Archive for the 'Current Issues in Real Estate' Category
There is a lot of competition with Westchester NY homes for sale. During this major housing recession we’ve learned that aggressively promoting the home from top to bottom is extremely important.
When I list a home I tell the seller a hard truth that permeates this market whether you are listing at the high end in Scarsdale or Larchmont to a small coop in downtown White Plains. That truth is that buyers are demanding and LAZY….Seriously, most buyers just don’t want to lift a finger to do anything. The thought of sweat equity has been left in the dustbin of the bull market along with no-doc, low-doc and stated income loans.
Given this atmosphere – where buyers are skimming the cream and leaving the rest – we think often of bringing in stagers to achieve a depersonalized move-in ready feel to a home. People make upgrades just to sell a home. New kitchens and baths are often installed just to appeal to buyers. But what about that all-important first impression? Before people even enter your Westchester home? Curb appeal is very powerful and if you miss out on plantings during this summer market – you are missing an opportunity – and perhaps leaving money on the table.
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It was once said that there are two main emotions that drive any market – fear and greed. As a general rule, the side with the royal flush tends to play the “greed card” while the side with an lowly pair deuces operates from the “fear” side of the equation. This market is definite staked towards buyers and as a result – some are overestimating their power by pushing the greed card way too far. I never knew there were so many ways to blow the opportunities that this market has to offer by simply being too greedy.
Westchester Home Buyers who assume they can just lean hard on sellers until they cave…
Buyers seem to be playing a lot of games lately and some are almost drunk with hubris. Nevertheless, parts of the housing market in lower Westchester is no longer a no-holds- barred buyers market. Some of the most desirable pockets are transitioning to a sellers market. Transitioning markets are tricky – the transition might be real – or it might be just another false start. But its a trend that has been ongoing for a while now – so I do take it seriously.
For the moment however, buyers are coming up with some very creative ways of shooting themselves in the foot.
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In real estate it is a known fact that it is actually the buyers who determine the market. Home sellers can put any list price they please on the listing sheet, but it is the buyer that actually speaks for the “market.” However, that is not to say that an individual buyer can determine the market by him or herself! It “buyers” collectively that determine where the market is for any given home.
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There is yet another reason for first-time home buyers in Westchester NY to get off the fence. Rising rental rates. There has always been a yin/yang between buying vs renting a home. Before the crash of 2008, Westchester homes have been priced such that the pendulum had swung toward renting. For a while now that the pendulum was in the center making the decision a wash. Buying made sense if buyers were looking to stay put for at least 5 years. Now the pendulum is starting to swing in favor of buying.
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Last Saturday I was busy prepping a property for listing. The owner no is no longer local – so after supervising the sanding and refinishing of floors, painting and the rehab of a bathroom – I went in with a cleaning lady complete my vacuum cleaning and other cleaning supplies since the home is now empty. These are some of the activities that can and often are, associated with listing a home.
At some point during the process, I got a phone call. I was expecting a couple of calls and stupidly did not notice that it was an 800 number. It was a representative from what we refer to as a “third-party-site.” Such a site is basically a web site with a fairly good “mousetrap” that somehow convinces the unsuspecting public to logon and give up their name, email address and perhaps even their phone number. Very often the site promises to find the unsuspecting buyer or seller an agent that is an area “expert” who supposedly knows the location they are interested in the inside and out. What the prospective buyer or seller doesn’t realize is that most (but not all) of these sites are simply mills that collect buyer and seller information and “sell” the information for an agent willing or desperate enough to give up enough of their commission to satisfy what appears to be an insatiable appetite.
Real estate agents are middle men…
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Sometimes I venture into the blogosphere of politics…OK – I’ll admit it – I’m a political junkie but there are worse faults a real estate agent could have – so please don’t hold it against me. I guess I get some of this fascination with local governance from my late mother who was involved in our local political scene for decades. She foresaw the trend of the shifting burden of the tax base from corporate entities to individuals 15 years before retroactive Certioaris flattened much of the New York tax base like a pancake.
But I digress…
Matt Yglesias wrote a post on the need for moderate priced housing in the DC area and suggested rezoning to allow for greater density. This set off a wave of responses including some rather typical “NIMBY” comments and cautionary tales about how zoning changes may not result in the desired moderate priced housing.
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Many sellers who are barely breaking even or are under water are desperate for every penny they can get out of their home. For many their home was their nest egg and now rising taxes and financial hardship are forcing them to sell at the depths of the biggest housing recession since the Great Depression.
The question goes something like this:
“We need to get “X” out of our home in order to move on with our lives. You say it is worth 20% less. Why can’t we try it at the price we need and if it doesn’t sell, lower the price in a couple of months?”
Right now, this is still a brutal market for many sellers. Some areas have bottomed out – most are bottoming out – but quite a few markets aren’t there yet and buyers know this and are driving a hard bargain.
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This is an issue that is brought up by sellers all the time. Usually the question is asked far more politely…and goes something like this:
“I know you work hard at what you do, but these are hard times and I am barely breaking even. Is there anything you can do about the commission?”
Sometimes there is no room!
Now, a great deal depends on the price range of the home involved. There are cooperatives and condos in our area where there really is no wiggle room with respect to commission. Gone are the days when an agent can take a couple photos, slap it on the MLS and sit back. Marketing is necessary and it is not inexpensive. So at the entry level I can easily find myself working nearly pro bono and sometimes find myself with a net loss. Read the rest of this entry »
When buyers first come to me they have a lot of criteria on their wish list. Very often the hype in the market about homes being available for pennies on the dollar sets them up for disappointment. It is not unusual for me to hear the following…
We love this house! It has all the amenities we want – but that neighborhood! Why can’t we find this in the school district (or insert other criteria) that we want?
This is a question asked by many buyers who are frustrated that they are not able to find exactly what they are looking for at their price point. Lenn Harley wrote a tremendous post on this topic and kind of beat me to the punch on this topic. “I’ll send you my criteria….” In that blog – Lenn aptly describes a situation very familiar to Westchester NY agents. A buyer who is perfectly capable of buying has created criteria that is so tight it prices them out of the market. It happens all the time and the way I answer that question depends on the circumstances.
Often the buyer has has selected an area exclusively based on the school district (as in Lenn’s blog) I recognize and understand everyone’s desire to give their children every advantage, but unfortunately everyone likes that town (zip code) for the same reason. Since pricing is determined by supply and demand, how much you can buy often depends more on where you are looking. Some areas are highly competitive while others have plenty of inventory.
This is a question that was put to me recently in an email. In fact I get variations on this question often on my web site “just ask me” area.
Why do I need a buyers agent when I can run around to open houses and find the property myself?
Implicit in this question is the thought that they will somehow save a big fat 3% by dealing directly with the listing agent. And why not? It sounds like a great way to save money. After all – the only thing agents do is open doors and fill out a few forms. The listing agent should be thrilled to just sell the home, surely he/she can afford to fork over the other side’s commission to seal the deal!
Where to even begin on this one – except to say -not so fast!
The commission offered the buyer is determined by a contract between the seller and the listing agent:
1. The agreement is between the listing agent and the seller. You do not know the details. What on earth makes anyone think the buyers agent is being offered 3%? Coops (the commission offered to the buyers agent by the seller) are all over the map around here. As a buyer, you have no idea what the seller offered to pay the buyers agent. That is between the seller and the listing agent.
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