How I Help Out-Of-Towners Find Their Spot Within Boston Real Estate and Boston Suburbs

Last year I wrote an article about the fear I noticed in the eyes of my foreign buyers when faced with making the decision to buy in the Boston area. "Frightened Looks on the Faces of My Foreign Buyers".  The fear was that they may buy high and then suffer as the Boston real estate market craters. This post still rings true but the fear is being replaced with "Oh darn, we missed the bottom" in Boston real estate.

As a Boston Buyers Agent I discovered that the other real estate brokers were avoiding foreign buyers and "Out-Of-Towners". They said "too much work" and they were right. A full 90 percent of "Out-Of-Towners" (foreign buyers included) who are looking for a second home to be near their children or because they like the city, will in fact NOT buy a property. The reason most Boston real estate agents won't work with them is that by the time the buyers figure out they don't want to buy an expensive condo in an expensive city that they don't really NEED, the agents have been run around town like rented mules.

Then you hear the buyer say "Uh...Never mind", we think its better to just get a hotel room when we want to visit.

I'm looking for buyers who "need to" buy a Boston home.

These are the people who really need me. Working with "Out-Of-Towners" is more work but I find it very satisfying to help folks who know little about Boston. On my end I have to be diligent enough to make sure that this is not a discretionary purchase. This means eliminating the parents who are visiting their children and have some time to kill and want to look like a hero to the family. Also there are the buyers from the suburbs who are thinking about a place in the city. Very very few buyers actually do buy a place in the city just for kicks. Its not just the money, its all the other stuff that goes with owning a property.
Most people have enough to do without paying condo fees, taxes and dealing with all the other details and miscellaneous tasks that go along with ownership.

Once I have established that these buyers REALLY want or need to purchase a property in the Boston area, then I start to teach what I know about all the neighborhoods inside RT95-128. This is time consuming but fulfilling as it may help them sidestep living in a rental until they figure out where they should be within the enormous area we call Boston area real estate.

If I was moving to Paris or Amsterdam I would pray to meet someone like me. I save buyers tons of time and money. These folks arrive in Boston and right away I can eliminate 50 percent of the neighborhoods and 50 percent of the MLS numbers that caught their eye on the web. Some want to be as close to Back Bay, Beacon Hill or the South End as they can afford, these are the best areas of downtown Boston. If they have young children, maybe they want a 3 bedroom in Lexington , Newton or Brookline as these have the best schools in the WORLD and a buyer can find a back yard too. Conversely, some parents with small children want to be downtown, the heck with the back yard, no one wants to mow the lawn. The suburbs are a boring hell-realm for some parents.

Excuse the hubris but I think most buyers believe that someone like me has to be too good to be true. Many also believe that they should  go through the expense of renting for a year and moving twice so they can figure out the city for themselves. Well, maybe they should or maybe not. Who am I to say they shouldn't? However, if you take the time to read the other posts on this site, and check out our Relocating To Boston page, I think you will begin to realize that you don't have to rent for a year, you just need a good Buyers Agent/Buyers Advocate to help you navigate Boston real estate.