Celebrating the Holidays

With a few more houses on the market than what is normal for the holiday season, the question keeps coming up about decorating. My advice, over and over, is to keep it simple and elegant. That goes for inside decorating as well as outside.Speaking of outside decorating, the Democrat and Chronicle has put together a map of notable holiday light displays. To check out that map, go here: http://

Just Listed: 51 Briarcliffe Dr, Irondequoit

Just hit the market on this cold, blustery Rochester morning! (details at www.RochestersBestHomes.com/931215 )A beautiful 3 bedroom home on a simply gorgeous street in West Irondequoit. With beautiful hardwoods through, this home has lots of period charm plus many important updates, such as a newer roof and vinyl siding. And once the weather breaks, you'll enjoy the professionally landscaped

140 Days and Counting

When the weather outside is frightful, you can usually count on the real estate phone going to sleep. Not this year! I worked with three different buyers yesterday during the raging snow storm. And of the 7 houses I showed, three of them were new to the market this week. That’s not a typical December day for Rochester, NY.With less than 140 days to be under contract to qualify for the home buyer

Getting Ready to List Your House

Right now, I'm getting more phone calls from people wanting to sell their home than individuals that want to buy a home. That's a change and I think it's been brought on by the federal tax credit for repeat buyers that have owned their current resident for at least 5 years. Of course, there are a million things to do to get your house ready for the market....cleaning, organizing, de-cluttering

Home Buyer Tax CREDIT, not deduction

I've made a few phone calls this week to individuals that might want to take advantage of the Federal Tax Credit being offered to qualified home buyers and was very surprised at how uninformed and/or misinformed the general public is about this program.Most importantly, this is a tax credit, not a deduction on your income tax. For most first time home buyers, the credit is for 10% of the purchase