Lynn O'Connell

Before joining Leading Edge Real Estate in December 2019, Lynn was a top tier agent on the Baker Realty Group at Keller Williams and at Gibson Sotheby’s International Realty in Boston.
Her prior career in broadcast sales and sales management helped to develop Lynn’s strong statistical analysis skills and provided her with excellent sales and negotiation training. The Strategic Selling program favored by many Fortune 500 companies whose salespeople are required to successfully manage and negotiate complex sales made an impact upon Lynn. The basic premise is to identify everything that needs to happen to get to a sale and to take care of that task on a timely basis and to your best ability. Additionally, every potential obstacle to the sale must be identified and eliminated before the sale is derailed by the obstacle. A simple, pro-active concept of thinking about your business and leaving nothing to chance.
Following this plan helped Lynn hit the ground running when she transitioned to a full-time real estate sales career. The transition was inevitable. Lynn was always enthusiastic about anything and everything to do with real estate. In 1992, she became a real estate investor, purchasing a large mixed-use property and completing her very first 1031 transaction. She is interested in architecture and has been described as a “serial renovator.” Lynn built an office building and a horse farm from the ground up. She has done over 100,000 sf of property renovations, always using her own design plans. Lynn parlayed a love of design and knack for decorating into home staging, which helps her seller clients get higher prices. She has a passion for client service, providing white glove service to buyers, sellers, and investors in the greater Boston area.
Lynn’s average list to sale price ratio is 110%. She is comfortable with research and number crunching, so she knows how to price a home. Every aspect of the sale is considered. Lynn has gotten seller’s homes credit for previously uncredited square footage and had homes re-assessed to reduce the property taxes before listing to improve marketability. Every house is presented in the best way possible. Sellers are informed that we can sell “as is” but “refreshed” homes get the highest price and it does not have to be expensive. Lynn helps her sellers evaluate some work options and weigh the pros and cons of doing any work. Based on the seller’s budget and appetite for work, Lynn can help the seller declutter, inspect, perform minor repairs, and stage their property. Lynn does some staging with her own decoration inventory at no cost to the client. If a full staging is needed, the seller will have to rent some furniture. Lynn plans the staging (using as few rented pieces as possible) and supplements with her own inventory, saving the seller the staging consult fee and the cost of renting many decorative items.
Lynn enjoys the process of matching buyers with the property of their dreams. If home buyers come from other areas, Lynn shows them properties in several towns, educating them on each town they are considering, the school system, restaurants, shops, commuting options and tax rates.
When working with real estate investors, Lynn can draw on her own past and present experience for the higher level of due diligence required when considering an investment property. As an investor, Lynn had to calculate the projected rental income, consider the expenses, calculate return on investment and project the future real estate values of her own investment properties. This is an uncommon level of experience that gives Lynn credibility with her investor clientele. Many investment properties are purchased sight unseen, the ultimate sign of trust between buyer and buyer’s agent. As you might expect, Lynn has helped her investor clients renovate and decorate their properties to obtain the maximum rents. If the investor is also doing a 1031 “like kind” exchange they are happy to have Lynn on their side. 1031’s are time sensitive transactions that must be done exactly right, or the buyer will wind up paying the capital gains they are trying to defer. Many agents have never done a 1031 exchange transaction. Lynn has done ten of her own exchanges (including a reverse exchange) and another six 1031 transactions with investor clients.
Lynn’s level of strategic thinking benefits her residential home buyer clients too. We know that a home purchase is the largest single investment that most individuals make in their lifetime, and no one stays in a property forever. Logically therefore, all real estate purchases should consider the buyer’s future plan to escape and the property future re-sale value. Lynn is tireless in her quest to find the perfect property for every type of buyer. Once found, she provides the comp analysis, competitive landscape, buying strategies and negotiates the sale for the buyer. Her clients often comment that it is clear how much Lynn loves her work.