I have used Besch Bros Plumbing for a few jobs over the past year. Doug Besch was the contractor who was on the job on each occasion. He was very helpful, showed up when he said that he was going to and did a great job each time.

Besch Bros. Plumbing
5580 Broadway
Lancaster, NY 14086
716-683-0622

I would feel confident recommending Besch Plumbing to my friends, relatives and neighbors. Unlike some contractors, they don’t ask for the money up front and then complete the job when they see fit, they do the job properly and bill you once you are completely satisfied. After the job was done, they made sure to clean up the work area rather than leave it littered with debris, or with parts that were removed.

Overall, I would rate Besch a 9 out of a 10. The only thing that I could knock them for is that they do such a great job that they are in demand and might not be able to schedule the non-emergency jobs as soon as you would like. In the case of an emergency, they will be there (as in my recent case).

If you are in need of a plumber in the Buffalo, New York area I would strongly recommend that you give Besch Brothers Plumbing a call.

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Here is a typical side by side duplex located in the Village of Lancaster. The location is nice for its proximity to Walden Avenue and Central Avenue. However, it is close the railroad track that is still active. My office is near by and I have to say, the trains aren’t that frequent and they are not very noticeable (I am not sleeping, though).

The listing states that they are only bringing in $530 per month for each side. This area would support a much higher level of rent for 3 bedroom 1.5 bath duplex style apartment. I am sure you could increase that well above $600 and still remain competetive. I have a duplex on Broadway that generates $775 per unit. The neighboring duplexes are much higher than mine.

This is listed through America’s Choice and does not have the visibility that they would if they were in the MLS right now. It might be worth taking a look.

The asking price is: $148,900. I am not sure that I would classify it as a “bargain” at this price, but you never know what the final purchase price could be. It is my opinion that you might offend someone with a lowball offer, but with a FSBO (for sale by owner) you can do it without having to go through the contract process. You can make a verbal on the property and get an indication of whether the present owner is looking to deal.

Lancaster NY Duplex for Sale

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They aren’t that bad. No really, a 300+ foot windmill sounds like it will be this monstrosity, but they really aren’t that bad. In fact, I took a drive out to Lackawanna after reading a short article in the Buffalo News about the first windmill being operational.

As you can see by the pictures below, they don’t exactly jump out at you. I was on Route 5, directly across the street from the site. Remember, they are on a brownfield. A virtual waste site. This is an improvement. If the power from these windmills is being used to generate clean energy, keep them coming.

There have been complaints from people that the windmills are monstrosities that obstruct the view of people in the Hamburg area. They are complaining the it destroys their view of the City skyline. This is a matter of opinion. You either feel it is attractive, or not. Make your own call.

I feel that this is a good use of the site. If Donn Esmonde is right, this does have a chance to bring jobs to the area. This might be a bit far-fetched, but the argument appears to be sound.

The assets that made Buffalo great can help us again. Mammoth wind turbines are best shipped by barge. Waterways connect us to markets in the United States, Canada and Europe. We have a supply of workers, stretches of industrial land, and we sit on a highway/railroad hub, with a cargo airport in Niagara Falls. America is a booming market for wind power, and manufacturers — many of them in Europe — are looking for U.S. sites.

A Bass Pro, windmill construction, and an Ikea and we are good to go.

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Have you ever needed a simple Microsoft Word template flyer? Here is a free one that you can download and use.

Well, I needed one the other day to advertise commercial office space for rent. I wanted to create a flyer that had phone number tabs at the bottom. The kind that you see in every pizza place or community bulletin board.

In that past, I would use a Microsoft Publisher template to accomplish this. However, I haven’t seen MS Publisher in a few years (does it still exist?). In any event, I wanted a template that I could use in MS Word since I already have it installed and I didn’t want to install a new program for this one off design.

This isn’t a hard thing to do, but if you are like me, you might like to start with a template and then modify it from there. Let someone else spend the 30 minutes aligning things and getting the print version correct and then build on what they designed. The tab alignment at the bottom took a little tweaking to get it centered and aligned correctly. Since everything today is web-centric, you will see I have a 4 line tab to provide room for a web site address or an e-mail address.

Page Layout Properties:

I hope that this free word template is helpful for someone. If you like it, bookmark this post. Of course you will need Microsoft Office to use it. If you require a different file format, let me know.

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This is a follow up to an earlier post regarding Ready to Assemble kitchen cabinets (RTA).

I have answered a few questions from people looking to purchase from the same company that I did in the past. I felt that a new post was in order to be sure this information is easier to find.

Dear -name withheld-,

I purchased a sample cabinet directly through their Ebay auction. The 2 subsequent orders were done directly through their web site. I did not have any trouble.

I was surprised to hear that they were selling you a “sample”. I don’t see finish samples listed anywhere on their site. I have operated an e-commerce business in the past and I can tell you that anytime a consumer requests something that is outside of the normal operation, it tends to take longer. There probably isn’t a method in place to handle processing and shipment of this order. Perhaps they are setting up an “order sample” process and you are the first. Delaying until process is in place. Just a guess.

On top of that, I feel it is difficult to get a true sense of the finish and of the material with a small sample. I would encourage you to purchase a single cabinet (one that falls within your kitchen layout) to get a true sense of the quality of construction and finish (or lack of quality).

I can’t answer for the company, but my best guess is that this is sitting on someone’s desk who is busy with the normal routine and can’t seem to find the time to handle an order that is outside of the normal flow.

Good luck.

Sorry to bother you again, but your response was very helpful. A few more questions:

1- did you buy directly from the site or through eBay? I didn’t see a lot offered on eBay making it seem much easier to buy directly from them.

2- any special tricks in getting this company to respond to you? I sent an email asking about finish samples… no response, so I called. They told me to send them $6 through paypal & note which finishes I wanted samples of. I did it that day. That was a week ago. Sent another email asking about the timing of receiving the samples (I am eager to start my project) & no response. Called again today to ask about it & the lady was very uneducated in everything & not very helpful. Said it should only take a few days, but I have already waited a week… so I pressed, “… so I should expect them before the end of the week?” — Got a mumbled kind of “yes” - she didn’t even want to take down my name so she could look into it. And this is only $6 samples, so I am getting a little nervous about spending $1,000 with them. Just wanted to see if you had any tricks of the trade here since you were so happy with the service.

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The Buffalo Niagara association of Realtors web site is called BuffaloNiagaraHomes.com. It is managed by a company that is contracted to handle the MLS for the group. They reconfigured parts of their site and made it rather frustrating.

As a web user, there is nothing more frustrating than landing on a page that gives me an error telling me that the page can’t be found. Well, recent changes at the Buffalo Niagara Homes site will have that happening with any property that was linked prior to the change. When you are making changes on a web site, especially one that many other parties rely on (Realtors), you should make the transition as smooth as possible. There is a rather simple method used to forward any old links. It is seamless to the visitor and should be a first step.

How about a bookmark this listing? Isn’t the growth area on the web social? Sharing of links and bookmarking is a key component of that. BNH eliminated the simple ability to share a listing with a friend, spouse, Realtor, etc. You can e-mail it, but that is much more intrusive (captures the user data). Make it simple. When you do a search and click on a listing, they are passing the information specific to the property in a way that hides it when you bookmark the page. How about adding the feature?

One other thing… How about presets values for minimum price and maximum price that are more reasonable. Are you basing this upon your own search data? Why don’t you start at “no minimum” and “no maximum” for price and give your users a little credit. They are smart enough to figure out how to modify form fields. If they aren’t, you are losing them anyway. Lock them in at $100,000-$150,000 and they will go away thinking you don’t have listings in their $300,000 price range. For the people who you don’t think can change some form fields, you are sending them away. I would bet they could navigate ‘next page’ if they can’t change a form field. Show them everything. Why don’t you give this a run for a week or two and then base your preset values on actual search data that you are capturing. If you are already doing this, my apologies.

Just trying to provide some feedback that I would imagine that BuffaloNiagaraHomes.com isn’t interested in.

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