Why not become a part-time broker?

See you in the new year. . . Happy holidays!

One of my favorite posts.

Someone told me a few days ago that she was thinking of becoming a real estate broker part-time.

“Don’t,” I said unhesitatingly.

Even if she has a wide social network, there is no way she can succeed.

Let a buyer in before closing and play with fire

See you in the new year. . . Happy holidays!

One of my favorite posts.

When buyers insist on moving into your home before they own it, the temptation to find a way to comply with the request or demand can be overwhelming.

My very best advice is to win the battle against that temptation without restraint.

That’s because the opportunities for problems to arise are manifold–for example:

Will someone please explain my ConEd bill?

See you in the New Year.  Happy holidays! 

One of my favorite posts.

Consolidated Edison is a profit-making business.

It paid $2.38 in cash dividends per share last year and declared a 60-cent per share quarterly dividend two weeks ago.

Those dividends resulted from $13 billion in annual revenues and $36 billion in assets. Yesterday, Con Ed closed at $56.11, pretty close to its 12-month high approaching $57.

I got to wondering about such things after

I actually read the back of my monthly electric bill for the first time. The breakdown of my charges that the utility provided initially puzzled and then began to annoy me.

For example,

Brooklyn house easily tops auction minimum

Semi-detached brick house with driveway and two-car garage at 50 Tapscott St. (Source: Kings County Public Administrator)

At Tuesday’s estate auction by King’s County Public Administrator Bruce Stein, the last was first in terms on the amount of its winning bid — $1.45 million, 62 percent above the minimum opening bid.

The object of spirited bidding by some half dozen hopefuls, the property at 51 Havermeyer St. was the last of 10 houses on the block.  Its minimum was $890,000.

The winner was a man who

Caution, ain’t nothin’ like a sponsor apartment

See you in the New Year. . . Happy holidays!

One of my favorite posts.

When co-op buyers see the words “sponsor apartment” in a converted building, their eyes invariably light up with anticipation. In fact, some buyers will specify that they want both to live in a co-op and to buy only a sponsor apartment.

For readers who are not in the know, the reason is that sponsor apartments will allow buyers to avoid having to undergo the tedious, time-consuming task of assembling inches thick of a board package, the rigors of a board interview and all the attendant anxiety.

Virtually all that sponsor wants to know is that you have the cash for a deposit and the means, including certainty of lender approval, of having the funds to close.

In other words, purchasing a sponsor apartment is a lot like buying a condo – smooth sailing. (Buyers of both condos and co-ops would be well advised to get into the weeds by reading the advice that lawyer Ron Gitter provides.)

But . . . (There’s always a “but,” isn’t there?)

Weekly Roundup: Condo inventory, rents, pet scams, best markets for sellers or buyers, retirees’ downsizing, consumers’ outlook

Next Weekly Roundup Jan. 4

Tastes downtown changing from industrial lofts, glass boxes

More evidence that developers adding to supply of condos

There’s nothing like decisions on art to stir the pot of acrimony in condos, co-ops

Real estate licensees rebound to 27,000 in the city alone

Manhattan’s median rent edges up in November

When buildings bar a pet, lawyers say, residents suddenly claim disabilities

High living costs cause half of population to contemplate leaving Long Island

Southampton home owned by TV news personality and actress wife goes quickly to contract

Author achieves perfect sale of Manhattan condo

Pair finds buyer of Upper East Side one-bedroom apartment in amazing time

 

Strongest sellers’ markets in

There are two–make that three–kinds of brokers

The broker community extends to the ends of the earth — and the Internet. (Flickr photo by Ravi Karandeekar)

There are brokers who prefer to represent sellers and those who are inclined to help out buyers.

It is folly to generalize, of course, but I’ll give it a shot.

Those who lean toward sellers seem to ally themselves with

Queens auction produces $3M in winning bids

This Long Island City house fetched the highest price among eight properties at auction.

With three of 11 properties withdrawn, the estate auction of ultimately one co-op and seven houses in Queens netted $2.944 million for the city today.

The total topped the collective minimum price of $1.991 million by nearly $1 million.  The gain amounted to 48 percent more than the sum of what Queens Public Administrator Lois Rosenblatt terms the “upset price.”

Properties on the block ranged in price between $120,000 and $600,000 in neighborhoods including Long Island City, Jamaica and Jackson Heights.

Below are the results:

Out and About: ‘Affordable’ co-op needs fix-up

Kitchen of 775-sf apartment on Manhattan’s Upper West Side.

Some Manhattan apartments in popular neighborhoods actually are affordable for buyers whose incomes put them in the middle class.

However, many of those units have less realized than actually fulfilled potential such as one in the low 90s close to Central Park.

The co-op is in one of the formerly city-owned buildings transferred to a Housing Development Fund Corp. and thus is known as an HDFC apartment.

HDFC apartments come with income restrictions, but they are reasonably liberal.  The latest median income standards

Estate auction of Brooklyn houses set for Dec. 18

2343 60th St., Brooklyn, is on auction block. (Source: Kings County Public Administrator)

Ten Brooklyn houses are to be auctioned on Dec. 18 by King’s County Public Administrator Bruce Stein.  It is the first such estate auction by the city in that borough since last June.

The properties, which were owned by individuals who died without wills, have minimum bids ranging from $175,000 to $890,000.

At 51 Havermeyer St., a three-family attached row house is the property with the highest opening bid.  With 3,525 square feet of living area and annual taxes of $3,910, the brick house was owned John Krantz.

Also on the block