By Paul Post

Simons Heating & Cooling Inc. in Glens Falls, which serves customers from Ticonderoga to Albany,  recently moved into new headquarters with over three times more space to accommodate its rapidly growing business.

“We have 11,000 square feet compared to 3,000 at our old location,” said founder and co-owner Dave Simons. “Everything is under one roof now from sales staff to warehousing and we own this building, whereas we were renting before.”

The 28-employee firm recently moved from 47 Main St., Queensbury, to the former Glens Falls K9 building at the corner of Warren Street and Oakland Avenue in Glens Falls.

“It was real important to us to have great visibility from the road at a four-way intersection where people stop and see us,” said Jason McCormack, co-owner and director of operations. “Most HVAC companies don’t have walk-in traffic where people can go into a showroom and discuss with a salesperson about what’s new on the market and what’s trending, or just simply come in and schedule a service appointment.”

“We want to attract people to come to our building, not just be another warehouse they drive by,” he said. “We’ll have signage out front with special offers so people can notice it and come in.”

By Christine Graf

 It was while working full-time as a financial service representative at a local bank that Sacha Lewis took a part-time weekend job at Hogwash Cleaning Solutions, a company she now owns. The Whitehall-based business, one that specializes in residential and commercial exterior cleaning, was established by Lewis’ husband, Andrew Lewis, in 2009.

Lewis enjoyed working at Hogwash so much that she purchased the company from Andrew in 2015. Andrew has remained with the company as an employee, and the couple married in 2021.

“After I took over, I revamped everything. We are now better than we ever were, and we became an LLC in 2018,” said Lewis.

Hogwash had approximately 500 regular customers when she took ownership of the business. Since that time, Lewis said they have expanded their client list to include 4,000 individuals and businesses.

By Paul Post

Area realtors say the fourth quarter heading into 2024 continues to be a strong seller’s market as demand far outpaces inventory for prospective homebuyers.

Tim Combs, of HUNT Real Estate in Glens Falls, said, “Everybody is getting more money for their houses. People looking to sell are getting a lot more money if everything is maintained. If you want to get full value for your house, a lot of people are doing little projects before they sell to make them more attractive.”

“Smart buyers can find housing quicker in this market by using tools like getting pre-qualified, which means you’re ready to make a deal,” Combs said. “A lot of buyers go out there and just start looking at houses and they don’t even know how much they can purchase. Once they look at a house and fall in love with it, they have to wait until their financing is approved.”

“It seems that there’s been a decline in homes coming on the market during the past year because many people who are at lower interest rates are holding back, they don’t want to have to buy a house at a higher rate,” said Janet Besheer, of Equitas Realty in Saratoga Springs. “They’re just backing off. So there are fewer sales. We have a lot of disappointed people.”

The good news for sellers is that prices remain high.

“$500,000 is the new 300,000,” she said. “Homes in general are selling at 3.3 percent over list price. That’s huge. The actual median sale price in the Capital Region has climbed to more than $300,000. We’ve always been in the low- to mid-$200,000s. So it’s going up. There’s been a real up-tick in home prices in Saratoga County and Warren County around the lakes.”