kaulat

So, the key to success in most sales careers has to do with keeping your name or brand in front of everyone.  I prefer to think it has more to do with service, but passing the word that service and communication are key returns to the idea of names and faces in front of everyone.  After 10 years in real estate, I can't call everyone so I send out post cards of listings and the occasional promotional item. I think it all came home to me that this is important when I went to an SU game recently.  I ran into a friend who introduced me as "This is the woman who is on my refrigerator."  Her friend instantly lit up with recognition.  I have received promotional items myself along the way.  Carol Alger, a loan officer who is now with Homestead Financial ( http://www.homesteadfinancial.net/ ) has been with me from the start, probably one of the very few professionals who has been.  She gives great service, communicates with me quickly and easily via e-mail, an...

We spent the weekend in Manhattan, visiting Alex, Rachel and Liam.  It was a truly lovely - if brief - time away.  We made it down there in four hours and twenty minutes, and that included two stops.  I never would have believed it possible until I started making the trek through Scranton.  As long as there is no George Washington Bridge or FDR tie-up we can do it.  We also found a parking spot just a few doors from their building. I have come to really love the City.  I love the energy, the way it really doesn't seem to sleep, the safety of it.  I can walk and walk, we are close to parks on either side, there are dogs and kids galore to watch.  We ventured out with Liam, now six months old, to a sit-down restaurant, stroller and all.  Candlelight, great Vietnamese food, good wine and beer, close to their building....and there were two other little kids at the next table.  It was all fine and the wait staff accommodated everyone.  I...

My thoughts exactly.

So here they are, the last 10 homes that closed in the Skaneateles area of the multiple listing service in 2011.  This brings the total to 70 homes.  It WILL get better in 2012 - I know it! In no particular order: 181 Hemlock Hollow - $159,750 3859 Highland Avenue - $245,000 9 Wicklow Drive - $309,000 2989 East Lake Road - $1,375,000 1698 Amerman Road - $225,000 2424 West Lake Road - $215,000 48 West Genesee Street - $350,000 14 State Street - $300,000 61 State Street Road - $285,000 25 Leitch Avenue - $530,000 On to a better year!

I am learning to navigate through the new year with all my resolutions mostly in place.  I still find that I am drawn to doing more than needs to be done and feeling rushed, at least real estate-wise.  I rearrange my own schedule - walks, blogging time, friend-time - to accommodate people because I never want to feel the guilt about someone missing out.  But then other things don't get done, things that need to be done and things I enjoy, like this blog, and I feel guilty anyway!  I know it is all part of living, and subject to "monitor and adjust."  Recognizing the issue is the first step towards solution. Currently there are ONLY (and I do mean ONLY !) 91 active homes in the Skaneateles area of the multiple listing service.  Of these, 29 are in the Village, and 22 are waterfront.  I say ONLY because we have been as high as 150 as recently as the past six months.  And the new ones that have come on - four in the last week - are all re-lists of ...

I feel so comfortable at this desk.  I will probably go back into the office this evening, but I want to get the update done here, with a cup of tea and a dog at my feet.  I showed a house this afternoon that froze me totally.  Gorgeous house (falling in love with the potential) but colder than the outside temperature of 20 degrees, I swear!  I needed to warm up! Currently there are only 96 single family homes listed as active in the Skaneateles area of the multiple listing service.  Of these, 31 are in the Village and 22 are considered to be waterfront.  Three properties came back on the market this week, two in the village and (brrrrr) a lovely waterfront home.  The median list price of all these homes is $325,000.  The lowest is $89,900 (and the only one under $100,000) and the highest is $3,095,000. There are only three homes marked contingent, but one of them is new - a fine home in the town which I showed repeatedly to no avail.  Alack ...

I got so involved in the statistics that my tea got cold and the sun went down!  Fascinating. This is only a first part of other blogs (or blog) about the area and what happened in 2011 real estate-wise.  I just need to feed the dog, figure out dinner, and get some other work done.  If I stay with the multiple listing service none of this will happen. So!  In Skaneateles in 2011 we sold and closed 70 homes.  Of these, 20 were in the village and 15 were waterfront.  This compares with previous years:               2010     75 closed       13 village        17 waterfront               2009     81                    ...

However, after a few hours this morning I was beginning to wonder.... I had made plans with an old friend to meet for lunch at the Hotel Clarence ( http://www.hotelclarence.com/ ) in Seneca Falls, about halfway between her home in East Bloomfield and the Skaneateles RE/MAX office.  The purpose was to re-connect, but also to celebrate her birthday.  Of course the snow changed everything, and we decided to postpone our lunch. But I grew up in snow, so to me playing in it was welcome.  Bob has a flu thing going for the third day, so I trudged out with Boo for the early morning...well, trudge.  Not cold enough for skis, and I wasn't ready for snowshoes.  This was just exploratory.  We went up to the fields behind our property and the wind almost took us both away.  Boo loved it, running circles while I slid on the mud and wet leaves under the snow coming down the trail.  We got to an area we call The Arboretum where we've planted a few trees over the ...

It feels good to be writing more.  This weekly blog becomes one of the things I do, rather than a "to do" to be remembered.  As I sit here sipping my tea, waiting for the game to start, I can just roll this off the keyboard.  Delightful!  And this way I stay in touch with the all-important statistics. There are currently 99 single family homes actively listed in the Skaneateles area of the multiple listing service.  Of these, 30 are in the village and 21 are waterfront. Two new listings came on this past week - one is a re-list in the village with a change of price and a change of agent and brokerage.  The second is another village listing in the low $200,000. There are only three properties marked contingent now, none of which are new.  Eight are listed under contingent but do not show - the one new one is new construction (hmmm...that could be worded better).  Three are pended (and one of mine will be once I finish this.) The great news is ...

Last Thursday evening I attended a workshop, I think you could call it, on de-cluttering held at the Onondaga Free Library on Onondaga Hill.  There was a confusion about time - the paper said one time and the presenter had another - so I missed a little bit at the beginning.  But I found it very interesting, and just when you think you can't learn more there I was scribbling notes to myself. The presenter and owner of the company, Lisa DeVeau, seemed to hold everyone's attention for the full 90 minutes.  There were probably 35 people in attendance, of which four were men.  Most likely everyone had homes that needed cleaning out, or their parents did.  One person asked about a definition of clutter vs. hoarding.  Good question - like any addiction it seems to be if it interferes with your life, then it is hoarding.  More my definition....I have to admit my mind rambled to a client I have whose parents are definitely hoarders.  Back to de-cluttering...

Topic #1   Okay, so I am finally having difficulty with the lack of snow.  It is simply not right!  I hear last night on the news that even if we come in with one of the lowest snow totals of all-time, we still will have at least three to five feet of snow before this "winter" is over.  That's a lot of snow, especially if you cram it into the next two months - because March 15th is about it for major snow.  For those of us who were here - there was the mid-March snowstorm of 1993 that dumped several feet on the area - then melted away within two weeks.  As I write, it is sort of raining snow.....Sigh. Topic #2   We must have been watching too many Twilight Zones from the New Year's marathon.  I went out to get the paper before 7:00 AM yesterday and there in the northwestern sky was a bright light, hidden by clouds.  My first thought was that it was the sun - but wait!  That rises in the east, and I see it every day!  Slowly the moo...

This is the first time I have started a blog this year without a subject in mind.  I didn't write yesterday because I went to a de-cluttering class at Onondaga Free Library in the evening.  More on that another day....very interesting and helpful!  But it deserves a well-thought out blog of its own. Today was simply a good real estate day.  I showed houses in the morning and did something I have negver done before.  We went to the house and as I was trying to get in my buyer said "Oh look, they have a dog!"  Sure enough, a dog had come to the front hall door to greet us.  Hmmmm.  I called the agent who called the owner who assured the agent that the dog was very friendly.  I said I wasn't going in, especially with children.  We compromised with me going in alone and taking the dog outside and chaining her up, while we went through the house.  I only did this because I knew the owner and....that still doesn't mean I knew the dog...

I am enjoying these blogs.  I am enjoying the peace that makes them possible, too.  That doesn't mean work has stopped.  I am waiting for two appraisals, three closings, I put in a new listing today (ML#S264895), and I will show houses on Friday.  Just there's a peacefulness about this week.  The update - not much here, but I will see what I can do.  The big story is that the active listings in the Skaneateles area of the multipe listing service have dropped under the 100 mark for the first time in (possibly) two years.  At least!  We have 98 active, of which 27 are in the Village and 21 are waterfront.  I know a lot expired at the new year, and I am sure several have ended because waterfront is not easy to sell in 10 degree temperatures.  Two re-lists came back on as part of the 98.  There are still 5 contingent, 7 under contract, and 5 pending properties - all the same as last week. We did add one new closing to bring the 201...

Maybe not final, but it sounded good as a title to this blog.  I am still working out New Year's resolutions in an attempt to improve the professional me.  I took care of rushing last year by arriving early on a regular basis.  That was part of the stress, but only a part.  Closings I may actually have an idea - a creative idea - to make them easier on everyone, so I can put that away for a bit.  I realized today, as of course I have known for years, that there is a physical component to stress.  I felt it three times today that I can delineate.  I always make a list in the morning of tasks that need to be accomplished - actually it is just a reminder list of who needs a call or e-mail, or a text.  I write in every day things like "office" and "hotsheet" just because I can then check them off or not let them get lost in the swirl of the day.  There are long-term projects that take time, but I need to keep them in the forefront ...

Before Bob took off for his job in Caz today he read me an article in the morning paper ( http://www.syracuse.com/ ) about a company in St. Cloud that manages property.  They were having so much trouble with dogs pooping and owners not scooping, that they began requiring DNA samples of all their tenants' dogs!  In this way they could prove which dog and owner had left a deposit.  Of course their resolve was tested - they have so far sent out 20 samples to the labs - but once caught the pets and owners have not re-offended. I imagined the management company workers sitting around a hot cup of coffee (Minnesota) and dreaming this up.  How can we get creative with this problem, they must have thought.  They could have prohibited dogs from their complexes, but instead they came up with this solution.  Bravo! So what does the lowly home-owner do, Bob asked.  He then regaled me with the vision of one of my owners directing me to scoop the poop and get i...

I like starting off the new year with good news.  After a lovely evening celebrating Bob's sister's birthday as well as the change in year, we got up late and had a simple breakfast.  The sun streamed in - and yes, still no snow! - while we read the Post-Standard.  In the business section Bob read an article to me that I want to share.  If you would like to read the whole thing, please go to http://www.syracuse.com/ . There's a town in Western New York, Cattaraugus,  that has the smallest bank in the entire state.  It officially showed a profit of $5,000 last year and never has exceeded $50,000 in its 130-year history, according to Alan Feuer of the New York Times News Service who wrote this article.  It exists to serve the people of this tiny village, and it serves them well.  One of the loans it made was to a farmer who needed $85,000 and who had no credit and annual earnings of under $3,000.  But he was Amish, well-known to the community, ...