Mary Shelsby

I've got a very good feeling that young people have been watching the news and learning from the messy financial situation facing the country and world these days. While they are enticed by the excellent market conditions (very low mortgage rates, lower house prices and a tax credit!!) there is a lot of concern and conservatism regarding personal finances. Hooray! I am meeting more and more people in their 20's that have little to no debt, aside from student loans. I'm optimistic that this next generation gets it.

As I meet with first time home buyers, they struggle with the decision over how much house to buy. They don't want to get in trouble. That is excellent but I also counsel buyers not to buy too little. It is very expensive to buy and sell houses and with houses appreciating at a slower rate these days, you can expect it to take 4 to 7 years to recoup your closing costs.
So how do you know how much house to buy? Conventional wisdom is that a 30 year mortgage payment (PITI) should fall in the range of 28 to 33 percent of personal income. Here is a link to a handy calculator that can help you figure this range. http://cgi.money.cnn.com/tools/houseafford/houseafford.html .

Keep in mind, this is a very simplistic approach to deciding how much to spend. A more comprehensive approach is to chart out all your monthly expenses, set goals for savings (long term and short term) and actually formulate a budget. I know that "budget" is often considered a dirty word but a budget will help you analysis your spending habits and prioritize where you want your money to go, i.e., would you rather travel or have a more expensive home? Visa, the credit card company, has an excellent web site on practical money skills that includes a budget tool. If you want to check it out, go to http://practicalmoneyskills.com/english/wizards/downloadtool.php


Houses in the lower price ranges continue to sell very, very quickly in Rochester right now and luxury homes are beginning to get more attention. I'm looking forward to seeing the numbers for our first quarter.

Some of my clients think I'm a little crazy when I advocate for buying ugly houses. Now I'm not talking butt-ugly. I'm talking about the type of ugly that a coat of paint or perhaps new carpet will fix. And I advocate for that type of house because that is where the best deals are.

Houses with "Pottery Barn Decor" are fun to look at but you will "ohh and ahh" all the way to the bank if you purchase this type of house. Sparkling clean and tastefully decorated houses command top dollar but keep in mind that the furniture and art work will be gone when you move in.

Everybody wants to buy a beautiful house. It's just not as exciting to tell all your friends, "Well, it has green and orange shag carpeting from the '70's BUT the roof is new and the furnace is only a couple of years old!"

Here are a few tips for ugly house shopping.

1. Do your homework so you can budget for remodeling jobs. Kitchens, for example, and be remodeled for a few thousand dollars or tens of thousands, depending on your standards. Even wall-to-wall carpeting comes in a wide variety of designs and quality and so no real estate agent can honestly give you a ball-park figure for these projects.

2. Have a checklist so that you are certain to check all the mechanicals, such as electric, hotwater heater, roof. It would be down-right depressing to have an ugly house that also leaks every time it rains. This is not to say you won't have the house inspected, but you should check for obvious problems before you put in an offer.
3. Analyze the layout. This is especially important in kitchens. You may be able to improve its looks but it also needs to function well.

4. Don't be afraid to ask for help. If you'd don't know how to decorate, hire an interior designer. Generally, they charge a few hundred dollars for an initial consultation which is a bargain if you saved thousands on the purchase.

Want to go ugly house shopping? Give me a call. I don't mind showing you beautiful houses as well.

www.RochestersBestHomes.com

I spent the day in Albany yesterday with approximately 50 other Realtors from both Rochester and Buffalo to meet with several of our state legislators to discuss upcoming legislation that affects local homeowners and the real estate market.

The most important item on our agenda was the need for property tax relief. New Yorkers pay an exorbitant amount of property taxes and Western New Yorkers pay more in taxes relative to their property value than the rest of the state. For example, the New York State Comptroller's Office reports that approximate property taxes on a home in Rochester valued at $100,000 are just under $4,000. In comparison, taxes on a $100,000 home in Yonkers are less than half of that ($1,773) and in Southampton, they are almost a tenth of that ($456).

As real estate agents, we were able to give real life experiences about how homebuyers and homeowners struggle to purchase or keep their homes due to high taxes. I had a fun conversation with Assemblyman Bob Oaks (Cayuga, Oswego and Wayne Counties) telling him about trying to explain NY state property taxes with STAR deductions and STAR rebates to individuals moving here from another state. Property tax relief needs to be a top legislative priority for lawmakers!

Some of the other items we discussed was to request support of a bill that would simplify the language on the state's property condition disclosure and to vote against a bill that would restrict the availability of real property information for consumers as well as licensed real estate practitioners. If you'd like information on these bills or others that we discussed with legislators, don't hesitate to give me a call at 585-414-5513.

One of the best things about the trip yesterday was the feeling that our elected officials do want to hear from their constituents. If you'd like to contact your elected state officials, the state has put together an excellent web site that allows you to type in your address and receive a complete list of who represents you. http://nymap.elections.state.ny.us/nysboe/ From there, you can make a few clicks to get everything from a biography to sponsored legislation to contact information for your officials. It's pretty painless to become informed and involved through this site.

With this trip behind me, I hope to get back on the blogging bandwagon and do a much better job of keeping this source of information up to date.

Happy New Year Everyone! This is a perfect time of the year to reflect back and plan for the future. As I look back over 2008, the thing that keeps coming to mind is "The Day the Phone Stopped Ringing!" Literally! I was having a little slower than average year with about 20 sales when suddenly, around September 1, 2008 no one wanted to look at real estate, no one wanted to sell real estate, no one even wanted to talk about real estate.


Things have improved, somewhat. Since Thanksgiving 2008, I've been busy. I showed property the day before Thanksgiving, Christmas Eve (two different clients) and even to three different clients this week and just about every day in between. My phone is ringing like crazy. Buy I'm not selling property. People are skittish! Buyers are not writing and when they do, the offers are so low that the sellers aren't biting. And sellers are wanting more for their property than they will probably get. It is tough to make a living in real estate these days.

The other striking thing about 2008, was how difficult it was to work with the banks. My first canceled contract came the first week of January in which the bank simply changed its mind about giving a mortgage for a two family property because it was in a neighborhood zoned low-density residential. It was sad as the family had everything packed and were ready to move when the bank backed out. Some of the other frustrations came from banks requiring two appraisals on properties owned less than 6 months and a few incidences of the appraiser acting more like an inspector. Some of the bank changes are good. An individual should have a job and a history of paying their bills on time before a bank loans them a ton of money. That only makes sense.

There was, fortunately, more to 2008 than our financial crisis. I got to work with lots of wonderful people. I got to help young couples like Megan & Ev, Marci & Paul and Lynn & Jason purchase their first homes. I helped several families transition from a long time residence to something new. And I worked with numerous investors that decided they liked the return on real estate much better than the stock market. I guess more than anything, I feel like I made lots of new friends this year as I assisted them with their real estate business. It's not been an easy year, but very rewarding, if not financial.


I'm headed to North Carolina for a little R&R with my husband, Jim, but best wishes to you and yours for the New Year. Please don't hesitate to call if I can assist with your 2009 real estate needs.

Maybe it's your mantel. Or perhaps you have a knack at stringing garland along your staircase. Is your tree too pretty for words? Does your yard cause traffic jams? Maybe I'm just nosy but I'm just dieing to know how you decorate for the holidays. So I'm asking all readers of my blog, even first-time readers, to send me your digital picture of your holiday décor (inside or out) before December 17th at midnight and you will be entered into a random drawing for a $50.00 gift certificate to your favorite Monroe County restaurant.

Tell your friends. Tell your family. Everyone is eligible except my competitors, i.e., Real estate agents and employees of real estate offices.

By submitting a photo, you do give me permission to publish the shot here on the my blog. Hopefully the photos will help generate some decorating ideas for those like me that are challenged by such artistic endeavors. So let's show the world just how nicely Rochesterarians know how to deck the halls for the holidays! Entries should be submitted by e-mail to MShelsby@gmail.com but please put "Deck the Halls Contest" in the subject line.