Archive for the 'Condos' Category
An Evening with David Nyberg
On Thursday, October 15, 2009 (tomorrow evening), real estate developer David Nyberg will be hosting a social hour, giving site tours of two Downtown Hartford projects, and participating in a roundtable discussion. I am coordinating the event through HYPE, and would like to extend an invitation to those outside of the HYPE membership to join us. Please RSVP to me (Kyle Bergquist) to register if you are interested in attending; seating is limited.
Mr. Nyberg has been at the forefront of the effort to bring more residential opportunities to Downtown Hartford in recent years. His three Downtown projects include 55 on the Park, The Metropolitan, and most recently 915 Main Street. Mr. Nyberg is also active in the Asylum Hill neighborhood of Hartford as well as other communities.
During this event we’re hoping to get an enthusiastic group together to see a developer’s view of Downtown Hartford. The roundtable portion of the event will give us an opportunity to learn more about Mr. Nyberg himself, his views on Hartford, and his experiences with the City.
Tomorrow evening’s itinerary will be roughly as follows:
5:00 pm: Meet at 901 Main Street for drinks, appetizers, and a site tour
6:00ish: Walk to 266 Pearl Street (The Metropolitan) for a site tour
7:00ish: Walk to 31 Pratt Street (MetroHartford Alliance) for drinks, dinner, and discussion.
Our group is called HYPEd on Downtown Development, and is working to find constructive ways to influence the continued evolution of the capital city’s downtown neighborhood. We’re hoping to be part of the revitalization process that will make Downtown a vibrant mixed-use community. The event is free of charge and open to anyone interested in participating in that spirit.
Again, please RSVP to me (Kyle Bergquist) and either call or email with any questions.
2009 Greater Hartford Condo Review
All the data we typically look at is related to single family homes. But how are condos doing this year? I recently pulled the CT Multiple Listing Service data for condo sales in the Greater Hartford area. As with the single family home data, it’s deemed reliable but not guaranteed. Here’s how things are doing for the first 9 months of this year compared to the same time period for 2008…
My Observations…
1. The number of Closed Sales for 2009 is off significantly for many of the towns when comparing to 2008. Aggregated, the number of Closed Sales in these towns decreased by 16%.
2. Surprisingly, Median Sale Prices don’t seem to be off as much as one would think when taking into account the overall decline in Closed Sales.
3. The last column of data related to current Months of Inventory is telling an interesting story. The cells shaded blue are the towns that are currently a Neutral market (between 3-6 months of inventory). Manchester, shaded green, is a Seller’s market (less than 3 months of inventory). The remaining towns, shaded peach, are Buyer’s markets (6+ months of inventory). Particularly noteworthy, and not in a good way, are Bloomfield, Hartford, and West Hartford. These three towns have well over a year’s worth of inventory and almost a year’s worth of inventory, respectively. Sellers in these markets really need to make sure they are pricing correctly if they want any chance of their property selling.
Sellers, We Feel Your Pain
It’s good for Kyle and me to periodically do real estate deals of our own so that we have our clients’ perspectives fresh in mind. Our most recent deal was on the sell side and had its share of drama. Like every seller ever, we felt that the buyers were making unreasonable requests. Let’s count down our top three favorites:
3. Fix a Working Door. One of the post-inspection requests was to fix the bedroom door, which they claimed was not working properly. There were no specifics about what exactly was wrong with the door, so we were very curious to see what was up. Nothing was – it was working just fine. The buyer’s agent went back to the house to confirm that the door was in fact working properly.
2. Fix a Working Bathroom Fan. A less subjective issue that the buyer raised was the bathroom fan. Apparently it was not working during the home inspection. Neither Kyle nor I had ever seen the fan “not working” before or after the inspection, and we never received any complaints from our tenants, so we asked for clarification about the issue. The second explanation was that there was not enough suction. Since this particular request seemed like a dealbreaker for the buyer, we decided to just replace the fan.
And, drum roll please, our #1 favorite unreasonable request…
1. Fix the Mailbox Lock. First, the mailbox, and its lock, were not part of the home inspection. We did not provide a key to potential buyers because why would we want them checking our mail? Second, the mailbox is not even part of the condo, it’s the responsibility of the management company. It would have been fine if the buyer had just asked about the mailbox once and accepted our explanation. However, it came up again, and again, and again – very frustrating.
The questionable requests in this deal actually extended well beyond these three. After getting the full list of requests from the buyer after the inspection it seemed amazing to us that buyer was even still interested in the place. Fortunately for us, none of the issues were particularly expensive – they were more annoying than anything else. Especially since many were so different from what buyers we represent usually request. We generally recommend that buyers ask for major structural and safety issues to be addressed, while planning to take on the little things themselves as part of home ownership.
These are the kind of things that make sellers crazy. Kyle and I got a fresh reminder of the process and a healthy dose of insanity. Perhaps we got even more than our share since the nit-picky requests continued all the way until the closing. The buyer’s final attempt to extort from us was a request for $100 to replace a window blind that “didn’t work.” Grrrr!