Since 2009, the Downtown crossing site that used to be the Filene's store has been abandoned. For such a central location in Boston, you would think that many developers would be interested in building residential or commercial space but no one until now had either offered enough money or shown enough credentials to show that they could do it.

The previous owner had started demolition in 2008 to build condos, stores and a hotel but funding became a problem and the construction was stopped.

A New York real estate company will join a local developer to build on this excellent location.

The 2 companies will be working in the next few months to propose a plan on how they want to build and what it will be.

For more information, please contact Emmanuel Scibilia at 617-669-6277

Renovations are underway at 21 Seaverns Ave in Jamaica Plain the new owner who purchased the property in 2011 is gutting the inside and planning to have 2 renovated condos.

Located one block from Centre St and a short walk to the T, it is in a prime location in the heart of Jamaica Plain.

This is good news for buyers who are looking for condos in this desirable location as long as they can wait for the completion of the project.

For more information or to learn about other properties, contact Emmanuel Scibilia at 617-669-6277 

Walkingscore.com is a great site that rates cities and neighborhoods. It calculates the proximity to conveniences within walking distance and rates it on a 0-100-point scale.  You can check your house, your office and check the best way to get there.The site is very easy to use and very useful. You can find places like shops, offices, transit stops, restaurants, hotels, etc..

When it comes to searching for homes for sale, this is helpful because it allows to easily know all the conveniences surrounding a specific property and to know if a location is walkable or more car-dependent.

Also, if you're comparing neighborhoods or cities to live in, walkingscore.com can help you get a better idea of how easy it is to walk in different areas.

Boston has a score of 97 and it is not surprising. It is easy to walk and the public transit offers great options. 

Massachusetts home owners struggling to make mortgage payments are often doing a short sale to eliminate their debt.

One of the most important things when doing a short sale of your Massachusetts home is to make sure that the debt has been eliminated.

Make sure you hire a Realtor with extensive short sale experience in Massachusetts.

With the help of a local attorney who is also an expert on short sales, the homeowner can be guided to make the process as easy as possible with the goal to not only complete the short sale but also to eliminate the debt.

It is important to eliminate the debt for many reasons including the fact that some mortgages are sold to collection agencies that can come after you and may be able to garnish your wages.

The Home Affordable Foreclosure Alternatives Program (HAFA) is a short sale program to prevent banks that hold second-lien loans from pursuing collections from homeowners after the short sale.

Under this HAFA program sellers will receive notice that their service company has steered part of the sales proceeds to secondary lien holders in exchange for release and full removal of their liens. It is important to understand however, that this release would apply only to short sales done through the Home Affordable Foreclosure Alternatives program. Not all lenders will be participating in this program.

So if you are doing a short sale make sure your representative gets the lender to sign off on a complete removal of debt on your property with the help of a team of experts.

About the author: The above Real Estate information on short sales was provided by Emmanuel Scibilia. Emmanuel can be reached via email at emmanuel.scibilia@nemoves.com or by phone at 617-669-6277

Brookline is not following the general real estate trend, average prices went up in the last year which shows signs of a healthy neighborhood.

Brookline offers great advantages including low unemployment rate, lower than the national average, a prime location, a prestigious public school system, access to public transportation, convenience to the city and many amenities inlcuding hospitals.

As an example, the Warren Group, a company that tracks real estate, show that the median sales price of single-family properties in Brookline went up 6.73% in the first ten months of 2011 compared to the same period in 2010. In contrast, the state's median sales price went down 1.68%.

Brookline may not be in everyone's price range but it continues to attract many buyers.

Five banks including Bank of America are being sued by Massachusetts for allegedly conducting unlawful foreclosures and deceiving homeowners.

The goal is to reach an agreement that would provide mortgage relief to homeowners and set requirements for the ways mortgage servicers foreclose and communicate with borrowers. Banks seized homes with no legal authority because they didn’t hold the mortgage on the properties. The failure to obtain valid mortgage assignments before foreclosing has affected the title of many properties.

More and more homeowners have tried loan modifications before doing short sales, however after months of frustration, the majority give up or are denied the modification.

The banks deceive and mislead homeowners about loan modifications. This is a practice that the state is trying to change.

For foreclosure listings and information, go to www.BostonPropertiesNow.com

Community Servings is selling Thanksgiving pies to fund its food distribution program.

A $25 pie for Thanksgiving might sound expensive, but Community Servings’ annual fund-raiser faces great demand—each pie is donated by one of over 150 restaurants, hotels, caterers and bakeries in the Greater Boston area. The $25 provides an entire week’s worth of home-delivered meals to people too ill to provide for themselves.

This year, their 19th, they will sell more than 13,000 apple, pecan, pumpkin and sweet potato pies, 600 to 800 of which will end up in JP. Over 500 volunteer pie-sellers work throughout the fall to sell, organize and distribute the pies all over the eastern part of the state.

Aside from Community Servings headquarters at 18 Marbury Terrace, JP residents can collect their pies at Coldwell Banker Residential Brokerage at 713 Centre St. and at Mike’s Fitness gym at 284 Amory St.

Mike’s Fitness is hosting a pie sale day Nov. 19.

Pies can be ordered on pieinthesky.org. They will be available for pick-up Nov. 23, the Wednesday before Thanksgiving.

Sometimes buyers lose out in a multiple-offer situation or by making an offer a little too late. It is good to know that you may have the opportunity to make a backup offer. A backup offer is one that's accepted subject to the collapse of an already accepted offer.

The seller can have more than one backup offer, It's rare in the current market but it happens on occasions.

If you have the opportunity to make a backup offer, should you do it? Buyers are often reluctant to make a backup offer because they feel it will strengthen the resolve of the buyers in first position to move forward if there is an bump on the road such as an inspection issue.

Buyers can continue searching and don't need to wait to know if the first offer is finalized. If you make a backup offer, you can continue your search to find a home to buy.

It's usually worthwhile to make a backup offer because there is a high fallout rate in the current market. Just don't sit around waiting for the first offer to be finalized.

From the sellers' perspective, it's usually a good idea to counter an offer for backup position if there is more than one offer. Some buyers won't make a backup offer because they may have another house in mind if they don't get yours.

As a seller, If you have a backup offer and the first offer collapses, your home goes to the backup buyer without going back on the market. This can be a benefit to both buyers and sellers. The backup buyer doesn't have to face multiple offers again, and the sellers don't have to go through the hassle of finding another buyer.

Back offers can be good; sellers should feel comfortable with a prospective backup offer; it may be a great opportunity especially in a buyer's market.

Go to www.BostonPropertiesNow.com for more information.