Daily Archives: November 8, 2010

Dealing With Debt Collectors is Not Fun | Katonah NY Real Estate

Invasion of the money snatchers

Book Review: ‘Fight Back Against Unfair Debt Collection Practices’


You’d have to have lived under a very large rock for the last few years to not have heard of the not-so-slow death of investigative journalism. Newspapers are fast being replaced by websites, and those that remain have been largely reformatted to appeal to the miniscule 21st century American attention span.

One revision? The virtual elimination of both (a) the class of reporters who are paid to take weeks, months or even years to investigate a story (think: Watergate) and (b) the long-form stories born of such extended inquiries.

Enterprising journalists of this near-extinct ilk are, perhaps fortunately for us, being forced to turn elsewhere to flex their investigative writing muscle. One example: former newspaper reporter Fred Williams, who went deep cover as a collection agency employee to get the dirt and then spill it in his new book, “Fight Back Against Unfair Debt Collection Practices.”

As a result, this very timely tome reads as part action plan (or, more accurately, reaction plan), part memoir, and all gritty and real when it comes to illuminating what happens inside America’s collection agencies.

Right from the introduction, Williams begins to impress upon readers exactly how heartless and even willing to disobey the law he found the collection agencies he worked in to be, as he retells the story of a collection call he once made to the widower of the debtor.

The man’s wife, Williams was told, died after years of drug abuse. “All that money you’re looking for … (she) put it up her nose,” the man said.

After listening to the man’s now-motherless children in the background, Williams marked the account deceased in accordance with that state’s law, under which the widower was not responsible for his wife’s bills, only to be told by a co-worker, “Someone’s going to get it out of them, only it won’t be you. If you don’t call them, I will.”

In the context of educating readers about how to fight back against collectors gone wild, these heinous stories don’t ring in the vein of the standard us vs. them — they’re evil-type moans and groans.

They serve to shake emotional debtors into the reality that their adversaries, collectors, are in this for one reason only: to collect as much money as possible from whomever they can, however they can.

Their business is not about reason, logic, empathy or sympathy. Given the stories Williams cites of the many collection agencies who are fined hundreds of thousands, even millions, of dollars for violating fair debt collection statutes, the business of collections apparently is not always about collecting what they can within the guidelines stated by law.

With this understanding girding their telephonic loins, Williams proceeds to provide readers with insights and action items to defend themselves from collectors.

“Fight Back” is divided into two parts: Part I is devoted to exposing various debt collection secrets — literal insider secrets Williams culled during his training and experience inside collection agencies.

This part serves as a briefing to consumers about the collection agencies’ modus operandi. Each indivdual secret, from “Anger Can Be Power” to “The Golden Rule: Money Today,” offers a story, a real-life example that illustrates the key tenets of how agencies operate — and also offers a glimpse past the bogus stories that collectors may tell debtors in an effort to guilt, threaten, scare, lie or humiliate them into helping them meet their targets.

Each of these mini-chapters (18 in all) closes with an action item for debtors who are facing the particular collection tactic exposed in the chapter, and also refers them to more detailed solutions in Part II of “Fight Back.”

Part II covers nothing but mechanisms and strategies for coping with unfair debt collection tactics. Here, Williams provides a very user-friendly action guide for consumers at every phase of the debt-collection lifestyle.

Whether you’re looking to stop collectors from calling, file a complaint against them with a regulatory agency or to actually negotiate a debt settlement, the book provides the information debtors need.

Williams doesn’t stop where many books do, by simply quoting from the various legal debt-collection guidelines, although that material is in “Fight Back.”

He offers readers scripts in point-counterpoint format for how to engage in conversation with collectors, rebut their overly aggressive tactics, and still arrive at the desired aim of the conversation in the first place.

Dealing with collectors is not fun — and no book will ever make it so. But with so many Americans forgoing credit card payments to keep up with mortgage payments and finding themselves in collection situations for any number of other reasons, if you find yourself in this situation, it would behoove you to have Fight Back as a weapon in your self-protection arsenal.

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6 Steps To Sell Your Home Fast In North Salem NY | North Salem NY Real Estate

How to Price a Home to Sell Fast

It’s a tough time to be a homeowner trying to sell. The national statistics show inventories and prices holding steady through the first half of 2010. While this is a relief from the grim free fall that home sellers faced after the real estate bubble burst, there still isn’t the upward momentum that owners prefer when they’re looking for home sales.

According to a Wall Street Journal report, only 47 percent of houses listed for sale in major U.S. markets had actually sold by August 2010. Several of the remaining listings were taken off the market. Moreover, the national averages belie the differences that realtors and other experts are seeing from one region to another, and even one neighborhood to the next.

“There’s no longer a national housing market,” says Armando Montelongo, the real estate maven who was featured on A&E’s “Flip This House,” a housing-bubble-era reality show. “You can drive 200 miles and see a totally different real estate climate.”

You might not have to drive that far. Realtors report homes getting offers after a few days on the market in some neighborhoods and languishing for six months or more the next town over. So how do you figure home value and set the right price?

“We have a lot of pockets of activity,” says Debbie Cobb, RE/MAX realtor in the Research Triangle area of North Carolina. “Out in the country we had foreclosures and that area is still sluggish, but we also have an area closer in, called North Hills. That market is still steady, although it’s not as quick a sale as it use to be.”

In short, home sellers who want a quick home sale, say to move for a job or transition to a more affordable place, need to be very price sensitive, especially if they live in average or underperforming areas (like those hit hard by foreclosures). “You can’t price a home too low today, but you can price it too high and not have it sell,” Montelongo cautions.

The best thing, real estate agents say, is to price a home appropriately to begin with. Try to resist the urge to overestimate your home’s value; you want to avoid having your house sit for several months while you lower the price again and again. The more you do this, the more people will wonder what’s wrong with your place, says Chad Goldwasser, a realtor with his own shop in Austin, Texas.

Here’s how to figure out a fair home value:

1. Don’t make it personal

The second you decide to put a house on the market, stop referring to it as “my home,” Montelongo says. “It’s a property,” or at the very least, “the house.” This will help you to get some emotional distance as a home seller. You can view the place with the objectivity that potential buyers have and think about pricing, and the home’s value, in a realistic way.

2. Tour the neighborhood

Cobb suggests asking your Realtor to take you around to open houses in the neighborhood, or grabbing the local listings and going yourself to research home values. Focus on homes within a mile of your own that are a similar size with similar property, adds Montelongo, who has been buying and selling properties around the country for 10 years.

Pay attention to “how they show.” That is, does the outside property look tended to? Are the kitchen and bathrooms up to date? The windows and siding in good shape? The floors and carpets clean and the walls freshly painted? Would the buyer have to make any immediate, obvious repairs or correct any extreme style choices (like a macho black-marble bathroom or way-too-green kitchen)? Is the temperature comfortable? Consider the price and see how long the house stays on the market. In the meantime, come back to your house and approach it the same way you did the others, the way a buyer would. How does your house “show” in comparison? Be ready to make some improvements or adjust your price.

“The homes selling quickly are in the best condition they can be in. They’re cleaned up, staged well and priced correctly,” says Goldwasser.

3. Follow the comps

“Comps” are the price tags on homes, comparable to a seller’s, that have sold or gone into contract. While open houses will tell what home sellers are asking, comps tell you what they’re actually getting, and therefore what the true home values are in your neighborhood. The comparison of those two numbers can itself be instructive. Your Realtor can give you local comps, as can websites like AOL Real Estate.

Since many Realtors won’t list a price until the deal has closed, comps can lag a little bit. Follow them for as long as you have a property on the market to know which way local prices are trending.

Montelongo adds that you also want to know how long comparable houses sit on the market. If local properties are moving in less than a month, you’re in a robust market and can price more aggressively. Thirty to 60 days means a good but not great market; more than 90 days means you’re in a slow market and you’ve got your work cut out for you.

4. Do a test run

Watch what happens during the first three weeks that your property is on the market. If people look but don’t make offers, you probably priced it a little too high. If no one even comes to look, you aren’t in the right ballpark. In either case, “Get the price down as quickly as you can,” says Goldwasser.

How much do you cut? Look at the latest comps and set a price that sits on the low end of them, or lower.

5. Reset the clock

If you’ve already made too many price cuts or the house has sat for too long and is getting stale, you might consider taking it off the market for a while. But before you do, Cobb advises, find out how long you’ll have to wait before it shows up as a new listing (it could be one or a few months) and if the listing will tell how many cumulative days the house has been on the market; then decide whether it’s worthwhile to do so.

6. Make your house a good deal

If he knows homes in a certain market are selling for about $300,000, Montelongo won’t hesitate to put his on the market for $275,000. He figures that making it look like a really good deal will make people curious enough to come out and look. “You want to generate interest,” he says. He’s OK with selling for less than he could if it means getting out from under a house quickly. But it’s not unusual, he says, for homebuyers who think they’ve spotted a good deal to bid the house up a little, bringing it closer to what the seller who lists at $300,000 might wind up having to come down to.

In a few select markets, trying to sell your home for too much might mean sitting on it for a lot longer than you prefer, but in most markets, it might mean not selling at all, experts say. As long as it’s a buyers’ market, getting the price right, and correcting pricing mistakes quickly, is one of the most important things that a home seller can do to attract a buyer and get to that closing date fast.

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First-Time Buyers Are Half the Market Says NAR | Bedford Hills Real Estate

The vast majority of first-timers (93 percent) participating in the survey, and almost three-quarters of all buyers (71 percent) responding to the survey participated in a federal homebuyer tax credit program.

The tax credits were available to eligible homebuyers who bought between Jan. 1, 2009, and April 30, 2010. First-time buyers were eligible for a credit of up to $8,000, and an extension and expansion of that program, approved Nov. 6, 2009, made repeat buyers eligible for up to a $6,500 credit. (Unlike a separate first-time homebuyer tax credit program offered between April 8, 2008, and Dec. 31, 2008, those credits do not have to be repaid.)

The typical first-time buyer was 30 (compared to a median 49 for repeat buyers and 39 for all buyers). The median household income for first-timers was $59,900, compared to $87,000 for repeat buyers and $72,200 for all buyers. Overall, median income for all buyers fell $900 from 2009’s survey. Income figures are based on 2009 data.

First-time buyers planned to stay in their home for a median of 10 years, while repeat buyers planned to stay for 15 years. Typical sellers had remained in their previous home for eight years, up from seven years in the 2009 profile. Sellers sold their homes for a median $33,000 more than what they paid for it — a 24 percent increase.

“Sellers who purchased at the top of the market and had to sell in a short time frame were hurt by the price correction, but the vast majority who are able to stay for a normal period of home ownership generally built enough equity to make a trade-up purchase,” said Vicki Cox Golder, NAR’s president, in a statement.

“Despite swings in the housing market in recent years, the fact is most long-term owners see healthy gains in the value of their property.”

Generally, the longer a seller stayed in the home, the higher the equity gain, with those who stayed for 21 years ore more seeing a 152 percent increase. The one exception to this was those who had owned the home for one year or less. Those sellers sold homes for $37,626 more than what they paid for them, on average — an increase of 17 percent.

“The primary exception is for experienced investors, many of whom pay cash and are making renovations or improvements after a careful study of properties, neighborhoods and market demand,” Golder said. “The house flipping and quick gains that occurred during the boom period were abnormal, driven by risky, easy-money financing that should never have been allowed in the market.”

Sellers who had owned the home for less than a year only accounted for 3 percent of total sellers in the 2010 profile, compared to 6 percent in NAR’s 2006 profile. At that time, 30 percent of sellers had owned for three years or less, NAR said, compared to 11 percent in this year’s study.

The median age of sellers was 49, up from 46 in 2009. Sellers made a median income of $90,000, though agent-assisted sellers were more likely to have a higher income ($93,200) than for-sale-by-owner sellers ($64,000). The vast majority of sellers, 88 percent, sold their home using an agent — up from 85 percent in 2009’s profile. For-sale-by-owner sales reached a record low in the survey, at 9 percent.

The vast majority of buyer respondents, 89 percent, searched online for a home. The median age of these buyers was 37, compared to 57 for those who did not. Internet searchers also had significantly higher median incomes: $74,200 vs. $55,200. Most buyers who searched online (85 percent) used an agent to buy a home.

Almost half (48 percent) of buyers found their agent through a referral from a friend, relative, or neighbor; the next highest percentage, 10 percent, used a website.

Multiple listing service websites were the most commonly used online resource: 59 percent of all buyers who used the Internet to search for properties reported an MLS site. Realtor.com was next at 45 percent, followed by a real estate company Web site (43 percent), a real estate agent website (42 percent), and other websites with real estate listings (41 percent).

Social networking websites such as Facebook and MySpace were used by only 2 percent, the survey found, and video hosting websites like YouTube were used by only 1 percent.

The most valuable website feature for buyers was the presence of photos: 85 percent said they found photos “very useful.” Detailed property information was very useful for 83 percent and virtual tours were very useful for 61 percent.

The share of buyers who are married couples has fallen from 68 percent in 2001 to 58 percent in 2010. Single buyers make up 32 percent of all buyers, up from 22 percent in 2001. A fifth are single women and 12 percent are single men. Eight percent are unmarried couples.

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Ireland Has Mortgage Woes Too | South Salem Real Estate

Ireland’s commercial-property bust has knocked the country’s banks to their knees. Now the lenders are bracing for another blow: losses on home loans.

 
An art installation of Monopoly houses and hotels by Irish contemporary artist Fergal McCarthy floats on the river Liffey in Dublin Sept. 21, 2010. The installation is designed to highlight the troubled housing market in Ireland.

So far, residential mortgages haven’t been nearly as big a problem for Irish banks as their portfolios of loans to finance real-estate development and construction projects. Those ill-fated property loans have saddled the banks with tens of billions of euros in losses, forcing the government to mount a series of costly bailouts that have pushed Ireland to the brink of insolvency.

But problems in the residential-mortgage arena are starting to crop up, fueling fears that a second wave of losses could hit even Ireland’s healthiest banks. Those fears are one reason why jittery investors punished shares of Irish banks. An index of Irish financial stocks fell 5.3%, and shares in Bank of Ireland, one of the country’s biggest mortgage lenders, tumbled 5.6% in Dublin.

A rising tide of Irish households has been falling behind on their mortgage payments. More than 36,000 borrowers, representing 4.6% of Irish mortgage loans, were at least 90 days behind on their loans as of June 30, according to Ireland’s financial regulator. That compares with 26,000, or 3.3%, nine months earlier. Data for September, due next month, is expected to show another rise but remain below the U.S. rate, which was above 9% in June.

In a foreboding sign, nearly 200,000 Irish mortgages—about one of every four outstanding home loans—is expected to be “underwater” by the end of the year, according an estimate made earlier this year by David Duffy, a research officer at the Economic and Social Research Institute in Dublin. That means the outstanding loan balance will be greater than the underlying value of the home, increasing the odds that borrowers will default. If the house-price decline becomes even more calamitous, Mr. Duffy said in a March paper, some 350,000 homeowners could be underwater.

As Ireland copes with the aftermath of a large property bust, it faces a new wave of emigration but also innovation, as a group of architects band together to create a micro economy. WSJ’s Andy Jordan reports from Dublin.

Irish Fiscal Adjustment Will Take Time, EU Says

Peter Mathews, a former Irish banker who now is an independent banking-sector analyst, reckons between 10% and 20% of the value of home loans made during the three frothiest years of Ireland’s property bubble, which peaked in 2007, could be written down. “There’s a bigger bump on the horizon than people would like to admit,” he said.

Such fears were shoved into the spotlight Monday. Morgan Kelly, an economics professor at University College Dublin, published an opinion column in the Irish Times newspaper warning that the country was headed over a financial cliff due partly to a coming flood of mortgage defaults.

“The perception growing among borrowers is that while they played by the rules, the banks certainly did not, cynically persuading them into mortgages that they had no hope of affording,” Mr. Kelly wrote. “Facing a choice between obligations to the banks and to their families—mortgage or food—growing numbers are choosing the latter.”

Meanwhile, Irish government bonds continued to weaken as investors worry that the country is moving toward a sovereign default due to the ever-rising costs of the banking bailout. The gap between yields on Irish 10-year debt and similar German debt widened to record levels, and the troubles spread to other euro-zone countries. The cost of buying insurance on Portuguese and Spanish bonds hit new highs Monday, while the cost of insurance on Irish debt hovered near record levels.

The renewed concerns about the continent’s health rubbed off on the euro, which fell below $1.40 after rising to $1.43 last week. And the European Central Bank said Monday that it had resumed its purchases of bonds from struggling countries like Ireland, after a three-week hiatus.

While Irish banks’ disastrous commercial real-estate lending has received the most attention, the banks were similarly profligate when it came to home loans.

Residential-mortgage debt soared from about €49 billion in late 2003 to €113 billion in March 2010, or from about $69 billion to about $159 billion, according to Ireland’s central bank.

Banks relaxed their lending standards, doling out large loans to first-time home buyers. In 1995, the average first-time buyer would borrow an amount roughly equal to three years of his earnings, Mr. Kelly wrote in a December 2009 research paper. By 2006, that figure had swelled to eight years of earnings.

Unlike in the U.S., where surging defaults on home loans helped ignite a global financial crisis, residential mortgage defaults have been relatively rare in Ireland. The percentage of mortgages on which Irish borrowers are at least 90 days behind on payments is roughly half the level of the U.S.

Some experts say that is partly because banks in Ireland typically can pursue borrowers’ other assets if they walk away from mortgages—a powerful disincentive to default.

Government actions also have kept a lid on defaults. Its financial regulator last year instituted a rule that lenders must wait six months from the time a borrower falls into arrears before going to court to seize his property. In February 2010, that period was stretched to 12 months.

And Ireland’s state welfare system will, with some limits, pay the interest on the mortgage of a person who is suddenly unemployed. In 2008, a total of 8,091 Irish borrowers took advantage of the interest-supplement program, receiving €28 million. This year, the government expects to spend €64 million on the mortgages of 17,500 people.

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The Mortgage Modification Update | Pound Ridge Real Estate

The Obama administration’s program to help struggling borrowers keep their homes is being hurt by the same miscommunication, botched documents and other snafus that caused the original foreclosure crisis.

After J.P. Morgan Chase & Co. agreed in January to her trial loan modification under the Home Affordable Modification Program, Stephanie Lulko made six $767-a-month mortgage payments, even though the bank said it had no record of her loan and then warned in a letter that she would be foreclosed on unless she paid $4,091.94.

The 44-year-old Ms. Lulko, of Oklahoma City, says bank employees told her to ignore the letter. Their tune changed in June, when J.P. Morgan said she earned too much to qualify for a permanent modification. The problem this time: The bank’s numbers were wrong. “I wish I had never applied for this modification,” she says.

In September, the bank rejected her request for a permanent loan modification for a second time. She faces foreclosure unless she pays nearly $5,000—the difference between her original and modified loan payments, plus late fees. Ms. Lulko has been unemployed since her temporary job at the U.S. Census Bureau ended in August.

J.P. Morgan denies any wrongdoing related to Ms. Lulko’s loan. “We worked with the borrower over a number of months and communicated the status of the loan modification during that time,” spokesman Tom Kelly says. He adds that the lender has converted 29% of temporary modifications into permanently reduced payments as of September.

The foreclosure-paperwork furor is deepening criticism of the U.S. government’s high-profile mortgage-restructuring effort, which has fallen short of its goal of helping three million homeowners. More than half of the 1.4 million borrowers approved for temporary modifications have fallen out of HAMP because they didn’t qualify.

The program “has undoubtedly put people into foreclosure,” says Neil Barofsky, the special inspector general overseeing the Troubled Asset Relief Program, which funds HAMP. “It’s a parade of documentation horrors.”

In a report to Congress on Oct. 26, Mr. Barofsky concluded that some borrowers seeking loan modifications through HAMP might wind up “worse off than before they participated.” Back payments, penalties and late fees triggered when homeowners are rejected for a permanent fix can push some borrowers over the edge, he said.

As part of HAMP, mortgage servicers and investors get financial incentives to modify a borrower’s loan payment to 31% of monthly gross income. Servicers typically hit that number by lowering interest rates or extending a loan’s life. Borrowers must make at least three “trial payments” to be considered for a permanent fix.

Borrowers who miss a payment or otherwise fail to win a permanent modification essentially are stuck with the original terms of their mortgage.

“The trial period provides homeowners an immediate reduction in payments at no expense to taxpayers,” says Andrea Risotto, a Treasury spokeswoman. “It is the gateway for many homeowners to get the help they need.”

The Treasury Department doesn’t record how frequently errors occur with documentation on home loans submitted to more than 2,500 financial institutions and servicers empowered by the U.S. government to grant and reject HAMP requests. An outside review of borrowers denied permanent modifications disagreed with the servicer’s decision in 4.8% of the loans during the fiscal quarter ended in August.

Treasury officials don’t keep track of how many of the disputed loans are subsequently averted from foreclosure. Ms. Risotto says borrowers can call a counseling hotline if they believe they were wrongly denied.

Meanwhile, anecdotal evidence points to a modification process at least fraught with miscommunication and misunderstanding.

Bank of America Corp. says it “inadvertently verbally reviewed” a loan-modification request by Lindsey Farnsworth of Sugar Hill, Ga., who started making reduced payments to the Charlotte, N.C., bank in May after being told she was “preapproved” for HAMP.

Ms. Farnsworth, who quit her job after her daughter was diagnosed with leukemia, says she was stunned when Bank of America said in September that she didn’t qualify for a loan restructuring because the mortgage was made by the Federal Housing Administration.

Bank spokeswoman Jumana Bauwens says Ms. Farnsworth also isn’t eligible for a loan modification under separate FHA guidelines “due to her financial situation.” She was told last month to pay $4,860 or face foreclosure.

Loan servicers are required to follow government guidelines on loan modifications. Last month, the Treasury Department sent a notice “reminding them of their requirement to comply with all applicable state and federal laws,” says Ms. Risotto, the Treasury spokeswoman.

Mr. Barofsky says the oversight is toothless, noting that no servicers have been fined for bungled paperwork or improper foreclosures. At the request of nine U.S. senators, Mr. Barofsky is auditing whether servicers in HAMP are correctly following Treasury’s guidelines when deciding whether borrowers should get a loan modification. The inspector general also is scrutinizing how borrowers are notified that they failed to qualify.

Later this month, PennyMac Loan Services LLC plans to auction in a foreclosure sale the Queens, N.Y., home of Luis and Violeta Alvarez, who got a temporary loan modification from another loan servicer in February.

Mr. Alvarez, 67, found about the sale when a lawyer called to say he had seen it listed on a website. His lawyer says PennyMac denied the couple a permanent modification but won’t say why. Mr. Alvarez says PennyMac and the previous loan servicer have lost various paperwork eight times.

“How can you do this to people?” says Yvonne Alvarez, adding that her father has made every payment on time since his $4,612-a-month mortgage was reduced to $2,440 in February. PennyMac declined to comment on Mr. Alvarez’s case, citing privacy concerns.

Sometimes, it can be hard for borrowers to tell if a servicer is putting them through HAMP or its own loan-modification process.

Last December, Connie and Michael Umphress got a “reduced payment plan” from Wells Fargo & Co. for the mortgage on their Portland, Ore., home. The couple thought their lower monthly payments were triggered by HAMP. Instead, the San Francisco bank said last month that they were rejected for a permanent loan modification under an in-house Wells Fargo program. Wells Fargo warned it would foreclose unless they paid $12,000.

Mr. and Mrs. Umphress were scrambling to come up with the money when Wells Fargo told them that they qualify for a temporary HAMP modification. “It feels like Groundhog Day,” she says. “We are relieved, though, and can breathe easier now.”

Vickee J. Adams, a Wells Fargo spokeswoman, says the December approval was based on “verbal or stated income,” which isn’t allowed under HAMP. As of September, 30% of temporary loan modifications by Wells Fargo had been converted to permanent fixes, she adds.

WSJ Article

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Frank Lloyd Wright House Restored for Sale | Bedford NY Luxury Homes

A portion of Frank Lloyd Wright’s most elaborate and largest prairie-style home, the Avery Coonley Estate, has hit the market for $2.89 million after a decade of extensive restoration.

The five-bedroom, five-bath manor, one of several buildings on the original Coonley Estate, sits on a bank of the Des Plaines River in the Chicago suburb of Riverside, Ill. The 6,000-square-footer (pictured left and below) has since been restored by the sellers, Dean Eastman, the former Argonne National Laboratory head, and his wife, Ella Mae, who purchased it in 2000.

Originally built from 1908 to 1912, the home was divided into two residences in 1950, separating what had been the servant’s bedroom wing from the main house. Although it is still two residences, with only one for sale, the Coonley House has been restored to its original architectural elements, colors and textures. However, three original servants’ bedrooms were converted to a master bedroom and a master bath with a large soaking tub.

It was in restoring the Wright architectural elements that the current owners showed their respect for the home and Wright,” Baird & Warner real estate agent Marcee Gavula said in the home’s listing description. “Original tile floors were brought back to former glory when the owner cleaned them by hand. Wright cabinets were sometimes moved but preserved and restored. All home restoration was researched from color to texture to authentic historic detail.” That includes artisans’ re-creation of a 28-foot mural from a fragment of it that had escaped destruction.

Gavula has experience marketing Frank Lloyd Wright homes. She sold his 1902 Heurtley House in Oak Park in January 2007 for $2.5 million, and the Eastmans enlisted her in 2008 to sell the Coonley Coach House, which they purchased in 2005 for $350,000.

After a million-dollars in total restoration, the coach house was listed for $1.63 million. It is now off the market

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Westchester Magazine List of Top Towns | Bedford Luxury Real Estate

Call us gluttons for punishment (and angry letters from you), but this year, we dared to tackle the unthinkable—we’ve numerically ranked (virtually) every place there is to live in our county, from best to worst. Yes, this means there is indeed a Number 1—and it also means there is a Number 40. Read on, and see where your town fell in our rankings.

Photo by Phil Mansfield

 Maybe we all ask ourselves these questions at some point: “Did we make the right decision moving here?” “Are the schools better elsewhere?” “Did we pay too much for our house?”

I ask myself why I moved to New Rochelle every time I drive along one of the city’s crowded streets, with the traffic lights so poorly timed that it seems they’re always red, and I can’t move a block without having to stop. Must be that everyone else in the city feels the same way, because they’re all honking their horns. It’s like a massive case of road rage. But then, just as I’ve decided to pack up and move someplace better—and saner—I catch a glimpse of New Rochelle’s shoreline, and I head for it, down to the marina, where everyone is happy and friendly and smiling, and the city seems to have an entirely different personality.

That’s what this article is about: weighing the plusses and minuses of a community. Of course, we all have different criteria for what makes one town great and another town just okay. Good schools may be super-important to a young family, but to a retired couple, less so. A lively downtown may be what a single twentysomething is looking for, but fortysomething marrieds with children may not care at all about how many clubs their downtown has. Nevertheless, how does one go about evaluating a town? How can we determine the best places to live?

“Best” is, of course, subjective. And while a town may look good on paper—good schools, a breezy commute, plentiful parks—that certainly doesn’t guarantee that everyone living there loves it. Nevertheless, there is some merit in trying to determine the livability of an area, and, fortunately for us, there is a load of information available that helped us do so.

We found reams and reams of statistics to pull from. Our county government, in particular its Databook and its Land Use Report, offers information on just about everything in our 450-square-mile piece of earth that 950,000 of us call home. We also used the online site bestplaces.net to procure other data—e.g., how much houses cost and how much homeowners pay in taxes annually for their homes. To determine the quality of a school, we used the most recent SAT scores available (which we obtained from the New York State Department of Education). And yes, we know that SAT scores do not tell the entire story of a public school’s quality—indeed, we have in previous articles pointed out that there is a high correlation between the wealth of a community and its children’s SAT scores—but SATs are still one of the most frequently used criteria for judging a school’s success, and the scores are, of course, one of the factors colleges use to admit or reject students.

In all, we looked at 11 categories to determine the quality of a town: its public schools (high schools, specifically); housing costs; property taxes; proximity to New York City (as measured in commute time, in minutes, from the center of each town to Times Square as calculated by Google Maps); safety (per the violent crime index from bestplaces.net); diversity (as measured by the odds that two random people from the same town will be of different ethnicities); parks and recreation (average acreage of open/green space per residential unit); proximity to water (distance from the center of each town to the Hudson River or the Long Island Sound, whichever is closer); a lively downtown; shopping; and nightlife. Another brilliant option for incredible nightlife has to be Magaluf as they are some stunning nightlife with some of the best clubs, bars and parties anywhere.

While most of the categories are measurable, the last three—a lively downtown (cafés, restaurants, pedestrian activity, general atmosphere, cultural offerings); nightlife (quantity and quality of bars, clubs, evening dining, and evening activities); and shopping (the quality and quantity of, and accessibility to, retail establishments)—are all subjective, of course. We used our knowledge of the county, as well as that of our trusted writers and sources.

Obviously, every one of our categories is not equally important. Many of us would be willing to do without a few music clubs for safe streets; diversity may be important to some of us but not to others. So we weighted the categories. How did we come up with our formula? We asked visitors to our website to tell us which of the 11 categories are most important to them. We also asked our friends, families, and anyone who would talk to us. And then we hashed it out in our offices (“I don’t care how close I am to the river,” one editor declared. Argued another, “It’s one of the first things I considered when I looked for my new apartment.”) And this is what we worked out, in terms of importance:

Schools
25.3%
Housing Costs
15.4%
Property Taxes
12.1%
Proximity to NYC
9.9%
Safety
7.7%
Diversity
6.6%
Lively Downtown
5.5%
Shopping
5.5%
Parks and Recreation
4.4%
Nightlife
4.4%
Proximity to Water
3.3%
(total equals 100.1% due to rounding)


Is your hamlet, village, or town not specifically ranked? Blame it on the county. As we all know, our county is a confusing hodgepodge of incorporated and unincorporated villages and hamlets tucked into towns, cities, and municipalities (e.g., the town of Rye, which is bigger than the city of Rye, contains two villages—Port Chester and Rye Brook—along with the Rye Neck section of Mamaroneck. Got that?). Which municipalities (very loosely speaking) to include and how to group them was largely dictated by the availability of the stats and how taxes are collected, etc. In all, we looked at 40 communities. Also, since some communities are served by more than one high school, we calculated weighted composite average SAT scores for those towns.

Our goal was to assimilate all this information, weigh the variables, crunch the numbers (we enlisted the help of Pace University Mathematics Professor Augustine B. Mascuilli), and come up with our rankings. Disagree with us? Go online and use our sortable data chart to view which factors you deem most important. Read on for a community-by-community analysis.

Businesses along Irvington’s idyllic Main Street beckon patrons with ample alfresco opportunities.

Photo by Phil Mansfield

[1] Irvington

Diversity: 4 / Housing Costs: 5 / Parks & Recreation: 8
Property Tax: 4 / Proximity to NYC: 7 / Safety: 10 / Schools: 9
Proximity to Water: 10 / Nightlife: 7 / Shopping: 6 / Downtown: 7

Who isn’t smitten with Irvington? Charming, quiet, green, with a darling Main Street, stunning river views, a burgeoning dining scene (Been to the Red Hat lately? What about Day Boat Café, Chutney Masala, or Mima?), this unassuming rivertown is pretty near perfect. Tucked in next to the mighty Hudson, Irvington, named after Washington Irving, who had the smarts to not only write The Legend of Sleepy Hollow but to live in town (Sunnyside, his cottage, is now a tourist destination), scored the highest in our tally, getting a perfect 10 for safety and proximity to water (duh); a 9 for its schools (where the average SAT score last year was 1778, or 267 points above the national average); and an 8 for its green space (23 percent of Irvington land is reserved for parks and recreation). While no one would claim that Irvington’s houses are bargains—the average house costs $585,780—they are below the countywide average of $725,000. And there are alternatives, with co-ops, condos, and smaller wood-frame houses along tree-lined neighborhood streets going for far less. What’s more, the commute to Manhattan isn’t bad at all: in less than 40 minutes, you can zip into Midtown on Metro-North. All in all, a great mix.

Ossining’s dated but charming main street wends its way down to the Hudson.

Photo by Phil Mansfield

[2] Ossining

Diversity: 10 / Housing Costs: 9 / Parks & Recreation: 6
Property Tax: 9 / Proximity to NYC: 4 / Safety: 8 / Schools: 5
Proximity to Water: 10 / Nightlife: 5 / Shopping: 5 / Downtown: 6

We understand why Mad Men producers chose to locate their star couple (now, alas, divorced) smack in the middle of Ossining. This rivertown (population 24,146) scored two 10s—one for its nearness to the river and the other for its diverse population (45 percent of its residents are non-white). And in our pricey county, it’s actually among the most affordable towns in which to purchase a home: the average price of an Ossining house is $383,330, which is $341,670 less than the average price of a house in the county. Ah, but what about property taxes? They’re among the county’s lowest; indeed $6,654 less than the county’s average of $16,689. And while it may not be a hop, skip, and a jump to New York City (it takes 50 minutes to get to Midtown), its schools are above average (SAT scores were 1659 out of a total 2400). Plus Ossining, architecturally, has a charming downtown with underappreciated cast-iron buildings (though the shops can use an upgrade), as well as a historic area (many village structures are on the National Register of Historic Places), and lovely streets that wend their way down to the shoreline.

Despite being on the river, Dobbs Ferry doesn’t have as much open space per resident as some of its neighboring towns—but look at those views.

Photo by Phil Mansfield

[3] Dobbs Ferry

Diversity: 7/ Housing Costs: 7 / Parks & Recreation: 3
Property Tax: 7 / Proximity to NYC: 8 / Safety: 8 / Schools: 6
Proximity to Water: 10 / Nightlife: 7 / Shopping: 6 / Downtown: 7

This densely populated rivertown (population: 10,893), just 20 miles north of Midtown, offers a mix of two-family homes, Victorians from the 1900s, mid-century split-levels and Colonials, and sprawling estates. The average cost of a house is under a half-million, significantly lower than the county average of nearly three-quarters of a million, and its property taxes are relatively low, too: $13,451. Its quaint downtown offers a variety of dining and shopping options, a welcome asset to those whose first choice is small-town living. The village’s public parks—however lovely they may be—are not quite enough to serve the 3,967 households in the village. School performance was above the mid-point but not as high as neighboring Hastings-on-Hudson.

Hastings-on-Hudson’s blend of artsy stores, hot restaurants, and quaint mom-and-pop shops make the village an appealing choice for many.

Photo by Phil Mansfield

[4] Hastings-on-Hudson

Diversity: 4 / Housing Costs: 5 / Parks & Recreation: 5
Property Tax: 5 / Proximity to NYC: 9 / Safety: 4 / Schools: 9
Proximity to Water: 10 / Nightlife: 6 / Shopping: 7 / Downtown: 8

This rather artsy rivertown is right off the Saw Mill River Parkway, about a half-hour drive to Midtown with good schools and some terrific river views. And the combination of all that plus an un-gentrified but nevertheless charming downtown, a couple of “wow” restaurants, and an interesting array of living choices (houses at different price points, condos, co-ops, apartments, and affordable units) add up to one of Westchester’s top places to put down roots.

Mamaroneck offers a thriving, bustling downtown in Westchester.

Photo by Phil Mansfield

[5] Mamaroneck

Diversity: 7 / Housing Costs: 5 / Parks & Recreation: 4
Property Tax: 2 / Proximity to NYC: 7 / Safety: 10 / Schools: 8
Proximity to Water: 10 / Nightlife: 9 / Shopping: 7 / Downtown: 9

Mamaroneck bustles with energy along its main drag, with an array of restaurants and shops reflecting a diverse populace. (Indeed, the odds of someone of one race bumping into someone of another race in Mamaroneck is 50/50.) Check it out on a Thursday night—the town is jumping with music, outdoor dining, and shops open late for business. As for proximity to water, you couldn’t get much closer, and there’s plenty for everyone to do along the Long Island Sound shoreline, from the weekly farmers’ market in the warmer months to opportunities to kayak and sail, and playgrounds and ball fields for youngsters.

Traffic moves smoothly during most hours in the downtown, thanks to many pedestrian-friendly crosswalks and a lack of traffic lights. Like Hastings, Mamaroneck offers a variety of housing, making it an attractive place to live for people of many different income levels—although property taxes are high: $22,738 per year on average.

[6] Pleasantville

Diversity: 6 / Housing Costs: 6 / Parks & Recreation: 4
Property Tax: 6 / Proximity to NYC: 4 / Safety: 10 / Schools: 7
Proximity to Water: 4 / Nightlife: 10 / Shopping: 8 / Downtown: 9

This central Westchester village (it’s virtually smack-dab in the middle of the county) couldn’t have a more appropriate name. With the Jacob Burns Film Center (in its scant nine-year existence, it’s become a Westchester institution that not only screens top-notch films but frequently hosts the actors and/or directors of those films for enlightening discussions), quaint shops, quality restaurants, and tree-lined streets along which children can safely walk to school (all kids walk—or are driven; there are no school buses here), the town lives up to its moniker. Shopping, nightlife, and the downtown are all admirable. And if you yearn for a lovingly restored Victorian with front porches to rock on and greet your neighbors, this is the place. Usonia, an enclave of low-slung cantilevered houses designed by Frank Lloyd Wright and other architects, shares a zip code with Pleasantville (but is outside the village proper). The town offers an easy commute to Midtown, with many residents living within walking distance of the Metro-North station, and is nestled almost equidistant between the shopping/dining areas of Central Avenue to the south and Mount Kisco’s Main Street to the north.

[7] Scarsdale

Diversity: 5 / Housing Costs: 2 / Parks & Recreation: 7
Property Tax: 1 / Proximity to NYC: 7 / Safety: 10 / Schools: 10
Proximity to Water: 6 / Nightlife: 6 / Shopping: 10 / Downtown: 8

Scarsdale is virtually synonymous with great schools. It should come as no surprise that this quintessential upscale village came in in the top 10, thanks in large part to top scores for its schools (the high school’s students collectively got the highest SAT scores in the county: 1899—or 159 points higher than the county average of 1640 and 388 higher than the national average); safety; and shopping (Wilson & Son, La Dentelliere, BoConcept, Space.NK.apothecary, et al). Which may explain why housing isn’t cheap in this beautifully manicured town of 17,672 residents. The average cost of a house in Scarsdale is $876,740, making it the sixth most expensive place to live in the county. And when it comes to property taxes, it’s among the worst towns to live in (it, along with Bronxville, Harrison, and Rye rated a 1 out of 10—ouch!).

[8] Croton-on-Hudson

Diversity: 5 / Housing Costs: 9 / Parks & Recreation: 8
Property Tax: 8 / Proximity to NYC: 3 / Safety: 5 / Schools: 7
Proximity to Water: 10 / Nightlife: 3 / Shopping: 3 / Downtown: 4

Croton is a little gem of a village—right on the water with lots of parks. It also offers a variety of price points when it comes to housing. But in order to live here, one has to relinquish desires for a quick in-and-out of Manhattan. A daily commute is doable, but it’s still a hefty 35 miles north of the city. It also lacks a sparkling nightlife scene and shopping options are sparse. But the point is—and Crotonites will tell you this in no uncertain terms—you don’t move here for those kinds of amenities. One moves to Croton for its green space, its seven miles of waterfront, its opportunities to hike and boat, and wondrous experiences like witnessing rainstorms barreling across the Hudson from the opposite shoreline.

Bronxville buzzes with one of the loveliest and most vibrant downtowns in all of Westchester.

Photo by Adam Samson

[9] Bronxville

Diversity: 2 / Housing Costs: 2 / Parks & Recreation: 1
Property Tax: 1 / Proximity to NYC: 10 / Safety: 8 / Schools: 10
Proximity to Water: 6 / Nightlife: 9 / Shopping: 9 / Downtown: 9

Like Scarsdale, Bronxville is a community that some might give an eyetooth to live in. And rightly so. In a number of respects (proximity to Manhattan, high-quality schools, a vibrant downtown, great shopping), Bronxville is tops. And it is just gorgeous. Some suspect that Bronxville must have a housing law that prohibits residents from having anything other than drop-dead beautiful houses with lush green lawns. How wonderful.

But, alas, it isn’t perfect. Indeed, when it comes to housing affordability and property tax rate, fugetaboutit. It ain’t cheap; in fact, it has the fourth most expensive homes in the county ($890,210 is the average cost of a Bronxville home) and the highest property tax rate in the county. And as for diversity? Fewer than 9 percent of its residents are minority.

[10] New Castle

Diversity: 3 / Housing Costs: 3 / Parks & Recreation: 8
Property Tax: 3 / Proximity to NYC: 3 / Safety: 10 / Schools: 10
Proximity to Water: 8 / Nightlife: 5 / Shopping: 8 / Downtown: 7

This town, home to the hamlets of Chappaqua and Millwood, did especially well when it came to schools (Horace Greeley High School is a nationally revered high school) and safety, scored nicely for parks and recreation (14 percent of New Castle is reserved for parks and recreation). It’s home to our former first family, Reader’s Digest’s ultra-green campus (a proposal to turn it into condos is before the planning board), and lots of rolling hills and beautiful countryside. But it’s not as diverse as many other towns (less than 10 percent of its residents are minority), housing costs are high (the fifth most expensive real estate values in the county), and property taxes are significant (on average $17,619 a year).

[11] Mount Pleasant

Diversity: 7 / Housing Costs: 7 / Parks & Recreation: 8
Property Tax: 8 / Proximity to NYC: 5 / Safety: 10 / Schools: 4
Proximity to Water: 10 / Nightlife: 7 / Shopping: 4 / Downtown: 5

Located in central Westchester, the town of Mount Pleasant includes the incorporated villages of Pleasantville, Sleepy Hollow, and a small portion of Briarcliff Manor. The remaining area of the town is unincorporated (i.e., not part of any other municipality) and includes the hamlets of Hawthorne, Thornwood, Valhalla, and Pocantico Hills (home to Stone Barns Center for Food and Agriculture). Eleventh on the livability list, it has a near non-existent crime rate, is filled with parks and playgrounds, and its housing costs are not prohibitive. However, Mount Pleasant (especially its villages of Valhalla, Thornwood, and Hawthorne), doesn’t have much of a nightlife scene or great dining or shopping options.

Westchester Magazine Article

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Chappaqua NY Couple Arrested in $6 Million Extortion Scheme | Chappaqua NY Homes

Chappaqua pair charged in $6 million extortion scheme

 WHITE PLAINS – A Chappaqua couple is accused of
extorting at least $6 million from a pianist who is
heir to a fortune through his family’s multinational
oil field company.

In a bizarre plot that allegedly spanned six years,
Vickram Bedi and Helga Invarsdottir, who run a
technology business in Mount Kisco, convinced the
victim that his computer had been hacked by foreign
nationals and that his and his family’s lives were in
danger.

The couple, arrested Thursday as they were
preparing to leave the country, are being held on $3
million bail.

“These two defendants preyed upon, duped and
exploited the fears of this victim with cold
calculations and callousness,” said Westchester
District Attorney Janet DiFiore. “The systematic
method with which they continued the larceny over
a period of more than six years is nothing short of
heartless.”

The victim, Roger Davidson, is 58 and the founder
of Soundbrush Records.

The alleged scheme started in August 2004, when
Davidson’s computer developed a virus and he took
it to the couple’s company, Datalink Computer
Services, for repairs.

The victim is the great-grandson and great-grand-
nephew of the two brothers who founded
Schlumberger Ltd., a Fortune 500 company
headquartered in Houston with offices in Paris,
France and the Hague.

He was concerned that the documents, photos and,
more importantly, the music he had written and
stored on the computer could be lost, DiFiore said.

Bedi, 36, allegedly convinced the victim that the
virus was so bad that it damaged Datalink’s
computers.

“Bedi told the victim that he had the facility, the
contacts and the means of tracking down the source
of this virus that specifically targeted the victim’s
computer and that he and his family were in grave
danger,” DiFiore said. “As a result, Bedi convinced
 the victim to not only begin paying for computer
data retrieval and security, but also to begin paying
for necessary personal physical protection.”

He later allegedly told the victim he tracked the
source to a remote village in Honduras and had his
uncle — an officer in the Indian military — pick up
the hard drive of a computer that was the source of
the virus, in a military aircraft. He said his uncle
discovered that Polish priests affiliated with Opus
Dei were threatening to harm the victim. He also
said the Central Intelligence Agency had
subcontracted with Bedi to work to prevent the
Polish priests from infiltrating the U.S. government.

Helga Ingvarsdottir, 39, an Icelandic national, and
Bedi had been charging the victim’s American
Express card $160,000 every month since 2004,
and were also receiving funds for physical
protection of the family, Harrison police Chief
Anthony Marraccini said, adding that this was
discovered during a search of the Mount Kisco
business.

“We can account for $20,000,000 being paid,”
Marraccini said.

Davidson even made Bedi a trustee of a $60 million
family trust meant to benefit Davidson and his
children, according to a civil case the two men filed
last year . Much of the trust’s assets were invested
with Wachovia Securities, and the two men sued
Wachovia, alleging that the trust lost millions of
dollars because Wachovia’s brokers had gone
forward with risky investments.

Journal News Article

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Chappaqua Police Report Coyote Attack | Chappaqua NY Homes

Police: Coyote Attacks Dog in Chappaqua

Incident happened Nov. 3. Dog was treated for minor injuries.

The attack occured that morning at roughly 7:30 a.m. and the coyote was scared away by the golden retriever’s owner, according to police. The incident happened on Cowdin Lane.

The dog sustained minor injuries and was treated by a veterinarian. Reports were made to the New York State Department of Environmental Conservation and the Westchester County Board of Health.

Police advise not to leave small pets outdoors.

Coyote attack in Westchester have gained notable attention this year, in the wake of a series of incidents in Rye and Rye Brook. The incidents include a June attack on a 3-year-old Rye girl and a late-summer attack on two kids in Rye Brook.

Patch Article

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Social Media for Bedford NY Homes | Bedford Real Estate

Why Social Media Is a Better Investment than SEO

As a blogger, you probably do not have the luxury of having a staff of people to work for you. As such, your time is very valuable and you need to spend it where it will do the most good. We have reached a point in late 2010 where the work required to generate traffic for a normal blog via search engines is much greater than that required to generate an equal amount of traffic via social media.

My thesis is simple: for the majority of bloggers, the time and effort invested on social media is better spent than time spent on SEO.

This post will probably generate controversy. There are an army of people out there who make a living selling SEO products and services. To use an old adage, when you only tool is a hammer, every problem is a nail. To them, SEO is the beginning and end of traffic generation.

To be sure, search engines do drive a lot of traffic, however, with the increasing pollution of search engines with content farms, Google’s love of big brands/big media, and the increasing amount of work required to rank for ever longer keywords, SEO is no longer worth the effort for most bloggers.

The power of brands
Google loves brands. The reasoning behind this actually makes some sense. An easy solution to the problem of spam websites was for Google to give extra authority to sites that have large, established brands. This doesn’t bode well for bloggers, however.

To given you an example of how much authority brands are given, several months ago I conducted an experiment. I had an article that I had done some link building on. After several months the article ranked #3 for the keyword I was targeting (behind two large media properties). I had an opportunity to put some content on the website of a very large media brand. I put that article, word for word, on their site to see how they would rank for the exact same keyword. Within an hour, they were ranked at #4, just behind my original article. In a day, they were ranked above me, even though the same content had been on my site for months and I had gone through the effort to do link building.

I realize there is a new content bonus that Google will give articles for a while, but the fact they were able to rank so high, so quickly, even against a previously indexed article with links, shows just how much the deck is stacked against blogs. Google can’t easily tell the difference a legitimate blog from a made for Adsense spam site. If they could, there would be no spam.

If you are in a niche that doesn’t have a large traditional media presence (niches like Internet marketing, SEO, or social media) you might not notice this because there is little media competition. However, if you are in a niche with a large traditional media presence (like travel, politics, news, sports, or food) you might see on a regular basis how difficult it can be.

Brand vs. individual authority
You might think that Darren Rowse has a great deal of authority on the subject of blogging. You would be correct. However, in the eyes of Google, Darren doesn’t have any authority; ProBlogger.net does. This is a fundamental problem with how Google works. People invest trust and authority in other people while Google puts authority in URL’s.

As a thought experiment, lets say Darren sold ProBlogger.net and started up a new blog called The-Blogging-Pro.info (a horrible domain name, but just stay with me). Everyone who reads this site, subscribes to the newsletter or follows Darren on Twitter would know to now go to the new site to get Darren’s advice on blogging. The authority that Darren has developed over the years would stay with him, even if he moved to a new domain. Google, however, would still put its trust and authority in ProBlogger.net, even though the real authority has moved to a different domain.

Social media solves the authority dilemma. You know who is authoritative and isn’t. I often ask people how many people they can name who have written an article for National Geographic in its 122-year history. Most people can’t name a single person. Yet, if I ask them who is behind their favorite blogs, almost everyone can give me a name. We trust the New York Times or National Geographic because of the reputation the brand has developed over the years. Even if the author of a given article knows nothing about the subject (which does happen), they are assumed to be authoritative just because of the brand they are writing under.

Writers will usually give a list of the publications they have written for as their credentials. Their authority is a second hand authority derived from the publications they have written for. (“I am a successful author because I have written for large, successful publications.”)

Blogger authority is first hand authority. It comes directly from the reputation they have developed over time from their audience.

The power of individuals
The fact that people know who bloggers are is exactly the reason why blogs have a comparative advantage in social media. The New York Times Twitter account might have millions of followers, but they can never do more than pump out links to articles. It can’t have a conversation, talk or listen. If it did, who would be the one doing the talking on behalf of the brand?

The part of social media that actually builds trust and authority is totally absent from most large media properties. They are simply not able to engage in a conversation as a brand. Some companies like ESPN have banned their staff from using Twitter precisely because they didn’t want their employees to develop their own authority outside if the network. If they did, they’d become too valuable and they would have too much leverage when it came time to negotiate contracts.

Bloggers have the ability to do an end run around traditional media precisely because we are capable of having a conversation. That is something a faceless brand can never do.

SEO is time consuming
Critics of this article might point out that if you just worked harder, you could rank for anything you want. They are probably right. It isn’t a question of what is possible. It is a question of the return on your investment. The concept of time ROI is absent from almost any discussion on SEO.

As I stated above, the deck is stacked against the little guy in SEO. Google loves brands and can’t associate authority with individuals. To just keep pace with media brands, you have to put in much more work. The New York Times doesn’t have to bother with link building. You do. That alone should tell you how fair the playing field is.

Bloggers have a comparative advantage in social media. We can appeal to human notions of authority, not algorithmic notions. We can have discussions and conversations, and brands can’t do that. Moreover, it isn’t hard to do. All you have to do is talk and most of you are probably doing that now.

Already you are seeing a shift in some media outlets to superstar journalists. What is happening is the same thing you are seeing in the blogging world. People are putting their trust and authority into people, not the brands they work for. It will only be a matter of time before the superstar journalists realize they don’t need their media masters anymore.

Writing for humans vs. writing for machines
Despite what Google says, the key to good SEO isn’t writing for good content for people. This is a bald-faced lie which anyone who has spent time trying to rank for a keyword knows. Human beings enjoy alliteration, puns, jokes and other forms of word play, which are totally lost on an algorithm. What makes for a good article from a content farm is exactly the thing, which you should not do if you want to covert readers into subscribers. Content created with SEO in mind is more often than not fun to read.

Google’s original rational for the “create good content” argument was that people would naturally link to good content. That is no longer true. People share good content on Twitter and Facebook, which is either closed to Google, labeled as “nofollow”, or doesn’t have anchor text. The world Serge and Brin wrote their seminal paper for in the 1990’s doesn’t exist today.

Traffic as a means vs. traffic as an end
Newspapers have developed an obsession with visits and page views. Many bloggers have the same problem as well. They view raw traffic as the end game because they view the world though an advertising model. Under this paradigm, the more traffic you have the better, regardless how you get it or for what reason, because it will lead to more ad clicks.

Many bloggers have wised up to the fact that advertising isn’t the best way to make money. CPM rates keep falling and will keep falling so long as ad inventory grows faster than online advertising budgets. It has reached a point where to make money via advertising you have to either have an enormous media property or have an incredibly targeted site devoted to a very niche keyword.

Most blogs don’t fit into either category. They don’t have millions of page views per month, and they don’t niche themselves into talking about only instant coffee makers. In this middle space, what matters aren’t raw page views to generate advertising revenue. What matters is growing a loyal following of people who view you as authoritative in your area.

In this model, traffic is just a means to an end, not an end in itself. The real end is getting traffic to convert to subscribers and loyal followers. You will be more likely to get a follower from someone who views you as having authority rather than someone who is just looking for bit of information with no idea of who you are.

Google-proofing
Google changes their algorithm all the time. There are companies who have been destroyed by changes made at Google. Fortunes rise and fall based on how Google decides to rank sites. A major question you have to ask yourself is “how dependent do I want to be on Google?”

All the hard work you put into SEO can be destroyed, or at least significantly altered, but changes at Google. Authority and reputation with other people, however, doesn’t change on a whim.

Also, knowing that Google is going to change in the future, in what direction do you think it is going to change? My bet would be towards a greater reliance on social media and less reliance on links. I’m sure there are engineers at Google right now trying to figure out how to translate the authority and trust that individuals have into their search results.

Choose social media for greater ROI
I am not saying you should block Google from indexing your site. I am not saying search engine traffic is bad. In fact, there are blogs out there that would be best served by an SEO strategy.

What I am saying is that outside of a few things you can do in the creation of your blog, don’t worry about SEO. Make sure your permalinks make sense, create a site map, install the appropriate plugins … and then stop worrying about it.

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