On-Hudson.com

Real Estate Broker Finds An Edge On HorseBack In Bedford

                                        

http://online.wsj.com/article/SB10001424052748704013604576246932531454612.html?mod=WSJ_hpp_MIDDLE_Video_Top

Saddling Up to See Where the Wealthy Live

SHELLY BANJO

BEDFORD, N.Y.—Los Angeles has celebrity bus tours. In this suburb, the best way to gawk at the homes of the rich and famous is on horseback.

The residents pay up for privacy here. Dirt streaks on cars—a result of living on prestigious unpaved roads—are a status symbol. And the houses of this area's most famous residents, including George Soros, Martha Stewart, Ralph Lauren, Richard Gere, Michael Douglas and Glenn Close, are set back upon acres of land.

To get a closer look at the multimillion-dollar estates, realestate agents and home buyers are saddling up and hitting a 160-mile network of horse trails maintained by a local nonprofit.

"I can talk about the horse trails, the homes, and about this community, but sometimes the best way to truly experience living in Bedford is from on top of a horse," said real-estate agent Muffin Dowdle, who regularly takes clients house-hunting on horseback.

The privately owned trails are reserved for the 465 members of the Bedford Riding Lanes Association, created nearly a century ago to allow farmers and fox hunters to ride from estate to estate. The association doesn't police the trails but sometimes puts warning notes on the windshields of unauthorized horse trailers on the side of the road, says Charlotte Kooyman, vice president of its board of directors.

The association has had to work to retain access to all the 220 properties the trails cross. In the mid-1990s, newcomers, including Carl Icahn and Ralph Lauren, closed off their properties. Every trail shuttered then, including those crossing the properties of Messrs. Icahn and Lauren, has since reopened, says Bob Torre, the association's chairman and the owner of a lumber company in Yonkers.

"As soon as we know a house has changed hands, we rush over and knock on their doors right away to ask if we can keep their property on our trails," Mr. Torre says. "Occasionally we run into issues and have to reroute the trail."

The association is negotiating now with Martha Stewart to bring a trail across the 153-acre estate she purchased in 2000, the association says. Ms. Stewart, an avid rider, helped redesign a trail map given to members of the association. A spokeswoman for Ms. Stewart confirmed the negotiations but declined further comments.

Other horse trails exist in Westchester, such as the Twin Lakes trail in Eastchester, N.Y., and across the U.S., including the 165-mile Tahoe Rim Trail in Lake Tahoe Nevada State Park and Kokopelli's trail, which runs 142 miles from Loma, Colo., to Moab, Utah. But few connect such a wealthy concentration of homes as the Bedford Riding Lanes.

The median home price in Bedford is $755,000. Some of the homes for sale have listing prices as high as $30 million.

Yearly membership in the Bedford Riding Lanes Association ranges from $70 for non-riders to $1,000 for a "triple crown membership," which includes invitations to the various events. The association collects about $100,000 a year.

For Ms. Dowdle, also a riding club association member, getting property owners to fall in love with the homes in the area and with the trails is about how you sell the idea. She's ridden the trails since she was a little girl growing up in a family of 11 kids in nearby Mount Kisco.

On a recent Sunday afternoon, she saddled her palomino pony, Biscuit, for a house-hunting expedition with friend and client Peter Hauspurg, chief executive of real-estate investment firm Eastern Consolidated. Mr. Hauspurg and his wife sold a farm in Bedford on 26 acres and want to buy another place.

"We're looking to buy a property close to a lake or river and this is the best way to find the perfect place," said Mr. Hauspurg, atop his quarter horse, Sky.

Write to Shelly Banjo at shelly.banjo@wsj.com

 

 

 

Put Your House To Work Paying Mortgage By Transforming The Exterior To A BillBoard

                                                     

http://bestplaces.nydailynews.com/stories/turn-your-house-billboard-and-adzookiecom-will-pay-your-mortgage

Turn your house into a billboard and Adzookie.com will pay your mortgage

 NICOLE CARTER 

VIA ADZOOKIE.COM

Need help with that mortgage payment? Turn your house into a billboard.

That’s just what startup ad firm Adzookie is doing. According to CNN Money, the company is looking for houses to paint with their colorful ad, and in exchange, they will pay the mortgage as long as the ad is up.

The company told CNN they already have more than 1,000 applications.

"It really blew my mind," CEO Romeo Mendoza told the outlet. "I knew the economy was tough, but it's sad to see how many homeowners are really struggling."

According to the company's website: You must own your home. It cannot be rented or leased. We'll paint the entire outside of the house, minus the roof, the windows and any awnings. Painting will take approximately 3 - 5 days. Your house must remain painted for at least three months and may be extended up to a year. If, for any reason, you decide to cancel after three months or if we cancel the agreement with you, we'll repaint your house back to the original colors.

They reportedly have not painted any houses yet (* the photo above is a mock up to promote the campaign).

So what exactly does Adzookie do? The outlet reports the small company is a mobile ad network, which is at the moment funded by Mendoza.

 

Negotiating Brokers Commissions 101

http://online.wsj.com/article/SB10001424052748703989004575652630596788508.html?mod=WSJ_hpp_sections_realestate

Negotiating Real-Estate Agent's Commission

JUNE FLETCHER

Getty Images

Q: I am about to list my house, and have interviewed three real estate agents. One agent charges 5%; the other two say 6%. I was most impressed with one of the agents who wanted 6%, but given how far home values have fallen in the neighborhood these past few years, I need every nickel. I'd like to try to negotiate a lower commission with the agent I prefer. But I don't know if she'd be offended if I asked, or how I should go about it. Thoughts?

—Boston

A: Your agent is a professional haggler, so I doubt she'll be offended if you ask if she's flexible on her commission.

Whether she'll budge is another matter.

According to RealEstateEconomyWatch.com, real estate commissions fall during housing's boom times, when selling a house doesn't take much help, and rise when the market slows. Nationally, the average commission rate reached 5.29% in 2009–a nine-year peak–compared to 5.02% in 2005. (That's still lower than the 6% commission your agent wants, however; the last time commissions reached that level was in 1992.)

Yet even though commission levels have been rising, falling home prices and a poor economy have taken a toll on agents' incomes. Last year, the average income for agents was only $35,700, down 17% from two years earlier, according to the National Association of Realtors. Add to that a general decline in home sales—down by about a third since 2005—and you can see why agents are protective of their commissions.

Nevertheless, the fact that many agents need listings to boost their flagging income does give you some leverage. You'll do best in your negotiations if you give something in exchange for a reduced commission. For instance, you could ask the agent to both list your home and to represent you when you shop for a new home. Or you could offer to do things that would defray her marketing expenses. For example, you could provide food for open houses for brokers and buyers or, if you're an excellent photographer, make a digital album of your home taken during various seasons of the year that can be displayed on a laptop on your kitchen table while your house is being shown.

But in the end, it may be enough simply to mention that another agent has offered to list and market your house for a lower commission, and ask her to match it. She may not be able to; if not, find out why. If the reason is that she's providing more services than the 4% agent, the higher commission may be worth it. But if she's paying a higher commission split to her broker than the 4% agent, it may be that she's simply not as productive as that agent (top producers usually get a higher percentage of the total commission in exchange for the greater volume of business they bring in). In that case, the 4% agent might actually be the better choice.

Write to June Fletcher at fletcher.june@gmail.com

 

 

 

There"s Only One Garrison On-Hudson New-York = WWW.GarrisonLiving.Com

http://garrisonliving.com/

AROUND GARRISON Garrison N.Y. is a beautiful small hamlet in Putnam County which is part of the town of Philipstown. Garrison has a shoreline along the Hudson River directly across from West Point military academy and has views up and down the river that look like Old Hudson School paintings.  Visitors can arrive in Garrison via the Metro-North Railroad, which has a station alongside the Garrison Arts Center at historic Garrison’s Landing. Among the historical sites and places in Garrison is Boscobel, the restored 19th century mansion and museum, Graymoor, a Franciscan community & monastery, The Russel Wright Design Center and Constitution Marsh Wildlife Sanctuary which includes 100's of beautiful acres of wildlife. The gateway to Garrison for those entering from Rockland County to the East is Bear Mountain Bridge, a fantastic suspension bridge built in 1924. The bridge has pedestrian walkways on both sides and continues the Appalachian Trail. Garrison offers hikers a number of trails, state park lands, wetlands and wildlife long with an old world sense of character and time, with all of its stone walls and unpaved roadways.

 

DownTown New-York City Condominium Sale Price Sets Record

http://online.wsj.com/article/SB10001424052748704104104575622920650535924.html

JOSH BARBANEL

Leslie Alexander, owner of the Houston Rockets basketball team, has resold an unfinished penthouse on the Hudson River for $31.5 million, the highest price recorded for a condominium in downtown Manhattan.

Evan Joseph

A broker-provided photo of penthouse at Superior Ink development in Manhattan, which has been sold by Leslie Alexander for $31.5 million.

He closed on the sale on Thursday following a bidding war, brokers said. The apartment is located in Superior Ink, a new condominium and townhouse development built on the remains of an old ink factory,

Mr. Alexander paid $25.4 million for the apartment in September 2009 and put it on the market a week later.

Melanie Lazenby, a broker at Prudential Douglas Elliman who represented the purchaser, identified him as a foreign buyer who planned to use the sprawling apartment a pied-à-terre. She said he was "not a celebrity."

"This is a huge testament to blue-chip properties in Manhattan," she said. "There are certain buildings that are almost recession proof."

Mr. Alexander, a Wall Street veteran and investor, went into contract to buy the apartment in December 2007, after seeing only plans for the building. At his request, the developer, Related Cos., agreed to combine two separate penthouses into one full-floor unit.

He hired an architect to design the interior of the penthouse to his specifications, a construction project that brokers estimated could cost many millions of dollars. But by the time the apartment was ready, he changed his mind and put it back on the market soon after for $39.5 million.

The listing by Dolly Lenz, also at Prudential Douglas Elliman, said the apartment has 6,300 square feet of space as well terraces in each corner of the roof. "This one-of-a kind home awaits your vision," the listing said. Ms. Lenz declined to discuss the details of the sale.

The apartment has views from the Statue of Liberty to the Empire State Building. But it has only concrete floors, flues for two fireplaces that have never been built, few interior walls, and a modest bathroom and kitchen installed to meet the requirements of a certificate of occupancy.

Although the apartment sold for far less than the initial listing price, Mr. Alexander made a considerable return on a purchase, negotiated at a time when the Manhattan condominium market was hot, and approaching a peak that hasn't been reached since. Ms. Lazenby said there were several buyers who made competing offers on the apartment.

One broker familiar with the building said that the penthouse buyer already owned a smaller apartment there.

Superior Ink, designed by Robert A. M. Stern, is home to actress Hilary Swank, Jimmie Johnson, the NASCAR driver, and as other well-known figures.

Write to Josh Barbanel at josh.barbanel@wsj.com

 

 

Reports Have Oprah House Hunting On-Hudson

http://www.huliq.com/10280/oprah-winfrey-explores-new-jersey

he queen of talk, Oprah Winfrey, was seen looking at houses in New Jersey yesterday.

Traveling in a three-car caravan, two black SUVs and a van, Oprah toured houses along the Hudson River.

Oprah checked-out several houses in Alpine, NJ, which last year, Forbes magazine named as the most expensive ZIP code in the country.
The media maven toured the grounds of the old Frick estate with its $68 million price tag, and its accompanying mansion.

Then she checked out the 30,300-square-foot, English-manor-style mansion, part of the lavish “Estates at Alpine.” While Oprah toured the mansion, workers and others were asked to keep out of site.

The estate, the most expensive in Alpine, has 19 bedrooms, 12 bathrooms, walnut and marble floors,

Venetian plaster walls, a carriage house, English gardens, a library, ballroom, movie theater, tennis court, saline pool and wine cellar, among other amenities.

"Her people requested that everyone leave the house so it would be empty when she walked through," a 

source said. However, the security guard was allowed to remain at his post at the gate.

The Estates at Alpine has several celebrity residents including Eddie Murphy, the Jonas Brothers and CC 

Before arriving in Alpine, sources reported seeing Oprah and her entourage a few miles north in Snedens 

Landing. However, no sources could elaborate on whether or not she looked at homes in the Rockland 

County hamlet.

 

Great Starter Home Sports Views & More

http://www.nytimes.com/2010/11/12/realestate/12housetour.html

House Tour: Nyack, N.Y.

Alan Zale for The New York Times

The two-bedroom house sits on a wooded hilltop.

 BETHANY LYTTLE

HOW MUCH $695,000. Taxes: $17,663.

WHAT A two-bedroom, one-and-a-half-bath house with 1,740 square feet.

ABOUT This 1890s log house is perched on a wooded hilltop with unobstructed views of the Hudson River and Tappan Zee Bridge. For the past six years it has served as a weekend escape. The two-story house sits on just under one acre, between two large homes, but conifers and the positioning help make it feel private. There is, however, a shared driveway.

On the outside the house retains its original log cabin appearance. Inside a white-on-white palette creates a light-filled space filled with unusual but attractive rooms. There are spectacular river views from the decks, accessible from the kitchen, dining, living and sun rooms, and from most windows. Each floor has a river-stone fireplace with original log mantelpieces. There’s a third fireplace, modern with a marble surround, in the living area. The house has restored hardwood floors, as well as many of the original multipane windows.

The best rooms are the sun room, with walls of windows overlooking the river, and the upper-story central hall, which serves as a river-view study for the current owner. Both bedrooms have views; the master bedroom has windows on three sides. The main bathroom was remodeled in 2002 and features marble, subway tile and new fixtures. The kitchen is a small and narrow L-shaped space that includes the washer and dryer. The unfinished basement has a walk-in cedar closet and a separate room with large windows that make it suitable as a writing or painting studio. Traffic is audible from outside the house but isn’t loud. THE AREA The house is in Rockland County, about 26 miles from Midtown Manhattan. The property is adjacent to a walking/biking trail that runs between Piermont and Nyack. Shopping and services are about five minutes away in the village of Nyack. THE MARKET This house represents the market’s middle, which ranges from about $600,000 to $1.1 million. CONTACT Donna Cox, BHG Rand Realty, (845) 641-8613; www.donnacox.com.

New Snedens Landing Listing : Sweeping Hudson River Views & A Famous Owner

http://www.nydailynews.com/real_estate/2010/11/11/2010-11-11_mikhail_baryshnikovs_ny_house_on_sale_for_4_million.html

Ballet legend Mikhail Baryshnikov's NY house on sale for $4 million

ASSOCIATED PRESS

Willens/AP

Mikhail Baryshnikov and his wife Lisa Rinehart are selling their six-bedroom home for $4 million.

A suburban New York house owned by Mikhail Baryshnikov is on the market for an asking price of about $4 million.

The Wall Street Journal says the ballet great and his wife, Lisa Rinehart, are becoming empty nesters.

Baryshnikov bought the house in 1981. The 19th-century home features six bedrooms, 5 1/2 bathrooms and sweeping views of the Hudson River.

Baryshnikov danced with the Kirov Ballet in Russia before defecting to Canada in 1974. He later shot to superstardom as a principal dancer at New York City Ballet and American Ballet Theatre. On TV, he appeared in "Sex and the City," and starred in the movies "White Nights" and "Company Business."

The house is in Snedens Landing. The artists' enclave is in the hamlet of Palisades, N.Y., about 20 miles north of the city.

 

$2195 No Fee, Alc.Studio, 24hr drmn, granite kitch, marble bath open views (80's East, Corner of 1st Ave

GoodsteinApartments.com

Trans-Hudson Express Tunnel Project Estimate Of $8.7 Billion And Counting

http://www.nytimes.com/2010/09/20/nyregion/20tunnel.html

Hudson Tunnel Review Raises Fear for Project

 PATRICK McGEEHAN

Few elected officials have ever inherited a public works project that promised as many benefits as the proposed Hudson River commuter train tunnel is supposed to deliver to the constituents of Gov. Chris Christie

Gov. Chris Christie ordered a review of the tunnel's cost, now estimated at $8.7 billion.

Advocates for the project, which would add a second pair of tracks between New Jersey and Manhattan, say it will reduce traffic congestion and pollution, shorten commuting times, increase suburban property values and create 6,000 construction jobs. Before Mr. Christie became New Jersey’s governor in January, the state’s elected officials had already lined up $6 billion for the project from agencies outside the state.

Despite everything that the project appeared to have going for it, Mr. Christie ordered a review this month of the tunnel’s cost, a move that many supporters of the project worry could signal its undoing.

During the 30-day review, digging will continue on the New Jersey side of the river, but no new work will begin. “If I can’t pay for it, we’ll have to consider other options,” Mr. Christie said last week.

On Friday, New Jersey’s two senators, Frank R. Lautenberg and Robert Menendez, and several other Democratic officials appeared at the site where digging began last year and urged the governor to reconsider. “Don’t throw away $6 billion; don’t throw away thousands of jobs,” Mr. Lautenberg said.

If state officials conclude that the project will cost significantly more than the latest estimate, $8.7 billion, advocates fear that Mr. Christie will withdraw some or all of the state’s share of that total and redirect it to highway repairs and other transportation projects, putting the tunnel at risk of being delayed or even scrapped.

Giant public works projects are infamous for costing far more than projected — the “Big Dig” highway tunnel in Boston cost more than twice what was initially estimated — but the Hudson tunnel project, which broke ground last summer, has not run over budget. Still, even some ardent supporters expect that it will.

“It’s obvious there’s going to be a couple billion dollars’ shortfall,” said Raymond J. Lesniak, a Democrat who is chairman of the Economic Growth Committee of the New Jersey State Senate. But Mr. Lesniak said the state should find a way to come up with the additional money rather than “let that kill this project.” He said Mr. Christie’s decision to halt the project and review its cost was irresponsible because it could set back the schedule by several months.

Mr. Lesniak suggested covering the excess costs by charging $2 per ticket to commuters who use the new tunnel. But that money would not be collected for at least eight years because the project is scheduled to be completed in 2018.

On Thursday, the governor discussed the project with Ray LaHood, the federal transportation secretary. “Given that this project represents the single largest transit investment ever made by the Federal Transit Administration, the secretary and governor agreed to have staff work together to further refine the estimated cost of the entire project,” said Brian Farber, a spokesman for the transit administration.

The federal government has agreed to match the $3 billion that the Port Authority of New York and New Jersey pledged to spend on the tunnel. But that carefully constructed financing plan could still unravel because the project’s planners have not yet awarded contracts to dig under the river and through the bedrock of Manhattan to create a station deep below 34th Street.

Zoe Baldwin, the New Jersey advocate for the Tri-State Transportation Campaign, described the review as “a very, very bad sign for the project.” She said she would be “shocked” if the governor’s move did not at least stretch out the timetable for completing the work.

Ms. Baldwin said the prospect of passing up the $3 billion that the federal government had offered reminded her of the New York Legislature’s rejection of a congestion pricingsystem in Manhattan. That decision cost New York State $365 million in federal funding, Ms. Baldwin said. Scrapping the Hudson tunnel would be much costlier for New Jersey and the region’s economy, she said.

“Killing this project would be an incredible loss for generations,” Ms. Baldwin said. “We can’t do a single heavy-rail expansion in New Jersey without this project.”

But some commuter-rail advocates greeted the governor’s review as an opportunity reborn. Jeff Tittel, the director of the Sierra Club in New Jersey, said state and federal officials should use the “time out” to reconsider the configuration of the project.

As proposed, the new tunnel would take trains from throughout northern New Jersey to a station more than 100 feet below street level at the foot of Macy’s flagship store on 34th Street. Those tracks would not connect to Pennsylvania Station, a block away.

Mr. Tittel is part of the vocal camp that has argued that the new tunnel should connect to Penn Station, as it was originally designed to do. The National Association of Railroad Passengers last week urged commuters to tell their elected officials that the tunnel project was vital to the region, but that it must connect to the station.

Mr. Tittel pointed out that Amtrak, which owns Penn Station, had drawn up a long-term capital plan that called for a separate new tunnel under the Hudson River, at an estimated cost of $11 billion. That plan assumed that the New Jersey Transit tunnel would be built first. But Mr. Tittel argues that there must be a way to build one set of tunnels that would meet the needs of both railroads.

“I just can’t believe that the federal government is going to pay for two separate sets of tunnels to the same area,” Mr. Tittel said. “I just don’t see that happening.”

Despite the continuing swirl of opinions about how and whether to provide commuters another way into the city, there is one point on which almost all supporters and detractors agree: Unless Mr. Christie expresses strong support for the project after the review is over, the tunnel known as the Trans-Hudson Express is not going anywhere anytime soon.