Valerie Kellogg fell in love with real estate when she bought her first home in 2004. Monitoring the real estate ads and checking out open houses soon became an addiction. The housing gods smiled down when she got offered the job of Newsday's shelter editor in early 2006, overseeing the real estate, home, garden and At Home quarterly magazine. She had been at Newsday since 2000, editing the opinion pages, as well as the advice, faith, parenting and technology sections.