Tag: real estate

Setting the correct asking price matters when selling any home, but that is doubly true when it comes to luxury properties. A glass-enclosed wine cellar, a steam room or a horse stable may be the X factor that sparks an offer, but sellers cannot bank on uncommon features resonating with every buyer who comes through the door.

The complexity linked to pricing high-end homes when few comparable properties exist makes the luxury market a specialty among Realtors, says Gar Lowenguth, licensed broker and associate at RE/MAX Realty Group.

“Not everybody can deal with it,” said Lowenguth, a 35-year veteran of

the real estate industry. “Not everybody is known for it.”

Selling a high-end home without the representation of a broker or an agent is even more difficult than doing so with a starter home, Lowenguth added.

“You either give it away…or you put $100,000 or $150,000 on top, over what it should be, and you don’t sell it,” he said. “Then it gets a bad rap.”

When a home has a price tag of $750,000 or more, buyers look for “upgrades from what you would typically see in a more standard cul-de-sac or development kind of house,” said Trip Pierson, owner of Mitchell Pierson Jr. Inc. Realtors. A gleaming kitchen with top-shelf kitchen appliances and a master bathroom with a soaking tub and a walk-in shower with multiple body jets are at the top of a well-heeled buyer’s checklist.

Uncommon exterior features, including broad swaths of facade accent stone, also have become part of what buyers of luxury homes expect, said Jeffrey Smith, CEO of Pittsford-based Woodstone Custom Homes Inc.

“Over the last two years, we’ve seen substantially more money being spent on tile work in the homes, both in selections of the tiles that are unique as well as quantities,” he added.

“One thing that has been very constant has been expenditures on cabinetry in kitchens and bathrooms, countertops in kitchens and bathrooms, and appliances,” Smith noted. “And that clearly is where we see substantial differences between a modest-priced home and a higher-end home.”

Given that the median sale price of a home in the Rochester area was $130,000 in 2017—marking an increase of 4 percent over 2016, according to Greater Rochester Association of Realtors Inc.—luxury homes are far from common in the Rochester area. Only 30 houses listed at $750,000 or more were available in Monroe County as of early March; Ontario County had 13 in that price range.

Across the price spectrum, a lack of inventory continues to be a challenge for the local residential real estate market.

According to Greater Rochester Association of Realtors, 3,135 homes were for sale in the region in 2017, a 12.4 decline when compared with the 3,578 homes on the market in 2016. The inventory of available homes was 4,818 in 2015, versus 5,009 in 2014.

For some buyers, luxury living means being on the water. One available property that fits the bill is 340 Rock Beach Road in Irondequoit. Built in 2003, the six-bedroom home has 84 feet of frontage on Lake Ontario and a spacious patio with elaborate awnings. Its interior features range from radiant heated floors to a three-story turret. The home is listed at $1,295,000.

“The master suite has beautiful views, but it also has beautiful walk-in, his-and-hers closets,” said Pierson, whose company has the home’s listing.

For other buyers, luxury living means having minimal upkeep. A three-bedroom townhouse built last year at 81 Barrington St. in Rochester falls in that category. Listed at $729,000, the home has 10-foot ceilings, 8-foot doors, and “you can go in and pick all your (finishes),” said Lowenguth, who has the listing.

Over the past few years, the luxury home market has slowed a bit, said James Yockel, CEO of Greater Rochester Association of Realtors.

“Everything seems to be driven by a critical—at this point—lack of inventory” affecting every price range, he said.

Exactly how the recently enacted federal tax reform law will affect the market remains to be seen, Yockel said. One provision in the law caps the mortgage interest deduction at $750,000 of debt—down from $1 million.

“I don’t think (the law) will stop deals from happening,” he added. “But certainly, it’s an impact on value, and we’ll see over the next couple of years if property values take a hit.”

Some people who own waterfront homes in the Finger Lakes are having a hard time staying put because of rising taxes, Yockel noted.

Even so, surging consumer confidence bodes well for the future.

“The spring always brings flowers and optimism,” Pierson said. “The last several springs have been very hot (in terms of sales) in most of the markets for a percentage of houses available. And so, hopefully, that will carry through this year as well.”

Sheila Livadas is a Rochester-area freelance writer.

When it comes to what people want in their living space—homeowners and renters alike—nothing is too much to ask for.

From millennials to Generation Xers to baby boomers, each generation has different asks when it comes to housing, but one common thread weaves its way throughout: Convenience.

“This, I think, is a general statement that affects all groups who are living in apartments: They want convenience, they want what they want when they want to use it,” said Sibley Square asset manager Ken Greene. “They don’t want to pay for it if they don’t need it and at the same time, they want access to it when they do need it.”

At Sibley Square, for example, Winn Cos. offers 130 or so market-rate apartments that go for $1,700 to $2,700 per month. The Spectra at Sibley Square apartments are occupied by empty-nesters who are downsizing, as well as millennials who do not need a lot of space, Greene said.

The Spectra apartments occupy floors nine through 12 of the 110-year-old Sibley building. Winn Cos., the building’s owner, has incorporated a number of amenities based on the apartments’ demographic. Downsizers and millennials have access to a conference room for meetings, a library and a kid’s playroom adjacent to an exercise facility.

Opening in the spring is a rooftop terrace. Residents also have access to an indoor dog park that connects to an outdoor pet area.

The community space also includes a living room, a TV room that resembles a small theater, a kitchen area and common space with game tables, a pool table and plenty of seating. All of the amenities are available 24-hours a day, Greene noted.

“People’s schedules are so different today,” Green explained.

Sibley Square also features apartments for those 55 and older. The Landmark at Sibley Square features one- and two-bedroom subsidized apartments for those on a fixed income. Winn Cos. found that the older generation wants amenities that are similar to their younger counterparts, so they too have access to a fitness center, community space with a kitchen and living room, a library and more.

Another common thread among each of the generations who occupy housing at Sibley Square is the need to feel safe, Greene said. To that end, Winn Cos. has spent some $500,000 in security cameras that are monitored 24 hours a day.

Sibley Square has a daycare center and the company is in conversations with a healthcare provide to add an urgent care and pharmacy to the building, Greene said. Eventually the building will feature a food hall, a vertical greenhouse, co-work space, an art gallery and, Greene said, the company’s objective is to put in a virtual, augmented reality arcade and programming studio for its younger tenants and others.

“We think the millennials want entertainment space that is cutting edge and we think the virtual, augmented reality is just the way to go,” he said.

Greene noted a move away from McMansions, especially as Baby Boomers age and their children leave home.

“So they’ve built themselves these staycations in Pittsford or Penfield or Webster and then all of a sudden the kids are gone, they’re empty-nesters, now there’s two people living in this house,” Greene explained. “And their kids observed it, their kids watched it and now the kids are saying, I may want access to those things but I only want to pay for them when I’m using them. I don’t want to pay for them all the time. It’s almost like the Uber effect for homes.”

Also affecting what millennials want in homes is the fact that they came out of school during the Great Recession, said Nathan Rozzi, principal of Rozzi Architects PLLC and a director of the American Institute of Architects Rochester.

“Millennials came out of school at a time when it was very difficult for them to find jobs and often they had to postpone some of their home-buying or family development because of that,” Rozzi said. “So we’ve seen a great uptick in the amount of rental units that millennials were seeking, especially in urban environments.”

Overall, Rozzi said, lifestyles have changed. They are less formal than they were 30 or 40 or 50 years ago.

“And spaces tend to reflect that,” he said. “You have open areas, multipurpose rooms, great rooms, less defined spaces such as formal dining rooms and things like that.”

Rozzi also noted a national trend among millennials for micro rental units.

“We haven’t seen too many of those locally at this point, but I suspect we may,” he added. “The micro-units are much more compact, individualized units but then there’s more communal space, more game rooms, more spaces where people can co-mingle and also that could be available to sign out if you wanted to have a dedicated gathering.”

Karina Chamberlain Ribis, an associate broker with Howard Hanna, said younger generations are open and receptive to fixer-uppers with some potential.

“They’re wanting to do some of the upgrades themselves, maybe at a later point,” Chamberlain Ribis said, noting that taxes are a big component of that.

School districts still play a large role in where and what millennials buy, and families with kids with special needs are looking for convenience as well.

“There’s a growing segment that are dealing with that and it’s very important that they get the services that they want for their children,” said the 15-year veteran of the industry.

By comparison, empty nesters are looking for a different kind of convenience, that of fewer stairs, walk-in showers, grab bars placed strategically in bathrooms and entryways and walk-out basements. That’s had an effect on both selling price and availability of ranch and patio homes, Chamberlain Ribis said.

“When I started you could get a ranch in Henrietta in the $70s, $80s or $90s (thousands), and now some of them are going as high as $139,900, if not higher sometimes because there’s such a shortage,” she added. “It’s a bidding war.”

Rozzi noted that while Boomers may be downsizing, the overall size of a home that a millennial might look for would be smaller than previous generations wanted. That’s part of the less formal lifestyle with multiuse spaces, each of the generations are looking for right now.

“The residential market is demand driven,” Rozzi said. “I think we’ll continue to see integration of smart devices, and as we peak in the housing stock we’ll begin to see more renovations for folks who really like their location and renovate in place.”

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As commercial real estate projects sprout around the Rochester area, developers and builders offer mixed views of the future market for such properties.

Commercial projects account for about 30 percent of the $200 million in business that DGA Builders LLC does in New York State annually, said Kevin Nowack, DGA’s vice president.

“Anything that isn’t going to be occupied as a residence pretty much falls under our commercial umbrella,” he said. “We do a significant portion of that work in Monroe County.”

Back in 2015, the firm, which has offices in Pittsford and in Cranberry Township, Pennsylvania, began extensively renovating 140 Canal View Boulevard, Brighton, for UR Medicine.

“It was essentially taking what was there down to a shell, and then rebuilding it,” Nowack explained.

Completed in 2017, the 40,000-square-foot building is now home to UR Medicine Heart and Vascular’s Rochester Cardiopulmonary Group and its Cardiac Rehabilitation program.

DGA is involved in a lot of renovations or rehabilitations of this kind, according to Nowack.

“That’s one of the trends that’s out there,” he said. “If you have good bones to a building and the infrastructure’s in place, it certainly is a lot more cost-effective to repurpose a building than to build it from the ground up.”

Projects that take advantage of the assets in existing buildings are more common in Rochester than in its suburbs.

“In the city, there’s a lot of adaptive reuse,” said Kurt Sertl, Director of Leasing for the Gallina Development Corporation, which engages in commercial real estate development in Monroe and Ontario counties.

Adaptive reuse goes beyond renovation—once construction is completed, the structure involved is put at least in part to a different purpose than that for which it was originally built.

The Metropolitan, Gallina’s only adaptive reuse project in Rochester, is a good example of that process. Gallina gutted most of the old Chase Tower building on Rochester’s East Main Street, and is in the process of turning it into a mixed-use structure.

“We’re adapting that building to new uses—it’s not 26 floors of offices anymore,” Sertl said.

The finished project will encompass a total of 16 floors of office space, five floors of condos and five of apartments. Thirteen floors of the office space are already committed, two floors of apartments have been rented, and a restaurant has opened in the building.

Other types of Gallina projects have recently risen up out in the suburbs, where most of the firm’s portfolio—which totals 2.5 million square feet—is found.

Back in December, the firm cut the ribbon on Lehigh Crossing, a new 27,000-square-foot flex building that it erected and owns in Victor.

“Flex buildings are generally office, warehouse, manufacturing-type buildings, where you can give someone different size spaces,” Sertl explained.

The $3.5 million project was undertaken on spec; Gallina didn’t have on tap all the tenants needed to fully rent the place.

“We had one tenant on tow when we built the building, and then we leased the balance of the building to the one additional tenant,” Sertl said.

Lehigh Crossing isn’t the only commercial project that Gallina has done on spec. 957 Panorama Trail South, a 24,000-square-foot, $1.5 million building that the firm erected at the Panorama Landing office Park in Pittsford, is just a shell at this point.

“We’re awaiting the assigning of tenants so we can build it out,” Sertl said.

Spec projects do pose a bit of risk for a firm. What if the tenants don’t appear?

“You’re not able to find somebody when you’re in your construction process, and then the building sits there for a little while,” Sertl said.

At the same time, such projects reflect his firm’s view of the market for commercial buildings.

“We wouldn’t put up a spec building if we weren’t optimistic about the future, and thought it was in a good location and thought there was a market for it,” Sertl said

Gallina will also build to suit, erecting a brand-new structure that meets its future tenant’s needs, and renovate existing structures.

“We’re always renovating and re-leasing existing office and flex and warehouse space,” Sertl said.

Richard LeFrois, president of Russell P. LeFrois Builder, Inc., describes the current market for commercial real estate development as “stable.”

“It’s basically some new construction and some repurposing existing buildings,” he said.

Just last October, LeFrois broke ground in Henrietta on a new project for IDEX Health & Science, a segment of the IDEX Corp.

“We’re building a pretty exciting project for the city—for the whole area,” LeFrois said.

An IDEX press release refers to the new facility as its “Optics Center of Excellence.” Those working in the 100,000-square-foot, $14 million building, which is slated to be completed this July, will engage in the design and manufacture of high-performance lens assemblies, lasers and other high-tech optical components and devices. LeFrois will own the building and lease it to IDEX.

While the IDEX project seems to highlight another area where local development is expanding, LeFrois doesn’t speak of the future of local commercial real estate development in glowing terms.

“It’ll be stable, but I don’t see it growing much,” he said. “Since our population is basically stable or stagnant, it has reduced the need for new projects.”

Sertl said he is “cautiously optimistic” about the current market for commercial real estate properties. In the coming years, demand for some types of commercial buildings—like those that house medical offices or high-tech companies—could grow.

“There seems to be a lot of young, growing IT kind of tech companies in town that I think are going to be doing well and looking for office space in the future,” he said.

Mike Costanza is a Rochester-area freelance writer.