My question is, if Jeremy is making all this money and signing all of these  lucrative endorsement deals. Why is he renting an apartment downtown?  He should be looking for a nice condo in Tribecca or perhaps closer to Madison Square Garden.  I have a couple of great ideas for him should he be thinking in that direction. In fact, I showed a couple of very nice apartments today that might work for him.

The Knicks newest star has really managed to keep it going. When the Knicks need a spark, he always seems to provide it.  A steal here, a dunk there. All very well timed to heat up the Garden.

The question is, will they make the playoffs this year, and if so, how far will they go? What do you think?

Also, where do you think Jeremy Lin should buy his next home? Downtown or closer to MSG?

A few developments in the world of mortgage banking that is worth mentioning.

 This summer, MetLife, who owns MetLife Home Loans, a division of MetLife Bank, decided to sell their banking and mortgage originations unit.  They cannot deal with the new regulations handed down by Barney Frank and Chris Dodd, who are both now retired.

 They found a buyer for the bank, but all interested buyers for the mortgage platform backed out.  Three weeks ago, MetLife decided to shut down the mortgage company and layoff 4,300 mortgage professionals.

MetLife was the #5 wholesale lender in the country.  They were the #10 correspondent lender in the country.

 GMAC, another top 10 lender in the country, has closely considered bankruptcy.

Bank of America has scaled back what they will offer in loan products to scale back risk and save time in operations.

 See where I’m going here? 

If Fannie and Freddie don’t wake up and expedite their approval process the industry will be gone. Private investors such as Wells Fargo are bogged down in operations. Companies aren’t long for this.  

 Every lender out there is grabbing onto the apron strings of the agencies; (FNMA / FHMC) the same agencies that many in the government want to shut down! Where will that leave things?”

 Banks are asking themselves:

“Do we really want to be in this business, given the regulatory, legal, financial, and public relations issues? Where the value of servicing has dropped dramatically in the market   Where the mortgage insurance tax deductibility has gone away?  Where every week brings a new lawsuit – when will we have more attorneys on staff than originators?”

The public is tired of the new way they must show their brand of underwear for a mortgage loan approval.  Credit is so tight it could crack a walnut.

Less competition among lenders is bad for the public.  Less lending options is bad for the real estate industry overall.  Something has to give soon or the credit will continue to seize up.  Take advantage of the low rates, if you can get it, and good luck with shopping for a loan.

Boat Pond in Central Park

Trying to sell an apartment or house in Manhattan that is under water is extremely complicated!

It is so much easier to sell a property that is not under water.

I recently closed on a brutal deal on the Upper West Side that basically consumed me for the better part of 6 months.  (A regular deal takes about 3 months-unless it is an all cash deal) Everything you could imagine conspired to kill this deal, and yet, somehow we actually pulled it off.

In a short sale, the seller basically has no equity left on their home. In order to sell the home then, the bank that holds the mortgage on the home has to agree to sell it for less than the  mortgage value on their books.  That is the first hurdle!

1) Banks hate to take less than they are owed-making a short sale very difficult.

2) The real estate brokers also hate to take less than they are owed and obviously cant work for free.

3) Transfer taxes still need to be paid.

4) Capital Gains taxes also need to be paid- The Government wants their money too!

5) The attorneys in the transaction still  need to be pad too. Even if you dont have any money in the bank.

6) If you live in a coop or condominium, they also need to get paid their back maintenence and often have legal fees they want the seller to pay as well.

7) Sometimes the banks won’t even tell you if they are going to accept a smaller amount until the property is in contract.  That means the attorney’s, the real estate brokers and the buyer and seller have to do a tremendous amount of work on speculation.

8) Mortgages, especially Jumbo mortgages (more prevelent in New York) have become more difficult to get these days, despite the much lower rates that are out there.  

9) Timing is very important, since some of these properties are on the brink of foreclosure. That means there is not a lot of time to get this done, despite all of the pitfalls involved. Everyone needs to be at the top of their game to get a Short Sale deal done on time.

10) There is also a tremendous amount of stress involved for all parties. In this most recent case, the bank gave us a drop dead date to close on the property or they were going to foreclose and it would be game over.

The complexities involed are tremendous to actually close a short sale  in Manhattan.

Unfortunately, going to foreclosure is even worse! When you get forclosed upon, your credit is completely screwed. You will find it very difficult to buy or rent anything in New York in the near future. 

For More information, contact the Janssen Team.

15 Central Park West condominium

Wow! Iman Shumpert has sure taken the city by storm.  The 6-5 inch guard has averaged 13.2 pioints per game and at 21 years old is acting like a savvy veteran basketball player. Not easy when you consider how unforgiving the New York fans can be-especially when they have a new player to look at.

Iman has provided a real spark, both offensively and defensively to the struggling New York Knicks.  The season is early, but having a  young point guard come into his own already is very encouraging. 

If Landry Fields can get back some of his confidence soon, we would have a pretty amazing starting 5 to throw at the Miami heats and Celtic of this conference. It will certainly make things interesting come playoff time. 

Now, to the important part of this blog.  Where do you think Iman, or Landry should be living in New York?  They are young guys, the world is at their doorstep. Do you think they should look at a condominium on the Upper West Side near Central Park-how about The Upper East Side? Or do you think perhaps they should be thinking more about the hipster downtown lofts in Soho or Tribeca?  Hard to say.

But one things for certain, if they keep playing this well, they might even be looking at 15 CPW or something of that nature in the near future.

Go Knicks!

Unbelievable!

Another Lawrence Tynes kick, another trip to the Superbowl. Wow! For much of the game I sat riveted to the TV watching the score go back and forth for the Giants. One minute they were up, the next they were down, and finally they were tied and into overtime.  I almost couldn’t stand it. But I dutifully sat watching past 11PM in hopes that they NY Giants could pull off the unlikely win on San Francisco’s home turf.

In the end it was the special teams unit that pulled off the miracle in San Fran, but the defense was amazing and really put it all together.

And then there was Eli Manning.  I guess it’s tough to keep the Manning’s out of the Super Bowl. If it’s not one it’s the other. What a franchise on Quaterback’s that family has. If Eli actually wins this Super bowl, then he will be one up on his illustrious brother Payton and firmly cemented as one of the games best QB’s of all time. Wow! 

I remember the last Super bowl the giants went to and won, and the person who actually drafted/traded for Eli Manning said on the final drive for New York, “this is it, If Eli is the QB we think he is, he needs to show it now”.  There rest is history. Eli made the throws and scored the touchdown, beating the New England Patriots to win his first Superbowl ring.

Hopefully he can do it again on February 5th against the same team with the same result.

Go Giants!

Time Warner Condominiums

So what do you think?

Will Tim Tebow be coming to play for the Jets in the near future? Wouldn’t that be something.  Think about it, he’s a running quarterback and The New York Jets are a ground and pound team.

Trump Tower condominium Luxury new York Real Estate

Before we get in to this, why does Eli Manning live in New Jersey at  The Hudson Tea building condominium? Isn’t he a New York football star?
Ok, I get it that the New Met Life Stadium is in New Jersey and that he’s been playing there for years, but shouldn’t he be living at a place like Trump Tower or Time Warner Center  in Manhattan or something.  Even Tom Brady bought a place at Time Warner Center in New York City.

OK, so I’ve vented now. I feel better.

So, can Eli and the Giants offense beat the vaunted Greenbay Packers and Arron Rogers?  It’s not going to be easy. However, the Giants defense is cooking these days and looks great! I think the key to the game is getting Rogers out of his comfort zone and knock him down a couple times.  A lot of end around blitzes if you ask me.

We know that Eli can score-especially with Cruz coming into his own, so what we need is a total shutdown of the Packers by the Giants defense.

With Eli having a pro-bowl year, he stands a good chance of actually beating Greenbay this time.  The Giants almost took the last game when it game down to the final minutes. It was so close. I bet they can still taste it.  Hopefully that will motivate them to pull this one out!

Go Giants!

It was Dcember 8th 1980 when john Lennon was murdered by the deranged killer named Mark David Chapman.

John Lennon's Imagine

It’s hard to believe that was over 30 years ago today. Times have definitely changed since then. We now have so many new things like cellular phones, Ipad tablet computers, the Internet which I am now writing on, and so many other things it’s hard to count.  Back then, before even I was in real estate, brokers used to carry around index cards of new listings and everyone advertised on The New York Times Real Estate section in the Sunday Times.  If you wanted to buy or rent a home, you would go through  hundreds of listings and circle  the ones you liked with a red pen to go back to later.  Now, You can just go to a website like Luxury New York Condominium.Com and register to search all the listings in Manhattan in  seconds.

The Dakota cooperative

Times have certainly changed. The Dakota, where John Lennon lived looks pretty the same as it did back in 1980. There are still all of the lovely details that were there on that fateful day. Across the street in Central Park is the Imagine mosaic that John’s wife Yoko Ono had commissioned after his death.  Even these days, on any given day, you can pass by the mosaic and see flowers placed nicely around on the image in the sign of peace.  It’s a nice image to imagine-don’t you think?  Too bad there isn’t more peace in the world.

The Chelsea Merchantile Condominium

It’s hard to believe that it’s been almost 12 years since the Chelsea Merchantile building was converted to condominiums.  I remember looking at a couple of apartments here for investment that have since appreciated dramatically. Too bad I didn’t buy at the time.  Anyway, this building is top notch.  When you walk into this luxury doorman loft condominium, you notice the immaculate attended lobby and pristine entryway. The building itself has a 10,000 square foot planted roof deck, children’s playroom, healthclub and parking within the building. In addition, there is a parking garage that is accessible from inside the building. And of course, you have the Whole Foods Market in the building as well.

Located in the ever growing and changing Chelsea neighborhood, The Chelsea Merchantile was one of the first luxury condominiums to move into the area. Since then, many new condominiums like The Campiello collection,  The Chelsea Stratus condominium, The Grand Chelsea and  The Oculus condominiumhave made their way into the neighborhood.

Cole Haan

In addition, sixth avenue has become a mecca for large brand name stores like Old Navy, The Burlington Coat factory, Barnes and Noble and cole Haan and Club Monaco.  Also new in the neighborhood is the High Line Park and numerous new developments in the Highline Park area-some of which are still being completed in thhe next couple of years. It’s a great place to live and certainly a great place to invest in new projects and neighborhoods that are up and coming as well.