I was caught up in the traffic jam resulting from that horrific wrong-direction accident on the Taconic Parkway that took the lives of 8 people last weekend. I was driving northbound myself, and I found it peculiar that northbound traffic would be so backed up at that time. When I saw that all the cars were diverted to the Saw Mill parkway, I knew this wasn’t rubberneckers; there must have been a huge accident. I never imagined it would be so tragic.

I live very close to the entry ramp on Pleasantville Road in Briarcliff Manor where Diane Schuler entered the Parkway in the wrong direction. As the embedded video details, she must have been ill or disoriented; people attempted to get her attention to no avail. Every day I drive by the embankment between the north and south directions where the van crashed. There is s small makeshift memorial that borders on a large patch of scorched Earth in an otherwise green lawn. It is a terrible tragedy for the friends and loved ones of all 8 people who lost their lives that day. My heart aches for all of them.

Search the MLS like an agent here. New York’s Premier Short Sale REALTOR. Read my short sale bog here. See the New York Photo blog here. J. Philip Serves Briarcliff Manor, Ossining, the River Towns, Westchester County, and the bedroom counties of New York City.

Do you really need an attorney to buy or sell real estate in Westchester County? I was posed this very question by a first-time buyer recently. I asked Lisa Fantino, attorney, author, and friend, for her perspective.

I cringe each time a realtor tells me the seller or buyer is going to represent themselves in the sale or purchase of a home.  I’m a lawyer and I would NEVER represent myself in the biggest financial transaction of my life (not counting law school tuition payments!)  I know that we are all looking to cut back these days but why would you look to cut back on a $1,500 fee when the home may cost $500,000 and the realtor is probably getting a $20,000 to $30,000 commission?  There’s a reason they say “penny wise, pound foolish,” saving a little money only to lose a great deal more due to your own stupidity.

The fee you pay your attorney will be your best small investment on this large transaction.  Why?  The answer is simple – they are the only one looking out for your best interest.  Sure, you can listen to the realtor, who may or may not know the history of the house.  But your new dream home may hold many hidden secrets and they’re not always visible at first blush.  So here’s some advice from this Westchester attorney before looking for, let alone bidding on, your new home:

1. Work with a real estate agent who listens to your needs.  If you are the seller do not let the realtor have the final say on asking price.  Take their opinion as guidance and then do your homework.  Check the comparables in your neighborhood.  They are all easily available now on sites like Trulia.com, Zillow.com and PropertyShark.com.
2. On the other hand, if you are the buyer, make sure you work with an agent who knows what you want and narrows your search down to only those types of listings.  You don’t need to waste your time.  Moving is stressful enough.
3. Placing the bid – In a down economy, many sellers are not realistic in their pricing and the properties are still over-priced.  As the seller, know that your house is only worth what someone is willing to pay for it.  As a buyer, don’t be scared to make a low-ball offer.  The worst that could happen is that the seller rejects it.
4. These days many homes are priced “as is.”  That means it’s a take it or leave it offer.  Sure you would still be well advised to get a home inspection done but the “as is” condition means that even if the inspector finds something wrong, the seller doesn’t want to hear about it.  However, once your bid has been accepted, get a house inspector in there PRONTO, before the attorneys get involved and anything is signed on the dotted line.  You can still pull out before the contract is signed if the home inspector finds problems and the seller does not want to give you a downward adjustment on the price.
5. So, why do you need an attorney?  Have you ever seen a real estate contract?  Do you know what all of the boiler plate language means?  Do you know what is required by the local building code and state statutes in order to sell a house?  What are contingencies and how are they drafted?  How much is a fair down-payment and when should it be paid?  This is not stuff you can pick up by a quick read of “Closings for Dummies.”
6. Have the names of three area lawyers prior to placing the bid.  Ask the realtor, neighbors or friends for referrals in advance.
7. Once the bid is accepted, the contract can drag on or speed along at a pleasant pace depending on whom you retain to represent you.  Now that is not to say that every delay will be the attorney’s fault but you need to know that your business matters to the attorney you hire and that she will give it the appropriate attention.
8. Each party to the deal will have their attorney draft “riders” to the boiler-plate contract, enumerating wants, rights and obligations and then it will be the buyer who signs first and submits a down-payment.  This payment is held in escrow by the seller’s attorney.  If you are the seller and you do not have an attorney, who will hold the escrowed funds?  They do not belong to you until the closing is done and the property transferred.  If you are the buyer, do not make a check out to the seller; make sure those funds are being held by an attorney or escrow agent until the house is yours.
9. Now comes the fun part – the financing.  All cash deals are rare these days but still happen and make everyone at the table smile.  However, most people are taking out loans, seeking mortgages from banks which are reluctant to hand out a dime.  I have seen people with stellar credit ratings, scores in the 700s, be turned down for a mortgage.  Do not shake your head as you read this (I can hear the emptiness rattling around).  Banks today are being run by overworked and under-educated clerks.  The mortgage departments have been left to the inmates at the asylum and no one knows what is going on.  I have had bank clerks tell me they are waiting for me to submit paperwork while I sit looking at a fax from that very person acknowledging receipt of the documents weeks earlier.  Closings these days rarely take an hour and have been known to last 6 hours because the bank has yet to fund the deal.  Have you ever heard of a “dry closing?”  Would you know what to do if that occurs as you sit at the table?
10. These are dangerous economic times we are living in and knowing that there is someone being paid to be in your corner when it hits the fan is a great security blanket when you are writing checks for $500,000 and up!  Happy house hunting!

About the author:  Lisa Fantino is an award-winning journalist turned attorney with a general and entertainment practice in Mamaroneck, NY. You can find her all over the web at her Lady Litigator Blog; Lady Litigator on Facebook and even on Twitter.

The only thing I’d add is this: if you are buying or selling a home in Westchester, Rockland or Putnam, you can bet that the other side has a lawyer working for them. If they have one, you need one. You never go to a gunfight with a knife.

• Abbreviate! Abbrvte! This is especially useful when you have the room to write more in your remarks but you still feel the need to call a living room an LR and a master suite a mstr ste. It really makes for easy reading when each sntce has mltple abbrvtns. 
• “Buyer agent to verify.” Why should you confirm the legality of additions, extra bathrooms or taxes? Caveat emptor, I always say. 
• Misspell. Nothing builds your credibility like “refridgerator” or “Motevated seller”, especially when the error lasts 4 months and your MLS has spell check. And while I’m at it, thanks for keeping that picture of the house under a foot of snow. It’s July; my clients were curious as to what the place looks like if we get a White Christmas. 
• Voicemail greetings are for selling yourself! That minute-plus sales pitch about your commitment to excellence and your website URL, complete with spelling, enriches my day when I need to leave you a quick message. You’ll always get bonus points for repeating the whole spiel in Lithuanian. 
• Who needs square footage? “0” works for me. “2000” or “1450” only make for preconceived notions before a showing. Keep ’em guessing! Special bonus points for when you do throw out a number and include illegal finished basements with falling ceiling tiles and 1950’s panelling. 
• Mapquest. We are professionals; we shouldn’t have to rely on you for cross streets or directions, especially in new areas not on maps or the GPS. Just put “mapquest” in the direction field as a friendly reminder. 
• We really care what the taxes were in 2004. It keeps us on our toes to figure out your listings taxes by triangulating the last 4 school budgets and the rate of inflation. 
• Keep your cell phone a state secret. Want the hot market to return? Act like it’s here already! The buyers will line up if you behave as if you are inundated and need insulation from the hordes looking for houses! So keep that cell number off the MLS printouts! Don’t let the office divulge it. Standing in the rain with no key in the lockbox builds character! 
• Dictate! When I am driving across town and am late for an appointment, it relaxes me to add writing your list of questions from yesterday’s home inspection to my multi-tasking. No need to email them so I have them saved on my hard drive; email is for spam, not business. 
• The Long Island Special: Be Nasty. This is especially for some of my dear colleagues in the 516 area code. If I am trying to show your 448-day old listing, act as if I just tinkled in your corflakes when I call to say we are running late (with 2 toddlers in tow) or I have questions about the asbestos siding. 
• The Queens Special: Status updates are for wimps! It makes us all better agents when our client has a total craving for a listing that shows as active day after day after we have been told contracts were signed last week. Also, when I submit an offer, play “hard to get” until you bring in your own buyer. 
• Queens Special II: Appointments are for wimps. Just call an hour before you want to show and if the key is in the office you can come pick it up. We don’t do lockboxes. We don’t do appointments. We don’t do calenders. Live in the moment. 
• I love homework! Your client likes my listing but wants to know the setback rules for an addition they might want to build? Don’t call the building department silly, just call me! I’ll be happy to be the liason between your client’s idle curiosity and the grump at the building department. My sellers are just as curious about building an addition too. That’s why they’re selling.  
• Lockbox Derby as more fun than a pinata. OK, so the lockbox isn’t on the front door or the rear door. It isn’t on the railing; no need to tell me this on the MLS sheet or when I make the appointment. Make me earn it. 
• Just call me back whenever. New Yorkers are too fast-paced. My clients don’t need answers to their questions too soon. Let them wonder for a while before getting back to me. Quick follow up is overrated; play hard to get. It worked for my wife. 

Read my short sale bog here. See the New York Photo blog here. Send J. Philip Your New York Referral!

Most of my postings on short sales have a happy ending. This is not one of those postings. 

In late 2008 my office brought in an offer on a distressed, vacant property I had listed as a short sale in Mount Vernon. We did yeoman’s work. I listed it and one of my agents brought a string buyer. The client, a victim of predatory lending, was desperately trying to avoid a foreclosure. The home was listed at $219,000 after several price reductions. We were listening to the market. We had hardship. We had a buyer. The short sale package was sent to the lender, who summarily rejected the short sale. Their reason: The loss was too large. 

Now, sellers who don’t like the bottom line are a proverb. But the market is ambivalent about those issues. The value is the value. The offer the lender rejected was $180,000. 

The seller contacted the lender herself and was misled: The offer was $120,000, she was told. Yes and no. The net to the lender was 120k. The offer was 180. Back-payments, back taxes and other expenses eroded their bottom line. 

When the listing expired in January, she re-listed it with another company. I spoke with the other agent briefly about getting him the keys. He was a newer agent, enthusiastic and eager. He wasn’t fooling around, he told me. He was going to get this thing sold. I wished him better luck than I had. 

306 days later, after the price had been reduced to $170,000, I saw that the listing had been cancelled. It was relisted as an REO for $169,900. When the lender denied our short sale in 2008, we warned them that they would never get an offer as good as the one on the table. We were right. 

The bank will now be lucky to get $120,000, which will yield them utterly nothing now that they have kept a non-performing loan an additional year, paid the legal fees to repossess, and the property has been vacant & deteriorated another year.  A nice lady’s finances have been ruined, 2 listing agents have put blood sweat and tears into the vacuum of an ungrateful lender’s middle management purgatory, and the neighborhood still has a blighted property. Nobody wins. 

This kind of ineptitude is funded by our TARP tax money. Someone should lose their job over this. Mr. Negotiator, I told you so in 2008. 

Search the MLS like an agent here. New York’s Premier Short Sale REALTOR. Read my short sale bog here. See the New York Photo blog here. J. Philip Serves Briarcliff Manor, Ossining, the River Towns, Westchester County, and the bedroom counties of New York City.

Jennifer Allan has written a blog post entitled Any Idiot Can Give Their House Away…If Price is All that Matters – What do they need us for?   Her point is that price alone isn’t the only thing we can do to get a listing sold, which is true enough, but it has inspired me to list a few things that some unrealistic sellers feel will sell their home instead of addressing the price.  I call these real estate marketing myths, and sellers who put stock in them are in for a long wait.

1. The house will sell if you buy an expensive print display ad in the weekend real estate section or supermarket homes magazine. Because, as we all know, people who are looking for homes don’t sit at a computer and search, they buy homes with their eggs, butter and milk.  
2. Run an ad in the Eskimo newspaper. Sometimes a seller will notice a martian or Venusian at the supermarket and decide that they are the next wave. They are under the impression that Eskimos, Visigoths, or elves don’t look for houses like the rest of humanity does; their only source of information is the weekly newspaper published in another language.
3. The 6-week old photo is the reason people are repelled. The photo you took in April with all the leaves in the trees is awful and outdated. We all know the only reason people buy houses is because of the peonies. 
4. People don’t buy the home for their reasons, just for ours. Just to prove that, we’ll pester the people who really dig our back yard with useless prattle about our close proximity to the highway, not caring that they don’t need a commuter location but do want a quiet back yard far from noise.
5. How can you sell my house if you don’t get feedback? If you don’t get me feedback by 5pm on a 3pm showing you aren’t doing your job.
6. We need better brochures. And a 3-ring binder with 40 pages of data on the town, because anyone already in our kitchen has not done any research about our town or school system. 
7. Sell Sell Sell! How can people decide that the place feels like home if you aren’t pounding them with data about our gutter guards, curtain drain and dry well? 
8. We don’t need to pay a competitive commission. An agent with a buyer isn’t in the driver’s seat in a buyer’s market, he or she should just be happy to make something and not nothing.
9. Nothing sells like top-quality formica. Granite causes cancer. Asbestos is only bad if you eat it. The 2003 bathroom vanity qualifies as a complete update. People can do whatever they wish to address the water in the basement once they buy the house. The zoysia grass  that is green 3 months out of the year is a selling point. 
10. We don’t need to lower the price, people can just make an offer. And who cares that if the house is priced at $509,900, and that the people who are searching up to $500,000 don’t know we exist?           

Price isn’t everything. In the mind of consumers, especially in this market, it is everything. Obviously, we have to tidy up, stage, take good photos, write good marketing material, and do anything and everything to get the home sold.  That said, there is nothing-absolutely nothing- that the best agent on the planet can do if the home is not priced competitively except hope and pray for dumb luck. 

One of the lowest things an agent can do in this day and age is to blame the agent on the other side when he or she screws up. Here’s one recent event. 

I listed a single family home for lease earlier this month. The date of availability was August 1 due to the current tenant’s schedule to move out. Two families cannot live in the same house at the same time in my experience. We got a number of offers, but many put down June 15 as the proposed start date. All were told that we could not accommodate that. After asking the current tenant when the earliest was that they could vacate, we were told mid-July. We therefore informed all the June people that mid July was the soonest we could offer occupancy.

One agent in particular called me quite a few times about his client’s desire to rent the place as soon as possible. He was told the same thing as the others: mid July was the best we could do for him. Other than the June start date, his clients were good prospects, and he was told that if he could confirm that July would work for his people that my landlord would send them a lease. He was “pretty sure” that would work, but he promised to call the wife and get back to me with confirmation. We had this conversation at least twice. 

He did not get back to me. 

We agreed to lease to someone else. 

About a week later, the disappearing agent reappeared. He asked where the lease was. Now, everyone is entitled to their own opinion, but not their own facts: it is a fact that the ball was in his court to confirm that his clients would be able to start their lease in mid July and not June, as they had originally proposed. I reminded him of this. He did not disagree, but was disappointed I didn’t call him to tell him we were going to go with someone else (something I neither promised not was obligated to do) and voiced a concern that his people had not yet found a place. I told him I didn’t hear from him for a week, and figured that he found them something else. 

That is where it should have ended. It didn’t. This agent begged me to ask my client to reconsider. My client did not want to, for obvious reasons.

In an email last week and then a phone message this week,  I had to hear what a bad job I did. It didn’t sit well with him. I got the sense that this was being done more as a rump-covering measure than advocacy. He screwed up, yet I was the bad guy. It didn’t add up, unless his client was blind copied on that email or present in his office when he called. Not happy with the inconsistency, I sent him a rather detailed email earlier today reminded him that HE screwed up, not me. His response was strangely magnanimous, not really that of a chastened guy, but one who wasn’t grandstanding. Am I certain he’s throwing me under the bus to deflect responsibility? Not 100%, but I know where I’d put my chips if I were betting. If I am right about this, that is a big shame. If you screw up, man up and deal. Don’t deflect. 

I was contacted by an Associated Press reporter who was writing a story on the housing market in the Northeast, and the story ran yesterday. This is the 2nd time in a month I have been contacted by a national news outlet with a subsequently appearance in their venue. Last month it was ABC World News. You should have seen my 2-year old son go nuts when he saw Daddy on the TV. 

This time around, I asked the reporter how she found me, and she said “Active Rain.” 

The only appropriate thing to say is THANK YOU, Active Rain. 

One of my clients was also interviewed, and she is quoted in the story. Since the object of all marketing is to get found, it is a powerful testimony to consistent blogging that if a reporter can find me, so can a consumer. And they are. 

Search the MLS like an agent here. New York’s Premier Short Sale REALTOR. Read my short sale bog here. See the New York Photo blog here. J. Philip Serves Briarcliff Manor, Ossining, the River Towns, Westchester County, and the bedroom counties of New York City.

According REALIST, to the public data provider for the Westchester -Putnam Multiple Listing Service, the median price for a single family home in April of 2009 was $491,250. After peaking at over $700,000 in 2005, this is the first time in a long time the median price has fallen below half a million dollars. 

We are also at a low ebb for transaction totals; 2008 was a deplorable year, with fewer than 4000 titles transferred. 2009 is on pace for fewer than 2500 single family homes sold. In 2005 there were over 6000 sales. 

This means that home values have dropped almost 30% from their peak and transaction totals are down almost 60%. 

The available inventory remains high thanks to the flood of REO’s entering the market weekly. As unsustainable as the Bubble may have been, the decline in wealth is staggering. We aren’t out of the woods by a long shot, my friends. 

Search the MLS like an agent here. New York’s Premier Short Sale REALTOR. Read my short sale bog here. See the New York Photo blog here. J. Philip Serves Briarcliff Manor, Ossining, the River Towns, Westchester County, and the bedroom counties of New York City.

I was contacted by someone out of the blue asking me to show them a home for sale in Eastchester. They found it on Zillow, which isn’t uncommon. I looked up the address on the MLS and it came back with “no properties found.” Checking Zillow revealed that the home was for sale by owner. So I called the owner and set up an appointment as if I were calling any other home listed for sale. No sheepish query if they were cooperating with brokers or explanation of my intentions. “When can I show it.”

Thursday. So I showed it Thursday. The outcome is irrelevant to my point (no interest from the buyer if you are keeping score), but these people are smart to cooperate with brokers. I don’t think I was the only one to contact them, so maybe someone else primed the pump. The more eyeballs on the house, the more likely it will sell. And people working with agents are the more serious (and qualified) buyers.

Will the people save money selling themselves? I highly doubt it. The sale of real estate has too many moving parts to be reduced to a bottom line increased by the addition of a broker fee. I recall, for instance, a home seller whose ineptitude killed half a dozen deals for over $700,000 who finally sold after a year for $600,000. But he saved on the commission. Forget that he lost tens of thousands of dollars in the process! 

Search the MLS like an agent here. New York’s Premier Short Sale REALTOR. Read my short sale bog here. See the New York Photo blog here. J. Philip Serves Briarcliff Manor, Ossining, the River Towns, Westchester County, and the bedroom counties of New York City.

I have blogged before about the difficulties Zillow has caused. Typically, their “Zestimate” has caused people to 2nd guess the more accurate evidence on the ground and either over or undervalue a home, killing a possible transaction. The galling thing about it is that the more compelling evidence is right under their nose from the MLS, but that one number on a zillow page (which, by Zillow’s own admission is typically off by 11% or more in Westchester County) has killed everything. 

However, this past week, Zillow zigged instead of zagged. My seller clients were agonizing over whether or not to accept an offer; the buyer on the other side was a parent buying a home for their son and his family. Pre approval letters help, but after several stops and starts in a 9-month odyssey, nothing could be taken at face value. I saw accepting the offer as an acceptable risk; my clients were once-bitten and twice shy and sought more certainty about the buyer. 

It is a daunting question. Is the buyer for real? Is the buyer qualified? Can this person really afford to buy a home for their son? Just where do they live now? That question resonated. I was asked if I could look the prospective buyer’s address on Zillow for some insight. The address was on the binder, so we looked it up. Since Zillow’s median margin of error in Rockland county is under 10%, we could expect a reasonable ballpark figure, as well as ascertain whether or not the buyer lived in a van by the river, a garden apartment, or a mansion.

According to Zillow, the buyer lived in a 5 bedroom, 3 bath, 3100 square foot home with an estimated value of about $650,000. Definitely not a van by the river. Still a skeptic, I ran the address on the MLS and found a 2004 sale for $800,000. Why did I need Zillow when I have the MLS and public records? I don’t. But my clients don’t have the MLS. If they had thought of that question hours after I left, they would have gotten the confirmation they were looking for. Lord knows I have seen enough deals die when people looked something up on Zillow, so it is about time. As Zillow gets more accurate, I have less to fear. 

Zillow still isn’t off the hook for me. However, I have to give credit where it is due, and whether or not I was present at the time, they helped me make a sale. I hope it isn’t an anomaly. 

Search the MLS like an agent here. New York’s Premier Short Sale REALTOR. Read my short sale bog here. See the New York Photo blog here. J. Philip Serves Briarcliff Manor, Ossining, the River Towns, Westchester County, and the bedroom counties of New York City.

According to Inman News, Wisconsin’s largest real estate brokerage has adopted a policy of excluding the listings of non-traditional brokers from appearing on it’s site in home searches. This is not good in my view, for several reasons. 

• After a long battle with the Department of Justice is finally over for the NAR, one of it’s members is now virtually inviting another case to be filed. The last case did not exactly go well for the NAR, and was bad for the public’s perception of REALTORS.
• When a consumer searches for homes online on a broker’s site, they expect to see the search criteria set up in a way that benefits them. They want to see all the available listings, not just the profitable ones. The move is therefore anti-consumer. 
• It could easily be construed as an anti-competitive maneuver by the Department of Justice. The DOJ prohibits policies which are solely in the interest of brokerage and not consumers, and I can see an argument to the contrary. 
• Can you say “bully?” Non-traditional brokers in Wisconsin pose no threat to the state’s largets brokerage. This strikes me as an ad-hominem attack. Home sellers who are cost-conscious are more likely to go For Sale By Owner in the absence of discounters, so it isn’t like the firm is protecting their most likely prospect base. Wisconsin, by the way, has one of the largest local For Sale by Owner websites in the USA. Coincidence? You decide. 
• Too many people already view the real estate industry, especially NAR members, as running a cabal. I hear accusations of collusion, price-fixing and other anti-consumer practices far too often. 

Search the MLS like an agent here. New York’s Premier Short Sale REALTOR. Read my short sale bog here. See the New York Photo blog here. J. Philip Serves Briarcliff Manor, Ossining, the River Towns, Westchester County, and the bedroom counties of New York City.

The words jumped off the page:

 “It troubles me that I am not identified as the listing agent. The way this listing is displayed it looks like you are. I feel taken advantage of.”

This was an email sent to one of my agents from a competing agent in our MLS who googled the address of one of his listings,  and lo and behold, saw my agent’s photo in the sidebar as the showing contact on a search page. He was indeed troubled. I decided to call him and see if I could turn that frown upside down. 

I asked him if his website had a home search feature. It did. I asked him if I were to find my own listing on his site whether or not it put me down as the contact or him. It was, after all, his site; would he want it to make my phone ring or his? The truth was that if I went to his company’s site or his personal site that my listing would have my information buried in the small print for compliance and his or his firm’s contact information would be prominent. That’s just the way it works. “It,” by the way, is IDX, or Internet Data Exchange. IDX is the means by which MLS data is supplied to real estate broker websites for home searches. Any broker website you search for a home on is probably an IDX type of platform.  

Moreover, the site he found his listing on was one that people would go to in order to find a buyer agent, not deal with the listing broker; it was antithetical to the site’s purpose to suggest the contact agent was the listing agent. Of course, the whole thing was foreign to him, and without more of a basic underpinning of knowledge of IDX he couldn’t know that. 

This must be how wars begin; that pesky lack of understanding. So I took the time to tell him as much as I could, because you never know when we might cross paths again. I want to build bridges, not burn them. 

The upshot is that a very experienced, honorable agent simply misunderstood the direction the Internet was taking in this growing spur of the Information Highway. He’s still getting his mind around it, but more importantly I am fairly certain that I won a cold shoulder over to a warm colleague. 

Search the MLS like an agent here. New York’s Premier Short Sale REALTOR. Read my short sale bog here. See the New York Photo blog here. J. Philip Serves Briarcliff Manor, Ossining, the River Towns, Westchester County, and the bedroom counties of New York City.

As Westchester County area home sellers are finding out, there are more buyers out there; that doesn’t equate to happy endings. Here is an unscientific example of the pattern I am seeing:

• The house is listed for a price the sellers feel good about. Not great, good. Shwings the first few weeks, then nothing.
• The price is lowered once 2-5%. A few calls and showings, no offers.
• The price is once again lowered 3% or more after no offers. Showings do not increase.
• Frustrated, the sellers are faced with the market changes of the past 90 days. What few sales in their category there were are dwarfed by enormous unsold inventory. They then lower the price to the next price point. If they were at 215k, they go to $199,900. If they were are $569,000, they get below 550k.
• An offer comes in at 90% of the new, lower asking price. Hoping to meet in the middle, the sellers make an aggressive counter offer. The buyer comes up a few thousand, leaving a large divide. The buyer agent informs the listing agent that the buyer has 2 other homes in mind.
• Here’s the fork in the road: The sellers acquiesce and get sold, or buy their house back for the 10k or 20k difference in price and wait out another buyer as we enter the summer.

I see the same pattern all over the New York Metropolitan area. It is the same in Westchester as it is in Queens. Rockland, Putnam and Dutchess counties are all in the same boat. Huge inventory gives buyers options, and they are are committed to not overpaying or being stuck in a house they can’t sell if the creek runs high in a year or two. The nice people who took care of their home and hope to reap what they have sewn are competing with distress sales, bank owned REOs, short sales, and other under cutters. It is a battle they can’t win.

Are the buyers out? Yes. Are they the same buyers we saw 5 years ago? No way. They either sat out the boom and have cash, or they finally sold in this market and seek in the buying end what they just lost in the front sale. The only examples of over the asking price, multiple bid situations are on extremely cheap bank owned foreclosures.

Buyers have re-entered the market place because the media told them to, just like how they left when the media told them to. They are far more frugal, very nervous, uncertain about whether or not this is the right move, and zealous in their due diligence. Co op buyers want the building financials before making an offer; single family home buyers want to know if there is an adverse lien or high mortgage before moving forward.

It is all a byproduct of the lessons learned of the “damn the torpedos” era we just left, where buyers would do anything to win the bidding war, logic be damned, and sellers would do anything for another $10,000, good faith be damned.

America, we made our bed, now we are laying in it. Until this swollen inventory ebbs, buyers have too many options and too much leverage for sellers to call any shots.

Search the MLS like an agent here. New York’s Premier Short Sale REALTOR. Read my short sale bog here. See the New York Photo blog here. J. Philip Serves Briarcliff Manor, Ossining, the River Towns, Westchester County, and the bedroom counties of New York City.

For my 200th blog posting (!!) -I was prompted to write this after someone pointed out a mistake I made but did so without being nasty. This occurred early in my career when I worked in Rochester with my old college rommate Kevin and his father Paul at their company. Both trained me in the business, and I owe my career to them.

Paul was the broker and owner of the company (he still is) and operated out of a converted house in a commercial zone on a busy street on the border of a residential neighborhood. The house needed painting, and Paul decided on a beautiful shade of burgundy. It was a similar shade to brick. However, the entire building had to be primed and, Rochester being the place that it is, it rained for 4 consecutive days after the priming.

Oh, and the primer was a Pepto-Bismal shade of pink.

Because of the weather and a weekend, we had a pink mess for 7 days or so. One morning we retrieved a very nasty anonymous voicemail. The caller was spitting venom but didn’t have the guts to leave a name. The guy must have assumed that the primer was the building’s permanent color, because he was complaining about how the house didn’t fit in with the neighborhood, and called the building a “pink flamingo.”

My broker was bemused by the message, and replayed it for me a number of times with that one eyebrow up like he was Spock. “Come on Phil, we’re going out shopping.”

So we hopped into his car and went to every department store in town. We cleaned the entire stock of plastic pink flamingos on the west side of Rochester completely out. Then, this crazy guy and his loyal page spent the bulk of the afternoon placing plastic pink flamingos in the front yard of the office. We put them in lines, made families of several little ones following a big one, one “speaking” in front of 4 others, you name it. There were probably 40 plastic flamingos in the front yard.

And they stayed there for weeks while we all giggled about the aneurysm the anonymous curmudgeon must have been having over the look of the place now. “That’ll send him straight over the edge,” smiled Paul. He’d adjust the little buggers every morning when he arrived too.

Instead of a week of pink at most, our anonymous complainer got about a solid month of a large pink monstrosity with a flock of 40 plastic flamingos nesting every time he drove by.

If anything, business improved. It got people talking, and those that knew Paul knew he was up to something. The next time I’m in Rochester visiting I think I’ll bring a few plastic birds back with me. You never know when you’ll need some.

 Search the MLS like an agent here. New York’s Premier Short Sale REALTOR. Read my short sale bog here. See the New York Photo blog here. J. Philip Serves Briarcliff Manor, Ossining, the River Towns, Westchester County, and the bedroom counties of New York City.

I had a choice Tuesday night after wrapping up my last co op showing in Kew Gardens, Queens. I could go home and help put my children to bed, or I could attend the tail end of a small get together in Manhattan. I was invited by Michael Daly, who is my main contact at Redfin, and it was in Greenwich Village, so why not. 

I’m glad I showed up. One fellow late arrival was Glen Kelman, CEO of Redfin. Even though not everyone present was in real estate, the group was fascinated by what he had to say. I was very interested to hear his thoughts as well, because I am a referral agent for them here in Westchester County. 

The thing that impressed me the most was his commitment to transparency. He truly belives that the best way to conduct business is with as much disclosure as possible, with little to nothing concealed from the consumer. There were many components, but one example was that they survey everyone who deals with one of their agents and they publish the results publicly. 

Would you feel comfortable with that? 

What a lightning rod idea. Even people from other industries were open mouthed at the idea. What about hard to please, unrealistic clients? Irate malcontents? We all have stories of people for whom we bent over backwards for, went above and beyond on behalf of, who still complained? 

Well, the upshot is that thus far, it works. The agents they hire directly are vetted carefully, and they survey their past year of business, and all business they do going forward is surveyed. I had to submit to the same as a referral agent. Most of the bad surveys, I am told, say more about the complainer than the agent (I agree). It is scary to have that kind of disclosure. I had over 45 transactions last year. Some were rough, and even though I was not responsible for crummy lawyers, failed banks, fickle buyers and asbestos, I bore the brunt sometimes. 

Interestingly, the statistics are that only 20% of those surveyed typically respond. Mine came back 5/5 on all that came back, and for that I am grateful, but I have to wonder how some of our esteemed colleagues and competitors would perform if they knew that the world was watching. In the information age, they will be, and it will be a higher standard than the past. 

Adapt or go extinct! 

“Are you busy?” I get asked rather often this spring, and I am indeed busy. How busy? Well, I watched the “Wizard of Oz” earlier in an attempt to relax. A few observations which depart from my childhood memories of the film:

1. Upon seeing a munchkin emerge from a manhole cover, I note that homes in Muchkinland are obviously not on spetic systems. 
2. The HOA restrictions in the Emerald City must be utterly draconian. 
3. The Wicked Witch’s castle would be a tough place to comp out. Worse, in observing the chase inside, there is a need for more handrails on the stairs. No fire extinguishers either, another code issue. 

Read my short sale bog here. See the New York Photo blog here. Send J. Philip Your New York Referral!

Imagine you are selling something-anything-on the open market. If we broke down the walls of time and space and put everyone who might be interested in what you are selling into one big room, it is obvious that the more people there are in that room, the better chance you have of not just selling, but selling at a good price. The fewer the people exposed to your product, the longer the odds of a favorable sale. 

Now imagine that you are selling the very same thing on a desolate roadside where only a few passers by will ever see you. Anyone who stops and looks has enormous leverage. If you don’t sell to them at the price they offer, you have no other options. It’s them or the highway. They’ve got you. 

Putting a home on the Multiple Listing Service puts your home in the proverbial crowded room. The MLS is, in a very real sense, THE market. It absolutely dwarfs the number of people who might casually pick up a supermarket home magazine, get their fingers dirty perusing the classifieds, or those who might happen to stroll by your home and see the sign. If you don’t think the MLS is THE market, just try convincing an asset manager at a bank to not multiple list a foreclosure to get it sold. Or find me a divorce decree that mandates selling a home that forbids listing it with one of those useless, overpaid brokers. Both the judge and asset manager would agree that if the home isn’t listed, it isn’t truly for sale. 

Now…even though 99.9% of brokers would agree with what I have just written, there are some brokers & agents, many of whom are here in the New York area, who would try and convince you that keeping it off the MLS is in the seller’s best interest. These agents are trying for something we call in the industry a pocket listing. A pocket listing is the agent’s little secret, and their agenda is one thing, and one thing alone: to sell the property to their own buyer and avoid splitting their commission with a cooperating broker. The metaphor is perfect: instead of your home being openly displayed “on the shelf,” it is in the agent’s pocket (think of a shady guy opening his coat, displaying cheap watches), hidden from public view, and only shown to someone who isn’t working with another broker. Pocket listings are sometimes called a “office exclusives.” The name is prettier, but the intent is the same. The object isn’t exposure, but secrecy. Secret houses don’t sell very well. 

There is no scenario I know of where a a pocket listing is in the seller’s interest. Exposure is limited, cooperation from brokers who might have a buyer is cut off, and possibilities are diminished. I have had instances where sellers have asked me to keep their home off the MLS because they only wanted me to handle the perspective buyers, but that thinking is mistaken. Committed buyers often have their own agent. Even those that don’t have a buyer agent may know full well that I work for the seller and be unwilling to have me handle both sides of the transaction. It doesn’t work. 

The benefit of a pocket listing to the listing agent is twofold. If they do find a buyer, they don’t have to split the commission. Is that buyer the best one? Who knows? Why should they care? If it closes, they made a double commission. They also have an opportunity to use the listing to pull buyers in that they’ll sell another house to. They put an ad on Craigslist, jettison the buyers with agents, tell inquiring agents it is sold or off market now, and solicit all the other phone calls from uncommitted buyers to use them when buying a home if the pocket listing isn’t to their liking. A wise seller would never allow their home to be used like this. There is nothing wrong with picking up buyers from a listing, but only if the agent has made a 100% effort to sell the listing first. There is nothing 100% about a pocket listing. 

Buyers should also beware of a pocket listing. You are dealing with an unscrupulous agent whose motivation is money only, you have no agent representing your interests, and there may be less recourse if you have a problem or complaint with that agent. Practice business in the sunlight, and avoid the dark alley of a pocket listing no matter what side of the transaction you are on. 

Search the MLS like an agent here. New York’s Premier Short Sale REALTOR. Read my short sale bog here. See the New York Photo blog here. J. Philip Serves Briarcliff Manor, Ossining, the River Towns, Westchester County, and the bedroom counties of New York City.

Paul Krugman is a lauded economist, but he leverages that credential to preach to the echo chamber that is the New York Times readership. In today’s screed, Krugman makes a big fat lie in his assertion that Ronald Reagan is to blame for our current economic problems. Everyone is entitled to their own opinion; they are not entitled to their own facts. My comment is as follows:

 As a real estate broker, I find the following quote problematic:

“Reagan-era legislative changes essentially ended New Deal restrictions on mortgage lending — restrictions that, in particular, limited the ability of families to buy homes without putting a significant amount of money down.”

This is disturbingly untrue. The New Deal introduced the FHA and the FHA-Insured mortgage program, which is the grandadaddy of all low down payment (3% in New York) mortgages. It is a good program, and its neglect during the Bush years created a vacuum in the market that was filled by the sub prime catastrophe.

Before the FHA, there were no mortgages that didn’t require a significant downpayment. FHA solved that and helped tens of millions into ownership responsibly. It was part of the solution.

It always disturbs my when Dr. Krugman leverages his credentials to make unsustantiated assertions to sate his hatred of Reagan, who chose not to keep him on the presidential advisory team in 1983.

I do not feel further elaboration is required. He lied. 

 Search the MLS like an agent here. New York’s Premier Short Sale REALTOR. Read my short sale bog here. See the New York Photo blog here. J. Philip Serves Briarcliff Manor, Ossining, the River Towns, Westchester County, and the bedroom counties of New York City.