This is for single family home activity in the Briarcliff Manor school district for June of 2010. All information is derived from the Westchester-Putnam Multiple Listing Service.  Compared to June 2009, Briarcliff Manor sales volume is about even. Transactions are down one, but the median price is up almost $200,000. 15 Homes are under contract, which […]

This is for single family home activity in the Ossining school district for July of 2010. All information is derived from the Westchester-Putnam Multiple Listing Service.  The numbers are mixed. The number of transactions is up slightly from July of 2009 but the dollar value is down considerably. This is not a source of concern, because the median […]

Given Westchester’s close proximity to Manhattan, we have many people moving up from New York City as well as a high number of folks who arrive due to a job change or transfer. Whether you are arriving from California, Manhattan, or Europe, there is a degree of culture shock. Consider the following:        In […]

A local company here sends out a recruiting email upon occasion, which I typically delete, since I already work for the best boss in the world. The owner is a good guy and I respect his efforts to grow his enterprise. I can relate. I’m just not a candidate. Yesterday, I decided to unsubscribe to […]

I’m going to indulge in one of my real estate pet peeves. Thanks in advance for your patience.  Imagine you are buying a car. You sit in the driver’s seat, smell that indelible new car smell, and the sales associate dangles the keys in front of you as you prepare for a test drive. Then, […]

Have you ever known, perhaps when there is a death in the family, the kind of kind soul who steps up and generously gives of themselves? Dinner, picking people up at the airport, a shoulder to cry on, they just seem like an angel in a time of need. Those people have our gratitude. Now…have […]

Tomorrow is a closing on the purchase of a home for clients I first met in April of 2009. 16 months, dozens of homes, 2 offers, 2 homes inspections, 1 heartbreaking lost deal and about a hundred conversations later they will close on that perfect home, which I first blogged about this past Spring.  It is almost […]

I should be asleep, but I just read on Facebook that Zillow is holding a “Best Real Estate Blog” vote in a number of metropolitan areas. I originally read it on Jay Thompson’s (AKA The Phoenix Real Estate Guy’s) page, and I got intrigued to see if they were including any New York blogs; they are not. There […]

One of the things we as licensees often take for granted is that people are like us when it comes to emails, voicemails, texts and cell phones. They aren’t. Most people, at the end of the day, don’t take work home. We are on call 24/7/365. Clients aren’t agents and don’t live in our world. However, if […]

This photo was taken at dusk on June 18, 2010 from a boat in New York Harbor. The soft light from the torch, crown and base set against the sunset in person was powerful. 

Did you know that sometimes, despite our best efforts, lenders in a short sale will want the borrower to pay some money back? For example, if you have a $300,000 house with $315,000 on the first mortgage and $75,000 on the second, that the second mortgage might only release in the lien in exchange for a promissory note, unsecured terms, or […]

Westchester County is sought after because it is the suburbs of New York City. You have the best of both worlds- proximity to Manhattan and the Boroughs, and a suburban (and sometimes downright rural) lifestyle. It is for this reason that Manhattan Folk choose Westchester as their home. Goodbye apartment, goodbye storage rental space, goodbye […]

In 2007, we moved our family about a mile, one neighborhood over. Even though it was a short move, it took us across the line from the Village of Ossining to the Village of Briarcliff Manor. When you’re me, you don’t really expect to have many experiences with the police, aside from civic or social […]

Eileen Kennedy has written a great series on why agents change companies which I have read with interest. Much of what is said confirms why I run my own firm, including the oblique references to an unnamed Corporation in the Northeast with high fees and claustrophobic regulations. It reminded me of a number of great […]

 

  It took 13 months, but we finally closed on a short sale in Poughkeepsie that I originally listed in April of 2009. It took 4 months to get an offer, but there was a nightmare process getting assigned a negotiator and then a title issue was discovered that took another 3 months to clear. At one […]

In read Brian Rugg’s posting today about starting from scratch in real estate in a new market, and it dovetailed with a post I have been working on in draft form since Rose Marinaccio’s piece a few days ago as well. I relate to Brian’s thoughts on starting in a new place because it calls […]

The HUD-1 is the official closing statement required by law that documents all money exchanged in a real estate transaction involving a mortgage. In general terms, any money exchanged not mentioned on the HUD-1 is considered a side deal and in all likelihood, illegitimate. I’m not speaking of the separate sale of furniture or a lawn tractor; I’m […]