Staley Real Estate initially opened its doors in 1949. It was the first real estate company in Northern Dutchess County—appropriately so since the Staley family prides itself in its historical ties and its historic "firsts." The company was founded by its first principal broker, Homer Knickerbocker Staley Sr., whose name when broken down can be traced back as far as the early 1600s. His first name was taken from his uncle Homer, who himself was named after the Greek poet. He also carried the Knickerbocker name, because the Staley's are descendants of the Knickerbocker family, whose roots go back to Holland 400 years ago. There is a copy of the Knickerbocker family tree hanging in the Staley office today. Currently, the business is run by his son Homer Knickerbocker Staley Jr., along with one of his grandsons, Daniel L Staley.
The Staley's roots reach far back into Rhinebeck history. Homer Sr. was the 5th generation of the Staley clan to live in this historic town. Back in 1963, when Brooke Russell Astor decided it was time to cut the Astor ties in Rhinebeck, she sought out Homer Sr. to liquidate the 2800-acre estate known as Ferncliff. There is a copy of a map of the property posted on this site that shows where Homer Sr. made red pencil marks of parcels of land and homes he sold during this period. At this time, Homer also asked Brooke Astor to donate a 200-acre track of the estate to be a forest preserve, to remain "forever wild." The parcel, which is located at the intersection of River Road and Mt. Rutsen Road, is known as Ferncliff Forest. Both Knick and Dan sit on the Board of Directors today. Homer Sr. was also the first chairman of the Rhinebeck Planning Board with his term beginning in 1960 and ending in 1971. During this time he also worked on the town's first Comprehensive Plan, which was adopted in 1971. Homer Jr. can tell you stories about how the community was against this control over their land, but Homer Sr. had the vision and passion to make this happen. Rhinebeck was one of the first towns in Dutchess County to have such a document. Homer Sr. continued to be active in real estate through the late 1980s, when high interest rates and old age caught up with him. He passed away in 1995 at the age of 86.
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Homer K. Staley Jr., called Knick, has held a continuous N.Y. State Real Estate License since 1963, when he returned from a tour in the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers. Knick worked part-time in real estate while employed with IBM until the company made cutbacks in 1993. Knick retired after 29 years with Big Blue and concentrated full-time on the Staley Real Estate tradition. He is a past Rhinebeck Town Councilman, past President of the Dutchess County Association of Realtors, and past President of the Columbia/Greene Multiple Listing Service. For all of the offices he holds in the real estate industry, Knick still considers his customers—you—his first priority.
Knick & Dan 1999
Daniel L. Staley is a 7th generation Rhinebeck resident and the 3rd generation of Staley's to be employed at Staley Real Estate LLC. He is the 2020-21 President of the Dutchess County Association of Realtors, Current Member of the Ferncliff Forest Inc Board of Directors, Gulf War Veteran, former Rhinebeck Town Councilman, Past member of the Board of Directors at the Red Hook Golf Club and the Columbia County Association of Realtors . He is the current Principal Broker of Staley Real Estate LLC and has been a New York State licensed real estate agent since 1996. He has extensive knowledge in local zoning and loves the rich history of Rhinebeck and the Hudson Valley. He prides himself on his attention to detail and his customer service skills.
STALEY REAL ESTATE LLC - Making History with 70 Years of Community Involvement and Service
Looking for a realty agency to help buy or sell a local property or business? There are dozens of choices. But only one, Staley Real Estate, LLC, is celebrating 70 years of service in the Northern Dutchess and Southern Columbia county areas. They know the history, and have experience that comes with a deep connection to the region.
In fact, they’re part of that history. From the Ferncliff Forest Preserve, to major subdivisions, to the origination of planning boards, zoning laws and comprehensive plans, the Staley name figures large in the development—and preservation—of the character of the Rhinebeck area. If there’s a house for sale in town, chances are that Homer “Knick” Staley, Jr. and his son Dan Staley, now Principal Broker, can tell you about the home, the homes next to it, and the history of the neighborhood. There’s even a good chance their agency has brokered the property in the past. It’s the kind of knowledge and experience valuable to any client, that sets their business apart.
Current Market Trends in the Area
As Spring comes into bloom, potential home buyers and sellers are no doubt looking for reliable insight on where the local market is at, and where it’s headed.
“I’d say the local market has been flat for the last two or three years, and I think it’s going to stay that way for awhile. I don’t see a big influx,” says Knick. Having first joined his father Homer Staley Sr’s real estate business in the early 1960’s, Knick’s view covers a wide expanse of time, and sees the big picture.
He notes that Rhinebeck will continue to be a sought-after locale for “dual residents” or weekenders. “One thing some people don’t know is that we have free parking at our train station (in Rhinecliff). A large number of commuters from Rhinebeck travel on Amtrak down to Penn Station, which is the financial district. It’s an hour and 40 minute nice ride, since we’re pretty much the first Amtrak stop out of New York City. That’s a big draw.”
The Village of Rhinebeck, with its mix of landmarks like the Beekman Arms and Foster’s, boutiques and sidewalk eateries, and beautiful streets and homes, is a big part of what makes the area so desirable. Home buyers are also attracted by the good schools, and unique aspects like the eclectic events at the Dutchess County Fairgrounds, and the historic Aerodrome.
“These days, with working from home, the computer age, technology, it’s a lot easier for people to have a job in New York City, and live here and provide a higher quality of life for their family,” says Dan.
Knick points to other amenities. “It’s a higher quality of life than the Hamptons, and it’s a lot calmer. The taxes are less. We’re turning in a new 50 room Mirabu Spa, going up in the village. All this is just attracting more people, increasing our prices, and people with a lot of money are continuing to choose to come here.”
The balance of development and retention of the small town feel, with surrounding rural spaces, is something welcome to both buyers and sellers of properties. Owners know the value of their homes have been relatively stable compared to other areas, even during some serious economic downturns. Buyers, meanwhile, have assurance that the area is committed to retaining its character. And all of that owes quite a bit to the Staley family and their community involvement over the years.
Dan and Knick have both served on local town board over the years and Homer Staley Sr. was founder of Rhinebeck’s first planning board, and served as its Chairman from 1960 to 1971.
Looking for a realty agency to help buy or sell a local property or business? There are dozens of choices. But only one, Staley Real Estate, LLC, is celebrating 70 years of service in the Northern Dutchess and Southern Columbia county areas. They know the history, and have experience that comes with a deep connection to the region.
In fact, they’re part of that history. From the Ferncliff Forest Preserve, to major subdivisions, to the origination of planning boards, zoning laws and comprehensive plans, the Staley name figures large in the development—and preservation—of the character of the Rhinebeck area. If there’s a house for sale in town, chances are that Homer “Knick” Staley, Jr. and his son Dan Staley, now Principal Broker, can tell you about the home, the homes next to it, and the history of the neighborhood. There’s even a good chance their agency has brokered the property in the past. It’s the kind of knowledge and experience valuable to any client, that sets their business apart.
Current Market Trends in the Area
As Spring comes into bloom, potential home buyers and sellers are no doubt looking for reliable insight on where the local market is at, and where it’s headed.
“I’d say the local market has been flat for the last two or three years, and I think it’s going to stay that way for awhile. I don’t see a big influx,” says Knick. Having first joined his father Homer Staley Sr’s real estate business in the early 1960’s, Knick’s view covers a wide expanse of time, and sees the big picture.
He notes that Rhinebeck will continue to be a sought-after locale for “dual residents” or weekenders. “One thing some people don’t know is that we have free parking at our train station (in Rhinecliff). A large number of commuters from Rhinebeck travel on Amtrak down to Penn Station, which is the financial district. It’s an hour and 40 minute nice ride, since we’re pretty much the first Amtrak stop out of New York City. That’s a big draw.”
The Village of Rhinebeck, with its mix of landmarks like the Beekman Arms and Foster’s, boutiques and sidewalk eateries, and beautiful streets and homes, is a big part of what makes the area so desirable. Home buyers are also attracted by the good schools, and unique aspects like the eclectic events at the Dutchess County Fairgrounds, and the historic Aerodrome.
“These days, with working from home, the computer age, technology, it’s a lot easier for people to have a job in New York City, and live here and provide a higher quality of life for their family,” says Dan.
Knick points to other amenities. “It’s a higher quality of life than the Hamptons, and it’s a lot calmer. The taxes are less. We’re turning in a new 50 room Mirabu Spa, going up in the village. All this is just attracting more people, increasing our prices, and people with a lot of money are continuing to choose to come here.”
The balance of development and retention of the small town feel, with surrounding rural spaces, is something welcome to both buyers and sellers of properties. Owners know the value of their homes have been relatively stable compared to other areas, even during some serious economic downturns. Buyers, meanwhile, have assurance that the area is committed to retaining its character. And all of that owes quite a bit to the Staley family and their community involvement over the years.
Dan and Knick have both served on local town board over the years and Homer Staley Sr. was founder of Rhinebeck’s first planning board, and served as its Chairman from 1960 to 1971.
Knick & Dan 2002
How Staley Helped Shape Rhinebeck
Dan says his own service on the Rhinebeck town board, from 2008 to 2012, focused on how to develop without destroying the character of the area. He believes that new housing starts aren’t a big concern right now, because existing home inventories, and financial inducements of a healthy market for sellers, are meeting current demand.
“It’s still cheaper to buy than to build, so land has not been a good value lately, because the inventory has been there, in existing homes. When I was on the town board, one thing that we did with the zoning was, if you have a hundred acres, in a five acre zone, instead of having twenty five-acre lots, we do what’s called a conservation subdivision. You put the 20 lots on twenty acres, and then you preserve the other 80 acres for open space. All that was designed to stop sprawl, and to keep Rhinebeck unique. Another thing that was done with that zoning, was to keep the commercial district around the village. We hardly have any commercial industry in the town, and the focus of the community is in the village, the heart of Rhinebeck, with the Beekman Arms and the center of town and everything. It’s part of what makes us so unique.”
When Homer Staley, Sr. purchased the former Frost Agency, in 1949, it was one of two real estate businesses in the area. Before that, Homer sold real estate on his own part-time, while also working at the DeLaval Milk and Separator Company, which had been re-tooled during WWII to manufacture M1 Carbine rifles.
“There’s always been a tourist market here in real estate,” says Knick. About 30 percent of homes in the Rhinebeck area are owned by weekenders. In those days, we did all our advertising in New York City publications.”
Knick recalls a seminal moment in the early 1960’s that literally shaped the future of the area. “I’d gotten out of the service, and went to college part-time, and then started a job at IBM. I was also working with my dad in real estate part-time. And one of my first experiences in the family business was when Brooke Astor walked into our office, and asked us to liquidate their 2800 acres here on the East side of the river. That was 1963. That’s one of the things that formed my own introduction into the real estate business.”
The planning and disposal of the huge Astor property was handled by Staley Real Estate. Knick says his father worked with the Astor's to make sure that a part of their estate was set aside as preservation. That 200 plus acre tract of land became Ferncliff Forest. “In those days, we sort of subdivided the property the way we thought it should be subdivided. There were no planning boards or anything like that. In fact, my dad was the first chairman of a planning board in Rhinebeck, and wrote the first zoning law here.”
The impact of that one project alone can hardly be overstated. Homer Staley Sr. and Knick also drove developments including Sepasco Village, and various other major subdivisions over the years.
But Knick also credits his grandfather Irving as a local visionary, who sowed seeds that influenced the region and created good will that benefited his son’s later business. We do most of our business by past customers and referrals. One of the reasons that we do so well with that, goes back to my grandfather. He was a very successful contractor who built stone row at Bard College. He was a stone and brick mason, mainly. And he had a crew of 25 men when the Depression hit. And what they did back then before there was any government assistance, welfare, food stamps, is everybody took care of everybody else. My grandfather kept paying his men, even though he had no work. And he came up with work for them. One of the things he did, is he got some investors together and they bought some apple orchards, and made the Red Hook Golf Club. And so he invented work, and those 25 families over the years turned into hundreds of families. And because of what my grandfather did, we’ve received back, a lot of local business.
A Future Grounded in Community Connection
Today Staley continues to operate as a go-to agency with a breadth and depth of local experience like no other. Technology allows them to compete with bigger regional and national brand agencies now in the area.
“I think it’s given us all a steady plane of advertising from corporate companies, who are coming in,” says Dan. “As a third generation broker, I’m so passionate about continuing in the Staley Real Estate legacy. And technology helps us to do that, by creating an equal playing field. There’s no difference between a big corporate entity and a mom and pop shop like us, because we all have the same access to all of the same advertising on the web.”
“One thing that is happening is everybody puts their listings in the Multiple Listing System (MLS), which then sends out that listing to 75, or a hundred different websites,” notes Knick. “The web has changed this business for the better. You used to have to drive people to every listing, and they would forget what they looked like, etc. Now, they do the pre-screening on their own, and they tell us these are the homes we’d like to see.”
Dan says his own service on the Rhinebeck town board, from 2008 to 2012, focused on how to develop without destroying the character of the area. He believes that new housing starts aren’t a big concern right now, because existing home inventories, and financial inducements of a healthy market for sellers, are meeting current demand.
“It’s still cheaper to buy than to build, so land has not been a good value lately, because the inventory has been there, in existing homes. When I was on the town board, one thing that we did with the zoning was, if you have a hundred acres, in a five acre zone, instead of having twenty five-acre lots, we do what’s called a conservation subdivision. You put the 20 lots on twenty acres, and then you preserve the other 80 acres for open space. All that was designed to stop sprawl, and to keep Rhinebeck unique. Another thing that was done with that zoning, was to keep the commercial district around the village. We hardly have any commercial industry in the town, and the focus of the community is in the village, the heart of Rhinebeck, with the Beekman Arms and the center of town and everything. It’s part of what makes us so unique.”
When Homer Staley, Sr. purchased the former Frost Agency, in 1949, it was one of two real estate businesses in the area. Before that, Homer sold real estate on his own part-time, while also working at the DeLaval Milk and Separator Company, which had been re-tooled during WWII to manufacture M1 Carbine rifles.
“There’s always been a tourist market here in real estate,” says Knick. About 30 percent of homes in the Rhinebeck area are owned by weekenders. In those days, we did all our advertising in New York City publications.”
Knick recalls a seminal moment in the early 1960’s that literally shaped the future of the area. “I’d gotten out of the service, and went to college part-time, and then started a job at IBM. I was also working with my dad in real estate part-time. And one of my first experiences in the family business was when Brooke Astor walked into our office, and asked us to liquidate their 2800 acres here on the East side of the river. That was 1963. That’s one of the things that formed my own introduction into the real estate business.”
The planning and disposal of the huge Astor property was handled by Staley Real Estate. Knick says his father worked with the Astor's to make sure that a part of their estate was set aside as preservation. That 200 plus acre tract of land became Ferncliff Forest. “In those days, we sort of subdivided the property the way we thought it should be subdivided. There were no planning boards or anything like that. In fact, my dad was the first chairman of a planning board in Rhinebeck, and wrote the first zoning law here.”
The impact of that one project alone can hardly be overstated. Homer Staley Sr. and Knick also drove developments including Sepasco Village, and various other major subdivisions over the years.
But Knick also credits his grandfather Irving as a local visionary, who sowed seeds that influenced the region and created good will that benefited his son’s later business. We do most of our business by past customers and referrals. One of the reasons that we do so well with that, goes back to my grandfather. He was a very successful contractor who built stone row at Bard College. He was a stone and brick mason, mainly. And he had a crew of 25 men when the Depression hit. And what they did back then before there was any government assistance, welfare, food stamps, is everybody took care of everybody else. My grandfather kept paying his men, even though he had no work. And he came up with work for them. One of the things he did, is he got some investors together and they bought some apple orchards, and made the Red Hook Golf Club. And so he invented work, and those 25 families over the years turned into hundreds of families. And because of what my grandfather did, we’ve received back, a lot of local business.
A Future Grounded in Community Connection
Today Staley continues to operate as a go-to agency with a breadth and depth of local experience like no other. Technology allows them to compete with bigger regional and national brand agencies now in the area.
“I think it’s given us all a steady plane of advertising from corporate companies, who are coming in,” says Dan. “As a third generation broker, I’m so passionate about continuing in the Staley Real Estate legacy. And technology helps us to do that, by creating an equal playing field. There’s no difference between a big corporate entity and a mom and pop shop like us, because we all have the same access to all of the same advertising on the web.”
“One thing that is happening is everybody puts their listings in the Multiple Listing System (MLS), which then sends out that listing to 75, or a hundred different websites,” notes Knick. “The web has changed this business for the better. You used to have to drive people to every listing, and they would forget what they looked like, etc. Now, they do the pre-screening on their own, and they tell us these are the homes we’d like to see.”
Knick & Dan 2017
Daniel says the future of Staley will remain as a small business highly in tune with local history, a deep commitment to community involvement and betterment. He says associate brokers like Rand E. Thomson and sales person Danielle Washburn are a great fit for Staley because of their own ties and personal investment in the region. Rand, for example, is a long time member of the United Methodist Church of Red Hook, and sits on the Board of Trustees. Danielle, the latest addition to the Staley Real Estate team, has been a Dutchess County native her entire life. She leverages her experience of running a local property management business, DNW Properties, with her husband.
“I would like to grow this business,” says Daniel. “I’m not out to try to be some outsized realty. But I would like to see us have somewhere in the neighborhood of eight to ten highly qualified agents, and still retain the feel of a connected family-type work environment, where people can function and work casually in the real estate business. As far as geographic, we’re a localized business to our area, and in our area, our expertise and history are second to none. We’re celebrating 70 years here. No one else can say that. Our base remains Northern Dutchess and Southern Columbia counties. And with Staley Real Estate, that’s our name on the sign, which we take a lot of pride in.”
“I would like to grow this business,” says Daniel. “I’m not out to try to be some outsized realty. But I would like to see us have somewhere in the neighborhood of eight to ten highly qualified agents, and still retain the feel of a connected family-type work environment, where people can function and work casually in the real estate business. As far as geographic, we’re a localized business to our area, and in our area, our expertise and history are second to none. We’re celebrating 70 years here. No one else can say that. Our base remains Northern Dutchess and Southern Columbia counties. And with Staley Real Estate, that’s our name on the sign, which we take a lot of pride in.”
Knick & Dan 2019
