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1774 NYS Route 73, P.O. Box 85, Keene Valley, NY, 12943
(518) 576-9840
Fax: (518) 576-4520
information@adkrealty.com

About Berkshire Hathaway HomeServices Adirondack Realty


Berkshire Hathaway Homes Services, Adirondack Realty is located in Keene Valley, N.Y. Our office is at the heart of the high peaks, about a half hour from Lake Placid. We have been assisting buyers and sellers since 1935. We offer our customers and clients the following advantages:

  • Berkshire Hathaway HomeServices Adirondack Realty has an effective sales team led by a full time broker/owner with 30 years of experience in the marketing of properties in the High peaks region. Our broker serves as a Director on the Northern Adirondack and Champlain Valley Multiple Listing Service Board. She is also a former Board member on the Northern Adirondack Board of Realtors.
  • Fifteen energetic and skilled full time sales associates with wide experience and knowledge of the area and community.
  • An able and friendly staff who operate the office six days a week.
  • Membership in the Adirondack Champlain Valley Multiple Listing Service (MLS) with wide and cooperative associations with other brokers both in our immediate market and in the larger Adirondack region.
  • An easy to find office location on Route 73, 14 miles off Exit 30 of the Adirondack Northway.

Our Mission

Berkshire Hathaway HomeServices Adirondack Realty markets and sells developed and undeveloped property by bringing sellers in the Adirondack High Peaks, Tri-Lakes and Champlain regions together with national and international buyers. We accomplish this by utilizing the unique combination of special skills, experience and interests of our Brokers and Sales Associates to provide the highest level of customer and client satisfaction. Click here to read our Code of Ethics

 


Our Sales Agents

Berkshire Hathaway HomeServices Adirondack Realty has assembled a wonderful team of licensed real estate professionals. Whether you wish to buy a home, list your home or find the site where you will someday build the home of your dreams, we can point the way. We know these mountains and communities. We understand the complexities of property selection and purchase.  If you need a vacation rental, contact our Lake Placid office, Berkshire Hathaway HomeServices Adirondack Premier Properties, to find the perfect home for your dream vacation!

Our goal is to smooth your path and provide real estate services which exceeds your expectations and your needs.

Scroll below to find out more about the individuals who make up our organization.

Margie Philo, Broker/Owner

Email: margie@adkpp.com
Cell: 518-524-7347

Margie Papier Philo, Broker/Owner of Berkshire Hathaway HomeServices Adirondack Premier Properties and Adirondack Realty has more than 35 years of real estate experience in the Lake Placid area, specializing in both sales and resort rentals with emphasis on personal attention to clients and details. Margie has been ranked #1 in personal sales in the surrounding 13 counties for the last few years. Berkshire Hathaway HomeServices Adirondack Premier Properties was voted the #1 Real Estate Agency for Real Estate Sales and Vacation Rentals in the Adirondacks in the last 4 years. Margie recently received the Chairman’s Circle Platinum Award what is given to agents who produced sales in the top 1% sales internationally. She also serves on several community boards including the Lake Placid Center for the Arts Board, Condominium Homeowners Associations and is a member of the Rotary Club. In addition, Margie is serving as a Director on the Northern Adirondack and Champlain Valley Multiple Listing Service Board formally as a Board Member on the Northern Adirondack Board of Realtors. Margie’s husband David is a CPA in Lake Placid where they reside. Her daughter Megan, a graduate of Northwood School and University of North Carolina has a Master's Degree in clinical psychology. Megan lives in Florida with her husband David, who is an Electrophysiologist Cardiologist and their children, twins Liam & Ella and Aaron.


Martha Lee Owen, Licensed Associate Broker

Email: ml@adkrealty.com
Cell: 518-569-9840

Martha Lee has been a full time real estate professional since 1979, when she moved to Keene Valley from the Soho neighborhood of New York City. She is descended from early Adirondack settlers on both sides of her family, and is the second generation of her family to operate Adirondack Realty.
After graduating from Mount Holyoke College, she participated in and worked for multi-cultural and international educational programs for seventeen years. These included Crossroads Africa, American Field Service, Head Start, Chinatown Planning Council (NYC), and California public schools.
Martha Lee is past president of the Essex County Real Estate Board and past member of the Board of Directors of the Northern Adirondack Board . She holds the GRI and CBR designations in Real Estate. She likes the variety and challenge of the real estate business and feels fortunate to be doing work which takes her outdoors and allows her to explore the region's communities and by-ways, working with many interesting people. She is eager to do her best for the customers, clients and staff of Adirondack Realty. Some of her outside interests include African Art, figure skating, land use and social policy, genealogy and gardening.
She is married to Frank Owen, an artist. They have a daughter, Kate,who is the original creator of the Adirondack Realty Web Site, and a beautiful granddaughter, Alejandra Zoe.


Anthony Dawson-Ellis, Licensed NYS Real Estate Salesperson

Email: anthony@adkpp.com
Cell: 518-323-5339

Anthony’s formative years were spent in Britain, Monaco and along the Eastern United States. He graduated from Carnegie Mellon University working as an Art Director and Project Manager in LA, Paris, Munich and New York. One slow summer in Manhattan he ventured up to Long Lake with his Adirondack fiancée looking to flip a run-down bargain on a lake somewhere. 20 years on, he’s still looking. Marrying into the Adirondack lodging business in 2003, Anthony has since developed a handful of commercial and residential properties, handsomely selling off his last hospitality endeavor, The Haus on Mirror Lake in 2018. As a fan of Warren Buffet, Anthony has thrown in his hat with Adirondack Premier Properties and the Adirondack Realty teams. 


Thomas Keck, Licensed NYS Real Estate Salesperson

Email: Tom@adkrealty.com
Cell: 845-629-3457

Thomas Keck has been a licensed real estate salesperson since 2017. He originally was licensed and sold real estate in Florida. Thomas and his wife Debra were missing New York and came home in December of 2020. Shortly after moving back to New York Thomas received his real estate license here to serve the Adirondacks.

Thomas Keck is originally from Southern New York where he worked in Transportation for over 30 years. In 2017 Thomas and his wife began their real estate journey together. Debra is now his assistant here in the Adirondacks. Together they will help their clients buy their 1st home, 2nd home or vacation property.

Thomas serves not only his clients but his community. He has been a Volunteer Firefighter for over 30 years. He was a Fire Chief, a Fire Commissioner, and Life Member of a fire dept in Putnam County NY. Now in the Adirondacks Thomas is a Volunteer FIrefighter, Ambulance Driver, Red Cross Disaster Team Member for Northeast NY region, and a paid part-time Essex County Hazmat Coordinator. He is also a Board Member of the Knights of Columbus in Port Henry, NY.

When Tom isn’t volunteering and helping his clients to find their perfect home, he likes boating, fishing, golfing, and taking his Newfoundland dog for long walks. Thomas, Debra, and their fur babies love the Adirondacks and so will you. Let Thomas serve you and all your real estate needs.

Tom Keck

Karina Lombart, Licensed NYS Real Estate Salesperson

Email: karina@adkpp.com
Cell: 518-524-2030

A native of France, Karina has called the Adirondack region home for nearly 30 years. She has a degree in Land Surveying and studied Hotel and Restaurant Management at Paul Smith’s College in Paul Smiths, NY. While she practiced these disciplines extensively, she has also been a dedicated direct support professional at Mountain Lake Services supporting people with disabilities since 2007. Combining her surveying and hospitality skills as well as her commitment to the local community, Karina is thrilled to be joining the Adirondack Premier Properties team. She loves spending time in the great outdoors, snowboarding, skiing, hiking, and mountain biking with her dog and has a passion for interior design and traveling . As a connoisseur of the Adirondack region and all the pleasures it has to offer, Karina will help you realize your real estate dreams.


Heather Maxey, Licensed NYS Real Estate Salesperson

Email: heather@adkrealty.com
Cell: 339-933-1750

Heather's love for the Adirondacks started when she was a college student at St. Lawrence University.
And since then, she and her husband have spent the past 30 years vacationing in the Adirondacks. Several times each year, they’d drive North to ski Whiteface, hike local trails and camp -- always with their 3 young children in tow. At the early onset of Covid in 2020, they decided it finally made sense to move to the Adirondack Coast; and have since made Essex NY their home. The transition was a smooth one for all involved especially their herd of Alpacas who had never seen such expansive green pastures.

Heather grew up in Duxbury, MA surrounded by family and friends all thriving in the real estate business. Closings, Inspections, Pre-Approvals were common household terms; and countless times she was encouraged to join them. The ideal opportunity to finally get licensed presented itself here in the Adirondacks and today is thrilled to be a member of the Berkshire Hathaway real estate team based in Keene Valley.

Heather was quick to adapt to small Adirondack town living and is now fully immersed in a variety of non-profits and activities. She was instrumental in bringing some new life to the Essex Theatre Company this past year by producing their first annual Talent Show as well as joining their board of directors. Essex Initiatives, a local nonprofit cast her as the Essex Witch and as Mrs. Clause for various holiday events; all newsworthy performances now memorialized on local social media sites.

You can spot Heather at The Grange’s Thursday night Jam sessions, strumming her Ukulele or Banjo; or telling a dramatic story for Whitcomb's SpeakEazy Open Mike night. During Summer months when she‘s not sailing her tiny sailboat around Lake Champlain; she’s entertaining tourists with her Alpacas, whose pasture is a short walk from the Essex Ferry dock.

Her driven, passionate personality and love for the Adirondacks makes a career in real estate a logical next step. She developed leadership skills as an executive in the corporate marketing world and spent decades as a lacrosse coach emphasizing the importance of teamwork. Heather considers Real Estate a team sport and is over the moon happy to join the Berkshire Hathaway team—the “best in class“ team of brokers/agents in the Adirondacks!


Justin McGiver, Licensed NYS Real Estate Salesperson

Email: justin@adkrealty.com
Cell: 518-524-7628

Justin is a passionate mountain sports enthusiast and brings a wealth of experience in residential construction to the real estate market. Having built both new houses from the ground up and restored life to old classics, he has an intimate knowledge of and appreciation for homes of all types. Justin grew up in rural upstate New York near the northern foothills of the Catskills. He attended college in the Green Mountains of Vermont and then he moved to Vail, Colorado. After more than a decade Justin returned to Lake Placid New York and settled in the Adirondacks with his wife Jamie and rescue dog, Blu.  Justin has been a  rock and ice climbing guide as well as a whitewater rafting guide for over 20 years. In his free time he enjoys riding his mountain bike well beyond his abilities and eating an entire cheese pizza in one sitting.


Katherine "Bunny" Torrance, Licensed Real Estate Salesperson

Email: bunnytorrance@gmail.com
Cell: 518-637-2194

Bunny grew up in Rye, New York and as a child came to Lake Placid with her family for ski vacations. She never lost her love of the Adirondacks. After graduating from the University of Colorado, she taught skiing in Aspen, married a local Lake Placid resident and builder and moved to Keene where she has lived year round for the past 40 years. She has two sons, also builders, and a grandaughter and grandson. Before going into the real estate business, she worked as a full time substitute teacher at Keene Central School. She has had her license for the past 16 years. An avid outdoorsman, Bunny loves almost all sports...skiing, snow shoeing, golfing, kayaking, tennis and hiking. She enjoys working in real estate because it affords her the opportunity to help her customers find their piece of the Adirondacks.


Todd Townsend, Licensed Real Estate Salesperson

Email: Todd@adkrealty.com
Cell: 720-982-6073

Todd is overjoyed to be joining the team at Berkshire Hathaway HomeServices -Adirondack Realty. In addition to his experience running his own contracting business specializing in historic restoration, renovation and new construction (Cairn Carpentry LLC), Todd brings a passion for the Adirondacks and a background in the arts to his new role as a Real Estate Salesperson

After graduating from St. Lawrence University, Todd moved to Colorado, where he developed skills in sustainable home building and design. Upon his return to the Northeast, Todd put his carpentry, design skills, and love of the arts to use as the Exhibits Preparator for Shelburne Museum in Vermont.

Todd has lived in Keene on and off for most of his life and returned to get married here in 2012. In 2021, Todd and his wife Phoebe and their two dogs, Bowie and Cora, finally made the transition to Keene permanently. In the last two years they have begun to develop long term housing options for local residents through the renovation of old spaces into apartment complexes.

When Todd isn't working, he enjoys camping, hiking, and exploring the many lakes and waterways our region has to offer with his family in their Hornbeck pack boats.

Todd looks forward to helping guide his clients through the process of buying or selling their properties by developing ethical and supportive agency relationships.


Nancy White, Licensed Real Estate Salesperson

Email: nancy@adkpp.com
Cell: 518-524-6184

Nancy White grew up and attended college in New York City. Nancy began her career and worked for more than a decade as a Legal Assistant in a prominent Wall Street law firm specializing in Real Estate transactions. She moved to Lake Placid in 2003 with her husband and two young sons who are now teenagers. Nancy also worked in the Real Estate market at the Whiteface Lodge Resort in Lake Placid. You can usually find Nancy with her husband cheering on their sons who compete on the local, regional and national level as Nordic ski jumpers with the NYSEF program. With interests in skiing, running and mountain biking with her family, Lake Placid is the perfect backdrop for a great family lifestyle. Nancy’s attention to detail and people sets her apart in the Real Estate industry.


Karen Mergenthaler, Licensed Real Estate Salesperson

Email: karen@adkpp.com
Cell: 518-524-4022

Karen has a long record of successfully guiding and closing real estate transactions in the Lake Placid and the surrounding areas for 20 years. She thoroughly enjoys serving her clients before, during and after each sale/purchase and everything in between - "It's all about the people she serves and building relationships, and her clients take notice and appreciate her thoughtfulness and hard work." Karen is well-known for her excellent customer service, positive attitude, consistent communication and strong attention to detail, and she loves to share and expose people to the Adirondack lifestyle that she and her family have grown to cherish. Year in and year out, Karen is a top producer in the regional MLS network and the Berkshire Hathaway HomeServices Chairman's Circle with a career volume of just over $200M to date. Originally from Bergen County, NJ, she and her husband Stephen have lived in Lake Placid for nearly 30 years, and their children always come back to visit the town they love and appreciate. Karen is an active community member, volunteer and neighborhood 'angel,' and as a former Education Chair for the Northern Adirondack Board of Realtors, she thrives on continuing education and is thrilled to contribute her latest knowledge to all. Coming from New Jersey, Karen is an avid beach and ocean admirer, and recently secured her New Jersey Real Estate license. She considers herself extremely privileged to be affiliated with her main office in Lake Placid with Berkshire Hathaway HomeServices/Adirondack Premier Properties, and with Berkshire Hathaway HomeServices Zack Shore, Realtors in New Jersey.


Danielle Patenaude, Licensed Real Estate Salesperson

Email: danielle@adkpp.com
Cell: 518-637-4651

Danielle was born and raised in a small town bordering the Canadian border in northern, NY. She attended college in Albany, where she lived for the next 8 years while maintaining positions in all aspects of the service industry, further growing her work experiences and business network. Danielle also served as a volunteer for HAC, which is a homeless action committee in the capital region and worked in a notable NYC location for a nationally renowned Greek Chef before settling in the Adirondacks and Lake Placid. Danielle then worked alongside the owner of a local luxury home builder, which allowed her the opportunity to learn the ins and outs of building custom homes and the real estate industry. She plays hockey on a ladies team in Saranac Lake and enjoys spending lots of family time with her husband and son, hiking the surrounding areas and getting involved in community activities. Danielle is eager to assist her clients in the sale of their home, in the purchase of a new home or in navigating through the process of finding the perfect site to build a new custom dream home!


Kathleen (Katie) Fischer, Licensed Associate Broker

Email: katie@adkpp.com
Cell: 518-524-2666

Kathleen (Katie) Fischer is thrilled to be part of the expert staff of Adirondack Realty. Katie has lived in the Adirondacks for more than 25 years with her husband Doug and their 3 children, Dustin, Macy and Ryley. She currently serves as President of the Saranac Lake Ski Club, is the Adviser to the Saranac Lake High School Winter Carnival Court and is active with the local PTA. Katie was also voted to be Volunteer of the Year in her community, due to her commitment to volunteerism, community activities and strong people skills. Katie is known for her patience and persistence along with a lot of energy and enthusiasm that she brings to her clients while matching them with the perfect property. Katie thoroughly enjoys meeting and working with people and looks forward to helping them to attain their dreams.


Diane Scholl, Licensed Real Estate Salesperson

Email: diane@adkpp.com
Cell: 518-524-0422

Diane has been active in Lake Placid and real estate since 1988 and has lived in Lake Placid for almost 20 years. Diane has varied interests including tennis, skiing, running and interior design. Diane has two children: Caitlin 26, and Austin 21. Diane is excited to combine her love of homes and business in the Lake Placid community with Adirondack Premier Properties Inc. and is happy to be also be joining the Keene Valley office, Adirondack Realty.


Elizabeth Preston, Office Manager and Licensed Real Estate Salesperson

Email: information@adkrealty.com

Beth came to Adirondack Realty in July of 2004 as our Secretary/Receptionist. In 2008 Beth became a Licensed Real Estate Agent and is now the Office Manager and Administrative Assistant. She is a lifelong resident of the Adirondacks and is very knowledgeable of the community and surrounding areas.


Adrian Edmonds, Founder

Adrian Edmonds, founder of Adirondack Realty, passed away on August 23, 2005. He had lived most of his 96 years in the hamlet of Keene Valley. As a young man he assisted his father in construction before attending Antioch College in Ohio. Upon his return home, he founded a building business with his father and brother. Between 1932 and almost to the time of his death he had been involved in the construction of over 100 homes, participating in the design of many of these. He also did many remodeling projects. Beginning in the 1950s, he purchased and developed over 600 acres of land in Keene Valley, providing building sites for many existing homes.
In 1936 Adrian became a licensed real estate broker and operated the company until Martha Lee became Broker Owner.
Adrian served the community as volunteer fireman, Justice of the Peace, town councilman, assessor, master of Adirondack Masonic Lodge 602 and as deacon and treasurer of the Congregational Church.
Adrian enjoyed developing and selling the lands he purchased and recording colorful incidents of local oral history, excerpts of which can be found in this website. His dream of writing a book of some of his memories was realized when his book, "Recollections of an Adirondacker" was published and a book signing was held at the Keene Valley Library in February 2005.