A different kind of REALTOR
       In case you haven’t noticed, a couple of notable things have taken place recently. Real estate has slowed down and gas prices have risen dramatically. In my main service area—the Pioneer Valley of western Massachusetts—the wheels have not really fallen off, but things are slower to be sure.
       Many realtors that have a niche are doing okay, but those who do not have a niche, might be having a more difficult time. I have two niches—that sometimes overlap. I specialize in antique houses and houses near to or next to rail trails.  

ANTIQUE HOUSES
       Over the years, I have restored several older houses, but our current house is pretty dramatic. It is the one in the photo/ad that led you here. This is an 1865 farmhouse style with Italianate influences that was a major renovation effort. It was the worst house in our neighborhood and we had contractors working there for 14 months. When we finished, the City of Northampton honored us with the Historic Preservation Award in 2003. Later that year, our house was featured on HGTV’s RESTORE AMERICA.
       Not only do I know old houses; I know how to fix them and probably most importantly, I know what renovation project will payoff. [Cost vs. value]. Click here for info on the restoration of our fixer-upper. We went a bit further in the restoration and created a bed & breakfast here called Sugar Maple Trailside Inn.
        What is notable about our house is that in 1868, three years after our house was built, a railroad was built 8 feet away. When we came upon the scene in 2001, the railroad was discontinued thirty odd years earlier and the right-of-way converted to a bike path in 1983. This path is the oldest municipally built rail trail [bike path] in New England. This brings me to the next point; 

 

 

HOUSES NEAR TO PATHS, RAIL TRAIL OR GREENWAYS 

     If you own a house within 7-10 blocks of an existing or soon to be built [or even a proposed to be built] rail trail, linear park or greenway, you have something special.  There are over 75 rail trail projects underway in almost 100 Massachusetts communities. The vast majority of these projects connect where people live work and play.

      Don’t forget that every city and most towns in Massachusetts had huge antediluvian mills where the smokestack industrial use has gone away. The former railroad corridor that serviced the mills have also closed down, but the corridor still is there—waiting to be rediscovered. And I might add many of the old mills are being put to modern entrepreneurial uses. 

     You all know that the indicator species of life in a coal-mine is a canary. Many of you probably don’t know that the indicator species of life in a community is the number of bikes and peds you see. If they are not seen, then those uses were “X’d” out by transportation decisions made 10+ years earlier. Too many neighborhoods in too many communities have been built so far from services that seeing a bike is a rare thing. 

     Rail trails in Massachusetts do several great things.
       1. A rail trail will rejuvenate neighborhoods that were neglected. Having a trail [a 'third place' --see page 6 of this PDF] in the neighborhood makes the neighborhood more likely to be reinvested-in, by neighboring property owners.

       2. A trail will introduce bikes and peds back to your community and since they slow life down, they make it more possible for locally-owned businesses to survive.

       3.  Bikes are not only the indicator species of life in your community, but they [and pedestrians] also provide the needed critical mass of slow moving people needed to sustain a downtown. In most areas of Massachusetts, the railroads were near to downtown and if the forlorn, piece of junk, trash strew former railroad corridor becomes reclaimed as a nicely landscaped and attractive place—an attractive place that leads to or near your downtown, well this is a way that brings in new money and a new resource that doesn’t need bigger and better parking lots in your downtown.

 

 

SELLING HOUSES NEAR TO PATHS, RAIL TRAILS OR GREENWAYS

      I know that most people will think that all these arguments are a no-brainer and are wondering why one might need a realtor who has a niche like this. Here's where I'm a bit different from most realtors out there.  I not only know how to sell houses near publicly accessible pathways, but since I've been a nationally recognized leader in the efforts to create more of these paths for over 12 years, I have a database of thousands of people interested in this issue.

     Many of these folks--from all income stratas and stages in life by the way--are interested in living near such a place. [first time home-buyers to empty nesters] We are now on the cusp of watching a migration to places where biking and walking are easy and honored.  Many people are even to the point of relocating to communities that have these pathways. 
     I have built-in constituency that others can't reach.  I regularly produce a html newsletter about trail development--and real estate along or near them-- that goes out directly to over 11,000 people on a regular basis. My listings that are near rail trails get advertised in that missive. If you have a house near a rail trail--anywhere in Massachusetts and are needing to sell, here's what I'll do for you that is a bit different. 
     1. First of all, I'll put it on the MLS, and put it in the little glossy paged Real Estate book local to your area. All realtors do that of course.  But I'll go way beyond that and advertise it prominently in my html newsletter which goes out to that highly specific and targeted audience..

     2. I'll bring in a professional photographer to do good photographs and not candidates for Bad Real Estate Picture of the Day.
     3. I'll set up a single use website specific to your property and put a sign out in the front yard noting the URL --and if you are near the trail, I'll put up a sign there too.

     4. I'll bring-in a video team who will shoot a video of all that is your house.  The video is a short, You Tube sized video that also lives on the single-use website.

      5. If you haven't figured it out yet, I am a techno-geek and use the web --extensively-- to not only sell houses, but to build more rail trails.