2023 Real Estate Observations (Boston, Weymouth: scenes, house, neighborhood)

[MtPleasantDream]

Originally Posted by simplexsimon

You don't want to talk about corner cases but want to discuss the affordability of a $35 million luxury penthouse. Okay.

The logic is, those who possess $100 million are corners cases of millionaires.... Whether this property is a corner case in the market or not is irrelevant.

Maybe this is the nature of internet forums. People with very different assumptions and backgrounds carry a conversation together, which in real life do not happen a lot for understandable reasons.

[lrfox]

Earnest Money question - what’s standard currently in MA? We finally found a place worth submitting an offer on. We put 3% on the PSA (at the suggestion of our Realtor) which is higher than what we put on our condo offer in 2020 (1% - we were first time buyers in a very different market). The seller’s agent balked and said “it needs to be 5% minimum.” We were surprised, and so was our Realtor. This is north of Boston and the home has been on the market for 2 weeks. So am I off base to be balking a little bit?

[newenglandgal123]

Originally Posted by lrfox

Earnest Money question - what’s standard currently in MA? We finally found a place worth submitting an offer on. We put 3% on the PSA (at the suggestion of our Realtor) which is higher than what we put on our condo offer in 2020 (1% - we were first time buyers in a very different market). The seller’s agent balked and said “it needs to be 5% minimum.” We were surprised, and so was our Realtor. This is north of Boston and the home has been on the market for 2 weeks. So am I off base to be balking a little bit?

It's gonna be a process if something happens and the seller tries to keep your money. It has to go thru a mediation process I believe before escrow funds would ever be released to them in the event you didn't follow thru with your obligations and the sale fell thru. That's why I think it's kind of bogus for seller's agents to get too up in arms about buyers not putting down a high amount.


Let's say you put down like 10%....you do the inspection of the house and everything checks off ok except for maybe some minor things. Let's say you see a different house come on the market you like so much better than this one during that time. You could technically say that you don't feel comfortable with the inspection results, back out of the sale and get your earnest money back when in reality the reason you are backing out is to go buy that other house! There's nothing they could do about it if you played it that way and they wouldn't be able to keep your money as long as you let them know you were backing out before the inspection period was over.

[simplexsimon]

Personally in two transactions both were 5%. I don’t know what’s standard as I’m not an agent and don’t see a lot of deals.

I agree with the above that it’s likely difficult for sellers to take the earnest amount but my understanding is that it could be just as difficult for you to get it back. If there are no contingencies what’s the rationale for backing out of a binding P&S? That’s why it’s held in an escrow account since it’s a third party.

[yesmaybe]

https://www.redfin.com/MA/Northborou.../home/16569526

How about this place in Northborough. I think it's kind of nice but a pool is such a waste here. I imagine the problem is that they are asking for 900k in Northborough. 107 DOM and given it's November it may be awhile.

[AtkinsonDan]

Originally Posted by yesmaybe

https://www.redfin.com/MA/Northborou.../home/16569526

How about this place in Northborough. I think it's kind of nice but a pool is such a waste here. I imagine the problem is that they are asking for 900k in Northborough. 107 DOM and given it's November it may be awhile.

I am in southern New Hampshire and I am surrounded by neighbors with pools.

[newenglandgal123]

Originally Posted by yesmaybe

https://www.redfin.com/MA/Northborou.../home/16569526

How about this place in Northborough. I think it's kind of nice but a pool is such a waste here. I imagine the problem is that they are asking for 900k in Northborough. 107 DOM and given it's November it may be awhile.

Not crazy about this house....strikes me as more like a $700K house not a $900K one.

[lrfox]

Originally Posted by newenglandgal123

It's gonna be a process if something happens and the seller tries to keep your money. It has to go thru a mediation process I believe before escrow funds would ever be released to them in the event you didn't follow thru with your obligations and the sale fell thru. That's why I think it's kind of bogus for seller's agents to get too up in arms about buyers not putting down a high amount.


Let's say you put down like 10%....you do the inspection of the house and everything checks off ok except for maybe some minor things. Let's say you see a different house come on the market you like so much better than this one during that time. You could technically say that you don't feel comfortable with the inspection results, back out of the sale and get your earnest money back when in reality the reason you are backing out is to go buy that other house! There's nothing they could do about it if you played it that way and they wouldn't be able to keep your money as long as you let them know you were backing out before the inspection period was over.

Originally Posted by simplexsimon

Personally in two transactions both were 5%. I don’t know what’s standard as I’m not an agent and don’t see a lot of deals.

I agree with the above that it’s likely difficult for sellers to take the earnest amount but my understanding is that it could be just as difficult for you to get it back. If there are no contingencies what’s the rationale for backing out of a binding P&S? That’s why it’s held in an escrow account since it’s a third party.

Thank you both. I wasn’t too worried about recouping money, just curious about the demand for 5% “minimum.” It’s not what we did 3 years ago and nobody balked at 1% then (yes, I know the market has changed quite a bit). But after talking to a few other recent buyers, it seems like they were all around 5%. Since this is seemingly the norm, I’m surprised our Realtor didn’t encourage more to begin with.

Anyway, the point is moot. Another buyer came in with a better offer. But going forward, this is good to know.

[massnative71]

Originally Posted by yesmaybe

https://www.redfin.com/MA/Northborou.../home/16569526

How about this place in Northborough. I think it's kind of nice but a pool is such a waste here. I imagine the problem is that they are asking for 900k in Northborough. 107 DOM and given it's November it may be awhile.

Originally Posted by newenglandgal123

Not crazy about this house....strikes me as more like a $700K house not a $900K one.

I guess Northborough is the new Southborough. Always thought the town was a good buy for one looking to get into a top school district, but this price is definitely too high. That's $355/sq. ft., median sales price in town was last $287/sq. ft..

[yesmaybe]

https://www.redfin.com/MA/East-Weymo.../home/11512361

How about this place in Weymouth that's not selling. 61 DOM. Grandma's carpet needs to go for sure and there's likely other updates needed. Might be too much for a FTHB ... not to mention that 565k is still $3600+/mo.