This business is one of ebb and flow. One week the phones are fairly quiet, and the next I am working 12 hour days. The one sure thing to start the real estate juices moving is if I go away. I took a day to go down to the city and see Alex, Rachel, and Liam. I told people this ensured a house would sell, and even picked out the house that would sell this time, and sure enough it did. I spent a lot of my time standing in the park by the East River arranging showings (that get more difficult the farther away I go) and accepting offers. I plan to be away a lot this summer to stimulate business! The real estate magic even worked down there. After months of looking, they found a two-bedroom apartment just where they wanted to be and for less $$ than they had expected! (Still more than the average Central New York mortgage, but still...) Thank goodness...there's another little boy coming in August!
So currently in the Skaneateles area of the multiple listing service there are only 92 active listings. Of these, 23 are in the Village and 25 are waterfront ('tis the season). Two homes were re-listed, one in the Village and the other a great homestead for the right person. Seven other new ones came on, ranging in price from the mid-$100,000 to almost a million. I look at the numbers for the new listings and realize that a few years ago they would have been higher, perhaps in the 10% to 15% range. But as homes sell - and they are still selling, I expect the numbers to go up. Now is the time to buy, I tell you!
There are five groups that have taken this to heart and placed offers on homes in the past two weeks. Three are village homes, around $500,000 or so. This continues last year's trend...Another is waterfront and a third is a new build, from what I can tell.
We are up to 27, my lucky number, of sold and closed homes in the area. The latest was listed in the lower $100,000 range. Last year by this time we had 29 closings, so certainly we are on track for another great year. You know the old saying: "You snooze, you lose....buy now!"
