You might notice in the Sidebar of my blog that I have some excerpts to client reviews I have received with a link to my Zillow profile and ratings.

When Zillow announced their agent ratings system, I voiced some understandable skepticism. However, Sara Bonert, whom I like and respect, gave me some rather convincing reassurances that safeguards would be taken against system gamers and fraudulent reviews from the unscrupulous. I then published a post, to be fair, that Zillow was going about this ratings system in a responsible way. I wish it ended there. It doesn’t. 

I have to tell you that as an owner and operator of a company, this is a seasaw that I wish would stop moving.  A few days ago, I received an email that began with the following:

A review was submitted for your Zillow profile indicating that you did not respond to the Reviewer’s inquiry. Consumers who contact you through Zillow or otherwise have the opportunity to share their experience by submitting such a rating and review.

Since we realize that things outside your direct control could have contributed to this, and because we assume that you have every intention of following-up with leads, we are extending you a “Free Pass” and will not publish this review on your Zillow profile. Please note that this is a one-time courtesy and that you will not receive a “free pass” for similar reviews submitted for you in the future. We kindly ask that you follow-up with any and all leads that come your way, and that you ensure your Zillow profile is kept updated with your most current and reliable contact information.

Let’s set aside the reference to inquiries as “leads.” So, apparently, not just clients or customers can rate us. Anyone with a keyboard and Internet access can. Some guy somewhere inquired about something on Zillow, presumably to me, didn’t hear back and attempted to give me a review saying I ignored them. That would very likely to damage to a 5-star rating that I have earned through hard work and dedication to my clients in the sidebar. This is ridiculous.

First, anyone that knows me will attest to the fact that I follow up on all consumer inquiries pretty zealously. It is how I built my company and why I sell the volume that I do (an “off year” where I only rank 22nd in transactions out of 6500 in my MLS, putting me in the top 0.3% in ubercompetitive suburban New York). I don’t need Zillow’s bot wagging it’s cyber finger at me to do my job.

Well, I do my job. There are just too many variables at play for a random consumer inquiry to have the same power to review me that a past customer or clients has. As you might expect, many consumer inquires through online portals like Zillow are from people with emails with typos or phone numbers like (000) 111-2233. Not everyone that is asked for their contact information will give it. Moreover, even in the cases of well meaning consumers, responses can be sent to spam folders, overlooked,  or otherwise missed through no fault of mine. And anyone who has spent 30 minutes in the real estate business will attest to the fact that a huge number of answers to consumers go unacknowledged. If I had a dime for every email and voicemail that went to black hole hell I’d retire. It is the business. How am I supposed to know if my response got through? And if you pester people, they get annoyed and time is lost from more fruitful endeavors. 

We can argue all we want whether a brokerage like Redfin, a 3rd party aggregator like Zillow, or anyone for that matter should rightly be a conduit for agent reviews. I for one am fine with it- so long as the execution is done correctly. This is absolutely not done right, and it flies in the face of the assurances I was given. I was given a mulligan this time, but what about next time? Any creep can tank my hard earned ratings? Seriously? 

Zillow needs to do the right thing and give the power to rate agents only to those people who have actually worked with the agent, not to any random guy who sent an email once. There is too much room for the abuse that I was assured would not occur. 

The town of Cortlandt has many moving parts: The villages of Croton on Hudson and Buchanan, the Hamlet of Verplanck, Cortlandt Manor, and right in the middle, the separate municipality of the city of Peekskill. Croton and Peekskill have their own school districts, so the vast majority of Cortlandt is served by the Hendrick Hudson and Lakeland school districts. This is the November 2011 market report for single family homes in Cortlandt covering Hendrick Hudson and Lakeland separately. 

Hendrick Hudson Schools

November 2011- 6 homes closed at a median price of $427,500
November 2010- 2 homes closed at a median price of $610,000

11 homes under contract at a median asking price of $369,900
64 homes active at a median asking price of $407,000

Lakeland Schools-Cortlandt

November 2011- 6 homes closed at a median price of $302,500
November 2010- 6 homes closed at a median price of $295,000

18 homes under contract at a median asking price of $259,000
72 homes active at a median asking price of $334,9000

In both districts buyers have enormous options and plenty of available choices at asking prices that are below the median asking price of the sold inventory last month. The Hendrick Hudson school district, centered in Buchanan and in the southern part of the town has seen volume rise because more people are acting on the lower priced inventory. In the Lakeland school district on the north side of town, more people are also taking advantage of the lower priced homes. 

With 11 homes under contract in Hendrick Hudson (“Hen Hud” to the locals) and 18 pending sale in Lakeland, it is clear that the market will be active going into the winter. 

What can you get for around $300,000 in Cortlandt? We have a 2100 square foot contemporary on almost an acre with 4 bedrooms and 2 baths priced at $299,900. That was unthinkably low a few short years ago. 

If you’d like to find a nice home for yourself in Cortlandt or the surrounding areas, register for a free Listingbook account and search the MLS like an agent. 

All information is taken from the Empire  Access Multiple Listing Service. 

I knew Irene and met her a number of times at Blog and social media events. She was very warm friendly, and would have given you the shirt off her back. She also LOVED to kid around. There were some videos she used to do where she’d do a “commission check dance,” really her tongue in cheek version of the person at the party that doesn’t know they can’t dance! 

We corresponded a little, and were friends on Facebook. I noticed her going “quiet” about a month ago- I reached out to her on Facebook, and then saw in her last blog post that she had been diagnosed with cancer. It has only been a few months. 

Her battle must have been private, and her blog has been taken down at the request of her family. I’ll miss Irene an awful lot. She always made me smile, and you know this was a person that made the world a better place. 

My thoughts and prayers are with her family at this time. 

I don’t get  to out of town conferences much.  I eat up local stuff, like the New York City REBar camp, two Raincamps and those sorts of things, yes, but I have yet to go to NAR or other more far away events because it is hard to get away. One pilgrimage I am making for the third time, however, is Triple Play in Atlantic City, a joint convention of the New York, New Jersey and Connecticut Realtor Associations. The simple reason is that it is a chance to shift from working “in” my business to working “on” my business. 

In 2009 I came down for a day to check it out. I hardly recall the sessions I attended, but I did run into the triumvirate of Scott Forcino, Stephen Fells, and the late great Joe Ferrara, all of whom I knew from a few sessions at the Lucky Strikers Social Media Club. I was relatively new to real estate blogging, and Joe, whom I considered a celebrity, was complimentary of my writing. WOW!! I ended up staying the duration and spending quite a chunk of time with those three, and I took a renewed commitment to my writing from the event. Sometimes, the best part of a professional convention is the conversation you have in the hallway or over a beer. That was where the red meat was for me that year. 

Last year I returned, this time to soak up as much as I could from the sessions. I got to experience Nicole Nicolay, Darryl Davis, Bill Lublin, and Amy Chorew among others, all of whom were simply awesome. I broke bread with Patrick Healy, Joe Sheehan, and Dawn Bricker, all of whom I consider friends. The Keynote speaker, Stuart Varney, was absolutely electrifying. It was another excellent experience where I took tools back to my business and applied them.

I am proud of the results since that week. While so many firms are closing or merging with larger enterprises, our firm has grown to 26 licensees. Barring a catastrophic collapse of pending transactions, I will personally, for the 5th year in a row, close over 40 deals and qualify for my association’s highest sales award. In a depressed industry where progress seems borne of trench warfare, these are good things to note. 

The point is not that one conference provides an epiphany that works magic. It is that learning and a commitment to understanding new things and skills is crucial to survival, growth and staying ahead of the curve. That is one of the reasons why I am so against the New York State exemption from continuing education for brokers no matter how many years they have been active, and why I drove 3 hours in the fog last night to get here. 

Learn, apply, adopt and adapt. Rinse, repeat. I am eager to discover what I can take back home and use to help grow my company and make more clients happier. 

Hi all, for those of you who are in New York, Pennsylvania and New Jersey, and are planning on going to Triple Play, I’d love to catch up in person. I blogged about it earlier, and I know it is pandemonium when you get there, but let’s carve out some time in the rain. 

NY, NJ and PA Rainers: How About a Triple Play Meetup? 

Raincamp earlier this year had a great after party at Toga Bar at Caesar’s. If we meet at 6pm we’ll avoid the craziness that starts when music and dancing commence at 10pm and actually hear each other talk. My cell phone is (914) 450-8883 . Anne Costello is also on board, so reach out to either of us. I’ve created a Facebook event for the meetup also. 

http://www.facebook.com/events/284487508254836/

Text or email me anytime. 

Prices are down, but volume is up according to the data for single family homes in the Ossining school district for November 1-30 2011. All information is taken from the Empire Access Multiple Listing Service. 

This past November, 11 homes closed at a median sale price of $332,000. 
In November of 2010, 8 homes closed at a median sale price of $367,500. 

It is consistent that lower prices would yield a higher volume of closings. With the winter and end of the year coming, more sellers might be willing to discount their price for expediency. I counted several homes that sold considerably below asking price by percentage, with 7 selling below 90% of asking. Buyers did very well last month. 

30 homes are currently under contract or pending sale, down from 37 last month.This is normal, as activity tends to slow down around the Holidays. My experience is that while activity is lower this time of year, those that are in the market tend to be more serious.  

The median price of those 30 homes is $379,200. Last month, the median price of pending homes was $449,000, so the more expensive homes had an easier time closing. This is also not unexpected- lower cost homes, typically bought by first-time home buyers often hit more roadblocks than higher cost homes where financing is typically less of an issue, and even cash terms are seen with some frequency. As a matter of fact, 2 of the 11 closed sales were cash, including one for $1.975 million. 

119 homes are available for sale, which is only down 2 units from last month. People must be taking my advice and not hibernating for the holidays! 

One thing that remains a constant is that buyers remain in the superior position as winter approaches. The good weather is also a factor, coupled with strong inventory, so we may see spring arrive early in Ossining real estate in 2012. 

Prior posts on Ossining.

Find a home in Ossining with the Listingbook Home Search!

Anyone who is in sales and management learns over the years how to manage the styles of personalities we encounter. I have dealt with all types and consider myself fairly adept at interacting with people smoothly. The one that still gives me trouble, however, and probably you too, is the Jekyll and Hyde type- they start out pleasant, then suddenly become aggressive without warning or cause. I encountered just such a person today. 15 minutes of pleasantries, then 5 awkward minutes of moonbeam, loony tunes arguing and inexplicable confrontation. Mercifully, this is rare, and this one had a flare for the dramatic exit, which was also quite welcome.

There is seldom if ever a chance of winning kooks over to my way of thinking-nor would I wish to try- but the one thing I can happily do is address some of their looney arguments in my blog. Today’s jerk decided that since he owned more than one house, he was the expert in the room. Because, you know, he has bought and sold a few houses.

I have owned 11 cars. I would never pretend to be a mechanic. 

Real estate is a very expensive place to make a mistake. I have seen misfortune in real estate end marriages, cause financial ruin, and even cost people their health. Weekend hobbyists and DIY enthusiasts are better suited to ant farms or decoupage. 

In the state of New York, all that is required to be a licensed real estate salesperson is a 75 hour licensure course. That doesn’t make you an expert. It makes you a rookie. If you spend 15 years in the industry, sell almost 500 homes, found your own brokerage firm and throw in 5 years of mortgage origination, you might be getting warm. But even someone with that experience knows that in the shifting sands of this industry there is always more to learn. 

It is therefore patently ridiculous for a consumer who has bought or sold 5 or even 10 homes to assume that they know better than a broker how banks, for example, should dispense with their defaulted assets. Short sales, as an illustration, are often counter intuitive. Cash offers are not an advantage and can actually flag the transaction as a possible investor buying below market value. Now, explaining this to a guy that can’t get his kids to not touch a piano or piece of furniture is a lost cause. I feel better just typing it, though. 

My older brother jokes that he knows a lot about Rugby and a little about Wall Street. I know a lot about the New York Yankees and a thing or two about real estate. But I would never tell my mechanic how to fix my brakes, nor my doctor what ails me, or even my landscaper how to operate his equipment. Smart people play their position and defer to the professionals. That is why George Washington appointed his cabinet, and that is why wise consumers listen, learn and never assume they know more than the professional. 

You seldom get to rub elbows with a $200 million producer, but when Keller Williams Scarsdale Team Leader and friend Jen Maher invited me to see the great Ilan Bracha yesterday, I wouldn’t miss it for the world. 

If you have never heard of Ilan, he’s quite a story. An emigre from Israel, when he was working for a moving company at age 21 he was encouraged to get his license from a broker whose stuff he was packing. In his first year, he says he made $25,000. Last year he closed over 150 properties at a volume of over $200,000,000.00. He started the Keller Williams office in Manhattan. 

The neat thing about being so up close and personal with such a high producer is how you are reminded that they are human beings just like you and me. If Ilan had a Texas twang instead of an Israeli accent, you’d call him a good old boy. He is a single minded, upbeat soul with a unique focus and a commitment to high production. I found him to be very down to Earth and warm. 

The hour long discussion was bascially an introductory talk from Ilan himself, with questions moderated by Jen Maher. Being the “ball hog” that I am, I asked several questions myself, which I’ll share with you here:

• What is your client management system? His answer was E-Edge, a KW system. 
• When did you first believe you could make it in this industry? As soon as he was encouraged to get his license. 

File this under “you can’t make this up.”

Whilst confirming the home inspection with a seller client, he filled me in on garage access and then casually said ” oh- don’t mind any free roaming sheep if you see them on the property. The adjoining 98 acre farm is corralling them in.” 

Now, after 15 years in the business I seldom look at my phone and laugh, but this is one of those surreal moments. This is New York. I could be in Manhattan in half an hour with the wind at my back. Sheep? 

Yes, sheep. The home is located in Brewster, NY, bordering the top of Westchester County, NY in neighboring Putnam County. My uncle’s family lived in Brewster for many years and visiting his home was like going to a farm; it had a pond, 2 acres of land, and they rode their lawnmower instead of pushing it. I always related to that city mouse/country mouse story from childhood because of this. 

Just about all of Putnam is pastoral, bucolic, often wooded, and an awesome quality of life with Westchester a stones throw away and New York a manageable commute. My clients, a couple of super awesome special education teachers, still work in southern Westchester, where they grew up. 

And apparently, they have gotten accustomed to some runaway sheep every so often. For me that is still going to take some getting used to! 

This is what is so great about Westchester and the surrounding areas like Putnam: A little south of us is Broadway and Times Square. A little north is horse farm country. There is no place like this in the world. 

Want to find your own home (with or without sheep) in Brewster? Get yourself a free Listingbook account. 

Is a contingent offer at market value? 

I have the same conversation over and over as I meet people in the same situation. Case in point: Today I interviewed a very nice couple in a small town just north of Westchester County who expired with their broker last month. I won’t bore you with the details, but it was brought up that they *may* have a buyer for their home. However, the would-be buyers have to sell their own home first. This is not an unfamiliar scenario. 

In many cases, people who have a contingent (as in, they have to sell their own house first) buyer have even gone so far as to discuss-and agree to- a purchase price. When they interview an agent to list their home in case their contingent prospect can’t perform, they sometimes can’t reconcile the recommended list price from the agent with the (higher) price of their contingent prospect with the house to sell. They don’t understand that their prospect with the contingency is not really offering them market value. 

Market value is what the ready, willing and able buying public will pay you for your home. Someone with a house to sell isn’t able. As such, there are two hazards a seller faces when hanging their hat on that contingent offer. 

The Math Hazard. Buyers who still have a house to sell often have an inflated opinion of their own value. Sure, they’ll give you every dime of the asking price after they cash out $100,000 from the sale of their home. However, life happens. What if they can only get $50,000 out of their home? They’ll have to lower their offer on the house. They can’t afford more with reduced proceeds.

The Moral Hazard. 7 months later, after 2 deals die and 3 price reductions, the formerly cheerful and enthusiastic buyers with the house to sell stagger back to the negotiation table embittered and jaded. They have been through hell and had a huge chunk ripped out of their hide. And by gum, they are going to do the very same thing when they get their purchase done. Buyer’s market, huh? Well, now they are buyers and they are out for blood. How much do you want? Fat chance fella. You’ll take less from me. 

The folks I spoke with today didn’t need much convincing- they were far to mature and understood human nature. But some sellers, subjective as they are, need to know this. Contingent offers are seldom indicative of the true market conditions because the other would be principal has not gone through their own process.  

I love my team. 

The stomach bug domino effect has hit the Faranda household, and I packed it in earlier today with one last thing on my “to do” list undone. A short sale we have listed in Putnam Valley is due to have the electricity turned on for inspections to take place (yes, we brought the buyer on that one, thanks Ellise), but the owners are out of town. I needed to get up there today to switch the main breaker off, but couldn’t. Ellise is in Massachusetts due to a death in the family. 

What to do? 

Nothing to it. Tom Liberati, himself working very well on a sale that just went under contract down in Yonkers, volunteered to help. He had to help his father in Connecticut tonight, but when he was done he drove all the way over to the house at 10:30 at night and flipped the switch. 

Tom is not involved in this sale. He gets no financial gain and he may not have met Ellise yet for that matter. None of that is on the radar for a team player. He ignored the clock, took his flashlight, and texted me at 10:42pm that the job was done. Finally, after 11, he’ll get to go home to his wife and young son and call it a day. I have been there. I know what it is like. 

Is Tom the kind of agent you’d want? Do I even need to ask? Do you know many agents that would do this? I sure don’t. Would you sleep well at night knowing your agent was this committed? I sure would. 

I have often said that it isn’t what you do between 9-5 that makes you successful, but what you do after 5 and before 9 that determines your fortunes. Anyone that uses Tom for their real estate needs gets a truly dedicated professional that thinks of himself last, after family and work. This is the kind of guy we have on our team. This is the kind of agent I would want. Tom is a newer licensee, but is already starting to make waves, listing homes and getting buyers into contract. The reports I have on his work are stellar. This won’t be the last time I brag about Tom Liberati. 

If you are looking for a good agent who has the extra mile programmed into his GPS, you want Tom. Email him at tliberati@jphilip.com or call (914) 434-0072 to get connected to a great agent. Or log onto his Listingbook home search. 

 I am associated with awesome people. 

Athletes speak of a “good tired” and a “bad tired” after a game, good after a win and bad after a loss. Tonight I am the good kind of tired. 13 months ago I met with a very nice lady in White Plains who called me after a Realtor she was interviewing proposed that since she was a short sale, she should deposit an amount equal to the commission in escrow with the broker to ensure their fee payment. That didn’t strike her as terribly kosher, she got on the Internet to research short sales in Westchester County, and she found me. 

I got the listing; Ms. Escrowed Commission didn’t. The condo market was slow at that time, and we went the first 6 months with only one aborted offer. However, I earned her trust in the process and got an extention. We determined that in order to secure a buyer, we should clean up the overgrown outside patio. I put on jeans one afternoon and trimmed, raked and perspired the area to an appealing level. It worked. This past June we got our buyer, and in perhaps some of the best work I have ever seen from our team, the approval came through on August 2nd. 

You read that right. It took us under 60 days to get the short sale approved (with two lenders!), but we didn’t close for another 4 months. When the buyer was unable to close at the end of August for what was then an unknown reason, we got a rare 30-day extension from the two lenders-yes, two lenders. When the second deadline approached, the buyer was again not ready. For the first time in my career, we got a second extension from both lenders. As the 3rd deadline approached, we discovered the buyer’s problem: They didn’t tell us this, but to raise their downpayment they were refinancing another property. This was a very unsettling revelation. Had we known that their mortgage hinged on such a dubious condition (a financed down payment), we might never have engaged them. 

As you might imagine, the stress on my client, an Ivy League graduate, a cancer survivor and a single mother, was mammoth. As you might not have imagined, we actually had to negotiate a THIRD extension with both lenders, and were told that no further extensions would be granted. On the Tuesday before Thanksgiving, their refinance closed. Today, we closed our tranaction one day before our final deadline. My client, a hardworking soul, hugged me after the closing was buttoned up and returned to her job to finish her day. 

Sometimes, you can do a great job and have it squandered because the people on the other side of the table aren’t on point themselves. Among the crosses we had to bear were a frustratingly uncommunicative attorney on the other side, and a weak and not terribly forthcoming buyer. I truly believe the agent on the other side was not at fault and frankly aghast at events on their side. My seller and her attorney, two consummate professionals and people of high character, did voice their feelings-professionally and calmly- at the closing table and left complete. 

There are very few easy deals, and that is especially the case on this deal. Tonight, I will sleep soundly. And so will my client. 

Originally posted on the New York Short Sale Blog

Since so many of us wrote on a local enterprise yesterday for Small Business Saturday, I thought it would be a cool idea for us to put our posts on local small business in one place like so many other themes. Moreover, why blog on local small businesses once a year or once a week? With that in mind, I have started a new group, Small Business Spotlight, as a place for you to post your articles on hyper local businesses in your market area. 

This is where you can pimp the best coffee shop, ugliest bartender, fastest service, top bowl of pasta, and a thousand other hardworking local “Main Street” ventures you want to support. There are some distinct advantages to creating the directory: it is a one-stop shop for fellow members if and when they find themselves in your city, and it is also an awesome way to bolster the comment flow on these hyper-local posts, since they are typically very light in that department. 

We all know and appreciate the importance of hyper-local blogging and the urgency of keeping commerce local. Here is our opportunity to put our money where our blogging mouths are. This is the red meat of long tail SEO, it is a big part of Raincamp, and it is something all of us can support. 

I’ll need some help; if you are up for assisting in the moderation, please email me and we’ll talk. In the meantime, join, post, participate and sharpen your skills. This is big time Google juice and will build good will for you with local entrepreneurs. I am actually ging to go back and edit (note: don’t put anything back to draft or you re-date thepost) many of my restaurant reviews, etc and put them in the group to get my contribution to the “directory” in motion. You can too. 

Get jiggy with it. Post photos, video, maps, directions, backlinks to their site, interviews with the owner, whatever you think will separate the place from the crowd. Hopefully, this will make hyper local blogging a little more sexy, and get the comment discourse going as well. 

Click here to join the group and start pimping promoting your local businesses! 

When you hear a name like “Briarcliff Classic and Imported Car Service” you might envision a garage filled with Porches and Fiats with a temperamental guy in a beret acting more like a chef than a mechanic. With BCI, however, you’d be wrong. I remember Briarcliff Classic from when I was a kid in the 1970s and through the years in their out of the way place on Woodside Avenue and knew that nobody wore a beret, but it wasn’t until this past week that I experienced firsthand how down to Earth and committed they are. 

I have a BMW which has always run well, but was completely dead one morning. It seemed like a simple dead battery, and after calling the dealership and hearing there was a wait I thought of BCI. They did work for us about 10 years ago, and I did recall they were good. I forgot how good. 

Curveballs tell you how people run their business. It wasn’t a simple battery replacement, it was far more complicated, and the explanation I was given made some prior issues with the electronics of the car make sense. A fluid leak caused a chain reaction that would make even a new battery drain in a matter of hours. Everything was not just fixed, but explained. Throughout the process, the owner, Bob Millstein, remained in close touch with me. Anyone whose car has been held “hostage” at a McMechanic can relate to how nice that is. Bob is a genuine, funny guy, and as a business owner myself I was impressed with how important it was to Bob that my experience with his business go well. He took nothing for granted. 

Next was Ann’s Mazda, and an inspection, new brakes and servicing we all done in a day. In the process (I have to admit that Bob and I tended to kibitz on more than cars whenever we spoke) I found that he graduated from the same high school as Ann. The renowned Stuyvesant High school in Manhattan, the crown jewel of the NYC magnet school system has some notable graduates- James Cagney, Eric Holder, some Nobel Laureates, you get the picture- produced not only my wife, but now my mechanic. Good stuff.

One cool thing they do here is something I never see at any mechanic- the office has a huge glass wall where you can see the work being done. Talk about transparency! Believe me when I tell you that you could eat off the floor. 

Another cool thing we have discovered is that BCI gets social media and the web- their website is very sharp, and Bob has even recently started a blog. None of that helps if you have a bad experience, but it is clear to me that there is a reason they have been open since 1974- they get it, and they aren’t resting on their laurels even a little. Since I spend a great deal of time in my car in my chosen field, a resource like is is crucial. If you have a classic or imported car and you truly want white glove service, this is the place to go. 

Briarcliff Classic and Imported Auto Service
90 Woodside Avenue
Briarcliff Manor, NY 10510
(914) 762-1200
www.BriarcliffClassic.com 

Today is one of those rare days where I can marinate in the begotten all day with no fear of neglecting chasing the buck. So we’ll have some fun. This is probably boring to most, but Mommy thought it was cute. I agree. 

Mark is our spokesman this year. Art Linkletter’s legacy is quite safe. I have to give myself credit for centering the view by guesstimating, as the camera was being held in my left hand. 

From our family to yours, a happy Thanksgiving and may the end of 2011 be the precursor to a far better 2012 for us all. 

This has happened before, but I have never written about it. Today at my office, right after an appointment with a nice lady who listed her home in Yonkers with me, I was alone and catching up on returning phone calls. Line 2 rang while I was on line 1. Line 2 doesn’t have voice mail, so I asked line 1 to hold briefly, answered the phone quickly and the person said that he was calling about selling his daughter’s home in Mahopac. I explained that I was wrapping up another call and asked if he could hold or if I could call him back in 5. 

“Nope,” he answered. “I am walking out the door.”

Walking out the door? You just called me! 

Now, am I crazy to think that making a call about a possible 6-figure transaction is not something one does right before they run out for an errand? Would a reasonable person budget, say oh, I don’t know…10 minutes for a real estate discussion? Are we pricing perennial bulbs? Confirming show times for a film? Why do people make a phone call on something as significant as real estate when they are running out the door? 

As it turns out, he did call me back 15 minutes later and we spoke, but it isn’t the first time this has happened. As a matter of fact, I have had people make offers on my listings which were accepted, and when we began the discussion of inspection and contracts, been told that they’ll sort that out after they get back from an imminent 2 week trip abroad.

Huh? Why would you promulgate a real estate deal the day before you leave the country? Are we to hold a vigil until you clear customs? Maybe I am unreasonable, old fashioned, or set in my ways but some things require just a tad of planning. Real estate is not an afterthought in between Thanksgiving errands. 

Oh, our friend in Mahopac- as I said, we did catch up a little later. As it turns out, I already saw the house in 2009. They didn’t do business with me. It has been on and off the market, unsold, since 2008. I do not believe that to be a coincidence. 

I seem to recall a Twighlight Zone episode where a bigot wakes up one morning and is transformed into the ethnicity that he has been persecuting. That was the first thing I thought of when I read that the law firm of Steven J Baum is closing and laying off 89 employees. The closure comes as a result of the firm losing its major accounts in the wake of the New York Times running an article on a recent Halloween party at the firm where employees dressed in costumes mocking borrowers in foreclosure. 

I read that article on my tablet while at a home inspection last week. It was incredibly vulgar- at the party, Baum employees dressed as debtors, people in squalor, and even set up a mock subdivision called “Baum Estates” which were all homes that were repossessed. There was a a significant show of derision for people who sought to prevent their own foreclosure, and even a mock set up to ridicule someone who made a critical Youtube video of the firm. 

The Times article caused Baum to lose their big accounts with Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac, and they then filed to dissolve the firm. 

How incredibly ironic. Loss of a job and loss of income is the surest way to default on your mortgage, and you can bet that some of those 89 people -70 of whom are apparently attorneys- are going to get a fat envelope from their own bank down the road informing them that they are in default and face foreclosure. I have seen that fat envelope, and the people who had them, my clients, were scared. And when they reached out to the firm issuing the letter to try and work things out, they were faced with people who couldn’t care less.

We see it all the time in short sale negotiations, mid management grunts who worship the holy trinity of coffee, lunch and 5pm. They lose faxes, act nasty, and in general make the borrowers feel like garbage for having gotten sick, losing their job, or losing their business. And the worst, by far, in the whole industry are the law firms that were at the root of the robo signing scandal in their zeal to separate people from their homes. 

I am not for people living for free or shirking their debts. But I am for due process and compassion. And before we start celebrating that the witch is dead, believe me, most of these people will regroup elsewhere and keep doing what they do best under another roof. But a few of them will learn a tough lesson: turnabout is fair play, and when you know the person on the other end of the line is the same troglodyte as you were 6 months ago, you’ll have to swallow hard. 

Be careful who you mock. 

Quick preface: 

In 1997, the brokerage flavor of the month was pre-recorded property hotlines with voice mail. Instead of dealing with a salesperson to get information on  a property, consumers could call a recorded hotline and get the details on the listing pressure-free. They had the choice of hanging up or leaving a message. I had such a system, but on one listing there was a glitch with the voicemail. The seller, an imbalanced guy with an anger management issue, had a friend act as a mole, call the hotline and he got no call back. When I was asked to meet with the client a few days later, in about 45 seconds he went from calm to a screaming maniac who assaulted me in his kitchen. 

I have never been much of a fan of spies in real estate since then. 

Earlier today, on the Active Rain Network, there was a featured blog post suggesting that licensees act as secret shoppers so they could examine the sales and follow up skills of the agents in open houses. Invoking some reality show where CEOs pretend they are janitors or waiters, the author also suggested that a broker like myself could get insight into how my team handles themselves by pretending to be a buyer, perhaps via email, perhaps by proxy. 

There are huge ethical and pragmatic issues with such a practice. Let’s set aside for a moment the pragmatic, which is the incredible waste of time it would be for a colleague to chase me around thinking they might make a sale with me. We all know the frustration of having a neighbor walk into an open house and pretend to be an interested prospect. And let’s set aside the instant loss of respect my 26 agents would would experience if they know I were spying on them. 

It’s um, wrong. It is wrong (wrong as in against the Code of Ethics) to impersonate a consumer and not disclose my status as a Realtor, and I am pretty sure it is not real kosher with the nice people at the Department of State in Albany to do so either. There are plenty of things I might do to decode the secret sauce of a competitor. I suppose I could have lunch with an ex agent from the firm. Or I could contact a former client who is looking for new representation. But whatever I do, I would do it as Phil Faranda, licensed broker. 

The fact that you can learn something by breaking the rules is not justification for the practice. There are no nannycams in real estate, unless you are a client watching your own property. But lying about my status as a broker? Impersonating a buyer when I am not one? Am I supposed to sign a nom de plume in an open house registry? Have a buddy waste one of my agent’s time pretending to be a buyer to observe their technique? No way. If I wanted to see how my agents work, I’d simply go out into the field with them, like I do now. 

Just as that old hotline was the thing back in 1997, the new thing in real estate is transparency. Just tell the truth. Just be real. You won’t give away the store, you’ll be so incredibly refreshing that you’ll have more people wanting to be your client than ever before. Don’t use an alias. Don’t even have the pretense of being someone whom you are not. Disclose your identity and your license status. It is the right thing to do, and the public is starved for agents that do the right thing. 

There is nothing we like more than an enthusiastic, gung -ho buyer in this market. 

There is nothing we like less than a stressed out buyer who makes life hell for all involved. 

So, when that gung-ho buyer locks their rate in for 30 days and we haven’t even signed contracts yet, it doesn’t take a clairvoyant to know there will be trouble down the road. And yet, every so often this occurs. We get an accepted offer on one of our listings, inspections are done,  the lawyers are talking contract (remember, here in New York we do it backwards- no inspection contingency and a minimum of a week or more before signed contracts), and then we get that phone call or email from the other side that we have to hurry- the buyer locked in their rate last Friday. 

Even in a cash deal, a 30 day closing in Westchester County is a rarity. 45 days is zippy, and 60 days about normal. Why that is so is another post entirely. The point is you don’t lock your rate in before we have a deal contractually. The buyer goes in stressed out already as it is, and in a state where a hiccup can cause a 2 week delay, adding that deadline unnecessarily throws gas on the flame. Knowing that we won’t close for 2 weeks and hearing that the buyer’s rate lock expires in 72 hours isn not fun. Just trust me on this. 

You have to have a plan. You lock your rate in once you have a deal and there is light at the end of the tunnel. You have to have a plan and an understanding of what to do when after what and why. For example, once contracts are signed and the appraisal is done, the file should be sent to underwriting. Many buyer attorneys wait until the approval is issued to order title, which is too late in my view, but whenever you run title is probably when you should be ready to lock your rate in. That way, if there is a title-related delay, you know whether or not to hold off or proceed. The idea that this will cause you to lose an plum rate based on shifts in the market is a fallacy- a super awesome rate is less advantageous if you have to pay through the nose in cash for an extension, which is essentially paying discount points. 

Understand the process, confer with your agent and loan officer, and plan accordingly. And if your loan officer allows you to lock in without really knowing where you are in the process, you might be working with the wrong person. This is a collaboration, and lone wolves don’t help.  

In plain language, the old adage “lack of planning on your part does not constitute an emergency on my part.” Rate locks are serious business, and once done are irreversible.

Measure twice, cut once.