For the third time in the past 4 weeks, I have been contacted by a buyer who chose to call me directly instead of having their agent call me because their offer was not accepted. In each case, I have told the agent-and the buyer when they called- that I'd be happy to know what comparable sale the
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01/31/2012
New York State has something known as settlement conferences for homeowners facing foreclosure. It is a good law. Distressed borrowers can go to the courthouse and meet with lawyers of their lender face to face in front of a judge or court appointed referee. The referee is there to make sure that
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01/30/2012
Inman news is reporting a Youtube announcement from ARG (Abbott Realty Group) that they are not permitting their listings to be viewed on 3rd party syndicators such as Zillow, Trulia and even Realtor.com. The link is already behind Inman's paywall so I have embedded the video below. This comes i
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01/27/2012
I have written before on what a buyer's market is and what a buyer's market isn't. Westchester County and our surroundings are a sought after destination; even if a home has been on the market for a year, once the price is right it will sell. I wish I could impress this upon a few buyers who have
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01/27/2012
This is one of those topics I have been meaning to write about for a dog's age (sorry) and I finally have the time and inspiration to do just that. It is my view that an inordinate percentage of real estate agents are dog lovers. Canine devotees. Poochophiles. And they aren't just dog owners, th
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01/25/2012
I'm seldom political-I'm a capitalist, not a ideologue- and while I like President Obama, I have to say that I am incredibly disappointed by the State of the Union speech this evening for one good reason: he barely touched on housing or what he'd do to fix the industry. It is among our biggest pr
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01/24/2012
Let me preface my words clearly that I have no beef with franchises and treasure my many colleagues at other firms, large, small, independent and corporate. Everyone should hitch their trailer to the train that they feel best about. My choice is that of an independent broker with no franchise or
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01/23/2012
With apologies to Bill Clinton. My firm sells a wide range of properties: upscale 7 figure estates right over to a $7500 trailer. Among our niches is the area broadly described as the distressed property market. This could vary from short sales to bank owned foreclosures to property that is owne
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01/21/2012
Tonight was the installation party for the Hudson Gateway Association of Realtors. Executives and directors of both HGAR and the Empire Access MLS (EAMLS) were sworn in for 2012, along with drinks, dinner and dancing. This will be my 3rd term as MLS Vice president, and it doubled as date night fo
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01/19/2012
Month by month, I have watched the 2011 Westchester Real estate market in comparison to the same month in 2010 to see how we'd stack up. Would values rise? Would transaction totals improve? 2011 started out behind the curve compared to 2010, but my theory was that 2010 started out artificially hi
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01/16/2012