Houses Listed and Sold for the Past Three Years

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Hands of Another Time

Candia Congregational Church

When we first moved to New Hampshire back in the ’70s, we lived in Atkinson and we be friended another young couple that lived down the road and around the corner.

They had two boys the same ages as our son and daughter. So they played together, and thus my daughter is not a “girly-girl” thanks to her young playmates. Anyway, this isn’t about my daughter it is about “hands.”

One of the her playmates, Mike Ank, (now 32) was sitting at a bar in Medford, MA having a drink when, another, and much older, patron says to him,

“You have hands like Hank Camelli.”

Mike responded by saying simply, “Oh, I do?”

His new friend says “Ya, you do. He use to play baseball for the Pirates and I followed him. Did you ever hear of him?”

Mike Ank…responded proudly I’m sure,

“Ya, he was my grandfather!”

Hank Camelli was born in Gloucester, Massachusetts andwas 28 years old when he broke into the big leagues on October 3, 1943, with the Pittsburgh Pirates.

Oh, by the way he was a great father and grand father.

For more about him click here

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Need a Door? “Big Box” vs. “Mom & Pop”

I needed a new exterior door for my circa 1850’s house so I went to a local “Mom & Pop” store, Raymond Builders’ Supply. Doug behind the counter, asked me questions I hadn’t even considered, and then proceeded to tell me I needed a special cut door, which I expected.

Next he made a telephone call, talking to someone in some customer service department…what was impressive about this was he calmly clarified items with whomever was the at the other end to make sure s/he understood and that he (Doug) was getting the right information. Doug got what he needed, did a quick calculation and gave me a price of $395. Expensive, but a custom door and somewhat expected.

Knowing that my wife would question that price, I decided to stop off at Home Depot, the next time I went by one…you see most “Big Boxes” are trips for me that have to be coupled with another need. “Raymond Builders’ Supply” is just down the road in the next town.

Well there was no one in the Door Department so I had to wait. Sure I saw people wearing orange aprons, but no one stopped to inquire if I needed help. After about 5 minutes I found this little “service button” do-hicky-magicker on the counter that was full of other “stuff”. It wasn’t a plan “Press Button for Service” type of button…some marketing genius put fancy graphics on it so it looked more like a box of something than a service button. I pressed the button.

Another 5 minutes passed until a young lady came to help…in the course of talking with her, she told me she “use to work” in this department, but didn’t “get it”, whatever “it” was. She went on to tell me that Eric was the man, and that he could help me, “when he gets here.”

Finally Eric showed up…nice enough young guy…fortunately I knew about the door that I needed (thanks to Doug), so I was able to direct Eric with good information. Of course, he had to use the computer, which “was slow today” (aren’t they all), and he couldn’t get it to pop out size information that made any sense.

Twenty-five minutes later, he came up with a price, $365, on a quote where the dimensions didn’t quite jell. Believe me…when you spend this much money for anything and it has to fit it into a tight hole in an old house…you want to make sure it’s going to fit…there literally is no return.

I bought the door from Doug…oh, he delivers too. I urge you to try the little merchant down the road…s/he may surprise you.

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Most Expensive House on the Market in New Hampshire

As you have probably realized I love the numbers of Real Estate, as well as having a sense of the market.  There are also times when questions come to mind, I can usually find the answer.  The question was asked a week ago or so by a friend, “What is the most expensive house in NH?”  Of course, I didn’t know, but I found out.

Here it is…on the shores of Lake Winnipesaukee, 14,480 square feet of living space, 9 bedrooms, 10 baths (8 of them full baths) on 29 acres.  (Taxes?  Only $65,000/year)……Asking price?  $13,800,000.

Listing Agent: Richard Mazzarella with Prudential Spencer-Hughes RE

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Deerfield NH Area – Real Estate Activities

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Weekly Real Estate Market Activity – Timberlane Area

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It’s Going to be One of Those Days…AGAIN!

As I sit here at the keyboard I can hear the river running down below the house and rain dripping from the eves of the roof. By the sounds of things, even before the sun is up, it sounds as if it going to be one of those days with more rain.

There has been so much rain the gardens in the yard look whipped. As though they have had enough.

I’m glad I took photos back in July of Alex’s gardens…I expected to roll them out for my enjoyment in February….not August.

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Weekly Real Estate Market Activity for Week of: 08/03/08

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Appreciation of Home Value in Rockingham County Since 1998

I was reading an article from Seacoast On-line, that was reporting on a speech given by Jim Lyons, President of the New Hampshire Association of Realtors. At one point he stated that the median price of a home in Rockingham County in 1998 was $149,900 and that today that number is $295,250.

I was curious about how it would look if we adjusted for inflation and found that it is still a very good proposition to purchase a home. The charted numbers are below:

(Click on Graph to Enlarge)

To read the complete article please go to: http://www.seacoastonline.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20080807/BIZ/808070418

Inflation calculation taken from Federal Reserve Bank of Minneapolis wizard calculator: http://www.minneapolisfed.org/Research/data/us/calc/

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Lunch Anyone?

As I was making a sales call yesterday I came upon this employee lunch room at Skip McKean’s Petroleum Transport company located over in Henniker, New Hampshire. I’ve made a lot of sales calls in my career and I have been at a lot of maintenance garages, but I have never seen this.

The building was a typical industrial Butler steel building, on the outside, but when I got inside it was this. What a shock. It said an awful lot about the company I think. Clean trucks, spic n span garage, and nice people.

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