Bedford NY Real Estate | Robert Paul Talks Life in Bedford NY

Fraud by building contractors is a distressingly common occurrence. How’s this for a nightmare scenario: You agree to pay a contractor $400,000 to tear down part of your house and put in an addition. While the work is going on, you, your spouse, and five children stay with the wife’s parents. The contractor tells you that the work is progressing according to schedule and you make multiple payments. Suddenly, the contractor dies. He was only 30 years old. It turns out he was a drug addict. You discover that the contractor failed to do much of the work he said had been done. Moreover, considerable damage was done to the house during construction because the contractor failed to protect it from the weather. Naturally, you sue everybody you can. The only entity that has any money you can collect from is the deceased contractor’s insurer. Unfortunately, it turns out that the insurance policy lapsed because the premiums weren’t paid. In the end, you settle with the insurer for $10,000...

Anyone on Facebook in the last few days has likely seen the pink-and-red logo that many people are setting as their profile images this week in support of gay marriage, the subject of two cases the U.S. Supreme Court is currently hearing. Bond New York , which claims to be the largest independently-owned brokerage in New York City with 500 agents and staff, has incorporated features of the Human Rights Campaign logo that’s come to represent support of gay marriage into its own branding. via inman.com

For most people, analytics is one of those subjects that other people pay attention to. There are a number of reasons why this is the case: there’s not enough time, it doesn’t seem important, or maybe it seems way too complicated. For years I was in the same boat, relying on a webmaster or someone from my marketing team to interpret all those bits of information into something that they thought I would find interesting or useful. Those were always wholly unsatisfying meetings, sitting with my marketing manager, asking questions like, “Why aren’t our visitors buying?” or, “We made some great content, why isn’t anyone reading it?” All I wanted was a straight answer. Looking back, I understand now that I wasted so much time relying on others to help me discover the answers locked inside all that information. via inman.com

Any homebuyer on the market right now will tell you the crowd of buyers and multiple offers are creating a challenge. Those in search of distressed homes owned by the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development are not immune to this supply-and-demand situation. In fact, recently one HUD home in San Diego attracted 100 offers within 10 days.   "In this market, because it's so competitive we're seeing buyers just happy to get a house.  They are being less selective on location and condition," said Whissel, broker/owner of Whissel Realty.   But in its latest news report, RealtyTrac reported that an uptick in homes owned by HUD may create opportunities for patient buyers. Experts project that over the next two years, as lenders steadily work through a backlog of foreclosures delayed by foreclosure-processing reviews, the supply of these HUD homes will increase significantly.   via housingwire.com

According to Zillow , the white, Cape Cod traditional was previously listed at $24 million back in 2011. Apparently Swift paid in cash, which may have given her the discount on the purchase price. Not that Swift needs to worry about discounts;  according to Forbes the 23-year-old is worth $57 million-plus. See photos of the singer's new mansion here . via housingwire.com

Every marketer wants to open up the inbound marketing floodgates, or so they think. But, when you get down to doing inbound marketing what is tactical and what is strategic?  This really begs the question: which inbound marketing tactics can you do relatively quickly and without too much effort versus those that require more effort but offer long term results potential? Our parents taught us that anything worth doing is worth doing right. We were taught “if _____ was easy everyone would do it.” By no means am I suggesting that inbound marketing is easy. But, let’s look at some inbound marketing activities that might be considered tactical and those considered strategic. Tactical Inbound Marketing Pay-per-Click Advertising (PPC) Some call this SEM. This involves setting up search marketing campaigns in Google Adwords or Bing whereby your ads are displayed for certain keywords for which you bid an amount you’re willing to pay each time someone clicks on your ad. Setting up...

Hollywood comedian Robin Williams is interested in selling his massive Napa Valley estate, Villa Sorriso. The villa is on 653 acres and includes a 20,000-square-foot main house; solar farm; and 18 acres of Cabernet Sauvignon, Merlot, and Cabernet Franc grapes. Villa Sorriso is built atop the Mayacama Mountains, which separate the Napa and Sonoma valleys. The five-bedroom, 12-bathroom Italian villa was designed by David Gast & Associates and is faced with Portuguese limestone. The interior features formal living and dining rooms, a gourmet eat-in kitchen, and numerous temperature-controlled vaults for both wine and art storage. The kitchen is understated yet elegant, with stainless steel appliances surrounded by marble and butcher block counters. The living room is simple yet elegant, including a terrace with views of the estate. No actor's house would be complete without a state-of-the-art movie theater. The house also features five luxurious bedroom suites, each or...

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Katonah NY Real Estate Report RobReportBlog 2013                         6 months ending 4/29              2012 21                                   Sales                                  22 $750,000.00             median sold price             $651,500.00 $320,000.00               low sold price                  $365,000.00 $7,000,000.00           high sold price               $ 4,000,000.00 3564                            ...

A new article from NaplesNews.com reports that banks are no longer holding onto distressed properties. Instead, economists quoted in the article are backtracking on previous forecasts suggesting that banks will continue to sit on inventory.   The report says banks are now quick to increase their foreclosure filings and launch short sales and other property disposition actions when appropriate. The report attributes the increase in inventory movement to the national mortgage servicing settlement with attorneys general in 2012, which kick-started the process. via housingwire.com

In this new era, trading mortgages has been challenging over the past year for investors due to a number of reasons.  In particular, massive mortgage-backed securities purchases by the  Federal Reserve  have impaired liquidity and market depth while policy changes have made prepayments difficult to forecast because of changes to the Home Affordable Refinance Program and Federal Housing Finance Agency leadership remain uncertainties, JPMorgan Chase said in its latest report.  Additionally, short rates have been anchored, rendering traditional measures of duration such as parallel rate shifts irrelevant, particularly for higher coupons, the banking giant noted. "As a result of these factors, many inter-coupon relationships are no longer mean-reverting with the same frequency they exhibited in previous environments, and money managers therefore struggle to generate alpha using age-old methodologies such as regression analysis," said analysts of JPMorgan ($4...

New Jersey is one of the hardest-hit states in terms of how long it takes to complete a foreclosure. But on the flipside, once the distressed inventory hits, there are some real steals out there for first-time homebuyers. For example, take this home in Trenton, N.J., which is selling well under the market’s median price, according to Patch's House Hunt in Trenton report. It’s a small, well-kept single-family home priced at $50,220. That's right just $50k. It comes with hard-wood floors, a comfy porch and a homey fireplace. via housingwire.com

There’s a reason the world hates lawyers, but in reality, the world should be more upset at politicians who generally confuse politically driven lawyers as task masters that are useful, but neither committed to the laws they write or willing to back them under divergent scenarios. Take eminent domain for example. Even after San Bernardino County, Calif., gave up on the idea of allowing government officials to use eminent domain to disrupt investors' interest in mortgages for the purposes of giving homeowners principal reductions, other counties have been apparently considering the idea in California. What’s odd though is another eminent domain-related bill is getting slammed in Colorado because it would allow oil pipeline companies to have eminent domain and condemnation rights in certain scenarios where they need to expand their operations. That particular bill never made it out of committee because the terms frightened lawmakers who remain attached to the idea of not toyin...

It can be difficult to estimate what pool repairs may be needed, and if you have, say, 20 minutes to do a full inspection of the house, the "ifs" of a range of $50 to $5,000 can swing your margins in the red quickly. If the home is a short sale, the pool may be sitting for months longer and cost more than you initially estimated, as well, writes AOL Real Estate. If you have longer to get an inspection, and a pool person is able to give you an estimate on getting the pool back in working condition, then the initial costs may be worth the investment. However, there are further things to consider. Click here to see the full list of what to consider . via housingwire.com

Are you still stuck in "E" rather than moving forward into "V"? If so, it’s time to shift from email, e-cards, email newsletters, blogs, and auto-responders to the next generation of communication: vmail, vcards, vresponders, viewsletters, and vlogs. I recently spoke with Roger Noujeim of ListedBy.com about his take on the latest trends. He noted that ListedBy clients who use video to promote their listings generate significantly more traffic than those who don’t. He also noted that there are 700 videos posted on Twitter every minute. Noujeim described this trend as going from "E" to "V." In fact, Cisco projects that 90 percent of all Web traffic in 2014 will be devoted to video. If you haven’t jumped on the video bandwagon, here’s how to get started. From email to vmail People retain 10 percent of what they hear and 15 percent of what they see. The average person spends about eight seconds viewing a text message. In contrast, video em...

Pinterest Web Analytics gives site owners insights into how people are interacting with pins that originate from their websites. With more than 48 million users, Pinterest is one of the most popular social networks on the Web. Rather than telling people about your products , Pinterest makes it possible to show what you have to offer . Companies are increasingly using the platform to reach new audiences, increase visits to their websites, and generate leads and sales — and it’s working. As I noted in a previous post , Pinterest users spend more money, shop more frequently, and purchase items more often and in larger quantities than users on any other social network.  Women are about five times as likely to use the site as men. Unlike other social bookmarking sites, content shared on Pinterest is driven entirely by visuals — it’s impossible share something on Pinterest unless an image is involved. You can reach millions of people if your pinned content — a picture or vi...

At a recent invite-only developer meeting, Twitter announced several updates to their “Cards” feature. Judging at the surface of where this appears to be heading, there may be an interesting offering for folks interesting in sharing and consuming real estate content. What are Twitter Cards? In short, Cards offer the ability to expand the content of a particular tweet. Usually, this expansion includes rich content such as photos, videos, articles, and music. Twitter has just released three new types of Cards: App – will show information about an app (name, price, rating, etc…) Product – will show an item’s picture and description, maybe even price via inman.com

A national multiple listing service run by the National Association of Realtors should be ready by late summer, the large trade association announced today. NAR has been working for the last decade to put all of the nation’s agent-represented homes for sale into one database, consolidating the 800-plus multiple listing services in the U.S. in the process. "Everybody has been on board with the national MLS idea for a long time and we’ve been working on it for the last decade," the trade group said in a press release. Brian Boero, co-founder of real estate marketing and design firm 1000watt, who predicted NAR’s national MLS move in one of his "Friday Flash" blog posts five years ago, said, "It’s a great move by NAR. I wonder what took them so long."  "It’s about damn time," said Matt Cohen, chief technology officer of real estate consulting firm Clareity Consulting. "In some cities there were five or more MLSs!" Cohen said. ...

The California Association of Realtors announced a new TV, Web, radio and print ad campaign today that highlights the positive impact its 155,000 members have on the state’s economy. Two 30-second TV spots, featuring the "ripple" effect that the facilitation of home buying and selling has on the economy and families, will air on the ABC network in San Diego, Los Angeles and San Francisco from today through June 16. In addition, on April 17, a spot will air during the network’s hit show "Modern Family" in the three markets. via inman.com

The University of Michigan's April consumer confidence survey results are out. The headline index fell to 76.4 from last month's 78.6 reading. However, the index reading is well above both the flash estimate published earlier this month and economists' predictions for today's release. via housingwire.com

Apartment owners and managers are fighting tooth and claw to dispel the myth that multifamily living is unfriendly to pets, a longstanding motivation that has driven pet-lovers to become homeowners. A recent Apartments.com survey, released a week before National Pet Week, fund that 75 percent of renters surveyed today are pet owners, compared to 43 percent in 2012. Half of the pet-loving renters surveyed by Apartments.com would like to believe their fellow apartment residents also adore their four-legged companions.  Fortunately, it turns out they are not far off, as nearly 60 percent of renters who do not own pets said they still enjoy living around others with pets. “Nearly 80 percent of our survey respondents live in a pet-friendly building, indicating both landlords and residents without pets are increasingly recognizing that pet owners are, for the most part, responsible and respectful neighbors,” said Tammy Kotula, public relations and promotions manager, Apartments.co...

Have you ever stumbled upon a blog and thought…” Was this written by an android, a robot or was it a Martian? “ Maybe it was produced by someone that had a personality bypass. Whatever it was, it didn’t seem human. That, I think touches on what a “voice” is. It is about being human, displaying a personality and willing to be vulnerable. Then the real fun starts. Writing and creating from the “real” you is your voice. That can be daunting and  exposing. Your internal conversations start the jabber….” What if I show a side of me that no one likes or thinks is stupid? ” Looking daft or dork is not cool. In fact we were all raised on the human craft of hiding behind a facade when the school playground often rewarded the strong, the fake and the facile. Many childhoods are lived in quiet desperation of hiding the real “you.” Being grown up means accepting yourself for all its glorious imperfections. A formula, an evolution or a revelation? I don’t have a process...

South Salem NY Real Estate Report RobReportBlog 2013                       6 months ending 4/25               2012 24                               Sales                                19 $482,500.00        median sold price            $530,000.00 $180,000.00          low sold price                   $247,500.00 $1,551,000.00          high sold price                   $891,000.00 2932      ...

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As any experienced real estate investor will tell you, not all investment properties are created equal. Homes that might be perfect for a primary residence, for example, might not yield positive cash flows — and without positive cash flows, you’re losing money, not making it. Here are a few things to think about and properties to avoid when you are ready to invest your hard-earned cash equity capital. 1. Anything that doesn’t generate rental income These include second homes and land investments. Too many people invest in properties hoping that they will go up in value. But there is an opportunity cost to having money sit in real estate that doesn’t pay any income. Even if the property goes up in value, you’ve got to reconcile and account for all the money you would have earned if your money had instead been in the bank or in stocks and/or bonds. 2. Anything with negative cash flows If you buy a “prize property” — such as a fancy downtown fancy condo, beach property or v...

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Fox Business writes: "We’ll see how the summer goes and that will be a little bit of an indicator but my estimate would be another year until we have a good housing market," said Joe Gross , national mortgage expert and author . "If employment goes down, within the year the housing market should be in a much better position than we are today." via housingwire.com

There are a few reasons for the rent appreciation. One is that New York has become a much more attractive place to live and work over the last few decades as crime has fallen and other amenities have improved, according to The New York Times' economic reporter Catherine Rampell. A second key reason that housing has become so expensive is that as demand for housing from both these occasional visitors and full-time residents has grown, supply has not kept up, writes the Times. A third key reason housing is so expensive, related to the first one I mentioned, is that a lot of amenities that wealthy people like are bundled into the price of an apartment in New York, including a high concentration of bars, restaurants and theaters, and a greater variety of high-end goods. Given the better pay in New York, housing costs are actually less onerous than they might seem, writes the Times. Read the full report by Rampell in the Times here . via housingwire.com

Charlotte foreclosure rate falls 4/26/13 12:26pm The foreclosure rate in Charlotte, N.C., fell in February showing a marked improvement from last year, according to new data from CoreLogic . The Charlotte Observer notes in a new article that the foreclosure rate among outstanding mortgage loans hit 2.73% in February, down from 3.5% last year. via housingwire.com

Banks and lenders are easing back on lending, putting more drag on the economy, according to The Wall Street Journal. The decline in lending follows lenders uncertainty about rising health-care costs, fear of another economic downturn and a brutal winter in the Midwest that delayed new investment, the article says. via housingwire.com

The Federal Reserve voiced concerns over whether banks can withstand an eventual increase in interest rates after a long, low-interest-rate environment, according to an article in The Wall Street Journal.  A panel of federal regulators charged with observing market risk met on Thursday and warned that a sudden surge in interest rates could have a destabilizing effect on financial markets, the WSJ said. The Fed's chairman,  Ben Bernanke , sits on the Financial Stability Oversight Council . Using detailed data that the central bank started collecting after the financial crisis, Fed officials are regularly running big banks' portfolio holdings through models to gauge their exposure to various changes in interest rates, according to Fed officials. via housingwire.com

Author’s note: Early in the year, I traveled to Missoula, Montana, for a winter vacation, but a contact put me in touch with a few people in the real estate industry and much to my surprise I came away with a couple of interesting stories. This column is the first of two. For a while it seemed that anyone with a lot of money, from Hollywood stars to business moguls, wanted a piece — make that a very large piece of — America, and they came west looking to buy their own ranches. Many, following the lead of flamboyant media entrepreneur, Ted Turner, looked to acquire in Montana. During the bubble years, investors couldn’t acquire Montana ranches fast enough. William McDavid, who opened the Missoula office of Hall and Hall in 1996, remembers those years fondly. "Before the recession, people were standing in line to buy," McDavid says. "There were bidding wars for multimillion-dollar properties." Hall and Hall does a lot of different things as a real estate co...

Arnab Chakraborty, a professor of urban and regional planning at the University of Illinois, has identified another factor in the crisis – neighborhood zoning. According to a study published in the journal Housing Policy Debate , communities that zoned too strictly for the development of large, single-family homes have a higher risk for foreclosure when compared to areas that accommodate a broader spectrum of housing options. "It intuitively makes sense," Chakraborty said. "If you push too much housing in the high-price sector, then people who would otherwise buy cheaper housing would either be forced to buy more expensive housing or move elsewhere. It is, ultimately, a question of choice for the homebuyers." Chakraborty and two doctoral students, Dustin Allred and Robert H. Boyer, focused on mortgages that had entered the foreclosure process from 2005 through 2008, the period of the housing bubble . The study used data from six metropolitan areas across the U...

It’s always hard to predict how long it will take to find a home to buy. Given the current low-inventory environment, it may take you longer than it would in a balanced market that has enough homes for sale to satisfy the current buyer demand. Patience needs to be a key component of your home search mentality. Even if a home you like a lot comes along quickly in your search, other buyers may have the same idea. You could end up in competition. If you aren’t the winning bidder, don’t let disappointment immobilize you. To prepare yourself to buy in this market, plan to look at every new listing that comes close to satisfying your wish list. Accept that you won’t find everything on your wish list. Successful buyers make sacrifices. Just make sure to make intelligent compromises. For example, don’t get so overwhelmed by the urge to buy now that you overlook that a home you like won’t work for you for long. Buying and selling is expensive; you don’t want to do it often. Make sure tha...

On the first day of April each year, communities, businesses and news outlets come up with stories intended to fool, amuse, and, sometimes, satirize. Here’s a roundup of the posts Inman News came across in the residential real estate space today. National Association of Realtors shutters Realtors Property Resource : If you’re a member of the National Association of Realtors, as of today, you no longer have access to, or are paying for, the funds-draining national property database Realtors Property Resource, according to Greg Robertson on his blog at Vendor Alley . "Our long national nightmare is over," said NAR CEO Dale Stinton, via a "quote" in a purported NAR press release shown on the blog. Never fear, Realtors, the post says that NAR has decided to invest in another industry important to agents — cars. "Today’s cars aren’t designed for the average Realtor, so we thought we needed to do something about it," said NAR President Gary Thomas in a ...

The 9.2 percent jump in home sales last year and record refinancings translated into a 21 percent increase for the nation’s title industry and $504 million in profits. The American Land Title Association (ALTA) reported $11.4 billion in title insurance premiums written during 2012, up nearly 21 percent from 2011, according to the association’s Year-End and Fourth-Quarter Market Share Analysis. “Positive operating results in 2012 further strengthened the industry’s already strong financial position” Title insurance premium volume has steadily increased the past two years since 2010 snapped four consecutive years of declining premium volume. The improved market conditions resulted in the land title industry reporting a net operating gain of $504 million in 2012, compared to a $20-million loss in 2011. “Positive operating results in 2012 further strengthened the industry’s already strong financial position,” said Michelle Korsmo, chief executive officer of ALTA. “The land title i...

Compared with a year ago, March sales in the Washington metropolitan area increased 9.9 percent, while average prices rose  9.7 percent. The year-over-year price appreciation in March is a continuation of a 16-month trend of price growth in the metropolitan area.  Year-over-year average prices were up 12.7 percent for single-family detached houses, 9.8 percent for townhouses and 6.7 percent for condominiums.  The March data can provide an early indication of the strength of the housing market going into the rest of the year. Sales activity tends to be much brisker in March than in February, and this year is no exception, with the number of sales in the metropolitan area increasing by 33.4 percent between February and March, an increase that is in line with the 10-year average increase.  (Home sales data are from MRIS, the region’s multiple listing service.)  Sales were up in March over February in all 22 jurisdictions in the Washington metropolitan area. ...

Realtor John Gonnello can attest to the fact that rising demand for low and moderately priced single-family homes and condos, coupled with falling supply, continue to push prices higher in the Coachella Valley. Of the 22 Sun City Palm Desert homes he had listed featuring everything from vaulted ceilings and great rooms to open floor plans and golf course and mountain views, all but six have sold. “There was a surge for about three weeks where it was just crazy,” said Gonnello, an agent with Windermere Real Estate. “It’s quieted down a bit, but now we’re starting to see activity build again.” Gonnello’s experience is in line with two new real estate reports that show the valley’s median price rose by double-digits last month, the ninth straight month with such robust increases. The valley’s median home price — half sold for more, half for less — jumped 17.9 percent year-over-year to $247,500 in March, following a 15.9 percent increase to $226,000 in February, San Diego-based real estat...

Tom and Sarah Kotowski got all the turnout they could have hoped for at their open house. Close to 100 people showed up last Sunday to take a look at their three-bedroom Cape listed for $299,900 on a quiet East Weymouth cul-de-sac. Four made offers. By Tuesday, the couple had an agreement. “For a seller, it’s excellent right now,” Sarah Kotowski said. “Inventory is flying.” But as the couple looks for a home closer to Tom’s workplace west of Boston, they face the same dynamic. “I can’t tell you how many open houses we go to and then the next day they’re gone (off the market),” Sarah said. The strong seller’s market that has emerged this spring is a double-edged sword for families like the Kotowskis, whose house was on the market for less than a week. Home prices are rising across Massachusetts this spring in a reflection of demand that is outstripping supply. There are fewer than 20,000 single-family homes on the market, down 30 percent from via patri...

After five years of declining home values, the Bay Area housing market is finally coming back. According to the real estate website Zillow, areas like Brentwood, Antioch and Richmond are still hurting with home prices as much as 66 percent lower than their peak values, but there's a strong comeback in San Francisco and parts of the Peninsula like San Carlos and Palo Alto, and areas of the South Bay like Los Gatos. In Belmont, the housing market is hotter than ever. One house is just over 1,000 square feet. It was listed for $725,000 and the winning bid came in at $100,000 above that. A three bedroom home in San Carlos is about to go on the market, but don't expect it to stay there very long. If recent activity is any indication, the house will sell fast and likely well over its asking price. via abclocal.go.com

The size and features of houses in the different price ranges can vary widely in towns throughout Hartford County. Indeed, they can vary from neighborhood to neighborhood in the same town or city. And, what is standard in West Hartford or Glastonbury may not be found in Southington or Newington. Ed Sutton, an agent from RE/MAX in East Hartford prepared a report for the Courant of what features you'll likely get in different price ranges around greater Hartford. The prices ranges we looked at are: starter ($150,000-300,000), mid-range ($300,000-450,000), high end ($450,000-600,000) and luxury ($600,000+). Click through the gallery to see what you might expect to get in each price range. via courant.com

Bedford Village NY Real Estate Report RobReportBlog 2013 6 months ending 4/25 2012 24 Sales 25 $1,042,500.00 median sold price $1,225,000.00 $370,000.00 low sold price $384,800.00 $3,500,000.00 high sold price $4,750,000.00 3705 average size 4625 $387.00 ave. price per foot $309.00 171 ave days on market 246 $1,257,239.00 average sold price $1,515,589.00 93.03% ave sold to ask 92.54% via trulia.com

After accounting for one out of four home sales in the depths of the housing recession and fueled turn-arounds in dozens of markets where waves of foreclosures and battered home values scared off other buyers, real estate investors today are playing a greatly diminished role in the housing recovery. The latest Campbell/Inside Mortgage Finance HousingPulse Tracking Survey results suggest first-time homebuyers and current homeowners, not investors, are in fact the major players in this year’s marketplace. The active presence of non-investor homebuyers is helping create a remarkably strong market for non-distressed properties leading into the important spring-summer home buying season. HousingPulse nationwide data for March show that current homeowners continued to dominate the overall home purchase market with a 42.2 percent market share, based on a three-month moving average. While that was down from the levels seen last fall, it was still up on a year-over-year basis. First-time...

From 2009 to 2011, the mean net worth of the top 7 percent of American households rose by 28 percent, while the mean net worth of households in the lower 93 percent dropped by 4 percent, largely because wealthy Americans have the bulk of their holdings in stocks and bonds while most Americans rely heavily on home equity for their personal wealth. According to a Pew Research Center analysis of newly released Census Bureau data, from 2009 to 2011, the mean wealth of the 8 million households in the more affluent group rose to an estimated $3,173,895 from an estimated $2,476,244, while the mean wealth of the 111 million households in the less affluent group fell to an estimated $133,817 from an estimated $139,896. Because of these differences, wealth inequality increased during the first two years of the recovery. The upper 7 percent of households saw their aggregate share of the nation’s overall household wealth pie rise to 63 percent in 2011, up from 56% in 2009. On an individual ho...

Despite extensive media coverage of the widespread, multistate flooding caused by Superstorm Sandy last fall and Hurricane Irene in the summer of 2011, 1 in 5 homeowners is still surprised to learn that home insurance does not cover flooding, according to a Bankrate nationwide survey as part of the April Financial Security Index. The survey found that 18 percent of consumers didn’t know that a standard homeowners policy specifically excludes flood-related damage, while 81 percent were aware of the need to purchase a separate flood insurance policy from the federal National Flood Insurance Program, or NFIP, to guard against flood loss. The Federal Emergency Management Agency, or FEMA, which administers the NFIP, generally classifies properties as either at high risk or moderate-to-low risk of flooding. When consumers were asked if they knew for sure which category applies to their home, just more than half, or 51 percent, said “yes,” while 43 percent said “no.” Bankrate’s survey ...

Those of you who know me know I love every single day – each is its own special blessing. But I have to say the days of spring make me especially grateful. And this spring is proving particularly pleasant for Realtors because of a strong seller’s market and interest rates that are continuing to hover at historic lows for buyers. These two factors alone can make your spring selling season bloom with business – if you’re ready. To get ready, you need to think about the tradition this time of year – spring cleaning. To take full of advantage of this market, it helps to stop for a moment and consider what’s working and what’s not. This is a time to clean out the closets, a time to get back to the basics – because we know those basics work. So with that said, here are some tips I’d like to offer to help make your spring fresher, brighter and, of course, more profitable. Dust off your operations - Pull out the dust rag and wipe down your operations to get a good look at them ...

Masonic Temples are staples in many U.S. cities, but one of them is having a tough go of it in this economy. The 14-story Masonic temple in Detroit is in foreclosure, with its current owners owing well over $150,000 in back taxes. The ABC affiliate in Detroit says the building – once the hang out of dozens of Masons – is slated for a September tax foreclosure auction. via housingwire.com

The National Association of Home Builders called on Congress Thursday to maintain its support for vital housing incentives in order to meet the nation’s growing need for affordable rental housing and homeownership opportunities. The housing incentives include the Low Income Housing Tax Credit, the mortgage interest deduction and real estate tax deductions.  "Homebuilding is an industry dominated by small businesses, so the idea of simplifying the complicated tax rules related to business has great appeal," said Robert Dietz, an economist and assistant vice president for NAHB.  Dietz added, "At the same time, our industry remembers painful lessons from the 1986 Tax Reform Act, when the commercial and multifamily sectors experienced a downturn due to unintended consequences." When housing is doing well, it spurs jobs and contributes to economic growth, notes Dietz. "For these reasons, we urge Congress to be cautious and thoughtful when it comes to housi...

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In the movie Remember the Titans , Coach Herman Boone takes his high school football team to the battleground of Gettysburg . Having inherited a fractured and divided squad, Coach Boone implores the players to "take a lesson from the dead. If we don't come together, right now on this hallowed ground, we too will be destroyed, just like they were." Coach Boone then establishes the primacy of an important team virtue: "I don't care if you like each other right now, but you will respect each other." In every workplace and on every team, all people have the innate desire to feel appreciated and valued by others. Like Coach Boone, leaders of teams — and team members themselves — should work to foster a culture of value and appreciation. High performing teams have well-defined goals, systems of accountability, clear roles and responsibilities, and open communication. Just as importantly, teams that foster cohesion with a sense of appreciation a...

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Bedford Hills NY Real Estate Report                            RobReportBlog 2013                 6 months ending 4/25                 2012 10                             Sales                                     9 $1,310,000.00      median sold price               $426,000.00 $282,000.00           low sold price                    $275,000.00 $3,995,000.00       high sold price                  $3,550,000.00 4162                 ...

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In the movie Remember the Titans , Coach Herman Boone takes his high school football team to the battleground of Gettysburg . Having inherited a fractured and divided squad, Coach Boone implores the players to "take a lesson from the dead. If we don't come together, right now on this hallowed ground, we too will be destroyed, just like they were." Coach Boone then establishes the primacy of an important team virtue: "I don't care if you like each other right now, but you will respect each other." In every workplace and on every team, all people have the innate desire to feel appreciated and valued by others. Like Coach Boone, leaders of teams — and team members themselves — should work to foster a culture of value and appreciation. High performing teams have well-defined goals, systems of accountability, clear roles and responsibilities, and open communication. Just as importantly, teams that foster cohesion with a sense of appreciation a...