If Buyers and Sellers Only Knew!

So you want to sell or buy property-- Being reasonably intelligent, at least smart enough to afford your current digs, you research brokers and agents for consideration.

Since this isn’t your first pony ride and you know the basics of buying and selling, you have no need to pour through on-line articles about the process. You figure, pound for pound, a competent agent should have the personal tools to successfully market your property.

Although you’d certainly like to sell out as quickly as possible or buy soon, you understand current market conditions. Furthermore, you have digested factors governing intelligent use of the internet and have a healthy I.Q..

Before you hire an agent/broker, do a little experiment on an anonymous basis. See if the website hype matches the real world.

1. Email your intended agent with a simple and friendly contact request. See if you get a personal response, a canned auto response, or out to lunch scribe back. Also note the time frame in which the correspondence was received.
2. Call the intended agent at his/her office. Are you greeted by:
A. Message of how nice of you to call, but I am not here
B. A secretary who doesn’t know the extension of the agent in question
C. An office dial by name directory with 15 options
D. Any combination of factors that make you want to hang up immediately
3. Use the contact request form on the intended agent/brokers website. Note if you receive a response. If so, how long did the response take?

Although there are many ways to determine service levels, the three I have noted should serve to inform your agent/broker choice.

Contact me anytime.

John Kavaller

Big Smiles Make Me Cry

Big Smiley Faces

Are not particularly good at defining quality or excellent service. If your specific tastes run with how an agent is packaged, then I suppose, a big smiley face is an important aspect of choosing a real estate representative.


Big Smiley Faces

Are not indicative of substance. It is not difficult, nor does it require any real estate knowledge to sit for a fashion photograph. Gleaming white teeth and perfectly matched accessories don’t mean you, the client or customer, achieves excellent pricing for the property being purchased or sold.



Big Smiley Faces

Are not necessarily stylish or graceful in person. Calmness in the face of challenge, negotiating skill, rational thinking, and research based on analysis are some factors that actually DO translate to credible service for your commission dollar.

Big Smiley Faces

Work well for used car salesman some of the time. Shiny gold colored cuff links, monogrammed shirts, and paisley ties certainly do have their place in the business world; but do you want this sort of representative when you are buying or selling a top asset?

Big Smiley Faces

Are often displayed in other ways besides good looks or lack thereof. Hiding behind paperwork, making up answers without having the real answer, hesitating too long when a direct question is asked, and ignoring your requirements often go hand in glove with the grand smile approach.

Big Smiley Faces

Indicate, at least to me, that the advertiser is more concerned with themselves and how they look than they are with how best to represent your interests. Those who know this business are not likely to brag. I keep my personal and intimate life off the Internet—regardless of the social networking milieu that’s the current social idiom. Big, splashy presentments are usually lies covering up truthful representation.

Big Smiley Faces

For some reason, have become part of traditional real estate web design. I don’t know why. Being beautiful, having brilliantly white teeth, perfect accessories, sturdy face with just enough ruggedness to portray the manly approach are fine. These attributes, however, should not be the main focus. Mr. Clinton, then vying for the presidency used: It’s the customer and client stupid, not you, who is important." Well- I did take just a bit of poetic license to adjust the slogan.

And--I am going to remove my photo soon--promise!

Gambling In the Sullivan County Catskills of New York

HERE WE GO AGAIN-GAMBLING IS BACK ON THE TABLE

Gambling has been on and off the table here in the Sullivan County, NY Catskills for many a year. Our area is well situated for gaming, a point the players in casino development well understand.

The Catskills are closer to the NYC Metro Area than Atlantic City, Foxwoods, and the Mohegan Sun. There is just a vast pool of customers from which to draw and we’re just a couple of hours from Manhattan. Gaming makes sense, except it’s never materialized

The hotel industry, in its heyday here in the mountains, floated the idea on numerous occasions. Off reservation Indian Tribes have made deals, canceled deals, re-instated deals. New York State has been supportive of the gambling agenda at times, while other times, the political climate ran in the opposite direction.

Perhaps the most difficult hurdles to overcome were the federal and state legal requirements that would allow legalized gambling in New York State. Even those issues seemed to be overcome within the last several years only to be killed by Mr. Kempthorne, former Bureau of Indian Affairs ruled Off-Reservations Tribes did not qualify for gambling venues outside specific reservation lands.

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By Victor Whitman
Times Herald-Record
Posted: February 10, 2008 - 2:00 AM

What happened? (To Gambling In Sullivan County?)


SEE SIDE BAR from above article

The rejection

Interior Secretary Dirk Kempthorne on Jan. 4 rejected 11 applications for off-reservation casinos, including the St. Regis Mohawk proposal at the Monticello Gaming & Raceway and the Stockbridge-Munsee Band of the Mohicans project in Bridgeville. Nine other tribes were notified that their applications were incomplete.

On what basis?

The Interior Department adopted the policy of "commutable distance," denying the casinos because the tribal members could not commute from the reservation to the site of the casino, in the Mohawk's case 350 miles away. This clarifies Interior's longstanding regulation to grant more scrutiny to land into trust applications proportional to the distance from the reservation. Marking another shift in policy, Interior issued a blanket rejection of the 11 projects based on this rule, having previously notifying the tribes that each project would be evaluated on the individual merits. As to the Mohawk project, Interior ignored state and local support.
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The gaming issue has had a torturous route—at times so close to actual approval, developers, architects, and serious plans were set before the formal political machinery of Sullivan County.

Actual tribe negotiations took place, planning and zoning boards reviewed site details. Yes, we almost had the opportunity to tap into a tremendous entertainment reservoir perfect for our County—at least, that’s what gambling proponents claimed.

A wealth of relevant information exists on-line. Suffice it to say, I’ve opened up this topic because, yet again, gaming in The Catskills is heating up again.

Here’s the article explaining why gaming may be back on the table in the Catskills:


Here is a timeline for the Casino Gambling Issue in the Catskills of Sullivan County, NY.

John Kavaller
Licensed NYS Agent & REALTOR®
Catskill Sales Associates, Inc.
http://www.catskillcountryrealestate.com/
845-482-3200 Ext. 13: Office
845-492-0261: John’s Cell
845-482-3632: Evening
john@catskillsales.com and catskillsrealestate@gmail.com

You Just Want To Sell Me Something . . .

Actually, you’re right—but I want to sell you what you want, not what I want. We’re talking about a home not a used car. In order for me to “sell” you that home, you must be “sold” yourself.

Experts suggest you find an agent that fits well with your personality. This professional relationship is central to good service and finding you the right property. You’ll want to work with a realtor you trust—one working to meet YOUR objectives.

The realtor actually helps you sell yourself by providing information relevant to your specific goals. The wide array of important details like, tax information, neighborhood pricing comparisons, school district locations, mortgage lenders, home inspectors, attorney or title company recommendations play an important role in the process. And, these services are only a few necessary components to consider when purchasing a property.

You want clear and relevant explanations to your questions. You want guidance in the negotiating arena; you want solid opinions based on experience. You want a personal accommodation indicating YOUR needs come first.

I won’t tell you how to spend your money, but I will work diligently to earn your trust by providing excellent and timely information. Buying a home is not a hard sell proposition in my book. I PROMISE NOT TO SELL YOU. I WILL PROVIDE SERVICE ALLOWING YOU TO SELL YOURSELF.