I’m not a big gambler but I’ve always had a muse about what I would do with windfall money. Like many, the fantasy of setting up close friends and family, a comfortable lifestyle, and a few toys always comes up when the guy on the radio is hawking lottery tickets. Since big numbers like $300+ million come […]

Yes, there are $900,000 breakfasts. There are $400,000 out of town guests. There are also $600,000 naps. Have you ever seen a $300,000 pack of cigarettes? I have. I personally witnessed a $900,000 litter box once this past spring. I’ll never forget the $675,000 dog either.  What I am referring to are the banal, small […]

This is a photo I took of a recent brokers and managers meeting the Westchester-Putnam Association of REALTORS held to bring us up on the recent changes to real estate laws and how that affected our responsibilities to our clients.  The quality of the snapshot isn’t good because I thought it would be a tad obnoxious to use my […]

David Popoff has written an intriguing post, asking us what our top 10 posts o 2010 were. His metric was clicks, but you could, I suppose also do a list for comments. Comments don’t make me money, so I’ll stick with clicks also. Here are my top 10:   The Money You “Lost” in Your Price Reduction […]

I’ll begin this post with the plain fact that if it weren’t for Active Rain, my business would be far less than what it is. I am a big believer in the platform, and I am grateful for how it has enriched me. That said, I am the sort of guy who prefers to talk […]

I never attended a REBarCamp until this past October in Rye at the NYSAR event. I didn’t know what they were all about, but I had a baptism of fire when I was actually conscripted to moderate a session!  If you have never been to a REBarCamp and you are wondering, don’t fret. All you need to […]

I am going to indulge in a brazen self promotional post since the end of the year is here, mainly to state the facts, since Ann tells me I don’t stress the level of performance I, um, perform. So here are a few facts about how J. Philip did in 2010, both myself personally and […]

Now that the holidays are all but past, the “slow season” is officially over. Spring gets busy, but when does Spring start in Westchester real estate? March? After the Super Bowl? In my experience, “Spring” in real estate starts January 2nd. It may sound silly, but motivated buyers have been lurking online for months now, […]

Believe it or not, New Yorkers are not the rudest people I have run into. Having lived in several different places, including Boston, Philadelphia and New Orleans, I have run into some meanies (few in N.O.). But when I moved back to Westchester in 2001, I was pleasantly reminded how comparatively nice my fellow noo […]

Reader’s Digest has a huge world headquarters in nearby Chappaqua, New York. I should say HAD a huge headquarters. The company quietly left the campus this past week to smaller digs in Manhattan. This represents the fall of a local giant, and the final exit of a company that was a Westchester institution. To work […]

Merry Christmas from New York.  One of the things I love about where I live is a Christmas Eve tradition in my old neighborhood where the people line the streets with candles. It is a sight to behold in person, and even though it was late on a Christmas Eve, you can see other cars […]

The US Department of Housing and Urban Development has rejected Westchester County’s latest proposal for affordable housing to be built in the county as a result of last year’s settlement of the government’s lawsuit. The “problem” is as old as the county, but the upshot is that the government has said enough is enough and […]

I suppose I could find a real estate angle for just about anything, and I will now as well: in today’s paper, a “spa” located down the street from my office was raided and the police arrested two in a prostitution sting. Earlier this month, the same thing happened in Mohegan Lake, NY a hamlet […]

I suppose I could have rounded off the title to $300,000, but why not be precise. $297,500 buys a really nice cooperative apartment in the Edgemont complex with 2 bedrooms, 2 baths, and a balcony. As you can see, the place is fabulously updated with a sparkling new kitchen with granite counters and stainless steel […]

For the second time in a week I had a conversation where the idea came up that a high volume producer (which, I guess, I am for my market) doesn’t typically give the same level of service to the client as a smaller numbers person who ostensibly has more time. I don’t take umbrage with […]

$350,000 goes pretty far in Brewster these days. Today we closed on a listing at that very price which was quite uncommon: a Victorian manor house on 2 acres with a carriage house/garage and a view of the reservoir. It had been purchased in 2005 for $562,000 and restored before the economy tanked. An 1870 build (by […]

Every first of the month Ronnie, our administrative assistant, arrives at the office and begins the daunting task of addressing letters to several hundred homeowners whose listing expired at the end of the previous month. One of the good people who came off the market on November 30th called me and we met just this evening to see how […]

According to the Empire Access Multiple Listing Service, 82 single family homes closed in Westchester County this past week, with a median sales price of $586,000. In the same period last year, there were 96 single family home closings with a median sale price of $608,000. Given the general abysmal year that 2009 was, that […]