The awning outside the office has changed, the office interior has as well.

Over the past five years the ownership has changed too, but one thing that hasn’t changed at Giandana-Loftus Real Estate is years of experience coupled with a commitment to service.

Principal broker and owner David Schlowsky joined the firm in 2005, buying half ownership in the company, but it’s not his first time at the helm of a boutique real estate firm. He’s likely well accustomed to hard work and demands of delivering quality personalized services.

“I knew Tom Loftus, 50 percent of the group that started the office,” says Schlowsky. I had been running a small boutique brokerage firm on Wall Street. I wanted to leave that and change pace. Gary (Giandana) was the other 50 percent, which I subsequently purchased a year and a half later. He’s effectively retired.” Giandana, a broker with over 26 years experience, still spends some time in the office but the torch has essentially been passed, according to Schlowsky.

The company mission at Giandana-Loftus Real Estate, as posted at its Web site www.mywindham.com, is to “make the purchase or sale of your home or property as pleasurable and stress free sa possible.”

Helping tip the scales back towards 30 years in the business and supporting the firm’s claim to expertise that’s second to none in the area is Kathy Kelly, a real estate broker of over two decades who heads up the sales team. Cindy Adams is the new office manager.

“The nature of real estate is you need to not only pass the courses but before you’re a broker you need to work under a broker for a year,” says Schlowsky. “I worked under Tom mainly, but also with Gary.”

Schlowsky’s first sale was a house on Route 296 outside of Windham, “a relatively inexpensive sale,” by his own account, but for him it’s still weighty in his memory. “The general progression has been to bigger deals and bigger sales, though that little red house seems pretty large in my mind, being my first,” he says.

Though he has kept the name, Giandana-Loftus Real Estate, Schlowsky says he gutted the office for a full renovation. “I felt it needed a facelift, which I believe has been extremely well received by everyone who has come in,” he says.

Most of his buyers come to the office from Long Island, Manhattan and northern New Jersey. Most properties are resales, and that’s about where broad generalizations end. “Lately sales are trending toward newer homes, those built in the last 20 years,” says Schlowsky. “There hasn’t been a lot of new construction going on.”

“The nature of the clientele coming to Windham has trended toward high end,” he says. “New construction starts around $400,000,” he says, adding “I’m just completing the sale of a house, not yet completed, in the $700,000s.”

“You don’t see a lot of farmhouses come on the market,” he adds. “There are still people who enjoy an old farm house, but a lot of people want new, modern convenience. They want updated kitchens, for example. A lot of these people come up and enjoy the same chef’s kitchen in their ski house that they have in their primary residence in New Jersey or Long Island.”

While the appetite for gourmet kitchens is relatively easy to satisfy, other requests present a greater challenge—large plots of land close to the ski slope being the most difficult to fulfill—but people continue to ask.

Schlowsky says the established reputation of the Giandana-Loftus office helps offset his status as a relative newcomer on the local real estate scene. And while he has few years less than some of the other brokers in town, he’s entered the business at a time when the rules of the game have essentially changed anyway.

With the comparatively new Multiple Listing Service, or “MLS,” in Greene County, the way real estate is listed, offered and sold is a fair bit different than in the not too distant past. It’s an evolutionary period in Greene County real estate and a clear opportunity for new blood.

“There is more competition now than there has been in the past,” he says. “The focus in the past was on getting the buyers. There were a lot of open listings in town. Everyone could sell them,” he says. “A lot has changed. The emphasis is more on getting listings and letting the buyers come to you.”

“The MLS has added to it,” he continues. “You cannot have an open listing on the MLS. Somebody has to have it. Their reasoning is you try to covet what will be more valuable to you. Now it’s more important to have the listings. … With fewer buyers out there, if you have the listings in house they … have to come to you to buy the property.”

In spite of the comparative health of the Windham-area market versus the national housing climate, Schlowsky has observed a number of changes. “Property is staying on the market longer but in this market there are plenty of buyers out there,” he says, adding “If you have a quality product at an appropriate price, you will make the sale.”

“At one point there were probably 20 new listings a month, now [there are] perhaps five,” says Schlowsky. “I don’t think owners are waiting for prices to increase, but activity.” He says there’s been a significant drop in the number of sales, but not as dramatic a drop in price compared to the primary-home market.

Many houses in Windham, Ashland, Jewett and Lexington, Schlowsky’s marketplace, are luxury items largely purchased by those who can afford luxuries, he acknowledges.

And one of these luxuries is a home currently listed with Giandana-Loftus with an asking price of $1.2 million. Located in the prestigious Windmont gated community, the five bedroom, three and one half bath top-of-the-line home has soaring ceilings and is spectacularly decorated. The best part? It all stays! No matter what season it is if the urge for a fire hits, you can enjoy one in either of the two fireplaces upstairs. Downstairs you will find a custom wet bar and entertainment area large enough to entertain all the guests that you can accomodate in this huge home. The panoramic views of Windham and Hunter slopes, as well as the surrounding mountains can be enjoyed from almost anywhere in the home or outside at your own outdoor entertainment area including a huge hot tub and built in grill! Added touches like radiant heat around the hot tub are endless in this absolutely stunning home. Extras include two plasma high-definition TVs, a whole house audio system, a state-of-the-art security and fire system, a 1350-square foot TREX no maintenance deck with a large Jacuzzi/hot tub, designer lighting fixtures, incredible gardens and bluestone walks surrounding the property and much more. And imagine whipping up a feast in your own 25’ x 30’ gourmet kitchen, complete with a six-burner Wolf Range with two ovens, a built-in microwave, Sub-Zero refrigerator, dishwasher and radiant heat in the floor.

But beyond large plots of land beside Windham Mountain, there is another popular request that’s hard to fill. “People want a lot of house and a lot of land for not a lot of money,” says Schlowsky. “Some people are still under the impression that they can come up here and buy for pennies on the dollar. But in the middle of this challenged area, there is an oasis of value.”

The impossible set aside, Schlowsky clearly enjoys the change of pace he’s found. “There’s a tremendous amount of satisfaction in finding somebody what is effectively their largest investment and what will probably be their dream home,” he says. “I’ve started to get into the building side and seeing the looks on these people’s faces, and hearing the excitement in their voices. I work with local builders and get much more involved with the finished product.”

“The Web site is an integral part of the office and the business we do there,” he says. “More than half of our sales start there and all of them involve the Internet.” Buyers can sign up at the site to receive automatic e-mail alerts when new listings become available.

But while a typical day for Schlowsky involves starting the morning answering e-mail requests for additional information, he says he’s noticed in recent months that prospective buyers are picking up the phone more often than they’re making contact via e-mail.

In addition to Schlowsky, Giandana-Loftus Real Estate has the aforementioned two full-time employees, and holds licensees for a number of independent sales people. “It’s a customer service business,” he says. “We pride ourselves on providing the best possible service. That, if done correctly, turns into referral business. Whether you sell an old home, a new home or a rental, if you do right by somebody it’s going to come back as more business.”

“The name is the same, Giandana-Loftus, and there’s been a nice smooth transition between previous owners and myself,” says Schlowsky, whose own transition to Windham seems to have been equally smooth. He has lived full time in the area for around five years but the move from New Jersey came almost 20 years after he began visiting the area. His family purchased a townhouse here in 1985, making Windham his home-away-from-home decades ago.

Find Giandana-Loftus Real Estate on Main Street in Windham beneath the new burgundy awning, online at www.mywindham.com, or call the office at 518 734 5500.