You're not just buying a home - You're Buying a Life

Julie (00:02.292)
Hi, welcome to Real Talk with the Sterling Real Estate Group. I'm Mandy Kozlowski, Director of Marketing, and I'm your host today. We are here with Julie Rohr from the Saratoga County Fair. Hi, it's good to be here. Thanks for coming in. So you and I were chatting recently at a BSBPA event, and you said something that really stuck with me. People think they're buying a house, but they are actually buying a life. So what did you mean by that? Yeah, well,

I've lived in the area for a long time of I'm a woman of a certain age, right? So I've had a little bit of experience in raising a family and owning different homes and I Have also had a lot of experience both working at the fair and in other community organizations so one thing that I look at when I consider people buying homes and I think about it

this idea of utilitarianism versus maybe a holistic approach to that. So I see a lot of people who are trying to find a really nice place to live. want to find, maybe they're looking for an old farmhouse or they're looking for a new apartment. But a lot of times what I feel like people miss is that they are actually looking at the real estate item itself and they're forgetting the holistic

experience to that home. So when people look at a home, they often look for a good school district or access to work, but they often forget what they're going to experience as they go outside on a Saturday morning, or they're sitting around their backyard and their patio. They often forget what market they might go to or where they might go when they feel a little bored or lonely. You know, what's their third place that they're going to go hang out at?

So I think that those aspects of real estate and home buying can get easily overlooked. And those are actually the essential ingredients that create your life. It's not always the utilitarian space. Right. It's the community that you belong to.

Julie (02:18.862)
We're gonna go.

Julie (02:34.836)
okay. I just want to redo the title. sure. Yeah, I was... No, it's okay. Go ahead when you're ready and then we'll pick up, we'll take a pause and then we'll pick up right back at the second question. Okay. Okay. So go ahead. Hi, welcome to Real Talk with Sterling Real Estate Group. I'm your host today, Mandy Kozlowski, the Director of Marketing.

Today we are joined here with Julie Rohr of the Saratoga County Fair. Welcome. Hi, it's great to be here. And Julie's going to tell us today about, talk about just not about buying just a, all right. Hi, welcome to Sterling Real Estate. No. Hi, welcome to Real Talk with Sterling Real Estate Group. I'm Mandy, no, okay. Now I'm flustered.

She's here to talk about it. Julie is here to talk about how you're not just buying a house, but you're buying a life. So let's talk a little bit about that today. So have you ever seen situation where two towns are similar on paper, but they feel completely different when you're actually there? Yeah, I could give an example locally because I've lived in this area the majority of my life.

And then I think this would apply all over the board. But so if we look at Saratoga County, you can look at two towns, Wilton, which is a little bit north of Saratoga Springs and Malta. Those towns, I believe are around the same size and they're both in some ways considered suburbs of Saratoga Springs.

Now I'm not a realtor, but I would assume that people who are interested in living near Saratoga Springs would consider those two towns. Right. Those towns have really gone through a lot of growth more recently, but if you were to go spend time in the two of them, I think they definitely have their own distinct personality. For instance, if you go to Wilton, there's two things that I think about when I go to Wilton, and I think people who live in that area maybe

Julie (04:53.887)
also value them or deal with them. You have all of the commercial retail spaces there that are really a Mecca for this area. So you have that as part of the initial experience of Wilton. But then outside of that, you have a lot of things that lean Adirondack, kind of as the gateway to the Adirondacks and Glens Falls. So you have...

people who prioritize things like nature trails and their Wilton Wildlife Center. I know they have a Carnor Blue Butterfly event that happens every year. So they really prize that and they very much identify with that if you live in that residential area of Wilton. Whereas when I look at Malta, it has an interesting thing going on right now because you have old Malta which

had a lot of farms and then had the build of the homes, a of residential homes. But now that area feels like it's the tech leaning, tech leaning space with global foundries and other companies there. It's interesting because my parents who lived in the area for years and my dad actually remembers years ago when they used to shoot rockets.

For off, yeah, it's a rocket. In Malta, there was a place where they were doing research and development. So Malta's always had this funny connection to research, development, and technology. So now it's interesting that people who are moving there are young professionals. There are a lot of new apartments that have been built there, which gives them access to either their employment or gives access to folks coming in to be part of global or other industries.

And when you look at the kind of community spaces that you see developing up there, you see places like the Innovation Center, which is an art maker space that leans very much into technology, or you see there's a brewery over there. what are people doing in that space? They're young professionals that are living in a lot of those apartments. They work all day. They want to come home. They want to relax. those are two spaces that are very in keeping with

Julie (07:18.029)
the newest population of people moving into that area. very different, although both in very close proximity to the Northway and to Saratoga Springs. So, you I think it's interesting that even if somebody says, I want to live near a certain city, who they are as a person and what they value may influence. Draw them to one of the other. And one town will resonate over the other. So. Gotcha.

So there's also a lot of development happening right now, more homes, more building. Why do you think some places still feel like they're losing something, but they're actually gaining all this buildings and stuff? That's a huge topic. It's a huge topic in community development. I see it in even rural development right now. So I've thought a lot about this because even our own communities here face that. I think we're fortunate in that.

Saratoga County is a community. We have a lot of development going on here, which we can be thankful for. I, yes, we need more homes.

Julie (08:29.015)
I think a community's biggest asset is its identity. So when developments or developers come in, one thing that I think brings fear into the community of people who were previously living there is a fear of change. But there's a reason for that. You see, when these larger

developments or maybe apartments come in.

They come in fast. There's a lot of growth all of a sudden, which is exciting because we need the housing. But if we think back to some of the things that are the identity of communities, a lot of that was built over time, slowly. So when you go and you, what feels like you plunk this giant housing space in a community and a lot of people move in who maybe are not from that area.

They're not familiar with the, what the community values. They're not familiar with cultural practices or traditions. I think it's a little bit like a family. If you think of your own family, you might have, I mean, I don't know, do you have family in the area? Yes, of my family. Born and raised here. Okay, so born and raised. So do you have any specific Thanksgiving traditions? Of course. Okay, so we all have our things, right? We had certain food or certain.

You know, on my family, we always play this game called Pocino, which is like Italian bingo with cards. it's dorky, but we all do it, you know? But what's interesting is when somebody marries into the family, right? When somebody marries in and they didn't grow up in that tradition, it's always like this testing time. a new family member either kind of comes in and embraces that and becomes part of the Pocino game or whatever it is.

Julie (10:33.121)
They learn to make the special sweet potato pie. They maybe bring something new that everybody embraces or they resist it. They kind of decide I'm gonna be my own person or worse yet, they don't come to those family events. So there's a disconnect there. And I think with new builds, I think we have to be very cautious because new builds are great. But if we don't also build

bridges for those new residents to integrate into the communities that they're part of, then it's always going to feel like that odd new person to your family. There's not going to be a connection that there should be. The other thing is when people say, take the example we talked about, somebody coming into a family, so you come into a family tradition that's been there for years and years,

and you decide you're gonna rewrite that, because you know better. That doesn't go over well with the family. Suddenly your mother-in-law is your worst enemy. But there's reasons for that. So I love that new family members or new community members bring new energy. They bring new perspective, sometimes new families and children. So we need that because we want to continue to grow and really be a rich, thriving community.

when people move in to an area where they really value what they see, and then they say, I'm gonna move in and change everything, that's when there's the rift. So it's a really, it's a big challenge. So back to our original question, I guess, when I look at some of the struggles that people are having with new builds, I think it's this fear, fear that there's gonna be a large group of people who are gonna come in and not,

care about what makes that community its own self, its own identity. And I think that's in a way valid because you see places where it has happened and they have lost their identity. It's gone. And now just like all the buildings, the only soul that's there is a utility sort of thing. It's not a connective kind of thing. So yeah, it's a real big challenge and it's not a money.

Julie (13:02.709)
game, it comes down to intentional planning for building these bridges. Yeah, it's a fine line of bringing in growth and not losing the integrity, the community, the culture of the town. and it's hard because developers, their expertise is how to build buildings. They're not there with their social work team trying to figure out how do we build relationships.

But even in new builds, think having community spaces is a much better plan than just a bunch of... And I think that's where other organizations come into play, like the BSBPA, the Saratoga County Fair, like keeping those traditions alive and keeping, trying to hold on to that personality of the town. You know what else, and it's something we should have mentioned, is the architecture of some new builds.

And this is not to diss any new builds if you're builder, I'm sorry. But there's a funny thing that happens in some communities where the architecture of new builds, if it gets put in a space that was formerly say a vacant space in a community, a lot of times we build for efficiency now. That makes sense. think back, you could even look.

into architecture history, right? If you look back to the international style, I'm an art nerd, so you look back to the international style that became popular in the 30s and then it came up to the maybe 70s when we were building in this very generic, streamlined steel and concrete sort of way. But what happens is when you do that, you kind of whitewash all the personality of different communities.

it becomes this generic USA kind of look. cutter. Yeah. And then, you know, sometimes you have builders who will say, we'll kind of put this exterior on to match with the architecture of the area. And while I appreciate the nod, I think it's kind of like having a plaid shirt that you printed the plaid on rather than a woven shirt where the actual threads create the plaid.

Julie (15:25.613)
So there's a difference and one feels a lot more authentic. So I think some of these larger builds, they're built in these very large scales, they're not human scale, they lose a little bit of personality. So it's a big question and it's beyond the dollars and cents. I really appreciate communities who are making an effort to create events for the people who live there, both new and old.

that bring them together. I think that's the key to making good communities. Long answer, sorry. So what are some things that people don't think about when they're buying, but they end up being the reason that they either love or regret where they live? Okay, let's see.

I'll pick one. See if you agree with me. Noise. for sure. Yes. Noise. Do you ever hear that from your potential clients? Yeah, it's amazing because sometimes we'll look at a house that's near a railroad track and...

People say, no, after a while you just don't even hear it anymore. Meanwhile, that's all I hear. So, yeah, everybody's kind of has their own preference. The airport in Geyser, people say that the noise bothers them. Rather, some others will say, I know summer's here. Like, I know when I start and that's when they feel like summer has really arrived.

That's funny. Yeah, and I was laughing. Two instances in this area. One is I know some folks who live in Malta. And so there's the Albany Saratoga Speedway. I know that even when I used to live in the village of Ballston Spa we could hear that across the miles. So people who live there are so used to it. It's kind of endearing. It's their special thing. We have this dirt track and it's kind of weird, but it's cool.

Julie (17:34.094)
Well, what I heard was that sometimes they get complaints from new residents because that only runs during a certain time. And if you go and see your house at some other time, then suddenly, urrrr, starts up. You're not ready for that. No, no. And we have the same thing with the fair. We experienced that, right? So we run typically a week in July and then we run some other events during the year. Recently, I was at a...

village meeting and we were talking about some potential development that was nearby. And it was funny because I brought up the idea of the noise from the fair. And since you grew up in the area, can I mention the pig races? Sure. Right? Do you remember the sound of the pig race? So there used to be a a particular organization that we work with that would bring in a pig race and whether you like pig races or not.

all across Ballston Spa You heard the little trumpet thing that they played before every pig race. The other thing you would hear is the truck and tractor pulls. yes. Right. Yeah. Yes. That's that. It's not my jam, but it is for many people. It brings back memories. Right. Right. And so when I brought this up at the meeting, I said, you know, are potential new residents going to be alarmed or concerned?

no, no, of course not. But a lot of those were people who grew up or who have lived in Ballston Spa And like you just said, it's second nature to them. And it's endearing. It's like, it's the fair season. It's fun times. And also we know it's only for a week. But we don't deal with misophonia or we don't have autistic children or pets who are set off by them. So that is a funny thing that you buy into when you buy into an area is you buy into potential

events or noises. And sometimes you don't know they're... You don't know until you're there and you may love them or you may hate them. They can drive you crazy. So... Well, I'm glad you brought up the fair because that's one of my favorite things in Saratoga County ever since I was a little kid. Yay. So let's talk about the fair this year. What can you tell us? Anything new and exciting or what what old classics are coming back? Well...

Julie (19:52.876)
I don't know if I'm at liberty to say this. We haven't started our advertising, but I can say there are some very American things that are gonna happen for our 250th. We are gonna be, obviously we have all the great food that'll probably put us all in our graves, but we'll die happy, right? So we got all that crazy stuff. have, one thing that's interesting, actually, this ties back to our discussion.

One thing that I don't think people know about the fair, besides you can get the crazy food, is that what the fair actually does is tries to really support and showcase local organizations. I don't think a lot of adults without children think about this. So I'm put a little plug in here. for instance, I help supervise the Home Arts and Fine Arts Department. What we do is we bring in a lot of the guilds and clubs that are in the area, like the...

Quilt North Quilters Guild or the Hudson Mohawk Weavers Guild. So it's really cool at the fair because when you come, actually usually bump into somebody you know from work or from growing up or something. But then you can also find out about all these other local organizations that happen and do things all around.

So that'll be there. We also are welcoming back a one-day rodeo this year. So that'll be fun. So you get your, you know, your cowgirl era is going to be on Wednesdays. We have a lot of local bands that will be playing each night. one other neat thing we just found out is that we are going to be partnering with Special Olympics. And so part of their equestrian events are going to be happening at our fair during fair week.

So they will be down at the equestrian end of the fair and those will be registered events so that they can qualify for larger, larger, you know, competitions. So that's really special because we have a great community of special needs folks and now that gets to be an active part of what we're doing there. So that's great. Foam party. that sounds fun. I don't know. There's lots.

Julie (22:10.317)
There's lots of crazy, also lots of good community. So, yeah. Looking forward to that. Let's tie back into our questions here about housing. Yes. Let's see. How does community identity actually impact home values or long-term demand? Okay. This is more your expertise, this, tell me if I'm wrong. You tell me if I'm wrong. This is my theory that it,

Community events, a feeling of being tied to your community is kind of like branding. So people have a loyalty to their brand. If the brand is strong and it's good and it's inclusive. I think about events that are sort of mutually shared, that are unique, and that are positive. And so if a community has those kind of magical things, people have a tight tie to that.

So how does it affect real estate? Here's my theory. If a community has that, people want in. If they're just another utilitarian place, people might live there for utilitarian reasons and then they'll move out just as quickly when they find the next better utilitarian. Yeah, it's kind of like a pricing thing, but it's like a good brand. If you find a brand that you love, you're gonna stick with them. Right. So, Ballston Spa, as an example, is

You know, we have such a quaint little village here. There's lots of community events. Families come out and we have events for couples and you know, farmer's market, which is good for everybody. yeah, I think having a community where there's so much to do and that helps drive the demand for an area. There's secret events too, like local events. Did you ever notice that?

I just found out about one Okay. in Malta, which I've never lived in Malta. I've been around it, obviously. So I was on social media the other day and everybody was going on about what's going on on Route 9. I didn't realize that there was a parade that's held every year and they closed down Route 9. And a lot of the snarkier people were like, well, if you knew anything about Malta, you'd know that, you know...

Julie (24:34.125)
I've lived here my whole life. I didn't know that. I never knew they had that. So that's like insider information, but that is something that obviously people are very important to them. And here, if you look on social, you know what people are starting to say? Is a village garage sale Garage sale, yep. That's an unofficial, used to be official, but that is like huge. That's huge because everybody comes out of their houses that day and they all walk around. If they either have a garage sale.

or they go to garage sales. So it's like old school. We all get out of our houses, we walk around, we meet our neighbors, we just chit chat all day long. And that is really special. I remember my kids loving it when they got old enough to walk around with it, pocket full of little money and go buy weird things. Like they loved that. So those little special sort of insider branded things.

if you want to call them branding. Those like the magic sauce. yeah. And then people grow up and want to raise their kids there. Right. Because they had these idyllic- We did this as a child and we want to bring our kids to do the same. Absolutely. there's the problem, right? So we think that houses are the most important thing, but we forget that identity of a community is actually the most important thing. It's true.

some things to think about when we're looking for real estate. Yeah. So what are some examples of things that make a town feel like home? think this is kind of, we just kind of touched on some of that. Things buyers should really be paying attention to.

Yeah, I think you have to look at your own, obviously, what you love right now, currently. mean, do you enjoy getting out and doing nature walks? Are you an extrovert? Do you thrive in places with lots of activity? Or are you more introvert? Those kind of things, obviously. But then also, at this point, think most home buyers, what are hope first time home buyers? Like I looked up a stat and this is why I'm asking you. This is not my field.

Julie (26:48.301)
I read that many first time home buyers are around 40. Is that true, you think? The market has definitely shifted. I was 25 when I bought my first house and you don't see that much anymore because the price of homes is much higher than it used to be. So if you have home buyers, you're making a commitment. You're making a huge commitment.

feel like this whole conversation that we're having, that's more of a holistic view of what you're buying into. It matters more because people have waited that long before they finally decide I can do it. And a lot of times those people, if they decide to have families, they're kind of having them right now. The kids are younger, right? So they need to look at, are my kids gonna be able to grow up here? Will we have neighbors?

What things can we do on Saturday when the kids are home from school? And if you're not having children, you're working all day or whatever you're doing, then you're looking at, hey, is there a pickleball court? right, is there a way that I can have an actual interesting conversation with other adults who think about things? Where can I do that? Where's that sort of that third space that people talk about?

where's that place here? Because I don't want to drive 25 minutes. Right, to go have a cup of coffee and discuss. Right. I want to come home from work and just like, relax. So the community then becomes your extended living room. And if we don't take that into consideration, we all wind up living in our cells. You know, we're all just in our home and this is my home and it's so great. We need something. Yeah, we need to be able to fall back on our community. Human interaction.

If someone is house hunting right now, how can they evaluate a town just beyond the price, the schools, the square footage? Okay, here's my current way. If I was gonna do this, if I was looking, we all love AI, right? Or do we hate it? Do we love it or hate it? We don't know. Both. Okay, so I think it's worth doing a search, for instance.

Julie (29:07.083)
What fun things are there to do in whatever community? A lot of times, whether it's using AI or Google search or even Facebook events, what you'll start to see is what kind of events are happening there. And if you look at those as a whole, you'll see, they all kid events? Are they artsy leaning? Are they nature leaning? And you'll start to get a feel for what kind of things people really enjoy in that community. So that'll give people a taste.

And then I think also looking up what are some of the, if there's, if you want to, guess the term is traditional events that happen in that community. Like we mentioned the garage sale. have the Christmas parade and Ballston Spa, which is a huge hit. The fair, so we've got those three. But you know, if you live over at, Wilton, you are celebrating the Carter Blue Butterfly. So what are the events that people have that have been there for a while? And that'll give you a.

a more personality taste of the community. And obviously, you know, all the other normal things you look at how long it takes to go to work and where's the closest grocery store. Yeah, maybe going to the local grocery store. I don't know, you know, like, like if you live down in Waterford, which is Saratoga County, you know, you might have like a bodega or a neighborhood little grocery store, right? Where if you live up in Hadley,

or Edinburgh, which is also this community, where's your grocery store? So you go to the grocery store, you know, maybe attend an event in the area. I know it's tricky for some people, but you really need to get a feel. of what, Erin? Yeah, I think it's more a feel than Just buying a home. Yeah, yeah. Yep.

So is there any one thing you wish every buyer understood before choosing where they live?

Julie (31:11.989)
Okay, I thought about this. Because I knew we were going to a little bit talk about this, and I guess this is how I would maybe sum up the thoughts is for buyers. I think that you need to look at this from a holistic view rather than, I realize price is number one, but also as you buy into a community, what life are you buying into? And that's a holistic picture. Who you are and who you...

believe you are going to be in the next five to 10 years, right, at least. So I think that's important for buyers. I think for developers actually, as they develop new communities, thinking of ways that they can build with wisdom in a way that meshes with the communities. And actually I thought of one other thing that I should mention. For people who aren't buying and for people who aren't building,

I think that the one beautiful ingredient that we can offer if we're none of those people is to figure out how to be a good new neighbor. So as people move into a community that we actually make an effort to walk over and say hello. them. Because we've come away from that in our society. And just doing that is a way to say you are welcome in our family. You're welcome here. And if there's anything you need.

Let us know. We know this area and we're here to help you. I think there's something for all of us as we think about that idea of community because it is the essential ingredient that nobody talks about, but everybody longs for. Right. So that's where we This was a great chat. Thank you for coming in. You gave us some things to think about. So again, with the fair coming up, if anybody has interests.

and learning more about the fair, where should they go? So our fair happens July, this year in 2026, it's July 21st through 26th. It is in Ballston Spa, New York for a physical location. it, you can buy tickets right now, I believe, or you can go on our website and we'll be posting schedules very soon. So then go to our website. I think we'll post that in the notes. Okay. Yep. And if you're

Julie (33:35.679)
if you are interested in maybe having, this is my little commercial, if you're interested in having your organization featured up there, that you have a community organization and you wanna develop more. the fair? Yeah, be a part of the fair. You can also connect with me. I'll leave my contact there. Great. Yeah. That's good. A lot of good ways to plug in, but that's what makes your life worth living, right? Right. Not just existing. Correct.

Thank you so much. Thanks for tuning in to this episode of Real Talk.