WaynesWord (Skip April, Straight to) May 2008
I felt the coldness of my winter;
I never thought
that it would ever go-o-oh…
I cursed the gloom that sat
upon us, on us…
but I kno-ohw
that I love you so
-Robert Plant, “The Rain Song”
Here, as in many parts of the country, it was a long and somewhat harsh winter, which carried on long past when March was supposed to have gone out like a lamb. There were snowbanks and stubborn patches of crusty whiteness visible till mid-April in Middle Grove, and even longer in the foothills and ridges to the northwest of
here.
Then one morning in April, getting up and moving a little later than normal for a weekday at 6:11 a.m., you notice that there’s something different about the morning light. Though the sun hasn’t officially risen yet, there is an other-worldly glow emanating from the eastern sky, and from every window of the house as you start the morning routine, there is a Golden Light bathing everything in sight. The straw-colored lawns and the still leaf-less trees seem dipped in gold. Neighbor’s houses across the street—their facades reflect back golden light. Your own home’s back wall & windows are painted with an electromagnetic brush. There seems to be a silent celestial humming that suggests that this will be a special day—that despite the forecast of rain and cloudiness, the start to this particular Friday indicates a sunnier, suffused, future. Everything’s gonna be all right….
But you are busy boiling water for coffee and grinding the beans, making sure your younger son, who has to catch the bus first, is up and getting ready, and you get the cast iron frying pan heated up for his habitual plate of scrambled eggs. You sneak into your office for a peek at the email, when instead you should be outside on the deck, drinking in that lavish dose of golden light. By the time you call out to your wife and younger son—You’ve got to look outside, quick—the light has changed a bit already, and the pre-sunrise glow is not as bounteous as it had been mere minutes before. The light moves from golden to more silvery as the clouds move in from the west, obscuring the clarity of the eastern horizon. When the sun pops up over the tall trees out back that shield the ridge above our section of the Kaydeross Creek, it delivers reassuring beams of orange-yellow brilliance, but not the same kind of glow that was present 5 minutes earlier. Soon the cloud cover is complete and the day is now simply “overcast”—silver light becomes plain ole grey, and anyone who wakes up after 6:25 a.m. in these parts will never know the display they just missed.
It’s just another lesson in the evanescence of beauty in this world. In real time, you can’t hit re-wind. You can’t dial back the clock. Why rush in to your study to stare at a backlit laptop screen first thing each morning-- second-hand information from the world, at best--when you could be out in the actual glory of dawn, taking a minute to give thanks and soak in the emanations that baptize the day? The morning birdsongs are back, and the landscape is coming back to life. You should be bathing in that brief glow of radiance while it is there—that’s what your back deck is designed for… but you need to break out of your interior (winter) habits to appreciate it fully… not to mention having time to do so.
Your email will still be there later. Speak your early day gratitudes first, and don’t miss the blessings that unfold at the break between cycles of night and day. The light changes so fast, you can’t catch it, as most photographers know.
SPRING IS BACK IN BLOOM BY THE TIME I WRITE THIS…
In the roughly 40 day-day span between last snowfall and first pollen-fall, I admit I’ve procrastinated in writing for this website as the market has gotten busier. April for me involved a difficult but lucrative closing or two, plus a resumption of suddenly showing lots of property again after an unusually dormant March. Combined with the prevailing demands of chauffeuring three school-aged kids to three different schools and after-school events, car travel has taken its toll on my time for meditative writing.
Younger son was in a play with rehearsal 4 nights a week at the Arts Center in Saratoga, while the older was playing competitive AAU Hoop down in the Capital District just as often. There was one recent weekend where my wife and I were juggling 4 play performances in Saratoga with 4 Tournament games in Albany, along with Girl Scout events for my 4th grade daughter as well. Other parents (and grand-parents in some cases) with multiple school-aged kids can relate to this hectic syndrome, but the young yuppies with no responsibilities to anyone other than themselves have no idea yet how demanding full-family schedules can be, in addition to work-life.
Some people my age are through with that already—their kids are in college, or driving already themselves, while others in their early 50’s have fully-grown kids who are already working and self-supporting by now. Others among my peers have grandchildren by this time, and are taking their AARP Membership kit more seriously than I am. Others have children who are the same age as some of the young-buck competitors I deal with in real estate these days. But raising, chasing, and hauling 3 kids and all their friends around at this point is helping to keep me young, enthused, and involved in their lives, albeit often exhausted.
I was a relative late-bloomer in the family-making sense, and in the business sense—I was well past thirty before I took either endeavor seriously. But I know I appreciate both the rewards of family-life and business relationships more now than I would’ve at an earlier age.
Family life has grounded me in ways that nothing else could have, and I treasure it. Even though the rigor and attentiveness necessary to raise three children creates a constant daily challenge, I feel blessed to have a healthy home-life, and the energy and, so far, the wherewithal to sustain it—and am also blessed to have a wife who is a phenomenal mother and “domestic goddess” as one infamous comedienne once referred to herself.
DO “UNDER-30” REALTORS KNOW HOW FAMILY LIFE AFFECTS REAL ESTATE, OR VICE VERSA?
When I was back in my carefree 20-something phase, I would not have had the temerity or the basic life-knowledge to be coaching people older than myself on heavy life-decisions, as are involved in real estate. If you don’t have children yet, and work so much that you can’t give proper attention to a pet much less a family, how can you counsel people in a balanced fashion, and really understand what family life is all about? Yet I see my brash young competitors touting the fact that they are available “24/7” to focus on their client’s real estate needs, whereas middle-aged (how I hate that phrase) Realtors like me—who might actually have some life-experience and maybe even wisdom to impart—might be dissed or dismissed as not being devoted slavishly enough to their profession, as if 8–10 hour workdays are not sufficient.
I am fanatical about a lot of things—my wife and kids first—my clients, my work, music, basketball, books, friends, email, home improvement, hiking, writing, et cetera… but I am leery of those who claim to be fanatic about only ONE THING, whether it’s religion, politics, or their means of making money in this world. If they are that self-absorbed or unbalanced, they MAY also come off as callow, shallow, and narcissistic—although many people fitting that description are quite successful in real estate and in business.
You as a consumer have to decide who to deal with in your real estate pursuits. When I left “corporate real estate” after 11 years of collectively being touted as “Above the Crowd”-- I was tired of the ego-mania of that style, even though there are many talented agents under that banner. Self-promotion is more or less mandatory, paramount, and apparently productive among the mega-stars of the real estate world.
While I cannot claim to have rendered my own ego to a shadow of its former self, I can honestly say my swollen head is NOT currently featured on any billboards, shopping carts, mall kiosks, or vanity t.v. shows in 2008 either. This web site is my primary indulgence in that regard…. and it’s voluntary on your part to read this! Thank you for doing so, by the way.
THE MARKET IN THE MONTH OF MAY, 2008,
VIA ONE SNAPSHOT…
When asked How It Is, I usually say: Schizophrenic.
What do I mean by that?
A) It’s all over the place, hard to define, or pin down.
B) It’s bodacious in some places; horrible in others.
C) It’s a bit crazy, and prone to tantrums, and procrastination.
D) It doesn’t suck, but it’s not great across the board either.
Everyone who finds out “you’re in real estate” wants
to know “How it Is…”
We try to make grand summaries, when all we can do
is relate the anecdotes that pertain to us—the individual agents who make up the whole.
We can study statistics, both local and national, and spout them like everyone else, interpreting them either cautiously, or enthusiastically, as the situation may warrant. This is not duplicity, but relativity, and pragmatism. To the recalcitrant property-owner (and would-be seller) who insists on pricing their product like it’s still the boom times, we need to employ caution and moderation, and some market wisdom. To the reluctant buyers, who are awaiting fire-sale reductions across the board, we must inject enthusiasm, inspiration, and more market comps. That’s what I mean by real estate relativity these days—the Realtor has to attempt to counter market-based delusions, and counterbalance the extremes of people’s thinking.
WHICH SECTOR IS BODACIOUS, & WHICH IS HELLACIOUS?
In Saratoga Springs proper, I have run into 3 situations in early May where properties have ended up with multiple offers, very soon after being first listed. There is something they each have in common, which I’ll get to in a minute.
In Albany I listed a brick single-family home on a modest side-street, convenient to downtown and the hospital/offices district. This listing, at $ 179,900., generated more phone calls in the first two weeks than my in-town Saratoga listings, which is to say, a lot. It sold within the first 30 days to a family that was very specific in their search for something solid in that particular elementary school neighborhood. I believe I could’ve sold that one 2 or 3 times over, if I’d had to.
There are other examples of where things might be heating up, but I’ll stick with those two for now. In the first case, in Saratoga, what we are dealing with is Investment Properties—and on the residential side, that means 2-family, 3-unit, 4-unit. or more. Rental properties within the city are hot again, though the prices of certain recent upper end listings will still prove to be too aggressive, I think. In each case, I either previewed or showed the property in question within the first day after it was listed on the MLS, and was told by the listing agent(s) within 24 hours that there was already more than one offer on the table.
Most of the people I work with as buyers are, understandably, bargain hunters. But there are a lot of them out there, working with other agents too, looking for plum Saratoga properties especially. This demand, in effect, cancels out the chance of finding any bargains, especially if you sit on your hands and deliberate too long. If the first wave of showings from aggressive real estate seekers does not result in a binding offer, then you might have a chance at a bargain price down the road.
But if what I am seeing continues, most good investment properties will never last that long in the summer to come.
Just for reference (and especially for the benefit of out-of-towners), the price ranges on the above properties: high-200K for a legal 3-unit on White Street; high 300’s for a rambling old 2-fam on Nelson Avenue (right across from the flat track!); and in the upper $500K range for an updated vintage brownstone 4-unit on the Westside, just 3 short blocks from Broadway.
Single-family properties in the same price ranges as these multi-family situations I refer to are NOT in as much immediate demand in Saratoga proper, except in very rare cases. There are many more single-family homes to choose from at any time, for one thing, whereas in the local realm of 2-fams and multi-unit properties, there are under 10 available in the city in ALL price ranges at any given time (note: this is in sub area 311 of the Greater Capital Area Realtor’s MLS, and does not include commercial listings, per se).
WHAT IS NOT HOT RIGHT NOW?
Anything that has been on the market more than 4 months and hasn’t changed significantly in price is by definition “not hot.” Anything that is priced as if trying to sell for an all-time high in a given neighborhood. Anything in suburbia that is priced higher than new homes of the same square footage. Anything that requires lots of work that is priced like the work is already done.
There are a lot of properties I know of which are on their second, third, or fourth real estate listing—also, by definition, not hot. For all that those would-be sellers want to blame their Realtors or “the market” at large—they are often in denial that there is some inherent flaw in their home, location, or terrain about which the buying public is skeptical. Either that or the price is just too damn high to compensate, and the seller’s are stubborn.
WHY “LOCATION” IS MORE IMPORTANT THAN EVER…
It’s the spot you’ve got in the campground of civilization… and if it’s truly a hot spot, people will still pay a primo price and be willing to overlook fundamental flaws. The 2-family on Nelson Avenue in Saratoga, overlooking the first turn of the famous race track, is a great example of that. A classic but unremarkable clapboard 2-story farmhouse with a broad front porch that seemingly was used for years as a rooming house came with a deep lot with a flat grassy yard that was ideal for track side parking, and generated a reported average of $10,000. each season in that fashion, Whereas the average unimproved, depression-era 2-family in Saratoga would command nowhere near $400,000. in asking price, this one did. The current buyers may be planning their own wondrous single-family makeover to this ramshackle home with hardwood floors, high ceilings, and old rope-weighted windows, or they may turn it into a high-end seasonal rental as an investment for the long-term. There is even the chance, unique to Saratoga in upstate New York, that a place like this could undergo demolition in favor of a $2 million new home, if it’s not already registered with the Historical Society or the Preservation Foundation in some way…
You get the idea. Certain sectors are hot, certain are not. We are lucky, to some extent, in Saratoga to be in the midst of a place that defies the overall gloom of the national real estate scene and still inspires people to spend their money, instead of indecisively sitting on the fence, as real estate buyers are reputedly doing in other geographic areas, both near and far.
Addendum of the Month:
Especially to the Buyers Who Work With Me, and Those Who Subscribe to my Version of “JustListed.com”—
WHY MY “PREVIEWING” IS IMPORTANT TO YOU
This is the kind of market and the time of year when you have to be attentive to the information your Realtor provides. Certain properties as described above can go quickly, long before an ad hits the Sunday paper, much less the monthly glossies.
Emailed information is generally fresh on a daily basis for the clientele I am in touch with. Hence, I do not “push” my opinions on what’s best in a given price range, but you won’t miss anything once you’re working with me, either. You get to make the decisions on what to actually see, at a time when you can still
actually do something about it, hopefully.
I am actively previewing in-town gems, lakeside properties, investment properties, horse-farm properties, or wooded acreage parcels at any given moment when I’m not otherwise engaged these days. I like to be fully aware of properties of the sort my clients are seeking, not just looking on the MLS maps to find a location on my first visit with the buyers. Treat the ever-changing real estate market like a good research consultant in the stock market and people will sense the difference from the average real estate hobbyist or part-timer.
For the Sellers that I deal with on listing appointments and
initial consultations, all that previewing and home-showing I do is
beneficial too—for direct comparisons of the subject property with whatever else is out there as competition.
AUTOMATIC ACCESS TO THE eMLS SYSTEM,
ONCE A YEAR OFFER…
If you are not currently receiving information on real estate
in a specific or generic zone of Saratoga County or surrounding areas of the Capital District, you can contact me to sign up for free & easy email access to the latest and all current listings, with no obligation of course. (Email: wayne@waynesword.com )
I do not cold call people at any point, but will return calls if inquiries require that, or send personal emails replying to specific questions on properties, local procedures in real estate matters, or any general questions on availability of properties in a given price range.
For the record, I do not deal with seasonal rentals, nor manage property—with Saratoga being a resort town, people often expect you to deal with those things, but there are plenty of other companies that do.
My specialty is in marketing properties that are unique in some way for the Sellers of real estate, and in hunting out, discovering, and negotiating for properties on behalf of my buyer clients. After 21 years of doing this, I find I still get a vicarious kick every day out of exploring homes I’ve never seen before—
seeing how well they are built (or not)—seeing how people live in them—seeing how much of a good value they might offer to my buyers (or not).
I love walking land, checking boundary lines, studying topo maps, elevations, and wetland perimeters.
I enjoy showing investment properties and evaluating how well they might perform over time.
I am honored and intrigued each time I am asked How much do you think this home (or land, or building) is worth?
In short, even in these challenging times, and after a fairly brutal winter, I am still happy to be a professional Realtor, in this part of upstate New York.
Till next month,
Take Care
Copyright 2008 Wayne Perras
(Note: I have articles planned or half-finished on Saratoga Updates, Music & Media Matters, Real Estate Anecdotes, Hoop,
& a new Blog that mashes all those things together. Stay tuned.)
Posted May 10, 2008