I got word tonight that my client’s offer on a home in Tuckahoe was accepted. She is very happy. What is unusual about this particular deal is that the sellers actually interviewed me before they first went on the market but elected to list with someone else. I respect the agent, so I was happy for them. He and I are pals, and we are excited to be doing our first deal together. Ironically enough, the home is being sold for the exact price I predicted back in February, which was also probably the reason I didn’t get hired. 

The real pleasure about the negotations was that even though we started somewhat far apart, my colleague and I kept cooler heads and affected a meeting of the minds fairly quickly and solidly. It was very cool, and a far departure from the mini dramas I have seen playing out lately where the agents, who should be stablizing figures, have let their emotions get the better of them and inject unneeded drama into a process that calls for calm and sanity. 

Among the sillier tactics I have seen is the petty nonsense some sellers and their agents pull when comparable sales are cited as justification for the price offered. 

• Oh THAT dump? Our place is way better
• Number 122 up the street? Are you kidding? Have you seen how it backs up to the highway?
• Obviously you’ve never seen the inside of of this one. It is a fetid relic.  
• That is in no way shape or form a comparable. Please. How insulting. 

Inspired by the Facebook group. 

You know you are in the real estate business when

• You dial a phone number on the calculator app. 
• Your daughter brings home straight A’s and you worry that the report card won’t comp out.
• You walk up to your own front door and look for a lockbox. 
• You put your ATM code into the microwave.
• You answer the phone at 10pm and are surprised the person calling is surprised. 
• A friend brags about a rebate they got on a car trade in/purchase and you wonder how they put it on the HUD-1.
• Someone asks how your kid is doing in school and you initially cringe at discussing a school district in any way shape or form.
• Your insert your Sentrilock card into the supermarket self checkout. 
• You cram an entire day off into 4 consecutive non working hours. 
• You briefly consider faxing a landscaping estimate to an attorney for approval.
• You can’t find your Bluetooth- because it’s in your ear.
• You leave the house for a gallon of milk without your cell phone and you feel naked.
• You bring a lawn sign car shopping to make sure the trunk will allow it to fit. 
• You ponder the square footage of the Church during a boring sermon. 
• When you pick up your son at a play date you notice if the house has a buried oil tank or an old roof. 
• After running into an old friend you check out what their home is assessed for when you get home. 
• There is at least one neighborhood or town in your market area that completely pisses you off because you’ve lost more than one deal there. 
• There is a banker or lawyer somewhere over whose head you’d love to pour spoiled gravy. 
• Your heart races when you see a For Sale By Owner. 
• You are authentically astonished and grateful when a client picks up the lunch check. 
• Nothing good ever happens when they say “we were thinking about it last night, and________”
• You’ve screamed into a pillow because someone you knew bought or sold a house without telling you. 
• You’ve hung up the phone after a solicitation utters the words “all you need is one sale to pay for it.”
• Catch-22: will calling be too pushy? Will not calling be poor follow up? 
• You get home and wish someone else would make the decision for a change.
• You cringe when you recognize certain phone numbers or email addresses. 
• There is a certain house in town you’ll never ever forget, ever, because_________
• When everyone else screams at the TV during a game, you scream at the TV during the news. 
• You ponder an idea that will transform your business as you drift off to sleep, and can’t remember what the hell it was when you wake up. 
• You want to ask someone why they use a photo that is almost unrecognizable with how they look today. But you don’t. 
• You hate meetings.
• You’ve been asked to move a mountain in the next hour by someone who hasn’t returned your calls in 2 weeks, and they are completely serious. 
• You wish you handled that appointment differently. 
• You live in the question. 
• Upon getting voicemail, you chide yourself for believing they might actually answer the phone.
• You’ve wrung your hands over your URL.
• You know what a hoarder’s home smells like. 
• You wish that negative guy would spend just one day watching you work, because that would teach them. 
• Knowing what you know, you wonder aloud how that other person can do what they do. 
• Nothing surprises you anymore. Until you get surprised again. 
• You exhale when their parents tell them they should buy the house. 
• You have thought or said “This isn’t 1983. It isn’t even 2007.”
• You have been a grief counselor after showing them the comps. 
• If that person can do it, dammit, you can do it. 

I could go on, but I think you get the point! 

This morning I read a brief tribute online from Westchester County Executive Rob Astorino to Joseph Acocella, the town clerk of nearby Harrison, NY who had passed away. I get notices on the loss of Realtors and public officials with some regularity, so I just assumed Mr. Acocella was someone who was older. Who would expect otherwise.  

In logging onto the Journal News, however, I found out that Joe was just 30, and had battled health challenges his whole life. This hits close to home for me– my older brother Paul also died young-too young- after a lifetime of fighting, battling, and overcoming diabetes, kidney failure, a temporarily successful kidney/pancreas transplant, and many other issues, one setback after another. The story had a picture of a wheelchair bound Acocella – a double amputee- on his job as clerk, looking forward. 

Only 30. He was the youngest New Yorker ever elected to a town clerk position in 2007, and he distinguished himself by modernising the town system and putting town records online (something people like me really appreciate). And he did all this despite being on dialysis 3 days per week, which if you are unfamiliar, is utterly exhausting. My brother sometimes needed a day to recover from dialysis, and he wasn’t much older than Mr. Acocella.

To distinguish onceself in such a public position despite such physical challenges is really heroic. It takes a very special person. And in a time when we are confronted by bad news all around, it is a reminder that we have good, good people in our midst, and we should appreciate their contribution more than we do. According to the local Patch.com, he was a Fordham guy as well who was a leader going all the way back to high school despite the percieved roadblocks. What an inspiring person. I really wish I knew this guy. I have said it before and I’ll say it again: sometimes God takes his best work back early. 

I have blogged before on how some buyer agents approach the listing agent with questions that are best addressed by other sources. For example, a  few years ago I had a buyer’s agent assistant ask me a battery of questions on the legality of a hypothetical addition to a home I had listed. I was, in essence, being asked to answer questions best answered by the building department. 

This is wrong. Buyer agents should, whenever possible, verify listing information from primary sources, such as town hall or the homeowner association. The listing agent should not do their job for them. It’s like getting a second opinion from the first opinion. 

This is not to say that buyer agents are dissuaded from asking questions; quite the contrary. Buyers can ask whatever they wish, and we in the sales industry love questions because they have long been held as a sign of interest. The buyer agent simply needs to distinguish what question is best posed to the listing agent and what question should be answered from other, more primary sources. The litmus test is simply whether or not the listing agent will know the answer right off, or if they have to go to a 3rd party. If a 3rd party is needed, the buyer agent needs to go there on behalf of their client. 

Today, for example, an agent emailed me 2 questions about a condo I have listed in Chappaqua: the first was the date of the furnace installation, and the second was as to what the homeowner association fees covered. Obviously, the furnace is best answered by the seller client. I can handle that just fine. The HOA fees are another matter. That agent needs to ask the management company for that information because that is where I would go for the very same answer. 

I work with buyers to this day. And I know personally that when a buyer asks a question, they don’t want me to simply be a carrier pigeon and ask the listing agent when I could get the answer from the horse’s mouth at the town hall, county records, homeowner association or even a lender (FHA eligible anyone?). Buyer agents cannot simply unlock doors and parrot inquiries. Their job as the buyers advocate is not to get answers- it is to get accurate answers. And from my position as a listing agent, it is wrong to ask someone else to do your homework for you. That is back door due diligence, and it is not the best advocacy for people about to make the biggest purchase of their life. 

If the question is best answered by someone other than the seller or listing agent, then the buyer agent needs to walk into the front door of that other source on behalf of their client. 

The corporation, or village of Ossining, will be 200 years old in 2013, and our fair municipality was the first village to incorporate in the State of New York. The bicentennial will rightly observe a long, rich history as well as cultural significance from being the cradle of the “up the river” line from old gangster movies to Breakfast at Tiffany’s, and most recently, prominent mention in the hit TV series Mad Men. 

So have we outgrown the “village ” moniker? The dictionary defines a city as an inhabited place of greater size, population, or importance than a town or village. Indeed, according to the 2010 census, of Westchester County’s six cities, Ossining is larger than Rye and an eyelash smaller than Peekskill. Of the county’s 23 villages, only Port Chester is has a greater population. Moreover, if you go outside the county to many other cities in New York State, Ossining is larger and arguably more significant than a bunch of them. 

Would there be an advantage to acknowledging the facts on the ground and declaring ourselves a city officially? Would there be a revenue advantage in terms of federal or state aid for our infrastructure or school system? These questions might be worth exploring. If the answers are in the affirmative, it would make sense to approach the idea more earnestly. 

Perhaps the symbolism of the move would make a bigger impact on  our civic psyche then the mere utility. Our waterfront remains undeveloped outside of arguments over the on again, off again Harbor Square project. Downtown Ossining, blighted and derelict for decades, has nearly completed its turnaround and is reaching critical mass in terms of vitality. Westchester magazine loves us. Should we strike while the iron is hot? Would it be a smart move? Have we graduated? Is 200 years as a village long enough? 

I think the idea of an Active Rain meetup is a capital idea, and I would like to propose one for Westchester and surrounding RainFolk on Tuesday, September 6 at 7pm at the Brazen Fox in White Plains NY. If you can drive to White Plains from wherever you are, you are welcome. The full address is 175 Mamaroneck Avenue, White Plains, NY 10601. Parking is best behind the building in the municipal lot on the corner of Maple and Waller. Brazen Fox does have a rear entrance from the lot.

This would be a natural for people in Westchester, Rockland, Putnam and the Bronx. 1500 points for all attendees. Event will be sponsored by your wallet until we get a sponsor. Typically, we go dutch at the meetups I have attended. It should be fun to tilt a few with the folks we have rubbed cyber elbows with for so long.

Please RSVP in the comments or email me at jphilip@jphilip.com

It is hard to believe that it was almost a year ago that fellow blogger Elyse Berman referred a listing client to me here in New York. A terrific lady, the client had recently lost her husband and relocated to Florida. She had expired unsold with another broker, and I met her last September. There were circumstances around the file that made it no cookie cutter sale, but by December we had an interested buyer. Due to our lovely attorney state here in New York, fully executed contracts would not be completed until February. 

Like many other transactions, this was a short sale, so getting a buyer was just the beginning. The approval process took us every bit of the last 7 months- no picnic. It never helps to have a slow, unresponsive bank in a workout. But it does help to have a strong buyer agent and a motivated buyer on the other side and a skilled attorney on our side. Those assets we had in spades. Moreover, the seller was a person you like to fight for- decent, supportive, and cooperative. 

Finally, in late July the unconditional approval came through, and the closing was today. It was a long time coming.

That’s not the end of the story. There will be a part 2, as the client has listed her late mother’s home with me very recently as well. I can’t imagine dealing with the death of both a spouse and a parent in such a short period, and my heart goes out to this dear woman. 

When I met her to see the second house, I also met her nephew, who happens to be on the spectrum for autism. This hits very close to home for me- Gregory, our 6 year old, is also on the spectrum. My client didn’t know this, and we had a discussion about how autism had affected us personally.

She told me one thing that was remarkable: a Catholic school teacher by profession, she had dealt with students on the spectrum in her work. And once not too long ago, some students humiliated a student with autism (just hearing that makes my blood boil), making that poor kid very upset and distressed. My client, a meek woman in appearance and demeanor, then told me how she handled the bullies. 

And I still get chills. 

Her whole demeanor changed. She was Mama bear, and those boys were NEVER to harass that other student again, ever, and if she ever heard otherwise, GOD HELP THEM. Their job going forward was to watch out for him. Period. This was no grieving widow recounting the events- it was a mother, a teacher and an aunt looking out for the lost sheep. I wanted to hug her. 

It goes without saying that I won’t take the second listing for granted. And I will go to the mat for this lady, because I love people who fight for the right thing. I just eat that up. I really do. 

Anyone who says we just broker homes is nuts. We deal in humanity. We affect lives profoundly. That’s what we do. I am grateful to Elyse for the referral and support, and I look forward to hitting a home run for a great, great client. 

The Wall Street Journal has reported that ForSaleBYOwner.com founder Colby Sambrotto has sold his Manhattan condo with a broker after failing for 6 months as a For Sale by Owner. 

Here’s the best part: The broker got him $150,000 more than he was asking when he was selling on his own. So much for saving on commission- he netted more even after the commission! 

The story is that Sambrotto went for 6 months selling “By owner” on the Internet, online ads, and the rest of the FSBO gig at an asking price of $2 million for his Chelsea condominium. He then gave up (as 90% of FSBOs will) and listed with Jesse Buckler of Bond New York, who took the unusual strategy of advising Sambrotto to raise his price by $150,000. Clearly, this is a move that only works if you know your market. The home is now closed for $2.15 million after going under contract in May.  

Some have said that the brokers control the market in Manhattan so much that buyers seldom look online, and that is why FSBO failed and the broker succeeded.

Bull.

Manhattan buyers are as savvy as they get, and sites like StreetEasy, Trulia and ResidentialNYC get huge traffic for Manhattan. The truth is that a good broker knows how to sell real estate better, faster, for more money and with fewer headaches than a website developer. 

It all goes to the old story about the plumber who is called in to fix a furnace and after tapping a few times on a specific pipe and getting the thing humming again, mails the owner a bill for $1000. Aghast, the owner objects, saying that he only tapped a pipe. He then got an itemized bill, $1 for tapping the pipe, $999 for knowing what pipe to tap. We are paid for what we know- not just what we do. 

If you want a do it yourself project, build a go cart. For the largest transaction of your life, hire a good professional broker.