Brad's Blog

32 0ffers for a foreclosure in Malden

Brad Pratt CRS (Area Homes Realty) — Mon, 17 Nov 2008 14:46:45 -0600

Hi Everyone,

I thought I would just share my latest experience at a distressed property. The property is a bank owned multifamily property that currently has 32 offers on it including my clients. There were people crawling all over the property yesterday. All offers were good untill noon today. I just hope my clients went high enough as the property is a good one.

Brad

Reminding us of what is really important

Brad Pratt CRS (Area Homes Realty) — Mon, 13 Oct 2008 12:35:45 -0500

This morning I attended the memorial service for my stepfather Ed Reed who passed away about 2 weeks ago at age 89. This has been a real hard time for me, my friends and my family. During a challenging real estate market I tend to work even harder and get a little bummed about the business then through losing Ed I am reminded that there are more important things than business and working. Family and friends come first. I am glad to have made the effort to be with Ed in his final years watching sports on TV and talking about fixing the worlds issues and just reminding him that he is loved. That time spent means so much to me now and I know it meant alot to him then.

Another funny home inspection.

Brad Pratt CRS (Area Homes Realty) — Fri, 10 Oct 2008 14:34:49 -0500

So we are following the inspector into the basement as usual just chit chatting. The inspection is going fine with all the normal stuff coming up like GFI outlets being needed or not working and such. The inspector now moves on to the furnace and he is inspecting the flue. He notices that it does not draw properly so he opens up the chimney cleanout. Now it's a little dark so he gets his flashlight out to look inside the chimney. He laughs out loud as he is reaching deep into the chimney cleanout and pulls out a huge dead duck...lol....That was a first for me!!

Showing my 2.5 million dollar listing

Brad Pratt CRS (Area Homes Realty) — Wed, 08 Oct 2008 10:29:34 -0500

I used to practice real estate on Martha's Vineyard in my fathers office. He has been there for 30 years running his own company. Through a rental I did I got the listing when the sellers were ready to sell. It was a conemporary European style property with a house and a guest house right on the lagoon with 200 feet of private beach. Real nice, with all the bells and whistles, sauna and all. I had a showing one day mid summer and I was running late because of traffic. The home was down a winding dirt path. I am racing to get there to show it and I am 15 min late. as I pull into the driveway I hear sirens and smell thick smoke. Immediately a firetruck pulls in behind me and I see three people (the clients and the other broker) running towards me in panic yelling fire. Behind them I see thick clouds of smoke billowing up right behind my 2.5 million dollar listing. As it turns out someone using the boatramp about 200 feet away towards the lagoon must have started the fire and it made its way to the edge of my listing thankfully with no damage to the home after the fire dept put it out. That was one hot listing that eventually sold for 2.3 mil.

Another bizarre home inspection story!

Brad Pratt CRS (Area Homes Realty) — Mon, 06 Oct 2008 12:48:57 -0500

Picture this. We are at the end of a home inspection of a brand new townhouse in Arlington. Granite countertops, Stainless everything, tp of the line , soup to nuts beautiful home. Everything checks out great. As we are walking to the door to leave my buyer asks the inspector how to operate the high tech heat thermostat on the wall as he had noticed that the inspector had run the system earlier for the inspection. The inspector opens the cap and quickly shows the buyer the basics then closes the cap and we step out into the frigid tundra of a New England winter. So I contacted the listing broker and told her we were all good on the inspection and would follow through with a P&S within the next few days. Well the next few days were the coldest in recorded history and I am sure you know what is comin next. The listing broker calls me up in a panic yelling about how the inspector shut the heat off when we left and all the pipes had burst destroying the townhouse. I met her at the property and it was true. The place was a real disaster. All of the hardwood floors had buckled so bad you could barely open the front door. Cielings had fallen in with soaked insulation hanging. And this was just the damage I could see. After the initial hysteria the home inspection company agreed to cover the cost of all the repairs and my buyer found another property in the meantime that he liked better. Keep checkin back...I have a ton of these.

Brad

Bizarre home inspection story.

Brad Pratt CRS (Area Homes Realty) — Thu, 02 Oct 2008 12:30:29 -0500

My Clients and I are going through the home inspection in a newer townhouse that had a brand new kitchen. Nothing abnormal going on as we started downstairs and were now moving up to the top floor bathroom. The inspector tries to flush the toilet but the water to the toilet was obviously off. So the inspector reaches down to turn on the water. He turns the valve and the whole pipe breaks with water shooting everywhere. I ran downstairs to get to the main but by the time I shut the water off there was water flowing right through the new kitchen cabinets and ceiling. Needless to say my clients were horrified but we pushed through. The kitchen got fixed and my clients went through with the purchase. Keep checking back here for crazy home inspection stories because I have a pile of them.