I got a call today regarding one of my listings from the lender on the property. The person was in the collections department, and it was one of those calls lenders sometimes make on a distress property. However, I think somewhere someone lost the memo that common sense would be a good idea, as I […]

If you haven’t heard of LuAnn Lavine, I’ll tell you why she matters. She was mentioned by Maureen Dowd in her last NY Times column, and has one of the most emailed stories on industry news site Inman News. Last week, Ms Lavine, a real estate broker, got up at a town hall meeting and […]

I had the good fortune to be asked  by the Ossining-Croton Patch.com site to blog for them regularly, and this past week I was featured in one of their videos on the challenges of the housing market. We met at one of my firm’s listings in Ossining, and filmed interview style on the state of […]

Ask any foodie about New York and you’ll know that we have the best bread they’ve ever had. Local restaurants often boast that they have bread baked from Arthur Avenue in the Bronx, and with good reason. I myself have lived in New Orleans, Austin, Rochester, Philadelphia, Boston and Maryland and appreciated the local offerings […]

We have a unique listing that might be of interest for someone looking for a home they can renovate without having to pay cash or getting a rehabilitation mortgage. It is a 2172 square foot tudor in the heart of the village adjacent to St Ann’s school yard on Eastern Avenue. It was used for […]

Note: This was written from a very New York Point of view, with local sentiment on how Mike Bloomberg  and our local media handled the run up to the arrival of the storm. Please read this comment on the NY Times and this one from my fellow New Yorkers to get some perspective. I would […]

Warning to consumers: this may be boring, as this post is written to my colleagues and not for the public.  It’s raining here in Westchester County, and Hurricane Irene has brought a rare thing: some time off. My phone has barely rung all weekend, and in between battening down the hatches for the storm, I […]

Right on the tail of HAMP, HAFA, HVCC, MARS, and MAP, our acronym loving government has unveiled a new initiative to address the depressed housing market. Since 3 and 4 letter acronyms haven’t worked thus far, a bi-partisan initiative is getting final approval in both houses- The Federal Universal Big Acronym Regulation, or FUBAR.  FUBAR […]

One of the most frequent questions posed to me in my life as a real estate broker is why the property taxes in so many Westchester communities are so high. I grew up in Ossining but have lived in five other states as well as Upstate New York, so I have some theories for our […]

This past Wednesday I attended an event put on by JP Morgan Chase at the Waldorf-Astoria hotel in Midtown Manhattan. There were over 300 employees from Chase present, along with what seemed like at least 1000 brokers and agents. Chase’s national REO manager, former NFL football player Brian Stablein was a speaker, as was Jed […]

No shows are a part of the business. I often keep repeating the phrase “yes, I went to college” as I stand in the driveway of a home, staring at it, wondering if I can do some sort of Schopenhaur exercise to manifest a human being, preferably the owner, to answer the door or the […]

Much has been written about the “code” licensees employ in describing their listings. For example, “cozy” is Agentspeak for “cramped.” “Potential” means that nothing has been updated since 1980. You get the picture. There are hundreds more, and I don’t blame consumers for taking agents’ descriptions with a grain of salt.  However, consumers are people […]

Water created the Grand Canyon. Anyone who has ever seen a house with a leaky roof or basement appreciates this. And sewage is mostly water. It erodes. While sewage didn’t cause the recent leaks (really massive spills) in Harlem and now Ossining, it is clear that external damage, such as a fire or tree falling, […]

     

I got word tonight that my client’s offer on a home in Tuckahoe was accepted. She is very happy. What is unusual about this particular deal is that the sellers actually interviewed me before they first went on the market but elected to list with someone else. I respect the agent, so I was happy […]

Inspired by the Facebook group.  You know you are in the real estate business when You dial a phone number on the calculator app.  Your daughter brings home straight A’s and you worry that the report card won’t comp out. You walk up to your own front door and look for a lockbox.  You put […]

This morning I read a brief tribute online from Westchester County Executive Rob Astorino to Joseph Acocella, the town clerk of nearby Harrison, NY who had passed away. I get notices on the loss of Realtors and public officials with some regularity, so I just assumed Mr. Acocella was someone who was older. Who would […]

I have blogged before on how some buyer agents approach the listing agent with questions that are best addressed by other sources. For example, a  few years ago I had a buyer’s agent assistant ask me a battery of questions on the legality of a hypothetical addition to a home I had listed. I was, […]