You know, sitting here at the end of January, 24 hours of snow, two feet of snow, and up and down the northeast, it’s pretty bad.

I got to thinking about my fireplace and why a fireplace, a garage, and a pool are important to the buyer as well as the seller.

Well, let’s cover the fireplace first.

Well, you have a fireplace, you walk in, it could be in great shape, it could be not working

.But if it’s there, it’s such an advantage and it adds value to your house that you’re buying or selling.

Watch the whole Berger Point to get the details!

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Good afternoon this is Chris Berger your Hudson Valley realtor and it’s time for a Berger Point.

You know going into a closing, a lot of people don’t realize this, but once the buyer sits down to the table and is signing the mortgage, we kind of refer to as your commitment for life, when signing it.

Actually though, what happens is you do have three days of rescission.

What that exactly means as the buyer is signing for the mortgage, if they decide a day and a half later, two days, up to three days, they can cancel the mortgage and cancel the whole deal.

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Well, good afternoon, everybody. This is Chris Berger. It’s time for Berger Point.

You know, many years ago, I would ride past houses and you look at them.

And as you look at a home, you really take for granted many things that’s on the home, whether it has chimney, does it have a chimney cap?You know, it’s kind of obvious to see that. 

However, one of the things that I found out many, many years ago, how important a roof vent is.A roof vent, of course, it goes along the peak of the house.

What this vent does, is open.So the shingles are right up to these vents that runs across your peak.And the importance of this is that it actually allows your attic to breathe.

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

I wanted to tell you about the agreement that a listing agent will present to the homeowner and it’s called an exclusive right to sell.

That gives that real estate agency the right to sell your home and gain commission.No matter who buys it.

So that’s very important.It’s a very common agreement.

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I’ve often said that when you go to apply for a mortgage, it’s a little like confession.

It’s miserable doing it, but once you get it done, you are beyond happy.So, what happens with that mortgage commitment? What does it say?

Well, it will tell the seller, as well as the buyer, that date you’re going to close.

That’s so important to both parties.

In addition to that, generally what will happen is that the seller will always continue to go through with the deal. The buyer will continue to go through the deal.

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Well good afternoon everybody this is Chris Berger. It’s time for a Berger Point.

You know, the big thing about closings —→ years ago they used to last anywhere between an hour which probably meant the buyer was closing with cash.

They were great to experience because they went so quickly.

Whereas other closings I’ve had going up to three hours and right down to the wire, literally when the bank was wiring the money to get the deal done.So what about today? What’s going on today?

Well, there’s a big thing called remote closings and it seems to be the trend.And what exactly does a Remote Closing mean?

Well, basically, the seller of the home, they pretty much pre-sign everything.

They pre-sign everything and they give their attorney the power of attorney and to receive the funds and they actually do not have to go to the closing.

Now on the opposite end on the buyer side generally the buyer — which is really nice — Today they can pre-sign probably —- I don’t know, maybe 30 pages.

And I don’t know if you’ve ever witnessed a closing or what goes on in a closing, but generally the buyer’s pages are literally a half inch thick and they’re just signing away, signing away and signing away.

Now with the pre-signing and also if you decide to give the power of attorney to your attorney, they can sign even further documents.

You can go to the closing, you can review them and you can really be in and out inside of 45 minutes, which makes it easier to go through.

Now, remember actually, as a buyer — they have three days to change his or her mind and reject the mortgage and back out of the deal.It’s called the right of rescission. (I wrote about it here)

And that’s standard with all the documents here in the Hudson Valley area. It’s happened to me in Carmel, New York.   So that’s my point.

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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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