Plan for a Day at the Beach: Open Houses This Weekend

We had a great time showing friends around the North Shore this weekend; we went up to Gloucester, where the local businesses are still waking up from the dead of winter, and had an amazing late lunch at Passports at 110 Main Street.  I had Korean-inspired quail, because we eat seafood all the time (Rowand’s fish market at 2 Cabot St. is a great reason to move up here — “Live Lobster, Dead Fish!”), but our guests had  crab cakes, lobster quesadillas, and calamari, and my girlfriend had some kind of mussels-and-assorted-seafood-in-white-wine dish that was lovely.

We’re getting into some prime time to check out open houses on the North Shore; the weather this weekend was overcast but dramatic, and we managed to get in a chilly walk on the beach.  Traffic up here is NOTHING like the South Shore, but you can beat the Spring real estate rush and the tourists.

SUNDAY, APRIL 13, 12-3, there’s an open house at 82 Essex Street in Beverly.  I think I’ve mentioned this one before — convenient walk to the train, right near the library, and great $/sq. ft.  Boston.com lists the entire property for sale as a multi-family for $559k, but Redfin lists the condo separately.  If you can swing the full price, you can easily rent the apartment to Montserrat students — the house is a block from the Common, and Montserrat College of Art.

4/13 from 12-2 P.M….you really have to see this one.  12 Bridge Street is exactly what I fell in love with about the North Shore.  Classic New England waterfront property 1/2 mile from the best commuter rail service in Mass.  For $379,500.  You have to see this place!

4 Sargent Street  is supposed to have an open house, but the agent hasn’t listed times get — check back.  This is a goofy — but not ugly — little house with a whole lot of potential.  The price has dropped from $305k to less than $278,500, and when an ad says “motivated seller” you can give anything a try.  Do your calculations say your ceiling is $258k?  It costs exactly nothing to make a low offer.  Of course, if the seller owes too much on the property, the banks would rather repo it than cut everyone a break — we learned this last year, when the seller’s mortgage holder wouldn’t let us buy a place, and then sold it for $40k less than we offered a few months later.  Stupid bank….

You could almost spit on the commuter rail from the balcony at 348 Rantoul Street #205.  This 750 sq. ft. studio is only $132,000, and is in a great location if you wanted to turn it into rental property later.  Again, no times set for the open house yet, but they’re listing one on the MLS, so it should say so soon –  I’ll bet one American dollar that it will be on Sunday afternoon.

The cool lobster image is from Wikipedia.