Revenge of the "pushy asshole passive agressive [sic] broker."
Although I have been referred to (anonymously) as a “pushy, asshole, passive, agressive [sic] broker.”
I like to think the comment below is more representative of my work:
“You’ve been incredibly helpful, and if we do in fact choose to move forward with our home search, we would very much like to stay working with you. In our house-hunting experience over the past month, you, by a long shot, come across as a genuine advisor who wants to be our advocate.”
– Paymon
Thanks Paymon, you made my week!
Three’s Company
Law-Abiding: Chrissy, Jack, and Janet
Well now I’ve heard it all. I mean, I’ve always known that oral sex was illegal in several states, and I was not surprised when the Texas Board of Education erased Thomas Jefferson from their textbooks, but this morning I learned that in New York City it is illegal for more than three unrelated people to live together in an apartment or a house! Don’t believe me? Here’s this morning’s NY Times article:
28 Days
Here’s a quick anecdote from one of my clients:
Jim,
I think you’ll get a kick out of this. We are refinancing our home through a mortgage broker that shall remain anonymous. Among the mountain of paperwork they asked for, we were asked to provide our most recent bank statement. It had to be an official bank statement with the full account number (like the ones the bank sends monthly) not a download from online banking. So we sent them our February 2010 bank statement. It was rejected…want to guess why? February only has 28 days and the mortgage broker insisted on 30!
Anyway, just wanted to send this your way. We still love our apartment!
Take Care,
Julie
Homebuyer Tax Credit
(The following article was suggested to me by one of my favorite PHDs.)
As if tax season weren’t stressful enough, prospective home buyers have two more looming deadlines to contend with. Both are related to the federal government’s homebuyer tax credit. In a nutshell, the federal government is paying consumers (up to $8000) to purchase a home. You need to get on your horse though. Purchase agreements (i.e. being in contract) need to be signed by April 30, 2010, and you need to purchase your home (i.e. close) by June 30,2010.
One word of caution. If you intend on taking advantage of the credit, don’t wait until April 1st to start shopping. There is liable to be a feeding frenzy at that time which could artificially push prices higher, and nullify the value of the credit.
Here are the facts:
What Qualifies?
The Tax Credit applies only to the purchase of a primary residence (i.e. home) where the purchase price is $800,000 or less. The home cannot be purchased from a direct relative (i.e. parents, grandparents, siblings, or children).
Who Qualifies?
First-time Homebuyers
First-time homebuyers are defined as people who have not lived in a home they own for the previous three years. For first-time homebuyers, the tax credit applies to 10% of the purchase price up to a maximum amount of $8000.
Repeat Homebuyers
Repeat homebuyers must have owned their current home for at least five years or have lived in the same home for five consecutive years over the last eight. For repeat homebuyers, the tax credit applies to 10% of the purchase price up to a maximum amount of $6500. Notably, the new law does not require that you sell your current residence.
Income Requirements
Single taxpayers with annual earnings of $125,000 or joint filers with annual incomes of $225,000. (Single homebuyers with incomes between $125,000 and $145,000 and married homebuyers with incomes between $225,000 and $245,000 will be eligible for a reduced credit).
When?
You must have a signed contract by April 30, 2010 and your transaction must close by June 30, 2010. This deadline is extended to April 30, 2011 for members of the military who have served outside the United States for at least 90 days between Jan 1, 2009 to May 1, 2010.
How?
Taxpayers can claim the credit on their federal income tax returns. If the credit exceeds the amount of tax owed, the difference is paid in cash – even if the taxpayer owes no tax!
Thanks for reading.
For additional information (of both the detailed and confusing kind) have a look at the IRS websites below:
Some Current Homeowners Now Also Qualify
…
"what a pushy, asshole, passive agressive [sic] broker"
Overall the response has been great to my very first video appearence as a real estate professional. However, there was that one comment on 12/04/2009 at 2:34PM.
The Current Market
I have a question.
If everything I’m reading these days sounds something like housing hasn’t hit bottom.., or something like housing prices are plummeting.., or Deutsche Bank Predicts 40% Drop in New York Home Prices.., or Brooklyn leads the way in unfinished condos.., or the Real Estate crisis is finally catching up to New York.., then why are so many “experts” out there still referring to this old fairy-tale?
Be Careful
I’ve spoken many an angry word about this topic, but after reading this article (link below) all I could think was, we all need to be careful.
Who You Know Votes Where
Skeleton of nonpareils by artist, Heather Cox
Today I took a break from work to pop into one of the artist studios participating in A.G.A.S.T., Annual Gowanus Artists Studio Tour. It’s great, it’s one of a kind, and I highly recommend it over a Fox NFL Sunday. Hurry up though, it’s only a two day festival and tomorrow’s the last day. The tour encompasses 28 different studios in the Gowanus Canal area. My friends Mical Moser and Heather Cox can be found at 295 Douglas St, between 3rd and 4th Avenues. I may be biased, but I think you should visit them first.
Mical Moser’s Map of Who You Know Votes Where
Annual Gowanus Artists Studio Tour
Oct 18 & 19, 1PM-6PM
Nothing Happened
Police get ready to leave after it was determined that the corner of Carroll and 7th Avenue was safe for pedestrians.
Strange happenings on Carroll Street between 7th and 8th Avenues today. First, residents woke up to their block lined with orange traffic cones. People were told by two thugs, with NBC employee badges, that the NBC Muppet Christmas special, Letters to Santa, had reserved the area and that anyone parking their car on Carroll Street between 7th and 8th Avenues would be towed. When a resident pointed out to them that signs posted on the block, by the Mayor’s Office for Film, Theater, and Broadcasting, clearly stated that parking was to be restricted only on Wednesday, September 10th, he was told that, “the time for talking was over.”
Later, at around 4PM, the police received a call of a suspicious package on the corner of Carroll and 7th Ave. Several patrol cars arrived and blocked traffic for approximately 40 minutes until it was determined that the black bag left on the corner posed no threat.
Neither NBC nor any of the Muppets could be reached for comment.
Fighting for the Right to Drink Beer on His Stoop
Next time you are sitting on your stoop enjoying a cold one, think of this story:
Fighting for the Right to Drink Beer on His Stoop
By Manny Fernandez, The New York Times (September 8, 2008)
URL: http://www.nytimes.com/2008/09/08/nyregion/08stoop.html
Kimber VanRy was sitting on his stoop in the Prospect Heights section
of Brooklyn, drinking a beer and sending e-mail messages on his
BlackBerry, when a police car slowed to a stop on the street in front of
him.
It had been a pleasant evening for Mr. VanRy, 39, who lives in a
four-story, 20-unit co-op building with his wife and two children. He
had watched Senator Joseph R. Biden Jr.’s speech at the Democratic
convention on television, helped put his sons to bed and washed the
dishes.
The time was 11:52 p.m., the date was Aug. 27, and the beer, for the
record, was a 12-ounce bottle of Sierra Nevada.
The police officer in the driver’s seat said something to Mr. VanRy.
He left the stoop, walked to the car and, several minutes later, was
handed a small pink slip–a $25 summons for drinking in public.
Mr. VanRy, who is the president of his building’s co-op board and whose
last brush with the law was about 12 years ago, when he got a speeding
ticket in Pennsylvania, was shocked to learn that drinking a beer on his
stoop was unlawful. He said that he and his neighbors in the building
have for years gathered on the short stoop, talking and drinking,
without officers from the 77th Precinct ever showing up.
“I think this is a real gray area,” said Mr. VanRy, an international
sales manager for a supplier of stock film footage, video and music. “I
don’t think I was doing anything wrong.”
In Brooklyn, the borough of the brownstone, few spaces are more sacred
than the stoop, the place where the city goes to watch the city go by.
Mr. VanRy’s summons, news of which has spread on Brooklyn blogs, message
boards and in a community newspaper, The Brooklyn Paper, has stirred
debate about the legal status of stoops and stoop drinkers.
New Yorkers who enjoy drinking wine or beer on their stoops are indeed
violating the law, according to the police.
The city’s open-container law prohibits anyone from drinking an
alcoholic beverage, or possessing and intending to drink from an open
container containing an alcoholic beverage, “in any public place.” The
law defines a public place as one “to which the public or a substantial
group of persons has access, including, but not limited to,” a sidewalk,
street or park.
Exceptions include drinking at a block party or “similar function for
which a permit has been obtained” as well as premises licensed for the
sale and consumption of alcohol. The punishment for violations is a
fine of no more than $25 or imprisonment of up to five days, or both.
Paul J. Browne, the Police Department’s chief spokesman, said in
statement about Mr. VanRy’s summons: “The officer observed a violation.
The subject has a right to dispute it.”
Mr. VanRy will contest the summons at a court appearance in November by
pleading not guilty. He questioned the notion that his stoop is
considered a “public place” as defined by the law. Besides, he pointed
out, Mayor Michael R. Bloomberg was photographed by The New York Post in
May sipping a glass of wine at Brooklyn Bridge Park.
“It’s one of those laws that a lot of people know it’s there, but how
heavily it should be enforced is a question,” Mr. VanRy said.
Steve Wasserman, a lawyer with the criminal practice of the Legal Aid
Society, questioned the wording of the law, adding that legal arguments
could be made that a stoop is not a place that a “substantial group of
persons” can gain access to.
“This is an open question,” he said of the law. “There’s also a larger
constitutional question, if a piece of your private property were being
treated as if it were a public place. You couldn’t get arrested for
drinking that beer in your kitchen. Now you’re sitting on your stoop.
The stoop may be more like your kitchen than your sidewalk.”
Richard Briffault, a professor at Columbia University Law School and an
expert in property and local government law, said Mr. VanRy’s summons
illustrated the thin line between private and public property. “It’s
quite possible to be on private property and in public at the same
time,” he said.
Indeed, last year, a State Supreme Court justice in the Bronx ruled
that an apartment building lobby qualified as a “public place” in
relation to the open-container law. A police officer had confronted a
man who was drinking a beer in the lobby of a building on the Grand
Concourse, and Justice Joseph J. Dawson ruled that the officer had
probable cause to arrest him.
The details of Mr. VanRy’s tale have fascinated his friends, neighbors,
the four lawyers who sent e-mail messages offering advice and
Brooklynites who read about the incident on local blogs. The officer
who gave Mr. VanRy the summons asked him, for example, what brand of
beer he was drinking. “I thought it was strange why it mattered,” Mr.
VanRy said.
Mr. VanRy’s stoop does not have a gate and is set back from the
sidewalk by a few feet, and the officer told him that if he were behind
a gate on his stoop, he would not have received a ticket. In Mr.
VanRy’s posting that night to a message board at http://www.brooklynian.com/, he
made a point of mentioning the other officer in the police car, who, Mr.
VanRy wrote, “was playing Tetris on his iPod the whole time.”
Mr. VanRy’s building on Sterling Place is in a gritty but gentrifying
part of Prospect Heights, and Mr. VanRy knows neighborhood residents who
have been mugged. “The question that sort of lingers in my mind is,
given all the other kinds of things that are constantly going on and how
little I see of police in the neighborhood, that this was the best use
of their 20 minutes of time?” he said of the two officers.
He has already made up his mind about whether to risk drinking on his
stoop again. “Absolutely,” he said.
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