Two weeks ago a colleague asked me about Triple Play. I had no idea what he was talking about. Triple Play, he explained, is a convention put on jointly for NAR members from Pennsylvania, New Jersey, and New York, held in Atlantic City. I’m not a big convention guy, but I checked it out. The events were pretty interesting, with continuing ed, speakers, a large exhibition, and receptions in the evening.
So here I am, on my laptop, choosing whether I want to hear the Mobile technologyspeaker or the guy on connecting with online consumers. I arrived late yesterday and caught up with some colleagues I seldom get a chance to hang with. We attended the New York reception, then had dinner at Caesar’s. I really enjoyed that, I have to tell you.
This will have to qualify as my vacation for 2009.
I’m not the first to lament what stupid things some agents do to tarnish our profession. Incompetence, malfeasance, shoddy standards and putting their own needs ahead of the client’s have been well documented. It isn’t much fun being the first licensee the person speaks with after a bad experience with their last agent.
Earlier this evening I met with a home owner who had just ended a 6 month listing contract with another broker. His experiences made me sad, to say the least. The curious thing was how a well priced, beautiful home like his could have expired unsold. The answer was that it WAS sold, but the deal died after he’d been in contract for 2 months. The instances of poor brokering and bad advice just kept piling up as he explained.
After he accepted an offer on the home, someone knocked on his door with a $30,000 check. They had been trying to reach his agent but couldn’t get a call back. They wanted to buy the home. His broker never returned their call. So, in desperation the buyer knocked on his door. It was too late, as contracts had been signed not long before.
The buyer’s downpayment with the signed contract was half what they agreed. His agent told him that they shouldn’t worry over such a detail, as it would close in 45 days anyway.
The buyer applied for an FHA loan, but the contract forbade that sort of financing, because it was a condo in a complex without FHA approval.
The buyer pumped the contract price up $20,000 to finance a seller concession without disclosing their need for a concession in the beginning. His agent told him not to sweat this, and that it would close quickly.
The house under appraised. When the seller’s attorney demanded proof, it was found to have appraised out just fine,
The buyer was turned down for a loan after the house had been off the market and under contract for the previous 2 months.
Given the bad faith displayed by the buyer, the seller decided not to release their downpayment. His agent screamed that he could not do so. The seller wondered aloud who the listing broker worked for. I don’t blame him, nor does his attorney.
When the discussion of extending the expired listing came up, the seller wanted to renegotiate the commission. The broker told him to take it or leave it.
A half decent agent would have vetted this buyer and kicked them to the curb, and then sold the place to the guy with the $30,000 check. They also would have returned the other buyer’s call. His agent did neither except for mindless encouragement to just do the doomed deal, sealing his fate and making the rest of us having to work that much harder to restore our profession’s dignity.
10 McDougal Lane in Cortlandt Manor closed Friday, December 4. I listed it September 5, we had 2 offers by mid October, and it went under contract 10/31. The buyers went FHA, so it was a little bit of a wait from there. This is not to pat myself on the back, but rather to pat the seller on the back.
Every so often, a seller “gets it.” They are eager to know what I know, and they follow my recommendations as best they can, often to the letter. And guess what? They get what they want. Case in point: There was a home very similar to our listing that was priced in the low 300’s for quite a while. It looked like the same house on a nearby street and the builder and architect were probably the same guys. After some time, that other listing cancelled at $309,000.
My view was that if we priced at 299,000, we’d get more and better eyeballs on our place. And even though the economy was crummy and the autumn was less than ideal, we averaged a showing every 2.5 days until we got our accepted offer and the thing got put to bed in early December. Price points matter, and my client saw what I saw. We collaborated well as a team, handled the negotiations and inspection issues like soldiers and now the guy can have a Christmas without the old house to worry about. My hat is off to him.
It goes without saying that there are dozens of homes in that zip code that were for sale when John’s house went up for sale that remain unsold. The moral of the story? Find the right broker (like, for instance, ME), take their coaching, and be a team.
I have been on both sides of an offer in multiple offer situations. Whether I am the listing agent or buyer agent I often see buyers view the news of multiple offers with incredulity. More often than not, they just don’t believe it. If they think that the news is just a trick to get them to raise their offer and they hold firm, they often lose the house.
While I don’t dispute the existence of dishonest licensees who fabricate competing offers, in my experience the overwhelming majority of multiple bid situations are legitimate. There are two main reasons for this:
If you like a well priced, well cared for, updated house in a good location, then the chances of someone else liking it are fairly high. The notion that a buyer’s market is devoid of anyone actively looking but you is inaccurate. This is still the USA. There are still people looking to buy a home.
The consequences of fabricating a false competing offer are catastrophic. Suppose the agent lied about another offer to get you to raise your bid and it backfired-instead of raising your offer, you instead withdraw it. That agent just lost their commission, and will look pretty silly when the house never goes under contract in the MLS. Few listing agents would risk losing their entire commission and reputation when a solid sale is within their grasp. Moreover, if the seller found out, they could rightly get the agent in huge trouble with the law and real estate board. It makes no sense to take that risk, even if you don’t have scruples.
There have been a few times when a listing goes from 2-3 offers to nothing, and that is as rare as it is rough. But it does happen. We’ve had multiple bid situations where the deal we accepted didn’t perform, and the other offers moved on to other homes leaving us with nothing. To outward appearances it looks bad. But it does happen, and as hard as we strive to have the seller go with the best buyer, you don’t know how buyers will behave until you engage them.
Westchester has a lot of really nice communities with built in demand that transcends the economy. Buyers will go for the nicer homes at the same time even in a slow market. It may seem coincidental, but in most cases coincidence is just a reflection of the reality on the ground. If you have you eye on the prettiest girl at the dance, you probably aren’t alone. The same goes with the best deals. So if you see one you like, remember that if you like it, it may appeal to others. Plan your actions accordingly. The times are on your side.
After a mild autumn, a light snowfall has covered Westchester County. Like most of Westchester, Briarcliff is already quite pretty, so seeing it covered with snow adds to the beauty. We have friends in from out of town, so it is actually kind of idyllic. Kevin Crego, my old college roomie at Villanova just arrived (and apparently brought the snow from Rochester), and we’ve already had Mike Brophy since yesterday.
Typical day with a friend from out of town- Mike rode shotgun with me this morning while I showed some clients co op apartments.
Kevin taught me the real estate business and is Luke’s godfather. Mike was the best man at my wedding and is godfather to Catherine. Both live far away, so visits like this are rare. Kevin runs a brokerage in Rochester, while Mike lives in Texas. The photo doesn’t do the view justice- it as if everything outside were covered in crystal while we enjoy the warmth of catching up with dear friends indoors.
This was a video taken at my house after Thanksgiving dinner (and before dessert) by my older brother Tom. Clearly, my children have mastered the art of saying “cheese” when they see a camera. The oldest of our 4, Luke, makes only a brief appearance for some reason because he was preoccupied with some project. The older 2 are my nephews Joe and Tim, and my mother, Sister in law Brigid, and Ann round out the cast (oh, and Max, our rescued German Shepherd who, as nearly 2, is still a pup).
2 year old Mark seems like triplets at times, but it is all the same little guy. That extra couch next to the piano has been there for months. We still have to figure out what we want to do with it. That’s life!
Here’s one we don’t often ask: When an agent has a closing, how long before they get paid their commission? The reasons I ask is this: when one of my agents brings in a check, I pay them. I know some places they wait until the check clears, but that is really not a big issue here because the odds of an attorney trust check or a bank check bouncing are very long and the consequences dire.
Other firms cut checks on designated days of the month just to have a system. We are an independent firm with a rather manageable size, so that seems unneeded for us. I was interviewing agents today, and their current firm takes 30 days to pay them. That is just ridiculous. I get paid on the spot, why not the agent who brought in the business? They’ve already waited months in most cases.
I welcome thoughts from those that sign checks and those that cash them.
Home sales rose almost 10% in Westchester County this October compared to last October while the median price remained almost exactly the same at $575,000. The average (mean) sale price actually rose by $10,000. How can this be? How could prices remain steady yet the number of sales actually rise? Is Westchester that insulated from the economic woes of the rest of the nation? Neighboring Rockland county also had an increase in sales but their median price was down over 11% from last October. So what gives with Westchester?
There are a number of reasons why this was a better October than 2008. First, October of 2008 was utterly deplorable; the financial crisis had just hit, wiping out scores of pending closings as Wall Street reeled and Fannie Mae & Freddie Mac nearly went insolvent. Second, after a year of sluggishness, there was pent up demand that transcended circumstances for people still able to buy. Third, the tax credit made a difference, especially in view of the fact that many thought it would expire November 30 and buyers scrambled to beat the deadline.
Now wait, you might ask, people buying a $575,000 house didn’t qualify for the tax credit. Maybe some didn’t but who do you think bought their homes, if they weren’t first time buyers? I’ll tell you who: people who qualified for the credit, that’s who.
We are far from a solid recovery in my view. There are too many distressed homes to have a permanent upward trend in prices. We had a slightly better October than a rotten previous October. But better than “rotten” doesn’t make it great, any more than having the best suite in the Titanic made that trip any better. In spite of this piece of encouragement, don’t be shocked if prices go down even more.
10 years ago, during Thanksgiving week of 1999, I went on a lunch date. It went pretty well; we said goodbye at 1:30… AM. I lived upstate in Rochester at the time and she was in Queens, so by June of 2000 I was back home in Westchester to be closer to her. In December of 2000 we were engaged, and on September 29, 2001 Ann Lee became Ann Lee Faranda.
Luke arrived 9 months and 2 weeks later; After a miscarriage, Catherine came to us in January of 2004. In December of 2004 Gregory completed our “Korean Twins,” and Mark was born in March of 2007.
In the midst of all this production, Ann got her real estate license and started to help me build the company. With her help (and belief in me), the company went from a part-time venture out of a bedroom in mid-2005 to a dozen agent operation and growing, with multiple offices as I type this. Her strengths made up for my weaknesses, and we have made a great team.
So today, 43 year years to the day after she was born and 10 years and a few days after we first met I have to say that I’m glad I took her to lunch. She didn’t look her age when we met and like most “cougars,” she sure doesn’t look her age now. That is saying a great deal for a self employed mom of 4, all under the age of 8…and who has to deal with ME every day.
A few things you don’t know about Ann, the silent partner who is not silent when we’re alone:
After a 3-day ordeal giving birth to Luke and an Emergency C-Section, the first time she held her son she buried her face in his hair and said we should have 10 more. If we met at 23 instead of 33 we might have.
When she was in labor, she’s talk about what we needed to do differently next pregnancy/delivery.
She speaks 5 languages.
She plays piano, guitar and cello
She OK’d a dog in our wedding party
She is the company webmaster/webmistress (oh, the imagery)
She went to Columbia as an undergrad and has an MBA as well, but she is most proud of being a Stuyvesant alum
She’s on only child who revels in our children’s relationships with each other
She makes better lasagna than my mother
If you can think of it, she can make an excel spreadsheet on it
She types almost 200 wpm
She still has the legs of a Rockette!
In spite of the above facts, she still married ME.
So, lucky me, and happy birthday to Ann/Mommy/Mrs. Faranda, and at least 43 more (please).
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