Toyota Screwed Up - But Who's Going To Pay For It? A few million Toyota cars were recalled due to the gas pedal sticking. Those 8 models represent 57% of Toyota's 2009 U.S. sales. Toyota dealerships across Long Island and the rest of the the country have to halt sales. They spend hundreds of thousand of dollars for new inventory. Toyota has asked those dealerships to not discuss the financial situation with consumers. They are being told to call Toyota. Oh right, that's going to help. 6 of Toyota's North American manufacturing plants will stop manufacturing on February 1st and there is not a date set for manufacturing to resume. Toyota shares in Tokyo Wednesday closed down 4.3%—its trading volume was twice its 25-day moving average—while the benchmark Nikkei Stock Average of 225 compan... 01/27/2010

Selling Your Home On Long Island and Market Value Market value is market value plain and simple. I've had listing appointments knowing a home cannot be put on the market due to the mortgages being higher than market value. Do I cancel that appointment? No. I made a commitment to meet with you and I stand by that commitment. I do know going in that I may disappoint you. I also know you may want to list way above market value but I just will not do that. Why? Because even though you know what market value is and want to try listing your home anyway, somewhere down the road you will not be happy with me. You will tell me, "why did you let us put our home on the market knowing it's not going to sell?" And that is exactly my point. I would rather turn you down now, then let you down a few m... 01/27/2010

How To Interview A Real Estate Agent When Selling Your Home - What You Didn't Think To Ask! As a Realtor®, I meet a lot of homeowners during the course of my day. I am always amazed at how they do not know to ask certain questions or have knowledge about marketing, market value, commission, and even the laws and Code of Ethics. And after I'm done explaining it to them, they walk away more knowledgeable for the future. I just love educating people about the real estate and the real estate profession! Below is an extensive list of what takes place during a listing presentation. Comparative Market Analysis (CMA) - When the agent you are interviewing meets with you, they will go over the Comparative Market Analysis to show you what comparable homes to yours have recently closed, are under c... 01/26/2010

Hit and Run Auto Accident Babylon Village North Carll Avenue and West Main Street on 1/24/10 at 755 p.m. If you saw this accident take place, please call (631)854-8100 the 1st precinct located on Route 109 in West Babylon. I was in my office tonight and heard a thud outside then I heard the sounds of spining wheels. I looked outside and saw a young man standing looking at the back of his car. I walked across the street to make sure he was ok, and he was thank goodness. I called 911 for him and he called his parents on his phone. The other car took off. It's a gray minivan and will have some damage on the front right of the van probably around the passenger side headlight area. The van was west-bound on West Main Street headed towards West Babylon/Lindenhurst. The young man is fine but j... 01/24/2010

Top 10 U.S. Cities Where It's Smarter To Buy For people who want to own a home, the premium to buy—the spread between what they’d spend to rent and what they’d pay for a mortgage—is much lower than the 15-year average in many cities. To determine what cities are smart buys, Forbes magazine computed the premium and also identified locales where economists predict home prices will go up the most over the next five years. Here are the top 10 cities the magazine chose as the best places to buy right now. Boston-Cambridge-Quincy, Mass. Charlotte-Gastonia-Concord, N.C.-S.C. Chicago-Naperville-Joliet, Ill.-Ind.-Wis. Cincinnati-Middletown, Ohio-Ky.-Ind. Denver-Aurora-Broomfield, Colo Minneapolis-St. Paul-Bloomington, Minn.-Wis. Philadelphia-Camden-Wilmington, Pa.-N.J.-Del.-Md. Portland-Vancouv... 01/22/2010

Long Island Real Estate Market - Suffolk County In 2008 & 2009 Suffolk County Homes That Sold For 2008Over 500 Homes Closed In 2008Average Listing Price: $393,892.00Sold Price: $368,603.00Percentage Difference: 5.08%Property Taxes: $10,283.00High Listing Price: $2,499,000.00Sold Price: $2,412,500.00Percentage Difference: 50%Property Taxes: $742,864.00Low Listing Price: $8,000.00Sold Price: $7,600.00Percentage Difference: -502%Property Taxes: $369.00 Amaganset 2 Amity Harbor 23 Amityville 84 Aquebogue 23 Asharoken 1 Babylon 88 Baiting Hollow 24 Bay Shore 254 Smithtown 1 The chart above represents all the towns where homes were sold. 2 Story 8 Cape 71 Colonial 98 Contemporary 5 Cottage 6 Duplex 1 Exp Cape 17 Exp Ranch 33 Farm Ranch 4 Hi Ranch 42 Mobile Home 15 Other 1 Post Modern 6 Ranch ... 01/21/2010

Long Island Real Estate Market - Suffolk County Suffolk County Homes Under Contract For 2008168 Homes Under Contract In 2008Average Listing Price: $318,551.00Property Taxes: $6,863.00High Listing Price: $1,350,000.00Property Taxes: $18,010.00Low Listing Price: $22,000.00Property Taxes: $2,328.66 Suffolk County Homes Under Contract For 2009Over 500 Homes Under Contract In 2009Average Listing Price: $303,124.00Property Taxes: $7,584.00.00 High Listing Price: $1,999,000.00Property Taxes: $27,490.00Low Listing Price: $65,000.00Property Taxes: $2,710.00 If you want market reports for your neighborhood delivered to your email Inbox, email or call me (631-274-1937) and I will sign you up.   01/21/2010

FHA To Toughen Down Payment Rules The Federal Housing Administration will raise the minimum down payment for its least credit-worthy borrowers, agency announced Tuesday. Borrowers with credit-rating scores below 580 will be required to put down at least 10 percent. Those with a credit score above 580 will be able to continue to put down only 3.5 percent. The changes are intended to shore up the agency's finances. The FHA also will increase its upfront mortgage insurance premium from 1.75 percent to 2.25 percent. The agency is expected to seek congressional approval to raise annual mortgage insurance premiums, paid by borrowers over the life of the loan, above the current 0.55 percent maximum. The amount it will seek has yet been announced. 01/20/2010

These emails make me laugh! Reference No: EDN-L/L-1917. Int. Claims Dept. Tele2.nl/Microsoft Corporations: Customer Service You’re Reference No: EDN-L/L-1917: You’re Batch No: 2010/703/MIC. Tele2.nl/Microsoft, in conjunction with the foundation for the promotion of software products, (F.P.S.) held this month of January,2010 in The Netherlands where your email address emerged as one of the online  Winning emails in the 3rd category and therefore attracted a cash award of 550,000.00 (Five Hundred and Fifty Thousand Euros) and a Dell laptop. Your Reference No: EDN-L/L-1910.Your Batch No: 2009/704/MIC. CONTACT. Mr.Pascal Van Bloom TEL:  0031 644-265-261  0031 644-265-261 EMAIL:writevanbloom1@yahoo.com.hk I get these from time to time. I used to get them a lot. I forward them to: spam@uce.g... 01/20/2010

Things To Do On Valentine's Day On Long Island and New York City I found things to do on Valentine's Day for everyone! Valentine's Day In Manhattan Single Mingle Weekend Dating Local Wine and Beer Tasting Water's Edge Restaurant in Long Island City Romantic Dinners in Manhattan and Brooklyn Marriott Melville on Long Island C.W. Post Fine Arts and Crafts Fair The Inn At Fox Hollow Long Island Restaurant Week & Valentine's Day My Google Valentine's Day Search I hope you will find all of this helpful. Happy Valentine's Day! 01/20/2010

Ebay - The In's and Out's As a former ebay seller of children's boutique clothing, most people think they are getting a good deal when they buy on ebay. Ebay is not what it used to be when it first started. You could get anything for cheap. Those days are long gone. What about handbags like Coach, Prada, and Kate Mack? How do you know it's not a fake? How about those seller descriptions holding you to your purchase? It's not all cut and dry. Here are some tips that will save you time, money and aggravation. Whatever you want to purchase on ebay, do your research. Google that item to make sure the price you are paying is in line with the rest of the selling world. Unless it's a hard to find item, why pay more for something than you have to? If you are looking to purchase high end handbag... 01/20/2010

Long Island Real Estate Market - Suffolk County Suffolk County Home Listing Prices For 2008Average Listing Price: $639,513.00Property Taxes: $9,177.00High Listing Price: $14,500,000.00Property Taxes: $71,758.00Low Listing Price: $65,000.00Property Taxes: $199.99 Suffolk County Home Listing Prices For 2009Average Listing Price: $489,525.00Property Taxes: $12,606.00 High Listing Price: $19,995,000.00Property Taxes: $1,265,782.00Low Listing Price: $2,350.00.00Property Taxes: $3,500.00.00 Home prices have come down compared to 2008. Wouldn't it be nice if taxes came down too? I will be posting Long Island Homes Under Contract for Suffolk County 2008 & 2009 tomorrow, 1/20/10 01/19/2010

Carbon Monoxide - The Silent Killer I don't know about anyone else, but I wouldn't be able to sleep without a carbon monoxide detector. This past Sunday morning, ours stopped working and I told my husband I will not be able to sleep without one working in the house. We bought the one pictured by Kidde. It came with a battery and all you do is plug it in. It has a tamper resist feature which means if you remove it from the wall, the alarm will go off. It also has a battery back-up for power outages. That's perfect for me! All you have to do is remove the battery tab and plug it in and you are done. No hard wiring. I always thought carbon monoxide only came from a few sources like a blocked chimney flu or a home heating unit. On the back of the carbon monoxide detector package it shows c... 01/18/2010

I'm a Realtor. I get up early even on the weekends. I got up at 7 and this is "sleeping in" for me. At 8 a.m. my dog starts to bark so loud I jumped right off the chair. Then I hear a knock on my door. "Someone better be dead" I said to myself. I open the door and there are 2 Jehovah's Witness with 2 reading booklets.  "Hi, my name is........" before they got to say their names, I told them that I'm a Realtor and she interupted me and pointed to my car that has my car magents. Yes, that's me but here is my point.... I try to get new business by door knocking. Do you have any idea what would be said or even done to me if I knocked on doors at 8 a.m.? I'd be drawn and quartered and that would be lucky! They proceeded to hand me the booklets and I told them no thank you. I was trying to b... 01/16/2010

First Time Home Buyers And Payment Shock! Earlier this week I met my clients at my office to meet with our Coldwell Banker Mortgage Professional to have them get their pre-approval redone by her. The first person that "pre-approved" them disappeared on my clients and they never received a pre-approval letter. So, she pre-approves them and they go into payment shock. They currently pay $1200.00 in rent and their mortgage payment would be $1700.00 including everything. They went into payment shock as most first time home buyers do. They knew their mortgage would be more than rent but didn't expect a $500.00 difference. Unless you are going to put down a lot of money, expect your mortgage payment to be close to $2000.00 per month here on Long Island. I told them to go home and sit down an... 01/15/2010

Colon Cancer - Get Off The Pot! No pun intended. Really. I just got a call from a friend and her husband is in the hospital. 2 days ago he went there because for a few days before that, he was throwing up and had stomach discomfort. He is not one to take medicine or go to the hospital so I could only imagine the discomfort he was in that prompted him to tell his wife to take him to the emergency room. He also did not have a BM for 5 days before this. Not a good sign folks. While he is in the hospital, they ran tests and saw he had tumors throughout his colon. Now we are waiting for the biopsy results to see if it's malignant. He did have surgery to remove the tumors and they think they got it all but now it's a waiting game. Here is the deal. If you are 50 or over and your Doctor says i... 01/15/2010

Haiti Earthquake This earthquake in Haiti hit 7.0 on the Richter scale. We see on the news the total devastation that Haiti is enduring. Too early to figure out a death and missing toll. As I watch the news, I'm thinking how lucky we are to be living in America. Yes, in certain areas we have high taxes, people that live at and below the poverty line, high crime in certain areas, etc. All in all, America is the best place to live. We have freedoms that allow us to live freely where others do not. We have programs that help the poor. Haiti does not. Most there are homeless. More homeless and poor that we will ever have here. We are really lucky to live in a country that can turn around and help a country like Haiti. They are fellow human beings and I would like to think that if we suffer... 01/13/2010

Babylon Village Real Estate - Where Were The Buyers?!?!??! I sent a mailing to an expired listing located in Babylon Village, New York, a few days ago. I received an email from the homeowner asking me and 2 other agents not to send mailings and to not come to his door. "My house was on the market for 6 months". "Where were your buyers then?" Boy, I could tell he was ticked off to no end! That evening as I lay in bed, I kept thinking of that last line he said. I had to get up and look into because it bothered me that much. As I did area comparables, I noticed that homes comparable to his were selling for more than what his home was priced at. Now I'm even more concerned because his home was nicer than the rest at that time. I took a look at his listing more carefully and found that he h... 01/08/2010

GoogleBot - Since I've been using Sitemeter to see how people find my blog and real estate website, I've been seeing the location: Mountainview, California a lot. It was making me a little concerned because it's many times per day, everyday. They would view many pages and the duration times were always over 3 minutes. So, I clicked on the link to bring me to the details about the "person" and the domain name is Googlebot.com. Since my inquiring mind wanted to know, I googled googlebot and found this: Googlebot is the search bot software used by Google, which collects documents from the web to build a searchable index for the Google search engine. If a webmaster wishes to restrict the information on their site available to a Googlebot, or another well-behaved spider, they can do so with... 01/07/2010

Long Island Real Estate - Home Buyer Tax Credit Extended & Expanded This tax credit is not just for first-time home buyers anymore. This needs to be posted again for a reminder not to miss out on it if you can afford to buy a home! Under the new law, an eligible taxpayer must buy, or enter into a binding contract to buy, a principal residence on or before April 30, 2010 and close on the home by June 30, 2010. For qualifying purchases in 2010, taxpayers have the option of claiming the credit on either their 2009 or 2010 return.   The new law also: Authorizes the credit for long-time homeowners buying a replacement principal residence. Raises the income limitations for homeowners claiming the credit.  Members of the military, Foreign Service and intelligence community serving outside the... 01/06/2010