Christina Bennani Realtor® The House For You

Welcome to New England it's a common past time to see just how long you can wait to turn your heat on. With temeperatures in the morning hovering around 45 degrees many are caving. Since heating costs can take up a significant portion of your budget here are some things to consider:

Natural Gas: It appears prices are dropping due to an oversupply of inventory.

Oil: Do you lock in or not? That's hard to predict since prices at the gas stations have dropped in the last week.

Take advantage of the tax credit to add energy efficiency to your home that is older than 10 years old. Insulate and replace windows if needed.

Don't forget to get your furnaces serviced, there is nothing worse than having an issue in the dead of winter...

So.. how long are you going to wait or have you caved already? I'm still holding on..blankets and sweaters on hand.

Recently I have had several relocation buyers looking at my listings and I've been asked to highight the features of Groton. I have lived here for 9 years and here are a few of mine.

• Farmers Market open Fridays through October
• Rail trail that goes from Ayer to Nashua - very popular with families
• Close to the Commuter rail in Ayer and Routes 2, 3 and 495
• Great library with many events for adults, teens and children
  
• Our old High School was recently converted to a 2nd Middle School and our High School was recently built. We share the school district with the town of Dunstable.
• Great recreational sports including soccer, basketball, hockey and so on.
• Canoeing on the Nashua River
• Many local stables for Horseback riding
• The Groton Country Club with a golf course and pool.
  
• The town in the last few years has purchased several acres to preserve the landscape.
• Gibbet Hill Grill and the scenic area around it.
• 2 renowned private schools: Lawrence Academy and the Groton School-both of which allow their facilities to be used by the town recreation.
• Town soccer fields, tennis courts and so on.
• Close to tax free shopping in Nashua, NH
• Sargisson beach and the Lost Lake area close by.
• Wonderful walking/riding/running trails throughout the town, well marked.

If you are considering a move to the is area, I would love to show you some of my favorite spots.

Where is the rush of Sellers listing their homes?

April is here and Buyers are wondering when the Sellers are going to start listing their homes.

Here is the inventory of homes in Groton listed since 3/1/09 that have not been previously listed in the last year:

73 Deerfield Drive

15 Acorn Path - showing for back-up

34 Spaulding Ln

51 Overlook Drive

44 Drumlin Hill Road

40 Wallace Rd

337 Martins Pond Road

109 Nashua Rd

That's not alot of new inventory for buyers wanting to take advantage of the $8000 tax credit, if you have a home to sell nows your chance, give us a call.

I don't know about the rest of you but I have decided not to participate in this recession.

Monday: I got short sale approval on one of my closings, set to close in 3 weeks. The whole process took about a month.

Tuesday: I wrote up an offer on one of my istings, cash deal.

Wednesday: Screened 2 new buyer leads, had an offer accepted on another of my listings.

Thursday: Negotiating the offer from Tuesday, 2 other offer on our listings were accepted.

Friday: Remains to be seen...

Could I have accomplished that if I believed our economy /industry /future was in doomed? Probably not, so I choose not to participate in this recession. I chose to keep working every day believing Sellers want to sell, Buyers want to buy and my job is to put them together.

I am working on my own Open House Kit, I have the paperwork and signage but these days some homes could use a bit of freshening up before the Open House and here are a few of the items I've pulled together. I would love any suggestions that other agents have used

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• Clean fluffy neutral colored bathroom and kitchen towels
• Decorative soaps
• Swiffer wet
• Various plugins
• Toilet Paper
• A couple of differnt floral accent arrangements
• A neutral blanket and pillows
• A couple of fancy place settings

I would love to hear any of your ideas as well.