The Light House on Plum Island, Newburyport MA

 

Plum Island, Newburyport MA and Newbury, MA:  Finally the long awaited rescue operation is funded and in place.  For the last three years I have been reluctant to show waterfront properties on Plum Island because of erosion; the DEP had prevented the traditional erosion management measures and only recently had reconsidered and allowed “dune management” to occur.  Now, with the dredging operation, my concerns are alleviated.   It’s time to sell Plum Island Real Estate again!  Great properties, great location:  This is the only sandy beach location near a town center that is full of restaurants, activities and charm (Newburyport MA) within an hour’s drive of Boston.   Portsmouth NH is less than a half hour away. 

Check out this article in today’s Newburyport Daily News:  http://www.newburyportnews.com/local/x226603610/Beach-pact-to-be-final-on-Tuesday

Anyone thinking about living or investing in the North Shore should be aware of the exciting new future of Salisbury Beach. I’ll be among the people working hard to make this happen. Here The Daily News:

July 14, 2010

‘Impressive and overwhelming’
Concept of rebuilt Salisbury Beach Center winning support
By Angeljean Chiaramida
Staff writer

SALISBURY — Local reaction to Monday’s first public look at what could be the future for a revitalized Salisbury Beach Center is one of both excitement and wonder, as local officials ponder a totally new look for the town’s historic seaside playground.

Cambridge redevelopment experts Jane Thompson, Pratap Talwar and Norman Beaulieu of the Thompson Design Group presented a concept of what could happen at Salisbury Beach Center if their vision becomes reality. The company began its quest to restore the grandeur of the now deteriorated center more than three years ago, working to acquire development agreements from the 70-plus property owners surrounding Broadway. Though Monday’s presentation to the Salisbury Beach Betterment Association was far from a final blueprint, the basic concepts are winning some support.

“Conceptually, what I saw Monday night was impressive and overwhelming,” Selectman Donald Beaulieu said. “We need to know more of the specifics of what will happen, because some of what they discussed will make for a completely different beach center.”

“I can tell you I’m very excited to finally get a glimpse of what they’ve been thinking about,” Selectman Henry Richenburg said. “Personally, I found their plan to open up the beach all the way to the salt marsh a highlight of their concept for me.”

Richenburg referred to a major ecological portion of the Thompson Group’s plan that would widen the beach and build a secondary dune system to prevent flooding in the center, as well as raze all the structures and open up the area surrounding Broadway all the way from the ocean to Salisbury’s large salt marsh.

The area created would be a huge, public, pedestrian space, holding attractions such as sheltered arcades, a concert venue, a public beach club, maybe an indoor water park and other beach amenities, but no building on the beach. Talwar spoke of having not only a beachfront boardwalk, but a boardwalk along the salt marsh, as well.

Talwar discussed ensuring Salisbury’s delicate barrier beach by not building along the oceanfront, which ecologically should help prevent the serious erosion affecting the beach in recent decades. Allowing “the barrier beach to be a barrier beach,” he said, will let nature restore sand that is taken during storms naturally, with no restrictions caused by structures.

“Their concept would be a very different beach center than exists now,” Salisbury Town Manager Neil Harrington said. “The challenge will be to try to explain the really big picture to the population. It took me a couple of times to totally understand this.”

Harrington said the next phase of the project will have the Thompson Group reaching out to Salisbury residents and businesses, to build consensus on which of its ideas the community will support, and just how much change residents will embrace.

Salisbury Chamber of Commerce Chairman Chuck Takesian said when he heard the Thompson Group’s initial discussions, he anticipated the look of the beach center would change enormously. But he’s also been told by current business owners in the target area that they’ve been promised a place to operate in the new beach picture if they sign on with Thompson.

What many may have expected — tearing down the existing beach center structures and simply rebuilding with new, better-looking residential and commercials structures — isn’t want Thompson will do, Harrington said. The concepts include completely reconfiguring the beach center’s roadway system and creating a pedestrian-only beach center that prohibits vehicles, requiring satellite parking lots, trolley transports and new roads to allow for access to the northern and southern beach residential enclaves. Talwar described the new road as a “one-way loop” around the beach center that allows access to the south and north sections of the beach, similar to the roadway configuration around Hampton Beach Center.

Another concept would tear up a portion of Beach Road, or state-owned Route 1A, under which the historic Haley’s canal flows. The canal once provided boat access from the Merrimack River to the salt marsh waterways, but was paved over for car travel, sometimes creating flooding problems along Beach Road during high water. The Thompson Group dreams of “daylighting” Haley’s canal, allowing the water to flow unobstructed, and bridging it, ideally with a pedestrian bridge. It would also allow recreational boating use of the waterways involved, Talwar said.

Revamping road and utility infrastructure brings up the price tag enormously, something that doesn’t frighten Harrington or Richenburg. Both said such a large project would necessitate state and federal funding sources. The need is most likely the reason U.S. Congressman John Tierney was at Monday night’s presentation, and why state Sen. Steven Baddour and state Rep. Michael Costello were briefed by the Thompson Group months ago, to garner their legislative help.

“When it comes to transportation improvements, state and federal funding is usually involved,” Harrington said.

With so many pieces of the puzzle needing connecting prior to one shovelful of earth being moved, Salisbury Beach Center’s rebirth is a long-term project. Exactly how long is still a guess, but it will most likely take years before all the parts — public consensus, final design, local and state permitting, as well as getting many hundreds of millions of state, federal and private financing in place — come together, Harrington said.

“But it’s a really exciting thing, if it can happen,” Harrington said. “And I’m optimistic we can push it over the edge.”

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Potentially subdividable farm including huge horse barn with 60’x120′ indoor arena and 10 stalls, heated tack room. 2nd barn 20×40 , 4 stalls and hay loft. Abuts 100+ acres conservation acres w trails. 1971 split ranch needs work. This working farm could be subdivided into an equestrian property and a small subdivision, subject to all approvals. Farming equipment on site is for sale. Seller will consider flexible scenarios, including a partial sale. Current use is agricultural Ch. 61A.

Asking $1,380,000 for 15.7 acres.

Buying a House isn’t always Smooth Sailing
I’m working with a wonderful young couple who have four children and a fifth on the way! Needing to move to a larger home (duh!) they hired me to help them.
The price range is tight and the choices are few that will fit their needs. After a month a house came on the market that seemed perfect. The Seller’s Agent, a very experienced realtor, told us that the owner was in a nursing home and her children were responsible for selling it. We made an offer, negotiated it, and… suddenly it turned out the owner had a reverse mortgage and it was for more than the property was worth! So now we had a short sale that the selling agent hadn’t known about (but should have) and complications started… so we withdrew.
We found another house, this one an estate sale but we were assured that the estate was settled and there were no obstacles to the sale. One of the heirs had been in an accident and was incapacitated but his wife had been appointed guardian. We made an offer, accepted, drew up the P&S, and scheduled the closing for July 17th. No problem, the selling agent said! Well… the house was in MA and the guardianship was in NH. The Buyer’s Attorney, one I had recommended to them, immediately recognized that the NH guardianship had no validity in MA and started the Seller’s Attorney on getting it approved in MA. One month later, almost finished, the Seller’s attorney announces that there is a minor son and there needs to be a guardian appointed…
So still no closing date, I’m holding the poor Buyers’ hands, who are thankful for my sharing the frustration….
Sellers need to have their ducks in a row before they put a house on the market.

Update: The Economy and The Real Estate Market

It’s so hard to figure out what to believe and how to evaluate all the information we get. It’s usually better to put together lots of little pieces of news to get an idea of what’s really happening than to draw your conclusion from any of the big recent events that have been showing improvements in the economy.

We usually see a lot of articles about economic hardships and struggles just as our economy is about to turn around. There have recently been plenty of these. And usually the market bottoms hit quietly while this is going on. I think we are ready for a recovery. Last fall I was told that the market had hit bottom and it was a good time to buy – I didn’t go along with that and advised my clients to wait. Now I think differently.

Last week Robert Shiller, a founder of the Case-Shiller Home Price Index, started a new investment fund that leverages bets on housing prices. This fund could only make sense if housing prices were showing improvement. His recommendation to invest is therefore significant.

People in my business are naturally inclined to be optimistic about the market. I have not shared that enthusiasm, but see clear changes ahead. It’s time to think positively.

Both MA and NH have now launched programs to lend the $8,000 tax credit to first time buyers at closing, thereby eliminating the need for a down payment on a house up to $220,000. The minimum requirements are $1,000 of the Buyer’s own funds, a credit score of at least 620 and appropriate documented income.

But BEWARE! This program expires on Dec. 1st! If you haven’t closed on a house by then you don’t qualify. From the time you start looking for a house to the time you close you really need to plan on three months, so if you aren’t getting started now, you’ll miss the boat.

I’ll guide you through the process and help you find a home if you contact me.

John.wells@virtualhomes.com
978-462-9733

What Motivates Your Realtor: Buying

You hire a Buyer’s Agent to find you the property that best suits your needs for the best price. While the Agent does much more for you than this, there should be no other motivation for showing you a house.
Realtors offer other realtors open house luncheons, extra commissions and other motivators to try and push their property. Why any good realtor should be influenced by that is beyond me. As a Buyer’s Agent I sign a contract with my clients agreeing to a 2.5% commission; offering me more money is no reason for me to try and convince my clients to buy a particular house.
Realtor open houses were very important before we could find out almost everything about a property on the internet, and luring realtors to it was important. Not anymore. If a selling agent wants to help me sell the listing, make sure all of the attributes are correctly described in the MLS. Give me the room measurements. Tell me if there is room for an in-law apartment. Describe the lot or the waterfront. When I am picking houses to show to my clients, I am looking for the house that will meet their needs. See how we do this at www.virtualhomes.com. If offering me a higher commission or a fancy luncheon makes a difference, shame on me.
And if you offer me a lowball commission, my clients and I will change that. You aren’t doing your seller any favors.

What Motivates Your Realtor: Listing

In the traditional real estate model, the more listings a realtor has, the more sales the realtor closes. Unilke my business, where buyers find me through my internet marketing, most realtors can only find buyers because they ask about their listings.
So for them, getting your listing is key. If you insist on overpricing your house, it won’t sell, but your listing agent will still meet buyers that they can show other houses too. A good realtor should tell you that the price is too high; unfortunately, their business model may force them not only to accept an overpriced listing but even encourage you to believe in a higher than realistic value in order to obtain your listing.
Some realtors have built large business through consistent overpricing to get listings. Their signs might be everywhere, and they may be finding a lot of buyers this way. But are they serving their sellers? Beware. I rarely bother to compete for listings because I KNOW that another realtor is going to convince the seller that their house is worth more than I can honestly justify. My listings come from people who know me and trust my integrity and judgment, and that’s all I want.

This is very encouraging so I posted it for further distribution.

MARKET RECAP
The signs are pointing to an economy in full-recovery mode. The leading economic indicators (LEI), which attempt to forecast the economy six months hence, posted a third consecutive monthly increase, with seven of the 10 indicators improving during June. The annualized six-month rate of change of the LEI is now up 4.1%. It’s worth noting that since 1950 there have been nine recessions, and the LEI has reliably foreseen the end of all of them. No wonder many economists are now calling for an end to the recession by the fourth quarter of 2009. Guess what? The fourth quarter is less than six weeks away.
Nowhere is a recovery more apparent than in housing. Prices increased 0.9% in May from April, the Federal Housing Finance Agency reported. That might not sound like much, but two hard-hit areas – California and the South Atlantic region, which includes Florida – posted meaningful improvement, with prices in California increasing 2.7% and prices in the South Atlantic states increasing 1.4%.
Further evidence of a recovery is seen in home sales, which rose 3.6% to a seasonally adjusted annual rate of 4.89 million units last month, from a revised pace of 4.72 million units in May. Sales have risen for three straight months in 40 of 55 major metropolitan areas tracked by the Associated Press-Re/Max Housing Report. It appears increased sales are finally putting a dent in inventory, with the supply of homes falling to 9.4 months from 9.8 months.

Source: Blue Water Mortgage