CONWAY — Badger Realty recently announced additional safety protocols for staff, customers and community in light of recent increases in the incidence of COVID-19 in the region. These steps were taken to ensure the safest possible experience for those buying or selling a property.

The most visible change to operations is the return to appointment-only access to the Badger Realty offices in North Conway, Jackson and Berlin. Visitors are asked to call ahead at (603)356-5757 to make an appointment to meet with Badger real estate professionals in their offices.

Many Badgers agents are licensed in both Maine and New Hampshire. They are also available to meet on-site at customer properties, or virtually using web conferencing to show property or to meet prospective clients.

"We are taking this step to be proactive and to keep your family and our family healthy," Managing Partner Brenda Leavitt said.

Leavitt noted the real estate market is extremely strong right now.

"Sales are up 37 percent over last year at this time in Carroll County, up 81 percent in Coos County and up 65 percent in Oxford County (Maine). The only thing lacking is the availability of listings. We strongly encourage anyone who has been thinking about selling their property to contact us. With these additional safety protocols, you can sell your home, take advantage of this strong market, and not take any unnecessary risks due to COVID-19," Leavitt said.

Badger agents go above and beyond with their safety procedures to give buyers and sellers peace of mind. Their attention to detail includes:

BY RACHAEL BROWN - SPECIAL TO THE CONWAY DAILY SUN (10/10/20)

CONWAY — Location, location, location. That's the triple-word mantra of the real estate world. Though there is disagreement about the term's origin — perhaps it was published in the Chicago Tribune in 1926, or perhaps coined by Lord Harold Samuel in Britain 1944 — one thing is for sure: Our location is drawing buyers to the Granite State in droves.

According to the New Hampshire Realtors' August report, the actual number of sales were slightly down from the same month last year. However, this August's $800 million total — with properties having a median selling price of $349,450 — represents the highest sales month in the state's history.

Carroll and Coos County are very much part of this boom. NHR's August New Hampshire Market Data Snapshot, which compares sales to August 2019, shows that the median sales price for single-family residences in Carroll County was $294,250, up 13.2 percent year over year.

The county reported $63 million in property sales, up 45.1 percent. Sales that closed totaled 150, up 11.9 percent; and pending sales numbering 191 were up 45.8 percent.

Coos County had a median sales price of $130,000, up 23.8 percent; $12 million in sales, up 50.6 percent; closed sales of 71, up 24.6 percent; and pending sales, up 101, or 110.4 percent.

The robust market raises the following questions that are being heard around the Mount Washington Valley:

• How much of the new activity is being driven by the coronavirus pandemic?
• Who, exactly, is moving into our villages and towns, and will they stay?
• And how healthy is lending in today's new realty reality?

Here's a look at the impact and what's driving the phenomena.

1. Supply and demand

"There is such little inventory. People (buyers) are out digging at a frantic pace," stated Evelyn Whelton, retail lending sales manager of the Bank of New Hampshire.

Brenda Leavitt, managing partner for Badger Realty, with offices in North Conway, Jackson and Berlin, provided a snapshot of recent homes for sale:
Albany, one home; Bartlett, 14; Conways, 27, with five at Kearsarge Brook condominiums at Cranmore Mountain Resort, two new builds and one mobile home; Eaton, three homes; Hale's Location and Hart's Location, zero; Jackson, seven; Madison, three; Tamworth, 21; and across the border in Maine, Fryeburg, 11; and Brownfield, six.

Leavitt believes several factors are influencing the lack of inventory in this market.

"Some people decided they were ready to stay put. Other sellers didn't want people in their homes, so they pulled their property. Others didn't want to go out looking; they also pulled their property," she said.
Josh Brustin, owner/principal broker of Pinkham Real Estate in North Conway, said: "With COVID-19, there are so many people wanting to get away from the cities and purchase a place here. And the people who have homes here think it is a safe haven. They are living in a place where they want to be. Some have children who are doing remote learning. Even though the home values are high, they are living in a place that feels protected. They are not selling."

2. Second-home ownership

"The vacation home owner says, 'I am not selling, I don't want to be in the city.' What better environment to hike bike ski, canoe, kayak? This change of mind has contributed to the small inventory," said Leavitt. And properties are moving fast. Really fast.

"Homes are selling in the same week they are listed," stated Jerry Hamanne, a Realtor with Badger Realty in Berlin (in Coos County) and owner of The Inn at Bowman Bed and Breakfast in Randolph.

Hamanne noted that in today's frenzied market, buyers must act fast. "Buyers have to have their ducks in a row — to be ready to strike and to be on top of their game," he said. "Buyers are getting pre-approved for loans so they are ready to go without contingencies. The rates are very reasonable, lowest interest rates ever."

3. Low rates
"The mortgage rates are the absolute lowest in our history, running between 3 percent and 3¼ percent, with good credit and no points," the Bank of New Hampshire's Whelton explained. "But every loan price is based on loan characteristics. People can come in with the same debt, same credit, but the difference in loan rate is based on whether this is a single residence, a condominium or HUD property."

Whelton noted that the rates follow the bond market. The government is investing heavily to help keep rates low, to stimulate volume and, since the pandemic, to stabilize the market. "Go back to 2006, and I thought the only place rates could go were up," she said. "In fact, nationwide in August, lenders closed the most mortgages since 2006. In the heyday of the early 2000s, anyone could get a 'no document' mortgage. A buyer just was no verification; if they had good credit, the loan was granted.

"People took the no-income, no-asset route. We called it NINA. We know that didn't work out," Whelton said. Today, even as unhealthy as a pandemic is, the lending industry has safeguards to remain healthy. "As a whole, we are much healthier in this downturned economy," Whelton said. "We have guard rails that didn't exist in 2006. I can say I make $5,000 a month, but this time around, the banks have to verify. We have to know if this person can pay, and we look at their earnings for a couple of years."

Whelton noted that the banks have been verifying for the past 10 years. Credit terms have become stricter, higher. With low inventory, one would think that banks wouldn't be as busy. "Not all of our business is purchases; it is refinancing also," Whelton said. "All lenders are at maximum capacity. Purchases combined with an extremely healthy refinancing market is keeping us so busy."

Lenders and real estate agents both say it is multigenerational buyers who are scooping up property, but the boom isn't good for all. "It is a challenge because the inventory is so low," said Whelton,
"The younger generation does not have as much disposable income. Let's say you have a budget and are bidding the same as someone who has 30 years of working. The older buyer goes into their savings for that little extra. It is wonderful to have all these retirees; it is not about who is applying but who is winning," stated Whelton.

This brings up the issue of affordable housing. Some buyers are being priced out of the market because low inventory translates to higher prices. "The question of how to get low- to moderate-income housing has been an issue for 15 years," Whelton said. "Now it has grown more exacerbated with people fleeing cities in large numbers. The key is to find the balance in what the community will look like."

Realtors say buyers are mixed in age and come from many other places. "Most people are out-of- towners, trying to get out of the cities, purchasing second homes. They can afford a second home. The prices are around $100,000 in Berlin and of course not comparable to other New Hampshire prices," stated Hamanne. He added: "This is a real shot in the arm for us."

4. Working from ... anywhere

Corinne Ray, who owns Ray Realty Keller Williams Lakes and Mountains with husband, Mark Ray, said: "Many people we've been in contact with over the past couple of years have been on the fence with buying a vacation home." But, she said, "With the time at home during COVID-19, many people have decided there is no reason to wait, and they are pulling the trigger on buying."

She added that their buyers span all ages. The valley, she said, is attracting those who can work from home. "People who can work virtually would rather live here. Skiers, in particular, are looking forward to knowing they will have a vacation home for skiing. Especially now since they know the slopes will be open, with restrictions," Ray said. As a matter of fact, Ray's daughter, Lauren Lacy, who can still do her job remotely, is one of the millennial buyers. Lacy attended college in Maine, lived in San Francisco for five years and then made Boston her home for a year and a half. She now calls Glen home. "I came up here with my brother, we were living in Boston, and it was his spring break, and the university didn't go back to in-person classes," Lacy said. "We stayed. Then I received an email from my landlord asking if I was going to renew my lease."

That got Lacy thinking. "I realized that I didn't want to renew my lease. I enjoyed my college years in Maine, was enjoying the outdoors, being able to social distance and could work remotely," she said.
"Once I decided not to go back, I had to decide how I would like to stay. It also helped that my parents are Realtors," noted Lacy, who began looking for a home to buy around June. "Buying made sense for me. This is an investment, the mortgage payment is less than the rent and I can enjoy hiking, outdoor activities, being in a smaller community. I moved to a city for my job, but I am really not a city girl," stated Lacy, who is also a new golfer.

Lacy purchased a three-bedroom condominium at Christmas Mountain. "Home ownership so far has been great," she said. "It is so nice owning rather than being in an apartment. My move hasn't impacted my work, I can work remotely," said Lacy, who works in data engineering for a tech firm. Though Lacy went to school in Maine and lived in California for five years, she says: "I am excited about winter activities. I will have to grow my winter skin."

Meanwhile, Baby Boomers Bob and Jane Vanderlin are building a home in Bartlett. Bob, a recently retired physician from Massachusetts, and Jane, who presently practices nursing in Massachusetts, have been visiting the valley for years and decided to make this their home. "We have a condominium in Plymouth, Mass., have been visiting here with our blended family — six kids, three grandchildren and numerous dogs — and had been searching for a home for 10 years," said Jane.

The Vanderlins met Rich and Brenda Leavitt, builder and Realtor, respectively, and fell in love with Rich's work at Timber Point (on Cranmore Road in North Conway) and bought a weekend home two years ago.
When the pandemic hit, Jane was working in the ICU in Massachusetts and Bob was staying in the valley - as Jane said, enjoying trips to Grant's Supermarket and the dump. But the Vanderlins decided they wanted to stay for more than weekends and also wanted to add on a garage.

"We found out the lot was too small to build a garage," Bob said, adding when they decide to sell, "Our house was never even on the market, an interested buyer came by. I threw out a number and got a full-price offer."

The Vanderlins are now building a new home with Rich Leavitt to accommodate their big family and their plan for full-time residency. It turns out Bob's son bought land at Crown Ridge, which is near Cranmore, and is also building a home for his family. "My husband loves it here, I love it here and hate to leave. I joined the Jackson Tennis Club and met another nurse. I take walks in Whitaker Woods, volunteer at Believe in Books. I can envision a life here, love the community and feel comfortable," added Jane.

With the influx of new residents, how might this impact local schools? Superintendent of SAU 9 Kevin Richard weighed in. "The dust is still setting. We have students in and out of schools. Four or five second-home owners have indicated they want their children in schools face to face," he said. But, he said, it is too soon to tell how that will impact enrollment.

Similarly, in mortgage banking, no predictions yet. "It feels like we have been in this (pandemic) a long time. The pandemic changed how second-home owners saw how they want to live. Six months does not a trend make, this hasn't played out yet," Whelton concluded.

The Cabinet Press – April 17, 2020

As stay-at-home orders remain in effect, the question for real estate brokers is will people stay in their homes or sell while there are few offerings on the market?

Marc Drapeau, president of the New Hampshire Association of Realtors moderated a panel discussion and press conference recently with several members of the New Hampshire realty community to discuss trends amid the pandemic.

Chris Masiello, president and CEO of Better Homes and Gardens Real Estate and the Masiello Group, with 34 offices in New Hampshire, Vermont and Maine, said in general, people are

optimistic.

"There are people who are for sure waiting, putting their decisions off," he said. "There certainly is a sense of wanting to get back to whatever normal looks like at the other end of this. We're just very focused on helping our agents and our customers work their way through this."

Bill Weidacher of Keller Williams Realty echoed Masiello's sentiment and commented that the COVID-19 crisis presents opportunities for both buyers and sellers.

"I've been in business since 1983, and this is the fourth really distinctive market abruption that I've seen of this magnitude," he said. "This is a 100-year event. I've never seen anything quite this severe."

Representing Badger Realty in North Conway and the North Country, Brenda Leavitt said she initially thought the market was slowing down but chalked that up to her "nervousness."

"In doing some research, what I found was that 70% of our new sales were written after Feb. 15 – and that number was really shocking to me," she said. "We seem to be doing a lot of business. Optimism is certainly increasing."

On the commercial side of things, Chris Norwood of NAI Norwood Group said he based everything on March 11, which was President Donald Trump's first address from the Oval Office.

"I think that's when the commercial sector and a lot of business owners started taking things seriously," he said. "It took another 10 days to roll out the stimulus package. But basically, what we saw in March, two or three weeks after that address, was there was a pause button pressed for a lot of tenant searches and business owners where they really had to focus on what their people were going through – you focus on the people first, and then you focus on the business after."

Norwood said it took everyone a few weeks to understand the impact. It was then after that the pause button was lifted.

"Some folks are going to put that delay on for a lot longer, but there was a reprieve, and now we're slowly opening the door again, which is a positive sign," he explained.

Drapeau noted that real estate has been deemed an essential business under Gov. Chris Sununu's stay-at-home order and that obviously as an association, it is strongly contended that Realtors agree.

"We strongly believe that real estate is essential on a very fundamental level," he said. "Just consider the importance of housing in terms of shelter, in terms of safety and the underlying welfare of our communities, especially in times of crisis."

He went on to say that this does not have to come at the expense of health.

"We have to be consistent in insisting that our members follow the conditions of the stay-at-home order so that we can continue to put the well-being of everybody – our buyers, our sellers, our members – and the community at large as our primary concern."

Weidlacher pointed out that his office creates a weekly report, looking at numbers at a point in time this year, relative to that same point in time last year, to shed light on trends and get an idea as to how the metrics and numbers were adding up.

"You would think that's a perfect context," he said. "And yet, we're way ahead this year, so why doesn't it feel that way? I think that's because we have a general sense that a lot of our numbers for this year were kind of forced into closing more quickly. I think a lot of people were saying, 'let's close by the end of March, the beginning of April,' versus the end of April, because they know the closing on the house they want to buy or the closing on the house they want to sell on the residential side meant some degree of certainty during what is largely an uncertain time. Foot traffic is down, but that doesn't mean activity will be down proportionately."

Norwood said there still are many questions that are being worked through on the commercial side, especially when it comes to showing spaces that are not always vacant.

"Sometimes there's a tenant leaving and we're trying to show the space to a new prospective tenant while the space is still occupied," he shared. "What rights does a broker have to enter a property if that current occupant doesn't want us there for honest reasons? Does the landlord have the right to show the property? Can the tenant prohibit that? So, we have had to work through those questions."

"Virtual tours" are obviously the new norm, as Realtors use tools like Facetime for showings.

"There are ways to get around it, but obviously in our world, it's not just the social distancing as it relates to the buyer and the seller," Norwood added. "In our cases, there is a third party of a tenant that we also have to wrestle with."

How Realtors perform closings also is being done differently with COVID-19 safety procedures in place.

"Things are closing but how they are closing is what's interesting," he said. "We've had a lot of parking lot closings. We actually had a closing when it was raining, and the buyers were in their car and the title agent was in the parking lot with an umbrella getting everything signed."

Masiello also said unemployment forecasting and unpredictability is impacting or will impact the real estate market.

"We take a look at our pending backlog and pending sales and we look at it and hope the integrity of it remains strong," he said. "But we're concerned about is how the layoffs are going to affect everything. We're really in a cycle right now of almost rolling employment outages. That's not over yet, and that's the caveat."

Currently, Masiello went on to say, sellers are asking if this is the right time to put their house on the market. He said it's all about comfortability.

"Our guidance has been safety first," he said. "If you're comfortable and don't have any underlying health conditions, there is not a lot of inventory, so this is probably a pretty good time advantageously on pricing. On the other end of this event as things loosen up and the stay at home order is lifted and people are feeling more comfortable, there probably will be a lot of inventory, and so it's kind of that balance."

Ultimately, Masiello and others agree the key to success during a turbulent market is overcommunication.

"We've closed our retail offices," he said. "Our home office in Bedford is open with a skeleton crew. It's really about over communicating. What we've found helpful is that we do a daily bulletin at five o'clock each day. We do two Zoom calls throughout the entire company twice a week, and they're full."

"I heard this great quote the other day," recalled Masiello. "There are decades when nothing happens. And there are weeks, when decades happen."

NH Business Review Staff - March 25, 2020 

As businesses throughout New England struggle to find ways to cope and help others as the economic issues created by the coronavirus pandemic continue to move up the curve, Brenda Leavitt of Badger Realty in North Conway had a simple idea that's catching on in other communities.

"Let there be light to offer hope," she suggested to the Mt Washington Valley Chamber of Commerce.

From that suggestion, a movement is now underway for Mt. Washington Valley businesses to join other communities in encouraging businesses to leave their lights on at night to continuing offering hope to all.
Leavitt explained her revelation through a story about the late Dick Badger, owner and founder of Badger Realty.

"Our former leader, Dick Badger, deserves the credit for this idea. When we opened Badger Realty in Jackson many years ago, Dick would stop in after the office was closed and turn the lights on in the lobby. He always said, "We will leave the lights on for you!," she said. "There is nothing more concerning to me than darkness. Since our office is closed to the public traffic at present, I did not want the office to be dark. This is our way of lighting the way to hope."

As a result, wrote Janice Crawford, executive director of the Mt. Washington Valley Chamber of Commerce, in a letter to members, "We are suggesting that you keep your front door light and/or storefront lights on throughout the night to offer optimism and raise spirits.

In addition, she suggested "changing your light bulb to green is one more additional step you could make to add to the feeling. Green is the color of hope. If you still have your Christmas lights in your windows, consider changing the bulb to green and keeping them on."

Twinkling white lights in trees and hedges or around roof lines have also been encouraged to stay on or added – a phenomenon that's happening in communities around the country.

Already in North Conway Village, Badger Realty, Toy Chest, Spruce Hurricane and a growing number of additional businesses are leaving outside lights on all night to send a message of optimism to residents of Mt. Washington Valley and visitors.

Photo Credit Aerial  - Dan Houde

Photo Credit Storefronts - Debbie Anderson