Stephen Marcus Realty
Thoughts about residential and commercial real estate with posts of interesting news articles.
Tuesday, July 2, 2013
Stubborn Office Vacancy Rates in Quincy, MA & The "New Quincy" Center
Thursday, June 20, 2013
Understanding House Prices For The Next Year
Probably a lot of towns like Weymouth are just teasing an uptick in price. Yup, the market is faster and properties are selling well and the rate of price decline has slowed since the high water mark of 2005, but the prices haven't turned the corner yet in Weymouth. Quincy and Chelsea and other border towns to Boston are doing better with rising prices. Lexington prices went up. Groton down in the first quarter. (Glad to send you those spread sheets too).
Will House Prices Be Constrained by Stagnant Incomes?
Tuesday, June 4, 2013
The Future of Zoning???? (From the WSJournal)
http://online.wsj.com/article/SB10001424127887324059704578470881055711540.html?mod=WSJ_hps_LEFTTopStories
Saturday, June 1, 2013
Attorneys are not a protected class*.... and HCPTSS
Anyway.
A real estate agent said I could not show an available apartment.
When he asked what my client did for a living I told him, "Attorney." He said, "the landlord does not rent to attorneys." The agent said that the landlord and a former tenant / law professor, were involved in a messy case in housing court. Since the protracted litigation in housing court, the property manager does not rent to attorneys.
This is where the HCPTSS comes in. Clearly the property manager is suffering from severe Housing Court Post Traumatic Stress Syndrome. This kind of knee jerk reaction is one of the hallmarks of the disease. When a single housing court case causes you to ban a whole profession, you've got a severe case of HCPTSS. With one traumatic event, the landlord simply deletes a whole profession from the applicant pool. At the least, the property manager/landlord certainly cuts out a lot of wonderful tenants, as in the case of my current client who happens to be an attorney. And, if the property manager or landlord extends the stereotyping to other professions, the pool of potential tenants begins shrinking exponentially.
I called a legal beagle at one of the realty associations. The attorney with whom I spoke had the same experience when looking for apartments because of her profession. The legal counsel agreed that attorneys are not a protected class.
A dynamic and thorough application process is the best preventive medicine for bad tenants. Screen tenants at the application stage and you won't be screaming later in housing court. These days, besides the formal application, you get extended background checks with a simple internet search. Can't you easily Google and Facebook the applicant to find out if the applicant is litigious, been evicted...... and everything else these days???
Okay, you asked for it... an attorney/banjo player joke: You're driving down the street and you see an attorney and a banjo player on the side of the road. which one do you hit first? The banjo player...business before pleasure.
Gerry Garcia is still alive and playing banjo badly these days. At least he is still not trying to play guitar.
*Protected class groups are groups of people legally protected from discrimination and harassment.
Thursday, May 23, 2013
Office Parks Get A Makeover (WSJournal)
I joked about this with a friend a few weeks ago. Told him a developer was converting the office park in North Quincy to apartments and a multi-use. It isn't true, but it could be.
Office use has changed dramatically since the 2008 downturn.
First, the electronic workplace has reached new plateaus liberating employees from their desks. In an electronically liberated workplace employees can come and go from the headquarters, office, work at home, or work from a remote location.
Second, as commercial leases expire, a number of companies are sending people home to work to avoid new leases (locally John Hancock). Some companies are not going to send people home (bio-tech for one), but many will.
Third, younger organizations and younger people are not tied to cubes and desks like the legacy companies.
Won't companies be doing more with less space? Yah baby, changing work spaces.
Office Parks Get A Makeover (WSJ)
Monday, August 6, 2012
Romney's Horse on a Plane to the Olympics.....
Boston.com has this picture buried deep with the title "In Other Sports News." The picture shows a horse strapped on the top of an airplane going to the Olympics like Gov. Romney's famous dog trip. This picture comes after a blog about the Red Sox's Bobbi Valentine. Now does management at Boston.com know about this? http://bostondirtdogs.boston.com/2012/08/new_jersey_unveiled_to_stop_sn.htmlfile://localhost/Users/stephenmarcus/Desktop/romney'shorse.tiff
Monday, July 23, 2012
East Milton 4 BR Victorian
New listing of a Victorian in convenient East Milton. Snap of the fingers to Boston and interstate to anywhere. Buses, trains, and automobiles..... House needs some work. Sold "absolute as-is."
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http://listings.realbird.com/F8D2E6C7/167626.aspx