The Middle

We’ve been assisting buyers and sellers with negotiating a lot of contracts lately. One of the things we’ve noticed is that people tend to gravitate towards “The Middle.” What that means is, the middle between the buyer’s starting point and the seller’s listing price. For example, if a house is priced at $350,000 and the buyer starts at $320,000, you’re probably going to end up right around $335,000. The problem with The Middle is that

I Can Predict the Future!

My crystal ball says that closings in March are going to trail last year by a wide margin. Look for an article citing GHAR’s March stats to appear in the mainstream media early April, and then another one based on the Warren Group’s figures in May. Both will show a decrease in activity. April closings will trail last year by an even larger margin than March! But most people won’t hear about that until the

February Condo Contract Musings

Through the first two months of the year, buyer interest in condos has been relatively mild. The February data on contracts in Hartford County show that 26% fewer deals came together this February versus last. Overall, there is 8.6 months of supply, which by definition makes it a buyer’s market (6 months of supply is the threshold). Despite the relatively high inventory levels, the supply is not always distributed in the same manner as the

Finding History in Your House

One evening during the second summer that we lived in our house, a stranger knocked on our front door. He introduced himself and said that his grandfather was an architect that recently passed away. He was cleaning out his grandfather’s office and came across some original blueprints to a house that said it was to be built on Oxford Street, but didn’t give a specific number. The man thought it would be a nice gesture

Weekend Plans: Mar 12th 2011

Daylight savings starts on Sunday … or maybe it ends on Sunday. I can never remember if we save daylight in the summer or winter. Whatever it’s called, the clocks spring forward on Sunday morning at 2am, costing us an hour of sleep. Looking at the bright side of the issue (ha!), it will be light even later in the evenings this coming week, allowing home buyers to actually see the houses they tour after