This is more for brokers and owners of independent firms like myself, but if others find it helpful, use it. 

Maybe I’m a total goober for not having fancy software to run my company, but that’s another post. Our setup is probably unorthodox; Ann is typically at home, Ronnie, my admin, is at the office from 9-5, and I’m…everywhere. I have a Netbook which enables access to the Internet from anywhere- my car, a client or prospect’s house, or a diner. 

Cloud computing, or utilizing web-based programs instead of saving everything to one hard drive, benefits our model immensely because we all have access to the same data. Our product of choice is FREE- Google docs. All Google docs are roughly analogous to Microsoft Office, and while they are not as robust, they are free. And they do the job. Better than Office, they have a great filing system. 

All you need is a Google account, and you have access to all word documents, spreadsheets, forms, and plenty of other applications. Here are a few of the things we use daily:

• All messages are recorded on a spreadsheet. Every phone call is recorded and we have notes and color codes to denote status of the matter at hand.
• All buyers and sellers have a spreadsheet checklist. 
• All company forms– memos, offers, and letters, are saved in documents.
• We track the status of all transactions in the Spreadsheet program.
• We track the marketing steps (MLS, photos, signs, lockboxes, syndication) in Spreadsheets. 
• All files can be organized by type, labels, stars, and personal folders. Personalize it as you wish.
• Every agent on the team has a file.  

There’s plenty more, but I think you get the drift. All documents are password protected and sharable between our respective Google accounts. If I create a file, you can’t read or edit it unless I share it with you. All changes occur in real time- I have been on the messages folder and watched someone edit it miles away.

The race goes to the swift. We might eventually get web based Top Producer or some other more feature-rich system but thus far, Google Docs have made a huge difference for us, and, I believe, put me on the same footing as any firm with it’s own proprietary software. We dropped Showing Desk years ago in large part because of it (and CSS). I can’t think of a time where a ball has been dropped because we weren’t organized enough. This has enabled us to track transactions, prospects and many other crucial operations smoothly. 

So, to all my fellow independent broker-owner managers out there, here it is. Google docs are free, can be personalized, and save automatically. You’ll love the ROI. 

In all the panic about the drop in sales nationally this past July, few news outlets made much mention of the fact that Westchester’s real estate market went up. Now that August is past, how did we do as a follow up? 

Good question. In short, the answer is “steady.”

In July 2010, there were 449 closings with a median sales price of $799,000. 

In August 2010, there were 424 closings with a median sales price of $715,000. 

In August of 2009, there were 430 closings with a median sales price of $644,250. 

From July to August of 2010, transaction totals were down 5.6%. That median sales price of $799,000 was utterly unsustainable; $715,000 is still remarkably robust.

Comparing this August to last August is more relevant in my view, as the business is cyclical. Transaction totals are down just 2% from a year ago at this time, and median price is up a whopping 11%. 

Overall, there has not been much of a drop in transactions worth speaking of, and values are steady if not healthy. But in historical terms were are still in a malaise. 

Some context: at the peak of the market locally in the summer of 2005, the August totals were 852 transactions (which is why we call it a “peak”) and the median sales price was $732,500. In August of 2000, there were 752 transactions with a median price of $447,000. 

Westchester is doing better than most areas, overall.  But there are still plenty of people hurting. Those 300-400 sales not being made are rough on the sellers, many of whom are distressed. 

Note: all information is taken from the Westchester-Putnam MLS and is for single family home sales only. 

Out of area phone calls could be anyone- a bank negotiator, out of town prospect, or a client on a business trip, so I answer. 

I saw something today I never witnessed before. It happened when I was covering a home inspection for one of my agents (Yes- I know. What a great guy I am).  A home inspector brought the buyer onto the roof to show him something. I was so surprised to see this that I snapped a picture of it on my phone. Now, this was the first time I ever met the inspector. He was a sharp guy, handled the buyer’s 3-year old son like a champ, and from everything I saw made a thorough, straight inspection. He even had one of those infrared thingies that can detect moisture and rodents in the walls. He really was very good in every other way. 

However, I know inspectors who wouldn’t go up on a roof themselves. It’s part of risk management. I have often said that New York is a shark tank of liability, and many inspectors don’t feel it wise to climb up there, opting instead to making a visual inspection , even using binoculars. But they don’t go up there. 

We can argue whether or not that is right or wrong, but I have never seen an inspector take a buyer up there with him. The buyer is a young guy, ostensibly fit, flexible, and coordinated. But gravity is gravity, and I really wonder if the inspector’s insurance, let alone the home owner, would be comfortable with such a thing. 

I am not trying to give the inspector a hard time, or impugn his judgement, but I really do have to wonder if that move is very wise. 

OK, maybe Nietzsche is a little bit heavy for breakfast, but the theme of many blog posts I have read lately from my colleagues around the country is that this industry, which was never a walk in the park, is a real test of endurance, strength, and fortitude on both a physical and mental level.

When I was on the college rowing team we had a race with Princeton University, which was a far higher calibre of program. They were Ivy League, which is the top of the heap in crew. We were a club. The race was at Carnegie Lake in Princeton, New Jersey, and we got pasted. This was not unexpected. What I recall even more vividly than the whooping we got was the message on the bright orange T-shirt every Princeton oarsman wore that day: 

That Which Hurts Me Only Makes Me Stronger

Our T-shirts said things like “Villanova Basketball” and “Nike.” Our coach was furious with us after my boat’s race, not because we lost, but because we didn’t row well. And instead of going straight back to campus, we stayed on that nice lake and had a rare, post race practice session. It hurt. Our boat made the finals of the Dad Vail Regatta (small program championships) later that spring, where we missed a bronze medal by a few feet. In doing so, we beat several other crews whom we lost to earlier in the season. Not bad for a club program. 

Hopefully, that is a lesson that will carry over. 

We work long hours, fight more buyer resistance, seller grief, and lender red tape than probably anytime in modern history. Transactions are mine fields, not the rocky, negotiable paths they once were. We are travelling that field of peril  while multi tasking with new regulations, new technologies, and unpredictable news which can scuttle the already fragile mindsets of those whose cooperation we desperately need. Some clients are unreasonably obstinate; other are paralyzed with fear; getting both buyer, seller, lender and two lawyers to cooperate in a transaction is like conducting a symphony on a high wire these days, yet we have to keep our cool. 

The industry was already one rife with rejection, competition,  and the odd unscrupulous agent. Now we have, thanks to layers of meltdowns, burst bubbles, collapse of massive institutions, recessions and a shell-shocked public to deal with an unknown frontier to conquer. And you thought getting a real estate license was a good idea. 

Anyone who can survive and thrive in this environment will prosper incredibly when stability (and, I’ll whisper: prosperity) returns. They also have my respect. 

If you are a consumer, consider these things when choosing your advocate.

If you are a licensee, take heart. 

This too shall pass, and we’ll be the better for it. 

Just because you can multi task doesn’t mean you should multi task!!

The things we real estate brokers see out in the field. I don’t think an explanation is needed, the video tells it all. Suffice to say that I was showing clients a home in Westchester County, NY and we came upon this particular comode with an unusual characteristic. While it technically should be ingenious, it still clicks the “gross out” circuit. We got a great laugh out of it. 

Would you use this toilet in your home? In your master bedroom? Does multitasking this particular way appeal? 

Both state and county are getting the word out that downpayment assistance and grant money is being made available to Westchester and surrounding county home buyers. Some highlights of state programs include the following:

• Veterans assistance
• Remodeling purchase money mortgages
• Down payment assistance loans
• Construction incentives
• SONYMA low interest and low down payment programs

Imagine a buyer looking online for a home. They examine the inventory, veto the ones they dislike, dutifully check off their favorites, and compile a list of homes they’d like to see. It has taken over an hour, but final choices are made and one of my listings made the cut. They like the photos, the property description is enticing, and the house looks like a winner. The buyer want to see my listing!

Next, they call their buyer agent and request to schedule a showing. 

I have succeeded, right? I am bringing another set of eyeballs to my listing thanks in no small part to my marketing prowess. We are one step away from selling a house. 

Are my sellers happy? I think they should be. 

YET…

Some sellers, for reasons I still have yet to grasp, are critical of their listing agent when they themselves have not shown the house themselves! On a number of occasions, I have actually had clients criticize me because I didn’t show the house. Leaving aside the irony that many of these same people are vocal about not wanting dual agency, they just feel as if the listing agent is not earning the paycheck unless that listing agent also showed the house. 

I have sold many a listing where I never got a call on it. And it was ubiquitous- enormous exposure on all the websites, enhanced and featured in many, and copious, quality photos in tandem with written descriptions that make the mouth water. 

But no calls to my office. Other agents have shown it plenty, but not me. 

Am I am bad agent? 

Am I not doing my job? 

Am I lazily sitting back and waiting for the cooperating agents to “do my job for me?”

Or…is it possible, that if a listing is getting showings-just not with me- that the serious buyers in the market already have representation and choose to call their agent instead of me? 

Is there any marketing out there that is actually good enough to make someone approach the largest transaction of their life without an advocate? 

While Westchester County has remained a sought after destination for home buyers and 450 single family homes closed in July, there were still an enormous number of homes that quietly came off the market this August, unsold. While it would be easy to dismiss the results on the poor market, even a casual examination of the homes that the public threw back reveals more than the seller might think they know. 

I don’t have any issues with For Sale By Owners. It is a free market. I equally have no issue with FSBOs who pay a fee to enter their home on the MLS and then try and act as their own listing agent. What I do have a problem with is people who distrust agents because they paint us with a broad brush in the lack of integrity department but then turn around and misrepresent themselves. That wastes my time. 

Today I walked through a home which was billed as a “totally renovated home.” It was not. It was an incomplete, sloppy, half finished do it yourself job of dubious quality. What I observed was a patchwork of poor workmanship, probably illegal (which is to say, no permits) “improvements” and a desk in the basement covered with indications that the owners were unskilled weekend warriors. 

We saw:  

• Exposed wiring everywhere
• Missing molding and sloppy finishing where it wasn’t missing
• An incomplete kitchen with a CURTAIN for a sink cabinet door
• An incomplete master bath
• A finished basement with a 6-foot ceiling -which couldn’t be legal in their wildest dreams
• An HVAC unit in a basement closet with hanging wires and ductwork that was separated and leaning

Every so often, I have a nice comment or email from someone who read my blog. Sometimes they stick around and visit often, other times we are like two ships that passed in the rain. Sometimes, it is the other way around. When I first started on Active Rain, I would often “bookmark” a post I liked or found interesting, but sometimes I didn’t read that author again for a long while. If they appeared on the feature dashboard I’d get reminded, but early on the experience was random- not by choice, but because I didn’t have all the tools.

The “Blog” tab at the top right of the header is there so you can start your day with your faves whenever they update. Just block on the tab circled in the picture, and you’ll be taken to your “blog home.”

On the column to the right is your subscriptions. To Subscribe to a blog, simply check that blogger’s top right sidebar where you’ll see a “subscribe” button right underneath their contact information (hint: if the button says “unsubscribe,” you already subscribed to them!). Anytime they update their blog, their smiling face goes to the top of your subscription dashboard.

On the left of the blog home page is the stream of all blog posts, which can be filtered. You can filter the blog stream based on a number of criteria shown here. You can read posts by type, such as those geared toward consumers only, or professional focus only, or even read the blog most recently commented on. It is very customizable.

The best part of the whole design is that you have the perfect marriage of your regular subscriptions on the right and complete and utter random serendipity on the left. Just in writing this post I got sidetracked on three different postings which caught my eye.

As you might notice from my subscriptions, I love to read intellectual hotties, people I feel that, if brain power were a body, they’d resemble Jayne Mansfield. Or The Rock (Ok, I’m better with the chick metaphor). You might like people who gear their content more toward consumers, your local market area, humor, or war stories. There are thousands of flavors. Regardless of what your bag is, understanding the value of that little blog link will never let you lose a good one again and enrich your experience here. 

Perhaps because we speak with so many people in the course of a day, the odds of something memorable happening are far higher for brokers and agents than someone stuck in a cubicle all week. For example, a few months ago in Manhattan I walked out of a deli and saw a guy being arrested. 

On my car.

Arrested I see every so often. Frisked and cuffed on my car? That was a first. 

Today was another (happier) first. I was walking through a new listing that was tenant occupied. They actually weren’t staying in the house. It was filled to the gills with all kinds of filming equipment- cameras, screens, chairs, and props. One of the tenants was present, and he filled me in on the unique goings on. 

He asked if I was aware of what he was doing, and exoplained he was a filmmaker. Well, it turns out that the cottage is sort of command central for on location filming for an upcoming suspense thriller. I joked that I’d make a good man on park bench. He laughed, and said if I really was game, he needed an extra for a scene. I was invited back to the location where they were filming, and met the director and producer. It turns out that the director is on the faculty of the Lee Strasburg Institute and NYU- not too shabby. I met the other extras, they set up a little lounge for us with food and refreshments, and we wrapped after about 3 hours- good thing I had a light Friday planned. 

Maybe this is my big break! 

Hollywood doesn’t have enough nasal voiced leading men with glasses who are shorter than the leading lady. 

Three real estate brokers were chatting after an association meeting about how slow business was. The subject of walk in business came up, and the first two expressed how long it had been since they last had a deal result from someone “walking in” off the street into their office. 

The third broker however, said he just had a “walk in” and proceeded to tell how fast the transaction went. “The guy just walked in off the street, told me exactly what he wanted, and I was able to find it for him almost immediately, right at my desk. Fastest transaction of the year.” 

Curious as to how this could be, the other brokers were puzzled. “What did he want?”

“The rent.”

Inman had news yesterday of REALTOR association mergers, and posed the question of the value of such moves. Given my involvement in a large territory spanning half a dozen MLS systems and many more boards, I feel that I should weigh in on the matter. 

I am a big fan of large MLS systems, but not terribly jazzed about big boards. Ths state of Connecticut aparently agrees with me- aside from Fairfield County, they have a statewide MLS but have retained local boards, often on a town level. More on that later. Big MLSes are good, but so are smaller boards.

If you didn’t click on the link, I favor large MLS systems because it is silly to have to pay separate fees to cross county lines or, in some cases, town lines. I could drive 35 miles and pass through 4 MLS areas. That is madness. It is data, and even if you don’t have my business model why should you have to have 2 different sets of overhead because you straddle a boundary? 

Large Realtor Associations, however, have different problems. Associations exist, in large degree, to oversee the membership and enforce the Code of Ethics. Small boards have the resources to oversee their town or county. Big boards simply do not have the resources to enforce member conduct. LIBOR, or the Long Island Board of Realtors, has the government intervening on both ends of their territory: In Queens, the state has issued a cease and desist order in a large area because of agent misconduct. On the East End, the Department of Justice is examining anti-trust practices, where brokers flaunt their antipathy about the MLS. My own experience confirms the problems of oversight in Queens. I have blogged about my frustration with agent conduct in the boroughs in the past. In some parts, it is the wild west, and the board is not effective in reigning in misconduct. Where the board fails, the government intervenes. 

Connecticut, on the other hand, is a different universe from Long Island and the Boroughs. By and large, Connecticut agents and firms are as professional as I have found, and there is almost never an issue with cooperation, fair play, professional standards, or collegiality. It is no coincidence that they have small boards. My own board recently consolidated with another county’s association, but have retained a regional office in each area. I am on the board for the MLS, which is growing, but I hope the association does not absorb any other boards. 

The arguments for large boards include buying power and bulk discounts for membership, and I suppose that is nice. However, we have to choose our priorities, and in my view professional standards and oversight have to supersede getting a good deal on a rental car. 

By now the whole country is talking about the over 25% drop in sales this past July in the wake of the stimulus. Here in the state of New York the sales were down 34.9% overall. Locally, Rockland County was down about 27% and Putnam was down 30.6%. But Westchester County was up, a surprisingly strong 8.7%, with a median sales price of $799,000 (source: Journal News). It just goes to show that all real estate is local. 

But why would Westchester buck the trend? How can a county next to other counties with declining numbers have such healthy results? In my opinion, Westchester benefited at the expense of the neighboring counties. In the past, people were often priced out of Westchester and saw a move across the river or north to Putnam or Dutchess as their most affordable option- a Westchester lifestyle if only with a longer commute. With home prices down 20-25% since the peak of 2005, those home buyers are no longer forced to leave the county; why move 45 minutes north or across the bridge to Rockland if Westchester home prices are within reach?

Why indeed. Proximity to friends, family, work, and yes, that big Apple just below is economically feasible again. So, many stuck around and bought locally instead of moving out of county the way they might have over the past 5-10 years, and the money stayed in Westchester.  It remains to be seen if that trend continues, but I don’t see conditions changing from where I sit. The outlying counties will recover organically, but only when they adjust their prices even more than they already have. Call it shrinking pains. 

The New York suburbs are often funny about real estate signs. One town won’t allow a sign with a company name, allowing only “For Sale By Broker” or “For Sale By Owner” on the panels. Another municipality prohibits anything bigger than 12″ x 12″. Some places ban signs altogether, while others have rules rendering them useless, such as one that will only allow them in a front window. On a set back home that does nothing. One local city is OK with “For Sale” signs but outlaws “Sold” signs. 

In every one of these municipalities, I have seen chintzy yard signs that remain up for weeks and sometimes months by home improvement companies, painters, fence installers, garage door technicians, and many other trades. I have never understood why they are permitted and my sign is not. Actually, I do understand, and it is not cool.

It amazes me that a municipality-the government- can abridge what I put on a sign or can restrict me from having a sign at all. It is absolutely contrary to the first amendment, and makes these towns more like patriarchal fiefdoms than governments that are out for the highest and best for the citizenry. Now, there may be a few who find real estate signs to be distasteful or clutter the view. But the constitution doesn’t exist for them to have a good view or have environs that conform to their particular taste. It exists to protect my freedom of expression and ensure that commerce can be promulgated. 

Big companies with large market share in these areas have no desire from what I can see to change the law. It enables them to keep status quo. If I busted my hump and a few of my signs sprang up it might shift the balance of power. They can’t have that. Homeowners probably like the law too, because yard signs can distract, or because their absence makes it appear that nobody wants to move from their idyllic ‘burb. Gag me. That doesn’t make it right. 

The right to self expression and to post my message without the state’s interference is not something that can be voted on or zoned out. It is an inalienable right. The “tyranny of the mob” does not grant or deny rights. Rights are rights. And you can’t bestow a right on a garage door guy and deny it to a real estate broker. I know of no sign restriction that ever held up in court. They exist because we are too busy earning a living to have our day in court. For now. 

Yes, some of the local towns are funny about signs. But I’m not laughing.