How to Submit a Low Offer on a New York Listing

What is more compelling to someone selling a home when presented with an offer on their property:

1. A voicemail     or
2. A well written offer sheet complete with a cover letter, proof of funds, pre approval and specific terms

In this busy spring season, I have been asked to present by buyers and been presented by colleagues on my listings, LOTS of low offers. The company has 60 listings and it is April. Do the math. 

Is a sale any less valuable if a broker or manager steps in and helps?

One thing I appreciate when I assist members of my firm in their transactions is that my guys truly care for their clients. It certainly shows in their actions, and I have the front row seat as broker to see how they approach things when they return to the metaphorical corner between rounds. I am asked for advice. I have scenarios run past me. They pick my brain. 

This past week, no fewer than three of my agents (well, one is an associate broker) have engaged me very in-depth as to how to best serve their clients. One needed to present an offer to a difficult listing agent on a short sale. Another is in the midst of getting her client through the board approval process for a co op purchase, which isn’t easy. You get the picture. 

In many cases, I have to do more than dole out advice. I have to call a lawyer. I conduct a conference call with a client. I de-claw a rigid agent on the other side of a transaction. I intervene to get the deal done on behalf of the client. Often, my team members feel a little bad that they needed me to step in.  They shouldn’t feel bad. On the contrary, it is good advocacy. The measure of our success isn’t how much or how little who did what. It is the welfare of our clients. 

Yesterday, I had an attorney tell me that if my agent felt an offer on a short sale was good enough to get approved, that was good enough for him. That made me feel good. Today, a client said that they were so impressed with how Vivian took care of them that if she thought they should follow my advice, then they would. Wow! That made me feel great. I wasn’t the big shot broker stepping in; Vivian was the expert endorsing my contribution! 

I love LOVE LOVE how well my team takes care of their clients. I am honored to be their broker, and if they ever need help of any kind, it is really my pleasure. And when we win, it is their victory whether I step in or not. 

Like many associations across the country, our own MLS had a moment of silence at our monthly meeting yesterday in memory of fallen Realtor colleague Ashley Oakland. The news has been a bitter pill to swallow for agents all over the USA, and I can’t fathom her loved ones’ grief and suffering. 

Today’s news informed us that a search warrant has been issued in the investigation, which remains ongoing, with no arrests at this point. The details are sealed, which is just as well. I don’t care about the details as much as I want to see justice served. 

Ashley was buried this past Thursday April 14, and according the the news more than 1600 people attended the services. She was eulogized by her sister Brittany. I eulogized my late brother, and I know firsthand that it must have been extremely difficult for Brittany. 

Folks, if you don’t have a safety and security policy in your office, get one. If you have one, review it with your team. We cannot afford to lose anyone else. 

Two follow up pieces of news on topics I have blogged on recently: 

1. Ossining voters have overwhelmingly rejected the $69,000,000 bond proposal for the expansion and renovation of the school buildings. I wrote a piece voicing my own opposition to the proposal, and evidently, other school district voters agreed with me by a 57%-43% margin. Over 2000 voted no, a little over 1500 voted in favor. 
2. On April 8 I wrote a post supporting the closure of Sing Sing Prison in favor of more suitable use of the land. The news that local politicians were asking Governor Cuomo to close the place was the impetus for the piece. Unfortunately, the Journal News ran a story today on why that closure isn’t likely. I can’t say that I am shocked. 

I read the NY Times far less because of the paywall, but today’s editorial brings to light a new problem with big lenders embroiled in the robo-signing scandal: they are already making a backroom deal for a slap on the wrist and permission to continue with business as usual. The banks gameplan that they are “too big to fail” is back in play, and their powerful lobby is making the Obama administration guilty of complicity that makes the Bush administration-Haliburton connection so deplored by the left a few short years ago look like a church tag sale. 

Here’s the irony pointed out by 60 Minutes last week and yours truly when the robo signing scandal first broke: How is it that entities which wouldn’t lend a dime unless the borrowers papwerwork was absolutely, definitively complete, be allowed to cut so many corners with their own paperwork? If a borrower in a judicial state faces foreclosure and their adversary is allowed to produce forged paperwork in court, how can they be getting their constitutionally guaranteed due process? 

Here’s the irony of ironies: Most clients of mine who are facing foreclosure aren’t deadbeats, they are simply victims of the economy that the banks themselves ruined. Their business failed. They were laid off in budget cut backs and downsizing. Many were honorable to a fault, depleting their life savings and even their retirement assets just to do the “right thing” and pay their mortgage obligation until there was simply no money left. These people deserve that every piece of paper in the banks case against them be 100% legitimate. 

I am a registered Independent because I am repelled by different things on both sides of the ideological fence. But the one thing I thought that Obama would do is hold big banks who made the mess accountable. But as the NY Times points out, politics as usual where banks are concerned knows no political party. 

My father would have been 91 this September. He spent 6 plus years overseas defending our nation in World War Two in the South Pacific and in Korea, where he earned a Bronze Star at Inchon. He helped keep our nation great. And with a few signatures on an illicit bill, some political hacks and lobbyists will attempt to unravel his sacrifices. Shame on them, and shame on us for allowing it.  

I seldom re blog posts from other authors but this piece by John Mulkey is sound advice that more people should consider. All too often, I’ll show a home that was bought at foreclosure and rehabilitated in a manner that addressed cosmetics but left mechanicals and structural matters in a dubious state. 

There is a certain type of buyer who is looking for a turnkey property. They have no appetite for doing restoration work and just want to move in. New kitchens and baths, fresh paint and refinished hardwoods influence them strongly, but in these cases a home inspection is even more crucial to dtermine if the rehabilitation was superficial or masked more expensive problems down the road. 

Here is some good business advice for both colleagues and clientele alike: Put something in your email subject line whenever you send something. And and don’t make it “For Phil” or “Attn: Phil.”

Getting an email with nothing in the subject line is a minor annoyance. But it can also be expensive. Here’s why: 2 weeks or two years after an email has been sent, it may need to be retrieved for a variety of reasons. It could be a phone number, the confirmation of a the date of a showing, or one of a thousand other bits of needed details that can’t be sifted out of the enormous inboxes we have without some sort of detail, such as an address or other specific. 

The way cloud computing is becoming more prevalant, I can search emails on my smartphone. This is a huge gamechanger-IF, and think of the GIGO principle here, IF I have the necessary word, address or specific to index. If I am searching for an email one of my clients or agents sent me for example, I could have years worth of correspondence to look through if all the subject lines were blank. You can search body text, but if 50 emails come back with (no subject) in the line, time and money are lost. 

The subject line is there for a reason. Use it. 

Wednesday’s Journal News has a front page story on Ossining politicians urging Andrew Cuomo to close Sing Sing Prison. As a native of Ossining who worked a block away in a neighborhood market for years while in school, the idea gets my attention. Would closing Sing Sing make sense? Would it benefit Ossining? 

It is an intriguing thought. Sing Sing has been there since the early 1800’s. It employs 824 people. It is a piece of history. But it is also a product of a bygone era when putting prisons, landfills and nuclear power plants on prive riverfront real estate wasn’t viewed as a bad idea. And when Sing Sing was built, it was considered to be in a distant and sparsly populated area. It is now in the middle of the village of Ossining. 

Ossining loses $500,000 in taxes because of the exemptions on government -owned Sing Sing. I don’t know anyone who is excited to have a maximum security prison in town, and that includes me. Few if any of the 800+ employees live in Ossining. From that point of view, and the tax angle, it does not contribute to the Ossining economy. 

I used to work counter at Southside Market on Spring Street about a block from Sing Sing. Most of the prison guards as they were known then (they are now referred to as correction officers) did not  live locally. Most COs lived out of the county, and their only contribution to local commerce was a pack a cigarettes and the sandwich I made for them. I suspect that little has changed. No CO lives near me to my knowledge. 

If a new prison were to be built today, it is inconceivable that they would choose prime waterfront property in a dynamic suburban village for the location. If this is the way they want to reboot the prison system, I say close the thing and let Ossining benefit. Develop the bulk of the land to make the highest and best use of waterfont property and turn the original, smaller cell block into a museum. That will ease the tax burden on the rest of us and give us new neighbors. In as much as I like to have fun with my proximity to the Big House, I’m all for it being a memory. 

I arrived back home to Briarcliff Manor tonight after returning from Rain Camp Atlantic City and two days of intense instruction. My first Raincamp was excellent, but also different. There was so much information in the new-two day event that I am exhausted from being engaged and focused for so long. It is a “good” tired, believe me. But more than tired, I am thankful to the good folks at Active Rain who have taken the time from home and family to travel all the way out here to share their knowledge with us. I am humbled.

I am grateful to Kerrie Greenhalgh  for asking me to be on the success panel. I am owe a debt of gratitude to Kelly Pflugrath & Kelly Clifford  for their tireless work on making the event go smoothly.

A big thanks to Bob Stewart, Steven Graham, and Brad Andersohn   for their outstanding instruction, energy and leadership. Steve’s energy and mastery of the material was incredible, and Brad’s enthusiasm was contagious. Brad also gave me a great idea for a blog post that already has 800+ clicks. 

I am so grateful to Katerina Gasset for hitting a home run in her keynote instruction on Day 1. It was informative to the max, and I have been immersed in this thing for over 2 years. I can only imagine what a new member got from her.  

A big thanks to co panelists Gerry Michaels and Dagny Eason for being awesome.  It was so great to meet so many fellow members for the first time and to catch up with others.

Tonight I’ll sleep, but tomorrow I start putting this stuff to work.