I see an interesting trend on the blog dashboard this morning from colleagues across the US- poor conduct by agents, and understandable incredulity by the authors about it. I agree. If an agent won’t present an offer, return a call, or just behave, it is a problem with an unattracive domino effect. I myself have had many a problem, for example, with agents who won’t allow me to show their listings, typically by indifference, and it has strained my standing with my own buyer client. And when someone puts an unethical impediment between you and dinner, that is bad. 

There is no one size fits all solution, but one rather under-discussed move is to simply call the agent’s broker or manager. As a broker-owner myself, anything that is a red flag for liability is a huge concern and top priority. In many cases, a call or email to the branch manager or supervising broker will get that call returned or offer answered, and often quickly. While the response may be slower by a few hours, putting it in writing in for form of an email is pretty effective. 

I’ll be the first to acknowledge that the manager may not be useful. I have had my share of shoulder shrugging, milquetoast losers without the backbone to handle the very people they were hired to handle. That is for another article. But if the manager has a half a clue, they’ll get a result. You may not like the result, as even managers will spin and talk fast to preserve an in house sale for example, but it also puts them on notice that you are no doormat, and that you won’t tolerate unprofessional conduct. 

It is a shame that we have to engage these sorts of discussions in our industry, but it is a fact of life until stndards are raised meaningfully. I can tell you this much: anyone that calls me on an issue with one of my team members can rest at night that I won’t stop drilling for answers on the matter until I hit water. Problems are training opportunities anyway, and brokers should be the go to people when their agents cause them. 

Item: The Senate passed a measure late yesterday evening to ensure that buyers of homes have their rights to “Housing with Dignity.” The act’s precepts include the right to an home in “compliance” and other minimal, basic housing rights, or to have a renumeration for the purchase of homes not in conformity to the proposed bill, which goes to the House on Friday. 

Entitled “Deserving Everything Updated For A Song” (DUEFAS), the intention of the bill is to reverse owner bias against buyers seeking affordable housing. A groundbreaking piece of legislation, the bill, if signed into law, will mandate that all homes sold the contiguous 48 states, Hawaii and Alaska have granite and stainless steel kitchens, bathrooms of marble, basements that are hermetically sealed from moisture of any kind, floor carpeting devoid of any odor a bloodhound could detect, household appliances that run in molecular silence from a minimum distance of 5 feet, at least two walk in closets, and “gleaming” hardwood floors. An earlier measure mandating crown molding and chair rail failed after the wainscoting coalition of the Midwest threatened to filibuster. The bill’s preamble statement condemning Formica as a plot to kill middle class America was also removed. 

Considered an important measure for buyer protection by Senate Democrats, the bill mandates up to a a 33 1/3% discount for all buyers buying a home not in compliance with the new requirements, as well as a price control disallowing any list price more than 1% above the median for that census tract, or an amount equal to what a buyer’s relative would recommend so long as they have bought a home once in the past 26.5 years, or have a comb over, hairnet, or exposed buttock in normal bending over, whichever is lower. 

In related news, the Republican controlled House of Representatives passed the Feaux Equity Aid Statute (FEqAS), geared toward the protection of seller’s interest in their primary life investment. Deemed the Republicans’ answer to the Democrat “attack on ownership,” the bill proposes certain inalienable protections for owners, including these highlights:

• The Sentimental Conscienciousness Clause (Senta-clause) attaching premium intrinsic value to parts of the home based on “relevant life experiences,” exempting those parts of the home from needing a physical update. 
• Establishing the efficacy of Duct Tape as a universally acceptable remedy for any household repair.
• The “Foreword Progress” rule, enabling homeowners to price protection based on the highest price sold in a thousand foot radius in the prior 48 months.
• A one-time right to a dispensation from market activity pricing with the solemn utterance before two witnesses of the words “I know what my house is worth (,dammit (optional*))”. 
• The Code Schmode addendum, allowing for up to 400 square feet of indoor or outdoor improvements such as decks, bathrooms and basements to be allowed to pass title in lieu of permits so long as the contractor was a relative or “sharp guy.”

If you are paying Cash for real estate, especially here in in a high cost area like Westchester, I have some advice as a broker who has worked with many cash buyers. First, congratulations on havng the recources to pay cash. You are blessed.

Here are a few steps that will help you in your efforts.

1. Get a statement for the account with the funds. It can be printed up from your online account, gotten from your bank branch or financial institution, or one of the statements they mail out periodically. 
2. Get a sharpie or magic marker. 
3. Take the sharpie or magic marker and black out your account number. Photocopy the document. 
4. Give the copied document to your agent so they submit it with your offer. 
5. If steps 1-4 won’t suffice for some unfathomable reason, a letter from your personal banker, CPA or attorney stating that you have the funds in liquid form will do. This is frankly, more work, but it will suffice. 

If you haven’t met Paco, you’ll be hearing about him on the news. Paco is the little rescued Chihuahua who chased armed robbers out of his master’s store. He didn’t care that they had a shotgun or dwarfed him, he still barked his head off and chased them out of the store like they were dinner if he caught up. 

Paco didn’t rest on his laurels or tell the robbers what he did in 2006. Paco didn’t tell his master to let the lawyers work it out. Paco was indifferent to the odds. He took matters into his own paws charge. 

My old head rowing coach in college, Tully Vaughan, always said this: “Crew doesn’t build character. It reveals character.”  Character is just something you have. You don’t learn to pull Excalibur out of the stone, you can or you can’t. You don’t work up to holding the hammer of Thor at the gym. You either belong in Asgaard or you don’t. Here’s what you don’t know about someone until you do know- whether they have the heart of a wolf or a chihuahua. Paco has the heart of a wolf. 

If I seem overdramatic about some dog barking at strangers and probably not knowing what a gun even is, perhaps I am. But I have a soft spot in my heart for the diminutive and the underdog. Being a shorter dude myself and often underestimated, I eat this stuff up. I have been a giant killer since the days I opened my firm for business. 

Dogs don’t understand fanfare. They understand belly rubs. If Paco could speak, he’d just say he was doing his job. 

To me, the take away is to do your job with Paco’s faith and you’ll kill giants. To consumers, there is also a lesson- biggest isn’t best. The agent who’ll do the best job for you may not work for the swanky label, they work for the result. My boss is a collective of 4 with a combined age of 26. There isn’t much I wouldn’t do for them. 

Go out today and make magic. 

Some bonus inspiration:

Raw surveilance footage of the event on the owner’s Youtube account. 
Heather Dorniden’s amazing comeback. (hat tip to BLiz Spear)
People are awesome.

I don’t often blog about listings because I focus more on commentary here, but I think the walking tours we now do for our listings are very appealing. I do them Bob Vila style, with a candid, conversational walk through as if we were chatting together touring the house. I don’t use a script, so where language limps I add an annotation for clarity or to flat out correct myself. 

We just listed this home, and I think you’ll find that the tour will pique your curiosity to see the place, not just for what the walkthrough shows, but also for what it does not show, such as the pond on the other side of the grounds. 

Price taxes, and other specifics are on the walk through, and if you dig the place or have questions, give me a call or send an email. 

This is a beautiful home in Philipstown with a small pond, lovely grounds and considerate owners, and I believe that it is priced right as well. Enjoy my nasal voice. 

Somers is near and dear to my heart. I went to high school here at John F Kennedy Catholic. The area is located in northern Westchester County and is very wooded and pleasant, with the NYC reservoir system running along much of its eastern border. Appearances can be deceiving: There is quite a bit of industry here, with huge complexes for both IBM and Pepsi hidden from street view on bucolic campuses. Somers also lays claim to being the cradle of the American circus, with the high school mascot as the “Tusker” and town hall at the Elephant Hotel. 

The real estate market is also active.The following is the market activity for the 2nd quarter of 2001 for single family homes taken from the Empire Access MLS. 

This past quarter, 26 homes sold at a median price of $538,500. 

For the same period in 2010, 33 homes closed at a median price of $585,000. 

Given the effect of the Stimulus on 2010 stats, Somers should be considered very stable. 

There are 19 homes under contract at a median price of $475,000, which suggests that the lower priced sector is having more activity than more expensive homes. 

137 homes are active at a median asking price of $580,000. 

No mention of Somers would be complete without also noting Heritage Hills, the huge condiminium community here, which has the bulk of 69 units on the market at a median list price of $369,000. Last quarter there were 22 condo sales closed at a median price of $372,500. 

To find a home in Somers online, get yourself a free Listingbook account and search the MLS like an agent. 

Located in northwest Westchester County, the Hendrick Hudson School district is in the town of Cortlandt and encompasses parts of Croton, Cortlandt Manor, Peekskill, and all of Montrose, Verplanck and the village of Buchanan. All information is for single family homes from the Empire Access Multiple Listing Service. 

For the 2nd quarter of 2011, 11 home closed at a median sale price of $495,000. 

For the 2nd quarter of 2010, 21 homes closed at a median price of $369,000. 

I see a little bit of supply/demand dynamics here- fewer homes are selling with higher prices. More homes sold last year at lower prices. 

16 homes are under contract at a median asking price of $402,500. If they close in the next 45 days, we’ll be looking at a market that is more like 2010 than last quarter. 

97 homes are active and available at a median asking price of $451,000. 

The area is holding its own. Inventory is quite high, and that will suppress prices. When prices do go down, transaction volume will go up. 

Previous posts on Hen Hud schools are here. 

Find a home in Hen Hud schools with a free Listingbook account. 

Pleasantville’s real estate market for the second quarter of 2011 is an analysis of single family home activity for the period April 1, 2011 to June 30, 2011 for the Pleasantville school district. All information is derived from the Empire Access MLS. 

For the second quarter of 2011, Pleasantville had 12 closings at a median price of $445,000.

For the same period in 2010, there were 13 closings at a median price of $535,000. 

That is a significant drop in median price. To appreciate how far down prices have come, in 2004, there were 22 closings at a median price of $647,500. From the peak, Pleasantville is down over $200,000 in median price. 

There are 72 homes for sale now at a median asking price of $604,200. That is almost 2 years of inventory. 

The light at the end of the tunnel for the area is on the homes currently under contract: 9 homes are under contract, and they have a median asking price of $719,000. 

Remember, we are measuring quarters here, not single months, so the likelihood of an anomaly is far smaller. That high median price for the contracted homes is real, it is significant, and it is good news. 

Previous postings on Pleasantville.

Find a great home in Pleasantville on Listingbook. 

The Westchester Putnam Association of Realtors has released their 2nd quarter report for the two counties real estate sales. It’s valuable data, and I thought I’d do something a little different- namely, take the entire first half of 2011 and see how we are stacking up with the first half of 2010. 

Here’s the scoop for single family home sales, county wide, for the period from January 1 through June 30, 2011 from the Empire Access MLS:

1710 single family homes have sold at a median sales price of $592,475. 

Here are the numbers from the first half of 2010:

1958 single family homes sold at a median sales price of $604,250. 

While we’re down 248 sales, there is reason for optimism, because much of 2010 was fueled by the artificial effect of the tax stimulus, which poached deals from the future and never did any real good from my point of view. The 4th quarter of 2010 was miserable. So, if 2011 is more consistent than the up and down of 2011, we still have a chance to compare well to last year. 

But, thus far, no matter the reason, we’re down both in volume and value.