August of 2012 will be remembered for the completion of the first two thirds of a year which has been the first upward year in sales totals since the boom.  According to the Hudson Gateway Multiple Listing Service statistics for single family home closings in August, we saw the highest sales volume since 2007. Here are the breakdowns for […]

I’d like to take a moment from real estate and discuss art, beauty, and things that endure. After a terrible accident Sunday, our community lost a very good man when Noel DeGaetano very tragically died this past weekend. I knew Noel from our BNI group, and got an opportunity to visit his studio in Tuckahoe earlier this year. […]

A small, benign event occurred recently that made me dust off a list I have been compiling as a broker who has had his share of communication fails over the years with the real estate agents in my brokerage. You might be going out of town, need help with a file, or just want to […]

What can you buy in West Harrison for $475,000? One buyer recently closed on a beautiful 3 bedroom 2 bath cape in Silver Lake for $475,000 this past week. The home had great hardwoods, a bright, airy sun porch, a full walkout basement and a garage. It also had a large eat in kitchen, plenty […]

I was raised by a very strong woman. She was not simply a high spirited person, she changed things. My mother had her own quite distinguished career, spearheaded changing the school’s then “mothers guild” to the Parent’s Guild in the 60s, and became a leader in most of the things she devoted her energies to. […]

What can you buy for just under $250,000 in Greenburgh? I’m glad you asked. $245,000 buys you a 3 bedroom condo in Granada Crescent in White Plains with 2 full baths, a balcony, and a beautiful swimming pool right in the middle of the complex like the one we just closed on last week. The […]

Sometime back in 2006 I was in Otisville, New York working with a buyer client who wanted information on some new construction she couldn’t afford and she insisted that I call the listing agent. I was in a foul mood, an hour away from home, and I think it was about dusk on a Sunday. […]

One of the more unflattering stereotypes of real estate agents is that of a passive, uncommunicative person who does not carry their own weight in the transaction. It is, sadly, rooted in actual events, and I have head my share of these folks in my own deals all too often. You probably know the type. […]

On Thursday and Friday I attended two consecutive forums for real estate agents on short sales put on by Chase and Bank of America respectively. Both forums were informative. Both forums sent a clear communication that the lenders wanted to make the short sale process better. And both forums also sent very differing messages about […]

If there is one thing we can learn from the real estate market of the past 5 years it is that mortgage rates alone will not cause a recovery. When rates went below 6%, then 5%, and now below 4%, the results have remained largely forgettable. But what few consider is the long term damage […]

For the 100th time, I read a  real estate write up that fell well short of the space limit, but was filled with acronyms and abbreviations that you’d need a Berlitz book to decode. I think it fair to say, after more than 4 months on market and no buyer, that this would be called a marketing fail. The […]

A number of short sale clients have shown me letters, mostly from Chase, offering them an almost incomprehensible amount of money if they’ll do a short sale. It would seem hard to believe, in a world where short sale sellers typically walk from closing with the clothes on their back and no proceeds, that lenders […]

I am working with an extremely nice pair of clients right now -due to a job transfer to Westchester County, they are moving to the area from out of state. They sold their own home quickly, and we have been out and about looking. The selection process has brought us to a number of homes, […]

I’ll summarize the first half of the 2012 Westchester real estate market for you in one sentence: More people are buying single family houses and they are paying lower prices. According to the Hudson Gateway Multiple Listing Service, we had the most June closed transactions for a non-tax stimulus market since 2007, but the median price was […]

As I read the discussions online regarding hydrofracking upstate, I find the resulting polarization and pigeonholing to undermine the dialogue. I do not believe that people who are against fracking to be only tree-hugging left wingers, and I hold myself up as the counter point. My street cred as a free market capitalist is not […]

After I started the firm, began to transact business and became aware of who was who in the Westchester real estate market, I became aware of an entity known as Westchester Real Estate, Inc. After meeting some member brokers and seeing the familiar gazebo logo, I logged onto their website and read the following on […]

A buyer I have been working with has told me that the choices in his price range have dried up considerably compared to years past when he was not ready to act. Another agent with whom I am working with on a deal in northern Westchester County has observed that inventory is down. These are […]

About 2 years ago, I wrote a post entitled “You Aren’t in the Real Estate Business” about things that eventually happen to us in the industry that aren’t terribly happy rites of passage. It was a long list, and had the usual pitfalls of our industry- losing deals, foibles of dealing with the public, and […]

As anyone who knows me will attest, I have had my struggles with Zillow. I have always tried to be fair, but at times Zillow has frustrated me, and at times I have had to give them credit. In the past year, the world of brokerage has become more polarized about Zillow, with factions of companies […]

In light of yesterday’s revelation of Ossining’s strange May, where median price dropped almost $60,000 but closings more than tripled compared to the prior May, I did a quick survey of other towns to see if the trend was anywhere else in the county. My thought about Ossining was that sales increased because prices dropped. […]