Eastman Real Estate Blog

For those of you that are thinking of selling your home, not just in Eastman but anywhere, one huge issue is often over looked, PHOTOS!!!

Let me start by saying that the ultimate key to selling a home in this market is price. The right price will get it sold every time. After price what makes you home look good when buyers are looking on line? Photos. Everyday I look in MLS and see bad photos. It is amazing to me that sellers don’t complain more. Buyers won’t look at a home if the photos are bad. I see crooked photos, dark photos, blurry photos, what the hell is that photos and more.

In my office we have a large flat screen tv that we use as a computer monitor. I show potential buyers listings this way. Two out of every three listings, the buyers comment about the photos. Not all of them are bad but a few per property. All it takes is one bad photo for either the husband or wife to discard a property. There are a many times that I can not get them to over come a bad photo so that property will not be shown.

So, what is a seller to do? Before you list, look at the agents listings online. If the agent has their own web site you can go there and all of that agents listings will be right there. If there are bad photos then maybe you help choose the photos that agent is going to use. If that agent doesn’t have his own web site, you might want to think twice before you list with that person anyway.

ASK what kind of camera and lens do you use? If they use their phone or some kind of cheap point and shoot, you might want to think twice. ASK what kind of photo-shop program do you use? If they don’t you might want to think twice. It doesn’t take much to go into iPhoto and straighten and crop photos. This makes a huge difference in the appearance of a home.

All my photos are now shot with a Nikon D200 with a 10x24mm lens. It’s a really nice set up and takes great photos. There are no parabolic curves that a lot of lesser cameras give you. I put all my photos through iPhoto too. I crop and straighten, brighten or what ever needs to be done to make the house a beautiful home. I don’t change the colors of things or alter photos in any other way. ie: If there is a propane storage tank on the side of a house and it looks terrible I will either not get the tank in the photo, crop it out if I do get it in or just not use that photo. I will not photo-shop the tank out of the photo as that would not be a “true picture” of that property.

This  PDF  of Eastman Sale Stats 08′-11′ really gives you an accurate snap shot of what has happened over the four years.

Weather your thinking of buying or selling this information can help you make an educated assessment of property values here in the community.

Well, for 2011 Eastman NH home sales totals were not good! Only 28 homes sold in the entire year. Homes sold as low as $155,000 to as much as $635,000 for the Yankee Barn Model Home.

Not a lot of sales but there is some great news!

The median price was $299,999. Thats good news as Eastman is well above the national median housing numbers of approximately $155,000. Using an average sales price, the news is even better, $305,305 was the average. Hows that for a number!

The bottom line that I see is that there were not a lot of buyers but the ones that were out there paid a fair price for Eastman homes!

Hard to believe that we are three weeks into the new year already….how time flies!!!

For all you condo owners, potential and future here is what 2011 looked like for Eastman Condo sales.

For the year there were 9 units sold. The lowest priced was 68 Pintail Knob for $130,000 The highest priced was 24 Pleasant Dr. a waterfront Parkhurst, selling for $260,000. The median price was $185,000 and the average price was $191,100. Usually the median price is used but since there are only 9 sales using the median or average is fair and realistic.

On a business note…. All the condos that sold last year were listed by Country Houses. On the buyer side Country Houses brought the buyer to 7 of the 9 units. I think it’s fair to say that we at Country Houses will get your condo sold!! 9 sales equals 18 transaction sides (buyer/seller) and we had 16 of 18!!!

I was just looking at the most recent sales stats for Eastman NH, Sullivan County and across the state of New Hampshire. I will get specific to Eastman in another post. To get the PDF click on NNEREN Stats 2011.

The biggest thing that I see for Sullivan County is the fact that the median residential home sale price is down 10.29% for the year compared to 2010. That is a healthy number, way to big than we want to see!!! The number of houses sold in 2011 v. 2010 are about the same (355 v.352) so prices have dropped!! Home prices across the state are down 6.19%

The median price of condos dropped 20.78% but when there is only 12 condos sold in Sullivan County for the entire year of 2010 then we sell 22 in 2011 I could see that number being swayed easily. Twelve condo sales for an entire year is just to small a number to be statistically accurate. If we look at the entire state the median sale price of a condo is only down 6.06%

I’m very excited to announce that the Eastman Tennis players now have an tennis web page of their own. Here’s the link:

http://eastmannh.org/amenities/tennis/

Thanks to todays snow storm it looks a lot like winter now and hopefully a second storm is right behind this one.

If you are looking for things to do, this weekend there are some great options. How does comedy night on Saturday at the Bistro sound? The Nordic Nibbles is an annual event that was going to happen snow or no snow. How about Jazz On Sunday Afternoon?

These are just a few things you will be able to partake in. For a full list PDF click on Eastman Highlights 1/12/12

Well, it’s been a few issues since I posted the Eastman Happenings but there are several things that take place in the next week or two that I think many people should be aware of.

What I think is the highlight, is the visit from C. Everett Koop. The former Surgeon General will speak about his years as General and answer questions from the audience. This is an outstanding opportunity to get into an interactive discussion with someone as high profile as he.

Another high profile event and certainly an emotional one will be the last concert put on by the Eastmanaires,  “A Jolliest Christmas Concert.” After over 20 years the group will disband. Hopefully this group or one like it will start again in the near future.

Other events include the Golf Members Holiday Party, Chocolate Workshop (YUM!!), exercise classes and even a build your own Gram Cracker House with your kids or grand kids.

Recently I was fortunate enough to visit California and attend the NAR National Convention.

I was there for 4 days. Mostly I spent my time in classes and seminars. The education that I got was impressive. I am hoping I can translate that knowledge into making me a better Real Estate agent and better my service to my clients.

Some of the highlights were listening to Michael Eisner speak about management, using your time and resources to their fullest and making a budget that works. It was quite interesting to listen to him speak then show us examples of his work. It was, this is how I want to do it and this is how we did it watch this. Very interesting!!

Another highlight was listening to Lawrence Yun, he is the chief economist for the NAR. He spoke for over an hour and his outlook was for a recovery in housing to happen sooner rather than later and the historical charts and statistics he used really proved his point and made us believers. Well almost….It’s not that I didn’t buy into his theories, I just believe that (on a local basis) there are too many homes on the market to make a quick turn around. Eastman NH is still carrying 62 homes and 24 condos for sale. This number is down especially the homes but it is December and it’s just a few more weeks and new listings will start to hit the market right after the holidays.

I started to get off track but one other thing I wanted to mention how important QUALITY photos are. The internet plays such a huge roll in selling a home and I’ve always know that. Learning from some of the pro’s out in Anaheim will make me better and benefit my clients!!! One thing I have done is upgraded my camera and lens. I am certain this will pay off for my clients and as I learn more about the camera the photos will only get better and better.

34 Barn Owl

A new condo is hitting the market and it has an amazing view!!!