It is always interesting to shift gears from figuring out a way to get my listings on page 1 of Google for certain hyper local keywords frequented by consumers in 2012 to a question straight from 1995. Specifically, I was contacted by someone whose house recently expired unsold and we discussed their options. As they picked my brain about how I sell my listings, the question was posed “do you have an office?”

Now, this is not a dumb question. It is actually an understandable question. Having worked from home for some time and then opening up our brick and mortar office, I did see a difference in perception from colleagues and consumers alike. Office space can make a difference. That said, if your home is unique and appeals to a more uncommon, specific niche buyer, the real question for me is “what are you going to do that my last broker couldn’t?” or “how will you market the home differently to make it stand out?” Those are the crucial questions, because when you’ve been with a fancy big name office with national advertising and gourmet coffee in the lobby and still failed to sell, you start to realize that walk ins (i.e., folks window shopping who literally “walk in” to the office intending to speak with an agent) aren’t your bread and butter.

I’ll repeat it here: When Ann and I started the firm in 2005, we had a desk in my parents’ old bedroom. This was the same room where my crib was in 1967. It had a desk, a fax machine, a desktop computer, and a broker who planned world domination through an Internet presence that made the public percieve us to be larger and more more established than we were. That was the plan, and it worked well enough for us to open up on North State Road in 2007. We now have a small branch office in Upper Manhattan on Amsterdam Avenue as well. 

So yes, we have an office. It is at 522 North State Road in Brarcliff Manor in a brick professional building with a mansard-style roof and lots of parking. Italian food is walking distance in both directions (I wouldn’t have it any other way).  And from this office we manage 25 licensed agents and sell homes all over Westchester, the Hudson Valley, and even the boroughs of New York City. From this office I sell condos in White Plains, homes with acreage in Dutchess County, REOs in Staten Island, co ops in the Bronx and Queens, stately colonials in Pelham and Armonk, ranches in Nyack, and tons of other property. 

And none of that closes because of our office or because we were “in the neighborhood.” We get the job done because of how we ply our trade. We live in the question of how to market our listings better, how to help our buyers get better deals, and how to increase our stature online. And while we do get the occasional walk in, we don’t depend on them to pay the bills. The plan to leverage consumer friendly technology from day 1 has been followed religiously, streamlined, and improved month after month, year after year. This is why we have grown, and this is why 2012 will be a breakthrough year for our client family. 

Perhaps my colleagues can relate to the following scenario:

A buyer is interested in your listing. Their agent emails you a slew of questions, and you get all the answers. There might be one of those 2nd or 3rd showings where where half a dozen extended family members come by and stay for 90 minutes to kick the tires while your seller client improvises family dinner at Arby’s. We recently had three generations of a family look at a house in Yonkers for 2 hours and when my seller returned to his house the washing machine was broken! What in the world were those people doing? 

We have had prospective buyers come back for 3rd visits and stay for hours. They’ve walked through with friends of the family. In laws. And that is fine in this cautious environment. But at some point, lines and protocols should be clarified, even in a buyer’s market. Taking your contractor buddy, your HVAC guy, or your architect is not appropriate unless and until you have an offer in on that house. 

Unless you have really peculiar circumstances, structural inspections and most types of due diligence are done once you have a deal. In most areas this is known as the review period of contracts, and in Westchester County it is done before contracts but certainly after an acceptable offer is made. That’s how it is done. 

BUT PHIL, I can hear some agents say, My people don’t know if they want to make an offer until they make sure that their roofer/plumber/electrician/rabbi/sheetrock whisperer say it all checks out! To those agents I would say learn how to sell real estate. If I had a client ask me to do something backwards I would, um, tell them that is backwards. I would educate my client.  

BUT Phil, I hear another agent say, I don’t want to WASTE MY TIME if they aren’t going to go forward. We have to make sure everything checks out before I type up an offer … To those agents I say, do your job and stop trying to cut corners. It is ironic that you are so willing to waste the seller’s time. The occasions where there should be something verified before going forward exist, but they are rare. 90% of them probably involve you going to the town clerk or building department, not in the garage and attic. 

Deal first, due diligence next. Here’s why. If I as the listing agent encourage my sellers to allow curious, albeit uncommitted buyers and their posse to track insulation dust throughout the house enough only to have them not go forward, at some point my clients blow an O-ring. The broker’s job is to smooth out the process, not introduce a period of intrusive hell into their lives. Selling a home is disruptive enough. 

And when I represent buyers, it is the same thing. Here’s why: If a buyer has a deal on  a house, he has leverage on the seller. The seller does not want to lose the deal. And if the discovery period yields an issue, the seller is more likely to address the issue for a committed buyer than with someone they perceive as a nuisance. Buyers get far more consideration than lookers. Doesn’t that just make sense?

That’s the takeaway for consumers. You have to give to get. It isn’t about making things convenient for the seller (although that doesn’t hurt- alienating the seller is not the way to start an offer), it is about leveraging a stronger position to get what you want. And if your agent says that something is a bad idea, don’t get upset that they won’t be obedient; be glad you have a strong agent with backbone. They’ll be a better negotiator for you. 

If you are a buyer and the house feels like home but you have a reservation about the physical condition, that is what inspections are for. Lock the deal in first, then you do your due diligence. Any risk that you’ll find vampire bones in the basement is abated by the seller being more likely to fix the issue for a good faith buyer than a looky loo. Deal first, due diligence next. That is the rule of engagement, and that is why the protocol works. 

Update: Read Debbie Gartner’s comment: 

 I’ll also add perspective from the contractor’s end…it is very frustrating and a waste of your time to have us do an estimate, if you are not even sure that you are going to buy the house.  I’ve wasted too much time doing this.  It’s one thing if I lose an estimate to someone else, but totally different if the customer doesn’t buy the house.  my time is valuable too.  I try to avoid these like the plague.  I’m happy to go if it’s in contract.

Today was a first since I started my brokerage in mid 2005. I did something that I actually think more brokers and managers should do on occasion. 

I informed an agent that they would no longer be with our company. I fired someone. 

I’d love to say that it was difficult or that I was conflicted about the cut, but I was not. It was absolutely the right move, the company is better for it, and I haven’t scintilla of a doubt about my decision. Frankly, I am glad I terminated the person before they did something that would harm the reputation of the company or, worse, harmed the best interests of a client.

Back in October, I wrote a post entitled How Salespeople Can Prevent Their Broker From Premature Gray Hair. I undertook that one because one of our part-time agents was, inexplicably and for reasons I’ll never understand, unresponsive about fixing a relatively benign issue. If you ignore that small minor toothache it eventually becomes an abscess. And that is what happened.

The details are unimportant. What is important is that our firm has standards, and when Ann observed that we could never sleep at night if this person pulled this stunt on a client instead of with us, I knew I had to act. So I did.  Every opportunity was extended to make things right; it was to no avail. We are now a 25-member firm instead of 26. And I am completely at peace with that.  I have dealt with brokers and managers who demurred taking decisive action when their agent did something incredibly crappy. It’s like they could never part with anyone who brought in a dollar, like you can’t find someone to replace them who is better.  I will never be that milquetoast. 

I love growing my company and my brand. But only with good solid people. I’ll never sell out. I’d never hire or retain someone just for numbers, or, worse, just for money. Anyone who doesn’t share our values can do so from afar, but never under my roof. I am glad I did what had to be done before this person could let a client down. 

Pop quiz:
In the State of New York, if I as the listing agent bring my own buyer to the closing table, does that automatically make me a dual agent?  

If you answered “yes” you’d be wrong. If a New York real estate agent sells their own listing to their own buyer they are NOT automatically a dual agent. As a matter of fact they probably shouldn’t be.

Dual agency is one of the most misunderstood and controversial topics in the real estate industry. Part of the problem is that even professionals can’t agree because the rules vary greatly across state lines. Earlier today, on a discussion board on improving industry standards and practices, a licensee from another state wrote that if a buyer who had no agent called to buy one of her listings that she would refer them to another agent. In her state, she would be doing the right thing.

I would assert that in Westchester County where I work, if a buyer were hot for one of my listings and I did anything short of scheduling a showing with the intention of producing an offer for my seller, that I would be acting contrary to what my seller client hired me to do. My seller want me to get that buyer to commit. As a matter of fact my seller client should want me to bring my own buyer. And not because of the urban myth that there will be a commission savings. 

The reason my seller should want me to sell their listing myself is, pure and simply, advocacy. The seller hired me to sell the house when they list. They are the client. I am their advocate by statute. If we get a call on a sign or Internet entry on a listing, that guy is a customer. He didn’t hire me. I am not his advocate. He just wants to see the house and doesn’t have an agent. I owe him fairness and honesty. But I don’t work for him. When a buyer deals directly with me as the listing agent, he has no advocate. 

What are the advantages to the seller? 

• There is no buyer agent. The buyer has no counterpart to me working for him. 
• There is no buyer agent. I don’t have to call that agent for an update and wait for them to call the buyer and then call me back. I just call the buyer. 
• There is no buyer agent. There is no one with MLS or broker access to the comparable market activity to educate the buyer. 
• There is no buyer agent. The buyer is negotiating the largest transaction of his life with me (and my 500 transaction background) with no professional help. 

Are you getting the picture? This is why we tell buyers they need an agent to represent them, because the listing agent may well eat their lunch! But when a guy walks in cold off the proverbial street to see one of my listings, that act alone does not hire me as his representative. He is a customer. The seller is the client. This makes exclusive buyer agents and consumer advocates cringe, but the consumer I work for is the seller client. If the buyer chooses to not be represented, he does so at his own peril. 

Sometimes I regret asking a question because I hate the answer. 

Just this morning, I saw that it was the last day to submit an entry into The One That Got Away blogging contest, and I asked myself if I could recall a good story on the theme. Unfortunately, my answer came in an email tonight. 

Background: 13 months ago, I listed a true fixer upper for a very nice seller client. It was a gut job that needed everything- heat, electrical, windows, floors, baths, kitchen, you name it. It would need either an all cash buyer or a rehabilitation mortgage. It didn’t sell  in the first listing contract, but I earned an extension from the seller. We got our buyer this past June. 

The buyer’s agent was, from the sound of things, inexperienced. The buyer’s attorney…well, she was REALLY out there. She not only went on the home inspection (never heard of that one), she attempted to renegoiate the terms of our deal after contracts were sent out. Can you say “bad faith?” The icing on the cake was that the mortgage loan officer was really unresponsive. For months we asked for updates and got nothing from the lender, all while the attorney assured us that their mortgage application was proceeding. 

We were informed that a commitment was issued in August, but it was subject to an appraisal. How could they issue a mortgage with no appraisal? Again, no answers from their loan officer. After the appraisal, we were assured that the “clear to close” was imminent. 

Then, the hammer came down. The bank revoked the commitment. The appraisal cited water seepage in the basement and disqualified the collateral. How can you disqualify the house in a rehab loan? When you apply for the wrong loan. The loan officer, who was now not only MIA but being covered for by other colleagues, put the applicant into a steamline loan and not a full bown renovation loan. They applied for the wrong mortgage. The lawyer and agent didn’t catch it, and their loan officer was out to lunch.  

Since  commitment was issued, our position was that the buyer either needed to re- apply for the correct mortgage or forfeit the deposit. They were unresponsive for weeks. 

Outcome: Tonight, my seller emailed me and asked to be released. Shooting the messenger? Absolutely. Just yesterday I was on the phone with the owner of the other brokerage discussing how to get his buyer to stop stalling and proceed. I made it clear that the deposit was in jeopardy, especially in light of the attorney’s reassurances that the mortgage process was proceeding well (pretty crazy when she didn’t know her buyer applied for the wrong loan). But my seller had enough. She wants to start anew with another broker. 

The Lesson: Deals are either green and growing or ripe and rotten. Leaving the success of the loan in the hands of a rookie agent, a moonbat lawyer and an inept loan officer was the formula for losing the deal and as it turns out, the listing. Even though this was not my buyer and not my client, I should have asserted myself and either caught the mistake or flushed out the deal earlier. Even if that resulted in the loss of the deal it would have saved time, money, and certainly my standing with my client. 

Never again will I tolerate unprofessional behavior without a fight. Never again will I let a rookie learn the ropes on the back of my client. I won’t care about feelings, diplomacy or complaints. If advocacy means making waves, surfs up. 

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