“We sleep safe in our beds because rough men stand ready in the night to visit violence on those who would do us harm.” -George Orwell

On this Memorial Day, I would like to say “thank you” to the following people:

• My grandfather, Ivan Post, for serving in the first World War in France and survived a shell that landed 5 feet away and did not explode.
• My grandfather, Salvatore Faranda, for serving in the first World War.
• My second cousin, Tom Faranda, who gave his life on D-Day in the second World War.
• My father, Joseph S Faranda, who served in the second World War and Korea, where he earned a Bronze Star.

A quick note about my father: He worked himself as a soda jerk through Fordham in the Great Depression. One semester was so tough he decided to resign from school. He was flunking math and didn’t feel he could catch up. In those days you didn’t just drop out, you submitted a letter of resignation. Before he submitted it, he told his mother and she cried. Because it upset her so, he decided to wait before leaving school just yet.

Shortly thereafter, his math professor went to the drugstore where my dad worked after a date. When he saw my father behind the counter, he asked what he was doing there. My father explained that he worked there 6-12pm, 6 nights a week to pay the tuition. That professor gave him some help, and he ultimately passed and got his degree.

After graduation in 1942, the Army called. Because he was college graduate, my father was passed over for the infantry and put into the signal corps , where he did not see front line combat.

He always said that his mother’s crying may well have saved his life.

Until he died in 1993, my father could not wake up without a violent start, as if he might open his eyes to a gun. I remember as a child hating to wake him up, and he was well into his 50’s by then, decades after he came home.

War is hell, and those of us who enjoy the freedom to live our lives as we do owe the soldiers a debt of gratitude.

Thank you Dad, Cousin, and Grandfathers. You will never be forgotten.

Joseph Philip Faranda

Greg Nino has written a very good post on constructive criticism of ActiveRain, or changes he’d like to see. Good idea, I say. It isn’t bashing; quite the contrary. Who better than the active membership to suggest ways the platform can improve? Here are a few things I’d drop in the suggestion box:

• Active Rain Mobile. I’ve blogged about this before. With so many of us on Smart Phones, it just makes sense. Besides, what else can I do at a closing that is as productive as posting a comment or blog, or cruising the referral exchange?
• Speaking of the referral exchange, it would be nice to see that forum overseen better. People are posting spam, not legit referrals, far too often for the standards we’ve come to expect from this platform. Police the referral forum!
• The little icons under commenter’s pics should be hotlinkswhere I can see Greg Nino’s outside blog, localism channels, and 50 featured posts automatically.
• Make it easy to share or tweet a post that you like on Facebook or whatever other social networking site you like. This eliminates the work we currently have to do, where we have to manually insert a picture with a link to the post, which is cumbersome.
• There has been a development recently where we can import our ActiveRain blog to WordPress. But all a guy like me has to do is devote 3 hours I don’t have to learning how to install a plugin, do something with XML, stand on my head and spit nickels, and contemplate the sound of one hand clapping. I don’t want to do that. I can import LIVEJOURNAL to WordPress for godsake. Make it easier!
• Lenn Harley and 3 others “like” a post I wrote. Who are the 3 others? What good is not knowing?
• Can we link to a response blog like they do on Youtube so I don’t have to worry about being accused of hijacking?
• Make subscribers worth something. Throw me 25 or 100 points when I get a subscriber. I think that is a point-worthy event. It is also something that would be hard to “game,” unlike the boneheads who get 10 easy ones for posting “thanks for sharing, have a great day.”
• Instead of “reporting a concern” of blatant spam, perhaps there could be a hotlink where we could choose between sterilization, an IRS audit, or a case of scorching diarrhea of said spammer.  Just a thought.

That’s my 2 cents. This isn’t complaining. It is suggesting what would be nice to see next as Active Rain grows and improves from one who spends a little bit of every day here and has a vested interest in the platform continue to set the pace.

Let me first say that I cut my teeth working for a broker who was a big investor and I still to this day work with investor clientèle. I am an investor myself.

However, I do not recruit real estate investors as I do those buying a home, and if you ever heard what I say to neophyte investors seeking my advice you might think I don’t want to make a sale. You know what? I probably don’t. The risks are significant, the headaches are considerable, and the stakes are high. Consider this: If you invest $40,000 in the stock market and the investment tanks, you are out $40,000. Bad enough. Pretty high “tuition in life.” However, if you sink $40,000 into an investment property and it tanks, you can also be stuck with a $200,000 liability headache that dwarfs your initial investment with tenants, a lender, neighbors and the code officer on your tail until men land on Mars. 

There is not one blog post I have authored out of hundreds where I encourage newbies to become investors. It’s not part of my acumen. There are no do-overs in real estate. Mistakes are life-alteringly expensive, and I have seen too many new investors get hurt or ruined to tread there lightly. So if I am working with an investor, you can bet they are either experienced or very, very forewarned.  

SO: all that said, I do find it more than a little ironic when I get a call or show an investment property to someone who seems more interested in telling me what a bad investment real estate is than gather facts about the property they contacted me about. It would be like calling a stock broker and preaching to him about the volatility of the market or the moral ramifications of selling short. Why waste each other’s time? I have more respect for the losers who send anonymous emails knocking a place or leave wise ass voice mails than a slob who spends my time and gasoline. 

Real investors have little to no energy on Alan Greenspan, the European monetary crisis, TV cashflow infomercials, or other coffee talk when they evaluate property, and they also understand that they aren’t going to live there.  Therefore, old kitchens, sloped driveways and other primary residence type concerns have less weight. And they value my time as much as they value their own. 

The almost universal common thread I see in smart real estate investing is that the investor loves the numbers more than the property. It is never highly leveraged, and either bought right, purchased with a strong down-payment, or both. The numbers have to work. Unless the would-be investor is cognizant of these rather rudimentary fundamentals, blabbing about what a crummy investment real estate is or how out of date a kitchen they’ll never use happens to be, they are wasting everyone’s time.

. 

We have just listed a nearly new, virtually mint condition 2006 build corporate owned foreclosure for $499,000 at 6 Marble Place, Ossining, NY 10562. Among the features:

• Almost 3000 square feet
• 4 bedrooms, 2.5 baths
• Master suite with jet tub and walk in closet
• 1st floor laundry
• Family room with palladium windows, fireplace and sliders to deck
• Full basement
• Stainless steel and granite kitchen with island
• Level, rectangular yard
• Very convenient village location by shopping and other amenities
• Quiet residential neighborhood

The New York market is returning to a more balanced one, with the severe tilt toward a buyer’s market in 2008-2009 yielding to a less skewed advantage. While buyer’s are still in the driver’s seat for most properties, there are more cases of multiple bids and even flat out bidding wars occurring, which is a surprise, given that the stimulus incentives are no longer available. The fear among many was that once that $8000 tax credit went away, the market would decline again. It hasn’t happened. 

Consider this: 

From January 1-May 23, 2009, the median price for a single family home in Westchester County was $550,000 with 773 transactions. 

In the same period in 2010, the median price for a single family home in Westchester is $599,000. There have been 1229 total closings. 

Folks, when prices and transaction totals go up, that means the market is healthier. And in our case, to increase 59% in volume, it isn’t an insignificant increase. In fairness, there was no place to go but up. But up it has gone. More people are out buying homes. It could be that prices are down, rates are low, or consumer confidence os growing. But the outcome is the same. 

I remain busy, and cases of multiple bids, both on the buying and selling end, are occurring more frequently. Is the market hot? No. But is it is certainly warming up, and that bodes well for the entire economy. 

That’s the report from our precinct. Here’s to a strong 2010. 

I think the New York market must be in some stage of recovery, because I am starting to see more multiple bid situations as well as strong first offers. It makes sense; people are starting to realize that the world isn’t going to end, and asking prices have declined to a number that is roughly equivalent to 3 years before the peak. Add low rates to that mix, and it is no wonder that aggressively priced homes in good locations in great condition will get more than one offer. 

SO, just when I was getting the hang of this blood in the streets market, I am seeing bidding wars. Call them rare or anecdotal if you want, but I don’t believe that it is a coincidence that they have clustered at this point in time. This summer will be 2 years since the Fannie Mae/ Freddie Mac/ Wall Street Meltdown. It will be 3 years since the sub prime collapse. America’s economy is not pulled by meandering malaise, it is fueled by an ambitious, productive populace that doesn’t let moss grow under its feet. The market is moving toward balance. 

What do I mean by balance? Well priced homes will sell faster and for more. Overpriced homes will sit and rot. Lowball initial offers may either come up with smart negotiating or be jettisoned in favor of more motivated buyers who seem to be in greater numbers now. I have 2 listings which are getting multiple bids now. 

Which leads me to the $26,000 over asking price I submitted for buyer clients this morning. Why would anyone do such a thing? 

Well, if:

• You’ve been looking for a year or more
• And the location is perfect
• The condition is very, very good
• The price is aggressive
• AND there are already multiple bids, one of which is cash and full price, 

At 8pm, Korean Airlines landed at JFK, bringing with them a passenger by the name of Ann Faranda, who happens to be my wife, business partner, and mother of our 4 children. We had to endure a week in her absence while she was in Seoul to bury her father and support her mother. 

It was not easy on anyone, especially Ann and her mother. My in-laws were married 48 years; Ann is an only child. My biggest problem was playing Mr. Mom for a week and keeping the train rolling. As I wrote in Facebook:

 The dumbing down of parental competence in Ann’s absence: Start the day with 4 kids, end it with (the same) 4 kids.

Ann missed Luke’s First Communion, which was a bummer. I did take lots of pictures though. 

I had many people helping. Tiffany (Aunt Tiffy) Pratt was Mary Poppins much of the week. Aunt Melisa made copious amounts of decadent food for us. 

I also was quite grateful to Max for being the eyes in the back of my head when Gregory, our fence climbing autistic 5 year old was playing in the back yard. At this point, watching the children (and corralling Gregory away from the fence) is 2nd nature to that dog. Even the baby sitter, who preferred that he be in the basement while she was here, loves him now. 

But all that pales in the absence of Mom, and we all missed her. I kept everything together as best I could, but single fatherhood is not a sustainable model for this guy. I couldn’t blog; I couldn’t get out much; I was on the cell phone putting together a deal Thursday with Luke’s cub scout den meeting to my left and 3 kids on a jungle gym to the right. It was nuts. 

So, happily, we were all reunited yesterday evening, and the children were still awake when we arrived home around 9:30pm. 

Ann spent about an hour buried in her children, and my domestic self stole out to replenish the kitchen, which I now know better than before. 

Jet lagged or no, Ann got some sleep last night (14 hour time difference), and today was a new day. The kids awoke to Mom again. I didn’t have to bolt up to prepare for school. I think with the confluence of Mommy’s return and a weekend, it was as if someone pressed the Easy Button. I don’t feel like the cavalry rode in (hell, I’m the damn cavalry) but I do feel like the marines finally dropped much needed ammunition and supplies after a week of improvisation (note to self: improvisation not a sustainable business model-blog about that soon). I am incredibly honored that my father in law bequeathed his Rolex to me. 

We are at full strength again. I can go back to blogging. I can get out on a backlog of appointments to see properties now. I can go back to Big Picture things now that the admin is set in place. I can meet with Clients who need me. I am dog tired but I feel like I could play tug o’ war with a horse. We’ll rest this weekend, however, and resume normal craziness Monday. But it is true, in our business and in my family: There is no place like home. 

As I type this, the chief financial officer and administrator of the company is on a plane to Korea. This leaves me without a better half as well, and the kids with an ill-equipped Mr. Mom. Every company worth its salt really has 2 things: marketing (my department, sometimes referred to as the hot air) and administration. Product with no organization is a one-legged table. And don’t get me started on the 4 little ones. 

I didn’t need this to happen to appreciate what Ann does on a day to day basis, believe me. I have a front row seat. 

Now I’m on her playing field. Someone taser me. 

In all seriousness, there is opportunity here. I hope that Ann can return next week somewhat rested, although flying halfway round the planet twice in 7 days and burying one’s father isn’t Club Med. I also hope this makes me better. I’ve got help day to day; Aunt Tiffany has done yeoman’s work, we have the 2 oldest at Uncle Tom and Aunt Brigid’s, and our babysitter is here. Getting things done on the business front means there is no net underneath this wire. Ann isn’t there to intercept an urgent email or call, and people still need our help the way they always have- the clients know no emergency but their own.

So I am bringing my A-game this next 7 days, clearing things off the table as soon as they arise so that nothing is left undone or incomplete. Luke has first communion tomorrow; deals need to be done, transactions need to be guided. My commitment is to have nothing left in the tank when Mom/Ann/CFO returns, and for the children to be glad to see her again, but only because she was absent. If I do that we’ll be OK. I also stand for Ann missing us, clearing her thoughts, saying goodbye to her father in as dignified a way as possible, and for all of us to have a huge group hug Friday night. It would be nice if next Saturday was like any other. 

This post on agent safety should be required reading for us all, but especially female agents. We work with the public, and have exposure to opportunistic people with bad intentions. 

And to think that some people still get huffy when we ask them if they have been pre approved! 

I met my father in law when he first arrived in New York from Korea, 2 days after Ann and I were engaged in December, 2000. The 3 of us had dinner in Manhattan, and I was tending bar as a sabbatical from the rat race. I still recall sitting down and Ann’s father pulling a business magazine from his jacket, and encouraging me to apply for employment with one of the advertisers. He didn’t have a mean bone in his body; he meant well and wanted the best for us. Ann was an only child. I assured him that we’d be just fine. 

I’m not going to pretend that my father in law was a fishing buddy. He was half a world away much of the time, and we had little in common. What we had in common, however, Ann and the children, was significant. We had our moments, however. The first was at the wedding- for part of the reception, Ann and I wore hanboks, or traditional Korean dress wear. I had no clue how to put it on, so he helped. It was just us there, a few hours after I married his only child, alone and silently putting that thing on me. As he assisted me, I recall the care he took, and the respect he showed for the whole process. No slaps on the shoulder, no banter. Just care. Language limps, but as he helped me dress I felt like we were part of something bigger than a costume. It all came from him. 

Grandfatherhood agreed with Ann’s father, and it solved the quandary as to how I would address him. At first, the thought was that I would call him “Obogi,” which is Korean for father. It didn’t exactly roll off the tongue. However, 9 months and 17 days after we wed, Obogi became “Hadobogi,” or grandfather. So I called him Grandpa, just like the kids, and it worked. He and Grandma enjoyed their grandchildren; they should, because they didn’t get them until they were in their seventies.

Unfortunately, Grandpa was not blessed with a great health in old age, and we lost him today after a long illness. Sadly, he was in Korea, so Ann didn’t get a proper goodbye with her father. I was on my way to an appointment when she called, and from her tone I was afraid that something terrible happened to one of the kids. It was bittersweet that the kids were OK as I exited the highway to head home. 

Our last collaboration was the sale of my in-law’s apartment in Queens when it was clear that they could return to the US due to his health. Despite all the writing on the wall, nothing prepares you for the death of a parent. Ann will grieve a long time. I hope that he left knowing that we’d come a long way from that dinner when he encouraged me to get a good career. I hope he knew that despite the economy, I worked pretty hard as the owner of a company to keep my promises to him about the care of his daughter. I hope he knew what a good partner she has been in the endeavor. I hope he knew that we were winning.

He knows now.