If you talk to different people in Westchester County, you’ll get different opinions as to the direction the market is taking. One appraiser tells me he’s never seen things so dead; another lawyer feels like things have picked up noticeably. With the April 30 deadline for the tax stimulus fewer than 6 weeks away, we all wonder what May 1 will bring. 

I for one am busy, and I don’t take it for granted. But how is the market doing overall? And how much effect did the stimulus really have on Westchester County real estate? 

If one looks at the numbers from the MLS data for the time from January 1-March 20 for 2009 and 2010, the answer would have to be that the market is indeed up. 

For the first 80 days of 2009, there were 371 single family homes sold in Westchester at a median price of $535,000. 

In the same period this year, there were 645 single family homes sold in Westchester at a median price of $604,500. That is a 74% increase in total transactions and a $69,500 increase in median price. 2010 is off to a far better start than 2009. 

How much of it is due to an organic improvement in the market and the stimulus? God only knows. If the market tanks on May 1, the answer will be a great deal was due to the tax credit. If the Spring market continues to be busy, we can only hope that the momentum lasts through the rest of the year and that we have turned the corner. We are still a long way off from a sellers market, but stability and consumer confidence would be a welcome thing in Westchester and the surrounding market areas. 

While driving up Broadway in Yonkers yesterday I spotted some deer grazing on the lawn of the Richmond Children’s Center. I thought I’d stop to take a quick snapshot, when I realized that this wasn’t a deer or two that wandered, it was SEVEN of them, grazing quite brazenly, in an area that is virtually miles from woods and is densely developed. I was not alone; others stopped to see this rare sight.  

Yet again, Yonkers surprises me. 

My parents met and married while living in Yonkers- I have deep roots there. I am working on a deal not far from the neighborhood. Yesterday was a hectic day, but this incredible sight was food for the soul in the midst of the chaos. The lady across the street at the end of the video lives right nearby and she said this was the first time she had ever seen that many deer in the area. They would have had to cross a bridge just to get there, unless they just walked down Broadway.

Incidentally, this is THE Broadway, the continuation of Broadway in Manhattan, which goes all the way to Albany. 

Perhaps they were on their way to an audition and were taking a break. They sure didn’t have stage fright. 

Astonishing.

New HAFA rules are forcing home sellers to negotiate directly with subordinate liens, or, in common terms, second mortgages, on their own, according to Bankrate.com. The way the rules are written, there is a financial incentive for the 2^nd mortgage  to settle and release the lien, but the onus of getting assurances that the bank will settle rests on the borrower, which seems incongruous with the intent of the law. If the law is that the bank gets $3,000 from the government to settle, then it is the government who should be getting written assurances that they will indeed settle, not the borrower. The article points out that distressed sellers are already beleaguered and beaten up and in no condition to play hardball with another bank.

I agree. Distressed home sellers ought not do this on their own. They need an advocate, and a third party with experience is very likely going to get a better result than a beaten up home owner. This is what we do, but rather than make this post a commercial I’ll also add that here in New York, the attorney should be on the front lines dealing with the 2^nd mortgage as well as the first. The attorneys that we have on our team are excellent; the sellers can rest assured that the arrangements they help negotiate are the very best that can be agreed to. They also read the “fine print” with a fine tooth comb. The devil is in the details in these things, especially in New York.

All short sale agreements from lenders should be in writing, and all short sale agreements from lender should specify that they will not go after the borrower for the difference after closing. Anyone can get a short sale with no assurances of financial security after the closing. It takes a professional to ensure that the seller’s obligations in a short sale end at closing with no residual debt. That is our job, and that is how we do our short sales.

Doing a short sale on your own invites peril. We have done dozens, and that puts you in good hands compared to the guy in the mirror

originally posted at NY Short Sale Blog

This is one of those half-written thoughts that I’ve had since 1996 when I entered the real estate industry, walked through the homes of other folks, and began to witness, first hand, how people live other than myself. Specifically, the, shall we say, storage of belongings. What they do with their stuff, and what stuff they deem worth keeping around, intrigues me. 

Some background: my parents were children of the Depression and hated waste. So they became hoard- um, savers. I have many memories of walking through a living room with piles of books, periodicals and newspapers (which they read, at least) next to chairs into the kitchen where I would find a cookie tin with an inviting label. Since my brother was diabetic, this was extraordinary. I’d pounce on it and open it in half a breath only to find it filled with plastic spoons. Bummer. Somewhere around the age of 9 I asked my mother why we had so many plastic spoons. I don’t recall the exact answer but suffice to say I was genetically predisposed to being a BS artist. 

If you opened our hutch drawers they would have lots of STUFF in them: pens, papers, paperclips, screwdrivers, old glasses with broken lenses, checkbooks from closed bank accounts, coupons, soup labels from an old fund raiser, rosary beads, a broken watch, keys from a car we no longer owned, rubber bands, a stethoscope (my mom was a nurse), and, somewhere at the bottom, a local phone book.

The kitchen cupboard was another adventure in sundries, with canned goods that were there when I was 5 and still dear friends when I was in my 30’s. I recall one particular bottle of glucose stuff (“Glucola”) in the refrigerator meant for my brother in case of an insulin reaction that survived 3 icebox migrations that must have been brandy by the time we gave it back to God.  

Fast forward to 1996 and I am in my first month of showing homes to buyers. We are in a kitchen and I get a page (yes, I had a pager back then), and I opened a drawer to get a pen.

There, in their drawer, was a pen.

And a pad.

And nothing else. Nothing. In their drawer.  What kind if sick people are these owners? A closer look at their food pantry yielded nothing but stuff ready to eat. No canned beets. No Rice-a-Roni from 1974. Their spice rack was simply spices. Their silverware drawer had just silverware- and you could see the bottom of the drawer. It was wood. I knew this intellectually, but there was proof. There was no puss ‘n boots potholder to obscure the view. 

1000 kitchens and closets later, I am still awed at people with empty attics, organized closets with nothing but clothes that they wear, and garages with just cars in them. Our garage had a car once. The rest of my youth it looked like a workshop of a guy who graduated at the bottom of the class at mad scientist school. My father was no Frankenstein. I think he liked decoupage. The hard way.  

Of course, I also walk through homes of people I must be related to somehow. I was once in a home with more cats than she’d admit. Dozens. Yet it is the clean, organized people I view with a mix of envy and fear. I envy the simplicity. I fear what part of me I’d have to amputate to be that way. The reprogramming it would take to be that clean and organized scares me. I am proud of one thing I have done mostly on my own with help from my very organized (and tolerant) wife: we have very few plastic spoons. 

J. Philip Real Estate will be participating a home buyer seminar for anyone interested in learning more about the process with no charge and no obligation on April 7, 2010 at a site to be announced shortly. We are flattered to have been asked to be the real estate broker presenting at the event. There will also be a home inspector, lawyer and loan officer present. The information will cover the steps from pre-qualification/pre-approval to closing, and the information will be good for both first-time and “move up” buyers. 

Each profession will give their presentation on their role in the transaction, and there will also be a question and answer session to address specific concerns and inquiries. We believe the location will be in Briarcliff Manor, so check back and I will post time and location as soon as it is finalized.

There is just about 45 days left to take advantage of the stimulus tax credit, and that is ample time to get out there and find your next home. I strongly encourage anyone who is on the fence about taking this step in life to consider that prices and rates will not remain low forever, and all you need to do to start the process is get a free Listingbook account and start browsing the plethora of well-priced, available homes.  

Amy Hoak’s timely article on HAFA and short sales in yesterday’s Journal concludes with timely advice that I wrote myself the very same day. The article focuses on the many pitfalls of short sales, as well as the new HAFA (Home Affordable Foreclosure Alternatives) regulations which are set to go into effect on April 5, 2010.

Here is what I wrote yesterday:

Yet people still do not ask their prospective agents how many short sales they have closed. You simply cannot be a specialist with no experience; I’m sorry. I don’t care if you have a PhD or a photo shaking the Pope’s hand. What they taught you in class simply isn’t all it takes to handle the loss mitigation department of a lender. Sellers need to understand that if they hire an inexperienced agent to do their short sale, they do so at their own peril. I’d never want a surgeon cutting their teeth on my gall bladder, a lawyer apprenticing at the expense of my freedom, or an agent getting their feet wet at the expense of my finances.

Simply ask : “How many short sales have you successfully closed?” prior to listing your home. That will guide you far better than a patch on their arm.

Sellers at the conclusion of the Journal article are advised much the same thing: to ask their prospective agent how many short sales they have successfully completed, and how many were lost to foreclosure.

Obviously, the word is getting out. Experience trumps marketing when your financial life is at stake.

Originally posted at NY Short Sale Blog

The gentleman pictured here is at the pre-close walkthrough of one of my listings which recently closed. He’s not the buyer. He isn’t the buyer’s agent. He’s the loan officer. I won’t name him here, but let’s call him Mr. Big Mouth. 

Mr Big Mouth, so far as I can tell, is a competent loan originator, and the buyer’s financing was no issue throughout the process. However, Mr. Big Mouth decided that being a competent loan originator isn’t enough, and that he’d like to play home inspector and real estate broker also. This much is certain- he’s no psychologist. If he were, Mr. Big Mouth would know that people who are about to close on a home are under “stress” in many cases, and that pointing out every picayune dust bunny or mentioning that we’ll probably “need an electrician” for a bad light bulb is probably a bad idea. 

Anyway, Mr. Big Mouth contributed to the adjournment of the closing from 11am until 4pm when a $500 escrow probably would have sufficed. We’ll never know. What we do know is that Mr. Big Mouth decided that playing his position in a transaction is not enough, and even looking out for his borrower isn’t enough. What is more fun to Mr. Big Mouth is to pretend he’s a lawyer, real estate agent, electrician and home inspector on the morning of a closing. 

Mr Big Mouth put me on his email list that morning, and I promptly unsubscribed. Mr. Big Mouth will never get a loan referral from me. Mr. Big Mouth isn’t even worth a mention were it not for the fact that sometimes you need a good vent. 

Vent concluded.