Well, you may have read my early update; "Jonathan is so psyched!!! Just had another offer accepted! That's six properties currently under agreement and an additional full price offer waiting to get accepted!" Well, things have been going really well for me lately. I have been on a roll!

Of the six properties; four are bank owned, one is a short sale and one is an estate sale. Of the six properties; four are three and four family properties, all bank owned. Another property is a condominium, which is also a short sale. And the other is land, which is also an estate sale. The addresses of the properties are; 15 Langdon Street, Roxbury - 17 Langdon Street, Roxbury -95-101 River Street, Mattapan - 27 Bradshaw Street, Dorchester - 176 Minot Street, Unit 3, Dorchester - 30 Division Street, Braintree.

Of the six properties, five are being bought by contractors and developers. It seems that I am working with a bunch of talented contractors and developers who have generally sat out 2001-2006 and have started buying in 2007. It's a great market for those types of buyers! And finally, I have a buyer who just submitted a full price offer on a three family in Dorchester. I am hoping that the offer will be accepted soon because I know there will be other interest in the property if it sits out there too long.

So, I am waiting for something to go wrong. Things are just going too well! I'm sure something will but I hope it isn't anything major! I'll keep you updated. Have a Happy Holiday Season, Jon

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The property is located at 11 1/2 Hemlock Drive, Canton. Basicly, the owner is facing a foreclosure auction on Thursday, December 11th. The property has been listed in the MLS for 47 days and I have dropped the listing price all the way from $699,900 to it's current listing price which is $614,900. It's not a short sale!

I have hosted an open house almost every Sunday since I've listed it and have had a decent turnout overall, but I haven't had one private showing in those 47 days. I personally visited every major real estate office in Canton yesterday with listing sheets and my story. I have e-mailed every broker who has a matching buyer in the MLS without a return inquiry.

It seems as though the market is completely dead! I just can't believe that I haven't had one offer! The property is legitimately worth between $650,000-$625,000. I just don't understand! My clients are great people and I'm trying mybest to get the property sold for them, but I have hit a brick well.

Anyhow, I just thought I'd vent a bit. Maybe it'll make me feel a bit better. Later, Jon

By the way, here's a link to the listing:

http://www.bowenboston.com/detail.asp?listingid=70836066&agentid=BB983182

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Huh?! What do you mean "very busy but not very busy'?!  Well, I may have lined up five closings that could all close by the end of December. I have recently put 39 Greenock Street, Dorchester, 15 Langdon Street, Roxbury and 17 Langdon Street, Roxbury under agreement in the last week or so. They are all bank owned three-family properties in need of extensive work. I am also very close to putting another three-family in Dorchester under agreement as well as a single family listing in Braintree that sits on over two acres of land. Moreover, I have a buyer lurking around my single family listing at 11 1/2 Hemlook Drive, Canton.

But Jon, you still haven't answered my question! What does "very busy but not very busy" mean? Well, it means that I have put together just about every property that I have showed in the past few weeks. I really haven't had too many showings but it seems that I have had interest in all of them. Does this mean that I am extremely efficient or extremely lucky? Well, I think it's a combination of both.

What does this mean for the market?! It means that the market is still very unhealthy! There really aren't any tire kickers out there. I'm just hoping that these properties all lead to a closed deal becasue I have no idea where the next one could come from. Later, Jon

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A New Orleans lawyer sought an FHA loan for a client who lost his house in Hurricane Katrina and wanted to rebuild. He was told the loan would be granted if he could prove satisfactory title to the parcel of property being offered as collateral. The title to the property dated back to 1803, which took the lawyer three months to track down. After sending the information to the FHA, he received the following reply:

Upon review of your letter adjoining your client's loan application, we note that the request is supported by an Abstract of Title. While we compliment the able manner in which you have prepared and presented the application, we must point out that you have only cleared title to the proposed collateral property back to 1803. Before final approval can be accorded, it will be necessary to clear the title back to its origin.

Annoyed, the lawyer responded as follows:

Your letter regarding title in Case No. 189156 has been received. I note that you wish to have title extended further than the 194 years covered by the present application. I was unaware that any educated person in this country, particularly those working in the property area, would not know that Louisiana was purchased, by the U.S, from France in 1803, the year of origin identified in our application. For the edification of uninformed FHA bureaucrats, the title to the land prior to U.S ownership was obtained from France, which had acquired it by Right of Conquest from Spain . The land came into the possession of Spain by Right of Discovery made in the year 1492 by a sea captain named Christopher Columbus, who had been granted the privilege of seeking a new route to India by the Spanish monarch, Isabella. The good queen, Isabella, being a pious woman and almost as careful about titles as the FHA, took the precaution of securing the blessing of the Pope before she sold her jewels to finance Columbus' expedition. Now the Pope, as I'm sure you may know, is the emissary of Jesus Christ, the Son of God, and God, it is commonly accepted, created this world. Therefore, I believe it is safe to presume that God also made that part of the world called Louisiana. God, therefore, would be the owner of origin and His origins date back to before the beginning of time, the world as we know it AND the FHA. I hope you find God's original claim to be satisfactory. Now, may we have our damn loan?

He got the loan.

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Jonathan Bowen Real Estate, LLC and Terabitz.com have mutually agreed to sever our working partnership. It was nice to be part of their infancy but our goals have diverged so it is best to go our separate ways. From my perspective, it was difficult to maintain two separate websites and it's nice to now have one unified web presencee. I think Terabitz was looking for a larger partner in Massachusetts and Rhode Island and it looks like they've gotten one. Anyhow, I thought I'd let everyone know.

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Yes, that's right. I am not going to spew any of that typical Realtor bullshit! You know that sunny Realtor; the one who always tells you that RIGHT NOW is the time to buy. No, I am not going to tell you that and I never would! The right time to buy is when you are ready to buy!

I am going to tell you that I haven't had any showings on a few of my listings since they were listed! And one of those listings has been on the market for 64 days! My office phone hardly ever rings! My e-mail inbox is usually barren except for spam or advertisements or clients telling me to remove them from my MLS Property Finder e-mail service because they are no longer in the market to buy a piece of real estate! My open houses have been generally unattended; at least I was able to buy a $2 Steely Dan CD at the yard sale next to my open house on Cranmore Road this past Sunday.

I guess the silver lining is that I am still in business and that I think I'm going to have an offer accepted on a three-family bank owned property in Dorchester any day now. Thank God for the contracts/investors/developers that I work with who are buying bank owned properties from me! Well, there has to be some sort of snappy saying that would cheer me up! I feel too overqualified to be so underutilized. That's it, I'm done venting. Have a good one!

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In 1985, a former neighborhood school located at 85 Williams Avenue, Hyde Park was rededicated as the Deputy Superintendent William J. Hogan Law Enforcement Training Center.

I drive by what is more commonly called the Boston Police Academy on a frequent basis as I sell quite a bit of real estate on Fairmount Hill which is where the Academy is located. Anyhow, the building could be called something between outdated to decrepid. According to public records the building was built in 1899. It looks as though it was last rehabilitated sometime in the 1940's. Now, I haven't had the opportunity to get inside but I couldn't imagine that the interior is any better than the exterior would portend.

I have some experience with military training centers as I did my Officer Candidate School for the Massachusetts Army National Guard down at Camp Edwards about 10 years ago. Many of the facilities there were in tough shape. And when I see the Officer Recruits of the Boston Police Department being trained in traffic direction (I'm sure there's a more technical name for it) in front of my office at Wolcott Square I am blissfully reminded of my days at an Officer Candidate.

I guess my point is that these guys/gals are working their asses off to become good police officers. And I also think that they and the neighborhood deserve a good-looking building which better represents the city of Boston.

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I just got a call from a gentleman named Sergio from Houston, Texas. He initially asked me to help verify an address for his daughter. It seems as though his daughter is moving up to Boston next week for work and school.

The address that he gave me was 175 Blossom Street, Boston of which I could not find in the public records. I did a Yahoo! search and it turns out that there is a 175 Blossom Street, Boston owned by Oakwood Worldwide but it seems as though the building is primarily used for short-term corporate housing. I have the feeling that this scam artist was using this address to cover himself.

This scam artist was asking $800 per month for a 900 square foot apartment. By the way, 175 Blossom Street is located close to Massachusetts General Hospital which is a primo area to live in. Similar apartments in the area would go for up to about $3,000 per month.

To help sweeten the deal, the scam artist was willing to reduce the "rent" for the apartment to only $2,000 for three months. All of the correspondence was by e-mail and the scam artist wanted Sergio's daughter to wire the money. Also, it seems as though the scam artist was using Rent.com and CraigsList.com to help market his scam.

Anyhow, I thought that I'd pass this story along. It's just another reason to work with a real estate professional. I told Sergio that his daughter should give him $400 (or half of the $800 monthly rent) for making the call to me as a fee. Ha, ha!

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Dedham, Massachusetts is a typical upper middle class bedroom community located just west of Boston. It's the hometown of the fictional character Alan Shore (played by James Spader) of The Practice and Boston Legal.

Here's the problem. The side roads of Dedham are completely screwed up! I don't know why and would really like to know what the issue behind this problem is. The roads are usually in poor condition. Some look like they have never even been paved, some are craggy, some have huge potholes, some have poor drainage and develop large puddles during moderate to heavy rainfall, most don't have any sidewalks and some are graded poorly. Another issue is signage; some streets are poorly marked.

I guess that I haven't experienced this issue while traveling through similar towns throughout Massachusetts. Is this a town issue, a county issue, a state issue or a federal issue? I just don't know. What I do know is that the poor condition of the roads are negatively affecting home values in Dedham.

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