Chappaqua real estate sales down 10% – Prices up 3.6% | RobReportBlog
Chappaqua NY Real Estate sales Report – last six months
2012
58 sales
$940,712 median price
$480,000 low price
$2,550,000 high price
3746 ave. size
$292 ave. price per foot
172 ave. DOM
95.71% ave sold to ask
$1,073,578 ave. sold price
Advice on what to do and how to do it is everywhere these days. Whether you want to know what to eat, how much money to save or how to learn a new language, it seems that the answers are a mere Google away.
And that has created its own set of problems, chief among them the issue of information overload. Sorting through the overwhelming inundation of information about how to proceed with any major life endeavor — including real estate matters like buying, selling or refinancing a home — has become a sort of pre-action step.
Often, the most helpful action-sorting, order-creating, overwhelm-abolishing advice turns out not to be advice about what to do, but advice about what not to do. To that end, here are my top three real estate don’ts:
1. Buy too soon. As I see it, the drive to buy a home before your finances, your family and even your personal development are truly ready (and the complicity of lenders who were all too happy to make loans to borrowers, prematurely) is to blame for much of the real estate mayhem we saw in the recent real estate recession.
If you have no money to put down, no cash cushion, poor spending, saving and debting habits, or uncertainty about how stable you and your household will be in the next five or so years, geographically and otherwise, buying a home is a move that is highly likely to end in a tale of woe.
As strongly as I believe in the power of homeownership, I have seen time and time again that it is better deferred until you are truly ready than rushed into and regretted.
2. Take it personally. Whatever it is. Buyers who get overly attached to a property, emotionally speaking, put themselves behind the eight ball when it comes to negotiations, and are also likely to panic and make bad decisions when it comes to responding to inspection reports and borrowing mortgage money.
Know that there are literally hundreds, possibly thousands, of prospective homes in your area that might fit your needs, so beware of allowing any single one to get you too worked up, before you have it in contract, have your inspection reports in hand, and have made it through appraisal and underwriting phases.
For sellers, the potential to take things personally is exponentially greater, given that your home is both your largest asset and the place that has been good enough for you and your family to live in for, perhaps, years. It’s very easy to get offended by everything from the real estate agent’s estimation of what your home is worth, staging and property preparation advice (which can feel like your taste and lifestyle are under attack), lowball offers, appraisals — you name it.
The very best practice is to find and work with professionals you trust, six months or even a year in advance of when you want to make your move, then be open and attentive to their advice, even if it hurts. Do not allow your emotional attachment to your home to get in the way of the financial and personal progress you seek from trying to sell it.
3. Avoid discomfort. As a general rule, many of the best things in life require us to go through some discomfort or small, recurring pain to get them. To get fit, you have to get up and exercise when you might feel like curling up and snoozing. To get ahead in your career, you have to exercise discipline in your work habits, putting in hours and ideas even when the going gets tough.
It is no different with real estate; in fact, the nature of the real estate game is so foreign to what most of us consider our zones of comfort and competence that making a series of informed, smart real estate decisions can actually require a series of uncomfortable commitments, several months or even years of agreement to endure little pains to reach your goal.
Whether your personal discomfort zone is triggered by one or all of the following:
- staunching your spending hemorrhage.
- saving money when you’d rather take a trip.
- working through your financial maths repeatedly.
- negotiating.
- asking hard questions (and continuing to ask them until you are satisfied).
- thoroughly reading literally hundreds of pages of disclosure, inspection, and homeowners association (HOA) and loan documents.
My last “don’t” is this: Don’t avoid any of these uncomfortable processes, practices and moments. They are each an essential element of the process of buying or selling or mortgaging a home with wisdom and long-term sustainability.
DEAR BARRY: When I bought my home 12 years ago, the seller disclosed that she had no knowledge of any termites. Last week, I discovered evidence of termites, so I called a pest inspector and he found plugged holes in the slab floor where termicide was injected years ago. This means that the former owner lied on her disclosure statement. What can I do to hold her liable for the cost of exterminating the termites that are now in my home? –Julianna
DEAR JULIANNA: There is no way to have recourse after 12 years, even if the disclosure statement was less than honest. The seller, in fact, may have been totally honest in her disclosures, believing that the termites at that time had been eliminated by the termicide that was injected through the slab.
If termites are common in your area, a termite inspection should have been performed when you were buying the property. If there were live termites in the home at that time, that should have been reported by the inspector. If none were reported, the seller’s disclosure was probably correct. If termites have reappeared in the intervening years, that is not surprising or unusual.
Again, 12 years is too late for recourse. If you have a new batch of termites, simply have them treated. Once every 12 years isn’t bad.
DEAR BARRY: We bought our home, an old ranch house, about 10 years ago. Recently, while remodeling the interior, we discovered that the well and holding tank are hidden in the wall between the kitchen and bathroom. The building inspector says this is not to code and has put a hold on the project. We hired a home inspector before buying the property, but he never reported this condition. How could this have passed the home inspection? –Joyce
DEAR JOYCE: The most likely reason the well and holding tank were missed by the home inspector is that they were concealed between the walls. Unless there was some visible evidence, there may have been no way for the inspector to make that discovery. On the other hand, a competent home inspector would have attempted to verify the water source, if only by checking for a shutoff valve on the outside of the building.
However, the unusual placement of the well and tank indicates that this is a very old home. If that is the case, their location should be “grandfathered” and should not become an issue with the building authority. If the building inspector will not relent, you should discuss the matter with an attorney.
DEAR BARRY: We just converted our hall closet to a laundry, but we’re not sure where to vent the dryer. Can the exhaust duct from a gas dryer be connected to a sewer vent? –Roy
DEAR ROY: Connecting a clothes dryer to a sewer vent is not safe or legal because sewer gases contain methane, the same gas as in your stove, furnace and water heater. If sewer gas vents into your dryer duct and is ignited, you might not like the way your laundry comes out.
Networking is and always has been one of the very best ways for real estate agents to grow their business. Going to a mixer or local networking event in your area is always a great reason to dust off the business cards and work on your elevator pitch. But how about instead of attending an event, you create one?
With social media, it is easier than ever to create your own event. As you work on your 2013 business plans, one thing to think about is, ‘how many times am I going to get face to face with potential clients?’ Social media is the great facilitator for this.
Here are 7 keys to creating and promoting events on Facebook:
- Set up an event on Facebook. If you have a business page, set up your event there (not through your personal profile.) . This does two things – it tells people about your event and it also promotes your business page because you are driving traffic to your page!
- Include all the details on the event page. Make sure to include a link to purchase tickets (if applicable) and all the details – time, place, refreshments and more.
- Promote your event. Tweet that link out, email it out to your sphere, promote it from your personal Facebook profile, and more! Also make sure you invite people to the event using the “invite your friends” tab on the event page. Make sure you only invite people locally who could attend (not your entire friend list!)
- Create an ad. Because you created a Facebook event, you can also purchase ads around that event. For a minimal amount of money ($10 a day) you can create ads on Facebook to drive eyeballs to your event tab. Try running a 7 day ad.
- Post event updates on the wall of your event page. Post updates as the event gets near. Everyone who has RSVP’d for the event on Facebook will get a notification when you post. It also will show up in the Ticker on the right side of Facebook.
- Send an email update. Facebook allows you to send an email update to all attendees of the event – this is a great thing to do a day or two before with any last minute reminders.
- After the event post photos. Post photos to your Facebook business page and then post to the wall of the event that photos are on your page. Encourage people to tag themselves in your photos! Make sure in your admin settings on your business page that you allow tagging.
Are events a part of your 2013 strategy? Would love to hear from you – leave me a comment below!
