Tonight, the Ossining school board will vote on putting a $69,000,000 bond for school expansions and renovations up for referendum.  $69,000,000.00. The issue the district is facing is how to house the growing population of students they serve, which is a good thing. The solution, to spend almost $70 million, strikes me as not such a good […]

 

When was this: Every week you’d hear about a bank failing. Real estate crashed. Wall Street crashed. We had a doozy of a recession follow. 2007-2009?  No. 1987-1989. History repeats itself.  The last time we had a three-headed economic monster of a recession, housing collapse, and financial crisis was the late 80s. The parallels with […]

One of the things that can make a closing a nightmare (or not occur) is finding out that the house is not in compliance with municipal code. It could be a deck, finished basement, extra bathroom, or any other improvement that the current owners have done or that they inherited from a previous owner. With […]

We have just listed a very rare short sale in Chappaqua, NY. It is a 2 bedroom, 2 bath townhome in Old Farm Lake with a fireplace, formal dining room, hardwood floors, sliding doors to deck, and a renovated granite kitchen. It has a great master bedroom with a walk in closet and master bath. […]

I seldom discuss inspection matters, but this is an important issue that is especially common in Westchester, where we have so many older homes. There is a problem with this circuit panel. It isn’t the age or amperage. But it is a problem and it will need to be replaced. Can you see what it […]

I am, from time to time, asked by buyer agents how much is owed on a listing that is being sold as a short sale. We always disclose when a property is being sold subject to lender approval, and I understand the rationale for asking about the numbers, but the underpinnings of the question are based on […]

Dealing with the public means dealing with peoples’ foibles. I seldom think much about difficult people once I am finished with them, but recently there was an exception I am moved to reflect on because the meeting was just so weird. It was not unlike many meetings, hi, how are you, and this is the […]

OK, so My Giants didn’t make the playoffs and I was kind of hoping my friends who are Jets fans would be happy. They aren’t either. This leaves me with 2 teams I am ambivalent about, the Pittsburgh Steelers and the Green Bay Packers. I’m not the sort of milquetoast guy who just wants a good game. I […]

Anyone who knows me will agree that I have always been a Yankee fan, but one with a deep respect for the National League Legacy of New York. So if you think I am piling on the Mets, you’re wrong. And as a business man, I feel for my fellow New Yorkers who root for […]

The Journal News todays has published four pieces on the health of several Westchester County downtown business districts, all of which are linked below. All of the downtowns written on are pretty good, above average business districts in my view. That is one neat thing about our area- the character of our villages and cities is pretty […]

As short sales have become more common and are even showing up in new markets in Westchester, I find myself educating my colleagues on what can and cannot be done in order to have a successful closing. Lately, we’ve received offers that are unrealistically low; essentially, what the buyers do not understand is that the lender is […]

Unlike most of the US, in Westchester and the surrounding areas of New York real estate contracts are prepared by attorneys only after a process of offers, inspections and due diligence. Other than mortgage, contracts are non contingent. There is not even a deposit of any kind until contracts are signed. It is not at […]

The story of the “Leatherman” is a beloved piece of local history. I first learned of the Leatherman when I was in the Boy Scouts, probably around age 12 or 13.  In the late 1800’s, a peculiar traveling drifter appeared in Westchester and Western Connecticut clothed completely in a suit of leather. He made the […]

How much snow do we have? Today I held a house open which was under contract and vacant, so we didn’t have it plowed until this morning. Yesterday, I had to go inside prior to the clearing. The driveway entrance had a mound about 4 feet high and 5 feet deep-completely impossible to use. So, […]

We’ve heard the phrase repeated thousands of times, but there are still people who don’t get it to their own detriment.  The phrase? It is not the company that matters, it is the agent.  If you were unjustly accused of a crime and faced the death penalty, you’d hire the best defense lawyer you could […]

When my parents moved up to Ossining from Yonkers in 1957, they missed St Theresa’s, less than a mile away in Briarcliff, and somehow found St Ann’s. There, they met Monsignor Marino, who said that yes, they lived in the parish. And for 40 years, as my brothers and I attended St Ann school, my […]

The Town of Rye, which is mostly the villages of Rye Brook and Port Chester, has agreed to study the possibility of dissolving the town and allowing the villages to be their own municipalities as a means of cutting tax costs. I applaud the idea. I have blogged before about the layers of taxation in New York, which has […]