We have 3 Cherry Blossom trees in our rear yard that have to be at least 40 years old. In April, when they bloom, it creates an explosion of pink beauty that dominates the view from our rear window. There is something comforting about seeing my children play in their shade. I often think of Mrs. Hilpert, the previous owner of our home, and how much she must have loved those trees. We love them as well. 

I have always loved the spring and everything about it; the tantalizingly close summer to come, the end of school, the shedding of winter coats, the beauty of returned foliage, and all the memories from my 41 prior springs, whether they involved riding my old 5-speed with the high handlebars or how my muse’s hair would shine in sunlight. 

As I got older it meant emergence from hibernation of the winter market to the buzzing activity of buyers and sellers repositioning for the new school year, arranging for the kids summer activities, and other more grown up but equally urgent matters. Regardless, I still get that wonderful feeling in my gut, one of hope, anticipation, and fun. It’s like I earned a reward. 

Sometimes I still feel like I should pinch myself when I look out my window. 

I am your agent. I am a professional. I have a college degree. I value your business; as a matter of fact, if I don’t produce a result for you and my other clients, my kids don’t eat. It is in that context that I am offering this post, in good spirits, good humor, and in all truth. This is a compilation of things I have either wished I told some clients in the past, or in fact did tell them. 

• I don’t carry your file in my car. Even if I did, I can’t read it while driving. So please understand that when I couldn’t give you a clear answer about the sale memorandum from March 2nd it isn’t because I am an incompetent agent, it is because I am a competent driver. 
• My kids typically go to bed between 8:30 and 9pm. If at all possible, I’d like to be there for that. 
• If I tell you that I have to take another call and you don’t let me go, you force me to choose between hanging up on you or screwing another client over. That call could be an attorney I have been trying to reach for 3 days, a town official on a permit, or a short sale negotiator who I need to reach to prevent a foreclosure.
• If I tell you exactly what you need to do to sell your home or get your offer accepted and you don’t take my advice, basic logic dictates that you cannot blame me for the result. 
• If I do not call you back when promised it doesn’t make a me rat fink bastard who is unworthy of your business, it means I was held up in a meeting or had something critical come up that I had to address. You don’t hold it against your attorney if they have to run to court or your doctor if they get called to the ER. Cut me some slack. I wasn’t watching Match Game ’77 on cable. 
• I find pejorative references to my potential commission to be unnecessarily degrading. You don’t know what I keep. 
• Your agent friend in another state doesn’t know how things are done here. I wouldn’t advise you on a deal in California either. 

It all boils down to respect. There may be agents out for a quick buck for no work; I am not one of them. This is my career, and I can do better for you if we have respect and understanding of boundaries. Good fences make good neighbors, and the same goes for agents and clients.   

The crazies are out there. You might be working with one right now and not know it. But they are out there, and they aren’t going to be nice if things don’t go their way. The crazies are the last minute home buyers who want to qualify for the tax credit by April 30. If you have gotten a call or inquiry from a “last minute” buyer in the past week or two, be very careful. At best you may end up spinning your wheels, and at worst you could have a grievance or lawsuit brewing. 

Here’s what I mean: you are contacted by a buyer with the end of April right around the corner. They want to buy before the deadline on the 30th. They either want to see your listing or have you take them on tours. They want to look right now. They even have their pre-approval locked and loaded. They are legit. So you take them out, and lo and behold, you find something your first day out. It is a move-in condition place, great locale, and priced right. They love it. They want it. 

And they make a lowball offer. They are outbid. 

There is still time, so you keep looking and find another place. You admonish them to learn from their mistake and make an aggressive offer. This one has multiple bids! Highest and best! They offer 95% of asking. They lose the house. 

At some point, the people start to get embittered. They have read about the “buyer’s market” in the paper and they wonder aloud if the fix is in. Did you present their offers in person? Did you tell the seller they were good buyers? I thought you were a high-producing agent, why are we 0 for 2? 

The crazies don’t understand the dynamics of the local market. They want a “good deal” and would never think of paying full price. They actually hate deadlines and the stress of buying a home has them on edge. At some point, they start to blame you. Then, your energy is off finding them a home and on defending yourself against accusations from left field. 

• Their friend called the listing agent on the first home they lost and was told it was still available for showing. 
• They emailed the listing agent on the 2nd house and they were encouraged to come look. 
• They found another house that supposedly had an accepted offer advertised on a website. 

What qualifies as hardship in a short sale? I get this question fairly often, and it should be addressed. First, I’ll tell you what does not qualify as hardship, and that is simply being underwater. If you owe more than you are worth, being upside down alone is not adequate hardship to get a short sale approved. That is only half the equation. There has to be a financial hardship. 

In every case of hardship I have ever seen, a loss of income has been involved. It could be unemployment, divorce, being laid off, the failure of a business, or any of a hundred other things, but a loss or decrease of income is absolutely hardship. When your expenses remain the same and your income goes down or disappears, you have a case for hardship. You could be a ditch digger paying a $500 per month mortgage or a brain surgeon paying $10,000 per month. If you lose income, hardship is not hard to prove. In rare cases, income has remained the same but the payment has adjusted up, but the mathematical outcome, namely a deficit, is the same. 

That is as basic a yardstick as I can find. I’d be surprised to find a more common or less complicated theme. 

Loss of income is almost always a case for hardship. 

I will be holding 109 Elk in New Rochelle open today from 1-3 pm. It is a 3500 square foot English Tudor with 6 bedrooms, 3.2 baths, and a carriage house garage. List price is $975,000 and annual taxes are $22,429. The lot is very large for the area-.39 acres. 

Here is the write up from the MLS, which is a good summary:

Magnificent English Tudor in prestigious Forest Heights, on the corner of a spacious .39 acre yard. Formal entrance & foyer, balcony off master suite, 6 bedrooms plus 3.2 baths. All electric is updated, sunroom has heated flooring. Two-story 3-car carriage house. Oak floors throughout, beamed ceilings, stained/leaded glass windows and wonderfully preserved original details throughout. Two gorgeous woodburning fireplaces, greenhouse, large eat in kitchen, and much more.

Come meet me if you don’t carry anything written by JD Salinger. 

The latter half of April has been maniacally busy for me because of the stimulus deadline of April 30. I have been working nonstop for the past week, save for collapsing at home at days end. It takes every waking minute just to handle what is coming across my desk. Offers, inspections, contracts, and showings showings showings. 

I miss my kids. At least, I miss my awake kids. 

We are heading into the last realistic weekend for any area buyer to get into contract by the deadline, since we take some time to get contracts out (thank you lawyers). Consequently, I am at it each day until I drop. 

What will happen May 1st? Will the market go dead again? Will sellers lose what little leverage they had and get more desperate? Will casual buyers disappear from the market now that the $8,000 incentive is gone? Or will the Spring cycle continue through July 4 because of the pent up demand from the slowness of the prior crummy years? Questions loom. 

I know what I am doing May 1st. I am getting up in the morning and going to work. I’ll return calls, follow up on leads, and blog. 4 kids know no off season. 

Make hay while the sun shines!

I did the training back in 1989 so forgive me if my nomenclature isn’t 2010.

I recall being in a seminar in the 90’s and being told that being in the present could best be illustrated by a dog falling from the top of the skyscraper…the thought was that rather than being fearful, the pooch would instead be amazed at how cool the wind felt in his fur, just like a better version of riding in the car with the window opened. 

No one has tested the theory. I hope. 

I blogged about an Aha Moment my wife had with our dog last week. There was a transformation from Detente to affection, and he hasn’t been the same dog since, and that is in a good way. Dog are very present. They only know the here and now. Wherever they go, this is it.

At least, until this morning.

After the 3 older ones were on the bus, Ann decided to putter around the yard with Mark, our 3-year-old.  The back yard is fenced, but the front isn’t as safe for a dog, so Max had to remain inside with me. And that wasn’t it. “It” was outside with Mommy and Mark. The poor dog wanted to go outside in the worst way, and wasn’t at all into being with me anymore. Max wanted to trade up. This wasn’t it. That was it. 

Dogs remain the noblest creatures in God’s menagerie, but Max became a bit more human today. 

I came up with this as I was speaking to a referred listing prospect. It might be hot air, but I think it makes sense.

• Reputation. This is where it starts. Reputation is the cornerstone for an agent or company. The good will of the public and our peers is a prerequisite to succeeding in our industry. If your name isn’t trusted, you have no chance of making inroads in a competitive market. Unknown is OK, distrusted is fatal. Known and trusted is the best. The goal of anyone in our industry is to get their good name out there. 
• Referrals. Referrals are the barometer of a known and trusted name. It isn’t just marketing; anyone can “buy in” with advertising and mail, but long term success is ensured by the number of people who were given your name by others.
• Revenue. Paydirt. Touchdown. A good reputation yields referrals, and referrals create income. Since I started the company in 2005, I have monitored the number of referrals I have gotten over time. It is gratifying to observe that we have had more referrals thus far in 2010 than 2005 and 2006 combined, because we have been at it longer and are passing the test of time. 

There might be other “R’s” but that is what came to mind. These are the three holy grails I think any serious professional aspires to. Feel free to add yours.

I am not a big staging guy. I simply don’t have the eye for it, and it is best left to professional stagers. I know a few tricks- tidy up, clear off the table and counter tops, put the toilet lid down, that sort of thing. I don’t care if people have their kids pictures on the fridge, or family photos on the stairway wall. That makes the place a home. Some disagree. That’s just my feeling. 

There is one thing I saw today, however, that I am pretty sure is a no-no. 

I think that taping your bankruptcy papers to the wall next to your desk might be a bad move. Just a hunch. Especially if you are having the house held open from 1-5pm that day. 

Hopefully, the agent hosting the open walked through the house and caught this. We arrived early and did not walk through with her. But I’m pretty sure this might be a bad idea. 

So I propose adding a new rule to the lexicon of home selling. Choose a good agent. Price it right. Be accessible for showings. 

And hide the bankruptcy papers. 

I’ve noticed something lately. Even though sellers are getting less for their homes than years past, commissions are not down. I see more bonuses offered. I see strong cooperative commission offered in the MLS. Brokerage as an industry has not been decimated by the market downturn or the advance of technology the way other industries have. In spite of the naysayers and blabbermouths at the keyboard, the market is efficient, and it is proving the worth of brokerage.

Every company that was going to “change the industry” hasn’t. 

Every trend predicted to supplant brokers with technology has not manifested itself. And it won’t. 

The reasons is simple: Real estate doesn’t sell itself. It takes people to sell it, and it is a rare skill to make huge amounts of money change hands. Moreover, those that possess the skill to make vast money change hands deserve to be well compensated. Don’t bore me with the anecdote of the inept slob who stepped into a million dollar listing and made tens of thousands he didn’t earn. He can’t do it long term. As a matter of fact, the agents who work that niche successfully are, by and large, warriors. They have a skill the critics do not possess.

Full disclosure: Ann and I ran a side business for years where we assisted for sale by owners (FSBO) to sell themselves. Most were train wrecks. Even the sharpest civilians do better with a broker because they eventually have a weakness brokerage doesn’t possess. Even if getting lots of showings were easy (and it isn’t), FSBO sellers have one or more of the following weak links in their chain:

1. Overpriced Ogre. The picture of bias, this is the sort of seller who believes that it is still 2005, and that a new roof raises value by $10,000. They base price on selective perception, and they have the best house in the zip code-just ask them. 
2. Showing saboteur. This is why we even advise listed sellers to not be present. Most people either can’t sell their way out of a paper bag, trip themselves up, badger or pelt with information overload, or ask a dumb question. I can name a half dozen times when I have seen a seller ask a buyer of a different nationality where they were from in an effort to show off where the Visigoths and Plutonians lived in the neighborhood. Bad move to offend your potential buyer, there, pal. 
3. Negotiation knucklehead. I have seen owners lucky enough to get an offer fall on their spear plenty of times as well. Negotiation is not something most people do daily; it is best left to the professionals. Most people don’t know what questions to ask, how to ask them, or when. They get emotional. They let their ego affect their judgement. And they fail. 
4. Attorney Assisted Asshat. “I don’t need an agent- an attorney will represent me.” These people never heard of billable hours, and I never saw an attorney present at a home inspection. This mentality kills deals over a dishwasher. 
5. Agent Alienator. “No brokers!” In our area, most FSBOs are smart enough to know that cooperation with agents is wise; 85% of the buyers are working with one, and they are often the best qualified. They are just trying to save on half the commission. But others are hardcore, and to their detriment. 

For Sale by Owners have not gained market share. Alternative models have not gained market share. The same 10-20% of the market has been beating itself up for decades. And it will continue. You can’t beat a good broker. And you wouldn’t want to, unless you are the type that thinks that a guy who removes his own appendix should be congratulated for saving money.

The best in the business are paid the most because they are worth the most. Any business. That is why good brokers will never go the way of travel agents. 

If you have a short sale that is 6 months or more into the process, you’ll appreciate this: We got an approval yesterday on a home I listed in 2007. 

2007. 

It has been an odyssey to say the least: mystery liens, family tragedy, crazy buyers, deals dying, and 3 years of hard work. I listed this home in May of 2007 for $1.25 million. We had an all-cash offer that fell through, and mostly because the buyer was a lunatic who had a screw loose. The MLS eventually sent out a warning to all participants about an all-cash buyer that made people jump through hoops and then would have a “family emergency” on the day she was to sign contracts. The damage was done- the house was packed at the lunatic’s behest and the high school senior missed the football season. Long story. 

There were other offers and inspections, but no contracts. The house seemed to be the biggest magnet in the county for weirdos. People made offers and disappeared. Their agents disappeared. It was like the Twilight Zone and the Bermuda Triangle of real estate. Over the months and years my $1.25 million listing became a $699,000 short sale. 

Last year, we got another buyer. We have been working on the two lenders since last June to get the short sale approved. More Bermuda Triangle stuff: the BPO agent tripped and almost broke her neck right in front of me. 

Yesterday, we got the final approval from the 2nd bank, 1095 days after I first listed the house. When I called my client to tell her she cried and thanked me. I really hope this works. The house wasn’t snake bitten, it was bitten by a hundred of them. Keep your fingers crossed! 

I sold my first HUD home in the 90’s sometime. A HUD home, if you don’t already know, is a government-owned foreclosure that is administered by the department of Housing and Urban Development (HUD). There is a little bit of red tape involved in a HUD transaction, but they typically go well.  One rule HUD has on their homes is that they cannot be bid on by a non-owner occupant the first two weeks they are available. In other words, only owner occupants get the first shot at a HUD home for 2 weeks. If the owner occupants don’t bite, investors are allowed to bid. It works, and it fosters ownership among people that might not otherwise afford a home, or would get elbowed out by institutional professionals. 

Of course, the government can’t mandate what private enterprise can do. However, it would be good if the industry adopted this policy themselves. I have seen too many REOs slip through the fingers of qualified, perfectly good buyers and into the hands of cash investors to think otherwise. The investors then do a McRehab, resell the place at an inflated price, and the pattern continues, with affordable housing out of reach for qualified people.

As an aside, isn’t it ironic that a lender would prefer to sell to a cash buyer only? Isn’t that, from a “big picture” point of view, antithetical? If everyone paid cash, lenders would go out of business. I had Wells Fargo-approved buyers with a full price offer get rejected by a bank this week on a Well Fargo owned property because Wells wants CASH, not a 203k. Absurd and short sighted.

Banks should want owner occupants who qualify to buy their REOs for many reasons, but not the least of which is that these people will give those banks business. Moroever, it is good for neighborhoods to have owner occupants who can afford where they live. We should all want affordable home ownership supprted emphatically by lenders, not just where it is their last resort on their REOs. Too many qualified people have gotten rejected repeatedly and then discouraged from buying at a time in history when they are ready willing and able. Instead of them being comfortably in their own home with a $300,000 mortgage, some new slob is snookered into a $400,000 loan by the investor at resale and we now have another “at risk” property leveraged to the gills.

That is not a solution.

There is something wrong when the system favors cash investors to the exclusion of qualified owner occupants. It is like a Catholic telling me they don’t want to sell to another Catholic. Illogical, short-sighted, and yes, hypocritical. It will never happen and is not a “free market” solution, especially coming from a free-market oriented guy, but I can dream.

Dear Dr. Shlabotnik,

Thanks for your follow up email last night after our 8pm discussion. I appreciate your very specific instructions on how to handle the situation, especially our collaborative in-depth analysis of what the plan would be should the seller zig, and if the seller should zag. I can tell you really put a lot of thought into this, and I think your input has made me a better agent. I have closed over 350 transactions, but who says you can’t teach an old dog new tricks, right? And I am sure your anecdote about office politics at a research university has relevant real estate applications. I missed putting my children to bed, but that’s what wives are for, right? 

With respect to your email this morning, there are no updates since we hung up at 8:45 pm. I will be in showings today, and banks are closed until 9am Monday, so we won’t get any updates until midday Monday the earliest. If you need to call me, please do not leave me 6 stream of consciousness messages, as they tend to clog my inbox. 

Cheers

Phil

On Saturday, April 17, Dr Julius Shlabotnik wrote:

PHIL-

I WAS THINKING ABOUT THIS LAST EVENING AFTER WE HUNG UP AND I WANT TO EXAMINE WHETHER OR NOT …

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Gregory is our 5-year old. He is on the spectrum for autism, and this is one of his mother’s and my greatest challenges. Last year Gregory learned to climb the rear yard fence, which caused quite a scare the first time it happened. I found him in the park a block away, happily playing on the jungle gym. The moments between discovering he was missing and finding him were among the worst I have ever experienced. We therefore have to keep an eye on him 100% of the time. It comes with the territory. He has wanderlust, and no sense of boundaries yet. 

Max is our German Shepherd. He is a purebred I rescued in late 2008. The story was that the family that had him didn’t think that a German Shepherd would mix with their new baby. Their loss, my gain. However, he was 9 months old when I brought him home, and didn’t know his own strength. It took some getting used to, especially for Ann. I don’t blame her. She has her hands full as the mother of 4, one on the spectrum, and helping me with the business. 

Since he came to us, there has been more of a tolerant detente than affection between Mommy and Max. I had a Shepherd as a child, and knew Max would be wonderful, but it has been a process. 

Yesterday we finally had the breakthrough. I was out, and Ann came into the kitchen to see the rear door ajar. It couldn’t be; she locked it so Gregory would remain safe inside, but the stool next to the open door told the story. Our crafty son figured out the lock. Ann ran to the door, and, to her relief, saw Gregory contentedly playing in the dirt.

And next to him, like a sphinx, was Max, watching our son closely. As she described it, when Gregory got up and moved, Max moved with him. Max got some serious praise from Mommy right then, and then returned to Gregory’s side, looking back at Ann, then Gregory, as if he were putting it all together.

The way to a Mother’s heart is through her children. Now, a wet lick or tuft of hair is no big deal in our home. Max earned his stripes, and I am still getting used to my wife smiling at (and being mushy with) the dog. 

One of the things we all dread in a transaction is an 11th-hour problem that delays or cancels a closing until it is solved. It could be a certificate of occupancy for a deck or addition, an open permit, or an unknown lien. When these things are discovered, it causes mad scrambles to get the code inspector out to sign off, an expensive rate lock extension, or dicey living arrangements for people who have given notice to a landlord, just to name a few problems. However, the stakes are now even higher: it could cost the buyer their $8,000 tax credit.

If you are purchasing a home right now, you should make sure that the title report is run and that the building department file is checked. That way, you then have 75 days from today to handle any problems that may exist on the compliance or title of the property. Often, if there is an illegal deck or bath, you need time to apply, file applications, draw plans, get or close permits, or get the town inspector out without delaying the closing past June 30th. These things take time to address, and there may well be a glut of last minute issues all over your market area, with municipalities ill-equipped to handle a rush or spike in activity. 

In a perfect world, listing brokers would check compliance and title prior to listing a property, and buyer agents would double check assessor cards as part of their jobs as well. However, all too often they don’t. And it could cause a delay that extends the transaction past June 30th. 

Forewarned in forearmed. Run title early. Check out that property card at the building department. Ensure there are no surprise liens, illegal improvements, or other costly problems. Don’t assume! Smart work could save that $8,000 tax credit. 

This evening was, at long last, “The Keys” home ownership seminar at Tuscan Grille in Briarcliff. About 25 people attended, and it was a lively session on the Westchester County home buying process, mortgage approvals, short sales, closing costs, and many other engaging topics. I spoke first (I was a little nervous) and am told I did fine. United Northern Bank, LTD was my co-presenter, and sponsored the event. 

I am very happy with the material we covered; ANYONE who was in attendance got some very good information (and some really good dinner. Tuscan served salad, penne a la vodka, chicken francese, and mixed veggies. The chicken was awesome) that would save them money and give them peace of mind going into the Westchester County home buying process. After I spoke I watched the group from the back of the room, and attendees were absolutely dialed in. I love that.

For me, the best part of an event like this is the conversations I have with attendees after the session, where I can relax and kibitz a little. I enjoyed speaking with new faces, fielding questions, and getting thank-you’s from folks who came to learn and left satisfied. One person drove up from the Bronx and shared with me that she wants to buy a home here in Westchester. She was glad she came. So was I! 

Everything I learned myself about putting on a seminar like this will be incorporated into the next event. I will do another session again soon, perhaps in June. I think we might do an event in southern Westchester, and perhaps make it a Saturday Brunch sort of event. Stay tuned.

Ossining can mean many things- it can refer to the Village of Ossining, the Town of Ossining, or an Ossining delivery address in the town of New Castle or Yorktown. In the market data I am referring to, it will mean all properties in the Ossining school district, which is pretty much all of the above. All data is taken from the Westchester-Putnam Multiple Listing Service for the past 180 days market activity for single family homes only. 

83 homes sold in Ossining in the past 180 days at a median sales price of $445,000.  

24 homes are currently pending sale or under contract at a median asking price of $439,111. 

145 homes are active and available. Median asking price: $469,222. There is just under a year’s worth of inventory available for sale, which is actually less than many other places we’ve checked out. That still makes it a buyer’s market, but not so out of balance as other locales. 

As you can see from the prices, Ossining is a fantastic place for starter homes. Taxes are on the high side, but the prices are very affordable for Westchester County. BY the way, I know a fantastic, superb, fabulous, amazingly good REALTOR who is from Ossining and he knows the place like the back of his hand. 

Ann and I have lived in Briarcliff Manor since 2007 but the fact of the matter is that I have known Briarcliff as long as I have been alive; it is one of two villages in the town of Ossining. A small portion of Briarcliff lies in the Town of Mount Pleasant. This post will cover the Briarcliff School district, and not the small part of Briarcliff that is served by Ossining Schools. All information is taken from the Westchester-Putnam Multiple Listing Service for single family homes. 

There have been 17 homes sold in Briarcliff in the past 180 days. The median sales price was $660,000. The average length of time on the market was 130 days. Here is the breakdown of percentage of asking price homes sold for broken down by time on market:

61-90 days: 98.4% of asking

91-120 days: 95.5% of asking

121+ days: 92.6% of asking price

Clearly, the more aggressively a home is priced, the higher percentage of asking price is paid by the buying public. This is the best argument for pricing it right to start with I know of, and it is not unique to Briarcliff. 

There are 6 homes under contract or pending sale at a median price of $923,185.

There are 47 active available listings with a median asking price of $849,000. 

Less expensive homes are selling more than higher priced homes, and there is over a year’s worth of available inventory on the market.