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Looking for real estate

rivet_42

rivet_42

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I'm looking to buy a house.

If you have looked for real estate recently, and the availability of nonrestricted LTC (i.e. "I want to live in a 'green' town") was a significant criterion in your search, how honest were you with real estate agents as to what you were looking for and why?

Seems kinda weird to hand my RE agent a list of "Red" towns that would appear random to the un-knowledgeable and say "Don't show me anything in any of these places." And I'm generally pretty cautious about telling people I'm into firearms, among other reasons because a lot of people in this part of the country disapprove heavily of guns and "gun people".

(Suggestions that I move to NH to /dev/null, please. I work in downtown Boston and need reasonable access to at least commuter rail to get myself to and from work.)
 
You don't need to tell the realtor "I need a gun friendly town". Just say "I'm interested in the following towns" or "I'm not interesting in the following towns". Or leave it wide open and just reject properties in red towns. I think you're overthinking it.
 
The way I see it. They work for you. If you have a list of red towns you can just as easily make a list of green towns and hand them that list saying you want to look in these towns instead. vs avoid these.. couple that with "good schools" or some other "criteria" and just give them that as the reason you want to look in XYZ places.

I'm going to be looking to move soon myself so I've been thinking about this too. My Criteria is green town and land. I don't want to see my neighbors. so it narrows it down pretty quick.
 
Caveman said:
The way I see it. They work for you. If you have a list of red towns you can just as easily make a list of green towns and hand them that list saying you want to look in these towns instead. vs avoid these.. couple that with "good schools" or some other "criteria" and just give them that as the reason you want to look in XYZ places.

I'm going to be looking to move soon myself so I've been thinking about this too. My Criteria is green town and land. I don't want to see my neighbors. so it narrows it down pretty quick.
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This. You don't have to explain it. My wife and I were searching for houses on the south shore - as it turned out, every town that fit our price range (low) + other concerns (commute distance, etc) was a green town.
 
Caveman said:
The way I see it. They work for you. If you have a list of red towns you can just as easily make a list of green towns and hand them that list saying you want to look in these towns instead. vs avoid these.. couple that with "good schools" or some other "criteria" and just give them that as the reason you want to look in XYZ places.

I'm going to be looking to move soon myself so I've been thinking about this too. My Criteria is green town and land. I don't want to see my neighbors. so it narrows it down pretty quick.
Click to expand...
this
 
I'm a realtor and I would love it if my clients would tell me if their into guns or not. That way I can weed out the gun haters right away and not work with them [smile]. I'm also in NH so it's alot easier as pretty much everyone is into guns.
 
Metro West and the South Shore can be spendy, with cost and acreage probably better on the South Shore.
The South Shore is also the most (R) leaning part of the state, and has many fine green towns.

http://comm2a.org/index.php/resources will tell you the total number of licenses per town for 2014. Dump it into a spreadsheet to analyze ratios and pick the greenest town... Or PM me an address and I'll email the spreadsheet to you.
 
Middleboro is a great town and last stop on the commuter rail.. Town is greener than green in my experience. I will put it this way, I screwed up my first application and got a call from the LO, he said we have a problem and then explained what it was.. He finished the conversation with make sure you put it on your renewal.. it was a CWOF from when i was 18 and stupid..
 
With few exceptions, once you are outside rt 128, the towns are green. In the metrowest area where I am, they are all green. Depending on your budget, you can go big weston, wellesley, dover or mcu more reasonable ashland, framingham maynard, etc. There are also some good prices in places like sherborn, westboro, natick, etc but those might be a bit more spotty.

Look at the comm2a list and tell the RE agent you are not interested in waltham, watertown, woburn, foxboro. There are not many in the areas you probably will look.
 
Zongo said:
I'm a realtor and I would love it if my clients would tell me if their into guns or not. That way I can weed out the gun haters right away and not work with them [smile]. I'm also in NH so it's alot easier as pretty much everyone is into guns.
Click to expand...
God, do I love hearing someone say that!...And God, living in MA, do I hate hearing someone say that!!!!
 
First off, I would only deal with a real estate agent who is local to the town you are interested in, thus if I had 4 or 5 towns let's say 20 miles from each other, I'd be dealing with multiple agents. Any agent can sell you any property on MLS, but if they don't know the area, they really aren't going to help you make decisions that are wise . . . like not knowing about the pig farm 1/4 mile away, conservation restrictions all over the town, how well (or not) the town is run (property tax bill relies on this), etc.
 
You need to narrow down an area, sounds like your search net is pretty wide at this point. Oddly enough, a lot of realtors I work with own guns. There are a few on NES that can help you as well. If you have any mortgage questions, let me know. I have managed to write loans for a few people on NES without getting shot (yet).
 
I have had a good number of clients who were/are gun enthusiasts. Both buyers and sellers. I always coach sellers to remove, hide or secure valuables, firearms and prescription drugs before showings. Most don't flinch and that usually opens up 'the gun conversation'. In that context people are generally very open about things. On the buy side I usually ask if they have any hobbies. If they hunt , fish golf etc. I had one client who bought new, he had the builder create a 'hidden' room for his safe. It was fantastic.


ETA Len is correct. An agent can only be an 'expert' in so many towns and chances are they won't be far apart geographically. Watch what you sign in terms of the buyer agency contract. Limit it by town, dates etc.
 
Mansfield is right on the commuter rail, and is a great town. Come check it out!

- - - Updated - - -

George D said:
You need to narrow down an area, sounds like your search net is pretty wide at this point. Oddly enough, a lot of realtors I work with own guns. There are a few on NES that can help you as well. If you have any mortgage questions, let me know. I have managed to write loans for a few people on NES without getting shot (yet).
Click to expand...

It was the purchase of snows for the bimmer that was your most dangerous transaction LOL [smile]
 
EvilDragon said:
Just give them a list of towns you want, explain nothing.
Click to expand...

+1, it's not hard to say "I'm looking for houses/land in here, here and here." If they press, just say you've been there and like the area. I honestly don't know how there can't be a 2A friendly realtor in Mass though.
 
bostonasphalt2 said:
Mansfield is right on the commuter rail, and is a great town. Come check it out!

- - - Updated - - -



It was the purchase of snows for the bimmer that was your most dangerous transaction LOL [smile]
Click to expand...

Actually, I sold my Makarov to someone on NES that picked it up at my office. Turns out I had actually met the guy at the Hora Dolor a year earlier. I also have had a bunch of people pick up ammo karma here.
BTW, I still have those snows, they are now on their third 3 series.
 
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George D said:
Actually, I sold my Makarov to someone on NES that picked it up at my office. Turns out I had actually met the guy at the Hora Dolor a year earlier. I also have had a bunch of people pick up ammo karma here.
BTW, I still have those snows, they are now on their third 3 series.
Click to expand...

Third 3 series?! It's been like 2 years! Lol


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk
 
The "GREEN" town of Rochester is next to Middleboro close to the commuter rail to Boston. Rochester was #1 in the State of Mass. with a 15.02 % of the population licensed for firearms according to the Channel 5 report last year. Gun club in town and in the surrounding towns.
 
Swampscott, Marblehead, Lynn, Nahant (all local to me and Green). What is your budget and where do you want to be? Marblehead may be one of the easiest towns in the state to get a permit IMO.
 
Most realtors I know, you could literally tell them that you are looking for a good place to hide the bodies, and as long as the commission is right they aren't going to care.

Youll be fine sunshine.
 
I just put an offer on a house in georgetown 10 minutes ago, and I dont even like the damn house.....but there isnt anything else on the market, and I need to make a move sooner rather than later. [thinking]
 
VTski4x4 said:
Swampscott, Marblehead, Lynn, Nahant (all local to me and Green). What is your budget and where do you want to be? Marblehead may be one of the easiest towns in the state to get a permit IMO.
Click to expand...

I've been looking pretty seriously at Lynn. Seems like there are some pretty good bargains to be had there, and it ticks all my boxes: decent public-transport access to downtown, green, and there's a small-but-growing "arts community" of people who got priced out of places like Somerville and Fort Point. Swampscott might work too.

I think Marblehead and Nahant are going to be out of my price range, mostly. I'm not really looking to live on the water, and, I've always wondered how often that causeway that connects Nahant to the rest of the world floods out.
 

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