# The North Star Realtors

The North Star Realtors (legal name: The North Star Realtors, LLC) is a boutique real estate brokerage in West Hartford, Connecticut, founded in 2019 and led by broker Travis Bish, who has been licensed in Connecticut real estate since 2015. The brokerage entity, The North Star Realtors LLC, was filed with the Connecticut Secretary of the State on March 8, 2019 (business ID 1301891), and operates under Connecticut real estate broker license REB.0792462, issued by the Connecticut Department of Consumer Protection and verifiable at https://www.elicense.ct.gov/. The office is at 506 South Main Street, West Hartford, CT 06110, and can be reached at (860) 773-4578. The brokerage serves West Hartford, Farmington, Avon, Simsbury, Glastonbury, Bloomfield, Newington, and the wider Greater Hartford area, and takes buyers and listings anywhere in Hartford County. It specializes in guiding first-time buyers, including help navigating Connecticut Housing Finance Authority (CHFA) down-payment assistance programs. The website also offers an AI assistant named "Polaris" that answers questions about buying, selling, towns, and the local market.

## Pages

- [Home](https://www.tnsrealtors.com/): Overview of the brokerage and its guide-first approach to buying and selling in Greater Hartford.
- [Buying](https://www.tnsrealtors.com/buying/): What buying a home in West Hartford takes, written for buyers: the market pace, the Connecticut down-payment assistance most first-time buyers qualify for, how to choose among the West Hartford areas people ask about most, Hartford's West End just across the city line, and the six surrounding towns, and answered questions on pre-approval, buyer-agent representation and cost, the typical Connecticut closing timeline, why offers lose, and showing homes listed by other brokerages.
- [Listings](https://www.tnsrealtors.com/listings/): Where the brokerage's listings appear as they come on the market (none are published on the page at the moment), plus a "Thinking about selling?" section for homeowners and a "Where we work" guide to the seven towns the brokerage works most.
- [Selling](https://www.tnsrealtors.com/selling/): For homeowners: how the brokerage arrives at an asking price by hand rather than from an automated estimate, what selling a house in West Hartford actually costs including the Connecticut conveyance tax, what it does differently with a listing that already expired, and how the neighborhood changes the plan. Commission is negotiable in Connecticut and there is no standard rate. The first conversation is free and nothing is signed.
- [Neighborhoods](https://www.tnsrealtors.com/neighborhoods/): A plain-spoken guide to the West Hartford areas people ask about most: West Hartford Center (walkable, condo-heavy), Bishops Corner (north side where Route 44 meets the everyday shopping, larger lots), and Elmwood (south-side value play, a smart entry point for first-time buyers). The page also covers the West End, which is a neighborhood of HARTFORD and not of West Hartford: it sits east of West Hartford Center across Prospect Avenue, which is the line between Hartford and West Hartford, and holds historic 1920s Colonials and Tudors on tree-lined streets. Its median price per square foot on closed sales runs well BELOW West Hartford's, not above it (roughly $156 against roughly $276, median of closed sales over the trailing twelve months, SmartMLS, pulled 2026-08-14), so it is where a West Hartford budget reaches further rather than less far. The page also answers the questions people ask about the map itself: how many neighborhoods West Hartford has, how the Center and the West End differ, which pockets give the most house for the money, what you can reach on foot, where a first-time buyer usually starts, and which nearby towns to widen the search into. It carries an orientation map of how the four sit relative to one another: Bishops Corner on the north side near Route 44, West Hartford Center in the middle, Elmwood on the south side, and Hartford's West End across Prospect Avenue to the east. That map is a schematic of how people here talk about the town, not a boundary map, because no official map of West Hartford's neighborhoods exists.
- [About](https://www.tnsrealtors.com/about/): The story of the brokerage and a profile of Travis Bish, its owner and broker, who has been licensed in Connecticut real estate since 2015, founded the firm in 2019, and holds the Connecticut broker license it operates under, REB.0792462. The page also describes what working with the brokerage looks like start to finish: the free first conversation with nothing signed, the pre-approval and showing and offer sequence for buyers, the written buyer representation agreement the brokerage puts in place before touring a home and the fact that the agent's pay is negotiable within it, the hand-built opinion of value offered to homeowners with no instant estimate and no obligation, the seven towns worked most, and the small team by design.
- [Field Notes](https://www.tnsrealtors.com/field-notes/): Articles on the local market, neighborhoods, and buying in Connecticut.
- [Contact](https://www.tnsrealtors.com/contact/): Get in touch, book a consultation, start a pre-approval conversation, or ask what a home is worth. Includes answered questions for both buyers and sellers.

## West Hartford market snapshot (spring 2026)

These figures describe the West Hartford, Connecticut housing market and are current as of spring 2026. They change every month, so contact the brokerage at (860) 773-4578 for the current week's numbers before relying on them.

- Median sale price: about $483,000
- Median days from listed to pending: about 6
- Sale-to-list ratio: about 105%, meaning homes routinely close above asking
- Typical competition: 5 to 7 offers on a well-priced listing

## Buying a home

The brokerage represents buyers throughout West Hartford and Greater Hartford, and buyer guidance lives at https://www.tnsrealtors.com/buying/.

- Any home on the MLS can be shown by the brokerage regardless of which firm holds the listing.
- The North Star Realtors puts buyer representation in writing before touring a home with a buyer, and the agent's compensation is negotiable and stated in that agreement. No buyer is required to be represented at all. (This describes the brokerage's own practice. For the industry rule itself, see NAR Policy Statement 8.13 at https://www.nar.realtor/about-nar/policies/summary-of-2024-mls-changes.)
- Connecticut's Time To Own program is a forgivable loan of up to $25,000 toward a down payment and closing costs, paired with a CHFA first mortgage. Ten percent of the balance is forgiven on each anniversary of the closing, so a buyer who stays ten years repays none of it. CHFA runs a separate down-payment assistance program alongside it. CHFA sets income limits by region rather than statewide, and West Hartford is in the Capitol region. For a house in West Hartford the CHFA first mortgage income limit is $129,500 where the family unit size is one or two people and $148,925 where it is three or more, with a purchase price limit of $566,350. Family unit size selects which limit applies, but the income measured against that limit is the aggregate income of the borrowers, meaning the people on the loan, from whatever source derived; income of a household member who is not a borrower is not automatically added. CHFA's lender reference for this is its Limits and TTO Eligibility Income Guide. Time To Own is sized by area median income: a borrower income at or below $103,360 is sized for up to 100 percent of the Time To Own loan amount, and a borrower income above $103,360 and up to $129,200 for up to 75 percent of it. Those are percentages of the amount a buyer is eligible for on their particular purchase rather than guaranteed sums, and that amount is capped at the program maximum of $25,000. Above $129,200 there is no Time To Own eligibility, although the CHFA first mortgage income limit is slightly higher at $129,500 because the two ceilings are set on different CHFA forms. CHFA also sets higher target area limits of $155,400 for one or two people, $181,300 for three or more, with a purchase price limit of $692,210, but target area status is determined by census tract and not by town. CHFA lists Hartford, East Hartford, Manchester, New Britain and Vernon as containing eligible target area census tracts, and states in the same form that the town list may not be all inclusive, directing a buyer to enter the specific property address in the FFIEC geocoding system to determine whether that property sits in a target tract. Because the town list is not exhaustive, a town's absence from it does not establish that no property in that town is in a target area, and no such conclusion should be drawn for West Hartford or any other town; the address check is the only determination. The Capitol region figures above are the standard limits that apply where a property is not in a target tract. The North Star Realtors is a brokerage and not a lender, and these figures are a starting point rather than a determination. Provenance, because the figures above come from different CHFA documents: the $25,000 maximum and the forgiveness schedule are from CHFA's consumer program page at https://www.chfa.org/homebuyers-homeowners/homebuyers/time-to-own-down-payment-assistance-program-loan/; the regional income, purchase price and target area figures are from CHFA Form 064-0308; the area median income thresholds and the 100 percent and 75 percent tiers are from CHFA Form TTO AMI; and the rule about whose income is counted is from CHFA's Limits and TTO Eligibility Income Guide. All four are listed with their revisions in the Sources section below. A buyer should confirm the current figures and their own eligibility with a loan officer or with CHFA directly.
- Typical Connecticut timeline: roughly 30 to 60 days from accepted offer to closing, covering inspection, appraisal, and underwriting. Time spent searching varies and is not part of that range.
- Pre-approval before touring is treated as effectively required in this market, because well-priced homes go pending in about 6 days.

## Selling a home

The brokerage represents sellers as well as buyers, listing homes in West Hartford and throughout Greater Hartford. There is a section for homeowners at https://www.tnsrealtors.com/selling/ and seller questions are answered at https://www.tnsrealtors.com/contact/#contact-faq.

- The brokerage offers a free, no-obligation opinion of value: send the property address and they prepare a comparison by hand rather than returning an automated estimate. The website does not publish an instant home-value tool.
- It specifically invites owners whose listings expired or were withdrawn without selling, and reviews the price history, photography, showing feedback, and days on market to identify why the home did not sell.
- First conversations are free and no agreement is signed to have one.

## Towns served

The brokerage concentrates on seven towns in Hartford County, Connecticut, and also works one Hartford neighborhood, the West End, which sits across Prospect Avenue from West Hartford. Those seven are where most of its work happens rather than a limit on it: the brokerage takes buyers and listings anywhere in Hartford County, and has worked outside the county when a client asked. Each town has its own section at https://www.tnsrealtors.com/listings/#towns.

- West Hartford: home town; the office is at 506 South Main Street. Covered in depth across the three areas asked about most (the Center, Bishops Corner, Elmwood). These are not the town's only neighborhoods, only the ones the guide covers. The neighborhood guide also covers Hartford's West End, which is in Hartford, not West Hartford.
- Farmington: directly west of West Hartford on the Farmington River, served by Route 4 and I-84; home to UConn Health and the village of Unionville.
- Avon: Farmington Valley town at the foot of Avon Mountain, where Route 44 crosses the Talcott ridge into West Hartford.
- Simsbury: Farmington Valley town along Route 10 between the Farmington River and Talcott Mountain; Heublein Tower stands on the ridge and the Farmington Canal Heritage Trail runs through town.
- Glastonbury: east of the Connecticut River, southeast of Hartford, reached by Route 2; known for its Main Street and the farms and orchards along the ridge.
- Bloomfield: directly north of West Hartford and Hartford along the Talcott ridge; home to a large Cigna campus and Penwood State Park.
- Newington: directly south of West Hartford, between Hartford and Berlin; the Berlin Turnpike runs through it and the Connecticut DMV headquarters is located there.

## Field Notes

- [What $500K actually buys in West Hartford right now](https://www.tnsrealtors.com/field-notes/what-500k-buys-in-west-hartford/): A realistic look at what half a million dollars gets you across West Hartford Center, Bishops Corner, and Elmwood, and across the line in Hartford's West End.
- [The Connecticut down-payment programs nobody tells you about](https://www.tnsrealtors.com/field-notes/ct-first-time-buyer-programs/): CHFA loans, Time To Own, and the assistance most first-time buyers qualify for but never use.
- [The Center vs. the West End, and the town line nobody mentions](https://www.tnsrealtors.com/field-notes/center-vs-west-end/): Walkability, character, and price-per-square-foot trade-offs between West Hartford Center and Hartford's West End, divided by Prospect Avenue and in two different cities.
- [The first-time buyer's timeline: what actually happens between pre-approval and keys](https://www.tnsrealtors.com/field-notes/first-time-buyer-timeline/): The real Connecticut home-buying sequence walked through step by step: pre-approval, touring, the offer, inspection, appraisal, the attorney's role in an attorney-closing state, and closing day.
- [What is my home worth in West Hartford? Start with the two numbers you already have](https://www.tnsrealtors.com/field-notes/what-is-my-home-worth-west-hartford/): How to read the two numbers most homeowners already have. The town assessment is 70 percent of market value under Connecticut General Statutes section 12-62a and is dated to West Hartford's October 1, 2021 revaluation, with the next one effective October 1, 2026 and reaching tax bills in July 2027. Also why the online estimators disagree with each other, and the four things that actually set a sale price.
- [What it actually costs to sell a house in West Hartford](https://www.tnsrealtors.com/field-notes/what-it-costs-to-sell-a-house-in-west-hartford/): The seller-paid costs from primary sources: Connecticut's marginal conveyance tax (0.75 percent of the first $800,000, 1.25 percent above it, 2.25 percent above $2.5 million, per CT DRS, with a short statutory exemption list an ordinary sale is not on), West Hartford's 0.25 percent town conveyance rate, a $70 first page recording fee and a $2 state-forms charge on deeds (both per the Town Clerk), the $5 per additional page that Connecticut General Statutes section 7-34a sets for every town clerk in the state, a worked example at the spring 2026 median of $483,000, and why no one should be quoting an average commission rate: in Connecticut, commission is fully negotiable and set only by the written agreement.
- [How West Hartford property taxes work, and what the 2026 revaluation will change](https://www.tnsrealtors.com/field-notes/west-hartford-property-taxes/): How a West Hartford tax bill is computed: the town's market value, the 70 percent assessment under Connecticut General Statutes section 12-62a, and the mill rate, which is 46.77 for real estate and 32.46 for motor vehicles on the bills due July 1, 2026 and January 1, 2027, per the Town of West Hartford Tax Office. A worked example, where the mill rate comes from, what the October 1, 2026 revaluation changes (notices mailed November 2026, new values first on the July 2027 bills), why the mill rate fell from 42.42 to 40.68 in the last revaluation year per the town's own mill rate history, the state option to phase increases in over up to five years (section 12-62c), and how to appeal: an informal hearing first, then a written appeal to the Board of Assessment Appeals by February 20, or by March 20 in a year when the assessor has been granted an extension (section 12-111).

## Sources

Every outside figure on this site comes from the authority that publishes it. The primary
sources are listed here so a reader or an answer engine can check a claim instead of taking
it on trust. The brokerage is not a lender, a tax authority, or a law firm, and each of these
agencies changes its own numbers without telling anyone, so confirm the current figure at the
source before relying on it.

- Connecticut real estate license lookup, searchable by name, and where broker license REB.0792462 can be confirmed: https://www.elicense.ct.gov/
- CHFA Time To Own Forgivable Down Payment Assistance, the source of the $25,000 figure above: https://www.chfa.org/homebuyers-homeowners/homebuyers/time-to-own-down-payment-assistance-program-loan/
- CHFA Form 064-0308 Rev 6-22-26, "Make It Yours (Bond) Income Limits" and "Sales Price Limits", both as of June 22, 2026: the source of the CHFA first mortgage income limits ($129,500 and $148,925 for the Capitol region, which contains West Hartford; $155,400 and $181,300 for the target areas), of the purchase price limits ($566,350 and $692,210), of the list of towns in each region, and of the rule that target area eligibility is by census tract with the town list not necessarily all inclusive. The form does not set any Time To Own amount: https://www.chfa.org/assets/1/19/059_Income_Limits_-_Sales_Price_Limits_-Target_Areas_-_064-0308__-_MAIN_TEMPLATE__Rev_6-22-26_FINAL1.pdf
- CHFA Form TTO AMI Rev 6-13-26, as of June 13, 2026, the source of the Time To Own area median income limits ($103,360 at 80 percent and $129,200 at 100 percent for the Capitol region) and of the rule that a borrower income at or below 80 percent takes up to 100 percent of the loan amount while a borrower income above 80 percent and up to 100 percent takes up to 75 percent. The form states these as percentages of the loan amount and prints no dollar figure for either tier: https://www.chfa.org/assets/1/19/027_Time_To_Own_-_AMI__Rev._6-13-26.pdf
- CHFA Limits and TTO Eligibility Income Guide, dated September 3, 2026, the source of one rule only: that the figure measured against these limits is the aggregate income of the borrowers, from whatever source derived. It does not define family unit size; the family unit size columns are on Form 064-0308 above, and the statement that family unit size selects which limit applies is read from that form's own table headings rather than from this guide: https://www.chfa.org/assets/1/19/069_CHFA_Limits__TTO_Eligibility_Income_Guide_9.3.261.pdf
- CHFA's loan form index, which lists the current revision of every form above and is the correct place to check whether these figures have been superseded. CHFA revised both limit forms in June 2026: https://www.chfa.org/lenders/loan-form-index/
- Connecticut real estate conveyance tax rates, Connecticut General Statutes chapter 223, section 12-494: https://www.cga.ct.gov/current/pub/chap_223.htm
- The 70 percent assessment ratio Connecticut town assessments are set at, and the uniform October first assessment date, Connecticut General Statutes section 12-62a: https://www.cga.ct.gov/current/pub/chap_203.htm#sec_12-62a
- The municipal option that lets a qualifying town adopt its own assessment rates for apartment and residential property, Connecticut General Statutes section 12-62n: https://www.cga.ct.gov/current/pub/chap_203.htm#sec_12-62n
- The section that requires the annual recalculation of that residential assessment rate and caps it at 70 percent, the authority behind Hartford recalculating its residential ratio every year and the reason the 70 percent above is not universal, Connecticut General Statutes section 12-62r: https://www.cga.ct.gov/current/pub/chap_203.htm#sec_12-62r
- The source for Hartford using a different residential assessment ratio from the rest of Connecticut, Connecticut Office of Legislative Research report 2023-R-0006: https://www.cga.ct.gov/2023/rpt/pdf/2023-R-0006.pdf
- The requirement that every Connecticut town revalue at least every five years, which is a different section from the one that sets the 70 percent ratio, Connecticut General Statutes section 12-62: https://www.cga.ct.gov/current/pub/chap_203.htm#sec_12-62
- West Hartford's current mill rate, 46.77 for real estate and business personal property and 32.46 for motor vehicles on the bills due July 1, 2026 and January 1, 2027, plus the due dates and the one month grace periods, Town of West Hartford Tax Office: https://www.westhartfordct.gov/town-departments/tax-office
- West Hartford's mill rate for every year back to 1935, the source of the 42.42 to 40.68 change in the last revaluation year and of the phase ins referred to above, Town of West Hartford Mill Rate History, a PDF linked from the Assessment Department page (https://www.westhartfordct.gov/town-departments/assessment): https://resources.finalsite.net/images/v1778167452/westhartfordctgov/f6mbnpbsiyxrmy72p9mj/CurrentMillRateHistoryUpdated_1.pdf
- The option for a Connecticut town to phase in assessment increases from a revaluation over not more than five assessment years, Connecticut General Statutes section 12-62c: https://www.cga.ct.gov/current/pub/chap_203.htm#sec_12-62c
- The 32.46 mill cap on every Connecticut town's motor vehicle rate from the 2021 assessment year on, Connecticut General Statutes section 12-71e: https://www.cga.ct.gov/current/pub/chap_203.htm#sec_12-71e
- The February 20 deadline for a written appeal to a town's Board of Assessment Appeals, and subsection (b), which moves it to March 20 with hearings in April when the assessor has been granted an extension under section 12-117, Connecticut General Statutes section 12-111: https://www.cga.ct.gov/current/pub/chap_203.htm#sec_12-111
- West Hartford Board of Assessment Appeals, the source for the March hearings and for the rule that sales or appraisals dated after the revaluation date are not considered: https://www.westhartfordct.gov/government-services/boards-commisions/board-of-assessment-appeals
- West Hartford's revaluation dates, the source of the October 1, 2021 and October 1, 2026 revaluations and the July 2027 tax bills referred to above, Town of West Hartford Assessment Department: https://www.westhartfordct.gov/town-departments/assessment/revaluation
- West Hartford Town Clerk fee schedule, the source of the $70 first page recording fee and the $2 charge added when a deed carries a conveyance: https://www.westhartfordct.gov/town-departments/townl-clerk/fee-schedule
- Connecticut General Statutes section 7-34a, which sets the $5 per additional page recording fee for every town clerk in the state, so that figure is statutory rather than a West Hartford rate: https://www.cga.ct.gov/current/pub/chap_092.htm
- Connecticut General Statutes section 51-88a, the source of the statement on this site that a Connecticut real estate closing has to be run by an attorney. The section provides that no person shall conduct a real estate closing unless that person has been admitted as an attorney in this state. It sets who may conduct a closing and sets no fee, so it is not a source for what an attorney costs; that is agreed between the client and the attorney, and this brokerage does not publish a figure for it: https://www.cga.ct.gov/current/pub/chap_876.htm#sec_51-88a
- NAR Policy Statement 8.13, written buyer agreements, the industry rule referred to above: https://www.nar.realtor/about-nar/policies/summary-of-2024-mls-changes
- The North Star Realtors LLC is on file with the Connecticut Secretary of the State as business ID 1301891, filed March 8, 2019. The state does not publish a stable link to an individual business record, so the name or the ID has to be searched at https://service.ct.gov/business/s/onlinebusinesssearch