Category Archives: Home & Real Esate

By Jill Nagy
Karen Totino closed the doors of Green Conscience, her shop on Church Street in Saratoga Springs at the end of March to devote herself full-time to a growing real estate business.
Green Conscience was a mattress, furniture, and home products store dedicated to providing quality and education to people who seek a healthy, safe, and sustainable lifestyle.
She is a licensed real estate agent who will work out of her home and at the new Alexander Monticello Real Estate office in downtown Saratoga Springs at 511 Broadway, specializing in serving clients over the age of 50.
Totino owned and operated Green Conscience for 10 years. As she developed her real estate business, she thought she could do both but, she said, “I have discovered that I am not Superwoman. Ten years in retail is enough.”
So, she sold the last of her stock and the store furnishings.

By Maureen Werther

As Jeff and Deane Pfeil prepare to transition out of their commercial real estate and development careers and into their new lives on Bainbridge Island in Washington state, they have a lot to be proud of and a lot to be grateful for.

The husband-and-wife team created Pfeil & Co. Real Estate and moved to Saratoga Springs from Westchester in 1994. Both were commercial real estate brokers and they started out managing shopping center developments, moving into doing historic restorations and adaptive re-use apartments. Deane was born and raised in Troy, while Jeff comes from the small town of Carmel, in Putnam County.

Looking back on their careers, Deane recalls that there was no internet when they first began and it took a lot of cold-calling to develop a client base, something at which she excelled.

“We liked to joke that I would get them on the line and Jeff would reel them in,” she said.

The Pfeils first major project in Saratoga Springs was the office building at 340 Broadway.

“The property had been sitting vacant since 1969, and we kept asking ourselves why nothing had been done with it,” she said. Deane zeroed in on Eddie Bauer and “barraged” them with flyers, mailings, and information about Saratoga Springs.

By Jill Nagy

Insulated concrete forms (ICFs) that fit together like Lego blocks form the skeleton of the Net Zero energy-efficient homes built by Halfmoon Construction of Clifton Park.

The company’s president, Andy Ellis, explained that the forms, called Lodgix Blocks, are set and filled with concrete.

“It gives us a really good base for an energy-efficient house,” he said.

The blocks serve three functions. Ellis said they replace the plywood on the outside, replace the wall insulation inside, and go in place of the framing of a traditionally built structure.

The cost is 8 to 10 percent more than traditional construction but, he said, the cost is recovered in less than three years because of the resulting energy savings. The houses he builds can be finished with any type of siding on the outside and traditional wallboard on the inside.

Currently, the company is building a “100-year house,” with corrugated metal siding and a metal roof.  “It won’t need any repairs soon,” he said.

The result will be a house with 12-inch walls, about double the traditional width. Windows and doors are set-in more and better defined and windows have wide sills. Otherwise, the house will not stand out from its non-sustainable neighbors.

By Jennifer Farnsworth

With spring finally here, local designers and home improvement experts say they will see a dramatic increase in calls from homeowners looking  to make a change.

Trends for 2017 center around the desire for customization; everything from cabinets to tiles, to paint colors.

Craig Vollkommer of Details and Improvements in Glens Falls said as soon as the weather starts to warm up everyone seems to want to start renovating at the same time. His advice to customers is to start making calls to contractors as early as possible in order to get their projects on a work schedule.

“Plan ahead, and prioritize, know what you want. We seem to get the calls all at once, so if you are looking to have something done sooner, rather than later, you need to reach out to designers and contractors now,” said Vollkommer.

Kitchens and bathrooms seem to continue to be the most in-demand, according to Vollkommer. He said people want the newest in bathroom shower options, laminates, granites, custom tiles, and backsplashes. He said that requests for painting is the one thing that never changes.

By R.J. DeLuke

Sales of condominiums and townhomes are brisk in Saratoga County, local real estate agents say. They have their own particular brand of customer and thus their availability does not affect the sale of single-family homes, whether existing or new construction.

The people who are buying condos are a mix of retirees, young professionals and those who use them as a second home, according to Janet Besheer, owner of Equitas Realty, and Julie Bonacio, founding owner of Julie & Co. Realty.

“In general, it goes back to maintenance-free living,” said Besheer. “People want more of a turnkey environment. They don’t want to have to do anything to the outside … You can just live and play.”

Bonacio said people buying condos are attracted by the low maintenance. “They don’t have to worry about snow plowing or raking leaves. Also, they can shut the door and travel when they want to.”

Condos and townhouses are about 25 percent of the inventory for Equitas, Besheer said. But there are a lot of new, large, single-family homes that are being built in the area on large lots.

By Sarah Jean Worden

When buying or selling a home, licensed home inspectors are an important cog. They look at the structure of a building and determine its soundness. They examine other issues so buyers, sellers and real estate agents don’t get caught up in unexpected predicaments.

Dave Digges of Amtec Inspections LLC in Clifton Park said getting a residential home inspection by a licensed inspector is comparable to taking out an insurance policy on one of the biggest investments a person will make. It’s also why banks require it.

What people often refer to as a home inspection is actually a structural inspection, he said, which does not cover typical “after-market additions to the home, like water softeners or an unattached shed.

“Newer homes tend to have a whole lot less problems than a house that’s 100 years old,” said Larry McGann of Spire Inspections in Ballston Lake.

Although he said most home inspections are called for when a person is buying, some will call him if they are thinking of selling a house in order to educate themselves about the value and possibly gain some leverage over price negotiation.

An inspector will closely examine a house to determine if there are plumbing or electrical issues. They check the safety of the roof, windows and insulation.