By Luke Constantino | Friday, March 06, 2009 Brooklyn has quickly become one of the most desirable boroughs to live in New York City. There is a vast majority of neighborhoods and different ethnic backgrounds here which makes it (in my opinion) the greatest place to live. You have a majority of ethnic restaurants, museums, entertainments and parks that outweigh Manhattan by far. Why Brooklyn than Manhattan? It's less expensive and more residential... It's a place where people live. (Some kids playing "Stickball" on a residential street in Brooklyn) Before buying or renting a place in Brooklyn: "DO YOUR HOMEWORK!!!" One of the best sites that I have found to give you a great description of an area you're thinking of moving into is "PropertyShark" http://www.propertyshark.com/mason/nyc/in... 03/06/2009

As of today the commercial market here is very, very slow. Along with that a majority of small boutique type businesses have gone out of business leaving a lot of main avenues dotted with "Store for Rent" signs. It seems as if more and more businesses are either consolidating of leaving altogether. (I'm sorry, I liked the name.) As for the residential market (Houses 1-4 family) it is a perfect time to buy and a lot of people know it. The majority of low priced homes are being sold to a lot of first time home buyers here. The "trifecta" (What I call the artificially lowered mortgage rates, the 8,000 tax return from the government and the 18% drop in the market) makes it prime time. I'm noticing a lot of floaters:   "Hurry up already! I'm waiting here!!!" These are people who haven't foun... 03/03/2009

You've Been On The Market For How Long... Over A Year? Read On And Find Out Why There are several reasons that homes don't sell. It was probably as simple as - it wasn't priced accordingly with similar properties (believe it or not some agents will say anything to get the listing). It may even be simpler than that - you choose the wrong agent (we're independent contractors and have different styles and techniques). If you have had your home on the market for several months and haven't seen much activity or any offers, chances are that one or more of the reasons below are to blame. Here are the the top 7 reasons: Your price is too high No doubt about it, the most common reason for a home not selling is that the asking price has been set too high. The reasons for setting your price too hi... 03/01/2009

Shopping Around For A Mortgage Professional - ASK These Questions - Keep in mind the mortgage loan officer needs to get ALL the facts before giving you a good faith estimate. With all the recent changes in the mortgage industry taking place I would also want to make sure I was asking the right questions. Ask for points to be quoted to you as a dollar amount--rather than just as the number of points--so that you will actually know how much you will have to pay. Ask for an explanation of any fee you do not understand. Don't be afraid to ask the following tough questions: How many lenders do they work with? (different lenders have different programs to offer you based on credit, income and down payment. The more lenders the wider the range of options available to you). How do they differ? ... 03/01/2009

How To Lower Your Property Taxes During The Recession  Property values are dropping  nationwide and many homeowners like you are getting stuck with increased property tax bills.  But there are ways you can protect yourself if you think you're being overcharged.  Establishing your home's true market value and proving that the value of the property is less than the valuation assigned by your assessing district is the only way to you can contest the proposed higher amount. That's where an appraiser can help.  If you think your property taxes might be unfairly inflated, an appraisal of your property can be made to determine if your property has been assessed too high. I'm available in Queens, Brooklyn, and Long Island Counties for a preliminary consultation and will perform a ‘Price Analysi... 03/01/2009

14 Questions To Ask Your Realtor (BEFORE You Hire Them) Let me start by saying... Don't be afraid to ask the questions. It's your right to know. Not every REALTOR® works the same, or has the same level of energy or expertise. Start by asking these simple questions: How will you market my home? How many people are likely to see the listing? Is it more important to you to provide as much information as possible about my home to website visitors or to entice them into calling you to learn more? You do have a website, don't you? How do you maximize a listing's online exposure? How long have you been selling homes in this area? In this neighborhood? About how many have you sold? What is the biggest selling point of my home (or of a home in my general area)? What will be the biggest challenge... 03/01/2009

As a practicing Real Estate Attorney and an Associate Broker I have been privy to both sides of the table.  I have had many Realtors sit across the table from me where I questioned who they were. As an attorney for a buyer or a seller I know that many things can ruin a deal.  One such thing is lack of communication between parties.  I have had many closings where the first and only time I have spoken to the Realtor, on the deal, was at the closing table.  There were even times after placing calls to buyer and seller's Realtors would not get items or documents which would facilitate a closing. Also as a Realtor, I understand many attorneys think that dealing with a Realtor is time consuming and just a waste of time, since they can usually get what they need from the buyer or sellers atto... 02/27/2009

As we know the crises that faces many of us in the US and locally is something that is unprecedented.  Foreclosures, Downturns, Agents leaving the business, people loosing their jobs.  It has come and we are at a place where none of us would like to be.  The reason I write this is because everyday for the past month I have received some sort of email on mortgage modifications, either to solicit or become an associate. As a realtor and an attorney in New York State I know how difficult it is to know what is really going on.  I see some companies out there charging thousands and we as realtors are faced with either throwing are hands up in the air or passing clients who are in trouble to questionable companies who for the most part are over night creations. If you have a client, friend or... 02/26/2009

I was poking around trying to find something interesting for the wee ones to do and I ran across this website: http://www.livemonarch.com/free-milkweed-seeds.htm On this site they state they (1) are a National Foundation (2) dedicated to protecting and restoring butterfly habitats across North America and (3) you can get a tax write off for donating and helping them out. How cool is that? Very. They also report that they grow caterpillar food plants hydroponically (no soil) and don't use "artificial diets." It's a simple site, direct and to the point. I think I like them. I've never written off a non-profit-butterfly before (LOL). This should be very interesting... :-) 02/16/2009

The Outside Blog Minion Report Monday, February 16, 2009 TannStarr.com     ClubChaosAgents.com The Gateway National Recreation Center is awesome! It has a lot of cool think and do recreational spots to enjoy with your family. The little minions and I love visiting along the New York City shorelines and one of our favorite spots is Canarsie Pier in Kings County. Canarsie Pier is part of Jamaica Bay (the Brooklyn/Queens shoreline). Canarsie Pier is also part of the U.S. National Park Service.  Wikipedia has a great article on Canarsie in general that you can read here and you can get more relevant family event information if you select this link for the PDF to the GNRC Guide For Jamaica Bay. Here's a little Club Chaos eye candy of the ice minions playing in the snow. We were hoping to ha... 02/16/2009

A Vegetarian Feast at a meat restaurant-A Restaurant Review   Tanoreen 7704 Third Avenue, Brooklyn, NY 11209 718 748 5600   There are a lot of small ethnic restaurants in Brooklyn, some are better than others, but occasionally one stands out. Tanoreen is a Middle Eastern Jewel in Bay Ridge. A storefront, with rather indistinguishable decor you could easily miss Tanoreen. However, there is something special going on inside - the Food. More particularly the appetizers, yes, you can get kabobs at Tanoreen, while tasty, they are commonplace. What I am proposing, is a dinner made of their hot and cold appetizers, sort of a Middle Eastern Smorgasbord.  With a spread of Baba Ghanoujh, Cauliflower Salad, Tabbouleh, Vegetarian Grape Leaves for starters with wedges of Pita bread, you can satisfy ... 02/15/2009

A Quick Explanation As To Why Your Bank / Lender Would Modify Your Home Loan When your bank has a loan in foreclosure it is a bad debt and your bank is mandated to keep an equal or greater figure of money in its treasury. This affects them because now they have a total of the bad debt x 2 (that's twice as much) that they won't be able to lend out. What's worse is they can't charge other people interest on that money. When your bank modifies your loan, it's not considered a bad debt any longer and they can remove the same total from their treasury. They can lend that cash and charge interest on it. It also changes their fiscal reports for their shareholders. The lesser the sum of bad debt they have on their fiscal reports, the more expensive their stock will be. For further details or he... 02/14/2009

Casa Calamari 8602 Third Avenue 718-921-1900   I hate warming trays! When I walk into a restaurant for the first time and I see warming tray, my first reaction is to walk out. Foods left sitting in warming trays loose all texture and remind me a very bad junior high school cafeteria. Casa Calamari has warming trays as you come in and all I wanted to do was walk out! But, my friends persisted and my health insurance is still in effect so I said o.k. The décor is simple and clean, sort of an office workers lunch place. The service was friendly and actually knowledgeable. There is some confusion in that there are at least three Casa Calamari's in Brooklyn. I do not know if they are related. What surprised me was the food! If you are careful to order the daily specials, not on the warming t... 02/13/2009

How can there be so many more web pages available for Dallas real estate than for Brooklyn real estate? Aren't there more people living in Brooklyn that there are in Dallas? Well, OK, maybe if you take all of the Dallas area and compare it to Brooklyn you'll get more people. But 11,200,000 is still a lot of results just to find local real estate. If there are less than two and a half million licensed real estate agents in the whole United States, how are there so many pages of information about Brooklyn real estate? Well, of course the answer is that there are many pages in every web site. And, many, many, many sites just mention Brooklyn real estate, so there could actually be more than 11,200,000 results from a search for Brooklyn real estate. But how does an agent get their real esta... 02/13/2009

  Who Knew?!? San Remo Pizzeria, a Restaurant Review   1408 Cortelyou Rd, Brooklyn, NY 11226   In Italy, practically every pizzeria has a sit down restaurant in the back room. They all serve pasta and they almost all are great places for dinner. The food is carefully cooked, the portions large and the prices much lower than the Restorante's or the Trattoria's. San Remo has been a fixture on Cortelyou road for decades and they always made good pizza, but no one would take a date or a spouse there. It was certainly not a place for making a good first impression or quiet conversation with the kids screaming for their slices and sodas. But things have changed!!! Cortelyou is now a hot spot with several good restaurants and this marvelous evolution has now spread to San Remo. San Remo has o... 02/08/2009

How To Buy A Shortsale or Foreclosure in Queens - Brooklyn - Long Island NY If you have considered buying a home, the timing could not be much better than it is today. Those of you who have read some of my earlier blog posts have read my comments about waiting to acquire in late 2008 as there will be some grand deals coming. Well, it is February 2009 and deals are materializing!!! So if your looking for an awesome deal or you just want to keep an eye on the market, go to www.allnylistings.com and get your FREE list emailed directly to your inbox. SEARCH over 50,000 homes online for FREE and be the first to know about HOT NEW LISTINGS before other buyers do, please visit http://www.allnylistings.com/ Disclaimer: The above Real Estate information was provided by Vincent Martinez, Realtor ... 02/08/2009

The below Market Report is for selected areas in Brooklyn, NY: Bedford-Stuyvesant, Brownsville, Bushwick, Canarsie, Crown Heights, Cypress Hills, East Flatbush, East New York, Flatbush, Flatlands, Ocean Hill, Old Mill Basin. This information is gathered from Brooklyn MLS (it is not inclusive of all properties sold in these areas). Two Family Homes Median Selling Price – $355,500 a decrease of 32.2% from January 2008. Closed sales – 10    Days on market – 159 Total Active Listings as of January 2009 – 441   Bank Owned – 19 New Active Listings this month – 73 Expired Listings this month – 54     Days on Market – 185   Information gathered from Brooklyn, NY MLS   02/08/2009

The below Market Report is for selected areas in Brooklyn, NY: Bedford-Stuyvesant, Brownsville, Bushwick, Canarsie, Crown Heights, Cypress Hills, East Flatbush, East New York, Flatbush, Flatlands, Ocean Hill, Old Mill Basin. This information is gathered from Brooklyn MLS (it is not inclusive of all properties sold in these areas). One Family Homes Median Selling Price – $435,000 a decrease of 1% from January 2008. Closed sales – 3 Days on market – 177 Total Active Listings as of January 2009 – 233    Bank Owned – 9 New Active Listings this month – 53 Expired Listings this month – 28   Days on Market – 183   Information gathered from Brooklyn NY MLS     02/08/2009

The below Market Report is for selected areas in Brooklyn, NY: Bedford-Stuyvesant, Brownsville, Bushwick, Canarsie, Crown Heights, Cypress Hills, East Flatbush, East New York, Flatbush, Flatlands, Ocean Hill, Old Mill Basin. This information is gathered from Brooklyn MLS (it is not inclusive of all properties sold in these areas). Two Family Homes Median Selling Price – $427,000 a decrease of 11.3% from December 2007. Closed sales – 26 Days on market – 169 Total Active Listings as of December 2008 – 436    Bank Owned – 18 New Active Listings this month – 47 Expired Listings this month – 183   Days on Market – 237                                           Information gathered from Brooklyn NY MLS     02/08/2009

The below Market Report is for selected areas in Brooklyn, NY: Bedford-Stuyvesant, Brownsville, Bushwick, Canarsie, Crown Heights, Cypress Hills, East Flatbush, East New York, Flatbush, Flatlands, Ocean Hill, Old Mill Basin. This information is gathered from Brooklyn MLS (it is not inclusive of all properties sold in these areas). One Family Homes Median Selling Price – $378,250, a decrease of 6.8% from December 2007 Closed sales – 19     Days on market – 180 Total Active Listings as of December 2008 – 220     Bank Owned – 12 New Active Listings this month – 28 Expired Listings this month – 75     Days on Market – 224       02/08/2009