What a difference a few months make!

We've gone from one of the coldest, longest winters to one of the wettest springs, to temps in the high 80's and it's still APRIL!  Only in New England.

With the warm weather and colorful spring flowers and trees that have burst into bloom come the phone calls from buyers and sellers alike.  Homes are coming on the market every day and sales are happening at a nice clip.  (Listed a modest raised ranch in town yesterday and began negotiating an offer last night.)

Starter homes are seeing multiple offers and have been for months.  The good news is the higher priced homes are selling now after being pretty quiet for a while.  Even new construction is selling once again.

In the Greater Hartford area we watched prices drop but not anywhere near the plummet many other areas have seen.  Things seem to have stabilized and home prices appear to be around where they were in 2005.

The foreclosure and short sale markets are a mess and are adversely impacting things in the area but many buyers are shying away from these perceived "deals" due to the painfully lengthy purchase process.

Hopefully, things on that front will quiet down soon but I don't feel too optimistic.  We're still seeing layoffs at large employers in the area and that has a ripple effect.

But, I'm not complaining.  We've had it pretty good compared to many parts of the country.  This too will pass.

This incredible 26-stall barn with phenomenal indoor riding arena has to be seen to appreciate.  Originally built in 2004 for use by the owner's daughter, it was barely completed when a fall ended her riding career.  Their dreams of running an elite riding facility came to a sudden and unexpected halt.

Located on 55 acres of rolling countryside in the quaint town of Ashford, Connecticut this property is of a quality unlike anything you will find in the area. 

For additional information and an online tour, please click on this link:

http://www.realtor.com/search/listingdetail.aspx?loc=ashford%2cCT&mnp=1000000&mxp=3000000&sid=e2952b0ab9ae46df9180eaf56e5aea50&lid=1092490396&lsn=1&srcnt=1

With an IT background (former System Analyst for a large insurance company), I very much utilize and enjoy today's technology.  I live by my Blackberry, constantly use the Internet, email, text-messaging, etc.
When I left the corporate scene and began my real estate career in the mid 80's there was no MLS.  We had enormous books delivered filled with tiny, grainy photographs of available homes.  To show a property we would have to drive to the listing office, pick up the keys, show the home, then return the keys.  Seems comical in this day of lockboxes and MLS systems, doesn't it?

Well, in spite of my comfort level and experience I still don't hold a candle to what my three teenagers know growing up in an Internet-filled world.  Even though I text on a regular basis, the kids laugh at my lack of speed and text lingo. What can I say? I happen to like the English language as it is.

I was recently asked to review the professional profile a young agent had written about himself to have on his website.  It was unbelievable.  The entire thing was written in lower case with limited punctuation!  "u conn graduate" was one example found in his rambling narrative.  I'm concerned we have a whole generation of kids who don't know how to write proper (basic!) English when they need to.

But, getting back to my original thought for this post...

One thing I learned from my twin 19-year-old daughters is to never purchase anything online without first checking for available discount codes.  So, yesterday when I was about to order a new power cord for my Compaq notebook, I searched online for the best available price and decided to order directly from the HP online store. I then remembered my two daughters' advice and did a Google search for "Compaq Presario discount coupons" and immediately found a link that gave me a code to enter to get $10 off my order. I simply clicked on the coupon that worked for me and it then took me to the very site I was using to place the order in the first place! The site where I found the discount code is http://www.hppromotionalcodes.com/.

So, these kids may not know how to write a complete sentence but they certainly know where to go online to get the best deals.

Live and learn.