My home is assessed for $32,000. Last week, we closed on a listing where the buyer paid $364,000. The home’s assessed value was $11,400. I have a listing in Croton on the market for $599,000 with an assessed value of $10,350. All over Westchester County, municipalities have their properties assessed at numbers reflective of market […]

According to Gene Kranz in his book, Failure Is Not an Option, “When reporters asked (astronaut Alan) Shepard what he thought about as he sat atop the Redstone rocket, waiting for liftoff, he had replied, ‘The fact that every part of this ship was built by the low bidder.'” I received a blank email this […]

One of the more stressful parts of the home sale process is the part where the seller and their agent “sweat it out” while the buyer completes their home inspection prior to contract signing. Often, this yields to a the buyer’s revisiting their “meeting of the minds” price and ask for a reduction in price […]

We recieved two voicemails from an agent who had called to show one of our listings. They were so over the top nasty that my Queens-native wife and I looked at each other stunned that a licensee would leave a permanent record of such hostility. I recorded the messages and sent them as an attachment […]

If I were not seeing it with my own eyes I would not believe it. But after witnessing bidding wars on 2 of my own listings, one in Ossining and another in West Harrison, I have to say that the Spring real estate market in Westchester is stronger than I expected. It might be the […]

<phone rings> ME: J. Philip Real Estate, this is Phil, how may I help you? Telemarketer: Is this Mr. Philips? ME: *sigh* Yes, this is Phil. Telemarketer: Hi, This is <Whatever> with <Company>, and I am calling to see if you’d like to do business with the 20,000 people who shop at the Briarcliff Manor […]

I have wagged my finger at both buyers and sellers on the current real estate market, and today it is once again the buyers’ turn. While we are indeed far from an overall recovery, all real estate is local and in Westchester we are in a busy spring sales cycle. In more than a few […]

The first quarter of 2012 for the Cold Spring and Philipstown area indicated a very slow quarter compared to the same period last year, according to the sales data from the Empire Access MLS. In the first quarter of 2012, there were 3 sales in Philipstown and Cold Spring at a median sale price of […]

In the fall of 2007, after the sub prime crisis hit but long before the real decline hit the country in the gut, the Bush administration signed a bill into law that allowed regular borrowers to avoid a massive tax bill for the forgiven debt resulting from a short sale. Prior to that time, people […]

25 years ago I was a proud member of the Villanova University rowing program. You might know it as Crew, and we reviled the redundancy of those who would say “Crew Team.” I was a coxswain all 4 years, and my job was not to row, but to be the one crew member who sat in the […]

The cyclical nature of the real estate market has always seen a peak in activity in the spring months. We are busy. This is causing a misconception that the market is “turning around” or that we are finally witnessing a recovery. I see many colleagues and sellers alike announcing that the market is back or […]

In all real estate transactions involving a mortgage-which is most of them-all details of the transaction are recorded on a government form known as a HUD-1. A purchase can have more than one mortgage- the bank can loan a second (subordinate) mortgage, or in some cases, the seller can hold a second mortgage as well. In Westchester […]

The illusion of the spring market is that of abundance here in Westchester and all over the country for that matter. In spite of the overall down market, April and May are when the buyers are out, looking, making offers, and mainly scooping the cream off the top. Upon occasion, we see a seller get […]

If you are searching for homes online, do you care who the listing broker is? I’ll go out on a limb and say that unless you have had a specific negative experience with an agent or broker, if a house fits your needs you could care less if it were listed by Attila the Hun, Rasputin, Herbie […]

The market in Westchester County is very price sensitive; with a median price above $500,000, that is understandable. The stakes are high, and goofs cost dearly. In some markets, a cash poor buyer may be attracted by a seller incentive of sorts, such as a small credit for closing costs or repairs. However, there is […]

This past week I had the privilege of attending a Hudson Gateway Association of Realtors Luncheon with Westchester County Executive Rob Astorino. Among the topics often discussed when Mr Astorino is in the room is the proposed Tappan Zee Bridge Greenway project. The idea is to convert the existing structure from a carrying I-287 over the Hudson […]

The stories of new members of the team often go back a year or more. In this case, it goes back almost 4 years! I am really pleased to introduce Madeline Gomez as J. Philip Real Estate’s newest associate broker. I met Madeline nearly 4 years ago when she was with Remax, and weighing a […]

The discussion arises in the real estate agent community about the pros and cons of working in an office where the broker or manager is also in the field actively listing and selling real estate themselves. In offices where the manager is in the field they are considered a “competing” manager, and if they are […]

Imagine that you can put a home for sale on a really stupendous, popular medium that would give it incredible exposure. In putting the home  on the medium (and it could be a website, TV program or print publication- it doesn’t matter), you are told that in addition to your content on the home, the […]

Some of my colleagues are funny bunch. They decry a Zillow Zestimate for being inaccurate. They shake their heads when an agent licensed in Illinois gives real estate advice in Trulia Voices to a consumer in Florida, where the laws are different. They shake their head disapprovingly if you mistakenly mark a home as having […]