Blog - J. Philip Faranda

Buying

Waiving Home Inspection vs “Inspection for Informational Purposes Only”

The following is a list of good reasons for a buyer to waive their home inspection: Never Waive Inspection I’ll table the inspection of apartments for now, condo or co-op. They are a different category from a house on land. In short, even if a client signs a form holding their broker harmless and indemnifies […]
Commentary, For Agents

For Agents: Open House Parking Etiquette

This past weekend some agents on my team held an open house for a listing in Mahopac. It was busy, with 25 separate parties and possibly 50 or 60 people walking through the home. The one wrinkle was that street parking was sparce. It had a driveway that could fit up to 10 cars, but […]
Commentary, Home Improvement

Yes, Virginia, You Can Paint That Wood Paneling

Formica. Popcorn Ceilings. Wood Paneling. If you envision your grandparent’s house, or the house you grew up in (if you’re old like I am), you’ll know those are the calling cards of a dated home. Why avocado green or harvest gold were upscale colors for appliances or why wood paneling was the rage in the […]
Commentary, Mortgages, Real Estate Tips

The Pre Approval Shell Game

Years ago, I was the listing agent on a property where an offer came in significantly below asking price. The pre approval accompanying the offer was for the exact amount offered, tens of thousands of dollars below asking. My client asked why, if they were only approved for $450,000, that they’d even look at a […]

Buying Waiving Home Inspection vs “Inspection for Informational Purposes Only” The following is a list of good reasons for a buyer to waive their home inspection: Never Waive Inspection I’ll table the inspection of apartments for now, condo or co-op. They are a different category from a house on land. In short, even if a client signs a form holding their broker harmless and indemnifies […]

Commentary For Agents: Open House Parking Etiquette This past weekend some agents on my team held an open house for a listing in Mahopac. It was busy, with 25 separate parties and possibly 50 or 60 people walking through the home. The one wrinkle was that street parking was sparce. It had a driveway that could fit up to 10 cars, but […]

Commentary Yes, Virginia, You Can Paint That Wood Paneling Formica. Popcorn Ceilings. Wood Paneling. If you envision your grandparent’s house, or the house you grew up in (if you’re old like I am), you’ll know those are the calling cards of a dated home. Why avocado green or harvest gold were upscale colors for appliances or why wood paneling was the rage in the […]

Commentary The Pre Approval Shell Game Years ago, I was the listing agent on a property where an offer came in significantly below asking price. The pre approval accompanying the offer was for the exact amount offered, tens of thousands of dollars below asking. My client asked why, if they were only approved for $450,000, that they’d even look at a […]

Commentary Sewer vs Septic: The Full Poop Recently, a client shared with me that a friend advised them to avoid homes on septic and to only buy a home with a public sewer connection. I’ll be blunt: That is terrible advice. With inventory so low, to disqualify such a high number of possible homes is a disservice to oneself. For regular people […]

Commentary Sellers: Always Plow Your Driveway After it Snows This past Sunday I covered for one of our agents and met up with some first time homebuyers for their very first home tour. We had a big day scheduled: 5 confirmed appointments, all of the homes looked good, and the clients were excited to get their dream home. At the first appointment, I smirked […]

Commentary How Can We Solve the Real Estate Inventory Shortage? My last two posts have addressed the fact that despite the higher interest rates, it remains a seller’s market because of low inventory of listings. I wrote about why inventory is so low yesterday, and today I’m going to pretend I’m the HUD secretary and Housing Emperor (a position I made up but I’d love […]

Market Why is Inventory so Low? Yesterday I wrote about the low inventory and the challenges buyers face with supply not measuring up to demand. I did not address the reason why buyers have so little to choose from, and that’s what I’ll attempt to tackle. There is no single factor for such a dramatic shortage. It is more of a […]

Commentary How Slow is the Market in December and the Holidays? The cyclical nature of the market is a long discussed topic. It’s no secret that the traditional “busy season” is the spring, with the key word “traditionally.” In typical market cycles, the summer remains active, transactions tail off in the autumn, and things get quiet around the holidays and winter time. But we aren’t in […]

Market What Can You Buy in Irvington for $799,000? Prices are up these days, but $799,000 was all a buyer paid on our recent closing on 21 Beechwood in the Village of Irvington. The home was a fixer upper, and that is indicative of local values for the condition. “Bring your contractor! Classic mid century center hall colonial on a cul de sac with […]

Commentary What can you buy in Mahopac for $305,000? Prices are up, but lower cost homes are still possible if you don’t need lots of bedrooms, like the home we just closed at 27 Jackson Road, just a few hundred yards from Kirk Lake. “Great opportunity to own a unique charmer with Lake Rights seasonal views of Kirk Lake in a secluded, wooded setting. […]

Uncategorized What $449,000 Buys in Peekskill $449,000 will buy you a condominium with Hudson Views like the one I just closed on. The MLS description for the property are as follows: “Amazing Hudson River views, just yards from the metro north train station, and minutes from all that downtown Peekskill and the wonderful waterfront offer! Modern kitchen with roomy granite countertops. […]

Company News Happy News on Joining Forces with Howard Hanna Rand Realty!

Company News Some Shameless Self Promotion Most weeks in our training we publish a “sexy stat” about the company. It might be an obscure, cool thing like how our sign appeared in the movie Wakefield with Bryan Cranston carrying it, or some milestone. This past April was a nice accomplishment. On April 15th, we broke our record for properties put under […]

Commentary On the Latest New York Standard Operating Procedure Law First, some background: In late 2019, Long Island Newsday published the shocking results of an investigation where reporters of different ethnicities and races went undercover as prospective homebuyers and the different ways they were treated by the real estate agents they engaged. Long Island Divided made national news and reverberated across the industry as professionals […]

Commentary Just Because the Market is “Hot” Doesn’t Mean Real Estate Agents Have it Easy I don’t think I’ve seen the following thought written anywhere lately, but I’ll say it: The average real estate agent has never worked harder than they have in this market. That seems contrary to the public perception that rising prices and a “hot” market is when agents have it easy, but extreme conditions aren’t conducive […]

Commentary What Will Solar Power do for Property Values? I got a question from a client about the effect that installing solar panels might have on their home’s value. It’s a good question, actually. Years ago when hurricanes knocked out power in our area for more than a week, I opined that backup generators would become the new status symbol. While I wasn’t wrong, […]

Market No, Rising Mortgage Rates Will Not Crash Property Values I’m relatively old. I remember Nixon resigning office, Tang commercials, news stories on the war in Vietnam, and lots of other things from when Kitchens were green and gold. I remember when mortgage interest rates topped 20% in the early 1980s, and my father telling my mother how rates didn’t matter, payment amounts did. He […]

Commentary Brokerages Posting Photos of Agents with Commission Checks is Tacky, Tacky, Tacky Last week saw a posting by a manager at another firm of their agent holding up a commission check, congratulating the agent on their recent closing. As we used to say back in the 80s, gag me. Yes, I know we work on commission and closings should be celebrated. But spiking the ball over your […]

Buying The Millionth Article Advising You to Get Pre-approved Before Visiting Homes for Sale You’ve read it before, unless you just learned to read (in which case house hunting is a long way off for you), on financial platforms, blogs, real estate websites, magazines, newspapers, and maybe even ancient hieroglyphs: get pre approved before you start looking at homes. This is what you’ve never read from any credible source: […]