Dear Readers, I thought I’d take the space to share my gratitude for some of the professionals that I refer to my clients. Yes these are endorsements, for which there is no compensation- other than Happy Clients. Think gorgeous design, without the Architectural Digest price tag. Interior Design Gil Dvir is one of my favorite
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Well, well, well. I guess it’s not about when rates are going to go up. It’s about how long they can continue to stay down. Why are they still low? Political calculation? Bad US Policy? Bad Stock Market? Unemployment numbers? Rates are not only down, but they have actually dropped (though they popped up slightly
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Economists complain that it’s difficult to isolate factors in their experiments on the real world. Thinking Real Estate, I’m wondering if we could isolate any factors as to why the 2bedroom+ market is outperforming the 1bedroom market. Let’s make a few stabs at it, shall we? Maybe by looking at how the 2-bedroom market and
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AS the real estate market in New York City shuffles toward recovery, two-bedroom apartments have been the last to rejoin the party. Sales of studios and one-bedrooms rebounded first after the market crashed in late 2008, followed by three-bedrooms, but it wasn’t until mid-2010 that the two-bedroom market started its comeback. Now, brokers say that
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Over the past almost-decade, I’ve done business Downtown and Uptown. The mix has been there, and although I moved Uptown almost six years ago, I’ve continued to keep my main office downtown. However, an opportunity presented itself to move from Brown Harris Stevens’ lovely Gold Coast offices on Fifth Avenue and 8th Street to our
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For those of you craving a few tidbits of design info, here’s the latest: 1) You just missed the first public Luxury Watch show here in New York City. Apparently, it was quite something. 2) Don’t miss tomorrow’s public access to the ICFF, the International Contemporary Furniture Fair, at the Javitz Center! I’ll have more
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To make writing, or speaking interesting, every book/teacher/article encourages you to tell stories. Stories bring your information points to life. And yet there’s the tricky bit about keeping my client information confidential, and how to tell fun stories without giving anything away. As I tend to work best with deadlines looming, I keep this entry
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My mortgage broker friends write in with their updates. “Now is the time to refi!” “Now is the time to take out a mortgage!” High volume sales pitch- not really, but this is how I hear this sometimes. In reality, Frank Cronin writes me: “Low rates are consistently still in the market…[it] will continue for
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I’d like to touch on mortgage contingencies in this month’s blog about mortgages. I’ll address rates in the “market” section, so never fear. Since 2008, we’ve seen buyers, especially first time buyers or studio/1BR buyers asking for mortgage contingencies. This is not happening with every purchase, but I am not surprised to see appraisals coming
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Former Senator Moynihan wrote, “Everyone is entitled to their own opinions. They are not entitled to their own facts.” I love that quote. Certainly, brokers are entitled to think their properties are worth what they are listing at- but pricing often strains credulity. I’m working with a great guy in finance who is depending on
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