This post is inspired by Mark Boyd’s thoughts on short sales. I don’t understand why agents say no to business they are perfectly capable of handling (or referring). Mark’s beef is with short sales, and having done plenty, I agree. I would also add rentals to the mix. I often hear agents say they don’t do rentals, often because they don’t pay enough. Well, excuse me. Even if you are swamped, the least you could do is refer that prospect to someone who can help them. 

I used to rent. Now I own. You probably used to rent. Today’s renters are tomorrows buyers. They are also people who need a home, just like you and me. I have had past rental clients call me up to buy when the time came, and they all say the same thing. They called me because I treated them with respect the first time around. I don’t personally handle every rental inquiry that comes into the company, nor do I handle every sale. But anyone who contacts my firm to do business will be treated like a million dollar client. That is our commitment. 

We are open for business, and we are open for rental business. We represent landlords and tenants alike. We’ll do rentals in Westchester, Rockland, Putnam, Dutchess and the Bronx. We are working on opening a merchant credit verification account to assist with rental applications. We mean it. My company is all about putting a roof over your head. I deal in homes, and my bottom line is more long term than the disparity between a sale and a rental fee. 

I have blogged about the Ossining reservoir before. I grew up a block away and rode my bike around it when it was an overgrown mess. It was rededicated as a park about 10 years ago. It was mentioned in the TV series Mad Men, as the Drapers live in Ossining in that program. I actually got a fair bit of attention when I wrote about the many historically accurate references from that fictional show to the reality of Ossining history. That’s all good, but what’s better is actually being there. I drove past a few days ago and took a nice pause at my childhood haunt.

You can see the infamous water tanks in the back. They were sky blue and covered with graffiti when I was a kid. Now you hardly notice them. However, they did put the reservoir out of a job when they replaced it as the primary water source for the village in the 1960s. 

The pace is never vacant- there is always someone else walking, running, or reflecting.  

I still live a few blocks away, and it remains one of my favorite places. I am not alone. You can read more about the history of the Reservoir in one of my earlier posts. 

I suppose I could title this “for spouses,” but having never been a wife I felt it best to come from my perspective as a husband. 

It is not easy being married to a real estate licensee. We aren’t just on straight commission; what we go through for that commission typically takes months and often comes with with risk, rejection, crisis, and drama. Our profession epitomizes the high risk/high reward lifestyle. Ann and I are coming up on our 9th anniversary this September 29th, and the past 5 years I have run my own brokerage. We are in our 40’s and are bookended by geriatric parents and our 4 children. No day is a cake walk. 

I would not be where I am without her support, encouragement, belief, confidence and skills that have complimented my own. I joke that I am the hot air; Ann is the administrator. But even if a wife has no involvement in her husband’s real estate career, much of what Ann and I have learned (sometimes the hard way) is worth sharing. If these things relate to other industries, all the better. Here goes: 

1. Please understand that I’ll eat whatever you put in front of me. After a day of making decisions, many of which were punctuated by high stakes and high stress, I don’t want to decide between pasta or chicken. As a matter of fact, I don’t want to make a single decision in the first hour I come home about anything. 
2. Respect the cave. I need to decompress. I’ll be far more use to you once I settle my thoughts. I just had a home inspector tell me my buyer had him inspect another home 2 weeks ago, and I didn’t show him that place.  A prospective client who told me I got the job just went on the market with another agent. I need to place all of that, along with the entire crazy day I just had, on my mental bookshelf. I need some quiet, a quick revenge fantasy, and ponder who is pitching for the Yankees tonight. Once I do that, I’m yours.
3. Never, ever ever shield me from bad news. Tell me straight, and early. Never spin, control the message or try and manage my reaction. I could be wrestling with an anaconda in quicksand that is on fire, just call me when the bad news comes in and I will manage. 
4. There is never a good time to bring up a touchy subject, but there are some bad times. For me, bringing up money after I collapse in bed is a rough one.  
5. I am all about the Big Picture to a fault. Short term difficulty is a means to an end. My eyes are on a goal far larger than this snapshot in time’s challenges and crisis. If I make a decision you dislike, or one that makes no sense to you, or if I take on an expense that you feel is too ambitious, I have a plan. Support that. Own it. Speak your mind, but never undermine.  
6. Your belief in me is more important than money, or that other thing. I can’t enjoy either without it anyway. As a matter of fact, I don’t work this hard to push you away. It is a big picture thing. 
7. Yes, I do love this. I love the challenge. I live the reward. I love building my empire. It’s mine. 
8. I do this for you. As a matter of fact, I see your or one of our children’s faces before I do anything difficult and it helps me to do better. 
9. It is not lost on me that you’ve had a day yourself. 

• Board approval is required for all new shareholders (owners). The board meets monthly. 
• Minimum down payment required is 20%
• Flip tax is $1 per share (We found shares vary from 500s to the 900s, depending on the size of the unit). 
• Monthly Maintenance/co-op fee is approximately 50% deductible. 
• Buyers must pay 3 months monthly maintenance at closing upfront to the Edgemont reserve fund at closing.
• Heat is hot water baseboard. Air conditioning is wall units. 
• Electricity is paid separately from the monthly fee. Heat is included!

While the Edgemont is right on Central Avenue, it isn’t on top of the traffic. The buildings are set back from the road and have wooded coverage. It backs up to the Greenburgh Nature Center, so there are no neighbors on the other side except birds. Another nice thing about the Edgemont is that there is ample visitor parking, which can be an issue in other complexes. 

There are other nice things to note about the Edgemont. Both buildings are 24 hour security buildings, the management staff are excellent, and many apartments, as the pictures show, have balconies. The buildings were erected in 1970, and they are updated and in solid shape. All units are broadband and cable compatible. If you are looking for a nice co op in the area, the Edgemont is probably compatible with you as well. 

I appreciated Michael Thornton’s thoughts on featured blogs and the many great blogs out there that seldom or never have shown up on the dashboard. Sadly, some people who write great stuff have stopped their efforts on Active Rain, and it could be that they were discouraged by a lack of recognition. As much as I love seeing my posts earn a star, there are other sources of acknowledgement than getting featured. 

• Comments. I have made more good friends from comments than seeing them on page 1. Debate, discussion and insight get you bonded. Having someone reach out and relate to me about my thoughts is powerful. This is one reason why I never understood the automatons who write “great post we learn so much here,” as if the 25 points were all they were after, even at the expense of fostering associations. Those people would never get a referral from me. 
• Subscribers. To me, a person subscribing to your blog is a bigger reward than being featured. This is a person who is interested in what you have to say and what you’ll say next. That is huge-blogs are all about readership! It is “repeat business,” interest, and a potential referral in the making.
• SEO- Getting FOUND. Even if you never got featured once, but Google is finding you, then you are primed for success. I recently closed a $500,000 sale from someone who found me online, and he sure didn’t care how many featured blogs I wrote.
• Referrals from fellow bloggers. Isn’t this what it is all about? I want people to think of me when they think of Westchester County, New York. I am in business to make money, and referrals are manna from heaven. 

There are other nice things too, such as being featured in groups, and as  broker-owner I have found my blog to be a useful hiring tool. It is an online resume’ and pre-listing package. You control the message. This past week I was contacted by a paralegal in another state to list two properties in New York on behalf of a bankruptcy trustee. She didn’t find me in the Yellow Pages.  

I hate seeing people getting discouraged and giving up. It is not how I am wired, but I do relate to disappointment (who in sales doesn’t relate to that?). I would offer these things to fellow members as encouragement  to keep on keeping on here in the Rain. This is a special community, and if you are consistent, good things will happen for your business even if you don’t show up on that dashboard. 

Parts of the Bronx and Queens have been deemed by NY Secretary of State to be “cease and desist” zones where it is unlawful for real estate licensees to make phone calls, mail flyers or engage in any other activity soliciting business. This is far more wide a prohibition than a Do Not Call list. It is the government forbidding licensees to call, mail or otherwise contact homeowners. They can’t call expired listings. They can’t call For Sale By Owners. 

The justification of the move, which came after 3 public hearings, was “intense and repeated solicitation.” People who want to be on the cease and desist list can register with the Department of State and licensees are then required to ensure that anyone they are contacting is not on the list. These zones are in force for 5 years. There was already one in Brooklyn. The exact geographic areas can be found on the Department of State website.  

With so much being written on Facebook, Twitter and other social media’s real estate applications, many people are choosing different camps. You have those who embrace social media, many of whom are deriving business from it, and then there are those who are either skeptical or prefer in their words, to separate business and personal. I see the point on both sides, but I do believe that the skeptics can have their cake and eat it too. 

Facebook is not for shamelessly spamming and promoting yourself to your friends. Those people are annoying and probably generate zero business. Moreover, it is against Facebook TOS for your Facebook profile to be an advertising vehicle. My personal Facebook page is not spammy, but it does get a feed from my blog. If I were so motivated I’d figure out how to turn that off but it isn’t an issue. Note the difference in my personal and business pages.  

Personal page: 

Facebook has a business only tool anyone can create. It is separate from your personal page, and is a better forum for more business oriented content. Once you have 25 fans, you can create a vanity URL. Mine is Facebook.com/JPhilipRealEstate. 

Now my business page:

Facebook is not for making business contact with people you have no prior connection to. You know who I am talking about- some guy in Colorado who wants to sell me 500 coffee mugs with my company logo or a real estate  motivational speaker I never heard of will not get access to my family photos.  

Facebook is a sphere of influence tool. People who already connected with you are the “farm,” not  people you have never met. 

When you tell people your business and personal are so separate that you don’t want to mix them you can unwittingly create the impression that you have a weird double life. Or, at least it is fun to think so. 

The Westchester Putnam Multiple Listing Service has voted to change its name this morning to the Empire Access Multiple Listing Service. The name change from WPMLS to the EAMLS will be formalized later this year. For years the WPMLS served areas outside Westchester and Putnam Counties, as it has been the dominant MLS in the Bronx and an ever growing number of participants in Dutchess County (that only makes sense, since so many buyers in Dutchess come from Westchester and Putnam). There is also significant inventory in neighboring Fairfield County, CT and Rockland and Orange Counties west of the Hudson. 

It was no easy task coming up with a name that would fit. We have a very large and diverse footprint, and we also wanted a name that would be forward thinking. I think we did it. 

Personally, my next goal is to have the EAMLS get a great public portal that will ensure that buyers can search an MLS sponsored, unbranded database of the entire MLS like MLSLI.com out on Long Island. That might be a long time coming, but I am all for a transparent, consumer-friendly interface. We’ll see what’s next.