Mayor Duffy Wants to Know What I Think!

No I didn't get a phone call! Or a personal letter! But I did get a survey stuck into our storm door.It's number crunching time at Rochester's City Hall and Mayor Bob Duffy has asked for neighborhood feedback regarding fees, taxes and services."What are the most important services to you and your neighborhood?", the survey asks. To me, that's pretty easy. Police protection and fighting crime are

Practical Money Skills

There is a lot of talk in the Rochester and national media about the subprime mortgage mess. And it is very real. It has affected my business. I had three deals die this month that would have had no problem closing six or eight months ago.The good news is that if you've got decent credit and some money for a down payment, there is financing available and the interest rates are very, very good.

Carbon Monoxide - Avoid and Prevent!

While inspecting a Wyoming County home recently, I encountered another carbon monoxide concern. This is a good time of year to consider the potential hazards associated with Carbon monoxide.Carbon monoxide (CO) is an odorless, colorless gas produced by the combustion of fuels such as natural gas, oil, wood, and propane in devices such as furnaces, water heaters, and stoves. Harmful interior

Why do I need an attorney?

One question that many buyers and sellers of real estate commonly ask, especially those from outside the upstate New York area, is “Why do I need an attorney?” In many areas of the country, real estate purchases, sales, and financing are handled by settlement or title companies, who usually are involved in all aspects of the property transfer—on behalf of the seller

Opera, Paintings & Quilts, Oh My

Did you know that the Eastman Opera Theatre is performing This is the Rill Speaking this weekend? And the Susan B. Anthony Institute has a juried exhibit featuring art from undergraduates (preview here: www.rochester.edu/College/WST/ ) The gallery is open seven days a week and is free to the general public. Call 275-8318 for details. And the Memorial Art Gallery has several awesome exhibits of

Closets - Clear Away that Clutter!

I recently went on a listing appointment in Irondequoit where the sellers had done all the right things. In the five or so years that they owned the property, they had installed new energy-efficient windows, replaced the old oil fired furnace with an efficient natural gas model plus added central air. The roof was newer, the interior was painted in tasteful colors and the yard was meticulous

Closing Costs Take 2!

Hello again! Hope everyone had a great holiday season. Lets jump right in, and finish this little mini-series on "Closing Costs". Today we will focus on the actual cost of getting a mortgage. As you may recall from "Take 1", this is the area where you want to focus on when shopping for a mortgage. Some of the fees will be the same regardless of where you get your mortgage, and some will vary from

State of the Finger Lakes

Most people think we had a wind storm yesterday. Actually, it was me on a whirlwind tour of the Finger Lakes. I had clients yesterday from Costa Rica that love summers on the Finger Lakes and so we looked at property on five of the lakes. So this seems like an excellent time to give a market report.Conesus Lake continues to offer some of the most reasonable waterfront property. Currently, there

Story of a Staged Silk Purse & a Sow's Ear

(Scroll down for Video Show) While home staging CAN turn a "sow's ear" of a home into a beautiful and easily sellable "silk purse", there still is only so much staging can do to improve a home's appeal to potential buyers. Sometimes a house that is for sale, even if it is priced right, has quality construction, or uses the most expensive and luxurious finishes... just can't be helped with staging.

CASE IN POINT: Above is an exterior shot of an absolutely beautiful 3/4 of a million dollar Chicago area home that was built well over 1 1/2 years ago... and has not sold. In fact, 17 months after it had NOT sold, the builder hired one of the finest and MOST savvy Realtors I know. The new Realtor called in Real Estaging with the hopes that if we created a beautiful view on the inside it would help counter the house's "problem" that was keeping the house from being sold.

Actually, except for the fact that this spec home was vacant, it really had no other problems of its own. However, was keeping it from being sold WAS quite obvious when we first visited this listing. Even before we ever entered the property, we knew exactly WHY the house wasn't selling. The problem was the neighbor's house and the fact that the yard looked like a pig sty. It didn't help that the home was filled with windows that overlooked the neighboring property.

Both the Realtor and I tried to advise the builder, BEFORE staging the interior, that it would be best to put up a privacy fence to help block the view of the neighboring property. While advice like might risk our chance of getting a staging job, I knew this would be the BEST option... the views out the living room, office and great room windows were/are that bad.

How bad is the actual view out the windows of the neighbors property? Well, below is a quick 30 second video tour of the home and the neighboring property it looks out on.


(Click HERE to view the Video Show if the show does not appear above.)

When I first spoke with the builder he was well aware of the problem (in fact he had installed cellular shades on that side of the house) with the neighboring view. To him the fence option was financially or legistacally not feasible at the time. To install a new privacy fence meant that the newly poured driveway, that sat RIGHT on the lot line, would have to be totally removed. The expense to remove the existing driveway, install a new fence and then reinstall a new driveway would total well over $10,000. The builder hoped investing in real estate staging would do the trick. So we staged the property... it looked fantastic and the builder was quite pleased.

Well, this past week we de-staged it and unfortunately it still had not sold. So I guess this puts a new slant on an old saying... "you can't sell a silk purse when it SITS next to a sow's ear."

Me

Curl up by the fire

____________________________________RELAXATION TIME GET MORE OUT OF LIFE!_____________________________________I have noticed that homebuyers often get excited about the presence of a fireplace in their prospective home. I can see their plans to make Christmas memories, they might be thinking of self sufficiency during power outages, or just a romantic evening in the cold winter season. Fireplaces

Why Do I Blog???

Something about the first of January brings on soul searching. A time to look and analyze the year that just finished and to make plans, goals and resolutions for the new. And since it's been about a year that I've been blogging, it seems a good time to explore why.Writing comes natural to me, kind of. I come from a family of journalist. My dad was a sports writer and my uncle recently retired