Within a few hours of this transpiring I received an email from an agent asking me if one of my other listings for sale would do a rental. It was in the same neighborhood as the other house. So who do you think this agent was asking for? The same person, of course. I asked my seller client if they would consider renting, which I was certain they would not, and they said “no.” I was tempted to email the agent and say “Sorry, if I thought [insert name here] could have rented this house, I would have suggested it to them myself…” but just went with “No thank you, they want to sell, not rent.” No luck for this other agent hoping to assist the person either.

This is the way the market is now. Agents are trying to do whatever they can to get clients. A renter now may be a buyer in a year. I have this person’s contact info and so do at least 3 other agents, as far as I can tell. Now that person is going to have to put up with 4 agents contacting them at various points for a year. What will each of us do to distinguish ourselves from the others so that they pick us? My playbook involves low annoyance, high impact strategies. We’ll see how it goes.

It will be a battle to the finish…

Overall Rating: 4 out of 5 slides

Location: 150 Nevers Road, South Windsor; there is onsite parking.

Hours: Dawn to Dusk

My Friend’s Place is an expansive play area with multiple playscapes, numerous other features, and more rubber chips than I have ever seen in my life. Lots of opportunity for fun, but adults need to keep a close eye on their youngsters as the perimeter is open and the largest playscape is set on a lower level than the rest of the equipment.

Playscapes: There are two primary playscapes at the playground. A smaller piece seems perfect for the 2 – 4 year old set, while a larger one is clearly designed for older children.

Swings: Two sets of swings provide plenty of opportunities. The first has the three infant swings and an oversized safety swing. The second has four traditional swings, a tire swing, and another oversized safety swing.

Other Stuff: There are lots of interesting play stations spread throughout the playground. There is a music area with oversized xylophones to bang with mallets. There are what appear to be sensory tables that can be filled with sand or other materials. There are two teeter-totters of different styles, and there is a covered picnic area with garden seating area.

Facilities: I did not see any outdoor facilities, and must confess that we did not go exploring in either the Parks & Rec building or baseball field Press Box building. My bad – anyone know if there are bathrooms at this place?

Social Opportunities: High. We saw lots of other kids and parents on our visit and everyone seemed quite friendly. Since it’s a primary park in town, and is easily accessible with its own parking lot, I would expect it to be a popular destination.

Potential for Escape: Medium/High, since it’s completely unfenced. The good news is that the road is very far away, and even the parking lot is a good distance. My main concern with the setup was that the large playscape at the lower level is separated from the rest of the playground by a four foot retaining wall with a metal fence on top (to keep kids from falling). Ellen was on the upper level to (supposedly) go down the slide that feeds down to the lower level. She chose to run in the other direction, so I had to choose between going 100 feet in either direction to go around the fence or climb up the slide to chase her. Fortunately nobody was on the slide and I was able to take the shortcut up.

Related Posts:
Bushnell Park Playground, Hartford
Mikey’s Place Playground, Wethersfield
South Quaker & Flatbush Playground, West Hartford
Playground Review: Elizabeth Park, Hartford

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.

My advice to buyers is always: If you’re a serious buyer and interested in a house, put in an offer. If you don’t think the house is worth the asking price, offer something lower. You’ll never know how negotiable the sellers are unless you put in that first offer.

That’s the difference between window shopping and buying a house.

Have you thought about which town you might want to move to – where to put down roots? Greater Hartford is made up of lots of small towns that each have their own character, strengths and weaknesses. The challenge is that what may be a strength to one buyer is a weakness to another.

If you have a job lined up, then I’m sure that your future coworkers have been generous about sharing their views on where you should live. People are very opinionated on that subject. You’ll quickly realize that they’re advocating for the town/area that they live in. And that they’re also warning you about towns/areas that they know very little about other than what “people say.” Unless they know you pretty well, it’s probably best to do your own research – how do they know what you will like?

How do you research different towns? I’m glad you asked. We help people relocation to Greater Hartford regularly and have some suggestions.

The best way to check out a town is to come visit.

Drive around the business district(s) and neighborhoods to get a sense of what they are like. Walk the streets at different times of the day to see how you feel. It’s interesting to see how people respond to the different towns when we take them on a tour. Most have a mental image of what kind of town they want to live in – they don’t know how to articulate it well but they know it when they see it.

Another important step is to investigate the expenses and amenities of each town.

On the expense side, how do the property taxes compare to other towns? Almost all the towns in the area can be compared on an apples to apples basis using mill rates. The City of Hartford cannot because it uses a dramatically different tax system than everyone else. The Town of West Hartford, at the time of this writing (Jan 2012), is also tricky because of a frozen phase-in that will hopefully be resolved by Jul 2012.

Connecticut has motor vehicle taxes at the town level. So you will be taxed on the value of your car in addition to the value of your home.

On the amenities side, you can check out the parks and libraries they have, whether they do curbside trash, recycling, and/or leaf collection, how the schools are organized and perform. You can also research crime statistics for the community.

Finally, you’ll need to figure out if the town has the kind of housing you’re looking for.

To get there, you’ll need to do some thinking on your own.
- What kind of environment you like – urban, suburban, rural?
- Do you want a single-family home, or would you consider a condo or multi-family?
- Are you interested in historic, or more architecturally ornate homes?
- Would you prefer a newer, more energy efficient home?
- What are you hoping to have for a commute?
- Are there other criteria that are very important to you?

Greater Hartford has just about everything out there. Knowing what you would ideally like to find will help narrow the options quickly since each individual town has different housing types.

The quick way to sort through the different towns is to work with a real estate agent, like us. We’re happy to take some time to tour the different towns with you – show you the highlights and provide some commentary. We can also tell you which towns to look in for your preferred type of home.

Congratulations on moving to Greater Hartford … just let us know if we can help!

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.

We had our first real snowstorm of the season on Saturday. Around Hartford most places ended up with 3-4 inches of snow. Really nothing compared to some of the storms from last year, but still an amount that most would consider needs to be shoveled. So why did I, and my clients, have to tromp through this on Sunday when going to view your home?

Now, I know you don’t live here any more. You’re across the country at your new place and have other things on your mind. And at least it wasn’t like the debacle I stumbled across last year. But your house is still here and you are trying to sell it. Why not try to welcome the people that may want to buy it?

If you could, please hire someone to plow your driveway and shovel your front walk and sidewalk. I know my clients and I would appreciate it and most likely your neighbors will too. Also, if you don’t have your driveway and walks shoveled you’re essentially letting bad guys know that you’re not around and no one really cares for the place. They may decide that you also don’t care about your copper pipes and will let themselves in to take them. Just sayin’…

Though not very long, the steep embankment always draws a crowd in fresh snow and makes for an exciting run. There is even an opportunity for a jump at the bottom of the hill when crossing over the gravel path that circles this portion of the park.

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.

All three of the hidden homes were built in the early 1900s, which makes them a little newer than the properties along the road. The visible homes almost all date back to the 1800s.

These hidden homes all have a very secluded feel even though they’re quite central in Greater Hartford. We’ve been back there a few times and have been impressed by how quickly you forget that you’re in the middle of a City. Part of it is the lot sizes, giving the homes nice spacing from each other, but it’s also due to the large park that is adjacent to the two homes in the rear.

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A Hidden House