- Overpricing. Your home will stay on the market longer and buyers will be less inclined to make offers.
- Using emotional values to price the property vs. factual market conditions.
- Not preparing the home for sale before it goes on the market.
- Listening to the opinions of friends and relatives vs. the professional advice of your REALTOR.
- Not giving the first offer serious consideration. Most often, it seems that this turns out to be the best one.
For more selling information, visit my website and click on “Resource Links” and/or “Free Reports”! www.DonnaForest.com. [caption id="attachment_377" align="aligncenter" width="122" caption="Donna Forest"]
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Price reduced from $257,700 to $248,700. Great 3 bedroom cape with Mt. Kearsarge views. For more information, visit www.472KingHill.com
Marilyn Kidder, Listing Agent
New London NH Neighbors…I was driving home from work last week coming off Main Street, past the library and down South Pleasant. It was early evening and a grayish kind of day. As I passed the raspberry man’s house, I caught a quick movement out of the corner of my eye. There between the two houses, out behind the raspberry patch, was a small group of whitetail deer foraging under the big pine and apple trees. Though I couldn’t get very close, I stayed and watched them for a while, while they actually watched me as well. They looked pretty “fat and happy”, as though they were weathering the winter fairly well. While not rare or unexpected, it’s still fun to see them (as long as they’re not eating your vegetables) and such sights continually remind me that, though short, my “commute” can still be full of interesting things to see.
Unique 4+ bedroom Gambrel in Springfield has a price reduction from $249,000 to $225,000. For more photos and details, visit www.256PhilbrickHillRd.com.
Sara Ellis, Listing Agent
I live right in New London, just a big block outside the village, so I have a very short drive to work…less than five minutes, and under 2 miles, but there is almost always something fun and interesting to see. For example, I can drive out of my driveway and turn right or left and get to my office in about the same amount of time, and whichever directly I go in, it’s not unlikely that once a week or so, I’ll see a busy, but shy, flock of wild turkeys.
In one case they flutter and quickly work their way back and forth at a front-yard bird feeder; in another, the scout peers cautiously over the edge of a snow bank, then boldly goes forward, with the others of the flock timidly following in a sporadic and random fashion. (There is always one more just when you think they’ve all crossed.) Their numbers were once drastically reduced to the point where their loss was a serious possibility…now they make fun and entertaining neighbors and are a relatively common sight!
Marilyn Kidder 2/23/2010
A Bit About Opossums
Did you know that there are opossums in New Hampshire, and that they are expanding their range northward? Opossums are relatively new to New Hampshire, gradually moving into the state from Massachusetts in the late 1960s. Rockingham and Hillsboro Counties began to have increasing numbers by the mid-1970s and by the early 1990s, the opossum had moved north to the Lakes Region, sweeping past Lake Winnipesaukee on the east side by the mid-1990s. They seemed to have moved up the major river systems in their march northward. First, they followed the coastal rivers, then the Merrimack, and they have now populated the Connecticut River Valley all the way into Coos County! By 2001, a few had made it all the way to Stratford, Columbia and Stewartstown.Opossums are the state's only marsupial. That is, the females have a pouch on their belly, just like a kangaroo, where the honey-bee-sized babies crawl at birth to spend their first 3 months of life. There are so many unique things about opossums! They have a long prehensile tail, like a monkey, that aids them in climbing trees. Although they can snarl and open their mouths wide when threatened, they also will feign death and "play possum." Most live out their lives within just a few hundred yards of where they were born. In fact, over 90 percent of opossums die before they are two years old.In New Hampshire, opossums are at the very northernmost edge of their range. Their hairless ears and toes often are blackened or missing from being frozen. Opossums were once thought to not be able to survive such a cold climate, but they just keep plodding north on frostbitten feet. -- Eric Orff, furbearer biologist (Reproduced from the NH Fish & Game Website)
The positive momentum felt in the New Hampshire housing market during the second half of 2009 continued into January 2010, with the state’s residential home sales ahead of January 2009 by 16.5 percent. This time, there is additional good news on the price side as well, as the median price of residential homes increased by 7.5 percent over the same period last year – the first month-over-month median price increase in 26 months and the largest such jump in 52 months.
According to data released this week by the New Hampshire Association of REALTORS® (NHAR), 529 single family homes sold in January 2010, a substantial gain from the 454 home sales in January 2009. And the median price in that same period was $215,000 this year, compared to $200,000 of a year ago.
The last time home prices showed an increase for a single month over the same period from a year prior was November 2007, and the last time that increase was better than 7.5 percent was September 2005.
“We’re aware that one month cannot be defined a trend, but we’ve expected that the good news in terms of sales would ultimately translate to prices, and we’re hopeful that this is the start of that change,” said NHAR President Monika McGillicuddy, a 25-year veteran of the real estate industry and an agent with Prudential Verani in Londonderry. “This is excellent news all the way around.”
And condominium sales, which had lagged behind the residential numbers throughout much of 2009, were up in number and price as well – with a 41 percent gain in sales and 9.5 percent median price improvement.
McGillicuddy attributed the sales and price increases in part to the continued incentive of the homebuyer tax credit, and generally as a continuing signal that the residential real estate market is experiencing the early stages of the recovery process.
“There are many factors that have gone into
this shift, from the tax credit to excellent interest rates to competitive prices,” McGillicuddy said. “Ultimately, we’re talking about an increase in confidence that I believe is at the core of sustainable momentum in the real estate market.”
The good news filtered to the local markets as well, as a majority of New Hampshire’s 10 counties saw year-end increases in both sales and prices.
“We’ll continue to monitor these numbers closely,” McGillicuddy said, “but from what I see and from what I’m hearing from other Realtors around the state, we’re very encouraged.”
Source: NH Association of REALTORS Press Release 2/16/2010
...and enter a cardboard sled race…for only $13 a day for a combo (ski, tube, ride) all day ticket, or $10 for an under the lights night ticket? Arrowhead Recreation Center in Claremont offers a back to basics fun experience for young and old alike. On a recent family first visit there for some tubing, I talked with one of the folks at the lift. While affiliated with the Claremont Recreation Department, Arrowhead is run entirely by volunteers and every penny collected goes right back into the Center. It’s a wonderful place to have a ton of fun without breaking the bank. We’ll definitely go back again! Give it a try.
Arrowhead Recreation Area Main
See their brochure for additional details: http://www.arrowheadnh.com/files/2009_10_brochure.pdf