New Home Construction Darien, Connecticut Spring 2012. April 5, 2012. By David Popoff, William Pitt Sotheby’s International Realty.   Currently on the Darien MLS there are 11 new built or nearly new built homes for sale that have been built from 2010 to 2012. The price range for these homes run from $1,095,000 for a 2,500 square foot home on 0.14 acres up to $5,495,000 for an 8,000 square foot home on 2.5 acres. These are high end custom built homes with features that run from green energy efficient details to super luxury homes for the modern day lifestyle. Click on the property links to read more or to search other properties in your area go to WPSIR.com.     New Construction Homes ~ Darien, Ct.David Popoff Newsletter | April 5, 2012 17 Charles StreetDarien, CT Price | Beds | Baths | ... 04/04/2012

This picture does not do my customer's dog justice.  As I pulled in the driveway, she was there...blocking the way...and I didn't want to hit her, so I just stopped the car in an odd place. This dog is sweet as can be and just wanted to play.  She was so cute and cuddly.  I wasn't actually sure if I was at the right house, so I called my customer...and rather than asking the color of the house, I described the dog and sure enough I was in the right place. It was very hard to leave this customer's house because the dog wanted to cuddle more. She could see I packing stuff up and about to put it in my car...so she kept blocking me.  It was hilarious and oh so cute.  I hope to see her again sometime. 04/04/2012

2012 1st Quarter Housing Market Report for Darien, Connecticut. April 4th, 2012 By David Popoff, William Pitt Sotheby’s International Realty, Darien, Ct. The 2012 Year To Date/Year Over Year comparison of the single family home market for Darien, Connecticut shows an improvement on new listings up 39.5% and pending sales up 54.1% with average sale price down 5.7% (See chart below). Currently on the market are 178 listings with a starting price of $395,000 for a 2 bedroom, 1 bath cottage and running up to the high end of $8,950,000 for a 1.17 acre waterfront home with 6433 square feet. Darien has a population of about 19,710 (2007) with an estimated median household income of $176,442 (2009) with an area of 14.9 square miles that includes six parks, two town beaches, athletic fields and ... 04/03/2012

NEGOTIATING OFFERS ON YOUR DARIEN CONNECTICUT HOME Getting an offer is not the end of the sales process, it's really the beginning.  Up until this point everything has simply been paving the way for the right buyer to make an offer on your home.  An offer includes more than the price, it includes the terms of the sale, which can sometimes be more important than the price.  For example, if someone offers full list price, but makes the sale contingent upon the sale of their own home, this offer is less desirable than a slightly lower offer with no contingencies.  You need to look at the offer as a whole, not just at one or two aspects.  Sometimes getting the right price causes sellers to overlook problems that could arise from the close dates or mortgage contingency dates.  They are so ov... 03/31/2012

Fairfield County, Connecticut Real Estate and 1st Quarter 2012 Economical Trends USA. Paul Breunich, president and CEO of William Pitt Sotheby's International Realty of Connecticut, describes what macro economical factors are affecting our local real estate markets for the first quarter 2011 and what we should be expecting to see in the future in his video "Supply and Demand". Topics covered are the Consumer Confidence Index, Gross Domestic Product ~ GDP, mortgage rates, employment and the European Economy effect. David Popoff is a Connecticut license real estate agent in lower Fairfield County. He has lived and worked in the area for over 30 years and now reside in Darien since 2004. Member of the Multiple Listing Service, MLS. Darien  Greenwich  Greater Fairfield County Member of the ... 03/18/2012

SHOWING YOUR DARIEN CONNECTICUT HOME After you have set the price, staged your Darien Connecticut home, and agreed upon a marketing plan with your listing agent, the next step is to make your home easy to see and to show off your home in its best possible light.  EASY TO SHOW These are important words to busy buyer agents.  When your home is "easy to show" buyer agents may include your home in their schedule even if it isn't quite what their buyers say they want.  This is good because buyers sometimes fall in love with a home outside their stated criteria.  "Easy to show" means that the sellers are very accomodating in terms of showing times and are forgiving if the agent runs a bit ahead or behind in their schedule.  The more restrictions you put on showings in terms of times, days, or... 03/18/2012

  Darien, Ct. Has All Types of Homes ~ Beach Community, Antique, Green, Large Yards. March 15th, 2012 By David Popoff, William Pitt Sotheby’s International Realty, Darien, Ct.   No matter what type of home you are looking for in Connecticut you will most likely find it here in Darien. The 2012 spring market is here and there are many new listings coming on the market now. Today’s Broker Open House I previewed several new homes and picked 4 homes each with their own unique features. The four homes that I picked out four your viewing are: 1. A place in the sun with beach, swimming, outdoor eating facilities, boating, and dock part of a private beach association. 2. An Antique renovated and expanded Colonial home on 0.68 acres with 3486 square feet. 3. Brand new green certified single fami... 03/15/2012

MARKETING YOUR DARIEN CONNECTICUT HOME Print advertising is dead.  Well, almost!  Newspaper circulation is down and newspapers are shutting their doors across the U.S.  In tracking my Return on Investment (ROI) in advertising, I have seen print advertising decrease in effectiveness and Internet marketing increase.  MARKETING VS. ADVERTISING Let's talk a bit about the difference between marketing and advertising.  Advertising is when you pay the media to announce details of your product or service, such as when your agent takes an ad out in The Real Estate Book, a publication that is distributed at grocery stores, gas stations, and other public places.  Marketing involves all other methods to bring attention to your home and encourage its sale.  Open Houses are one form of marketing, pos... 03/13/2012

STAGING YOUR DARIEN HOME You've seen HGTV.  You know that staged homes sell faster and for more money, staging works, but it requires an outlay of money that you may not have.  If you can't afford a stager, you can still apply some of the basic principles of staging to help your home sell faster.  First thing you'll want to do is to walk through your house room by room with your listing agent.  Your agent may not be able to give you the design advice of a stager, but he/she can give you advice about which room colors might cause a problem (e.g., a bright purple dining room) or furniture pieces that should be moved or rearranged.  Don't make the mistake of painting the entire interior off-white on the premise that buyers can choose their own colors.  Well-chosen wall and trim colors can ... 03/04/2012

Darien, Ct. Real Estate Market Report March 1st, 2012. March 1st, 12:30 pm Currently on the Darien MLS there are 149 single family homes for sale with asking prices ranging from $399,000 up to $11,900,000. In the last 10 days 19 new listings have come to the market ranging from $450,000 up to $3,349,000. Currently there are 42 homes with accepted offers and under deposit. Year to date 14 single family homes have sold between the price ranges of $465,000 (listed at $499,000) up to $2,150,000 (listed $2,375,000). If you would like to view current local monthly housing reports and detailed analysis by town for Connecticut and Westchester County, NY click here.   *Listing and sales information comes from various sources and may not always be accurate. No representation or warranty is made a... 03/01/2012

A true Renaissance is occurring in the Green construction material industries!!     A Green, Alternative to Portland cement...   Turtle Clan Global's EKO ROK is a non-toxic, high strength, liquid ceramic bonding system that produces significantly superior quality concretes and concrete repair, coatings, radiation shielding, thin-sets, grouting materials, wall panels, sips, building blocks, flooring, counter tops, tile, and the list of eco-friendly product adaptations goes on and on.   Our 'cold-fired', liquid ceramic materials provide superior quality, eco-friendly mineral/metal bonding systems that transcend the definition of concrete. Our water-activated, high performance ceramic concrete / coating materials can be poured, sprayed, trowled and slurried, forming a rock hard matrix with... 02/29/2012

PRICING YOUR DARIEN CT HOME TO SELL This is the second article in a six-part series about Selling Your Home in a Buyer's Market.  In the first article we described the characteristics of a buyer's market.  We will now talk about pricing your home to sell in today's buyer's market. IT'S NOT ABOUT YOU The most important thing to understand about pricing a home to sell is that the market determines the price.  The market doesn't care how much you paid for the home or how much money you put into upgrades or repairs.  Your home will sell for the price that buyers will pay for comparable homes.  If you price your home too high, even if a buyer comes along who is willing to pay above market value for your home, the mortgage company will whittle the offer down to the market value during the app... 02/28/2012

1. INTRODUCTION   This is the first installment of a six-part series on Selling Your Darien Connecticut Home in a Buyer's Market.   What is a Buyer's Market?   A buyer's market is one in which there are more sellers than buyers. Nationwide we are in a real estate buyer's market, which means according to the National Association of REALTORS (NAR) that there is more than six month's worth of inventory (homes for sale). However, if you look at different locations, neighborhoods, price ranges, and even home styles, some niche markets are doing better than others. Low interest rates and FHA low down payment mortgages have encouraged sales at the low end, downsizers are spurring sales in the mid-range, and at the high end, there are buying niches, such as luxury, waterfront and water view hom... 02/22/2012

Thursday, February 16, 2012. In Darien the Broker’s Open House are on Tuesday and Thursdays for real estate agents to preview homes for clients. Today my two favorites are: ~ 18 Tory Hole Road because this home is a new built with all the bells and whistles.  The asking price has just been reduced $495,000 from the original price by the builder. ~ 223 Old King’s Highway is waterfront property at the end of a long driveway on 2.09 acres; the house was built in 1961 and has many possibilities. For more information click on the links below.     Broker's Favorite ~ Darien, Ct.  David Popoff Newsletter | February 16, 2012 18 Tory Hole RoadDarien, CT  Price | Beds | Baths | Sq. Ft.  $3,200,000  5   5   5,700 CONSTRUCTION to be completed in 2011. Located in priv assoc. Sunny 7500SF 5 BR 5.5 Ba... 02/16/2012

   DARIEN Market Trends January 2012       Darien, Connecticut is currently a strong Buyer's market with 10-11 months of inventory (based on absorption rates over the past 12 months).  Prices have continued to decline over the past 12 months and fewer homes sold.  There is one positive trend in the statistics - the days on market (from listing to contract) are declining. With the job market on the upswing, a better economy, and mortgage rates and home prices low, we are expecting a good Spring market in Darien. If you are interested in buying or selling in Darien, Connecticut, please contact Gail Robinson, REALTOR, at 203-521-0768.   02/14/2012

New Home Listings Darien, Ct. Feb. 10th, 2012. In the first 10 days of February there has been 16 new single family homes listed on the Darien MLS. The price ranges of these new homes are from $525,000 up to $4,175,000. There are currently 145 homes for sale on the Darien MLS between the price ranges of $399,000 up to $11,900,000. Year to date there has been 9 homes sold in Darien with another 27 under deposit and accepted offers.     New Home Listings Darien, Ct.  David Popoff Newsletter | February 10, 2012 283 Brookside RoadDarien, CT  Price | Beds | Baths | Sq. Ft.  $1,695,000  4   4   3,575 Fabulous Nantucket-style Colonial adjacent to CCD golf course. Completely renovated 4/5 bedrooms. This house has it all: formal living room with loads of natural light and French doors, gorgeous ... 02/10/2012

  ActiveRain Member Joins William Pitt Sotheby’s in Darien, Ct. ActiveRain member David Popoff, licensed Connecticut real estate agent is now affiliated with the William Pitt Sotheby's International Realty in Darien, Connecticut. A 40 year resident of lower Fairfield County, David has extensive knowledge of the area. Buyers and Sellers can benefit from David's knowledge and experience in a variety of real estate from first time home buyers, new construction, renovations, condominiums, and investment and weekend properties. With his background in construction, remodeling and rental property management brings a hands-on experience to the table. With the advances and new technologies to the real estate industry David has become involved with local green building organizations and is an acc... 02/07/2012

Connecticut Rabbit Cacciatore This recipe comes from a combination of looking at about a dozen recipes, then calling the local old timers who have been eating their hunt for over seven decades.  Cacciatore (kah-chuh-TOR-ee) is Italian for “hunter”; this American-Italian term refers to food prepared “hunter-style”. Here is our take on it. Ingredients. 1 rabbit cut into 5 pieces, 2 front legs, 2 back legs, and a back 6 Italian sausages, 3 whole, 3 chopped Homemade mash potatoes 1 onion chopped 5 carrots chopped bit size 4 plum tomatoes chopped 3 garlic cloves minced Salt, pepper and flour for dusting. Thyme, fresh 1 sprig chopped or dried Parsley, 2 tablespoons fresh chopped 1/2 cup white wine 2 cups chicken stock ½ teaspoon tomato paste Olive oil Directions. Wash and dry rabbit, dust wit... 01/21/2012

Fairfield County, Ct. Re-Useable Bags ~ How’s & Why’s.                            Around the world and in Fairfield County, Connecticut there is a push to use re-useable bags. Europeans and many other countries this is standard practice because it saves on resources, reduces litter and saves money. Many municipalities are adopting ordinances to improve the environment by banning the use of non-biodegradable plastic bags for retail checkout of purchased goods. Here in Fairfield County, Connecticut the town of Westport adopted such an Ordinance and started to enforce it March 19th, 2009. Westport became the first municipality in Connecticut to adopt such an ordinance and has joined other municipalities such as San Francisco, Rye NY and the Northern Territory Australia. Darien, Connecticut... 01/19/2012

  There are a number of places to bring man's best friend for play time, hikes and swims in Fairfield County, Ct. and here are a few of our favorites.  In Rowayton there is the dog park that is behind the Rowayton Library, plenty of parking in at the lower lot. The park is fenced in on three sides with a stone wall on the forth side. For current news visit the Rowayton Dog Park Facebook page. In New Canaan there is Spencer's Run at  Waveny Park that has a fenced in dog area where off leash is allowed.  The dog park is 1.5 acres and is open from dawn to dusk. The rest of the 250 acre park has walking/jogging trails but dogs need to be on leash. In Darien there is Woodland Nature Preserve, a 64 acre area with trails for walking, dogs are welcomed on leash. Also in Darien is Cherry Lawn P... 01/13/2012