Melinda Pearson

Why Buy Property In Poughkeepsie, New York? Dutchess County

People wonder why I moved to New York City from California and now reside in Poughkeepsie, New York. 18 years ago I left California because of my infatuation with New York City.

I lived, worked and went to school in the City.

Until I met my husband from 'upstate New York" (Any place north of NYC is upstate). Although I have to say that after living 'upstate' I realize the term is a matter of geography because I'm still in the outer suburbs of NYC and to me, 'upstate' is North of Albany, which is an over an hour from Poughkeepsie.

Honestly, in seeking affordable housing and lifestyle, we stumbled on Poughkeepsie, and have been pleasantly surprised, The pricing is minimal compared to NYC or Westchester County. You can have find a starter home for under 200K with an acre.

http://dutchesspropertysearch.com/buyers/mls-search/

Since I've moved to Poughkeepsie, I've always missed NYC. It's just over an hour away but I miss the city life. I've lived 'upstate' for 12 years or so. I get to enjoy NYC about 6 to 8 times a year, depending on what is going on in my life. Poughkeepsie is close enough to NYC to take advantage of Broadway, Restaurants, world class hospitals, (my kids were born in NYC) and yes, I commuted there when I was pregnant for all my doctor appointments.

In Poughkeepsie we have access to many things you would find in NYC. We have the Bardavon Opera House from 1869 where Itzhak Perlman played a few years back. http://www.bardavon.org/ The Bardavon always hosts some of the best in the world. The Chance hosts great bands like Collective Soul among other billboard rock bands. At Vassar, the Francis Lehman Loeb Art center has approx. 15,000 works of various art.

Poughkeepsie is home to Vassar College, a top college in the country. I enjoy meeting friends at some of the hip, college town, restaurants in the area. I love how quaint the area is with a great New Age store, Juliet Cafe for playing pool, indian, chinese, vegan food all within a short block of Vassar.

10 minutes away on the Hudson River are some great attractions. The Samuel Morse Estate has some of the most beautiful trails I have ever been on.

Shadow's restaurant is a great place to hang out with its patio bar overlooking the Mid-Hudson Bridge and when they have weddings, there is a great firework show. Up the river is the Children's Museum which is a fun place for the kids to play and learn about the area including the Hudson River. Near the museum is a skateboard park and a dock where the Clearwater docks and a replica of the Half Moon during special events throughout the year.

We also now have the Walkway on the Hudson, which is the longest pedestrian bridge in the world.

Traveling North on route 9 parallel to the Hudson you pass Marist College and near Poughkeepsie is the world famous Culinary Institute of America which hosts five restaurants where you can enjoy different styles of cooking from the students. Cat Cora is one of the graduates of the CIA!

What I love about Poughkeepsie is the proximity to the city and the beautiful country living. It got its name from the native americans. According to information from Wikipedia, he name means "the reed covered lodge by the little-water place" Poughkeepsie sits right on the Hudson river.

I get to choose to have my horse live with me on my property or board him at a stable down the road.

We have many equestrian events and access to beautiful countryside riding.

Poughkeepsie has a lot to offer! If you are interested in Poughkeepsie, which is in Dutchess County, New York, please check out my website and log on to see housing available in the area. Search the outer areas too like Hyde Park, Fishkill, Hopewell Junction, Millbrook and many other great towns.

The wisdom we learned from Perfect Pets Rescue: Red Hook, NY

Why am I posting abourt PPR? It is one of my favorite rescue groups. Probably because I found my adopted dog, Sammy, through them. I think it is amazing what PPR goes through to rescue these dogs. They are fun to follow on facebook and twitter too because you hear the puppy's stories and then actually see them when they are rescued.

Since this is my first blog in the Dog Lover's group. I'll give a brief family history. When my husband and I were dating, we found our chocolate lab, Grizzly through a breeder. He was our first child. The three of us had been through many things together. Marriage, car accidents, the loss of our daughter, spinal surgery, knee surgery, the birth of two more kids...you know, life.

When Griz was diagnosed with cancer, I fell apart. You would have thought with all we had been through before, I would have done that already! This was hard, my husband, the kids and I didn't understand that treating the cancer was only wishfull thinking and when it was time, we put him down.

A few weeks later, my dear cat, Maxine, became ill. The vet called it complicated grief and she quickly went downhill. We had to put her down. Her grief caused a large tumor in her belly to grow and we know it is the grief that sped this up because she had full blood work ups just before Griz died.

We started to look for a new dog on Thanksgiving three years ago, a month after we lost Griz. The thought of not having a chocolate lab around was hard for me to take. As soon as we got home, I did an internet search on Grizzly's blood lines. I couldn't believe within minutes I found his full brother in Minnesota. I emailed the breeder with our sad story and he emailed me back and said that there were two pups left and that he had planned to keep both for hunting but he felt so bad for me, he would be willing to send me one of them. Enter Charlie:Charlie flew into Newark a few weeks later. Soon after that, we adopted another cat, Oliver, from Heart of the Catskills.

Fast forward to November 2008. Me and the kids always are looking on the web on the ASPCA site. We were thinking of adopting a dog. We wanted a labradoodle. We found the cutest puppies who were being rescued from Perfect Pets Rescue in Red Hook. I quickly called and filled out a contract to adopt our second dog, Sammy. I waited on pins and needles hoping there wouldn't be a problem getting him. We received a call from Allison at PPR and she told us that Sammy was in Georgia and he was getting prepped for his drive up North. After investigating PPR on the web, I discovered something I never knew. Dogs in Georgia were being rescued out of kill shelters and shipped, like the underground railroad up North. There were plans on the web for who would be driving on different legs of the journey to get the dogs north to foster families and adopted families.

You can see from the look on his face, even Charlie was concerned about the plight of these dogs. :)

A few days later, Allison called to tell us that the puppy's would be arriving that night around 9pm! The directions were to meet her at a motel off of the turnpike. Wierd directions, but we were so excited. With the same anticipation I had when my third daughter was born, we left the house. ( when my third daughter was born, I recall thinking, wow, my middle child will never be the same again. Well, I felt that way for Charlie too)

At the pick up point, we saw this large bus and people unloading dogs. The bus was completely silent. The dogs seemed like they had been through a lot between thier life prior to the kill shelter, being in the shelter, getting vetted and driving up a long way to thier new homes. The minute Sammy came out, I knew he was the one. It's been fun, games, and love ever since! He and Charlie are good friends and the cat likes him too.

The best part of the story is that my girls have learned a tremendous amount from rescuing this dog. They learned compassion, wisdom, and generosity. I have given my kids allowance and watched them put all thier allowance in a ASPCA cannister at the local A and P. This past summer, they raised 52 dollars selling Lemonaid at a stand on our street and they donated all that money to Perfect Pets Rescue!

We plan on doing more fund raising for PPR. They are such a great rescue group! If you're interested, here is thier link:

www.perfectpetsrescue.org

First time home buyers and their saga purchasing Foreclosures and Short sales in the City of Poughkeepsie, NY

It's been many months of helping first time home buyers with an approval for an FHA loan, look for a home, find a property, make an offer, only to be rejected. It reminds me of what actors must go through in Hollywood, rejection!

It is heart wrenching for the couples who loose hope on foreclosure offers when the offer is inevitibly turned down. They are competing with investors, cash only, and buyers putting 25 percent down. Not to mention, it is a money game. Banks are looking at the bottom line and will wait it out for better offers.

To add pressure, the buyers were under the gun to purchase a house before the 8K credit was up.

We tried many strategies while shopping for foreclosures including pouncing on a listing as soon as it hit the MLS. What happens with those foreclosures is that the banks will wait 3 to 5 days when they have multiple offers or they just pass on this offer knowing that better ones will come down the road. At last, we had a break-through! The agent went on to tell me that although it was accepted, according to a lawyer, the house did not pass title on a previous offer because the wife's name was still on title. They would try to get a quick release. A week later, I receive another call saying they can't do it and they have to take the house off the market. Another house gone again!

Of course, I have been watching the statistics of listing price to purchase price. Noticing that on the average, in a downward market in our area, houses are selling 10 to 20 percent below listing price. My next strategy for my buyers was to search for homes 20 percent above thier listing price and hope to find a compassionate and motivated seller.

After a long haul, I did! I found a house I knew the buyers would love! They did and they made an offer and we were negotiating. The problem was that they did counter higher than they than they were hoping to have to do. But this figure had been discussed on many other houses and if they had done a 203K loan on some foreclosures they offered on, they would have had to spend close to this to fix the house.

They also had fallen in love with a different neighborhood closer to work but all they had found were foreclosures, unmotivated sellers, and homes priced too high.

I explained how they were in a bad position with foreclosures and Short Sales take many months to complete if they do close. I did my best to point out that the best strategy would be to buy a house from a motivated seller that they could negotiate with. I pointed out that instead of finding a dream home, perhaps looking at this as a starter home and five years down the road, they could purchase their dream home. Presenting the facts was important so they could make a sound decision on thier purchase.

The realtor for the home they were negotiating called to say that the seller was now very motivated and would do what they felt comfortable doing just so he could get on with his life and not worry about the house. They questioned why the owner was coming down in price. Why would he change his mind? I explained that it's not different than purchasing a car. Walk away and sometimes the price comes down.

My advice to first time home buyers in Poughkeepsie who have a low down payment and possibly an FHA loan and don't have a lot of room for negotiating would be to not focus on foreclosures but to look for a home with a motivated seller. That is a buyers market. I think the foreclosures are definetely more of a seller's market for someone with cash or the ability to make competitive offers with large down payments.

After much searching and testing of different websites, I am excited to say that I have my new website, www.dutchesspropertysearch.com up and running! Yes! I am enjoying accomplishing all the marketing goals I have set for myself and now, my first entry for my blog. I want to thank Scott Sanderson at WarmMedia.com for doing so much more than I expected and at a great price too!!

Please stay tuned for more to come on this blog!