tAg @ Corcoran/Soho

tAg was wonderful in helping me find my NYC apartment! I posted a request on Twitter asking if anyone knew someone who could help me. And before I knew it, tAg contacted me on Twitter and we got the ball rolling! I would recommend tAg to anyone. Their services make the process infinitely easier and relieve the stress and headache involved in finding an apartment. Omayah Atassi

What is your real estate DNA? Let tAg expertly assess your DNA and provide you with a thorough analysis. tAg us to learn more! Bing us now!

Short for theADVOCATEgroup, tAg is comprised of innovative “Alpha Agents” Stephanie L Davis, Matthew Drennan, and Parish Pradhan. We take a divide and conquer approach to the New York City real estate process. We are here to change the face of real estate, knowing that “Traditional” real estate – more specifically, “deal churning” - is dead. We use a focused consumer-centric approach, and create custom-tailored services for our selective base of clients, who are our “co-agents” in the real estate process.

tAg boasts a combined 19 years of experience and proven expertise in both the Manhattan sale and rental markets. What’s more, we leverage the power of Social Media – ensuring an edge for all our clients. After all, real estate is inherently a social enterprise…and we believe we’re on the forefront.   We are true "Visionaries," what we call "Alpha Agents." This is a new world where authenticity is everything. One of the ways our potential clients get to know us is over the internet, and then they choose whether they want to work with us professionally. No pushing, no hard sell.

Concentrating on Downtown Manhattan (categorized as 42nd Street and below), Stephanie, Matthew and Parish are specialists in assembling sale and rental co-op/condo board packages, expertly navigating the apartment inventory and neighborhoods, analyzing comparables, as well as prepping clients for board interviews. We have sold and rented a variety of apartments in New York City, from multi-million dollar properties to budget studios. We are true advocates for our sellers, buyers and renters!

Some quotes from past clients:

When I met with Matt and Stephanie of tAg, I knew they were a good fit for the property we were selling. Our apartment sold within our price target zone, within a week of listing. I would surely call on them again. Fred and Anne Stesney

Stephanie, Matthew, and Parish of tAg were pleasures to work with. They were professional and friendly, loyal to my cause, and always accommodated my schedule. Plus they took the time to answer my questions. Valerie Barber

tAg (Stephanie, Matthew, Parish) spent hours answering any and every question we had about the process and paperwork; even coached us on our Board interview. Rainbow Dickerson & Brett Koppin

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tAgazine - First Issue October 2009! If you like, check out our cool take on the traditional newsletter!

The Home Buying Path Should be Easy to Navigate

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Every state requires slightly different steps to buying a home, although they are basically very similar. Since I am most familiar with the way California does it, here is the path to home ownership in California, broken down into simple steps:

1) Hire a Buyer's Agent

• A buyer's agent will represent only you and have a fiduciary responsibility to look out for your best interests.
• Buyer's agents may ask you to sign a buyer's broker agreement, but it is the seller who pays the commission.
• Interview agents until you find an agent you trust and with whom you feel comfortable.
• Once you have settled on an area, try to hire a neighborhood specialist.

2) Get PreQualified / Preapproved

• Order a free credit report online and fix mistakes, if any.
• Ask your agent for a referral to a mortgage broker, but also compare rates offered by your own bank and / or credit union.
• Ask the lender to give you a loan preapproval letter, which means it will verify your income and pull a credit report.
• Determine your maximum loan amount, but choose only a mortgage type that you understand and a payment level with which you feel comfortable, which may very well be less than the maximum for which you are approved.

3) Look at Homes for Sale

• Ask your agent to look at homes for you before showing them to you.
• Narrow your search to those homes that fit your exact parameters to find that perfect home.
• Ask your agent to give you MLS print-outs of comparable sales in your targeted neighborhood.
• Consider all homes on the market, including fixer-uppers, REOs, foreclosures, short sales and those overpriced homes with longer DOM.
• Observe open house etiquette.
• Tell your agent which online home listings you are interested in previewing and ask for additional input.

4) Write a Purchase Offer

• Consider writing seller's market offers in sellers markets and buyer's market offers in buyer's markets.
• Select a home offer price based on the amount you feel a seller will accept or counter.
• If you are considering a lowball offer, ask your agent to substantiate this price for you.
• Prepare for multiple offers if the home is considered desirable in a hot location.
• If your offer is rejected, ask your agent to explain why and don't repeat that mistake with your next offer.

5) Negotiate and Write Counter Offers

• Expect the seller to issue a counter offer.
• If the seller counters at full price, continue to negotiate.
• During offer negotiation, share personal information about your family to give the seller a reason to care about you.

6) Make an Earnest Money Deposit

• When your offer is accepted, deposit your earnest money check with the appropriate party.
• Do not ever make your check payable to the seller.
• Your offer should contain contingencies that will return your earnest money deposit to you if you cancel the contract.

7) Open Escrow / Order Title

• Your agent or transaction coordinator will open escrow and title, if the listing agent hasn't already done so.
• Ask for the escrow officer's name, phone and escrow file number.
• Give this information to your lender and your insurance agent.

8) Order Appraisal

• Your lender will require an advance payment for the appraisal.
• If you receive a low appraisal, discuss options with your agent.
• Ask for a copy of the appraisal.

9) Comply With Lender Requirements

• Lenders may ask for additional information.
• Do not make home buying mistakes such as altering your financial situation while in escrow.
• When the file is complete, the lender will submit it for final underwriter approval.

10) Approve Seller Disclosures

• Read and question items you do not understand on the TDS, Seller Property Questionnaire, natural hazard report, pest inspection / completion and other documents such as a preliminary title policy.
• Realize you have 10 days to cancel if lead paint is a health hazard.
• Read every document in its entirety; ask questions about all seller disclosures.

11) Order Homeowner's Insurance Policy

• Order your homeowner's insurance early.
• Sometimes previous claims by a home owner can make it difficult to get insurance.
• Get replacement coverage.

12) Conduct Home Inspection

• Hire a reputable home inspector.
• Bring a home inspection checklist with you.
• Attend the home inspection.

13) Issue Request for Repair

• If the home inspection turns up health and safety issues, issue a request for repair by asking the seller to address those issues or give you a credit for them.
• Realize no home is perfect, and the inspector will find faults.
• Be reasonable.

14) Remove Contingencies

• By default, California C.A.R. contracts give you 17 days to remove contingencies.
• Make sure your loan is firm and the appraisal is acceptable before removing your loan contingency.
• If you do not remove contingencies, the seller can issue a request to perform and then cancel the contract, on top of demanding your deposit.

15) Do Final Walk-Through

• Do not pass up doing a final walk-through.
• Inspect the property to make sure it's in the same condition as when you agreed to buy it.
• If you find a serious issue, address it now before you close.

16) Sign Loan / Escrow Documents

• In southern California, you will sign escrow documents shortly after opening escrow.
• In northern California, you will sign escrow documents along with your loan documents near closing.
• Bring a valid picture ID.

17) Deposit Funds

• Bring a certified check payable to escrow.
• Expect escrow to pad the amount, so you will receive a refund after closing.
• Consider asking your bank to wire the funds to escrow, saving you the hassle of waiting in line at the bank.

18) Close Escrow

• Your property deed, seller's reconveyance and deed of trust will record in the public records.
• Title will notify you and your agent when it records.
• After recordation, unless your contract specifies otherwise, the property is yours -- change the locks immediately.

It might be risky to tell your agent how high you will go.

© Big Stock Photo

You might be tempted to tell your agent everything, including the top price you will pay for a home. After all, your buyer's agent is supposed to be on your side and keep your information confidential.

This reminds me of my mother's advice from a long time ago. She used to tell me that the only sure-fired way to safeguard a secret was to keep my trap shut. After I share a secret with another person, it may no longer be a secret.

It's Not That You Can't Trust Your Agent; It's That Agents Can Slip Up

When my clients write an offer, I often advise them to keep their top sales price private. I truly do not want to know how high they will go. My job, when I am a buyer's agent, is to present and negotiate the offer I have in my hand. With blinders on.

If I know the buyer will pay more, that knowledge could possibly weaken my conviction. Not that I would willingly violate a fiduciary relationship with a buyer, but I am human, just like anybody else.

See, when the shoe is on the other foot and I am the listing agent, I am generally able to wrangle out of buyers' agents how much higher their buyers will go. It could be a slip of tongue over a single word or a shift in the tone of voice that I'll pick up on. Sometimes they just blab it out.

Although I am confident that I would never break a client's trust and accidentally spill the beans to the listing agent, it's possible that the listing agent may also be sensitive to subtle clues like I am. If I make myself believe that I am presenting my buyer's highest and best offer, my case for offer acceptance rings through loudly.

Why You Should Not Tell Your Agent Your Top Price

Right after writing an offer, it's common for home buyers to play through scenarios in their heads. They can drive themselves crazy by this process, but they can't seem to help it. Here are some of their thoughts:

• What will we do if the seller outright rejects our offer?

   

• Should we tell the seller we will consider a counter offer?

   

• If the seller accepts our offer, maybe we offered too much.

   

• Maybe the seller will be insulted because we offered too little.

   

• If the seller counters at full price, should we accept that price or should we make a counter offer?

   

• If the Seller writes a counter for $10,000 more than our offer, should we split the difference and increase the sales price by $5,000?

All of this may result in an urge to tell your buyer's agent exactly how much you will pay. That's understandable. As a buyer, you want and need strategic advice.

But my advice is don't cross the bridge twice. Deal with a known quantity. Apart from the examples above, there are dozens of ways a seller can react to an offer. Much depends on factors such as the temperature of the marketplace, competition for the home, available financing, and the seller's motivation. Offers should be structured from the beginning with those conditions in mind.

When buyers tell me they want to share in advance how high they will go, I feel a need to put my fingers in my ears and sing: "lalalalalala." I don't need to know at that point. My practice is if we receive a counter offer, we should develop a strategy based on that counter offer. To do otherwise wastes mental energy and can drive you nuts. Every situation is different. Why plan out your next 10 chess moves if the king is in checkmate?

The best outcome, of course, is the seller will accept the buyers' offer upon presentation. And that, believe it or not, happens all the time.

Seven New Rules for the First-Time Home Buyer

Too many people bought too much house for too many years.

Yes, the financial system almost collapsed because mortgage bankers and brokers told lies about loan terms and loosened standards in dangerous ways, and investment bankers packaged those loans into bonds that were far more toxic than ratings agencies predicted.

But the roots of the mortgage contagion lie with all of us and our desire to own just a bit more house.

So as the one-year anniversary arrives of our near financial collapse, it’s a good time to blow up a long-standing but underexamined maxim of real estate — that you should always stretch financially when buying your first home.

No one is quite sure who came up with this idea, though suspicions rest on real estate agents or kindly parents with the best of intentions who never expected that real estate prices could fall. Whatever its origin, the economists and financial planners I spoke with this week are almost unanimous in their rejection of it.

Here’s how they dismantled the old saw — and a list of seven suggestions they offered up in its place.

START WITH THE BASICS Let’s begin with some other standards, tried and true advice that served banks and borrowers well for years, until they forgot all about them in the race to write more loans and buy bigger houses. Put 20 percent down, so you have less of a chance of owing more than your home is worth if prices fall again. Get a fixed-rate mortgage, so the biggest part of your monthly housing bill remains stable.

If you’re determined to be truly conservative, don’t spend more than about 35 percent of your pretax income on mortgage, property tax and home insurance payments. Bank of America, which adheres to the guidelines that Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac set, will let your total debt (including student and other loans) hit 45 percent of your pretax income, but no more.

That said, if you end up with an adjustable-rate loan, banks may not be concerned with whether you’ll be able to afford the maximum possible payment when the interest rate adjusts in five or seven years. But you should be worried about it.

CONSIDER YOUR INCOME The best case for stretching for a first house is that first-time home buyers in their 20s and 30s will probably see their incomes grow more quickly than older people buying their second or third home.

Harvey S. Rosen, a Princeton economics professor, finds in a forthcoming Journal of Finance article that he co-wrote with two Federal Reserve Bank economists, Kristopher Gerardi and Paul S. Willen, that the size of a house that someone buys tends to be a good indicator of what their income will be later. “People can, on average, make reasonably good predictions of their future incomes and act on them in sensible ways by buying bigger houses,” Mr. Rosen said.

Indeed, much of the mess in the mortgage market has been because of people borrowing money with loans that they didn’t understand — or betting that housing prices would continue to rise enough that they would be able to refinance their loans before the payments rose. Income overconfidence may have had something to do with it (and high unemployment worsened the problems), but it’s probably not the primary cause.

BOW TO UNKNOWNS This research is all well and good as long as you continue to work. But if you’re buying your first home before you have children, you may feel quite differently about work once you become a parent. And if you do, you may not want a mortgage boxing you in to going back to the office three months after the baby is born.

Bobbie D. Munroe, a financial planner with Fraser Financial in Atlanta, encourages younger clients in this situation to model out their budget, including any proposed mortgage, three ways — with both spouses working full time, one working part time and one staying at home for a few years. She also suggests imagining or even practicing living on one income, to see if it’s truly realistic.

“What people should do is ultimately their own decision,” she said. “But they should do it with eyes wide open.”

Even people who don’t want to have children need to consider this. Besides the obvious possibility of sustained unemployment, what about the need to escape a dying industry or an early midlife crisis that necessitates career change to stave off depression? Even government employees and medical residents who believe that their incomes are set for life ought to consider this possibility.

MAP OUT EXPENSES It stands to reason that anyone tempted to stretch for a house will be inclined to play down the expense of maintaining it. These costs are anything but ancillary, though.

For many years, Dennis G. Stearns, a financial planner in Greensboro, N.C., has been alarmed enough by clients’ unrealistic expectations that he’s maintained a home cost spreadsheet that he shares with clients shopping for houses. He also updates it periodically with aggregate, real-world data based on their subsequent experiences.

Mr. Stearns estimates that owners of a newer home that do some work for themselves but contract major work out to others will pay 3.6 percent of the original purchase price annually for maintenance and 4.5 percent if it’s an older home. So if you own a $400,000 home, your costs will probably hit the five figures each year — and may rise with inflation. These expenses will be another 20 percent or so higher if you live in a severe weather area. He does note, however, that the tax benefits of home ownership can offset half or more of these costs in some areas of the country.

BUY BEST (OR CHEAPEST) All of these caveats have given rise to some unusual strategies. Michael Kalscheur, a financial planner with Castle Wealth Advisors in Indianapolis, suggests buying the dream house you covet (if you can afford it) or an inexpensive starter house but not anything in the middle.

“If people have their heart set on something, inevitably, if they can’t afford what they really want, they buy the next best thing,” he said. “That’s absolutely the worst thing you can do. Not only do you not get what you want, but it sucks you dry.”

Why? Well, if you buy that entry-level home instead of the silver-medal home, you can save a lot more money each month after making the house payment (as long as you’re disciplined) than you would if you were paying a big mortgage toward that next best house. And all of your other housing costs will be lower, too. Then, several years later, you’re in a much better position to buy what you actually want.

STRETCH THE HOUSE Better yet, keep in mind that you don’t ever have to move from that first home — and incur all of the transaction costs associated with selling and buying and moving again.

J. Michael Collins, an assistant professor in the department of consumer science at University of Wisconsin’s School of Human Ecology in Madison, suggests paying less for a home that you can upgrade periodically when your income is stable and your savings or available credit make it possible.

In other words, stretching out your tenure in a home (and the physical boundaries of the home itself) may make more sense than stretching for each successive mortgage in a series of two or more houses.

THE EIGHT-HOUR RULE One rule about all of these rules is that it’s unlikely that every one will apply to every circumstance. Individuals and their income streams are too varied, and real estate markets are themselves unique.

When all else fails, however, you can always fall back on the eight-hour test. Whatever the size of your mortgage, you have to be able to sleep soundly at night. So if an impending loan has you stretching for the Ambien, it’s a pretty good sign that the loan is a bit of a stretch as well.

Free rent leads to success at Silver Towers

September 03, 2009 03:00PM By Candace Taylor

Nothing beats free stuff.

That may be the lesson learned from Larry Silverstein's Silver Towers at 42nd Street and 11th Avenue, which is leasing up faster than expected after offering two months of free rent to new tenants.

When the two 60-story glass towers began renting in May, Silverstein wondered aloud in the New York Times how he would lease up the largest and tallest rental project in the history of New York in the midst of a deep real estate slump.

"I'd be lying if I said I wasn't scared when we opened," Clifford Finn, the managing director of new development marketing at Citi Habitats, who is heading up leasing at the project, told The Real Deal. "You open it when the market is declining, and have to wonder how we're going to fill 935 market-rate apartments."

The still-under-construction project is located in a not-so-well established neighborhood on the far West Side and has a total of 1,275 units, including 234 affordable units previously available through a housing lottery, and 106 corporate suites.

Moreover, Finn said he was nervous because Silver Towers, at 600 West 42nd Street, is a "much higher-end building" than other rentals in the city, with studios starting at $2,300 per month, one-bedrooms at $3,200 and two-bedrooms at $4,300. 

"The intention of the design was to deliver something that had more of a condo standard, but do it as a rental," Finn said.

He wasn't sure how that would play in a recession, where bargain-hunting is the name of the game. But the project is doing surprisingly well, he said.

Since May, some 250 Silver Towers market-rate units have been rented, and 100 of those residents have moved in. While that's slower than the lightning-fast lease-ups of the boom years, it's better than he expected in the current market, with rental transactions way down.

"Surprisingly, the audience we hoped was out there, was out there," he said. "Everything we had for September and October is pretty much absorbed."

Units below the 36th floor are ready for move-in, he said.

How did they do it?

For starters, the developer has been offering two months free rent for leases signed before Oct. 1. The technique appears to be working so well at Silver Towers that the team is considering extending the program beyond its original endpoint, he said.

"Absorption has been so good, we may leave it," Finn said.

This indicates that New Yorkers are still drawn to offers of free rent, even though that incentive is now being offered all over town.

In addition, he said, the project seems to be helped rather than hurt by its condo-style finishes. During the boom years, he said, consumers developed a taste for Bosch appliances and marble countertops and are reluctant to give them up, even as they look for a good deal on rent.

"So many people who are choosing to rent, they just have a tough time accepting the typical generic rental," he said. "They want views, they want luxury, they want nicer finishes. The bar has been raised."

That's due in part to the fact that many renters are former condo owners who are waiting for the market to improve before buying again.

"Now that sales have slowed down, there's more of that pool in the rental market," Finn said.

The project also has an advantage over the recent spate of condos turning rental in the midst of slow sales.

Because Silver Towers was planned and financed as a rental, it's more affordable than many condo-turned-rentals, he said. And its finishes -- including Afromosia wood floors and Fisher & Paykel cook tops -- look and feel high-end, but they're less expensive than those used in your average $1 million condo.

"There are so many more options today, you can achieve the same look without spending the money," he said.

Silver Towers is slated for completion around the beginning of 2010, Finn said.

Got a tip? E-mail Candace Taylor at ct@therealdeal.com.

Tags: Larry Silverstein citi habitats clifford finn silver towers

Daily Real Estate News  |  September 1, 2009  |  

Pending Home Sales on a Record Roll

Contract activity for pending home sales has risen for six straight months, a pattern not seen in the history of the index since it began in 2001, according to the National Association of Realtors®.

The Pending Home Sales Index, a forward-looking indicator based on contracts signed in July, increased 3.2 percent to 97.6 from a reading of 94.6 in June, and is 12.0 percent higher than July 2008 when it was 87.1. The index is at the highest level since June 2007, when it was 100.7.

Affordability at Record High
Lawrence Yun, NAR chief economist, said the housing market momentum has clearly turned for the better. “The recovery is broad-based across many parts of the country. Housing affordability has been at record highs this year with the added stimulus of a first-time buyer tax credit,” he said.

“Other buyers are taking advantage of low home values before prices turn higher. Nationally, the typical mortgage payment now takes less than 25 percent of a middle-income family’s monthly income to buy a median priced home, with payment percentages so far in 2009 being the lowest on record dating back to 1970. As long as home buyers stay within their budget, mortgage payments will be very manageable,” Yun said.

First-Time Buyers
NAR estimates that about 1.8 to 2.0 million first-time buyers will take advantage of the $8,000 tax credit this year, with approximately 350,000 additional sales that would not have taken place without the credit. Buyers have little time to act because they must complete the transaction by November 30 to qualify for the credit. Unless extended, contracts signed but not completed by that date will not be eligible – it is taking approximately two months to complete home sales in the current market.

By Region

• Northeast: The Pending Home Sales Index declined 3.0 percent to 78.8 in July but is 4.7 percent higher than July 2008.
• Midwest: The index slipped 2.0 percent to 88.1 but is 8.1 percent above a year ago.
• South: Pending home sales activity rose 3.1 percent to an index of 103.8 in July and is 12.0 percent above July 2008.
• West: The index jumped 12.1 percent to 112.5 and is 20.0 percent above a year ago.

"Keep the Momentum Going"
NAR President Charles McMillan said Congress needs to keep the momentum going. “Even with a good recovery taking place, the market is not yet back to normal. With a gradual absorption of inventory, we are on the cusp of a general stabilization in home prices,” he said.

“To ensure that housing has a broad stimulus to the overall economy and stays on sound footing, we’re encouraging Congress to extend the tax credit into 2010, and to expand it to all buyers of primary residences. The faster we stabilize home prices, the fewer families will face foreclosure and the quicker credit can be extended to other sectors of the economy,” McMillan said.

NAR’s Housing Affordability Index stood at 158.5 in July, below the peak set in April but is still 36.0 percentage points higher than a year ago. The HAI is a broad measure of housing affordability using consistent values and assumptions over time, which examines the relationship between home prices, mortgage interest rates, and family income.

Yun expects existing-home sales to rise through the fourth quarter. “Unless the tax credit is extended, no one should be surprised to see home sales drop in the first quarter of next year,” he said. “However, the fundamentals of the housing market and the economy are trending up, and we expect home sales to generally pick up in the second quarter of 2010. The buyer psychology may be shifting from, ‘Why buy now when I can purchase later?’ to ‘I don’t want to miss out on a recovery.’”

Source: NAR

First-Time Buyer Tax Credit Extension Possible

Bills to extend the maximum $8,000 tax credit for first-time home buyers, which expires Nov. 30, are pending in both the U.S. House and the Senate.

Sen. Christopher J. Dodd, a Connecticut Democrat and chairman of the Senate Banking, Housing, and Urban Affairs Committee, is co-sponsor of a bill with Georgia Republican Sen. Johnny Isakson that would raise the credit amount to a maximum of $15,000.

Senate Majority Leader Harry M. Reid of Nevada favors an extension of the current credit. He was quoted by the Las Vegas Sun saying, "It's something we can get done."

Odds are that the credit will be extended and broadened to cover all buyers next year, but the chances of the amount increasing aren’t as good, observers say.

Source: Washington Post Writers Group, Kenneth R. Harney (08/22/2009)

An Offer Accepted, but Open Houses Go On