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Law Memorial Park, Briarcliff Manor, NY

Law Memorial Park in Briarcliff Manor is, to my eyes, one of the most attractive downtown parks of any municipality in Westchester County. It is literally walking distance from downtown (perhaps 2 city blocks) and has the village library, a huge swimming pool, a small wading pool, a huge clubhouse pavilion, clay tennis courts, a […]
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Thank You For Bringing the Storage Under the Stairs to Our Attention

To the best of my knowledge, only two things exist under stairs: little creatures who eat pens and underwear and poop lint, and storage. I have never seen the little creatures. Most people innately know that there is storage, or, in some cases, a full-blown closet under stairs because they have their own junk they […]
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Co-ops: The Starter Home of Westchester County

Right now, you could buy a 3 bedroom, 2 bath home in Ossining for less than $160,000. No, it isn’t a bombed out foreclosure behind a gas station, it is a co-op. Co -ops are one of the most affordable options for housing in all of Westchester county, and Ossining has almost 50 available priced […]
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J. Philip Real Estate Welcomes Linda Polay

Growth and the addition of a new team member is always a happy event for us, and I am pleased to introduce Linda Polay as the newest licensee on the J. Philip team. Linda has quite a stellar background, and I look forward to supporting her in serving her lucky clients. Linda comes to us […]

Active Rain Law Memorial Park, Briarcliff Manor, NY Law Memorial Park in Briarcliff Manor is, to my eyes, one of the most attractive downtown parks of any municipality in Westchester County. It is literally walking distance from downtown (perhaps 2 city blocks) and has the village library, a huge swimming pool, a small wading pool, a huge clubhouse pavilion, clay tennis courts, a […]

Active Rain Thank You For Bringing the Storage Under the Stairs to Our Attention To the best of my knowledge, only two things exist under stairs: little creatures who eat pens and underwear and poop lint, and storage. I have never seen the little creatures. Most people innately know that there is storage, or, in some cases, a full-blown closet under stairs because they have their own junk they […]

Active Rain Co-ops: The Starter Home of Westchester County Right now, you could buy a 3 bedroom, 2 bath home in Ossining for less than $160,000. No, it isn’t a bombed out foreclosure behind a gas station, it is a co-op. Co -ops are one of the most affordable options for housing in all of Westchester county, and Ossining has almost 50 available priced […]

Active Rain J. Philip Real Estate Welcomes Linda Polay Growth and the addition of a new team member is always a happy event for us, and I am pleased to introduce Linda Polay as the newest licensee on the J. Philip team. Linda has quite a stellar background, and I look forward to supporting her in serving her lucky clients. Linda comes to us […]

Active Rain Is Daily Blogging Bad? While I cannot be in attendance at Inman Connect San Francisco, I am following the Twitter stream on the event. I wish I could go, but I have to make hay while the sun shines. One tweet that caught my attention referenced a speaker by the name of Laura Roeder advising attendees to NOT blog […]

Active Rain Wordless Wednesday: Hudson River in July, Verplanck, NY

Active Rain Speechless Sundays: Obviously, They Have Lived Here a Long Time

Active Rain Pheedback Phrom Phil Today I came home to the usual flurry email requests for feedback for a full afternoon of showings homes to a great buyer client. I’m not the biggest fan of feedback for reasons posted before, but this afternoon I was more forthcoming. The following are my responses to feedback requests that I really did send. […]

Active Rain Agents Say the Darndest Things I could start a whole separate blog for the things I consciously decide not to write about, because it’s just too easy to express bemusement or incredulity at the stuff a small number of agents do with a straight face. For example, a few minutes ago an agent just asked me “what kind of person” […]

Active Rain Call. The. Manager. I see an interesting trend on the blog dashboard this morning from colleagues across the US- poor conduct by agents, and understandable incredulity by the authors about it. I agree. If an agent won’t present an offer, return a call, or just behave, it is a problem with an unattracive domino effect. I myself have […]

Active Rain Important Update on Housing Rights Item: The Senate passed a measure late yesterday evening to ensure that buyers of homes have their rights to “Housing with Dignity.” The act’s precepts include the right to an home in “compliance” and other minimal, basic housing rights, or to have a renumeration for the purchase of homes not in conformity to the proposed […]

Active Rain Advice for Cash Buyers If you are paying Cash for real estate, especially here in in a high cost area like Westchester, I have some advice as a broker who has worked with many cash buyers. First, congratulations on havng the recources to pay cash. You are blessed. Here are a few steps that will help you in your efforts. […]

Active Rain “Signs” of Downtown Ossining’s Comeback are Everywhere Growing up here in the 1970s and 80s, my memories of Ossining’s downtown are those of crumbling blight. When Arcadian Shopping Center opened in the 1960’s it only took a few years for almost all the commerce to migrate down route 9, leaving Main Street a veritable ghost town. The Urban Renewal of the […]

Active Rain It’s Not The Size of the Dog in the Fight. It’s the Size of the Fight in the Dog. If you haven’t met Paco, you’ll be hearing about him on the news. Paco is the little rescued Chihuahua who chased armed robbers out of his master’s store. He didn’t care that they had a shotgun or dwarfed him, he still barked his head off and chased them out of the store like they were […]

Active Rain Walking Tour of 562 E Mountain Road North, Cold Spring, NY I don’t often blog about listings because I focus more on commentary here, but I think the walking tours we now do for our listings are very appealing. I do them Bob Vila style, with a candid, conversational walk through as if we were chatting together touring the house. I don’t use a script, so […]

Active Rain Somers Real Estate Market 2nd Quarter 2011 Somers is near and dear to my heart. I went to high school here at John F Kennedy Catholic. The area is located in northern Westchester County and is very wooded and pleasant, with the NYC reservoir system running along much of its eastern border. Appearances can be deceiving: There is quite a bit of […]

Active Rain Hendrick Hudson Schools 2nd Quarter Real Estate Market Located in northwest Westchester County, the Hendrick Hudson School district is in the town of Cortlandt and encompasses parts of Croton, Cortlandt Manor, Peekskill, and all of Montrose, Verplanck and the village of Buchanan. All information is for single family homes from the Empire Access Multiple Listing Service. For the 2nd quarter of 2011, 11 […]

Active Rain Pleasantville Real Estate Market, 2nd Quarter 2011 Pleasantville’s real estate market for the second quarter of 2011 is an analysis of single family home activity for the period April 1, 2011 to June 30, 2011 for the Pleasantville school district. All information is derived from the Empire Access MLS. For the second quarter of 2011, Pleasantville had 12 closings at a median […]

Active Rain Westchester Year To Date 1st Half Market Report The Westchester Putnam Association of Realtors has released their 2nd quarter report for the two counties real estate sales. It’s valuable data, and I thought I’d do something a little different- namely, take the entire first half of 2011 and see how we are stacking up with the first half of 2010. Here’s the scoop […]

Active Rain The Road, Traveled The first words of M. Scott Peck’s seminal book The Road Less Traveled are “Life is hard.” It was actually required reading in a senior elective at Villanova back in 1988. I thought of it yesterday as I was driving and I snapped the shot below, a sight all of us in the industry are familiar […]