Fraida Varah & Tony Garufi

Born and raised in Montreal, Quebec, Fraida moved to Albany, New York, around 1980, and through the early '80s represented local artists selling their original pieces. In 1986, faced with the reality of supporting her three children as a single parent, she transitioned from selling fine art to the fine art of negotiating and selling homes. In 1995, she met Tony Garufi, who was an instructor for a GRI class that Fraida was attending. In 1997, they were married and Tony joined her in what was then a team of three. In 2000, Fraida and Tony bought a building and started out on their own as Fraida Varah Real Estate Group, which today is a small boutique firm with a team of five: Fraida, Tony, a listing manager, a contracts manager, and one buyer specialist. Since 1997, the first year of the team, Fraida has negotiated and closed over 1400 transactions. In her limited free time, she enjoys knitting, walking, watching movies, and reading.

Tony was born and raised in Albany and started in the real estate business in 1979, after three years in the Boston office of Price Waterhouse & Co. Seventeen of his twenty-seven years of experience have been in commercial real estate. He was a GRI instructor for the New York State Association of REALTORS for ten years, holds the CCIM designation, and is a graduate of Dartmouth College. In his free time, he likes watching live sporting events, movies, and reading.