kaulat

What a great NCAA Basketball Tournament it's been so far, after only one real round.  I love it when the underdog teams win and upset (as long as it's not Syracuse!) the other teams.  Last night's Florida Gulf Coast University's win over Georgetown was a game for the ages.  Incredible shots, young kids giving their all, and frankly having a lot of fun, it looked like... SU plays tonight - late again, so if I am a bit bleary-eyed at the open house on Sandbank tomorrow, please forgive me.  I am sure I will be awake long past midnight. I am back in contact with Cindy Pack, a Realtor from Louisville.  We wrote to each other a few years ago, and in the ensuing battles I sent her an SU T-shirt and she sent me Louisville's T.  I wore it last year at the Big East, and will again this year whenever they play...until SU plays Louisville for the Championship. So tonight - Go Orange!  No matter what happens you have given us highs and lows this long winter season,...

Sunday afternoon I will be busy again.  The open house is scheduled for 1:00 to 3:00 on Sandbank in Elbridge (Jordan zip code - 13080). I love this house.  Wide open to the back yard and nature - tons of birds and deer come in because there are only fields beyond.  And yet you are maybe a mile from Route 5, Kinney's, and easy access to Syracuse and Auburn.  You can get in to the University in 25 minutes or out to Cayuga Community College in 15 minutes, going west. Back to the house:  three bedrooms, all large with good closets, and two full baths, both with great tubs.  Those are on the level above the garage.  The main room - called quite truthfully a "great room," has cathedral ceilings way high.  (Ask the owner - he just painted them!)  The kitchen and living room look out on to the back yard through huge windows, so it appears you are right there.  Like in a nature center - you see the animals but they don't see you.  All new ap...

I haven't posted in ages (I promised I would shut down this blog once I bought a house, which I did last year), but recently got a request to revisit the inventory situation in Long Beach and thought I would put some numbers to what I'm seeing on the street. To wit: as of February, there were 447 homes for sale in Long Beach -- an abysmal  57.7 percent reduction from this time in 2012. As you can imagine, this has created quite a feeding frenzy.  Median list prices are up 38.6 percent from last year -- nearly 10 percent  of that since January 2013 alone -- indicating this reduced inventory is emboldening sellers.  But this boldness is being rewarded, as properties are closing for 100.1 percent of these greatly inflated asking prices. As a result of this inventory squeeze, in my area I have seen absolute dog shit sell for huge premiums.  It's insane.  According to Zillow (so take it with a grain of salt), my house has seen an 18 percent increase in value ...

I had several questions this week from people who have listed their houses about how it's all going.  I've seen interesting homes come on the market and watched others go under contract.  My lovely listing on Fikes Road (the open house was two weeks ago) is now under contract.  Hooray!  All this to say here are the latest stats. There are 71 single family properties listed as active in the Skaneateles area of the multiple listing service.  Of these, 13 are in the Village and 17 are waterfront. New on the market since March 5th are three properties.  All three are outside the village, but one has lake rights.  Their prices range from the mid-$100,000s to almost $600,000.  Two others were re-listed. In the "under contract" categories are 16 homes waiting - itching - to close.  Three new sales have joined them, two from the Village and one from the town.  I have a sneaking suspicion that two of these are somehow related.  The sale of o...

I love this e-mail I received from a Faithful Follower: We came to Skaneateles for the school, but now that my son is in college we are staying for the same reasons you gave (walkability, environment) and then some:  We're outdoors people and we love all the opportunities which Skaneateles provides:  - Community center - swimming, skating (out of towners marvel at this facility)  - Lake - sailing, swimming  - Open Spaces - 4 ski areas within an hour, hiking trails through the conservation areas, Finger Lakes Trust, Finger Lakes National Forest, and the Montezuma area. While we don't have a national park, we do have Adirondack Park and 'our' Great Lake is not an hour away. I talk about the outdoors as a very good reason to be here (winter haters can hate all they want!) because most don't think of "New York" and the "outdoors" in the same sentence. Well said! - M

First let me say Mirbeau is marvelous, a real gift to the area.  The luncheon was held in a small room, large enough for just three tables and a presentation table.  I asked Sue if I would know anyone, and she said "about half."  What she didn't say is that three Realtors from Williams, two from Finger Lakes Partners, three more from RealtyUSA were the "half."  Hah!  And one of the presenters was from John Arquette, a young woman I've known through her father for a few years, Lunch - salad with goat cheese, carmelized walnuts, blueberries...braised beef over potatoes (both were so smooth I wasn't sure which was which), then a slim piece of chocolate cake that kept me buzzed for several hours afterwards.  Sublime! The young Realtor, Leslie Chave, spoke about the reasons people come to Skaneateles and the reasons they don't.  (Basically she stole my thunder, but did it very eloquently.)  She shared a comparison of two houses, one in Skaneateles for ...

The monthly meeting of the Skaneateles Chamber will be on the 14th at Mirbeau.  Since this meeting will focus on real estate, Sue Dove has brought together people who know about it.  I am speaking about the market and why people would buy in Skaneateles.  I also want to add why people don't buy here.  I am alotted only about 10 minutes, but I thought I'd write out my thoughts here and then refine them for my brief talk. First of all, the market has been excellent the past twelve or so months.  Two and three years ago in March there were 104 single family homes on the market.  Now there are only 73.  Those years we had seven closings - this year we have 11, year-to-date.  Those are significant numbers.  Fewer homes lead to less time on the market. Who buys here?  First of all, waterfront is always strong and the primary reason for about a third of the homes sold each year.  There are now more homes to be sold, plus lots for building....

This may be your one chance to see this amazing property.  We have had a great deal of activity on it, and are expecting an offer.  But come and see it tomorrow, Sunday the 10th, from 1:00 until 3:00. The MLS number is S285950, so you can look it up and see all the photos. There were so many photos to take!  The most difficult one was of the house and the barn/garage/outbuilding.  The two buildings stretch across the skyline.  Having them both contributes to this great place, but add in almost 11 acres of meadows and orchards...my, my! Come and see it if you can.  Always I have refreshments of some kind and the day promises to be uncharacteristically warm.  Again those photos - the rare snowstorm came up!  It may not still be active in the spring, but it will certainly be even more beautiful. The basics:  3 BR, 2 full baths, built in 1998 by Mark Harrington, just finished basement and new granite and tile in the kitchen.  $284,900 Fikes ...

Things are getting crazy out there!  Properties are being shown and sold!  Hooray!  The spring season has begun! Currently there are only 73 single family properties listed as active in the Skaneateles area of the multiple listing system.  Of these, 18 are in the Village and 16 are waterfront. Two new houses came on the market within this time frame, while a few others were freshened with re-listing.  One of the new ones is in the Village and the other is in the Town (aka not in the Village).  Both are listed for almost the same price, under $300,000. Only 16 homes are waiting to be closed.  Three were added to the list, two of them from the Village and the third from the Town. We now have 10 sold and closed properties, year-to-date.  Trending like last year, the three new closings were all Village and ranged from the mid-$100,000s to almost a million. I think we are going to have a fantastic year, if not in volume like last year, but in a return ...

It's been a while since I've done an open house, winter being what it was and the choice of my sellers NOT to have open houses during this season.  But I was pleasantly surprised at how many people came out today in really cold weather. I always learn a lot about a house by holding it open to the public.  It's interesting to see what the buyers key in on...the agents wanted a family room instead of another eating area, and we provided that by changing the furniture around.  There were no comments today about it, except a few people who really liked the coziness of it. The carpets had been steamed and stretched and looked wonderful.  I highly recommend doing that for all homes that have wall to wall carpeting.  They did look new!  So new in fact, that I found people teetering on the edge of the living room, not wanting to step on the pristine white carpeting!  Myself included! I spent some of the time as people roamed around sitting by the fire in the f...