Berger Points Broadcast

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.

Join me on Substack for the latest Berger Points ---> https://bergerpoints.substack.com

Download my 1st Time Home Buyers Guide for FREE --> https://bergerpoints.com

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.

Join me on Substack for the latest Berger Points ---> https://bergerpoints.substack.com

Download my 1st Time Home Buyers Guide for FREE --> https://bergerpoints.com

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.

Join me on Substack for the latest Berger Points ---> https://bergerpoints.substack.com

Download my 1st Time Home Buyers Guide for FREE --> https://bergerpoints.com

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.

Join me on Substack for the latest Berger Points ---> https://bergerpoints.substack.com

Download my 1st Time Home Buyers Guide for FREE --> https://bergerpoints.com

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.

Join me on Substack for the latest Berger Points ---> https://bergerpoints.substack.com

Download my 1st Time Home Buyers Guide for FREE --> https://bergerpoints.com

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.

Join me on Substack for the latest Berger Points ---> https://bergerpoints.substack.com

Download my 1st Time Home Buyers Guide for FREE --> https://bergerpoints.com

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.

Join me on Substack for the latest Berger Points ---> https://bergerpoints.substack.com

Download my 1st Time Home Buyers Guide for FREE --> https://bergerpoints.com

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

You know, one of my clients had this happen to them. It was a seller.He sold his house, and the buyers were extremely happy at the closing.

However, there was just one problem. The seller had no place to go.

The arrangements that he made to move out just didn’t work out, so he had to stay in the home another month.So what’s the solution?

Well, certainly that seller can stay with relatives. 

Didn’t want to do that. They could rent a hotel. They didn’t want to do that either.

So they went to the people who just purchased their home, the buyers, and asked them if they could rent back their house for 30 days.

The buyers were actually renting their apartment, so they were okay with it.

And they got a little extra money for a month’s rent from the seller.

And the seller was thrilled because now all the pressure was off.

The seller could now take that 30 days to start to move out.And the buyers, well, yes, they were a little disappointed that they couldn’t move in.

The bottom line is the seller was happy. The buyers were happy. The deal was consummated because the seller didn’t have a place to go, wanted to pull out of the deal.

So it was resolved. That’s a great point.

Join me on Substack for the latest Berger Points ---> https://bergerpoints.substack.com

Download my 1st Time Home Buyers Guide for FREE --> https://bergerpoints.com

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

You know, one of the things that we see in the listing as is, and recently I took a client to see a home and it was listed as is.And looking at the pictures, it looked fantastic.

But in addition to that, it just said cash only.So, okay, the red flags go up. What exactly is going on?

Well, I did speak to the listing agent and she informed me that the property itself did not have a CO, which is a certificate of occupancy. Okay.

Well, the home can be purchased with cash.However, if a person wants to apply for a mortgage because the home does not have a CO, it’s not going to work.

So look for that, but don’t be so alarmed as when you see something as is that it frightens you awayfrom looking at the house because today in today’s environment, more and more sellers are putting up a home as is.

And generally the problems are minor.

For example, one red flag might be a buried oil tank still on the property.

Well, between the buyer, buyer’s agent and the seller’s agent, this can be negotiated.

So pursue it.

Just be aware.Have a good inspector.Inspect the properties for buyers, and you’ll be okay.

And that’s my point.

Join me on Substack for the latest Berger Points ---> https://bergerpoints.substack.com

Download my 1st Time Home Buyers Guide for FREE --> https://bergerpoints.com

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

Recently, I had a client, and we looked at a home that was recently redone.It was bought at an auction.

The seller completely redid it from the basement to the top of the attic.It was just done beautifully. What a great job they did.

Outside, perfect.My point for a seller, when we come to look at a house, all the lights should be on because that makes its best appearance.

Put the lights on in the closet, put the lights on in the basement, the garage, just so we don’t have to turn them on.In addition to that, if it’s cold outside, put the heat on, make sure it’s 70 degrees.

On the flip side, if it’s hot outside, put the air conditioning on.Make sure it’s 70 degrees.

Because to make that kind of impression on the buyer, it’s just a win-win.So we went downstairs and it was a little cool.And so, you know, I advised her strongly to come back for a second look. and she did that.

But in between the first look and the second look,I told her, I said, “You know why the cellar was a little cool?”I mean, the basement was completely redone. Gorgeous. Absolutely gorgeous.

I said, “Because there’s no heat there!”And she was astonished.

So we talked about it a little bit.And after viewing it for the second time, again, she loved the house.

However, because the downstairs had no heat,She just wasn’t interested.

And paying that kind of money, she didn’t want to put another $20,000 or $30,000 into the house.

And that’s my point.

Join me on Substack for the latest Berger Points ---> https://bergerpoints.substack.com

Download my 1st Time Home Buyers Guide for FREE --> https://bergerpoints.com