home for sale long island: Selling Your Home -- Preserving Your Memories - 02/01/11 02:13 PM
Whenever I prepare to list a home for sale on Long Island, I walk through the house, room by room with the owner or his/her representative and make mental notes.  Often, especially in the case of a property long inhabited by someone whose life is closer to the finish line than the beginning of the race, I get an emotional sense of the space.  Feelings get all jumbled up with the furnishings and knick-knacks that proclaim the presence of a family no longer in residence.
Such is the case with a property we're readying for sale. Filled to the brim with … (10 comments)

home for sale long island: Selling Your Home In A Tough Market -- Know The Game And Play By The Rules - 10/03/10 04:44 PM
Sometimes in the world of real estate sales, we have to be cruel to be kind.  The current market can be challenging for all of us, at least on Long Island.  Many of the old rules no longer apply.  For the seller, the sale of their home could be a once in a lifetime experience, or perhaps they've sold a few times in the past, over a period of many years.  In either scenario, their experience is limited.  As the experts in our field, it's our responsibility to educate them about the process and about the realities of the selling environment in which they find themselves. 
If we're unattached … (17 comments)

home for sale long island: Are You Planning To Put Your Long Island Home On The Market, Or Do You Actually Want It To Sell? - 09/26/10 04:00 AM
The temptation to test the market at a higher price when first putting your home up for sale has always existed.  If you, or your Realtor® fall into that trap in the current selling environment, you'll be shooting yourself in the foot.  When local inventory exceeds the buyer pool, your house has to stand out from the crowd in every way.  Pricing it right, especially when there is such transparency for consumers and ease of access to information online, will make the difference between your home selling in a timely fashion and languishing on the market in a sea of unsold homes.
Once you and your real estate representative … (3 comments)

home for sale long island: Another Working Holiday Weekend - 07/03/10 02:28 PM
Though it wouldn't have been my first choice of time, I had a final walk-through this morning on a listing that will close late in the week.  Normally we do them sometime within 24 to 48 hours before the closing but these buyers requested specifically it be today.  It wouldn't have been bad since it was scheduled for 10 a.m.  Typically they take 15 to 20 minutes and they're done.  Not this one.  I should have known we were in for the long haul when one of their party went out to get coffee.
I had hoped for something of a … (16 comments)

home for sale long island: HomeGoods Should Hire Me, I Couldn't Stage My Long Island Homes Without Them - 04/24/10 03:44 PM
My go to place when I start a staging job in order to get one of my Long Island homes sold, is HomeGoods.  I can't remember what I did before the stores started proliferating all over Long Island.  I love them so much that I'd be hard put to move to an area where there was no easy access to one (or more).  Even when putting rental furniture in a home I fill in with the gems I find on my HomeGoods treasure hunts.

My latest listing is a great case in point.  We were working with a dated leather sofa … (17 comments)