Dealing with the public means dealing with peoples’ foibles. I seldom think much about difficult people once I am finished with them, but recently there was an exception I am moved to reflect on because the meeting was just so weird. It was not unlike many meetings, hi, how are you, and this is the bathroom. The folks were justifiably proud of their home, but somehow combative in our conversation. 

I work with a laptop, and it has spoiled me. Since using it for the past 14 months, I have really seldom had much of a dispute about value. The facts are right there on the screen. Tonight, however, facts were not a priority. The lady was genuinely offended at my price opinion, and informed me that she had two recent appraisals far higher. And rather than just agree to disagree, as some clients have a bigger appetite for speculation than I, the meeting was over and I was thanked for my time. That was it. They asked if I needed any help with my stuff and got up from the table. It was really strange. 

So I left, with a bizarre silence in the room, as I packed away my laptop and the homeowners uneasily stared at the floor with uncomfortable body language. To diffuse the strange tension in the air, and since it was obvious that we would not be doing business, I told them that after they listed I would certainly call their broker if I had an interested buyer. That bought me about an eighth of a second of an eighth of a smirk, and I was thanked for stopping by as the door followed my rear end out. 

I’m fine, but I don’t think these people will be. Clearly, they were very invested in a number, which they didn’t get from me. And most w-2 employees are not accustomed to the nuances of business and large transactions. But this was kind of sad, in that they took my price opinion as a personal insult, to the point that I was out the door within 5 minutes. I certainly do wish them luck, and they’ll need it. Buyers could very well drive these folks crazy, and if they act like they acted tonight their agent may have a tough job. You can’t take things personally in selling a home. 

What’s really too bad is that it was a nice place, but if they overprice it, as I think they will, they’ll be more disappointed than they were tonight. High bidders get the house, and I think these folks will end up keeping theirs. It’s business! Best to not take it personally. 

OK, so My Giants didn’t make the playoffs and I was kind of hoping my friends who are Jets fans would be happy. They aren’t either. This leaves me with 2 teams I am ambivalent about, the Pittsburgh Steelers and the Green Bay Packers. I’m not the sort of milquetoast guy who just wants a good game. I need to favor one team or another, and this has me looking at how to make a decision. 

Neither team boasts a hotter cheerleading squad, because both have no cheerleaders. So my default criteria is out the window. Sad. 

I have mild connections to both teams. Vince Lombardi, the great Packers coach, was a native New Yorker, Fordham graduate like my dad, and former assistant coach for my Giants. And overall, the Packers and their fans are a down to Earth and likable bunch.

Pittsburgh is in Pennsylvania. I lived in Philadelphia for almost 9 years. I have however, at least been to Pittsburgh, and never been to Wisconsin. Pittsburgh is also a down to earth place with nice people. I don’t know if Primonti Brothers is still there, but they had good pasta in the early 90’s at a good price. 

Green Bay is the mild favorite and I like an underdog, but I think the Lombardi/New York connection is too much to ignore. I’m backing Green Bay. And since I have the day by and large off for a change, I do hope for a good game. 

Anyone who knows me will agree that I have always been a Yankee fan, but one with a deep respect for the National League Legacy of New York. So if you think I am piling on the Mets, you’re wrong. And as a business man, I feel for my fellow New Yorkers who root for the Mets and must suffer through the debacle now in the courts and the media while the connection between Mets ownership and two separate Ponzie schemes -one with Bernie Madoff- play out. 

When the Bernard Madoff scandal first arose, it was made known that Fred Wilpon, owner of the Mets, was an investor. Mr. Wilpon’s reputation has always been beyond reproach. He represented himself as a victim, no different from the rest of the defrauded investors when the news broke. Mr Wilpon also assured Met fans that, while a victim, that the Mets were not adversely harmed and that the day to day operations of the team would not suffer. Last week, it came to light that Wilpon was being sued to return money in what is known as a clawback rule, where stolen money has to be returned, even if the recipient is innocent. In response, and in a move that led to questions about the Mets’ solvency, it was announced that a portion (non majority) of the team would be for sale to a silent partner. 

According to the New York Times, Met ownership was not only a winner from their Madoff dealings, they actually used him very extensively as a line of credit and a depositary for deferred compensation for players and executives. The Trustee for the Madoff victims, Irving Picard, is demanding that the Met ownership pay back all profits as ill-gotten gains in a lawsuit unsealed yesterday, to the tune of $1 billion. Now, a day before the Superbowl, New Yorkers are talking baseball and scandal. That the Mets have to pay something back is not an argument, but the amount is staggering. It has now come to light that the Mets, valued at $858 billion last year by Forbes, are tapped out. 

• The Times has Wilpon’s total debt at $1.5 billion
• The Mets line of credit with Major League Baseball is maxed out. 
• The Mets previous source of credit, Bernie Madoff, is, well, Bernie Madoff. 

If you were a free agent, would you be inclined to sign with this team? 

How can Met fans, who have suffered through misery since Wilpon became majority owner in 2002, be confident in seeing any on-field success with management in such disarray? 

Lack of equity, the inability to borrow out of one’s problems, and the drying up of available credit are eerily similar problems the Mets have with anyone facing foreclosure. The situation is unsustainable, and the Wilpons should bow out with any available grace they now possess. 

The Journal News todays has published four pieces on the health of several Westchester County downtown business districts, all of which are linked below. All of the downtowns written on are pretty good, above average business districts in my view. That is one neat thing about our area- the character of our villages and cities is pretty special. 

• Croton’s business district facing challenges 
• Bronxville-area merchants try new strategies to combat bad economy
• Downtown White Plains: Improving market, but times still tough 
• Mount Kisco’s downtown not booming but holding on 
• All of the reports tell the same story to me, and that is that Main Street is suffering the effects of the recession. In Croton, there have been some vacancies in retail buildings for years since the recession hit in 2008. There was a small, vitriolic group that blamed the vacancies on the local republicans. I am far from a republican supporter, but that is nonsense. This is what happens when the country takes the economic hot that it absorbed the past few years. You can’t blame a village trustee for the recession, Wall Street woes, or the sub prime banking crisis. 
• Every area, large and small, modest and affluent has been affected. In my view, it is a sign of the times. This is cyclical, and  in the ebb and flow of a free market, the vacancies will get filled and  prosperity will come when consumer confidence improves and more money circulates. 
• This too shall pass. 

As short sales have become more common and are even showing up in new markets in Westchester, I find myself educating my colleagues on what can and cannot be done in order to have a successful closing. Lately, we’ve received offers that are unrealistically low; essentially, what the buyers do not understand is that the lender is going to evaluate their offer based on comparable market activity, not their speculative attempts to get a bargain. 

I don’t blame buyers for wanting to get a good deal. I want the same thing for my own buyers- who doesn’t? But the lender in a short sale is not nearby, so they hire a professional to determine the value. Typically an appraisal or a broker price opinion are done and sent to the bank. If the BPO or appraisal match or are close to the offer, and approval is likely. If the offer is considerably lower than the bank findings, the lender will ask for more money. 

This is where agents need to educate the buying public. It is irresponsible to tie a house under contract for  an unrealistic low amount.  No seller can risk several months waiting for the bank to issue an inevitable denial when the home could have been active on the market and attracted a better offer. “Short sale” is not code for a steal. Buyers should ask their agent for comparable activity and formulate their offer based on realistic events. 

The market in Westchester County is relatively strong compared to much of the rest of the USA. Local activity is relevant to the short sale approval, not the considerably more depressed values in other areas of the nation. Buyers should base their offers on comparable sales (which we have in abundance in New York) and not speculation. I would encourage any buyer to read my prior post on short sales and what you need to know before buying one. 

Previous articles on Short Sales. 

My Short Sale Blog. 

Unlike most of the US, in Westchester and the surrounding areas of New York real estate contracts are prepared by attorneys only after a process of offers, inspections and due diligence. Other than mortgage, contracts are non contingent. There is not even a deposit of any kind until contracts are signed. It is not at all unusual for an accepted offer to wait 2 weeks for fully executed contracts. 

Most of the time, therefore, offers are submitted on company letter head with terms specified and accompanied by a pre approval. The more specificity, the better. Sellers are rightly very reticent to accept any offer without assurance of the buyer’s ability to perform, especially since we are required to disclose an accepted offer per the code of ethics even with nothing signed. 

Every so often, I get an offer from an agent over the phone. They say they are buyer agents, but I really don’t see how a verbal offer, without clear terms and a pre approval, sheds the best light on the buyer’s ability to perform. If anything, it makes the agent seem indifferent and the buyer either unforthcoming or uncooperative. 

The old rationale that “I don’t want to waste my time writing up an offer if it isn’t going anywhere” is ironic- the best way to make sure an offer goes nowhere is to make a halfhearted, verbal offer with a mystery buyer. If you want to make that sale, you have to do work- it isn’t a waste of time, it is your job. 

I wish I had a nickel for every time this has been said in our industry, but it has never been more relevant than now: put it in writing. 

The story of the “Leatherman” is a beloved piece of local history. I first learned of the Leatherman when I was in the Boy Scouts, probably around age 12 or 13. 

In the late 1800’s, a peculiar traveling drifter appeared in Westchester and Western Connecticut clothed completely in a suit of leather. He made the same trip every 34 days in a 360 mile loop that included towns in Westchester, Putnam and western Connecticut. He seldom spoke, never slept indoors, and was by and large a friendly mystery. 

And they say that people could set their clocks by his arrival in their town. People would give him food and some assistance, but he spoke little and had a background that is by and large unknown to us even today. He just traveled his path, roughly 10 miles a day, and slept in caves and shelters he constructed for himself, year in, year out. He suffered from cancer of the mouth, and despite efforts to render medical care, he went off on his own and was eventually found in his Ossining cave after he perished in 1889. And by that accident of history, the Leatherman became a bigger part of our local lore. He was interred in historic Sparta cemetery near the Briarcliff border, and despite being homeless, indigent and anonymous, he was given a funeral and a headstone. 

The Ossining Historical Society recently got court permission to exhume the Leatherman’s remains for a scientific study and to relocate the grave away from literally touching what is now Route 9 to a better part of the cemetery. There are some who do not want this to happen, but I support it. One article mentioned that because of his silence and compulsion to walk the same route for years, that the Leatherman may have had autism. Some believe he was French, and DNA evidence may give us insight that we could not have gotten in the 19th century.

Whoever he was, he was a peaceful soul who never harmed anyone and actually brought out some very good things in those he touched-people often gave him food or supplies, and he did show gratitude. Yet just being himself and doing what he did made him somewhat of a local Paul Bunyon, with his own tall tales around scout campfires, and my blog would never be complete as a journal of the area I love without a mention of the peaceful man who did his rounds here every 34 days.

A book about the Leatherman was published in 2008 entitled The Old Leatherman. I have it on my short list.  

http://leavetheleathermanalone.com/who-was-he/

How much snow do we have? Today I held a house open which was under contract and vacant, so we didn’t have it plowed until this morning. Yesterday, I had to go inside prior to the clearing. The driveway entrance had a mound about 4 feet high and 5 feet deep-completely impossible to use. So, I had to walk through the front yard-the snow up to my inseam at the street and almost to my knees in the yard. 

I took a photo of the front walk after the driveway and paths were cleared. 

I would say that there is, conservatively about 18 inches of snow there. I was glad not to have snow in my boots this time around because…the house is winterized and there was no heat! 

The weather report is for another blizzard this week. I have never seen this much snow in New York in my entire life. 

We’ve heard the phrase repeated thousands of times, but there are still people who don’t get it to their own detriment. 

The phrase? It is not the company that matters, it is the agent. 

If you were unjustly accused of a crime and faced the death penalty, you’d hire the best defense lawyer you could find. If you were going to have cancer surgery, you’d want the best, most experienced surgeon for the job. Getting the best professional can be a life or death matter. 

Yet when it comes to the largest transaction of their life, I see sellers make the fatal mistake of hiring an agent solely because they work for a certain brokerage over an agent with a far better track record because they somehow feel a company name is an advantage over a competent agent. The fallacy here is that if you don’t list with the “local mafia,” they won’t show your house if you list with an “outsider.” The underlying assumptions of such a belief defy credulity. Moreover, the results are telling: tons of homes like this fail to sell. What good is being at the “right hospital” if you have the wrong doctor? 

Agents these days are delighted to have a buyer and will bend over backwards to make a sale. If a buyer finds a home online and asked their agent to see it, no agent with a brain cell would steer them away from a possible sale. The best way to lose a buyer client is to not show a listing because of dislike or unfamiliarity with the listing agent. Buyers don’t care who lists the house. They really don’t. They only care if the house fits their needs and price point. 

There was a time when our firm was absolutely unknown to most other companies, and sometimes we’d get a listing in a town for the first time. Were some agents territorial on the phone? Sure! Did they show the property? Absolutely! And we built our reputation working with everyone to make the closings happen. No agent walks from a legitimate commission. In 2011, the idea that a firm would boycott a so-called outsider or prevent their buyer client from seeing a home that might fit their criteria is not only bad business, it can result in the loss of a license. No one walks from a commission, and no one jeopardizes their professional status over school yard pettiness. 

There is always peace at the watering hole, and agents know this. We have an unusual industry in that we cooperate with the competition when a sale is made. We may compete for listings and clients, but we have to collaborate to make closings happen. There is no such thing as the wrong company, but there is certainly such a thing as the wrong agent. Choose the best agent the way you’d choose the best attorney or physician- get a professional and don’t worry about what is on top of their stationary. You’ll end up with a better outcome.