"I DON'T REALLY FEEL COMFORTABLE!"...How Do You Identify "BUYERS REMORSE"? - 10/29/10 09:38 PM
" I don't really feel comfortable!"....How do you identify "Buyers Remorse"?  Buyers don't ever say"I don't feel comfortable buying this house." or "I have a bad case of Buyers Remorse!" NO, this is something we as professionals need to identify. I have found that there are subtle signs early in the process---usually right after an offer is accepted; maybe even AFTER a contract is signed.
How you deal with this phenomenon is crucial to having a satisfied customer and resulting referrals. Giving a buyer a "Comfort Level" is not easy if you don't know everything about the area and the property.
Are you … (35 comments)

"THE SQUIRREL"....Do You Ever Wonder Why Weird Things Happen To You??? - 10/28/10 05:38 PM
"THE SQUIRREL"...Do you ever wonder why weird things happen to you??? (PART II)
A week ago I wrote "THE FALL" as the first part of my series: Do you ever wonder why weird things happen to you???
In that story, I point out that I had a series of unexpected and quite startling events that happened to me, all of which had a deeper meaning as I learned how to examine these events and their symbolic importance. 
I was spending a great deal of time in Stowe Vermont,  with Alan, my life mate. Stowe was where we would go to ski and … (20 comments)

"YOU DON'T KNOW WHAT YOU ARE DOING!!"....Heard That Lately??? - 10/24/10 09:38 AM
"You don't know what you are doing!!"....Heard that lately?  A friend and fellow agent, (a new, younger real estate agent as a matter of fact), was told that several months back, when she was working with a customer. This customer was someone who was looking for a house that she just couldn't find! She wanted a new house with all the bells and whistles and she wanted it for 1/2 of what the houses were priced at! She was driving this new agent like a dog--making her do things that are not important like calculate the square footage and dollar per square foot costs on houses that sold … (82 comments)

THE FALL!....Do You Ever Wonder Why Weird Things Happen To YOU??? - 10/21/10 11:41 PM
THE FALL!....Do you ever wonder why weird things happen to YOU?
I have had many things happen in my life that I question: WHY?.....WHY did that just happen to me? What is it that I need to see about what just happened? There are things that have happened that stirred me to do things, different things with my life and when I find myself in one of these "weird" happenings, I examine it! I wrote a post early in 2009 when we were all wondering what was going on in the economy?--what was happening in the world? I found it fundamentally significant to … (25 comments)

THE THINGS WE DO!!--FOR OUR CLIENTS, OUR CUSTOMERS... - 10/20/10 09:11 PM
THE THINGS WE DO!!--FOR OUR CLIENTS, OUR CUSTOMERS...
I am really not complaining; I know that the job of a real estate professional is hard. Even though the public seems to think we make a lot of money for very little effort, WE know what our jobs entail, especially if we produce more than the average agent.
I, personally have found that the more effort I put into a listing the better the chances it will sell faster than one that comes on the market and sits there waiting for agents to become aware of it and to show it...just like … (53 comments)

CRISIS PART II: HOW DO WE KEEP OUR HEADS WHEN ALL AROUND US ARE LOSING THEIRS??? - 10/19/10 07:49 PM
CRISIS PART II: HOW DO WE KEEP OUR HEADS WHEN ALL AROUND US ARE LOSING THEIRS???
I am the kind of person who likes to look back and see where things could have been done differently. I do like to see where mistakes were made in order to avoid them in the future...So, take a look at this post I wrote in March of '09. I think it deserves a re-take, especially with what is going on right now with the Banks (BofA Especially) freaking out at what could be their "Waterloo". Unlike the battles that Napoleon was fighting when he met his, the battles … (84 comments)

WHY DO WE NEED TITLE INSURANCE???---DOES THAT QUESTION EVER COME UP FOR YOU??? - 10/16/10 09:35 PM
WHY DO WE NEED TITLE INSURANCE???--does that question ever come up for you ???
I had a sale here in Southampton Village recently where my buyer was insisting upon not buying title insurance. He felt that it was just another expense that he could choose NOT to buy...I was at my wits end trying to explain, as did his lawyer, why he NEEDED to have title insurance. We finally prevailed and he did get title insurance after all.
BUT, I AM STILL LEFT WITH THE FEELING THAT WE DO NOT REALLY UNDERSTAND THE FULL IMPORTANCE OF TITLE INSURANCE....
I am not a lawyer, so … (116 comments)

DOWNSIZING AMERICA...PROXIMITY IS KEY; Mini-Estates Are Being Created Right Here In Southampton!!! - 10/12/10 06:39 AM
DOWNSIZING AMERICA: Proximity is key; Mini-estates are being created, right here in Southampton!!! Builders are building them and buyers are buying them---where is it heading? I think we may have a trend here!
No more 10,000 Square foot houses--no more multiple acres of land to manage and no more cookie cutter designs for this "New Home" buyer! No! They want the new and  special, custom-home on a 1/3 to 1/2 acre, near everything including the ocean and the center of town---at least here they do!!!
THE NEW, "NEW HOME" BUYER
What is it that buyers like about a brand new house??? … (41 comments)

THE HAMPTONS in the Fall!.....Nothing quite Like It!! - 10/07/10 09:43 PM
The Hamptons in the Fall!...Nothing quite like it!
Those of us who live here, in the Hamptons, year round are the luckiest of all!!! We get to be here during the most beautiful and delicious time of year: Harvest Season.
September and October is when the crowds are gone, the weather is perfect, the colors take on a vastly different hue and the time to pick pumpkins has arrived!
On the way to Bridgehampton from Southampton is Water Mill.  Every Fall, Pumpkin farms, located along the stretch of Route 27 open up to the public and create an environment that children never forget! Hundreds … (11 comments)

CURBING APPEAL...NOT SOMETHING YOU WANT TO DO!!! (A SECOND TAKE WITH COMMENTS ALLOWED!!!) - 10/06/10 09:41 PM
This is a post that I wrote a couple of weeks ago and I just now found out that the comments were blocked for some reason...have any of you heard about this happening??
I was spurred to go to my old posts to see if any if any of my older posts were comment-disabled because of a post I just read  "You Disabled Your Comments..... Why?????? " by Stacey Smith. Low and behold, the one post that I wrote and got NO COMMENTS on was this one...it had been re-blogged 3 times and the comments on those re-blogs were: "I couldn't … (13 comments)

WHAT "COMFORT LEVEL"??? Where is it? What is it? Where Can I Find It? - 10/02/10 09:09 PM
What "comfort level"??? Where is it? What is it? Where can I find it?
Finding a "comfort level" for your buyer.....How do you do it?   Are you satisfied with your approach? Do you have a reputation for informing your buyers, or do you find that many of your buyers walk away from the buying process???
I have found that the most difficult thing to accomplish when working with a buyer, is to give them a level of comfort for the process of making a deal.  Usually, the first thing a buyer will do is decide to "think about it" for a … (20 comments)

Social Media: It may be the new cocktail party, but don't forget the actual cocktail party! - 10/02/10 06:24 PM
Damon Knop has written one of the liveliest and most fascinating posts that I have read in a long time....this one is a good one to get you off FB and Twitter and out there into the real world where you can press the flesh (well not really!) and where you can build your network for years to come!!!
Via StapletonHomeTeam KnopHomeTeam (Distinctive Properties, Ltd):
Social Media: It may be the new cocktail party, but don't forget the actual cocktail party!
 
Yesterday I had a good old fashioned networking day. Sure I did my Active Rain blogging, and of course I hit up … (3 comments)

DOES "PRICE PER SQUARE FOOT" MEAN ANYTHING IN RESIDENTIAL SALES? - 10/02/10 01:39 PM
DOES "PRICE PER SQUARE FOOT" MEAN ANYTHING IN RESIDENTIAL SALES?
I had a buyer contact me  last week and I referred her to a new member of my team while I was on vacation. She has taken a stance on the idea that we were not doing our job. Why? Because we do  NOT evaluate a property for her by price per square foot. Emails were flying back and forth between the buyer and the agent and when I saw the last one, where the buyer called the agent on the fact that "square footage DOES matter in both New york City and the Hamptons", I stepped … (120 comments)

 
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Paula I Hathaway, Senior Vice President, LBA

Southampton, NY

More about me…

Douglas Elliman Real Estate

Address: 70 Jobs Lane, P O Box 5003, Southampton, NY, 11969

Office Phone: (631) 204-2712 x Direc

Cell Phone: (516) 319-4223

Email Me

ActiveRain has become my home away from home; it is a place that I have grown to respect and appreciate as an open forum for real estate professionals and the public; a place to advertise and speak your mind on many subjects, ESPECIALLY real estate. It is rare that we are given the chance to talk openly to the public or even our fellow associates...this is THE PLACE!....WELCOME TO MY BLOG


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