Daily Archives: July 20, 2012

Luxury for Rent in These Homes | Katonah Luxury Real Estate

These aren’t the narrow walk-up apartment you rented for your first place, and they’re a far cry from any mother-in-law quarters or anything you might see near college campuses. These homes for rent have pools, saunas, private parking garages, phenomenal views and pretty much everything you’d expect in a high-end home — except the mortgage.
From California estates to the ubiquitous Manhattan penthouse, here’s a sampling of luxury places to rent.
Malibu, CA
0 Cliffside Dr, Malibu CA
For rent: $150,000/month
Favored by Hollywood’s biggest stars, Malibu is just a 45-minute drive from Los Angeles. Perfect summer temperatures, beachfront living and luxury can be found in any number of properties that dot the coast. This 11,741-square-foot rental sits on an ocean bluff and features an enormous pool, spa and outdoor dining areas.
Manhattan, NY
247 Central Park W, New York NY
For rent: $110,000/month
New York is a city of renters rather than homebuyers. With more than 6 million people in the Big Apple, the demand for New York real estate has created some of the priciest rents in the nation. This historic brownstone, built in 1900, pays homage to its history with a traditional facade, but the interior is modern with high ceilings and sleek finishes. The six-level Manhattan home for rent has 12,000 square feet of space that holds 5 bedrooms, 8 bathrooms, a 60-foot-long lap pool, his and hers private offices and a gym.
The Hamptons
undisclosed address, Water Mill NY
For rent: $125,000/month
You’re not just paying for the land in the Hamptons — you’re paying for the prestige of the East Coast vacation spot popular with A-listers and politicians alike. This Water Mill, NY, home for rent has 8,000 square feet of living space on a 3-acre lot. While the $125,000 a month doesn’t include ocean views, the home does have a heated gunite pool, tennis courts, indoor movie theater and gym as well as a library, 7 bedrooms and 8 baths.
Miami Beach
10 Palm Ave, Miami Beach FL
For rent: $68,600/month
It’s not a hotel, but it may as well be. This Miami Beach home for rent is located on prestigious Palm Island and includes five-star hotel service. The 11,000-square-foot Spanish colonial has a private dock on Biscayne Bay, pool, spa, swim-in grotto and waterfall. Inside, the 6-bed, 6.5-bath home also has a movie theater and game room.
Hawaii
(undisclosed address), Honolulu, HI
For rent: $45,000/month
All you need is your swimsuit! This Honolulu home for rent is fully furnished and is offered month to month. Sitting on Oahu’s south shore, the 5-bed, 5-bath has a private dock with ocean views as well as a pool and jacuzzi. Headed for the ocean? The home also comes equipped with paddleboards and kayaks.
San Francisco
Saint Germain Ave, San Francisco CA
For rent: $28,000/month
Four stories of high-tech, extra modern amenities? Check. Seven bedrooms? Check. A fabulous view of the Golden Gate Bridge? Check. This detached San Francisco home for rent has just about everything. Sitting on an extra-wide lot, the home also includes an enormous master suite with soaking tub and double shower.
Aspen, CO
63 Smuggler Grv Rd, Aspen CO
For rent: $25,000/month
Heading to the mountains doesn’t mean you have to forgo luxury. This Aspen rental is close to skiing, biking, hiking and fishing yet includes high-end finishes and 6,100 square feet of living space. The 5-bedroom, 5.5-bath home also has a hot tub on its deck, steam room, gym and a 10-person home theater.

via zillow.com

Homes for a Future Olympian | Bedford Hills NY Real Estate

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Dreaming of a gold medal in your future (or perhaps your child’s future?) Besides a competitive spirit and loads of determination, you may need a space to start practicing in. Sure, you could hit up the local gym, but if you’re really going to be dedicated, how about picking up a home that fits perfectly for your first-place ambitions.
We’ve rounded up a few homes across the country that are ideal for the Olympian-to-be. With swanky gyms, deep pools and volleyball courts, these homes for sale could make those grueling practices a little more pleasant.
Tennis court
6 Inspiration Pt, Laguna Niguel CA
For sale: $21 million
This year the tennis competition will be held on Wimbledon’s grass courts. While the court accompanying this Laguna Niguel, CA home for sale is turf, not grass, it’s still a great place for a budding Olympian to practice.
Swimming
4325 Caughlin Pkwy, Reno NV
For sale: $2.35 million
Many homes have pools, but few have pools that can host the activity of a training Olympian. The pool of this Reno home isn’t an Olympic-sized structure, but it provides enough room for butterfly, breaststroke and freestyle as well as a nearby spa to decompress in.
Diving
380 College St, Adams OR
For sale: $1.58 million
This Adams, OR home doesn’t have a high dive, but the deep pool and diving board are still good for practicing form.The 5,081-square-foot home is located 13 miles from Pendleton, OR and also includes a 2,298-square-foot guest/pool house.
Trampoline
553 El Pintado Rd, Danville CA
For sale: $1.749 million
A little like gymnastics with a bounce, trampolining is a newer Olympic sport, making its debut at the 2000 Summer Games in Sydney. This Danville, CA house for sale includes an in-ground trampoline perfect for practicing aerial moves.
Basketball
7440 Oak Grove Ave, Las Vegas NV
For sale: $2.95 million
The U.S. Olympic basketball team is dominated by some of the biggest names in the NBA. Channel your inner Kobe or LeBron with the indoor basketball court offered in this Las Vegas home for sale.
Beach volleyball
2181 Ipnar Rd, North Huntingdon PA
For sale: $459,900
A casual beach game can also be elevated to Olympic status. A relatively new sport, beach volleyball is often one of the more popular summer events to watch. Rather than getting down to the beach to practice digs and spikes, this home for sale in North Huntington, PA includes a regulation-sized sand volleyball court. Priced under $500,000, this home is one of the cheaper Olympic options on this list.
Weightlifting
345 St Pierre Rd, Los Angeles CA
For sale: $13.8 million
A total of 260 athletes — men and women — are competing in weightlifting at the Olympics, hoisting 500 pounds and more. This Los Angeles home gym has plenty of space for a budding athlete to begin training.
Archery
(undisclosed address), Winnsboro TX
For sale: $8.075 million
This Texas ranch has nearly everything on its sprawling acreage, including an archery range. Archery dates back 10,000 years, but it wasn’t added to the Olympics until 1900. The Winnsboro, TX archery range is rustic but would still work well for an Olympian in training.

via zillow.com

From Mortgages to Apparel: Bargains Consumers Should Take Advantage Of | Bedford NY Real Estate

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While it may seem as though prices are up on just about everything these days — from food to airfares to hotels to home closing costs — here are a few standout, noteworthy bargains and some ways you should take advantage of the situation at hand:
Mortgage rates
The drop we’re seeing on mortgage rates — fueled by a fall in U.S. bond yields as investors worry about the economy and wonder whether the Federal Reserve will take more steps to stimulate growth — continues. Did you know that, according to Zillow Mortgage Marketplace, the average rate on a 30-year fixed has remained below 4 percent since mid-October. It’s now at 3.42 percent.
Action Plan: With the combination of low interest rates and low home prices, now is the time to make the decision to buy a house (See our list of the best places to buy in 2012). After all, it’s the “perfect storm”!!! And, a word to existing homeowners: consider refinancing to a 20- or even 15-year mortgage instead of the traditional 30-year mortgage, suggests Erin Lantz, director of Zillow Mortgage Marketplace. Given that rates are as low are they are, it’s possible that you may be able to keep your monthly payment fairly close to your current one, and yet you’d pay off your mortgage earlier, build equity at a faster rate and save thousands in interest. Want to run your own numbers and see, specifically, how much you’d save? Go to zillow.com/mortgage-calculator.
Cars/gas
Not only are the rates on auto loans pretty attractive (A 36-month new car loan is currently just 3.11 percent), but when you factor in manufacturer and dealer incentives, combined, things look even more enticing. As for gas prices, remember the headlines a few months ago when it was predicted we’d reach $5 a gallon during the peak summer travel months?! Thankfully, we’re not there: A weak global economy now has us at $3.38 a gallon — that’s 13 percent less than what we paid in April. Have drivers seen the worst? Maybe. Some analysts predict that gas prices will settle below $3 by the fall.
Action Plan: If you’re in the market for a new car, now may be the time to trade in your clunker, which you’ve likely had for 10 years, right? Still paying off your current automobile? Consider refinancing at a lower — and more favorable — interest rate. As for gas prices, just because they’re down, continue to maintain your good driving habits. By that, I mean do what you’ve been doing to get the best fuel economy: schedule regular tuneups, drive steadily, skip the premium (unless your car requires it) and time your fill ups (Prices are typically lowest Tuesday, mid-day or Wednesday mornings).

Apparel
As retailers make way for fall and winter merchandise, they have to get rid of spring and summer-related merchandise — from shorts to tanks to T-shirts, bathing suits and more — says Dan Butler, vice president of retail operations for the National Retail Federation. What this means to you: savings of up to 75 percent.

via zillow.com

10 Tips for Marketing your Business on Pinterest | Pound Ridge NY Real Estate

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If you think that publishing is going through an evolution then photography is experiencing a revolution.
There are happy snappers everywhere. The smart phone with the inbuilt high definition camera is turning everyone into a photgrapher. Add some software technology with Instagram filters and an ordinary photo is becoming a piece of art.
Sites such as Pinterest are also allowing us to share this visual art form in glorious color, creativity and ease just by pinning images from the screen with a couple of clicks.
Competitors such as The Fancy.com are taking these concepts of visual pinning even further into the realm of social commerce and have announced that they have reached a whopping one million users already.
The Rise of Social Mobile Commerce
The Fancy has introduced a few new features into its mobile app offering, most notably the ability to buy products (they are reportedly making an average of $50,000 each week from users snapping up the products they fancy). Up until now users could only collect images they fancied, but now you can buy them with one-click purchasing directly from your iPhone or iPad.
This revolution is changing the way businesses perform commerce online. Online vendors are realizing that the habits and practices of buyers online are changing rapidly and that tablet and smartphone users are much more likely to impulse buy with the convenience of one click shopping.
Pinterest has the Numbers
When it is all said and done, Pinterest still has the mind share and the numbers (currently at over 20 million users) but it certainly needs to keep developing its platform rapidly.
Online boutiques such as Boticca have turned their product categories into boards on Pinterest and are generating up to 10% of their sales from clicks from Pinterest. (Read more about that here)
So how do you use Pinterest to market your business?
10 Tips for Marketing on Pinterest
As with all marketing you need to start with a plan to win and Pinterest is no different.
1. Plan for Pinning Success
When setting up your account make sure it is set up properly and branded with your logo. Create boards that suit your target customers and your industry niche. Also make sure that you have integrated your Pinterest platform with your other social media platforms.
2. Remember Copyright
I was attending an online retailer conference recently and ShopNBC pointed out that it is important to ensure that you are not pinning images that have copyright. Also remember to attribute your source.
3. Pin Straegically
The mantra is Pin, Repin and follow. Build up a loyal tribe and they will reward you with significant sharing. Remember when anyone repins the link still points back to your site. Think of Pinterest as a friendly virus.
4. Be a Social Pinner
Don’t forget to comment , like other pins and @tag other pinners by name. Also remember your manners and say thanks when you are repinned.
5. Produce Pinnable Content
The rise of a much more visual web requires you to create and share high quality images. Also remember that you can also pin video as well. For B2B businesses that work in knowledge industries you can also pin images that point to your presentations on Slideshare.
6. Create and Curate
Don’t just post your images curate other quality images and photos from others. Remember to share the love. The power of reciprocation is alive and well and if you share others content they will feel obliged to share yours.
7. Be a Creative Pinner
A lot of business have great images offline that could be placed online to add to your content. Run competitions and include call to action in your pins.
8. Keep Search Engines in Mind
Google notices fresh content and also social signals. So optimize your pins with hashtags, links, categories and keywords. It is very important to pin images and content from your website. Pinterest can drive a lot of traffic to your website if you do this correctly with compelling and contagious photos and images. Infographics work very well on Pinterest.
9. Don’t Forget your Tools
The most essential tool is the “Pin It” button on your browser. Also download the Pinterest app for your mobile devices.
10. Monitor and Measure your Traffic
This will assist you in finding out what works and what doesn’t. Do more of what works. Also monitor what your competitors and other brands are doing and you will be surprised by what you will learn.

via jeffbullas.com

Brooklyn Prices | Brooklyn Brownstones | Brooklyn Inventory | Bedford Corners Real Estate

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Home prices in Brooklyn have held steady in the second quarter, but the market is characterized by a steep decline in inventory and a notable uptick in the sales prices of brownstone properties, second quarter market reports from leading brokerages show.
“Pricing didn’t do a whole lot,” in the second quarter in Brooklyn, said Jonathan Miller, president of real estate analytics firm Miller Samuel and author of Prudential Douglas Elliman’s market report. The more compelling statistic, Miller said, is the 18 percent decline in inventory in the borough year-over-year, which is “firming up the market by stabilizing prices.” Inventory has also declined in Queens, and to some extent in Manhattan, Miller said, but the precipitous drop in Brooklyn is a result of the market peaking earlier there, and the recession hitting harder.
“Buyers are waiting until the market improves,” Miller said, often because they are constrained by ever-tightening lending requirements. And those who sell their homes may not be approved for the loans needed to trade up, Miller said.
The Elliman report, which tracks co-op, condominium and one- to three-family homes in Brooklyn, showed the median sales price in the borough was $586,000, up 2 percent year-over-year. The median sales price for Brooklyn brownstones, however, was $1.3 million — up 9.5 percent year-over-year, according to Elliman’s numbers.
“The standout is the brownstone market, a small niche, with only 3 percent of the Brooklyn market [share],” Miller said. “But it is the highest-priced housing stock.”
Brown Harris Stevens’ report for the borough showed an increase of 13 percent in median prices, to $890,000, in the Brooklyn Heights, Carroll Gardens and Cobble Hill neighborhoods, where many brownstones are located. But despite its reputation as an up-and-coming area, prices in Clinton Hill/Fort Greene dropped year-over-year to $470,000, from $490,000. Prices also fell in the Bay Ridge/Sunset Park area, to $275,000, from $284,000 year-over-year, according to BHS.
Borough-wide, Corcoran’s numbers showed that apartment sales volume was at its second highest point since the market’s collapse, with sales up 16 percent in Brooklyn from last quarter. Corcoran’s report showed an average price-per-square foot of $622 in Brooklyn, up 10 percent year-over-year, and bolstered by a 14 percent uptick in new development sales.
But Miller cautioned that the rise in activity and pricing could simply be seasonal.
“That’s a normal and healthy ebb and flow, moving into the second quarter,” Miller said, noting that inventory will likely continue to tighten for another year. “That’s going to either stabilize or firm up pricing,” he said, adding that apartments are seeing bidding wars, but only up to list price, not above.
“The story is that it’s not a story,” right now, he said of Brooklyn’s slow but steady recovery from the crash. “[The market] is tight but not irrational.”

via therealdeal.com

Brooklyn Townhouses Becoming Even More Unaffordable | Chappaqua Real Estate

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After a stable but so-so first quarter — a boon in East Bushwick sales notwithstanding — reports released today by some of the city’s biggest firms reveal a decently performing real estate market in Brooklyn for the second quarter. According to Prudential Douglas Elliman’s quarterly survey, prepared by appraisal firm Miller Samuel, 1,988 properties found buyers from April to June, up 2.4 percent from the same period last year. Properties are selling at the “fastest pace” in two years, and the average price is up two percent to $585,777. Inventory declined a substantial 17.6 percent.
Sales of large apartments — three bedrooms and bigger — have lofted the market, says Frank Percesepe, regional director of the Corcoran Group’s Brooklyn office. Add townhouses to that list, too. “The last six months, the townhouse market has been on fire,” he says. Then again, this is Brooklyn, after all — land of envy-inducing brownstone blocks. Still, the numbers are striking: The average price of a one-family shot up 28 percent to $1.873 million. The biggest sale so far this year for houses? Truman Capote’s former abode, a 5,702-square-foot mansion on Willow Place that traded hands for $12.5 million, breaking records for the borough.
As for where the steals are hiding, head to Bay Ridge/Sunset park, where, according to Brown Harris Stevens, the average price, $300,365, is down 3 percent in the first half of this year. Park Slope/Prospect Heights is stable, but try negotiating for a condominium, maybe; the average price-per-square-foot for a condo there is down 2 percent to $699.
Queens, like Manhattan and Brooklyn, also experienced a big dip in inventory, with the number of listings down by 33.3 percent to 8,754 units. Fewer apartments sold this quarter than last year (2,306 versus 2,361), but what’s there is selling at a higher price: Both average and median prices are up, by 2.2 percent and 3.8 percent respectively. The average price of a Queens property is now $399,154.

via nymag.com

Peter Madoff | 975 Park Avenue | Prudential Douglas Elliman | Armonk Realtor

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From left: Peter Madoff, 975 Park Avenue and Madoff’s apartment
This time, it’s a Madoff taking a loss on an investment. Peter Madoff, the younger brother of Ponzi schemer Bernie, put his Park Avenue co-op on the market yesterday for $4 million just months before he heads to prison on a 10-year sentence, the Wall Street Journal reported.
Madoff purchased the 2,300-square-foot unit at 975 Park Avenue for $4.1 million in 2004 and then spent nearly $1 million on renovations, converting it to a two-bedroom apartment from a three-bedroom one. Of course, no money from the sale will go to Peter or his wife, Marion. Instead it will be handed over to the U.S. Marshals Service as part of an agreement Madoff signed when he pled guilty to fraud.
Prudential Douglas Elliman’s Toni Haber is listing the apartment, which Madoff purchased from Adam Hochfelder, a real estate investor who also pled guilt to fraud charges. Madoff is required to sell that co-op, along with the Long Island home he put on the market last year, by January. The price on that home was dropped to $5.3 million from $6.5 million

via therealdeal.com