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Congratulations! You Just Bought Your House Back!

The fact pattern: Total time on market: 18 Months. Time with my company: 120 days Original Price with prior broker: $629,000 Original means of pricing home: oldest son’s date of birth (6/29) Current price: $489,000 Number of offers before yesterday: 0 Current offer: $420,000 Number of competing home for sale: 40 Number of comparable sales: […]
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How NOT to Make an Offer on an REO

I have blogged previously on things a buyer should know before they buy a bank-owned foreclosure. Home values in Westchester have come down quite a bit since the “Great Correction,” which has brought out many people who wouldn’t have been candidates for ownership when prices in New York were unsustainably high. Foreclosures contribute to that […]
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The Great Correction

Listening to NPR the other day, the commentators were wondering what to call the current economic crisis. It isn’t a garden variety recession; it isn’t just the Credit Crisis, the Sub-prime Meltdown, or the failure of Freddie Mac/Fannie Mae. They mentioned that people are now texting the letters “ITE” to shorten “in this economy” the […]
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Foreclosure Wave Hits Minorities Hardest

According to the NY Times, minority homeowners are three times as likely to be foreclosed on than the norm. The NAACP is actually suing lenders over what they perceive as a new kind of redlining- giving minorities inferior and unsustainable loans. I made the following comment on the article on the Time’s website: 2009 […]

Active Rain Congratulations! You Just Bought Your House Back! The fact pattern: Total time on market: 18 Months. Time with my company: 120 days Original Price with prior broker: $629,000 Original means of pricing home: oldest son’s date of birth (6/29) Current price: $489,000 Number of offers before yesterday: 0 Current offer: $420,000 Number of competing home for sale: 40 Number of comparable sales: […]

Active Rain How NOT to Make an Offer on an REO I have blogged previously on things a buyer should know before they buy a bank-owned foreclosure. Home values in Westchester have come down quite a bit since the “Great Correction,” which has brought out many people who wouldn’t have been candidates for ownership when prices in New York were unsustainably high. Foreclosures contribute to that […]

Active Rain The Great Correction Listening to NPR the other day, the commentators were wondering what to call the current economic crisis. It isn’t a garden variety recession; it isn’t just the Credit Crisis, the Sub-prime Meltdown, or the failure of Freddie Mac/Fannie Mae. They mentioned that people are now texting the letters “ITE” to shorten “in this economy” the […]

Active Rain Foreclosure Wave Hits Minorities Hardest According to the NY Times, minority homeowners are three times as likely to be foreclosed on than the norm. The NAACP is actually suing lenders over what they perceive as a new kind of redlining- giving minorities inferior and unsustainable loans. I made the following comment on the article on the Time’s website: 2009 […]

Active Rain Obama to Support More Short Sales The government has moved to increase the incentive for lenders to allow short sales on their defaulted loans. I welcome this, although there is nothing specified as to how they’ll hold banks accountable for streamlining the process, which is rife with red tape, bureaucracy and long waits. If they truly want to make short sales […]

Active Rain Is This is Potential Trouble or an Innocent Question? I was emailed this question: Hi Philip, I am a first buyer interested in homes in the city of XXX. I was interested in using you for my home purchase and have a question regarding buyer’s commitment to agents. If I see a property through an agent, am I required to submit an offer through that […]

Active Rain I Am Hiring! NY Metro Area Description and Features J. Philip Faranda, REALTOR, Broker & Owner of J. Philip Real Estate, has a unique opening for Super Professional buyer agents throughout the New York area. We seek an agent with experience, a positive attitude, and high professional & ethical standards to serve a large volume of qualified buyers seeking a home […]

Active Rain Your Tax Dollars Fund Ineptitude The $400 toilet seat has always been the symbol of government waste, but now it is the TARP (Troubled Asset Recovery Program, or, better known as the “bailout”) funds that banks are, in my view, squandering. What I personally experienced below is the tip of the iceburg. 225 West Lovell, Mahopac, NY: Offer of $225,000 […]

Active Rain This Blog Posting Stinks This may be a touchy subject to some, but many people sabotage their own efforts to sell their home because of how their house smells. The source is most often a food or pet odor, and in both cases it is relatively preventable, especially as the warmer weather is upon us. This is probably the […]

Active Rain Chutzpah (short) One of my agents has a listing in a very desirable part of her town. It expired not long ago, and we will put it back as active once some projects has been finished. In the interim, the sign has remained up, per the seller’s preference. An agent from out of town drove by, saw […]

Active Rain The Assessed Value Canard Did you know my home’s assessed value is $30,000? Or that my last home was assessed at $25,100? Over in Congers I have a listing at $589,900 which is assessed at $177,800. In nearby Pleasantville I have a listing priced at $599,900 which is assessed for only $6600. I think the last year a home sold in Pleasantville […]

Active Rain Another Client Gets Their Home on Television I’ve blogged about this house before. It is a stunner. The Program was CNBC’s “On the Money” with Carmen Wong Ulrich. One of the panelists is Dolly Lenz, Vice Chairman of Prudential Douglas Elliman Real Estate, a respected expert and extremely nice person. The segment with my listing starts at 1:30 of the video. […]

Active Rain The Incredible Importance of a Pre Approval Get a pre -approval before you make an offer on a new home. Here’s why. 85% of my business is on the listing side representing sellers. There is no setback in real estate as devastating as the “deal dying.” Typically, when a deal has died in my experience, it has been because the buyer was […]

Active Rain Wordless Wednesday: Felinus Maximus Obesus You can search the MLS like an agent here. See J. Philip’s New York Photo Blog Here. J. Philip Faranda is New York’s Premier Short Sale REALTOR. Read Phil’s short sale blog here at http://NYShortSaleBlog.net. J. Philip Serves Briarcliff Manor, Ossining, the River towns , Westchester County & the bedroom counties of New York City.

Active Rain PLEASE Do Not Email Me Your Listings (***Rant Advisory***) Just Listed! Price Reduced! Must Sell! New Price! Open! Buzz off. You know who you are. I spend $200-300 per month on my primary MLS and then more money on programs to match buyer clients to listed properties. Simply put, if your listing matches my buyer, I’ll know before you do. If you just reduced […]

Active Rain We Aren’t Out of the Woods Yet As more inventory enters the spring market, over half of my new listings are upside down. I list and sell many short sales in Westchester County and beyond, so they tend to find me, but that still speaks to the fact that there are still billions in toxic assets & lots of people underwater out there. […]

Active Rain European Health Spa: Scarsdale, NY This building is one of the biggest enigmas in Westchester. It is located in a very affluent area (in the Edgment section on busy Central Park Avenue), but has been derelict for years. More information here and here. One of the real neat pieces of architecture you’ll see in southern Westchester, it sits, year after […]

Active Rain Reflecting on the 2009 Kentucky Derby-Who’s Your Jockey? I was working all day Saturday and didn’t get to see the Kentucky Derby; my wife replayed it for me this morning on DVR. For those of you who ran track or perhaps participated in rowing in college as I did, you’ll know that races involve more than speed; they require strategy. The basic underpinning […]

Active Rain Another Successful Short Sale Closed Today (& FAST for a Change!) 128 days ago, I sat at a dining room table in Putnam Valley, New York, just north of the Westchester County border with a young couple who were listed 4 times previously with 3 different brokerages in unsuccessful attempts to sell their home. Along the way, they got behind on their payments due to loss […]

Active Rain Wordless Wednesday: Cookies You can search the MLS like an agent here. See J. Philip’s New York Photo Blog Here. J. Philip Faranda is New York’s Premier Short Sale REALTOR. Read Phil’s short sale blog here at http://NYShortSaleBlog.net. J. Philip Serves Briarcliff Manor, Ossining, the River towns , Westchester County & the bedroom counties of New York City.