Moving and Packing Outside the Box, Inside the Box

By Bill Primavera

The Home Guru

In my opinion, moving from one place to another should be near the top of the Holmes and Rahe Stress Scale for life events, right under the death of a spouse, divorce or a jail term. But, no, it’s way down on the list at #32. Well, I just don’t’ buy it.

It’s been a long time since I’ve moved households, and there’s a reason for that. The last time, albeit in the distant past, still stings as an extremely unpleasant experience for my wife and me.

Maybe we were spoiled by our first big move when a major corporation relocated us from New York to New England. The company sent movers from their hometown, Boston, and the burly but gentle men announced their arrival with such a thick Boston accent that when they apologized to us, saying  they were not able to “pack,” which we had been promised they would do, what they actually were saying was that they weren’t able to “park” on the city street.

They eventually did find a spot to park (or “pack” in Boston-ese) and they did indeed pack our belongings in such a caring way that they even wrapped my hammer and screwdriver in tissue paper before placing it carefully in a box.

When I decided that corporate life wasn’t for me and arranged to move back to New York to venture into the dicey caverns of Madison Avenue, we were on our own for the move. We made the mistake of selecting the cheapest interstate mover we could find, and when our belongings arrived in New York, it was as though they had been through a major earthquake. This time the movers threw my hammer and screwdriver into the same box as a signed Tiffany dessert dish which was smashed to smithereens.   

Now after more than 30 years, we are contemplating the prospect of another move. But in the intervening years, there have been some significant improvements in the way homeowners’ belongings are packed and moved or stored.

I’m not usually one to overstate, but I believe the most significant development in moving in the past century, with the possible exception of the combustible engine that retired the horse and wagon, has got to be the invention of PODS. I like and highly recommend the entire concept.

It works like this. The PODS company delivers to your driveway an empty container which comes in three sizes, depending on your needs:  8’x7’x7’, 8’x 8’x12’, or 8’x8’x16.’ Then you do the packing at your own pace.

When done, PODS comes back to move the container from your property to a secure storage center, or move it “across town or across the country” to your new address.

The features I like best are that: you can pack at your own pace over as long as 30 days within the term of the basic rental package; there are no hidden fees; and the delivery and pick-up system utilizes a lift so that your container can be loaded at ground level and remains level throughout the move. Further, when you lock it, you retain the only key.

Surprisingly the PODS concept was established as recently as 1998, but it’s caught on nationwide. Debi Singho, the marketing and sales director for the PODS franchise in our area says, “yes, we call it ‘the smarter way to move and store.’”

If you want to go even further into convenient moving, Singho offers a supporting service called Packing Pals (www.packingpals.net), where you are assigned a pal who will go through all of your possessions and help sort them and pack them. The actual move can be arranged as well.

Just this year, a new product and service appeared on the scene called Bin-Bliss (www.bin-bliss.com) where plastic moving bins are rented for packing and moving. According to owner William Amoruso, these sturdy containers have a number of advantages over cardboard boxes in that they save the time of shaping and taping boxes, there is no concern for acquiring or disposing of them, and they are designed so that they can be stacked four bins high.

There is a dolly available that can move these stacked bins around. Also there is a wardrobe container that includes a bar where clothes can be hung wrinkle free. The rental includes delivery and pick up, and each bin is sanitized before every use.  Bin-Bliss can be reached at 1-855-246-2577.

In thinking outside the box about moving today, you may be better served by thinking inside the box.

Bill Primavera is a licensed Realtor® and Accredited Commercial Associate with Coldwell Banker. He is also a lifestyles journalist who writes regularly as The Home Guru. Visit his website at www.PrimaveraRealEstate.com, or to speak with him directly about buying or selling a home, call 914-522-2076.

Pros and Cons of Staying Put in the Same Home

By Bill Primavera

The Home Guru

While most people move from one home to another an average of every five to seven years, there are those who remain in the same home for the long term. Some might consider this situation dull and uneventful, but as someone who has lived most of his adult life in the same town and the same house, I can attest to its having some very satisfying benefits.

Just this month, I’ve been involved in two home sales involving young families relocating to another state, and both couples, under 45 with young children, appeared very excited about moving on to a new living experience in another state,  town, and home.  I wish them God speed. 

As for my wife and me, we’ve passed up several opportunities through the years to relocate, perhaps influenced by our early married life which for a number of reasons involved five moves in less than five years. When we moved to our current home after this peripatetic existence, which we found most disruptive and unpleasant, we adopted the oft-repeated phrase that the only way we were leaving this house would be in a pine box.

Morbid as that may sound, we were serious and our longevity in the house would attest to it. But, alas, all things do change eventually if one waits long enough and now, as empty nesters for more than 10 years, we have decided to place our home on the market.

Our plan now is to downsize to a smaller home or condo, but will stay in the same community.  

As I look back on the benefits of staying the course as homeowners, I’ve learned that owning a home is so much more than the square footage of one’s living space.  The experience extends beyond the footprint to the property line, street, neighborhood, community, and most of all, to the people with whom we relate over a long period of time.

When we first moved to this area, my wife and I were the “kids” on the block and the majority of other residents were seniors, many of whom had bought their properties when they were unheated summer cottages. By the time we arrived here, the homes had been converted to year-round residences and slowly they began to change hands to younger couples.

Then, we watched as those small houses developed larger footprints and in some cases, were demolished to make room for new construction.

Many neighbors have come and gone, but we have remained constant, and are now among the most long-term citizens on our street.

We have become human time machines to the passing world, observing both subtle and seismic changes from the same perspective, relating to all of our neighbors and service providers as real people and friends, rather than the more anonymous existence we experienced in New York City.

The very first person we met in town was George, our mailman, and we missed him when he retired. We became friends with Jimmy who serviced our UPS needs every day in our home business for more than 20 years until he too retired, but we still keep up with him when my wife meets him in the A&P.

In town I go to the same drugstore that until recently had been owned by the same family since the early 1940s. I say hello to the relatively new owner after relating to the former owner for almost 30 years. My wife and I frequently tell the story of the time our baby got sick when I  was away on business and that pharmacist personally delivered the needed medication to our home.

As long term homeowners, my wife and I have developed strong ties to our community and enjoy participating with other residents in the governmental process, joining the Chamber of Commerce  and pulling together for common causes from preserving open space coupled with smart growth development, and joining forces to clean up the roads on Earth Day.

Our daughter benefitted by being educated in just one school system, remaining friends to this day with children she met in Kindergarten. 

And, I’ve become friends with service providers who make our lives easier. Martino the landscaper, Mike the pool man, Franco the carpenter, Butch the electrician, and Ron at my car repair shop who knows every need and quirk of my car, among many others.

When I’m walking down a main street in town and someone honks, waves, and calls me by name, I feel embraced by my lifestyles choice.

Is it these endearing things that have kept my wife and me in the same place for so long, or is it that we’ve not encountered the situations that most frequently have people move?

Those reasons are listed on About.com as: a home becomes too small; a desire to upgrade; determining that you have made a mistake in the home you purchased; a job transfer; personal relationships (marriage, divorce); neighborhood changes; to see one’s family more often – or less often; retirement; health problems; deferring maintenance (preferring to move, rather than fixing up); desiring a lifestyle change, and, becoming an empty nester.

Yes, finally, it’s the last two items on the list that convinced us to move to a new home. But the town?  We’re staying put, thank you.

 Bill Primavera is a licensed Realtor® affiliated with Coldwell Banker and a lifestyles journalist. Visit his website at: www.PrimaveraRealEstate.com and, if you would like to consult with him about buying or selling a home, contact him directly at 914-522-2076.

Can Curiosity Kill the Cat Between Buyer and Seller?

 By Bill Primavera

The Home Guru

“Why are the sellers moving?” realtors are frequently asked by buyer clients. Or, “Are they downsizing?”  “Retiring?”  “Divorcing?” “Did the owner die?”  “Can I talk to them directly?” The questions vary, but most buyers seem to be curious about the current owners of the home they want to buy.

Yet, realtors are told that it’s inadvisable for buyer and seller to have direct contact until the deal is wrapped up and they are at the closing table. This is why most listing agents ask their clients not to be home at open houses or at showings. This iron curtain between seller and buyer is rooted in the fear that some offhand remark from either party can scuttle chances for the house to be sold.

And some say that this direct contact is one reason that most For Sale by Owner attempts (more than 80 percent) fail.

One of the reasons sellers list their homes with a real estate agent is that they want an intermediary to deal with the buyers, so that there is no personal or emotional involvement. And buyers are advised to utilize the services of a buyers’ agent to help as the third party to negotiate and manage the transaction.

But what happens if by happenstance they do meet?  “Actually, it can go either way,” in the opinion of Carole Fitzpatrick of my office who says that she's had great friendships developed among sellers and buyers as well as nightmarish misunderstandings between them. "It all depends on the personalities involved and the issues that come up," she said. "But overall, it's been more positive than negative when buyers and sellers meet."

At a recent broker’s open house, another realtor, the listing agent said, "I think that personalities should be detached from the house so that buyers can project themselves into the space. How do we know that the buyers won't dislike something about the sellers or vice versa? I say, it's better not to take that chance.”

One seller I represented recently was very proud of all the upgrades he had put into his house and liked to be home to tell buyer prospects about them, even though I advised against it.

There was one prospect who was particularly impressed with the owner’s handiwork, so naturally we were optimistic when we learned that an offer would be made. But, when the bid was especially low, the homeowner was more deeply offended than he might have been had there been no personal contact with the buyer. He declared to me, “This guy never gets the house now, no matter what he offers!”

Most times when buyers and sellers meet, it is strictly by chance. Two of my buyer clients are currently in the process of transplanting themselves from downtown New York City to Putnam County, and when we visited a hilltop property with glorious views, the couple knew that they had found their dream home.  When we returned to accompany the inspector for the engineering, the owners happened to have just returned home from a trip and they engaged in conversation with my buyers about the house and their experience with it. 

It was obvious that the two couples related well to each other and were pulling together for a happy conclusion for both. “We really got to like them,” the seller told me, while she described all the additional improvements her husband was making to the house while waiting for the mortgage commitment to come in.

Kim Cozza, her husband Matt and daughter Sydney are transplants from upstate New York to upper Westchester.  After looking at a variety of styles and layout of houses, including those that needed extensive work, they fell in love with an antique house from the early 1700s that seemed to be in very good condition.  The owners had already been transferred to the West Coast, so there was no way there could be an accidental meeting. However, Kim was curious and Googled the owner, learning that he was a physician. When I asked Kim what sparked that curiosity, she responded, “I felt that if the owners seemed to be responsible people, they would take care of their property if anything went wrong with it to keep it safe for their family."  Good reasoning, I thought.

As for me, I’ve been on the fence despite the cautionary tales, so I developed a program for my clients in which buyers meet the sellers vicariously. Called "Thanks for Stopping By," sellers welcome visitors to their home by video, conducting a tour through its rooms and the property, describing their good experience there.

The video is posted on YouTube and, without commercial reference to my real estate practice, is attached to the listing on the Multiple Listing Service. To see a sample, visit:  http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GiQlKrtN12w, and let me know what you think.

Bill Primavera is a licensed Realtor® affiliated with Coldwell Banker and a lifestyles journalist. Visit his website at: www.PrimaveraRealEstate.com and, if you would like to consult with him about buying or selling a home, contact him directly at 914-522-2076.

Woodsman, Spare that Tree -- or Not --  It Depends

By Bill Primavera

The Home Guru

The serenity of my morning ablution was interrupted by the sound of a chainsaw not far from my bathroom window. If it were 20 years ago, I would have jumped into sweatpants and a t-shirt without even drying off and run to the edge of my property to assail the worker I considered an offender of nature, no matter why or what he was cutting.

On this day, however, and on many occasions in the recent past, I just let it go.

I can’t pinpoint the origin of my early obsession with tree preservation, especially when considering that as a child I lived in a row home in South Philadelphia on a block where there wasn’t a single tree. 

As a young adult in New York City, again my block was relatively treeless, save for a couple of sickly specimens that survive best in the city:  a gingko and a London plain. 

When it came time to move to the country, however, I purchased a property with an abundance of mature trees, and I became fiercely protective of each and every one of them for their shade and beauty.

When our forefathers cut trees, it was for building homes or for firewood, but today we hear more about cutting trees for the right of way and to clear the paths of utility lines.  The mega tree eater has been Con Edison which has cut down thousands of trees in Westchester along its transmission lines, creating vast swaths of barrenness that affect the perception of communities and the value of its homes along the way.  This has resulted in legislation that demands the company hold public hearings before they start work in a community.

In most towns there are also local tree ordinances which regulate cutting trees on our individual properties. My town, Yorktown, was one of the last in the County to adopt such a law, but not without extraordinary controversy on both sides of the issue, to the point where recent discussions at town board meetings have suggested amendments to the code after less than a year from its adoption. 

Proponents for tree ordinances base their position on the cumulative effect on the environment; opponents, including members of our town board, feel that homeowners should not be told what they can and cannot do on their own properties.

Personally, my position has changed significantly in the past two years.

It all started one evening when my wife and I heard a thunderous noise that literally shook the earth.  When we looked outside, we saw that a very tall pine had fallen, missing our house by only a few feet.  That experience prompted us to remove a number of mature maples and locusts that stood too close for comfort to the house. 

Then, there was the storm Irene where a twister took down an entire trove of trees on our property, one tree slamming into another until 14 of them had fallen.  No sooner had I spent thousands to clear the debris when that subsequent freak snow storm brought down more tree limbs still clothed in leaves.  And more money was spent.

Just last week, I was placing garbage bags at the foot of my driveway when I heard an ominous rumble. This time, a dead limb fell within feet of meeting my head. The next morning, either by design or coincidence, I heard the chain saw outside my window, which I ignored. But, on my way to work, I pulled my car behind the equipment of the tree group of my highway department.

Brad Sheppard, head of the crew, approached me, addressing me solicitously by name, telling me that certain limbs had to be trimmed to allow room for equipment to pave my street. Was I going to complain about having my street, motley as late, repaved and at the same time, preventing errant limbs from falling on my head? I thanked Brad and, in fact, asked him to check out some limbs, possibly dead, on the other side of my property.

Yorktown’s Highway Supervisor Eric DeBartolo tells me that the main reason towns trim back trees along the road is for safety to motorists and that in the more than sixteen years he has been the highway chief, not a single car has been hit by a fallen limb.  

Today, I accept that being safe from the errant ways of trees, whether in one’s own home or on the road, requires some sacrifice of beauty. And when I pass the denuded paths along the transmission lines, I just close my eyes.

Bill Primavera is a licensed Realtor® affiliated with Coldwell Banker and a journalist who writes about housing. Visit his website at: www.PrimaveraRealEstate.com and, if you would like to consult with him about buying or selling a home, contact him directly at 914-522-2076.