Commentary

Buying Why Listings that Appear Available Online Actually Aren’t One of the more frustrating things for consumers to experience when searching for real estate to is to see a desirable property online for sale, send it to their agent to schedule a showing, and then not be able to get in. Sometimes the listing agent doesn’t respond, which is a violation of the rules. […]
Commentary What is Tax Certiorari in New York State? September is a big month in property tax circles in New York, and courts throughout the state are receiving “tax certiorari” cases filed in considerable volume. That term is quite a mouthful (thankfully, my spellcheck recognizes the word), and it’s related to the assessed value of properties for tax purposes. It’s no secret that property […]
Commentary Why Do I Have to Sign in at an Open House? For many years, there has been an awkward moment when consumers attending an open house are asked to sign in. It is understandable to not want to become someone’s prospect or lead, and it doesn’t seem necessary to many folks. We see this pushback everywhere: a cashier asks a customer at checkout for their email […]
Commentary When and When Not to Set Ultimatums in New York Real Estate Transactions Contractual deadlines and “by when” dates are baked into industry practices. Listings have expiration dates. Buyer agreements do also. Purchase and sale contracts have mortgage contingency dates, closing dates, and other structures of fulfillment that are terms for principals to abide by. Deadlines are not exclusive to contracts. There is a reasonable amount of time […]
Commentary NIMBYs and the Damage They do to Communities NIMBY is an acronym for “not in my back yard.” It is a pejorative term, and, as I will explain, that is for a good reason. Real estate professionals with any involvement in their community will inevitably get exposure to NIMBYs, and, in my view this should be viewed as an opportunity to show some […]
Buying Escalation Clauses in Offers to Purchase: a Double Edge Sword Escalation clauses are sometimes included in offers that essentially state that if the offer being presented is outbid by another competing offer that the buyer will raise their number by a set amount over the higher competing bid. Sometimes they are clever due to the confidential nature of closed bids in New York real estate, […]
Buying What Everyone Should Understand About In-Law Apartments The term “in law apartment” or “in-law space” has become misunderstood lately by both agents and consumers, so I’d like to clear up what should be fairly straightforward. First, if a home is a single family house, it is just that: a single housing unit. It is not a multi-unit building. If it has a […]
Commentary Bedroom Count and Septic Systems Westchester County has a population of about 1 million residents. Most of those folks who inhabit the 914 area code live in homes that are connected to public sewers, but there are a hefty number of properties, especially in the northern part of the county, that are on septic systems. I’ve said before that there’s […]
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Commentary Solving the Catch-22 on New Development: Build 55 and Over Housing I posted not long ago that one of the reasons why inventory is so low is that we are not building new homes at a rate needed to meet our housing needs. It is estimated that we need another 7 million units to solve this, and that won’t happen overnight. What’s worse is that in […]
Commentary New York’s New Property Condition Disclosure Statement For more than 20 years, home sellers in the state of New York have been required to furnish their buyer with a form known as a Property Condition Disclosure Statement (PCDS). It is a collection of several dozen questions that the seller is required to answer about the characteristics of the home. The law always […]
Commentary What’s Up With All Those “We Will Pay You Cash for Your House” Signs on Street Corners? If you’ve ever wondered what the story is behind those flimsy looking signs nailed to telephone poles all over the place promising you a fast cash sale on your house, I have the answer. I’m sure you know the signs I speak of. They are known in the industry as “bandit signs.” Some are professionally […]
Buying It’s February in New York, so Let’s Talk Swimming Pools Swimming pools are probably the last thing on most peoples’ minds but we are still selling homes that have them, and this thought is a bit overdue. Swimming pools are an improvement, so they add value to a property. They can’t not add value presuming they are in working order, but there’s a but. The “but” […]
Commentary How Online Reviews Have Impacted Real Estate Agents Back in 2009, I was approached by Redfin to help them enter the Westchester real estate market as a referral partner. They did not have employee agents here, so referring clientele to other brokerages would be a win/win arrangement to start. I was eager for any new source of business, and took a closer look. […]
Commentary Living Indoors is Not a Fad In some respects, the housing market is like the biggest, longest domino set up in the universe. Chances are, with rare exception like the purchase of an empty house, that the person you are buying your home from is going to be moving somewhere that someone else moved out of, and they in turn are […]
Buying Sale Contingency vs Closing Contingency People live indoors. Its hard to say that without sounding sarcastic, but I am sincere. It should not come as a surprise to a seller or their listing agent that their purchaser is selling their own home, especially if they are in a higher than average priced property. I shouldn’t have to explain, for example, […]
Commentary For Agents: Open House Parking Etiquette This past weekend some agents on my team held an open house for a listing in Mahopac. It was busy, with 25 separate parties and possibly 50 or 60 people walking through the home. The one wrinkle was that street parking was sparce. It had a driveway that could fit up to 10 cars, but […]
Commentary Yes, Virginia, You Can Paint That Wood Paneling Formica. Popcorn Ceilings. Wood Paneling. If you envision your grandparent’s house, or the house you grew up in (if you’re old like I am), you’ll know those are the calling cards of a dated home. Why avocado green or harvest gold were upscale colors for appliances or why wood paneling was the rage in the […]
Commentary The Pre Approval Shell Game Years ago, I was the listing agent on a property where an offer came in significantly below asking price. The pre approval accompanying the offer was for the exact amount offered, tens of thousands of dollars below asking. My client asked why, if they were only approved for $450,000, that they’d even look at a […]
Commentary Sewer vs Septic: The Full Poop Recently, a client shared with me that a friend advised them to avoid homes on septic and to only buy a home with a public sewer connection. I’ll be blunt: That is terrible advice. With inventory so low, to disqualify such a high number of possible homes is a disservice to oneself. For regular people […]
Commentary Sellers: Always Plow Your Driveway After it Snows This past Sunday I covered for one of our agents and met up with some first time homebuyers for their very first home tour. We had a big day scheduled: 5 confirmed appointments, all of the homes looked good, and the clients were excited to get their dream home. At the first appointment, I smirked […]