Brian James Diary of A New York City Broker

Thursday, January 31, 2008

Make Your Tub Sparkle Again!

Yikes, your clients love everything about the house you showed them except for the dingy tub in the bathroom. Instead of busting their budget by suggesting an expensive new installation, here are some money-saving tips to rescue that tired tub from the scrap heap:
Quick repairs: If your tub is just discolored or dingy, apply some fiberglass cleaner purchased from your local hardware store to restore its former luster. If the porcelain or fiberglass veneer is chipped, plug the holes with bathtub chip filler — a fiberglass-based compound that comes in matching colors.
Reglazing: This process, costing between $300 and $500, uses high-powered industrial solvents to scour and prepare the tub's surface for a new finish. Most of these finishes are sprayed on and cured chemically with heat lamps. An affordable alternative to replacement, the process lasts up to five years.
Bathtub liner: A method favored by the hotel industry, a bathtub liner can be best compared to crowning a tooth. The existing tub remains in place and is completely covered with a form-fitted acrylic tub liner. Manufacturers, charging between $400 and $600, boast of having molds to fit virtually any tub. Although simple to install, liners slightly reduce tub volume and are less lustrous than porcelain finishes.

Wednesday, January 30, 2008

Homeowner Sues Real Estate Agent

Is she justified?

Monday, January 28, 2008

What is going on over there?

"OH ABNER!!!!!"

Great site where you can find out everything that is going on in your hood or across the street! This site has a long link list from permits, violations, inspections, photos, missed connections and events.

Let go and embrace our inner Gladys Kravitz, and no one will see you peering out the window.

Check it out: http://nyc.everyblock.com/

Saturday, January 26, 2008

Tax Deductions for Homeowners

Refinancing points. When you buy a house, you get to deduct points paid to get your mortgage in one fell swoop. When you refinance a mortgage, though, you have to deduct the points over the life of the loan. That means 1/30th a year if it's a 30 year mortgage -- that's $33 a year for each $1,000 of points you paid. Not much, maybe, but don't throw it away. And, in the year you pay off the loan -- because you sell the house or refinance again -- you may get to deduct all as-yet-undeducted points. You do unless you refinance with the same lender. In that case, you add points on the latest deal to the leftovers from the previous refinancing and deduct the expense ratably over the life of the new loan. See more Deductions for Homeowners

Other links for deductions:
http://www.mtgfoundation.com/2007/01/mortgage-points-are-often-tax-deductible.html

Open House Sunday

2 Bedrooms, 2 Baths, 2 Units… All in 1 Building!
Open House Sunday January 27th 12-130 pm- bring or send your buyers!!

159 Madison 11F $1,147,500 Full listing: http://mail.elliman.com/exchweb/bin/redir.asp?URL=http://www.prudentialelliman.com/877950

159 Madison 7C $1,030,000 Full listing: www.prudentialelliman.com/909931

Friday, January 25, 2008

When did we start getting the news from a crystal ball?

"I SEE A VERY STRONG...NO WEAK...WELL...YOU BETTER..."

OK its time for a rant! I have had just about enough of the "NEWS" lately with the forecasts and the predictions. REPORT SOME FACTS.

Not to disparage our society but we need to get a reality check and stop the madness. We are so misinformed and self serving as a nation. We now think we know a day in advance what the market will do, If Britney will stomp out of court, whether the real estate catastrophe will finally pop, the winner of a caucus and all before we even vote!

Buzz phrases like "the market is going to tank"..."the Mary KATE connection"..."there are thought to be weapons of mass destruction"..."OBAMA WINS!", drive me NUTS.

I was talking to my Mom earlier this week and she referred to a comment that Joy Behar made on THE VIEW. Joy said something to the effect... The trouble with the news is, it isn't news anymore. We used to hear reports of what happened not what was going to happen.

Joy, you have a point! Where is the DATA? When did this transition Happen? WHY IS THIS CALLED NEWS and not The Nightly Predictions with Helen Duncan?
Frankly this is absurd.

People let's get it together, if we all react to these predictions of MADAME WHOSHERNAME... we will be ruled by the suggested, the forced prediction will become reality. Don't Succumb to this... Stand up and make you own moves, Buy- Sell, Invest -Cash In, Vacation-Build a Bomb Cellar, VOTE, PLEASE VOTE...

Do what you want and need not what some "PUNK" Reporter or dilettante on TV tell you to! READ.
Investigate.
Trust Your GUT.

4Th QTR Report

For full version:
http://www.prudentialelliman.com/MainSite/MarketReports/ReportsMenu.aspx

Thursday, January 24, 2008

The ride continues...

Wednesday, January 23, 2008

Are bad times, good news?

New Debt City!
How it helped New York boom—and how the bad times now are good news

by Tom Acitelli January 22, 2008
This article was published in the January 28, 2008, edition of The New York Observer.

“Look at Harry’s deal, for example. He bought how many billions of dollars of real estate for only $50 million?”
Adelaide Polsinelli sells real estate all day for her clients as a top broker at Besen & Associates. She was talking last Thursday about developer and landlord Harry Macklowe’s recent troubles. In February 2007, Mr. Macklowe bought several New York office towers for $7 billion in one of those titanic deals that perfectly reflected this decade’s rowdy, triumphant real estate market.
It was big, first of all: The portfolio included seven prime office towers in Manhattan, North America’s most coveted office market. It had big names: Mr. Macklowe is one of the most well-known landlords in New York, with a portfolio that includes the General Motors Building at 767 Fifth, which he bought in 2003 for $1.4 billion. It involved big amounts: Worldwide Plaza at 825 Eighth Avenue sold for $1.73 billion as part of the deal, the second-biggest building buy in U.S. history.
And, like so much of the recent real estate market, it included a lot of debt.
Mr. Macklowe’s Macklowe Properties put up $50 million for the portfolio; the rest came from lenders. Now, the bills are coming due in early February—one year to the month since the purchase—and “Harry” has put his prized building up for sale: He’s retained ace brokerage CB Richard Ellis to market the GM Building, arguably the world’s most valuable.
Mr. Macklowe is perhaps the most extreme example of real estate debt as the animating factor of the New York City economy right now. Without debt, the city would go broke.
Not exactly, perhaps, but it would be a very different place. It would not be as shiny or as profitable for investment, nor as largely buffeted as it is now from the housing market woes afflicting most of the United States. It would be New York, but it would not be the record New York of the past several years.

For full article:

http://www.observer.com/2008/new-debt-city-0

Tuesday, January 22, 2008

Federal Reserve makes biggest cut in nearly 24 years...

More information on todays cut:

Fed slashes key rate to 3.5%
Citing weakening economic outlook, Federal Reserve makes biggest cut in nearly 24 years - three quarters of a point.
By Paul R. La Monica, CNNMoney.com editor at large
January 22 2008: 12:02 PM EST

Fed's Emergency Action
Key rates cut 75 basis points
Biggest cuts since Oct. 1984
More cuts expected Jan. 30

NEW YORK (CNNMoney.com) -- The Federal Reserve slashed two key interest rates by three-quarters of a percentage point Tuesday following an unscheduled meeting, citing continued concerns about a weakening economy and turmoil in the financial markets.
The Fed lowered its federal funds rate, which impacts how much consumers pay on credit card debt, home equity lines of credit and auto loans, to 3.5 percent from 4.25 percent.

FULL ARTICLE
http://money.cnn.com/2008/01/22/news/economy/fed_rates/index.htm?eref=rss_topstories

Emergency Rate Cut of .750% to Fed Funds Rate

Earlier today, the US Federal Reserve made an emergency rate cut of 75 bps (.75%) to the Fed Funds Rate. Here are some facts on the Fed, the Fed Funds Rate and Mortgage Rates- From the desk of William H. Kumpf

-The Federal Reserve does not control mortgage rates.

-When the Fed cuts interest rates -- fixed mortgage rates may actually rise as a result. If the Fed is taking steps to address economic weakness by lowering rates, that could mean a return to faster growth -- and possible higher inflation, as well -- is coming sooner, rather than later.

-The Fed Funds rate is the shortest of short-term rates -- literally, an overnight loan between banks-- and a fixed-rate mortgage is all the way at the other end of the scale, a loan that lasts as long as 30 years.

-Changes in the federal funds rate trigger a chain of events that affect other short-term interest rates, foreign exchange rates, long-term interest rates, the amount of money and credit, and, ultimately, a range of economic variables, including employment, output, and prices of goods and services.

-When the Fed lowers rates, it does lower home equity lines of credit which are pegged to PRIME. The PRIME Rate is the Fed Funds Rate + 3.00%.

-Lower rates can help banks to make certain kinds of loans less expensive, especially for business and certain kinds of consumer lending, and that can help to fuel growth.

-Higher rates can cool demand, helping to keep inflationary pressures from forming.

Open House Finder, The winners are...

After receiving your emails and input at my open houses the winners were a tie! One being the standard NY TIMES online, some still use the paper but the surprise was a site I have had on my blog. It is NATEFIND.
http://www.natefind.com/

I was turned onto this site a few months back by a neighbor. She likes the ease and simple guidance of the site.

Check it out!!