We just got word that one of our short sale transactions in Peekskill, NY was approved. This comes just one day after we listed another one for sale across town! 

On the approved sale, we had multiple offers. The one sent to the bank was less than 2% short of a full price bid, and it should close in the next 2 weeks. The property was put under contract on December 18, 2009, so the approval only took about 45 days. In the short sale world, that is lightning speed. I hope this is a sign of things to come in the field. Long approvals are rough on everyone, especially the sellers, who have their own share of stress. This will be our second sale in this subdivision, which should give us more visibility for other nearby prospective sellers.

On the new short sale, we have listed a fantastic 3 bedroom brick ranch right across the street from Depew Park. If you are a Jets fan, you’ll recognize that name: it was the pre season practice field of the Titans/Jets in their AFL days from 1960-1969. The house therefore has a very quiet setting, abutting pastoral woods and a field on 2 sides. It has a large, detached 2 car garage and a full basement. The kitchen and baths are updated and it is in move in condition with shiny hardwoods and a fireplace.  

It is listed at $299,900. I consider it one of the better buys in Peekskill. Come see for yourself. If you like it we’ll work on a fast approval. The great thing about short sales is that they aren’t priced to chase the market, they are the market. 

Closing costs on a New York transaction can be quite high. The state has a high transfer tax, municipalities, especially New York City, have their own tax, and title insurance is expensive. Otherwise qualified buyers might need to finance some of these costs, and a the mechanism for doing so is a seller concession. 

There are times when it is appropriate to ask the seller to pay the buyer’s closing costs. In my experience, those times always include necessity. If the contract price will appraise and the cash position of the buyer is such that 3% assistance for example, will enable them to buy, it is perfectly valid to propose a seller concession. This makes the transaction a team effort: the seller concedes equity that they might otherwise pocket, the buyer is able to finance all or part of their closing costs that they don’t currently possess, and everyone wins. 

There are times when it is NOT the right move to propose that a seller pay the buyer’s closing costs. When the buyer has the cash, it is virtually never a good idea to propose a concession. The reasons is simple: a concession enables the buyer who would otherwise not be able. If a buyer does not have this need, then proposing a seller concession is a business equivalent of a submission hold in wrestling. It also puts the buyer in an unflattering light financially. 

We recently had a bid on one of my listings. They were proposing a 20% down payment and we were getting close on price. When my sellers made one last counter offer, the buyer made a fatal tactical error: they proposed meeting us at the price, but then added they wanted the seller to pay their closing costs. The seller elected to go with another offer. Here is what hurt the buyer:

• You can’t propose a 20% down payment, ostensibly the mark of a strong, qualified buyer, then ask for help with closing costs and still expect to be viewed as a strong buyer. That tells them you don’t have the money. 
• If you do have the money, telling the seller to pay comes across as petty. You might feel that in a buyer’s market you have to get over on the seller, so you propose a concession to make them say “uncle.” That backfires, especially when there is other interest on the house. 

Westchester County is the first county north of New York City. Westchester’s southernmost border is with the New York City borough of the Bronx. To the east, several municipalities are on the shoreline of the Long Island Sound and the rest of the eastern towns border Fairfield County, Connecticut. Putnam County is to the north. The western part of Westchester all lies on the banks of the Hudson River (one reason the area is often referred to as the Hudson Valley), with Rockland County, NY and Bergen County, NJ across the river.

Because it is “upstate” from Long Island and NY City, it is often referred to as Upstate New York by the folks down there. However, Westchester County is not upstate New York. My wife, who grew up in Queens, is one of the people who have successfully dispensed with this notion.    

Because of its close proximity to Manhattan and convenient commuting location, it is one of the largest and most affluent counties in the state, indeed in the country. Because of this popularity, no fewer than three commuter train lines run through: The Hudson line runs along the river communities on the river, making it one of the prettier rides, the Harlem line runs through the central part of the county, and the New Haven line runs through the southern shore towns on to Connecticut. 

The county is punctuated by vibrant cities, bucolic towns and charming villages. You could drive 15 minutes and pass horse farms, high rise condos, and everything in between. It is the epitome of the real estate phrase “location, location, location,” because residents benefit from being less than an hour (far less in the southern towns) from Grand Central Station, putting a trip to Broadway, the Arts, museums, and the most amazing array of restaurants tantalizingly close in Manhattan. Westchester is also a close drive to the beauty of the Catskills and the Hudson Valley, Connecticut and New Jersey. 

I grew up in Ossining, NY located right in the center of the county, so I might be biased in my opinion, but having lived elsewhere for many years I am happy to call Westchester home. 

All images courtesy of Wikipedia commons and are either public domain or used with permission.

I attended Marie Graham’s home staging workshop this morning at the Ossining Public Library. It was outstanding. While I never disputed the value of stagers, I have gotten into my share of disagreements with them on matters probably not worth arguing about. One is about taking down personal photos. Marie made a good analogy about overdoing the family photo thing. Imagine, she said, you are seated at a crowded restaurant at a table that had not yet been cleared. As you sit, your expectations of a delicious meal are interrupted by a half-eaten fried egg on someone else’s plate. You know that people eat at a table prior to your arrival; you just don’t want to have to share the experience. 

It is a great metaphor, and it wasn’t even her best line. 

Here is the best reason to hire a stager:

You should hire a stager because their fee is a small fraction of what your first price reduction would be if the home does not sell. 

To my mind, that is not something anyone can argue with. Not even me. 

There have been a number of featured blogs on Active Rain decrying what the authors perceive as either negativity, finger pointing, or undignified criticism of the competition on the part of fellow bloggers. Their rationale is honorable; they don’t want the public to see agents bickering among themselves, nor do they feel it professional for one licensee to point the finger at another. I respect their intentions, but I disagree. 

Here’s why: Licensees, especially REALTORS, should not have a Blue Code of Silence. That Code, if you don’t know, is the unwritten ethic of police officers not to rat out another who has broken the rules. If the public sees an agent annoyed with another, it doesn’t look very nice sometimes. Agreed. If the public thought that we are covering up each other’s misdeeds, we it would be a mortal blow to an already injured public image. 

NAR members are already under criticism for a Pollyanna-like spin on the market. If you added a saccharin style of blogging where calling out the bad practices we see were avoided at all costs in the name of being positive, it wouldn’t make up more professional. It would make us more fake. 

The public appreciates authenticity. They want to work with real people who have real feelings and see things the way they see them. If we get to a house and The updated kitchen turns out to be from the Brady Bunch, I’m going to kvetch about it, right there. I’m not going to make an excuse for the listing agent. And I’ll blog about it. I certainly won’t write “That jerk Phil Faranda doesn’t know what an updated kitchen is,” but it would be a good characterization of the events. There are lines not to cross. You don’t make personal attacks , ad hominem accusations, or violate article 15 of the Code of Ethics. But you should call it how you see it without spin. 

I have often said that we need to police ourselves and call out those among us who do a bad job. The public needs to know that we value holding our colleagues to a high standard more than we value propping up a phony image. There should be no complicity among us except to serve our clientèle. 

We got a call the other day from Ronnie, our admin who is in the office daily from 9-5. Half the office was without electricity, and the other half still had juice. I told her to contact the property manager, a bookkeeper upstairs who arrives between 9 and 10am. 

By the way: there are two kinds of people reading this post. One is wondering why only half my office was blacked out, and the other half who are, right now, saying “circuit breaker.” I am in the latter group. 

Unfortunately, the computer and phone were out, meaning I was out of business. Ronnie couldn’t move everything without complicating things with the WiFi router and wiring, so we were out of business until things got fixed. I was on a morning appointment. I figured the manager would handle it when she came in. 11am rolled around, and Ronnie called me again, clearly annoyed. The manager told her the problem was Cablevision, who had a problem in another office the day before. Cablevision is not our electrical utility, ConEd is.  Ronnie had prodded the manager to call an electrician, and she acquiesced and called a client who would come in at the end of the day. That was BS. I couldn’t be blacked out for 8 hours.  

I was able to come in at noon. I went upstairs and asked the manager if I could get into the utility room. That wasn’t necessary, she said. She already checked and it was cablevision. Not wanting to explain Newtonian physics to a 70 year old, I asked her to humor me. I found the first floor panel and unscrewed it open. There was just one 200 amp switch and no breaker for my office.

Now, there are two kinds of people reading this post. One is wondering how this could be fixed, and the other group, who has already muttered “sub panel” under their breath. I am in the latter group.

So I had to go upstairs and ask Madam Cablevision where I might find a sub panel. She reluctantly admitted there was one in her closet. She then walked over into her closet, opened it, and turned to me saying that nothing was amiss. She was blocking me from checking myself. She reminded me of Bugs Bunny and the “He’s Not Hiding in the Stove” cartoon. Again with the Cablevision. 

I’m starting to get a little frustrated here. My company has been blacked out for over 3 hours. I called the landlord. He called back within 5 minutes, and gave me the location of the first floor sub panel. I found it and what do you know? Circuit 5 was popped. FLICK and I’m back in business. I shared with him my frustration with Ms Dolittle upstairs, and we hung up.

5 minutes later, the Grand Dame stormed into my office.  First, she wanted to see the sub panel, which I showed her. Then, she groused about how I went behind her back and complained to the landlord about how she was handling things. Well, frankly, I told her, she didn’t seem to care that I was out of business. That incensed her. That’s not true, she said.

I answered her by informing her that it took her all of 5 minutes to come downstairs when she thought she looked bad to the landlord, but in 3 hours she never bothered to come downstairs when my employee was pleading for her to help. Caring is as caring does. 

Frankly, I don’t know what goes on in her heart or anyone’s heart, but the contrast in pro activity to my observation, was quite ironic. If you care about you first you’ll be miserable. If you care about others they’ll know it and appreciate it. Big lesson there. 

Did you ever write a thoughtful, heartfelt post and as soon as you posted it, got a comment right away? You click on the comment to see what the reader’s reaction is to your sharing, only to read this:

Thanks for your thoughts. We learn so much on Active Rain. Best wishes.

Huh? Did they even read what you wrote? Probably not. These are point pigs, only interested in their 10 comments per day.

What about this: You click on your blog subscriptions, and see in the new blog feed 3 new posts from the same guy. Curious about this prodigious content machine, you click on his blog. Whoa! 200 posts in January so far! 275 posts in December! But on closer look, this clown is actually cycling the same 6 spammy, self promotional posts every day. The search engine simpleton thinks that if he vomits a tidal wave of duplicate content that he will fool Google. Good luck with that one. 

Another variation of the Google gaming freak is the reblog guy. This is a another 10 post a day content machine who hasn’t posted an original thought since the Cold War. He’s not using the reblog  to pass along good thoughts; he’s de facto scraping others’ content so his blog will have lots of material he’s too lazy to write or research. Reblog guy also plagiarizes from sources outside of Active Rain, passing the content off as his own.

But by far the biggest laugh is one I was made hip to earlier this week. Almost 300 January posts, all “Members Only.” He claimed Google was already indexing him because he found himself in Google searches. I guess this gnu doesn’t realize that if he’d log out of Active Rain that the search results would disappear. This is significant, as consumers are not logged in to Active Rain.

Rain Camp, common sense and good faith all tell us that a good blog is original, fosters an interested readership, and does not engage in black hat search engine optimization (which, by the way is contrary to terms of service). You can make your blog any way you want, but I would ask what part of “community” you do not understand.  

This will be somewhat of a rant, but after being sick as a dog with some exotic bug my kids brought home from school, I am in one of those moods. There is a word for a home inspector who will take $500 from a home buyer for inspecting a co op apartment they are looking to buy: Thief. My opinion? Maybe. The opinion of reputable, licensed home inspectors with ASHI memberships whom I have discussed this with? Yup. 

By and large, inspecting a co op apartment is not needed the way it is for a house. The windows are the co-op’s responsibility. The same goes for the heat. 

…and the roof.

…and the plumbing and water pressure

…and the electricity

Are you getting the picture? There is no yard. There is no basement. There is no utility room, water heater, or laundry (in most cases). Many times, there isn’t even a dishwasher. It isn’t even like a condo, where you own the paint in. You are a stock holder with a proprietary lease, and the corporation is responsible for the physical plant.

There are exceptions to every complex. Some have a laundry in each apartment, for instance. And this doesn’t mean that if the dishwasher breaks or the toilet dies that you don’t have to buy new ones yourself. You do. But it does mean that anyone who treats the co op like a single family residence and charges you the same to inspect it is taking your money. And it’s not just me saying that. Most co op buyers do not get an inspection at all.

If you want to get your co op inspected, get an inspector who won’t charge you like the 900 square foot self-contained apartment is a 3000 square foot house on half an acre. We have a nice duplex in Rego Park, Queens under contract and we’re going to pay the guy less than $200 for a walk through, and that will be as thorough as you can get. The scope is just too small.

I welcome opinions of home inspectors familiar with New York co op apartments  to tell me why I am right or why I’m wrong. 

I posted earlier this week that an agent in my company had elected to leave for another firm. The day after he resigned, prior to our meeting and settling our affairs, he sent an email expressing irritation at me for not releasing him on the Department of State website right away. That only served to attract the ire of the company admin, namely my wife, who sent him an answer that he probably had coming for over 6 months.  That did not set the stage for a comfortable meeting when he came to my office Thursday. 

I wasn’t appreciative of the drama; I told him that all we needed to do was meet and go over files and he’d be released. He was the one that waited 2 days to come in. He arrived late, and was clearly tense. He had a box of folder, some of which were files I’d have to take over and the rest I figured was marketing material. We went over what I thought were the necessary issues to reconcile, pending deals, signs I loaned him, and  the like. Truth be told, I can count on one hand the number of agents who have left my company since 2005, and the guy was pacing my office floor like an expectant father as I fumbled my way through the state website to confirm his release. Ann had to talk me through it on the phone. 

When I was done, I gave him his release confirmation slip and offered my hand. He grimaced and got the box of folders. He began to explain to me things about the 3 remaining listings he had, and when I told him I wasn’t interested, he said they had to stay with the company. He was right, of course, technically they are mine, but I had no intention of keeping them. Law or no law, they were more his than mine, and I told him that we’d release them so he could take them with him. I was only concerned about pending transactions. He could have his listings. I took out the memorandum of agreement I wrote after I hired him, and reminded him that a condition of his hire was that I would allow him to take his active listings with him if things didn’t work out. I was just keeping my word. 

He was a different guy after that. Floored, really. He said that he thought that I was going to bust his chops because I didn’t terminate him right away; I reminded him that he made me wait. I would have complied if he came in 2 days prior. I was’t holding things up. He was. And I would keep my word. The whole room shifted. He couldn’t believe is ears. I pointed to the memo. I wasn’t going back on anything we agreed to 6 months ago. He thanked me and left, shocked look and all.  

I don’t care one way or the other, but 5 bucks says he’ll come back sometime. If he does, he’ll view me through different shaded glasses. 

RPR, which stand for Realtors Property Resource, has been described as Big Brother, NAR’s answer to Zillow, the precursor to a National MLS, and many other things. But regardless of what opinion you may have of the system, it is coming, and it knows you. The project is the National Association of Realtors initiative to index the data on every parcel of land in the the USA. 

Every single one. They are starting with the public records, but guess what? If it is listed or has a sales history, they’ll have that too. If there is a violation on it, they’ll have it. Mortgage? Yup. Notice of default? That too. 

In short, they’ll have combined Zillow, the MLS data, your public records, RealtyTrac, and a few other sites into one source. If it is listed, they’ll have the broker information. It will even have a wiki-type feature that will allow registered users to edit what might be inaccurate informations, such as square footage of a listed property. Are you getting the picture? 

One more thing: it won’t be available to the public. It is only available to NAR members. It will be rolled out this March. 

It is not a national MLS, however, for several reasons, not the least of which is that there is no published offer of cooperation. But, like Realtor.com, there is nothing stopping you from contacting the listing agent and finding that out. Scary? Exciting? Both? 

Interesting commentary from Robert Hahn on RPR can be found on his blog. RPR has their own blog, which can be found at http://blog.narrpr.com. 

Individual MLS systems have the option to opt out, but here is the quandary if they do: at some point, someone was going to publish all this information, and Zillow has gotten a massive head start. If you are a licensee, who do you want at the head of the curve on this, a private company, or the NAR? It was going to be done anyway. 

We are witnesses to massive change. Forewarned is forearmed. 

Spam is spam, whether it is for a Nigerian diplomat or a 3 bedroom ranch. The whole point of a high tech MLS system is so we don’t have to exchange information via archaic means, such as listing books, letters, faxes, or smoke signals. The information is at our fingertips. Moreover, saved searches and hotsheets tell us when a match is made with a prospect. So why do I still get emails with subject lines such as “price reduced” and “new listing”? 

Is this how some agents pacify their clients? It doesn’t work. If I wanted to know your every move I’d follow you on Twitter. 

If we have a prospect match, maybe an email would work. But agents who announce their every move via unwanted email announcements clog inboxes, annoy, and waste valuable time. It’s not something colleagues do, and it hinders more substantive communication, because if you train me to delete your spam daily you just might have an offer get whacked also. 

So, this week, I am implementing a new spam policy: I am going to politely ask anyone who spams me to remove me from their database. If they do, swell. If they don’t, their email addresses will be blocked, and they’ll have a nice Mailer-Daemon sent back  to them every time they litter. Hopefully, they’ll get the message. 

We need to revamp our culture as professionals. Sending out spam should not be part of how we interact. 

This is inspired by Richard Weisser’s outstanding blog piece about, well, blogging. It is admirable the way his blog has built his personal brand. 

A real estate broker is always recruiting people in 3 categories: sellers, buyers, and salespeople. Hiring, however, always seems to come as an afterthought, especially to an independent firm. We don’t have in-house recruiters the way larger franchises do. Yet I have been getting new agents to join my company with my blog. Last year I heard an agent tell me for the first time that she liked my blog and wanted to work for me. This month, we’ve put on three new agents and have another waiting in the wings. 

It isn’t a mystery why. Our blogs are a look inside, without a needy posture, about the kind of brokers we are, and how we do business. Any agent that is “looking” will appreciate the opportunity get the free, unrehearsed glimpses. The interviews have been easy, because the recruiting pitch is not needed- they already know me. We can get on to more substantive things, and they have thus far his the ground running. 

I’m not sure that there is anything different to ‘do’ with regard to blogging and hiring, except to simply let people know you are hiring in your blog. You might be surprised at who wants to know. 

Back in December I wrote a blog post aimed at my fellow broker owners asking them how fast they paid their agents once a deal closed. The post was featured and got over 100 comments. It was gratifying to get input from my colleagues across the country. 

Today I have a new question, and this is also seldom discussed. When an agent resigns from your company, how long before you formally release them with the state? Here in New York, additions and terminations are done online on the Department of State website. One particular agent resigned yesterday, via email, and asked to be terminated right away. I responded that we needed to get our affairs reconciled and then I would do so. However, he was not able to meet with me until 2 days later (we are meeting tomorrow). We have a few things to discuss, and I don’t want to give him his release without clear understandings on pending business, the return of signs and lock boxes, and some other housecleaning. 

I don’t think it unreasonable to have company property returned prior to issuing the release. I don’t want to trust the guy to do the right thing, especially this one, only to end up schlepping all over the place to pick up signs and lock boxes myself. That isn’t right. If he had come in, spoken with me personally and returned the things I would have released him right away. However, today, 24 hours after his resignation email and prior to anything being returned, he sent me a critical email for not releasing him yet, with the clear suggestion that I was obstructing him. I think he’s out of line there, but then again, we won’t miss him for those very reasons. 

When he joined our company, things moved at a glacial pace. I didn’t quibble about it. I don’t see why I’m judged by a different standard than his last broker. To give you a little context, his next firm will be his 3rd firm in less than 7 months. He was here all of 180 days. 

Would you grant a release with loose ends untied? 

To my way of thinking, few things make a house a home like a pet. We’ve rescued a few dogs in our time, and the latest is Max, pictured below. He is a purebred German Shepherd whom I rescued for a fraction of what it would have cost to buy a new puppy with papers. Westchester County has plenty of resources for pet adoption, and here are a few worth checking out:

• Elmsford Animal Shelter– We adopted Logan here in 2000. First class place. 
• SPCA of Westchester– walking distance from my office
• Pet Adoption League of Lower Westchester
• Westchester Shore Humane Society
• Yonkers Animal Shelter
• Little Orphan Animals in Cortlandt Manor
• New Rochelle Humane Society
• Petfinder.com has lots of local connections and is virtually the craigslist of animal recue
• Lastly, AnimalLink.org has some really good niche organizations, such as rabbits and Ferrets. 

This is an important clarification for all home buyers who want that tax credit: While everyone is talking about the April 30 deadline for qualification, there is another deadline to be aware of, and that is July 1, 2010. You have to be in contract to purchase by April 30, 2010 and close by July 1, 2010 to qualify for the tax credit. 

April 30 and July 1. Remember those dates. 

This is the link to the NAR brief on the 2010 home buyer tax credit. 

The important thing about this to buyers in my own market of Westchester and surrounding counties is because that gives you 60 days to close, which, in New York, should be enough time if there are no snags. 

Repeat: You do NOT have to CLOSE by April 30, you just have to be IN CONTRACT by April 30 and close by July 1 to meet the deadline for the home buyer tax credit. 

Do your homework, find the right place, get those contracts executed by April 30, and close by July 1 and it pays you $8000. Not a bad deal. 

Forewarned is forearmed! There is still time (about 90 days realistically) to find that home!

Get a head start on finding your home before April 30 with a FREE Listingbook account. Search the MLS database just like a broker. 

I have some questions for my fellow broker-owners:

Do you have E and O (error and omission) insurance? You should. 

Do you have a company policy manual? You should. 

Do you have an independent contractor agreement with your licensees? You should. 

Do you have written agreements with your licensees for commission splits? If not, why? 

Error and Omission Insurance is as necessary for running your business as liability insurance is for your car. You ought not leave the house without it. Moreover, some companies, such as relocation forms, BPO companies, and especially asset managers, will not refer business to you without proof that your E and O insurance is current and covers you for $1 million. 

A Company Policy Manual will lower your E and O premium (it did ours) and insure that there are no ambiguities with your agents. They are independent contractors to the IRS; they are a contingent liability otherwise, especially in New York, where the broker has vicarious liability for everything the agents do. In New York, if an agent hammers their thumb, the broker screams. 

Speaking of the IRS, and Independent Contractor Agreement is a requirement in some states, and another CYA (cover your assets) move.

Written agreements eliminate arguments and disputes, especially if an agent leaves. If you have a written policy on commission splits, what happens to listings when an agent leaves, how much they are paid if they leave before a closing, and the like, you will be doing yourself a great service and likely avoiding a grievance or arbitration.  

Minimize your exposure. Forewarned is forearmed. 

CNBC is reporting that some banks are being accused of, of all things, bank fraud in short sales. Those of us who sell short sales know that the hardest cases are often the ones with subordinate financing, or in layman’s terms, a second mortgage. If you owe $500,000 on a house with a $425,000 1st loan and a $75,000 second mortgage, then a short sale for $400,000 cleans the 2nd loan out completely. If they are lucky, they will get $3000 from the first lender. They have little choice- if the house goes to foreclosure, they get nothing. 

ON some files, the 2nd mortgage will try and negotiate an unsecured amount to be paid back by the borrower after the closing in exchange for release of the lien. That is their prerogative. It is, after all, money they are owed. 

The fraud part comes when the 2nd lien wants cash paid to them that is not disclosed to the first mortgage holder. In other words, a “side deal” cash payment delivered at closing that is undocumented and not disclosed on the HUD-1 settlement statement. 

So instead of Tony Soprano conspiring to defraud the first bank, it is the second bank. Has it happened? I’d say yes. Is it widespread? Hard to tell, probably not, but once is too many times. Does this surprise me? No. These are the institutions that screwed everything up to begin with. Nothing they do surprises me. 

If you want to buy a short sale in Westchester or the Hudson Valley, or just get a good deal, sign up for a free ListingBook account. 

There is a new US treasury guideline that will, according to a report, mandate that banks make their decision on a short sale in 10 days. The new rule also proposes a $1500 allowance to the seller for moving expenses. I have said before that it shouldn’t take a lender more time to decide on a short sale than it currently takes to underwrite a mortgage. The process is virtually the same. 

As enticing as 10 days sounds, I don’t see how it could be enforced, nor do I see 10 days as particularly realistic. It takes a week for example, to get an appraisal done. The pendulum does not need to swing so far the either way from 4 and 6 month short sales to under 2 weeks. I’d be happy with 30 days, and, frankly, so would the buyers. The banks are overwhelmed as it is, and they don’t have the staffing (or so they claim) to speed things up.

So how will they do it? Will this help or hurt? MY fear is that, pressed to make a decision, the lenders will issue denials on deals they might otherwise approve if given a reasonable amount of time. 

Please Uncle Sam, some sanity. I would happily take 30 days. 

I submitted an offer from a buyer client on a property listed with a very respected company this past Wednesday. It was a low offer to be sure, but that is not uncommon. The property has been listed for quite a while; 250 days as a matter of fact. It is vacant and needs updating everywhere. The listing agent never acknowledged receipt until I called her Friday. She was less than enthusiastic. I didn’t care. Get me an answer. 

We spoke again today, and the answer was NO. 

No counter offer, no attempt to negotiate, just “too low, try again.” This is extremely foolish. It is the nature of buyers to come in low in this market; to take that personally is ill advised. Even if you are angered at a low offer, you count to 10 and negotiate. So guess what? My buyer is now unhappy. 

It isn’t terribly wise to antagonize buyers in this market when you haven’t sold in 8 months. MLS records have this agent as having exactly 12 closings since January 1, 2007. It’s no wonder. In speaking with her, I told her that I wished she had advised her people to make a counter offer. It would cost them nothing to do so. She said that it cost nothing to not make a counter either, but she seems to not grasp that it costs her client a possible sale.

I sent her an email of a listing I sold this past summer which had a lowball offer that my seller client wanted to outright deny. I told him to counter it and that I’d bring it home. A week later we had an accepted offer of $285,000 on a $299,000 listing when the initial offer was just 240. That’s negotiation. We erred on the side of possibility. 

The smart thing to do with any low offer, even one of 50 cents on the dollar (ours, for the record, was far higher), is to make a counter offer. The name of the game is dispassionate, business-like negotiation. That is what makes minds meet. Never say NO. You can’t sell the property when you say no. Make a counter offer, even if it galls you. You might be very glad you did. 

A common question I get from home sellers is when they should put their house up for sale once the winter holidays are over. My answer is always the same: in Westchester real estate, Spring starts January 2nd. Obviously, a February blizzard will present a temporary delay, but when you think about it, it makes sense. This is especially the case in 2010, because the homebuyer tax credit expires April 30. 

The “school year cycle” buyer is the bulk of buyers we deal with in Westchester. They want to be in their new home by the Summer. Given the fact that it can take 45-90 days to close (shockingly long to those elsewhere, but a fact of life in New York), if you start looking in January, you only have a month or two to find and get the right place for you before a June closing becomes realistic. Sellers operating on the same cycle need to be in their new places by the end of the Summer. They have less of a margin for error than a buyer with nothing to sell. 

Finding the right home in Westchester is only part of the battle in the Spring. Many homes in Westchester are likely to get multiple offers. I know this sounds like an agent come-on, but we are Westchester County, and the local market here is different from many other markets. Therefore, some first time buyers don’t get the first house they like. It may not be that they are outbid necessarily, but that is for another post. The bottom line is this: the Spring market in Westchester real estate starts as soon as the holidays are over. There are motivated, qualified buyers out there on January 2nd, and they’ll be in their new homes by April the earliest, some not until the summer. 

Many sellers want to close prior to June, because they want to find something in the Spring also so they can have the Summer to make their new home theirs before school begins. These things don’t happen overnight, and if you want to be ahead of the curve, you start in January. 

If you don’t take my word for it, check the records- I’ll give you access to all MLS data- active, under contract, and sold properties with a free Listingbook account and you’ll see for yourself.