My New Mid-Century Homes Page

Mid-Century Modern Homes


I've just started to outline the history of Lexington's significant mid-century homes at the above page. This includes the Moon Hill and Five Fields neighborhoods, both started by The Architects Collaborative, and Peacock Farm, designed and developed by Walter Pierce and Danforth Compton. Techbuilt, Carl Koch, Gropius, and other subjects are covered as well. Includes photos. In the near future, I will link to articles and scans with some history.

How to Sell in a Slower Market: Houses as Commodities

I wrote this newsletter in the fall of 2005. I think it is even more relevant now.


Supply and demand is a basic tenet of economics. Inventory of new and existing homes in the Boston area is up substantially from the same month last year, some statistics have it up nearly 40%. One year ago, on December 1 2004 there were 112 single family homes for sale in Lexington. On December 1, 2005 there are 134, up about 21%. In late October, it was around 30%. Sellers are reluctant to lower prices. Listings are stagnating. Prices must drop for houses to sell. There is too much supply and too little demand for an increasing inventory still at record high prices. I am learning this the hard way; my house has been on the market since late July. We have reduced the price about 15%. We hope to someday get an offer. We would like to eat and clothe our children. In the meantime we have a nice vacation home down the block.

I recently attended a talk given by Jay Schweppe, who founded a New Jersey residential brokerage firm and sold it in 2003 to real estate giant NRT. In 1992, the Wall Street Journal featured Schweppe in a front page article spotlighting his firm for being able to sell homes in multiple-bid situations while the national and regional real estate market was at its lowest depths in years.
Jay’s strategy was simple: He educated his sellers listing their properties to then-current market conditions, i.e., falling prices and slowing sales, and advised them to anticipate and not follow the market.

The important aspect to grasp in transitory housing markets, such as the one in which we here in the Boston area currently find ourselves, is that “current market conditions” no longer means six months of comparable sold, pending, and active listings. And your bank appraisal from your re-financing from last spring no longer applies to today’s market. Appraisers are only accurate when the market is flat. And the market is almost never flat; it is continuously rising or falling. What sold six months ago, even in the same neighborhood, is virtually irrelevant right now.

Sellers see a price range and the natural reaction is to price it near or over the top number of the range. This might work fine when testing the market in boom times. But if you are trying to sell in down times, the wiser move would be to go near the low end of the range and try to create some excitement from that first group of buyers to come through. You might not want to be the first person on the block who sells his house for a bit less than what you think it is worth, but you definitely don’t want to be following the market downward and the last to sell of competing sellers of comparable homes.

Schweppe did not tell my fellow brokers or me anything we did not already know; he merely articulated and framed a successful strategy and philosophy clearly and concisely. Houses are not products, like an appliance that a company sets the price for, advertises and ultimately sells. Rather, houses are commodities like stocks. IBM stock does not stop selling when the market softens, it drops in price and continues to trade. Nevertheless, it is difficult to accept such an analogy when we are home sellers, because our emotions are so wrapped up our homes. We get to live for years in said “commodity.” And it is hard to break out of familiar thinking patterns that sellers use when they tell us “but that smaller house next door sold for $700,000! And mine is much nicer!” Well, to paraphrase Schweppe, just because someone bought gold at $500/ounce and it was then selling for $200/ounce years later (I know, it is back up to $500 now), it did not do them any good to try and convince buyers that it was still worth $500 when it was selling for $200. But with home sellers, the reaction to an unsold listing at prices that might have worked in the boom years is generally “well, should we try another open house?” Open houses, fancy signs, and 4-color brochures are not going to convince buyers to buy gold at $500 when the market is telling them it is at $200.

And sometimes you need to sell. How do you get the highest price during that specific time period? Open houses usually do not sell houses. Of course, optimal exposure on the internet, newspapers, and open houses are all integral and tangible elements of a winning market strategy, but none of it does any good if the price is not right. Emotion is what keeps sellers holding on to their perceptions of the correct price as a house sits stagnant on the market for months. And emotion is what spurs buyers when they find the right bargain. Those days of multiple bids may be more rare now, but that is not because the buyer pool has shrunk; buyers are still there, but they have just stopped following increasing prices and now have to be enticed with the right value. When something is priced correctly for the current market, not the market of six or even three months ago, then brokers pick up the phones en masse and get their buyer clients excited, emotionally invested, and a sense of urgency is created that bids the price of the house up over asking price in the first week, just like the good old days. That’s not under-pricing a home. A house that gets multiple bids in an emotion-fed, urgent bidding war will sell for the correct or even over the correct market value of the home. That’s the market dictating the price. That’s commodity trading.

Updates: As of today, there are 117 single families on the market in Lexington. Mine is not among them. We dropped the price to what seemed to be a magic number that elicited 2 bids immediately. It sold for that full price soon after I wrote the above.

New Web Site URL

In addition to this URL, there will be a new domain name for my personal web site home page, soon to be known as JanovitzRE.com. The LexingtonJanovitz.com falsely indicated a limitation of my services to the town of Lexington. While this is where I am based, the rise of the internet has certainly aided in allowing real estate brokers to work comfortably in multiple local markets within a geographic range. I certainly am an expert in Lexington, but I am comfortable and am a valuable buyer ally and marketing agent in many towns around Boston.

Additionally, I have been forging a more formal partnership with my colleague John Tse on many listings and transactions. We will likely have a new joint web site up soon reflecting this partnership.

Introduction and July Market

Welcome to the Bill Janovitz real estate...OK, I hate the word, "blog." It sounds like an industrial town in Northern Canada. To me, anyway. Sorta like "Guelph."

Anyway, I did not mean to start my virgin post with a digression.

July is traditionally a slow time in most real estate markets. However, I have had a busy month, with a couple of sales and a couple more closings under the belt and/or scheduled for next week, the first week in August. Though based in Lexington, I have had high-end sales and listings in Brookline, Arlington, and and Belmont Hill this month and look forward,

Unfortunately, my band Buffalo Tom has also re-started our dormant career with short tours in Europe (Roskilde Festival in Denmark and Cactus Festival in Belgium forming the backbone of the tour), as well as an appearance on the Late Show with David Letterman and some shows in NY and Boston. Thankfully, I am partnering on many real estate listings with John Tse, who has also graciously covered for me with some of my clients.

It seems to be a tale of two markets right now. Arlington's inventory was unusually tight this past summer, with the number of single family homes cut in half relative to last summer. This has increased demand and urgency, with more than a few homes receiving multiple offers -- some getting 20+ offers! Just like the old days -- not necessarily the good old days for the buyers who were shut out in that process.

Nah, I am all for the well-balanced market when sellers get good returns on their investments but priced affordably enough that people making good salaries can still purchase.

I'm not convinced that the world needs another blog, never mind another one regarding real estate, but one must stay with the flow, I suppose. And I promise to be as compelling as possible. Keep checking in.