Westchester County New York Real Estate Blog

Licensed? What Does it Mean....

This past week I took a course sponsored by the National Association of Realtors(r) on "Short Sales and Foreclosures" which is the first step toward the Certification SFR Short Sales and Foreclosure Resource.  This course was one day and was loaded with all kinds of helpful information so that I can advise homeowners appropriately if they are considering a short sale or headed toward foreclosure.  There was a lot of information about what we real estate agent should not do.

The course was taught by Randy Templeman who was great, enthusiastic and knowledgeable.  We agents need to take continuing education to maintain our licenses and when the instructor is boring or stumbles it is painful to sit through these classes and thankfully that was not the case here.

Getting the license is not difficult but educating your self and getting experience is what makes the difference which is why after 17 years I continue to take classes and learn.

A quote from Mr. Templeman's website:

Select your Realtor as carefully as the home you buy!  It does make a difference.  Realtors are licensed by New York State.  New York also licenses drivers.  Does that make everyone a good driver?  The choice is yours.  Choose wisely. 

House Rental in Scarsdale, New York

Just Reduced from $4,750.00 to $4,450.00 Fully Available!

MLS# 2926232

Call 914-907-1922

I have a house rental in Scarsdale, New York.  The last tenant lived in the house for over two years and moved out this past weekend.  The house was difficult to show because of all of their stuff but all of it is gone now.  The house has a large living room, a formal dining room and a very large oversized first floor den.  The kitchen is eat in and the laundry is on the first floor.  There is a master bedroom and bath plus three other bedrooms and a hall bath.  There is a powder room. It is steps to the Village of Scarsdale and about a three minute walk to the Scarsdale Train Station an it is a 32 minute train ride into New York City.  How great is that!

REALTOR Code of Ethics And Agency Disclosure, New York

There is a Realtor Code of Ethics which is a National Code for real estate agents who belong to the National Association of Realtors.  Do all agents belong to the NAR?  No they don't.  Are agents bound by the Code of Ethics if they are not a member?  No they are not. In New York state these are the definitions you need to know:

These three terms are New York State Licensing terms.  New agents need to take the salesperson class, pass a state licensing test, affiliate with a broker (office) and then they can begin to sell real estate in New York State.  After 2 years under supervision of a Broker a Salesperson can take more classes, pass another state licensing test and become a Broker.  If an agent licensed as  Broker decides not to open their own office but work under the auspices of another broker they are an Associate Broker.

1.  Salesperson

2. Associate Broker

3. Broker

Then there is the Code of Ethics for those agents who becomes members of their local and national associations. The Code of Ethics governs the ethics and how real estate agents bound to behave. 

Then we have Agency Disclosure Forms which govern our interactions with the public.  If you are a buyer we can be your agent, if you are a seller we can be your agent.  We need to discuss, disclose and decide with each client or customer what our role will be.  

Then we have rules about entering information onto the Multiple Listing Service.  Then each office has rules. Then there are Fair Housing Rules.  There are a lot of rules to know and follow.  A lot.  Each state is different so if you are relocating from a different state it is not the same here.

New Home Deduction

From the National Association of Realtors, needs Presdient Obama's signature but this is what it looks like:

Market Stats

	Miriam Bernstein's Real-time Real Estate Market Profile
	How's the Real Estate Market in YOUR area? All the market trend charts on this page are 'live'. Bookmark this page to watch the market change each week. Want more details? Subscribe to myReal-Time Market Report. It's all about what's going on right now and it's free!
	ARDSLEY Real Estate Market (10502) Median Price Subscribe to my ARDSLEY Market Intelligencereport for weekly neighborhood trends. Average Days on Market Subscribe now to learn dozens of ARDSLEY real estate trends and other important market measures! Inventory Subscribe to my ARDSLEY Market Intelligencereport for weekly neighborhood trends. Median Price Per Sqft Subscribe now to learn dozens of ARDSLEY real estate trends and other important market measures! CHAPPAQUA Real Estate Market (10514) Median Price Subscribe to my CHAPPAQUA Market Intelligencereport for weekly neighborhood trends. Average Days on Market Subscribe now to learn dozens of CHAPPAQUA real estate trends and other important market measures! Inventory Subscribe to my CHAPPAQUA Market Intelligencereport for weekly neighborhood trends. Median Price Per Sqft Subscribe now to learn dozens of CHAPPAQUA real estate trends and other important market measures! HARTSDALE Real Estate Market (10530) Median Price Subscribe to my HARTSDALE Market Intelligencereport for weekly neighborhood trends. Average Days on Market Subscribe now to learn dozens of HARTSDALE real estate trends and other important market measures! Inventory Subscribe to my HARTSDALE Market Intelligencereport for weekly neighborhood trends. Median Price Per Sqft Subscribe now to learn dozens of HARTSDALE real estate trends and other important market measures! SCARSDALE Real Estate Market (10583) Median Price Subscribe to my SCARSDALE Market Intelligencereport for weekly neighborhood trends. Average Days on Market Subscribe now to learn dozens of SCARSDALE real estate trends and other important market measures! Inventory Subscribe to my SCARSDALE Market Intelligencereport for weekly neighborhood trends. Median Price Per Sqft Subscribe now to learn dozens of SCARSDALE real estate trends and other important market measures!

The Best of Both Worlds

At RE/MAX we have the best of both worlds.  RE/MAX International is a network of close to 95,000 agents around the world but each office is independently owned and operated which means the owners of your local office are local in your community.

It also means that dual agency doesn't attach because you are using a RE/MAX agent as your buyer's agent and you are buying a property from a RE/MAX office unless it is the same RE/MAX office. If I am your buyer's agent and I am affiliated with RE/MAX in Scarsdale and you are interested in a property listed with the RE/MAX office in Harrison or Yorktown I can still work as your buyer's agent.  I do not become a dual agent or designated dual agent.

A win win for you the consumer.

Are Real Estate Teams a Good Thing for the Public?

This article about Real Estate Teams appeared in the New York Times this morning.  The article says that real estate teams takes a cue from medical practices which is a bit of a stretch.  In a medical practice if you go to your internist (the broker) and he refers you to another specialist in his office that individual is a trained and boarded specialist in his own right.  In real estate teams the individual you are handed off to is often new to the business and learning. I often think about forming a team the problem is that I then think about how I would feel about hiring a broker, developing a rapport and understanding with that person and then not continuing the conversations with that person having someone else relay messages to that person, or having to repeat and explain things to another person when I thought that I had an understanding with the broker.  This article explains that one of the reasons for a team is to have someone always available for issues that a buyer or seller might need to discuss, well I am always available by cell, instant message and by email.

This is another way of selling real estate that I am sure works for certain buyers and sellers and brokers it is just not the way I choose to do business. It is a way for brokers to fluff up their sales numbers so when you see an agent sold 6 trillion dollars of real estate for the year that includes the broker and their entire team.  Don't forget about agency laws as well.  When you call a listing broker off an ad and they then assign you to one of their buyer's agents that is a designated dual agency situation if you are interested in their listing.  Would you be better off with your own buyer's agent? Ms. Claymen's quote in the article is exactly the problem a team member available is not the same thing as the broker being available.   You might be working with a brand new agent under the auspices of the broker name which is fine as long as it is disclosed.  Disclosure is always key so the consumer can make up their own minds. The definition of dual agency and designated dual agency:

Section 1. Subdivision 1 of section 443 of the real property law is amended by adding two new paragraphs i and j to read as follows:

i. "Dual agent" means an agent who is acting as a buyer's agent and a seller's agent in the same transaction. 
j. "Designated sales associate" means a licensed real estate salesman or associate broker, working under the supervision of a real estate broker, who has been assigned to represent a client when a different client is also represented by such real estate broker in the same transaction.

"Indeed, many sellers with only one agent worry about getting lost in the shuffle, said Elaine Clayman, a broker with Brown Harris Stevens in Manhattan who oversees an eight-member team, one of the first formed in the New York area.

“Clients tell me, ‘I met the broker, I liked the broker, but I never heard from the broker again,’ ” said Ms. Clayman, who started her team almost a decade ago and often serves as a role model for newer team leaders. “Someone should always be available to hold the client’s hand.”

To read the entire article, here.

Time Change This Weekend, November 2, 2009

Why do brokers post the time change on their websites and blogs? We post it because of all the Sunday mornings over the years where buyer's or seller's have been late for their appointments because they forgot to change their clocks.Have had it happen more than once. This is posted in the hopes that buyer's will remember to change their clocks before they go to bed on Saturday night and will be on time Sunday.

Home Buyers Credit to Be Extended?!?

The Senate's top Democrat and top Republican each voiced support on Wednesday for extension of a soon-to-expire $8,000 tax credit for home buyers, but left unclear when the chamber would act..

From CNBC the rest of the article, here.

Halloween Event in Westchester County, New York 2009

This is the 5th Anniversary of the The Great Jack O'Lantern Blaze at Van Cortlandt Manor in Croton-on-Hudson come see over 3000 Jack O'Lantern's all a blaze!

October 28 - November 1, 2009

For further details, directions, please click here.

Consumer Centric vs. Agency Centric Real Estate

I have had several buyers who have relocated to the Westchester County area over the past few months from other areas of the country.  The practice of real estate is local, there are differences from area to area.  These buyers come from areas where real estate is consumer centric, the consumer is foremost.  One of the areas is Denver.  This buyer expected free choice in terms of who she used as a real estate agent and I was glad I could tell her that Westchester County is also conumer centric and that her rights as a consumer to pick her own agent and that she would have full access to available property.  She can work with a buyer's agent who will work in her best interests.  She was relieved.

Historically before the internet, before agency disclosure laws agency's would withhold listings and try o force buyers to use their company.   They tried to sell the listings within their own agency and this is what is called agent/agency centric. They did not share the listings or put them online which meant that a buyer's rights to pick their own agent were taken away from them.  They were forced to use specific agency's for access to listings.  In New York State this is considered discriminatory.  A buyer, according to the Department of State, can not be denied acccess to a property because she is using an agent from another company.  There are pockets in the country who simply do not care about the buyers or sellers in their areas, for them it is about selling within their own agency and making both sides of the commission.  Buyers rights be damned.  When I began selling real estate it was prior to shared listings on the MLS with buyer's being driven crazy having to go agency to agency simply because the agents wanted both sides of the commission.  One of the agencys in Westchester County that was still trying to sell real estate "the old way"  has suffered the consequences.

If you are relocating to Westchester County rest assured that the real estate community here is doing the right thing for the buyer's and seller's in our community.  The Westchester Putnam Multiple Listing Service works well, is well run and they keep on eye on things for you.  It is about you!  NOT ABOUT US!

Marketing Pictures

This is one of my favorite marketing pictures on a house that I recently sold.  My buyer and I both laugh and say that it is this picture that helped her decide to buy this particular house. NOT!

Westchester MLS 3rd Quarter Market Report

From the Westchester Putnam Multiple Listing Service, the 3rd Quarter 2009 market report:

Third quarter single family median2 sales prices, $630,000 in Westchester and $330,000 in Putnam, were below last year’s levels by 11% and 12% respectively, constituting a modest recovery from the second quarter when median prices were running 16% and 19% below last year’s levels. Most of the price decrease since the start of the recession has been attributable to across-the-board market depreciation from lack of demand but part of it also results from a pronounced fall-off in high-end sales. 

In 2008 and earlier, million-dollar-plus sales accounted for as much as 25% or more of all transactions. That percentage abruptly fell to 13% in the first quarter of 2009; it increased to 17% in the second quarter and to 20% in the third quarter but still falls short of its former high levels.

The condominium and cooperative sectors fared better as to prices. The $362,000 median sale price of a Westchester condominium was 8.6% less than last year’s. The co-op median of $170,500 was 9.2% lower than last year’s. The median sale price of Multi-family (2-4 unit) houses was $399,500, retaking its place from condominiums in the second quarter as the second most expensive housing type in Westchester.

The report's analysis:

On a nine-month basis, Westchester County’s sales volume of 3,975 units was 24.1% less than in 2008, and a hurtful 43.3% less than in 2007. The second and especially the third quarter results, however, are trending to a steady improvement in sales volumes. Further, there is a slight suggestion in the data that overall prices are at or close to bottom, and that the high-end segment of the market is inching its way back to a larger market share though probably not its former prominence. These factors, together with the restrained local inventory, suggest that there exists pent-up demand to complement pent up desire to sell – a real estate market in the remaking if only the larger economic environment would cooperate.

The rest of the report, SR3rd09_Final.pdf

Is Your Contractor Licensed?

Gary Brown, director of Consumer Protection in Westchester County noted that homeowners need to protect themselves by doing their due diligence and making sure any contractor they hire is licensed. He noted that all home improvement contractors - including roofers, driveway pavers, landscapers, tile setters, chimney sweeps, fence installers, exterior painters, masons and persons who install or repair exterior siding, decks, windows, doors and swimming pools - must be licensed by the Department of Consumer Protection.

Check online whether a contractor is licensed or call (914) 995-2155. You can also check to see whether there have been complaints against the contractor.

The Weather

Last night at about 6:30 we had just a little snow in mid Westchester County.  There were reports of snow up county.  It is the middle of October and early for temperatures to drop into the 30's at night.  They say we are going to have a cold winter with a lot of snow, that's what the Farmers Almanac says. We shall see.

Today Sat, Oct 17 Sun, Oct 18 Mon, Oct 19 Tue, Oct 20 Wed, Oct 21 Thu, Oct 22 Fri, Oct 23 Sat, Oct 24 Sun, Oct 25                                       Hourly Forecast    more details 6 am 39°F Feels Like 32°F 9 am 42°F Feels Like 35°F 12 pm 46°F Feels Like 40°F 3 pm 46°F Feels Like 41°F 6 pm 46°F Feels Like 40°F 9 pm 45°F Feels Like 39°F