Archive for the 'West Hartford' Category
17 Harwich Lane, West Hartford
Welcome to a bright, upgraded, end unit at the Tumblebrook Estates community.
The first floor features a combination living room and dining room that opens to the kitchen. Hardwood floors, crown molding, fireplace, and French doors add to the character of the space. The oversized, eat-in kitchen has more than enough room for cooking and storage, with a breakfast area at the far end. A traditional foyer and updated powder room complete the level.
Upstairs, the spacious master suite includes a bay window, fireplace, walk-in closet, and full bath with dual vanity, shower stall, and whirlpool tub. The two additional bedrooms both have good closet space. The second level also includes a hall bathroom and laundry area.
The fully finished lower level of the townhouse contains a large media room with built-in surround sound and a second smaller room perfect for play space or a popcorn popper.
The unit has an attached 2 car garage, and the complex is built around a large center green that is lightly treed and makes for a nice public space.
17 Harwich Lane is offered at $324,900. If you’d like to see this home, please have your agent arrange a showing, or call me at 860-655-2922 to schedule a visit. More details and a photo tour are available.
54 Gifford Road, West Hartford
Located on a quiet cul-de-sac, this move-in condition Colonial is within walking distance to the shopping and restaurants at Blue Back Square. It offers 3 bedrooms and 1.5 baths over 1,200 square feet.
The first floor features a formal living room with a pellet stove, formal dining room, remodeled kitchen and half bathroom.
Upstairs there are three bedrooms and a full bathroom.
The backyard is private and fully fenced with a patio, deck and gardens.
The home has newer windows, a central vacuum system, a partially finished basement, hardwood floors throughout and a 1-car garage.
54 Gifford Road is offered at $259,000. 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 May 15th between 1:00pm-3:00pm. More details and a photo tour are available.
Boomers Boomerang Back into Town
This Sunday’s Hartford Courant had an interesting piece by Tom Condon titled “Subdivisions On Way Out?” It is definitely worth a read if you were focused on other things yesterday, like spending time with your mother or enjoying the beautiful weather.
The basic thesis is that a confluence of trends will lead to more large houses for sale in the suburbs than buyers who will be interested in purchasing them. Supply will come from the Baby Boomer generation downsizing to smaller, lower-maintenance housing options.
However, demand for their properties may not materialize. Household size is increasing as multiple generations of a family are more frequently living together. Financially marginal buyers struggle to get a mortgage in the current environment, preventing them from being homeowners. Factors like smaller home sizes, walkable neighborhoods, mixed-use environments, and shorter commutes are creeping up to the top of buyer wish lists.
Many interesting questions could be asked using this thesis as the set-up. The first one that jumps to my mind is this, which areas of Greater Hartford will benefit most from these trends?
Some of the winners are obvious. West Hartford Center offers exactly the mix of features that Mr. Condon describes. It is an established mixed-use community with smaller homes, in a walkable setting, that is convenient to just about everything in the region. Slam dunk. The Center is currently one of the hottest real estate markets in the area with basically no inventory available. If you want to buy there, then you need to have your act together.
Other areas seem like logical winners, but there is still considerable work to be done. I see Downtown Hartford as a long-term winner. Right now there is a core group of residents excited about Downtown as a neighborhood. Seven recent apartment developments (The Hollander, The Metropolitan, The Lofts at Temple & Main, 915 Main, Bushnell on the Park, 55 on the Park, and Hartford 21) are generally considered successes. Active planning is underway to rehab another building, the former hotel on Constitution Plaza. There are many additional opportunities to add residents in smaller, apartment-style, homes that are in a mixed-use community with major established businesses and legitimate public transit.
Really, the whole Farmington Avenue corridor from Downtown Hartford through West Hartford Center seems like it has a chance to win big in the coming decades. Asylum Hill and the West End have a lot to offer on the Hartford side of the line. Residential density continues on the West Hartford side of Prospect Avenue with numerous apartment buildings and commercial areas transitioning to single-family housing just off the main road.
In the real estate market, we are already seeing buyers from the Farmington Valley come over the mountain to look at our listings in the Elizabeth Park neighborhood of West Hartford and in Hartford’s West End. If Mr. Condon is right, then this could be the beginning of a trend that will play out for years to come.
289 Beechwood Road, West Hartford
This nicely sized ranch has good potential and is conveniently located near the West Farms Mall shopping area and I-84 for quick highway access. It offers 2 bedrooms and 2 baths over 1,547 square feet.
The foyer has built-ins and a closet and leads to the formal living room with wood burning fireplace. The kitchen and dining room are smaller spaces and could be combined to make a more open eating/dining area. The master bedroom has a tray ceiling, stained glass window, large closet and its own master bathroom. There is another good sized bedroom and full bathroom. An oversized family room off the back of the home has additional closet space and access to the 1-car garage and walk-up attic.
Outside the backyard features a patio with pergola, is lightly wooded and backs to another residential street.
289 Beechwood Road is offered at $200,000. If you’d like to see this home, please have your agent arrange a showing or call me at 860-655-2125 to schedule a visit. More details and a photo tour are available.
Buyers: Get Your Act Together
This past weekend I held an open house at 55 Grennan, in the heart of West Hartford Center. For those that don’t know, the West Hartford Center market is very active, and right now strongly favors sellers. Homes that are priced properly tend to sell very quickly because there are many buyers and agents on the lookout for opportunities.
Our listing went under contract shortly before the open house. Since it’s virtually impossible to cancel an open house once all of the advertising gets out there, our sellers asked us to hold it anyway so that they wouldn’t have to answer the door all afternoon to explain the situation to confused buyers. Open houses on properties already under contract are not ideal, but that’s the situation we were in. (Though believe me, there are definitely worse situations to be in.)
Over the two hours that I was talking with prospective buyers, it became clear that many did not have a solid plan for how they were going to find their home in this competitive sub-market. Here were the three main misconceptions that I heard again and again.
1. I can find listings online. Maybe, maybe not … it all depends on what websites you’re using and how regularly they refresh their data. Many of my open house visitors had found out about the house after it was already under contract. We’ve been most impressed with Realtor.com, if you insist on searching on your own. A far better strategy is to reach out to your favorite real estate agent and have them plug you into the MLS directly. New properties, and any change in the status of an existing listing, can be sent to you instantly.
2. I can figure out my financing once I find the house. Serious buyers get their financing in order before they start looking for homes. Do they actually qualify for a mortgage? If so, how much can they spend? Buyers need to prove their ability to purchase when they make their bids, so every day they waste working with a mortgage person after they find their dream home is a day that someone else could come in and buy it out from under them.
3. It’s a buyer’s market. Um, no. At least not in West Hartford Center. Inventory is very thin and demand is quite high. Buyers don’t seem willing to go crazy bidding prices up (overpriced houses still sit on the market for months), but houses sell quickly when priced correctly. Buyers who think they’re in charge are probably not going to find a home in West Hartford Center this spring. Every neighborhood is different, so you need to understand the specific dynamic in your town or area.
These three factors are some of the biggest reasons that buyers have a hard time actually purchasing the home they like. They don’t learn about properties in a timely fashion, they think sellers will wait for them as they work to get their financing, and they think they can play hardball on price. In some markets they may be right. But not in West Hartford Center.
A far better strategy is to get all your ducks in row before you start looking. That way you know exactly what needs to happen before you tour your first property. We’ve had multiple buyers get the house they wanted this spring because they had their act together. They were educated about the market, they understood their financing situation, and they were comfortable bidding as soon as they saw something they liked. And if all continues to go smoothly, they’ll be moving into their new homes very soon.
That could be you … and we’d love to help you get there.