Thanks to everyone for helping select an area for our move!! but... 1 more question (Andover: real estate, how much)

[rameleg]

Thanks guys.. all the info you gave was very helpful!

after looking at the homes we have narrowed our search to:
Marblehead
Swampscott (only by the water/town square)
North Andover
North Reading

We actually found 2 homes we loved and made offers over asking... and got outbid on both...

I don't know the legality of what the realtor is allowed to tell you about making an offer but he offered very little advice as far as what we should offer

The market seems REALLY strong and competitive any kind of advice or tips??

price per sqft... do you guys use this out here or is it not real applicable?

would you consider $343 per sqft for a nice house in marblehead too much?

[Parsec]

Last year I was using price per sqft as a way to determine a fair offer price, but kept getting outbid. I eventually ditched that method and followed my heart. Not the best way to prepare an offer, but it's the only way to get a winning bid these days

[3cents]

I concur with Parsec. Follow your heart. How does one do this? In my opinion:

- If you haven't been actively going to (almost) each and every open house in your price range in your target towns for the past 3-6 months, you need to bring yourself up to speed fast. To do this, look through all the sold listings for the past 6 months. Note how much they sell for relative to the location and condition of the houses

- Photos of past listings tell a lot. But nothing beats going to open houses yourself. Once you've gone to 10 houses in a particular town and seriously do comps to compare a few of those, I think you'll have a fairly good idea of how to value a house in your price range.
- If you've gone to 30 houses and actually bidded on a few, you'll have a very good idea of how to properly value a house. You could even spot 'very good deals' when you see one. Also, if you lost a bid, be sure to ask your agent to find out as much info as possible about the winning bid.

[MikePRU]

Originally Posted by rameleg

We actually found 2 homes we loved and made offers over asking... and got outbid on both...

I don't know the legality of what the realtor is allowed to tell you about making an offer but he offered very little advice as far as what we should offer

Is the agent you're referring to your buyer's agent or the listing agent? If you're talking about the listing agent then get your own buyers agent if you want advice. The listing agent is not going to be terribly helpful. If you're talking about your buyer's agent then fire them and find one who will be helpful.

Originally Posted by rameleg

price per sqft... do you guys use this out here or is it not real applicable?

would you consider $343 per sqft for a nice house in marblehead too much?

Absolutely, the most useless real estate statistic (at least around here). There's too much irregularity in lots size/shape and the house themselves for it to be useful. On the west coast and in the south where there is more uniformity in neighborhoods I would imagine it's a more useful metric. The only good way to value a house is to use comparable recent sales. If a similar house sold for $600K then chances are this house will sell for $600K as well. These are all things a good buyers agent should be able to answer for you.

Originally Posted by Parsec

Last year I was using price per sqft as a way to determine a fair offer price, but kept getting outbid. I eventually ditched that method and followed my heart. Not the best way to prepare an offer, but it's the only way to get a winning bid these days

All the "numbers" oriented people want to use $/sf. The accountants, the engineers, the finance people. It's like fitting a square peg in a round hole. It just doesn't work but these personality types are only comfortable with numbers.

[traffic_lover]

Originally Posted by rameleg

would you consider $343 per sqft for a nice house in marblehead too much?

i own a SFH on edge of old town in marblehead. near old town $300-$340/ sqft is right on & supported by several closed & pending sales. in town, the following factors play a huge role in price:
-location/neighborhood/street traffic. town is small, but several distinct desirable areas. find comps in your exact street/neighborhood
-yard. 10k sqft is considered huge
-house condition- most houses are old, but differ alot in condition. is it solid? make sure u have home inspection contingency
-updates/reno- again, old houses, has it seen a major update
-layout- a small sqft house can seem much larger if its got an efficient layout. there are so many old houses with goofy wasted spaces
basement- does it flood
walls insulated? - based on age of house this could be a coin flip
marblehead is on a very short list of towns in MA where you get ALL of the following:
ultra low prop tax
good schools K-12
nat. gas at street
town sewer, water, & trash

[gf2020]

Originally Posted by rameleg

after looking at the homes we have narrowed our search to:
Marblehead
Swampscott (only by the water/town square)
North Andover
North Reading

My suggestion is always to find the town you want to live in and then wait for the right house to come along.

I used to live in Swampscott, I got married in Swampscott, I still get my hair cut in Swampscott; but I would take Marblehead over Swampscott every day of the week for reasons that have been articulated here previously: lower tax rate, better town management, more services, etc.

Comparing those towns to North Reading or North Andover, however, is a little bit of apples and oranges and will only serve to confuse your house selection process.

Finalize the choice of what town you want to live in and then find the right house in that town.

[rameleg]

Originally Posted by MikePRU

Is the agent you're referring to your buyer's agent or the listing agent? If you're talking about the listing agent then get your own buyers agent if you want advice. The listing agent is not going to be terribly helpful. If you're talking about your buyer's agent then fire them and find one who will be helpful.



Absolutely, the most useless real estate statistic (at least around here). There's too much irregularity in lots size/shape and the house themselves for it to be useful. On the west coast and in the south where there is more uniformity in neighborhoods I would imagine it's a more useful metric. The only good way to value a house is to use comparable recent sales. If a similar house sold for $600K then chances are this house will sell for $600K as well. These are all things a good buyers agent should be able to answer for you.



All the "numbers" oriented people want to use $/sf. The accountants, the engineers, the finance people. It's like fitting a square peg in a round hole. It just doesn't work but these personality types are only comfortable with numbers.

It's our buyers agent... he doesn't seem real knowledgeable... but very helpful... he is willing to spend a TON of his time with us... but seems to be in left field most of the time...

Oddly enough I'm an engineering manager and my wife is a CPA.. so you can see how hard it is for us to think dynamically instead of hard and fast numbers

[rameleg]

Originally Posted by 3cents

I concur with Parsec. Follow your heart. How does one do this? In my opinion:

- If you haven't been actively going to (almost) each and every open house in your price range in your target towns for the past 3-6 months, you need to bring yourself up to speed fast. To do this, look through all the sold listings for the past 6 months. Note how much they sell for relative to the location and condition of the houses

- Photos of past listings tell a lot. But nothing beats going to open houses yourself. Once you've gone to 10 houses in a particular town and seriously do comps to compare a few of those, I think you'll have a fairly good idea of how to value a house in your price range.
- If you've gone to 30 houses and actually bidded on a few, you'll have a very good idea of how to properly value a house. You could even spot 'very good deals' when you see one. Also, if you lost a bid, be sure to ask your agent to find out as much info as possible about the winning bid.

unfortunately we learned of our transfer only 2 weeks ago...
we saw a total of 19 houses in the past few days in different areas..

From wakefield (hated... hated... the area)
to
North Reading (loved the area) and Swampscott (loved the area as well)

We were in Marblehead and we didn't quite understand what all the fuss was about... seemed average as far as towns go...

we are also on a truncated time table... moving June 13th and we get 45 days of temp housing and we have to be out by then....

[MikePRU]

Originally Posted by rameleg

It's our buyers agent... he doesn't seem real knowledgeable... but very helpful... he is willing to spend a TON of his time with us... but seems to be in left field most of the time...

A lot of nothing is still nothing. The key is to find an agent who's not only willing to spend time with you but also who knows what they're talking about. I can't remember your situation but if you already live in the area ask your friends/co-workers for some recommendations. They won't always end up being good recommendations but they're at least a start.

Oddly enough I'm an engineering manager and my wife is a CPA.. so you can see how hard it is for us to think dynamically instead of hard and fast numbers [/quote]

I've dealt with that type on several occasions. It can be very difficult for numbers oriented people to buy a house in this state.

[rameleg]

Originally Posted by MikePRU

A lot of nothing is still nothing. The key is to find an agent who's not only willing to spend time with you but also who knows what they're talking about. I can't remember your situation but if you already live in the area ask your friends/co-workers for some recommendations. They won't always end up being good recommendations but they're at least a start.

Oddly enough I'm an engineering manager and my wife is a CPA.. so you can see how hard it is for us to think dynamically instead of hard and fast numbers

I've dealt with that type on several occasions. It can be very difficult for numbers oriented people to buy a house in this state.[/quote]

our situation is a work transfer from michigan happening on the 13th of June... so we don't know anyone yet


thanks for all the help!