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Tim is giving a tutorial about wordpress at a real estate class.

The Tax Credit has really helped push the market forward.  The Single family home sales have slowly been increasing since July of 2009.  The numbers for March show a 28% increase in Single family home sales in Massachusetts. The Move Up Buyers and First Time Home Buyers  that wanted to take advantage of the Tax Credit really have been keeping us busy this past few months. With April being the last month to qualify for the tax credit the urgency of finding the perfect home started to increase.  This past week has been a flurry of showings at our Listings and our Buyers looked at every possible home out there.  For a few  of our clients it came down to the wire.  We signed 4 Purchase and Sales agreements yesterday so that they could qualify for the credit.  We know just have to make sure the closing happens by June 30th.

National Open House Weekend

This weekend is the National Open House weekend.   Massachusetts Association of Realtors has made it nice and easy for us all to search for the Open House for all of Massachusetts.  This is a great opportunity for all the First Time Home Buyers and Move Up Buyers that are still looking for a home a chance to see many homes this weekend.  Remember you only have 15 days left to find a home and have your offer accepted in order to sign a P & S by the April 30th deadline.

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This charming home has been loved by it’s current owners. This home has many updates, new windows (2000), new driveway (2007) and new roof (2003). Home has a large custom kitchen, deck off of kitchen, above ground pool in a fenced in yard and a large family room.
For more information please see this the custom listing page.

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Massachusetts has passed a new

The Tax Credit for this year is only available for the next few months.  The home that you are purchasing has to be under agreement by April 30th and the closing must be done by June 30th.  If you are interested in purchasing a home and taking advantage of this great credit.  Don’t wait until the last minute to find a home.  You should start looking now.  We are still finding many homes that are bank owned or short sales on the market.  If you are interested in purchasing a home that is owned by a bank or going through a short sale.  You have to be patient with the banks.  They are dealing with hundreds if not thousands of deals.  That’s why it is so important for you to start looking know.  Give yourself extra time to find the right home and if it does need to have

http://www.marealtor.com/content/upload/AssetMgmt/Documents/Gov%20Affairs/Window_brochure1_10nocrops.pdf

I had a smoke detector inspection today for one of my listings in Springfield, MA.  I was surprised by how complicated figuring out just where to put the smoke detectors is getting.  To make maters worse you need to have specific types of smoke detectors for specific locations in the home.  I decided that I would create a guide for Springfield home owners to make sure they have the correct detectors installed.

According to the Springfield Fire Dept handout, which you can download here,  you can not have ionizing detectors within 20 feet of a bathroom or kitchen.  You need to use photoelectric detectors if they are going to be placed within the above distance of the kitchen or bathroom.  The problem that I ran into was I purchased a smoke detector and carbon monoxide detector combination.  The unit had a ionizing smoke detector inside it so I could not use this combination unit as a smoke detector or a carbon monoxide detector within the above distances from bathrooms and kitchens.

You can be sure this will not be a problem for you by purchasing photoelectric detectors which, at least for now, can be used anywhere. Watch out for the detectors that are ionizing and photoelectric as any smoke detector that is ionizing will not be allowed near kitchens and baths in Springfield.

Finally a note about carbon monoxide detectors.  If you buy the combination smoke and carbon monoxide detector be sure that the unit speaks a warning for carbon monoxide.  Also if this combination unit is going to be installed near kitchens and bathrooms be sure that it is using only the photoelectric smoke detector and not a ionizing smoke detector (as this would make the whole unit unusable near kitchens and bathrooms).

You can check out what the NFPA(National Fire Protection Association) has to say about the different types of detectors here