July Contracts: Hints of Summer

For the first time since February, the number of single-family homes that went under contract dipped under 700 for a month. July saw 685 contracts come together providing our first evidence that the real estate market may actually take a breather over the summer. July felt surprisingly busy to us – especially the first half, which seemed like a continuation of June and the spring market. We expected the calls and emails to slow down

Inspecting the Laundry Area

Home inspection after home inspection reveals a few common problems with laundry areas. They’re not big problems, meaning that buyers usually don’t ask the seller to do anything about the issues, but a couple key things are flagged with surprising frequency. 1. Your washer should connect to the hot and cold water supply using steel braided hoses. The rubber hoses that are commonly observed are vulnerable to weakening over time and can potentially rupture. 2.

Buying Single-Family Homes in Bulk

Warning: What follows is a long, dry, stat-heavy summary without much original commentary or insight. It’s here because putting this together helped me think through the subject better. Proceed at your own risk. Hopefully at least one other person will find it interesting… I came across an article a while back that I’m still trying to wrap my head around. It’s a wide-ranging piece on the Bloomberg site called Private Equity Has Too Much Money

182 Fern Street, West Hartford

Your private, top floor retreat combines the architectural details of the early 1900s with modern updates to create a bright, comfortable, spacious and interesting home. Enter through the foyer into the oversized living room, which features a working fireplace and built-in shelving, in addition to crown molding and hardwood floors. Quadruple windows overlook the tree-filled courtyard and the building’s intricate roofline. An open double doorway leads to the generous formal dining room, with more tree-filled

June Contracts: Summer Reruns

The magical 2012 cap on real estate contracts extended through June, with another month at virtually the same number as March, April and May. The consistency is an odd result, and forced me to rerun the analysis to make sure it’s right (which it seems to be). 732 Hartford County single-family contracts came together in the month of June, which was just over a 21% increase from June of 2011. The first half of 2012