Relocating to Massapequa, NY

If you are thinking about or looking into relocating to Massapequa, NY, it's always good to have a friend on the other end. I am a Massapequa native, and would be more than happy to show you the best opportunities we offer.

Despite the large population of 25,000 residents, Massapequa has a small-town feel. Our tight-knit community reaches out to its inhabitants regularly. When relocating to Massapequa, NY, you will find it located in the town of Oysterbay, on Long Island's South Shore. Containing four school districts, Massapequa host's several different family friendly events throughout each season. When relocating to Massapequa, NY, your family will have many opportunities for fun activities to attend, such as The Firecracker Run for the 4th of July, fireworks or the holiday each year. A beautiful place to raise a family and be included in, if you're looking for a fun, positive, community-oriented neighborhood, you will find relocating to Massapequa, NY, to be your best decision.

Walking down Park Blvd in Massapequa Park is a trip down memory lane for some, taking you back to the "good ol' days" of the 50's, with arrays of small-town shops and family owned restaurants. If you are relocating to Massapequa, NY, this is a fun, relaxing way to spend the afternoon. This neighborhood consists of those mostly born and raised here, but once people move in or are relocating to Massapequa, NY, they normally stay here for life.

Relocating to Massapequa, NY, is good news to all nature lovers. This area is home to beautiful and lush greenbelts, for those exhilarating nature hikes or bike rides, the  trails will take your adventure straight through to Bethpage State Park. We are 15 minutes from the ocean beaches, but there's also various beaches along the shores of the southern portion of town that can be used to launch your jet ski or kayak, a great thing to keep in mind when relocating to Massapequa, NY.

A unique feature this town provides is the wide varieties of homes, locations, and price ranges, making it easy to find a place to call home on any budget or style to those relocating to Massapequa, NY. Styles available range from Hi Ranches, Capes, and Split-levels, to massive sprawling Ranches and Center Hall Colonials; and pricing varies from low $300K in East Massapequa, to properties worth over $2 Million plus in Harbor Green by the water.

So, no matter what finances you have to work with, or flavors you have to indulge, consult with me - I will find you exactly what you need when you're relocating to Massapequa, NY.

Scott Donnellan Professional Realtor EPRO l CDPE

Your Neighbor l Your Realtor

Honest, effective, and a hard worker, these key elements and attitudes are the foundation of which I built my way of business and success upon. With great attention to detail and listening to my clients' needs for Real Estate, I find these essential for pleasing my clients. It's what has given me my sterling reputation, which I try and surpass with every transaction. Being that I have been a lifelong resident of Massapequa, and have become one of the top producing Realtors through RE/MAX Innovations, I strive hard to preserve and uphold my reputation with dignity. 

I live where I sell, and I take my job very seriously. I would never want a client to leave having a negative experience with me. Since I was born and raised in Massapequa, I have networks coursing full speed in and around the surrounding areas. There is no doubt in my mind that the buyers and sellers I've helped will inevitably encounter the locals that I know, and am friends with. 

As for the Massapequa Real Estate Industry, nobody knows The Local Market or Massapequa Homes Values better than me. Not only do I read and study the local Real Estate market for past, present, and predictions for the future property values, but I live and experience it everyday of my life. 

Real Estate transactions can be an extremely long and stressful process, especially if the right agent isn't there to lead you. It can be a confusing and dragged out short sale, or to a first time home buyer where this dream house they have found represents the largest purchase of their lives. This is where I come in. I see myself as the perfect Real Estate mediator for your specific needs.

When you work with me for buying, selling, relocating, or short sales, I will walk you through every step of the process, as well as share my own personal knowledge and expertise with clients. So if you are planning to move to Massapequa, or already live in the area but need a trustworthy, upfront, and effective communicator to help and represent all your Real Estate needs, contact me.

Its come to my attention that there are alot of terms being thrown around in Real Estate today that nobody heard of 4 years ago.  Although these things existed at that time they were not as prevalent as they are today and due to this mainstream America was not familiar with these terms.  Today it can be very confusing to be a buyer as these terms are being thrown around all the time, and many times being used incorrectly.    Let me start by saying that most of these types of sales are not for the weak of heart and for many traditional buyers you are better off at looking at traditional sources of sales, estates, divorces, retiring etc.  These sales will usually go through with very few bumps. 

The discount sales. This brings me to my purpose of writing this.  We now have a category of sales that are discounted because there is distress and the possibility to get a "good" deal as a buyer.  These sales are making up approx 30% of the us real estate market.  This is not the case in Massapequa as we have still not seen the decimation that many other communities have.   One type of sale in this category is short sales.  A short sale is a sale in which the seller owes more on the house than the house is worth, this sale is tricky as it involves the bank agreeing to accept less than they are owed and 90% of the time releasing the seller from making up the difference (see my blog post from last week).  The benefit to the seller is that there are no fees paid by them and in most cases they are able to get out from under a bad situation with dignity intact and not too much damage to their credit.  To the buyer the benefit is buying a house for slightly less than market value, that has not been destroyed bc someone is still living in it unlike a bank foreclosure.

The next category is REO which stands for real estate owned,  this is the category which everybody is now grouping foreclosures and bank owned into.  The major difference between these types of sales and short sales is that the bank has already foreclosed and took ownership of the property.  In many cases these properties have had severe damage inflicted on them by the homeowner who was forced to leave the home and in a bitter fit of rage decided to destroy it.  Many times even if the homeowner has not destroyed the house it has sat abandoned which brings its own issues.   These homes are sold at considerable discount, but in many cases these houses have been so damaged that a traditional mortgage will not work and many times the discount that was achieved for the traditional buyer is \not worth it because of the cost associated to rehab.   These homes tend to go to investors who have cash to buy, and the resources to complete the renovation on their own. 

If you would like more information please contact me at 516-655-3860 or email me at sdonnellanre@gmail.com 

You can search for foreclosures, short sales and traditional homes by clicking here.

I think this past year the word short sale has become part of societies vocabulary.  I got to thinking though how many people actually know what they are talking about when they say short sale?  So I started taking note of my conversations with various people as I went about my day to day life in Massapequa and realized that 90% o the time when people are talking about a short sale they really have no clue what they are talking about!  One such conversation I had recently was a friend of mine from high school who said to me - its no big deal I will wait for the house to go to short sale and then I will just "low ball" the bank and get a great deal on the house.   So I asked said friend what he thought a short sale was and his explanation was not even close.  This got me thinking that if my savy friend who was a pretty successful business man in his own right did not understand what a short sale was there was a pretty good chance that most people probably didn't know what it was either.  I will try to explain what a short sale is in its simplest form.  A short sale is when a homeowner is short on their mortgage and must sell their house.  Meaning when the house value is less than the mortgage owned on the home.  For example a buyer bought a house in 2007 in Massapequa Nassau Shores for $450,000, and put down $25,000 dollars mortgaging the balance.  Today the same buyer must sell his house and it is worth only $380,000, the seller is short $45,000 plus the selling commission. This is when we have a short sale!  The agent along with the sellers attorney must negotiate with the bank on behalf of the seller to allow the seller to sell short and allow the seller to walk away from the shortfall. The seller must prove hardship and that he does not have any money to cover the short sale.  If there is money in the seller's bank account the bank may ask for some money from the seller.  The bank is not going to eat the balance of a loan because somebody made a bad investment and they don't want to pay their share, they will however eat it if the seller can prove hardship. 

Another question people have is why would the bank not just foreclose rather than lose the money the seller is short?  Simply becuase its about money.  It makes more sense for the bank to negotiate a short sale then it does to foreclose economically.  Its a win for the seller in that he can keep his dignity, its a win for the bank who has mitigated their loss and its a win for the buyer who gets a property in a distress sale situation allowing it to sell for under market value. 

If you would like more information about short sales please contact me at sdonnellanre@gmail.com. or visit my site www.TheLIRealtor.com

Home buyer's credit now also includes a trade up credit of up to $6500 in addition to the first time home buyers credit for $8000.  Get off the fence and start making offers.  This is a credit and amounts to free money.  Everyone should be looking to take advantage of this!  This can amount to redoing a bathroom on your next house.  Call me for any details. 

It looks as if Congress has extended the home buyers credit until April of 2010.  What they did to make it even better for first time buyers was that they said as long as you are in contract by the end of April that you qualify for the credit.  Another Interesting caveat is the fact that they also are including a $6500 tax credit for other people who are buying.  I think this is a great thing because it potentially can lead to more trade up and trade down buyers.  The credit was very successful for 2009 and I believe that it should be strong through 2010 as well. 

Although the Real Estate picture throughout the country seems to be all gloom and doom, our local Long Island Market, and our Massapequa market in particular are still seeing homes sell for close to asking price.  As buyers are searching for homes everybody seems to be looking for "deals",  the problem with this deal hunting is that many buyers feel that they can steal someone's house from them!  This is not the case.  While there are still bargains to be had in the pre- foreclosure motivated seller market who has positive equity in their home, the majority of homes are being sold at market value.  It is also still possible to see homes that go for over ask. With that said as a buyer if you can afford to buy a home for $400000 do not waste time seeing houses that are listed at $475,000.  The seller will usually not take an offer that is 75k off asking price.  Even if the house is over priced it pays to wait until the seller drops his price to a striking distance number!  I would define striking distance at a number that is under 10% of ask price meaning if you want to pay $400,000 you should look at homes no higher than $430,000.  That would put you at 93% of asking price if you can get your $400000 offer accepted and is within the market limits for a seller to consider.  With this said if a home is priced well, or priced to sell, or if the home is in mint condition and it is at $430,000 you will probably have to pay $425,000 or maybe even ask price.  To put it simple if a house is mint and you want it don't mess around by low balling the home owner, if the home is worth it don't be afraid to pay for it because of the "tough" market chances are the homeowner could have received alot more for his home 3 years ago so the deal is already in the price! 

I keep getting calls from buyers who want foreclosures,  and my answer is always the same.  NO YOU DONT!  Don't get me wrong there are some deals to be had in the foreclosure market,  but they are not for everybody.  First off the prices aren't much lower than other homes,  and usually they are in serious disrpepair.  Lets take a recent foreclosure in Massapequa that was sold for a decent price in Nassau Shores.  The home had extensive water damage, mold issues, no copper wire left in the house,  broken cabinets, and a broken heating system.  The sales price on its own was a good deal, but when you factor in all the work that was needed to move into the house the home sale price and the improvements needed puts its total price at over comparable market price.  Now I have seen some decent deals as well,  but the people getting these deals are paying cash, and they have money to do work on the house.  For instance if the buyer comes in all cash the banks are willing to take 85-90% of ask price,  however if they are paying with a conventional mortgage they will be forced to pay pretty much asking price.  In addition the banks who are now mortgaging the property do not want to close on an as is sale, which makes it even tougher to sell these foreclosures!  So the moral of the story is if you are a first time buyer- stay away from the foreclosures and look for houses being sold by traditional sellers! 

What a great time to buy a house.  Between mortgage rates at 5 percent and below, the choice of houses and the willingness to negotiate it is a great market for first time buyers.  Most people agree that first time buyers are in great shape but there is also a group of buyers that also can make out.  These trade up buyers who are forced to sell for less,  have an excellent opportunity to buy for less as well.  Take a trade up buyer in Massapequa Park to move down to Harbor Green.  The Park buyer will be forced to to take 5% less ( 450000 asking price take 22,000 off).  They then can buy a home in South Massapequa listed at 650000 and if they get it for 5% off asking price takes 32,000 off.  However even more important is that as you go up the price range teh market gets softer so potentially they may get it or 10% off of asking price, truly making out on the deal.  IF you have any questions or would like a list of teh best priced homes in Massapequa and teh surrounding areas contact me at 516-655-3860. 

Despite the national real estate picture and the state of the economy this is a great market becuase it presents opportunity for first time buyers and trade up buyers.  Look at this opportunity for first time buyers.  The mortgage rates are still historically low, and prices have come down from where they were a few years ago.  In addition if you have a good credit score you can buy a home with an FHA loan meaning you can by a home with 3% down and the confoming loan limits have been raised significantly higher that the 417,000 they were at last year.  This is a big difference from the reports you hear on the  news that says that people are having a hard time getting loans.  This cannot be further from the truth.  If you are a trade up buyer again opportunity knocks.  Yes you will get less for your home,  but if you are trading up, you will get the home you want for less.  That is to say that the higher the price for a home, the more flexibility in the price.  So true you will be selling for less, but you will also be buying for less.  To me this makes it a great market.  Buyers have choice, sellers have to price right and people can trade up.  Rates are historically low, and lending regulations are still very fair.  So if you are thinking about making a move - this is the time!