By KENNETH R. GOSSELIN, kgosselin@courant.com The Hartford Courant

1:40 p.m. EST, January 27, 2012

Jeffrey D. Butler, the Connecticut Light & Power president who resigned after he became the lightning rod for criticism of the company's power restoration effort after the Halloween snowstorm, put his Avon house up for sale Thursday for $1.6 million.

Butler and his wife Susan bought the 6,800-square-foot Colonial on Pembroke Drive in 2009 and are listing the 5-bedroom, 5.3-bathroom home for roughly the same price they paid for it.

Just eight houses priced at $1.5 million or higher have sold in Avon since the Butlers purchased the home, and there are currently five other homes in the town on the market in that price range, according to Rob Giuffria, president of Prudential Premier Homes in Farmington.

"The market for $1.5 million-plus homes in Avon and the surrounding area is still in transition, and I would expect the Butler home to sell for much less than the list price," Giuffria said. "Who knows, maybe someone will buy it because they believe they won't lose power to the house."

The listing agent, Ellen Seifts of Prudential Connecticut Realty in Avon, did not immediately respond today to an e-mail seeking comment. A call to Butler's home was not immediately returned.

The brick Colonial on two acres boasts views of the Heublein Tower and includes a game room, wine cellar, a gunite pool with hot tub, a waterfall and koi pond, a guest house with full bath and kitchenette and a 4-car heated garage.

Butler, an engineer by training, resigned in November amid a firestorm over CL&P's handling of the storm recovery and aftermath. Charles Shivery, CEO of CL&P parent Northeast Utilities, said Butler was not forced out or asked to step aside, but volunteered to leave because it appeared his remaining on the job could become an issue that would hinder the company's efforts to move forward.

Butler moved to Connecticut to take the CL&P president job, after a long career in the energy industry, almost entirely in California at Pacific Gas and Electric.

Butler became familiar to the state residents during twice-a-day, high-profile, televised news conferences after the Oct. 29 storm that left hundreds of thousands of customers in the dark for a long as 11 days.

The listing did not mention that the house has a back-up generator, but Butler told reporters at one briefing that he had a generator but it failed during the power outage, also leaving Butler in the dark.

Sophia Giuffria, Age 9 and Ivan Lendl, Former Tennis World Champion, Farmington, CT. September 2011

Ivan Lendl (born March 7, 1960) is a former World No. 1 professional tennis player. Originally from Czechoslovakia, Lendl became a United States citizen. He was one of the game's most dominant players in the 1980s and remained a top competitor into the early 1990s. He is considered to be one of the greatest tennis players of all time.^[2] Lendl captured eight Grand Slam singles titles. He competed in 19 Grand Slam singles finals, at the time a record for a man since surpassed by Roger Federer in 2009. He reached at least one Grand Slam final for 11 consecutive years, a record shared with Pete Sampras. Before the formation of the ATP Lendl reached a record 12 year end championships (equaled by John McEnroe). He won 2 WCT Finals titles and a record 5 Masters Grand Prix titles,tied with Pete Sampras and Roger Federer. He also won a record 22 Championship Series titles (1980–89) the precursors to the current ATP Masters 1000. Lendl first attained the World No. 1 ranking on February 28, 1983 and bolstered his claim to the top spot when he defeated John McEnroe in the 1984 French Open final. For much of the next five years, Lendl was the top ranked player until August 1990 (with a break from September 1988 to January 1989 when Mats Wilander was at the top). He finished four years ranked as the world's top player (1985–1987 and 1989) and was ranked No. 1 for a total of 270 weeks and set a new record previously held by Jimmy Connors since broken by Pete Sampras and Roger Federer.

Andrew and Adrienne Greenwalt knew from the start that they wanted to live in West Hartford.

After taking a job at Pratt & Whitney right out of college, Andrew, 29 an engineer, rented an apartment there and liked the town's many amenities. City living didn't appeal to the couple, nor did they want to live in a rural setting, like West Simsbury, where Adrienne, 26, had grown up.

But even in a tepid economy, they soon learned, the competition for homes in their $400,000 price range can still be stiff in sought-after towns like West Hartford. The owner of the first house they bid on rejected their offer. Then they bid on a second one, only to get beat out by another party offering cash. The couple's attempt to buy a third house also ended in disappointment. Their offer was accepted, but the inspection turned up problems, and they had to back out of the contract.

Finally, on the fourth try, things went the Greenwalts' way. At the end of June, they closed on a three-bedroom, 1.5-bath bath colonial on the northwest side of town. They paid $365,000 for the property, $4,000 less than the asking price.

The couple decided to buy after Adrienne, a nurse, got a job at Hartford Hospital. They met at Tulane University, were married in 2009 and had been renting in New Haven for 11/2 years while Adrienne completed a nurse practitioner program at Yale.

"I was getting tired of commuting to East Hartford," said Andrew, a Louisiana native. "We were ready to have a home."

Must-haves for the first-time home buyers included a minimum of three bedrooms, a modern kitchen and a nicely landscaped yard, Andrew said. "Good bones" were another requirement, in case they wanted to update or add on. They also did not want a fixer-upper, and the house had to have at least a one-car garage, he said.

The 1,744-square-foot house they bought was well kept by the previous owner and move-in ready, Andrew said. It was built in 1951 but looked like new construction, he said. The house has a spacious master bedroom, finished basement and a nice backyard with a big deck. A family room off the kitchen has wrap-around windows and two skylights.

"We love the whole thing," Andrew said.

West Hartford is a place they can raise a family and where the home they bought would likely hold its value, Andrew said. The house was one of about 40 the couple looked at during their roughly three-month search. Nestled in a hilly subdivision near Norfeldt School, it had been on the market only two days when their broker, Rob Giuffria, took them to see it.

"West Hartford is doing extremely well and is more stable than some surrounding towns," said Giuffria, president of Prudential Premier Homes. "There is not much available under $425,000, and when a house comes on the market, it sells quickly."

— Loretta Waldman, Special to The Courant

SOURCES: Connecticut Department of Economic and Community Development; Connecticut Economic Resources Center; The Warren Group.

20 LOSTBROOK ROAD

BEDROOMS: 3

BATHS: 11/2

SQUARE FEET: 1,744

LIST PRICE: $369,000

PRICE PAID: $365,000

Connecticut Real Estate Conveyance Tax – Residential Property (July 1, 2011)

The Connecticut real estate conveyance tax has two parts: a state tax portion and a municipal tax. In addition, 18 selected towns have a higher tax rate. Municipal town clerks collect the tax and remit the state share to the Department of Revenue Services (CGS-12-494 to 504h)

New State Tax (Effective July 1, 2011)

The tax is 0.75% on the first $800,000 of value and 1.25% on the remaining value.

Many  types of transactions are exempt from the tax, including transfers between spouses, sales to certain nonprofit entities, and certain relocation company resales of residential property acquired through employee relocation plans.

Municipal Tax (Effective July 1, 2011)

In addition to the state tax, sellers must pay a municipal real estate conveyance tax. The municipal tax rate is 0.25% for all towns plus an additional tax of up to 0. 25% for 18 eligible towns that chose to impose the increased rate. Thus, the municipal tax rate can range from 0.25% to 0.5%, depending on where the property is located.

The law allows 18 towns to adopt the higher tax rate. All 18 have done so. They are the targeted investment communities and a town that has a manufacturing plant that qualifies for enterprise zone benefits: Bloomfield, Bridgeport, Bristol, East Hartford, Groton, Hamden, Hartford, Meriden, Middletown, New Britain, New Haven, New London, Norwalk, Norwich, Southington, Stamford, Waterbury, and Windham.

The U.S. housing market looks like a scorched landscape.

Nationwide, home prices are down almost 32% from their 2006 peak. Many economists expect them to fall at least 5% more this year. Some predict even steeper declines.

Even if home prices bottom later this year — a big "if" for many markets — they're not likely to rise much for several years, forecasters predict. "It'll take a long time for markets to recover," says Paul Dales, economist at Capital Economics. That's because millions of homes still face foreclosure. Lending standards are tight. Almost one-quarter of homeowners with mortgages are underwater, which means it will be tough for them to move up into nicer homes because they owe more than their current house is worth.

Yet, even charred terrain sprouts green shoots eventually. And some areas have laid the groundwork for better days, according to an analysis for USA TODAY by real estate website Zillow.com. Of the nation's 100 largest metropolitan areas, Zillow identified six —Las Vegas; Fort Myers, Fla.; Stockton and Vallejo, Calif.; Hartford, Conn.; and Columbus, Ohio— that show best what housing markets look like when they are bottoming out but not yet in recovery mode. To identify them, Zillow considered factors such asthe trajectory of home prices, housing affordability based on a ratio of prices to local incomes, and foreclosure rates.

None of the six is seeing price gains, just lessening declines that are expected to continue. Their foreclosure rates have peaked, so the worst could be behind them. Homes in these markets also are becoming more affordable, relative to local incomes, than they were before the real estate boom and bust of the past decade. Investors in many of the markets say the housing deals won't get much better. "In these markets, you can kind of see a light at the end of the tunnel, and it's been a pretty long, dark tunnel," says Stan Humphries, Zillow.com chief economist.

Las Vegas: Flat: The new up

Investors are betting that the home market here has bottomed — or is about to.

Daniel Callihan, 57, a former mortgage company officer, sees that when he hits foreclosure auctions held in a parking lot near downtown. There are twice as many bidders as a year ago, Callihan says. He's bought and sold 10 Las Vegas homes in the past two years.

Many Las Vegas investors are paying cash. In February, more than half of southern Nevada's existing homes were bought with cash, local agents say. Investors also are turning many homes into rentals, says Paul Bell, president of the Greater Las Vegas Association of Realtors. No wonder: Homes that sell for $60,000 can fetch $800 a month in rent — an investment return almost three times the rate in Manhattan or Los Angeles, says Patrick ONeill, CEO of ONeill Group, which is buying Las Vegas homes. Before softening in recent months, Las Vegas home prices had been largely flat for more than a year. "Flat, for us right now, is very good," Bell says. Whether prices will stay flat is another matter. Moody's Analytics doesn't expect Las Vegas single-family-home prices to bottom until mid-2012. One problem: The city still has thousands of homes headed to foreclosure, says University of Las Vegas economist Stephen Brown. He says it will take at least three years for the market to absorb the excess homes. Perhaps the only sure bet in Vegas? That its housing bottom "will be a long one," Brown says.

Vallejo, Calif.: Bruised but with 'good bones'

Realtor Ramon Torres has a front-row seat on the housing wreckage in this San Francisco suburb. Seated next to a living room window during one of his recent open houses, he saw just one couple coming up the steps in the first hour. They stayed less than five minutes, apparently underwhelmed by the $269,000 five-bedroom house with streaked windows and chipped paint. The owner, who owes $470,000 on the house, wants a short sale. Sixteen similar homes are for sale within a 1-mile radius, and Torres fears that the "worst is yet to come" for Vallejo as more homes are lost to foreclosure. Last year, one in 16 homes here received a foreclosure filing, the nation's 10th-highest rate, RealtyTrac says. Torres also fears that Vallejo's reputation will scare off home buyers, given that the city declared bankruptcy in 2008 and has made deep cuts in city services, including police and fire personnel. But Vallejo, along with Stockton, Las Vegas and Fort Myers, also was hit early and hard by the national housing bust and will be one of the first to recover, Zillow says. Last year, Vallejo's foreclosure filings dropped 12%, while they edged up nationwide almost 2%.

Today's Vallejo buyers are mostly investors who can get good rent for some of the lowest-cost housing in the San Francisco Bay Area, real estate agents say. "There's a very strong investor presence," says David Tipp,owner of Tipp Realty at Glen Cove. Jay Boberg, 52, a Los Angeles-based investor, has bought four Vallejo properties in the past two years. He's rented them all and immediately went cash-flow positive. He sees Vallejo as a city with "good bones," including a waterfront, views of the San Francisco Bay and proximity to San Francisco. "The fact that you can rent an apartment or a house here, with a view of the (San Francisco) Bay, for $800 to $1,300 a month is incredible," Boberg says. "I can't believe real estate here won't be worth much more in 15 years."

Columbus, Ohio: Getting in young and cheap

First-time home buyers are having a hard time in today's market, given tight lending standards and competition from all-cash buyers. In February, 34% of existing-home buyers were first-timers, a National Association of Realtors survey says. In a healthy market, that would be 40%, the NAR says. But Columbus and the five other markets Zillow analyzed for USA TODAY have become so affordable that people who didn't think they could afford to own are finding that they can. Lisa Lee, a 25-year-old business analyst, recently bought a $60,000 three-bedroom home in a suburb here that had gone through foreclosure. Her monthly mortgage, including insurance and property taxes, will run about $140 less per month than the rent she paid on her two-bedroom apartment. She secured an FHA-backed loan. Her down payment and closing costs came to about $2,900. "I couldn't believe the house was so cheap," Lee says. "Why keep wasting money on rent?"

Columbus is also getting a little boost from consumers with stable finances who put off buying homes during the recession, says real estate market analyst Robert Vogt of Vogt Santer Insights. Given signs of a national recovery, people are "getting the confidence to move," Vogt says.

Fort Myers, Fla.: New values 'wow' buyers

Ray Bayer, 59, of Pittsburgh has long planned to retire in Florida, but prices were too high. In January, the postal worker finally bought a $255,000 Fort Myers home that he says would have fetched $400,000 at the market's peak. Bayer and his wife, Kathy, 57, a nurse, expect to retire to it in a few years. Fort Myers, like much of Florida, has been battered by foreclosures. In 2010, one in 12 Fort Myers homes had foreclosure filings, the nation's second-highest rate after Las Vegas.

Even so, Fort Myers' foreclosure pace last year was down 28% from 2009. And recently, banks have slowed the pace at which they put homes on the market. That's driving multiple offers and buyers who have to settle "for their third or fourth choice," says broker Terri Lodge of Century 21 Sunbelt Realty. In February, the number of single-family homes for sale in Fort Myers was down 52% from the same month in 2009 and sales were up 2.4%, says Bob Groves, managing broker of Coldwell Banker Residential Real Estate. Snowbirds and retirees are fueling much of the activity, Realtors say. "They've seen the deals and said, 'Wow,' " says Rob Keller, a Coldwell Banker agent.

Hartford, Conn.: Jobs to help

Adam and Clare Baroncelli have been on the open-house circuit for several months and have seen good homes get snapped up more quickly. The increased activity drove them off the fence. They have made an offer on a $370,000, four-bedroom home in Simsbury, near Hartford. "There's a lot more activity," says Clare, 34. The Baroncellis moved in August from Florida to Connecticut because of Adam's job change. Job growth is expected to help the Hartford region.

Of the four major labor markets in the state, Hartford has the best prospects for job growth, says Steven Lanza, editor of The Connecticut Economy, the University of Connecticut's economic publication. Late last year, just 12% of homeowners with mortgages in the Hartford region owed more on their homes than they were worth, Zillow data show. That's far better than the national average, then 27%. Fewer underwater homeowners means there are more homeowners who can move up into more expensive homes.

Rob Giuffria, president of Prudential Premier Homes in Farmington, Conn., says there are huge differences among Hartford areas in terms of the current housing market. Some upper-scale neighborhoods — fueled by white-collar workers and executives — may be bottoming, while some inner-city areas are worsening, he says.Lanza looks for a broader "recovery" soon. As with the other markets Zillow analyzed, that doesn't necessarily mean improvement. "It means you're not getting worse and maybe you're getting better," he says.

Stockton, Calif.: Pain and opportunity

Few areashave been through a longer and darker tunnel than this central California city.

Since peaking in 2006, Stockton's median home price is down 62%. For three of the past four years, Stockton ranked in the top five nationwide for foreclosures, says market researcher RealtyTrac. In January, six of 10 homes for sale in the city either were bank-owned, in foreclosure or tied to a delinquent mortgage. Yet there are glimmers of change. Last year, Stockton dropped to No. 7 in foreclosures nationwide. Local Realtors say there are more non-distressed homes for sale now than there were a few years ago. More low-ball offers are being refused. And multiple offers are common on lower-end homes. "It's a very competitive market," says Jerry Abbott of Grupe Real Estate in Stockton. He recently got six offers for one home priced at $121,000, a short sale in which the lender agrees to sell a property for less than is owed.

The big concern is when banks will begin to list for sale more of the distressed homes they've kept off the market, which could hurt prices. Banks slowed their foreclosure processes last fall after a public outcry over thousands of improperly documented foreclosure cases. The other issue is when Stockton will regain jobs. The unemployment rate in the local county — 17.6% in February — is one of the nation's highest. Moody's Analytics predicts Stockton-area home prices won't return to their 2006 peak for more than 20 years.

Still, some people say it's time to buy, including Cary Fopiano, 41. Since 1996, she and her husband, Steve, 50, have made money on two of the Stockton homes they've owned. They lost money on one but are still far ahead. The stay-at-home mom and manufacturing manager bought their fourth home last year, on a lake in an upscale neighborhood. They're shopping for another to turn into a rental investment.

"Prices are about as low as they can go," Fopiano says.

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New London County will take the biggest hit, as well-paid chemists leave for jobs elsewhere. Homes in Middlesex and even Hartford County will feel the pinch too, since many two-career couples live at halfway points between each person's job.

The Pfizer job cuts will affect homes priced in the $350,000 to $650,000 range. Arch Chemicals is moving its Cheshire operation to Georgia, so combined with the Pfizer layoffs, this creates a glut of homes in this price range as professionals leave the state for jobs elsewhere. 

Those who must sell should be sure their home is in move-in condition before listing it for sale; price it aggressively because excess supply means sellers will have more competition for the smaller pool of buyers. 

11:35 a.m. EST, December 27, 2010hc-50-cent-money-pit-1228-20101226

Think your house is a money pit?

You've got nothing on rapper 50 Cent and his sprawling, 17-acre estate in Farmington, which has been on the market for three years with no takers.

Keeping up the property costs about $450,000 a year, covering everything from taxes and insurance right down to winterizing the sprinkler system and replacing burned out exterior light bulbs, according to estimates from area real estate brokers.

Add in the cost of occasional big-ticket items like roofs, furnace and painting and annual costs would easily top a half-million dollars.

All for a 50,000-square-foot house the size of a low-rise office building in suburbs. The mansion made headlines last week when a couple of guys broke in, highlighting the fact that the property isn't even occupied much of the time.

But it costs money full-time, just to keep it in showing condition on the chance that someone wants to buy it. The hefty maintenance bill would be enough to run as many as 100 apartments in West Hartford where scores of people live year-round.

"That's not quite a city block, but it's a neighborhood," said Marc Gottesdiener, a longtime Hartford apartment owner and appraiser. "It's mind-boggling for just one house."

Rob Giuffria, a broker with Prudential Premier Homes in Farmington, said the mansion with its 21 bedrooms and 37 bathrooms isn't likely to be shown more than once in 60 days.

"All this is just to hold the property," Giuffria said of the costs.

Giuffria estimates that the biggest chunk— $175,000 — is for round-the-clock security, a cost that may well go up after two intruders scaled a fence last week and broke into the compound. One was apprehended drinking a bottle of wine.

Heidi Picard-Ramsay, an agent with William Raveis in Avon who has the listing, concurred with the high cost of upkeep, but said it is all handled by G-Unit, the New York company 50 Cent co-founded. G-Unit did not return a telephone call seeking comment on the actual costs.

Property taxes run $98,000 a year, and policies that insure the property likely carry hefty premiums of at least $30,000 annually, Giuffria said.

Grounds maintenance requires at least one-full time groundskeeper and probably some part-time help at a cost of about $48,000 a year. Then there are the specialists: an arborist at $4,000 a year; an electrician to maintain exterior lighting, at $1,000 a year; a plumber to winterize the sprinkler system for another $1,000. The indoor and outdoor pools add at least another $3,000.

Inside, there's the cleaning bill of $2,000 a month, but that's the least of it. Gas heat can run as much as $5,000 a month in winter, while air conditioning likely sets the rapper back $8,000 a month during the summer.

50 Cent, whose real name is Curtis James Jackson III, bought the property for $4.1 million, but reportedly spent between $6 and $10 million on renovations. The mega-mansion also has been owned by boxer Mike Tyson and was built by real estate swindler Benjamin Sisti.

The rapper first put the property on the market in 2007 with an asking price of $18.5 million. It has since been reduced three times to $9,999,999, the price as of a month ago.

"It's the antithesis of his upbringing," Gottesdiener said. "He was brought up in tough times, his family scraping money together. The money to maintain such a residence is extremely ludicrous compared with his upbringing."

Picard-Ramsay said there has been some interest following the recent price reduction, but gawkers need not bother: a full background check on financials ferrets out those who can't afford the price tag.

The size, location and asking price will continue to make the property, which also includes a gym, billiard rooms, racquetball courts and a disco with a "dancing room" featuring stripper poles, a tough sell, Giuffria said.

There's no estimate on how much it costs to polish those stripper poles.

By TERESA M. PELHAM, Special to the Courant

November 7, 2010

When Hank Leftwich moved into his home in the Elmwood section of West Hartford in 2007, he quickly grew weary of walking his dog past a vacant house a few doors down with "waist-high grass."

He took matters into his own hands.

"I called the town and the health department several times, but they said there was nothing they could do," he said, noting that he had seen rats and raccoons in the yard. "So every time I mowed my yard, I would mow that yard, too. For the last couple of years, it was on my route of lawns to mow."

Yes, he did say his "route." In recent months, the house next door to his Richard Street home also became vacant, and he added that yard to his list.

"I can either spend two hours on the phone or one hour mowing lawns," he said, noting that a lawn service began maintaining the long-vacant house this August, and new neighbors recently moved in next door. "Either a landscaping company took pity on the house, or the town finally figured out whose responsibility it was."

Many homeowners whose streets are pocked with long-foreclosed or abandoned houses might take the same action as Leftwich. Although it raises issues such as liability and trespassing, such proactive measures address a tough problem. A blighted property or a house in foreclosure can affect sale prices for neighboring homes, and besides, it's an eyesore.

Exactly how much these houses affect sale prices of nearby houses is difficult to quantify.

"My job is to make a homebuyer understand that this is a temporary situation," said Ray Romero, a Realtor with William Raveis in West Hartford. "Once the property turns over, the pride of ownership will return."

So what can a seller or a concerned neighbor do if the house across the street has grass a foot high and phone books strewn across the driveway?

"You can't go onto the property and take matters into your own hands," said Evan Goldstein, a partner with Updike, Kelly and Spellacy, specializing in creditors' rights and bankruptcy issues. "The owner can bring a trespass action against you. If you're going onto somebody's lawn uninvited, you're opening up a Pandora's box of issues. I certainly wouldn't advise any of my clients to do that."

Goldstein said that if the homeowner is still present, a neighbor can knock on the door and ask if they would like help in maintaining the property. Other options include contacting one's local or state representative for help.

"If the house is bank-owned, the bank has an obligation to take care of the house," he said. "The worst situation is if the owner has walked away, but title hasn't vested in the name of the bank. That's the time period that's the most difficult and uncertain."

Some situations are easier for neighbors to manage.

In a prominent spot within a new Farmington development of well-kept lawns and homes under construction, a house sits vacant with a "For Sale" sign out front.

Owned by a relocated active-duty member of the armed forces, the house is now in a "short sale" situation, which many buyers avoid because of a potentially lengthy sale process. The house has remained empty for over a year, but neighbors are taking care of the property.

Although a full-fledged homeowners association will not be formed until more of the 158 homes in the neighborhood are completed, homeowners — working in tandem with the builder — are seeing to it that the lawn is cut and the property is maintained, with the help of a $140-per-month maintenance fee all homeowners pay.

"We're trying to keep the neighborhood looking good," said Kevin McCarthy, a schoolteacher and homeowner helping to oversee landscaping issues and upkeep in the neighborhood. "It helps maintain everyone's property values."

In fact, sales of new homes in the Snowberry Cobble neighborhood have stayed strong.

"That house hasn't affected us at all," said Nicholas Murano, sales manager for Bristol-based Stephen Realty, which has already built 43 houses in the planned development. "We just sold four new houses, all in the mid-fours. If anything, the traffic from that house has helped, because people come to see the house and see that we have this sales office and come in and buy a house."

At the other end of the spectrum, said Rob Giuffria, a Broker with Prudential Premier Homes in Farmington, is a property such as 2 Woodside Circle in Hartford's West End. The grand 7,000-square-foot brick mansion is owned by Bank of America, and its landscaping has not been maintained.

Giuffria points to 13 properties in the West End neighborhood listed above $300,000 that have been removed from the market or have had contracts expire since January 2009.

"What is the effect of this house being in disrepair?" he said. "It significantly and negatively impacts a West End homeowner's ability to sell."

Economist and West Hartford Town Manager Ronald Van Winkle believes that while having a home in foreclosure affects the ability of others in the neighborhood to sell a house, foreclosures haven't yet had an impact on pricing, at least in this area.

"It's important, but it's not driving the market like it is in Florida and in the Southwest," he said. "In a community with a lot of foreclosures, the foreclosures tend to set the price. In Connecticut, it's having an impact, but not a large enough impact to see prices going down. Prices are down because demand is down."

The town regularly gets requests to intervene when a property is being neglected, Van Winkle said, with 30 neglected properties now on its radar.

"But we can't go onto a private property and mow the lawn," he said. "We can issue a ticket for $67 for each day that a lawn is left to grow longer than 6 inches high."

Van Winkle said that although some homeowners do "leave the front door open and walk away," most people in West Hartford — even if in foreclosure — do take care of their homes.

"They don't let their houses deteriorate just because they're mad at their bank," he said. "Their neighbors are their friends."

Leftwich, on Richard Street, said he was not worried about getting into trouble for trespassing.

"I figured at least then I'd have somebody to ask to pay for my gas," he said.

Source: The Hartford Courant

Greater Hartford Home Inventory Indicates A Solid Buyer's Market

By KENNETH R. GOSSELIN, kgosselin@courant.com

8:06 PM EDT, October 18, 2010

If you're house-hunting in Greater Hartford, there's no shortage of choices.

For the second month in a row, the number of single-family houses on the market in September increased by double digits compared with the same month a year ago. Sales have continued to weaken now that the federal home-buyer tax credit has expired, according to a report Monday from the Greater Hartford Association of Realtors.

The number of houses for sale in the 57-town area tracked by the association was 6,532 in September, up 14.4 percent from 5,711 for the same month in 2009. Based on closed sales last month, there is nearly a 12-month supply of houses on the market.

That means the area headed into the fall in a deepening buyer's market. A six-month supply is considered healthy, not tipped in favor of either the buyer or the seller.

There was one bright spot in Monday's report: The median sale price increased 4.5 percent in September, to $230,000, from $220,000 a year ago.

The activity earlier in the year stoked by the tax credit raised optimism about the housing market, coaxing more sellers to put their properties on the market. While the tax credit was available, buyers rushed to meet the deadline, sending sales surging.

Now, sales of single-family houses are weakening, not getting the jump-start intended by the credit because the economic recovery remains uncertain. Employers generally remain cautious about expansion and hiring, sapping would-be buyers of confidence about the prospect of finding a job should they lose theirs.

Closed sales in September fell 28.1 percent to 568, down from 790 for the same month a year ago.

Rob Giuffria, a broker at Prudential Premier Homes in Farmington, said the surge earlier in the year meant more buyers purchased homes sooner than they might have — accounting for some of the weakness in sales now.

"Buyers are being conservative and putting off decisions," Giuffria said. "Until job growth picks up, you won't see housing pick up."

Monday's report also pointed to continued weakness in sales in coming months. Houses under deposit fell nearly 33 percent, to 657, from 976 in September 2009.

Copyright © 2010, The Hartford Courant

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September 26, 2010

After living in Virginia for six years, Doug and Tanya Cosmini wanted to get back home. The couple had grown up in Connecticut and, now that they were parents, wanted to be close to family again.

Doug, 30, had been stationed with the Army in Virginia and after leaving, as a captain, took a job with Cintas Corp. When a position at the Plainville facility of the uniform company opened, Doug, an engineer, jumped on it.

In March, he and Tanya, 31, visited for three days to get a feel for the real estate market in the area. Working with Rob Giuffria, a broker and relocation specialist with Prudential Premier Homes, they saw at a variety of properties, none of which was a match.

In May, Doug returned for more house hunting, this time without Tanya, who was nine months pregnant at the time with their second son. Then their plans had to be put on hold because their house in Virginia hadn't sold.

The couple decided to rent their Virginia home, and, after securing a three-year lease, they moved in July to a rented house in West Simsbury. They continued looking, checking out homes for sale in Farmington, Avon, Simsbury, West Hartford and Glastonbury.

Then Tanya, a real estate agent taking a hiatus from work to be home with her two young sons, found a listing on the Internet for a newer colonial in Avon on more than an acre of land.

"I knew it was the right one," she said of the five-bedroom house on Parkview Drive.

Built in 1985, the 2,314-square-foot home had a finished basement, open floor-plan and a level 1.2-acre yard. It also had been recently updated and was in a community with strong schools, a priority for the couple.

Tanya said they had been watching the market to see what houses were selling for and how long they were for sale. She immediately recognized the house in Avon as a good value, she said.

The Cosminis signed a contract in late July, paying $407,000 for the house, $32,000 less than the list price. They closed Monday and are planning to move in mid-October.

Home values in Avon have seen some dramatic declines since the real estate bubble of 2006-2007 burst, Giuffria said. The market there is in the midst of a "price correction," he said, a boon for savvy buyers looking for deals.

The home was the only one on which the couple made an offer, he said. They looked at 30 to 40, he said.

Working with a fellow professional was a pleasure, Giuffria said of Tanya. "As a real estate agent, she knew what she was looking for."

Loretta Waldman, Special to The Courant.

AVON FACTS

Population (2009): 17,558

Median single-family home price (Jan.-June 2010): $395,000

Median condo price (Jan.-June 2010): $265,000

Single-family home sales (2007): 228

August 09, 2010 | By LORETTA WALDMAN, Special to The Courant

Finding the right house can be a challenge, even for a family accustomed to moving a lot. Take John Rugel and his wife, Melissa Romeo, a 40-something couple in the insurance business who were being transferred from Houston, Texas, to Connecticut.

First came the sticker shock, said Rugel, an executive with Met Life. Comparable homes in Connecticut cost roughly double what they would in Texas, he said. Then there was the question of where to live. With a second baby on the way, the couple wanted a quiet community but not so quiet that getting to work and shopping would be inconvenient.

After looking at 35 to 40 homes in close to a dozen towns, Rugel and Romeo, a home-based risk assessment specialist, found a property that fit. The 3,332-square-foot colonial perched on a hill has an expansive view of the Farmington Valley and a basement, which their house in Texas lacked. The master bedroom is a spacious at 20 feet by 26 feet and has two walk-in closets, a fireplace and room enough for a couch and television. The children's rooms also are bigger, and the house, built in 2002, has an office and basement play-area, both of which topped the couple's list of must-haves, Rugel said. It also has a sunroom with "a ton" of windows.

The couple closed on July 1, paying $473,000, $16,900 less than the asking price and nearly $27,000 less than the price at which it originally was listed. Settled in now for over a month, Rugel said they are happy with their choice.

"A lot of people with kids are starting to say hello," he said. "The cool mornings are great. When I'm out walking the dog, I can see the sun coming up over the mountain on the other side of the valley. We absolutely love it."

Rob Giuffria, a Broker and relocation specialist with Prudential Premier Homes, Farmington, CT, helped ease their transition with his patience and special services, Rugel said. Finding the right house took four or five house-hunting junkets to far-flung towns that included Middletown, Bristol and Marlborough. To accommodate Romeo — seven months pregnant and unable to fly — Giuffria took videos of each house they visited and sent them to her on YouTube.

The move was Rugel's sixth in 15 years, most of which were not as smooth.

"This experience was such a pleasant surprise for me," he said. "It really helped ease things for us."

— Loretta Waldman, Special to The Courant

HOUSE PARTICULARS

BURLINGTON FACTS

Population (2009): 9,073

Median single-family home price (Jan.-May 2010): $300,000

Single-family home sales (2007): 129

Less than $100,000: 1

$100,000-$199,000: 14

$200,000-$299,000: 29

$300,000-$399,000: 39

$400,000 or more: 46

New housing permits:

2008: 21

2007: 11

2006: 28

2005: 23

2004:35

2003: 54

Housing stock: 3,246 units, 95 percent single-family

Owner-occupied: 93 percent

Housing stock built pre-1950: 9 percent

SOURCES: Connecticut Department of Economic and Community Development; Connecticut Economic Resources Center; The Warren Group

My prediction: The Wall Street Journal reports that large companies are hiring, especially in the tech industry. So I expect demand for condos geared to young professionals to jump. ... The market for high-end homes is still in the toilet.

March 28, 2010

For people looking to buy homes, the Internet has become the first stop of choice. A 2008 profile of home buyers and sellers conducted by the National Association of Realtors found cyberspace was the top source of home-search information 87 percent of the time. That's 2 percent more than real estate agents ranked in the survey, more than 20 percent more than yard signs and better than 40 percent more than open houses and newspaper ads.

Consumers are the big winners in this technology-driven paradigm shift. With hundreds of real estate sites to choose from, there's more information available than ever, some of it once accessible to agents only. With pictures, videos and satellite-generated bird's-eye views, buyers can compare homes without leaving their homes or offices, and that leaves more time and energy for the most promising properties when the comes time to do the legwork.

The sites have been a boon for agents, too. The ones surviving, and even thriving, in this tenuous real estate market are those that are tapping into technology to enhance their services and connect with would-be clients. Which sites they recommend to house hunters depends on the agent.

Rob Giuffria, vice president and broker with Premier Prudential Homes, named Realtor.com, Zillow.com and Bing.com as his top three picks.

Realtor.com, the official site of the National Association of Realtors, has listings for millions of homes in regions across the United States and Canada. The site is also "broker agnostic," Giuffria says, meaning no broker gets better placement than any other. Information includes the type of house, pictures and listing agent. But the home-value feature is not as accurate as others, he said.

Zillow.com is a Seattle-based website that, among other information, provides estimated home values. The company pulls data for a variety of pools and, using algorithms, determines the approximate value, or Zestimate, of the house. Giuffria maintains that the Hartford-area data is accurate within plus or minus 8 percent. While he said the majority of agents might disagree, "it's very defensible data."

Bing.com, a search engine powered by Microsoft, takes Zillow's trademark satellite images of homes a step further, giving users a closer bird's-eye view roughly 200 feet from above the property. The images also can be manipulated and viewed from four sides, a handy feature for assessing surrounding terrain or determining whether the house borders a commercial site, busy road or a house in disrepair.

"So, when a [client] says, 'I want to see this house,' they already know what's around it and how the land is situated," says Giuffria. "Is it on the side of a mountain or is it next to a river? It does not replace seeing the house, but if you can exclude this or that home, you can spend more time on the houses that meet your criteria."

Margaret Wilcox, an agent and broker with Coldwell Banker Real Estate, ranks Realtor.com as her second-favorite website. She said the time lag in posting information to the site can render information about the status of a particular property inaccurate. First choice for Wilcox and her team of top-selling Glastonbury-area associates is their company's site CBMoves.com, which connects users to more than 200,000 listings in the tri-state area and links to everything from school-district data and agent bios to support with financing and getting the phone and electricity connected. Other major real estate companies and agencies also have sites.

Wilcox said Zillow.com can be valuable but must be used with caution. Property values on the site rely on town assessment information and recent sales, which led to a mistake in the value of a property she was involved with.

"The property was located on the town line and [the site] didn't differentiate from the house in one town and a house a street over in the other town," Wilcox said. "It can just be very misleading."

Mobile Technology

Driving the rise in reliance on the Internet is the evolution of smart phone and other mobile technology, experts say. The Internet consumer "inhales information, often works on their own and demands timely responses," Spencer Raskoff, Zillow.com's chief operating officer, told attendees at a Pacific Northwest Housing Summit last week. There is no such thing as too much information for these users, who routinely want data on historical asking prices, days on the market, seller's mortgage amount, what the seller paid for the property, the value of nearby homes, he said.

"In the last six months, there has been a revolution of these devices," said Raskoff, whose company recently unveiled a GPS-enabled Zillow app for Google's Android smart phone. Using it, prospective buyers can call up information on a given property by tapping in the street address as they drive by.

"It's an information bonanza for home buyers," he said.

Such developments, of course, have radically transformed the way agents and brokers conduct business and their relationship with the buying and selling public. Cynthia Burke, an agent with Keller Williams Real Estate, pays for an upgraded version of Realtor.com that feeds any new listings she gets to dozens of real estate and social-networking sites, including Zillow.com, Trulia.com, Facebook, Twitter and even Craigslist.

"It's crucial to get information everywhere possible," she said.

Michael Marsden, an agent and broker with the River To Shore Group of Page Taft GMAC Real Estate, says he invests from $1,200 to $1,500 a month to maintain his presence on the Internet, which includes websites he created to reach home buyers (CTHomesByEmail.com) and sellers (ValueMyCThome.com) and an iPhone app.

"You have to spend a lot of money to get a bigger piece of a smaller pie," Marsden said.

CTReal.com is another option for consumers looking to purchase property in Connecticut, Marsden said. The site of the statewide multiple listing service, CTReal.com is essentially a free, public portal to the same database he as a Realtor uses, Marsden said.

Burke, of Keller Williams, notes that traditional means of marketing real estate, particularly newspapers, still play an important role.

"Not only for people not online but because people like to carry the paper with them when they go to open houses," she said. "It's nice to have the information all on one piece of paper and be able to look at the pictures."

Agents also remain an important part of the process, said Susan Brine, an agent with Coldwell Banker. "There is still a lot of hand-holding," Brine said. "Even with all the information on the Internet, buyers still need that personal touch they get with an agent."

• Contact Loretta Waldman at lorettafwaldman@gmail.com.

Copyright © 2010, The Hartford Courant

December 13, 2009

When David Chzaszcz put his family's four-bedroom Tolland house up for sale in September, he took his real estate agent's advice and listed it at $449,000, even though he was hoping it would sell for a higher price.

"Our house was listed for, technically, less than a week and a half," Chzaszcz says. "We had eight or nine people come through. ... Four made offers."

After a bidding war that drove the price ever higher, the Chzaszczs closed on their house in November for a final sale price of $470,000.

If it seems like a risky strategy, it's not, according to several real estate agents who have used it recently. What people forget, agents say, is that a seller isn't required to accept an offer, even if it's for the full asking price.

Chzaszcz's agent, Rob Giuffria of Prudential Premier Homes in Farmington, tells clients that pricing slightly below market value will generate the kind of traffic that creates a flurry of interest among buyers in the crucial early days that the house is on the market.

"You have the most amount of leverage as the seller in the first 15 days," he says. "When you have people looking at your house, they have to believe that if they don't buy the house, someone else will."

Too often, Giuffria says, a house is listed at the price the homeowner wants to get, which is usually on the hopeful side. Sometimes, that's the result of real estate agents' telling a homeowner what they want to hear to get the listing.

"If I came in and said your home is worth $500,000, you're going to be pretty receptive," he says. "There's an inherent bias in agents' overpricing homes to get listings."

But an overly optimistic listing price may leave a house languishing on the market, which often results in a drop in price, Giuffria says. That puts the advantage with the buyer and may result in a final sale significantly below the lowered list price.

Reluctant Homeowners

Raymond Romero, who is based in West Hartford and works for William Raveis Real Estate, says that agents have to know the market and how many buyers might be interested in a particular property before they recommend a particular listing price.

"Most people want to know: How long is it going to take to sell?" Romero says. "I tell them, 'I have a price where I can sell it in one hour, one day, one week, one month, one year.' ... You try to find out from an owner's perspective their time frame."

Romero agrees with Giuffria that agents often compete for listings by telling homeowners that their homes can sell for a price that may reflect wishful thinking more than the actual market.

"As an agent, I have to be prepared to walk away from a listing price that I don't believe will sell the property," Romero says.

He also agrees that listing a house below market value can be a great strategy, but one that can be a tough sell to clients, even when it may be in their best interest.

"Once you get people interested in the property, it becomes a pride issue. ... I've noticed that it really does work," Romero says. "But on the listing side, it's a much harder discussion to have: 'How am I going to put it below to get a higher price?'"

Romero says he tells his clients that the lower price will generate more interest in the property and trigger competition among buyers.

"You have to use psychology in this business," he says.

Take It Or Leave It

While Giuffria is sold on the general principle of listing a house at about 98 percent of market value, he says only about 20 percent of his clients will try the strategy.

"Most sellers view agents as just wanting to sell a house at any price," he says. "So you have to have a high degree of trust with the seller and the listing broker."

In the case of a buyer offering full price with no other offers, the seller can choose to take the offer or not.

"Most sellers are under the mistaken belief that if someone offers them list price, they have to sell their home," Giuffria says. "You can just say, 'I don't accept your offer.'"

Romero agrees.

"No one can force you to accept it," he says.

A Long-Term View

Joseph Stafford of Joseph Stafford Associates in West Hartford has been in the real estate business for 42 years.

"I've been up and down this roller coaster a few times," he says.

In this market, Stafford says, it's more important than ever to price competitively. Sellers have a short window to generate interest among the small group of buyers waiting to see whatever comes on the market.

"Once something stays on the market for a couple of months," he says, "no one is going to pay the list price."

Stafford recently listed a house near West Hartford Center, for example, for $369,900 and quickly sold it for $385,000 after a bidding war. If the house had been overpriced, he says, the bidding war never would have happened.

"There's not a lot of competition for good listings," he says. "In the first five or six days, if you're going to have a bidding war, that's usually when it happens."

Stafford also recently listed a house in the Elmwood section of West Hartford for $199,900 and sold it for $204,900. If the sellers had listed it at the price they wanted, he says, the house may have sold for a lot less.

"There's an old saying," Stafford says: "The one that expects the most usually ends up with the least."

Copyright © 2009, The Hartford Courant

Following the closing of our house at 25 Strawfield Rd in Farmington, I wanted to write this note of appreciation and recommendation.

The sale of our house was a critical aspect of our relocation to Texas.  Helping us navigate through our relocation package and maximize our benefits was a top priority.  Despite a low demand in our price range in Farmington, we were able to get a contract within 60 days. 

Throughout the process, I never doubted your ability to close, and in the end, you found the buyer and got it done.  From contract signing to closing day, everything was smooth.  Your knowledge and foresight were critical throughout the process.  I would highly recommend your services to anybody considering selling or buying in the Farmington Valley or anywhere in Connecticut.

Please feel free to share this note with potential clients and don’t hesitate to list me as a reference should the need arise.

Please do stay in touch.

Best regards,

Martin Balleux
Flower Mound, TX

martinballeux@hotmail.com

"This is my fifth home and I've worked with a different realtor each time. Quite simply, Rob is a superstar, far and away the best I've retained. He knows his craft and he's absolutely dogged -- one example of many, he actually brought potential buyers into the home of folks who had wanted to make an offer on my house but were having trouble getting theirs sold through their own realtor. Rob has also been extremely diligent and helpful with all the details, like getting repair folks in and out of the house, etc., that other realtors wouldn't do or would do badly. I credit entirely his tenacity with getting my house under contract in this very difficult market. I generally do not give endorsements, but I have no hesitation in recommending Rob to you. Good luck and feel free to call me tonight if you have additional questions. David."
David, Attorney in West Hartford