Commentary

<phone rings> ME: J. Philip Real Estate, this is Phil, how may I help you? Telemarketer: Is this Mr. Philips? ME: *sigh* Yes, this is Phil. Telemarketer: Hi, This is <Whatever> with <Company>, and I am calling to see if you’d like to do business with the 20,000 people who shop at the Briarcliff Manor […]

In all real estate transactions involving a mortgage-which is most of them-all details of the transaction are recorded on a government form known as a HUD-1. A purchase can have more than one mortgage- the bank can loan a second (subordinate) mortgage, or in some cases, the seller can hold a second mortgage as well. In Westchester […]

If you are searching for homes online, do you care who the listing broker is? I’ll go out on a limb and say that unless you have had a specific negative experience with an agent or broker, if a house fits your needs you could care less if it were listed by Attila the Hun, Rasputin, Herbie […]

This past week I had the privilege of attending a Hudson Gateway Association of Realtors Luncheon with Westchester County Executive Rob Astorino. Among the topics often discussed when Mr Astorino is in the room is the proposed Tappan Zee Bridge Greenway project. The idea is to convert the existing structure from a carrying I-287 over the Hudson […]

Imagine that you can put a home for sale on a really stupendous, popular medium that would give it incredible exposure. In putting the home  on the medium (and it could be a website, TV program or print publication- it doesn’t matter), you are told that in addition to your content on the home, the […]

Some of my colleagues are funny bunch. They decry a Zillow Zestimate for being inaccurate. They shake their heads when an agent licensed in Illinois gives real estate advice in Trulia Voices to a consumer in Florida, where the laws are different. They shake their head disapprovingly if you mistakenly mark a home as having […]

Full disclosure: I am a Zillow customer, as well as a paying customer to Trulia and Realtor.com. Our office received a phone call from the town of Kent Police yesterday to inform us that there was some undesirable activity at  my listing. Of course, the only problem with that- aside from youths partying at a […]

Encyclopaedia Britannica announced yesterday that they would no longer print their reference library, opting instead to have it be available in online digital form only. Just a week or so ago, I wrote a post on my past life in the educational publishing industry, albeit nothing about the books and selling them. But I feel that my […]

This is one of those topics I have been meaning to write about for a dog’s age (sorry) and I finally have the time and inspiration to do just that. It is my view that an inordinate percentage of real estate agents are dog lovers. Canine devotees. Poochophiles. And they aren’t just dog owners, they […]

If everyone put 20% down on their home that the housing market would probably be healthier. And in other news, if I french kiss a skunk, I won’t be the most popular guy in an elevator. It’s all theory. Not everyone can put 20% down. In practical application it is a terrible idea. And we’ve […]

Perhaps no phenomenon in real estate is as much of a lightning rod for strong opinions as the Zillow Zestimate. Most agents I speak with hate it; I have had instances where looking it up has helped a deal and I have had clients walk from a deal because of it. The Zillow Zestimate has […]

Last month when Sara Bonert wrote about Zillow’s new agent review system, I voiced my skepticism. I don’t have a beef with the idea per se, I’ve just had my ups and downs with Zillow, as many of us have. Sara, to her credit, answered me both online and in person when we met at […]

Paul Crego, my original broker and mentor, called costly mistakes “tuition in life.” Maybe he knew that spin was far more empowering than my own on my goofs. He had another turn of the phrase when not such good things happened, and that was “now you are in the real estate business,” as if those occurrence were […]

One of the great neighborhoods in Ossining is known as the Indian Village. All of the streets have tribal names, such as Mohawk and Seneca Roads. I happened to grow up on Osage Drive. Although most of the streets are pre war, the majority of the homes are baby-boom era housing. In that respect the […]

There are two magic words every consumer should know when considering a real estate agent and I almost never hear them. The two words form a question rarely if ever asked; in 2008 only one client of mine (I have 40+ listings) made the inquiry. I was only to happy to answer, because it gave […]

Item: Fannie Mae will allow the tenants of foreclosed homes to remain instead of evicting them, effectively making the organization a landlord. I was afraid of what would happen when the government essentially nationalized the mortgage industry. This is the law of unintended consequences at it’s worst. Doesn’t Fannie Mae have enough headaches? Is the […]

10. Abbreviate.  This is especially useful when you have the room to write more in your remarks but you still feel the need to call a living room an LR and a master suite a mstr ste. It really makes for easy reading when each sntce has mltple abbrvtns. Way to sell! 9. Misspell.Nothing builds […]

As those of you who have done a relo deal know, relocation companies can be a pain in the rear with due diligence that resembles a colonoscopy. In addition to paperwork that releases them from even a whisper of liability or risk, they always want to see the mortgage commitment and contract for the buyers […]

With the problems facing the real estate and mortgage industries, I look to the Oval Office to be the catalyst in the recovery of the nation going forward. I am not referring to President Bush, nor am I referring to the hypothetical Presidents McCain, Obama, or Clinton. The president who will make the biggest difference […]