White Plains is synonymous with shopping. It is know for its shops particularly along Mamaroneck Ave, Post Rd. and Main St. As a result, White Plains shops in the downtown area really comes to life during the Holiday Season. Shopping and fine dining are part of the downtown White Plains lifestyle. Tuesday night I decided that it was time to “get serious” about Christmas and do some real shopping. I decided to start at the City Center Mall and go to one of my favorite haunts – the Barnes & Noble. I was meandering around in my usual catatonic shopping state of mind when I ran smack into a security guard who had the audacity to be blocking my progress. He was very polite, since I was obviously not paying any attention whatsoever. “Are you here for the book signing?” he inquired. The question jolted me awake. I was standing smack in the middle of an area that was roped off and I was clearly in the way. I asked who was coming and he replied “Jim Cramer.”
You never know when you are going to be surprised. I was thrilled. My father is a HUGE fan and as many of regular readers know, he is not at all well. I quickly bought his latest book to autograph for my Dad and waited patiently for him to arrive. Read the rest of this entry »
Now, I have nothing against the Realtors who were chosen as the finest agents in Westchester NY real estate. None at all. it was fascinating to see how the authors chose to define “success.” They used a simple unbiased metric – the bottom line. They defined success in terms of .sales volume in dollars. The theory being – the bigger the sales volume the better the “track record.” This kind of boggles my tiny mind. In a twisted way it reflects the public antipathy to Realtors in general because it emphasizes that “success” is defined in dollar signs.
This got me thinking – how exactly should one define success in real estate? How should these bottom line numbers like sales production and number of listings held factor into a home owners decision about who to sign a listing contract with?
Well, realistically, an agent has to achieve two goals. Certainly, over time, the agent must be able to turn a profit or they will go out of business. This is much harder to do than most people outside our industry think. I have to make a living this way and turning a profit is absolutely essential or my bills don’t get paid. But for all the delusions of real estate agents being “rich” without any effort, the failure rate is enormously high – north of 80% in most of the country (over 90% locally.) So posting sales volume is a major component of success.
But, what does this do for the client? The home seller or home buyer? The article indicated that whether selling or buying – these agents were the best. But by looking at sales volume only, the article missed the mark altogether.
1. Is this agent primarily a listing agent or a buyer’s agent? If they have an even number of sales in both categories – fine. But I looked at the sales history of a couple of these superstars. They were primarily listing agents and did relatively few sales as a buyer’s agent.
2. On the listing side, what is their success rate? After all, an agent can make a bundle listing in volume. The percent of listings that actually sell is another matter.To that end I took a look a closer look at a “top agents” sales record for 2009. I picked an agent on the list at random and found the following.
Part 1 of “This Brokerage Has 750 Listings…..So they must be the best! ” was prompted by the fact that the Westchester NY real estate market had changed and as a result, I was getting more and more questions about what a brokerage brought to the table in terms of marketing. I emphasized the importance of choosing the right agent and that the brokerage itself was of less importance. I also indicated that there was a lot of smoke and mirrors regarding brokerage brands and what that means to the seller in terms of marketing the home. Also, for those consumers who would like to see broker/agent input on Part 1 of this post…you can go to my blog onActiveRain where I re-posted the blog. It got a good deal of attention and much commentary from real estate professionals.
In the end, I promised a sequel that got into more specifics. So here it is – six major myths about listing a property and marketing a property that are often trumpeted by our own industry. Its been said that if you repeat something often enough it becomes “fact” in the eyes of the consumer. So let’s put some of these “facts” to rest.
Myth #1 – “We have 12 billion to the 10th power active listings, so our reputation speaks for itself!”
Really? How on earth does anyone come to that conclusion? You can have all the listings in the world, but if you can’t sell them, what’s the point? The percentage of sold listings is a bit more pertinant. However, even that number does not discriminate between individual agent performance.
Autumn in lower Westchester NY is a very colorful event.
There is something about the color of the leaves and how it lights up the sky that I find very compelling. Forget leaf peeping in Vermont – our season peaks later, but the foliage is just as amazing. At this time of year, people flock to parks in Westchester NY for the foliage and crisp weather.
This week had been particularly stressful – so Friday afternoon I escaped to the Rockefeller Preserve in Sleepy Hollow to regenerate. Among the many things to do in Westchester, this is among my favorite places to decompress and get back in touch with what it is all about. Although the leaves were more than half gone, the color of the sky and the sunlight caused the remaining leaves light up the sky with a full fall fire. Jade and Tundra – my faithful Huskies accompanied me and enjoyed the blustery cold air. We also ran into a friend from my brokerage – Monique another avid walker, arrived just as I was leaving.
Here are a couple of the photos I snapped along the way. As a nature Preserve, you get to see the beauty of nature’s wild side.
Happy Halloween to all! I went to the Halloween Blaze at Van Cortlant Manor in order to deliver to everyone some prime photos from one of the areas primary hot spots for Halloween.. The Halloween “Blaze” celebration is nothing short of amazing with 4000 pumpkins lit up on the 18th Century colonial estate. They make them into dinosaurs, they have black cats, and rats carved into pumpkins, ornate patterns as well as a spaceship, a pirates ship and so much more too numerous to even begin. The tour takes a little over an hour and is worth the trip up from lower Westchester to Croton-on-Hudson…Unfortunately, I’m still playing with the pics. I admit – a professional photographer I am not. I made a mistake with my settings and it was literally too dark to fix!
So, as a poor substitute – I found this video of Bobby Picket singing the “Monster Mash” on YouTube. I’ve heard it every Halloween since I was a child, but I didn’t know the artist behind the voice. His immitation of Boris Karloff made him and the song “The Monster Mash” famous. The song was composed in 1962 and was a major hit. It went through several incarnations – taking off in Britain in the 1970s.
Does size really matter? Do the number of listings or the size of the brokerage have anything to do with the ability of the agent to market and sell a home successfully? Is it the brokerage or the agent that is the determining factor?
What Does the Brokerage Bring to the Table?
With the Westchester NY real estate market in a downward trajectory, sellers realize that they need more than a sign in the ground to move their property. In truth, this was always the case, but these days I’m getting more and more questions about marketing the listing. One of the biggest issues I encounter on listing presentations are questions regarding the brokerage itself. Most questions revolve around marketing. What does the brokerage do in terms of marketing for the listing?
I think that most sellers assume that since the brokerage is “big” and has capital behind it, that they are the ones spending big bucks on marketing the home. But this is rarely the case. Many big-box national brokerages build on that confusion and perpetuate the myth that their brokerage “brand” makes a significant difference in selling a home for top dollar. They also tout their “marketing package” in terms of the amount of support they offer. Some actually stress that the number of agents in the brokerage somehow makes that brokerage better or somehow more able to move the property. With all the hype and misinformation out there it is small wonder that sellers are confused.
I would challenge these large brokerages who claim that their numbers speak for themselves to enumerate exactly WHAT they do to justify their claims? And while they are at it, I would like to have some hard numbers to back up their success stories. I haven’t seen any of them come up with any marketing advantage that holds up under scrutiny. Most of the time they appear to be blowing smoke. Don’t get me wrong, I’m not slamming big brokerages. That would be rather foolish since the brokerage that I am currently associated with is quite large. What I am trying to do is cut through the hype. Read the rest of this entry »
The Hartsdale NY housing market is in buyer’s market mode. Prices for coops, condos and single family homes all experienced price reductions when compared with the third quarter of the previous year. This was the second year of price reductions for the area. Volume was variable with single-family home sales being down 70% over the previous year while there was a slight increase in the number of coop sales.
Hartsdale Cooperatives:
Coop prices dropped 11.1% over the previous year with the average price being $192k for Q3 2009. That was enough to make them a desirable purchase. This was particularly true of East Hartsdale Ave. Demand remained high and volume was up 1% from 2008. There is a 5.8 month inventory on the market – making it a borderline buyer’s market in terms of inventory. Prices have dropped nearly 15% from Q3 2007 – which is roughly when sales prices peaked. This is still a buyer’s market, but the reduction in inventory and stable sales volume indicates that we may be near the bottom.
Hartsdale Condominiums:
Condos didn’t fare as well as cooperatives. Sales prices were down nearly 13% from the previous year. The average sales price for the third quarter was $370k down from $425k in 2008. Sales volume was down 33.3% and there is currently an 8 month inventory on the market creating a definite buyer’s market. This market didn’t really start declining until after the stock market crash – so it may have some more adjustments ahead.
Following the stock market crash of 2008, home prices in White Plains finally took a hit. This market had remained remarkably sturdy up to the fourth quarter of 2008. The correction has been an abrupt one. The third quarter market reports reflect a market that is experiencing a major correction. The declines are steady but not alarming. This is the first time that White Plains has have every single factor in buyer’s market territory.
White Plains Cooperatives:
The average price of a cooperative in White Plains has decreased to $181,000 – down $36,000 or near 17% fromQ3 of 2008. Sales volume was also down 38.5%. Although sales picked up over the summer months inventories remain in excess of 12 months. This is an excellent buying opportunity and sellers need to be realistic when pricing their homes.
White Plains Condominiums:
Condos have seen a sharp decline in prices. This is to be expected because during the boom a large number of condos were built creating a “natural” glut. Sales prices are down 16.1% over the previous year to $463,000 – down $89,000 over the previous year. Sales volume was down 20% over the previous year. Once again – this is a buyer’s market and sellers need to price their units to sell.
Over the past couple of months, I have written some scathing blogs about the big banks (Big Box Bankmarts) and their inability to fund loans in a sane, reasonable and timely manner. I’ve had loans stalled, delayed and otherwise mired in underwriting for months on end for no apparent good reason.
Just the other day Chris Berg created a “movie” using XtraNormal about Big banks and foreclosure sales. If you want a good laugh – you should take a look. This inspired me to try my hand at an XtraNormal video creating my own diatribe on the big banks regarding plain vanilla 30-year loans. I admit that my dialogue can not match Chris Berg’s but the sentiment is the same.
Over the past four months, I’ve had five transactions with one particular big-box bank. All save one were a complete nightmare. What tipped me over the edge towards a new rant was Greg Nino’s post “I am prejudiced and here’s why…”, a post from Michael and Karen George “A Realtor really messed me up the other day.” and the fact that yet another loan is poised to have a prolonged escrow due to a Big-Box Bankmart.
I will leave you guessing as to the identity of the banks in question…I am not as brave as Greg. But I can say this much…my litany of complaints could fill a tomb the size of War and Peace. Mountains were made out of molehills. LO’s went MIA when the going got tough. Papers got lost, closings were delayed (5 times in one instance) the process went on so long that things such as employment verifications required RE-verification. Rate- locks expired and contracts were hanging by a thread because so much time had elapsed. There were extensions on extensions. You name it, it went wrong. The final insult came when the bank then “surprised” the buyers by trying to increase the agreed upon mortgage interest rate by 0.25 points at the closing table.
If the public believes that Big-Box Bankmart is their only choice – it will become just that:
As I saidin a previous blog on seemingly endless escrows- all I ever get from the powers that be at any Big-Box Bankmart is snarky arrogance bordering on disdain. Its pretty simple….Big-Box Bankmarts pretty much feel that they are in full control of the situation. The result is a smugness that is simply disgusting. Since the public feels that they are the ONLY game in town – Big-Box Bankmarts feel accountable to no one. If the public believes that Big-Box Bankmart is the only viable choice – it will become just that.
But hubris is dangerous…..There can be accountability – but we have to make them accountable. Let’s vote with our feet and tell our clients why we don’t want them using banks that just have not been performing. The public needs to say “NO!” – we won’t use a Big-Box Bankmart until they clean up their act – and by doing it collectively – we are doing ourselves, and in some ways – our country – a good turn. By using banks and mortgage brokers that can get the job done in a timely manner with decent customer service – we are saying “no” to bad service and a dangerous trend towards Big-Box Bankmart monopolies.
White Plains is synonymous with shopping. It is know for its shops particularly along Mamaroneck Ave, Post Rd. and Main St. As a result, White Plains shops in the downtown area really comes to life during the Holiday Season. Shopping and fine dining are part of the downtown White Plains lifestyle. Tuesday night I decided that it was time to “get serious” about Christmas and do some real shopping. I decided to start at the City Center Mall and go to one of my favorite haunts – the Barnes & Noble. I was meandering around in my usual catatonic shopping state of mind when I ran smack into a security guard who had the audacity to be blocking my progress. He was very polite, since I was obviously not paying any attention whatsoever. “Are you here for the book signing?” he inquired. The question jolted me awake. I was standing smack in the middle of an area that was roped off and I was clearly in the way. I asked who was coming and he replied “Jim Cramer.”
