House Hunting in CT

Becky and I spent last weekend (Th-Mo) in Hartford, CT. I signed my contract and dropped it off at UConn while Becky interviewed with a recruiter on Friday.

Then Saturday we toured around West Hartford with our real estate agent looking at homes. At first is was a little discouraging. Basically there were two types of homes. Ones that had been on the market for 40 to 100 days typically had something wrong with them. Then there were homes that had been on less than a week which were better but priced at the top of our range.

We ended up spending Sunday looking back through two homes then seeing several new ones at Open Houses. Surprisingly, the one we liked the most was a split level, but it had recently been updated throughout. The best part was that it has a great location. Two blocks from the freeway, then only five miles into downtown Hartford. And less than two miles to shopping and the huge aquatics center.

Becky and I really liked West Hartford. The people, community and location are ideal. Plus, right near the split are the two best shopping areas in the Hartford area. Near the freeway is a mall with Trader Joe's and Nordstrom's. Two miles North toward the center of West Hartford is this cool walking mall with tons of little shops and great restaurants.

Oh, and the High School the boys would attend is only a stone's throw down the street from the split.

Monday morning on our way out we drove by the split one more time and talked to some more neighbors. There is a ton of kids in the neighborhood. It is very safe with lots of kids Connor and Colton's ages. Plus, since the neighborhood is a dead end circular block, kids are running all over.

We put a verbal on the house yesterday after arranging some creative financing (Becky of course doesn't have a job there yet) and researching prices. Our agent talked us into offering about 10% less than the asking price by showing the comparable sales in the area. We hope to hear a response this weekend.

Even the boys are starting to get excited about the city of Hartford and living in West Hartford.