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.4 comments
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 commercial real estate, General, In The News, Long Island, New York, News, Real Estate, Uncategorized.add a comment
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.
Wanna Be On TV — Apply Here November 22, 2006
Posted by Geri in family, feelings, HGTV, Home, love, Real Estate, Selling Your Home, television show, TV, wedding.add a comment
After having a hearty laugh over at Marlow Harris’ blog, I felt compelled to bring it on over here. There’s no limit to what some people will do for their 15 minutes of fame. Recruiting now, HGTV is looking for a young couple just about to tie the knot, but without a plan for the wedding’s execution. Seems a little short sighted to me since the show proposes to have three designers vie for the chance to create the perfect backdrop for this lucky couple this winter. Designers’ Challenge happens to be one of my favorite shows but . . . So, if you’re thinking of popping the question, now might be a good time –that is if you have friends and family in or near Los Angeles to share your big day.
On a more practical note, if you have a house on the market in Los Angeles or Chicago that could use a facelift, you might want to contact HGTV to have the Designed To Sell team work their magic and turn your property into a showplace. Now if they’d only come to Long Island.
To apply online, visit www.pietown.tv
The Numbers Are Staggering November 19, 2006
Posted by Geri in Lifestyles, Long Island, New York, Real Estate, The Hamptons.add a comment
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.
Just In Time For A Christmas Miracle November 17, 2006
Posted by Geri in Dogs, family, feelings, General, Home, In The News, Long Island, News, Pets, Uncategorized.3 comments
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.
All About Long Island 