Has a fence.
You can't supervise teens unless you stay out there. It's a lot of real estate to manage.
No central air. We use window units. It's actually cold in the summer. Pita putting the units in every yr.
Lawn is designed to mow in under an hour. I pay $80/wk in summer INCLUDING spring and fall clean-up and they maintain all the bushes, beds, etc. Trimming/clipping included. (Johnson Landscape/abington)
Weymouth - I thought you meant the section of Hingham that is adjacent to the super busy congested area where they meet. It's less desirable (to some/not all) because cars go fast and not safe for pets/kids.
Do you think it's overpriced at $1,349,000?
I couldn't see a fence surrounding the entire pool; just part of it; and if I were interested in the home, I would definitely want a complete fence around the pool area.
Is there a garage? I didn't see one. That could be a turn-off for which you might have to compensate by lowering the price.
The photos look good to me; and I don't think you need to have it staged, unless that is customary of homes with asking prices over a million. It's a beautiful house.
Given that there is no garage, the pool is not completely fenced, and there is no central air-conditioning, you might consider lowering the price a bit when you put it back on the market; especially if similar properties have garages and central air.
Whoops; I missed your mention of wanting real estate professionals' responses. I'm not a realtor; I just watch too many HGTV shows and sold/bought in 2015. Good Luck.
I don't think the age of the house is deterring too many potential buyers. There are buyers who love antique houses, but they also want it fully updated (systems) and adapted to modern day life. If this was a classic 1900-20s house similar to what you find in Wellesley or Brookline, with graceful entry foyers and staircase and formal living and dining rooms, plus a fully updated kitchen and great room added to the back, it would sell easily. The best of the old and the best of the new. At least that's what I see in my market.
What you have is what I'd term a farmhouse antique. Like a farmhouse, you have multiple little rooms that can't be easily adapted to modern living. Like a farmhouse, you have low ceilings. Like a farmhouse, there's very little charm or period features inside. Like a farmhouse you have ancillary buildings that promise to be more of a headache than an advantage (maintenance, using them). Then you have the existing condition - not the latest systems, no central air, kitchens and bathrooms look like they're from the 1990s and are already pretty basic by the standards of the 1990s.
It is a lovely house in many respects but I suspect most potential buyers tour the house and leave thinking that to turn it into the house they way they'd have to spend another few hundred thousand dollars on it.
That's not terribly uncommon for Massachusetts as our housing lacks uniformity. I drive through my neighborhood everyday and see a mix of large, new(er) homes surrounded by older, smaller homes. The larger homes often sell for at least 50% more than what the smaller homes will sell for.
The OP has mentioned that their neighborhood is a bit of a mix as well.
Your housing in Massachusetts is no different than our housing in Philly/Metro Bucks County, PA. But one thing that is totally the same is: buyers.
The moment they see that "price 67% higher than comps" smack dab under her listing, they're going to get a bias. Even subconsciously. Especially the ones who aren't realtors or who won't have that discussion with their realtor who can explain all that.
It's a specialty property and like she said, ALL the other comp buyers entered into a major reno before moving in when they were wanting to update the house.
She's gonna need a special buyer. Like she was. One who may underestimate the challenge of that house or think it's cool, or will love the "charm" or whatever.
It's my impression that not every buyer is demanding the open concept layouts and even so, this house seems to offer at least ONE room that's open, bright and large. Even if you can't see it in the photos and it offers electric baseboard heating in 10 degree winters.
Last edited by runswithscissors; 01-27-2018 at 06:51 AM..
I know you only asked for real estate professionals to respond and I am not one. I also don't live in your market.
Nonetheless, I wanted to respond on a couple of things.
First on staging. We have done staging on a couple of houses. On one house years ago, it was sort of staging life from the wife of our agent. She was a real agent who specialized in buyers. She walked through our house with me, room by room, and told me exactly what I needed to do. Some of it was decluttering. Some of it was more substantive like replace this faucet, change that light fixture, paint these walls. Then she told us what kinds of things to buy to make the house look nicer. Put a rug here that looks like this. Put candles here. Put a small picture right here. (She gave more detail). We followed the instructions to the letter. There was no charge for this as it wasn't a separate stager. We sold our house to the second person to look at it.
We sold another house several years ago near the bottom of the market. In that case, we used a stager who charged $1000 base fee which included furniture placement, helping us select paint and carpet, and providing towels, pillows, rugs and furniture as needed. This also included a first time meeting with our contractor and painter and gave advice on what needed to be done. There was a charge of $65 an hour for additional time with the contractor or for shopping for us.
The house was on the market for about 6 months, didn't sell, taken off for a few months over holidays then went back on and sold within a week. (More about that later).
We did not pay a monthly fee for furniture probably because we only used a few pieces from the stager. They staged an empty bedroom with furniture and put some table and chairs in our sunroom and a few other pieces. At the time we were very busy working full time so we had the stager to do shop for us to do things like buy new window coverings, etc. and they also helped with supervising the contractor doing work to get the house ready. I think the ultimate cost was a little over $2000, not including cost of things the stager bought for us. (This was 8 years ago).
I was fairly happy with the staging, but I do want to mention one thing that in retrospect I think they got wrong. The real estate agent who helped us with the staging of our first house basically had us do things that made the house look like a staged model home. When she was done the house looked, well, pretty. Everyone walking in would give compliments on how it looked. Our furniture was fairly ordinary but the accessories she had us place throughout the house really made it look nice.
The stagers we used for the second home had a different philosophy. The believed that items should be minimal. They felt we should be showing off the house and not the decor. So, yes, they put in a few decor items. They put a picture on the mantel and so on. They had us remove almost all of our pictures and most of the house had bare walls. All of this to show off the house.
In retrospect -- that might be right for some houses, but wasn't right for our house. Why? Our house had layout issues. Honestly, having people focus on the house itself didn't really help us. We would have been better off having people focus on the decor.
The takeaway from all that is that it is important to talk to the stager and find out what their philosophy is on staging and see if it matches what you need for your house.
Now about selling our house in a week when we relisted it for sale. We dropped our price about 20%. When your house is on the market for a long time and doesn't sell, it is about price. Our sale was irritating because we knew when we put the house on the market that it was declining market and the bottom hadn't been hit. So we asked our agent to help us set a price that would be reasonable. We expressly said we were more interested in selling soon rather than maximizing price. I think the price suggested was, in retrospect, about 10% too high (by the time the house had been on the market 6 months and then was off for 3 months it was 20% too high).
If your house hasn't sold, it isn't appealing to buyers at the price it is at. Maybe someone will come in and love it as is. You never know. But, you may have to wait a long time. I watched a unique property near me sit on the market for a couple of years when it was obvious that it was over priced. It had lots of wonderful features but they weren't appealing to many people. The house was very personalized. I'm sure the sellers thought that if just the right buyer came in they would love it. Still, the sellers ended up selling at something like a 20% (or more) discount over 2 years later.
It wasn't the STAGING or that the realtor told you to put little candles and pictures around that sold that house.
It was OBVIOUSLY the price.
Not to mention, you're comparing two different houses and stagers at two different times in the market.
Anyone who may be looking at this OP house, without expecting "layout issues" is naive and doesn't know what they're looking at. Because if the "layout issues" had already been resolved with structural renovation, the house wouldn't be $1.3.
I really never understand why people don't understand staging but I guess it's not for everybody. ALL she had to do in that pink room was put a cute little crib in there with pastel accents and DONE. Maybe a small rocking chair with a teddy bear. Not a giant "antique" bed stuffed into a corner and blocking windows. Then again, it's hard to tell what's going on with a half a photo or if that's the full size of the room. HELLO? Closet door? LOL
And all someone has to do is see that electric baseboard heating PROMINENTLY displayed in the listing photo to decide it's not worth it. And that's a shame since the rest of the house has radiators, which I LOVE. Electric baseboard heating under a room full of " walls of glass overlooking the expansive manicured yard".
The realtor spent alot of time selling "meticulous landscaping" (which it isn't), and didn't even mention the mechanicals of the house. How old is the HVAC (since she mentioned the house has been added to and RENOVATED over the years). How old is the roof?
The answers can't be great if they weren't stated in the listing.
OH, and OP? I wouldn't call the other building a barn since it's not a barn and you don't have animals living in there. I'd call it a Carriage House.
ETA: Oh wait. I said HVAC but there's no AC? I just noticed that in another reply.
Last edited by runswithscissors; 01-27-2018 at 06:58 AM..
Even if you can't see it in the photos and it offers electric baseboard heating in 10 degree winters.
Quote:
Originally Posted by runswithscissors
And all someone has to do is see that electric baseboard heating PROMINENTLY displayed in the listing photo to decide it's not worth it. And that's a shame since the rest of the house has radiators, which I LOVE. Electric baseboard heating under a room full of " walls of glass overlooking the expansive manicured yard".
OH, and OP? I wouldn't call the other building a barn since it's not a barn and you don't have animals living in there. I'd call it a Carriage House.
ETA: Oh wait. I said HVAC but there's no AC? I just noticed that in another reply.
I think this has been mentioned other times too...the photos do not confirm or even suggest that the main home has electric baseboard heating. scissors says the rest of the house has radiators. Well the baseboard type units ARE radiators and to me they look like they are part of an oil fired hot water heating system. A huge percentage of homes in NE have exactly the same radiators as part of an oil or gas system.
Previously I asked about the possibility of electric heat in the barn because of the OP's comment about a gas heater being removed and it's probably fair to say that the barn does not have its own 'proper' furnace. So I assumed that it is heated by electric or currently unheated (yikes pipes).
Forgive me if i've missed it but I don't believe that there is anything that suggests that main rooms in the main house are heated by electric baseboard heaters and this would be very unusual in a large New England home so I don't know why anyone would assume this. Again, sorry if the OP confirmed this and I missed it.
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