Ranking Story Inaccurate
I thought your “The Ranking of the Firms” story in the May issue was inaccurate.
It didn’t make sense to rank firms and agents based on their Web listings – you should have done the rankings based on exclusive listings in contract or closed exclusives.
By basing the story on listings, it rewards people who have a lot of unsold properties just sitting around. Different firms also have different policies for posting listings, and this wasn’t taken into consideration.
Finally, in some cases, you failed to distinguish between agents who had exclusive listings and open listings.
Due to the unique nature of our market area, it is always difficult to get accurate information on comparables and listings, and this is something that needs to be worked towards.
Also, if all agencies had identical listing policies, the problem wouldn’t exist.
Richard Hamilton
Vice President
Halstead
The Editor notes: Often companies complain that figures released by rivals are inaccurate, so we decided to try and get “public” data, off firms’ Web sites. We chose listings instead of sales data because it is impossible to discern when a sale took place, whereas all listings on the Web are “current.” Unfortunately, our data did include a few open listings, because there was no indication these listings were open rather than exclusives. As Mr. Hamilton notes, the absence of a standard of information is a factor, and we believe our story will help inform that debate.
LIC Developers Disregard Community
I read your story “Residential Building Boom Ahead in Long Island City,” and the real deal is that these developers are coming into an existing neighborhood with no regard or respect for the people and buildings already in existence.
They never include the community in proposals, and when they do it’s basically to cover themselves, because the proposal has already been accepted and put forth. They have not tried to integrate into the existing neighborhood and the retailers going into the spaces (i.e. The Riverfront Cafe) have high-end prices which many in the community cannot afford. Instead, they are forming a separate community that might as well have a fence around it to keep the existing community out.
And now they want to build even taller buildings, when the tallest one was supposed to be City Lights and the owners of the condos in the upper floors were told that their view would never be blocked.
I’m an architect. In urban planning classes, it is considered good design, and it is stressed, that the surrounding community must be respected and taken into account. That is not happening here.
Debra Villa
Long Island City
Organize Before Staging
As a professional residential organizer, I thought your article about home staging was right on the money. I also think that the services of a professional organizer should be the logical first step prior to the home staging process.
An organizer can clear the decks- by eliminating the clutter the home stager has a better idea of the “bones” of the space and can concentrate on perfecting the space to make it more presentable.
Anita Dobin
Super Organizing Solutions
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