As one of the leading Listing Agents of Bank Owned Homes and Foreclosures in the Manchester NH area in 2011. I would like to share with you the INTERIOR pictures of some of the best and worst homes.  I get to see a lot of homes. They come in different shapes, sizes and conditions. For an investor, bad condition means a deal. THE #1 WORST INTERIOR HOME   One of the worst homes I have ever seen. This picture is looking from the Living Room intio the Kitchen. Every room was filled with trash.  The answer to the number one question is yes, someone was living here.                        This home was also occupied before foreclosure, it had an active roof leak and you can see the mold and insulation falling through where the ceiling fell in.                     Everyone has heard of homes b... 12/28/2011

Here in New Hampshire the unemployment rate fell again in November by 0.1% down to 4.9% or to 5.2% when seasonally adjusted. This is much lower than the national average.  The news was great for NH residents who weathered the recession better than most of the country. The housing market continues to show strong signs of growth as sales have remained up from 2010 and inventory is down form 2010 and down from earlier in this year. A lot of markets have stabilized with prices actually increasing. Owner occupied buyers have been looking for homes that are in near move in condition. They are willing to pay more than the houses in need of rehab. The trend is the deals for owner occupied home shave been homes that need paint and carpets. Thise in need of major work are staying on the market a ... 12/27/2011

On the 26th day of the Blogging challenge I faced a day full of challenges. It was Monday after all. For me it was a work day. For many though , it was another day off. It was nice for the people who were off, but no so great for anyone trying to conduct any Real Estate business. When other people are off , Real Estate agents are usually their busiest. The phone started ringing early. There were still 2 buyers waiting to be in their new homes but did not close last week due to someone who did not complete their share of the job in 2 seperate cases.  We needed a small miracle and a lot of hard work to make things happen. Please see my blog "Why are people in the Real Estate Industry NOT READY TO WORK?" It seemed to be pretty controversial to push people to work on the Monday after Christ... 12/27/2011

The question for the week is "Is Anyone Working?" It takes a team of people to get a home on the market, under contract, through the inspection process, through the mortgage process and to get that home closed. When that process breaks down becuase "someone" in the team "is not" or "did not" do their job, The result is it is near impossible to get closings to close. As one of the Leading Listing Agents here in the Manchester NH area, I take my job to seriously to represent the Seller and to complete the itens needed to get the home closed. I am very irritated that a Closing Company took the time to contact MY seller on their own and going around me, to tell them we needed an extension until after New Years to get this closed. I was supposed to have 3 closings last week 0 of which closed... 12/26/2011

On the 25th day of the Blogging challenge I was able to take the first full day off since July 4. It was a cold New England morning but unfortanately, it was not a white Christmas this year here in Southern NH. I think we used up a winter's worth of snow in our highly unusual and never heard of October Blizzard. Christmas was a great day spent with family. There were smiles and cheer from ear to ear.  I was able to rest, get some relaxation and recharged for what will be a busy and work packed week where I have 3 buyers trying to be in their homes for New Years. I just hope and pray the Loan Officer, Underwriters and closing attorneys can work as hard to get these closed by Friday afternoon. Hopfully A Christmas miracle will work this week to help move things along.   Wishing you all Ha... 12/26/2011

On the 24th day of the Blogging challenge I had a half day to work, gift buying to wrap up and a trip to the grocery store to get some additional items for Christmas Eve Dinner. I was filled with Christmas Spirit and despite running into grinches everywhere, they were not going to bring me down. There was a young couple who had narrowed down from 10 homes to 2 homes they wanted to show their parents who flew in for Christmas and were giving them the gift tof the downpayment to purchase. The first home the people were in the process of moving out, their agent screamed at me, how I could be working on Dec. 24 and that I was giving Realtors a bad name. Lets see a "bad name" for taking care of my clients needs who WILL be buying a house today. The second home was a vacant home so we got in ... 12/25/2011

On this Joyous Day, We Wish you a Very Merry Christmas from our Family to Yours!!!May your day be filled with Joy amd Happiness!!!I would like to thank everyone for such a great year in 2011, Especially my family, clients, co-workers and friends both old and new who have supported me through out the year. Wishing you have a Wonderful Christmas, Happy Holidays and a Happy New Year.We offer BUYER REPRESENTAION for Bank Owned Homes at no additional cost to you.If you need to sell your home and If you may owe more than your house is worth, i may be able to help. I specialize in working with home owners to get your home sold. There are many options such as a short sale whcih may be able to help you.Please try and avoid out of state or out of town agents and companies that make "out of this w... 12/25/2011

As one of the Leading Listing Agents here in the Manchester NH area, I have seen and heard a lot of backlash when it comes to assisted showings. If you are not in Real Estate you may not know what the difference between an assisted showing and an unassisted showing even is unless you were affected by it. The one common factor is agents either love it or Hate it, however sallers who know the real meaning and how it affects them, start to love it real quick.Bill Gassett a fellow and neighboring Realtor to my South wrote a blog "Accompanied Showings in Real Estate do not create Sales?" I have to beg to differ sharply and firmly. The first thing to note is often time there is a very specific reason a seller or the listing agent requests accompanied showings. As a listing agent I go over any... 12/24/2011

On the 23rd day of the Blogging challenge "I kept on keeping on." I fought the good fight to get my closing closed, however the lawyers and loan officers thought it would be better to wait until next week without checking with the buyer, the seller or us agents.... I will let THEN explain to the family who came 1500 miles in a moving truck to be in their new home before Christmas and could not close becuase the closing company and loan officer left early yesterday and did not want to take the time to conduct the closing at 3pm. I was given a huge list of homes in the foreclosure process. Before you go calling me a grinch for working or even working on foreclosures, 5 out of the 6 houses were vacant and the 6th was a mobile home that went mobile and is not there any longer. So no one is ... 12/24/2011

As a Leading listing agent of Short Sales here in the Manchester NH area it never ceases to amaze me how common sense is overlooked by some people. In this case it is the appraiser and the negotiator for the bank. This Christmas one seller's sale and one buyer's purchase were crushed when the bank foreclosed even though the bank extended the time to work out the appraisal issue on a short sale. The first appraisal came in near the purchase price, the bank ordered a second appraisal which came out near twice as high as the purchase price. It is considered  a distressed neighborhood with a short sale just having sold accross the street and 3 foreclsoures sold on the street in the last year. Despite this the appraiser used comps from much more upscale neighbohoods totally "screwing up" the... 12/23/2011

On the 21st day of the December Blogging challenge i was faced with a real challenge alright. The latest trend is for buyers to attempt to renegotiate after the home inspection.  It does not seem to matter if the home is sold "as is", if the home is in like new condition, if it was just renovated or needs a ton of work. In this particular case the home was completely redone on the inside. The negotiations of the offer were long and hard on the buyer, the seller and the agents involved. They negotiated down to the last dollar with no one budging for days. The buyer offered a real low offer and then asked for more work to be completed in addition. After 2 weeks of going back and forth, they agreed on a price and terms of what additional work they the seller would complete. Then the home i... 12/22/2011

    On the 20th day of the Blogging challenge I took it upon myself to help reduce the unemployment rate. I was looking to hire a new assistant and set up 4 interviews. . My requirements were simple. To be able to work a mix of days, nights and a weekend day, have a drivers license, reliable car, auto insurance, the ability to work with others, knowledge of a computer,  MS word and excel as well as to have a computer at home. If they were not licensed I would register them in a real estate class. The first woman did not even show up, no call, no nothing at all. The second woman was early, great I thought, I loved promptness. She appeared well kept, she was very well spoken but said she could not work any nights and weekends. She also said she did not have access to a car everyday. She a... 12/21/2011

On the 19th day of the Active Rain Blogging challenge I have planned a "Day of Giving Back". Throughout the Holidays here in the Manchester NH area I have supported Toys for Tots, The Union Leader's Santa Fund to benefit the Salvation Army and New Hampshire food Bank. Today i wanted to have a day with random acts of kindness. I have 3 things I want to accomplish and the rest will be "winging it" as if an opportunity arises, I need to act.   The smallest act is one of my favorite tricks of buying everyone in line behind me their morning coffee at Dunkin Donuts.   One of the largest could be paying off some layaways at Walmart. I got inspiration from someone but will be looking for ways to choose the one's that are behind in their payment and really need the help. I was also tipped to pay... 12/20/2011

On the 18th day of the Active Rain Blogging challenge I by far used the easiest method of attracting new business. Simply put... I stayed open and worked. As it is the week before Christmas, a lot of agents took the weekend off and even more were not available today. For me it is a Monday, not thinking it is the Monday before Christmas i should start rushing around for things. I will save that for Friday.   Basically the day started like any other Monday, I got to work extra early. Answered all the voice mails, answered all my emails, logged onto Acitve rain, checked the featured blogs along with some of the people I follow daily. I left some comments and headed out on my appointments. I got back shortly after Lunch and the phone was very busy. Caller after caller said they were surpris... 12/19/2011

  As we face a slow climb out of the economic crisis, different states are recovering at different rates. The housing Crisis has seen some major improvements. Some may linger for another year, however the light at the end of tunnel is near for a lot of locations. Those that are thriving in this economy will tell you not to sit and wait for improvement to come, to go out and make things happen. As a leading listing agent of Bank Owned Homes in the Manchester NH area I have seen trends and changes as well. From what I see each segment of the housing Industry needs to focus in more directly to work together so everyone can thrive.   Although there is enough blame to go around, no one asked me, however my focus on what needs to change is listed below. It is time for some straight talk strai... 12/19/2011

On the 17th day of the Active Rain Blogging challenge I met with one of the largest builders in Southern New Hampshire. In good times my specialty is selling New Construction. I have worked in new home communities since 1985. Whether it is 1 home on a single lot, a small sub division of 10 homes, Single Families, Duplexes, Over 55 communities, Condominiums or 150 homes being sold in 3 phases, I have worked it, Listed it, managed it, Planned it and Sold It.   As the Real Estate is stabilizing here in NH, now is the time to look forward. A new home community takes time for approvals, planning, roads, infrastructure and building. You can not wait until the market is deemed in the upswing by mainstream media as you will be behind the 8 ball.   Many builders love large companies, franchises,... 12/18/2011

On the 16th day of the Active Rain Blogging challenge I sat and pondered my strategy of Blogging. My number one goal is a new startegy of time management for 2012.   The conversation has to start with: Is blogging working? What types of content should I write about? Local Interest? Help other agents? Controversial topics? or to complain how the Featured Blog process is worse than ever. This week I wrote some of my best Blogs of the year. by saying they were the "Best" i am judging them by the response. For business it was fantastic. My email box lit up with potential buyers and sellers. My comments boxes were red hot with appreciation and suggestions. I received two requests for interviews, one from a national US magazine and the other from England. Not New England, old England as in th... 12/17/2011

As I do every morning I check the featured Blogs of the day on Active Rain. This morning I was reading Sandra Watkins blog "Please Don't take your anger out on me." and it hit a nerve. As a Leading Listing agent of Bank Owned Homes and Foreclosures in the Manchester NH area I took instant offense to it as a "blanket statement" that..." all Listing Agents of Bank Owned Homes are angry, do not want to work and hate taking listings form buyers agents becuase they are too much work."   First thing to address... is that ALL Listing Agents of bank Owned Homes do not act this way. How do I know? Becuase I am a large Listing agent of such homes and I do not act that way.    Do Some agents act that way? You bet, even here in my own area I could name 3 of the top offenders in my head that i would... 12/17/2011

On the 15th day of the Active Rain Blogging challenge I gathered and prepared my information for my Market Reports. In light of NAR making a huge mess with their data, it is ever so important for local agents to provide local residents who can use the information to make informed decisions.  I also thought it was important to compare the last 12 months so everyone can see a real trend or pattern.   This should provide extra exposure and assistance to potential buyers and sellers.    If you are looking to buy or sell a home in New Hampshire, please call us first. We strive to provide the best in personal and professional service through each step of the buying and selling process. We offer * FREE * BUYER REPRESENTANTION - ask us how we can help you buy a home here in New Hampshire. (*ple... 12/16/2011

On the 14th day of the Active Rain Blogging challenge I met with a Home Owner whose Listing had expired with their old Real Estate agent here in Manchester NH. It was not Bank Owned and was not a Short Sale. It did however need some help. The home is not in ready to show condition and the price was very high.  After a short conversation it was apparent their old agent listed the home and never offered them any guidance, tips or assistance through out the whole time it was listed. It was a great inspiration for one of my Best Wrtten "Direct and to the point" Blogs this year. THE TOP 5 REASONS Your house is not going Sell this year . Please take a moment to check it out and let me know what you think. This is one of the best and most direct plans to work with and inform sellers which will... 12/15/2011