NY Houses 4 Sale

Can I refuse a tenant?

This morning I got an email from a landlord who is curious about what or how he can refuse a prospective tenant. 

======Start of Email======

"Hi I read your blog and you have good info on there.   Keep it up.  I have become a new landlord, some apartments are already rented with leases and two are not.  I have posted my own ads and I got alot of replies but some of them I am not to comfortable with renting to.  Can I deny a tenant a[n] apartment?"

Well in short, yes.

You can deny a tenant an apartment but you must be careful on your reasons.

Valid reasons to deny:

• Credit history.
• Smoking.
• Drug use.
• Number of people. (Be careful on this one.  You can not discriminate against a family or non-family)  But if you have a one bedroom apartment and 7 people are looking to rent your apartment - yes, you can deny for the NUMBER of people not family status!
• Pets.
• Length of lease desired.  (You are requesting a year lease and the tenant wants more or less).
• Income to rent ratio.
• Convictions - (including Sex predators)

Reasons that could be discriminating:

• Family status (Married, divorcee, single, same sex marriage, etc.)  Let me clarify, a landlord cannot say to a prospective tenant "Oh, I only want single people in here" or "Or I don't want a married couple because that only means they MIGHT have kids".
• Race - (Do I need to explain?    Thought NOT!).
• Political Stance.
• Religion.
• Sexual orientation.
• Disability. 
• Age. (Very gray area).

also read:

Explain your fees, Please.

Landlord, Tenants and Co-signers.

Questions ?

Have a great weekend, I will see you Monday!

Foreclosure Auction!

What will be auctioned off tomorrow?   163-39 25 Dr., Flushing, NY 11358

Auction Location

Supreme Court, 88-11 Sutphin Boulevard, Court Room 25, Jamaica, N.Y.

This property is on the auction menu for tomorrow with an undisclosed amount for the judgment.

The Colonial house is sitting on a lot size of  35x100 with a one family zoning.

I am thinking that the banks will be buying this one if the owner does not stop the foreclosure.  (Oh yes, there are ways to stop it.) 

Photo courtesy of PropertyShark.com 

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

Flushing Resident Bids a Farewell...

Kevin Walsh the webmaster over at Forgotten-NY has packed up and is moving right out of Flushing and heading right into Little Neck.

Kevin, a longtime resident of Flushing has decided that enough is enough and he does not want to end up living over a "gas station eating cat food by the light of a single light bulb".  So Mr. Walsh has leap into homeownership and bought a house.  If you have not seen his blog - it is a must.

Forgotten-NY has archives of pictures of old homes that have been replaced with new brick square homes.  It is interesting and very sad to see what was and what has become of some of the neighborhoods - not only in Flushing but the surrounding New York areas as well - College Point, Fresh Meadows , Little Neck  and a ton more...

Take Care Kevin - I wish you the best of Luck in Little Neck! 

Want to buy Kevin's book?

(Picture: Courtesy of Forgotten-NY.com) 

Co-ops, they can make their own rules and there is nothing you can do about it!

The past two years there has been an on going debate about a bill that would require co-op boards to fully disclose any board denials that they enforce for whatever reason.  This is always focused on the Manhattan co-ops, but truth be told, I have seen alot of co-op boards denying applicants in the Whitestone, Beechhurst, Flushing and Bayside area. 

An article today in the NYSun.com entitled Stalled Co-op Rights' Bill Gains Backers - June 22, 2007 says:

"If it were to pass, the bill would shine a brighter light onto the inner workings of New York City's powerful co-op boards, which were first required to begin disclosing sale prices in 2006.

The boards have long served as a point of intimidation for potential buyers, and real estate brokers say they coach their clients for interviews before the boards, picking out clothes, and narrowing down items to talk about."

Any thoughts?  Have you been denied by a co-op board or is there anyone that you know that has been denied.  I am interested in hearing some stories.

Related articles:

• Can you buy a co-op and NOT go before the board?
• Co-ops: Within the guidelines..
• Co-op 101

Open houses brings an offer - but just not a home run!

Here is a summary of how my weekend went.

While I was doing an open house on Sunday a woman walk into the home, alone.  She walked through the house fast and quite abruptly.  When she left, I don't even think I got an acknowledgment - it was kind of like I pissed her off because I took her out of her car dragged her into the home and made her look at the home.   When she showed up again with 7 people in tow, I have to say, I was quite surprised.  I thought they were either here to beat me for dragging her into the home and forcing her to look or they were here to check it out and maybe make an offer. 

Well I was right - (thankfully on the offer). 

What was odd was how they presented the offer to me.  I almost felt like I was working a drive through McDonald's window.  They barked their offer, added some fries, tossed in an apple pie... - no not really - they just made it seem so .. I don't know - umm, matter of fact.  There was no emotion, no happiness, no excitement - nothing.  I actually was not sure if they even liked the home, that's how stone like they were. 

Anyhow, I was thrilled to get an offer.  It was something and it was a starting point and I know the seller is at a stand still with his plans until he sells this home, to be honest, I know he is willing to work any buyer who makes a solid offer.  But, they did not cut it.  You see - it was not just about the money, the reply no went much deeper. 

There were CONTINGENCY'S - and ALOT of them.

Sellers have been spoiled a few years (months) ago most offers did not have any strings attached, homes sold without a hitch.  Now? Not so much.  I have always viewed a contingency as almost as a skin problem - they tend to just spread.  If one contingency gets through another will pop up and another and so forth and so on.  So nixing contingency's early is something that I tend to do. 

The contingency's that these "buyers" were: 

• Mortgage - (OK, that is normal).
• Upgrading to Viking appliances. (No joke, $20,000 right off the bat).
• Closing Mid September. (Not too bad, could be workable)
• 10 year warranty on home (Its a new construction home, but 10 years?   Riiighht).
• They need to sell their home first (they can go into contract soon, but with only $7,000).  - To me this is a red flag!  The buyers are looking at a 1.2 Million dollar home, but only have $7,000 to put down, am I painting good enough picture for you?
• Closing Credit - Here is where I think they lost me, the seller and their minds.  They would come to almost full price on the home - IF the seller agreed to "GIFT' them back $75,000. 

.....Picking myself off the floor. 

Is that even legal? 

So - welcome back world of contingencies!  I so did not miss you!

Foreclosure sold less than lien..

Last week I wrote about a foreclosure which was about to happen today.  Well, to my surprise it not only foreclosed today but the upset price and winning bid was only $285,000.  I am quite puzzled and I am hoping for someone to fill ME in.   How does a property with a lien of $606,919 foreclose with a winning bid of $285,000?   

Here is the original docket. 

Auction date 6/22/2007 Auction Time 11:00 AM Lien $606,919 Plaintiff Bank Of New York, Et. Al. Defendant Ralph L. Farina, Jr., Et. Al. Forc type mortgage Judgment date 4/16/2007

Index Number Qn 2006 / 22996 Referee Gregory LaSpina, Esq. Plaintiff attorney Steven J. Baum

Whitestone Resident speaks up!

A local resident of Whitestone New York speaks up in the Tribune today.  I could not have said it any better -

"In his recent response to Vincent Tabone (May 31, TimesLedger Newspapers) regarding school funding, Avella made the bizarre accusation of dismissing Tabone's criticism as being "politically motivated." Is he kidding? I think we would have to look far and wide to find a more political politician than Avella.

When he cast a vote against higher property taxes, knowing with absolute certainty that his fellow Democrats would vote overwhelming for it, would that be considered politically motivated? Or would it be considered political when he urged the parishioners of a church not to give donations to force the pastor to break a legal cell tower contract?"  (QueenTribune)

To blog or not.. That is the question!

Hi everyone,

In life there are always crossroads that one must meet.  Some crossroads are easier to deal with than others, this is true.  When I started this blog I really had no idea how or what I would gain or rather what the public would gain from my blog.  I knew that no one really in my area was blogging in the true sense of blogging and by this I mean not having a blog to just post homes listed and sold and/or citing various articles from Msn, aol.com, bankrate.com or nolo.com.    I was different from my brokers blog (he is really the only other person I know who somewhat uses a blog). 

After almost a year and a half, I stand at a crossroad. 

My broker (with all due respect) hates the fact that I blog.  He will use condescending remarks about this blog and he will try to debunk the whole notion of blogging.  He will argue that I am not a journalist and I should not be offering my opinion or advice.  While it is true that I am no where near being a journalist, I do have advice to offer and I certainly have bold opinions.  I do feel that I have been very soft spoken on this blog for this past year and half and to be honest,  I felt I would rather play nice and not ruffle feathers.

This crossroad had me contemplating either shutting down this blog entirely, or to actually start using my voice - my real voice.  It is very hard for me in particular to not speak my true feelings on alot of issues. 

After alot of thought I have opted to speak up, SPEAK CLEARLY and SPEAK very very LOUD! 

This blog will remain !

A Notable Foreclosure!

So what are you doing next week?  How about going to an auction.  Interested?

14-11 152nd St

This Colonial home which is located in Whitestone has been scheduled to be auctioned off this week.  This house is sitting on a property size of 63x99.  The inside has been completely renovated (I know I have seen it)and a great pool set up in the back yard.   The homeowners have been trying to sell the home for more than a year and a half (9/2005).  The original asking price was $875,000 and after a few months of no takers the owners reduced the home to $650,000. (Now THAT is a price reduction).  But the sad part is, had they reduced before last summer, they might have got close to asking.  But they were too late.

Anyhow, the home never found new owners and that is sad because it was is a nice house.

This is a Mortgage Foreclosure with a price of $606,919.

Queens County Supreme Court

88-11 Sutphin Blvd.

Jamaica, New York In Courtroom 25.

June 22, 2007 @11a.m