Real Estate Blog about whats going on in Westchester, Putnam and Dutchess Counties in New York
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By Frederick Romley on January 26th, 2012Houlihan Lawrence’s Early Spring 2012 Edition of the Gallery of Homes magazine has arrived. Browse over 1600 homes for sale in Westchester, Putnam and Dutchess counties and beyond.
The print edition is available to pick up from any of our Offices and at street boxes located in Westchester, Putnam and Dutchess counties as well as select Manhattan locations.
Click the cover to view the digital edition.
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By Frederick Romley on January 17th, 2012
Houlihan Lawrence has just released our 4th Quarter 2011 Market Report for New York’s Westchester, Putnam and Dutchess counties. Here is an excerpt from the report:
2011 marked a year of relative stability in the residential real estate market north of New York City, in contrast to the volatility seen in global financial markets.
Following the big bounce in home sales in 2010, we experienced modest declines in both units and median prices in 2011 across most of the region.
In Westchester, the median single-family home sold for $600,000, down 4.7% from 2010. In Putnam, median prices were up 3% to $320,000, breaking a 5-year downtrend during which prices declined a total of 25%. In Dutchess County, single-family home values were down 5% to an average of $246,000.
Although closed sales in the 4th Quarter showed the largest declines of the year compared to 2010, this reflects a lull in contracts signed during the August-October period. By November, buyer confidence had returned, and a notable number of deals were put together over the final 6-8 weeks of the year. Based on listings in contract at year-end – which typically close within 45-60 days – the stage is set for a relatively strong start to 2012, with the highest and lowest price ranges outperforming everything in between. [MORE]
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By Frederick Romley on January 13th, 2012Top New York Metro Real Estate Firms Join Forces to Launch Tri-State Alliance To Better Serve Consumers. Four Brokerages share listings and data to create unique online experience
In an initiative aimed at streamlining the home buying and selling experience in the New York metro area, four top residential brokerage firms have joined forces to create the Tri-State Alliance, a partnership launched today to share exclusive property listings online. The brokerage firms include: Houlihan Lawrence serving Westchester, Putnam and Dutchess counties in New York; Halstead Property serving New York City, the Hamptons, Fairfield County in Connecticut, Hudson and Essex Counties in New Jersey and Columbia County in New York; Coach Realtors serving Nassau and Suffolk Counties of Long Island; and Turpin Realtors serving Somerset, Morris, Hunterdon, Essex and Union Counties in New Jersey. Each firm’s exclusive listings will be searchable across all four brokerage websites, which collectively receive millions of visitors annually. The Tri-State Alliance brings together 68 office locations, more than 2,900 sales agents and nearly 8,000 exclusive listings.
“By combining our considerable resources, we are increasing the visibility of our exclusive listings which will help both our sellers and buyers,” said Chris Meyers, a Principal of Houlihan Lawrence. “In addition, we are increasing the brand awareness of our individual firms in markets where we might not have a bricks and mortar presence. It’s an extremely smart, efficient and effective way to further promote our companies and showcase our talented agents.”
“This move is unprecedented in our industry, and we are extremely proud of all of our efforts to develop this alliance that will better benefit consumers in a one-stop experience. This unique sharing and collaboration among independently owned and non-franchised brokerages developed from the mutual friendship and respect each brokerage has for one another,” stated Diane Ramirez, President of Halstead Property.
The four owner/brokers of each firm began discussing this unique and forward-thinking collaboration in early 2011. Last August, the four company owners met in the New York City offices of Halstead Property to formally begin the process. “Months of planning and collaboration went into making this happen, each brokerage, technical and marketing departments worked closely towards a single goal,” stated Georgianna Finn, owner of Coach Realtors.
“We are excited to be a part of this wonderfully collaborative effort, the result of which is a comprehensive search tool that will prove invaluable to consumers in the tri-state region. In addition to providing high quality listing data from the various regions we cover, each of our websites offers valuable resources like community profiles, property videos and helpful tips for navigating today’s real estate market,” John Turpin, President of Turpin Realtors.
Front Row: Chris Meyers, Principal – Houlihan Lawrence, Georgianna Finn – Owner, Coach Realtors Back Row: John Turpin –President, Turpin Realtors, Diane Ramirez –President, Halstead Property
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By Chris Meyers on October 25th, 2011Reducing The High Cost of Title Insurance
In 2009, with the goal of reducing the unreasonably high cost of title insurance in New York, Houlihan Lawrence acquired a respected local title agency with an experienced operating team and branded the new company as Thoroughbred Title Services.
After extensive due diligence, Thoroughbred partnered with EnTitle Insurance Company, an underwriter that shared our commitment to helping consumers save on title insurance.
We knew this was a bold move in the staid world of title insurance. We did not know that we would be taking on an entrenched web of title industry participants determined to maintain a status quo that denies consumers the right to shop around for title services and ultimately, to choose an insurance company that provides the best value for their needs. The more progress we make, the more desperate the tactics have become.
The Only Agency in The State Offering Reduced Rate
EnTitle made quite the splash in the New York title insurance industry in mid-2010 by filing a 10% reduced premium rate with the New York State Insurance Department. Thoroughbred Title Services is the only agency in the State currently offering this reduced rate. All other title companies in New York file their rates using a voluntary organization called TIRSA that ensures they will all have identical premiums. Some attorneys are under the mistaken impression that rates are set by statute and that title companies must charge the same rate. This is not the case. The other title companies choose to all file the same rate through TIRSA. EnTitle’s 10% lower rates were filed separate from TIRSA and approved by the New York State Insurance Department for the benefit of consumers. Period.
Misinformation Being Spread
Thoroughbred Title and its network of attorney agents, as exclusive New York agents of EnTitle, have been under constant attack since the 10% reduced rate was filed. Rather than try to compete on price by also filing a reduced premium rate, our competitors (who have been losing business to us) have orchestrated a smear campaign against Thoroughbred and EnTitle by calling into question EnTitle’s financial stability and spreading rumors about the legality or ethicality of our business model. The fact that these comments have been made in violation of New York Insurance Law section 2604 which prohibits derogatory statements regarding the financial condition of an insurance company is mind boggling. The fact that some attorneys are also spreading these rumors is surprising and disappointing, to say the least.
These are just some examples of the misinformation and “dirty tricks” that have been making their way through the real estate, mortgage and title industries. We are not and will not be party to it, and we are definitely not going to back down because everything we’ve created is above board, honest and executed based on our belief that people pay too much for title insurance.
Here are the facts:
Given all that has occurred in real estate over the past few years, this represents a small ray of sunshine that we are proud to have created and remain committed to continuing on behalf of New York home buyers.
You Are Empowered To Choose
As a home buyer, you are empowered to choose your own title company. Exercise your right to choose. Don’t rely on what you hear from the traditional title companies or their representatives. Do your homework. Ask questions.
Think of what you could do with a few hundred (or thousand) extra dollars. We did, and we’re glad we have.
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By Charles Brundage on September 28th, 2011Covenants, Restrictions and Agreements
As Counsel for Thoroughbred Title Services I will concede that title reports are not exciting to read and if someone is not familiar with title, they can be quite confusing. One of the more confusing schedules or sections of a title report is the list of Covenants, Restrictions and Agreements. These are documents that affect the real property in some way and if they are properly drafted they can remain in effect in perpetuity, binding each new purchaser even though that purchaser was not the record owner when the agreement was executed. They can be confusing because they are legal documents that are not often written in plain English and many of them were executed a very long time ago.
Easement
The most common Covenant or restriction is an easement. An easement is an interest in the real property which usually allows some one to do something — i.e. an ingress/egress easement that allows someone to cross over your land to get to the nearest public road. A shared driveway is a type of easement. Another common easement in a title report is a utility easement — an agreement whereby the owner allows the utility company access to his or her property to run wires or pipes, etc. to provide the utility service. It may also allow the utility company to come onto the owner’s property for maintenance purposes.
Restrictive covenants
Restrictive covenants are agreements that restrict what the owner can do with his or her property. These can control anything from what type of house may be built on the land to how far from the front, side or back property lines a structure may be built (commonly called setbacks – i.e. house must be set back 25 feet from street or 35 feet from adjoining property). Obviously these are important agreements and depending on what the purchaser wants to do with the property, they can be game changers.
Covenant and Restriction search
If you have a prospective purchaser that is planning to do major work on the property once they own it — a tear down and re-build or a significant expansion of the house – adding additional structures, etc., it is a very good idea for their attorney to order a Covenant and Restriction search (C & R search for short) to determine what agreements are recorded affecting the property. While it is a good idea for real estate agents to become familiar with these types of agreements, I would caution any client to review the documents with an experienced real estate lawyer.
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By Charles Brundage on September 16th, 2011Matt Kelley of Thoroughbred Title Services will be attending an open house this Sunday from 2:00 to 4:00pm at 2 Avon Road in Bronxville. Matt will be there to educate consumers about the unique title savings available to buyers. Thoroughbred Title Services provides title insurance to home purchasers at a 10% reduction in the title premium…combine this with our additional low cost title fee structure and buyers can expect a 11-26% savings. Please visit our website for further details or a detailed price comparison at www.thoroughbredtitleservices.com
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By Charles Brundage on July 20th, 2011At Thoroughbred Title Services we pride ourselves on providing the best customer service in the title insurance industry. Sometimes this means being extra dilligent regarding title issues and other times it means helping clients or non-clients with non-title issues in order to get a transaction closed. Recently I dealt with two scenarios that illustrate this point very well.
In the last two weeks we have been working on clearing a purchase transaction where a fairly unique issue arose. Our title examiner was extra dilligent and provided us with a copy of a pending lawsuit that was not found in the Land Records section at the County Clerk’s Office. The lawsuit was filed by a prior prospective purchaser of the property that had walked away from the property and was trying to get his contract deposit back. Since he was no longer interested in buying the house, the prior purchaser did not file a Notice of Pendency (a legal device to put the world on notice that an action has been commenced that affects the real property). This would have effectively tied up the property and forced the seller to return the deposit as no title company will allow a closing if there is a valid Notice of Pendency on the premises.
Some title companies do not search the pending lawsuit section of the County Clerk’s office and would not have found this action. Our Examiner did and we raised it as an exception to title and we were able to work with the parties to the current purchase and our Underwriter to come to a resolution where we could allow the closing to be scheduled and the property to be insured.
Last week another good client of ours was representing a purchaser who was buying a home with a slightly leaky roof. Obviously, a leaky roof (or anything else dealing with the condition of the house) has nothing to do with the title to the property and we are not usually involved with these types of issues. In this case however, we assisted the purchaser’s attorney with resolving the issue. The seller apparently had attempted to paint over the area on the roof rather than have the flashing properly repaired. We participated in a conference call with all the parties and were able to help them settle on an amount of money to be held in escrow until the necessary reapairs were completed.
The moral of this story is that we are all in a customer service business and “going the extra mile” can often distinguish your company from the competition. We at Thoroughbred Title Services view every interaction with clients and potential clients as an opportunity to let our customer service abilities shine.
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By Gay Prizio on July 13th, 2011At this time last year, the First Time Homebuyer Tax Credit had come to an end with closings occurring no later than June 30th, 2010 to qualify for the tax credit. As a result of this one-time event, the first half of 2010 was frontloaded with transactions, skewing a comparison of First Half 2010 vs First Half 2011. Since data is most meaningful when put in context, it is not surprising that volume is down.
In Westchester County, the number of single family homes sold in the First Half of 2011 is down by 13%, when compared to First Half 2010. However a look at current active listings and the number of pending sales (those expected to close within the next 60 days) indicates a balanced market with a healthy number of buyers.
In Putnam County, the number of single family homes sold in the First Half 2011 is down by 14%, when compared to First Half 2010. The median sale price has increased by 4% when compared to last years median.
Total first half sales of single family homes in Dutchess County have decreased by 19% when compared to the First Half 2010 and the median sale price has gone down by 4%.
To learn more about your town, please go to www.houlihanlawrence.com and access our Market Reports.
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By Cynthia Landis on June 10th, 2011Owning a co-operative apartment is different than owning a condominium or a single family home. When you are thinking of purchasing one, here are some things to know. Each co-op building is owned jointly by all of the people who reside there. One does not “own” the particular unit itself (the walls and within), but rather one owns shares in the corporation that owns the building. When one closes on a co-op, a buyer gets a pro-rata ownership via stock certificates (shares) in the corporation and a proprietary lease which confers on the owner the right to reside in the particular unit that they have purchased.
The corporation is managed by a board of directors who set the policies regarding the building (or buildings). The board makes decisions regarding capital improvements to the building, and rules such as whether pets are permitted, for example. Additionally, the coop board establishes financial criteria for all buyers, such as whether a buyer is allowed to have a mortgage. A few buildings are “cash only”, but the majority do permit a buyer to obtain financing.
Coop boards are charged with maintaining the financial health of the corporation and thus ensuring that potential purchasers are financially prepared to support the other owners should the need arise. Expenses of the building are shared among owners based on the percentage of shares that they own in the corporation. When purchasing a coop, one should review recent prior financial statements of the building to make learn about the financial condition of the corporation, as one would with any stock purchase.
After making an offer on a co-op and having it accepted by the owner, a buyer will be asked to complete an application packet which will ask for detailed financial information as well as personal references. Although a seller may agree to accept your offer, the coop board will be the ultimate decision maker of whether you will be an acceptable fit in the corporation. Coop boards must abide by federal, state and local laws regarding fair housing, but will want to know about your personal situation as well. There is frequently an interview with the coop board. It should be taken seriously, and a potential purchaser should put their best foot forward.
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By Gay Prizio on June 9th, 2011The 3rd annual The Knickerbocker Art Show™ will be held June 9th through the 12th. Hosted by Reverol & Co., LLC., this third installment of The Knickerbocker Art Show features twelve established contemporary artists whose works explore and define boundaries in photo surrealism, multimedia installation, and video installations.
Some of the artists selected to participate this year include Carvalho, Larko, DeVillamejane, Furuta, Lebreton, Zambrano, Infantino, Oleaga, Villegas, and Bancel. Their work includes sculpture, painting, video, and installations.
Knickerbocker Lofts, a condominium community with towering ceilings and teaming sunlight, offers the ideal backdrop for exhibiting an eclectic display of art. This 1860s structure originally housed the historic Knickerbocker press of G.P. Putnam’s Sons in New Rochelle. Converted into residential lofts, each home displays a bit of history with an eclectic mix of architectural variety in the entrances, windows, and ornamental brick work.
The Knickerbocker Art Show hours are Friday, June 10, 2011, 11am to 6pm. Saturday, June 11, 2011, 11am to 6pm. Sunday, June 12, 11am to 6pm. 55 Webster Avenue, New Rochelle NY 10801. For more information go to www.TheKnickerbockerArtShow.com.
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