Archive for the 'Closing' Category
Old Paint in the Basement
Most homes that I show to my buyers have a corner of the basement with cans of old paint. Amy and I probably have more than most in our own home, just in case we need to touch up any one of the rainbow of colors that adorn our walls. We also have a couple of cans containing colors that are no longer in use.
While homeowners may feel comfortable stockpiling reserves, they can become a problem during the sale of a home. Sellers are supposed to clean everything out of the property. Including the old paint. Buyers may ask for certain colors to be left, but sellers should assume that they need to dispose of it all.
Paint is considered a hazardous material, and should not be thrown into the trash. The MDC has a hazardous materials collection program that includes paint and other chemical waste. Check out their complete guide to the program. They list the items that they can accept in addition to those that they cannot.
Oil based paint can be collected by the MDC. Latex paint cannot, which is unfortunate since most household paints are now latex. Their guide suggests cracking the lids on the cans to let the paint dry out. For cans containing a meaningful amount of paint, they suggest using kitty litter to speed the drying process. Once everything is dry, we are allowed to throw the cans (with the lids off) in the regular garbage can.
Collections are held on Saturdays at different sites each week. This Saturday (June 6, 2009) they will be in Windsor from 8:00 to 1:00 at the Poquonock Water Pollution Control Facility. Next week they’ll be in Hartford at Fox Middle School, and the following week they’ll be in Wethersfield at the High School. After those three collections there is a break until August.
I don’t know anyone that enjoys dealing with their old paint. I know that I don’t. But I think it is important to dispose of paint, and other hazardous materials, properly to protect our environment. We’re fortunate to have a collection program in place, even if our opportunities to participate are limited to Saturday mornings. The program is open to residents of most towns in Greater Hartford (see the site for the complete list) and residents of the participating towns can visit any collection site.
Don’t miss your opportunity, especially if you’re considering selling your home.
$8,000 First Time Buyer Tax Credit Change
In keeping up with the latest news, there was been a significant change in one of the current Administration’s tax credit programs. Yesterday, the Secretary of HUD announced that FHA is going to permit its lenders to allow home buyers to use the $8,000 tax credit as a down payment when obtaining a government insured mortgage.
This is a change in the way that the program had been setup when it arrived as part of the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act of 2009. The law states that qualifying homebuyers may claim up to $8,000 (or $4,000 for married individuals filing separately) on either their 2008 or 2009 tax returns. Before this change, homebuyers would have to wait until they filed their 2008 or 2009 returns to receive the credit. Now, FHA consumers can access the homebuyer tax credit fund when they close on their home loan so that the cash can be used as a down payment.
The details on this are not scheduled for release until next week. We’ll have a more in-depth post on this next week, but wanted to get the information out there, as this can significantly impact the market for some buyers. Yay!
West Hartford Sales Contracts
Real estate activity in West Hartford feels like it has really picked up over the past few weeks. Agents are buzzing around like busy bees, and houses are going under contract. We’re seeing some homes sell very quickly after they are offered for sale, and we’re seeing multiple buyers compete for properties. There is clearly still broad interest in living in West Hartford.
I was curious to see if the data supported our “feel” for the market, so I decided to try to look at the number of homes that went under contract in the town of West Hartford since the beginning of the year. My initial plan was to plot the number of contracts written on a week-by-week basis and then compare that to last year. Unfortunately, I was foiled by the MLS data source. We are only allowed to see the date on which a property went under contract after the listing agent moves it to “Deposit” status.
Properties flow through five standard categories in the MLS during the sales process. They go from “New” to “Active” to “Show” to “Deposit” to “Closed.” The “New” status helps flag new inventory for agents and lasts for a maximum of 7 days before a property is automatically moved to “Active.” Homes that are considered “for sale” are in either “New” or “Active” status. Once an offer has been accepted, the listing agent sets the status to “Show,” which means that buyer’s agents can still show the home to other potential buyers just in case the current deal falls apart. Since most deals stay together, we don’t typically show properties in “Show” status. There are no formal rules about when a property moves to “Deposit” status, but most agents wait until the mortgage commitment contingency has been satisfied.
Which brings me back to my data problem. Most of the recent contracts have not achieved “Deposit” status, so I’m not allowed to see the date on which it went under contract. All I can see is that of the 176 contracts that have been accepted so far in West Hartford in 2009, that 52 have closed already, 53 have reached Deposit status, and the remaining 71 are in Show status. Circumstantial evidence that there has been a flurry of deals, but nothing concrete.
The research got me thinking about the number of contracts written each month versus the number of closings during that month. Agents do a lot of work in the spring, but the results don’t show up until later when the closings actually happen. And West Hartford in particular seems like a town where people like to close during school summer vacation. Below is the number of contracts written versus the number of closings for each month in 2008.
From January through May, the number of contracts exceeded the number of closings by a considerable margin. In June, the number of closings nearly doubles, setting the stage for more closings than contracts through September. Contracts written has a final hurrah in November, followed by a spike in December closings.
The real estate market is busiest when buyers and sellers are agreeing to contracts. That’s when the action is for the agents too - we have to be able to keep up with all of our buyers and sellers. Once the contract is in place, the focus shifts to the inspection, mortgage and legal team members as buyers work through their purchase contingencies on their way to closing.
The time between a buyer and seller signing a purchase contract and the actual closing can vary considerably. What’s hidden in the chart above is that contracts written earlier in the spring tend to close more slowly than average. And contracts written over the summer tend to close more quickly than average.
Although every situation is different, contracts written during March, April and May take noticeably longer to close than those written in July and August. There’s not really any way to prove motive, but the trend seems to support the hypothesis that closings are intentionally scheduled within the summer school vacation if possible. Deals negotiated in the spring extend the closing, while deals negotiated during the summer accelerate it. Deals negotiated when the summer school vacation is not in play cluster around 40 days to close.
So there we have it - a meander through real estate purchase contracts, MLS statuses and days to close. The data seems to support my mental models about both when the real estate market is most active and that West Hartford buyers and sellers tend to work around the summer school vacation. Hopefully I’ll remember to look into my initial question once the 2009 data is available…