About Centre County, PA

Sunny and 78 in State College, PA today! What are your plans? Arts Fest? Baseball? Fireworks? Picnic? Boating? Please share with me here!

What a beautiful day today! Today is the last day of Arts Fest. What are your plans? I would love to hear them? The weather in State College is expected to be 78 today! And sunny! What a spectacular day this will be! Click here for the list of activities for the last day of Arts Fest.

Or take in a baseball game at 6:05 this evening! State College Spikes play at home today! With fireworks, too! What a way to spend the day!

Sorry for the poor image of the field. It was the only one I had. I took this about a year ago from my cell phone atop Beaver Stadium looking down on Medlar Field at Lubrano Park. AND through the glass. Hence the poor image. But at least you get the drift, right!

Your State College, PA Real Estate Connection!

~Nyssa Smith

Central PA Festival of the Arts this week! It will bring over 125,000 people to downtown State College & Penn State! July 9-12, 2009. Visit www.arts-festival.com.

Enjoy my photos from today’s activities!

As seen through the eyes of Nyssa Smith and her family…

My kids Taylor and Nyann.

Driving by Beaver Stadium...Woohoo!

Arriving... So exciting!

Arriving at Arts Fest! Wow! I can see all the festivities ahead! I’m lovin’ it! I can't wait!

First we watch the children dash to and fro into the water…out of the water…Ahhh…to be young again! So care-free!

O...I love how I captured this shot:

Next we worked our way through the crowd to get down to Rapid Transit on Allen Street to where our son wanted to purchase some new Under Armour (for under his Babe Ruth All-Stars uniform - first game starts tomorrow night!)

At 2:00 today we enjoyed the pure sounds of Pure Cane Sugar (go Katie Twoey!). Those girls can really sing! Wow! To listen click here. (Btw, I noticed the sponsorship banner! Go Mortgage Source! One of my favorite mortgage lenders! And yes, I really mean it! Mortgage Source is one of the local mortgage companies that I recommend to my buyers! Theresa and the gang are awesome! No hidden fees. Very honest and ethical.)

Later we had to grab some funnel cake. No festival is complete without funnel cake and lemonade! (And resting)

Then we headed over to the Youth Stage at Central Parklet. And we caught then tail end of the Centre Dance Studio performances. Check it out here:

And we’re so glad we didn’t miss the sand sculptures! Whoa! Aren’t they fabulous! What talent!

I must say, I really wanted to find Staci Egan (Contempo Jewelry). Where was Staci! I’m sorry girl! I really wanted to find your booth! Sorry I missed you today! So glad I still have a couple of days to get back down to see your designs.

So that was our day! Hope you enjoyed it as much as we did! For Penn State's video tour of the Arts Fest, click here and enjoy!

Your State College, PA Real Estate Connection!

~Nyssa Smith

I lent out my GPS to my buyers...do you think I'll get it back!? Garmin GPS, State College, PA

So I went out on a limb and lent out my GPS to my buyers. I sent them out with it to drive by some homes in an area they were not familiar with. They are first-time homebuyers. A nice young couple that are just engaged to be married soon. They are just so sweet!

Anyway, they wanted me to just show them all the homes on their list. So I went out on a limb and lent them mine GPS for a couple of days. It's a Garmin that I purchased at our local State College, PA Walmart. Now, am I crazy in the head to do so? Or am I smart for doing so? You tell me!

I was thinking, this gives them the opportunity to narrow down without me along. And then I will only be showing them the homes they actually want to see after they do their drive bys. So, I'm thinking this is a smart move!

Although, I could be crazy and never see the GPS again! Ouch! I would really miss it! In that case, I would prove crazy that I lent it to them!

I'd love to hear your thoughts!

Your friend in the real estate biz,

~Nyssa

Camera recommendation for real estate professionals. Camera, State College, PA

I recently purchased the Canon PowerShot SX10 IS (20x zoom 10.0 megapixels) at our local Best Buy in State College, PA. I love it! Wide angle lens (well, relatively wide-angel for a point and shoot camera). I think for a point and shoot camera it's the best (although, it was one of the priciest point and shoot - about $350-$400 range). But I wanted the best camera I could get in a point and shoot. Because the last one I had (while being really cool and small), it didn't take the best shots for real estate. And now I can get more of the room in with this camera. For a real estate agent needing to capture as much as possible, I think this camera does it. I think it's the next best thing to a professional's. Not quite as good. But the next best thing for the price.

The cons. It does take batteries. It's not rechargeable. But I am getting used to that. It's kind of nice when I am out to not have to worry about recharging it. I just have to make sure I have an extra supply of batteries. I just keep an extra set in the camera bag at all times. It's not that big of a deal. Also, I see the need to purchase the additional larger flash. I have not done that yet. But yes, this will be needed at times for the real estate shots. Not in all areas and not all the time. But now that I have used the camera somewhat over the last couple of months, I can see that this will be good for me to have in certain lighting (or lack there of). It does come with a flash on it. But sometimes, that flash is not sufficient (only in certain scenarios).

And finally, on a personal level, my son plays baseball. So here's my opinion on other uses with this camera besides real estate. My son is a pitcher and I can sit in the stands or at the fence and with the 20x zoom, it takes awesome photos! I can get really close up to my son on the field. I have fantastic shots that look like a real professional took them.

All in all, IMHO, it's a great camera for the price.

Your friend in the real estate biz,

~Nyssa

Testimonial for Nyssa Smith, Real Estate Consultant, State College, PA

October 23, 2008

Dear Nyssa,

We wanted to take a moment to express how grateful we were to have met with you. Your professional, sincere and friendly demeanor put us both immediately at ease and added greatly to our “State College experience”. It was very clear that you knew and understood the market in your area and very important to us, you completely understood what our wants and needs were and then proceeded to show us properties exactly suited to what we had discussed.

We thank you for all your patience and wisdom. Should Jerry have decided to accept the position in Reedsville, we would have been delighted to move forward continuing to rely upon your services. We still talk about the condo on Windmere Road and can actually visualize ourselves living there had circumstances been different!

It was a pleasure meeting you. Thank you again for your professional and personal expertise. Our sincere best wishes for your continued success.

Kindest regards,

Marlene & Jerry Jennings