Thanks to the tireless work of several of my colleagues, we now have a good-sized roster of apartment rentals. While I have not been to any of these apartments myself, from their pictures I sense that the majority of these offerings are well-maintained, clean are ready to move in. They are in private homes, apartment buildings, above stores and garden apartment complexes.
However, finding people to transform these apartments from listings to homes isn't easy. The above-referenced song from Fiddler on the Roof popped into my head the other day when a potential renter was in the office. It is not easy making a good match between a landlord and renter, especially when their concepts of what an ideal landlord and tenant differ.
We get applications from people with great jobs, making decent wages, who have excellent references and pass background checks. Maybe their credit isn't that strong, but we have landlords who are willing to accept another month's rent as security. The fact is that moving into a typical 1-bedroom apartment in Flushing will cost at least $5,000-ready money that lots of people do not have at their disposal.
It's not easy being a rental matchmaker in this day and age!
Recent I saw saw a cartoon taped to the window of another storefront real estate office. It showed an elderly couple with this caption: "The newlyweds who waited for housing prices to come down."
In 1986, my then-spouse and I had the opportunity to buy a historic brownstone in my neighborhood. It was in terrible condition and needed extensive work. However, the price was right, we had a decent down payment and were prequalified. We ultimately decided against it, deterred because of the amount of money needed for renovations.
Today this house would sell for about $2 million.
My point is, except in rare cases, housing prices are not going to go down. It makes more sense to buy, even in uncertain economic times, rather than waiting for prices to drop. It's a win-win-win situation: you get the tax break, the economy gets a little kick and your rate of return is better than a bank account.
If I could do it all over again, I'd be writing this from my $2 million home.
Betcha there are lots of people out there who would agree with me.
Thoughts on the "Lowball Offers..." article from Sunday's NY Times
I read with great interest the article entitled "Lowball Offers on the Rise" by Lisa Prevost in the Real Estate section of this Sunday's NY Times.
What prompted my positive response to this article? A recent potential deal that fizzled out in my office: A nice young couple, pre-approved, great income, made what could have been considered a lowball offer on a house that I think was listed a bit high to begin with: the offer was just under 90% of the listed price. What happened? The owners actually increased the asking price of the house! They lost the deal, the listing expired, and a potential sale went down the drain.
I am only working in this business less than a year, but I continue to be amazed at what some people will do when it comes to selling their homes.
In her 2/21 "Ask Barbara" column in the NY Daily News, Barbara Corcoran advised one older seller who asked if he should take out a mortgage or pay cash for his new home: "Most importantly, don't waste time selling your (old) home. Underprice it, get rid of it, and move on." Great advice, I feel--I wish more sellers would heed it!
Either at the beginning or middle of the month the phone rings more frequently with potential renters looking for new homes,. Most callers know the "rules"-one month's rent, one month's security, one month's broker's fee. However, I cannot tell you the number of times people ask why we charge a fee for our services. It makes me wonder if I need to learn more about how to meet the needs of our potential customers.
Yesterday one woman said she was very interested in one of our craigslist apartments, but I had the hardest time trying to communicate with her that yes, indeed we are a real estate office and yes, there would be one month fee for the apartment. Maybe it's because of our location and the influx of people from other countries in which agencies might not charge a fee, I don't know.
It reminds me of the time I was working in a bookstore and a person came to the checkout with a book and asked me where the copy machine was. "Isn't this a library?" he asked.
With rents for 1 BR's averaging $1,500 in the neighborhood, I can understand people wanting to save a few dollars here and there. However, I cannot fathom why a potential customer would think we would provide our services for free.
Thanks to all who replied to my first post. Feedback is important to me, so if I'm doing something incorrectly, pls. advise. In the meantime, I am excited about blogging and look forward to learning more about how this tool will assist with my work in real estate.
Re: the topic of today's post, this morning I was pleased to hear that my boss got a new apartment listing from a customer who just closed on his house sale with us. They actually met in the street outside the office--he was on the way to the locksmith--and he gave her the particulars regarding the rental right there on the spot. My point is, you never know where your next lead--rental, sale, etc.--will come from. Obviously this person was happy with the service he received on the house deal or he would not have given us the rental listing.
A slogan from an old shampoo commercial comes to mind: "And she told her friend, and so on, and so on..."
I have seen this written on the backs of business cards: "The greatest compliment is a referral." I really believe this statement because when people leave our office, even if we were not able to help them, I want them to feel as if they can speak positively about our service to others.
I refer to CL several times a day for possible rental leads. The number of inquiries I see for short-term housing is incredible! I feel this is an area of great potential. NYC is an anomaly, for sure, but the demand here is very high. With summer approaching and the Euro still strong, more activity in short-term housing is certain.
Without running into difficulties with hotel laws and housing codes, there must be a way for the residential real estate market to profit from this demand.
Laura Price
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