Mike is ready to help you with your buying or selling needs when you are ready to buy real estate in Metrowest Boston Suburbs. The selection of available Homes in Acton, Ashland, Boxborough, Concord, Framingham, Lincoln, Littleton, Marlborough, Maynard, Natick, Northborough, Southborough, Stow, Sudbury, Waltham, Wayland, and Weston is the highest it's been in 20 years. There is a wide selection of new and resale properties.

The 5% LISTING FEE will help you see more cash from your home in Metro West Boston. Our 5% listing fee, FULL SERVICE LISTING, is competitive in the Metrowest real estate market. We will always offer a 2 1/2% co-op to buyer's agents who show your home. This helps sell your home faster and for a higher price with more cash to you.

Homes are hard to value today. I'll give you the market information to help. The market in suburban Metro West Boston is slow compared with the boom years of 2001-2005. Serious home sellers need real facts to price their home properly for market conditions. Contact Mike Hunter for a FREE Market Analysis. I can help.

As an experienced buyers agent, I'm ready to help you find a home in any price range or style.

FORECLOSED SINGLE FAMILY HOMES in metro west Boston may offer a good buying opportunity for home buyers. I'm trained and experienced selling bank foreclosures, REO, homes that have gone to foreclosure to mortgage companies, Fannie Mae, Freddie Mac, FDIC and Credit Unions.

Contracts on a foreclosed home can  be closed in 60 days. You must be pre-approved for a mortgage loan and have no contingencies. In other words, you must be ready to buy. Contact Mike at (978) 580-1069 and he'll show you foreclosures in your price range.

Contact me to tour metrowest Boston suburban foreclosures in your price range. There are opportunities in the foreclosure market. I'lll give you the market information you need to make good buying and investment decisions.

SHORT SALE services are offered by Mike Hunter, the House Hunter. Metrowest Boston home owners in need of listing your property for "SHORT SALE", contact me and I'll help you evaluate the alternatives for relief from mortgage payments that you cannot make. A SHORT SALE is not routine and I will advise you about the feasibility of listing and selling your home as a SHORT SALE in suburban Metrowest Boston. For a Short Sale conference, call Mike at (978) 580-1069.

House Styles of New England

Antique House Style
 

Antique homes are typically rectangular in shape and include a large central chimney with one or more fireplaces, narrow clapboards for the siding material, simple trim around doors and windows, and a few small windows (called "lights") around the main doorway. The other windows typically have numerous small panes, most often 4x4, and are usually split horizontally with the bottom opening to add ventilation in the nice weather. True antiques were fitted with exterior trim whose purpose was to secure the home against Native American raids, such as shutters, solid pine front doors, and large hand-forged hinges and handles.

Over the years, as the family of the homeowner grew, they were fitted with wings, walls and lean-to’s and barns to house their growing family needs. This phenomenon often leads to miss-matched floor heights, weird "railroad-style" hallways and doors/windows to nowhere that were no longer needed as the family blossomed. Many of these wonderful homes have restored hand-hewn beams with exposed pegs, very wide pine board floors, soapstone sinks, and hand-carved trim or trim produced with water saws. Antique lovers find these details to be absolutely charming and are very fond of them.

These homes appeal to a select group of buyers, so their on-market times are usually longer than many other home styles and their rate of appreciation is typically less than that of most other homes. This is partially because they are located near the center of towns (very close to main roads – some even on double-yellow streets) and their location on the lot is usually very close to the road. However, antique home lovers are a special breed and when they purchase their home have been known to live there for a very long while.

Bungalow House Style

Bungalows are some of the most common homes found in older neighborhoods of New England, often near lakes and rivers. These homes became very popular from the 1910's to the 1930 's and are still popular as "starter" homes in the lowest price range in their towns.

These homes are generally narrow but deep homes often with detached or no garages. This is usually a function of their small lot size, with many of them on lots less than ¼ acre.

Bungalows are almost always one story but sometimes 1-½ stories high, and when located on lakefronts with steep banks they often have walk-out basements with glass-enclosed family rooms in the lower level. These homes also usually have a small porch with square columns set on footings. The porches are often enclosed with screens to keep the bugs away on the summer nights and the crawlspace underneath the porch is used for seasonal storage of outdoor furniture and equipment.

The majority of original bungalows were built as "camps" or "summer" homes and have been "winterized" and fitted with central heating and all the fixings that support year-round living.

They can be very charming from the outside and Realtors often use descriptors such as "cute" or "cozy". In addition, the interiors reflect an earlier time when leisure and a slower pace of life were embraced by a whole generation.

Cape House Style

English colonists, who came to the States in the late 1600's brought the cape style home with them. Their original designs were adapted to the local climate, family size and natural materials and have become this great 1 to 1.5 story home.

Capes are known for their steep roofs with overhangs, square or rectangular shape with door in the center and dormers in the upper story. They also typically will have at least one bedroom on the first floor and a central chimney. Although they are often without outside ornamentation, shutters and wide clapboards or weathered shingles give them their distinctive style.

Many of these homes were built in the early 1900's. They were popular because they could be built cheaply for young families and added-on, or upstairs finished as the family grew. The garages, if any, were usually detached from the original home, set on the rear of the lot, and as the family grew the house was extended to reach the garage.

Capes are plentiful throughout all of New England, and because of their small size and charm, make some of the best "starter homes" for young families.

Colonial House Style

Colonials are a direct offshoot of the Cape style and are distinguished by: their rectangular, symmetrical design with bedrooms on the second floor; double-hung windows featuring small, equally sized panes; windows framed by shutters; elaborate cornice moldings over the windows; a protruding stone entry with columns and a fanlight; clapboard siding; gabled roofs covered in shingles; and a central hallway that runs from the front to the rear of the home.

The efficiency of placing the sleeping areas directly above the living areas because rising heat from cooking and fireplaces rises into the sleeping chambers and is not wasted is credited for the initial popularity of the style.

Versions built after the late 1800’s tend to have a single, central chimney while traditional homes built in the 1700s and 1800s have a chimney at each end, although some of the huge colonials being built in the last few years are showing a return to the dual chimneys at the ends.

By far the most popular house style for today’s buyers in the Metrowest region, they tend to steadily increase in value and are ideal candidates for updating and additions.

Contemporary House Style

Even though they are not "contemporary" to anyone who is living in the 2000's, the name contemporary represents a house style that can be found in small pockets around Metrowest.

Contemporary houses were first popularized by the work of Frank Lloyd Wright and his famous "Falling Waters" house in western Pennsylvania.

Builders and buyers liked the clean lines and contemporary styling and the great use of space associated with these multi-level homes, and built them primarily in the 1960's and 1970's.

Some of the characteristics are: garage placement on the front of the home to cut building costs: shallow, pitched roofs that often extend from a higher level down over the lower level: simple, linear rooms that are cost effective to build and often attempt to "bring nature inside"; windows that are very large and sometimes trapezoidal following the roof pitch in gables; and exterior finishes that are a mix of natural materials like wood, brick, or rock.

Contemporary homes are less popular in Metrowest than colonials and because of this their market value is usually lower than similarly sized colonials. Also the pool of buyers is smaller so their time on market is usually longer.

Cottage House Style

In Metrowest, small homes on tiny lots are usually cottages and their location is almost always along bottom-land near oceans, rivers, lakes and streams.

While cottage is a hard style to describe, there are a few distinguishing characteristics - the most sweeping generality being that it is a very informal style.

In addition, they are: boxy, simple architecture without any ornamentation; low, almost flat gabled roofs with overhanging eaves; and tiny windows and doors installed to catch shade and breezes without regard to symmetry or style.

They can be made up of a hodge-podge of easily available materials and stories abound about cottages made from recycled shipping pallets, crates and scrap lumber.

Unlike the cottages found in the Caribbean and island locations, most New England cottages began as homes for poor people or were built on large estates to cheaply house the help.

In the 1950’s they were built en masse as country vacation homes for the growing middle class, and in the following decades those homes have been “winterized” and updated to become year-round communities.

Cottages are ideal starter homes and are usually the lowest priced segment of their market.

Recent trends indicate that they are appealing to the baby boomers who are looking to scale down for lifestyle or economic reasons and want to be part of a waterside community.

Because of the buyer pool attracted to these homes, fixing up a cottage without increasing the living area is generally not considered a good investment. However if you update one for your own quality of living, you will usually increase the “curb appeal” and salability.

Gambrel (Dutch Colonial) House Style

Gambrel is more a roof style than a house style, but is often applied to homes often considered Dutch Colonials.

These homes typically include a gambrel roof with a double slope on each side of the building, and often look like what often is called a “barn”. Usually they are faced in wood clapboard or shingles, varying in size and building materials, and most have a symmetrical front facade and a classical wide, open entry portico.

Homes that have chimneys often have them placed at one or the other end, not usually in the center of the home like colonials.

Also, homes with the gambrel facing the street tend to be earlier, dating from 1800- 1900, while those with side-facing gambrels and a broad front dormer tend to date from 1920-1950.

The use of the gambrel roof is no longer popular in home designs, but still continues to be used a lot for barns, due to its limited framing and large resulting interior space.

First-time homebuyers will find these affordable “starter” houses on smaller lots and in nice neighborhoods. Because of this, their appeal is very high, and their resale (if priced properly) happens quickly.

Garrison Colonial House Style

Garrison Colonials are a distinctive sub-category of the colonial house style, found throughout Metrowest but not very typical for other parts of the country.

The origins of the garrison home can be traced back to England, where this style of house was called a “two-story English overhang” - because the second story overhangs the first.

This style is distinguished by a second story overhanging the long side of the house and below that overhang there are often a set of four decorative carvings such as pineapples or acorns.

Like other colonials, they are very symmetrical, and depending on the creativity of the builder often have the lower level faced with stone or brick while the upper story is always faced with clapboards.

Unlike other colonial styles, they almost always have a single chimney at one end of the house and the windows on the second story are usually smaller than those on the first.

This style of house has been built from colonial times through the 1970’s but are not often built today.

Garrisons are usually very well built, great houses for the mid-range buyers and are often purchased as “mover-upper” homes by second time house buyers as their families outgrow their first homes.

Log House Style

Log homes are very rare in the Metrowest Boston area.

Contrary to what TV reenactments lead us to think, there was not enough time for the early settlers to build log homes before the harsh weather of winter settled in, so they lived in wigwams, crude huts and pits covered with boards.

The log homes of today, with what are called “saddle-notches” and layers of whole logs laid horizontally & chinked with “wattle”, were brought to the east coast by way of the Chesapeake bay settlements of Germans and Scandinavians in the mid 1600’s.

Because the first-growth forests in New England tended to be huge and irregular, unlike the young, identically sized, straight-as-an-arrow Lodge pole pines and Douglas firs of the south and west, our early builders tended toward board and batten construction for permanent dwellings and log homes were only built as temporary dwellings on the frontier, crumbling over time.

Modern log homes can be extremely well-built and create a wonderful, rustic sense of place within and around them.

When a log home in the Metrowest area goes up for sale, and this is not often, it has historically generated good return for the seller but taken a very long time to sell.

Multi-Level House Style

The multi level is a wonderful, deliberate house style that modern architects created to group similar living activities, such as sleeping or entertaining, separating the quiet activities from the more boisterous ones.

There are generally three or more levels (sort of like a split with more levels) and looking at the front of a multi, it looks to be split down the middle with a one-and-a-half story home on one half stuck on to a two story home on the other.

The lowest parts of these homes are devoted to a garage and family room; the middle levels, which usually are part of the one-and-a-half story section, support quieter activities, such as those that take place in the kitchen, living and dining rooms; and the topmost areas, usually above the garage, support the quietest activities, such as those that take place in bedrooms, offices or studies.

In Metrowest, multi level homes are usually found in the mid-range pricing of their particular towns and generally sell very well.

Many have updated kitchens and baths and they are usually sited on mid-sized to larger parcels of land in mature, established neighborhoods.

They make good mover-upper houses for expanding families and buyers who love to entertain.

Ranch House Style

Many ranch style homes were built in Metrowest in the 50's and 60's for the young families of the servicemen returning from WWII.

They were inexpensive to build, could be built on conventional foundations with basements or slabs of solid concrete without basements, and could be mass-produced quickly.

Although there are no “Levittown’s” in New England, there are concentrations of ranches in tract housing developments that still are vibrant, wonderful family neighborhoods today.

Their styling is very simple and rectangular in shape and they often have shallow pitched hipped roofs that extend across a single or double car garage or a carport.

Because all the living space is on one floor, ranch houses are very wide, and often cover the width of their lot.

In Metrowest, ranch houses are most popular with three bedrooms and two baths and can provide a great value for first time homebuyers.

Raised Ranch House Style

Raised ranch houses were made popular in the 60's and 70's and are a natural progression from ranches.

Realtors often confuse them with multi-level houses and splits but there should be no confusion, as there really is a simple way to distinguish one - if you enter the door and are standing on a landing and immediately have to make a decision to go up a half-flight of stairs or down a half-flight of stairs, you are in a raised ranch.

Upstairs you will find the kitchen, dining, living and bedrooms. Downstairs you will find the family room, utility room, possibly some bedrooms, and the garage.

This style of home is really a clever way to get two-stories of living space within a one-and-a-half story home. However, unlike splits and multi-levels, no real consideration was given to separating the different kinds of activities from each other, such as sleeping and entertaining.

In many towns they are found along rural roads or what were rural roads at the time in clusters of several homes that were built at the same time. Some developers also built them in large tract developments that have evolved into wonderful family neighborhoods.

As a sweeping generality, in my initial meeting with buyers, raised ranches are the one home style that most will immediately eliminate from consideration.

And yet hundreds of them are sold each year due to their economical carrying costs, generally low prices, and great use of space.

So if you’re looking for all those things, a raised ranch might just be your perfect home.

Saltbox Colonial House Style

A variation of early Colonial or Cape Cod style houses, the practical and simple saltbox was often a single room deep.

Given that often a dozen or more people crowded into these early homes, colonists soon began looking for practical ways to expand living space. Adding a single-story lean-to shed to the back of a 1.5 or 2 story & one-room deep house was the most practical method of gaining more space.

The resulting shape of this new house was the shape of a wooden box used to store salt in Colonial times, that’s why we call them saltboxes.

In most saltboxes the lean-to addition was divided into three rooms: a central kitchen with its new fireplace and oven; a “birthing” or “borning” room - reserved for childbirth and the sick; and a pantry.

Sometimes a rear stair, located near the pantry, led up to a low-ceilinged storage space. The prominent center chimney or a pair of end chimneys also defines this style.

By the late 1600’s (1680 saw a lot of these built), the saltbox had become so popular that houses were being built with the lean-to as part of the original construction, with the roofline unbroken from the ridge to the rear wall.

The saltbox grew from the early stone ender to a comfortable three-bedroom house over a period of about thirty years as families grew in size and became wealthier.

Saltboxes are still being built (although their sloping roofline limits upstairs space) and buyers and sellers agree that this is one of the most practical home styles in all of New England.

Because of this, these homes sell quickly and at solid market prices and are considered a great investment.

Split-Level House Style

Split-Level houses were made popular in the 80's and 90's.

Realtors often confuse them with multi-level houses and raised ranches, but there should be no confusion, as there really is a distinct style that really determines a split.

Here it is: splits are a one-story home attached to a two-story home, evenly distributed half and half.

Garages are often located beneath the sleeping space, in the two-story part of the house.

The main entry is into the one-story part of the house and usually opens to a hallway into the kitchen with a formal living room to the side.

Depending on the floor plan, customarily there is a formal dining room flowing from the living room to the kitchen, all on this entry level.

Splits were originally built as inexpensive homes which maximized usable living space while minimizing foundation and roof costs. Because of this, the basements are usually very shallow, allowing the use of short windows above ground that introduced air flow and sunlight. And either a cause or an effect, they are often found in areas with high water tables and areas with bedrock close to the surface.

Depending on the ingenuity of the builder and the owners, splits have evolved to become both architecturally appealing and in sync with the lifestyle of today's family.

Tudor House Style

Tudor homes in were very popular in the early 1900’s up to the great depression.

They can be found throughout Metrowest, and got their most distinguishing architectural feature from medieval times when large buildings were built in a post and beam fashion. The spaces between the large framing members on the upper floors were then filled with plaster to close off the building from the outside. This technique provided a lot of architectural appeal as half of the rough sawn framing members were visible from the outside.

These days most Tudor style homes are not actually built with post and beam. The look however is achieved by fastening rough sawn lumber on the outside of the home to create the post and beam look. The space between them is then filled with plaster or stucco.

Other distinguishing features of the Tudor style are: complex and steep roof lines with various, crossing gables of alternating heights; dormers; large sculpted brick or stone chimneys; patterned brick or stone exteriors; and rounded doorways.

Because of the various highly-decorative and memorable features of Tudor homes, they have always been very expensive to build, so all Tudors and especially the newer ones are only found in the highest price range of their respective communities.

They sell well and appreciate directly with the market and are considered a good investment as long as you maintain them in top shape.

Victorian House Style

Victorian style developed and was quite popular from the end of the civil war to the early 1900's. These homes are most commonly two or more stories with steep roof pitches, turrets and dormers. Porches are often large with turned posts and decorative railings. Decorative gable trim, corbels, and a variation of exterior finishes with multiple coordinated colors make them one of the most enjoyed house styles of all times. In New England, as most everywhere in the country, there are really two distinct types of Victorians - Queen Anne and Second Empire.

Queen Anne is a completely playful style, who’s distinguishing features are: curved towers and porches, protruding bay windows, asymmetrical facades, steeply pitched roofs, vertical windows, embellished porches on multiple levels, and multiple chimneys with elaborate decorative brickwork.


 

 

 

 

Second Empire is a more stately style, who’s distinguishing features are: big and boxy forms with mansard roofs tiled with slate in “fish-scale” patterns, symmetrical facades, and heavy ornamentation such as “gingerbread” trim. As a side note, if you’ve ever been to Disneyland, “Main Street” is a typical 1800’s small town done in this style.

Because of the Victorian style’s timeless appeal, many people seek these types of homes in good condition for restoration and many can be found on the historical register.

Also because of their huge size and large maintenance bills, many have been carved-up into delightful condominiums which command premium prices and seldom last long on the market.
 

 

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