Daily Archives: July 25, 2011

Mount Kisco NY Real Estate | 7 qualities of a top listing agent | Inman News

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7 qualities of a top listing agent

REThink Real Estate

Q: I’m preparing to list my home, and am starting to research listing agents to represent me. Besides being comfortable with my broker, what is the most important quality I need from them: negotiating skills or marketing skills? Both are very important to me. Frankly, I’m afraid of being “roughed up” by aggressive buyers in this market. –Michelle

A: You’re spot on, Michelle. Both marketing and negotiating will be uber-important to have in the broker or agent you choose to list your home and get it sold.

Some might see marketing as the most important because, to put it plainly, if your home is not exposed widely and aggressively to prospective buyers, you’ll never have the buyer viewings and offer(s) that must come in for you to even be faced with the high-class problem of negotiating the price and terms of a sale.

However, I don’t see marketing skills as the requirement so much as your listing agent having a clear, comprehensive marketing plan that she is able to present to you with case studies or specimens of marketing she’s done for recent properties somewhat similar to yours. It’s critical that an agent’s marketing plan for your home include details such as:

  • how she would help you prepare or stage your property for sale;
  • what her plans are for listing the property on the local multiple listing service(s) and publicizing it to other brokers;
  • what onsite marketing she would recommend (i.e., yard signage and/or open houses); and
  • how and where she would place your home’s listing online, down to which sites she’d list it on and how many pictures she would include.

All essential.

But negotiating is essential too — especially if you’re very concerned about being bullied or taken advantage of.

Ultimately, though, when it comes to negotiations, you’re going to be faced with making the ultimate decisions about what your bottom-line price and other terms are, including whether you’re able to offer incentives like closing-cost credits or whether you can afford to contribute to any repairs the buyer’s inspectors require.

What I suspect you want is to feel like you’re protected, which will come from having an agent you trust who’s “got your back,” but also has the experience and knowledge of local standard negotiating practices and buyer psychology that comes only with experience — and I mean recent experience getting homes sold in today’s market climate.

I cannot emphasize enough that one efficient method of finding such a listing agent is to get referrals! Look to any family members, friends, work colleagues and neighbors whose homes are on the market now and ask them if they would strongly recommend their agent, and why.

If it’s tough to get referrals, go into the various online real estate websites and their local discussion boards, and see which local agents are giving sensible, knowledgeable answers to consumers’ questions in those forums. During your interview process, ask for references — and call them! Speak to their recent past seller clients, to see how happy they were with the agents’ service.

And I’d suggest you look for several other items beyond marketing and negotiating skills, or even trustworthiness and experience.

If I were listing my home one of my top priorities would be to find an agent who seems to have nailed the art and science of pricing their listings — I’d want to find an agent whose listings regularly sold quickly, relative to other homes in the area, and for sales prices that were at, near or even above the asking prices.

That’s an agent whose pricing recommendations you can trust, and an agent who likely has another strong skill you need: the skill of being able to have frank, tough conversations with their clients about what their homes are worth, and can support those list-price recommendations with facts and sound reasoning.

I’d also prioritize an agent with strong relationships: with their past clients; with mortgage professionals; with other agents in the area; with property preparation vendors (like stagers, painters, handymen/women, landscapers and such); with inspectors, engineers and contractors; and with local escrow companies.

And, if I were listing my home as a short sale, I would absolutely limit my listing agent search to agents who have a strong, proven track record of getting short sales closed — ideally short sales that involved the same bank or banks as my mortgage lender.

This is by no means an exhaustive list of questions to ask and traits to seek in your listing agent candidates, but these are certainly where my top priorities would lie.

Tara-Nicholle Nelson is author of “The Savvy Woman’s Homebuying Handbook” and “Trillion Dollar Women: Use Your Power to Make Buying and Remodeling Decisions.” Tara is also the Consumer Ambassador and Educator for real estate listings search site Trulia.com. Ask her a real estate question online or visit her website, www.rethinkrealestate.com.

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Bedford Hills Homes | The mortgage interest tax deduction: What’s at stake in budget talks? | Inman News

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The mortgage interest tax deduction: What’s at stake in budget talks?

Real Estate Tax Talk

The federal tax law encourages homeownership in a big way by allowing homeowners to deduct from their income taxes the interest they pay on home mortgages.

The deduction may be used for mortgage debt totaling $1 million, and up to $100,000 in home-equity loans or lines of credit, for a principal and second home.

One study estimates that the mortgage interest deduction lowers the cost of capital for owner-occupied housing by 7 percent. Also, by allowing taxpayers to deduct mortgage interest from their taxable income, but not rental payments, the tax code creates a strong financial incentive to buy rather than rent a home.

In 2009, about 35 million households claimed the deduction, and more than 75 percent of homeowners have used the deduction at least once.

As you might expect, the mortgage interest deduction is expensive. Indeed, it’s one of the largest tax breaks in the tax code, costing about $80 billion per year. That’s why the so-called “Gang of Six,” a bipartisan group of six senators that has been drafting a deficit reduction plan, has called for changes in the deduction.

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Bedford NY Real Estate | How to end economic stalemate | Inman News

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How to end economic stalemate

Commentary: ‘Time to bite the bullet’

Flickr image courtesy of <a href=

Markets lurched from nowhere to nowhere this week, waiting for deals. Or no deals. Or to see what kind.

The deal watch deflected attention from the economy, which, after all, is the whole point of the show. New data said a lot by saying nothing. The Philadelphia Federal Reserve index, new unemployment, sales of existing homes, starts of new homes, home prices, mortgage applications — all flat, neither sinking back into recession nor going anywhere.

Goldman Sachs announced lousy earnings, having retreated from trading risk. If Goldman doesn’t feel like taking risk, who should? And after its initial public offering this week, Zillow is worth a billion bucks — forget about profits and business plan … if it’s tech, someone will buy the stock.

The markets told us what to think about pending deals. On Tuesday, when it looked as though a big U.S. budget deal was back on, deep spending cuts and some revenue raised, stocks jumped 200 Dow points, and interest rates fell, the 10-year Treasury note almost breaking two months’ resistance at 2.88 percent.

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North Salem NY Homes | State Judges Poised to Get Hefty Raises, but Can the State Afford Them? – Bedford-Katonah, NY Patch

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As temperatures soared into the triple digits last week, the decade-long battle over raises for state judges also began to heat up.

The 1,200-plus judges who sit on county, surrogate, family, and supreme courts across New York have not received raises since 1999, when their pay was increased to $136,700. That’s largely because their salaries were tied to those of state lawmakers, who have found it politically untenable to give themselves raises.

But that bind was broken by a law passed last year which also called for the creation of a seven-member panel, called the Commission on Judicial Compensation, tasked with making recommendations regarding how big of a raise judges deserve. The group held a public hearing in Albany last week, where many of the three dozen speakers sounded personal pleas and insisted the very integrity of New York’s courts are in jeopardy.

The issue, perhaps, is particularly acute in New York City and the lower Hudson Valley, where the cost of living is considerably higher than upstate and, many argue, a $136,000 salary does not reflect the unique work judges do and belies a degree of disrespect for the bench.

Judge Francis Nicolai, who sits on the Supreme Court for the Ninth Judicial District, which includes Putnam, Rockland, Westchester, Dutchess and Orange counties, told the DisPatch that his clerk and many young attorneys fresh out of law school make more money than him and his colleagues.

“It’s absurd, and it’s political,” said Nicolai, who first became a judge in 1982.

Nicolai, 72, said he’s “lucky” that his children are all grown, but many younger judges are concerned they won’t be able to put their kids through college or save for retirement.

“I’m angry, not about the money, but about the disrespect shown to judges,” he said, adding that continuing to keep judicial pay low will discourage bright young lawyers from becoming judges.

Statistics from the state Office of Court Administration show that the rate of judicial resignations has skyrocketed from less than 5 percent per year to 10 percent per year over the last decade. A recent New York Times article highlighted the increasingly common exodus of judges into private practice, where they can earn seven-figure incomes.

Hanging over the commission’s deliberations are the state’s dire fiscal circumstances. After closing a $10 billion deficit this year, officials are facing a $2.4 billion gap in 2012. At last week’s hearing, Budget Director Robert Megna said the state simply can’t afford the raises.

“We don’t even have the ability to finance the spending commitments that are already in place,” said Megna, who was speaking on behalf of Governor Andrew Cuomo, who appointed three of the commission’s seven members.

Megna pointed out that while many state workers have received consistent raises in recent years, others—including the governor, lawmakers and agency heads—have seen their salaries remain stagnant. Further, he said, raising judges’ pay significantly “could skew the entire system” of pay for public workers.

But those advocating for raises rejected the economic argument. Ann Pfau, the state’s chief administrative judge, said a proposal to raise salaries by 41 percent would cost the state $58 million—about 58 one-thousandths of one percent of the state’s total spending. She also said the state has saved $500 million since 1999 by not giving raises to jurists.

A number of proposals have been presented. One is to give judges a 41-percent raise to reflect the increase in the cost of living since 1999, which would bring salaries to $192,700; others are calling for “full and fair” raises of 67 percent, which would mean a salary close to $230,000. Some more austere experts have proposed raising salaries to $174,000—the current pay for federal judges, who have not received raises in three years.

And still others, including a handful of the three dozen people who testified at last week’s hearing, are calling for a complete rejection of judicial raises until the state’s court system is overhauled to root out corruption and waste.

“There must be no increases in judicial compensation until mechanisms are in place to remove justices who deliberately pervert the rule of law,” said Elena Sassower, the head of the White Plains-based Center for Judicial Accountability.

Sassower and others say the state’s judicial watchdog, the Commission on Judicial Conduct, has been tainted by corruption and greater accountability is needed.

The Commission on Judicial Compensation is expected to release its findings August 29; its recommendations will take effect on April 1, 2012, unless they are overturned by the state legislature.

via bedford.patch.com

Katonah NY Homes | 10 Things to Do in the Hudson Valley, July 25-31 – Bedford-Katonah, NY Patch

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Here are 10 notable events in the Hudson Valley this week: 

1. Peekskill— Jazz & Blues Festival

2. White Plains— Breadwinners Foundation Annual Golf/Tennis Outing

3. New Rochelle— Family Film Frenzy: “Yogi Bear”

4. Ossining— Summer Film Series, Books on Screen: “127 Hours”

5. Chappaqua— Saw Mill River Audubon Birding

6. Rye— Annual Sidewalk Sale

7. Brewster— Annual Fire Department Parade

8. Bedford—Annual Fire Department Parade

9. Nyack—Lecture/Join In Song: “Every Voice Counts”

10. Nanuet—Highview Playground Rummage Sale

 

Have an event you want us to highlight? Add it to our calendar and email satta@patch.com so we can feature it in next week’s video.

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South Salem NY Real Estate | South Salem Couple Among First to Wed Under NY Marriage Equality Act; Quidditch Match for HP Fans – Bedford-Katonah, NY Patch

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1. Historic gay wedding ceremonies take place 

On Sunday, July 24, the first day gay couples that could receive marriage licenses under the Marriage Equality Act did so at Town Hall in Greenburgh. Among the 12 couples were Jeanine Bartley-Cohen, center, and her spouse, Robin Bartley-Cohen, who live in South Salem. Read more about the ceremony here, and their wedding announcement, featured in this weekend’s New York Times.

2. Deduct job search expenses

According to the Internal Revenue Service, many taxpayers spend time during the summer months updating their résumé and attending career fairs—some of the expenses associated with these activities are deductible on tax returns. To qualify for a deduction, the expenses must be spent on a job search in your current occupation. You may not deduct expenses you incur while looking for a job in a new occupation. To find out more, visit www.irs.gov or call 800-TAX-FORM (800-829-3676).

3. Friends of Karen golf outing

Coldwell Banker of Yorktown is hosting the Fifth Annual Golf Outing to support Friends of Karen, the organization dedicated to serving critically-ill children and their families. Included are 18 holes of golf, greens and cart fees, practice range, lunch, dinner and networking for $225. If you only plan to attend the dinner, the cost is $75. For more information contact Michael O’Connor at M1Oconnor@aol.com or 914-245-3400.

4. Harry Potter fans can take in a Quidditch Match

For all muggles and wizards bemoaning the end of the Harry Potter book and film series, a live Quidditch Match just may give you an HP fix for the day. Plus, fresh baked goods will be sold during the match to benefit the Bedford Hills library. We’ll see you there at 4 p.m. at the Bedford Hills Elementary School.

5. Patch picks events for the week

Looking for fantastic things to do this week in the area? Check out our video cast of this week’s suggestions, including the Bedford Village Fire Department Parade this Friday night at 7 p.m.  


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