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Daily Archives: June 19, 2012
So, Who Owns the Bedford Hills Station, Anyway? | Bedford Hills NY News
10 Easy Staging Tips for Curb Appeal | Chappaqua NY Realtor
No matter the asking price, simple curb appeal changes can set the scene to immediately attract buyers to a property. Data shows that a majority of home buyers look at properties online or drive by before contacting an agent. As a result, the exterior of the property is always a major selling point.
The decision to buy starts when the prospects step out of their car in front of the property. Prospects will immediately imagine what their friends and family will think when they drive up.
Here are 10 easy steps to make the most of your curb appeal. (It is well worth the expense to hire someone to make these changes if you do not have the time!)
1. Make sure the lawn is mowed and the landscaping is pristine. Keep your gardens neat and healthy, and repair visible damage.
2. Clear the yard. Remove any visible trash cans, toys, tools, rusted outdoor furniture, old lumber, or yard debris.
3. Paint house trim and touch up concrete steps to freshen the look.
4. Paint the front door to give it a fresh look. Repair screens and screen doors.
5. Invest in a new and colorful welcome mat at the front door.
6. Add a potted plant to the side of the front door.
7. Replace the old brass doorknob and lock with brushed nickel.
8. Make sure the street numbers are polished, in place, and easy to see, even if this requires some major shrub or flower trimming. If your street numbers are painted on the curb, repaint them.
9. Replace that old, rusty mailbox in favor of a sleek, modern one. If your mailbox is attached to the house, replace it to match new hardware on the front door handle.
10. Wash all of your windows inside and out. The sparkle will show.
Curb appeal is extremely important when prospects are first beginning to make decisions about which properties they want to see with an agent. These simple changes will differentiate your property from others on the same street or nearby.
The Power of Brevity | North Salem NY Realtor
We all spend a large amount of our time verbally communicating with others. We’re trying to get messages across to family, friends, clients, colleagues, employees, or supervisors. We invest a lot of our time crafting correspondence to be heard and noticed. We plan questions and presentations, construct our delivery and view, develop objectives and expectations. With so much of our time spent communicating, our goal should be to achieve effectiveness with brevity.
Brevity is a skill that far too few people understand. Brevity is the ability to convey your intended message in the fewest words possible to achieve the greatest impact.
Some people have the gift of gab, and many people’s natural reaction to someone who is talkative, or even verbose, is to believe they are a wonderful communicator. It’s the salespeople we meet with a lot of energy and enthusiasm for their product or service, who talk fast and think on their feet. These people have probably had a lot of people tell them that they’re such a good talker that they could “sell ice to an Eskimo.” At times, this gift of gab is disguising the curse of being overbearing and lacking in listening skills.
Inevitably, the gift of gab will extend meetings, gather less information than we need, and be less effective in listening, and we will invest more phone time to achieve the same result. This takes away from time spent working on real goals and objectives.
In order to invest less time in communication, you have to be able to direct the communication through the veritable maze of issues, challenges, and distractions that happen. When we engage in leading and guiding through the use of questions, we can control a conversation. Some might not like the word “control” when linked with conversation, so use the word “guide” if that seems more palatable for you.
Whoever asks the questions and asks more questions is always in control of the conversation. Whoever asks the question is also the one gaining the insight, the edge, the upper hand, and all other factors we all desire. Some of us struggle with asking the first question, but most of us struggle asking the second, third, fourth, or fifth.
My wife Joan has always been less likely to ask questions because her grandmother discouraged her by calling her Nosey Josie! What was once an inquisitive mind wanting to learn and ask questions was diminished by the careless words of a loved one. Maybe you were summarily discouraged by a loved one to lessen your curiosity.
By focusing on someone else and keeping them talking, we can gather more useful information. We use that information to be more effective.
We should encourage people to talk through questions. The truth is, people like to talk about their favorite subjects — themselves. When we ask a simple set of questions, we can glean a large amount of valuable information about them, their business, how they make decisions, what’s important to them, their business relationships, their goals, their objectives, their strategic thrusts, their projects, their spouses, and their kids.
People love to talk about almost anything that is happening in their lives, whether it’s family, business, or leisure activities. By asking questions we can really learn what they are thinking and feeling. We can also learn what their needs, wants, and desires are in life. What motivates them to take action to make decisions a certain way? We can identify problems and challenges that they are experiencing. This creates opportunities for us to solve problems and serve them. It might help us to discover new business opportunities for ourselves.
The old adage that God gave us two ears and one mouth for a reason is true. We must learn to listen twice as much as we speak. Doing so we will reduce the amount of time we invest with others to achieve results for them and ourselves. When we monopolize conversations, we’re often looked upon as boorish. When we ask questions and engage people by getting them to talk about themselves, we are a brilliant conversationalist.
Trim Your Remodeling Costs: 4 Ways to Save | Waccabuc NY Realtor
Case Remodeling recently featured several ideas at its blog on how to make those remodeling projects more budget friendly. Here are a few ways to trim remodeling costs:
1. Don’t change plumbing or electrical configurations. Keep your plumbing fixtures and electrical work where they’re at. Instead of moving the plumbing or electrical all over the room, Case recommends for remodelers to “think about supplementing and extending your existing wiring instead of ripping it out and starting over,” which can be much more costly.
2. Find savings in materials. “The cost of cabinets, counters, fixtures, paneling, etc. can constitute up to 70 percent of your remodeling budget,” Case Remodeling notes in its blog. “While labor costs may be hard to reduce, the choice of materials is within your control.” For example, solid surfaces can look similar to marble, and granite tiles may be an option over stone to curb costs.
3. Build up, not out. You’d be better off adding stories or building upward than expanding those rooms outward on the lower floor, according to Case Remodeling. Adding another story to a home, like over the garage, can be cheaper than laying a foundation to extend a home out.
4. Consider energy efficient upgrades. By selecting energy efficient windows and appliances, you may have to pay a little more upfront but in the long-run, you’ll be saving. Energy efficient upgrades may be an item worth splurging on initially in order to cheapen your utility bills and the cost of operating your home.
Illuminating Options in Lighting | Cross River NY Realtor
The process of lighting a room used to be simple. You bought a lightbulb for a few cents and screwed it into a socket. If a room needed more light, you brought in a couple of lamps and plugged them wherever there was an available electrical outlet and furniture to put them on.
But these days, with so much buzz about conserving energy and saving dollars with light choices, home owners need to shop wisely when they pick lightbulbs — “lamps” in industry lingo. But they can also make their houses brighter, fresher looking, larger, and more attractive to themselves and potential buyers with their choice of lamps, the right wattage or lumens, and the best possible fixtures.
Here’s what they — and you — should know.
What type of light does a room need to meet its needs?
Every room should have multiple layers of lighting that come from three categories, since one usually isn’t sufficient. Every room should have:
▪ Ambient or general lighting that illuminates the entire room.
▪ Task lighting that casts illumination on a specific area to perform a chore — such as chopping vegetables or applying makeup.
▪ Accent lighting to create a feeling like romance at night in a dining room.
How is this combination best achieved?
By using a mix of fixtures, which can vary depending on the room and how much brightness is desired. In general, overlighting rooms but including dimmers to alter the mood and provide for different tasks works best, says Josh Weiss, president of Tech Lighting and LBL Lighting in Chicago. (Note: One type of lighting, the compact fluorescent lamp, usually isn’t dimmable.)
Dimming also helps conserve energy, says Melanie Taylor, a lighting designer and senior associate at the engineering firm WSP Flack + Kurtz in Seattle. In a kitchen where several activities are going on, the task lighting should be three times the level of the room’s general light and might come in the form of undercabinet lights, says Nancy Goldstein, a designer with Light Positive in Marblehead, Mass.
Any extra tips for sellers?
Sellers should play up a few positive features in a room, such as a gorgeous island kitchen countertop, by suspending attractive decorative pendants above it or hanging a pair of sconces in a foyer or powder room, says Kay Green, whose Orlando, Fla., firm stages models for builders. Karen Long, owner of Hinsdale Lighting in Hinsdale, Ill., advises sellers never to remove good fixtures and put up inexpensive replacements. “Better to exclude any they don’t want to sell,” she says. And Weiss recommends getting rid of cheap or antiquated fixtures. “If home owners have really old track lighting with massive heads, which makes the lighting look dated, I would replace that with something like a monorail system,” he says.
What about the type of lamps or bulbs?
Changes happen frequently in the industry due to the need to improve energy efficiency. (Lighting accounts for about 12 percent of a typical home’s energy bill.) Families can also save money — from $50 to more than $100 a year — by changing their bulbs, according to information on the American Lighting Association’s Web site. The three most energy-efficient bulbs are:
▪ Halogen incandescents, which use less energy than traditional incandescents and last longer. They’re good for tasks such as reading.
▪ Compact fluorescent lamps, which are more efficient than standard incandescents, last longer, and are good for hard-working kitchens, bathrooms, and laundry rooms.
▪ Light-emitting diodes, which are the longest-lasting but most expensive. They’re excellent for undercabinet lighting, task lighting, and outdoor steps. An LED light could cost as much as $20 versus $1 for an incandescent, Weiss says.
When buying, home owners should know that labels now emphasize lumens—the amount of light that is produced — over watts, which indicate how much energy is used. A 60-watt incandescent equals 800 lumens, for example. The Federal Trade Commission has worked with manufacturers to develop a new label that helps consumers purchase energy-saving bulbs by listing brightness in lumens, estimated yearly energy cost, bulb life-expectancy, light appearance, and energy used, according to ALA.
Home owners should also consider a light’s color — cool or warm white, for instance — and the choice should depend on the light’s purpose and where it’s placed, says Sal Ferrara, owner of The Electrical Training Center in Copake, N.Y. Color temperature is measured in kelvins; a 3,000-kelvin light has more yellow, for example. And they also might want to know the color rendering index, or how accurately a lamp reflects the right color.
Where should lights be placed?
Location is important to achieve the full effect, and should be determined before rooms are painted or patched and once furniture layouts are planned. For instance, Lang advises hiring a lighting expert or designer to help determine the right height for a chandelier, which is based on a room’s size and height and how it’s used.
What about automated control systems?
These days home owners can program a room for different light scenes. “A home owner might want bright light when they cook but less light when they eat,” Goldstein says. Costs reflect a big range, depending on a home’s size and how many lighting loads or controls systems are included, she says. With some systems, you don’t have to rip up a wall and can program “scenes” from a phone.
Where does a home owner begin?
A house should have a minimum of 100 amps — a fuse box should be updated to that level if it’s not there already, Ferrara says. Also, home owners should hire a lighting design expert for a consultation. Some charge an hourly or project fee, but others can be free if merchandise is purchased. If you don’t know of a firm or expert to recommend, help your clients look for one on the American Lighting Association’s Web site. While there, they can request a copy of its free Lighting magazine. Because many showrooms display a fraction of their offerings, they should always ask to see manufacturers’ catalogs, Weiss says.
Where do old bulbs go?
Whether they’ve gone bad, are outdated, or aren’t sufficiently energy-efficient, they need to be disposed of properly. That means they won’t end up in a landfill, says Brian Brundage, CEO of Intercon Solutions in Chicago. “Take them to a facility that can recycle them properly, often a big-box store,” he explains.
Fostering Local Business Pays Off | Katonah NY Realtor
It seems so obvious. Of course chic, boutique- and bistro-filled neighborhoods have higher property values than less-vibrant areas.
Now, there’s a tool that backs up that assumption with real numbers. Independent We Stand, a national group made up of small businesses, developed a calculator showing just how much a home’s value would have increased over a 14-year period if it was bolstered by a strong independent business district. The underlying data for the calculator found that in ZIP codes that contained a central district dominated by strong, independent businesses, home values went up 54.2 percent more on average than those without one.
This correlation between small-business strength and home values may have real estate professionals wondering how they can help entrepreneurs start up in their neighborhoods. Turns out there are plenty of ways to get involved.
Property Values = Community Values
“I was amazed at the percentage of impact,” says Coreen Gardiner, broker and sales manager at Coleman, REALTORS®, in Greenwich, R.I., in reaction to the home value calculator’s results for the Providence metro, which showed a 134 percent increase in home values.
Then again, Gardiner knows the importance of a strong local economy to real estate in her town. She’s a director on the board of the East Greenwich Chamber of Commerce, working to promote small businesses in the town’s commercial district along Main Street, where her office sits. The chamber hosts themed “Main Street Strolls” once a month, where stores stay open late and residents can take in sidewalk sales, performances, and special activities. Gardiner, whose Coleman office plans to host a blood drive during the next Main Street Stroll, says the events have a “block party” atmosphere.
“When we do those subtle things, it obviously helps increase the value of homes,” Gardiner says. “It helps the perception of a positive, growing economy. If somebody feels positive about a local economy, then they’re going to have confidence in buying here.”
Another recurring event designed to get residents investing in the local economy is called a “cash mob.” A group of shoppers and local businesspeople gather in a parking lot, each with a $20 bill in their hands. A local business is chosen at random, and the “cash mob” spends their money at the merchant’s shop.
The notion that small-town proprietors would willingly invest their cash in competitors’ businesses may seem counterintuitive. But Gardiner says it’s all part of the philosophy that fuels the local economy.
“It’s a concept to share the spirit of the community and the willingness of the merchants to work together to bring attention to the community, to help grow our community,” Gardiner explains. “While they’re in competition with one another, they all work together to complement and help each other’s businesses grow.”
The chamber even has a term to describe this approach to developing a thriving business corridor. Gardiner says that “BUCK,” which stands for Building Up Community with Kindness, is the “mantra” of New Greenwich’s local businesses. She adds that this cooperative spirit extends to the many real estate professionals competing for East Greenwich business.
“I call it ‘REALTOR® Row,’ because we have ten real estate brokerages along Main Street. But what’s unique about our community here is that, while we’re competitive, we also work to complement each other’s business,” Gardiner says. “On the chamber’s board of directors alone, I believe, we’ve got four professional REALTORS® who are aggressively involved in helping carry out the mission of the chamber.”
Building on Passion
While Gardiner likes to say that East Greenwich’s “property values are dependent on community values,” the same effort is quite different in a big city. And it doesn’t get a whole lot bigger than the New York borough of Brooklyn, which would be the fourth-largest city in the country if it were independent.
“The values of real estate, the people that live in the neighborhood, and the businesses that are supported there vary widely, [and] different neighborhoods survived the downturn in 2008 in very different ways,” explains Lori Raphael, director of external affairs at the Brooklyn Chamber of Commerce.
Raphael coordinates the work of the chamber’s Real Estate and Development Committee, a group of volunteers from the real estate, development, and finance communities. The committee holds tours, events, and seminars to highlight business opportunities. This summer, the group will hold its 12th annual Building Brooklyn Awards, an annual fund-raiser that recognizes construction projects that have a positive impact on Brooklyn’s economy and quality of life.
While the Brooklyn Chamber works to support business development in general, it’s making a targeted effort to foster Brooklyn’s emergent food industry through a massive rebranding effort.
“We’re working on repositioning our Brooklyn Eats brand to support our Brooklyn-based small food manufacturers,” Raphael says. “We’ve got this burgeoning small manufacturing industry: people who are very new to the business but have a passion for food, for locally-sourced ingredients. We really want to be there to support them and increase their distribution. … We see this as a real growth opportunity.”
One way the chamber assists these small food manufacturers is to help secure funding and find the best place to start up in Brooklyn.
“We can actually package and shop loans around for small businesses. We do that through our business solutions center [NYC Business Solutions], which is a contracted service through the city of New York, and we are the Brooklyn provider,” Raphael says. “We’re meeting startups right in the beginning and helping them actually open.”
Not Always Easy as Pie
Even with the first-class support of a chamber of commerce, small businesses can run into significant bumps on the road to success.
Cheryl Perry, owner of Pie Corps, has found success pedaling her handmade savory and sweet pies at seasonal outdoor food markets. Pie Corps was ready to expand to larger catering and wholesale orders. NYC Business Solutions helped Perry secure a $25,000 loan to move from a kitchen incubator to a larger baking kitchen in the Greenpoint area of Brooklyn.
Perry believes a small storefront like the one she’s rented for Pie Corps can have a positive impact on local home values.
“It does increase property values, of course. But what we’re finding is it’s very difficult to secure the space in which to do that business,” she says.
After putting down a security deposit on the rental of the new, larger space, Perry was informed by the City of New York that the storefront was zoned for residential use only. In order to change their minds, she would need to provide tax documents as evidence of continuous commercial use of the building over the past 40 years, a feat Perry deems “an impossibility.”
“[NYC Business Solutions] really helped us get funds, but once that was done and the city took over, I mean, forget it,” she said. “The loan really is not being used at the moment because we cannot use the property.”
Pie Corps is still working out of its old spot, but Perry is worried about how she’ll pay rent on both locations at once. She added that she can think of at least three other small-business owners who are also unable to expand because of the city’s zoning restrictions.
“There are many small businesses waiting for the city to give them permission to use their space,” Perry said. “It’s a very hard situation for us because we’re a small business. We don’t have money to throw around. … If you’re a big company, you have the money to pay and the time to ride it out.”
How to Invest in Business Development
The needs of small-business owners are indeed different than those of large chains and multinationals. Since they are often independent entrepreneurs with their finger on the pulse of their communities, real estate professionals are in a great position to help, Gardiner says.
“We are a small business. That’s why I felt it was important for me to get involved in the local chamber,” she says. “It’s an important piece of what we draw our income on, and I preach that to our sales team.”
Raphael’s advice for real estate professionals interested in supporting local business development is to invest themselves fully in local chambers.
“Our most active members necessarily get the most out their membership,” Raphael explains. “It’s really important to nurture those relationships, do some committee work, and do something that feels meaningful to you. And the recognition for being the expert in your field will follow.”
Buyer’s Guide: 2012 Smartphones | Bedford Hills Realtor
The smartphone is now themobile office for an ever-growing number of real estate professionals. They’re carrying less equipment as they’re able to do more with this hub of productivity: running apps, retrieving files and contracts, accessing the latest listing info from the Web or their MLS, taking pictures, and communicating with buyers and sellers in whatever mode they prefer.
These devices and their capabilities continue to advance at such a relentless pace that if you bought yours just a year ago, you might suffer a little smartphone envy as you survey the current field. For, the smartphone market carries one unique limitation: The most affordable options are typically tethered to a two-year service contract, periodically forbidding many users the advantages of the latest technology.
But if your contract is expiring and it’s time for a new phone — or you if can justify upgrading your device as a business investment — you may find yourself overwhelmed trying to decide which one can best drive your career forward. In this category, lack of options is not a problem.
Match Powerful Photos With Powerful Headlines to Get Ads Noticed | Pound Ridge NY Real Estate
Options Abound for Kitchen Flooring | Mount Kisco NY Real Estate
via zillow.com