Another great topic was prompted by a comment at the Brookfield Chamber of Commerce, Business Before Breakfast. One participant was commenting that she was really looking forward to Friday. I commented that my week STARTS on Friday. I thought a good topic for discussion would be “what does your Friday look like?” Others thought a better topic would be what Sunday looks like. Here is my Sunday.Continue Reading

My title today are inspired by the movie The Sixth Sense where the young boy says “I see dead people everywhere.” It was the CHALLENGE QUESTION that I threw out to the Business Before Breakfast group sponsored by the Chamber of Commerce. Several had never thought that they had had a mentor and people, like myself, see Mentors everywhere. Please read on and make a point, this week, to thank those who act as your Mentors. You may find it is a longer list than you thoughtContinue Reading

There is temptation with inexperienced Realtors to sacrifice the best interests of the few to take on too many Buyers in a HOT MARKET.  There is a saying, ” The fox that chases too many rabbits catches none.”  Now, more than ever, this is an important concept. I generally will only take on 2-5 MOTIVATED buyers at a time. Otherwise I don’t have the time to get them into these “hot houses” in time.   Positioning your Buyers for success is a combination of going back to the basics and being creative in presenting your Buyers and offer.  Below you will find SEVEN RULES of how to work with Buyers in this market efficiently and THREE STRATEGIES for preparing and presenting offers.Continue Reading

Yesterday I noted how historically low the inventory is this year. I should have prefaced that BLOG by letting you know that we are currently in DUAL MARKET. It is the first time in 32 years that I have seen this, where the upper 1/3 of the market is a heavily weighted BUYERS MARKET while the lower 1/3 is strongly a SELLERS MARKET. In the lower 1/3, Buyers are getting shut out of homes because they are either taking multiple offers and Buyers did not bid high enough OR they are not quick enough to the table and the home is already under deposit. I have a few strategies for both Buyers and their Realtors. Today I will talk about strategies for Buyers.  Tomorrow I will talk about strategies Realtors should use when representing Buyers.

Advice For Buyers-
1- DO be ready to go in with a higher than asking initial offer. You may not get a second chance. There is no law or rule that says a Seller needs to ask for Highest and Best. They may accept a solid offer as written or decide to negotiate with only one offer.
2- DO NOT search multiple online sites. Get a Listingbook Account with your Agent (preferably ME). This is the ONLY way to stay absolutely current. All other sites are already behind as it can take a day or two to scrape to the site and they all list CTS (Continue to Show) homes as active. They also have the disadvantage of you having to remember to log on to see the inventory. Listingbook comes to the Buyers email as a Morning Report. It lets you know what is truly available and feeds directly off the Multiple Listing Service.
3- DO a driveby IMMEDIATELY. Don’t waste your Realtor’s time showing you homes that you later find do not have the setting or location you want.
4- DO NOT wait for an Open House. These homes are selling within 48 hours. The Realtor may still HOLD an open house to solicit Buyers. It is always OK to call the listing agent to make sure it is still available or have your Realtor do this.
4- DO bring your spouse, parents, or other decision makers on the first visit. You are not going to get the time to schedule a second showing.
5- DO get your pre approval ahead of time and either at multiple amounts or for the highest amount you for which you quality. You will not get a chance to wait until Monday if you see a home on Friday evening to do this. By giving a letter with the highest amount it is not giving away your hand. It actually shows your buying strength.
6- DO offer flexible contingencies like closing date. It is not always about the money.
7- DO offer tight contingency dates for mortgage commitment, contract signing, building inspections.
8- DO NOT make extra demands for included items such as washers and dryers that are not included in the listing.
9- DO NOT expect to get much at building inspection time. You will be negotiating only health and safety items, things that were not disclosed and things that are broken.Continue Reading

I study statistics. It is what I do in my spare time: on vacation; at midnight when I can’t sleep. It is how I develop strategies on how to advise clients in placing a value on their home. In 32 years of being a Realtor, I have never seen a market like this. Other times when we had this fast a market it was because the DEMAND was high. In this market it is because the SUPPLY is low. The number of homes actually selling is almost exactly the same as during the past 2 years.Continue Reading

As Realtor for 32 years, I see trends and have gladly embraced high tech as it relates to Real Estate and marketing listings. I know and measure what is effective and what isn’t both from the standpoint of marketing a home AND from a standpoint of self-marketing. When deciding to do an Open House on a property there has to be strategy involved. Low on that list should be to make the Seller happy. Truthfully and selfishly, my time is too valuable for that. I will generally schedule 2-6 Open Houses a week. That is how important I believe they are to my Sellers and to myself.Continue Reading

ITS TIME TO GIVE YOUR HOME A HEALTH CHECK UP–

Did you know that the environment where you spend most of your time is your HOME.  The quality of the air and water can affect your health in a very negative way.  Many air/water contaminants can cause sneezing, allergies, wheezing, head aches ,digestive issues to the far end of severity to cancer.  Many of these illness and symptoms may be caused by your environment.

INTRODUCING YOUR HOUSE DOCTORS-

For Water, Radon and VOC Testing call Wayne DeFino at All Points Inspections 203 496-0700
For Mold Testing and Mitigation call David Warren of Green Home Solutions 203 617-9067
For Water Infiltration call Dennis Sandberg of 914 954-7132

Consider first the water in your home.Continue Reading

Yes, it is the time of year where everyone is wondering what the real estate market will bring for 2018. We have a lot going on in this spring market. We have the new tax laws. We have the rising interest rates. We have the influence of the economic climate in Connecticut. So where does that put us.

I have been reading and listening to every economist that I can to try to get a handle on the market. Of course, before I go forward, I will tell you that my crystal ball broke in about 2000. Up until then I could tell clients that real estate prices NEVER go down. Oh well…

I recently also attended banking panel with top people from Flagstar Bank, Savings Bank of Danbury, Total Mortgage and Wells Fargo. They made some very good points.

ON THE TAX CHANGE
SALT- The limit of $10,000 deduction on State And Local Taxes
Yes it is bad for CT but it is even worse for our neighboring states of
NY and MA, so expect to see a wave of buyers coming over to CT where
the property tax are MUCH less.
Standard Deduction- Since this and also the child deduction are being raised it will
put more money in most peoples pockets.
Corporate Tax Changes- Since their tax bracket is lower they have more capital for
expansion, bonuses and will encourage some to bring jobs back to the US.

Continue Reading

Thursday June 15th,

It has been one month since I started this new, exciting, diplomatic, inspiring job as an INTERN for Linda McCaffrey of McCaffrey Professionals. Sure, I’m just an assistant right now, but we all have to start somewhere, right?  I’m starting just about where I always have wanted to begin; with a top producing team of full time Realtors.  I could not be more blessed with this opportunity. Who knew that
actually engaging with experienced individuals at your parents fundraising event could lead to the beginning of my trail to be an entrepreneur.

As of a couple months ago, I would not consider myself to be … 

Tuesday July 18th,

It’s been 2+ months since I started. Clearly this blog got away from me and I even stopped my last thought mid-sentence. That is actually a great example of the way this business can be. It’s not always dependable, or in simpler terms, easy. You rely on other individuals in every aspect of the real estate business. When they need you, you’re there. Or at least, if you’re a good agent, you’re there. And when  you’re me, you need to be there. (intern problems-time management)Continue Reading

At a recent morning meeting of great minds and brilliant business people at the Brookfield Chamber of Commerce’s Business Before Breakfast,  the ‘Challenge Question” that was  discussed was,  “How do you get or ask for referrals?”.  All participants agreed that unlike a career in the back office or working retail, business entrepreneurs depend on word of mouth referrals.  Many coming from those previous professions, and mostly everyone regardless of background, found is intimidating to ASK and so it is an area of business development that is avoided or at least underexploited by all. We all need to do better and develop strategies to solicit those elusive but valuable personal referrals.Continue Reading