Skaneateles Real Estate - The Bi-Monthly Update (sort of)

There is so much going on and I love every minute of it!  I heard from an old e-mail friend (never have laid eyes on him) about my listing down Firelane 21B, now that summer is almost here.  I told him I was "crazy busy" and he said that's a good thing.  I do agree!

One of the crazy things this week was Tuesday, the day of the brokers' opens.  In Skaneateles alone, there were 11 houses, and a friend said he counted 12 actually.  I ran through 6 of them before going off to my dentist appointment with Dr. Swartwood (teeth are fine, for once!).  I kept thinking back to the winter, and how there were weeks without a single home open.  I heard from some people that other agents brought buyers with them.  The world is changing - things are moving.

There are currently 134 active listings in the Skaneateles area of the multiple listing service.   Of these, 44 are in the village and 40 are published as waterfront.  Now here's a spoiler alert!  After I finish writing about the new listings, I will tell you what the median (as in middle) prices of these four categories are:  village, waterfront, neither WF or village, overall.  Try to guess the prices - it's an interesting exercise.

Three new properties came on in the village.  A cute little house sort of tucked away is on the market in the mid-$200,000 range.  Another massive place has the unheard-of price in the lower $300,000.  This is possibly an early sign of a trend - sell it now, do not "try it higher."  The agent hopes for multiple offers at this price.  We will see.  The last is a re-list that had tried it higher, unfortunately, and is now around 300K.

Of the 8 listings in the town, three are re-lists at about the same price.  Two are waterfront - above half a million and the other above a million.  A gorgeous estate not too far down the lake is now under that half million mark.  Two beautiful watefront properties appeared - both going towards the two million dollar mark.  A newer home whose similar neighbor had sold several years ago is now listed about the same price, $300,000.  I tried to see a house just outside the village that has always intrigued me on Tuesday, but the sign was down and the doors were locked - price towards $600,000.  Too many open houses out there - and the agents holding them open were also trying to run around!

Back to my stats that I love so much - guesses in?  The median price for waterfront is $990,000.  Wow!  That means that about 20 are listed above this - and yes, 20 below.  Village homes have a median price of $365,000, which I think is an interesting number, personally.  If you remove village and waterfront from the criteria, then the price drops to $310,000 (town, not on the water.)  Overall - of all those 134 active listings - the median price in Skaneateles is: $413,000 - again, a personally interesting number.

So let's consider this as Part One of the update.  I have to go sell a house!

Derby & Mother's Day

What a big weekend.... the Ky Derby and Mother's Day! We had a very fun time all weekend!

Yesterday we went to Louisville to Chris's parents house for a little Derby celebration with the kids and his family! I decided the kids would have a Derby race of their own and we did a little arts and crafts project! I bought some yard sticks at Lowes and printed off some horse heads and jockey silks for them to color, and then cut out and glue to the sticks to "ride" ;)

Finished Product!

 "And they're off...!"

And don't you even think for a second that Chris didn't jump in and race too! Ha So fun!

We celebrated Chris's neice, Claire's, birthday... we got her a Kaboodle filled with goodies... who remembers a Kaboodle?? hahaha love it! Haven't seen one for forever until I spotted one at Target!

She's too stinkin cute!

Before the race we all drew a horse out of a bowl to win some cash (not much, kids were involved here lol so just for fun!)... well Ava had already picked a horse the day before at school and she chose "Animal Kingdom"... then when it was her turn to draw from her Mimi's bowl, she randomly drew "Animal Kingdom" again! She was so excited! Well I'll be dang if Animal Kingdom didn't win the Derby and you would have thought she hit the lotto!

 Here she is with her winnings lol So excited!!

$10.00 :) LOL So precious! Go Ava!!!

I look ridic (had just gotten my makeup done from the Kaboodle gift, hince the purlpe eyeshadow, but thought this pic was cute anyway... thanks Lisa ha!

And we got to see Baby Jack ... cutest baby ever... Chris's sister's baby boy! Love him....

Cutest face ever! So sweet! <3

  Then today we went to church and lunch with my mom for Mother's Day... sushi @ Miyako.. yum!

I kind of wanted to steal her flower balloon it was so cute ha!

Now I will spend the rest of today with my son... :) Watching Lifetime movies and relaxing on the couch!

Happy Mother's Day to all you Moms, especially my Mom! XOXO

A Derby Recipe & Randomness

Happy Derby Weekend!

These cute little postcards I have show a quick, easy recipe for tomorrow's Derby Day...
thought I would share in case anyone is in need of something to take to a party, or just want to try something new :) Enjoy!

I listed a SUPER cute new condo today if any of you Lexingtonian's know of someone looking for one... it is 2.4 miles from UK Campus, off Nicholasville Rd. in a Gated Community with a POOL :)
3 Bedrooms, 2.5 Baths  1465 sq ft  Only $139,900!!
Here are a couple pics...

Good News is, the furniture is also for sale too! So could be sold as a furnished unit. CLICK HERE for more information or you can message me too :)

Today I also showed houses and stumbled upon one that I was OBSESSED with, basically just because of the Kitchen. Look at this kitchen... I LOVE LOVE LOVE it! My ideal kitchen! (Someday I will have ha)

It's hard to tell kind of from these pictures but in person it was totally fabulous! My clients loved it too!

Random, Shocker of the Week (saying that sarcastically ha) ....

Tamara & Eddie... at it again... PDA to the fullest in last weeks episode. Seriously they drive me insane!

GET A ROOM! lol gross. period. the. end.

Hope to have some cute pics to post soon... Derby, Mother's Day, looking forward to a fun filled weekend!

Photo Op

After the events of this week, this photo of a pretty Skaneateles Village home sums it all up, I think.

My crazy week

First I should say that I am so tired right now I feel drunk, so if there are typos I apologize lol

This has been a CRAZZZYYYY week for me... since Friday, I have officially sold 5 houses, and doing a 6th one tomorrow! What a blessing! WOW! And I was just complaining a couple weeks ago that this time last year I was slammed and this year, I was getting a little worried, LOL guess I spoke too soon! Sometimes I am in awe of how things can happen so fast and things can change literally in the blink of an eye! I love it.

Yesterday I was showing houses, I am unlocking the door, my clients are behind me, they start to gasp like there is a spider on my head, I step back, look up in horror, and see this....

A BAT... yes a real life BAT, not a fake one, not a plastic one, a real life one, hanging upside down from the light fixture on the front porch, little ears pointed and all... about to fly down and give me rabies. Don't think so. I rush inside shut the door. We tour the house. Decide it's kinda cute, minus the bat, but in the end not for them. We all leave through the garage, where I professionally let me new clients (first time I have met them) go out first to the driveway, I stand inside, hit the garage button and run fast speed ahead jumping over the censor and under the moving garage door. Thank goodness these clients had a sense of humor, because there was no way in HELL I was going back near the front door and Mr. Batty himself. Baby bat or adult bat, I don't really care. Thanks, but no thanks. This goes down as one of the most dramatic house showings I have had I'm pretty sure.

Today I got pulled over. I was coming back from Nicholasville and I will admit, I was texting.... I know, I am a horrible person, I failed Oprah's pledge, I broke a promise to myself, I feel bad about it I really do! But sometimes I just can't help it! So I am texting and driving down a straight road with hardly any cars around me (if that makes you feel better ha it does me a little bit) and I look up and see blue and red lights in my rear of view mirror. Great. Just Great. I am going to jail for texting and driving. I knew I would eventually get caught. The time has come. I pull over into a skanky redneck gas station, he comes up behind me... I roll down my window, he says "Maam do you know why I pulled you over?" I'm thinking, of course I do I was texting, somehow you saw me through my tinted windows and now I am going to jail, but I calmy say "No not real sure sir??" LOL

He says, "well you sped up through a yellow light causing you to run a red light, your tags are expired (whole 'nother story) and you are not wearing a seat belt."  All I can think of is, wow he didn't see me texting haha! He then asks for my drivers license and insurance.... oh boy. Anyway that knows me knows my car is a TOTAL disaster, looks like a bomb went off, but does smell like Vanilla Cupcake Yankee Candle Air Freshener :) Just looks like the city dump. So I dig through my glove compartment, middle console, look in the visors, under the seat, all the normal places you would have an insurance card (LOL) and....

Another shocker... I don't have an insurance card!! I tell him I have insurance, it comes out of my account every month on the 10th, its $212.50 lol I think he believes me, but still says I need to have it in my car. He goes back to his car for what seems like a lifetime but really was about 15 minutes (what the heck takes so long? That is just ridiculous. I was late to my appointment, hence the speeding through a yellow light lol jk I really still don't think I sped through the light!?!)... then he finally comes back... smiles and says "I will give you a warning but wear your seat belt and get your tags up to date, have a nice day."

I couldn't help but roll up my window and laugh. I was sitting there the whole time thinking, this will be a $500 ticket, I will have to come to court in Jessamine County, I don't even know where the courthouse is, blah blah blah! I was so pissed before I couldn't see straight, mad at myself for waiting 4 months to get my tags renewed when Chris tells me WEEKLY to go do it, and I procrastinate, bc that's what I do, procrastinate... I hate doing stuff like that and I hate going downtown and having to park in the garage and walk in there and wait 2 hours in a line just for a stupid little sticker for my tag! Does anyone feel my pain on this?? Anyway, that was the bad part of my day, but good because I didn't get ticket! :) Thank you Lord!

This is random, but is anyone else ready for SUMMER? What is going on with this winter weather?? UGHHH! Frankie almost wouldn't go out to pee this morning because I think he was in shock of the coldness, which made me think back to how much he loves Summer, and how much of a model he really is...

This is Frankie w/ his cousin Lucy-Belle at the lake, with their "faux" Louis Vuitton life-jackets lol

And here he is on the boat with his visor in case the sun is too much for his eyes... haha Thanks Aunt Steph :) Can't wait to go with you this Summer and Frankie can't wait either!!

Happy Wednesday!

Rainy Days and Tuesdays

I know it's supposed to be rainy days and Mondays that "always get me down," according to Karen Carpenter - but this is Tuesday and it's raining and raining.  I'm not really down, just want to share a few things that are on the edge.

Bob made leek pesto on Sunday night and marinated the shrimp in it and then grilled them outside.  You remember Sunday - it was sunny and I got a bit of a tan.  Leeks are special to us because they were right under our noses on our hillside for years and we had no idea what we were seeing.  A friend, Mike, told us about them - to look for the leaves that are similar to tulips, then gently pull them out.  The bulb is like a garlic or onion with its own special flavor.  Since then - just last year - Bob has become a leek fiend.  This year we had to wait longer for them to be ready, but now there's a plastic container filled with them in the fridge.  The shrimp are lying on the leaves, just for presentation purposes, in the picture.  He also made a leek and potato soup that was magnificent.  Thanks, Mike, yet again!

I've wanted to say thank you to Kimmie, my sometime godchild and Alex's babysitter, for a while now.  I rarely see her any more, but she told me at her grandmother's funeral that she reads my blog and I know will read this.  She sent me this amazing card after Koko left us last month.  Bob opened it before I got home and he was excited.   "This looks just like Koko!" he said.  And it does - even though Kimmie never met her.  I keep the card with others on our bulletin board in the kitchen, and every time I see it I think of them both - and Kimmie's pug, whom I've never met.  And how far we all have come over the years.  Good thoughts.

Lastly, thank goodness for Panera Bread!  I had a broker's open today at my new listing at 158 Shire Way in Camillus and offered a chance for a $25 gift certificate to Panera Bread - so of course afterwards I had to go get it.  (Jeannine Larose from our office in Skaneateles won it - she doesn't know yet.)  I went to the other opens in Skaneateles - the ranch on Crow Hill and Peter Babbles' listing on Hawthorne Woods - and then ran back to Camillus.  I had earned both a coffee and a pastry for my many times there, and chose a croissant.  I made phone calls and texted and sent e-mails on my new iPhone and never felt like I was sitting too long.  The rain poured down outside, but inside the fire kept us patrons warm.  I can't wait until the new Panera Bread goes in by Staples on Grant Ave in Sennett!   http://www.panerabread.com/

Otisco Lake

The View from Glencove

I went out there today to check our camp after the floods and the wind storms.  Patches, our neighbor's dog, greeted Boo and me on the road.  The place looked fit and fine - certainly ready to be opened up and aired out though.  I also went through my listing on Glencove, wanting to make sure that it was sound.  As I put the key in the lock I heard music playing.  No one was supposed to be there today and I was surprised, to say the least.  I opened up and tiptoed in, calling so I wouldn't take anyone unawares.  It was only the radio - sigh!

Otisco Lake is about 6 or 7 miles long, depending on whether you count the south end beyond the old Causeway, or the north end in the narrows.  It's about a mile wide, and only 30 to 40 minutes southwest of Syracuse.  I can attest that Skaneateles is 15 minutes away from the west side.  And yet it is mostly a forgotten lake.

When Alex was little he was upset that Otisco wasn't considered one of the Finger Lakes proper.  Someone must have told him that - not me!  We thought about the legend that a giant had swooped down and with his fingers carved out the lakes and that is why they are called the Finger Lakes.  I placated Alex by saying that there were no rules where giants were concerned - he might have had 6 fingers or even more. 

And if you'd like to own a place...back to the subject...there are only 6 properties available at this time.  The smallest is on the market in the low $100,000 range.  For that you get a very steep access hill to the camp, 50 feet of lakefront, no running water (read also no septic or outhouse?) but it does have electricity and a great view.  The most expensive is my lovely Glencove listing at $494,000.  It's a three story home, rebuilt from the bottom up in 1991, with four bedrooms and three full baths, over 100 feet of lakefront and half an acre of land (double lot).  It's designed for year-round cozy living and in the Marcellus School District. 

The other four are basically camps of all sizes.  The square foot costs range from a low of $149 to $339.  Last year there were 13 camps listed for most of the summer - maybe more will come on the market.

In the past 24 months 17 properties on the lake have closed.  A small one south of the Causeway closed at $55,000 and needed a lot of work, but it at least had a holding tank.  The most expensive closed at $420,000 fairly rapidly and was built new in 2009.  While we don't have the huge houses and lakefronts that Skaneateles boasts, we also do not have the high prices.

As Boo and I left today I went north to drive into Marcellus and put up signs for my open house this Sunday at 1 Orchard Street.  (Just saying.)  Along the west side in the Narrows whole pine trees - five or six? - had been uprooted by the winds and just lay there.  The winds must have swept over and caught them just right, or they were waterlogged from all that rain.  We considered ourselves lucky, Boo and I, that we had no damage and neither did our neighbors.  It wasn't always that way after a major storm....but that's another blog....