This post was inspired by the recent Agent Genius article entitled “Realtor matching Ends- Are Agents Just Insecure Posers?” The article examines the circumstances around the Houston Association of Realtors program that (shutter) disclosed how many homes member agents sold in a given locale. Very transparent move if you ask me. But the program was ended. But why? What is so taboo about asking the question 

“How many homes like mine have you sold in the past year?” 

It is a simple question, but all too few agents will give you a number. Oh, they’ll tell you they  have been a Triple Micronium producer or on the top team, whatever that means. It all sounds great. But here’s the deal: 90% of all the listings are sold by 10% of the agents. I’ll put it another way: In my zip code we have 3 large companies with offices of 40 or more licensees and another half dozen with anywhere from 1 to 20 licenses. That is over 200 salespeople. In the month of July, those 200 salespeople sold exactly 5 single family homes in this zip code.  

There are 51 active listings, so there are plenty of people who listed with someone who somehow finessed the fact that they haven’t sold much of anything in a dog’s age. They might have stated that they work for a big company, productive office, or some other larger truth that obfuscates the reality on the ground that they themselves are not doing very much. 

The problem here, and take it from a guy that lists dozens (probably 75 or so) of expired listings a year, is that all that flowery gibberish breaks down when the seller realizes that the 2004 top office producer award means nothing in 2010, or 30 years in the business can really be one year repeated thirty times. Sad to say, but many agents flat out stink, and they refuse to admit it isn’t 1986 anymore. 

I am in the top 10 agents in my MLS of 7000 for transaction totals going back to 2007. A large part of my marketing is trading on that production, and it does make a difference. I also work bloody hard to do that in this market. This doesn’t mean you have to sell 50 or 100 houses to get hired. When we sold my mother’s townhome in another market, we selected an agent who sold about 15 homes annually. She knew what she was doing and she was very good with us. The so called “top dog” put me off. But I did know my agent’s track record. 

It does astound me, that as the largest trade association in America, that we haven’t encouraged the public to ask for a verifiable track record, references, and other factual, transparent credentials they can hang their hat on. They just say to select a member. That’s not good enough. 

When I was first licensed in 1996, the idea of a professional stager to prepare a home for sale was about a foreign as trying to sell a house on “The Internet.” In other words, a good place to waste money. Everyone knew that you sold houses on the MLS, the Sunday supplement, and the picture magazines. If someone’s house was a shambles, we brushed up on our Dale Carnegie, had a diplomatic conversation, and hopefully influenced them to straighten the place out. Nothing was maximized. Nothing was optimized. “Staged” was an adjective. 

Staging is now an active verb. And the more competitive the market gets, the more people seek an edge, the more staging rises in prominence in our industry. In 1996, the MLS allowed one photo, typically an exterior photo, and people could extrapolate or conjecture whether the curb appeal translated to an appealing interior. With 30 photos on our local MLS and the transparency of other media like virtual tours, there is nothing to hide any longer. Eye appeal, nose appeal, and interior presentation have joined curb appeal as selling points we can no longer leave alone. People know what you have. 

So how do you know if you need the services of a professional stager to get that edge, to attract more tours, more offers and more money? Quite frankly, if you have to ask, you probably need to speak with a stager. Not the lady from the upholstery store. Not Aunt Ethel who makes her own dresses cute as a button. A professional, accredited stager. The real thing. And if you speak with a stager who insults you or makes you feel uncomfortable, you speak with one whom you relate better. Tens of thousands of dollars could be on the line (and probably are), and the cutting of corners is ill-advised. 

A trained set of eyeballs, an acute mind, and experience go a long way. The box that a stager lives in is far larger, more objective and often more creative than the inertia of familiarity that a biased homeowner has in their world. They won’t bite. 

For our part, our firm offers all our listing clients a free consultation with a professional, accredited home stager. She’s dynamite, and committed to educating sellers. We want to walk our talk. 

5 Cool Things About Briarcliff Manor, NY

1. Our fire trucks are white. No, the Dalmatians are not red. 

2. Downtown was in the first episode of Saturday Night Live in one of the videos. You can see the Briarcliff Hardware Store on Pleasantville Road clearly. 

3. Howard Stern’s first job out of college was at WRNW-FM, which was in Briarcliff in the 70’s. 

4. Trump National Golf Course (of The Apprentice) is here, on the site of the old Briarcliff Country Club.

5. Holly Hill, the 60 acre estate of the late Brooke Astor, is here in Scarborough, and is on the market for $10,500,000. 

Previous posts on Briarcliff Manor

All information is from the Westchester Putnam Multiple Listing Service. 

Chances are that if you are selling a home that has been on the market any length of time, you’ve had your share of showings. If you haven’t sold yet, you might wonder what all those people who passed on your home eventually bought. I’ve got news for you: a huge percentage of them aren’t buying anything anytime soon. They are working with an agent, they may be pre approved, but they might be a months or a year away from actually acting. How can this be?

Right now, the buying public is in a war of attrition with sellers. The vast majority of prospective buyers are sitting this out. They aren’t indifferent, they just aren’t in any hurry. We have listings that have hundreds and even thousands of unique pages views on the Internet every week. Many of those views are the same people, but they are there. The same listings have had dozens of showings, yet there aren’t dozens of homes selling in that category. We get phone calls and emails inquiries, which we answer diligently, and believe me we are selling the value. But the mass inertia of the public will never be overcome by a persuasive phone pitch or email. 

Here is a quick breakdown of what I am observing. 

• Lurkers. The vast majority of the prospective buyers are silently lurking online. They watch houses online for weeks, months and more. If the one they really have their eye on reduces to a tantalizing number, they graduate to the next category:
• Callers. Callers are the ones who call the office asking about a listing or inquire via email, and then disappear unless the stars align. What floor is the apartment on? Oh, the first floor? Never mind. How close is the house to the school? One block? Oh, I was afraid of that. Too close. If the stars do align, callers become…
• Lookers. Ah, the looker. The mystery is revealed. The person I have been playing footsie with for 3 months has finally appeared in the flesh to see my listing. Lookers aren’t buyers. Lookers look. And question. And ponder. And figure. They want to see the utility bill. They want to bring their father in law to check it out. They go down to City Hall to make sure the shed/deck/basement/whatever is up to code. They seem to not understand that there is a time for that. Sometimes lookers are…
• Likers. Likers like. They want to keep looking, but they like it. That’s very nice. I like that. What? An offer? Whoa, there, don’t pressure me. What’s your hurry? This is a big decision. Are you hiding something? I want to keep looking. But that is very nice. Let me know if they get any offers. They say buyers are liars, but they are not. Likers are liars, because they game the agents with faux interest so they can keep seeing more houses. 

One of the neat things about the old river towns like Ossining is the pre war architecture, the likes of which we’ll never see replicated. Nothing demonstrates that more than the churches in the village, many of which are located downtown off Main Street on South Highland Avenue. It is a menagerie of steeples as you drive through. Many of the churches deserve their own postings, which I’ll do in the future. Here are a few highlights. 

Ossining Gospel Assembly is actually up Croton Avenue about a mile from downtown, but the impressive stone structure should be included. 

Trinity Episcopal is a beautiful Gothic building with a courtyard between the church and parish hall. 

First Baptist is at the corner of Main and South Highland. It dates, as I recall, from the Civil War era, and may be the oldest church downtown. There is often a pithy message on their sign. The bell tower framed against a blue sky is impressive. 

First Presbyterian is one of the highest steeples in the village. There are other more impressive angles of sight for the building, but I liked how First Baptist can be seen in background.

The inscription above the First Presbyterian main entrance reads “To The Triune God.” I remember, vividly, how Mrs. Rimm, a family friend, explained what that meant to me when I was about 5. 

Ossining United Methodist has striking stained glass and is the hardest to photograph. I chose the side of the whole building this time around. 

Saint Ann’s Catholic Church on Eastern Avenue. I was baptized, confirmed and married here. On the far right you can see the top of Trinity Episcopal. 

Saint Augustine’s had a gorgeous old building on North Highland Avenue for many years which was razed when the road was widened. They built this building in the mid 1980’s on the old Campus of Mary Immaculate Girls High School, which closed in 1976. The view of the Hudson is breathtaking. The whole campus is gorgeous and worthy of another posting. 

Ironic, isn’t it, that a town with Maryknoll Mission and such beautiful churches is also home to one of the most infamous prisons in the country-Sing Sing! 

Perhaps next Sunday I’ll pick one of the churches and do it justice. 

We just reduced the price of this bank-owned foreclosure  to $450,000. It is a different sort of home- built in 2006, it was never sold. The builder was the first and only owner prior to the bank taking it back. It was rented briefly, and is in near mint and new condition. The home is just under 3000 square feet, with a formal dining room, large living room, granite and stainless steel kitchen with an island, and a family room with fireplace and sliders to the rear deck. There are hardwoods throughout, central air, first floor laundry, and a very convenient location with shopping and the village close by. I’ll be holding 6 marble Place open today, Sunday from 12-2pm. More information on the home is at OssiningForeclosure.NET. 

This is for single family home activity in the Briarcliff Manor school district for June of 2010. All information is derived from the Westchester-Putnam Multiple Listing Service. 

Compared to June 2009, Briarcliff Manor sales volume is about even. Transactions are down one, but the median price is up almost $200,000. 15 Homes are under contract, which indicates more strong activity, albeit at a lower median price. 

In the Active section, you might notice that high listing of $10,500,000. That may be there for quite a while. That is the last Brooke Astor’s estate, Holly Hill, which has been on for a while now because there is not a big market for 60 acre compounds with 10,500 square foot mansions. That might become the new Casa de J Philip if I hit Mega Millions this week. 

There are 51 available home in inventory, which is a healthy selection and just under a year’s worth of inventory.

Previous posts on Briarcliff Manor.  

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