Getting homes shown this winter ‘daunting’

More than 8 feet of snow has put a damper on a Boston-area real estate market already constrained by limited inventory — creating logistical issues for home-sellers, buyers and real estate agents — but opportunity awaits for those undaunted by the weather.

"It's really light these past four or five weeks because people won't put their house on the market," said broker Glenna M. Gelineau, owner of Gelineau & Associates RE in Waltham. "Not to mention people don't want to come out in this weather."

Streets are hard to navigate, snow mounds are so high that for sale signs are buried, and buyers can't identify homes that are on the market.

"It's just daunting," Gelineau said. "It's dangerous. There's no parking. People have ice dams. They don't want snow trucked through their house. They have their own problems. It's just one whole layer to life that, unless people are absolutely under the gun, they'll say, 'I'll (list) it when the snow dissipates.'"

Home inspections can't be completed because homes and their foundations are covered in snow.

"(An) issue right now being presented by the ice dams is potential damage being done to a listing and the fact that either renovations or other temporary measures have to be taken before the property can be shown," said John Dul-
czewski, executive director of the Greater Boston Association of Realtors.

There also are liability issues for homeowners if buyers slip or fall on their property, said Michael Carucci, president of Group Boston Real Estate.

"Then, of course, we have the issue of no school and a bunch of kids at home," he said. "We typically don't like to show property when the owner is actually home. Where are they going to go in this weather — outside for three hours?"

Carucci has in excess of $10 million in inventory that won't hit the market until spring because of the weather. But there is a bright side, he said.

"My view is anybody out there in weather like this is seriously qualified," he said. "I don't think you're going to have tire-kickers out there."

And inventory is so light — a pre-existing issue exacerbated by the snow — that people are jumping at available opportunities.

Linda Burnett, a Realtor at Keller Williams Realty Boston-Metro, listed a four-bedroom West Roxbury colonial for $699,000 on Feb. 9, in the midst of another snowstorm, and had it under agreement the next Monday.

With more snow in the forecast, she shortened the normal open house schedule to that Saturday for 2.5 hours and asked real estate agents to show up in one car with their clients because of parking constraints. She brought in "staging" furniture for the house in between storms, along with shoe covers and extra boot trays.

"We had over 30 parties visiting the open house," Burnett said. "That's like an open house on a perfect day in June. If anybody is considering putting their house on the market during this horrible weather, I recommend doing that because there's no inventory. People who are motivated will really do well."

Eight offers were submitted for the West Roxbury home, and it sold for significantly more than the asking price, Burnett said.

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O'Reilly blasts 'Mother Jones' article about his reporting

NEW YORK — Fox News Channel host Bill O'Reilly is contesting allegations that he embellished his past as a war correspondent.

An article in Mother Jones magazine calls into question O'Reilly's accounts of his experiences as a CBS News correspondent covering the 1982 Falklands War between Great Britain and Argentina.

The article, titled "Bill O'Reilly Has His Own Brian Williams Problem," attempts to paint O'Reilly with the same brush as the NBC News anchor who last week was suspended for six months for misrepresenting his experiences covering the Iraq War and is being investigated for questions that have arisen about other stories.

"It's purely a political play to divert attention from the Williams situation," O'Reilly said Thursday, adding that Mother Jones "trumped up something from 33 years ago." O'Reilly was a CBS News correspondent in 1981-82.

The Mother Jones article focuses on O'Reilly's use of the word "war zone," citing his 2001 book, "The No Spin Zone: Confrontations With the Powerful and Famous in America," in which he wrote, "I've reported on the ground in active war zones from El Salvador to the Falklands."

It also points to his Fox News show, "The O'Reilly Factor," when on a 2013 broadcast O'Reilly recalled rescuing his photographer "in a war zone in Argentina, in the Falkland Islands, where my photographer got run down and then hit his head and was bleeding from the ear on the concrete." That took place in Buenos Aires during a violent demonstration following the 10-week Falklands War that killed more than 900 people.

O'Reilly said he has never claimed to have been in the Falklands during the war. Linking "war zone" with the Falklands, he said, was "shorthand."

"Everybody knows you're not there, because nobody (from the American news media) was there," O'Reilly said. He called "delusional" the article's accusation that the violence in Buenos Aires on the day the Argentines surrendered wasn't part of the Falklands War and wasn't combat.

After CBS, O'Reilly, 65, worked at ABC News before replacing David Frost as anchor of the syndicated "Inside Edition" in 1989. He joined Fox News Channel at its inception in 1996. As host of "The O'Reilly Factor," he consistently leads in the cable-news ratings.

On Friday's "Factor" he was scheduled to address the article in his Talking Points Memo, declaring its authors sought "to take the Brian Williams situation and wrap it around my neck for ideological reasons."

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Follow Frazier Moore on Twitter at http://www.twitter.com/tvfrazier. Past stories are available at http://bigstory.ap.org/content/frazier-moore

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Online:

http://www.foxnews.com

http://www.motherjones.com

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How a chance encounter brought HBO and Showtime together for Mayweather vs. Pacquiao PPV

The fighters and their teams had been trying to work out a deal for nearly six years. Negotiations heated up during the past four months. But it took a chance encounter last month at a Miami Heat game to finally secure an agreement for the long-anticipated matchup between welterweight champs Floyd Mayweather and Manny Pacquiao.

The bout promises to be so lucrative as a pay-per-view offering that HBO and Showtime set aside their fierce rivalry to work together on the May 2 telecast. The fight is expected to clear well over $150 million and set new PPV records, which explains why Showtime and HBO put down their dukes. The moneymaking potential is so great that CBS Corp. prexy-CEO Leslie Moonves personally got involved in the negotiations between the fighters, the promoters and with his counterparts at HBO and Time Warner.

"Really the thing that made the difference was Leslie Moonves," said Showtime Sports exec VP and general manager Stephen Espinoza. "He was personally involved from the start to the finish. He brought the parties tougher in a way that I don't know if anyone else could have. He acted as the mediator who bridged the very signifiant gaps between the fighters and the promoters and two competing networks."

Espinoza compared the situation to trying to mount a Super Bowl "where everything had to be negotiated individually, from who is televising to who is the home team to who is announcing to the rules of the game and the business arrangements."

The biggest hurdle on the TV side was the fact that Mayweather has an exclusive PPV deal with Showtime while Pacquiao is exclusive to HBO. The pay cable rivals last worked together in 2002, when they faced a similar scenario with blockbuster potential with a bout between Lennox Lewis, who was under contract to HBO, and Mike Tyson, who was in Showtime's corner.

But the other obstacles to getting Mayweather and Pacquiao to face each other in the ring were still so numerous that even when the two were both under exclusive contract to HBO several years ago, the sides could not agree on the terms for a fight. That's where the persuasive power of Moonves came in, Espinoza said.

"He had a lot of conversations directly with the fighters and promoters, acting sometimes as a mediator, sometimes as a bad cop and sometimes as a good cop," he said.

Those talks were advancing slowly but surely when Mayweather and Pacquiao happened to run into each other on Jan. 27 at a Miami Heat home game. Mayweather approached Pacquiao at halftime, which marked the first time the two had spoken in years, Espinoza said. They met again after the game for a candid conversation about what it would take to get a deal done.

"They convinced each other that they were both committed to making the fight happen," Espinoza said. "That was the final impetus to getting the deal done."

The fight will be staged in Las Vegas at a venue to be announced. Details of the broadcast and the announcing team are still being hammered out. The pricetag for the PPV is also still being worked out as HBO and Showtime begin negotiations with MVPDs. But it's a safe bet that it will fetch about a $20 premium over the $65-$75 range for Mayweather's recent events.

Both networks have committed to a marketing blitz and tapping into cross-platform resources at their respective parent companies. With a pile of cash to be made in a few hours' time, both CBS and Time Warner have every incentive to hype the long-awaited meeting.

"Manny Pacquiao and Floyd Mayweather have been the two most prominent fighters in the sport of boxing for the past decade, and fight fans around the world have been clamoring for them to face each other," said HBO Sports president Ken Hershman. "I know the fighters and their teams will be primed to excel and we plan to work closely with everyone involved to deliver the same level of performance from a broadcast perspective."

(Pictured: Floyd Mayweather during his bout against Marcos Maidana at Las Vegas' MGM Grand in September 2014)

© 2015 Variety Media, LLC, a subsidiary of Penske Business Media; Distributed by Tribune Content Agency, LLC

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New England farm receipts up; Vermont, Maine lead

CONCORD, N.H. — New England farm cash receipts for 2013 were up 4 percent over the previous year, led by top producers in Vermont and Maine, according to a new U.S. Department of Agriculture report.

Vermont ranked highest in cash receipts at $836 million — 10 percent higher than the previous year. Maine earned second place with receipts of $740 million — a 2 percent increase.

Connecticut ranked third at $575 million, followed by Massachusetts with $447 million in cash receipts, which marked a 6 percent drop from the previous year.

The report, released this week, showed New Hampshire's receipts increased $6.5 million to $189.7 million, ahead of sixth-place Rhode Island, had about $59 million in sales.

Milk is the top money maker in Vermont. In Maine it's fall potatoes.

Vermont milk sales totaled $552 million in 2013, a 10 percent increase over the previous year.

USDA statistician Gary Keough, who prepared the report, said the biggest upside is the increased sale and price of dairy products. The downside is that nursery and greenhouse sales — particularly in New Hampshire— have not rebounded from the housing crisis.

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Mercedes recalls more than 147,000 vehicles to fix seal

INDIANAPOLIS — Mercedes-Benz is recalling more than 147,000 sedans and station wagons made over the past few years to fix a problem with an engine compartment seal that could spark a fire.

The recall mostly affects E350 sedans from the 2013 through 2015 model years.

The company says a rubber seal in the back of the engine bay that is designed to muffle noises can stick to the hood when it opens. It can then drop into the engine compartment, where it may increase the risk of a fire if it touches the exhaust system.

Mercedes-Benz will start the recall next month. Car owners can then take their vehicles to dealers, who will fix the issue for free by attaching four additional retaining clips to the seal.

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Machinima cuts staff, shuts some channels after new financing

Just because Machinima secured $24 million in new funding doesn't make it immune to some belt-tightening.

The digital content network laid off 13 of its 90 employees Friday, according to sources, as well as a few part-time staffers. The eliminated positions were all production jobs tied to programming being discontinued at Machinima.

Machinima Respawn, a gaming-themed YouTube channel that was once one of Machinima's most popular and longest-running attractions, is being canceled, as are some of the programs on another of its YouTube channels, Machinima Live. Also axed was a Machinima series titled "Ten FTW."

Staff assembled at Machinima headquarters Friday were told that the cuts were necessary due to the declining popularity of the programming with users and advertisers.

A spokeswoman for the company confirmed the cuts, and issued a statement on behalf of the company.

"As Machinima positions itself for the future, we must focus resources toward high-growth opportunities. Toward that end, today Machinima released 13 production staff associated with Respawn, TFTW and certain shows on Machinima LIVE as this content was simply not delivering the monetization that supports our path to profitability. Machinima is in development on its expanded 2015-16 original programming slate, details of which will be unveiled at its Newfront presentation on May 4. Separately, the company also has 15 open positions associated with programming, talent development, business intelligence, sales, marketing, product development and engineering."

The layoffs were the first round of cuts at Machinima since CEO Chad Gutstein came in nearly one year ago. Prior to his hire, the struggling company withstood several rounds of layoffs. Machinima was once one of the most popular multichannel networks on the Internet, but languished for years until recovering some momentum in 2014.

Warner Bros., which took an $18 million stake in Machinima last year, led a new round of financing Thursday that also included investments from Redpoint Venture, MK Capital, Coffin Capital and Allen DeBevoise.

© 2015 Variety Media, LLC, a subsidiary of Penske Business Media; Distributed by Tribune Content Agency, LLC

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Montreal knows where to stick snow

After roughly 8 feet of snow in three weeks, mammoth snowbanks everywhere and a problem-plagued public transit system, many Bostonians are thinking there's got to be a better way to deal with snow.

In Montreal, which has been pounded by about 8 feet of snow this winter, once precipitation starts, crews go to work, spreading salt on sidewalks and streets. Once the snow reaches an inch, the city deploys 1,000 pieces of equipment manned by as many workers to begin clearing both sidewalks and streets.

"Our citizens don't have to shovel sidewalks," in contrast to Boston, Jacques Lacavallee, a city spokesman, said.

By the time the snow reaches 6 inches, Montreal deploys 2,200 pieces of equipment and 3,000 workers.

"It's literally an army that takes over the city," Lacavallee said. "This is part of our daily life, unlike you guys, who have been caught by surprise."

Small plows tackle the sidewalks, while two trucks working side by side clear the roads. One is essentially a huge blower that eats up the snow and then spits it out through a tube on top into an adjacent dump truck.

The trucks carts the snow away to one of 12 city-owned lots, or to one of 16 chutes connected to a water-
treatment unit, where salt, dirt and other impurities are removed.

The end result? Fresh water.

Unlike Boston's 118-year-old subway system — America's oldest — Montreal's is only 49 years old and, as far as Lacavallee can remember, has shut down only once — in 1972.

Bonnie McGilpin, a spokeswoman for Boston Mayor Martin J. Walsh, said the mayor's Office of New Urban Mechanics has reached out to companies and professors from local universities, searching for innovative ways to deal with the record snow.

"One thing to keep in mind about Montreal," McGilpin said, is that its snow removal budget is $153 million, or 3.2 percent of its total budget, whereas Boston's is $18.5 million, or 0.7 percent of total spending.

Boston's streets also are not wide enough to accommodate the kind of large snowblowers and dump trucks that make their way, side by side, down Montreal's roads, she said.

Boston's Public Works Department uses more than 600 pieces of equipment during the height of storms to clear the streets. The snow is then brought to as many as 10 snow farms throughout the city, McGilpin said.

Since the first winter storm at the end of January, McGilpin said, the department has removed nearly 22,000 truckloads of snow, plowed 287,743 miles of roadway, put down more than 76,152 tons of salt and plowed for 180,314 hours.

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Lenders easing requirements for mortgages

WASHINGTON — A closely watched index that tracks mortgage credit availability — lender requirements on credit scores, down payments and other key loan terms — has some good news for potential homebuyers: Things are finally loosening up.

After years of progressively tighter rules on borrower eligibility in the wake of the housing bust, banks and mortgage companies have begun modestly easing their requirements and even expanding the types of mortgages they offer. The Mortgage Bankers Association's latest credit availability index reported improvements in all four of its loan categories during January. The improvements mainly reflect positive lender responses to government efforts to ease regulations and improve affordability in the housing market — all of which means an improved environment for mortgage shoppers.

Among the initiatives: Giant investor Fannie Mae's allowing of purchases of conventional mortgages with as little as 3 percent down. Freddie Mac, another major investor, is planning to begin similar 3 percent down loan purchases for mortgages closed on or after March 23. According to Mike Fratantoni, chief economist for the mortgage banker's group, "roughly 40 percent of investors" already have begun offering the Fannie 3 percent down program. The guidelines for the Freddie Mac program are in lenders' hands and there's likely to be a strong rollout for it.

Also contributing to better affordability: the Federal Housing Administration's reduction late last month of its costly upfront mortgage insurance premiums, a move that could expand eligibility for home purchases to thousands of buyers, according to industry estimates. Virtually all lenders who work with the FHA program began offering the lower mortgage insurance premiums when the reduction took effect in late January. FHA insures loans with down payments as low as 3.5 percent.

Brad Blackwell, executive vice president of Wells Fargo Home Mortgage, the country's largest-volume mortgage originator, is certain about what's underway in the market: "Things are looking better for homebuyers and refinancers" ­— not only in terms of underwriting requirements, but in the cost of credit as well.

Wells Fargo has been "gradually opening up the credit box," Blackwell told me in an interview, in part because of helpful policy clarifications and changes at Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac. Those changes give lenders greater confidence in lending to a broader spectrum of borrowers, including those who don't have high credit scores and ready cash for big down payments. For example, he said, though the bank previously had a credit score minimum — 660 FICO on conventional loan applications — now it requires no hard and fast minimum. Instead, if Fannie Mae's and Freddie Mac's automated underwriting systems accept the application — say you've got a relatively low credit score, but strong compensating factors such as solid income, ample reserves and a large-enough down payment — the bank won't say no to you solely because of the low score. This could be especially important to people who had tough economic experiences during the recession that damaged their credit, but who are now excellent candidates for a loan. On FHA applications, the bank will now accept FICO scores as low as 600, down from its previous 640 standard.

Wells Fargo also has relaxed its policy on gifts to borrowers by relatives and friends to defray part of the down payment and closing costs. On conventional loans with 5 percent or lower down payments, Wells Fargo previously required borrowers to contribute at least 5 percent of the total costs from their own financial resources. Now that's been cut to 3 percent, which allows for more generous gift assistance.

Some major real estate firms confirm that they are seeing the first signs of credit easing by mortgage lenders, but that most potential first time and move-up borrowers are not yet aware of the changes.

Bottom line: If you've been stuck on the home buying sidelines, check out what's going on. Talk to lenders and mortgage brokers. Who knows? Maybe the opening of the credit box, even if it's just a crack, might be enough to help you buy a house at today's near-historic low rates.

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AP-GfK Poll: Most back Obama plan to raise investment taxes

WASHINGTON — The rich aren't taxed enough and the middle class is taxed too much. As for your taxes, you probably think they're too high as well.

Those are the results of an Associated Press-GfK poll that found that most people in the United States support President Barack Obama's proposal to raise investment taxes on high-income families.

The findings echo the populist messages of two liberal senators — Elizabeth Warren of Massachusetts and Bernie Sanders of Vermont — being courted by the progressive wing of the Democratic Party to run for president in 2016. The results also add weight to Obama's new push to raise taxes on the rich and use some of the revenue to lower taxes on the middle class.

Obama calls his approach "middle-class economics."

It's not flying with Republicans in Congress, who oppose higher taxes.

But Bob Montgomery of Martinsville, Virginia, said people with higher incomes should pay more.

"I think the more you make the more taxes you should pay," said Montgomery, who is retired after working 40 years at an auto dealership. "I can't see where a man makes $50,000 a year pays as much taxes as somebody that makes $300,000 a year."

According to the poll, 68 percent of those questioned said wealthy households pay too little in federal taxes; only 11 percent said the wealthy pay too much.

Also, 60 percent said middle-class households pay too much in federal taxes, while 7 percent said they paid too little.

Obama laid out a series of tax proposals as part of his 2016 budget released this month. Few are likely to win approval in the Republican-controlled Congress. But if fellow Democrats were to embrace his ideas, they could play a role in the 2016 race.

One proposal would increase capital gains taxes on households making more than $500,000. In the survey, 56 percent favored the proposal, while only 16 percent opposed it.

Democrats, at 71 percent, were the most likely to support raising taxes on capital gains. Among Republicans and independents, 46 percent supported it.

Obama's other tax plans didn't fare as well.

About 27 percent said they favored making estates pay capital gains taxes on assets when they are inherited, and 36 percent opposed it.

Just 19 percent said they supported the president's aborted plan to scale back the tax benefits of popular college savings plans, 529 accounts, named after a section in federal tax law. Obama withdrew the proposal after Republicans and some Democrats in Congress opposed it.

"I think that's a poor idea," said Jamie Starr of suburban Atlanta. "Being that I'm a mother of five children, that is a wonderful program."

"That's kids trying to make their own away in this world without having student loans," she said.

Obama's proposal to levy a new tax on banks was supported by 47 percent of those surveyed. Only 13 percent opposed it, while 36 percent were undecided.

It's tax season, that time of the year when people are confronted by their obligations to the government. The poll found that 56 percent of us think our own federal taxes are too high, and 4 percent said they pay too little.

If taxes are increased, a slight majority said the additional money should help pay down the national debt. Using the money to cut other taxes or fund government programs were less popular options.

Republicans, in general, are more likely than Democrats to oppose higher taxes, except when it comes to low-income families.

Only 19 percent of respondents said low-income families pay too little in federal taxes, but there was a significant split between the political parties. Just 10 percent of Democrats said low-income families pay too little, while 33 percent of Republicans said they don't pay enough.

According to the nonpartisan Congressional Budget Office, the poorest 20 percent of households paid less than 1 percent of all federal taxes in 2011, the latest year for data. The top 10 percent paid more than half of all federal taxes.

That's OK, said Sen. Sanders, an independent from Vermont, because wealthy people have seen their incomes soar while the rest of the country's wages have been much more flat.

"Most people understand that at a time when the rich are becoming much richer, the middle class is continuing to disappear," Sanders said. "And people also understand that the very wealthy and large corporations are able to take advantage of huge loopholes, which enable them not to pay their fair share of taxes."

Obama has been pushing to raise taxes on the rich since his first campaign for president in 2008. He has had some success. In January 2013, Obama persuaded Republicans in Congress to let income tax rates go up for families making more than $450,000 a year. It was part of a deal that made permanent a large package of tax cuts first enacted under Republican President George W. Bush.

Some liberals are looking for a candidate to push for higher taxes on the rich in the 2016 race. Sanders and Democrat Warren would fit the profile, though Warren says she is not running for president and Sanders says he has not made up his mind.

Among Democrats, Hillary Rodham Clinton is seen as the front-runner for the nomination; she has yet to make her candidacy official.

Clinton hasn't offered specifics on how she would approach taxes as a candidate. But she offered a glimpse of her views following Obama's State of the Union Address in January, when she tweeted that Obama "pointed way to an economy that works for all. Now we need to step up & deliver for the middle class. #FairShot #FairShare."

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The AP-GfK Poll of 1,045 adults was conducted online Jan. 29-Feb. 2, using a sample drawn from GfK's probability-based KnowledgePanel, which is designed to be representative of the U.S. population. The margin of sampling error for all respondents is plus or minus 3.5 percentage points.

Respondents were first selected randomly using phone or mail survey methods, and later interviewed online. People selected for KnowledgePanel who didn't otherwise have access to the Internet were provided access at no cost to them.

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Online:

AP-GfK Poll: http://www.ap-gfkpoll.com

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Follow Stephen Ohlemacher on Twitter: http://twitter.com/stephenatap

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Paul Thomas Anderson trashes American Airlines at Spirit Awards

Paul Thomas Anderson couldn't help but take a dig at the Film Independent Spirit Awards' corporate sponsor American Airlines on Saturday.

"Don't fly American Airlines, man," Anderson said while accepting the prize for the pre-determined Robert Altman Award for "Inherent Vice." "They will f--ing lose your luggage."

"It happened to me; seriously," he added before walking off the stage as "Inherent Vice" casting director Cassandra Kulukundis laughed in discomfort.

Earlier in the ceremony, award presenters Zach Galifianakis and Kristen Wiig poked fun at the awards show's extensive list of sponsors, including Piaget, The Lincoln Motor Company, Bank of America, Heineken and IFC.

© 2015 Variety Media, LLC, a subsidiary of Penske Business Media; Distributed by Tribune Content Agency, LLC

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