TGIF!

Hola Friends!

I know people throw around the term "TGIF" ... but good grief this Friday I really am SOO glad it is Friday! I work mostly every day, so Friday's usually mean absolutely nothing to me, but tomorrow for once I actually am taking a day off and plan to clean house, bring out all our Fall decor and then be lazy! :)

OK, now onto what's been going on in my world lately ... let's see ... 

1. Selling some houses to some of my awesome clients :) 

Congratulations Carla! She got a beautiful home that is absolutely perfect for her! So happy for her :)

My new yard signs are in! 
They look awesome! I am super excited about them! Watch out Lexington ... Gentry-Jackson & Associates is going to blow up! Hehe! Hopefully you will see lots of these signs all over town! ;)

2. KY Wildcats Football 

Ok, we can be honest .. our football team is not the greatest this year ha. Nothing like KY basketball.
However, we are not fair weathered fans ... so we still represent.

We went to a game and celebrated for Chris's 35th birthday a couple weekends ago! Had a blast.
My family grilled out, we hung out with some friends and watched the game .. it was a good time!

I even got to see my long lost BFF/old assistant, Emily ...

Love her! XO.

My cousin came with us too .. she is so cute!

 3. Celebrating Birthdays! 

Chris hates that pic, but it was the only one I got with him and his new bday present ...
the big GREEN EGG!
Not really being a grilling person myself, I never understood the hype about these things lol
BUT ... after getting one and eating off of it, I guess I understand now because the food is amazing.
Chris was SO surprised .. the kids and I made a scavenger hunt for him throughout the house and ending in the back yard with the green egg and it was so cute. ;)

We opened cards, went to dinner and had a blast celebrating his special day, as you can see above haha.
Happy Birthday again babe ... xoxoxo! So glad you had a special birthday, you deserve it <3

4. Celebrating my Aunt Cathy's LAST chemo treatment!!

She is such a strong person! This was her at her last chemo treatment last week .. doing the "V" for victory!!
She is a two time Ovarian Cancer survivor .. praise the Lord! She has maintained a positive attitude even when she has felt like absolute crap. She has a major important job for a large spa company and kept working the entire time she was having treatments.
I am so proud of her!!
Love ya Aunt Cak!

5. Cuddling with these sweet boys ... 

My sweet Connor and his new baby brother ... freaking love them ... they are so cute.

My BFF, Chrissy, has the sweetest little babies ... if only now she would have one more and it would be a little girl hahahaha kidding kidding, calm down if you're reading this! ;)

6. Meet Maria !!!!!!!!

 First of all ... how pretty is she?? So freaking beautiful .. on the inside and out!
This is Maria Gillete ... 
and she is the latest member of Gentry-Jackson & Associates!!

Maria just moved here from my favorite place on the planet, NYC, where she has sold real estate in Manhattan for the last few years and killed it there! She filmed for Million Dollar Listing NYC but they went with those other silly boys haha their loss :(
Anywho, Maria is my new Buyer's Agent and I am SOOO excited for her to get started!
She is a total go getter and instantly you want to be her friend the second you meet her!
She is going to be awesome and I feel so blessed to have her working with me!! :)
Ahhhh love her!!

Speaking of work ... check out this sign I scored from my favorite store, Homegoods, for my new office...

So TRUE!!

7. Walking for a Cure ...

I had promised Ella and Ava we would go down last Saturday and do the breast cancer race for the cure for Susan G Komen foundation ... and even though it was a brisk 40 degrees that morning, we sucked it up, wore 3 layers, and went to support! And I am so glad we did, we had a great time and they were so proud of themselves for walking 3 miles! We jogged the last half mile and they didn't complain one single time ;)

We even had them little Keller Williams shirts for the walk to match our teams ;) It was cute!
Look at those cute little walkers ha! <3

This is me and my friend Stephanie after the walk! :) XO!

8. Winning!! 

Woohooooo look what I won yesterday from the nice guys over at Wildcat Moving!!
A signed MKG picture! 
We are beginning to have a little miniature UK hall of fame at our house now hahaha
Thanks to the guys for giving this away, I am super excited I won!!
If you are in or around Lexington, KY and know anyone looking for a moving company, they are the BEST!
Wildcat Moving is locally owned and operated ... and they are so to work with. Great prices!
Don't go with a super expensive nationally owned moving company ...
SHOP LOCAL and support someone who works hard to build their company locally ;)

Tomorrow I am blogging about my new favorite thing in the world right now!!
You will want to seeeee!! :)

TGIF!
I gotta go watch Big Blue Madness! #BBN

Skaneateles Real Estate - Update Sept. 19th - Oct. 3rd

As you can tell, it's still busy and I am still out and about way too much it seems.  I pulled together the research for this blog and just never got a chance to write it out.  It helped me get a listing - I love knowing what I am talking about and being able to throw out exact numbers.  I feel like I could take on a candidate running for Realtor in Skaneateles!  I just need to find the time to communicate what I know to my readers.  And I know they will decrease without my publishing regularly, so I will do better by writing more often.  Starting here today.

During this period there were 111 active listings in the Skaneateles area of the multiple listing service.  Of these, 33 were in the Village and 27 were considered waterfront.  Eight new listings came on the market, but 5 of these were re-lists with reductions in price.  One of the new ones was a beautiful Village home priced just under one million.  A home in the town but not far outside was priced around $200,000 and a waterfront  camp came on around $300,000.

Six new ones joined the under contract or pending category to bring that number to 30.  One Village, 4 in the town, and a waterfront.

We now have 90 sold and closed, year-to date.  Incredible!  Six new ones were added to this list: one in the Village and five in the town.

This brings the number of Village properties sold year-to date (remember, the end-date is October 3rd) to 34.  I went back and looked at 2011; there were only twelve (12!) sold in that time period.  We are having a blazingly hot year, especially in the Village.  The median prices are slightly down - $285,000 vs. $349,000 - and certainly that is a contributing factor.  But so are the mortgage rates.  Come to Skaneateles!

The Fourth Twenty

I am not sure that I have EVER written a Fourth Twenty - certainly not at this time of year!  The Third Twenty was published on August 8th, so we are only about 7 weeks past that.  Magnificent!

The list is a bit odd - I will point out where - but I believe that it closely follows what has occurred.  We are well into the 80s for closings anyway....

1905 Stump Road - Town of Skaneateles - unpublished sale price

1719 Russells Landing - Town of Skaneateles - $355,000

80 West Elizabeth Street - Village of Skaneateles - $150,000

1863 Sugar Maple Lane - Town of Skaneateles - $198,000  (reported twice)

9 Academy Street - Village of Skaneateles - $295,000

174 East Genesee Street - Village of Skaneateles - $270,000

2812 East Lake Road - Town of Skaneateles - $293,000

38 Academy Street - Village of Skaneateles - $349,900

25 Hannum Street - Village of Skaneateles - $225,000

4755 Austin Road - Town of Skaneateles - $278,000

1711 Lancelot Lane - Town of Skaneateles - $280,000

628 Crow Hill Road - Town of Skaneateles - $337,000

2258 Cherry Valley Turnpike - Town of Skaneateles - $170,000

639 School Street - Skaneateles Falls - $87,000

3143 West Lake Road - Town of Skaneateles - $270,000

2753 East Lake Road - Town of Skaneateles - $499,900

3 Ramble Wood Drive - Village of Skaneateles - $557,500

24 East Elizabeth Street - Village of Skaneateles - $220,000

1025 Autumntree Court - Town of Skaneateles - $402,500

Babies, Biltmore & Business, Oh My!

Hola Chicas (& chicos)!! :) I have got to stop this habit of not blogging for weeks and then overloading with one major long blog post!!!MAKE ME STOP!! ha
I swear, I have no clue where 2012 has gone...? It has just flown by! I can not believe it is FALL already!(my favorite time of year by the way!)
I'll just go ahead and throw it all out there this post ... no beating around the bush ... I moved to Keller Williams! I am super excited about the new opportunities that I have been presented with in my real estate career! This past 2 weeks has been totally crazy and hectic because I decided to make a change in my life and switch from RE/MAX over to KW... it was a hard decision ... and I literally thought about it for a month. I loved my previous office and all the people there :( but just felt like I could grow my business more at my new office. With that said, I have started my own Real Estate Team! Woop Woop!! :) 
Take a look at this ... 

My new logo :) 
How do you feel about it?? I'm pretty pumped! 
This also took some thinking ... but when Chris and I get married next year, I didn't want to give up Gentry only because I have built my business around my name for the last 7 years!! So I decided I will hyphenate, and be Dana Gentry-Jackson. Which prompted my new team name! 
This week will be crazy switching everything over (think 30 signs, business cards, new website, marketing info, blah blah blah!) ... but I am excited! I already started with the bloggy, so take a look around at the "my business" and "about me" tabs, as they are slightly new ;)
A lot has happened since my last post so just to sum it up ...
You know my adorable Godson, Connor ... right ??

Well ... his BABY BROTHER is here!!! :) 

(Idk why those dang black lines are on there?!)

He is adorable ... that is a cute little collage his aunt Steph made from the day he was born.

PS. How good does my BFF Chrissy look in that pic? Eye makeup done and all! Ha! She's a trooper! <3

Carson Alexander :)

Is that the sweetest face you have ever seen in your life or what?

 I am obsessed. Purely obsessed. Love him so much. 

Last weekend we had a busy weekend ... 

On Friday night we attended the Art of Making Miracles Charity Event for the Makenna Foundation in the RE/MAX parking lot ... this was the 12th year and it was awesome! 

KY Wildcat Theme this year!  

Chris and I came home with some goodies ... 

One of which being this... that I won for Chris for his bday :) 

Thats right ... an autographed pic of Anthony Davis, #1 NBA draft pick and 2012 National Defensive Player of the year candidate ... not to mention a UK Wildcat legend! Ha! It was our trophy piece of the night ;) 

Chris was VERY excited! 

It was an awesome night raising money for a great cause!!

In case you're wondering where the picture is now .. Ohhhh in my hallway, where a really cute mirror WAS hanging ha ... pick your battles ;) that is what I am telling myself LOL 

The next morning, Chris, myself, my brother and my dad left out early to head to Ashville, NC to my cousins wedding at the Biltmore House.

It.was.spectacular.

We had sooo much fun!!

Her wedding was beautiful! She looked beautiful! It was perfect. 

How pretty were her flowers on the tables?

For favors they gave little personalized jars of honey ... it was adorable! 

Jessica & Me :) 

Chris & I <3

(Dress is from Bella Rose in Lexington)

My other Chris ... my brother... ha :) 

The next day while we were there we went to the Biltmore and toured it ... it was AMAZING!!

If you have never been I would highly suggest going ... it was so neat! Ashville is the cutest little place and the mountains were beautiful! 

Here are a few pics from the day ... 

So insane. Loved this place! 

The flower garden behind the Biltmore

My dad, me and my bro. 

I have a million pics ... but didn't have time to upload them all! 

We had a blast! 

We also visited Bravard College in NC, which is where Chris went to school ... it was fun to see! :) 

Next .... 

I didn't get to give a shout out on Grandparent's Day ... ;( 

But we had a great time celebrating with Chris's parents and the kids ... 

I ended the night talking to my Papaw on the phone ... and watching Frankie sleep like a spoiled baby ha!

Ok that is about all the major stuff over the last two weeks! 

This week I am working on our wedding website and app! Anyone have any tips? Would love to hear them!

XO!

Skaneateles Real Estate - The Bi-Monthly Update

Summer is over, sort of, but it doesn't feel like it is.  I've had only one new apple so far thanks to the frost, and it was hard!  Usually I stop on Route 20 coming out of Lafayette and grab the first of the Jersey Macs.  Besides not having time this year, it just hasn't felt right.  Maybe because the rush is still on for real estate, and I haven't done the fall open house with cider and donuts because everything is selling.  It's just very different this year.

What is really different is the amount of business we are all doing.  Hold on to your hat!

Currently there are 117 active listings in the Skaneateles area of the multiple listing service.  Of these, 34 are in the Village and 27 are reputed to be waterfront properties.  Since I last wrote on September 5th, 13 new listings have come on the market.  Five of these are re-listings with a good deal of price reductions.  All of the three waterfront listings are in this category.  In the Village there are four new homes out there ready for their buyers.  They range in price from $400,000 to $800,000 or thereabouts.  There are four new ones in the town section.  Those range from the mid-$100,000 to higher $300,000s.  If the selling continues, I am willing to guess that half of all of these will be gone in two months' time.

In the contingent-under contract-pending category we have a low of 23 waiting to close.  Five are new to this, three of the non-waterfront properties averaging around $200,000 are "sold" but not closed.  The two new waterfront additions are quite lovely and higher priced, as you would imagine.

So of course if you've been reading this blog you know that if there are so few in the last category, then a lot must have sold and closed.  Eight more to be exact!  That brings us to 84 for the year, an unheard-of number in recent times.  As I have reported since spring, the majority are Village homes.  It's been a great year for the Village.  In the next week I will publish the Fourth Twenty closings.  Incredible!

BUT!  If you don't know what to buy or want to wait and see if your favorite Village home will come on the market in the next year, you are more than welcome to lease 31 East Elizabeth Street.  It's a Victorian with almost 2,000sf, four bedrooms, two full baths, a detached single car garage, and within easy walking distance of everything - shops, schools, lakefront, parks....The cost is $1,800 per month plus utilities.  Nicely-behaved pets are welcome.  Enjoy the seasons from the warp-around porch at the corner of Elizabeth and State Street, then stroll on down to our office to the left of Doug's Fish Fry and check out our listings.  Not such a bad place to live, work and play.

New Artist Find & Fall Stuff

Happy Thursday friends :)

Let's talk about what my life consists of these days ...

1. Work
2. Work.
3. More work
4. Wedding Planning (fun!)
5. Getting on Pinterest and obsessing over wedding stuff and new fall clothes every night before bed ha!

That pretty much sums it up :) No but really, I have been having a busy week as usual ... doing big things with my real estate business right now and have been spending some time getting a new logo made, doing some research on getting more in tune with the SEO search engine stuff, blah blah blah haha not super exciting things, but things that are a necessity in the crazy world of real estate!

I am ready to take my business to the next level so I have been kicking it high gear!
Can't wait to share my logo and new stuff once it get's finished!

In the meantime, I am making a BIG change and ordered a Mac yesterday ...

I know, I know ... you're thinking how in the world have I not gotten one thus far in life? 

Honestly I was so afraid to switch from PC that I have procrastinated. 

BUT, with the iPhone, my iPad that I use every day, and the fact that I am so sick of cleaning viruses off of my computers... I figured it was time to switch!  

Anyone have any tips or suggestions? Please pass them along ha I will be in training for a while once this beast gets here ;)

Couple things I have discussed on Fbook but not gotten to blog about yet... 

A few weeks ago Chris, myself and Frankie (field trip day for him ha!) went to the Woodland Art Fair downtown Lex and scooped up one of my favorite paintings by the most awesome artist EVER!

Chris Hartsfield 
Watercolor Realisms 
He is amazzzzzzzing ... I was midly obsessed with him.

This is my favorite one we bought ...
(**We did not buy his originals, they are super pricey and out of my budget ha, these are copies but look so good and exactly like the originals!**)

"Kentucky Faves" 

My picture on my phone honestly does not do it justice, but it's pretty awesome right? 

I love how custom he makes them to your hometown. I thought they looked kind of rustic so picked up this frame at Hobby Lobby and then Chris actually stained it a few days ago and it looks better now that it is darker! :) 

I hung it right in the kitchen, next to my newly painted kitchen and chalk board painted pantry door! :)
Everyone has commented on it and thought the painting was awesome!

I got two smaller ones for the bathroom but am waiting until those dang frames go 50% off at Hobby Lobby!
But they are pretty cute too ...

 Can't find the name of the mint julep one :( 

"Old Fashion Aristocrats"

I loved both of these too. Very Kentucky-like ;) and Southern. Chris nor myself even drink bourbon lol but I  still think they are just super cute!

He has other states that he does stuff for as well ... check out his website at
www.ChrisHartsfield.com

Let's see... what else ... oh speaking of Kentucky ... 

While showing houses last week look what I opened the back door to see in one backyard ...

Yes, your vision is correct ... a real life UK shrub hahahahaha

If that is not a KY Wildcat Fan then I don't know what is! 

How funny is that? Love it! 

The kids are doing good ... 

They had picture day last week, so of course I made them do a small photo-op before heading to school ... 

 
They looked so cute! :)

And of course someone had to be involved too in the model session ... 

He's home-schooled 

hahahahaha ;) 

So we had pretend picture day!

Lastly, some Pinterest ... 

I am soooo ready for Fall clothes ... anyone else? 

I am obsessing over the following: 

This mayan tribal chunky cardigan ... love it! 

love her leather pants, short jacket and super cute scarf! 

I love a black dress with boots ... and the tweed jacket is a total fave! 

Big chunky sweaters that are comfy of any kind are my absolute favorite! 

love a little bit of cheetah print somewhere ha 

I am obsessing over this chevron hammered knuckle ring!

Ok gotta go show houses! 

Can't wait for the weekend ... Saturday I might get to relax and not work for a day! yayy! 

Skaneateles Real Estate - The Summer-Ending Update

The past three weeks is the longest time I've been away from this blog ever, in the five or so years I've been writing it.  But business has never been better!  I start the day before dawn when Charlie gets me up if I'm at home, and then fall into my chair at night around 8:00, content to have a Corona Light and talk about the day, or just sit there.  If I'm at the lake I skip dinner altogether and go straight to a movie and falling asleep in my wicker chair.  "Make hay while the sun shines..."  It's been a bit cloudy over the past few years, not in my business, but in the market as a whole.  August.  Who knew?

So to catch up.  In the listings area there really wasn't much action.  Currently there are 109 active single family homes in the Skaneateles area of the multiple listing service.  Of these, 30 are in the Village and 27 are listed as waterfront.  In the past three weeks only 6 homes have come on the market for the first time.  Each and every one is a Village home!  They range in price from the low $200,000 to almost a million.

There is not a great deal of change in the numbers of the "contingent, under contract" homes - still a hefty 31.  However, 11 of these are new to this category.  Six come from the town, two are waterfront, and three are Village properties.  That's remarkable in that the percentages are similar to the active listings.

Let's think....if there hasn't been a sizable increase in the contracted properties, then where did the others go?  To the CLOSED category!

We now have 76 homes sold and closed this year - so far - in the Skaneateles area.  Eleven are new, with four coming from the Village and five from the town, and two waterfront homes rounding it out.  Soon we'll have the Fourth Twenty homes to publish.  Last year at this time only 46 homes had closed.  In all of 2011 there were 70.  Yes, we are on a roll!

More interestingly, all the newly closed homes were listed this year.  So if they went under contract approximately in late June, then none of them were on the market longer than five and a half months at the very most.  Of course some were refreshed, or changed agencies perhaps, but I can only see one that was listed in 2011.

So this means that it is time to buy.  With this much demand the prices will undoubtedly rise soon - just the nature of the business!  Rates are still low, but as I cautioned someone today they have risen just a bit in the past two weeks.  We are doing well, and only now going into the fall season.

I can't wait!