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 […]

$568,000 buys a nice pre-war colonial with a big yard. This particular home dates to 1919 and has 4 bedrooms, 2 full baths, a formal dining room, and both a rear and side porch. The character of the period has been preserved very well over the decades.  Inside it has beautiful hardwoods, lots of period […]

The Journal News has published a report on housing discrimination in Westchester, Putnam and Rockland Counties. The results are awful. A study conducted in 2010 found that in 17.5% of the instances of study conducted by Westchester Residential Opportunities that discrimination occurred. In 2005 a HUD-funded study found discrimination in a whopping 46.5% of the cases. While the […]

Westchester Business Journal has published a story on the real estate market outlook from the point of view of agents, and I was among those quoted.  I see quite a few parallels of the current market with the last crash in the late 80’s and early 1990’s. Back then we also had a banking crisis […]

Years ago, I listed a home in a nearby town which was next door to the residence of a celebrity. It was, as you might imagine, a nice place, and some of the phone calls I got from area agents were bizarre. “What are you doing here?” “Where is your office?” “How did you get […]

This story was relayed to me by one of my agents: My agent accompanied a client on a rental showing which was being leased “by owner”. Prior to the showing, there was some discussion with the homeowner about using a broker, and she dismissed it with a blase’ remark that she could find her own […]

A rental scenario: One of my associate brokers helped a rental client find an apartment. They make an offer which is accepted, and then the fun begins. The landlord’s agent informs us that they require certified funds, and that laundry appliances advertised as part of the place won’t be installed right away. Moreover, they take […]