Try A New Restaurant During Boston Restaurant Week!

One of the great things about living in Boston, MA is the magnitude of local businesses. No matter how long you’ve lived here, you could still find a new restaurant or shop to check out in our bustling city. From big-name stores to family-owned diners, there is something for everyone.

As your Boston real estate agent, my advice is to take advantage of Boston Restaurant Week! This week and next week, you can enjoy prix fixe menus at a fraction of the cost of what these meals would normally cost. That way, you can try lots of new Boston, MA restaurants without breaking the bank. Keep track of the ones you love and remember them for future nights out!

If you just moved to Boston after buying a Boston home, this is also a great way for you to get to know the sights and tastes of Boston, MA. Chances are, every single restaurant in our great city is new to you, so go out and choose your new hangouts!

Over 200 of Boston’s best restaurants are participating in Boston Restaurant Week, which runs this week, today through Aug. 23, and then again Aug. 25 through Aug. 30. You can score a two-course lunch for $15.13, a three-course lunch for $20.13 or a three-course dinner for $38.13.

On the Boston Restaurant Week website, you can browse through every single participating restaurant and see exactly what your menu options are. Most often, you have quite a few options for each of your two or three courses, and you choose one option from each course. The phone numbers are included too, so you can make a reservation and secure your spot.

There is also a Boston Restaurant Week Photo Contest going on, so if you’re a foodie who loves to take photos of your food and share them on social media, this is ideal for you! Just take a photo of your plate and post it on the Facebook or Twitter wall, or post it to the blog, and they will choose one winner each day. Then at the end, they’ll choose one winner from all the daily winners!

Do you have no idea how to choose a participating restaurant from the over 200 participants? Check out BostInno’s 10 Best Bets for Boston Restaurant Week! They’ve got one for each category, such as steakhouse, seafood, French, Italian, barbecue and so on. 

Have you already been to a local restaurant for Boston Restaurant Week? Leave me a comment and let me know where you went and if you’d recommend it!

Aside from Boston Restaurant Week right now, there are some other exciting events coming up. Check out my Boston Events page for all the details! When you’re ready to buy a Boston home or sell your Boston home, contact me! As your Boston real estate agent, I’m always here to help!

Patti Fine
Phone: 617-642-7585
Email: pf@pattifine.com
Patti Fine Real Estate
Greater Boston Area Homes
Search Greater Boston Area Homes

Controlling the Value of Your Boston Home!

In a homeowner’s world, home value means everything. No matter where you are in the process, you care about home value. If you’re buying a house in Boston, you want one with a high value that is worth your investment. If you’re selling a house in Boston, you want to get the most money possible for it. If you are simply living comfortably in your Boston home, you want it to preserve its value for when you decide to sell it in the future.

In the Boston Real Estate market, you hear a lot about how to increase your home’s value, but not always about what could hurt it. I came across this MSN Money article that explains the concept well. While there are some factors to your home that you can’t change, such as how good the school system is or how busy your street traffic is, there are other aspects that you can control.

As your Boston Real Estate agent, I feel the need to share factors from the article that I found to be most valuable, and possibly surprising. When focusing on your home’s value, this is what you don’t want:

• A home that significantly sticks out from others in the neighborhood. You probably know that if your home is painted bright pink or orange, or the yard is filled with a clutter of toys or yard ornaments, this won’t help your home’s value. But what you might not realize is that sticking out in an overly good way doesn’t help the value either.

Sometimes, too much of a good thing isn’t good in the end. If your home is dramatically more upgraded or sized than the homes around it, it could lose value. If you added a whole lot of space onto your home, and it sticks out like a sore thumb, you won’t get the money back that you spent. Why? As the article suggests, buyers who want a big house will look in a neighborhood full of big houses. You want your home to fit in with the style of your neighborhood.

• A home that is missing a specific feature. These days, buyers are very particular about what they’re looking for. If you live in a neighborhood full of families with kids, chances are, your buyer will want a lot of bedrooms. Also, most buyers want traditional rooms, such as a family room, kitchen, living room, dining room and so on. While this doesn’t mean that you should add on if you don’t have one of these rooms, it does mean that you should stick to traditional when possible.

This means that if you planned on remodeling a spare bedroom into a media room or a fitness room, with high-tech technology and built-in features, reconsider your target market. If you live in a young, hip side of town, this might be what your buyers seek. If you live in a family-oriented area, you might want to stick with modeling the room as a bedroom.

• A home with random updates throughout. This means that while upgrades can help with an appraisal, they can also hurt the value. Don’t think that upgrades are always a good thing. Often, home sellers are so eager to look better than their competition, they dish out oodles of cash on upgrades here and there and end up with a mismatched house. In the end, you have a $500,000 kitchen and a century-old family room. Or, if you upgrade the whole house, you risk standing out too much from your neighbors and still losing value.

When it comes to upgrades and renovations, a good rule of thumb is to choose changes that will still fit with the look and feel of your home, but at a higher level of convenience to your buyer. For example, upgraded appliances in the kitchen are always well received by a buyer, but make sure they fit in with the rest of the kitchen’s décor. Or, freshly painted walls looks great in a housing ad, but make sure the colors are neutral and corresponding throughout.

When it comes to appraisals, a well-maintained home is worth more than the cost it would take for you to upgrade it.

As your Boston Real Estate agent, I’m telling you to really consider the changes you want to make to your Boston house before making them. When you do decide to add upgrades, make sure they aren’t too extreme, they fit into the style of your home and neighborhood, they will raise the rating of an appraisal and they don’t cost you an arm and a leg.

Not sure if you should upgrade? Need more assistance? Contact me! The Boston Real Estate market is ready for you, so let’s get your Boston home sold!

Patti Fine
Phone: 617-642-7585
Email: pf@pattifine.com
Patti Fine Real Estate
Greater Boston Area Homes
Search Greater Boston Area Homes

Tips for Choosing the Right Boston Neighborhood for You!

When it comes to buying a new home in the Boston Real Estate market, it’s hard to look past the architectural design and interior layout of each home, which homebuyers tend to focus on first. However, if you plan on living in your Boston home for many years to come, you’ll want to put just as much emphasis on choosing your new Boston, MA neighborhood!

As your Boston Real Estate agent, I want to make sure you choose a house and neighborhood that is right for you. Are you moving into a larger home in order to start raising a family? Are you downsizing after a divorce or now that your children have moved out? Are you moving into your first home as a post-college “real world” independent? Your current life circumstances will determine what type of neighborhood works best for you.

Luckily, by working with me, your Boston Real Estate agent, I can do a lot of the research for you. Your job is to figure out exactly what you want from a neighborhood, and what you’ll want in the years ahead. Then, we can work together to find you the perfect house and neighborhood from the Boston Real Estate market.

Here are some helpful tips from a recent MSN Real Estate article to get you started on finding the right Boston neighborhood for you:

• Walk around the neighborhood. Do this in each of the neighborhoods that interest you or where each of your top houses are located. Consider walking around at different times of the day to get a feel for what it’d be like living here. Take note of noise levels, human activity, pets, vehicle traffic, foliage and walking and/or biking accessibility. See how comfortable you feel in this atmosphere.

• Talk to the neighbors. While you don’t need to go door-to-door with questions, you can casually introduce yourself and start up a conversation with people you see outside while walking around. Ask questions, such as how long they’ve lived in the neighborhood, what they like or dislike about it, and any particular concerns you have, like noise levels or community events. These are some of the most honest answers you’ll receive!

• Spend an entire day or weekend in the community. If it’s too far to travel in a day, purchase a nearby hotel room on the weekend. Get to know the town by dining out at local establishments, visiting the nearest grocery store, shopping, taking public transportation, walking around and just getting a feel for the people. If there are certain places that interest you, such as the local schools, set up appointments to take tours and meet with people at those locations.

• When doing research on a neighborhood or community, get it from people in similar circumstances as you, or ask me questions that I can research for you. This is far more beneficial than collecting advice from everyone you talk to or from review sites online. While a retired couple might promote the peacefulness of a neighborhood, if you have small children, you may find it dull or isolating. Or, if you live on your own right out of college, you might enjoy the bustling nightlife and concert venues down the street far more than that retired couple. You need to hear reviews from people similar to you or who understand what you’re looking for.

• Verify the information you receive. Just because someone told you that the crime rate is low or that the local school is great doesn’t mean you should take it with a grain of salt. Talk to the local police department and ask about recent crime activity. Call the local school to make sure your potential house is located in their district, and check online records to see how students score on tests. Drive to and from work from this new location to see what the commute will be like during rush hour. Verify everything!

Fortunately for you, by working with a Boston Real Estate agent, I can help you work through these topics much faster than if you were working alone. I can help you determine exactly what you want from a neighborhood, I can research and verify factual information you’d like to know, and I have insider knowledge on what’s currently hot in each neighborhood. So, whether you’d like a contemporary Boston, MA condo in a hip, young area, or you’d prefer an architectural Boston home in a historic district, I am here to find you your dream home and neighborhood in our Boston Real Estate market!

Patti Fine
Phone: 617-642-7585
Email: pf@pattifine.com
Patti Fine Real Estate
Greater Boston Area Homes
Search Greater Boston Area Homes