This Week in Comments

Is unethical behavior a bigger problem in a good market or a bad market?
Good market. When there is so much activity, and so few “regulators” who actually have any teeth to do a thing, developers can get away with much more. The city agencies were understaffed, and not able to properly handle this last boom.

What’s the biggest challenge sellers are facing?
[The] biggest problem for those who recently bought and now need to sell is that their place is worth less than their mortgage. So for them to sell, it will require them [bringing] a big check to the closing table. For some, that makes selling — without declaring bankruptcy — impossible.

Harlem co-op offers “stimulus package” to buyers
Nice gimmick, but in this economy they need to lower prices significantly if they want to sell units.

Bidding solo rental deals goodbye
Rental brokers are a dying breed. Sorry guys.

How much is Donald Trump worth?
Trump Soho has so many structural problems that whoever moves into that building — if anyone ever does, which I doubt — will undoubtedly sue him for fraud. Want to bet that building ends up sitting idle for years until it decays beyond habitability and then is demolished?

Who’s more important to close a deal in this market — a seller’s broker or a buyer’s broker?
1. The most important person today is neither the buyer’s or seller’s broker; it’s the bank. Buyer’s and seller’s broker jobs have not changed. The bank is the one that is the key to a deal closing.
2. The title company — lawyers, the cat’s out of the bag that they do your work — is the most important. They do more than any of the other participants in order to get a deal closed.

Biggest price cut of the day
It’s about time this property had a price cut. [It’s] an extremely unique house, [but] not [in a] very good location. I can still see it being on the market for a few years,

Pop-ups pop up in the Hamptons
Why won’t landlords face reality and lower rents? Is it just pure greed?