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Foreclosures Are Getting Too Close To Home October 3, 2008

Posted by Geri in Long Island, New York, Real Estate, Real Estate Market, family, foreclosures.
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I shouldn’t be surprised about the ever increasing number of foreclosures on Long Island.  After all, it’s old news and it’s pervasive.  My friends in real estate are experiencing upside down sales, short sales and foreclosures all over the country.  But it’s like anything else, you feel the sting when it gets too close to home.
A colleague of mine asked me recently to take a look at a home he was thinking of purchasing to flip.  He was looking for reassurance in these uncertain times that he was not biting off more than he could chew.  He asked me to meet him at the home and to give him my advice.  From the moment he gave me the address I had an uneasy feeling.  I knew this property.  As I drove up I got a lump in my throat.  It was as I feared, a house I sold not all that many years ago.  Sadness overcame me as I walked through the rooms with him, remembering the final walk through and the excitement this couple felt at finally owning a home after years of renting. 
It was hard to focus on the task at hand as memories flooded my brain.  These were good people — caught in difficult economic times.  Though they had moved a number of times before, it was always by choice, not happenstance.  My heart broke for them.  I don’t live under a rock and I see the direction the housing market has taken over the past two years, but this made it personal . . . too personal. 
The number of lis pendens (notice of pending action) in one town of Long Island in just the last 24 hours was six.  That’s astounding and it’s only one day.  The situation is critical and someone has to stop the bleeding and find a way for these people to be able to stay in their homes and get back on track.  I’m not talking about the people who used their homes as ATMs, pulling equity out time and again to finance their lifestyles.  I’m talking about people who simply need time to get back on track.
There was an article in Newsday that says it more succinctly than I can.  There were 134 homes repossessed on Long Island last month.  This is a microcosm of the national level of default.  Though the problem may have begun as a result of the subprime fiasco, it has filtered down to the mainstream loans, to people just like us.  It would behoove the powers that be to consider Hillary Clinton’s proposed moratorium on foreclosures.
Something needs to be done.  I hope someone is listening.

So You’re Looking For A Rental on Long Island May 15, 2008

Posted by Geri in Home, Long Island, Real Estate, Renting a home, renting.
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If you’ve ever searched for or bought a house on Long Island you probably think renting one works much the same way.  You’d be wrong.  Rentals have never been the bread and butter of my business or for that matter, even the tasty dessert.  I do them as an accommodation and frankly prefer not to.  When I do, however, I apply the same principles to it as I do to listing and selling homes.  I give people the information they need to make an informed decision. 

Most people choose to rent for one of a couple of reasons.  They either don’t have enough money to buy a home or they aren’t planning on being in an area long enough to make it make sense, or they just arrived to the island and don’t know where they’d like to be long term.  In any case, money is often an issue.  So I think it’s important for them to know that fees are paid by the tenant in this part of New York  Depending upon where you want to hang your hat, the fees can range from one month’s rent (commission), one month’s security, and one month’s lease payment up front, to 15% of the annual rent, two month’s security and one or two month’s rent payment at the outset.  It’s a costly proposition.

I recently went through this with a couple trying to decide whether they’d ultimately like to make Long Island their home.  Their choice was to rent for now and see if they liked it enough to stay.  Nothing wrong with the premise.  Where they went awry was deciding to go for a home in a high priced area, with fees to match.  We went over the numbers and from the start they weren’t comfortable.  I suggested they might want to rethink it and choose another town with equally good schools and easy access into the city.  After seeing a number of possible options for them they returned to the house they really wanted.

After making an offer, and our getting it accepted on terms as close to what they wanted as we could, the fee stuck in their craw and they backed out.   I think they believed it would be “negotiable.”  It wasn’t and everyone was a little worse for wear.  The seller had an attorney draw up a lease, the listing agent spent time negotiating and arranging to pick up the lease, having effectively taken the house off the market and I . . . spent a lot of time and energy working with them to understand the process and get them a place they’d be happy living in.  In the end, nobody was happy, but I learned a good lesson.  Just because you deliver a message doesn’t necessarily mean the recipient chooses to hear it. 

My suggestion always — know the rules of the game before you play the first card.

Let’s Give Them Information and Get Your House Sold December 5, 2006

Posted by Geri in Buying a Home, Home, Long Island, Marketing, Real Estate, Real Estate Market, Selling Your Home, Uncategorized.
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I suppose the holiday season plays some part in my reflections on the past year, professionally and personally, and the industry in which I function.  As a Realtor, you might think I’m in the business of selling homes, but bricks and mortar are not at all what it’s about.  In reality, I’m in the people business.  An excited smile on the face of a buyer when I finally get to say “you got the house,” is my reward, as is the relief erasing deep lines of tension on the forehead of a seller left behind to mop up the final details of a home sale.

I’m lucky enough to be there at times of transition, when my support is a rock they can lean on, so it disturbs me more than I can say when I hear stories about agents who care far more about themselves than the people they represent.  It is not unusual for a listing agent to suggest to an unwary seller that his/her buyer is the best choice because . . . you fill in the blank.  Unfortunately, it may or may not be true.  With a much higher commission at stake, it’s easy for some to convince you and themselves that they’re acting in your best interest.   You need information presented to you in a dispassionate way.

Then there’s the question about how much information should be shared about your property.  A days old post in the blogosphere brought the topic front and center for me . . . again.  Believing that the ultimate goal is to get your home sold at the best price the current market will bear, in a timely fashion, we want it to be found — by a lot of potential buyers.  Understanding that people in search of real estate are likely to want to know where it is, I always (with my sellers’ permission) include the address.  Sometimes purchasers are interested in a particular school, or proximity to highways or shopping.  If they have no defining data, they very well might pass on your home, depriving you of what might be the perfect match.

You Get What You Pay For — Or Do You? November 29, 2006

Posted by Geri in Buying a Home, Long Island, Marketing, New York, Real Estate, Real Estate Market, Selling Your Home.
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There is more and more discussion in the real estate community of late about discount brokers damaging our reputation as an industry, while offering consumers what appears on the surface to be a real bargain.  In order to understand just exactly what you’re getting when you hire anyone to represent you in the sale or purchase of a home you have to ask questions.

I will start by saying there is no such thing as a free lunch.  Therefore, if someone tells you they’ll market your home as extensively for a bargain price as the full service broker, generally speaking it simply isn’t so.  We all face certain fixed costs and we allocate dollars from every sale to keep our businesses running.  To be successful for ourselves and for you, we’re constantly looking for new and more effective ways to attract buyers for our homeowners. 

Recognizing that most of us in the business have no trust funds and have families to feed, when commissions are discounted, something has to give.  Unfortunately when there is not enough money in the coffer, the clients suffer.  Nobody can run a business successfully without making a profit.  Given a choice of diluting those profits or reducing costly marketing, the loser is more often than not the seller.

There is nothing wrong with opting for a lesser service for a lower dollar amount . . . as long as you understand the rules of the game.  I just sold a home in which the owners knowingly chose a flat fee listing broker.  They paid simply to have their home in the MLS (multiple listing service).  They understood that all the showings, ads, open houses and negotiations were their responsibility.  After four weeks they were tiring of giving up their weekends to wait and hope someone would show up at their open houses.  They got to experience, as we do, the tire kickers, the pseudo buyers who express great interest only to disappear into the ether, and the nosy neighbors.

Fortunately for them, I had the perfect buyer for their home so their discomfort was short lived.  Had they continued with the process as most people do in the current buyers’ market, I’m not sure they would have been happy campers.  I must say though, unlike the experience most people have had in their circumstances here, their limited service broker stepped up to the plate more than once when they had concerns about the progress of the transaction.

Even though I’m tempted to say the obvious, “you get what you pay for,” I’m stymied by the occasional maverick like Greg Swann, a staunch proponent of a discount pricing model who refuses to lower his outstanding level of service and who manages to make it all work.   I’ve yet to meet his counterpart on Long Island however.

The Year of the Mega Deal November 25, 2006

Posted by Geri in General, In The News, Long Island, New York, News, Real Estate, commercial real estate.
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With another huge real estate portfolio on the block, Morris Sosnow’s estate has offered up 400,000 square feet of commercial space, most of it in Long Island’s Nassau County.  This was certainly the year of the mega deal in New York, with the $5.4 billion sale of Stuyvesant Town and Peter Cooper Village so recently consummated.  Though hardly in the same class, this promises to be another interesting transaction.  If I were to venture a guess, I’d bet the going price is higher than $80-100 million suggested for the commercial properties.  Being sold also are close to 600 co-op units, most of them in Queens.

Some of the space to be sold is Birchwood Plaza North and South, sitting on the periphery of the affluent community of Birchwood Park East in Jericho.  With a relatively new Whole Foods Market, having replaced an aging Waldbaums as an anchor store and a sizable Marshall’s occupying space at the other end, this is some prime real estate.

For more of the story, read Dawn Wotapka Hardesty’s article in Long Island Business News. 

The Annual Debate — Is It Time To Sell, or Buy? November 21, 2006

Posted by Geri in Buying a Home, Home, Long Island, New York, Real Estate, Real Estate Market, Selling Your Home, Uncategorized.
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Thanksgiving, just two days away, kicks off the holiday season, focusing attention on shopping for gifts not houses.  I’ve had sellers ask me for weeks whether the market for homes is dead for the balance of the year.  This may come as a surprise, but in my world there’s usually a surge of activity between now and Christmas, setting the wheels in motion for a number of closings in the early months of the new year.

Even with the less than stellar environment we find ourselves in on Long Island, I see increased interest and activity.  Possibly some of those buyers waiting on the sidelines for the elections to be over are now ready to make a move and are positioning themselves to act when the right property presents itself.  So to all those sellers and buyers trying to decide whether the time is right, the answer is – if it fits into your life plans, your timing is perfect.

The Numbers Are Staggering November 19, 2006

Posted by Geri in Lifestyles, Long Island, New York, Real Estate, The Hamptons.
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So you think of yourself as a multimillion dollar producer and you advertise it on your business cards and in your marketing pieces.  Harald Grant, a real estate agent in the Hamptons, a mecca for the rich and famous on Long Island’s east end, redefines the concept, having sold just shy of $245 million last year.  Of course, with a number of waterfront sales in excess of $20 million each the task is easier than it might be somewhere in middle America, but one has to give him credit for staying at the top of his game.  An early decision to get into real estate to supplement his income was, in retrospect, a monumental turning point in an already successful young life.

These staggering numbers made him number one in a list of 200 top agents in the nation.

Long Island In The Top Three November 17, 2006

Posted by Geri in Buying a Home, General, Home, In The News, Long Island, New York, News, Real Estate, family.
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It may come as a surprise to some, but certainly not to me.  As reported by Newsday, the December issue of Self magazine ranked Long Island third, right after Honolulu and Portland, Maine as one of the healthiest places in which women can thrive.

“Surprised? Don’t be, said Sara Austin, the magazine’s news director. Nassau and Suffolk’s low rates of crime, unemployment and suicide and its population of highly educated and affluent residents helped boost the rating.”

A long time resident of Long Island, one of the first things that struck me as I searched for a home was the comfort women seemed to have in their environment.  Many times as I trolled the area I saw women alone, jogging at ten o’clock at night.  I remember thinking at the time that their obvious lack of fear was a good indicator of a safe place in which to bring up my son.  I’ve never regretted my choice to make Long Island my home and I’ve spent a lot of years helping other people do the same.

Just In Time For A Christmas Miracle November 17, 2006

Posted by Geri in Dogs, General, Home, In The News, Long Island, News, Pets, family, feelings.
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There had to be divine intervention for two miracle pups rescued by Little Shelter on Long Island.  Magic and Merlin, three week old mixed breed puppies born with severely cleft palates would have had no chance at survival without the intervention of the caring people at Little Shelter, one of the island’s oldest no kill facilities.

As so often happens when good samaritans hear about the plight of others, there was an outpouring of offers of assistance.  They came from far and wide and included Plastic Surgeons,  Veterinarians and the public at large.  Reported in Newsday, they’re waiting for the dogs to be old enough for the first of multiple surgeries to set them on the path of hopefully long and happy lives.   They will remain in my prayers.

Through The Keyhole November 5, 2006

Posted by Geri in Buying a Home, Entertainment, Estates, Home, In The News, Long Island, New York, Real Estate, Selling Your Home, Uncategorized.
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An endlessly entertaining voyeuristic activity is taking a peek into the lives of the rich and famous.  There is a huge chasm between those who count their pennies,  saving up to buy a little piece of the American dream and the moneyed minority trading acreage for numbers that boggle the mind of the masses.  The players in this week’s multimillion dollar game are:

The Dolan family which controls Cablevision, Madison Square Garden, The New York Knicks and Rangers having listed a 10,000 square foot, waterfront home in Centre Island for $13.5 million.  If the price seems steep, think of what you get — a visually stunning newly constructed home (2005) with 7 bedrooms, 7 full and 2 half baths and 7 fireplaces on over 6 acres.  Spellbinding views framed by a charming gazebo add to the ambiance of an already abundantly appointed home.

On the other end of the spectrum is the famous Connecticut plastic surgeon who plead guilty to tax evasion.  His $15.5 million waterfront home is in tony Wesport Connecticut.

For more of the story on these and film producer Brian Grazer’s home in Los Angeles, take a look at this article.