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. 

The term “Vulture Fund” is used sometimes in real estate and other investments, and, as the metaphor suggests, is money earmarked for the purchase of a distressed asset. Often the instrument purchased is debt; if you have a loan or credit card you go south on, after it is charged off by the creditor it goes on the secondary market, and there are entities like collection agencies and lawyers who buy the debt for pennies on the dollar and then go after YOU for the full amount, plus interest and fees. 

A Vulture Fund in real estate is not exactly the same. Simply put, a vulture fund in real estate is money used to buy a distressed property. It could be a foreclosure, a home with a defaulting mortgage, divorce situation, or other seller who needs to sell so badly that they will trade off time and certainty instead of holding out for top dollar or “market value.” With the property values in Westchester County, the reward can be high, but the risk is considerable. Two years ago, former New York governor Elliot Spitzer made the news when he considered starting a real estate vulture fund. 

While the name is rather pejorative given the form it takes in other assets such as debt instruments and stock buyouts, in real estate a vulture fund venture is often preferable to the cycle of receivership, where the lender takes over the property and the area gets another vacant foreclosure. Often, real estate investors who operate so-called vulture funds here in Westchester and the surrounding area are getting a distressed seller out of hot water, preventing a foreclosure, saving the credit of the seller and sparing the neighborhood from another blighted property. Are all operators like that? No, some are indeed opportunistic to a fault. However, the investors we are fortunate to work with have a heart. 

If you hear the term “vulture fund,” ask about the context. One of my investors is very different from a debt collector. Often they are at opposite ends of the spectrum. 

Earlier this summer I was contacted by a Manhattan resident who found me on the Internet and wanted me to show her and her husband some seven figure priced homes in an affluent suburb about 2 towns over. They chose me for a number of reasons, and our communication prior to our first meeting was promising. I scheduled 5 homes that fit their criteria and met with their approval, and we met at the first home, which was one where the listing agent was to accompany the showing. This is rather common in higher priced homes, and all but one showing would be accompanied. I don’t consider it ideal, but the bigger and more complex a home is, the more value a professional listing agent can bring. 

I said a “professional” listing agent. 

As we walked through the home, the discussion rapidly evolved from all the facts about the house and its features to my buyers, where they live, what they do, why the town we were looking in appealed, and so forth. Now I am watching the listing agent chatting with MY people about THEM. This woman was standing in a master bedroom kibitzing with my people about Manhattan neighborhoods and where SHE lived 25 years ago. 

You see where this is going, right? 

• Prohibition 1: “Did you, Are you, Were you, Will you” In other words, engage with the buyer in nothing personal. It’s not your job to bond with them. You don’t need to match their intimate, personal needs with the house. That’s their agent’s job, and it may be done in a half hour at a coffee shop. I’d just have you sitting at the kitchen table reading a magazine, but if you have to trail us, play it straight. 

Then the phase 2 of client meddling began: “Did Phil tell you about the Park and Ride for the commuter train?” “Did Phil tell you what week of June you can grieve the property taxes?” ” Did Phil tell you how much train station parking passes are?” Of course we just met, so the answer was no. And this “professional” agent with the $2 million listing proceeded to subtly chip away at my new relationship with the buyers who chose me after research and work online. 

They never called me again. The houses, and we are talking about 5,000 square foot homes with all the trimmings of affluence one could expect in suburban New York for $2 million, were put in the back seat. 

• Prohibition 2: “Did your agent tell you…?” There is no upside to this question, and it is a not so subtle way of disempowering the buyer agent. Buyer agents do not always have an opportunity to recite a master’s thesis on all the nuances of the surrounding community, the history of the subdivision, or the extracurriculars offered in the local schools. I’ve got news for you: if your listing doesn’t feel like home, it won’t matter. 

Now, anyone who knows me will rightly conclude that I am not the sort of guy to take this sort of thing sitting down. The rather overt passive aggressive suggestion that a buyer is with the wrong agent and not the local expert on the diner menu or PTA minutes is not working for the seller, it is working for oneself. And it is not professional, it is mercenary. That’s another blog.

Here’s the upshot: If you are a listing agent accompanying showings, the buyers are not your client. They are there with the agent they have selected and you need to respect that. Sell the house. Blab all you want about why the owner chose the bamboo floors, Venus de Milo faucets on the master bath tub, and kitchen island shaped like Guam. Play it straight, because you might be doing a deal with the buyer agent and you need good will going forward. 

Epilogue: This post started as a draft earlier this week. I have since heard from the prospective buyers, who emailed me back that they wish to remain in the city for now. I believe them, as none of the homes we saw that day with that listing agent have sold yet. 

Epilogue II: If you like this post, you might be interested in my thoughts on this post: 

Banning of Yield Spread Premium is Death Knell for Mortgage Brokers

Three days ago, after 43 years of life, 9 years of marriage, and 4 children, Ann passed her drivers test. I know it may sound crazy that a suburban wife and mother, to say nothing of a partner in an active brokerage didn’t drive, but that was how things were. When we met in 1999, Ann lived in Queens, New York, and many city folk don’t drive because they don’t need to with the subway, buses and cabs available. And that was how it was with her. We moved to Westchester not long after we got married, but we kept putting off the license because of babies, business, babies, life, and, um, babies.

Suddenly, it was 2010, we had 4 children who needed shuttling to everything, and we had only one crazed driver and a stir crazy mom at home. It wasn’t easy taking the kids to activities and being there for every grocery trip. So, this summer, with all the kids at camp and no pregnancy to deal with, we prepared Ann in earnest for the test. Not to take it; to pass it. There was plenty of practice, good coaching from yours truly, and about 100 parallel parks. In early August I told Ann she was ready and to register for her test. It was a little scary, but we got August 17 as the Big Day. She passed with flying colors. 

On the way home, we both exhaled like we had after one of the kids was born. THAT’s over. I told her I bought my last maxi pad, and she laughed. She’s already taken Catherine to the grocery, run errands, and taken the brood to the park. She has the ability to get out of the house now, and I no longer have to worry if I am not close and someone needs to be driven. Like many good changes, we wonder how we did it before. 

Just a friendly reminder from a New York -based broker swimming in the shark tank of liability that discussions between brokers on commissions, M & Ms, jelly beans, or anything relating to compensation for brokering real estate is a big problem and potential liability for your broker. Two agents constitute discussions between two brokerages. 

Big problem. Not a little problem. A big problem. I am talking about a 5-figure fine. Capeesh? 

If an agent from Broker A brings up commissions to an agent from Broker B,  if the Broker B does anything other than, say, run away or politely change the subject, the two brokerages could be engaging in price fixing. This is not reactionary, goody two shoes or paranoid. Cases brought up on Sherman Anti-Trust examples include a broker announcing at a cocktail party that he was raising his commission within earshot of other brokers. It doesn’t matter if the post is Members Only, veiled in jelly beans, or only discusses a buyer agent commission. You expose yourself and your broker to massive liability in bringing up or engaging another licensee on the subject, and there is no upside to the matter. It is simply not an envelope prudent licensees should ever push. 

One blog post on Active Rain this morning even had discussions of boycotting a broker who didn’t pay enough. Another comment mentioned an industry standard. Talk about a hornet nest. 

All commissions are negotiable. Period. You do what is in the best interest of the client. Period. 

If you disagree with me, ask the compliance officer at your association. Watch his lips quiver. You simply cannot do it, and especially on a platform with Active Rain’s reach, you can cause catostrophic damage to your firm. If you have to ask if it is an anti-trust problem, it probably is. 

I originated mortgages full time for 5 years in the early 2000s. I worked for both mortgage brokers, who place loans with 3rd party lenders, and, as they are termed in New York, mortgage bankers, who are direct lenders. Up until recently, it was hard for a guy off the street to distinguish between the two- the mortgage application verbiage used and process, to the borrower, was pretty much the same. Even as a loan officer, I saw enormous parallels: the qualifying software was the same, and the rates and pay structure were similar. We either earned money on the front end paid directly by the borrower, often referred to as “points,” or were paid on the back end by the lender in the form of a Yield Spread Premium (YSP) for brokers or a Service Release Premium (SRP) for bankers. The nomenclature differed, but the net effect was the same: the higher the interest rate, the higher the commission (premium). 

When the Subprime Meltdown hit in 2007 and the Financial Crisis hit in 2008, mortgage brokers carried the PR chum bucket for bad loans. Even though Ameriquest, Countrywide and dozens of other major players who were direct lenders failed, it was mortgage brokers, and their yield spread premiums that were often the culprit in both the cyber world and polite company. There were arguments over the true purpose of the YSP. 

The banking industry and major media, in their best mad as hell voices, lobbied hard for YSP to be outlawed, and this past week, they succeeded. Yield Spread Premiums are now against the law. 

From the Fed: 

Today, lenders commonly pay loan originators more compensation if the borrower accepts an interest rate higher than the rate required by the lender (commonly referred to as a “yield spread premium”). Under the final rule, however, a loan originator may not receive compensation that is based on the interest rate or other loan terms. This will prevent loan originators from increasing their own compensation by raising the consumers’ loan costs, such as by increasing the interest rate or points. Loan originators can continue to receive compensation that is based on a percentage of the loan amount, which is a common practice.

As with many governmental “solutions,” this is outwardly politically expedient but will only hurt the public in the end. Why? Because the playing field is now completely tilted in the favor of large lenders, who keep their version of YSP. Smaller lending entities who previously dealt with brokers will be elbowed out of market share, and mortgage brokers now play by rules so severely tilted against them that they will go out of business. The baby has been thrown out with the bathwater, because brokerages, for all their flaws, were serving a need the bigger banks would often not. 

The Service Release Premium, the banker’s equivalent to the Yield Spread Premium, is still legal. Direct lenders get to play by their own rules now. Whether you agree with the YSP or not, banks still have the back end option with SRP. Brokers, who often had the capacity to place a loan with literally dozens of lenders, do not. Whatever abuse there was with YSP is still available to lenders in the form of SRP. The lobbyists saw to that. It wasn’t enough that YSP was required to be disclosed on the HUD-1 while the bankers SRP was not; they had to kill it, and cut the jugular of brokers. Who needs competition? 

Here’s how it plays out for the borrowers in 2011: If you have good credit and are a W-2 employee, you can call your own shots the same way it has always been. But if you are self employed, have less than great credit, or need a niche product in our diverse society, you’ll have no mortgage broker to find that specialty loan. Instead, you’ll have your choice between a large, monolithic lender’s single portfolio and a small community bank, both of whom will scoop the cream off the top and throw the rest back, with the exception of their Community Reinvestment Act requirements. There will be no mortgage broker to find your niche product because they won’t be able to operate profitably. 

Banks already adjusted to the stupid things they were doing 5 years ago. Underwriting a loan now is as hard as it ever was prior to the Federal Housing Administration’s genesis in the 1930s. We are rapidly heading toward a world where large big box lenders will be like huge telecoms, with consumers choosing either their loan portfolio or renting. Smaller community banks will be there for well credentialed people, and ironically, the folks who screamed about killing those evil brokers who were opening doors the big banks wouldn’t open, will lament their extinction. Who loses? You. Big banks just did an end around past their most egregious offenses and the government played Washington General defense for us. 

Happy? 

My prior posts on Yield Spread Premium

I love building my team, my brand, and my organization. If it wasn’t “mine” with my good name, there are things that I do that I might not otherwise. But that goes for anyone who is a principal in an organization. My days recently have been a measure of Radar O’Reilly, a dash of Patton, 2 scoops of Grunt, and a generous portion of Mother Hen. And I have loved every minute of it. In between the building is the troubleshooting; often, troubleshooting and building are one and the same. 

Late last month, a strong agent in the firm came to me for insight on handling a recently approved short sale. We had a conference call with the seller, and after 2 weeks of drama and intensive hand holding with the client myself, it closed. The agent had done all she could do; a team effort was needed. One could make a case that my intervention saved her considerable efforts and great work when circumstances in the client’s life seemed to create an impasse. We got to the other side together. I don’t care about credit, I want my agent to be paid for her great work.  

Last week, another agent told me about an attorney who adjourned a closing over a $150 repair that was delayed (they were offered a $10,000 escrow for 24 hours), and then demanded a $1000 adjournment fee when the closing was rescheduled. I reached out to the other broker to see if we could convert the discord to agreement. And independent broker like I, He couldn’t be bothered, preferring to put his energy into unhelpful, passive aggressive emails that wouldn’t forward the transaction. We went around him through the attorney on our side and had that fee reduced to $300. The deal got done. 

This morning, one of our agents asked what other marketing sites her listing could be posted, because her sellers have indicated that a large franchise might be better if they expire unsold next month. As I write this, Ann is posting the listing to a localized marketing portal we found and reviewing where else it can be syndicated. I emailed the agent to schedule a meeting with the clients. Nobody ever bought a house because of the sign in the yard; I’ll get her an extension. 

These are things we do daily, but the above three are what come to mind before coffee. I’m not big on sales meetings; the agents learn in these instances by osmosis and watching me work with the client. They’ll have a new tool going forward. I do quite a bit one on one in  non-crisis mode also.  I think the team knows that I have their back, and that we are always looking at the architecture of the company to give them every advantage. This much is for sure: The split to the broker in our company is not tribute to the godfather; we endeavor to take as much shrapnel in our keisters as they. And when the commission comes in, we earn it as a team. 

I once had a mentor tell me that the truly wealthy don’t cash big checks, they write them to others. That’s my goal. 

After reading a remark by John Elwell, I had a thought about virtual tours: in this area, at least, they seem to have run their course. Not long ago, a few years perhaps, many brokers offered virtual tours. I seldom see them anymore. Our MLS now has the capacity for 30 home photos, plenty for even a massive home, and Youtube and other outlets make for easy videos of home tours. So, virtual tours seem to have taken a back seat. But why? 

A few thoughts:

• The virtual tours I have used are clunky and tend to crash or slow the computer down. A guy eating his lunch at his work computer can easily click through Jpegs to get a feel for a home without having his computer freeze on a shower as his boss walks by. Virtual tours don’t give that immediate feedback, and that is a problem. 
• For the same money or less, you can even put up a single property website, which gives the listing, among other things, a presence on Google that a virtual tour cannot give. 
• They are VERY virtual. What I mean is that some sort of do more harm than help. A kitchen, for example, can look too large or small on a VT, and in either case that is a problem. 

Just listed: This 2338 square foot 4 bedroom 3 bath 1920’s Lewis Bowman designed New England colonial on over a third of an acre in Pelham Manor. Boasts a rocking chair porch, patio, ample parking, and gorgeous landscaping outside. Inside is exquisite, charming, and updated: Stainless steel kitchen appliances, butler pantry, huge living room with fireplace, formal dining room, all while retaining the 1920’s character. A true gem. This is a short sale subject to lender approval. Price: $899,900. Call J. Philip Faranda, Broker, for details. (914) 723-8900. 

This is the market report for the single family home sale activity for the county seat, White Plains, for July of 2010. The city has a number of zip codes, as well as many other types of housing (multi family, condos, co ops) and I can break the activity down down by zip code or property type by request. This should give an overall trend of the market compared to July of 2009. All information is from the Westchester Putnam Multiple Listing Service for single family homes in White Plains.

Things are looking up. Sales are up, the median price is up, and there are a whopping 42 homes under contract, which equals almost one third of the available homes for sale. The same condition existed back in May, and the market is showing no signs of cooling off with Autumn approaching. This speaks to the good quality of life that is available in White Plains.  

My previous postings on White Plains can all be found here.

I might as well have set my hair on fire. 

The adversarial, confrontational, and flat out uncalled for hostility surprised me. I won’t bore you with the details, but suffice to say that my 56 game hitting streak of building bridges with my colleagues ended with that effort, and I don’t look forward to another transaction with the guy’s firm (I have since begun a new streak). Curious as to why he was so miserable, one of the things I did was check out his company web page. What I found was disconcerting. 

Apparently, his firm is the only firm in the world that will really serve the clients. Everyone else is a back-stabbing mercenary, to paraphrase his claims. Most of the content was venom, and one of the things on the site was comparison chart of other firms compared to Grouchy’s brokerage. Take a look and tell me if you find it truthful. For my part, I have certainly done everything they say I won’t do, and I don’t operate on their model!

Is this Kosher in your view?  

Perhaps you know Ethyl. She’s been around a while, and takes every opportunity to tell you so. The details of her background are a little murky, as she was originally licensed in the real estate Mesozoic Era, but she just prefers the term “35 years in the business” which she repeats a minimum of 1.2 times per minute. There were some years early on when Ethyl was quite a producer, but your computerized MLS records going back to 1998, don’t have her selling much. But she doesn’t tell that to her clients. They just know she’s a “million dollar producer,” a “top office producer” and 3-time WhoopdeDoo award winner. 

She might have had her own brokerage, but it didn’t stay open if she did. She trades on the good name of her office, and if you speak with her, she’s the reason the office produces the numbers it produces. Her office teammates know her to be temperamental and rather arrogant, yet she always seems to have someone who wants to see their listings (how does she do that, anyway?), so they have an uneasy truce. She’ll write an offer one of these days.    

When Ethyl pulls up to the front of your listing Sunday morning in her pristine, leased  Lexus, she invokes her 35 years in the business when you tell her your sellers need more notice than, like, now. Ethyl then loudly asks “they want to sell, don’t they?” When you bring an offer on one of her listings, if it isn’t full price, Ethyl acts as if you just did donuts on her front lawn. She has only 2 moods: annoyed or condescending. 

Every so often, Ethyl does write an offer up on a home for sale, and when asked for a pre approval, she says she’s been doing this 35 years and her buyers are “gold.” Ethyl gets insulted easily; don’t you know who she is? If you do have a deal on the table with Ethyl Broomhandle, she gets very testy when you don’t call her back right away, but she herself is a little challenged with answering emails or her cell phone. Ethyl will often punt a problem the brokers could resolve by saying “let the attorneys handle that” as she stuffs her phone into her purse with her can of Aqua Net on her way into her bridge game. 

Ethyl will never tell you that if it weren’t for her husband, she’d have been out of the business in 1978, 1987, 1992, and 2008. She’s never been the primary bread winner. She steals the odd lead. She doesn’t work very hard. But she’s Ethyl Broomhandle, dammit, she was selling homes when you were in grammar school, and you better show some respect.

Have you met Ethyl?  

I have blogged before that not all short sales get a seller 100% absolved of their debt. New York is not  a non- recourse state.  Sometimes, the bank wants cash at closing or proposes a small installement note after closing. It is rare, but it happens, and it is often linked to the seller’s hardship. If the seller does not have a compelling hardship, the bank might take this position. It is the lesser of two evils, because as small post closing debt is better than a foreclosure. 

We had a short sale seller balk at owing any money after the closing and demanded that the agents pay part of her deficiency from their commission. This person viewed the commission as being fair game for subsidizing her. Our agent didn’t see it that way, and suggested they really deserved more for getting their own buyer after the house was listed previously for 3 years with no offers elsewhere. Some agents might cave in and kick money in the make the deal work, rationalizing that something is better than nothing after breaking their butts for 6 months.

I am not one of those agents. I am the kind of agent that knows enough math to tell this ungrateful um, person, that with an auction date in 3 weeks that I’d rather have a $30,000 loan than a $350,000 foreclosure. It is simple math. Moreover, the giveback would not have helped, except to lower the payment $15 per month while the licensee lost a chunk of their hard-earned income.

Bear in kind that this isn’t the bank putting their hands in the cookie jar. It was the seller. The choice seemed clear to me. We owe our clients advocacy, confidentiality, loyalty, and all fiduciary duties. But we don’t owe clients our grocery money or mortgage payment. With all due respect to the financial strain and stress of a short sale, my kids will not pay the bill. When the best deal a seller can get doesn’t give them a get out of jail free card, they need to choose something other than hurting their agent.

The deal did close, and the seller is now out of hot water, out of foreclosure, and has a standing offer from me personally as broker to renegotiate the note. The relationship between the agent and seller however, was strained, and while that is a shame, I cannot fathom the client begrudging that my agents have to earn a living.   

I think that only the Northeast has highways that could almost be classified as “pre war.” Here in Westchester County, many of our highways are passenger cars only parkways, with old stone overpasses that do now allow commercial vehicles enough clearance to pass through. They aren’t interstates by a long shot, but they are busy arteries. By my home we have the Taconic State parkway, the Saw Mill River Parkway, and the Bronx River parkway further down. They are actually rather green and woodsy, devoid of loud commercial trucks, and the overpasses like this on on 9A north (otherwise known as the Briarcliff-Peekskill expressway-but only on the maps) are charming. 

9A does actually allow some trucks, and they label the clearance to avoid the odd shearing off the top of the cargo van. Always a fun thing when you are in a hurry. The road on the overpass is known as Pleasantville Road, aptly named because it connect Briarcliff to Pleasantville (where, funny enough, it becomes Bedford Road. Guess why!).

This post was inspired by the recent Agent Genius article entitled “Realtor matching Ends- Are Agents Just Insecure Posers?” The article examines the circumstances around the Houston Association of Realtors program that (shutter) disclosed how many homes member agents sold in a given locale. Very transparent move if you ask me. But the program was ended. But why? What is so taboo about asking the question 

“How many homes like mine have you sold in the past year?” 

It is a simple question, but all too few agents will give you a number. Oh, they’ll tell you they  have been a Triple Micronium producer or on the top team, whatever that means. It all sounds great. But here’s the deal: 90% of all the listings are sold by 10% of the agents. I’ll put it another way: In my zip code we have 3 large companies with offices of 40 or more licensees and another half dozen with anywhere from 1 to 20 licenses. That is over 200 salespeople. In the month of July, those 200 salespeople sold exactly 5 single family homes in this zip code.  

There are 51 active listings, so there are plenty of people who listed with someone who somehow finessed the fact that they haven’t sold much of anything in a dog’s age. They might have stated that they work for a big company, productive office, or some other larger truth that obfuscates the reality on the ground that they themselves are not doing very much. 

The problem here, and take it from a guy that lists dozens (probably 75 or so) of expired listings a year, is that all that flowery gibberish breaks down when the seller realizes that the 2004 top office producer award means nothing in 2010, or 30 years in the business can really be one year repeated thirty times. Sad to say, but many agents flat out stink, and they refuse to admit it isn’t 1986 anymore. 

I am in the top 10 agents in my MLS of 7000 for transaction totals going back to 2007. A large part of my marketing is trading on that production, and it does make a difference. I also work bloody hard to do that in this market. This doesn’t mean you have to sell 50 or 100 houses to get hired. When we sold my mother’s townhome in another market, we selected an agent who sold about 15 homes annually. She knew what she was doing and she was very good with us. The so called “top dog” put me off. But I did know my agent’s track record. 

It does astound me, that as the largest trade association in America, that we haven’t encouraged the public to ask for a verifiable track record, references, and other factual, transparent credentials they can hang their hat on. They just say to select a member. That’s not good enough. 

When I was first licensed in 1996, the idea of a professional stager to prepare a home for sale was about a foreign as trying to sell a house on “The Internet.” In other words, a good place to waste money. Everyone knew that you sold houses on the MLS, the Sunday supplement, and the picture magazines. If someone’s house was a shambles, we brushed up on our Dale Carnegie, had a diplomatic conversation, and hopefully influenced them to straighten the place out. Nothing was maximized. Nothing was optimized. “Staged” was an adjective. 

Staging is now an active verb. And the more competitive the market gets, the more people seek an edge, the more staging rises in prominence in our industry. In 1996, the MLS allowed one photo, typically an exterior photo, and people could extrapolate or conjecture whether the curb appeal translated to an appealing interior. With 30 photos on our local MLS and the transparency of other media like virtual tours, there is nothing to hide any longer. Eye appeal, nose appeal, and interior presentation have joined curb appeal as selling points we can no longer leave alone. People know what you have. 

So how do you know if you need the services of a professional stager to get that edge, to attract more tours, more offers and more money? Quite frankly, if you have to ask, you probably need to speak with a stager. Not the lady from the upholstery store. Not Aunt Ethel who makes her own dresses cute as a button. A professional, accredited stager. The real thing. And if you speak with a stager who insults you or makes you feel uncomfortable, you speak with one whom you relate better. Tens of thousands of dollars could be on the line (and probably are), and the cutting of corners is ill-advised. 

A trained set of eyeballs, an acute mind, and experience go a long way. The box that a stager lives in is far larger, more objective and often more creative than the inertia of familiarity that a biased homeowner has in their world. They won’t bite. 

For our part, our firm offers all our listing clients a free consultation with a professional, accredited home stager. She’s dynamite, and committed to educating sellers. We want to walk our talk. 

5 Cool Things About Briarcliff Manor, NY

1. Our fire trucks are white. No, the Dalmatians are not red. 

2. Downtown was in the first episode of Saturday Night Live in one of the videos. You can see the Briarcliff Hardware Store on Pleasantville Road clearly. 

3. Howard Stern’s first job out of college was at WRNW-FM, which was in Briarcliff in the 70’s. 

4. Trump National Golf Course (of The Apprentice) is here, on the site of the old Briarcliff Country Club.

5. Holly Hill, the 60 acre estate of the late Brooke Astor, is here in Scarborough, and is on the market for $10,500,000. 

Previous posts on Briarcliff Manor