69 Keene Place, Unionville

69 Keene

First time on the market! Here is a great opportunity to own a classic farmhouse in a quiet cul-de-sac location, yet so close to the amenities of Unionville Center and the Farmington rail-to-trail.

Set on well over an acre, the level lot offers mature trees, fruit trees, plenty of usable yard, a 3-bay barn/garage with attached chicken coop, and separate detached shed.

The charming farmhouse is waiting for its new owner to bring their finishing touches. A large, enclosed front porch is a lovely space for enjoying your serene setting. Inside, nicely sized living and dining rooms with hardwood floors lead to a kitchen with eat-in space. A powder room and additional enclosed porch complete the first floor.

Upstairs, there are three bedrooms and a full bathroom. The rear bedroom has access to a walk-up attic, perfect for additional storage space.

The home offers a newer roof, newer oil boiler and oil tank, replacement windows, and public water and sewer.

69 Keene Place has 3 bedrooms, 1.1 baths, 1,566 sqft, and is offered for $235,000. If you’d like to see this home, please have your agent arrange a showing, or call Amy at 860-655-2125 to schedule a visit. More details and a photo tour are available.

Including Commute Time in the Home Search

Connecticut realtors recently upgraded the software we use to access our MLS database. The primary improvement was a modernization of the site that our clients use to browse property matches. There were some behind-the-scenes changes that impact agents, but nothing particularly noteworthy.

While testing out the new system, I found the feature that searches by “Drive Time.” It allows us to create a search to find properties within a certain commuting distance. Specifically, I set the destination, the arrival time, and the drive time, and the system creates a shape that includes all the places that I could leave from considering typical traffic at that time of the day.

For example, here is the shape it creates when I tell it I want to have a 15 minute commute and arrive at the intersection of Main and Pearl in Downtown Hartford by 8:30 AM.

15 Min at 830

Along the Interstate 84 corridor you’re okay from the Park Road exit in West Hartford all the way out to the 384 interchange in Manchester. The 291 interchange is the northern-most limit, and the Route 3 interchange is the southern-most limit. The shape is definitely organized around highway access, as the northwest quadrant of the map shows a surprisingly short distance is within 15 minutes along Albany Avenue (Route 44).

What if we choose an arrival time that is outside of rush hour, say 2:00 PM? Driving in the early afternoon allows much more of the region to reach Downtown Hartford within 15 minutes.

15 Min at 1400

I’m still skeptical of the non-highway routes. I regularly drive Downtown from the Albany Avenue area and think that the map understates how many homes are within 15 minutes, especially during non-rush hour times.

Despite my one concern, the Drive Time feature is an interesting tool to be able to use when defining search criteria for buyers. Commute time is important when considering where to live, and this gives us a way to estimate distances that correspond to times.

26 Laurel Lane, Marlborough

26 Laurel

If you’re looking for a home with an open floor plan and most of the hard work done, this is the one for you.

A fully remodeled kitchen with new cabinetry, quartz counters, tile backsplash, stainless steel appliances and eat-in space is the center of the home. It opens to the dining room area, which flows into the living room. The connected spaces are perfect for entertaining. There is also a separate den/office with plenty of built-in storage and a fireplace with wood burning insert. The first floor is completed with an updated powder room.

Upstairs, the master bedroom suite has two closets and an oversized full bathroom with soaking tub, tiled shower, and dual vanity. The laundry is also conveniently located in the master bathroom. There are three additional bedrooms and another full bathroom on the second floor. A large storage area over the garage is also accessed on this level.

The lower level has approximately 550 square feet of finished space (unheated) for a more casual living area, as well an unfinished portion for storage or a workshop.

Outside you’ll find a level, private yard with plenty of grass, as well as mature perennial beds and trees.

You’ll appreciate great finishing touches with hardwood floors, crown molding, wainscoting and six-panel doors. Central air conditioning, a 2-car attached garage, fantastic screened-in porch, and loads of storage space add to the appeal. Close to both Routes 2 and 66, this home is conveniently located and has so much to offer.

26 Laurel Lane has 4 bedrooms, 2.1 baths, 2,363 sqft, and is offered for $360,000. If you’d like to see this home, please have your agent arrange a showing, or call Amy at 860-655-2125 to schedule a visit. More details and a photo tour are available.

4 Goodwin Circle, Hartford’s West End

4 Goodwin

Come see this lovely Dalton end unit at the popular Goodwin Estate, located in the historic West End.

Inside, the first floor’s hardwood floors, open floorplan, and vaulted ceilings allow for plenty of natural light and flow. The kitchen has an abundance of custom cabinetry, along with granite counters, stainless steel appliances, and a breakfast nook flanked with windows. The living room and dining room open to each other and feature a gas fireplace and sliders to an elevated deck. The master bedroom suite has a walk-in closet and full bath with soaking tub, shower and double vanity. A powder room and laundry room complete the floor.

Upstairs, an open area is perfect for a reading or TV space. There are two nicely sized bedrooms, as well as a full bathroom.

This unit also has a rarely finished third floor space, ideal for an office or additional bedroom. There is a large unfinished area, with lots of room for storage.

The fully finished lower level provides casual living space and offers another full bathroom. The built-in media center with a refrigerator and microwave makes for easy entertaining. Walk out to a paver patio area and greenspace access. There are also two unfinished spaces for your storage needs.

The unit has a newer gas furnace and hot water heater, a 2-car attached garage, and maintenance free living at the exterior.

The community has an in-ground pool, nicely equipped fitness room, and well-appointed library with caterer’s kitchen for residents’ usage.

4 Goodwin Circle has 3 bedrooms, 3.1 baths, 3,447 sqft, and is offered for $495,000. If you’d like to see this home, please have your agent arrange a showing, or call Amy at 860-655-2125 to schedule a visit. More details and a photo tour are available.

Contracts: Data Unavailable

We have, unfortunately, suspended our monthly contracts series. We apologize for the inconvenience, and hope to restart it in the future.

If you’re interested in learning why we’ve had to suspend the series, then read on…

Our local MLS upgraded the software that agents use to access the MLS at the end of July. Although the new software is an improvement in a number of areas, it does not allow us to gather contract data in the same way as before.

The primary challenge is that the availability of database fields has been changing on a regular basis over the past month. The fields contain the correct data, but sometimes they are available to us, and other times they are not. The MLS tech team is fine-tuning the new system. There is one field in particular that we rely on for the Contracts search, which holds the date when each seller accepted an offer.

This particular field gets set when a property is moved to one of the many statuses in the database that signal the property is under contract. It is a required input for the listing agent.

Despite the field definitely having a value, the application agents use to access the database does not always show the value. And when the value is not visible, it is not searchable by the current application.

That the field is only visible in certain situations is actually not new, the same thing happened prior to the software upgrade. What is new, and what we’re struggling with, is that the previous versions would use the hidden field in collecting search results. We would search for the homes that went under contract during a month and some would show a contract date, while the others would not. This was fine since we didn’t care which specific date the home went under contract, just that it happened during the month.

What’s frustrating about the situation is that there is no reason to hide the data in this particular field. Agents can easily see when the property was moved to an “Under Contract” status in the listing itself. There is an entire display that shows the history of each property in the MLS. This is not sensitive information that needs to be protected. It’s already public, so it should be searchable.

We have formally requested that the MLS team make the contract field visible, and therefore searchable, to agents. Hopefully they will agree with our reasoning. If and when they do make the change, we will resume the monthly contracts posts. We find them useful for our work, and know that others are interested in the data too.

Thank you for your patience, and for your interest in a technical matter. We appreciate that you visit the site and follow along with the local real estate markets.