A real estate search application for facebook…
Nestoria.com, a UK property search engine, launched theirs today. Users can search for property to buy, rent or share from within their Facebook account. It’s cool and will probably land them a little press but is it actually valuable? Will anyone use it? Do you really want a list of all the real estate listings you’ve searched, displayed on your “Wall
Every experienced agent has a number of tricks that they use to make sure a listing is presented in just the right way. Some agents use a professional stager to get the fung shui just right, some have a professional photographer come and work their magic but there are others who rely on actions that are a little more covert. Some might even describe these as “dirty tricks”.
One of those tricks is the well know method of “relisting” a property in the MLS to erase the days on market (DOM) history. At the request of its subscribers, our local MLS has tried to eliminate this dirty trick.
Important Change to DOM Calculation in the MLS System - April 1st, 2006.
“In the past, each time a listing was entered into the system it would “reset” the calculation of DOM regardless of how long the property had been for sale. As a result, the statistical data in the system did not reflect the true amount of time properties took to sell, but instead reflected the amount of time for that specific listing number. ” With the new system, we now have the ability to show complete DOM for each property instead of each listing number.
Note: If a property is off the market for more than ninety (90) days and then comes back on the market it will show as a new listing with zero (0) days on the market. In this case the market history report will have a “previous listing” button if you need to view the prior listing data. If a property is off the market for less than ninety (90) days and then comes back on the market it will show as a new listing and the calculation of DOM will pick up from the prior listing. If a property is put under-agreement, and the transaction does not close, the days it was off the market will not be included in the days on market calculation.”
This change was a major improvement to the system but there is a loophole. Agents can relist a property and change the way the address is written to convince the system that it’s an entirely new listing. For example “Third Street” might be rewritten as “3rd Street” or “18-26 Bay State Road” as “24 Bay State Road”. When an agent does this they can beat the system and set a DOM market statistic of 396 right back to Zero in an instant.
The lesson learned is that while MLS data is usually quite accurate you have to be beware of its source. When you view a property ask specifically about its market history and don’t let an agent dance around the issue. God forbid you find out after the fact that the Bay State Road condo you just bought for $386,000 which showed a DOM of 26 had actually been listed 422 days, 396 of those at a price of $335,000!
“The project dwarfs anything ever built in the bedroom suburb” writes Michelle Hillman of the Boston Business Journal.
Lynnfield residents voted in favor of a development project that is sure to alter the town’s landscape and budget. The project, on 68 acres of a 202-acre site, will include 395,000 square feet of retail, 80,000 square feet of office, 180 rental units and 40 units of elderly housing.
What does this mean for you? More buying power … and potentially more people (buyers/competition) at the next open house.
“According to the Warren Group, the publisher of Banker & Tradesman, the median price of a single-family home in Massachusetts was $315,000 in May, down 4.6 percent from a year ago when the median was $330,000.
But a report from the Massachusetts Association of Realtors claimed that single-family home prices “remain strong,” as it said that the median price for single family homes rose 0.7 percent from $352,700 in May 2006 to $355,000 in May 2007.” - From Boston.com
“The two groups use different methods to collect and analyze data, and their numbers also differed on condo sales.” Umm, you think? Economic data can very drastically based on who collects it and how it was collected. If you really dug into it I would be willing to bet that the margin of error is big enough to make both sets of results irrelevant. As the saying goes lies, damned lies, and statistics. Take your pick.
From Sellsius today comes a report on Litracon, “a combination of optical fibres and fine concrete. It can be produced as prefabricated building blocks and panels. Due to the small size of the fibres, they blend into concrete becoming a component of the material like small pieces of aggregate. In this manner, the result is not only two materials - glass in concrete - mixed, but a third, new material, which is homogeneous in its inner structure and on its main surfaces as well.”
A litte strange but very cool. Litracon - Light Emitting Concrete
J. Donovan Sr. was the MIT professor who survived an execution style shooting only to be accused of faking the shooting and framing his own son.
MIT Entrepreneur Survives Execution-Style Shooting - InformationWeek
Estate of War - Wall Street Journal
Wanna buy Donovan Sr.’s house? How about both his houses? According to the Real Estate Journal the two Manchester-by-the-Sea properties are listed with LandVest at $5.9 and $6.0 million. They aren’t on the MLS but you can read about them in the RSJ article.
Google just launched a new feature to Google Maps called Street View. In certain locations (San Francisco, Las Vegas, Denver, Miami and New York), you can view and navigate within street-level imagery. You can even drag the street view to look around 360° and use your arrow buttons to navigate down the street.
Here’s my favorite coffee shop in NYC. Jack’s.
“We are absolutely convinced of the underlying market demand for the destination we propose.
The Mashpee Wampanoags are building a casino and there is nothing that is going to stop them. The only thing up in the air is where they will build it. The current proposal calls for some vegas style action in Middleborough, MA but there are local community voices calling out “not in my backyard” (shocker).
Glenn Marshall, chairman of the Mashpee Wampanoag Tribal Council, says, “We don’t want to build in a community that doesn’t want us. There are other communities that want us. If the casino plan were defeated in a referendum, why would we choose an uphill battle when New Bedford, Brockton and Revere would accept a facility and the jobs?
© 2010 Territory Real Estate, LLC
