kaulat

I looked down at the snowstorm of crumbs stuck to my tray-table, then up at the two gossiping slobs adorned in Alaska Airlines uniforms. Mid plane, they were slouched over opposite seats, ignoring the passengers who were jamming check-in sized luggage into the overhead compartments. Heck, they even ignored my handsome smiling arse as I walked by. It was going to be a rough trip home. About 30 hours later I rolled back into Tas, with a rotten case of tonsillitis ravaging my throat. Apportioning blame was going to be tough; the cabbage fart smelling air of the most gangsta city in Canada; the filthy state of the Alaska Airlines plane; or overloading on episodes of Two & a Half Men on the way home. Whatever the culprit, I've been wallowing in self pity and penicillin for the past week and suspected if I didn't get back bloggerizing the real estate industry with self indulgent vitriol, I may never get back to it at all. While away, I marvelled at the invention Josef Fritzl gave...

I have decided that it is time to change the weekly update into a twice a month format. I will publish information about the real estate market close to the 15th and 30th of every month. In that way you will have a better feel for actual movement in the marketplace, I hope, and I will be forced to write more about other things. Monitor and adjust - it's the only way! I will continue the every twenty closings list....and I know I owe for the end of last year because we didn't quite get to 80. I want to make sure that all the 2010 closings are reported - and sometimes there is a lag of a few weeks. Please let me know if there are other areas you would like to see me cover. I have access to marvelous statistics and I want to meet the needs of my readers. Sad news to report : Mr. Walsh, as he was known to me and my family, and former Mayor of Syracuse and Congressman for Central New York, passed away Saturday morning. He was 98. We bought our camp the year he became Mayor. ...

In today's Post-Standard, Sean Kirst wrote about the challenge of his desk and de-cluttering it. I direct you to http://www.syracuse.com/ for his article. I have long talked the talk about de-cluttering, and last fall I was able to go through the bedrooms, bathrooms and kitchen in a three day binge, but my desk has always been a problem. Not my desk at the office - that is always neat as a pin (on top) because I sit front and center so the desk is seen by anyone walking through the door. When I worked at Gallinger, I was down below and, like Sean, my desk spilled over into an unused area and up the wall. When I left, I boxed it all up. And when RE/MAX moved out of the Camillus office to Skaneateles, I boxed that up, too. Both boxes reside in the apartment, to be gone through some day in the future. The photo is of my desk at home. It's really only where the computer resides - I couldn't work there! I use the island in the kitchen for my notebook and phone work, the old cab...

I thought for this year I'd be a little more innovative and colloquial. I have gotten stuck with the update, almost as if writing it at least once a week means I do not need to write in-between. I've also been busy, but I do enjoy writing...maybe I need more to write about, not just real estate....? But every where you turn real estate is central - I hear it when I get my hair done at Carlo's, or in the Big M, Green Planet, Tops or Kinney's, in all the shops and stores....it's not just because I'm there. Listen in movies and to conversations - sooner or later real estate emerges. Our lives focus on it - and why not? Shelter is one of the most important needs - without a place to live and call home, nothing else follows. So - here's a different type of home for you to contemplate. Yesterday we went to the Syracuse University basketball game in the Carrier Dome. For those of you who do not follow sports, this is the year you should follow SU basketball. We wi...

Over the past 9 days or so, we had no snow and New York City got it all - as well as Boston and Philadelphia and points in-between. Alex and Rachel came and went uneventfully and we had a marvelous Christmas. The cookies aren't all eaten, but they will be by midnight tonight. Our presents are still scattered around the livingroom, the sweaters I bought for the men taken back and exchanged, and Bob is settled in to read by a just-cleaned hearth while I write. The update: no new listings - none! - in the Skaneateles area of the multiple listing service. One waterfront was marked "under contract, do not show" (at this time of year, no less!) There simply are no properties marked contingent, either. Two homes closed - one large place recently listed in the mid-$400,000 range and another well under $100,000. That brings us to 74 for the year - but probably not all closings have been entered...the final tally will be next week. But New Year's Eve is upon us - and s...

How lovely to end on a high note! Christmas is coming and the world outside looks very Christmasy...certainly we may be the snowiest area in the country, but also the prettiest. There are currently ONLY 119 active listings in the Skaneateles area of the multiple listing service. One lovely village 5-bedroom home came on this past week and the agent bravely scheduled a broker's open. It's listed in the mid-$300,000 if you are interested in a last minute gift. The total number of homes waiting to close is down to 10, and nothing new was marked contingent this week. But because there are so few waiting, that means that three closed just in time for the new year, bring us to 73 sold and closed for the year...so far! A lake rights property closed around the $200,000 mark, down about 20% from its original price. A pretty village home sold and closed rather rapidly and came in within 10%. The third encompassed a single family home, commercial and as currently used multi-family ...

Sold on 12/17/2010 - $200,900 Wow. What a ride for this welted chunk of excrement. More than 1,000 days on the market and the bank finally approved a short sale at the price it should have been at all along. Just look at this lesson in incompetence: Dec 17, 2010 Sold (MLS) (Closed) $200,900 -- Inactive CARETS #P701097 Jul 31, 2010 Pending (Backup Offers Accepted) -- -- Inactive CARETS #P701097 Jul 19, 2010 Price Changed $199,900 -- Inactive CARETS #P701097 Jun 23, 2010 Price Changed $219,900 -- Inactive CARETS #P701097 May 19, 2010 Price Changed $225,000 -- Inactive CARETS #P701097 Mar 03, 2010 Price Changed $250,000 -- Inactive CARETS #P701097 Dec 30, 2009 Price Changed $289,000 -- Inactive CARETS #P701097 Dec 30, 2009 Relisted (Active) -- -- Inactive CARETS #P701097 Dec 03, 2009 Pending -- -- Inactive CARETS #P701097 Nov 12, 2009 Price Changed $239,000 -- Inactive CARETS #P701097 Oct 30, 2009 Relisted (Active) -- -- Inactive CARETS #P701097 Sep 23, 2009 Pending (Pending Sale) -- -- ...