Saratoga Showcase of Homes 2026: 30 Years of Giving Back | Buying Local #89

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Speaker 3
Welcome everyone to buying local. I am your host, Mike Nelson from Five Towers Media. Today we’re talking about the showcase of Homes 2026 with Lisa Licata. Barry Boddicker. There you, Michael Parker. Very unlike matter. I know your middle panel like that, but you actually my full name, Michael Robert Gordon. Henry Nelson probably shouldn’t do that for the identify, which I had a family name.

00;00;24;18 – 00;00;26;26
Speaker 3
My parents disagreed on what to name me.

00;00;26;28 – 00;00;29;07
Speaker 2
So they just picked every name that they like.

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Speaker 3
Well, so it was a whole deal, like, because I’m of a certain age. So back then, way back when they 15 years ago, as.

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Speaker 1
Old as.

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Speaker 3
Me. Well, I’m catching up to you, Barry, but,

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Speaker 2
What’s on your passport?

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Speaker 3
Just just the.

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Speaker 2
Okay.

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Speaker 3
Just the rotary. Yeah, yeah. But they back then, you only had to have one parent sign off on the birth certificate. So it was like this argument, and my dad went out and signed the birth certificate with all of them. Ours. We can’t agree we’re going to do all of them. So I got stuck with this really long race.

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Speaker 3
Well that’s great.

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Speaker 1
Now we’ll call you by a lot of name little.

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Speaker 3
I’ve been called by law. I was the little.

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Speaker 2
Fun fact you landed on Michael, though. Yes.

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Speaker 3
That’s right.

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Speaker 2
Thank you, Michael, for having us.

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Speaker 3
Yeah. Thanks for being here.

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Speaker 1
Thank you.

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Speaker 3
I know, I know that we’re gonna talk about the showcase of homes, but just in case there’s maybe two people that. No, no, no. You guys out there. I mean, you’re pretty well known in the community at this point. But just in case, do you want to just go ahead and introduce we are and kind of what you guys do.

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Speaker 3
And before we get into showcase.

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Speaker 2
So Lisa Legarda, branch manager at Sterling Real Estate Group, and I’ve been on the showcase committee. I think it’s my 21st, 22nd year. I’m losing count. Yeah, at this point. And co-chairing, I think, for 18 years. And yeah.

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Speaker 3
That’s a that’s a long time.

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Speaker 2
I think I mentioned it and last year I resigned for one year. Yeah. And I came back and I really missed it. I told you angry. They didn’t even have to go back yet I did willingly. I really missed it. And what we do for the charities and everything, it just. Yeah, it was important for me to come back.

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Speaker 2
So yeah.

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Speaker 3
It’s a great event. Yeah. Very well received.

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Speaker 1
Yeah. And I am, I’ll say.

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Speaker 3
Semi-retired. Yeah. Yes, I’m, I retired, I’m semi-retired.

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Speaker 1
Except for the Saratoga Builders Association, which I am the executive director and the co-chair of the showcase at home. So I keep my hand in that, and that’s what makes it fun. Yeah. So, yeah. And this is in case you did not mention it, I’m going to hold this, the class here are the dates, number one.

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Speaker 1
But number two, this is our 30th anniversary of the showcase of home. So, it’s a long, obviously a long running event, very successful event. And, over these past 29 years, we have raised, I think it’s, around 1.7, $1.8 million. Wow. For our local charities, primarily Rebuilding Together, Saratoga, and habitat for humanity, we do give to other charities as well, but they’re primarily related to housing.

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Speaker 1
Yeah. The Saratoga villages, very. Saratoga Village Association is very, very active with taking care of our community. So, get out and see the showcase. We’re going to talk about that now.

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Speaker 3
Yeah. We are. And just if you’re listening to this on audio and you’re not watching it on YouTube or Rumble, those dates are October 3rd through the fourth and October 10th through the 11th. So. Right. Write those down, put them in your calendar. So, so one weekend. Yeah. So who wants to tell us about what the showcases, just in case.

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Speaker 3
This is the first time someone’s hearing about it, which would also be wild to me. But, you know, we should probably at least.

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Speaker 2
I think everyone’s heard about it, but you never know. I can tell you, though, Michael, I think, you know, we have people that come from other states. Yeah. You know, they block out those weekends, they make a weekend of it to visit Saratoga and to visit the homes. And it started with John Witt. And that was to bring awareness, you know, to the builders, to the industry, all while raising money for charity.

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Speaker 2
So the builders, you know, take about a year, some houses take longer, you know, to two and a half. I think we have a house. And this year that’s close to two and a half years. It’s taking to build it. Well it’s going to be phenomenal. Yeah. Yeah. We’re over.

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Speaker 3
10,000.

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Speaker 1
Square feet. Yeah.

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Speaker 3
I wonder if like when do you think when they’re building these houses they’re like, oh we’re going to have to put this in the showcase or something.

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Speaker 2
They do. Yeah, yeah yeah, yeah. You have some, buyers that will approach a builder and say, I want my house to be an showcase, you know? So there are there are people that go to certain builders that want it, almost all of the houses around this year. Yeah. With the exception of two that I know of right now that I know.

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Speaker 3
And, and they have to be all new builds, right? It can’t be a house that’s ten years old or five years old.

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Speaker 1
Although although we do have, rehabs that we have, we have put. Yeah. Usually we like to see 75, 80% of the home that has been renovated, to consider it for the showcase. So we do people love to see, what people can do renovation wise. So we have a lot of re Re builders that do that kind of thing.

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Speaker 2
Yeah. There’s two.

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Speaker 1
There’s two. Yeah. Two this year. But they were.

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Speaker 2
Almost full remodel. Almost. Yeah.

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Speaker 1
Yeah. You know, just right down to the sorry.

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Speaker 3
Down, down.

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Speaker 1
Right down the foundation actually.

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Speaker 3
I think. Oh, wow. Yeah. So it’s a new house.

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Speaker 1
It’s basically a new.

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Speaker 3
Yeah. That’s cool.

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Speaker 1
But we’ve had rehabs, renovations, whatever we want to call them, in the past. So people love to go through, because you see what you can do with your own home.

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Speaker 2
Yeah. And and primarily. Right. The showcase why people come is one to see some building trends. Whether or not you’re interested in building, you know, a new home, some people going for paint, color ideas, you know, different tile ideas, you know, whether they’re just doing a small bathroom remodel or they just want to spice up their kitchen.

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Speaker 3
And the furnishing.

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Speaker 2
A little bit different.

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Speaker 1
And these are all fully furnished with brand new, for the most part, brand new furniture. And it’s it’s just phenomenal. I just love it. Yeah. And, we were what was the original question?

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Speaker 2
Well, why do people come and tell us about showcase. Well why you know why. Yeah. And that’s.

00;06;19;17 – 00;06;28;12
Speaker 1
That’s people come every year. We have people that have been to every single one, and we’re trying to get them to come to our awards dinner. Right. I’m working on that now.

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Speaker 2
So if anyone out there you’re listening that you’ve been to every showcase, please contact us.

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Speaker 1
Yes, please. Yeah.

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Speaker 3
Because they can go into the weekends, do the tours and then go and see who gets to win in which house and they’ve been in them is that kind of house.

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Speaker 2
Yeah. So that’s the people’s choice okay. So you can use your ticket, you know, all four days. Even if you’ve gone through all 13 homes, you can still go back when they vote. It’s the People’s Choice Award. So we do have, you know, where they can cast their vote. And then that usually takes about four weeks by the time we wrap up, showcase, tally everything.

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Speaker 2
Along with picking people’s choice, we also have many, giveaways. Okay, so if you voted for, we have 13 home. So if you voted for at least ten of the homes, you get entered into the drawing. Yeah. So that that takes the most choice.

00;07;21;20 – 00;07;45;17
Speaker 1
And there’s also a judging that goes on prior to the opening of showcase. That is a professional judges from out of town. Oh, not that go around. They spend one full day going through all the homes, and all the homes are in different categories stand side and price and things like that. And, you know, best landscaping, best kitchen, best,

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Speaker 2
You know, primary bed, primary bath.

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Speaker 1
I almost said master bath, but I know I can’t say that anymore, so.

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Speaker 3
But,

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Speaker 2
Decorating floor plan people.

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Speaker 1
Come for a lot of different reasons. They get to meet all the builders, they get to meet all the suppliers who are there.

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Speaker 2
That.

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Speaker 1
Ratio friends, because there’s groups that go,

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Speaker 1
Like, people go to the track and hang out at the picnic tables. They go to the showcase every year because it’s an event. It’s a thing. And, people.

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Speaker 2
It’s a.

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Speaker 1
Really forward to it. It’s a small tradition. That’s correct.

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Speaker 3
Well, it sounds like it like, serves a lot of purposes, right? Like one. It’s just a fun time. So there’s an activity that you can do in Saratoga Springs and have a good time and see this beautiful architecture.

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Speaker 1
It’s all throughout Saratoga County. So it’s a it’s it’s such a wonderful fall activity. Yeah. You know, I don’t know if you can see all the houses since we have 13 this year in one day might be kind of different.

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Speaker 2
That would be. Yeah, that it would be.

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Speaker 1
A.

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Speaker 2
Long day.

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Speaker 1
But. And then people love taking rides in the fall. Yeah. And, just look for the orange signs and you’ll be able to find a showcase.

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Speaker 3
Yeah.

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Speaker 1
For sure. So they’re all in Saratoga County in Saratoga County.

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Speaker 3
Okay. And so they won. It’s a great activity and a great way to spend the weekend. Two people looking for inspo for what they’re doing in their own house. They get to see, like what the latest and greatest in designer friends. Yeah. And trend and all that. And then but also for people that are considering building, they also kind of get to see like what the different builders are doing and look at how they did this and, and it’s really cool.

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Speaker 2
And they get, you know, they connect. All the builders are on site. You know, it’s just sometimes you connect with one builder better than another. Depends on, you know, inventory. Yeah. Where that particular builder, you know, has a community. Some people may have their own land that they want a builder to build on. Yeah. You know, as you know, we represent a ton of the local builders, around here.

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Speaker 2
And we hear all the time they came through showcase ten years ago and they said they were going to build with us one day. And here they are, know, and they have a showcase home.

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Speaker 3
Yeah.

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Speaker 1
So you sort of they can interview all the builders if they’re looking right or the home or renovate. So, you know, it’s a meet and greet.

00;10;02;23 – 00;10;07;00
Speaker 3
Yeah. It’s awesome. Yeah. Yeah. It does a lot of different things. And it raises a bunch of money for charity.

00;10;07;01 – 00;10;08;05
Speaker 1
Raises a bunch of money.

00;10;08;05 – 00;10;09;11
Speaker 2
We want to make sure.

00;10;09;13 – 00;10;34;02
Speaker 1
That that’s our you know, our main goal is obviously to showcase the builders. And our main secondary goal is to give back to our community, which, we are thankful that we have a lot of sponsors like yourselves, like, Vibe Towers Media, and, we are thankful that people buy tickets to go to the showcase. So.

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Speaker 1
Yeah.

00;10;36;24 – 00;10;52;12
Speaker 3
And I know obviously we we did this similar interview last year talking about last year’s event, but still, I want to make sure that because, you know, people are new to the area, they’ve never heard of showcase, and maybe they’re coming across as we want to make sure that we kind of give them the the rundown. Right. So there’s 13 homes there.

00;10;52;18 – 00;11;19;09
Speaker 1
There’s 13 homes. I’m going to just read the list. Yeah. If you would hand me that just so that I can give all plug to all the builders who have stepped up to enter this year, we have Amador Homes, Barbera Homes, Belmonte Builders, Beatty Land Development, Kodiak Construction, Koehler Homes, Homes by Malta Development, Spa City Builders, Talarico Construction, Trojan Ski Builders, Irving Builders, and We’re Construction.

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Speaker 1
So you’re going to see a variety of all kinds of style.

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Speaker 3
It’s been builders.

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Speaker 1
And sizes and ranging in, you know, price wise from XYZ to really XYZ.

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Speaker 3
Yeah, yeah.

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Speaker 2
We have free builders this year that are new to showcase.

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Speaker 3
I was going to ask that. Yeah.

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Speaker 2
So yeah. Land development sparsity builders. Yep. And Talarico construction. So three.

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Speaker 1
That’s it. That’s real. Yeah. That’s.

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Speaker 2
Yeah.

00;11;53;11 – 00;11;55;09
Speaker 1
What was the original question?

00;11;55;12 – 00;11;57;07
Speaker 3
Just kind of trying to give everybody the.

00;11;57;07 – 00;12;18;01
Speaker 1
Oh, it’s a so yeah, it’s a self-guided tour. And, we provide a lot of different things for folks to figure out where to go. They can start wherever they want. With the 13 homes. Here’s a map that’s provided on the website. There’s also a QR code, which.

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Speaker 2
Is great.

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Speaker 1
Which gives you directions to all the homes, and all you had to do is click on that and it will go.

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Speaker 3
Oh, nice.

00;12;24;15 – 00;12;56;01
Speaker 1
Set you up so your route, however you want to set up your route, wherever you may be coming from, you can start. Like I said, the houses are numbered one through 13, but you can start wherever you want. And but it’s self-guided and, it seems to work pretty well. Yeah. So that’s that’s a tour. The homes are open from 10:00 to 4:00 on those two weekends, so Saturdays and Sundays and, the crowds build, the people come.

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Speaker 1
It’s awesome.

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Speaker 3
Are there like, lines to get in the house? Yes, yes, because you can only have so many people in the house and the time. Right. Yeah.

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Speaker 2
Yeah, they, they try to monitor, you know, if the house gets too crowded, they’ll ask people, you know, to wait outside. Yeah.

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Speaker 1
And each year we, you know, we we request that people take their shoes off.

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Speaker 3
Yes.

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Speaker 1
Because these are brand new homes, brand new floors. And, we like for, you know, shoes. We really don’t encourage booties either. You know, socks are good, but take your shoes off, you know, socks or no socks. That’s my. Take your shoes off and put them in your free bag.

00;13;36;18 – 00;13;37;21
Speaker 3
The bags, everybody.

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Speaker 1
Three bags. This is last year’s last. This is last year’s bag.

00;13;42;05 – 00;13;42;27
Speaker 3
Yeah.

00;13;43;00 – 00;13;49;29
Speaker 1
And, you know, we have a lot. I mean, we get between 3 and 4000 people through these homes each year.

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Speaker 3
It’s wild. It’s a lot.

00;13;51;10 – 00;13;51;21
Speaker 2
Yeah.

00;13;51;21 – 00;14;00;04
Speaker 1
So, you know, while supplies last. So you get your free bag. Just take one, please. Yeah. Because there are they are always in demand.

00;14;00;06 – 00;14;03;12
Speaker 3
They are I would people people are running scams.

00;14;03;12 – 00;14;19;21
Speaker 2
Get more where you and I are running were you know we’ll get a, you know, call from one of the charities and like we’re down the 50 bags and we know the traffic in certain homes and we’re, you know, going to another home that may have had less traffic. And we’re grabbing their bags. They’re like, don’t take our bags like we need them.

00;14;19;21 – 00;14;20;00
Speaker 3
Really.

00;14;20;00 – 00;14;22;13
Speaker 2
They’re usually house one in house 13.

00;14;22;14 – 00;14;23;06
Speaker 1
These are, these.

00;14;23;06 – 00;14;25;28
Speaker 2
Are, those are, you know, and then your, your larger home.

00;14;26;05 – 00;14;31;27
Speaker 1
I see these bags on the streets. Oh yeah. Saratoga is remarkable. How many years ago. Yeah.

00;14;31;27 – 00;14;34;17
Speaker 3
People are grocery shopping there. Yes. And those bags. Absolutely.

00;14;34;17 – 00;14;35;12
Speaker 1
Bags.

00;14;35;14 – 00;14;41;00
Speaker 2
I think one of our committee members has a bag from every year. Do you have a bag every year from every year.

00;14;41;03 – 00;14;46;07
Speaker 1
Do, you I, I don’t, I don’t know if I have packs, but yeah, maybe I do because.

00;14;46;07 – 00;14;49;24
Speaker 2
We started that doing the bags that we.

00;14;49;27 – 00;14;51;14
Speaker 3
Have. You done them all 30 years.

00;14;51;16 – 00;14;55;28
Speaker 2
No no no I think I’m 22. Me personally, the bags.

00;14;55;28 – 00;14;56;14
Speaker 3
The bags.

00;14;56;14 – 00;14;58;20
Speaker 2
No, the bags we started.

00;14;58;22 – 00;15;00;17
Speaker 1
Oh, we started that.

00;15;00;19 – 00;15;01;28
Speaker 3
Ten years ago.

00;15;02;00 – 00;15;15;00
Speaker 1
8 to 10 years ago. We started the bags. We’re just trying to encourage people to take their shoes off. Yeah. And so, but obviously the bag thing is turned into their grocery bags and their bags. Keep your car great for that as well.

00;15;15;02 – 00;15;16;17
Speaker 2
So, yeah, you know, people.

00;15;16;17 – 00;15;19;15
Speaker 3
Are behind bars. Yeah I know, but.

00;15;19;17 – 00;15;23;11
Speaker 1
These are nice and new. They’re colorful. They got all the sponsors on there.

00;15;23;11 – 00;15;26;05
Speaker 3
They got the building on there. Yeah.

00;15;26;05 – 00;15;31;14
Speaker 1
Yeah it’s it’s a good back. So. All right we’re back people. What can I tell.

00;15;31;14 – 00;15;38;11
Speaker 2
You I know you remember we used that bag sponsors. We used to have a builder sponsor bags for two.

00;15;38;14 – 00;15;38;24
Speaker 1
Yeah.

00;15;38;25 – 00;15;41;17
Speaker 2
Yeah we used to do clear bags back in the day.

00;15;41;19 – 00;15;52;13
Speaker 1
We did one clear bag because that bag sponsor encourage that. And that really was. That was. Why didn’t we do that? We did the clear bag. Those people were.

00;15;52;13 – 00;15;53;16
Speaker 2
Still taking.

00;15;53;16 – 00;15;54;16
Speaker 1
Things from.

00;15;54;18 – 00;15;56;00
Speaker 3
Oh my God. Really? Yeah.

00;15;56;02 – 00;16;12;17
Speaker 1
You know we run into that each year. There is something missing. That’s why a table or it is wild. And that’s why we encourage the, designers, the interior designers who design the homes, not to put anything really valuable.

00;16;12;17 – 00;16;15;23
Speaker 3
Oh, yeah? Yeah. No small, valuable assets. Now, get.

00;16;15;23 – 00;16;17;23
Speaker 1
Out of this. Make sure that.

00;16;17;23 – 00;16;20;09
Speaker 2
Yeah. So out of the bathroom. You know, that one year.

00;16;20;09 – 00;16;23;23
Speaker 1
We did test somebody. Did they catch somebody? Oh, yeah. Yeah. They did.

00;16;23;23 – 00;16;26;04
Speaker 2
Yeah. One of the builders chased them.

00;16;26;06 – 00;16;27;19
Speaker 1
Yeah. I mean, can you imagine?

00;16;27;19 – 00;16;29;25
Speaker 3
So it’s an exciting event. Yeah.

00;16;29;27 – 00;16;39;13
Speaker 2
Yeah, yeah, yeah. One of the builders and we had to have a picture circulating. If you see him coming in, he did it a couple years in a row. I think it was maybe the second or third year.

00;16;39;13 – 00;16;46;16
Speaker 1
So when he got a picture of them. Yeah. And so we were on the lookout and we circulated the picture and then they saw this individual.

00;16;46;16 – 00;16;56;11
Speaker 2
And he was he was trying to take a display out of the garage. Oh my God of insulation. It was just a small box showing like block.

00;16;56;11 – 00;16;58;15
Speaker 3
I think it was cool.

00;16;58;15 – 00;17;08;21
Speaker 2
What are you going to do with that? I mean, unless you’re in that industry, you have no need for it. Yes. Yeah. So. But. Right. Fake fruit, you.

00;17;08;21 – 00;17;14;18
Speaker 1
Know, it’s just. Yeah. Whatever it. Yeah it happens. It’s not there’s no harm and we don’t necessarily.

00;17;14;18 – 00;17;16;04
Speaker 3
Yeah.

00;17;16;06 – 00;17;26;04
Speaker 1
Try and, you know, do things to prevent that sort of thing. We, we think that 99.9% of the people are on a set, and, we go with that. Yeah.

00;17;26;07 – 00;17;41;14
Speaker 3
So most people just out there have a good time and they start a great cause and. Yeah, you know, there’s always one though, right? So it’s very, you know, we should probably talk about the sponsors a little bit, right? Like as far as who the sponsors are this year, that are helping make this.

00;17;41;14 – 00;17;44;17
Speaker 1
Well, there’s a lot think there’s we have over 75 spots.

00;17;44;17 – 00;17;46;28
Speaker 3
Oh my gosh. It really. Yeah. So we want to be on the lawn.

00;17;46;28 – 00;17;58;06
Speaker 1
I don’t know that we have many sponsors like yourself. We have a lot of corporate sponsors, builders, remodeling interior designers, banks, financial institutions.

00;17;58;06 – 00;17;59;20
Speaker 2
Real estate companies.

00;17;59;22 – 00;18;22;22
Speaker 1
Appliance places. I mean, we have lots and lots of sponsors. You can find the sponsors on our website. Okay, okay. Saratoga Showcase of homes.com. Go there. You can see all the sponsors. You tickets are not on sale yet, but we, have a lot of information as far as the houses, the all the information is not up yet, but the 13 houses are lists.

00;18;22;22 – 00;18;47;00
Speaker 1
Okay. We’re going to ask you that are listed there Saratoga showcase of homes.com. Some information on the charity’s information on us. Information on like I said, the sponsors, the ticket pages are not live yet. They will be live later this month. And tickets can be purchased online at Saratoga showcase of homes.com.

00;18;47;02 – 00;18;49;17
Speaker 3
And where do they get mountains of some outdoor area or.

00;18;49;18 – 00;19;02;26
Speaker 1
No tickets. You’ll get a receipt from PayPal. And you just use that from your phone or your print it operate how however you want to do it, bring it to a home and then you’ll get an official ticket. These are last year’s tickets.

00;19;03;00 – 00;19;06;29
Speaker 3
Okay. So you go to your first house and they’ll give you your. Yeah, it does give you your.

00;19;06;29 – 00;19;24;00
Speaker 1
Real ticket, your bag. And it will list all the homes of the sponsors. You’ll have the ballot to, to vote for people’s choice. All that stuff on the ticket tickets, physical tickets are also available, at any showcase home.

00;19;24;02 – 00;19;24;26
Speaker 1
During the tour.

00;19;25;01 – 00;19;25;27
Speaker 3
So you can buy them right there.

00;19;25;27 – 00;19;37;01
Speaker 1
And a lot of people still just do that. Right. And that’s kind of a bit of a tradition to the people. More than half of people still just buy tickets right at the home.

00;19;37;03 – 00;19;37;21
Speaker 3
Oh. Well,

00;19;37;24 – 00;20;04;26
Speaker 1
We have the volunteers from the two charities manned the front doors, and they, have the tickets there, and, you can just buy them at any home. You, you get to at first. Plus there are other locations around Saratoga that you could purchase tickets at, Adirondack Trust, Saratoga National Bank, Curtis Lumber, Ruin Realty at either of the two charities.

00;20;04;26 – 00;20;17;05
Speaker 1
So there’s lots of ways to get tickets. And again, just keep going back to that website, Saratoga Showcase of homes.com, and you’ll find everything you need to know about what’s going on with the event.

00;20;17;11 – 00;20;20;07
Speaker 3
Is it possible to sell out?

00;20;20;10 – 00;20;23;07
Speaker 2
No no no.

00;20;23;12 – 00;20;26;19
Speaker 1
No. Okay. So you don’t sell out. No okay I.

00;20;26;19 – 00;20;27;08
Speaker 2
Mean print.

00;20;27;15 – 00;20;28;20
Speaker 1
That would be a great prop.

00;20;28;20 – 00;20;35;14
Speaker 3
That would be. Yeah. Well, I was just wondering if someone hears this and they hearing about it for the first time, and they’re worried that they’re not going to get tickets.

00;20;35;18 – 00;20;49;15
Speaker 1
They’ve waited just non sell out. We have never put a, a limit on the number of tickets because you have four days to go and tour the homes and yeah. We’ve never we’ve never had that problem. It would be.

00;20;49;15 – 00;20;54;16
Speaker 3
And because you can go either weekend, you can really, like, do it for an hour or two here than there are two there.

00;20;54;16 – 00;20;55;06
Speaker 1
You know, it’s.

00;20;55;09 – 00;20;55;15
Speaker 2
Just.

00;20;55;20 – 00;21;03;20
Speaker 1
You want, you want to make sure, you know, you hope you’re hopeful that the weather is good those fall weekends. And we’ve, we’ve had pretty good luck. Yeah.

00;21;03;24 – 00;21;11;23
Speaker 2
Knock on wood. I think just one couple years ago, it rained on the last day. Yeah. And it actually was very busy.

00;21;11;25 – 00;21;14;08
Speaker 3
Even even with the rain going. Yeah. Okay.

00;21;14;09 – 00;21;15;20
Speaker 1
Yeah, yeah, for sure.

00;21;15;27 – 00;21;32;00
Speaker 2
It was a challenge, you know, with the umbrellas. So you had to can’t bring your wet and Bradley in the house. And now you’re from porches filled with all these umbrellas. So it was a little bit of a challenge. And I think that’s probably the first time in as long as I can remember. And it’s rain.

00;21;32;01 – 00;21;38;11
Speaker 3
That it’s rained. Yeah, yeah. It’s usually a beautiful time of year in this area. Yeah. Then beginning getting to mid-October is amazing.

00;21;38;11 – 00;21;42;13
Speaker 2
So you hit your fall ride? Kind of. Yeah. You know. Yeah. Same time I.

00;21;42;13 – 00;21;46;13
Speaker 3
Get a little leaf peeping and then, and go see some beautiful homes.

00;21;46;13 – 00;21;55;23
Speaker 2
And, and they decorate, you know, the outside, you know, the showcase home. You know, they’re usually doing mums and pumpkins and the whole fall fall theme. So it really gets people.

00;21;55;24 – 00;22;15;20
Speaker 1
The show is just so just amazing looking. It’s so pristine. I mean, they really do. These builders spend a lot of time, making sure the house looks amazing and it’s just not return to it. You know, for 30 years now, this will be our third year. So. Yeah.

00;22;15;20 – 00;22;17;22
Speaker 3
That’s amazing. Yeah, that’s quite a milestone. Yeah.

00;22;17;24 – 00;22;22;07
Speaker 1
It sure is. It sure is. And we are very fortunate to be able to be involved with it.

00;22;22;07 – 00;22;38;13
Speaker 2
So yeah it Michael just one thing I want to point out. Yeah. So we do have the homes listed right now on the website, but we don’t have all of their information. Okay. Will we hold that on the back end till we get a little bit closer to the opening date? So the floor plans will be in there?

00;22;38;16 – 00;22;45;04
Speaker 2
More of their features, you know, different things for right now right there. Just, you know, the the there, the exterior picture.

00;22;45;04 – 00;22;58;00
Speaker 1
And we want to make sure once they’re all in, all the information the content is in, then we’ll go live with that. And then the tickets will go on sale as well. So it’s it’s a process obviously.

00;22;58;03 – 00;22;58;13
Speaker 3
Yeah.

00;22;58;15 – 00;23;00;20
Speaker 2
Yeah. Nine months of planning.

00;23;00;22 – 00;23;05;22
Speaker 1
Yeah. We start we start during the cold months of January and February.

00;23;05;22 – 00;23;06;27
Speaker 2
Yeah.

00;23;06;29 – 00;23;22;04
Speaker 3
Well, again, I, you know, the logistics for this kind of event. And I often say that on these podcasts when I’m talking to folks that are organizing events because it’s like there are so many moving parts and pieces. And I know obviously I’ve been doing it for 30 years. So you guys have some good systems of a really good.

00;23;22;05 – 00;23;25;03
Speaker 3
Yeah, we do have a big sister now.

00;23;25;08 – 00;23;43;07
Speaker 2
We, you know, it’s it’s it’s a challenge, you know, because we’re in essence 12 builders. We have to have their information by certain deadlines. The publishers have to do what they have to do and they have deadlines to get to the printer. So that in itself is and we’re in that timeline right now. Yeah.

00;23;43;10 – 00;23;48;24
Speaker 3
And the House is going to be ready. I know I think we talked last year and that’s like there was one house you were worried wasn’t going to be ready or it was going to be.

00;23;48;24 – 00;23;53;23
Speaker 1
Like one of my houses from last year that was not ready. Isn’t the one the house that’s.

00;23;54;00 – 00;23;54;21
Speaker 2
We’ll be ready.

00;23;54;22 – 00;23;56;20
Speaker 3
That’s going this year. Oh, nice. That’s awesome.

00;23;56;20 – 00;24;09;28
Speaker 1
So, and we do run into that issue, you know, the builders are frantically working now to get these homes done. And sometimes occasionally they fall short. We have to pull them out of showcase. Yeah.

00;24;09;29 – 00;24;28;17
Speaker 2
Unfortunately, yeah. And we check on them, you know, myself and, Jolene, who’s one of our other committee members. We were out last week doing driving directions because we have the time, how much it is between the houses. And that’s for the judges tour. So that’s a whole nother component of planning the judges. And then you go to the realtor day.

00;24;28;17 – 00;24;51;27
Speaker 2
So we have to make sure our timelines between the houses are correct and we pop in the houses to, to see, okay, are they going to make it. And Jalen and I are and we also have Jan, another committee member. The three of us are very well versed in new construction and that’s what we do. We can walk into a house and go, there’s no way they’re going to make this happen.

00;24;51;29 – 00;25;07;16
Speaker 2
And and we’re there now. We have one house, you know, that that it’s going to be very close. So we have to monitor, we’ll check in now every two weeks to make sure they’re on target. And it’s not necessarily them. It’s the supply chain. Oh, yeah.

00;25;07;16 – 00;25;11;08
Speaker 3
That could there’s a lot that goes into making all that stuff happen on time for sure.

00;25;11;08 – 00;25;24;19
Speaker 2
Yeah. And this particular builder is running into a supply issue where somebody not in their control dropped the ball. So now they’re scrambling. Yeah. And that, that really can put a wrench in and a whole time.

00;25;24;22 – 00;25;28;29
Speaker 3
So even after 30 years, never a dull moment. Yeah. Never done. I mean.

00;25;29;01 – 00;25;38;21
Speaker 1
We’ll be riding up with the judges and they’ll be rolling out the grass. For the lawn because it has to be landscaped or you can’t be in.

00;25;38;24 – 00;25;40;00
Speaker 2
The front of the house in front of.

00;25;40;00 – 00;25;46;12
Speaker 1
The house. So, literally it’s last minute stuff, but, they have you just to give you an idea.

00;25;46;15 – 00;25;48;04
Speaker 2
Is running out the back door. Yeah.

00;25;48;04 – 00;26;02;10
Speaker 1
The days leading up to the actual showcase tour opening on October 3rd. There’s a real trick. There’s a judge’s tour, which happens on that Monday where these, How many are there? 10 or 12.

00;26;02;16 – 00;26;05;22
Speaker 2
We’re actually going to have 11, judges this.

00;26;05;22 – 00;26;11;16
Speaker 1
Year where they will go around and spend from 8:00 till probably 8:00 at night.

00;26;11;18 – 00;26;12;13
Speaker 2
Longer.

00;26;12;15 – 00;26;37;19
Speaker 1
Longer judging them, going through all the homes, discussing each home, giving out the awards. That’s on that Monday. And then on Tuesday we have a realtor tour where the homes this is prior to the opening of the tour. The realtor realtors are, get a preview of all the homes, and we have anywhere between 3 and 350 realtors.

00;26;37;25 – 00;26;41;07
Speaker 1
Wow. Who goes through these homes on that? Tuesday?

00;26;41;09 – 00;26;42;09
Speaker 2
That’s a fun day.

00;26;42;12 – 00;26;50;29
Speaker 1
It’s a fun day. It’s always a fun day for all the realtors because you get to get together again. And yeah, me and we have a big lunch at one of the houses.

00;26;51;01 – 00;27;10;21
Speaker 2
And breakfast. We, you know, we sell that as they get your ticket, a swag bag. And that’s, sponsored by Drew Aiello from Annie Mac and Lunch, you know, is then sponsored by arrow Bank and Jen Howard. Yeah. So and then we do giveaways there as well. So they put their business cards in and we do drawings during lunch.

00;27;10;21 – 00;27;27;08
Speaker 2
And it’s a lot of fun. Yeah. It’s it’s a big day. It’s a long day I bet. Yeah I just it’s not as long as the judges. But I want to go back to the judging. So we, we leave here at eight in the morning and I just completed, the route and that. Did you see that?

00;27;27;08 – 00;27;28;17
Speaker 2
I sent that today to you.

00;27;28;17 – 00;27;29;17
Speaker 1
I did not,

00;27;29;20 – 00;27;49;26
Speaker 2
Okay. The last house that we get to is at 6:00, so we probably won’t leave there till 645. Then we have to come back here and we actually sit in this conference room. Oh, so it’s myself, Jen and Jolene and. And we’re on the bus. We make sure everything’s on the up and up. There’s no side chatter, but we don’t weigh in on anything.

00;27;49;26 – 00;28;02;19
Speaker 2
We we can’t we can’t give any. You know, we have to be very careful of facial expressions while the judges are talking. So and then we sit in the room and we say nothing. We just did them a lot.

00;28;02;20 – 00;28;05;21
Speaker 1
The builders are there at the home. So they. It’s the judges have.

00;28;05;21 – 00;28;31;04
Speaker 2
Yeah, but we have the builders to step outside once the judges arrive. Yeah. And then if, if the judge has a question, they’ll get myself generally. And we walk the judge out to the builder and one of us will stand there while the judge is asking the question. So we take it. We take it very seriously. Yeah. You know, the builders are not necessarily in it to win awards, right?

00;28;31;04 – 00;28;50;03
Speaker 2
They’re in a to showcase their work. The awards are great. Everyone wants to win. Yeah, but there are some times, you know, where a builder is, is not happy or a decorator or you know, somebody because they they didn’t get an award. And sometimes you never fails after, you know, awards night we get the calls and they don’t think that was right.

00;28;50;03 – 00;28;54;21
Speaker 2
And you know, so we are very strict with those judges. Yeah. You want.

00;28;54;21 – 00;28;55;22
Speaker 3
To keep it as fair.

00;28;55;26 – 00;29;07;08
Speaker 2
And and we go out of the area. Yeah. You know and and they’re very well vetted to make sure they have no affiliation with the builder. They’ve never done any work with them. You know, it has to be.

00;29;07;10 – 00;29;13;08
Speaker 3
I think you told me last year you you guys have like a bus or something. You put all the judges on. We do around. Yeah. Yeah, we.

00;29;13;10 – 00;29;14;21
Speaker 2
It’s a really, really.

00;29;14;21 – 00;29;17;07
Speaker 3
Is there like a cocktail cart? Like we’re all in route? No.

00;29;17;10 – 00;29;32;16
Speaker 2
No. But when we do come back here, you know, we have hearty appetizers and, you know, sometimes, you know, we offer them, you know, do you want a glass of wine? But they’re at that point they are so tired and just. There are another two hours in here.

00;29;32;16 – 00;29;55;06
Speaker 1
They take it very easily. And we’re asking for their professionalism to determine who the winners in the different categories are. And, and they, they step up and do that. Yeah. And they’re not paid to do that. We just, you know, I think it’s a, it’s an honor to be asked to be a judge. Yeah.

00;29;55;06 – 00;29;55;17
Speaker 1
So.

00;29;55;17 – 00;30;00;05
Speaker 3
Well, I think it’s great that you take it so seriously, because that means that the awards actually mean something.

00;30;00;05 – 00;30;11;28
Speaker 2
Yeah, and you have to. I mean, the builders, you know, they take it seriously. Yeah. You know, and they’re pouring, you know, their heart and soul into these homes and you know, so we we want to make sure we’re doing doing our part.

00;30;12;04 – 00;30;17;29
Speaker 3
Absolutely. Yeah. Anything else new, different changing this year that we want? We want to.

00;30;18;01 – 00;30;40;03
Speaker 1
Just a couple of things. Nothing. You know, overwhelmingly new, showcase will run as it has always run. But we do have a couple of things going on. We have a greenhouse that’s built by Boces students. I. Yeah, that will be on display all four days at the,

00;30;40;06 – 00;30;43;02
Speaker 2
Legacy woods, homes by mall to development.

00;30;43;02 – 00;30;43;29
Speaker 3
Of the living on home.

00;30;43;29 – 00;30;45;05
Speaker 2
Lay there.

00;30;45;08 – 00;31;11;02
Speaker 1
Beautiful greenhouse. I’ve seen pictures of sort of a, I don’t know if it’s a Nantucket or Victorian type look. It’s really cool. Yeah. And then we will also have. They’ll be out on all four days. And then on the first Saturday, October 3rd, we’re going to have a, an exhibition of students, kids. Actually, I’m not sure the ages, I think they’re.

00;31;11;06 – 00;31;12;24
Speaker 3
I think middle school or high.

00;31;12;24 – 00;31;24;22
Speaker 1
School or something like that, building, wooden planters by, led by with bent construction and as part of the Northeast Construction Trades Workforce Coalition. Did I do that?

00;31;24;23 – 00;31;27;01
Speaker 3
You did. You nailed it. Yeah.

00;31;27;03 – 00;31;39;01
Speaker 1
That’s sponsored by them. And, that will be. It’s always fun to see the kids building things. And, that’s an exhibition that will happen at which houses.

00;31;39;01 – 00;31;44;12
Speaker 2
Yeah. Grand Highlands, Trojan ski builders or giant skis? Hothouse number 12.

00;31;44;13 – 00;32;03;25
Speaker 1
Exactly. Yeah. And we have a couple of, auto sponsors that will have some cars, a few of the homes we have Mohawk, Honda, and, Tony Mangino, Mitsubishi, who will have cars, on display at a couple of the homes. Anything else?

00;32;03;27 – 00;32;09;26
Speaker 2
And there might be a house that may have a car, their own car and display list price.

00;32;09;29 – 00;32;11;02
Speaker 1
What does that mean?

00;32;11;05 – 00;32;11;22
Speaker 2
You’ll see.

00;32;11;23 – 00;32;13;10
Speaker 3
You’ll see.

00;32;13;12 – 00;32;14;21
Speaker 2
I can’t give it away.

00;32;14;27 – 00;32;16;09
Speaker 3
That’s right. Don’t ruin the surprise.

00;32;16;10 – 00;32;21;04
Speaker 2
Yeah, I think it will be, Yeah, definitely be a wow factor.

00;32;21;06 – 00;32;21;22
Speaker 1
Alrighty.

00;32;21;22 – 00;32;22;21
Speaker 3
Well, he’s gonna.

00;32;22;21 – 00;32;26;27
Speaker 2
Want me to tell him how I know. Yeah, you can’t, you can’t. You can’t say anything.

00;32;26;27 – 00;32;27;11
Speaker 1
Okay?

00;32;27;12 – 00;32;29;27
Speaker 2
It has a price for the public.

00;32;29;29 – 00;32;33;21
Speaker 3
In the old set. Keep it. Oh, let it slip.

00;32;33;24 – 00;32;49;26
Speaker 1
So, just, you know, just to summarize a little bit, it’s a 30th anniversary. Please get out and support the showcase of homes. Sponsorships are still available. If you if you are interested in becoming a sponsor.

00;32;49;28 – 00;32;51;19
Speaker 2
Every little bit helps.

00;32;51;21 – 00;33;07;24
Speaker 1
A lot of it, you’ll be seeing a lot of ads coming out and promotional, emails and, social media and all kinds of other stuff coming out shortly. It’s actually started now, as a matter of fact, in your magazine, your newspaper, newspaper and magazine.

00;33;07;24 – 00;33;10;12
Speaker 3
But it’s a newspaper. Magazine.

00;33;10;12 – 00;33;30;07
Speaker 1
Yeah, that’s what I thought. You can always, you know, you will find our ad listing sponsors, and, there is a QR code here which takes you to where you can be to our Showcase of Homes website to buy tickets. Now, it’s not live yet, but yeah, there will be an ad in the, August or September.

00;33;30;07 – 00;33;33;01
Speaker 3
We’re August now. Yeah, we’ve got another action next month as well.

00;33;33;02 – 00;34;00;13
Speaker 1
So, and thank you again for your support. Of course. 33 Youth anniversary tickets will go on sale later this month. October 3rd and fourth, October 10th and 11th. Mark your calendars. Proceeds benefit our two wonderful charities, Rebuilding Together Saratoga County and, habitat for humanity local chapter. What am I missing? We have 13 homes. I’ll read the.

00;34;00;13 – 00;34;19;26
Speaker 1
I’ll read the builders. One more time. One more time. Just to give them a shot. Amador homes, Barbara homes, Belmonte homes, Beatty Land development, Kodiak Construction, Koehler Homes, moms buy Malta Development, Sparsity Builders, Talarico Construction, Trojan Ski Builders, Erlach Builders and Witt Construction.

00;34;19;29 – 00;34;26;16
Speaker 2
And Belmonte Builders has two homes in this. Oh, wow. Yeah, in the same development. That’s cool. You see this? Yeah.

00;34;26;17 – 00;34;28;28
Speaker 1
It so to be right around the corner from it.

00;34;28;28 – 00;34;34;19
Speaker 3
So yeah. And quick shout out say thank you to Rome Realty for hosting airport.

00;34;34;19 – 00;34;35;19
Speaker 1
Absolutely anything.

00;34;35;19 – 00;34;45;12
Speaker 3
And thank you to Sterling for being a community partner and helping support all the stuff that we can. Buying local. Without our community partners, we wouldn’t have a we wouldn’t have a paper to print. So,

00;34;45;17 – 00;34;49;02
Speaker 2
Exactly like just what we’re doing. That’s right. One support your local.

00;34;49;04 – 00;34;52;06
Speaker 3
That’s it. And that’s our for our community and helping each other.

00;34;52;06 – 00;34;52;29
Speaker 1
Absolutely.

00;34;52;29 – 00;34;55;17
Speaker 3
And thanks, guys so much for coming on. And the entire network.

00;34;55;20 – 00;34;55;25
Speaker 2
Has.

00;34;55;25 – 00;34;57;16
Speaker 3
Announced yeah, I believe you know.

00;34;57;16 – 00;34;59;17
Speaker 2
What I think would be fun? I’m going to put you on the spot.

00;34;59;17 – 00;34;59;28
Speaker 3
Let’s do.

00;34;59;28 – 00;35;08;00
Speaker 2
It. You should do a live podcast from one of the houses and get people to come up. Like how long you’ve been going to showcase. Is this your first time here?

00;35;08;03 – 00;35;10;17
Speaker 3
I got to figure that out. Yeah, we have some.

00;35;10;17 – 00;35;13;20
Speaker 1
Radio stations who have done that. I knew that might be fun.

00;35;13;22 – 00;35;23;28
Speaker 3
Yeah, I can, I would have to figure out how we would do it. I mean, we’re so low tech with our iPads and phones, how we do it now, but. All right, that’s okay. I’ll look at it and see if I can if I can make that happen. Yeah. I would love to do.

00;35;23;28 – 00;35;34;10
Speaker 2
It’ll be interesting to see and where they’re coming from. How many years where you coming from? And. Yeah. Okay. You’ll be surprised. You’ll see if I can hold the whole range and gamut of of people.

00;35;34;10 – 00;35;34;29
Speaker 1
Well done.

00;35;35;04 – 00;35;36;03
Speaker 2
Yeah, you’d like that.

00;35;36;03 – 00;35;36;17
Speaker 3
I must agree.

00;35;36;17 – 00;35;37;04
Speaker 2
With that right.

00;35;37;09 – 00;35;37;16
Speaker 1
There.

00;35;37;16 – 00;35;39;09
Speaker 2
You know, now we have through it, I.

00;35;39;09 – 00;35;42;07
Speaker 3
Know I have. I cannot do it now.

00;35;42;10 – 00;35;43;02
Speaker 1
Thanks again Michael.

00;35;43;03 – 00;35;55;24
Speaker 3
Thanks, guys. Thanks everybody for listening. Of course, you can find this episode and every episode we do at buying local.us. You can also hear us on Spotify, Rumble, Apple and YouTube. Thanks for listening and you’ll hear from us next week.