Active Rain

Active Rain

Yes, It Really Happened

This past Wednesday I attended an event put on by JP Morgan Chase at the Waldorf-Astoria hotel in Midtown Manhattan. There were over 300 employees from Chase present, along with what seemed like at least 1000 brokers and agents. Chase’s national REO manager, former NFL football player Brian Stablein was a speaker, as was Jed […]
Active Rain

Wordless Wednesday: Board Meeting
Active Rain

I am Very Pro Hygiene, But Come On.

No shows are a part of the business. I often keep repeating the phrase “yes, I went to college” as I stand in the driveway of a home, staring at it, wondering if I can do some sort of Schopenhaur exercise to manifest a human being, preferably the owner, to answer the door or the […]
Active Rain

Turnabout is Fair Play: Glossary of Consumer Real Estate Terms

Much has been written about the “code” licensees employ in describing their listings. For example, “cozy” is Agentspeak for “cramped.” “Potential” means that nothing has been updated since 1980. You get the picture. There are hundreds more, and I don’t blame consumers for taking agents’ descriptions with a grain of salt. However, consumers are people […]

Active Rain Yes, It Really Happened This past Wednesday I attended an event put on by JP Morgan Chase at the Waldorf-Astoria hotel in Midtown Manhattan. There were over 300 employees from Chase present, along with what seemed like at least 1000 brokers and agents. Chase’s national REO manager, former NFL football player Brian Stablein was a speaker, as was Jed […]

Active Rain Wordless Wednesday: Board Meeting

Active Rain I am Very Pro Hygiene, But Come On. No shows are a part of the business. I often keep repeating the phrase “yes, I went to college” as I stand in the driveway of a home, staring at it, wondering if I can do some sort of Schopenhaur exercise to manifest a human being, preferably the owner, to answer the door or the […]

Active Rain Turnabout is Fair Play: Glossary of Consumer Real Estate Terms Much has been written about the “code” licensees employ in describing their listings. For example, “cozy” is Agentspeak for “cramped.” “Potential” means that nothing has been updated since 1980. You get the picture. There are hundreds more, and I don’t blame consumers for taking agents’ descriptions with a grain of salt. However, consumers are people […]

Active Rain What the Recent Sewage Leaks Tell us of Our Infrastructure Water created the Grand Canyon. Anyone who has ever seen a house with a leaky roof or basement appreciates this. And sewage is mostly water. It erodes. While sewage didn’t cause the recent leaks (really massive spills) in Harlem and now Ossining, it is clear that external damage, such as a fire or tree falling, […]

Active Rain Speechless Sundays: I Had to Say It

Active Rain If the Comparable Sales are so Crummy, Why Did They Sell (& You Didn’t)? I got word tonight that my client’s offer on a home in Tuckahoe was accepted. She is very happy. What is unusual about this particular deal is that the sellers actually interviewed me before they first went on the market but elected to list with someone else. I respect the agent, so I was happy […]

Active Rain You know you are in the Real Estate business when… Inspired by the Facebook group. You know you are in the real estate business when You dial a phone number on the calculator app. Your daughter brings home straight A’s and you worry that the report card won’t comp out. You walk up to your own front door and look for a lockbox. You put […]

Active Rain On the Passing of Harrison Town Clerk Joseph Acocella Jr. This morning I read a brief tribute online from Westchester County Executive Rob Astorino to Joseph Acocella, the town clerk of nearby Harrison, NY who had passed away. I get notices on the loss of Realtors and public officials with some regularity, so I just assumed Mr. Acocella was someone who was older. Who would […]

Active Rain Buyers: Don’t Let Your Agent Practice Back Door Due Diligence I have blogged before on how some buyer agents approach the listing agent with questions that are best addressed by other sources. For example, a few years ago I had a buyer’s agent assistant ask me a battery of questions on the legality of a hypothetical addition to a home I had listed. I was, […]

Active Rain “City” of Ossining? The corporation, or village of Ossining, will be 200 years old in 2013, and our fair municipality was the first village to incorporate in the State of New York. The bicentennial will rightly observe a long, rich history as well as cultural significance from being the cradle of the “up the river” line from old […]

Active Rain Active Rain Westchester Meetup Tuesday September 6, 7pm White Plains I think the idea of an Active Rain meetup is a capital idea, and I would like to propose one for Westchester and surrounding RainFolk on Tuesday, September 6 at 7pm at the Brazen Fox in White Plains NY. If you can drive to White Plains from wherever you are, you are welcome. The full […]

Active Rain Speechless Sundays: Pound Ridge, NY. Someone’s Backyard

Active Rain Crossing the Finish Line- and Getting Set Again! It is hard to believe that it was almost a year ago that fellow blogger Elyse Berman referred a listing client to me here in New York. A terrific lady, the client had recently lost her husband and relocated to Florida. She had expired unsold with another broker, and I met her last September. There […]

Active Rain ForSaleBYOwner.com Founder Sells Home- Using a Broker The Wall Street Journal has reported that ForSaleBYOwner.com founder Colby Sambrotto has sold his Manhattan condo with a broker after failing for 6 months as a For Sale by Owner. Here’s the best part: The broker got him $150,000 more than he was asking when he was selling on his own. So much for saving […]

Active Rain Wordless Wednesday: Lipstick on a Pig

Active Rain There is Nothing Wrong with Seller Concessions I got a call from an agent today and the conversation turned to a deal one of my team members tried to make on her listing which never went together. It wasn’t that they didn’t like our price, she explained. It was the seller concession. While the net to seller was quite acceptable, their attorney […]

Active Rain Why Won’t the Agents Showing my House Say Something? As Yogi Berra says, you can see an awful lot by watching. And as a broker who oversees 20+ agents, 50+ listings and who still works in the field with select buyers, I do see both sides of an issue that sellers often bring up in the discussion of listing and selling their house. Many […]

Active Rain Speechless Sundays: Sometimes You Have To Turn the Car Around for One

Active Rain July 2011 Sees a Rebound in Ossining Real Estate; Croton is Steady The Multiple Listing Service statistics for July closings in Ossining and Croton indicate good news for market watchers. Comparing data from this past July to July 2010, Ossining is way up, and Croton is virtually identical. July is typically a high volume month in the market cycle due to the weather and school year schedule, […]