Connecticut Commercial Real Estate Now

We had an interesting Commercial Department meeting this morning. One of the agents said that the selection of good commercial properties in our area is the best that it's been in a long time. Well-located, well-priced buildings are now on the market, for buyers who can come up with the financing. Based on what else we are hearing, that may mean that they have to have cash! Even that is not a total bar, as there are many investors around who do have access to cash or capital from others. While some may suggest that it's best to wait until prices fall further, I'm not sure that we know enough about the stimulus plan to know when that will be (or even if it's now!).

Well, it's snowing AGAIN. Since no one buys real estate in the snow, my only question for the rest of the day is whether yoga will be held. Yoga is one of the arrows in a real estate broker's quiver these days--whatever calms you down is good.

OK, Enough Snow!

Well, we were waiting for the snow and we got it! Once the snow started on Friday, it came down so fast that going home was an adventure. I tried to dig out the car closest to the bottom of the driveway so I could go to yoga on Saturday morning, but couldn't do it. Saturday night, all four of us took that bottom car to a party in Norwalk, and ended up pushing it off the driveway at midnight that night. Sunday was another day when none of us went anywhere; there is a downside to living in the highest-up house on Long Island Sound in Connecticut! We're 85 feet above sea level, and the water is right at the bottom of our driveway. If we miss the road by much, we're toast. Our plowing company had gone out of business since last winter, but hadn't bothered to tell us, so a BIG thank you to George Sanders of West Lake Landscaping, who saved the day (or night) by plowing us out on Saturday night. In the interim, we missed a couple of parties, but no days of work. Nature becomes much more important when you live so close to the water. When it's not snow or ice, it's flooding on Old Quarry Road or Route 146.

All that ice means that I haven't been running, either. I can't wait to get out there again! I'm just too clumsy to take the risk of falling. All those Christmas cookies and no exercise is not a good combination, though.

Our New York Times did come on all those days, however, and I got to read about Carl Icahn's suit against Realogy. Realogy is the parent corporation of Coldwell Banker, C21, Sotheby's, ERA, and CB Commercial. They have a LOT of debt, and they were trying to restructure by replacing the debt people already held with less debt of a higher caliber. Carl Icahn didn't like that, and the court agreed with him. It may be tough to be an independent company in this market, but at least we don't have billions of dollars of debt. Now they're looking for another way to restructure. Maybe they'll start by spending only what they have to spend--there's a novel idea!