Organizing (aka De-Cluttering)

It finally happened.  I did it!  Well, not me precisely, but it is done.

As I had written before, a company by the name of "Allow Me" provides an incredible service.  Want something done?  "Allow me!" they say.

I can't remember what put me over the edge precisely, but the proximate cause was a friend's request for things to help her daughter set up a first apartment at college.  Did I have anything, she asked.  I honestly couldn't tell!  I could open drawers and cabinets, look into the closets - but was there anything really there that was of use?  Did I need it for the in-law apartment myself?

So I made the call and by golly they were at the house in a matter of days.  We walked through and I realized how truly bad it was.  There was real estate mixed in with Alex's things, my mother's heirlooms, and now we have Liam's toys and books and baby equipment.  The recumbant bike I was going to use to work myself into better shape sat in the middle of the sitting room.  I haven't been able to stand being in the room long enough to try it out, much less work out.  Friends have come to stay and we just shove things around...not good.  Even Christmas was sitting there!

So for four partial days, Patty and Suellen took over the apartment and organized me.  They dragged me in on occasion to make decisions, but they were fairly painless.  I had a pile or two every night to take back to the main house and sort through.  Yes, some is still in bags, but certainly will be attacked at some point.  They warned me not to go in Pomodoro any more - I have tons of cards that I bought but are now encased in plastic.  My files for real estate are gone except for the past six years.  There's even room in one of the shelves for the files sitting by my desk at the office.

Good things happened, too.  I found two addresses I thought had been lost, and cards go out today to the people.  They uncovered photos we had forgotten existed, of Boo as a puppy and me as a child.  I was able to look at obituaries I couldn't see before, and place them lovingly in albums for safe keeping.  The top drawer of the sideboard I use as a desk is now organized.  I will never have to buy paperclips again - or pens - because I know where they are.

Patty and Suellen were tough, but fair.  They took on me and the dogs, chasing Charlie when he escaped on them and affirming Sheba's limp.  They bought plastic to encase things, dragged away stuff for the Jumble Sale at St. James this summer, helped me make decisions.  My mother's Easter egg Irish linen cape will go on e-Bay through them.

I said afterwards that I felt "thinner."  In a good sense.  Will I miss the albums my mother accumulated over her lifetime?  Not really.  I still have the memory of listening to them in the old house - I don't need them sitting in the bedroom.  The books still need to be tackled - but that will take Alex's input when he comes this summer to sort them out.  "Tai Chi for Seniors" resides next to Stephen King novels on the shelf.  But that's okay.

So if you arre looking for a way to clean out and not take years doing it, I highly recommend  the services of "Allow Me."  Call them at 315-569-4737, e-mail is AllowMeCNY@gmail.com, or visit their website:  http://www.allowmecny.com/.  You will see that they do more than just "organize" - groceries, shopping, errand-running, pets...they will even be the "waiter" for you!  All I know is that finally, after all these years, I can go into the apartment and not feel overwhelmed.

Skaneateles Real Estate - The Weekly Update

I've said this before - technology is not anything I do easily, but I do try.  This past week or so I have been working with a VA (if you read it as Veterans' Administration, you are in my age pool!).  A VA is in this case a Virtual Assistant.  Full disclosure - I have never met her, but she appeared in my e-mail and I realized that the services she offers would be a very good thing for me and my business.  And for you, too, because this gives you an easy way to see my listings and stay up to date without going through other websites.  So far Sarah Cole, my VA, has created and will maintain a business page for me on Facebook.  Please take a look:  http://www.facebook.com/MegBrooksRealtor.  Hooray! 

Currently there are ONLY 88 listings in the Skaneateles area of the multiple listing service.  Of these, 26 are in the village and 25 are considered waterfront; three are both.  No new listings came on the market, and only one re-list this past week.

Two new properties were placed in the contingent column, one hovering in the mid-$200,000 range and the other in the middle $100,000.  We now have a total of six in this category.  One other one - waterfront, about 1M - went straight to under contract, do not show.  There are nine altogether in "U".  Ten properties are just waiting to close in the pending area.

But once again we have another one that closed - astounding!  This is a home that had been listed for a bit but then closed above its list price.  You never know!  We now have 14 sold and closed single family homes this year-to-date. 

I know the very good weather has deserted us for a bit, but it's still time to think about summer, especially with everything taking so long to close.  A very pretty little camp on Otisco Lake was just re-listed for the incredible price of $205,000.  With the cute home you get two lots and 102 feet of waterfront.  The road is private and single lane, there is public water, and if you are like me you will be thrilled to get the French Open and Wimbledon because there's cable on the road.  If you buy it now, you may be in by Memorial Day - hopefully (wish I could say certainly) by the Third of July when we light up the lake.

To that end, 2264 Glen Cove Road will be open this Sunday, April 1st, from 1:00 until 3:00.  Come hang out on the deck, enjoy the views, imagine living there year-round - you could!  I promise I'll have some kind of refreshments - please do come, and say you read about it here on my blog - or on my Facebook page!

Skaneateles Real Estate - The Weekly Update

So we are in the midst of amazing weather for this time of year!  Record-breaking warmth - 80? or more? - and brilliant sunshine.  One friend said with exuberance, "Wouldn't it be lovely if it were like this all the time?"  I have to admit I said no, that I love my cross-country skiing and snowshoes, the clean look of snow under a full moon, the crispness in the air.  But these days are intoxicating, and sleep comes easily so that I get up before sunrise, get ready for the day, walk Charlie, and work easily with people who really are intent on buying or selling homes.

Currently there are 90 homes active and available in the Skaneateles area of the multiple listing service.  Of these, 26 are in the Village and another 26 are considered waterfront.  Two "new" re-lists came on, both with new prices.  A totally new Village home came on the market in the low $400,000 range.

The real story is the number of homes marked contingent in just the past week.  There are seven altogether in this category, and four of them are new.  (Homes are selling!)  One is in the town portion of the MLS and has been on and off the market for a while.  The other three are in the Village and range in list price from the low $200,000 to $300,000.    Another Village home was also place in the "U" category - again a new sale!  Seven others are there already.  Although there's nothing new in the pending list, there are 8 properties just itching to close.

And again, another home closed!  This is also in the Village and closing out in the low $300,000.  That brings to 13 the number of sold and closed single family homes in the Skaneateles area this year so far.  Incredible!

But why not?  Certainly looking at the trend reveals a great deal.  Think Village and under $325,000.  You cannot, almost - and I have tried this week - build a new home for that price.  I spent the week speaking with builders, both for Skaneateles and other western suburbs, and finding a lot plus building a home, given the price of construction materials, is almost impossible for under $325,000.  You can build in some communities that have HOAs for less than that, but outside on a separate lot....hardly.  Certainly not in Skaneateles Village!

The good news to be extracted from this - people are looking to build which means people are buying.  Hooray!  Mark Aberi of Harmony Homes predicts that Parkside off West Elizabeth Street will be totally built out in the next 3 - 5 years.  I was amazed to hear him say that, and asked if I could quote him for this blog.  He agreed - so buy now, buy often.  Grab the lots before the prices increase and the choices dwindle.  And above all, enjoy this weather.  Oh yes - GO ORANGE!

Skaneateles Real Estate - The Weekly Update

Do we have to talk about Syracuse basketball?  I think we do.  Alex texted me yesterday in the midst of an offer signing, and everything stopped.  "No fab melo?!!!!" he wrote.  "Tell" I wrote.  And then the sad but true tale came out.  We had just gone to the Big East tournament and watched SU lose from our seats under the basket.  Then the championship game (after seeing the bartender at an Irish pub nearby for our tickets that I had purchased online).  Good loss, I kept saying as the rest of the upper-ranked teams lost too.  It will make them think they are not perfect and they might pay attention more.  But now "no fab melo."  How do you disappoint people?  Even young ones like our Liam?

But there are still houses for sale in Skaneateles.  As a matter of fact, there are 90 total, with 25 of them in the Village and another 25 considered waterfront.  Four new ones came on the market in the past week.  A ranch just outside town is listed under $200,000. Also in the town is a huge 3-BR home for about $500,000.  A sort of relist in the Village has a reasonable price in the mid-$300,000 range.

Five are marked contingent, six are under contract, and eight are in the pending column with one new one, a ranch just outside town.  We still have 12 closed sales - an amazing number, highest it's been at this time of year since 2009.

I looked at other areas too this week.  Marcellus is also doing well, beating the last three years.  Elbridge is so small...but last year there was only one closing by March 14th and this year there are five.  Camillus has been totally consistent the last several years, coming in in the mid 20s.  But if you go back to 2008 there's a spike of 42.  Before things started slowing down.

So by this time next week we will know if SU is one or two and done in the NCAA Tournament.  Sad, sad, state of affairs.

Skaneateles Real Estate - The Weekly Update

Ah, what a day!  The dogs and I were outside on the deck and when Alex texted that UConn and West Virginia had gone into overtime I turned on the game inside - then listened from outside.  SU will have trouble with UConn, I'm afraid.  But then, this is a special team and past predictions ("hard to beat a team three times in a season") go out the window.

This blog actually encompasses two weeks, as I explained in the last blog.  And there has been activity!  Five new listings came on the market in the past two weeks.  Actually six, but that one has already sold!  Think Village and good price...  One of the "new" ones is a re-list, but at such a reduced price and after being off the market for well over a year it's hard to call it a re-list.  The new ones include four outside the village, three large ones and a sweet 2-bedroom home.  Come and get them!  There are only 85 active listings entered in the Skaneateles area - 24 are in the village and 22 are waterfront. 

Six homes are marked contingent, the first step towards closing.  Three are new in the past two weeks.  One is the Village home that just opened its doors, and the other two are in the town -both good-sized homes that have been on the market for a bit.  Another that has been dropping in price has been changed to under contract, bringing that total to six also.  There are no new pending homes, or at least none that haven't been noted previously.

And yes, two more have closed, continuing our great year.  Both were Village new construction in Parkside.  The interesting piece of the closings is that we usually have about a third in the village and a third listed as waterfront, with some overlap.  The same is true this year - 4 Village, 4 waterfront.

So let's add a home in the town!  Please come to the open house at 1650 Coon Hill Road on Sunday, March 11th, from 1:00 until 3:00.  I have another appointment, but Roxanne Plummer will be there to show you this great home - three bedrooms, plus a family room and a sunroom and a fireplace with hardwoods throughout.  Hopefully the weather will be as lovely as it is today so you can walk out into the deep backyard to the creek that runs behind the property.  Syracuse University will have won the Big East Championship the previous evening, so there won't be basketball to watch - hah!

Go Orange!

The Past Few Weeks

It's been a very difficult past few weeks and I apologize for missing the weekly update on the 29th.  I just couldn't do it.

I had worked with Doug Bohrer recently to list a house and then the lots at Parcell Woods in Sennett.  He passd away on the 1st of March.  A month ago we were texting about pricing, septic tests, new beginnings and what we would do if one or two of the lots hadn't sold by this time in 2013.  Then he got sick, and the next thing I knew he was in ICU and his parents had been called up from Virginia.

We knew he wasn't coming back on the 28th and that it was "just a matter of time" as they say.  He passed away on March 1st.  Calling hours were Sunday, with an hour and a half wait, the line out the door into the freezing cold and snow.  The funeral was yesterday, with very few dry eyes in the overflow crowd. 

Today we go back to "normal," but with a difference.  Doug was only 48, with three amazing children and many friends.  Normal would be Doug driving around in his truck with his ride-along dog, Dublin, at his side. 

I learned a bit about life in the past month, lessons I certainly would trade.  Life is short, as they say, but not only short but precarious.  And precious.  It's not always about the future, but mostly about the moment.  There was an incredible multimedia presentation at the funeral.  Pictures upon pictures of Doug and the kids, or Doug and his little sister.  Mostly outside, mostly hanging out.  Mostly smiling.  The moments in life that are precious.

I stood around after the service with women who had come in support of his dear friend Jean who had supported him and his parents over the past year.  I heard it several times - "I want to go home and take more photos!"  And not only photos, but to create the occasions at which photos are taken.  The Grand Canyon, a lake in the Adirondacks, just being with friends and family.  Memorialized, but also lived.

I went out and walked last evening after showing a house.  I happened to be in Liverpool, so I walked by the lake then went to India House for Punjabi dal takeout.  I came home and shared the meal with Bob, had a Grail Ale, and we talked.  We agreed to try for more awareness of each day.

My old friend from the charter school days, Colleen Hassett-Mastine, passed away a few weeks ago.  I hadn't seen her in years, and I was saddened that I didn't have time to tell her that I, too, had become a grandmother.  She was the quintessential grandmother.  When her Declan was born, she kept saying "You just don't know...." how wonderful it is.  I do now!

So I will do my real estate, sell those lots that Doug worked so hard to develop, help first-time buyers through the process...and remember that life is both precious and precarious.