Skaneateles Real Estate - The Weekly Update

"The times they are a-changin'......"

I hear it everywhere - things are beginning to move! But not yet in the statistics:

There are currently 160 active listings in the Skaneateles area of the multiple listing service. This past week 5 new ones came on the market: 2 were re-lists, and 3 were brand new. Of the 5, an amazing 3 were waterfront properties. Must be that people are reading my blog and realizing that waterfront is still selling!

And selling it is! We now have 29 closed properties - 2 new ones this week. One was a lovely home, totally redone, with lake rights, and another was a very pretty country home that sold for over the list price of $599,000. Not so bad! Also, there is a new "K" - contingent sale - another multi-million dollar lakefront home!

So what else is selling? Not condos - no closed sales this year. Of the 7 lot sales 4 were in the Parkside development off West Elizabeth Street. Well, actually one was on West Elizabeth - take a look - you can't miss it! The other 3 were country sales - lots and just downright acreage.

So what else is happening around Skaneateles? Elbridge has closed 30, Marcellus has 36, and Camillus - so much larger in size - has closed 180 homes this year. We'll get there!

And the price of our homes is still up there - well over $500,000 as compared with well under $500,000 last year. People are just waiting, it seems: for homes to sell, for the election, for summer to end, for prices to come down. If every one of those 160 homes currently active reduced their list price 10% I sincerely believe that the vast majority of them would sell. I wonder what other people - homeowners, Realtors, interested readers - think of that proposition. I've read comments along those lines.....and here's a marvel - the average price of a home would still be higher than last year's average!

So why don't owners reduce the price?

• Hanging in there and being unwilling to chance leaving money on the table, as they say.
• The price has already been reduced - no more!
• The market will turn around and they want to be poised to get their price.
• There is no need to move - no urgency - the house can be rented or the owners can stay.

I'm sure I've left out other reasons. Please supply them! I would love to hear what others think!

Borodino Market

What a treat!

I had a few minutes a couple weeks ago so as I stopped to get lovely sunflowers by the side of the road I looked around. There set back from the road was an old schoolhouse with an open sign.

"What do you have there?" I asked the young woman who came to take my money (I had grown accustomed to the honor system at the stand).

"Oh, it's a country store," she answered. I am paraphrasing, because whatever she said did not do it justice!

The brochure states: "Purveyors of the Unique."

This is a store worthy of the most interesting of places - from Provincetown to Marin County, Saratoga to Skaneateles. It was wonderful!

"A rural rarity with gastronomic departures, confectionary treasures, nostalgic foods, local and global."

That's an understatement. I could have bought everything - and come back for more. What a treasure! It will definitely be on my list of places to spend time (and $$$) when I have an hour or two - or I want to impress and delight my friends!

"You'll be surprised what you find in the hills of Borodino."

But you have to find it - not an easy task! We've been going to Vernak's Country Store on East Lake Road in Borodino for three years now and stopping at the farmstand on Rose Hill on occasion. But I didn't know the schoolhouse store was even there. The owner told me they don't believe in advertising, so it sits behind the stand in the trees.

I sent Bob's family to find it when they stayed at the lake. They found Vernak's and liked it but didn't see why I was swooning. Next time I'll take them there.

So you don't get lost: Go to the corner of East Lake (Route 41), Nunnery and Rose Hill at the blinking light. Drive down Rose Hill past the church and look to your right at the houses. The farmstand should be apparent. The hours are Thursday through Saturday, 10AM to 6PM, Sundays 11AM to 3PM. Check out their blog at http://borodinomarket.blogspot.com or find them at www.localharvest.com.

Or if you want to, call me and we'll go together! You won't be disappointed!

House of the Week

I have been debating all week whether to write about the house I saw on Tuesday when I should have been running around at broker's opens. I can say that my clients didn't reject it until Thursday, but that's not an excuse for waiting so long. I wasn't sure what to do, quite frankly.

The house is fantastic, a four bedroom, two full and one half bath newly built home in Camillus. It has a pool that will take your breath away. The interior painting brings the home alive - and the decorating is lovely. It sits high in a development and except for the lack of trees - please, developers, leave the trees! - it has a premium setting.

Here's the issue. The seller is motivated, with a capital M that stands for Money, that rhymes with "Bring an offer, honey!" My clients won't - they are waiting for spring - and I have no one else at the moment looking there.

And why is it still there? My guess: the owner started way too high a full year ago and got stuck on the price. There was an offer but it was contingent on the sale of a home and everyone apparently sat back and waited for the other home to sell, which it didn't. And then the mood of the country changed, and there they were. Sitting. Sitting on a beautiful home that will probably sell under the building cost and assessed price, a full year later than it should. And that year was filled with taxes and interest payments and mortgage payments.

The seller has asked that the listing text be filled with "MOTIVATION." But reality hits home - there are 48 listings in Camillus between $200,000 and $250,000 - the range in which this home is listed.

And yes, this beautiful bright and airy home with that gorgeous pool is my House of the Week pick.

Skaneateles Real Estate - The Weekly Update

We are still creeping along here, but I see progress although not in the numbers.

There are currently 161 active single family listings in the Skaneateles area of the multiple listing service we all use. This week only 3 new listings came on: 1 in the village (looks lovely!), another in the town and actually Marcellus schools, and the last is a re-list. Rumor has it that the day before closing the buyers walked away on the advice of their lawyer - but not for any logical reason that the agent could see!

There have been no new contingent sales but one lake rights home has been marked "pending." And there was that beautiful closing of the property on Widewaters - for the reported price of 2 million dollars. The list price, I might add.

We now have 27 closed for the year - compared with 61 at this time last year.

But I wrote several offers this past week and a couple have come to fruition. I heard from an agent today that she was getting frustrated - properties are still marked active in the computer that have offers on them. She has taken her clients to see homes, gotten ready to write an offer, and THEN found out the properties were "gone." This happened to her 3 times! So this time she called first. Good idea.

One word to the wise: I did a free market analysis this morning on a home in Skaneateles. The owners had checked the "comparables" according to the tax information on the internet. The homes that were brought up were similar only in their square footage. They did not reflect what had closed in the past year, the conditions of the homes, or even the size of the land. This is why you need a Realtor in the trenches or an appraiser. And then, of course, the information on the property itself was inaccurate. You still need us!

Investors! Start Your Checkbooks!

This is it - this is the time - let's go!

I've spent the past week working with investors looking for deals in Skaneateles. And there are deals.

While we were finding properties, more people came into the office, again looking for deals. I just left a small group from out-of-state who asked me what the best deals were and I could show him a 3000 sf home on 3 acres for under 200K, a 40 acre ranch with a new home under 400K, and of course my lovely 11 Onondaga now for $489,000.

Under $200,000 investors have to be ready to put in some work. Many of the homes are vacant - amazingly - and waiting out the current market. Some are bank-owned or estates and in need of major renovation. Foreclosures usually mean unfortunately that the kitchen sink - quite literally - goes with the former owners. If they could have gotten the new jacuzzi out of the upstairs bath that would be gone, too!

But how pretty it all could be! Does anyone doubt that Skaneateles will continue to grow? Do you think people will stop vacationing "where Presidents vacation?" I think just the opposite will prove to be true. Instead of driving off to South Carolina or the Cape, upstaters and even downstaters will be more likely to come to Skaneateles.

Picture it - pretty little cottages in the village, fixed-up and ready to be rented for the summer months. Or like Saratoga, for the Season of the Skaneateles Festival. My professor in college who taught Irish lit came to Skaneateles for a week at the Sherwood Inn every summer. And that was long before Mirbeau or Rosalie's or Bella Blue and Cate & Sally. There's a reason the condos in the village are being dsold for over $500,000.

So investors take note. There are 6 pretty little homes under 200K in the village and another 17 just outside. Buy in to Skaneateles!

House of the Week

So there I was, running around with a contract that had to be delivered then taking a listing in the afternoon. No time to say "hello goodbye" and starving to boot!


I landed at a broker's open house to hand over the purchase offer and was offered a sub by the agent, Bill Crocker from Prudential. I don't usually eat at these things, but the thought of a bit of food and some diet Coke sounded good. I did my turn around the house and actually really liked it. Only 5 years old, it sat back from the road with trees lining the driveway. Everything inside seemed light and airy, even the finished basement, really a lower level.

Upstairs I came upon hardwoods and more light, with an easy open floor plan. It was all more impression than really hard details - "just nice."

I chose my sub - turkey - and while Bill took a call I wandered out to the deck to eat. It was the first time in a long time I had stopped for food in the middle of the day. It felt good, and the setting was ideal for quiet contemplation. There was a good-sized yard and beyond that - corn. Rows and rows of corn up a slight hill. Not a house in sight.

I stayed sitting out there in the sunshine, happy as could be, until my cell phone rang. "Are you able to find it?" a voice I knew well asked tentatively.
"Find it...?" I was still meditating on the corn field and the pretty house.
"Where we're meeting," I was advised. Reality.
"Are you there yet?"
"There and done and...."
"Waiting for me! Oh no!"

I ran out of the house after a quick good-bye to Bill who had let me have a few minutes of peace and quiet. The house is located next to a cornfield on Jordan Road between Elbridge and Jordan. You can own the quiet for only $199,900.

Skaneateles Real Estate - The Weekly Update

Trying desperately I am to find something new to say - but there really isn't a lot of help out there, market-wise.

There are currently 163 active listings in the Skaneateles area of the multiple listing service. We have only 26 closings so far this year - the latest was, again, a high end waterfront property and I know of another that just hasn't reached the system yet. Even the one property marked newly contingent this week is a lake rights property. The village properties continue to sit waiting for the moment to arrive.

Six new listings came on - 3 were brand-new and 3 were re-lists. Notable was the fact that they are all in the $200,000 to $300,000 range. There are now 61 non-waterfront homes in that range.

There are people out there looking. There are deals to be had - but the owners need to recognize the value of a "bird in the hand." If a home is on the market for $300,000, for example, the taxes will be around $9,000 this year. If they rent, they may get $1,500 per month to offset their costs: insurance ($1,000?), carrying costs of a mortgage, even a small mortgage might be another $12,000 in interest that will be gone. That's $22,000 to hold on to a $300,000 home for another year, or until the economy turns. Hmmmm.......

But if they sell the home for 10% less than they are listing - $270,000 - they might take an immediate loss of $8,000. However! Pay off that small mortgage, invest the $170,000 immediately in a 5% account and make back the $8,000 with $500 as a tip. And have the peace of mind to move on. And hey! It's a buyer's market out there - if the market turns to a seller's market to give you the advantage selling your home - it won't be as pretty a purchase as now.

Life is short enough - have fun! Travel! Homes have appreciated a great deal in the past few years - cash in your chips!

And please - start the ball rolling!