By Thomas Williams

One often wonders how real estate sales are doing around the Tri-Country area compared to the rest of the country in this troubled economy. The person to go to for answers is Lance Evans, the executive officer of The Jefferson-Lewis Board of Realtors, Inc. and the St. Lawrence County Board of Realtors, Inc.

What is the Board of Realtors? It is a trade association made up of real estate professionals, which serves as a conduit for continuing education, research, and the exchange of information between real estate professionals.

The Board of Realtors provides a listing service for its members. Its helps the public, provides buying power to purchase supplies and forms and provides information about new laws and requirements.

There are approximately 380 realtor members and 25 affiliate members from some 70 area real estate firms. Lance Evans has been the Jefferson-Lewis County Board of Realtors executive director for 11 years and the St. Lawrence County Board of Directors executive officer for eight years.

The real estate market took off with the announcement that Camp Drum was going to expand and become the home of the Tenth Mountain Division. Although home values have gone up and down over the years with deployments and the addition of a third and fourth brigade, the median price of a single family home in the three counties continues to rise. In Jefferson County, the median price for a single family home in 2008 was $126,000. In 2009 it has risen to approximately $130,000. In St. Lawrence County, the median price for a single family home is lower and has remained about the same over the past two years at $72,000.

Although some of the increased home values can be attributed to the Ft. Drumexpansion, there are other reasons that values have increased. As the lower-priced homes began to sell during the expansion, people have fixed up their own homes, thus increasing their value. People are also building newer homes. New homes are valued higher and priced higher than existing homes.

The Federal Government believes helping home buyers is a sure way to get the economy jump-started. To get it going, the Federal Government has established a stimulus package for first time home buyers that will provide a tax credit of up to $8,000, or ten percent of the purchase price, whichever is less.

The program is expected to expire on November 30, 2009. That means the sale of the home and all the paperwork must be completed and signed by that date. Buyers wishing to take advantage of the stimulus package should be under contact and have all the paperwork signed no later than the end of September or the beginning of October. While Evans spoke of a possibility that the “program may be extended,” that is not a certainty.

What is the definition of a first time home buyer? A first time home buyer is defined as a person/family that has not owned a home in the past 36 months.

Home costs in Jefferson and Lewis County are still below the median price across the state. In St. Lawrence County, it is considerably below the state median depending on where a buyer is looking.

Because of the appeal of this region, its quality of life, Ft. Drum and the size and diversity of the three counties, the real estate market here area does not reflect some of the difficulties being faced across the country. Evans is cautiously optimistic about the future of home sales. He stated, “I do not think you will see sales like we had in 2004 and 2005, where everything came off the shelf. But our local lending institutions did not use the “zero down” loans, so they are not in trouble like many of the banks nationwide and we do not expect to see many foreclosures.”

As the Ft. Drum force becomes more stabilized, he believes we can expect to see more and more people buying and staying in the area. There is already a good number of military personnel retiring here.

By Joleene.DesRosiers

 

One of the greatest land transactions in New York State history involves the transfer of nearly four million acres of Mother Earth. It happened in 1791 when a merchant known as Alexander Macomb purchased the vast acreage from New York State. Historic accounts say Macomb became wealthy during the American Revolution as a merchant in the fur trade. He took his cash and bought the land for roughly eight cents an acre.

The tract included much of Northern New York along the St. Lawrence River and eastern Lake Ontario, including the Thousand Islands. The great lands were divided into ten large townships. From this purchase derived the deeds for all the parcels included in Lewis, Jefferson, St. Lawrence and Franklin Counties, as well as portions of Herkimer and Oswego Counties.

Today, many parcel descriptions contained in deeds throughout the North Country still refer to ‘Macomb’s Purchase’. The man that would know all this and more is Michael Yonkovig, president of Brownell Abstract Corporation in Watertown. He’s a bit of a historian and even more of a perfectionist. His job? Providing you with the most accurate and up to date land title regarding your property.

“Anytime a piece of property changes hands or a person mortgages their property, that information has to be updated on the existing title,” Yonkovig said. “Nowadays you just can’t go by somebody saying, ‘I own that piece of property.’ You have to be able to prove it. So a search of the public record at the clerk’s office can establish that.” That’s where the adventures of an abstractor begins, at the clerk’s office. Amid the sometimes ancient and giant books of deeds, they can find out if there are liens on a property or if someone else has an interest in the land in question. They can determine who owned the property in 1842 and update that information to the present time.

“Sometimes we find problems with a title,” Yonkovig said. “A mistake that was made in a deed a hundred years ago might turn up. Or we might find that somebody that owned the property passed away and had five heirs, but, for some reason, only four deeded out. There might be no record of why that fifth person didn’t deed out and that can cause a problem. It’s our job to search the public records and compile our findings in an abbreviated form known as an abstract of title.”

 

The Birth Of The Abstractor

Like most processes, title searching has evolved with time. Yonkovig says the earliest forms were simple and unsophisticated. In the early 1800s, everybody knew their neighbors. So when a question arose as to who owned a particular parcel, a rather basic method of title assurance generally sufficed. The purchaser would simply visit the county clerk’s office and ask if the title seemed to be in order. The clerk would usually agree that it was…and then the purchaser would be on his way.

But as land values began to increase, so did title complications. Buyers quickly learned the properties they wanted were sometimes burdened with title hazards. And they learned this by searching public records themselves. Thus, the birth of the abstractor.

It wasn’t long before the layman-turned-abstractor became an important part of the buying and selling process. Abstractors began to research various parcels in question, updating titles with the proper information and relaying that information to its customers. Often they would team up with an attorney during the process, but as time went on, abstractors began to take on a life of their own. Today they are independent operators available to anyone at anytime.

So what is a title, exactly? Often referred to as an abstract, a title is the piece of paper attached to your property. This piece of paper, or certificate, describes the various types of records or information the abstractor has reviewed regarding your property’s history. It will show any liens, judgments, inheritances, restrictions or easements.

And what is an easement, anyway? “If you had a National Grid utility line across your property, that would be an easement,” explained Yonkovig. “At some point in time, rights to a portion of the property were given to National Grid. They have the right to come on to your property to maintain their poles. They may have to clear the brush underneath them, replace the poles if necessary, or trim the trees along side them.”

He continued, “There could also be what is known as a ‘right of way’ across your property. That means that people may have rights to cross another’s property. And all of that information should be and needs to be spelled out on the title.”

So the abstractor, more or less, is the messenger making buyers aware of such issues. And because of this, Yonkovig needs to stay on top of his game. That means research, accuracy and attention to detail are mandatory at Brownell Abstract. It’s earned Yonkovig a good reputation, and rightly so. He’s not opposed to going the extra mile for anyone.

“I remember one time a gentleman came to us about the property he owned. He said it had been in the family since 1800 and was handed down to him. But he didn’t have any deeds,” Yonkovig recalled. “So he gave me some family names that went back about three generations. I started a search, but couldn’t find any deeds with those names. So I went to a Jefferson County history book, found the genealogy for one of the surnames and lo and behold! I looked in the clerk’s office under that name, from 1805, and found a deed that fit the property perfectly! Apparently, from 1805 to present time, there was never another deed given. It passed completely each time by will. This gentleman didn’t even know who his earliest ancestors were, so that abstract became a lesson in history of the property, as well as a family history for the person!”

No doubt, searching a title can be a tedious and an often time-consuming process, but for Yonkovig, it’s when he can crack a family tree that makes it all the more gratifying.

 

A New Generation

Michael Yonkovig has been working with land history for years. After he graduated from the SUNY-ESF Ranger School program in Wanakena, New York, he started working for the Jefferson County Tax Mapping Department. That was in 1973; the same year New York State mandated every county to have tax maps. For more than ten years, he worked for the county as a mapmaker. He switched gears in 1985 when he was hired as an abstractor by Brownell Abstract Corporation, named after its founder Ozzie Brownell. Six years later Yonkovig became the owner and president of the company.

Today, the name remains. Within the walls of the historic building at 135 Park Place in Watertown, ten employees work diligently to maintain the proud reputation earned through hard work and dedication. We have employees that have worked in our office for over twenty years and some of our employees are recent college graduates, one of whom has worked every summer throughout his college years until his graduation date.

Yonkovig says it takes a unique individual to become an abstractor. “An abstractor,” he said, “needs to be a history buff who is curious, patient, and willing to pay attention to detail and, in this age of technology, has to be quick with a computer as well.”

For Yonkovig, it’s a fairly new concept to be able to access deed information from a computer-and not because he was outdated, but because the process was. “When it comes to title searching, we’ve gone from the Stone Age to the Tech Age,” said Yonkovig. “The county clerk’s office, over the last ten years, has computerized all the records. Before that, we had to reference very large and, often very old, deed books. It had been done that same way from 1800 to roughly the year 2000. Now we can search Jefferson, Lewis and Saint Lawrence County records on-line. I think in the future we will see other clerk’s offices opening their records to abstractors from outside their areas. Eventually, I think we’ll be able to search any place in New York State.”

That’s good news for Brownell Abstract. Brownell Abstract has recently networked its computer work stations at its main headquarters with a public records network provided by the Jefferson County Clerk.  Brownell’s searchers can now search the public records using a network of laptops.  This enables them to more efficiently gather the information needed to prepare and abstract of title.

Whether it’s a dusty old deed book or a streamlined new laptop, Brownell Abstract Corporation just keeps on doing what they’ve always done-searching through history.

By Diane Rutherford

When Lori Gervera was a little girl, she loved to play house. At age 51, she’s still playing house with all the energy and exuberance one usually finds in a child. The owner of Lori Gervera Real Estate and Lori Gervera Productions in Watertown is always on the go whether she’s selling a house or giving a home a facelift. She smiles broadly when asked if she’s a workaholic.

“I think everybody is, if they truly enjoy what they do. See, that’s what it is— you’ve got to have the passion for what you do,” said Gervera. Gervera, a wife and mother of three, found her passion in 1983 when she began working as a full-time real estate agent. She later became a mortgage originator at Key Mortgage Funding, a subsidiary of Key Bank.  At Key, she learned the ins and outs of mortgage financing—an education she says has proved invaluable to her.

But, the real estate business kept calling to her and she returned as a full-time agent in 1987. Three years later she became an associate broker.

“I’ve always enjoyed working with people,” said Gervera. “And homes—I’ve always, always liked homes and decorating and just everything that goes along with it.”

Gervera started her own real estate company in 1993, which now includes seven other agents, a paralegal and an office assistant. “It’s truly a team effort. I had a passion for it and I was adamant I was going to make it work. It’s being diligent, it’s being enthusiastic about it, it’s being optimistic,” she said.

For years, Gervera walked into many homes, saw problems with clutter, cleanliness and décor, and thought about the wonderful possibilities for the house. Limited to traditional marketing plans, she was felt frustrated, that is, until she got into the staging business.

“Staging is merely an additional marketing tool and now I’m accredited to do that. I can coach the sellers through the entire process,” she said.

After taking an intensive course, Gervera became an Accredited Staging Professional. She started her own staging business, Lori Gervera Productions, in 2006 and has staged more than 65 homes since then. She has scores of eye-popping “before and after” pictures that show just how powerful staging can be when marketing a house.

“The staging part is fun,” she said. “The real estate part is more of a ‘black and white’ business, whereas, in staging, you can be more creative. It’s almost therapeutic for me.”

So what is staging? Gervera prepares properties for sale by making suggestions to clients about things like décor, color and curb appeal. She also can furnish an empty home to make it more enticing to buyers.

Gervera said, “Staging is absolutely huge. The way people live in their home and the way people present their house for saleare two different things.” She says when prospective buyers visit a house, she wants them to feel like they could see themselves living there. Personal photos, over-the-top decorating and unusual color choices often make buyers feel uncomfortable.

“You want the buyer to have a warm fuzzy feeling. You want that buyer to open the front door and say, ‘Wow.’ You want the furnishings to be current. You want the colors to be current,” Gervera said. “I watch HGTV whenever I can so that I can maybe pick up a tip. I like to absorb all that I can; it’s not work to me.”

Staged homes typically sell faster than those that are not staged. But Gervera is quick to point out that a house must first be priced correctly based on its size, condition and location. She remembers one house that sat on the market for several months. Out of desperation, the sellers turned to her. Gervera says she took a look at the home, priced it right, staged it, held an open house and had multiple offers the same day.

“Staging is going to give you that extra push, but it does not really bring you into another price range unless you’re doing major construction,” said Gervera. “Staging is merely a facelift. It’s tweaking. It’s editing.”

For a $300 fee, stagers will evaluate a property and create a list of suggestions to improve the home’s appeal. The client has the option of completing the work himself, hiring his own contractor or employing the stager to oversee the entire project. The cost of the work depends on the property owner’s budget. “Maybe it’s touching up a coat of paint.

Maybe it’s changing the counter-top, chang-ing the floor. Just changing a light fixture may update a whole dining room, bringing it from the 1970s into 2009,” said Gervera.

In the event the seller has already moved away with his belongings, stagers can rent furnishings and accessories to make the house look more like a home. Gervera has accumulated more than $75,000 worth of inventory for her staging business. She estimates she has enough furniture and accessories to fully furnish several homes.

Where did all of those items, including 17 beds, come from? Gervera confesses she’s a “shopaholic for bargains”. As a staging professional, she receives discounts on items at Pier 1 Imports and various other companies. She also buys inexpensive materials from T.J. Maxx, Big Lots, and at garage sales and re-sale or second-hand shops.

“We are accumulating constantly,” Gervera said. She says a client can also have a home staged for everyday living. A number of people who have seen Gervera’s work have asked her to come into their homes and work her magic.

“I charge generally $250 a room. Hiring an interior decorator or interior designer would cost more than that. What I do is just the soft side of coaching them through what needs to be done,” said Gervera. “I think the reason I love the staging so much is when people come home after we have staged their property, they are absolutely elated. They are so thrilled with the fresh new look.”

After 25 years in real estate, Gervera knows all too well how challenging the business of selling homes can be. Realtors often work nights, holidays and weekends. There’s a lot of rejection. Gervera warns her agents to save the money they make in good economic times and to get creative in a recession. “You have to stay on top of what’s going on,” she said.

“You have to be able to shift gears. This business is a roller coaster. You have to be aware of what both your sellers and your buyers need to make this work. You have to be current about mortgage products that are available because they change all the time. The more education you have, the easier it is to fit the pieces of the puzzle together.”

Gervera says northern New York has never had the extreme highs and lows ofthe national real estate market. Locally, she says things are still moving, but the challenge is with financing because of problems within the banking industry. Gervera believes staging gives her an edge in demanding times.

Gervera says technology also gives realtors an enormous boost. When she started her career more than a quarter century ago, there was no Internet. There were no cell phones. She relied on printed flyers, newspaper ads, posters in public places and signs on properties to get the word out about homes for sale. She still uses traditional signs and newspaper ads, but she says website links, with color photographs and virtual tours, help her market to a much broader audience.“

It’s amazing when you go on the Internet and find a whole category of targeted interested prospects. That’s ideal. We never used to have that ability,” Gervera said. “Because of the technology, there’s so much more importance put on the presentation.”

Gervera is currently considering acquiring a larger warehouse to store her staging company’s inventory and would like to be able to rent larger items to other area stagers

 “You get up every morning with a plan for what needs to be done that day,” Gervera said energetically. “My biggest challenge, my biggest hurdle, is that there’s only 24 hours in a day!”

There’s a lot more to it than simply hanging your shingle out front and advertising that you’re willing to help people sell their homes. Read more

We’ve all heard the old adage that in the real estate business nothing sells like “location, location, location!” But ask Canton real estate broker Patricia M. Collins what she thinks sells best and she’ll tell you, “people, people, people!” Read more