The Daniels and O’Keefe Team's Blog
And if Fiddler on the Roof was about Real Estate, the song would probably be something more like "look through your town and find me the perfect home."
Happy "Spring" Market, Massachusetts. Known not for the weather, the Spring market is mainly due to the perfect timing to sell, buy and move before the end of the school year or during the summer.
That being said - we have several buyers ready to buy, and flexible with their respective timelines. As with most Sudbury residents moving within the town, they are selective and know exactly where they want to move.
If your home fits any of the the descriptions below - I implore to please contact us. The buyers (different families) are financially pre-approved to purchase without selling and are very flexible with their timing.
Your home is in the BOWKER NEIGHBORHOOD (Including - Ford Rd., Witherell Dr., Cakebread Dr., Darvell Dr., Belcher Dr., Munnings Dr., Buckmaster Dr., Longfellow Rd., Chanticleer Rd., Suffolk Rd., Harvard, Taintor Dr., Ironworks Rd., Saunders Rd.)
OR
Your home is in the NIXON SCHOOL DISTRICT and includes at least 4200+ sq ft., 4 bedrooms, 4+ baths, 3+ garage, in a neighborhood (not a country road), is somewhat private, updated (in the last 5-7 years), well maintained, great yard, assessed over $1m.
OR
Your home is in SOUTH SUDBURY, off of Raymond Road (Including Warren Rd, Lands End Ln, Robert Frost Rd., Rambling Rd, Cider Mill Rd, Lombard Ln.)
I'll continue to update when we have buyers with specific criteria. Thank you in advance for sharing amongst your Bowker neighborhood friends, Nixon School friends and South Sudbury friends.
The Daniels Team:
Carole Daniels: 508-277-6956
Gabrielle Henken: 617-320-8150
Berkeley O'Keefe: 617-877-7717
In an attempt to not bury the lead, the purpose of this post is to announce that we (Carole and I, the Daniels Team) have committed to donating a portion of our proceeds from our Sudbury Real Estate Transactions to Protect Sudbury, LLC. If you care to understand why, please, read on.
We say it, we write it, we tweet it and we proudly repeat it - we truly love Sudbury. It's not a new love, rather, one that goes back over 40 years since we moved to Sudbury.
Carole (Mom, for those of you whom we have not yet met) and my Dad moved our family to Sudbury in 1974. My three sisters and I grew up in Sudbury, went to school in Sudbury, and for me, after graduating from Lincoln-Sudbury and then having spent over 15 years living in Washington DC, Atlanta, Portland, OR, Tokyo, and Connecticut, moved back to Sudbury to raise my daughters in the town I am proud to call home.
So yes, we are defensive. Carole has been selling Real Estate in Sudbury for 30something years, and we are celebrating our 13th year as the Daniels Team. We have lived here long enough to have seen plenty 'o change to the town. Atkinson Pool & Fairbank Community Center will always be Fairbank Elementary School to me, because that is what it was. Our Coldwell Banker office still smells a little like Pizza A La Pietra, Verizon is still Post Road Apothecary, and of course, Rossini's will always be Marrone's Bakery (it was the best). TD Bank will be the miniature golf course, Wingate should still be Sudbury Bowladrome, I could go on. Thank you, to Sudbury Pizza Place for being such a loyal townie, and of course, to Mrs. A-B for never leaving Peter Noyes Elementary School. My sisters (and my daughter) still love receiving your birthday cards.
Don't get me wrong - change can be, and has been, very good. While I wax nostalgic now, I can remember the constant whine "there is NOTHING to do in this town..." that would echo through the open land, hardly congested Route 20 and old-school neighborhoods. But as a parent, and homeowner, in the Sudbury that barely resembles the Sudbury of the 70s & 80s, I can't even stand to consider what our beautiful town will look like if Eversource is successful in their "plan" to rip our town apart. (That's not the name of the plan, but it may as well be).
Loving Sudbury makes it very easy to sell Sudbury. Whether we represent a seller or a buyer, we're selling Sudbury. We sell a lifestyle, a community and a house. We're passionate about what we do, and the greatest pleasure we derive from selling Real Estate in Sudbury is hearing from the hundreds of people with whom we have worked with about how much they love their homes/neighborhoods/friends and of course, the town of Sudbury.
As a town, we are so fortunate to have the Protect Sudbury, LLC group, a group who is voluntarily assuming the responsibility of educating Sudbury, loudly (and effectively) communicating with the State of Massachusetts, and have gone as far as hiring an Attorney to effectively fight for Sudbury. The Town of Sudbury also has legal representation, and the Attorneys will work together. This is going to be a long, and expensive fight.
If you would like to know more about Protect Sudbury, the Eversource plan and how to donate (no amount is too small), click here.
Multiple Listing Service provides Real Estate Agents/Brokers with exactly 1000 character spaces to use in the description section in MLS. This is typically a challenge, as we are attempting to convince you, in 1000 characters or fewer (including spaces) why you should spend six or seven figures and move into that specific house. In a previous post, “Translating Real Estate Ads” I provided my own interpretive glossary for all the abbreviations we use when describing a home. 1000 characters (and spaces) are not a lot – especially when we want to share with you all of the wonderful features about the house – so, I will use all of the characters I want, using our own internet real estate, to communicate to you why you should buy one of the homes we have on the market. We also like to use this opportunity to tell you about the intangibles, the features of the house that you wouldn't know by looking at the photos online or visiting. The stuff that you would only know if you lived there.
I would typically write about all of the great things I appreciate about this house, but after receiving the Seller's thoughts, I realized I couldn't do justice to what she wrote. It just goes to show, once again, that the house you buy is not just a building - it is a place you will call home. It is where memories are made and friendships will grow. It is not about the color of the wallpaper, but the use of the room. I hope you enjoy reading about 388 Willis Road and of course, please call/text or email to schedule an appointment to see this home.
"We found this house in 1976 after looking at dozens of houses in more than twenty towns, on a lightning weekend trip from New York, where we lived before. Something about it spoke of "home" to me. I remember being moved as I looked out the car's back window as we drove away. In fact, we were driving back to NY in a near blizzard and had to stop in a real flea-bitten joint for the night. The next morning, we turned around in southern CT and went back to put in an offer. It still says home to me.
Our favorite view of the house is of the varied dormers seen from the back though it is quintessential New England from every angle. The most important bonding happened as we sat in the southerly facing kitchen, watching a February sunset. That seat at the end of the kitchen table became my favorite roost. Though my husband was a busy lawyer, he always came home for dinner with our two kids. There was so much humor around that table. He actually made much of the furniture, again reproduction style. Christmas became the star moment for the kitchen. We always imported our cousins for that holiday and hung the stockings in the kitchen, oldest first while Revels records served as the sound track. Our Christmas tree was always big and fat and often spanned the two front windows of the living room. Part of the ritual was for guests to check out the tree to see if we'd done it yet again. For Christmas dinner, five more families joined us and we had tables end to end for the long length of the kitchen -- for decades. Only when marriages took our regulars to new relations did the custom begin to change., Everyone brought part of the meal and we did a turkey. There is an extra electric convection oven in the kitchen to accommodate those big meals. We did festoon the house very simply, a lot like the Wayside Inn.
I was a prime mover in getting a walkway for Mossman Road, making two presentations at town meetings. It gives me profound joy to see it so well used all these years later. My kids and the neighbors rode their bikes to the Greenwood Club right down the street where they spent most summer days. We all knew one another and met up at swim meets.
The kids were always outside in those days, and so was I. Although we had the bones of the property laid out by our neighbor Ron Boucher, a landscape architect, I myself spent countless hours planting. I think the mature shrubs that I started by cuttings will be hard to leave.
Haynes School was a warm community then and I think that continues. (Yes, it does)
We put a room over the garage for me to have an art studio. Eventually, it became the TV room and I painted in my favorite room, the kitchen. The porch,made this my dream house. We used that room almost year round. I had a serious illness for several years and the porch was my refuge, even in February one year.
It was a coup to put the laundry on the second floor, saving so much schlepping. Also, there is a nice cedar closet in the attic.
One thing I love about our dining room: the same exact chairs, wallpaper and drapes were used in a scene in a Hugh Grant movie called Notting Hill. We felt our decorating was validated.
388 Willis Road is a 4 bedroom, 3 bath New England Colonial situated on one of Sudbury's most beautiful country roads. Tall trees, mature plantings and expansive lawn frame the portrait for this Colonial Reproduction. As you will have read above, the heart of this home is the country kitchen with its breakfast bar and spacious dining area open to the warm fireplaced Family Room. The fireplaced Living Room and formal Dining Room are ideal for entertaining and holiday gatherings. The unique and appealing floor plan offers areas that present a wonderful surprise.There is a separate first floor office, generous size Mud Room with a second staircase to the cathedral ceiling, skylit Bonus Room, and cathedral ceiling enclosed Porch with wide pine floors and sliding glass doors to the gorgeous level backyard. The Master Bedroom has two closets (including a walk in closet) and Bath. If summer ever arrives, you'll enjoy your central air conditioning.
If you're not in the market to buy, please do your friends a favor and share 388 Willis Road with them. You'll love visiting!
It’s almost the end of February and its 61 degrees outside (yesterday). For those not accustomed to living in New England, 61 degrees in February means that the top is down on the convertible and winter jackets were left behind when the kids went to school this morning. It also means that we are hopeful that what little snow we can still see is the last of it (or maybe I just jinxed it) and that Spring is actually almost here.
(Home pictured above is 71 Newbridge Road in Sudbury, MA - please click here or the photo for more information)
Regardless of the weather, the Spring Real Estate market is upon us. It typically lasts until June. More and more houses will be hitting the market within the next few weeks, with Sellers very ready to sell. Many homeowners have spent the past few months getting their homes ready for the Buyers to see them at their finest, and they hope that you love it as much as they do. And if you do love a house, then what? Are you ready to buy? And by ready, I don’t mean “We love the house, we want to live there and start decorating” ready.
Being ready to buy means:
You are pre-approved to purchase a home in the price range in which you are looking.
- Just like every business, all Mortgage Brokers and Lenders are not the same. We KNOW with certainty, which banks will make the process a living nightmare for everyone involved in the transaction and which Mortgage Brokers you will be hugging at the closing.
- Please, ask us (or your Realtor) to recommend a Mortgage Broker. Why? Because we have been through more Real Estate transactions than you and your friends have and we know, first hand, who will close the deal painlessly and successfully. There is absolutely no incentive for us to recommend anyone except to make the transaction as smooth and easy for YOU as possible.
- A pre-approval means that you have an actual letter, on Lender letterhead, that states that the bank has reviewed your qualifications (not just had a phone call with you), and it is prepared to loan you $X to purchase the house that you love. We (or your Realtor) will need to submit that letter along with your offer to purchase.
- 99% of the time, hiring a Realtor to work with you to buy a house does not cost you ANYTHING. In Massachusetts, the SELLER pays the fees to the Real Estate offices involved in the transaction. Why on earth anyone would want to make one of the biggest purchases they will ever make without sound professional advice – especially when it is “free” is beyond comprehension.
- Our job is not to just open doors and write offers. Hire a Realtor who knows the town. You’re not just buying a house – you’re committing to a lifestyle. Your Realtor should be able to help you answer any questions that you have. What will your routine be like? How long is your commute? How far are the schools? How are the schools? What times do school buses come? Where are kids going to play? Are there kids in the general area? How many times has the house you like been sold? What is the turnover in the neighborhood? What is the value of the neighborhood in comparison to others? Where is the closest coffee shop? Do people walk around the neighborhood or is seeing a neighbor a rarity? How busy is the street? What don’t you know that you should know?
- Does your Realtor know what to look for and what to ask the seller when you are seriously considering the house? We aren’t home inspectors, and I can only speak for the Daniels Team, but after participating in HUNDREDS of home inspections, we do know the general anatomy of houses and we certainly know what questions to ask of the seller/seller’s Realtor.
- HGTV, Bravo, etc. are PURE entertainment. Houses cannot be renovated or redecorated in 48 minutes and the buying process is different everywhere. Comparing your home search process to that of a TV show is akin to comparing your dating life to the Bachelor.
- There is no such thing as the “perfect” home. Even new construction isn’t perfect. Please be realistic about your search. If you love the things that you can not change – the location, neighborhood and floor plan – you are 75% there. And if the house has been maintained well and you don’t need to replace every major system, you’re 90% there. The rest is intangible. If you don’t like a house because of a few brass doorknobs or powder room wallpaper or other easy, inexpensive fixes, it's not really about the house. That's an entirely different conversation.
- You understand and accept that there will be issues that arise from a home inspection. It is the job of the home inspector to find these things. Very rarely does a house have nothing that can be addressed by the seller or the buyer. Trust your Realtor to advise you on what is and what isn’t important. Please don’t be a pain in the you-know-what and expect the seller to deliver to you the most perfect house you can imagine. You are buying the house, and if there is paint that is chipped in a bedroom, or one baluster on the staircase is a little loose, or a door that squeaks or a little wood rot near the garage – please, deal with it once you own the house.
Buyers always ask us what we love about Sudbury. There are so many reasons why - most of which are intangible. But, every day, there is at least one thing that happens that easily makes the "Why We Love Sudbury" list. The reasons are pretty simple, but when they are all added up, it makes for a pretty great list.
There are so many reasons for why I am grateful that I live in (and sell) Sudbury.
Reason #1 is one that I'm sure I share with so many. The "foliage tunnel" otherwise known as Route 27 to/from Sudbury into Wayland.
You will wish for standstill traffic or the inevitable slowwwww driver in front of you as it will give you/your passenger the perfect opportunity to take a photo. Thank you to Real Estate Attorney Leslie Hamilton for taking these!
Stay tuned for Reason #2...
[caption id="attachment_3303" align="aligncenter" width="540"]
Route 27 from Wayland into Sudbury[/caption]
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Route 27 from Wayland into Sudbury[/caption]
Route 27 from Wayland into Sudbury[/caption]
[caption id="attachment_3300" align="aligncenter" width="540"] Route 27 from Wayland into Sudbury[/caption]
