Chris Berger - licensed real estate agent for NY and FL - talks about the importance of the home inspection report. Chris relays an real life example of what heppened when there was a problem in the report.

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Well, good afternoon everybody. This is Chris Berger, and it’s time for a Berger Point.

You know, when I look at basements in homes here in the Northeast, in the Hudson Valley, it kind of feels like home because for many, many years, I was involved in a masonry supply business and we sold everything from the ground up to build a house.So basements have always been interesting to me because it’s your obligation to keep them dry.

When you keep a basement dry, your house functions so much better.

So, I was going to show you a little bit about what a sump pump looks like because when I am visiting houses and I look for them —- you see them, you always want to know the electricity cost of that particular home each month because —- if that pump is running all the time then there’s a serious water problem.

However, if it’s not, if it’s intermittent, that’s fine. It’s under control.

I will also show you what a French drain looks like and the value of that.

Take a look .So when we visited this home, I wanted to show you what a sump pump looks like.


It sits in, of course, the floor, and it’s probably about 24 inches deep on average, maybe 30 and then adjacent to that is something called a French drain system.

What that does, it’s outside the whole perimeter of the home and at this point, when the water hits it, it actually goes into like a gutter-like system under the floor.

Then it can go into the sump pump or it can just exit the house in the outside perimeter drains.

So again, I just wanted to give you an idea what an actual sump pump looks like.

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Chris Berger - licensed agent for NY and FL - relays a story where he had a buying client who was ready to give up.

There is a happy ending to this story, but not without some understanding and changes in approach.

Find out what changed for this buyer!

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Well, good afternoon, everybody. This is Chris Berger, and yes, it’s time for a Berger Point.

Now, I wanted to talk to you today a little bit about a commercial real estate agent and a residential real estate agent in New York.

Now, I am a New York residential real estate agent, and I’m licensed to sell homes.However, if someone showed me a six-family house, that would involve a commercial real estate agent.A real estate agent - that’s a separate license from what I have.

So, if you see someone selling apartment buildings or you know 20 apartments are in a building or a shopping center, strip mall etcetera — it’s all commercial land.

They utilize a commercial real estate agent and they should because in reality their contacts are in the commercial world.Whereas my contacts are in the residential world.

So, I did have something come upon one time not too long ago where this woman wanted to list her house with me.

However, it was also commercially zoned.So, instead of taking the listing, I reached out to a good friend of mine and they took the listing.

It was a little tough only because there’s so many things, different things involved in commercial real estate that the woman who owned the house and the property next door really wasn’t aware of.

So together, a commercial real estate agent, and myself, we sort of held her hand and got her through the property.

And she was thrilled.And not only did I get a referral fee for giving it to the commercial agent, when she bought her new house,nI represented her and I got my full commission!

And that’s my point.

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Well, good afternoon, everybody. This is Chris Berger, and yes, it is time for a Berger Point.

You know, it’s been brought to my attention that a lot of people, when they go to the closing table as the buyers, and they’re receiving their mortgage, it’s very confusing because they expect the payment to, say, be $2,250.

And then all of a sudden, it is not $2,250, but it’s $2,600.

So where did the extra payment come in?Why is that showing up now?Well, the buyers should always be aware that the homeowner’s insurance on a monthly basis will be tacked on to your mortgage payment.

In addition to that, your taxes will be added on to your mortgage payment.

So that’s where the extra money comes in.

Now, years ago, the mortgage companies were a little bit more lax, allowing you to pay the insurance on a home, as well as, the taxes on your own.

So you just were paying the mortgage what you owe to the bank.

However, with how things have developed over the last 10, 12 years, 15 years, you know, people not paying their insurance because they couldn’t afford it or the taxes.

So the bank will go to the extremes, in a sense, to protect their investment.

So that’s why the insurance is added on as well as the taxes.And it’s really just a fact of life today.

That’s my point.

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Well, good afternoon, everybody. This is Chris Berger. It’s time for a Berger Point.You know, being here in the middle of November, looking forward to buying a new house in the spring or selling your house in the spring,

I wanted to bring your attention to your taxes on the house and what you can do to lower them and what you should do.

Because basically me as a buyer, when I’m looking at a house, if the taxes say are over $12,000.Well, I could eliminate that fairly quickly because I can’t afford that.

So maybe my limit might be $10,000.But you as a seller with a $12,000 tax bill, you can certainly enter your name and address into the STAR program of New York State and they will lower your taxes.You’ll get a rebate.

However, one thing that I tell all of my clients on both sides, buyer or seller, is that if a property is available —- Well, if you own that home and the taxes are too high, then go to your town board, make an appointment and do something called grieving your taxes.

And if you don’t want to do it, it’s not terribly difficult.

However, if you can also hire someone and they will charge you a fee based on what they’ve reduced your taxes.

So if they’ve reduced your taxes by $1,000, they may charge you 25% of that.

But it’s well worth it.It’s something to do over the next six months, especially now that prices have sort of stabilized, if not dropped a little bit.

So you’re in the driver’s seat. So go grieve your taxes and get ready for the spring. That's my point.

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Well, good afternoon, everybody.My name is Chris Berger, and it’s time for a Berger Point.

People talk about this memo of sale.What exactly is a memo of sale?And why is it so important to both sides, seller and buyer?

Well, first of all, it’s an information sheet that your listing agent will make up.And of course, it begins with the name and address of the seller, name and the address of the buyer, and all their contacts.

So, which would include their email, the phone number, the attorneys for both sides, it just makes things go easier and faster.So that’s why it’s important to be accurate.So it also has one big factor and that’s the purchase price and what both parties have agreed upon.

Now, in addition to that, it will have the stipulations of the sale.For example, it might be cash down or it might be mortgage 20% down.

Whatever it is, it has that information on there.And also too, the concessions, mainly from the seller, what they’re willing to do for the house.

And by having this on a piece of paper, it’s then sent to the attorneys.It would be the selling attorney that would draw up the contract.

And at this point, it is sent to the buyer’s attorneys.

The buyer goes in, signs it, and now that contract goes back to the seller. They sign it.

Voila, we now have a contract of sale. Very important. The memo of sale all came from there and it needs to be accurate and it just makes things go faster in the long run and makes everybody a lot happier.

And that’s my point.

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Good afternoon, everybody. This is Chris Berger, and it’s time for a Berger Point.

Now, I wanted to talk to you a little bit about the importance of the multiple listing service, otherwise known as the MLS.

Now, of course, we’re all members of that as a real estate agents, so we have access to the MLS.

What’s important is why a seller should be on the MLS, as well as, the buyer should check on the MLS through the proper portal for people who search, but it’s up to the date information.

Whereas Zillow or Realtor.com, they have a tendency to lag behind a little bit. might be a day, half a day, two days, it’s hard to say.

However, when I find a listing on the MLS that my buyer would like to see, I immediately contact the real estate agent who has listed that house and speak to them directly.

By doing so, you’re finding out the ins and outs of what is going on in the house.Number one question, any offers on the house?And they’ll say yes, no.

But it gives you a sense of what’s available right now in real time.

That’s so important because I know so many times people are disappointed because they see a house they want. They go and talk to the agent the next day and finally contact them.

They want to make an appointment and there’s an offer and acceptance.So, once there is an offer and acceptance on a home, generally a seller will allow other people to come in and look.If they want to make an offer, that’s known as a backup.

However, once the offer and acceptance has been consummated, the buyer is then ready to move on that deal.

So just keep in mind that’s the importance of the MLS and it’s really real-time data. This is the world that we all live in!

That’s my point today.

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Well good afternoon everybody. My name is Chris BergerI’m a licensed real estate agent in the Hudson Valley region and it’s time for another Berger Point.

Down through the years I’ve had associations with different attorneys and to my advantage, thankfully, our relationship worked very well as far as helping my buyer or helping my seller make the deal.

And a long time ago, an instructor told me —- and I was kind of shocked about this —- is that attorneys can be deal makers or deal breakers.

However, let’s tell you a quick story…One time I was representing a buyer and the seller’s attorney just thought that the buyer’s attorney didn’t want to make the deal.So, as a result, neither one would speak to each other anymore.

They would communicate just through text or email, just crazy, beyond frustrating.I have a buyer who’s crying, saying, why can’t we go through with this deal?So anyway... I get this bright idea.

I call the seller’s attorney directly.

And after speaking with him, I told him that the buyer’s attorney thinks you don’t want to make the deal.So he thanked me for the cooperation and said he will try to address it and take care of it.

Same day, a few minutes later, I call our attorney, the buyer’s attorney, and I said to him, the seller’s attorney thinks you don’t want to make the deal.He wants to talk to you and settle up the problems today.

Can we do this?

Can we move forward?

Well, I didn’t know that. I wasn’t aware of it.

Okay. Well, because of my polite interference, the attorneys talked.

The next day, the ball started rolling and in less than three weeks later because we were more than ready to close we actually closed, but the lines of communication have to be left open.

This is super important.

So, get yourself a good attorney look at different reviews and always, always keep lines of communication wide open.

And that's my point.

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Well, good afternoon, everyone. My name is Chris Berger, and it’s time for a Berger Point.

You know, when a home has been on the market for a while, it’s on the market for 519.

And typically, if you check the comparables around the area, you know, within a couple of miles, same square footage, say 2000 square feet, and they’re all selling around 500,000.

And your house at 519 is not selling.So what do I do?How can I make this thing sell?Take it off the market for 30 day

And then once you put it back on the market 30 days later, it will appear as a new listing.

But in addition to that, it will give you some time to look at the comps, what happened over the past 30 days, what sold.

So you may find out that, you know, houses are selling around 510.

So that’s maybe what you should bring your house back on the market at, 510.

It makes a difference.But don’t waste time leaving it on the market.

And that’s my point today.

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