Picture this: a 3300 square foot brick center hall colonial with lots of upgrades, impeccable furnishings and appointments, beautiful decor and furniture, located in a swanky suburb. When I arrived to show it to my buyers, we see a crummy space heater in the dining room, 10 feet from an heirloom chandelier. What are these people […]

Here in New York, Today is the day that the Coney Island Polar Bear Club (or, as my late father referred to them “those idiots”) have their annual winter dunk at the beach. They actually do this crazy thing once a week, but they get all their publicity (and presumably, do most of their recruiting) […]

I have been meaning to post on this for a while. As unpalatable as it is to say, assaults and even murders of agents who unwittingly meet the wrong person in the wrong place do occur. A female agent alone at an open house I ran into recently seemed genuinely glad to see me because […]

This might be a sensitive subject to some. However, I feel that my thoughts need to be expressed and our industry should be a leader and not a passive observer. I view gay marriage as an equal housing issue, and therefore something that should be supported by licensees. The building bloc of society is people […]

Those of you who have listed and sold homes of divorcing couples will attest to the frequent difficulty of those files. The NY Times has an article on how the slow market is causing the liquidation of marital real estate to be far more difficult in some cases, causing the people to remain living together in […]

It is 2008. The government has nationalized the banking industry. We are in a recession, and the real estate market has yet to hit bottom. And there remain sellers out there that don’t realize that if they make seeing their home difficult, the home won’t get sold. In 2004, if it was difficult to get […]

Not long ago, the following was written: “you should be strongly advocating foreclosures – not mitigation or refinance – in your marketplace.” They stated that foreclosures would restore confidence in the market. I beg to differ. With rare exception, foreclosures hurt everyone and should be avoided at all costs. They harm the borrower, the lender, and even […]

My 2 goals are simple: Make more money; Work less. 2008 was a difficult year for me compared to 2007, and I got caught up in a pattern of putting out fires and working more reactively than executing a plan. I will not let history repeat itself. My 5 resolutions are designed to fulfill my […]

Those of us who live in the NY Metropolitan area (otherwise called the Tri-State area) know all about scandals involving our state governors. Since 2002, all three governors of NY, NJ and CT have resigned amidst scandal. And their offenses paled in comparison to Illinois Rod Blagojevich arrest for trying to sell a US Senate […]

My company is 30 minutes or less from the Bronx, Dutchess County, and Rockland County. I belong to the Westchester-Putnam MLS. I sell in other counties, though, and guess what? I belong to half a dozen other MLS systems to make that happen. Not only is this expensive, it is crazy. We all get the […]

There are those who will perjoratively state that ours is a retread occupation, where failures from other walks of life seek a way to earn a living after flopping elsewhere. I beg to differ, but it is true that for virtually all agents, real estate is not our first career. I know of no college […]

In light of this post by the Somers team on Dual Agency I feel compelled to share my thoughts on the practice. I can only speak about it from my own knowledge of the practice in New York, so agents in other states might get limited value from my thoughts. When I list a house, I am hired […]

With rare exception, buying decisions are made for emotional reasons. Overwhelming a prospective buyer with lots of data in a showing will typically talk them out of, rather than into, making an offer. Understandably, many sellers have put years of effort and money into keeping their home in good condition. They have upgraded, added on, […]

Buyers are waging a war of attrition with sellers in this market to be sure. I recall that when the sellers had the upper hand that buyers had to pretty much deal with their demands or lose the deal. The opposite is now true. At what point, though, does using their leverage cross over into […]

In light of this post by Cathy Tishhouse, I will offer my planned activities today as a small example of why we earn every penny. Yesterday I wrote about a listing I have that is under contract and there was a question as to whether or not it would be wiser to delay the closing […]

After a rather arduous marketing effort, I have a listing under contract with a cash buyer who can close at any  time. The cash isn’t his; a generous friend is holding a private mortgage. Even though my seller client bought the house only 2 years ago, we found out that the deck and downstairs bathroom do […]

I have an idea for Uncle Sam to pursue in stimulating the economy. I feel that this idea has not been tried by any administration in the 232-year history of our republic. This policy should be embraced in a bi-partisan manner and should appeal to both free market conservatives and more socially inclined liberals. It’s really […]

When our company was based out of our home, someone told me that they could never work from home because they didn’t have the discipline. “You don’t need discipline to work from home,” I replied, “you need bills.” With 4 little ones, bills we have. Of the four, for the next 30 days two of them […]

This is a rather strong opinion and I welcome an opposing point of view, but I can’t see losing the argument. First, a question: Would you choose a surgeon because he has a yellow Labrador? No? Why not? Would you invest your money with a stock broker because he wears a cowboy hat? No? Why […]

Two closings scheduled this week. How tough is the market? The one Thursday is a co op purchase that we have been working on since the Summer. It should have closed last month but problems arose between the lender and the co op board that have finally been resolved. Friday’s closing is a short sale […]