Boston Globe Real Estate Writer spills the beans on Real Estate. Our Podcast today talks about high rents, need for affordable homes, transfer taxes, rent control the middle class families have difficulty in the Boston area finding homes that are a good fit for them. Tim Logan, real estate writer, from The Boston Globe shares what he has covered in the past months on all these issues. Transfer tax is in front of the legislature this week. The idea is to charge a 1% transfer tax to both Buyers and Sellers. There are some towns in the Commonwealth looking at this for homes beginning at $400,000. This is a slippery slope. Once towns are reaping income from people who own homes and live in these towns they will, of course, jump from taxing some sales to taxing all sales.
To me this is unfair to home owners. Why tax approximately 60% of our citizens (those who own homes) and not all citizens. In this show we never answered what will be taxed or where new income will come from to help with this issue. We do need to consider fair options for all. It has been proven since the 70’s that rent control does not work. When landlords, or builders have their ability to make a living by setting upward limits, they will choose other places to use their money.
The town of Brookline, MA has passed a directive. By an overwhelming vote of 207 to 3, members approved a bylaw that prohibits the installation of oil and gas heating systems in new construction beginning in 2021. The desire is to control the use of fossil fuels to assist with global environmental issues. This initiative is already being tested by the courts for it’s legality. Should this pass the cost of building will be increased and it will work directly against the affordable home issue. Tim does a good job of explaining these issues to his readers. Take a listen to our conversation by clicking here. If you like the show, please subscribe. Boston Globe Real Estate Writer spills the beans on Real Estate
Cannabis Operator shares the secrets on Broker-Talk.com. Today’s show is interesting and a look behind the curtain on how a licensed operator can open a dispensary in MA. Realtors® are constantly leading the way in the establishment of property values and watching for changes in the local markets. There are 11 states that have already legalized cannabis for sale. (Alaska, California, Colorado, Illinois, Maine, Massachusetts, Michigan, Nevada, Oregon, Vermont, and Washington), the District of Columbia, the Northern Mariana Islands, and Guam. Another 15 states and the U.S. Virgin Islands have decriminalized.
Andrew Kaskoff, CEO of Fathom is a licensed Cannabis operator in the Sate of Massachusetts. Andrew has 6 years experience operating in the Maine medical cannabis market giving Fathom access to the experienced growers and extractors. Andres advises lenders, real estate professionals, family offices and multi-state operators helping them to enter and understand the east coast market. If you think about this change and then think about the number of liquor stores everywhere you can imagine how big this could be once it is federally legal and all the states are also have ratified the federal laws.
Selling your home strategies and tips, search with this term and you will get a plethora of choices. They all are necessary steps in the process, but they just may not be in the right order. What is important is what you want to get from the sale and how are you going to wisely use those proceeds. These are always significant transactions. When large sums of money are exchanged many tax implications are part of the deal. Considering the long term benefit to be preserving and protecting your cash, the first step in selling your home is to know what you are doing with those funds and how you are going to do it.
Then of course look on line and see the competition in your neighborhood, see what the prices are, if there are open houses, go to those open houses and see how they are being marketed. A good agent will always have open houses to gage the market, a great agent will do so knowing exactly who their target is and how they behave. Just like school, there are A students and there are C students. The A student will look to streamline their process to only those tasks and marketing efforts that work. They can describe that person in detail and tell you specific steps they will take to target that demographic using technology.
You should always get your property as neat and clean as possible. Everything should be working and if there are surface blemishes, repair them. That is the minimal step. From there consider what you are spending and what you expect to get from the market. There will be time and money spent before the sale if you go that route and that may not get repaid in the sale. There are a lot of strategies you will only hear from the best agents, the rest you can use the search term, Selling your home strategies and tips
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