Paul Turcotte
FollowWelcome Lisa Doherty-Santana
There is nothing I enjoy more than working with people that are passionate about the business and always looking to improve. Lisa is such a person, so I am very excited about working with her on building her business.
Lisa started her career with the enviable task of being a real estate agent on the Caribbean island of St. John for two years, where she lived directly after college.
She moved to Cambridge in 2006 and has been representing buyers and sellers through through an independent and smaller company in the Cambridge Area for over six years. Lisa quickly became a top producer. Last year alone she was involved in the sale of 26 homes. Lisa is a natural who quickly connects and establishes meaningful long lasting relationships with her clients. Lisa’s success is in no doubt due to her energetic and enthusiastic commitment to outstanding service.
After living in the Caribbean, the love of traveling compelled her to explore new grounds and she moved to Latin America for one year where she studied the language and culture of Guatemala and Argentina. She currently lives with her husband Hudson just outside of Boston.
Celebrating Success 2012
What a successful event. We have indeed come a long way in the last couple of years. After lunch at Bertucci’s, we got started by introducing our new members: Eithne Johnson who was returning after being away since 2008, Ann Sabbey, Tamela Roche, Tom Von Zabern, Lisa Santana, Anna Calderone, Simonida, Juan Murry and our first rental division manager, Tim Schmidt. Wow! We have never added on so many new and talented people in such a short period of time. That is very exciting. What a great way to start the year.
Following the introductions, we reviewed our overall success last year and set our goals for 2012 in residential sales, rentals, luxury sales, and property management. We discussed how measuring what you do is the first step in improving it and the upcoming launch of our shared assistant program, which will be starting mid March.
Dave Shorey took the #1 spot as our top producer for 2011, Tom Sheehan, rookie of the year, with Joe Kobialka once again taking our community service award.
I am so proud of every one. Our staff continues to excel in providing the very best in service to our entire team. Service for which I am very grateful.
After the program about a dozen of us went bowling where I continued to maintain my ranking as the company’s worst bowler.
First Class In Series for Continuing Education Credits
Attorney Michael Krone from Kriss Law and Mortgage Master’s Jesse Stein presented the first class in a series four continuing education credit courses to be held at our office.
A typically dry topic – “Contract Law”, was presented in entertaining fashion by Attorney Krone. There were 15 Agents from our office and four visitors from the real estate community in attendance who received two credits toward the currently required 12 credits to maintain an active real estate license in Massachusetts.
There will be three other classes at our office this year. The next one is on “Title” and is scheduled for June 6th. All in all agents can earn eight out of the required twelve through this convenient class arrangement and better still at no cost!
Tom Von Zabern Joins The Team
Tom Von Zabern has joined RE/MAX Destiny as the newest member of our team. Tom brings to the office over 31 years of experience in real estate and specializes in Historic Home Preservation. Tom is also a licensed builder with considerable experience working with local wood frame developers.
Tom is a native of Germany with a long interest and involvement in social activities, including years of volunteer AIDS work. He is the Founder and President of The African Great Youth Education Initiative, Inc. (AGYEI, Inc.). A charity dedicated to assisting young African males of promise who are too old to qualify for local assistance yet determined to overcome the grip of poverty once and for all.
A 21 year resident of Cambridge, Massachusetts, Tom divides his time equally between the charitable work of AGYEI Inc, and his real estate practice of sales, design and home renovations.
Welcome Tamela Roche!
We are very excited to have Tamela join our team. She has been, and is an outstanding leader in the Cambridge Real Estate Community. She has high standards and it shined through as one of the best Presidents to lead The Community of Real Estate Professionals and in her top “Pie in The Sky” fundraising team. Tamela is a dedicated and committed professional as well as a wonderful and positive person.
Welcome Tamela!
Tamela was first licensed in 2001 and quickly became a valued member of the Cambridge Real Estate Community. She has a B.S.B.A. from Shippensburg University in Pennsylvania and designations that include CNS, Certified Negotiation Specialist and ABR, Accredited Buyer’s Representative.
Tamela is an active member of the Cambridge Chamber of Commerce, REBAC, The Real Estate Buyer Agency Council, The Greater Boston and Massachusetts Association of Realtors as well as the National Association of Realtors. Tamela is very active in the community. Her volunteer work includes: Our Place Center for Homeless Children, Community Servings “Pie in the Sky”, Everybody Wins! Boston, and Breakthrough Cambridge.
“What a gift it is for me every day to help Clients realize their dream of “finding home”; joining the RE/MAX Destiny team I finally feel “at home” too!”
Cambridge Condo Trends – January 2012
Cambridge Summary: We are off to a rough start with Inventory for January remain quite low, less 48% compared to the same period last year. ~ Condo listing $ volume is down 42% from 84 million to 48.5 million in value. Very little improvement from December. ~ The median list price rose by 9%with properties selling at about the same rate, taking an average of 4.5 months to either go U/A or off market. ~ The number of condos that went under agreement was down by 15. Cambridge condo sales dropped 13%.
Sold $ volume was down 32% from 17 to 12 million. ~ The median sale price dropped 8% with the ratio of sale price to original price reflecting the limited inventory at 97%. ~ The average square foot price for January was $433 per square foot with the average living area at 1,045 sf compared to $501 per square foot with an average unit size of 1,088 square feet in 2011.
Somerville Condo Trends
Somerville Summary: Condo inventory was down by 14% for January. ~ Listing $ 
volume was down 1.4% from 34 million to 33 in. ~ The median list price was flat increasing by 1.4% with the active days on market showing more demand dropping from over 4 months to three. ~ Condos going under agreement increased by 48%.~ Condos sold for the month were up 7%. ~ 
Somerville condo sold $ volume for the month was flat up only $1,300 from January last. ~ Sold average days on market did not change at 3.7 months on average. The original price to sale price ratio dropped by 2% to 91% of the original list price. ~ The average square foot price dropped to $303 per square foot from $325 with the average condo size of 1,298 square feet compared to 1,243 square feet.