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Buying It’s February in New York, so Let’s Talk Swimming Pools Swimming pools are probably the last thing on most peoples’ minds but we are still selling homes that have them, and this thought is a bit overdue. Swimming pools are an improvement, so they add value to a property. They can’t not add value presuming they are in working order, but there’s a but. The “but” […]
Real Estate Tips Price Changes Are No Longer Guesswork When I was first licensed in the 1990s, if a house didn’t sell for a period of time like 30 or 60 days, we would often reduce the price. Sometimes it was because we had too few showings, or because the showings we had didn’t yield any offers. On occasion, some home sellers would voice […]
Commentary How Online Reviews Have Impacted Real Estate Agents Back in 2009, I was approached by Redfin to help them enter the Westchester real estate market as a referral partner. They did not have employee agents here, so referring clientele to other brokerages would be a win/win arrangement to start. I was eager for any new source of business, and took a closer look. […]
Commentary Living Indoors is Not a Fad In some respects, the housing market is like the biggest, longest domino set up in the universe. Chances are, with rare exception like the purchase of an empty house, that the person you are buying your home from is going to be moving somewhere that someone else moved out of, and they in turn are […]
Buying Sale Contingency vs Closing Contingency People live indoors. Its hard to say that without sounding sarcastic, but I am sincere. It should not come as a surprise to a seller or their listing agent that their purchaser is selling their own home, especially if they are in a higher than average priced property. I shouldn’t have to explain, for example, […]
Buying Buy Before You Sell Program is Now in New York The conventional wisdom for people with a house they own who want to buy a new home has always been that they sell their current home before they made an offer on a new home because no seller wants a “contingent” deal on their sale. Also known as a Hubbard Clause or a sales contingency, […]
Community News My Visit to the Sunshine Children’s Home In 1962, my older brother Paul, then just 4 years old, got gravely ill and was rushed to the hospital. He would not come home until a year later. His life would be an odyssey of living with diabetes, kidney failure and dialysis, a urostomy most of his life, and all that comes with those […]
Buying Buyer Agents and Due Diligence I’ve posted many times that people seeking to buy a home should use a buyer agent. The transaction is too expensive and complex to not have your own exclusive representation. Recent events have inspired me to address buyer agents themselves, as the role is a huge position of trust from the client. Buyers don’t need […]
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Home Improvement  When DIY Comes Back to Bite You Sellers have an extreme advantage in the current market due to the lack of competition. But even that has limits. One a recent walkthrough of a home, a buyer client and I noticed a few things that a smart seller should consider. The home appeared to have been off market just under 3 weeks after […]
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. […]
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