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
These programs do have certain loan limits and income requirements.
County programs are also available both through the Westchester County Division of Housing and Community Renewal (up to $30,000) and a $7500 first time home buyer incentive.
Bronx, Dutchess and Putnam also have first time home buyer assistance programs.
I will blog about specifics as details become available.
I am NOT an authority on these programs, but I WILL point you in the direction of loan officers and mortgage firms who participate in these important programs which will bring responsible home ownership for Westchester first time home buyers, veterans, the disabled, and other groups who may be marginalized by the current economic climate.
If you are or considering being a first time home buyer in Westchester, you may not be relegated to having to save 20% down in order to buy your first home.
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.
If one were to compare the sales with the expired listings, I see trends too considerable to ignore. While success always leaves clues, so does failure. It isn’t just Murphy at work- it is an unwitting conspiracy between agent and client that contributes to many of the duds.
MLS Photos. The Westchester -Putnam MLS allows for a maximum of 30 photos for a listing. While you don’t need to hire a pro, I see some regrettable blunders that I am amazed the sellers missed- out of season (snow/leaf covered) photos, no curb view shot, one crummy photo, and other fumbles. While I blame the agent, the client has the capacity to check this online and should have their agent accountable for good pictures.
MLS Description. Of the 50 expired listings I surveyed, 2 had no marketing remarks at all. Many had one sentence, including one being sold by an agent selling their own house. The Westchester-Putnam MLS allows 500 characters, or a decent paragraph, to describe the property. I could get a 3-ring binder for a $35,000 car; a decent paragraph on a $500,000 house isn’t too much to ask.
Price goofs. Pricing is always a bone of contention with sellers and their agents, and I sympathize with sellers who don’t want to lower their price into the 3rd ring of Hell. Point taken. But hanging out there at $504,900 while you fly under the radar of everyone who isn’t looking at anything higher than $500,000 is a fatal mistake. Price points matter to the public.
Ridiculous showing instructions. No showings Saturdays? No showings after 5pm? Really? Did your agent tell you than many Westchester buyers are Manhattan people up for the day or evening and they don’t have much flexibility to accommodate you? There is no tomorrow if you live in another city and are only in town for a few hours.
Overall neglect. Buyers gauge motivation, and spelling errors that remain for 6 months send a message you will regret.
Nothing can guarantee a sale in this economy, but in the ultra competitive Westchester real estate market it pays to mind your Ps and Qs. Everything matters. Handling these mistakes maximizes your chance at getting shown, getting offers, and getting packed.
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
The MLS marketing remarks were written in language and copy worthy of my best effort, and I’ve done some good write -ups. Concise, a vivid word picture, inviting, convincing, and great economy of words. It was fantastic. The only problem was that it couldn’t be for this house.
I suppose I shouldn’t have a problem with these people. They make the best argument for the necessity of accountable brokerage.
“I can’t let you go inside my house with my kids home alone.”
Those were the words of a newer listing client when I asked to swing by the house to do something that would take under a minute. The kids were teenagers, a 13-year-old boy and a 14-year-old girl.
Some background: When the home was listed 2 weeks prior, it was, to be kind, not in showing shape. However, with smart angles and minimal work the photos I took with my digital camera flattered. The only exception was the dining room, which would have to be done at a later time. We agreed that the house would go on the market immediately due to the circumstances and that the dining room would be tidied up as soon as possible.
I did get a call from Mrs Seller that the dining room was ready for photos, and we agreed I’d come by on an agreed upon day at 3:30pm. This would be to take, at most, two photographs. Late that morning, something came up that required my attention. I called the owner to see if I could come by earlier, since the house had a lockbox.
“No. That wouldn’t work, because the kids are home alone.”
Oooh-kaay. I didn’t know what to say. This is a rarity.
“I can’t let you in the house when the kids are home. They are 13 and 14. You can’t go to my house with my kids alone there.”
It is just as well that I was at a loss for words, because when words came later they would not have been good to say. We agreed to reschedule. But I felt terrible. Obviously, the guy doesn’t trust me with his teen aged kids. Or, there is something going on in that house prior to my 3:30 scheduled arrival I can’t see. Either way, I’m not liking my liability prospects here.
Putting aside a little bit of respect for the value of my time, as a father of four I often relate to the concerns of other parents. Ann and I are incredibly risk averse with our children. But this I don’t get, and I really don’t even want to deconstruct it. I had spent hours with these people, who are a short sale, going over their finances, airing their emotions over their financial issues, and holding their hand. While they were a new listing to me, they were already on the market for a year. Nothing here is new.
12 years ago, as a 3rd-year agent, a seller client inexplicably yelled at me in his front yard. We were having a conversation and he just got angry and berated me as if I were an insubordinate adolescent. I was 31. My initial reaction was to pull my sign (it was 10 feet away) out of the ground and sack him. But I went against my gut out of fear of losing a commission and it expired unsold. I always regretted letting that guy run his kook script on me. I have that same feeling in my gut.
The lockbox has come off the door and I am releasing the sellers. My wife agrees, and the occurrence has raised questions about these people we do not want really want to find answers for. We have given this quite a bit of thought and discussion.Ann, like me, wondered aloud if they are really this suspicious of me for a dining room photo, how will the short sale go? When I list a home, I try and cover as many possible contingencies as possible. Teenagers have to be able to accommodate showings, and you really ought to be able to trust your agent with teenagers. I respect the insecurity of others and there might be people who think their concern is perfectly reasonable. Perhaps it is. They can have the listing.
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 streambased 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?”
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.
I just spoke to a prospective client who has a bit of a complicated situation with a house he owns. It is vacant, and I met him there today along with a gentleman who turned out to be an older brother.
Without going into detail, this is not an easy scenario, and the guy clearly needs help. He asked if my listing contract was an “exclusive,” which is a term I hear in the boroughs but seldom in Westchester. The listing contract we use is from the board and it is called an Exclusive Right to Sell. “That’s not what my brother did when he sold his house,” he told me, and we proceeded to go outside and engage his brother.
His brother proceeded to tell me a series of events which sounded like a for sale by owner’s dream scenario. He had a nice sign. He got 10 calls the first day. He had multiple offers. He told the buyer he chose that it was his way or the highway. He spoke in terms I never heard before, and with good reason- he made them up. But he was rather impressed with his flawless, smooth, carefree transaction. I just listened. When he got done with his tale of success, I asked him exactly when he sold this house.
“Oh, it was May of 2005.”
Yeah. My dog could have sold 15 houses that year if the department of state had reciprocity with the dog license division. Everyone was a genius in the Spring of 2005.
The shame of it is that if this guy influences his younger brother in a real estate decision there is high risk of a foreclosure.
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.
However, life does throw curveballs, and you have to adapt. So, being an open minded fellow and willing to try new things, even things that are foreign to me, against my nature, and frankly not to my preference, I endeavored to locate a stud. Actually, more than one. I had to. Really.
One of my agents, apparently, has found numerous studs in her time and offered to help after I explained things to her. The trick is you can’t just grab around, or grope, or even tip toe. You need good equipment. I don’t have any equipment.
Now, don’t get me wrong, as an average suburban guy I hold my own in the tool department but I sure never had the hardware to find any stud. Especially with a thick rug involved like this morning.
You see, locating a floor joist is seldom something a real estate broker needs to do. However, on a bank-owned listing of mine, a creak in a bedroom floor was turning people off. When I explained to my asset manager my predicament, he recommended that I get some 6-penny nails and reinforce the loose sub flooring to the joists at the edges of the carpet. Easier said than done, however, because the floor was covered in wall to wall carpet. Now, mind you, I’m no carpenter. Believe me. I studied English. I never took shop. When the other kids were building tree houses I was scoring baseball games and reading history books.
Anyway, my agent recommended a “stud finder.” I never heard of such a thing, but they are readily available at any hardware store. I went down to Ossining Hardware and they recognized me as that weird guy who just bought 20 six-penny nails for 60 cents and asked for a receipt. I asked for a “stud finder” and he told me to go somewhere else if I wanted that. But he did carry the Stud Sensor 250 from Stanley, which operates the same way. It located the joists in spite of that wall to wall carpet over the sub floor.
So I got to some serious nailing, which felt a little funny, because it had been a while for me. But you never really forget how to do this stuff, and I got right down to it. Now I may not be a pro, but I didn’t want to pay for it. It actually wasn’t so bad to do it myself.
I have done many new things in this business which they don’t teach in real estate class, as we all have, but some rudimentary carpentry was never on the list until today. You just never know what the next challenge will be. Ann is very happy that I brought the Stud Sensor home, because she has wanted to hang a nice mirror above our fireplace and couldn’t find the right place on the wall to screw.
Anyway, I’m pretty exhausted now, and I think I’ll just go sleep early.
Next week: Why beefcake is the superior treat at broker opens to hors d’oeuvres.
Peekskill is one of the older River towns in Westchester County. I have blogged about Peekskill before, and I have done quite a bit of business there. It is by far the northernmost city in Westchester county, and in addition to being affordable, the quality of life there seems to improve by the week. This is the market data for July of 2010 for single family homes in Peekskill, and all information is sourced from the Westchester-Putnam MLS.
Prices are way down. Median price last month was $305,000 and July of last year was $310,000, but this July it was $184,500. There were only 4 transaction with 75 homes actively for sale.
Now is a god time to buy real estate in Peekskill. Get yourself a free Listingbook account and check out homes for sale in Peekskill. It is absolutely a buyer’s market here.
Yorktown is a larger town in north Westchester County between Cortlandt and Somers. It is is very suburban in character- think post-war/baby boom subdivisions with ranches, splits and raised ranches and with larger colonials in the newer developments. It is served primarily by the Yorktown and Lakeland school districts, and it has abundant shopping and parks. Yorktown has always been a popular place to land for southern Westchester and Bronx residents who wanted to move north to the suburbs. Downtown Yorktown Heights is located at the intersections of routes 202 and 118 and is home to the Triangle shopping Center, the iconic Friendly’s restaurant, The Pennysaver of northern Westchester, and plenty of other commerce. It is also the site of the Drivers License test course, where the Boss recently passed her driver license test. So we love Yorktown right now.
This data is for the Yorktown school district only and is taken from the Westchester-Putnam Multiple Listing Service. It compares the sales of single family homes from July of 2010 to July of 2009.
Yorktown’s market was a mixed bag this July. June was very hot with 22 closings, so a cooling off shouldn’t be surprising. Median price was certainly up, but the transaction total was a rather lean 8. However, with 25 homes pending sale there is little to worry about.
To check out the 133 available properties Yorktown has to offer, register yourself for a free Listingbook account.
I have posted before about my philosophy with real estate investor clients. I don’t dislike newbies or amateurs, but I sure do a good job of scaring them about the realities of how expensive a mistake in real estate can be. I know investors who spent $400,000 on properties before the sub prime crisis hit, expecting to sell at $550,000. 18 months later, the house sold for…wait for it…$400,000. Did they break even? NO, they lost big time because of the overhead, taxes, cost of money, and carrying costs. The Great Recession created a great many ex-real estate investors.
Our best investors pay cash, know what they are doing, are risk averse but decisive, and are eager to make a deal happen but not foolhardy. They have gotten people out of hot water, saved neighborhoods from a vacant foreclosure, helped renters buy their first home, and made strong profits for themselves in the meantime. They don’t watch cable TV shows about flipping houses. They are unimpressed by the amount of money they have in the warehouse, because it is working capital, a tool as much as a truck or plow for their respective trade, and typically devoid of ego. Ego doesn’t make money.
They also are known more for the possible deals they pass on than the few they do make, because there are way more frogs out there than princes. They never speculate on a property or opportunity they don’t fully understand. Warren Buffett was once asked why he didn’t own more stock in Microsoft, and his explanation was a lesson for us all: He’s not a software guy. He doesn’t know the business, and just because the stock does well doesn’t mean he feels right about buying it. Buffett knows insurance (his area of expertise, actually), Cola, Razors, candy, and other products. That’s where he makes his hay. An investor of mine who does well turning cape cods around will never buy a 30-unit apartment building because even though it might have fantastic cash flow, it is beyond the scope of his expertise- maintenance, management, rent collection, that is not something one wants to learn on the fly with huge money on the line.
An investor in 2010 with brains buys what they know. They don’t leverage much, if at all. They take risks that are calculated but not speculative. And they are also intelligent enough to use an agent like myself who speaks their language.
If you have the funds to pay cash, know the business and the risks, and are looking for a transaction with a good margin, we should talk.
If you want to learn the business, are not a cash buyer, or just dream of being a big investor, I’ll talk to you. But what I tell you might scare you away.
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Inman had news yesterday of 
I have 
