Mary Shelsby

The city of Rochester is once again putting on educational workshops for home buyers this Sunday, April 6, 2008 at East High School, 1801 E. Main St, from noon till 4 pm. Mortgage lenders, Realtors and city officials will all be on hand to answer questions about purchasing real estate in the city of Rochester.

In addition, nearly 50 houses located in the Northeast quadrant will be open for touring during the hours of 1 till 4 pm. For a list of open houses, click here: Open House Report and to obtain details on any of these properties, go to http://www.rochestersbesthomes.com/. Maps showing the locations of many of the open houses can be picked up at East High School.

With gas prices hitting outrageous numbers, it seems more and more people are considering the convenience and economic feasibility of moving to the City of Rochester. If you fall in that category, I suggest you check out City Living Sundays during the next three weekends.

Each weekend will focus on a different section of the city. The festivities start each Saturday at 2 pm with a FREE Landmark Society Bus Tour of the featured neighborhood. Reservations are required and can be made by calling 585-546-7029 Ext. 10. Each tour starts at the Home Room at the Landmark Society of WNY, 133 S. Fitzhugh St.

Then on each Sunday there is a wide variety of educational programs on how to by a house and apply for financing. In addition, there will be city school and neighborhood information as well as a large number of houses currently on the market will be open for viewing. OF SPECIAL NOTE, FIRST TIME HOME BUYERS MAY QUALIFY FOR UP TO $3000 IN CLOSING COST GRANTS on homes that are open during these special weekends! City Living Sundays activies will run from noon till 4 pm each Sunday.

The South region of Rochester will be featured during the first week. The bus tour will be held Saturday, March 29th and the educational programs will be held the 30th at Wilson Foundation Academy, located at 200 Genesee St. (I'm scheduled to work this event, so if you attend, please look me up!) For a list of this weeks open houses, click here: Open House Report and to see photos and other details, go to http://www.rochestersbesthomes.com/ .

The Northeast region of the city will be the focus on April 6 with festivities being held at East High School, 1801 E. Main St. On April 13, the Northwest area will be highlighted with programs being held at Aquinas Institute, located at 1127 Dewey Ave.

It's bound to happen. I spend many of my days dashing in and out of homes, most staged to make a visitor fall in love, so it should come as no surprise that from time to time I get urge to move. Well it happened again. But when I mentioned it to my husband, he gave me one of those stern looks and said it's to close to golf season to even kid about moving.

I didn't have the nerve to tell him I wasn't kidding, so instead I spent my weekend implementing my marketing plan for my newest client. This 4 bedroom, 2 bath home is located in the Ellwanger-Barry neighborhood (a couple of blocks from Highland Hospital). I'm not disclosing the address yet, but I will tell you that it has been nicely maintained, has a one car garage and the back yard has been professionally landscaped. It will go on the market this Thursday morning with an asking price of $164,900.

The market is unusually slow for March and so I've planned an extensive campaign to try to maximize exposure. This house will be featured on the Rochester Real Estate Show next Sunday morning on channel 13, as well as Saturday's real estate section of the Democrat and Chronicle. I'll be putting the finishing touches on a virtual tour in the morning and a direct mail piece will go out on Tuesday. Wish me luck in getting this sold quickly and at a good price! And if you want to be the first to see it, give me a call or shoot me an e-mail.