New Board Of Realtors President Anticipates

A Positive Year For Buyers In Newtown

By Nancy K. Crevier

“I’m passionate about this industry,” declared Lisa Hintzen, and that is one facet of her personality that has made it possible for her to move into the position of president of the Newtown Board of Realtors, she said. “I really believe that we’re here to help and facilitate people’s needs. Shelter is a basic need, and that’s what we do: help people find the right home.”

A local representative for three years, and the president-elect of the local board through all of 2010, Ms Hintzen will assume the role of president of the Newtown Board of Realtors in January. “This has to be one off the most exciting times for me,” she said.

Since 2003, Ms Hintzen has been a realtor with Prudential Connecticut Realty, and she was thrilled to be nominated to the position of president-elect last year, and for the opportunity to attend the meetings of the Connecticut Association of Realtors as the legislative representative in Hartford. In March of this year, Ms Hintzen was promoted to leader for the Newtown Prudential Connecticut Realty office, managing the office, building, sharing her expertise with homeowners and realtors, and ensuring that the office continues to grow as a team.

The Newtown Board of Realtors exists to enhance the knowledge and business of selling homes, for all members of the Board of Realtors, explained Ms Hintzen. Monthly meetings arrange for seminars that utilize the input of other professionals, such as lawyers and tax accountants, to keep realtors updated on events that impact buyers and sellers. The executive board is also responsible for bringing information from the national and state level back to the local board, she said.

As president of the Newtown Board of Realtors, her job is to be aware of what members need, to accommodate those needs, and to listen to the more than 100 members at the local level.

As excited as she is about her role on the executive board for Newtown, Ms Hintzen is equally excited about the housing market in Newtown. “It’s like the perfect storm, in a good way,” she said. “You’re never going to have these low interest rates coinciding with the low housing prices that we have now. It’s historic. It’s the perfect time for homeownership,” said Ms Hintzen. “Great interest rates, plus great pricing, plus smart buyers and sellers adds up to the perfect storm,” she said.

Renters who have saved are now able to become first-time buyers in this market, Ms Hintzen pointed out, and lower prices mean that the younger generation of first-time buyers can now also get into the market. “And it is the first-time buyers who will be our push up,” Ms Hintzen said.

While current homeowners looking to move up may take a hit on the selling price of their homes, they will pay far less to move up if they take advantage of the present situation. “In general, we have such a wonderful opportunity for people to buy homes in our region,” she said, adding that it is likely that interests rates will begin to creep up the second half off 2011.

In November, Ms Hintzen attended a national conference of realtors, in Louisiana. The conversations at the roundtables were strikingly similar, she said. “It’s not just us, here in Connecticut. I heard the same stories from all over the country, that it’s a good time to buy.”

The recession will continue to affect some homeowners, of course, said Ms Hintzen, and that will affect the housing market. People who used products like the adjustable rate mortgage to buy into homes may be behind the eight ball when it is time to adjust, she said, and five-year products taken when the market was at its peak will be coming to a head in the next year or two. When it is time for those adjustables to adjust upward, she said, many homeowners can find ways to stay in their homes. But unforeseen scenarios, such as health problems or change in financial status, may lead to more houses coming onto the market for sale, and may lead to short sales or foreclosures. “We will be rolling into more short sales and foreclosures as the year goes on; that’s not over yet. Everybody’s lives have taken turns [in this recession].”

(Short sales are those sales in of real estate in which the sale proceeds fall short of the balance owed on the property’s loan.)

There is a broad range of housing for sale in Newtown at this time, Ms Hintzen pointed out, with somewhat over 200 single-family homes on the market. “We have about a three-quarter-year inventory, with houses in every price range.”

 In the past six months, homes priced in the $200,000–$250,000 range have been selling quickly, in just over four months, with homes in the $400,000–$500,000 price range moving within six months. Buyers and sellers have become very savvy, and that has been a boon to sales. Buyers are coming to agents preapproved and knowing what they can afford, and what is on the market in their price range, she said. Qualified buyers are finding mortgages that fit their needs. “I think the mortgage industry is doing a phenomenal job in giving people mortgages,” Ms Hintzen said.

In this buyer’s market, sellers have also come to realize that “it is a beauty contest and a pricing war,” she said. “How great your house looks and having it priced appropriately, apples to apples, is something sellers have come to recognize. If a home is priced appropriately, it will sell. Prices are coming in at around 95 percent of the asking price, because they are priced appropriately.”

Sellers who have been in their homes for a long time, in particular, will realize a good return, and will find qualified buyers. “The realtors here in town are great,” said Ms Hintzen. “They are giving sellers great advice up front, to help people sell.”

 A “perfect storm” of interest rates, low pricing, and wise buyers should stir up a perfect year to come, predicted Ms Hintzen. “All across the board, we have gotten so much better this year.”