First Poppy of the Season

Syracuse Poppy

Poppies start blooming here in the first few weeks of May.  This was taken a couple weeks ago!  I need to do a lot of work in the garden.  It has become overgrown and I'm not sure the flowerbeds are at the point where they can be weeded, they will have to be taken out and started over, or at least most of the plants will have to go.  I've also got some baby trees growing by the house that will need to be removed before they get big and cause foundation problems.  

I wanted to start on this months ago.  It seems like I'm always so busy and I go out in the yard in the evening and do a half hour or so of weeding and you couldn't tell I did anything.

I have contractors who do yard work for me at the property management company but they have been busy doing clients yards.  Yesterday was the first time I had someone come and do my own yard.  As a property manager it's kind of embarrassing to have a yard that is a jungle, a driveway with potholes and steps that need painting.  I decided to make sure that my house was being kept up too.  

Someone bought the foreclosure two-family house across the street and it turned out to be a local investor who did a great job rehabbing it.  He was going to keep it and rent it but someone ended up buying it who will be an owner occupant on the top unit and rent the bottom unit.  I was very happy.

That was the house that had the really bad neighbors who had the parties and fights.  I was worried some out of town investor would buy it, do the minimum amount of work and rent it to awful tenants.

Old building on Erie Street

This is across from my credit union, another beautiful old building near downtown waiting for someone to make something out of it.

Syracuse through Italian Eyes

Syracuse, like many other industrial cities of the United States, has a glorious future behind him. Preserve the memory of a waterway, the Erie Canal, which did great with his trade in the nineteenth century the entire region of New York, observes the slow factories to get rid of red brick and white colonial villas.


The above is a quote from an Italian Art Newspaper article about a retrospective of the painter Jerome Witkin held at ArtRage Gallery in Syracuse.  It loses a lot in the translation but gains in absurdity.


One of the things that is both sad and beautiful about my city is the decaying industrial infrastructure.   It inspires me as an artist, the old factories of crumbling brick, rusty smokestacks, parking lots full of puddles and weeds.


As a real estate person, I see a lot of promise.  The broken down factory would be great loft apartments, maybe with some retail on the bottom floor.

First snow of the season

This is the view from the house I am rehabbing.  It is in Tipp Hill and will rent for 1000.  Hoping to show it tomorrow so theres a lot of work to do!

Open House Today!

Open house today!  Sunday December 4 from 12-2!  Holiday cookies!

Come see it - newly remodeled with a finished basement.  Updated kitchen with new appliances, ceramic floor and granite counters.

Productivity down

Why are my cats so drawn to the keyboard? I guess they want to be the center of attention but it makes it hard to get things done.

451 Bryant Ave Kitchen Remodel!

Sometimes you have a house for sale and there's one thing keeping it from selling. This happened on our listing on Bryant Street. Great location in Tipp Hill, where so many people are looking. House was fully remodeled, newly painted in decorator colors. Kitchen came with all appliances and had miles of counter space. But there was one problem. A chimney came through the middle of the kitchen. I would take people through the house and they would go "What is that????" Tour over, on to the next house.

I'm happy to report that the dreaded "thing" in the kitchen is gone, gone, gone.

Please give me a call if you'd like to come check out the property!  315-908-2287

Click the link below to get more info about the house.

451 Bryant Ave, Syracuse, NY 13204, USA - TIPP HILL

BEFORE "What is that??"

AFTER "Nice kitchen"

AFTER "Look at all the counter space!"