These are three articles I wrote on real estate subjects that were published by the Willimantic Chronicle.

 Afraid of Being Gazumped?  Don’t Be.

Let me make a confession. I’m writing about gazumping in part just because I like the word, though I do have a more serious point to make.  But any day I can use ‘gazumping’ in conversation is a good day. 

So what is it?  Gazumping is a real estate practice found, among other places, in Britain whereby the seller of property, having verbally accepted an offer from a buyer, subsequently reneges and accepts a higher offer from another buyer.  In such a case, the initial buyer has been gazumped.  Apparently, in Britain the period between the acceptance of an offer and that acceptance being legally binding can be several weeks, and so this does happen.  

Interestingly, in Fairfield County a version of gazumping can occur because some transactions begin with an offer that is only later put into a contractual form by attorneys. But in our part of the state, we make offers as written purchase contracts and acceptance usually occurs within a few days.  Gazumping doesn’t go on here, not because we’re ethically superior to the Brits, but rather because the opportunity for it usually doesn’t exist.  Please note that verbal offers are sometimes given and accepted, but nothing is legally binding until an offer is put into writing and signed by both parties.

The larger point is this: real estate is practiced quite differently from one place to another.  Even in Connecticut, which is governed by a single set of real estate laws, there are different customs from one part of the state to another (more on this in another article).  And of course, each state has its own laws and customs as do other countries.  So if you go elsewhere and buy property, don’t assume that it’s done the same way it is here in northeast Connecticut.  And if you’ve come from elsewhere, don’t assume that we play exactly by the rules you’re used to.  Remember, when in Rome… 

Looking for Real Estate? An Eye in the Sky Can Help! 

Because a client of mine in upstate New York was looking for a horse property in Northeast Connecticut, the amount of pasture included in each piece of land he considered was very important.  From his living room, he used Google Earth, a simple but powerful internet tool, to make preliminary judgments about each piece of property whose address I had sent him.  By looking at magnified satellite photos, he could get a good sense of not only how much land was open, but also of the pasture’s shape and relationship to the house.
Now he could use Live Search Maps, a website that’s even better than Google Earth for this sort of remote viewing.  By visiting this website (http://maps.live.com/ or www.petermillman.com/Useful Links), you can enter the address of any property and then see it from a number of viewpoints.  (NOTE: Mac users should use Firefox or some other non-Safari browser).  The fully zoomed in bird’s eye view in particular is truly amazing, allowing the viewer to seemingly hover just a few hundred feet above the ground.  The images are sharp, fairly recent and can be manipulated in a number of ways.  Just for the fun of it, try looking at your own house or condo to see how Live Search works.

But if you’re not looking for horse property, then what use is Live Search?  With this tool you can see if the house that looks so charming in the listing photos sits next to a lumber yard, get a sense of whether a neighborhood is tightly packed or spread out, or see how large the nearby park is that’s mentioned in the listing agent’s remarks.  In other words, you can learn a lot by ‘flying over’ a house that looks interesting.

Of course Live Search Maps is not a substitute for visiting a property in person.  The image quality on the computer screen is limited, the boundaries of a property are not displayed, and the images may be several years old, showing conditions that have changed.  But ‘eye in the sky’ viewing can provide important information and save you lots of time, whether the properties you’re considering are a half an hour’s or half a day’s drive away.

Vacant Home?  Think about the Insurance Issues.