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Yorktown Heights, NY Real Estate News

By Thomas Santore Lic Associate Real Estate Broker, Realtor®-ABR-Land, Residential & Commercial Sa
(Coldwell Banker Realty/Coldwell Banker Commercial NRT)
  Do you still do paper ads?   Had a cma today and when I went through my marketing plan the clients asked why I did not list any paper ads.   They said that I had the most aggressive internet advertising plan, but "where are the paper ads that the other agents would do".   I showed them the latest statistics on where buyers are coming from.   They said "what about advertisements for open houses" I told them that when I do and open house it gets posted on over one hundred websites and we send out post cards to the neighborhood. And then I added we have been getting on average 8-12 people at our open houses and this year we have sold a few homes directly from the open house.   Needless to say I got the listing and at my commission and the price I recommended.  
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By Thomas Santore Lic Associate Real Estate Broker, Realtor®-ABR-Land, Residential & Commercial Sa
(Coldwell Banker Realty/Coldwell Banker Commercial NRT)
More not so basic tips  It is very important that when you send anything to a past or current client that you address it to them personally (not occupant) If you can find the time to hand write something it will make all the difference. Items like notepads with your picture and information on them keeps you in their mind. When you sell a home give your buyers some postcards with the picture of their new home on it to send to friends. Remember always include you contact information on them.
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By Thomas Santore Lic Associate Real Estate Broker, Realtor®-ABR-Land, Residential & Commercial Sa
(Coldwell Banker Realty/Coldwell Banker Commercial NRT)
Listing your VACANT LAND for SALE can be very trying. Most agents in the business have never listed or even sold a piece of VACANT LAND. You are going to want and AGENT with EXPERIENCE in BOTH LISTING and SELLING LAND. The first way to do this is to ask them for a list of PAST and PRESENT LISTINGS. If they can not produce these than they are not the right agent for you. The second thing you want is a list of actual sales. This is sometimes more important than a lot of listings because it shows they can get the job done. The third thing is their knowledge of what it takes to get approvals in your area to build on the property. Also the knowledge of who can help you get these approvals and the relationship one process has to the other.  
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By Grant Schneider, Your Coach Helping You Create Successful Outcomes
(Performance Development Strategies)
  I am happy to introduce and recommend my client, Marshall Alarm Systems and the business owners Marshall and Michele Marinace.  Marshall Alarm Systems is a trusted business in Westchester County, NY.  This family owned business was started by Marshall Marinace in 1976.  Marshall started the business in his basement with the help of his wife and business partner, Michele.  Through hard work and exceeding their customers’ expectations Marshall Alarms has grown to become a prominent regional provider of all security related services. Marshall is extremely proud of his business and its growth.  He has made a commitment to continue to be a major regional player in the business and fine residential security market.  His trusted clients include homeowners, businesses, municipal governments, ...
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By Thomas Santore Lic Associate Real Estate Broker, Realtor®-ABR-Land, Residential & Commercial Sa
(Coldwell Banker Realty/Coldwell Banker Commercial NRT)
Looking to sell your VACANT LAND? I have a lot of EXPERIENCE!!! I have been doing REAL ESTATE FOR ALMOST SEVENTEEN YEARS now. I  have been involved in 79 different land deals in that time. I sell a lot of my listings my self (42%), but am always will to work with other brokers. I have completed 113Sides/Transactions. I have a background in construction and have build several homes. I know the ins and outs of getting approvals on vacant lots which gives me and advantage over most agent in the area. If you are thinking of listing your land in Westchester, Putnam the Bronx or Dutchess County please give me a call.
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By Thomas Santore Lic Associate Real Estate Broker, Realtor®-ABR-Land, Residential & Commercial Sa
(Coldwell Banker Realty/Coldwell Banker Commercial NRT)
  Self marketing the way to go   E-mails, we all like to use them. They are fast and convenient, but they require constant monitoring. Put your e-mail address on everything you do and give people and check your mailbox 2-3 times a day.   You should market yourself as the expert in your area. This requires constant direct mail contact with t he information take keeps your potential clients up to date on what is going on in their neighborhood.   All your marketing should have a point you want to get across. Kept this in mind when selecting something to mail or E-mail.  
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By Bill Primavera
(William Raveis Real Estate)
At least once or twice a year, I like to take a “snapshot” of the moment in the housing market as a sort of historical record, and the very promising developments in the past six months prompt me to do so now. But first the bad news. While many signs in the market are pointing to happier days, the biggest challenge my associate realtors and I face today is the lack of housing inventory to satisfy the number of buyers who are out there right now, ready with cash in hand to buy. But, where is the selection of houses they might have found as recently as last year? Actually, they’re still coming on the market, but because the number of buyers has increased significantly in the past year, new listings are being absorbed more quickly and cannot keep pace with maintaining a healthier inventory...
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By Thomas Santore Lic Associate Real Estate Broker, Realtor®-ABR-Land, Residential & Commercial Sa
(Coldwell Banker Realty/Coldwell Banker Commercial NRT)
Listing VACANT LAND for SALE can be very trying without proper agent. Most agents in the business have never listed or even sold a piece of VACANT LAND. You are going to want and AGENT with EXPERIENCE in BOTH LISTING and SELLING LAND. The first way to do this is to ask them for a list of PAST and PRESENT LISTINGS. If they can not produce these than they are not the right agent for you. The second thing you want is a list of actual sales. This is sometimes more important than a lot of listings because it shows they can get the job done. The third thing is their knowledge of what it takes to get approvals in your area to build on the property. Also the knowledge of who can help you get these approvals and the relationship one process has to the other.
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By Thomas Santore Lic Associate Real Estate Broker, Realtor®-ABR-Land, Residential & Commercial Sa
(Coldwell Banker Realty/Coldwell Banker Commercial NRT)
Westchester County Real Estate--The homes that are priced well are still SELLING!!!! Especially in Yorktown. There have been some homes that have came on the market in the last 6 Months that had accepted offers in the first 6 weeks of being on the market. Does this sound familar to those of you that were in Real Estate back in 2006-2007? Why do some homes sell faster than others? It's a very easy question to answer. The homeowners priced there homes according to the present market and made sure the condition matched the price. These two combinations make for a quick and good sale when the competition is not priced accordingly. As more and more people realize this, the market will improve and the economy will follow. We also need to do away with agents overpricing a home just to get the ...
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By Thomas Santore Lic Associate Real Estate Broker, Realtor®-ABR-Land, Residential & Commercial Sa
(Coldwell Banker Realty/Coldwell Banker Commercial NRT)
Your profile has been viewed 11000 times. Joined ACTIVE RAIN on 12/13/2007. At that time I knew nothing about blogging, not that I do now, but I hope I am better at it than before. I never knew the power of a blog. If you told me I would have someone view my profile on average better than 5 times a day I would have said you were daffy. But as of 5 minutes ago I had my 11,000th viewing of my profile. I get calls every once in a while referencing my web presence and ACTIVE RAIN has been a big part of that. Now it is easy to post my blog on and the crazy sites out there with just a tough on the screen and there it goes out ot the world. You know I will continue to blog as often as possible, and Thank You ACTIVE RAIN!!!!
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By Thomas Santore Lic Associate Real Estate Broker, Realtor®-ABR-Land, Residential & Commercial Sa
(Coldwell Banker Realty/Coldwell Banker Commercial NRT)
What is your strategy for the upcoming year? This year my strategy has been to work with as many buyers as I could and maintain some listings. This worked very well for me this year. This I think I need to increase my house listings by 30% but try to maintain the same amount of buyers. In years past mine had always been to get lots of listings. Sometimes as many 60. When I have a lot of listing my cell phone never stops ringing.I believe that the buyer pool is going to level off. A balanced between buyers and sellers looks like it will be the way to go. This may be the answer to maintaining my level of business in the future. One of the ways I am going to be doing this is more direct mail to areas I have sold homes in.  Has anybody else come to this conclusion
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By Thomas Santore Lic Associate Real Estate Broker, Realtor®-ABR-Land, Residential & Commercial Sa
(Coldwell Banker Realty/Coldwell Banker Commercial NRT)
With the new market, do we price it to sell or try to get more for it? I am seeing agents list homes at a higher price than the ones that just sold. And they are staying on the market for a long time. Before they sell they have to be reduced. Then there are a few agents like myself who are listing our homes to sell, and in some instances for more than asking. Almost all of them sell without reduceing the price.I would love to hear what is going on in your markets. 
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By Thomas Santore Lic Associate Real Estate Broker, Realtor®-ABR-Land, Residential & Commercial Sa
(Coldwell Banker Realty/Coldwell Banker Commercial NRT)
  RENTERS -- Stop paying your Landlord's Mortgage (Westchester/Putnam) RENTERS -- Stop paying your landlord's mortgage. Action is power. Learn how to own your own home with minimal down. All inquiries call 845-590-5488 Inquiries must include name, address and contact phone numbers.   SEE BELOW Don’t Renew Your Lease Imagine yourself in your own home instead!   It simply does not make sense to pay rent when you can pay about the same amount per month and own your own home!   For your personal no obligation interview on how to stop paying rent and own your own home instead call. Thomas Santore (845-590-5488) We will show you how much home you can purchase for the same amount you pay for rent every month.Stop Supporting Your Landlord. Build Equity for Yourself!     Thomas Santore Lincenced...
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By Grant Schneider, Your Coach Helping You Create Successful Outcomes
(Performance Development Strategies)
  It seems that everyone likes a good story.  Stories retain attention of the listener by capturing the imagination.  It is no surprise that many of the great communicators in current events and history are story tellers. Let me introduce Bill Primavera, public relations guru, home guru, and entrepreneur.   Bill  is quite a story teller.  His background began in reporting for restaurants and food and he later parlayed that into a successful public relations firm which currently serves many high profile business clients.  But Bill is also a realtor and is known as “The Home Guru”. I have had the privilege of having Bill as one of my clients. His office is in an 18th century farmhouse in northern Westchester County New York.  What a great setting for creativity and story telling.  In Bill...
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By Bill Primavera
(William Raveis Real Estate)
Only after years of writing about homes and what happens in them do I feel confident enough about how readers may regard me to tell a spooky story that I repeatedly placed on the back burner for fear that I would be perceived as a nut job. Halloween is as good a time as ever to tell it. It's a story about whether the energies of deceased souls stay within a house after their physical presence is no longer there. In other words, are there ghosts living among us? According to a recent Huffington Post/YouGov poll, more than 45 percent of the population believes in ghosts or that the spirits of dead people can come back in certain places and situations. In another poll by Associated Press a while back, 23 percent reported that they have actually seen ghosts or felt their presence in a room....
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By Bill Primavera
(William Raveis Real Estate)
Isn’t it a great feeling to shampoo your hair and have it be clean and shiny again? You can give your house the same treat. Funny how problems and solutions sometimes come together. I had been noticing some dark vertical stains developing on the north side of my roof, and it seemed to happen over a short period of time. What IS that, I thought? Then, I noticed some whitish spots taking hold here and there on the shingles, and finally patches of green moss sprouting out. I’m under attack, I thought. Then, driving around in my neighborhood, I found another roof with the same problem on a relatively new house, then another and another. In each case, the problem made the house look old and uncared for. Soon after, I was watching the local news on TV and one of Mark Franzoso’s commercials ca...
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By Bill Primavera
(William Raveis Real Estate)
It’s a sure sign that you are getting up there in years when suddenly you find that you’re working with the second generation of family-owned businesses that have provided home maintenance services for many years. It happened with my tree service, my plumber, and now my lawn maintenance company. Just recently I received an introductory email from a young man named Leo Martino who introduced himself as the son of Roberto Martino whose landscaping company, Martino Landscape Contractors, has been maintaining our lawn for many years, how many I don’t remember, but when I looked on line for the company’s website I found that it had been established in 1989 and, honestly, I feel that I must have been one of its first customers. Leo suggested in his email that I consider a column about how a h...
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By Thomas Santore Lic Associate Real Estate Broker, Realtor®-ABR-Land, Residential & Commercial Sa
(Coldwell Banker Realty/Coldwell Banker Commercial NRT)
Third shift uptime - Agents on 1st and 2nd shift had 6 upcalls. First 4 agents got 6 calls. I am up with another agent. It is a good thing I don't wait for the phone to ring, how many upcalls can we get in a day?Already here for an hour and no calls yet, not even someone to make an appointment!They made 16 appointment earlier today, but not a call yet.Good thing I have some other things to do, like this blog, call some past and present clients, finished my 1800 peice post card mailing and answering some emails. Oh Well Maybe the Next Call Will be a CMA!!!!!
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By Thomas Santore Lic Associate Real Estate Broker, Realtor®-ABR-Land, Residential & Commercial Sa
(Coldwell Banker Realty/Coldwell Banker Commercial NRT)
Vacant Land Sales are up this year from last year! Last year from Jan 1 2012-Oct 29 2012 only three parcels sold in my area (area 1) This year from Jan 1 2012-Oct 29 2012we have already had 8 lots sold. Of the possible 16 sides this year, I have done 8 sides! That means I have 50% of the market in area 1!    
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By Thomas Santore Lic Associate Real Estate Broker, Realtor®-ABR-Land, Residential & Commercial Sa
(Coldwell Banker Realty/Coldwell Banker Commercial NRT)
My lastest Activity In 2012, Thomas Santore set the industry standard. He SOLD more proerties in 2012 than in 2011. He currently has SOLD 20 properties, with 7 still in contract and 23 additional properties listed. Tom is the best in the business. Tom is backed by the area's leading #1 office Coldwell Banker Residential Brokerage in Yorktown Heights, closing more transactions in the last 4 1/2 years in the area than any other office.Don't settle for anything less.Call Tom today for all your real estate needs! 845-590-5488
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