State College, PA

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

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

We highly recommend Nyssa Smith's services to anyone looking for a house. Here's how she found the property for us.

We met in July 2007 and discussed with her our plans to buy a house in State College. From this moment onwards everything went very smoothly. Nyssa showed us some houses to get an idea of the kind of house we like. This was great. We then went back to our home country, the Netherlands. Nyssa kept an eye out for a property that fit us. The house that we ultimately purchased was found by Nyssa for us. The house was not on the market yet. Nyssa's keen awareness made this happen for us.

At one of Nyssa's companies' sales meetings while we were in our home country, the property was announced by another agent in Nyssa's office. That agent mentioned about this home that was not listed yet was coming on the market. And it was not going to go into the MLS and it was not going to be publicly advertised at first because the sellers were not going to be moving out for some time because of their time table. As the listing agent described the property, it sounded so perfect to Nyssa for us. Not only did the house and the lot size fit our needs, it was in the neighborhood we told Nyssa we wanted. Also the price was in our price range and the timeframe of the seller was also a perfect fit for us and Nyssa knew this. Therefore, without delay, Nyssa toured the property for us since we could not be there personally to tour it. Nyssa immediately got in contact with us about the property because was such a perfect match. Again without delay, Nyssa did much research about the property for us so we could be completely informed. Then Nyssa went back to the property again for us. This time she took our friends who lived in the area. Later we were able to make the trip to town to see it personally. And Nyssa was finally able to show it personally to us. And she was right! We did love the house and we decided to move forward to write the offer.

Nyssa truly went above and beyond to assist us while we were not here personally. She helped us through the entire process, including the negotiations and paperwork. She patiently explained us how things work, which was very helpful because we didn't live in the US by then. We moved in a couple of months after the closing. It was great that she was there also for us during this period to keep an eye on the house and to answer all our questions.

We now live here with great joy. If it wasn't for Nyssa's keen awareness and personal interest in us and being able to use her sense of intuition, we might not have found our perfect home!

Yours sincerely,

Frans and Janet

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

June 2009 Dear Neighbor, We recently sold our home at 1325 Seibert Road in Bellefonte and we are moving to Iowa for Jeff's new job. We are certainly going to miss all the beautiful mountain views and, of course, all our wonderful friends! We want to share with you our experience of working with Nyssa Smith during the selling of our home. Quite simply, we highly recommend her to you should you ever need real estate services. I first met Nyssa through my friend Cindy and decided to call her when she sold our neighbor's house. I was extremely impressed with her professionalism and enthusiasm. When it came time for us to sell, I had no doubts about whom to call. From day one, Nyssa put our needs first. She was always responsive and sympathetic, left no detail uncovered and had high standards of excellence. We have sold several homes in the past and never received this special kind of service. Nyssa's knowledge of the real estate market is obvious. In this market, we were afraid our home would sit on the market a long time. Or worse yet, that it wouldn't sell at all! Plus we were concerned about moving twice if we got a buyer too soon. We didn't want to pull the girls out of school. Nyssa listened to our concerns and she strategized with us the best course of action for us to take. And everything that she said would happen did! We are so glad we listened. Her marketing skills are second to none. Her negotiating skills alone are worth every penny! We were thrilled with our experience. We sold our home quickly, for top dollar, and we got to stay until the girls finished their school year. So we will still be your neighbors for the next few months even though we've already closed. Ask Nyssa about it when you call her. As a thank you to Nyssa for all she did for us, we're letting people know firsthand that she's been a wonderful resource. Call her personally at 814-883-8830. Or feel free to contact me so I can tell you personally about our experience of working with her. Good luck in your own future endeavors! Your (former) neighbor, Jeff and Sarah Stokes