B is for Broker

A few weeks ago I went to an indescript little office building in West Hartford Center really early in the morning. My task was to sit in front of a computer for up to 3 hours and pass 2 multiple choice tests. The room was about 90 degrees so that sped me along a little bit. Forty seven minutes later I received the good news from the glowing screen “Congratulations. You have PASSED the Connecticut

Multiple Offers and You

I reviewed my files this weekend and I’ve represented clients in 7 multiple offer situations this year, 2 assisting sellers and 5 assisting buyers. That’s quite a few for what is supposed to be a “slow” year. The one common thread for all of these properties was that they were well priced. Some of them were priced well right out of the gate. Some of them got to the eventual right price via price reductions.

Busy Week

It was a busy time in my little world this week. Four of my buyer clients wrote contracts on properties. Two were accepted, one is still pending, and another was rejected. Again I was involved in more multiple offer situations. Each of the situations had 3 buyers that wrote offers. Eh. They seem never ending this year for some reason. Next week I’ll write a series of posts about multiple offer situations and how they

Picture Molding

Older homes often have noticeable gaps between the top of the molding and the ceiling. Sort of like what you can see here. Older homes also often have plaster walls, making homeowners think twice about nailing picture hooks into place. Fortunately, the people that built the older homes devised an alternative strategy for hanging decorations – picture molding. Making holes in plaster is not ideal. Instead, a rail of molding is mounted on the wall

A Close Look at Glastonbury Data

Of all the real estate market data that Amy reported last week, the decline in median home prices in Glastonbury really grabbed my attention. To quickly recap, the first quarter of 2009 saw 33% fewer transaction (43 vs 64), and a 19% decrease in median home price ($310,000 vs $382,500). Only 4.7% of the transactions were distressed properties (the lowest of all the towns). Glastonbury had held up quite well relative to other towns in