Thanks to Nicole Lahti for bringing this to our attention. Since I'm a Viet Nam veteran and have 3 kids who are or have been in the military, I think this is great news, and couldn't happen to a more desserving group of men and women.

Back in September, we posted here that William Raveis Real Estate, Mortgage and Insurance had been nominated by The Commercial Record as the best real estate company in Connecticut. Today, Bill Raveis, President and CEO, proudly announces that the company has, indeed, won that distinction:

This follows closely the recent announcement that the company had also been named the best real estate company in Massachusetts for the second consecutive year. The full results will be published in the October 23rd edition of the Commercial Record.

Congratulations to our management, staff and fellow associates for this great team effort!

[Source: William Raveis Real Estate blog]

The Iceman Cometh…

Now that Autumn has graced us with her presence, you can be sure that the frost, ice, snow, and sub-zero temperatures can’t be far behind. Time to put away your shorts, flip-flops, halter tops, T-shirts and air conditioners, and drag out the thermal underwear, boots, parkas and ice scrapers and prepare ourselves to survive another Winter.

By the same token, your home needs some preparation to be ready for winter and provide you with a warm and comfortable retreat away from the harshness of the elements.  Here’s a checklist of things you should do to get your home in shape to enjoy winter.

Inside…

• The most important thing is to ensure that your heating system is in peak operating condition. You can test it yourself to make sure it puts out heat when the thermostat is turned up, but we recommend you have it checked by a qualified heating technician. Most utility companies have service plans you can sign up for that provide periodic checks of your furnace for a nominal fee.
• Make sure all heating vents, baseboards and radiators are working properly and not blocked so that warm air can circulate freely.
• If not already in place, it’s a good idea to install carbon monoxide (CO2) detectors in any areas where you might suspect the presence of this silent but deadly gas. Most home improvement stores sell these detectors, and you can even get them with smoke detectors combined into one unit.
• Remove any window air conditioning units and check the closed windows for drafts; seal any leaks that you find. If the A/C unit can’t be removed, at least protect it with a good quality air conditioner cover.
• If you have a fireplace, it’s a good idea to have it professionally serviced to ensure the chimney isn’t obstructed, that it’s clean and there are no creosote build-ups, and there are no cracks in the masonry that might cause a fire to spread into the walls behind the chimney.
• Check any exposed water pipes in uninsulated areas like crawlspaces to ensure they are properly insulated. Cracked pipes in the winter are no fun!
• Check the weather stripping on all doors and windows to make sure no drafts enter your home. Replace any that is cracked, brittle or missing.

…and Outside.

• Make sure the roof is in good condition, and make any needed repairs to shingles or flashing.
• Clean out all gutters and rain spouts. Clogged rain gutters can lead to ice damming, which in turn can cause leaks inside your home.
  
• Turn off the water supply to exterior faucets and drain the water from them. Disconnect any garden hoses, drain the water and store them for the winter.
• Either cover all patio furniture or store it in a shed, if available.
• Whatever your method of snow removal, make sure it’s ready for winter: inspect shovels for cracked blades and handles, replace if necessary; have gas on hand for your snow blower and inspect it to ensure there are no blockages which could damage the machine or cause injury. Or, have your snow removal company’s phone number handy!

Another great idea is to have a Home Energy Audit performed on your home. We wrote a post about this last year, and it really is a valuable tool to help you prepare for the winter heating season.

These are just a few tips to help you get your home ready for cold weather. Taking action now could be the difference between a nice, comfy winter and a long, miserable one.

For the past few years, we have participated in our company’s annual drive to collect donations for the William Raveis Breast Cancer Research Fund.  We would again like to offer our friends and clients the opportunity to help this exceptionally worthy cause by investing in a chance to win some seriously great prizes in our annual raffle.

Tickets this year are only $5 each, and we have a virtually unlimited supply of them, so don't feel like to need to hold back! Simply leave a comment on this post to let us know how many tickets you would like, then MAIL a check to us at:

Pat & Wayne Harriman

William Raveis Real Estate

465 S. Main St.

Cheshire, CT 06410

(Please make checks payable to : William Raveis Charitable Fund, Inc.)

As soon as we receive your check, we’ll send your tickets to you, with our wishes for good luck….and our thanks for your help! Or if you’d rather pay by credit card, just call us at 203-605-3873 and we can do it all over the phone, or we can meet face to face if you're local!

Please scroll down for a copy of the ticket showing the prizes available, and some general background on the William Raveis Breast Cancer Research Fund.  Have a look, and I’m sure you’ll agree this is something you want to participate in too!

Won’t you please help out this year?

2009 marks the 5^th anniversary for the William Raveis Charitable Fund, Inc. and the William Raveis Breast Cancer Research Fund. We’ve Raised more than One Million Dollars over the course of these past five years in support of those diagnosed with breast cancer and in search of a cure. We could not have accomplished this without your raffle ticket purchases and generous donations. Thank you!

In January of this year, The William Raveis Charitable Fund, Inc. has pledged $750,000 to establish the William Raveis ACS Navigator Care Program at the University of Connecticut Heath Center, Farmington, CT and $165,000 to the Navigator Care Program at the Beth Israel Deaconess Hospital, Boston, MA, in conjunction with the American Cancer Society. With the assistance of trained volunteers/survivors, this innovative program helps patients navigate through diagnosis and treatment. These programs are expanding to include patients with other types of cancer as well.

194,280 new cases and 40,610 deaths from breast cancer are expected to be reported this year. Excluding cancers of the skin, breast cancer is the most common cancer among women, accounting for nearly 1 in 4 cancers diagnosed in US women. This year, approximately 1,910 cases of breast cancer are expected to occur among men, accounting for about 1% of all breast cancers.

Let’s give everyone a fighting chance. Thank you for your support!

Tomorrow, September 11th, 2009, marks the 8th anniversary of one of the grimmest chapters in American history, the attacks on the World Trade Center in New York City. The horror of that day, and the days that followed, are forever burned into our collective consciousness. While our nation as a whole has moved on from that day, the pain and anguish still linger and many localities hold memorial services and events commemorating the lives that were lost and irreparably changed on that day.

Several local towns are planning memorial events, so we have taken the liberty to list here the ones we know of (as reported by the Meriden Record-Journal and Jason Zandri in his blog):

Meriden: City of Meriden 9/11 Memorial Service, Friday, 7 p.m., New Life Church, 262 Bee St.
Wallingford: 9/11 Remembrance Ceremony, Friday, 8:30 a.m., Parade Grounds, Town Hall, 45 S. Main St.
Southington: Third annual 9/11 Ceremony, Friday, 10:30 a.m., The Summit at Plantsville, 261 Summit St.
Cheshire: Eighth annual Mark Jardim Memorial Jog, Oct. 11, 1 p.m., Cheshire Park, off Highland Avenue.

Wallingford will be the only area town to hold an official ceremony, at 8:30 a.m. on the Parade Ground in front of Town Hall, 45 S. Main St. At 6:30 p.m. that evening, the town’s three volunteer fire de­partments— Yalesville, North Farms and East Wallingford — will have open hous­es, with each showing a video about Sept. 11.

The keynote speaker at the Meriden service will be Stanley Praimnath, who was working on the 81st floor of the World Trade Center’s South Tower when the second plane hit. Praim­nath was trapped under a wall of debris in a stairwell but was rescued by two other survivors, including Brian Clark, who served as the keynote speaker of last year’s event.

The Summit at Plantsville, a nursing and re­habilitation center on Summit Street in Southing­ton, will host its third annual Sept. 11 memori­al ceremony. The event is scheduled for 10:30 a.m. and will feature speeches by members of the Southington Police and Fire departments and lo­cal politicians.

In Cheshire, the eighth annual Mark Jardim Memorial Jog, a five-kilometer fundraiser in hon­or of the Cheshire High School graduate who was killed in the attacks on the World Trade Cen­ter, is scheduled for Sunday, Oct. 11. The event, which has raised more than $40,000 for Jardim's scholarship foundation, Cheshire Special Olympics, the high school’s cross country team and other area charitable organizations, will take place at 1 p.m. along the trails of Cheshire Park.

Please join us in remembering the terrible events of that day: the fall of the twin towers; the attack on the Pentagon; and the crash of Flight 93 in Stonycreek Township, Pennsylvania. The courage and sacrifice of those that fell that day should never be forgotten.

We have published a couple of posts about homeowners staying safe when showing their homes to strangers, here and here. The sentiment applies equally as much to Realtors and this coincides with Realtor Safety Week, which runs from September 13th to the 19th this year.

Safety An Afterthought?

When one thinks of dangerous occupations, the first thing that usually pops into their minds is "policeman", "fireman", "soldier", or "cab driver". (Actually, of these four jobs, only cab driver is on the list of 10 most dangerous jobs!) Being a Realtor wouldn't normally be associated with such high-risk occupations; however, a career in real estate is definitely not without its hazards, and it's probably a safe bet that most Realtors don't give job safety the consideration it deserves. The opportunities for misfortune to befall an agent are many: working in high crime neighborhoods; showing houses to strangers alone, after dark, or both; or at open houses when people can walk in off the street unannounced. The first example has happened more than once, here's just one video report:





Here's an article regarding an attack in a vacant house.

What You Can Do

There's are many things you can do to lessen the chance you will be a victim of violence while doing your job; here a just a few:

   1. Make sure your cell phone is always charged
   2. Carry a flashlight in your car, preferably a Maglite that can be used as a weapon.
   3. Try to bring someone with you when showing houses or holding open houses
   4. Consider carrying Mace or pepper spray
   5. Let someone know where you're going when showing houses
   6. Trust your instincts

There are many more tips available, and NAR has a good resource available on their web site:

Field Guide to Realtor Safety

There is also a nice safety brochure put together by Tim Ayres at VictoriaBCRealEstateBlog:

The Safe Side: Realtor Safety Issues

Take the time to read through these resources and put them into practice. Your safety should be foremost in your mind, not just during Realtor Safety week, but all the time. Stay safe!

If what I heard is true, the Big Macs, Whoppers and Old Fashioned Hamburgers will soon be sharing the spotlight with a new neighbor. I just happened to check my Google Alerts and saw a Tweet by @sailormidori stating that Sonic Drive-In might be bringing their super-Sonic menu to the streets of Wallingford. Her proof? A job posting for a management position on Careerbuilder.com:

As you can see, this baby hasn’t even been advertised in the paper yet, being scheduled to appear in the Hartford Courant on 8/2/09. You can also see the full job posting here. Up to now, the closest incarnation of the Oklahoma City-based car-side food service provider was 70 miles to the Northwest, in Kingston, NY. Now, if this job posting bears fruit, we here in Wallyworld will finally be able to relate to those weird commercials that Sonic has plastered all over the local TV stations. You know, where the highly annoying Pete and TJ sit in the front of their minivan and discuss stupid stuff about the Sonic menu or some other thing, followed by the sound effect of someone getting smacked in the face (presumably either Pete or TJ).

Anyway, the commercials might be awful, but the thought of getting curb-side service with a smile from a friendly, roller-skate wearing, freckled Carhop in a mini-skirt is pretty cool. In anticipation of this glorious event, I have already secured a place among the Sonic elite, the group of fast food aficionados called Sonic Cruisers. I’ll now get a monthly newsletter, a surprise on my birthday and other cool stuff. If you’re down for that kind of thing, you can sign up here.

I have no clue where in Wallingford they’re going to put the new Sonic, but there are a few locations I can think of, the now-barren lot where the famous Yankee Silversmith Inn once stood for one (the Dining Car was trucked off yesterday), or maybe where the old Brooks Pharmacy was. They’ll need a good sized lot to accommodate all the gazillion cars that will be parked, waiting to be car-hopped, and it stands to reason somewhere on Route 5 will get the nod. Anyway, we’ll keep a ear out for more info and post it here when we get it.

Man, now if this doesn’t happen my stomach will never forgive me.

The advent of the Home Valuation Code of Conduct has caused an outpouring of negative opinion from almost every group involved in the home buying process, and rightly so. There have been uncounted articles and blog posts written about the harm it has done and will continue to do to the real estate market if it is not repealed, as Representatives Childress (D-MS) and Miller (R-CA) propose in their joint bill, HR 3044. This measure has currently been referred to committee (you can track its progress here) and calls for an 18 month moratorium on HVCC.

The impact of HVCC so far has been widespread; among other things, consumers have been hit with higher than usual charges, appraisers have lost income and loan approval times have been delayed and loan fees raised. In addition, there has been no entity created to oversee violations of the act, making any kind of consumer recourse impossible. It is hoped that HR 3044 wil be enacted soon to prevent any further damage to real estate transactions, but we need to show our support in order to bring this about.

There is a petition online that you can sign that will add your voice to the thousands that have already spoken out against HVCC. If you feel strongly that HVCC is detrimental to our industry, click here to sign the petition.

Thanks to Nima Rezvan for posting the URL for the petition on Facebook. He also created a group on Facebook that you can join if you're a Facebook member, located here.

Thanks for your support, and hopefully HVCC will soon be a bad but distant memory!