J. Philip Faranda is the Broker and Owner of J. Philip Real Estate, LLC in Briarcliff Manor, NY. He is a Top 10 Producer for closed single family transactions out of almost 7000 licensees in the Westchester-Putnam MLS in both 2008 and 2009. You can log onto the company Home Page at www.jphilip.com
You can search the MLS like an agent and find your dream home before other buyers for FREE at http://jphilip.listingbook.com. This Agent-Style MLS search is nothing short of incredible and is far more comprehensive than home searches on typical sites. Registration is free, confidential & at no obligation.
J. Philip Serves Briarcliff Manor, Ossining, Croton on Hudson, Pleasantville, Sleepy Hollow, White Plains, Yonkers, Peekskill, Cortlandt, Tarrytown, Yorktown, Montrose, Hawthorne, Thornwood, Valhalla, Hartsdale & all of Westchester County, New York.
Now, finding your dream home has never been easier. A new feature is available which allows home buyers to search the Westchester-Putnam MLS system (Which now includes Westchester, Putnam, Bronx and Dutchess Counties) virtually the same way an agent does. Click on the link for more information on this free service.
J. Philip Faranda is the broker and owner of J. Philip Real Estate, LLC, in Briarcliff Manor, NY, nestled between Ossining, Croton on Hudson, Sleepy Hollow, Chappaqua and Pleasantville. We are also in close proximity to White Plains, Peekskill, Yonkers & Yorktown. The firm specializes in residential real estate in Westchester, Putnam & Rockland County. Visit us on the web at www.jphilip.com.
Phil is one of the top selling REALTORS in Westchester County, with over 100 closed transactions in 2007-2008. He is also among the premier short sale specialists in New York. Check out www.nyshortsaleteam.com and our short sale blog, newyorkshortsaleblog.wordpress.com.
Congratulations to Ossining High School senior James Brundage on winning the New York State championship for wrestling in the 160 Lb weight class this past weekend. He is only the 2nd Ossining student athlete to win at the state tournament. I wrestled in high school and it was one of the best experiences of my life. These are superb athletes, and to be the best in a state the size of New York is special.
This is wonderful news for the Ossining high school athletic program and for the whole community. According to the local paper, James is interested in attending Harvard, Lehigh or Virginia. I wish him the best of luck. Teammate Clay Neivert placed 5th in the 171 Lb class.
The people of Ossining should be proud of both young men.
Sometimes an inch or random extra effort is all the difference between making a sale or going broke.
I got a buyer referral in an area that is about 45 minutes from my office. Far for some, no big deal for me. What was unusual about this was that she needed me to pick her up and drive her to see the listings. This is not unheard of in New York; my wife rode the subway all her life. You don’t need a car here. However, New Yorkers are famously cynical, and for a woman to trust me blindly to pick her up is uncommon. On my way to pick her up, the thought occurred to me that maybe I was the one getting fooled. And, sure enough, there was no answer at her door or her phone.
I felt bad. We all hate no shows, but I felt I should have known better. After trying 7 times to call and leaving a note on her door, I drove toward home, chastising myself for not allocating my time toward another endeavor. As I am prone to do, I called my wife to vent about my no-show.
While crossing the Tri-Borough bridge from Queens to the Bronx, chirping in my wife’s ear about the unfairness of it all, I was shocked to get call waiting beeping in from none other than my no show. I was approaching the toll plaza. She was very apologetic. She works in health care and had to work late. She set her phone on vibrate to get some sleep and saw that she had missed all my calls. She asked if it was too late to still keep our appointments. She was mortified that she missed me.
15 minutes later (and one awkward exit and re-entry onto the Tri Borough Bridge back to Queens) I was back at her door. She and her sister would be looking together, and, luckily, all but one of the homes we had lined up were vacant, so our tardiness was meaningless. It was an outstanding afternoon. You seldom find “the” house your first time out and this was no different, but we clicked big time. By the time we were finished I knew exactly what kind of home she wanted and how I could get her into one. We actually had some fun out there, seeing the houses we almost missed.
I got a thank-you email from her that evening and we’ll be going back to it this week. It is amazing to me how close the day had come to being a washout. I didn’t have to turn around. I could have been grumpy with her or left an angry note. I didn’t. Picking up a solid buyer is always a good feeling, but snapping victory from the jaws of defeat is even better. It just goes to show that you can’t lose your faith, even if you have to pay an extra $5 toll on the Tri-Borough bridge.
I got a call from a very unexpected source today, just one day after getting my latest listing. The home just came off the market with another broker before I listed it, and while he had the listing there was a deal on it that died. The buyer agent from that deal was calling me. She wanted to know if the prior listing agent had procured any exclusion for her buyer or if she was to deal with me. I knew of no exclusion (none exists) and told her so. My seller client confirmed this. However, the buyer agent had reached out to the prior listing broker before calling me to ask the same question.
You know where this is going, right? The prior broker is livid. He had been working with this buyer agent to get the home sold and closed for months, but it never happened. The seller, tired of the headaches and feeling beleaguered by the buyer’s demands, started looking for a new agent before the listing expired. She contacted me. I would not list the house in question until she was finished with her prior broker. I did, however, list her other home, as it was never previously listed. No foul there. I even encouraged her to stick with the other agent to get the pending deal closed. It fell apart last week.
That listing expired February 14, so we signed papers this past weekend after it was clear that the old deal was dead. It went live yesterday. So what happened? Evidently the buyer’s “plan B” purchase flopped, and, pressed for time and with appraisal, title work and mortgage completed on my client’s house, he decided to come back to it. The prior broker got wind of this, and I am told is furious with everyone, including ME.
I can empathize with his frustration. I have “primed the pump” for other brokers who got an easy sale after getting an expired listing of mine, but that’s baseball. Sometimes we win, sometimes we lose. The circumstances of my getting this listing are completely clean and in good faith. I never expected this buyer to resurface. For the record, I have no official offer from his agent yet. I feel bad for the prior broker, but I do not feel that I owe him anything. He had months to get that deal closed and for whatever reason it didn’t work out. Hell, I might not get the thing closed with this buyer. But as of yesterday, I am the listing agent for that buyer or, for that matter, if Sasquatch comes along and pays cash.
I do not feel that I have an ethical dilemma if this buyer does finally perform. If you agree or disagree, here’s your chance to opine. My stance is “that’s baseball.” What say you?
My office is located in Briarcliff Manor, NY but technically sits on Town of Ossining soil. The town of Ossining is the unincorporated portion of the municipality located outside the village. It mostly borders the hamlet of Millwood in the town of New Castle as well as Maryknoll, NY, home of the renowned Catholic Mission. The character of the town is far more bucolic and suburban than the more densely populated village of Ossining, and the population of less than 6,000 is dwarfed by the village at more than 25,000. Both the town and village are served by the Ossining Union Free School District.
There are, as of February 27, 2009, 23 single family homes for sale in the town of Ossining. In the past 180 days 7 homes have sold at a median sales price of $464,000. The median asking price of homes for sale is $550,000. 3 homes are under contract for sale and a 4th is pending closing in the very near future.
With 23 active listings and only 7 titles transferred in the past 180 days, there is a severe imbalance between inventory for sale and closed transactions. At that rate, there is just under two years of inventory available. With the median sales price at $464,00 and the median asking price at $550,000, it would appear that the inventory would clear faster if prices were reduced. The buying public is not showing much enthusiasm at those prices.
There are a number of condominium communities in the town as well, with 9 sales in the past 180 days at a median sales price of $397,000. The active inventory of 14 units is at a median asking price between $405,000 and $425,000. Perhaps because of the smaller gap in sales and asking prices, there appears to be less than a year of inventory available in condos. However, at this time just one condominium is under contract and a second is pending sale imminently.
A healthy Spring market can change many things, so here’s to a good March, April and May of real estate activity in Ossining.
This data is unscientific and is derived from the Westchester-Putnam MLS. It does not include non-MLS transactions and is subject to input errors (such as erroneously including village of Ossining property) from other MLS members. This may be reproduced only with consent from J. Philip Faranda, who must be credited.
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J. Philip Faranda is the broker and owner of J. Philip Real Estate, LLC, in Briarcliff Manor, NY, nestled between Ossining, Croton on Hudson, Sleepy Hollow, Chappaqua and Pleasantville. We are also in close proximity to White Plains, Peekskill, Yonkers & Yorktown. The firm specializes in residential real estate in Westchester, Putnam & Rockland County. Visit us on the web at www.jphilip.com.
Phil is one of the top selling REALTORS in Westchester County, with over 100 closed transactions in 2007-2008. He is also among the premier short sale specialists in New York. Check out www.nyshortsaleteam.com and our short sale blog, newyorkshortsaleblog.wordpress.com.
Two featured posts on Active Rain this morning discuss short sales, and whether you love them or hate them, they are going to be a common occurrence in most markets for the foreseeable future. Full disclosure: I have specialized in short sales for a number of years, sold dozens, and have double digits in my listing pipeline. I feel compelled to add my 2 cents.
Vanessa Simmons wrote that she does not advise her sellers to sign a contract before the lender approves the price. I disagree, but we practice in different states with different laws and protocols, and more importantly, she states that it works for her. Far be it for me to tell her to stop doing what works for her out in Ohio just because I do things differently here in New York.
Greg Nino, in his post entitled “Are You Still Showing Short Sale Buyers? Not Me!” epitomizes the frustration that many of us have with the short sale process. Greg appears to see things from the buyer side, and those of us who list short sales should appreciate his thoughts, at least some of them. It takes too long, buyers get frustrated, and stories of cut commissions are common. Too often, the listing agents are poor communicators, which is unacceptable. He’s right. Greg leaves the reservation in my opinion on a few of the things he says that push the boycotting/price fixing envelope, but I’ll chalk that up to justified frustration. I am certain that his clients come before any personal frustrations.
I am of the belief that the housing market would turn around far faster if sellers would just lower their prices to reflect the new reality. Prices have come down. Some won’t lower, but many can’t, and for them a short sale is the only way out. There are several things that we as licensees can do about facilitating short sales more efficiently and effectively.
If you are a listing agent and you are inexperienced in short sales, don’t take the listing. Refer it to someone who does them well. If you want to be one of those agents, work for a broker who does them and can mentor you. But we have too many short sales now listed with neophytes who are screwing things up for us, but worse, for their clients.
If you list a short sale, you have to communicate with the buyer agent regularly so they know the file isn’t rotting. We are familiar; the buyers are in this for the first time.
If you are a taxpayer, write your representative and demand that any lender that receives TARP funds should have a transparent, streamlined short sale process of 30 days or less, period. It is deplorable that recipients of our taxes would be so arrogant, unresponsive and miserable.
If you are a buyer agent, you cannot just boycott short sales. If you have a client interested in a house, you owe it to them to ask the listing agent’s experience with negotiating short sales, who is dealing with the bank, who the lender is, if there is subordinate financing, and how far along the seller’s hardship package is. If the answers are less than satisfactory, you are justified in advising your buyer clients to pass this up…but knee-jerk avoiding them is not advocacy, it is looking for the easy way.
Repeat this 3 times: a properly negotiated short sale virtually never has a reduction in commission. I know this firsthand. If the first thing out of a listing agent’s mouth is that they don’t think they’ll get a full commission, they may not be up to the task.
Our responsibility is to our clients. Running from one type of transaction is unethical and contrary to looking our for the buyer. If something fails the sniff test, your conscience should be clear. Buying or selling, we cannot control the short sale winds. We can however, adjust our sails, and adapting to a market where short sales are common is in our clients’ best interest.
According to Inman News, Minnesota-based Webdigs, Inc, a discount real estate broker, announced a loss of $2.7 million since it’s inception in the spring of 2007. Many businesses lose money in their first year or two, and I know nothing of Webdigs’ merits or demerits. What is significant to my mind, and what should matter to the consumer, is that this follows a pattern of non-traditional brokerage models failing. Iggy’s House and Foxtons, both discount brokers, are two recent examples.
Why should this matter to the consumer? Because your transaction is not a zero-sum event. If a broker promises you a 3% commission discount, for instance, there is a cost associated with that discount that doesn’t show up in their hypothetical net sheet because it doesn’t account for one immutable law of real estate brokerage:
The best agents who will do the best job for you will work where they can make the most money.
Foxtons’ agents in New York were all on a salary and an extremely modest commission schedule. When I checked them out in 2001 I recall a $35,000 per annum salary and a $400 bonus for closed sales. A Mini Cooper was in the package also. I know top-producing agents who gross $35,00 a month. They don’t drive Minis. They wouldn’t work at Foxtons. Since the top 10% of agents are responsible for 90% of the transactions, the agents who were attracted to Foxtons weren’t enough to keep the company in the black. And they folded.
Here’s how it affects the seller: If, as the seller you choose the firm with the lowest commission thinking it will net you the most money, you are employing backwards logic. Not all real estate agents will do the same job for you. Overall and with rare exception, good agents cost more than discount agents because good agents get great results and discount agents get discount results. Good agents sell homes faster. Good agents get more money. Good agents resolve home inspection issues faster. Good agents handle compliance & title issues more effectively. Good agents have better mortgage sources. Good agents can negotiate the pants off a crummy agent. A good agent may quote you a lower price when they first meet you, but they’ll net you more money because they won’t let your listing go stale because it is overpriced.
It is ironic that people will shop around for the best cell phone, the best laptop, the best plasma TV and the best surgeon for their gall bladder but the biggest financial transaction gets given to the lowest bidder or Aunt Ethel. If people treated choosing a broker like it was their financial life or death, they’d get dramatically better results. If you think a 3% discount is worth forfeiting that, go ahead. Just remember that the 3% may be off a far lower price or after a far longer, more stressful transaction. And don’t be surprised when the company goes out of business.
A rather interesting homophone arose in the comment thread of one of my recent postings that I thought merited some commentary. A “homophone,” by the way, is a case of two words that sound the same but have different spellings and meanings. For instance, “bore” (to make weary by being dull) and “boar” (wild pig) make a homophone. Remember? Probably 4th grade language arts. I studied English. I dig that stuff. Somebody has to.
The market is tough around here. Some of our profession have had to make awful decisions, between car note and house note, between remaining in real estate or getting out, and, sadly, between declaring bankruptcy or giving it another month. One attorney I do business with told me that his largest pool of bankruptcy clients is licensees. This is very sad but not unexpected. Some of us have been fortunate to adapt. Some of us are in incredibly foul moods (have you noticed?).
The choice we have to make is whether the damage sustained from new challenges is absorbed by our soul-our attitude, our outlook and mood, or by our sole- our willingness to hit the metaphorical pavement and wear out our shoes getting to work. It is tempting to succumb to anger and frustration when a buyer is indecisive or a seller kvetches to us at 9pm when we’d rather be putting our children to bed or relaxing.
Just yesterday I reached out to the buyer agent on one of the deals I have pending. He picked up his phone. We chatted briefly, and when I asked if we could conference in another principal, he refused, telling me it was his day off (why did he answer the phone?). Here was a chance to invest 10 minutes into expediting an $8,000 commission. It was more important to be off. Fair enough. I am all for balance, but I’ll never squander an opportunity in this market when it lands in my lap.
Sometimes the answer to adversity is that we have to work a little harder for a little longer. We had a period there when there was lots of low hanging fruit. Many of us looked smarter than we really were. Now the cream rises to the top. When this slowdown is over and the market recovers, those of us left standing will be lean and mean. We’ll have far more resilient souls and far more worn out soles.
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