Search Sold Listings by Town by Street Address

We have just created on our New Hampshire Real Estate Blog a search button to search sold listings by town by address.

If you are looking to sell your home use this tool to see what sold in your neighborhood and for how much. See what the original price was when it was originally on the market. Also, you can subscribe to our blog by inserting our feed into your feed reader. Some of the towns we have listed are Atkinson, Auburn, Brentwood, Candia, Chester, Danville, Derry, Fremont, Hampstead, Kingston, Londonderry, Newton, Plaistow, Salem, Sandown, Windham, New Hampshire

Chester New Hampshire Home Sales 2006 vs. 2007

Chester is a quaint little bedroom community that is just north of Hampstead and south of Candia and Auburn. It is also west of Raymond on route 102 which is close to Route 101. Sales for 2006 and 2007 are in the charts below.

[TABLE=7]

[TABLE=8]

2007 total sold units do not seem to be too far off compared to 2006 but median dollar value and price per sq. ft. are down significantly.

Myrtle Beach, SC Golf and Fun in the Sun

On Tuesday March 27th Monika and I jumped in our motor home and headed to Myrtle Beach, SC for a little R & R.

Monika taught an agency class for the North Country Board of REALTORS in the morning so we headed out of Hampstead at 3:20 PM. The drive south was pretty much uneventful. A traffic jam in Hartford set us back about a half hour. Once we hit the New Jersey Turnpike we just kept going until 10:20 PM when we decided to pull over and rest at a service area. Nestled in between a couple of 18 wheelers with their diesels running all night and trucks entering and exiting the service area we caught a few hours of sleep.

We rolled out at 5:25 AM and got jammed up in Baltimore and Washington DC traffic. We were hoping to be able to get thru there with little traffic but not to happen this trip. We finally crossed the Virginia border at 9:30 AM and kept rolling until we needed fuel at Exit 106 in North Carolina. We wend just about 800 miles and filled up with 75 gallons of diesel at 2.559 we averaged about 10.1 miles per gallon not towing. That was a good feeling as I kept the cruise control on 62 MPH.

I had a little hiccup when I cancelled cruise control and started it again. The warning light came on and I was able to pull in a rest area and while slowing to stop the light went out. I called our friends Bill and Nada Marth who were waiting for us at Myrtle Beach to see if he might know why it happened. He mentioned the transmision got confused and warned me. No problem he said. OK, that was a half hour delay. Off to Myrtle Beach we go. That was at 1:00 PM.

We reached exit 81 on route 95 hoping we were a couple of hours away but no it would be a lot longer than anticipated. One mistake we made was when we got to Myrtle Beach we were on route 17 and we were supposed to hook up with route 544. We were told to bypass business 17 and stay on 17. Oh well, we screwed up and crawled into South Myrtle Beach at 6:30 PM. I was exhausted after driving 13 hours.

We set up camp and Bill and Nada had cooked dinner for us and after a few drinks we were well rested.

Hampstead New Hampshire Our Town Where Life is Good

Monika and I have been in town for many years and we love the town because of it’s easy access to all of the great sites we like to visit.

We are about an hour from Boston.

Portsmouth, NH is 45 minutes away east of here.
Nashua, NH is 45 minutes away as you head west on route 111.

The lakes region is about 2 aways and there are some great skiing resorts there too.

Our favorite place to relax in is Maine and we can be to some of our great spots in about anywhere in an hour to 5 hours max.

Please visit our visual tours we have put together of Hampstead

Unrepresented Buyer…Worth it or not..you decide!

One of my golfing buddies likes to remodel homes in Massachusetts, he’s not a big builder or developer just an average Joe tying to make a living. He decided to venture up to New Hampshire to see if he could find some projects. He just happened to find a house here in Hampstead that another one of his friends told him about. The house was not officially on the market but his friend told him that the owners were going to sell. He figured he could get a good deal buying directly from the seller without any brokers involved or paying a brokerage commission. It would save the seller some money and he’d get a better deal. Or at least that was the plan. He committed to buy this home in May of ‘06.Well, the first week of June he asks me to come over and look at a house he is going to buy. He had already come to an agreement with the seller and was just 2 weeks away from closing. I said no problem figuring he was a buddy and I’d get the listing when he finishes fixing it up and sells.

The owners were still living there when I went to see it and they had a mutually agreed closing date of June 15th. The home is a small 3 bedroom ranch with farmers porch with the potential for adding a lower-level family room in the basement. It has a large one car garage under that enters from behind the house. It is on a dead end street and in an older neighborhood.

After I go thru the house he asks me what do I think it’s worth and I tell him I’ll run some numbers. I end up telling him that fixed up it will be worth…tops… just under 300K.
He tells me he is paying 265K and needs to probably put in another 25K+ to make it presentable. He has to refinish all the hardwood floors and finish the basement, new granite counter tops, new furnace, hot water heater etc…My suggested list for the renovated home was $299,900 for the small 1300 sq ft ranch and that price was too tight for him. Not the news he wanted to hear. But at least he got the news before he closed…not after.

I found out that he ended up buying the house anyway. The summer rolls along and all is well, my friend is feverishly renovating the home he just bought and not golfing as much as he’d like.

We head into fall and it is around the middle of November when I get call from my golfing buddy, he wants me to come over and check out to see what he has done. He has done a fairly nice job with painting and new granite counters etc..

I told him the market has not improved and he would be lucky to get the 300K. He mumbles I guess I’m going to be a FSBO. I said to him that I was surprised that he bought the house in the first place. He says he knows that but he said his word was his bond and he had to go though with it. I respect him for that and it is now the middle of January and he has it on the market as a FSBO for $314,900 a few lookers but no buyers. Meanwhile his costs are mounting and the market is not anywhere near booming. Renting it is not a desirable option. I feel bad for the kid and wish he had asked my opinion before he committed to buy it. I admire that he is a man of his word but at what cost…to him and his family?

I guess I don’t understand why people always ask your advice when it’s too late. If you asked him today he’d tell you going it alone…without representation isn’t the smart thing to do. It’s too late to help him but maybe someone else can learn from his mistake.