When a buyer purchases a property in the Greater Hartford area, it’s supposed to be left in “broom clean condition” by the closing. That means the previous owners shouldn’t leave old paint cans, cleaning products or a host of other things behind.

Often you’ll see a seller ask a buyer if it’s okay to leave random “stuff” that they feel the buyer may find useful in the future. Leftover paint is the most common request because sellers believe buyers may want the paint to do touch ups once all of the wall hangings are removed. Some buyers will be okay with the old paint staying, while others will tell the sellers “no thanks” and ask that it be thrown away. Usually it depends on the color of the paint and whether or not the buyer plans on painting right away. Truthfully, most sellers want to leave the paint because it’s a pain in the butt to dispose of properly.

And what happens when you, the buyer, eventually become the seller of the house? Well, the next buyer is going to expect you to clean everything out. I’ve run out of fingers counting the number of times I’ve heard a seller client say “But the person I bought the house from left this for me, why can’t I just leave it for the new buyer…” The leftover mess from the previous seller now becomes your problem because you never dealt with it, or probably used any of it.

If you’re a buyer, think long and hard about the items if a seller asks you if they can leave some things with the home. You’re going to be responsible to remove it in the future, so if it really isn’t of any value to you and you don’t see yourself ever using it, make sure you have the seller take it away before the closing. Otherwise it will become your problem a few years down the line before the closing of your sale.

Last week we looked at the really big picture transactions data for Hartford County in 2011. The main concern we had with how the numbers turned out was that the average single-family home price appeared to rise slightly from 2010 to 2011, which was not what we saw in the market on a house by house basis.

There is no easy way to track the price trends in a region because every house is unique. Repeat sales is the best method I know of, but it’s too hard for us to use. Anyway, we were talking averages in the post. Our hypothesis as to why the average might be misleading in this case is that averages can be influenced by a change in the mix of homes that sold between the two years. They are especially susceptible to sales of expensive homes since one million dollar property contributes as much to the total sales volume as five $200,000 homes.

The first step we took to test our hypothesis was to look at how the mix of sales changed between the two years.

The chart shows that the number of sales increased in the sub-$100,000 price band and also in all three price bands above $500,000. It also shows that the $100,000s remained almost exactly the same. Finally, the number of deals in the $200,000s fell by about 20%, while both the $300,000s and $400,000s fell by about 12%. The chart confirms our anecdotal observation that there is was more interest in high end properties in 2011, but doesn’t address our hypothesis in a convincing manner.

What if we plotted the total sales volume for each price band instead of the number of deals? That would put each of the price points on equal footing in terms of their contribution to the average.

This chart shows that the homes that sold for less than $100,000 matter very little in the average. But otherwise the chart is not conclusive about whether the average remained the same due to prices holding steady between the two years or some other reason.

Maybe we should just throw in the towel on the average as a proxy for home prices and move over to the median. Between 2010 and 2011 the median single-family home price in Hartford County fell 3.3% from $230,000 to $222,500.

Or we can just trust our observations of the market … home prices fell in 2011.

Observations

The total number of single-family home transactions fell again in 2011, decreasing about 8% from the 2010 total. With the latest data point, activity for this type of property is about 41% off the 2005 peak in Hartford County. Last year we wondered whether we had seen a bottom in the number of deals – clearly 2010 was not the bottom.

As sales volume fell, showing a decrease in overall demand, the average sales price was apparently not changed. We don’t put a lot of faith in average prices because they are strongly influenced by the mix of homes that sold in a particular year, so we think something else is going on.

Our anecdotal experience is that home prices are still falling in all the towns and markets in which we do business. We also see more interest in higher priced homes, which will tend to inflate the average, and believe that’s why the average sale price edged up slightly. We’ll work on building the case to either prove or refute this hypothesis and share that result too.

Big picture analysis like this is never especially satisfying since we usually end up with more questions than answers. What are you guys seeing out there as you follow the markets? Michael called 2011 almost perfectly in the comments from last year’s post, so we clearly have knowledgeable readers!

Also, we have this data broken down by every single town in Hartford County. If you’re interested in a specific town, email us and we’ll send you the charts.

December is traditionally the slowest month of the year, so having it outpace any other month is a bit of a surprise. We think that the usually large snow storm, which was felt through the beginning of November, worked to push some business into the year’s final month.

This December also showed an uptick in activity compared to December of 2010. The number of homes that went under contract this past month is nearly 10% higher than the total from the previous year. It’s difficult to know how much of this observation can also be attributed to the snow storm. Our feeling is that it is not a result that we should read too much meaning into.

Results were well distributed at the town level, though not over as extreme a range as we have seen in previous months. More interesting is that the number of homes actively for sale has come down to about 6.6 months worth of inventory. It was at 7.3 months in the November report, and peaked at 8.8 months in the June report.

Inventory levels should be lower at the beginning of the year. Many sellers take their properties off the market over the holidays so they don’t have to worry about keeping their home in “show condition” and accommodating visits from potential buyers. New listings will begin to come on the market at a steady pace, and the pace will increase as we get through the winter and closer to the traditional spring real estate season.

We’re working on our 2012 real estate predictions, and will hope to have some more analysis of 2011 available in the coming weeks.

Just about everyone I know has strong feelings about the incandescent. Most prefer the light they provide. Most would also agree that they are inefficient compared to compact fluorescent lamp (CFL) and light emitting diode (LED) technologies. Some argue that the newer technologies are inferior due to their color spectrum and their turn on time, though both of those characteristics have been improving with each generation of the technologies. Others are just turned off by the higher prices of the newer bulbs.

Congress got involved with the Energy Independence and Security Act of 2007, which was supposed to take effect at the beginning of 2012. The plan was to gradually halt the production of incandescents starting with the 100W bulb this year. The 75W would have been phased out in 2013, and the 60W and 40W in 2014. However, action by Congress during December of 2011 has effectively pushed out the start date until October 2012.

I have two perspectives on the matter. At the personal level, I think that efficiency is important and have been testing out the various CFL products for years. They were very poor at first, and I think they earned their bad reputation. Some of the newer bulbs I’ve bought have been much better, almost as good as the incandescents. I do still have a problem with the smaller specialty bulbs that are visible. Coiled CFLs just don’t look right in a nice chandelier, and I haven’t been impressed with the performance of “decorative” CFLs I’ve bought.

At the professional level I am a really big fan of incandescents. I’ve shown buyers enough homes to know that they are always more impressed with a property well lit by incandescents than they are by CFLs. One issue is that the quality of the CFLs vary depending on which generation technology the sellers have. So it’s common to see older CFLs that play right into the negative stereotype, which gets a buyer thinking about the lighting instead of the house.

My main recommendation at this point is to sellers. No matter how you feel about the different bulb technologies, you will make your home sell faster, and potentially for more money, by replacing all your CFL bulbs with warm incandescents. Think of it as part of the staging process, and remember that you can pack up your CFLs to bring to your new home.

Honestly, it is not a common practice for real estate agents to fire clients. Most agents realize that this is a high stress job and do their best to provide good service to their clients. We work with all different types of people and personalities who are partaking in a large, often stressful, financial transaction. Some clients are easier to work with than others, just like you would see in any other customer service job. Agents that do well in this business are able to adapt to work with a variety of personalities and put things in perspective for people, when needed.

But there are times when certain clients do just need to be let go and told that the business relationship is not working. I have severed relationships with less than a handful of clients during my time as a real estate agent. I don’t take firing clients lightly. In each instance I thought long and hard about it, but in the end it was the right decision.

What would lead to me firing someone? Verbal abuse, for one. I had one seller client that verbally disrespected me during nearly every conversation. I have enough self respect for myself that I won’t put up with someone talking down to me. I suggested that our relationship wasn’t working and that they would be better served by someone else. I cancelled our contract and went on my way. They did hire someone else, but their home still has not sold. I hope the new agent is receiving more respect.

The only other reason I’ve found to stop working with a client is the same reason the agent above mentioned, disrespect for my time. If you’ve asked me to schedule showings for you, please show up at least remotely on time. It’s disrespectful to the seller and to me if you don’t. I’ve had a few clients that wouldn’t show up for showings and wouldn’t call me. Or others who repeatedly showed up more than a half hour late and wouldn’t even apologize. Changing your appointment times or being late every now and then is understandable. Everyone is busy. But repeatedly being a no-show or really-late-show wastes my time that I could be spending with other clients.

I have good relationships and experiences with the vast majority of my clients. I enjoy helping people and I think that shows in the service I provide. But at times a client relationship just doesn’t work. In those situations it’s sometimes best to be professional and let them know they may have a better time working with someone else. Hopefully everyone involved will have a better experience.

There are a few things to consider when selling your home in the not-Spring market.

1. Does your house show well when the landscape isn’t in bloom?

2. Are you willing to keep your heat at a reasonable level to be warm and inviting for showings and turn on numerous lights for your showings?

3. Are you willing to have your home sit on the market a little longer than it would if it were Spring?

4. Are you willing to have fewer showings of your home than it would if it were Spring?

If you answered “yes” to these questions, it should be fine for you to list your house in the late fall and winter months. Realize that there will be fewer buyers (so fewer showings) in November through February. Typically only serious buyers are looking during these months. They are not preoccupied with holidays and need to focus on finding a home for one reason or another. That can be a good thing for sellers.

Many homes come off the market in the late fall that didn’t sell during the Spring and Summer market. This means less competition for sellers that are newly entering the market. Another good thing.

I always advise my fall and winter sellers that they need to be a little more patient with the market. Most are fine with this because they’re making the conscious decision to list now, rather than wait for the Spring. Fall selling isn’t for everyone, but if you’re not the nervous type, it may be a great time to put your home up for sale.

This classic Scoville Victorian offers original architectural charm and a bright, open floor plan. The foyer with its turned staircase opens into the formal living room with fireplace. The formal dining room has plenty of space for entertaining and leads to an office. The remodeled kitchen features great cabinet space, granite counters, stainless steel appliances and an eat-in area. A renovated half bathroom and mudroom complete the first floor.

Upstairs the master bedroom has a dressing room space with built-in storage. The second floor has three additional bedrooms and a remodeled bathroom.

The third floor has a finished room and plenty of unfinished space which could be completed for additional square footage, if needed. Skylights make this a bright, welcoming space with great possibilities.

Outside the backyard offers privacy, a slate patio and 1-car garage.

91 Girard Avenue is offered at $272,000. If you’d like to see this home, please have your agent arrange a showing, call me at 860-655-2125 to schedule a visit, or stop by the open house on October 23rd between 1:00pm-3:00pm. More details and a photo tour are available.

There was a lot of interest in our markets at the beginning of September; it was a noticeable increase from the end of August and much of the summer. The rest of the month seemed pretty active too, so I’m a bit surprised to see the number of contracts come in at a lower level than August, though 35 deals (532 in August versus 497 in September) isn’t a huge number.

Looking a little deeper at last month versus this month, it appears that two towns experienced major slowdowns that nearly equal the total for the County. The number of contracts accepted in Southington decreased by 15 deals from August, while Windsor decreased by 13. Other towns also saw a less active September, but not by such a wide margin. Manchester, East Hartford, and Marborough reported decreases in the number of contracts of 8, 7, and 6 respectively. On the other side of the ledger, the town Bristol was up 7 deals and Glastonbury was up 6 deals.

Each town is its own market, and this is yet another example of how the data can vary. Below is the year over year comparison for each town in the County, showing a 12% increase in activity for September 2011 over the same month in 2010.

Yes, it’s a Buyer’s Market in many cases. But let’s have a little common sense and decency, shall we people? For example, when a house is advertised “as is”- meaning that the seller isn’t going to fix any inspection issues- and you have your home inspections done, don’t come back to the seller and ask for TWENTY EIGHT THOUSAND DOLLARS in repairs. Not that I had to help a client deal with that exact craziness earlier this year…

Negotiations are long and drawn out these days. Each side is trying to get the better of the other side and “win.” Getting an accepted offer is only a minor victory. Inspection negotiations are terrible in most cases. Buyers, it seems, are trying to extract every last pound of flesh, or dollar, that they can. I say a little prayer, carry a rabbit’s foot, four leaf clover and wear my lucky socks to every appraisal. Because that’s what a crapshoot things have become. Honestly, I wish I could share half of the ridiculousness that I’ve seen this year. But I can’t. Client confidentiality. To protect the guilty. Attorneys are telling me that only 50% of the files coming across their desks are actually closing. It used to be as high as 80-90% of files would close. People really aren’t seeing eye to eye these days.

There seems to be very little taking the high road. I’ve seen instances where a person feels they are being wronged in one transaction (say, on the sell side) so they then carry out equally abhorrent behavior on another transaction (say, on the buy side) to even things out.

Karma, people. Karma. And that’s all I’m going to say.