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I AM NOT A REALTOR but I grew up on the south shore and live in Milton. #3 on Urbandictionary.com best matches my view of the demographics of Sharon over the last 30 years. We consdiered moving to Sharon because of the schools, safety, nice upper middle class town but chose otherwise becuase we felt it was too far from Boston and had too much of a "townie" mentality which that website seems to echo. I can not comment on the drugs/sex issue there.

Milton is considered the most Irish town in America. Our family shares that ethnicity. In my daughter's public school class roughly 50% of the kids have Irish last (and several first) names. As for the other 50% there are some Asian some Black some Middle Eastern and the rest you can't tell but assume they are not Irish. As for Latino families I could not give you an estimate but feel safe to say you'd be in the minority. Milton is a town in transition, as the elderly mostly Irish majority passes away I think younger more diverse families are moving in. I think the town is accepting of outsiders as we did not grow up in this town. I think economics plays a bigger role than race in Milton. You're from Beverly and based on the towns you're considering I think economically you would fit in. Most of us are college educated and want that for our children. Milton has a French immersion program in all the elementary schools you can google and offers Spanish several times a week from grades 3 and up.

Controversy in town seems to center on the annual prop 2 1/2 tax overrides to fund the ALL brand newly built (opened last fall) to newly built (opened in the last 5 years) schools and lack of parking in E. Milton Square. Google Milton Times for the local newpaper.

Good luck. - Thu Mar 13 2008, 20:36

what do you mean by seller direct loan? - Thu Nov 29 2007, 19:57

Thanks again for your answers. Here's all the background and how the situation played out. We were driving through our town, saw a house w/ a for sale sign, looked it up on line and decided to go see it. We were not even thinking about moving but this house hit us. Saw the house by contacting the listing broker, found out the sellers had relocated, figured they were eager to sell. Told broker we wanted to make an offer and asked her to send us the offer form to review. After a fwe days doing some investigations, posted here, decided to make an offer 89% of asking price WITH contingency we sell our home and they can't take offers, but can continue to show the property, gave a 24 hours time to accept the offer. As I was meeting with the listing agent she mentioned the whole other offer was probably forthcoming, promptoing my post.

Here's what happened, we did give a best and final and they countered, which ticked us off because our gut told us we were being played. We did like the house and figured if we could get it at 93% listing it would still be a deal, so we made a final offer and requested an answer within two hours. We were informed the seller didn't like out contingency re: selling our home and we understood that and were perfectly clear we could not waive that contingency. After claims that the husband was inaccessible, we had been told he was travelling, and we're asked to wait until morning for a reply. We agreed. Well the morning came and went with no contact. When we called the listing broker we were told that the listing broker and the broker for the other offerors were both "frustrated" by the lack of response by the Sellers. When we heard that we realized we were in fact being used in this situation. We promptly notified he listing broker we were withdrawing our offer. When the broker returned our deposit check, there was a note that the Sellers "decided to accept the other offer becuase it had no sale of buyers property contingency.

MY take on what happened. The other offerors were fence sitters. We foolishly told the listing agent we wanted to make an offer and waited three or four days to do so giving her time to put the word out to all the other brokers in her office that ourr offer was forthcoming. The broker or sellers used us to increase the offer by the other offerors, knowing full well they would never accept our offer in light of our inability to waive our home sale contingency.

What I learned:

1. We were right to be suspicious, but for the wrong reason, the listing broker did not fabricate an offer but used us to drive up their offer which was probably lower than our first offer. ( The broker had lamented that our offer was kind of low obviously in a successful attempt to get us to move).

2. Trust your instincts, if the situation seems suspicious call the bluff rigt away. In retrospect we had many red flags that the situation was a charade 1st. when we were told another offer was probaly going to be submitted, we should have sat back and waited to see if the offer came through; 2d. when we were told that the Seller wanted an immediate response to his request for a best and final (which the broker said later to me "never really means best and final". Really? Well what does it mean? ) 3d. When the Seller asked for overnight, in these days of cell phones how long are you really inaccesible? 4th no response in the morning as promised.

What we should have done: Contracted with a BUYERs BROKER not associated with the listing broker's company and obtained the offer form from that broker. Submitted our offer at 9:00 am with a 6:00 pm response time. Submitted our offer directly to the seller or under a condition of confidentiality, meaning although the seller could accept simultaneous offers their broker could not let anyone else know we made an offer.

We knew the sale of our home contingency would be hard for the sellers to swallow and really it is something they would know immediately if they were willing to do. We did not want to waste our time negotating on something that was nonnegotiable to us. We feel we were used in this situation becuase the Sellers never seriously considered our offer but they or the listing broker used it to increase the offer by the other offerors. The listing broker had nothing to lose and everything to gain becuase either way she was finally going to get a commission from a house that stood on the market for more that 6 months. I sincerely hope the other offerors got it for less than our initial offer.

Thanks again.

Thanks again everyone. - Thu Nov 29 2007, 19:47

Sorry, I am a homeowner in the area and am thinking of selling. In my opinion you are a poor investment risk. You are essentially asking for seller backed financing. If your "ugly credit" is preventing a traditional lending institution from loaning you money for a mortgage, why would a regular joe like me want to risk renting to you? I don't mean to be rude, just honest. Good luck. - Fri Nov 23 2007, 18:28