Resources

OUR HISTORY:
AN EXTRAORDINARY COLLABORATION

About Gibson Sotheby's International Realty

Gibson Sotheby's International Realty is Boston's largest independent real estate company. Founded in 1962 by Betty Gibson in Boston's South End, the company has grown to eight offices. The international network of more than 580 offices in 42 countries and territories, and the relationship with Sotheby's auction house, as well as comprehensive online and print advertising in high profile venues, provides remarkable exposure for each of our homes. The success led to our firm being the top-ranked Boston firm in the state (source: MLS).

About Sotheby's

Sotheby's auction house was founded in 1744 and has sold the world's most valuable possessions from treasured antiquities to fine art pieces. In 1976, the Sotheby's International Realty® network was founded and designed to connect the finest independent real estate companies to the most prestigious clientele in the world and to provide independent brokerages with a powerful marketing and referral program for luxury listings.

Sotheby's Clients Include:

71 of the Forbes' 100 World's Richest People
253 of the Forbes' 400 Richest Americans
78 of the Forbes' 100 Richest Americans
All 12 of the Forbes' Top 12 Billionaire Art Collectors
60 of the Worth Magazine's Benefactor 100
12 of the Fortune's "40 under 40"
199 of the Art News' Top 200 collectors

Sotheby's Demographic

Average household income: $474,000
Average value of real estate: $10.5 million
Average number of residences: 55% own 2+
33% redecorate their home at least every 3 years.
58% have used the services of an interior designer.
49% are in the market for new technology.
62% retain the services of a private banker.
76% spend $5000+ per person on an international leisure trip.
50% have more than half their portfolio actively managed by a financial consultant.

Photos, top to bottom:
Our Tremont Street office,
Sotheby's auction
in May 2007
of recordsetting
Rothko painting,
an auction bidder,
the auction house
at New Bond Street, London.

Combine this industry knowledge with our passion for this city's neighborhoods and the results are clear: we have a highly educated and knowledgeable team of real estate agents strategically placed throughout the Boston area.

OUR PLAN TO MARKET

Below is a summary of activities that we will undertake with our in-house Marketing Department to market your home:

Create a Special Features Profile of the property and make any suggestions to help better market the property.
Have mortgage companies provide Financial Information Sheets on the property.
Establish a private showing schedule that is convenient for you.
Marketing Department will tour the property, take digital photos and/or virtual tours for use in marketing materials.
Marketing Department will design individualized showsheet with photographs and information about the property.
Inform all Gibson Sotheby's International Realty sales associates of the new listing and organize a tour of the property following the weekly sales meeting.
Place the property in LINK (Listing Information Network) and MLS (Multiple Listing Service), exposing your home to sales agents throughout the Greater Boston area.
Feature property on top lead generating real estate websites including, but not limited to, gibsonsothebysrealty.com, sothebysrealty.com, realtor.com, boston.com, wallstreetjournal.com, newyorktimes.com, iht.com, trulia.com, zillow.com and more.
Place FOR SALE signage in front of your property, if desired.
Post property ads on display in appropriate office windows.
Schedule a public Open House, held on a Sunday afternoon, if you desire.
Schedule a Broker Open House with lunch, as required.
Place your home in select printed publications.
Promote property information and price changes through the real estate brokerage community via LINK, MLS and/ or broadcast fax and mass emails.
Send INTRODUCING cards to neighbors and/or other potential buyers, if appropriate.
Follow-up showings for feedback, recommend action based upon consistent remarks, rectify issues where practical.
Review activity weekly with seller by phone, fax or email, including competing listings new to the market and those just sold.
Recommend new sales strategies as necessary.

Our Team

With over 160 agents in eight offices across the city, we are proud of our track record and our top-ranking offices in Boston's neighborhoods. Our northeast affiliates include
36 offices in Maine, Massachusetts, New Hampshire and Rhode Island. In 2009, we all faced the challenges posed by our difficult economic conditions and conquered them.

Here are a few of our success stories:

Represented approximately 2500 transactions,
averaging more than 7 per day!
Sold over $1 billion in total dollar volume.
Sold the most expensive home in Massachusetts for
over $9 million.
(All statistics from MLS, from January 1-November)

Gibson Sotheby's International Realty® has created a comprehensive educational package for our agents. Our specially designed seminars cover the latest industry standards and technological advancements led by our
General Manager, Sales Director and a select group of keynote speakers. Our training and professional development programs supplement statutory and regulatory requirements for real estate brokers and
salespersons.

We are also members of the National Association of REALTORS®, which strives to be the collective force influencing and shaping the real estate industry. Working on behalf of America's property owners, this organization provides a facility for professional development, research and exchange of information among its members and to the public and government. The association has at its core a Code of Ethics, a set of essential values that guide REALTORS through every transaction. Founded in 1908, the National Association of REALTORS® now has over 1,000,000 members.

556 Tremont St Boston's South End 617.426.6900	597A Tremont St Boston's South End 617.426.6901	271 Dartmouth St Boston's Back Bay 617.375.6900	220 Commercial St Boston's Waterfront 617.725.1981
One Thompson Sq Charlestown 617.242.4222	119 Savin Hill Ave Savin Hill 617.825.0800	378 Washington St Westwood 781.329.8008	544 Boston Post Road Weston 781.899.1650

REGIONAL & INTERNATIONAL NETWORK

The Sotheby's International Realty affiliation is not just international. There are 37 Sotheby's International Realty offices in Maine, Massachusetts, New Hampshire and Rhode Island. We work closely with
each member of our network to garner the best possible exposure for our properties. There is a vital relocation and second home market between the city, the suburbs and the islands.

Internationally, there are more than 9,500 sales associates in over 580 Sotheby's International Realty offices in 42 countries and territories. With international cities, like Boston, people are likely to move here from other countries. In fact, Boston is the 8th busiest city in the country for relocation.

In addition to the realty offices, Sotheby's has a host of auction houses. There are auction houses in North America, Europe, Asia, the Middle East and Australia. At each location there is a real estate desk with property brochures and a referral
specialist.

MARKETING STRATEGY

According to the National Association of REALTORS®, nearly 90% of people looking for homes now use the internet in their search, while print media usage has declined to 41%. It is critical to have property data on the industry's leading web sites to reach that audience as they begin their search. In addition to our gibsonsothebysrealty.com and the sothebysrealty. com site (one of the world's most visited online destinations for high-quality real estate), we will list your property on more than 40 proven websites. We enhance our interactive marketing with the exclusive EGallery system to highlight our global selection of upper tier properties on flat screen wall and window displays in our offices and auction houses.

The leads generated from this comprehensive datafeed are sent to our agents through LeadRouter. This program converts online leads to cell phone calls so that our buyers are sure to reach an agent quickly; no matter where they are.

ONLINE MARKETING

Here are descriptions for a few of the more than 40 sites:

Boston.com estimates more than 3 million unique users per month.
Realtor.com reports more than 5.7 million visits per month and is the #1 feed of data for a dozen other popular online sites, including AOL and MSN.
NewYorkTimes.com is proclaimed to be the best address in real estate and logs over 27 million page views per year.
WSJ.com (Wall Street Journal) is an award-winning website receiving over 2 million page views per month.
IHT.com (International Herald Tribune) draws 5.1 million unique users per month worldwide.
Trulia.com is the fastest growing real estate website in the US with nearly 3 million monthly visitors and growing.
Zillow.com is on online property search site that offers property value estimates amongst other tools. 5.2 million unique users visited ZiIlow in May of 2008. This is a 23% increase year-over-year.

PARTNERSHIP

"The Business of Extraordinary Living"

The Sotheby's International Realty brand has recently created a unique, private partnership with The Wall Street Journal with the introduction of The Business of Extraordinary Living microsite. The microsite positions our brand front and center to more than 40 million visitors of The Wall Street Journal's digital network each month. And with an 89% increase of international traffic to their website, our relationship with WSJ provides yet another matchless opportunity to market your home globally.

Delivering a highly loyal and engaged global audience of influencers

Our partnership with The New York Times provides the ability to develop custom and dominant opportunities to create brand awareness and drive qualified leads to the listings represented by our network. This strategic partnership represents several unprecedented and exclusive online opportunities position the homes our network represents front and center to an audience of nearly 30 million monthly unique users worldwide.

SOTHEBYSREALTY.COM

The Sotheby's International Realty® web site provides spectacular exposure for your property with approximately 3.5 million page views. Our exclusive association with the auction house includes a direct link from the Sotheby's homepage to our web site ? generating more qualified interest in your property listing.

The features of SothebysRealty.com include:

Enhanced property photography up to 20 full-screen photos powering a distinctive property slideshow.
Search by lifestyle because your home is more than the number of bedrooms and bathrooms.
Unique Amenities highlight what makes your home different and unique.
Guided search and navigation best of breed search technology guides the consumers to your home via type ahead search, guided navigation techniques and property postcard viewing.
Microsoft's Virtual Earth Mapping map your property and relevant amenities and points of interest close to your home using satellite and "bird's eye" technology.
Worldwide property inventory we receive significant international traffic because SothebysRealty.com houses all our international properties, offices and sales associates.
Currency conversion international buyers can view and search for your property in their own currency.
Language translation launched in 2008, our Language Translation project will enable consumers to view SothebysRealty.com in multiple languages including French, Spanish, Italian, Japanese, Chinese, Cyrillic (Russian) and German.

MOBILE SOLUTIONS

60% of today's
buyers were born
after 1964
(i.e. are members of
Gen X & Gen Y)
Source: Inman News, 02/16/2010,
Gen X, Gen Y buyers rule market

As the profile of the average homebuyer changes, Gibson Sotheby's International Realty finds exciting new ways to reach them. Our most recent addition is Kwkly with three different mobile solutions that provide instant information for the buyer on-the-go. Get instant information to your cell phone anytime you pass by a for sale sign.

For text-to-MLS access, the user texts the word "Gibson" to 59559. They are then prompted to give an address of a property that is for sale. The MLS info will be texted back to them in a matter of seconds.
They also receive a link to Kwkly's GPS search service. If their cell phone has GPS abilities (as in Google Maps), they will be able to find the five nearest properties that are for sale and comparable recent sales.
Lastly, iTunes App Store has two applications MA Homes and Boston Homes that users may download for use on their iPhone.

LOCAL AND REGIONAL ADVERTISING

INTERNATIONAL ADVERTISING

Even though the internet is surging in its performance, there is still some power in print media. Our Marketing Department utilizes advertising in several local print venues in order to compliment our internet presence. These print venues include Boston Magazine, New England Home, Boston Homes, The Boston Globe, The South End News, The Boston Courant, South Boston Tribune, Hometown Weekly and Dorchester Reporter. Our approach is to generate leads by displaying properties that represent a variety of styles and price points. We also place ads in other local print media based on the needs of a specific property. Other venues include the Boston Herald, the Airport Journal, Community Newspapers (includes 103 statewide publications), Jamaica Plain Gazette, Mission Hill Gazette, Patriot Ledger, Bay Windows and more.

More than 60 opportunities to reach an international audience

The Sotheby's International Realty co-op advertising program was developed to help associates market their listings to an international audience. This program provides us with the opportunity to expand the exposure of your property by advertising it in Sotheby's at Auction, Sotheby's International Realty's RESIDE, The Wall Street Journal, The Robb Report, International Herald Tribune and other highly targeted publications. Sotheby's International Realty Affiliates Inc. is subsidizing the program by paying 40% of the cost for The Wall Street Journal and New York Times Sunday Magazine and 25% for all other publications.

RESIDE - Circulation of 135,000 distributed to members of Sotheby's auction house, as well as subscribers of Architectural Digest, Gourmet, Condé Nast Traveler, Western Interiors and Design and more.
Sotheby's at Auction - Distributed to the 80,000 members of Sotheby's auction house with a median income of $474,000.
International Herald Tribune - Distributed to 240,000+ with a median income of $286,743.
Wall Street Journal - Circulation of 1,889,146 with a median income of $241,662.
Robb Report - Distributed to 200,000+ with a median income of $1,375,000.

LOCAL OUTREACH

Brokerage Community
A critical part of market outreach is making connections within the real estate community. This is a proven way to expose your property to the greatest number of buyers. There are several ways that this can be done:

Brokers Open Houses are typically held during the week and provide an opportunity for other agencies to view the property.
Mass faxes or emails are an excellent tool to announce new or reduced-price listings to our colleagues.
Sales meetings allow us to get in front of our peers to describe the property and to entice them to show it to clients. This enhances the power of our services to you by employing the skills and exposure of our entire sales force.
Caravans or group tours allow us to bring our colleagues through the home to provide feedback on pricing, staging and other important considerations. This also gives agents first hand knowledge of your home.
Multiple Listing Service (MLS) and LINK are fabulous tools that allows the entire real estate industry to share listing information, pictures, virtual tours and updates.

WORLDWIDE DISTRIBUTION

A unique home deserves special attention.

The new Worldwide Property Brochure Distribution Program allows you to share your property brochures with each office in the Sotheby's International Realty® network ? totaling more than 480 locations. For properties listed at a price of $1,500,000 or more, your associate is given an option to select Worldwide Property Brochure distribution. One copy of the brochure will be inserted into a custom envelope and mailed via first class mail to each of the addresses on the current distribution lists. This program exposes your property to potential homebuyers who seek properties of distinctive character. Your property brochure can also be displayed at Sotheby's auction houses and sales rooms in New York, London and other worldwide locations. These are among the world's most popular places to see and experience exceptional art, jewelry and collectibles. Only your Sotheby's International Realty® associate can offer such exclusive access to so many of the world's most qualified buyers.

E GALLERY

Offices Around
the World
Auction House
Locations

Sotheby's International Realty eGallery program utilizes flat screen televisions in each of our real estate offices and auction house locations. eGallery is a customizable property slide show capable of displaying properties from each company on large screen displays in Sotheby's International Realty® offices and Sotheby's Auction House locations around the world.

As part of our affiliation, our top-tier listings are displayed in the auction houses and realty offices from Boston to Tokyo.

MARKETING RESEARCH

Inviting. Discreet. Savvy. Refined.

A strong brand delivers a promise that meets the real needs or desires of its constituents at every point of contact. The Sotheby's International Realty® brand strategy establishes the basis for this.

We strive to deliver our brand promise at every point of contact with our constituents, whether someone interacts with the Sotheby's International Realty brand as a buyer, seller, affiliate or investor by phone, through an agent or online.

But fundamentally, our brand promise begins with ourselves and the promise we intend to keep to the home buyers and sellers who give the affiliate network a reason to exist. It is critical that each of us understand the nature of our brand promise and how our individual performances deliver that promise.

RELOCATION SERVICES

Another city.
Another state.
Another part of the world.

Gibson Sotheby's International Realty has assembled the most experienced, well-respected and highly credentialed relocation staff of any real estate company in Boston, and this team stands ready to assist you locally, nationally and internationally.

In addition to providing a full portfolio of relocation services, we have established relationships with major corporations and real estate companies in Boston, New England and around the world. Our membership in the Sotheby's International Realty network provides exclusive opportunities to work with clients and vendors referred by our fellow Sotheby's affiliates. These relationships create a strong stream of business and represent multiple sources of potential buyers for properties listed with Gibson Sotheby's International Realty.

Our relocation services include:
Relocation Guides
Home Marketing Assistance
Home Finding Assistance
Mortgage Pre-Approval Assistance
Temporary Living Coordination
Move Management Service Assistance
Group Move Management
Rental Assistance
Candidate/Community Area Tours

MOVING SERVICES

Gibson Sotheby's International Realty®, in the tradition of Sotheby's white glove service, now assists in offering you a portfolio of moving services that helps to alleviate the stress of relocating your home and your belongings. As an international firm assisting with thousands of moves every year, we have the experience and ability to offer move coordination services through our relationships with reputable service providers from around the globe. We have created a network of the highest quality packing and moving companies, storage facilities and transportation providers. Because of our international network of agencies, we are able to provide corporate level service to all of our clientele.

Whether your move is across town or to the other side of the world, Gibson Sotheby's International Realty® brings a 260 year reputation for high quality service to your next relocation. We are your relocation experts.

Featured services include:

Complimentary price estimates
Licensed and insured moving companies who have passed our extensive screening process
Companies experienced with local, national and international moves
Moving coordination guidance
Competitive pricing
Enhanced insurance protection
Complete storage, auto transportation, professional packing and crating
services.

MARKET PRICE

Our mutual objective
is to achieve the
highest selling price
for your property.

In preparing a Competitive Market Analysis, our agents call upon their professional experience, knowledge of the inventory and in-depth analysis of current market conditions. In addition, agents routinely tour available properties as they come onto the market. This provides them with a first hand experience that is similar to that of buyers seeking a new home.

Market data, both historic and present, can be gathered from several services, including MLS, LINK and tax records. An experienced agent can cull through the pertinent data to create a concise landscape of the competition.

The agent then advises the homeowner with a pricing strategy, as well as a specific price or price range that are consistent with the actual market data. Part of that advisement is to explain the market conditions that impact pricing and how buyer demand will determine the actual market price.

SALE OF YOUR PROPERTY

Your property will need to be uniquely
positioned to create
maximum interest and
help produce the
highest possible
financial return.

Although the listing price you place on your property will influence its sale, there are many other factors that come into place. Some of these factors are within your control, others are not. Examples include:

Factors not within your control:

Your property's location
Recent property market values
Current economic conditions.

Factors within your control:

Your property's distinctive and compelling attributes
The physical condition of your property (home and grounds)
The market price and preferred terms
The ready access to your property for showing
The selection of the real estate sales professional you choose to represent you

Morrissey, Wilson & Zafiropoulos, LLP

35 Braintree Hill Office Park
Suite 404
Braintree, Massachusetts 02184

Tel: 781.353.5500 x505
Fax: 781.356.5546
Email: mhz@mwzllp.com
Website: www.mwzllp.com

BOSTON REAL ESTATE ATTORNEY

Mr. Zafiropoulos has represented clients in a broad range of real estate transactions and offers a full range of services related to the acquisition, disposition, land use and development, leasing, and financing of residential and commercial property. His representations include work relating to commercial and residential real estate development, permitting, negotiating loan documents, drafting condominium documents, negotiating lease and purchase and sale agreements, counseling condominium associations, conveyancing and preparation of zoning opinions. Mr. Zafiropoulos has also represented clients in the acquisition and disposition of closely held businesses, as well as doctors relative to the acquisition, disposition and merger of dental and medical practices.

Mortgage Calculator

Today's Mortgage Rates