Open Houses in Eliot Maine and Durham NH

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55 and older, 7 marden way, 94 beech ridge rd, adult housing, bean group, brad boisvert, durham nh, eliot maine, homes for sale, large homes, neighborhoods, new construction

If you are looking for me this weekend you can find me on Sunday at two public open houses that I’m holding. The ad information is below.

Public open houses are a great way to interview real estate agents without the formality of an appointment or without the agent even knowing.  You’ll develop a sense of how your house will be shown and their level of knowledge.

Open House |Sunday, February 26, 2012 | 9:00am to 11:00am | MLS#: 4128809 | 7 Marden Way, Durham, NH – Large 4 bedroom 2.5 bath home in the popular 55 and older community of Fitts Farm.  Open concept kitchen, dining and living room. The majority of your amenities are located on the first floor including master suite, office, laundry with mini-office and sunroom. The 2nd level is perfect for the extended family with generous size rooms.  $379,900. – Directions:  Route 4 to Route 108 heading towards Dover. Left onto Canney Road. Left onto Bagdad Rd. Follow onto Emerson and first left into Marden Way. The house is on the left.

Open House |Sunday, February 26, 2012 | 1:00pm to 3:00pm | MLS#:  94 Beech Ridge Rd, Eliot, ME - Traditional Colonial finished with thoughtful layout & unexpected quality. Generously sized home allows for sizable rms including formal living and dining rooms & informal family and dining areas all of which are open to the flawless kitchen finished in Cherry and granite. 4 spacious bedrooms including a Master Suite. 1st & 2nd level W/D hookups create options. Finished lower lvl offers dry storage & space for hobbies. $469,900 – Directions:  US Rte 1 Kittery near Outlets – take Wilson Road/Rte 101 (at Kittery Trading Post) to Beech Ridge on Right.

Hope to you at one of my open houses!

Busy at Work…23 Boxwood Dr Dover NH

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23 boxwood, bean group, brad boisvert, dover nh

I was neglectful in posting to my blog last week.  In looking back it’s been an unsually busy week.  I listed 23 Boxwood Drive in Dover.  This is a great Colonial and the perfect option to building new.  It is located in desirable Alden Woods and is not only thoughtfully planned but meticulously maintained. The Kitchen is finished with granite counters, recessed lighting & state of the art appliances.  It further includes a large media/family room.  The vaulted ceilings with butter hued walls and gas fireplace add extra warmth & cheer in the winter while central air cools during the summer.  Formal living rm, dining rm & laundry finish the 1st level & hardwood floors unify all spaces. The 2nd level includes 3 bedrooms & 2 baths inclusive of a generously sized Master Suite with full bath and walkin closets. Extra 2nd lvl room offers office potential. As a special bonus the lower level has been finished offering addt’l space for the family along with a mudroom room with direct access from the garage making it the perfect space to leave coats & shoes. Immaculately landscaped yard setback from the road with large deck overlooking tree line view & shed for storage.  All this for $379,900!

Selling Your House? Then Stage it!

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bean group, brad boisvert, seacoast maine, seacoast nh, selling your house, staging

Buyer’s love to see professionally decorated houses.  They love the idea of homes that don’t have finger marks on light switches, counters free of newspapers & bills and bedrooms with luxurious beds.  Although human’s are messy; buyers envision perfection in their next home not realizing that the only true place you’ll ever see the perfect home is where humans have never been – like the side of a mountain cliff.

When it comes to selling your home, a Stager’s touch can go a long way in creating that vision.  Staging is very different from interior decorating.  Interior decorators work with you to complete a look that is reflective of your personal style and taste.  Staging is quite the opposite.  They work with you to depersonalize the house in order to create a vision that will appeal to the widest audience of buyers.

Consider Staging like getting ready for a corporate job interview.  If it’s been a while since you’ve been on an interview you might buy a new suit and shoes, get your hair cut, and take care of some personal grooming.  The objective would be to appear professional, capable and put together while hiding the negative thoughts, body piercings and tattoos.   Applying this analogy to your house, if your house appears well maintained it’s easy for a buyer to believe that the things they can’t see in the house are equally as well maintained.

7 Marden Way…What do you want to do when you grow up?

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7 marden way durham, bean group, brad boisvert, portsmouth nh

Today I listed 7 Marden Way in Durham, NH.  Marden Way is located in popular Fitts Farm which is an active 55+ and older community.  In putting together the marketing for the house, my assistant, took a queue from the retirement commercials by asking the question, “What do you want to do when you grow up?”  That question certainly got the office talking both about the first part of our lives and the next stage of our lives.

With having lived in other parts of the country I often think back to what it would be like if I had not moved to Portsmouth NH.  After college, I spent some time in Colorado, with 300 days of sun and the ability to golf and ski 10 months out of the year, I was sure it was the perfect fit.  Then a friend was moving to Portsmouth, NH so I thought I would give it a try, even if just for a year or two.  Here I am 20 years later selling real estate in Portsmouth, NH.  I am blessed with a wonderful wife who’s continued support and partnership allows me to work for my passion in real estate, as well as a staff and office environment that has a great energy even with this business can be a grind.  I know for sure that wherever I ended up I would be selling real estate.  Perhaps in the next stage of my life I’ll convince my wife to move to Colorado and you can find me there selling real estate.

Insurance and Your Settlement Statement Demystified

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bean group, brad boisvert, mips, pmi, private mortgage insurance, up-front mortgage insurance

I had a great question from a buyer regarding insurance and their good faith estimate.  They felt like they were paying for insurance three times.  I thought it was an excellent topic for a blog post.

On FHA mortgages and mortgages where you are putting less than 20% down on the loan you’ll very likely have to pay for private mortgage insurance.  There is an initial cost for the insurance as well as a monthly cost.  FHA programs refer to it as Up-Front Mortgage Insurance and other programs may reference it as PMI, MIPS or another manner.  The upfront fee is normally about 1% of the loan value.  The upfront fee is a one time charge and unfortunately can’t be shopped around.  In the case of FHA loans, if you sell the house within the first 5-7 years of ownership you might be entitled to a partial reimbursement of this fee.

Another fee you’ll see on your good faith estimate and possibly your settlement statement is a Hazard Insurance Premium.  The Hazard Insurance Premium is like car insurance and protects your house from fire and theft etc.  It’s a policy that you get on your own which allows you to shop rates around.  The lender often requires you to pay one year up front and bring in a paid binder and receipt to closing indicating what the coverage is and that you paid for a one year policy.  When your lender puts together a good faith estimate your lender needs to put in an estimate for hazard insurance to help qualify you for the loan.  Normally, the mortgage rep will put in a slightly higher than average figure.  So since you can shop your Hazard Insurance around you could very likely beat what the lender estimated.  You might call the person that insures your cars as you can sometimes get discounts if you insure your car and house through the same company.

Additionally, there is a line item for Hazard Insurance Reserves.  So not only does the lender require that you pay one year up front for Hazard Insurance for the house the lender will also collect three to six months of Hazard Insurance (at closing) to be held in an escrow account, which is used towards future home owners insurance payments. This standard of practice is normal.

When examining your monthly payment, you’ll see Hazard Insurance and Mortgage Insurance listed again as each month your lender will collect for your Hazard Insurance and Mortgage insurance.  This is all normal as well.

New Castle NH opportunities for the energetic at heart!

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bean group, brad boisvert, new castle nh, piscataqua st, pit lane, real estate for sale, renovation projects

If you are looking for an opportunity to make your own mark on a property there are a few opportunities in New Castle NH.  Take for instance 36 Piscataqua Street in New Castle NH.  With 3 levels and just over 2700 sq. ft. of living space there is ample room to modernize this house and make it your own.  The property includes many of its original features including built-ins, wood floors and fireplaces which would give you an excellent structure to work with as you consider renovating the house.  As a finished project the house would potentially be worth $1.1 Million.

Another more interesting property is 14 Pit Lane in New Castle NH.  It’s being offered for $599,000.  Again it needs to be gone thru but with just under 2300 sq. ft. of living space, oversize garage and .63 acres of land there is the opportunity to put together a home that would be worth north of $1 million.

Brentwood NH Housing Market – Overview

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average list price, average sales price, bean group, brad boisvert, brentwood nh, brentwood nh depreciation, community profile

Much like the towns across New Hampshire and much of the nation, the housing market in Brentwood NH has been hit hard by the economic downturn.    Between 2011 and 2007 the single family market saw a steady decline dropping an average of 6.5% a year for a total of 24%.  The steady decline in average list and sale prices in both single family homes and condos is best reflected in the two charts listed below.  The positive news is that average days on market has dropped in Brentwood as well as the number of housing units selling each other is back at the same rate as 2007 which was 44 units.

To learn a little more about Brentwood NH visit the Community Profile page listed on my website.  Also, if you are

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looking for housing in Brentwood NH you can see what’s available today by going to … Brentwood NH Homes for Sale.

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Brad’s Pick of the Week… 130 Aldrich Rd, Portsmouth

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130 Aldrich Road Portsmouth NH, bean group, brad boisvert, Fixer Upper, Portsmouth Homes for Sale

The Tom Fabisak Real Estate office just listed this fixer upper at 130 Aldrich Road in Portsmouth.  If offers 1915 sq. ft and is priced accordingly at $279,000.  The most recent sales on the street were a 2600 sq. ft New Englander that sold for $482,000 as well as a 1700 sq. ft home that sold for $355,000.  Based on this recent data, whomever ends up with this house and invests the time in bringing new life into this property will be well insulated from an equity/investment standpoint.

Where are Home Buyers making their Home Purchase

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bean group, brad boisvert, brentwood, dover, eliot maine, hampton, kittery maine, new castle, popular seacoast towns, Portsmouth, york maine

I love pie charts.  With just under 2000 housing units sold in 2011 in the general Seacoast of NH and Southern Maine, what could a better chart than a Pie Chart breaking out the percentages of overall unit sales by town.

Points of Interest:
*  Dover, Portsmouth, Hampton, York ME and Exeter are the hottest selling towns. 
*  Sales in Newington and Newfields are negligible.

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Why I Love Stratham Survey Results Continue to Roll In…

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bean group, brad boisvert, Stratham NH, stratham schools, stratham survey, why I love stratham

I have been running “Why I Love <insert your town here>” surveys for sometime now.  I previously posted what the Stratham residents were saying about their town and the responses continue to roll in since so I thought it was time for an update… 

To take the survey visit StrathamSold.com.

Some interesting observations to note include:

1.)  All the respondents continue to rate Stratham taxes as fair.
2.)  All the respondents continue to rate the Privacy in Stratham as good.
3.) The majority of the respondents rated the Country Setting, Access to Commuter Routes, School Systems and Availability of Homes as Excellent.
4.) The majority of the respondenta rated the Community Parks, Rural Setting, Town Programs, Affordability of Homes and Public Works Department as Good. 

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