NY Houses 4 Sale

How do you spell corruption??

Ohhh Geesh, if this is not a total case of corruption then I honestly don't know what is. 

Today the TimesLedger had the update about Brian McLaughlin and his trial that has been postponed until... ohhhh how do you mark indefinitely on your calendar?  I don't see a month for INDEFINITE.  That's right, there will not be a trial.  Not because he settled, nope.  Not because he paid back what he stole from city unions, nonprofits, his own campaign committee or Electchester Little League, which by the way was more than 2.2 million in nickels and dimes or not because they found him not guilty.  They postponed his hearing because ...

"But the timetable for the proceedings was altered after the case was reassigned to Judge Richard J. Sullivan from Judge Kenneth Karas on Sept. 7. A spokesman for the U.S. attorney said Monday the trial would go forward as scheduled, but Thursday the Manhattan office said the trial had been postponed indefinitely because the case would be overseen by a new judge." (TimesLedger)

Whitestone Ny - Its the best place to live!

AM New York had a great write up about Whitestone NY, 11357 this morning.  The article highlights some great resturants, bars and shopping areas and commenters have even added their input to some of their favorite hot spots as well as some must see pictures.

George Isaakidis, the owner of Harpell Chemist asnwers:

What do you like best about Whitestone?

What would you change if you could?

What are some pros about living in Whitestone?

What's one neighborhood gem?

Hurry - go read the article!

Articles of interest....

Queens portfolio fetching $300M - The Real Deal

Watching Your Real Estate Language - Real Estate News

Willets Point Update: City Begins Talks With Biz Owners, Yet Many Say They Refuse To Budge - QueensTribune

7 wonders of the [real estate] world - Inman News Blog

Priests, Wrestlers and Mayor Bloomberg -

The past few days have been quite hectic and I have not had a chance to post as much as I wish I could.  I am leaving you with a few great and disturbing articles from around town.  Enjoy and have a great weekend.  Ohh, Come visit me this weekend at my open house -

Noah is a genius!  I was playing with his excel sheet and it works great.  I love how he almost screams - "NO! you should not buy, you do not make enough money".  Head over to UrbanDiggs to check out his great post on how to adjust with the market and he offers a ton of great advise!

St. Luke's Parishioners in Whitestone took a hard hit this weekend when it was announced that  Msgr. Nicholas Capua was being relieved of his priestly duties because  of allocations that he abused several minors more than 30 years ago.  Msgr. Capua has served  the church from 1983 to 2005. (TimesLedger).

Having a son who is infatuated with wrestling, I am quite familiar with Wrestling Universe  which is located at 12-60 150th St.   In the TimesLedger today there was an article about how Balian's business is booming  stating "If you come here tomorrow{after the big event at Holy Cross}, you'll see blank walls," he said, pointing to the walls of his store, lined with wrestling figurines and DVDs. "We pack up everything and bring it to the event. We can make more money in one night at one of these events than we do in a month at the store."

Mayor Bloomberg finally unveils his plans for Willets Point.  I wonder if the residents and the owners know what the actual plans are.  All I know is that there is a "three year plan". 

Have a great weekend!!

Bayside's BEST Burger - SOLD!

Donovan's Restaurant which is located at 214-16 41 Avenue, Bayside NY 11358 has been said to have been SOLD.  (Undisclosed amount). 

Mr. Joe Donovan has owned and operated the beloved pub since 1979.  And now, the famous pub/restaurant has been said to be under contract to the owners of Louie's Oyster Bar & Grille, which is located at Port Washington, L.I.  But the sale is not final - it is pending on the new liquor license and when/if it is approved, then the sale could be complete by May or June, 2007.

Today, the Times Ledger ran an article stating that  "He (Mr. Donovan)said he wanted to make sure the new owners would continue the good reputation the classic burger and beer joint enjoys, particularly because of his family's long presence in the neighborhood".

...No, I was NOT the Broker involved!

(Picture courtesy of greatrestaurantsmag.com)

 

Love Reality!

One of my guilty pleasures is to watch shows about real estate like ("Buy Me", "House Hunters" and "What can I get?")  These shows often show the viewer what it is like to be on the buying or selling side of real estate and the shows gives the viewer somewhat of an idea of what the people have to face.  But none of these shows show what a Real Estate Agent goes through and how WE get deals done.  I have not seen the actual show yet, I plan to watch to see if it is true to life or not, but I was emailed this morning asking to give them a promo.  So, I happily obliged. 

"Since your blog covers Queens and Long Island real estate news and general tips and advice, I thought you might be interested in a new Reality TV show from FINE LIVING called “Real Estate Confidential” airing at 9 PM Eastern on Wednesday.  The public gets to see Los Angeles agents tackle challenging homes and even tougher clients: everything from quirky décor and unkempt houses facing immediate foreclosure. And that’s just the two episodes airing this week!"

“Real Estate Confidential” airs Wednesday April 4 (That would be TONIGHT) at 9PM and 10PM Eastern on the FINE LIVING channel, with an encore presentation on Saturday April 7 at 9:30PM Eastern. Please feel free to call or email me with any follow up questions.

I actually did not know what channel this was on so I did some research and guess what - "Great News! FINE LIVING TV NETWORK is available in your area on Time Warner Cable channel 144!"

Want to watch the promo?

Color me Happy!!!

Actually - don't.  I am just dumb founded about how far behind NY is with regards to agency and marketing.  There is not a day that goes by that something my MLS does that just boggles me.  Have they been living under a box? 

Its almost like the blind leading the blind at times.  I mean, HOW could the  local board of Realtors not know about blogging - I mean, unless they NEVER turn on the computer, how have they missed this? 

Let's just say that for arguments sake, they have been busy with the agency stuff.  But, to add insult to injury, I got a very informative email about 26 seconds ago - and the tech group is offering ways for Realtors to improve their website rankings.  The email talks about organic and natural hits and WHY its important.  They offer great advice on HOW to get indexed for FREE and they even suggest that you should utilize the FREE sources before you go paying sites like Google, MSN, and Yahoo. 

Some info that they passed onto me.

Tip: Make sure you are taking advantage of all the FREE ways you can increase your websites ranking before you start paying Google, Yahoo, and MSN to do it for you. Here are a few suggestions:

1. Get Listed: submit your website with search engine directories so they know your website exists. Register with the search engines that account for most of the traffic such as Google, Yahoo, MSN, AOL, etc.
2. Improve the Odds: keep your website ranking up to date by periodically editing and adding to your website copy so it may rank well for particular terms that are relevant to your business.
3. Have other sites link to yours: search engines look at the popularity of your site, such as the number of links to your site. The more popular you are, the higher you will get ranked. It’s best to have as many websites as you can link to your site.
4. Keywords: Determine the keywords most used by your customers and use them in your website text whenever possible – link them to other pages on your site too. Hint – place these keywords towards the top half of your page – search engines view text in the top half of your page to be more relevant.

**I think I did these things about 3.5 years ago.  Not bad!   So blogging in NY should be popular within the next 3-5 years.  You have time, right?

Secrets about the Market.. Out of the mouth of Digs.

Want to know if you should lock in?  UrbanDigs says...   BUT.. Before you pick up the phone and call your mortgage broker read what UrbanDigs also has to say about "Why lower rates might not be good".  Nobody can explain the housing market as well as Noah from UrbanDigs can.  His twist and correlation between the interest rates and the unemployment rates was explained on "street level".

I want to stress some important comments that Noah said:

"So lets break that down. If the economy is starting to weaken, than stock prices will reflect that early on with a selloff. Since the stock market is a leading indicator of the economy, it will be the first to show signs that trouble might be ahead. Assuming this happens, paper profits and consumer portfolio values will restrict making people feel less confident and less wealthy. As this occurs, there will start to be talk of a fed rate cut as Ben Bernanke and company attempt to put a floor on how bad things might get."

You might be asking "So, the rates might go down, thats a good thing isn't it?"  Not really, Like Noah states: 

"As the fed cuts rates, it is because the economy is getting worse. The more they cut, the worse off things really are and the more in need of stimulation to prevent things from getting real bad. While interest rates and lending rates might dip a bit, it will come at the expense of restricting wealth effect due to falling stock prices and job losses."

I know that in the past I have always looked at the housing market to have a direct cause and effect to the unemployment rates.   If the unemployment is high - the market is down and visa versa.  I can not claim that I am as savvy as Noah when it comes to the explaining the real estate market with relation to the stock market or the unemployment rates.  I just know that one has to do with the other and it is a chain of effects.   

My take on Noah's article is that in the next few short months, the "Corporate World" will start to tighten up their overhead and by doing this it means to lighten up their payroll, making the unemployment rate rise and the economy as a whole will become conservative and spending will become tighter.  So, even though the intrest rates might take a dip, it means nothing if you don't have an income.  Am I right to think this? 

What other sources say:

The Real Deal - Volatile Dow unlikely to hurt housing

True Gotham: Making Sense of the NYC Real Estate Market

What does Barbara Corcoran have to say about the market?  (Via Sellisus)

Curbed asked last week "Is there a Frenzy in the market?" (here is the link again, just in case you missed it last week).

Love and Money..

I have been working with a young couple who are looking to buy a home, get married and start having kids,  like NOW.  The girl often mentions things like "at my mom's house, we have a a huge kitchen..."  "When I find THE house, I will know" and "We need at least 4 bedrooms, WE are hoping to have three or four kids..." 

When I glance over at the husband to be - I just see a glazed look come over his face. 

The fact of the matter is, the wife to be is trying to get to a place where her parents are now.  She wants to forgo the journey that lays ahead of her and just jump into tomorrow. 

When I ask the young couple what their credit is like - she knows hers, and looks to him to answer for himself.  He has some debt, she does not.   She was surprized and unaware of his debt.

When I ask her how much they can afford, she knows her salary and knows that when she has kids, she will not have that to count on, because she will stop working.  He did not know that.

When I asked the young couple how much they had to put down on a home, they both had no idea, all monies will be coming from what they get at their wedding. 

Sometimes, love and money is a tough subject - BankRate has a great tool - "Love and money quiz: How do you and your mate relate?

...For now, they have decided to rent. 

SuperBowl - unseen footage.

I know MOST of us did this.  I did. 

How many of you went into work and re watched the Superbowl's line up of commercials? 

Two that were good - but  did NOT make it.. (unless I missed something)

Good, but not good enough for the Bowl.

This would have been a great "pick".