Ralph Ovalle

Kerri, you asked a tough question here with the words "most desirable".

Other homeowners in town can give you their personal opinions on what sections of town they like or don't like, but we in the real estate profession can not due to our professional ethics codes to which we are bound. You know what I mean, I hope -- what is 'most desirable' to one person is not to another, and what is least desirable to one party is in fact desirable to someone else. So naturally we have to be careful not to 'steer' or 'influence' since we sell and represent in all areas.

So, if you happen to know people living in the town, or if a Trulia reader here who is registered as a home buyer or seller is available to give you their feedback, that's one approach to get some views.

But what we in the realty profession can readily do is offer great ways to get a variety of information to help you get to know the town and its schools better.

You probably already know that West Hartford is a wonderfully diverse town. A capsule summary of its demographics can be found online on Wikipedia.org. The official home page for the town has a wealth of great detailed information on various aspects of the town. The byline of the town page begins with the words "Where City Style Meets Village Charm", and that's a pretty good lead in to the diversity the town has to offer. That web site is at west-hartford.com.

Schools are abundant throughout the town and so are websites with school information. I have an extensive school information site on ours by clicking on the Buying A Home tab first and then on School Information. And googling the words West Hartford CT schools will bring up a host of others.

And a terrific way to get to narrow down your choice of a section of town to live in is to drive it. Once you partner with a realtor to help you in your move to town he/she should be glad to drive you around town and point out various features so you can see for yourself what the town is all about.

Hopefully my answer and others by my colleagues here are helpful. I would loved to be considered to help you with the right location and the perfect home when you are ready.

Ralph Ovalle - Sun Oct 26 2008, 02:57

Hello Carla,

First:
I hope you have had good success in marketing it yourself, or will very soon!
(The more homes that sell in the market "by anyone and everyone", the better off "we all are" by having less "inventory on hand" in today's challenging economy.)

Second:
Naturally some of us realtor professionals closely watch the "For Sale by Owners" with great interest, even introducing ourselves and our services, because those FSBOs have publicly said they are interested in selling their home. Why, you might ask, the interest of realtors in contacting FSBOs? Statistics have proven for decades that FSBOs are a wonderful source of potential "listing business". Regretfully for FSBOs is that only 2% of all For Sale by Owners actually sell themselves... and 98% are eventually sold by real estate agents, so this is the reason for our keeping our name in front of you. Chances are overwhelmingly very high in our favor that a FSBO will eventually list with a full-time professional.

FSBOs tend to feel they can "save" by selling on their own, and that seems to be their prime motivation of "going it alone" and trying like hell to market their home themselves. I agree you may save a partial commission by selling it yourself and hope you, a fellow Trulia member, can.

As you are probably already well aware from your research, Buyer Agency guidelines in this State are specifically defined. And, for over 100 years it has been customary for sellers in this country to generally pay the commissions, and not the buyers, so naturally there are so many advantages for buyers using our services (i.e. professional realtors') that they come to us when ready to look or buy, and this leads to steep challenges for FSBOs to do things quite differently in order to market on their own.

If you do plan on interviewing the right agent for the job of selling your home, many of us fellow Trulia members who you see here would certainly love the opportunity for you to interview one of us. So I'll end with saying I would enjoy hearing from you. Once I list your house, I will treat your home as if it is my own!

But back to your "Trulia Voices" post for now: please accept my very best wishes for an early success in selling your home.

Regards,
Ralph Ovalle - Tue Oct 21 2008, 18:21

Hello Marilyn,

As Dan said so well below, you are already familiar with the aspect of condo and apartment living being one where the condo association almost always takes care of the exterior from landscaping to snow removal to trash removal, etc. Yet, West Hartford, which you spotted, is also a lovely community of single family homes and diverse suburban neighborhoods.

What caught my eye in your question was your opinion on West Hartford perhaps not having as large a selection of condos as you might have expected. Coming from NYC area, perhaps that is so compared to that metropolis, but I just offer a suggestion to you that many consumers seem to overlook: Don't just look on internet sites that offer "some" listings but not all. Trulia only captures listings from some realtor providers and from people who enter or enhance their individual listings on its site. Venture out and seek the site of a major real estate broker company of the MLS. There you will find every condo listing that is shared among the brokerage community. Trulia has wonderful supplements to other sites, but they are not a brokerage company and do depend on others. My brokerage site is below; you probably recognize the Coldwell Banker Residential Brokerage name as a major player and being in every state; but there are of other good major brokerage houses of course.

To give you an idea of what is currently available, I put together for you a listing of all West Hartford condos on the market with a listing price of $200,000 to a few thousand more than the top you what to pay. There are about 25. Here is a link that you can copy and paste into a browser and look at to see brief info on each listing, including a map showing its location within the town.

http://ctmls.mlxchange.com/Pub/EmailView.asp?r=1090765586&s=…

Naturally, my colleagues who have responded to your question and I are all interested in developing business, so we are eager to help people like you who are seeking answers to questions and ultimately seeking to move to our market area. An important thing for you will be to choose someone to help you in your search and offer advice, suggestions and ultimately be keen in negotiating so as to get you the best home at the best price and terms. Good luck with that (and naturally I would love to have you interview me for the job of working for you!).

Ralph Ovalle - Sat Oct 11 2008, 16:22

Hi Marc,

Trulia searches and pulls a majority of its listings to display on its site from realty company sites (example, I'm a realtor with Coldwell Banker Residential Brokerage and they get information from us) and realty advertising sites (like the advertising company called The Real Estate Book). Perhaps a smaller percentage of the listings they display are from individual realtors and consumers who are free to post after registering on Trulia's site.

In the case of the listing you showed with your question, the listing was pulled from an advertising site called The Real Estate Book. The realtor with the listing you saw chose to advertise at that site and not display a physical address in order to drive inquiries to them. Fair enough since it was their own advertising dollars, right? Personally, I only advertise my listings with the address as my goal is to have anyone sell a listing of mine. It serves my clients' goal of selling their property and I am happy with one side of the transaction.

Back to the particular listing you spotted. I see from the MLS (Multiple Listing Service) that the address is 120 Elmhurst Street in the Elmwood section of West Hartford. The property was listed by the broker on 7/31/08 for $249,900, going under contract in 17 days, and reported by the broker as having closed on 9/15/08 for a sale price of $135,000.

Ralph Ovalle - Sun Oct 5 2008, 06:14

Hey Chris,

I'll add my congrats to those who said they are glad you worked things out successfully, and to you who said you had a minor problem with your bank but were able to work things out within a few weeks. It isn't easy for a lot of us. Times are tough. I empathize with you, me and millions of others.

I caught site of the link that had Wolcott Hill written on it. I'm around the corner, so we are neighbors, Chris. Hey, the link only says a house on "Wolcott Hill" and not your specific address, or did I miss something? Most of us are not going the extra step to look on town records .. or on sites that have already accessed the details ... to find out about the specifics of a Lis Pendens situations.

One point is well taken: Trulia may need to reevaluate their reporting of Lis Pendens situations and not blatently name it on their site under a category called "Foreclosure". It has to be humilating to personally see one's address described as such. In legal terms a Lis Pendens is simply a written notice that a lawsuit has been filed concerning real estate. Recording a lis pendens simply secures plaintiff's claim against the property. There's more to it, but for anyone interested in a full disclosure of the meaning of Lis Pendens, just google it. I just want to add my concurrence to that of Chris's that sites, like perhaps Trulia and others, should rethink their "category descriptions" and not necessarily "categorize" a property under the terminology "foreclosure" just because a filing of Lis Pendens has been recorded on land records.

On the other side of the coin:
Public Information is indeed available to one and all. So, filings on town records are indeed available for all to see and can therefore be passed along by web sites and others.

Ralph Ovalle - Thu Sep 18 2008, 17:52