Goliath in NYC walks away from $ 5.4 billion mortgage but silly David acts honorably

Great article and the funny part is the big guy will have no issues getting future loans whereas the little guy is screwed....No chance the sling shot will beat this trend ... read more

Condo associations and their management companies

Before I air my current gripe, I must first say that most condo management companies have been more cooperative with Realtors and many have really sped up their approval processes since the real estate boom days. This has greatly helped in selling already tough to sell condominiums. Many thanks for this !

However, it still amazes me how many associations are down right uncooperative when I call to verify association fees, rules and regs, rental policies and of course ask about delinquencies, FHA status and reserves.

When I take a listing, I have a form that I ask the management to fill out so that I have all the information I need to accurately represent the condo in my marketing. Delinquency rates are essential in establishing whether the potential buyer can get financing for the property and most buyers are savvy enough, through the barrage of media articles, to ask those hard questions of listing agents. Obviously, some management companies have totally ignored the media coverage on associations and continue to be vague about the condo's financial status.

When I list a property, I represent the owner who has a right to get all the above information. So when they talk to me, essentially they are talking to the owner of the unit, their client. So many times, the managers will not answers these questions unless they get an estoppel request and $ 200 plus! An estoppel letter is required by the title company that performs the closing to prepare the closing statement and to figure out what the seller owes the condo etc. It is not the same as a real estate agent needing to verify the maintenance fees and what is included in those fees, pet and rental policies, reserves, existing and future special assessments, work done to the building, parking spaces and so on.

Let's face it, I am one of the very few agents that gets this information up front from the association when I take a listing and I doubt the management company is inundated with such requests. So, for crying out loud, have a 5 minute conversation with the listing agent to ensure a potential buyer is happy with the association, therefore buying the unit hence avoiding another delinquency. Co-operation is the key to restore confidence to buyers purchasing in condos and getting us out of the condo glut into a balanced market.

When will prices rebound to recent peak? Scary ...

3rd quarter existing home sales

Existing Home Sales Year over Year

$0 -100,000 + 20.9 %

$100,000 -250,000 + 4.9 %

$250,000 – 500,000 - 9.6 %

$500,000 – 750,000 - 14.7 %

$750,000 – 1,000,000 - 22.5 %

$1,000,000 – 2,000,000 - 22.1 %

$2,000,000 + - 39.1 %

Source: NAR 3rd QTR

My listings made the NY Times " What you get for $ 300,000" in their real estate section

They featured only this condo in South Beach. It pays to market a property well and price it right ! This was totally free .... in NY....unheard of !

Cities with the most overpriced properties...and the winner is ...

ORLANDO, Fla. – Dec. 7, 2009 – Despite having no luck selling their properties, homeowners in some parts of the country have clung tenaciously to their notions of the value of their homes.Forbes magazine ranked markets it considered the most overpriced based on the ratio of the median initial list prices compared to the median list prices at the time the properties actually sold. It also factored in how long the properties stay on the market. In addition, the magazine considered expert forecasts of price increases in the areas, which could be what encourages homeowners to price high.

The top 10 areas where Forbes found the most over-priced properties were:

1. Orlando

2. Miami-Fort Lauderdale-Pompano Beach

3. Jacksonville, Fla.

4. Baltimore-Towson

5. Chicago-Naperville-Joliet

6. San Antonio, Texas

7. Denver-Aurora

8. Tampa-St. Petersburg-Clearwater

9. Indianapolis-Carmel

10. Austin-Round Rock

Source: Forbes, Francesca Levy (12/03/2009)

Eureka ! Banks start to embrace short sales

WASHINGTON – Dec. 7, 2009 – Even before the government put pressure on them to embrace short sales, more banks were starting to take their lumps, do the short-sale deals and move on.Three years into the housing meltdown, short sales have tripled to 40,000 in the first six months of 2009 compared to the same time period a year ago, according to data from the Office of Thrift Supervision and the Office of the Comptroller of the Currency.

Wells Fargo, Bank of America Corp. and JPMorgan Chase & Co. this year have hired and trained more staff to handle short sales and also developed software for expediting them. “It’s really finally dawning on banks that they’re better off with a short sale,” says Richard Green, director of the Lusk Center for Real Estate at the University of Southern California in Los Angeles. “I think banks were in denial.”

Source: Bloomberg, John Gittelsohn and Margaret Collins (12/4/2009)