I started out as a sole operator in 2005. I hired my first licensee in 2006 and as of April 1 we have 20 members on our team with more coming aboard soon after. Some are former clients; some are agents we did deals with before and liked me (no accounting for taste). Whatever the reason, the team is growing because our company is a good place to build a real estate career. 

Ann and I are a team, with her as the administrative goddess and myself in the Hot Air department. It works. Our agents have great backup on both fronts. What’s more, which I think is important, is that we appreciate our team members. We know that earning a living is no laughing matter, and whether the issue is training, marketing, getting a tough prospect signed on, troubleshooting a problem transaction, or dealing with a challenging client, I am right there are the table with my team, and we have a great record of getting to the goal.

Yes, we have a good commission split, and yes, we think our signs are pretty. It is more than that. I have a relationship with each and every associate with the company, and the priority is their growth and development in this industry.

If you are in New York or Connecticut and in the Metropolitan area, we are hiring. Westchester, the Hudson valley, Connecticut, Long Island, and the New York City Boros. Here are a few of the areas we could use good agents in particular:

• Westchester County
• Upper Manhattan and Riverdale
• Queens
• Fairfield, CT
• Rockland and Putnam Counties

In many cases we need agents because I can’t follow up on leads personally. What I can offer personally is support, training, mentoring and a system that works.  

The Tree Streets is an unofficial nickname of a small neighborhood in the village of Briarcliff Manor that has a number -but not all- of streets named after trees. What sets it apart from much of the rest of the village is the moderate prices and predominant amount of pre war homes. The Tree Steets are also conveniently located…REALLY conveniently located. Todd Elementary School (Briarcliff Manor School district) is walking distance, and the neighborhood borders the 9A highway and the Taconic State Parkway. The village park, pool, downtown, tennis courts, library and Pace University’s Briarcliff campus are also very close. 

Because of price and location, the tree streets are very popular as starter homes. It is not at all uncommon to see people walking, jogging, and pushing strollers up and down the tree streets. The young and upwardly mobile are attracted to good commuting points, village amenities in walking distance, and the sense of community you feel when you spend any time in the neighborhood. Think of Wisteria Lane without the drama. 

While many of the homes predate the 2nd World War, there are a number of baby-boom era houses here as well. The mixture of the architecture and styles give the flavor of variety that is the antithesis of cookie cutter subdivisions. Moreover, the tree streets are a very mature neighborhood, with plenty of tall trees offering shade and charm. The nickname is very fitting. 

The average Tree Streets home is roughly 2100 square feet with 4 bedrooms and 2.5 baths, and the median sales price for the past 12 months is $610,000. The lots are typically about a quarter acre. What doesn’t show up in the data is the charm, the curb appeal, and that warm fuzzy you get when you walk down one of those nice tree streets. 

Castle Village is the sort of apartment community that dispels the myth of New York City as the Concrete Jungle. Located in the Hudson Heights section of Upper Manhattan, it occupies a site where a castle once indeed stood, with a spectacular view of the Hudson River, George Washington Bridge, and the Palisades in New Jersey. Built in 1939, Castle Village has classic pre war architecture that gives it charm and warmth both on the exterior and the interior of the apartments.

Co op apartments are a type of ownership that is virtually unique to New York, although they do exist in rare form elsewhere. Owners are technically stockholders in a corporation, who, depending on the amount of stock they own, get a proprietary lease to an apartment of commensurate value.  The monthly co op fees typically cover heat, maintenance and property taxes on the building. Because of that arrangement, the co op board has to approve owners and can mandate the type of down payment required, as well as the financial credentials of perspective shareholders. Being a shareholder not only entitles one to an apartment, but also the other many amenities the complex offers, such as the roof deck,community room, health club and children’s playroom & playgrounds.  

Overall the whole complex spans 7.5 acres, and the courtyard has a well manicured lawn. The apartments are known for their Herringbone/parquet floors, classic designs and generous closet space. It is a pet-friendly community and all buildings have a doorman. Castle Village is walking distance to beautiful Fort Tryon Park and The Cloisters. There are 9 styles of apartments ranging from 1 to three bedroom units. Board approval is required for resales, or units owned by current investors, but “sponsor units” do not require board approval. The minimum down payment to become a stockholder is 10%.

There are 5 total buildings in Castle Village, and the prices for an apartment range from the 200’s for a studio to the 800,000 range for a 3 bedroom. There is a true community feel here. If you want Manhattan without Manhattan prices and a fantastic setting as well, put Castle Village at the top of the list.   

This post is inspired by Richard Weisser’s excellent piece on his upcoming Spring yard work. I really don’t have the time or energy right now to stop and become my own part-time landscaper, but the time that I do take working in my yard are times I relish. 

I’ll be planting a lilac from an oversized pot it has lived in for the past 3 years when I transplanted it from my old home. It was adopted from a patch of lilac my mother planted there in the 1950’s when they first moved from Yonkers to Ossining. When I put my mother’s lilac in the ground, it will grow. It will not send me a memo after 4 weeks informing me that the file is still missing a 1099. The due diligence of lilac is soil, water, and sunlight.

This is a picture I took this morning of the wood I split myself, without a power splitter, with mostly a sledge and wedge. 

I made the rack the wood rests on myself also. It is about 40 feet wide. It never called me to inform me that it met with an attorney who recommended a different agent. What isn’t in the photo is all the wood we burned already. I loved splitting that wood. Difficult pieces with big knots became easy once I pretended they were lawyers. 

Nature has few technicalities and stipulations beyond the obvious and basic. It is refreshingly simple, reliable, and consistent. When I put something in the ground, it grows. When I prune something, it becomes beautiful. 

Do I need a vacation? Probably. Will I enjoy the times I am alone with my family, working in the yard? Definitely. 

Let me first say that no good agent will work for less than they feel they deserve. However, I know agents who could leave where they currently are for a higher split yet choose not to change brokerages. Entropy? Fear of change? What makes an agent stay for a lower split, not leave for a a larger split, or, in some cases, leave a higher split for a smaller one? 

When I first got into the business in 1996 I was given what I thought at the time to be a generous split of 60%. It went up to 65% after my first year. I never thought to ask for more, and leaving the firm for another was unthinkable. Had I not met my wife and moved back to Westchester I might still be there. The broker was like family.

In my career I have seen agents leave companies to start their own firms like I did, or dock their licenses under a different broker. Some do it fairly often. I know that some of the movements are lateral. But why does an agent leave a company? There could be a number of reasons.

• Lack of support- They might feel that they are not getting the training or tools they need to grow. 
• Lack of appreciation- They might feel that their broker does not acknowledge their efforts, disrespects them, ignores their suggestions, or ignores them altogether. Show me an agent that feels like they work for someone else and not themselves and I’ll show you an agent with a foot out the door. 
• Lack of income- If marketing support, transaction assistance, or leads were promised and not delivered, many agents feel that it is time to change the scenery. 

Once an agent makes a decision to seek greener pastures they begin to look for a place that is different from their current home. They might want more income (can’t blame them), they might want more respect and input, or they might seek a stronger leader. So why does an agent choose one company over another?

Support, respect and income, yes, but I think it has more to do with relationships. The agents that join my company, for example, all have one thing in common: they want me, or at least the leadership and help I offer. They either want the administrative support that come with Ann and Ronnie or the marketing and leads they know I can help them generate, but above all agents want respect and appreciation. They want to know that their thoughts won’t fall on deaf ears. They want a shoulder to cry on sometimes and a “hurrah” when they do well. Splits? Yes, nobody works for free, but in the right environment 60% of a lot beats 95% of almost nothing.

If it were all about the split, the 95% and 100% models would eat everyone else up. They don’t. They have their market share, but leadership, support, mentoring, and, yes, marketing and prospecting also trump raw percentages. 

This was said to me in a different industry, but any good broker who is building a team will recognize the wisdom. Agents don’t work for their broker. The broker works for the agents. Brokers who do not understand this often end up working alone. 

I have great respect for home inspectors. They perform a crucial job in the real estate process, and most I have worked with do their work with merit. Just about every good inspector I have ever dealt with has understood two very fundamental truths:

1. Be thorough and accurate. 
2. Do not scare the crap out of the buyer over a minor finding. 

There has long been an argument on how best to handle the first 30 days of a listing, and that is whether or not to speculate a bit at a slightly higher price, or to enter the market at a more aggressive number in the hope of a knockout punch. Some sellers, when they get an early offer, express an interest in holding out for a higher number; after all, they’ve only been on the market a week or a month. Many licensees I know believe that the best offer typically comes early. 

What is the truth? Every listing is different, and some early offers do in fact turn out to be hopeless lowballers. But overall, the data does seem to point out that early offers are higher than offers that come once the listing has been around the block a few times. 

In the first quarter of 2010, the Westchester -Putnam MLS has the following data for percentage of list price that homes sold for in 30 day increments. 

0-30 days:     97.5%

31-60 days:   95.7%

61-90 days:   95.1%

91-120 days: 94.7%

121+ days:    92%

Clearly, sale prices in the first 30 days on market are the highest percentage of asking price, but the first 90 days overall are fairly strong. Since less than 1% of sold homes even close in the first 30 days (30 days is almost ridiculously fast in New York), the most significant statistic in my view is the fact that even up to 90 days, the percentage of asking price is above 95%. Once you go past 4 months, it drops to 92%, and that is probably after a price reduction, which really makes it less than 90% of original asking price in most cases.  

Here’s an illustration that occured last spring of two virtually identical homes next to each other. 

Listing 1: Listed for $525,000 goes under contract in 44 days, sells for over 95% of asking price on day 82.

Listing 2: Listed for $549,000, undergoes 3 price reductions, is vacant at day 90, and finally closes at less than 92% of original asking price after 240 days, 150 of them vacant.  

The MLS statistics on the 2nd one are misleading, because the asking price by the end was reduced such that the final sales price was over 98% of asking. But it took 8 months! And overall the statistics are not promising. 

Here is the most telling statistic of all: 73% of all closed sales occurred after 120 days on market. Stale listings, that is, listings that have been on the market a longer time, sell for less. Unfortunately, most listings do take longer, and that is because most licensees are failing to educate sellers of this fact. 

Speculation at higher prices is, overall, incredibly costly in time, effort, stress, and overall costs. Sellers should be wise to this fact. Price it right, price it early, and you’ll sell for more, faster. 

One of the most misunderstood aspects of real estate is the tension on the part of agents, landlords and tenants when it comes to the sale of the rental property. It is really a 3-headed monster. 

Landlords selling their property often want to “keep it a secret” that the building is for sale; they fear that the renters will leave if they find out.

Tenants are often suspicious and uncooperative with showings, because they fear that new owners will force them to move from their home.  

Agents view tenants as problem children, because they are not easy to confirm showings with, are hard to reach, or do not allow access despite the terms of their lease requiring cooperation. Because of this, many agents dislike listing rental property or don’t give it their best effort.  

These misconceptions often make an otherwise straight forward process a nightmare. It does not have to be that way.Tenants who have a lease in force are protected from being forced to move by the terms of their lease.

In the State of New York, all rental property is sold subject to tenants’ rights. Simply put, no owner, old or new, can break a lease. If a tenant has a 3-year lease and the home changes ownership 6 months into the term, they still have 2 1/2 years of right to quiet enjoyment of their home. This is the case if King King himself bought the place. He can’t break their contract. 

If more people understood this fact, there would be far fewer problems selling rental property, and tenants would sleep far better at night. Rather than the landlord and listing agent conspiring to work in stealth, the better course of action would be to be upfront with the tenants, remind and reassure them of their rights, and operate transparently thereafter without the cloak and dagger headaches. 

Last week I wrote a blog post entitled Developers Should Spare the Trees. In it, I decried the clear cutting, scorched-Earth methodology of removing every single tree in the building of a new subdivision. Lo and behold, this past week, while driving not far from the inspiration of that post, I came upon the Sagamor subdivision in Hopewell Junction. 

I forget what initially caught my eye; it might have been a clump of trees near new-looking homes, but it doesn’t matter. I turned into the neighborhood and was happy to see that the developer did a fantastic job of keeping trees while still building beautiful homes. 

The homes themselves are very nice; typical houses are about 2500-3000 square feet above ground, and most if not all are center hall colonials with large yards (an acre or more) and 2-car garages. The development was completed around 2001. Recent sales in Sagamor are well above $500,000. The development is in the Wappinger Falls school district, with John Jay High school, Van Wyck Middle school, and Gayhead Elementary as the local public schools. 

Sagamor is located less than a mile from the Taconic State Parkway, so it is a very good location for commuters who need to get on the highway without a long trip. it is also right off of county Route 82, making it very convenient in inclement weather- county roads don’t stay unplowed for long.

I actually wasn’t going to do another piece on a Dutchess county neighborhood for a while, but the trees had me when I drove in. Big, majestic trees older than I am, proudly pointing skyward, spared the bulldozer because the builder was too smart to put dollars over beauty and nature.  Hats off to the builder!