The Update - A Lot Late

But we will play catch-up.

I must say that really only the blog has suffered due to Liam's birth.  I never thought I would be so consumed but I am.  I still managed to find time to sell, buy and close properties with my clients in the last few weeks - just not the time to write about them.

So - since I did the research and then got interrupted by The Call to go to Manhattan "now!" I will start with what I pulled together.  This is the second half of the update - what sold and closed between (gulp!) June 16th and July 13th in Skaneateles.

Two new properties were marked contingent, both larger village homes bringing the number of contingent properties to 7 in all.  "Under contract but do not show any more" is a tiny waterfront - can't wait to know what it did actually sell for!  There are 12 pending - a larger waterfront is new to this list.

What has closed is the most interesting part of this update.  As of July 13th, there were 29 closed single family homes in the Skaneateles area.  Eight - wow! - were new.  Four were listed and sold under $200,000.  A fifth home was a mid-range waterfront property that dropped its price to accommodate a sale - something that has been happening a bit these days.  Two other newer homes just outside the village both sold in the mid-$400,000.  And then there's The Big One, closing for 3 million dollars, right on the water with acreage in the village.  Congratulations to the new owners! 

So slowly we will get back to a new normal.  Slowly.  Patience, I am told, is a virtue.

Our News

We welcome to our family Liam Jude Brooks-Barr born the morning of July 15th in Manhattan to Alex and Rachel.  He is our first grandbaby - and what a beautiful baby he is!  He weighed 8 lbs, 3 oz and has gained an ounce over the past day.  He was 22 inches, just an inch shorter than Alex was when he was born in Seattle.  Both were born under the full moon.

"You are Never Old, Until Regrets take the Place of Dreams"

So I have fallen down on my writing.  I could claim busy-ness, and I certainly have been.  Over the weekend I was gone both days from before 8:30 to about 8:00 at night.  I keep returning exhausted, but when houses are selling one goes with the flow.  Because the spigot can be turned off, as quickly as our pond drained a week ago.  "Fish" was left high and dry - literally - but I rescued him and gave him a whole new world in my in-laws' pond....what a fish story!

The reality is that about a month ago I was speaking with an agent who said I should be careful, that in writing about homes I am in danger of violating a listing agreement.  In our contracts we present to the owners they have the right - and all do - to say they do not want third party comments about their homes.  It's a new clause, and I routinely check it.  But she said that I was walking a thin line with this blog.  

Now, for the most part I am complimentary, and I do not identify homes or properties unless they are my listings.  The agent agreed that I was careful - she reads my blog, as do other Realtors - but she put that seed of doubt in my head.  Where it stayed.  And grew a bit, so that when I did have time to sit down I chose not to write.  It wasn't a fear as much as a lessening of desire to write.  It had stopped being fun.  I had to worry about being censored by the Board.  It takes the fun out of writing, especially my style of conversational, stream of consciousness with little editing, style of writing. 

Yesterday a story appeared in the Post-Standard (and you can go on-line to read it at http://www.syracuse.com/ under Health and Fitness) written by Kathleen Poliquin about a young woman who gave birth to a baby 8 months ago and endured incredible medical hardships, but will compete in a Triathlon this summer.  Amazing.  Her belief system contains the following sentence:  "The biggest consequence of fear is missed opportunities." 

So I am banishing fear and pushing ahead.  If agents or sellers recognize their homes and do not like what I wrote, please tell me.  I will be conscious and conscientious, but I want to write this blog.

Today I read that an old friend had passed away.  He was a writer, a professional writer.  So this blog is for you, Nick!

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

Welcome to the Third of July - the day that is second only to Christmas Eve in my family.  This is the day when flares are lit around the lakes and the celebration for the Fourth of July begins.  Salt potatoes are the starch du jour, Bob's watermelon-shrimp-avocado dish takes center stage, and the world is magical for one glorious summer evening.

So if you are thinking of moving to Skaneateles, or moving around within the Skaneateles area - please consider these new listings.  In the village you could move to a lovely stucco home now on the market in the mid-$300,000 range or go smaller up the street for a granited kitchen in the mid-$200,000. 

4519 Jordan Road

If you want to put in some work, you could buy the little one we just listed (see photo) for $39,900 in the Falls - it is gutted and ready for you.  Or the unfinished 4,000sf home now listed in the mid-$200,000 just outside on the east.  Remodeled and done on five acres - there's a new one for just over $300,000.  If you want gorgeous on more than five acres, look to one listed at just over $500,000.  Only one waterfront came on these past two weeks - but the location is superb and the price under a million.  For relatively new construction, go beyond Skaneateles' borders but within the school district to one priced to sell under $400,000.  Or go down the lake for about $200,000 and I think a view.  And a small one right in the village was re-listed, and that was also remodeled but priced in the mid $100,000 range.

Ten new ones, that should make, with three in the village.  All the listings together in the area equal 145 - so you have 145 opportunities to live in Skaneateles which on this Fourth of July weekend is jumping.

The First Twenty - 2011

After many long days I now have a brief moment to write this blog.  It's truly remarkable how busy summers can be - not just the mowing and getting the camp ready, but all the wonderful events.  I've been to a wedding shower in Rochester for our nephew, then a graduation for our niece.  We also found time to go to the Merry-Go-Round Playhouse in Owasco to see "Anything Goes" with Bob's mother.  Of course that meant eating out at Connie's (any excuse!).  All that in the past week on top of 12 hour days which included two open houses and countless showings.  What a marvelous time of year!

So here we are, in no known order, just as they came up in computer.  All are listed as being in Skaneateles, although a couple are in Sennett with Skaneateles Schools, and another in Spafford.  Some are village (3) and some are waterfront (4) and two are lake rights.  The prices are their sales prices.

3391 East Lake Road - $430,000

2052 West Lake Road - $752,000

1000 Jewett Road - $95,000

3104 West Lake Road - $242,000

33 Calemad Drive - $442,600

1575 Tracy Drive - $305,000

1863 Sugar Maple Lane - $105,100

2489 East Lake Road - $850,000

2875 East Lake Road - $310,000

2104 West Lake Road - $270,000

7 Wicklow Drive - $325,000

2542 East Lake Road - $164,300

3663 Fisher Road - $199,000

12 Prentiss Drive - $685,000

1531 Thornton Heights - $370,000

4135 Jordan Road - $118,000

3809 Gully Road - $99,000

180 East Genesee Street - $235,000

4179 NW Townline Road - $55,000

Lot 8 Calemad - $613,700

Since we already have 3 more towards the next 20, maybe we can sell and close 17 more in record time!

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

It's been longer than I like to go as far as writing here.  No excuse.  I simply was extremely busy, had friends in over the weekend for dinner at Bluewater on Friday and Rosalie's on Saturday.  As I get older I realize that the friends I had as a girl are the ones I am more likely to stay in touch with - which is odd in a way, because as I look at our stats we are vastly different.  Life style - only four of the eight are married (still), five of us have grown children, only one is a grandmother, and only three of us have full-time jobs.  We all agree on having pets, dogs and cats and even horses, and that may be the only thing.  Plus we like each other mostly, and can generally pick up where we left off.  My world is certainly richer for their continuing presence.

But back to Skaneateles and the new listings that have appeared in the past 16 days.  The listings can be summed up by saying they are half re-lists - houses that have been refreshed to appear newly listed either after being leased or with a price drop or simply "because."  Just as a new one came on in the village for slightly under $400,000 (and has a very decidedly "cool" factor) another one was re-listed at about the same price.  There are now 43 village homes on the market.

Outside of the village 9 listings came on the market.  Five are re-lists, ranging in price from under $200,000 to well over a million dollars.  Two are waterfront.  The new ones are in the $250,000 to $400,000 range - even the one with lake rights and the other right on the water (think small, very small...) 

Because guilt has caught up with me, I will continue on with the contingent properties.  There are 14 in all - I don't remember a time when there were so many! - and four of them are new.  A pretty village property that's been dropping its price fairly regularly is now marked contingent, a house in the town that came on with a very good price is also gone after just a few weeks, and a smaller one with one of the lowest prices is also marked contingent.  A beautiful waterfront home listed under two million - but just - is also as sold as "contingent" can be.

Nothing new in the "under contract, do not show" listings.  There are 8 marked pending, including two new ones that went directly there, one a waterfront property and the other with acreage.  Cash is good these days, and while I have no knowledge that this is what the financing is, going directly to pending often means just that.

We now have over 20 homes sold and closed this year.  This compares with 27 in 2010, 38 in 2009, and only 19 in 2008 by this date in June.  Three new ones were reported.  One sold over its list price, another sold just about at its list price, and a third came in at about 20% of its original price.  Really can't predict a trend here at all - except that the right pricing brings buyers.  Not always true, because each house is different, but the adage about "if you lower the price far enough someone will buy it!"

So things have slowed enough to be able to report the update in one blog - but soon the contingents will turn into pendings that will turn into solds.  My prediction:  that it won't take five and a half months to close the next 20!

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



2220 Glencove Road

 I was speaking with the owner today of this wonderful home and we were looking at pricing in Onondaga County.  I told her that over the past few months I've kept an eye on the Post-Standard's Sunday Home page and the property's that have closed.  Each week I am amazed that the prices aren't higher.  The paper publishes the 5 highest-priced houses that sold the past week - generally the fifth house is somewhere around the $300,000 level.  I checked it out on the ML for verification - only 28 homes have sold in the past 12 months in Onondaga County over $500,000.  So we "monitored and adjusted" the price of this Otisco Lake waterfront year-round home to $449,000.  Come and get it!

But what's been happening in Skaneateles?  I've been so busy that the poor second half of this blog got pushed back and back.  (Yes, busy with listings and offers!)  I will catch us up to the minute - this minute, before I go take another listing (so cute - and under $100,000!) 

New contingent, continue to show properties are homes in the village, the town and waterfront.  The village home that sold is listed above $500,000 - so there's another one to add to the list when it closes.  A second one is above a million, and is also waterfront.  Another waterfront a bit farther down the lake has also sold presumably for over 500K also.  Two homes in the town, both around $200,000, and a third another 100K up are marked newly contingent.  That brings to 10 - a lot!

One new one went directly to under contract, do not show - listed around $200,000 also.  The pended property that's new is in the same ballpark.  Together the "U" and "P" categories equal another 10, just waiting to close.

We now have 18 closed properties for the year as reported through today, June 6th.  Two are new, one that's been listed for well over 6 months and the other for only a few months, and waterfront at that.  Both closed within 15% of their initial list price.  Only two more to go and I will publish the list of houses with their closed prices.

But until then - go play!  A lovely June is a gift - before the summer, while the flowers still bloom, and before all the craziness of vacations and graduations and parties take hold.  Just relax, mow and play!