I was first licensed in Rochester, New York in 1996. I remember receiving a paper memo from my mentor about what tools I’d need to start my career. Just the fact that it was a paper memo speaks volumes. Among the things needed:

• Beeper
• Voicemail account
• 3-ring binder
• Plastic sleeves for the listing presentation
• Day planner
• Copy of “List More, Sell More” by Jerry Bresser
• Cassette player for training tapes
• A photo of myself saved on a floppy disc for cards and brochures
• Atlas map

The office would provide all MLS forms, a dedicated fax number, and post it notes for phone messages. I had my own section in the message carousel at the front desk. 

AOL arrived in the office in 1997, when a PC replaced the MLS idiot terminal- listings now had a photo!! I chose the screen name JPHILIP as a lark- I hated my first initial/middle name setup inflicted by my parents. It was my first email address and I still have it today. The conventional wisdom at that time was to not devote too many resources to web pages or Internet marketing because it was an unknown commodity. I was approached by someone selling websites to get one, but all I did was pay $50 and register jphilip.com. My girlfriend at the time asked why, and I said jokingly that I thought I better get it before someone else did. If I only knew the headache getting jphilip.net would be a few years later. 

By 1998 I had my own PC and could work from my apartment, to the consternation of my manager. I had an analog cellular phone and a voicemail hotline tree with 15+ extensions for property descriptions of my listings. I added Microsoft Word (not Office- Word.) to my tool box. I retired my beeper and voicemail accounts. CDs replaced cassettes.  

Today, a new agent would have a far different list of tools needed to begin their business. These are the things a new licensee should have to begin their career:

• A smart phone with blue tooth
• A laptop with a wi-fi card
• A dedicated website with an IDX home search
• An Active Rain account, a Twitter account, a LinkedIn profile, and a Facebook business page
• A Gmail account with Google Docs and other Google business solutions, such as online photo and graphic storage.
• Full online organization so what used to be on Outlook is now in the Cloud- calender, planner, events, contact database, and a robust RSS reader for news, blogs, and Google alerts. 
• GPS
• Copy of “List More, Sell More” by Jerry Bresser

Earlier this morning, Margaret Rome called me and we had a very nice conversation about the business. I emailed her after she commented on a post and she picked up the phone to reach out and speak in person. We had never met prior, so it was unexpected and completely out of the blue. Margaret just wanted to clarify her meaning in her comment, which she didn’t need to do- I knew where she was coming from and that’s why I emailed. It was an absolute pleasure to talk shop with someone with experience and class. When she signed off, she wished me a great day. 

Then, the magic started. 

Later in the morning, I got a call from a buyer client asking me to write an offer on a home we saw yesterday, which was submitted midday today. We haven’t yet gotten an answer, but I like our chances. 

We also received two best and final bids on one of my listings during the day. They have been submitted and we await a decision.  

Then, among the emails I got tonight:

Client Email 1: 

Are we on an automatic sending list?! We signed a contract today, we don’t need to look at anymore houses… We found a good one thanks to the best realtor in the world …

Client Email 2:

Hope you know the closing time is now 1 pm instead of 2 pm, same date Sept 29

In email number 1, I knew the signing was scheduled. In email number 2, I was unaware up until that point that a closing had been scheduled.

In both cases, we worked long and hard- the second one, as a matter of fact, is a short sale. 

You can’t make this stuff up. I need to talk with Margaret Rome more often. I think she has the touch. 

Having represented buyers and sellers for 14 years I can appreciate the job that licensees have to do for their clients on both sides of the transaction. I may expound on the role of the listing agent in another post, but for now I want to address a trend I am seeing more and more in Westchester agents who identify themselves as a “buyer’s agent.” 

First, an example: A buyer sees a home they like, and they email their agent that they’d like to see it, but have a few questions. One of the questions is whether or not the complex is approved for FHA financing. The buyer agent emails the listing agent, who says that he knows of no prohibition on FHA financing but they should ask their loan officer, who can run the address. The “buyer agent” then tells the buyers that the listing agent knows of no problem with FHA. They see the home, like it, and make an offer. After inspections, contracts, and shopping around for a mortgage, the FHA issue is forgotten. The buyer’s attorney and loan officer, seeing that the townhome is Fee Simple ownership (not a condo), do not ask about FHA. 2 weeks after the question is asked by the -ahem- “buyer’s agent,” FHA financing is chosen as the best option. 3 weeks later, the deal dies when the bank refuses to do a spot approval on the unit because the complex is not FHA approved. 5 weeks are wasted. 

Sound unlikely? It isn’t. More and more *ahem* “buyer agents” are nothing more than glorified chauffeurs and door openers who do little to no research to advocate for their client. They lazily ask the listing agent to do their research for them and sloppily interpret what is told-or not told- them, passing it along to their buyers to speed to process along to the closing and the collection of the check. 

While we can criticize listing agents for inaccurate information, it is irresponsible for buyer agents to accept listing information as gospel, and it is antithetical to buyer agency to not independently verify code compliance, clear title, or to rely on listing aqents to research curveball questions from their buyers.

I’ll repeat that last part in case it wasn’t clear: If you are a -ahem- “buyer agent” and your client has a question on a property that requires independent verification, you are screwing your -ahem- “client” over by not getting the answer yourself and demanding that the listing agent research the answer, especially if the property hasn’t been shown yet.  

I’ll restate that if it wasn’t clear: It takes chutzpah to ask the listing agent to do your research for you. 

Among the questions posed to me lately that a buyer agent ought not rely on the listing agent to answer:

• Is the complex FHA approved?
• Are there any rules governing additions?
• Are there any prohibitions from the town on a privacy fence? 
• Will the setback rules allow for expansion of the garage? 
• Can we build an addition? 
• Does the co op allow pets/renting? 

The listing agent is not the advocate for the buyer and is not obliged to bird dog unique questions. Buyers are civilians; they are going to ask millions of questions- subdivision rules-mineral rights-setback rules-zoning-and their buyer agent need to diligently get answers from  primary sources, not the other side. It’s like Johnny Cochran calling Marcia Clarke and asking how he could get OJ off. It doesn’t work that way. Many agents (and their assistants! don’t get me started) don’t like it when I tell them this. But I’m not splitting my fee 50/50 when I do 90% of the work. I’ve got my hands full over here, thank you.  

I have a listing that has been on the market for almost 3 years. Counting the price with a prior broker, it has been reduced in price almost $170,000. I have had 66 showings on it, and as a 4-bedroom, it is tens of thousands of dollars cheaper than 3-bedroom units that have sold in the past 90 days in that town home community. 

Given that information, I met with my client owner and fellow Active Rainer Marie Graham, a stager friend of mine, and we had a good meeting yesterday on making the place more salable within a modest budget. The home will be taken off the market briefly, staged, and re-listed at the same price in a short period of time. I’m fronting the staging fee and I will underwrite the interior painting with the same crew that does our investor rehab projects; the client will repay me at closing. I will oversee all work and spearhead the sale of some furniture on Craigslist. 

When we go back on market in October, I will sell this home for full price before the holidays arrive. 

And when I do, I will explain why I will not be impressed with myself.

Mark today’s date: September 26, 2010, A.D. It is significant. I’ll explain after the closing. I am not even nervous about being wrong. 

Since there appears to be a movement toward venting tonight, I’ll jump in the pool too. Here are a few offences that have gone unpunished recently, and I hereby appoint myself as Czar of Real Estate Justice.

The Crime: Agents who keep their cell phone a state secret, even if they have an offer on one of my listings.

The Punishment: They must work an entire shift as a phone sex operator on the opposite side of their romantic preference.

The Crime: Agent writes a $410,000 offer on a $499,900 listing when the buyer only qualifies for a home of $420,000.

The Punishment: Their credit card is declined on their next date or important business lunch. The news will be delivered by a maître d’ with severe PMS.

The Crime: Gnus who trade 96 emails with me about my listing, questioning the gauge of the saw used to cut the lumber, swear they don’t have an agent, walk through the house for 90 minutes repeating the same questions 4 times as if the answer will change, then have an offer submitted on their behalf by a rebate agent who never set foot in the house. 

The Punishment: Their mortgage commitment is rescinded 72 hours before closing because the Internet lender the cheapskates used was taken over by the FDIC, forcing them to use a mortgage company that gouges them for 4 points and exorbitant fees. 

The Crime: A “buyer” is parked in front of a home for sale who calls on the sign and demands to see it right now, even if the owner is on home dialysis. When they are asked if they can schedule an appointment, they hang up telling you they’ll call an agent who wants to make a commission and isn’t lazy. 

The Punishment: The “buyer’s” home has a severe sewage back up, and every plumber they call is on vacation or on an extended industrial job that will take them 3 days. The guy who finally does show up smells vaguely like Russian salad dressing and is preoccupied with the wife’s shoe closet. 

The Crime: The buyer agent who doesn’t want to waste his time, so he wastes yours: Needs to know if the complex is FHA approved, what the setback rules are for a deck, what the utility bills are, if the Finnegan pin in the furnace was ever re-jiggered, and 38 other things before he schedules a showing. 

The Punishment: Is forced to modify the loan on his own home with the First National Bank of Satan. 

The Crime: The listing agent who argues about your feedback and fully expects that after deftly handling the objections, that you will be obligated to produce an offer. 

The Punishment: Listing agent coincidentally shares a name with someone wanted by the FBI for human organ black market activity. FBI, who have a guy in a dark sedan parked on the street watching, refuses to acknowledge mistake for 6 months.  

The Crime: Lender commissions an appraiser for a short sale from another county.

The Punishment: Bank negotiator’s wife suddenly has paranoid delusions that he is having a sordid affair with Dwayne, the neighbor’s bull mastiff. 

I have to say that I normally cringe when Westchester Magazine ranks anything related to our local communities. My own home town of Ossining is often left in the shadow of the more affluent communities, and believe me, Westchester has some affluent towns. Yet the October issue of Westchester magazine has ranked Ossining 2nd out of 40 places to live, and unapologetically so. 

The article took the following criteria into consideration:

• Diversity
• Housing Costs
• Parks and recreation
• Proximity to NYC
• Safety
• Schools
• Proximity to water
• Nightlife
• Shopping 
• Downtown

I just found out that a former client passed away. 

This was not just anyone; he was a father, a grandfather, and the house he listed with me was the home his grandfather bought in the 1940’s. I loved that house, and I liked Joel a great deal as well. It was a rare home for our area: it was a beautiful stone home on 5 acres, and in the breakfast room Joel told me how the wild turkeys would see a colorful blanket through the window and try and eat it, hitting their beaks on the glass. 

He never moved the blanket. 

Joel’s original art was throughout the house, and one got he feeling of peace and serenity just being there. The sun porch was his favorite place, and he even had an old stove there for the winter time. He spoke of how he would someday return the stove to New England, which was a deal he made with the guy who sold the stove to him. 

It never sold. I got an offer once early, but it fell through, and I continued to market it for another year and change. It came off, and I didn’t hear from Joel for a time. I drove by with a new trainee at one point, and ran into my friend again, who invited us in. He had a bout with cancer, he was engaged to a woman he loved, and he was ready to sell again. SO- we relisted the house at an aggressive price…and the economy tanked. 

After another generous term on market with no sale, my friend had to switch horses, which I never begrudged, and I saw some enormous price reductions which worried me that he might not want to secretly keep the house, it again expired. I knew the other agent, and we spoke recently. He informed me that we lost Joel last year. 

This is the first time I have learned of a client’s passing. We never did a transaction but he was a good, kind guy and I liked him a bunch. Yet again, I’ll say it. God takes his best work back early. 

I know of two fellow brokers whom I like and respect who have said that they carry and are willing to use a handgun to ensure their safety on showings if some creep means them harm. I think this is a mistake. First things first: as a New Yorker, it is rather foreign to me to carry a gun. Handguns are by and large illegal in New York City, and getting a license to carry in other parts of the state is difficult. We have to have other precautions. 

The best defense against being attacked is, in my view, preparation and prevention- I have blogged about this before. While I am no expert on safety, I have, unfortunately, some field experience in the matter. 12 years ago, I was physically attacked by an imbalanced, irate client. In a prior line of work I was robbed twice. About 18 months ago, a dear friend (who holds a black belt) was savagely beaten in his office and required hospitalization and some plastic surgery. Lastly, I hosted an open house where a significant jewelry theft was made by people who turned out to be professional criminals. I would argue that the presence of a gun could well have made all four of those situations far worse.  

In all of these cases, there were two common threads that a firearm could not prevent: mild deception and surprise. Attacks are not the result of an elaborate deception as much as they capitalize on a nanosecond of distraction or a turned head. You cannot successfully sell real estate and simultaneously prepare to go toe to toe with an attacker. You can successfully sell real estate and be on the safe side of events. 

Self defense, in my view, should be more about escape than pointing a gun at an attacker, assuming you even got that chance. Get out. Get away. Live to tell about it. Your gun could be used on you. 

From my prior post:

Beating up your attacker is not plan A. If you can defend yourself, do so to the extent to get away. Think Edith Bunker when she thwarted that would be rapist. But if you fight, you are engaging someone in their turf; they were ready- you weren’t. And the element of surprise is lethal.  

Prevention is more important than reaction. Don’t be alone with people you haven’t vetted. Don’t do open houses alone with no backup. Casually remark that you expect a male associate any minute. 

Hand to hand combat has problems. Here’s the thing: Attackers sucker punch. Attackers rely on the element of surprise. Attackers are con artists who will go out of their way to make you feel comfortable. Attackers wait until you turn your eye away. Then, they’ll hit you hard, fast, low, and repeatedly. That’s the problem. They play dirty. They never tell you to put up your dukes. They rig it to their favor. Sharks, for example, don’t attack on land, where they aren’t very tough. They get you in the water. Don’t go “in the water.” 

If there is going to be a battle, make it a battle of wits. You can win that one. If you are alone in a house with someone who makes you uncomfortable, say “Greg Nino will be here any minute with that survey I forgot on my desk,” or “Jeff Belonger is running late but he has some great financing programs for this house.” Then, get on the phone and call Greg and Jeff and say “Hi, I am at our open at 927 Elm, there is a man here who really want to see that floor plan/mortgage/survey.” They’ll get the message. If I got that call from one of my team I’d send Cavelleria Siciliana. 

There are tons of things you can do to avoid a scrap. Get names. Get numbers. Verify. Let people know where you are at all times. Work as a team. Carry mace or pepper spray. Keep your eyes open and keep your distance. Never be alone with an unknown out of distance from civilization. Casually mention that others are on their way. But it is prevention, not a good left hook, that is the best deterrent to being harmed. 

I would add that producing a gun when threatened or attacked would throw gas on a fire. You won’t have a chance to take a position. In struggle, a gun can get away from you. Then, a black eye can deteriorate into a bullet hole. If anything, a gun might create a false sense of security, which could result in foolhardiness or carelessness. Make sure that where ever you go, and whomever you are with, that it is clear that the appointment is documented, that you aren’t truly alone, and that help is near. And if you don’t feel comfortable, get out. 

In their efforts to accommodate buyers and make deals work, more Westchester home sellers are agreeing to either credit money to buyers for repairs or make the repairs outright. In general, I’d rather issue a credit; buyers can do the work as they see fit and sellers have one less headache. 

Often, however, the repairs are things the buyer would prefer be done prior to moving in: asbestos abatement, mold remediation, pest treatment, or something less urgent or elective, like the replacement of a light fixture or carpet. Regardless of what the repair is, unless it is urgent in nature, the only obligation a seller ought to have in making the repairs is to do them before closing. Whether a carpet goes in or wood paneling goes out, the buyer only benefits from it when they take possession of the domicile at closing. 

It is therefore not productive for a Westchester home buyer to demand that repairs be made immediately, before contracts are signed, or before anything other than the closing. Moreover, it is conventional wisdom for the seller to not complete any work or spend a dime until the buyer has provided a mortgage commitment. Once the commitment is provided, the seller can undertake repairs with peace of mind that the financing is not an issue and they they aren’t spending money for a buyer who will not perform. The last thing a seller should do is spend money at the behest of a buyer, only to have that buyer not end up buying. The next buyer might not want the work done, and the problem of the lost deal is magnified. 

We recently had a buyer insist, prior to contract, that the seller treat an old paper wasp nest (it should be noted that in Westchester and the surrounding areas, we do contracts far later in the process than the rest of the world). They were told it would be done after the mortgage commitment was provided. Buyers who do not agree to the conventional wisdom and normal protocol in a matter like this cannot also claim to be reasonable. 

Early on the the beginning of the company, I listed a gorgeous old home that dated back to colonial times just outside the border of a village. It was a striking place, and even though it abutted commercial properties, its location outside the border of the village gave it residential zoning. A non-residential use required a special use permit, which probably would have been forthcoming for the right applicant. 

We had offers from a lawyer, an art gallery, and others, all contingent on that special use permit. 

However, the owner refused to do business with any of the offers. 

He wanted more money. He insisted on a premium in value based on the commercial potential of the property when in fact commercial use was not permitted legally. All offers were subject to procurement of a special use permit, which he did not want to wait for.

After 5 months on the market, we had lunch, and he discussed the various offers made. When I pointed out that the common thread in price appeared to be what the market bore, he informed me that I was not earning my keep. “Phil,” he said, “I knew I could get $500,000 for the house from anyone. If that’s all you can sell it for why do I even need you?”

I forget who picked up the check. 

The house remains unsold as a For Sale By Owner, 4 years after that lunch meeting. The answer to his question, I believe, is that very fact.