With the weather in Westchester County (presumably) changing as Winter approaches, we in the real estate business have grown to expect a cyclical slowdown in our industry starting around the holidays and stretching into the colder weather. The arrival of autumn has caused anxiety for many a sell
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11/27/2011
Since so many of us wrote on a local enterprise yesterday for Small Business Saturday, I thought it would be a cool idea for us to put our posts on local small business in one place like so many other themes. Moreover, why blog on local small businesses once a year or once a week? With that in mi
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11/27/2011
When you hear a name like "Briarcliff Classic and Imported Car Service" you might envision a garage filled with Porches and Fiats with a temperamental guy in a beret acting more like a chef than a mechanic. With BCI, however, you'd be wrong. I remember Briarcliff Classic from when I was a kid in
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11/26/2011
Today is one of those rare days where I can marinate in the begotten all day with no fear of neglecting chasing the buck. So we'll have some fun. This is probably boring to most, but Mommy thought it was cute. I agree. Mark is our spokesman this year. Art Linkletter's legacy is quite safe. I hav
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11/24/2011
This has happened before, but I have never written about it. Today at my office, right after an appointment with a nice lady who listed her home in Yonkers with me, I was alone and catching up on returning phone calls. Line 2 rang while I was on line 1. Line 2 doesn't have voice mail, so I asked
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11/23/2011
I seem to recall a Twighlight Zone episode where a bigot wakes up one morning and is transformed into the ethnicity that he has been persecuting. That was the first thing I thought of when I read that the law firm of Steven J Baum is closing and laying off 89 employees. The closure comes as a res
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11/21/2011
Quick preface: In 1997, the brokerage flavor of the month was pre-recorded property hotlines with voice mail. Instead of dealing with a salesperson to get information on a property, consumers could call a recorded hotline and get the details on the listing pressure-free. They had the choice of
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11/20/2011
There is nothing we like more than an enthusiastic, gung -ho buyer in this market. There is nothing we like less than a stressed out buyer who makes life hell for all involved. So, when that gung-ho buyer locks their rate in for 30 days and we haven't even signed contracts yet, it doesn't take
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11/19/2011
Any REALTOR association will have the inevitable news on our web page on the passing of a current or former member with some frequency. It is never a happy thing to read, and today's announcement was particularly significant for me- not because we were very close (we weren't), but because I knew
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11/17/2011
Like anyone else, I love it when I get a cash offer on one of my listings. That is rare, but it is also nice when we get an offer that has terms including a healthy 20-30% or larger down payment. That doesn't happen all the time either. What is keeping the lights on in Westchester real estate is
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11/16/2011
