Tag Archives: Westchester Luxury Homes

6 Ways to Grow Your LinkedIn Connections | Chappaqua Realtor

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Are you looking to grow your LinkedIn network?

Do you want to improve your chances of connecting with people via LinkedIn?

In this article, you’ll find six tips for successful networking that will help you avoid common mistakes that can damage your professional reputation on LinkedIn.

What’s Different About LinkedIn?

Unlike social media platforms such as Facebook and Twitter that accommodate both personal and business uses, LinkedIn is a social network built strictly for business.

From the appearance of your profile to how you manage relationships, the people on LinkedIn expect professional behavior from you at all times.

As you build your network, it’s important to know what’s appropriate and what’s considered bad LinkedIn etiquette.

Here are six tips:

#1: Show People Your Business Side

You only get one chance to make a first impression, so make it count. If you use an unprofessional image for your profile photo, you may never get a chance to recover your reputation.

Your LinkedIn profile image should show you in your best professional light. Use a head shot with a clean background, a smile and a clear view of your eyes. Think of how you would present yourself at an event thronging with prospects and use an image that does the same, online.

Always use an appropriate profile image.

 

#2: Skip the Keyword-Stuffing

The first thing many people do when they receive your connection request is look at your profile. And if your profile is stuffed with repetitive or irrelevant keywords, there’s a pretty good chance that they won’t connect with you.

Too many keywords make your profile look suspect.

Yes, you must optimize your LinkedIn profile with relevant keywords so you’re found in search results, but there is a big difference between keyword-optimizing and keyword-stuffing.

Instead of using a large number of vaguely relevant words to show up in hundreds of search results, choose three or four top keywords you want to be associated with to make sure you show up in search results when people are looking for exactly what you offer.

 

 

http://www.socialmediaexaminer.com/successful-linkedin-networking/

Guy Asks $14.8M For Castle He Built For His Three-Year-Old | Bedford Corners Homes

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Location: Bolton, N.Y. Price: $14,800,000 The Skinny: In 1982, Upstate New York man John Lavender broke ground on a castle. In a promotional video, he explains that Highlands Castle “was born out of a promise to my three-year-old son, Jason. I told him I would build him a home where we could both live and create some nice memories. For some apparent reason, I made a promise to build him a castle.” The first part of that promise is very sweet, and the second part is maybe a little over the top (also, a three-year-old kid is definitely not going to remember what he was or wasn’t promised). But, to his credit, Lavender followed through and spent years painstakingly constructing this castle on Lake George, drawing up the plans himself, collecting castle-y items such as suits of armor and stained-glass windows, and putting 800 tons of stones in place, one at a time. “Dad, can we have a catch?” his son would ask. “Not now,” John Lavender would reply. “I have to build this castle so that we can create memories.” Once the castle was complete, Lavender and his wife began renting it out for weddings and honeymoons—rates start at $995 a night—but now the whole thing is also listed for $14.8M.

Want a Castle? There’s One Being Foreclosed in Virginia! | Mt Kisco Real Estate

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Yes, there’s a castle facing foreclosure in Northern Virginia. Try finding that sentence anywhere else this year. But hey, for those who have always wanted to live in royal digs and missed out on this Dupont option, Melrose Castle in Warrenton, VA is asking a mere $1.5 million. To be fair, here are some of the amenities included in the lofty price: eight fireplaces, an inground pool, 50 acres of land, a tennis court and a barn with two paddocks. Most five bedroom “single family homes” do not come with all of that. Plus, it’s a castle! Check out the gallery to see photos of such fairy tale-esque things like the spiral staircases leading to the roof. · 8871 Rogues Road , Warrenton, VA 20187 [Colgan Real Estate]

Dropping Knowledge: When is the Best Time to Sell a Place? | South Salem Real Estate

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Welcome to Dropping Knowledge, a new video series in which we offer pieces of advice—one-minute or less—from experts in the world of real estate and architecture. Our first guest, well-known to Curbed readers, is the one and only Jonathan Miller, who will teach us about apartment values and the market. Want to nominate a future guest? Let us know.

 

Appraiser, graph guru, and Three Cents Worth columnist Jonathan Miller is a source of much wisdom regarding the real estate market, so he was a natural first choice for Dropping Knowledge, a new video series featuring answers to common market questions. Today, JMillz answers a frequent market query: when is the best time to sell your apartment? Have questions you’d like answered in future videos? Please leave them in comments or via the tipline. · Three Cents Worth archive [Curbed] · Curbed Moving Pictures archive [Curbed]

 

 

http://ny.curbed.com/archives/2013/10/08/dropping_knowledge_when_is_the_best_time_to_sell_a_place.php

Pending Sales of Existing Homes Slump by Most in Three Years | Bedford Hills Real Estate

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Fewer Americans than forecast signed contracts to buy previously owned homes in September, the fourth straight month of declines, as rising mortgage rates slowed momentum in the housing market.

The index of pending home sales slumped 5.6 percent, exceeding all estimates in a Bloomberg survey of economists and the biggest drop in more than three years, after a 1.6 percent decrease in August, the National Association of Realtors reported today in Washington. The index fell to the lowest level this year.

Mortgage rates last month reached two-year highs and some homeowners are reluctant to put properties up for sale as they wait for prices to climb, leading to tight inventories. Those forces are pushing some would-be buyers to the sidelines and slowing the pace of recovery in real estate, giving Federal Reserve policy makers reason to delay reducing stimulus when they meet this week.

“We’ll be in this weakness for a little bit, maybe even going into the fourth quarter,” said Yelena Shulyatyeva, a U.S. economist at BNP Paribas in New York, the second-best forecaster of pending home sales over the past two years, according to data compiled by Bloomberg. “This is a clear signal to the Fed as to what happens when you try to play with nascent housing recovery. The minutes indicated they were really concerned about it.”

Production Slows

Another report today showed factory production rose less than forecast in September, indicating manufacturing cooled heading into the budget battle that partially closed the federal government this month. Output at factories rose 0.1 percent after a revised 0.5 percent gain in August that was smaller than initially estimated, according to figures from the Federal Reserve. The median forecast of economists in a Bloomberg survey called for a 0.3 percent September gain.

Total industrial production, which also includes output by mines and utilities, advanced 0.6 percent as higher temperatures drove up electricity use.

Stocks were little changed after the pending sales report, erasing earlier gains. The Standard & Poor’s 500 Index rose less than 0.1 percent to 1,761.32 at 10:32 a.m. in New York. The S&P Supercomposite Homebuilding Index dropped 0.7 percent.

 

 

http://www.bloomberg.com/news/2013-10-28/pending-sales-of-existing-homes-slump-by-most-in-three-years.html

 

Never be locked out again: KeyMe app creates digital copies of keys, stores them in the cloud | Cross River Real Estate

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KeyMe‘s smartphone app lets you scan digital copies of your keys, so that you can obtain new ones without paying a locksmith to break your lock, and more easily manage or share them.

Drawing on a user’s key scan, the app generates instructions that any locksmith may follow to create a physical copy of a key.

KeyMe users in New York City can also take advantage of special kiosks — a number of which are already deployed around the Big Apple — to print new keys themselves, using either a digital or physical copy of a key.

 

 

– See more at: http://www.inman.com/2013/10/25/never-be-locked-out-again-keyme-app-creates-digital-copies-of-keys-stores-them-in-the-cloud/#sthash.ELpFFhT3.dpuf

Katonah Presbyterian Church to dedicate renovation-expansion | Katonah NY Homes

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On Sunday, the First Presbyterian Church will end the 10 a.m. morning worship service with a ceremony dedicating the renovation and expansion of the church building at 31 Bedford Road, Katonah.

After almost six years of planning, permissions and municipal approvals, and an extended year of site work and construction, the 330-member congregation will unveil its largest capital project since the sanctuary was renovated in the late 1980s, according to a press release from the church.

This time, the church concentrated on providing greater access to the disabled, additional class- and meeting rooms, music rehearsal space, a new kitchen and new above-ground Fellowship Hall. KG&D Architects and Engineers, PC of Mount Kisco and M.J.C. Construction of Yorktown Heights provided specifications, design and execution of the project.

“This is a long time in coming and it will indeed be a celebration,” interim Pastor Gavin Meek said in the statement. “I’m sure you will enjoy the day and the former pastors, staff and members who will return for the event.” The public is invited to morning worship and to a reception and extended celebration in the new facilities from 11:15 until 12:45 p.m.

For more information visit www.katonahpresbyterian.org or contact the church office at 914-232-4568.KPC Front Entry Rendering KG&D

 

 

 

http://northernwestchester.lohudblogs.com/2013/09/25/katonah-presbyterian-church-to-dedicate-renovation-expansion/

New-home sales rebound in August | Bedford Corners NY Homes

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Sales of new U.S. homes rose 7.9% — the fastest growth since the beginning of the year — to a seasonally adjusted annual rate of 421,000 in August, with rising results in three of four regions, according to the U.S. Department of Commerce.

Economists polled by MarketWatch had expected sales to climb in August to a rate of 420,000, compared with an original July estimate that pegged the rate at 394,000. On Wednesday, the government revised July’s rate to 390,000.

The new-home-sales series is volatile, and monthly results can be difficult to interpret. In August, the confidence interval for new-home sales was plus or minus 14.6%, meaning that government analysts think that sales growth likely fell somewhere within a range of negative 6.7% to positive 22.5%.

Looking at trends, over the three months through August, the average rate of new-home sales was 422,000, up 15% from an average rate of 368,000 during the year-earlier period.

Though there are signs that rising mortgage rates are slowing the housing market — the average rate for the popular 30-year fixed-rate mortgage has climbed more than one percentage point since early May — Wednesday’s data point to a housing market that continues to gather steam. New-home sales in August were up 12.6% from the year-earlier period. Pent-up demand and mortgage rates that still are relatively low have been supporting sales.

While rising rates hurt some borrowers’ ability to buy homes, there’s evidence that others buyers are rushing to close deals soon before affordability declines further.

“The extent to which a rise in mortgage rates has affected momentum is still unclear,” said Jim O’Sullivan, chief U.S. economist at High Frequency Economics.

Indeed, home builders are reporting rising quarterly earnings and are the most confident in almost eight years. And economists expect the housing market to continue to add to economic growth this year. There’s certainly room to grow: New-home sales remain far below a peak rate of almost 1.4 million in 2005.

 

 

 

http://www.marketwatch.com/story/new-home-sales-rebound-in-august-2013-09-25?link=MW_pulse

Investors pull out of rental market | Katonah Homes

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According to CNBC, some big investors are pulling out of the single-family rental market after witnessing a stall in home price gains and a large drop in the number of distressed properties. CNBC has more:

“I think the investor market is largely past us,” Doug Lebda, chief executive of Lending Tree told CNBC. “People were buying investment properties three, four, five years ago. What I hear is that’s slowing now.”

Recent reports that Oaktree Capital Group is selling about 500 of its homes added fuel to other reports that Och-Ziff Capital management is selling its homes as well. Both declined to comment on the reports. Carrington Mortgage Services stopped buying distressed homes late last year, claiming the market was “a bit too frothy.”

                    Source: CNBC

Tour the Haunting Interiors of a Silent, Abandoned Mall | Mt Kisco Real Estate

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Vacant, decaying spaces are something of an obsession to photographers, who have cast their lenses on everything from abandoned theaters and churches to empty asylums and Lithuanian discos. Shopping malls join this crowd thanks to the work of Dan Wampler, who photographed the interiors of St. Louis’ Crestwood Court mall after it closed in July after more than 56 years in business. Wampler, who calls himself a digital artist rather than a photographer, used HDR to create “a look ranging from 3D to surreal,” he writes on the project page, accentuating a corridor’s angular architecture or a stairway’s sherbet-hued tilework. While “the management company has maintained the mall quite well,” he explains, his images “may be the last opportunity anyone will have to see the inside for some time.” Meaning, of course, that this mall, unlike an abandoned mall in Providence, won’t be turned into a series of micro homes.