My name is Phil and I am addicted to chocolate. My mother was the same way. I got Jeanne’s gene. When you have a homemade confectionery on the same road as your office, the power of suggestion can be compelling. Especially around Valentine’s Day, when justification for indulgence seems so…reasonable. 

Chocolate Chalet has been a fixture in Briarcliff since I was a kid. I know my mother went there. I know it. It isn’t just that the place sells chocolate. You can get the store stuff anywhere. What is so appealing about Chocolate Chalet is that they sell really ridiculously delicious, homemade, Sammy Davis Junior- sings- about it- chocolate. This is the sort of treasure that, once nibbled upon, would make you feel cheated that you didn’t discover the place earlier. It is that good. It is delicious. Decadent. Exquisite. Luscious. Scrumptious. Dreamy. Yummy. Willy Wonka would walk out of this place in tears muttering he’s not worthy. I feel dirty just sharing it with you. I want it for myself. But, thank goodness, they keep making more. 

And the taste is just the beginning. They are so creative. I mean, some boxes were made of chocolate. Want a piquant mint or raspberry jelly? They got it. Truffles? Of course. Coconut? They have chewy and crunchy. I’m a milk chocolate guy, but they also have dark chocolate too. No matter the flavor,  the presentation is done to perfection. I never thought I’d ever use the phrase, but they stage their chocolate. 

I don’t know how to make homemade chocolate. I don’t know what sort of hypnosis they must use on the counter workers to prevent them from becoming addicted, or morbidly obese. These are mysteries of the universe to me, like quarks, relativity and ontological metaphysics. I am just glad someone unlocks the door of this place every morning and lovingly decorates the front window with each season so I can indulge. 

You need to experience True Love. You need to see the Grand Canyon. The same goes for Mardis Gras.This place belongs on your bucket list also, even if you live on the west coast. Or Australia. 

I am often asked by seller clients “what are these people thinking?” when a low offer comes in. I can only speak of what I see in my marketplace (Westchester and other suburban New York counties), and it is easy to answer “they AREN’T thinking,” but the real truth is far more complex. At the heart of it all is always self interest, which is the very same reason why sellers want the most they can get themselves. 

First, a few obvious motivations:

• Speculation– Hey, you never know, the seller might just go for it. Sadly, there are some mud throwers in this group who will make 20 low offers hoping one sticks. Some are wanna-be investors, others just want to live cheaply (do you blame them?).   
• Bad advice- The buyer’s agent made too lofty a promise about what they could do for them, or their Uncle Cornelius thinks he’s a wheeler dealer at Sunday dinner.
• Media Hysteria-The TV or newspaper reports that property values are down 50% in Kerflinkle County, two time zones away. The trouble with this one is that all real estate is local, and what is happening in Las Vegas or Gary, Indiana is not happening in Yonkers or Mount Kisco. 

I should have known something would be up when the walk wasn’t shoveled…

Here’s the new kitchen:

Here’s the new bath:

Thinking that perhaps the place was vandalized, I called the listing agent. 

Him: “Oh, did you call Centralized Showings? The pipes burst and we discontinued showings.”

Me: “CSS isn’t responsible. You are. You should temporarily withdraw the house if it can’t be shown for 48 hours.”

Him: “Um, OK. I didn’t think it was a big deal because we already have an accepted offer.”

Me: <redacted>

This is what I published. What I won’t publish is the email I sent his broker. 

For Sale by Owner, or FSBO is not uncommon in Westchester County. I have sold quite a few of them. I had an interest in a FSBO assistance firm, and a number of selling gurus like Craig Proctor have systems for converting FSBOs to listings thorugh such programs. I have seen dozens of FSBOs sell their own homes, and I am firmly convinced after what I have seen that most people who sell on their own are doing themselves a disservice. 

First, let me say “most.” If a guy puts an ad in the paper and sells his house in one weekend with no broker involvement and the buyer closes, he can consider himself lucky. I’d call that catching lightning in a bottle. But the vast majority of FSBOs don’t have that sort of luck, and they actually shoot themselves in the foot. Here are a few myths of selling “by owner” that should be dispelled

1. FSBOs save money. Not really, no. The commission line item is certainly nice on the closing statement, but FSBOs do not net as much money as people who go through brokerage for a variety of reasons. One big reason is that the vast majority of buyers are already using an agent, so FSBOs have far fewer eyeballs, and therefore an anemic market, to showcase their property. In this market, good buyers hook up with an agent fast. And agents won’t put a FSBO on the top of the list. 
2. Owners know their house better, so they can sell it more effectively. To be blunt, most owners already suck at selling anything, and that suckyness gets amplified when it is their own house. I have seen owners talk too much, annoy buyers, ask personal questions, say dumb things and shoot themselves in the foot, and disclose things they ought not disclose to buyers, all to the owner’s peril. 
3. Who needs an agent’s guidance? I have a lawyer. I have never seen a lawyer climb up into an attic with a home inspector. I could count on one hand the times I could reach a lawyer on an evening or weekend. Lawyers aren’t brokers, and they don’t want to do the running around or work that agents do. Moreover a law degree doesn’t make someone good at selling or negotiating. Different skills. Watching a lawyer play broker is as unbecoming as watching a broker act like a lawyer. Embarrassing.  
4. Negotiation isn’t a big deal. Buyer and seller both want the same thing. This is actually where choosing the wrong agent gives owners ammunition. If someone is going to screw up a deal, they’d rather do it them self and save the fee. I almost don’t blame them, were it not for the fact that a good agent is worth their weight in gold. An expert negotiator knows when to push, when to pull back, when to “take it away,” when to pursue, and what questions to ask. I have seen owners screw up a good deal in January and end up finally selling in August for $100,000 less. But they saved the commission! 

 There are a few other things a FSBO should consider:

• FSBOs don’t know how to qualify a buyer or what questions to ask.
• FSBOs can’t handle objections
• FSBOs seldom understand how to identify the buyer’s wants and needs
• FSBOs often have BIG MOUTHS and buy their houses back with ill advised remarks. I have seen owners ask buyers about their nationality, marital or family status or equally unflattering questions to make the point that there are other Martians or Venutians on the same block.  
• FSBOs can be played like a fiddle if the buyer has an agent representing them. 
• FSBOs often don’t price their house right, costing them in the long run.
• FSBOs are not objective. They can’t be. 
• Many buyers don’t want to deal directly with the owner. 
• Many buyers are suspicious of owners selling themselves. 
• FSBOs are often the target of the poorly qualified and bargain hunters who also buy into the myth that cutting the brokers out saves money. So who saves? The buyer or the seller? It can’t be both. 
• FSBOs seldom grasp the liability they incur for lead paint, radon, property condition disclosure, code compliance, and plenty of other potentially expensive issues.
• FSBOs do not have access to the marketing resources a Realtor has, even if they pay a limited service company to put them on the MLS
• Bona fide buyers should be rightly aware of these facts prior to engaging a For Sale by Owner without a broker representing them.  

Spring is almost here, and many Westchester County home owners will be listing their homes for sale. Given that the market in New York is still weak, I am often asked what sellers can do to gain a competitive advantage. Here are a few guidelines:

1. Choose a good Realtor. Look for track record, references, experience and a sensible marketing plan. Don’t list because they are a friend or relative, quoted you the highest price, or lowest commission. That is fool’s gold. A good agent gets the job done and is worth their fee. Here is a post I wrote on choosing an agent: 

• Angry With Your agent? Look in the Mirror 

If you are considering selling “by owner” give it 30 days tops. Don’t languish invisibly from now until August and then give it to an agent right when Autumn is around the corner. And just so we’re clear, you probably aren’t as good a salesperson as you think you are, you probably won’t save money, and your attorney won’t fill in all the gaps you have without an agent. More on that in another post. 

2. Price the home right. Here are a few posts I have already made on the subject:

• How NOT to Price Your Home 
• The Secret to Getting a Bidding War
• NY Home Buyers Extremely Price Conscious
• Buyers Want Cheap Dirt, Dirt Cheap

One suggestion as far as pricing goes: look at SOLD properties in the last 6 months, not asking prices on the Pennysaver or Craigslist. If you don’t want to have an agent over to go over comparables just yet, you can search the sold listings yourself with a free Listingbook account.  

3. Accommodate showing requests! Often, Westchester buyers are in town just for the day from Manhattan, Long Island or New Jersey. Some have flown in for the weekend from far away. They have to be allowed in, even if it is inconvenient. There are few things more frustrating to your listing agent (who is spending money on marketing) to bring a buyer to your door and have you not answer the bell. People cannot buy what they cannot see. Even if the place is an unholy mess and you have guests in from Europe, there is a 100% chance it will not sell if these buyers cannot see it. Err on the side of showing the home.   

4. Clean up or, better yet, stage! Clean, well presented homes sell faster and for more money than cluttered, unkempt places. More thoughts:

• The Best Reason for Hiring a Home Stager

5. Have your compliance act together. Now is the time to make sure that your finished basement, new bathroom and deck are legal with permits and certificates of occupancy. Illegal improvements slow down and often kill deals. Westchester municipalities are typically very strict about permits and COs. Title companies will not insure a home out of compliance and that can scuttle your transaction.  

If you follow these guidelines, you have more than a competitive edge, you are likely to be packing in the near future. Once you get an offer you have a whole new set of suggestions to get you across the finish line, which will be posted soon. 

The company started out with just me. Then, when I was in the weeds once, my wife Ann answered my cell phone for me. That got her on board. Not long afterward, a young guy asked me for help on a home he wanted to buy and resell. He became my first agent.

That’s how it began.

Along the way, I attracted investors seeking opportunities and agents would come aboard. My best recruiting tool was my agents themselves. The team grew organically. I ran an ad for agents from time to time, but I got more from word of mouth and my blog than any hiring advertisement. Today we have 15 agents, making us a modest sized office, and my own inventory is the bulk of the company listings, but it is my baby and I am growing the Enterprise. I have one ad out there for recruiting, and that is it right now. 

There have been times when I was targeting the same buyer or seller as one of my agents, and even times when the agents competed with each other. I think that happens with any company. There was one time when I listed a for sale by owner, and, unbeknownst to me, beat out one of my agents. When he saw that he”lost” to me, he told me about it and I made him the co-lister. That was a mistake. I should have made him the listing agent, but that was the first instance I ever “competed” with an agent and know better now. He would have taken better care of the file. It was foreclosed on, unfortunately, and the people had terrible judgment. I would have had a more credible role coming in to assist him and setting them straight instead of being the primary horn locker. 

Today, the company policy is that anytime I have the same prospect in my radar as one of my agents, ‘ll do everything I can to get the business into the house. After that, it is the agent’s client. They get their commission, I get my split. Everyone wins.

The company where I learned the business was a father/son team who were like family. They trained me very well, and I thought nothing of the fact that they were in the field. Frankly, I loved that; if I had a tough one, Kevin or Paul would come with me on an appointment and lasso the deal more often than not. I learned a great deal watching them work. 

Now I read on Active Rain and other places that some agents would prefer that the broker or manager not be in the field “competing” with the agents. One said it is unethical (!). Another says it is like the coach playing in the game. Of course, the anecdotal examples of brokers and managers stealing leads and cherry picking for themselves while they agents get the scraps are galling, but that isn’t how I run my firm. 

We have everything from newbies to established agents. We don’t have any superstars yet (In NY a top producer sells 20+ houses a year) but a few who have sold in the teens when the market was healthier. If I ceased producing, there wouldn’t be much of a company. It isn’t big enough yet. To a man, my agents like my knowledge and respect that I am out there with them. Many use me wisely. I have an open offer to all that if all they do is set the appointment up with a tough expired or FSBO that I’ll go and get the forms signed for them. After that, it is their deal with the same split as if they did everything themselves. All agents know that only they will get inquiries on their listings. Ann and Ronnie, the full time admin people who do not sell, see to that. If I were to scavenge those calls I would be a cannibal and the growth of the firm would cease. You don’t eat your young. 

 
It would be dishonest to paint myself as Mother Theresa and that that I give everything away. I don’t. It is my company. I built it from half a bedroom to where we are now. If there is a call on my listing, it is mine until I assign it. I do cherry pick some calls, but I often end up making a hand off if I cannot give the client 100%. I also have people ask for me specifically because I am getting to stage where people are referred or come in because of my blog. That takes a lot of my time. 
 
I would love to work 9-5 from an office and not run around. I would be delighted to have my nights and weekends to myself. At some point, perhaps when we get another 15-20 active agents, I will scale back for the sake of my family. However, that will be the end of the line for the newbies, who won’t have a crack at all my listing calls. The company could be different then. We’ll see. We are still inventing it. I believe that a growing, vital company has to have a mix of new and experienced. That seems to be what works in this market. 
 
So, I consider myself to be more of a Quarterback than a Coach. You might think Drew Brees, but I like Eli Manning or Phil Simms. The bottom line, however, to those who abhor a “competing” manager or broker, is that if what I did were so bad, we wouldn’t be growing like we are. The results speak for themselves. 

My team doesn’t work for me. I work for the team. If we aren’t a team, the show can’t go on.

“5 under 5 in the 914”

Some people need a lot of bedrooms. In my case, we have 4 children, so having more than 4 bedrooms was optimal. Here’s the challenge: kids are expensive, and so are 5 bedroom homes. Something has to give. Well, something did give. The market crashed, so there are now 44 homes in Westchester County priced at $500,000 or below with 5 or more bedrooms. I personally know of a 45th coming too. I’m going to list a 6 bedroom very soon. 

I found these 5 bedroom homes all over Westchester: My Vernon, Mt Kisco, Croton on Hudson, Ossining, White Plains, Yonkers, Cortlandt Manor, New Rochelle, Millwood, and even one with a Scarsdale mailing address. If you want to search for yourself log onto Listingbook and check out the available homes. 

Westchester is a great place to live and work. I have posted about the place before, and after having lived elsewhere for many years, I am happy to be back home. 

When I first started my company in 2005, there were almost no single family homes in Westchester County priced below $500,000. Often, they’d be undesirable little shacks with 2 bedrooms and no yard. Not so today. As I type this, there are 319 single family homes  actively for sale in Westchester County under $400,000 with 3 or more bedrooms. They are all over the place too; north, south and central parts of the county all have inventory. I did a perfunctory search on the MLS ( Westchester Putnam Multiple Listing Service) this morning, and I saw 3 bedroom Westchester homes (not condos or co ops, but single family homes with yards) in Bedford, Cortlandt, Yorktown, White Plains, Elmsford, Ossining, Croton on Hudson, Yonkers, Mt Vernon, Port Chester, Peekskill, Mt Kisco, West Harrison, Sleepy Hollow and South Salem, just to start.

See for yourself. Log onto Listingbook for free and search the same MLS database I search and check out the inventory. Search by school district, zip code, town, and whatever other criteria you deem important. Thanks to Wikipedia Commons, I have posted the map below of Westchester County showing the municipal and school district boundaries. It gives a good approximation of lay of the land, and if you want to see a larger version click on Wikipedia Commons.  

I get asked every day if now is a good time to buy. It depends on your circumstances. Given the low rates, $8,000 tax credit, pricing and available inventory, buyers are in a better position now than they have been in many years. If you are on the fence, contact me with any questions you might have and we can weigh the pros and cons for your situation. In case you’re wondering, I have indeed told people if I thought they weren’t in a good position to buy.  

If you are thinking of moving to Westchester from elsewhere, as a native of “the 914” who spent 15 years in 5 other states, it is a wonderful place to live. Peruse my blog and check out my other posts on this county. All are welcome, even Met and Red Sox fans. 

Not long ago, I submitted an offer on behalf of some very good buyers I represent. These are dream clients-very well qualified, fun, and sincere. We’ve been looking for longer than usual, but that happens sometimes. The area they like has some nice stuff, but much of it is overpriced. None of the houses they have seriously considered but ultimately passed on have sold yet. All they want is a house they love in good condition at a price they feel is justified. It is a big buyers market here right now.  

On the home they made the offer on, we went back for a second look and ran market activity in the area prior to making the offer. Based on our research, we decided to make a respectable, but not full priced offer: over 91% of asking price. In a market where it is not unusual for buyers to offer far less, we expected a counter offer. Instead, the listing agent (I should add that the owner is an agent also) responded that the owner would not make a counter unless we raised the offer. 

This was unwise, and I told the agent that it would send a wrong message to my cash buyers to not at least give us a counter offer when we were above 91% of the asking price. After some back and forth, they got the owner to get us a counter offer. After a short negotiation, we had a meeting of the minds at 96% of asking. This will be the 3rd or 4th deal in the past 6 months where the seller initially wanted to simply refuse the initial offer that tuned into a deal, and in all the cases the brokers were able to convince the seller to make a counter instead of a refusal. In all of those cases, the counter offer prevented the deals from being stillborn. 

It costs nothing to make a counter offer to what may be perceived as a low offer from qualified buyers. You have everything to gain and nothing to lose by making a counter offer, even if the initial offer seems insulting. Buyers don’t want to have their offers taken personally. They want to do business. Even if a seller feels slighted by a “lowball” offer, they should still keep a stiff upper lip and negotiate. Personal feelings can kill deals. Moreover, if you insult a buyer in this market, you run the risk of having to wait a long time to sell. I have seen several cases where that initial “insult” offer seems like a dream 6 months and three price reductions later. 

Often, the first offer is the best offer. It may not be to your liking, but all buyers should be taken seriously in the time we live in. You never know what possibilities exist if you kill the deal in it’s infancy. Always answer with a number- never refuse.