Selling

It is no secret that anyone selling their home in Westchester County, or Iowa for that matter, wants to get as much money as they possibly can for their property. There are a variety of things a seller can do to maximize their price, such as staging the home, having the broker do a good […]

On Thursday and Friday I attended two consecutive forums for real estate agents on short sales put on by Chase and Bank of America respectively. Both forums were informative. Both forums sent a clear communication that the lenders wanted to make the short sale process better. And both forums also sent very differing messages about […]

For the 100th time, I read a  real estate write up that fell well short of the space limit, but was filled with acronyms and abbreviations that you’d need a Berlitz book to decode. I think it fair to say, after more than 4 months on market and no buyer, that this would be called a marketing fail. The […]

A number of short sale clients have shown me letters, mostly from Chase, offering them an almost incomprehensible amount of money if they’ll do a short sale. It would seem hard to believe, in a world where short sale sellers typically walk from closing with the clothes on their back and no proceeds, that lenders […]

I am working with an extremely nice pair of clients right now -due to a job transfer to Westchester County, they are moving to the area from out of state. They sold their own home quickly, and we have been out and about looking. The selection process has brought us to a number of homes, […]

The New Normal continues to evolve in Westchester real estate, as prices and transaction totals go batty in different directions. Ossining’s May results are fine example. According to the Hudson Gateway MLS data for May 2012, Ossining had a spike in closed transactions, but a steep decline in price compared to the same time period […]

One of the more stressful parts of the home sale process is the part where the seller and their agent “sweat it out” while the buyer completes their home inspection prior to contract signing. Often, this yields to a the buyer’s revisiting their “meeting of the minds” price and ask for a reduction in price […]

In the fall of 2007, after the sub prime crisis hit but long before the real decline hit the country in the gut, the Bush administration signed a bill into law that allowed regular borrowers to avoid a massive tax bill for the forgiven debt resulting from a short sale. Prior to that time, people […]

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 […]

The illusion of the spring market is that of abundance here in Westchester and all over the country for that matter. In spite of the overall down market, April and May are when the buyers are out, looking, making offers, and mainly scooping the cream off the top. Upon occasion, we see a seller get […]

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 […]

The market in Westchester County is very price sensitive; with a median price above $500,000, that is understandable. The stakes are high, and goofs cost dearly. In some markets, a cash poor buyer may be attracted by a seller incentive of sorts, such as a small credit for closing costs or repairs. However, there is […]

Spring comes but once a year. Once it is gone, wave goodbye. Even in a buyer’s market, a well  priced home will get healthy demand and avoid being an October straggler where the buyer exerts leverage because they know they have no competition. This is why I advise my seller clients to understand the crucial […]

I review market statistics ever quarter, and since we just passed the halfway point of 2011 I found some very powerful data on the relationship between percent of asking price that Westchester County homes sell for and how long they have been on the market. As the table from the Empire Access MLS below illustrates, the percentage […]

Many of my colleagues believe that a for sale by owner (FSBO) wants to eat their young, draw and quarter real estate agents, and own a broom with a glove compartment. My experience is that few do. FSBOs are not a different species. Consider this: Home Depot sold tens of thousands of drills in recent […]