Active Rain

Active Rain

Tough Day of Remembrance

Ann and I have just put the four children to bed that we brought into the world after Osama bin Laden tried to ruin it. Watching the news recaps, tributes, and the name ceremony a short drive south today was painful for us, not because because we lost anyone (our loved ones were, fortunately, all […]
Active Rain

The New York Real Estate Contract Contrast

From 1996 through 2000, I sold real estate in Rochester, New York. I learned the business in a way very similar to the way real estate deals are put together in most other parts of the country. Here’s the typical chronology: The buyer makes an offer in writing on a boiler plate form jointly approved […]
Active Rain

Keep Your Word or Lose the Deal

Bidding wars are relatively rare in Westchester County except in those cases where the house is very special. Multiple offers are not uncommon, but having more than one offer does not mean the price necessarily gets bid up. Sometimes, when we ask buyers for their best and highest, it can backfire and the competing offer […]
Active Rain

Maybe We’d Consider Your Contingent Offer if it Weren’t so Crappy

Upon occasion, we recieve a “contingent” offer on a listing. Most offers have contingencies, such as mortgage and inspection. But in Westchester and New York, a “contingent offer” is one where the buyer still needs to sell their own house (in nearby Fairfield County, CT it is known as a “Hubbard Clause”). Most of the […]

Active Rain Tough Day of Remembrance Ann and I have just put the four children to bed that we brought into the world after Osama bin Laden tried to ruin it. Watching the news recaps, tributes, and the name ceremony a short drive south today was painful for us, not because because we lost anyone (our loved ones were, fortunately, all […]

Active Rain The New York Real Estate Contract Contrast From 1996 through 2000, I sold real estate in Rochester, New York. I learned the business in a way very similar to the way real estate deals are put together in most other parts of the country. Here’s the typical chronology: The buyer makes an offer in writing on a boiler plate form jointly approved […]

Active Rain Keep Your Word or Lose the Deal Bidding wars are relatively rare in Westchester County except in those cases where the house is very special. Multiple offers are not uncommon, but having more than one offer does not mean the price necessarily gets bid up. Sometimes, when we ask buyers for their best and highest, it can backfire and the competing offer […]

Active Rain Maybe We’d Consider Your Contingent Offer if it Weren’t so Crappy Upon occasion, we recieve a “contingent” offer on a listing. Most offers have contingencies, such as mortgage and inspection. But in Westchester and New York, a “contingent offer” is one where the buyer still needs to sell their own house (in nearby Fairfield County, CT it is known as a “Hubbard Clause”). Most of the […]

Active Rain The “Other” Shadow Inventory A recent post by Donna Harris got me to take this thought out of mothballs and share my view on a phenomenon I am witnessing out there in the market. We’ve heard of a “shadow inventory” of foreclosed homes that aren’t yet on the market. They are there, but they aren’t potential business until they […]

Active Rain Um, the Answer Would be “No.” Last week I wrote a blog post asking if the local media and politicians overdid the warnings about Tropical Storm Irene. My concern was that, in light of the area being relatively spared, future warnings might not be taken as seriously. It turns out that the answer to my question would be “no,” as in […]

Active Rain Reminder: Active Rain Westchester Meetup Tonight! Sept. 6, 7pm White Plains Our Westchester Active Rain meetup is tonight at 7pm at the Brazen Fox in White Plains NY. All are welcome! The address is 175 Mamaroneck Avenue, White Plains, NY 10601. Parking is best behind the building in the municipal lot on the corner of Maple and Waller. Brazen Fox does have a rear entrance from the lot. They use […]

Active Rain An End of Summer Thought As I enter my 45th autumn, I sometimes ponder what life has taught me through this journey. I bite my tongue more than I did 20 years ago when tempted to make a wisecrack. I ask myself what my father would do more often. And, with fatherhood, I thank God for the safe return of […]

Active Rain Cold Spring & Philipstown New York Market Snapshot Anyone who knows me knows that I love the Hudson River towns, and not just the ones in Westchester. Nyack in Rockland is near and dear to my heart, and so is Cold Spring, a hop skip and a jump away in Putnam County, NY directly across the Hudson from West Point. The area is […]

Active Rain Ossining Real Estate Market, August 2011 This is the market report for Ossining, NY for August 2011. It covers single family homes in the Ossining School District. All data is from the Empire Acess MLS. In August 2011, Ossining had 15 closings at a median sale price of $420,000. In August 2010, Ossining had 15 closings at a median sale price […]

Active Rain Another Fine Banking Representative I got a call today regarding one of my listings from the lender on the property. The person was in the collections department, and it was one of those calls lenders sometimes make on a distress property. However, I think somewhere someone lost the memo that common sense would be a good idea, as I […]

Active Rain Mr President, You Won’t Fix the Economy Until You Fix the Housing Market If you haven’t heard of LuAnn Lavine, I’ll tell you why she matters. She was mentioned by Maureen Dowd in her last NY Times column, and has one of the most emailed stories on industry news site Inman News. Last week, Ms Lavine, a real estate broker, got up at a town hall meeting and […]

Active Rain I’m a Star I had the good fortune to be asked by the Ossining-Croton Patch.com site to blog for them regularly, and this past week I was featured in one of their videos on the challenges of the housing market. We met at one of my firm’s listings in Ossining, and filmed interview style on the state of […]

Active Rain Ossining Bakery: Westchester County’s Best Bread & Rolls Ask any foodie about New York and you’ll know that we have the best bread they’ve ever had. Local restaurants often boast that they have bread baked from Arthur Avenue in the Bronx, and with good reason. I myself have lived in New Orleans, Austin, Rochester, Philadelphia, Boston and Maryland and appreciated the local offerings […]

Active Rain Seller Financing for Ossining Fixer Upper We have a unique listing that might be of interest for someone looking for a home they can renovate without having to pay cash or getting a rehabilitation mortgage. It is a 2172 square foot tudor in the heart of the village adjacent to St Ann’s school yard on Eastern Avenue. It was used for […]

Active Rain Was Irene Over-hyped by the NY Politicians and Media? Note: This was written from a very New York Point of view, with local sentiment on how Mike Bloomberg and our local media handled the run up to the arrival of the storm. Please read this comment on the NY Times and this one from my fellow New Yorkers to get some perspective. I would […]

Active Rain Speechless Sundays: Aftermath of Hurricane Irene in Westchester County NY

Active Rain How to Write a Market Report for your Real Estate Blog Warning to consumers: this may be boring, as this post is written to my colleagues and not for the public. It’s raining here in Westchester County, and Hurricane Irene has brought a rare thing: some time off. My phone has barely rung all weekend, and in between battening down the hatches for the storm, I […]

Active Rain New Real Estate Law- FUBAR Right on the tail of HAMP, HAFA, HVCC, MARS, and MAP, our acronym loving government has unveiled a new initiative to address the depressed housing market. Since 3 and 4 letter acronyms haven’t worked thus far, a bi-partisan initiative is getting final approval in both houses- The Federal Universal Big Acronym Regulation, or FUBAR. FUBAR […]

Active Rain What Can We Do To Lower Ossining’s Taxes? One of the most frequent questions posed to me in my life as a real estate broker is why the property taxes in so many Westchester communities are so high. I grew up in Ossining but have lived in five other states as well as Upstate New York, so I have some theories for our […]