Real LI

Real LI http://weblogs.newsday.com/realestate/blog/ Buying and Selling Real Estate in the Communities of Long Island en Copyright 2009 Mon, 06 Jul 2009 08:30:00 -0500 http://www.sixapart.com/movabletype/ http://blogs.law.harvard.edu/tech/rss Cottages to castles, plus gardens; tour 5 examples Five homes, all of very different nature, are being featured in the 2009 Cottages to Castles House and Garden Tour on Sept. 11. The annual charity event, which began in 2001, is designed to inspire those who attend with exclusive views of the private properties. The homes in Nissequogue, Head of the Harbor, St. James and Smithtown vary from large mansions focused on detail to small cottages focused on comfortable living for children. The tour showcases what event chairwoman Arline Goldstein called, “a cottage, two castles, a lavish mansion and a typical Colonial.”

The homeowner of the featured “kid friendly” Victorian cottage extensively researched the definition of the Victorian and carefully painted the outside of their home in five different colors to be sure to meet this Victorian standard. The colonial being shown sits on a half acre of property with a backyard park that resembles a Japanese garden. Goldstein described the outside of what the tour is calling its Renaissance Castle, right, as a “Tuscan villa.” A decorator’s self decorated home is also being featured. Attendees must provide their own transportation to the properties but can expect guided tours of each home upon arrival. The tour lasts from 10 a.m. to 4 p.m. Proceeds of the event go to the sponsoring nonprofit organizations the Smithtown Garden Club, Smithtown Historical Society, St. James Chamber of Commerce and Smithtown Township Arts Council. For ticket information call the Smithtown Historical Society at (631) 265-6768.

-- Danielle DeBouver

(Handout Photos)]]> http://weblogs.newsday.com/realestate/blog/2009/07/cottages_to_castles_plus_garde.html http://weblogs.newsday.com/realestate/blog/2009/07/cottages_to_castles_plus_garde.html Mon, 06 Jul 2009 08:30:00 -0500 Retake: Hicksville dining room doubles as laundry room Hicksville is for sale.

Retake this photo, please ...]]> http://weblogs.newsday.com/realestate/blog/2009/07/retake_hicksville_dining_room.html http://weblogs.newsday.com/realestate/blog/2009/07/retake_hicksville_dining_room.html Hicksville Retake these photos, please hicksville retake this photo please Mon, 06 Jul 2009 06:10:00 -0500 Retake: Oceanside house has cord entertainment Oceanside is for sale.

Retake this photo, please ...]]> http://weblogs.newsday.com/realestate/blog/2009/07/retake_oceanside_house_has_cor.html http://weblogs.newsday.com/realestate/blog/2009/07/retake_oceanside_house_has_cor.html Oceanside Retake these photos, please oceanside retake this photo please Sun, 05 Jul 2009 06:10:00 -0500 Retake: Look before you leap at Riverhead pool Riverhead is for sale.

Retake this photo, please ...]]> http://weblogs.newsday.com/realestate/blog/2009/07/retake_look_before_you_leap_at.html http://weblogs.newsday.com/realestate/blog/2009/07/retake_look_before_you_leap_at.html Retake these photos, please Riverhead retake this photo please riverhead Sat, 04 Jul 2009 06:07:00 -0500 Ric Wake's former Cove Neck home sells for $3.05M Record producer Ric Wake’s former Cove Neck estate sold for $3.05 million, public records show. The sale of the home on Tennis Court Road closed May 28th. Wake owned the 4.18-acre property until November 2008, when the bank reclaimed it at auction in Nassau County Supreme Court in Mineola. Wake had tried to sell the property himself, listing it at $6.5 million in 2007. The most recent price asked by the bank was $4.99 million. Wake is known for his work with such musicians as Clay Aiken, Celine Dion, Whitney Houston and Long Islanders Marc Anthony and Jennifer Lopez. Tennis star John McEnroe and his former wife, actress Tatum O’Neal, at one time lived in the carriage house on the compound. The property was listed with Prudential Douglas Elliman Real Estate’s Barbara Brundige, who told RealLI in May that the new owners would be using the property as a family compound. ]]> http://weblogs.newsday.com/realestate/blog/2009/07/ric_wakes_former_cove_neck_hom.html http://weblogs.newsday.com/realestate/blog/2009/07/ric_wakes_former_cove_neck_hom.html Oyster Bay Prudential Douglas Elliman Real Estate Rich Cribs Suffolk County Fri, 03 Jul 2009 12:51:37 -0500 Online auction of Hamptons properties a success Prudential Douglas Elliman’s Enzo Morabito reports that last weekend’s online auction on Hamptonsauctions.com was such a success that he plans on doing it again the weekend of July 18 and 19. “It was fabulous,” Morabito told RealLI, adding that there were 36 bids on one property alone. That property, a half-acre tract on Shinnecock Bay in Hampton Bays, started with a minimum bid of $249,000. The property, which is being sold as part of a bankruptcy sale, went for considerably more at auction. “We drove it up to $399,000,” he said. Morabito said that his auctions appeal to consumers in their 30s to 50s. “Buyers now are so computer-savvy,” he said, adding that interested customers can tour the homes through open houses before the online event. Morabito said he has plans to expand the online auctions to other areas on Long Island and already has auctions planned for properties in Newport, R.I., and Greenwich, Conn. The upcoming auction features a Wainscott home on East Gate Road with a minimum bid of $650,000. “It is the best-priced property in the Hamptons. The house needs work, but it's the most affordable home in the area,” Morabito said. ]]> http://weblogs.newsday.com/realestate/blog/2009/07/online_auction_of_hamptons_pro.html http://weblogs.newsday.com/realestate/blog/2009/07/online_auction_of_hamptons_pro.html East End Hamptons Prudential Douglas Elliman Real Estate Rich Cribs Suffolk County Wainscott Fri, 03 Jul 2009 10:58:18 -0500 Retake: Selden house has unusual art gallery Selden is for sale.

Retake this photo, please ...]]> http://weblogs.newsday.com/realestate/blog/2009/07/this_house_in_valley_stream.html http://weblogs.newsday.com/realestate/blog/2009/07/this_house_in_valley_stream.html Retake these photos, please Selden Fri, 03 Jul 2009 06:07:00 -0500 Skies clear for Huntington modular home Photo by Ed Betz Looks like the thunderstorms held off Thursday until the heavy lifting was done on a modular Cape Cod being put together in Huntington Station. The day before, East Meadow-based builder Ray Accettella had to rush to the site because heavy rain had flooded the property’s house foundation. Four dump trucks of concrete filler mopped up the water. The first and second floors each came in two parts and so did the roof. -- Ellen Yan ]]> http://weblogs.newsday.com/realestate/blog/2009/07/looks_the_thunderstorms_held_o.html http://weblogs.newsday.com/realestate/blog/2009/07/looks_the_thunderstorms_held_o.html Builders Thu, 02 Jul 2009 19:28:32 -0500 Historic Victorian Gothic in St. James, $925,000 At 7,800 square feet the home at 5 Three Sisters Rd. in St. James is more than large enough to accommodate a few sisters. The Victorian Gothic style estate in the historic district of Head of Harbor is double the size of its original frame. Between 1850 and 1860 Joel Louis Griffing Smith, who was town supervisor at the time, moved a 1680 home to the property, where he added a three story addition -- doubling its size. In 1924 the south and west wings of the house were added along with a new porch. In 2005, the home received a new roof in 2005. Today, at 7,800 square feet, it offers a historic feel with everything from a butler’s pantry to a sleeping porch.

On 2.4 acres the property features a man made fishpond, a patio, a deck off the main kitchen, a one-car garage and five porches. Inside the 22 rooms are custom moldings and details, 10-foot ceilings, French doors, wood floors and some wide-plank flooring. There are three kitchens: a butler’s pantry, a main kitchen and one in the legal two-bedroom, two-bathroom apartment. The main house has eight bedrooms and 5½ bathrooms. The three-story house has six fireplaces, two of which are marble. The first floor features a banquet size dining room, left, a formal living room and sitting parlor, right. The home is currently listed by Eric Neitzel of DeBarbiere Associates for $925,000. -- Danielle DeBouver (Handout Photos)]]> http://weblogs.newsday.com/realestate/blog/2009/07/historic_victorian_gothic_in_s.html http://weblogs.newsday.com/realestate/blog/2009/07/historic_victorian_gothic_in_s.html Thu, 02 Jul 2009 13:24:32 -0500 Retake: Valley Stream house is ready for dancing Valley Stream is for sale.

Retake this photo, please ...]]> http://weblogs.newsday.com/realestate/blog/2009/07/retake_valley_stream_house_is.html http://weblogs.newsday.com/realestate/blog/2009/07/retake_valley_stream_house_is.html Retake these photos, please Valley Stream retake this photo please valley stream Thu, 02 Jul 2009 06:12:00 -0500 Rain delays modular Cape Cod Jarro Building Industries Corp. plans to plop down Thursday. The soil at the Huntington site, behind the Walt Whitman mall, was full of clay, which doesn’t let water penetrate, so Jarro head Ray Accettella rushed to the scene, abandoning plans for a dry day at the office. Instead, he had to order up recycled concrete fillers to cover the foundation and soak up water. “I’m on my fourth dump truck,” Accettella said over the phone, shortly before diving for cover as he shouted to his crew, “It’s going to rain.” “I’m watching the trucks going in and you can see the ground move,” he said by phone. By late afternoon, the concrete fill was doing its job, and Accettella expected to be at the site 5:30 a.m. Thursday to start work: “If the weather cooperates, we’ll be out of here by 1:30, 2 o’clock. If it rains a lot, we’ll start a little slower.” The two-story Cape Cod will be installed in six parts, the East Meadow builder said - two “boxes” for the first floor, two for the second and two segments for the roof. Accettella said workers can work through isolated thunderstorms forecast for tomorrow if no high winds blow on the modular parts strung up on high cranes. It’ll be primarily plop, plop, plop, just like the rain. -- Ellen Yan ]]> http://weblogs.newsday.com/realestate/blog/2009/07/today_the_rain_muddied_up.html http://weblogs.newsday.com/realestate/blog/2009/07/today_the_rain_muddied_up.html Builders Wed, 01 Jul 2009 16:05:00 -0500 Obama expands mortgage aid U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development announced today. For example, this means someone whose property is worth $400,000 must owe no more than $500,000 to be eligible for the refinance plan. Under the original 5 percent limit on the same house, the mortgage owed had to be $420,000 or less. The Making Home Affordable refinance plan, unveiled in February, was targeted at homeowners who were current on their mortgages but couldn’t take advantage of lower interest rates because their homes had fallen in value, below what they still owed on their mortgages. But some homeowners and housing advocates criticized the 5 percent limit for leaving many homeowners out in the cold. Even on Long Island, which has been faring better than most places across the nation, property values have dropped more than 5 percent since the subprime mortgage market collapsed in August 2007. Here, the median closing price for a home was $365,000 in May, down 8.5 percent from $399,000 a year ago, according to the Multiple Listing Service of Long Island, which also covers Queens. Today’s announcement from HUD Secretary Shaun Donovan was made in Las Vegas, considered “ground zero” in the housing crisis because vast tracts of developments and communities are in foreclosure. Sin City leads the nation in foreclosures, according to HUD, and about 67 percent of homeowners have loans that are higher than their properties’ values. To be eligible for the Obama refinance plan, the mortgages also have to be owned or guaranteed by Fannie Mae or Freddie Mac. -- Ellen Yan ]]> http://weblogs.newsday.com/realestate/blog/2009/07/the_obama_refinance_plan_is.html http://weblogs.newsday.com/realestate/blog/2009/07/the_obama_refinance_plan_is.html Help for homeowners Wed, 01 Jul 2009 14:35:18 -0500 Retake: Great Neck has interesting window treatments Great Neck is for sale.

Retake this photo, please ...]]> http://weblogs.newsday.com/realestate/blog/2009/07/retake_great_neck_has_interest.html http://weblogs.newsday.com/realestate/blog/2009/07/retake_great_neck_has_interest.html Great Neck Retake these photos, please Wed, 01 Jul 2009 06:10:00 -0500 Local officials can see foreclosures first Nassau and Suffolk. The two counties have joined the National Community Stabilization Trust, created last year by five major nonprofits, including the National Urban League. Under the months-old program, banks and municipalities sign up to be hooked up. Participating banks give local officials the “first look” at new foreclosures and a chance to buy, all before putting them on the market. The hitch: everything has to be wrapped up within three weeks or so, the time it usually takes a lender to ready a property for public listing. Craig Nickerson, a housing advocate who’s now the trust’s president, said the program would give Nassau and Suffolk officials a competitive edge against private bargain hunters. That's crucial now, he said, because more people, from veteran investors to mom-and-pop beginners, are feeling confident about the housing market and have started jumping in. “These cities, in their consortiums of nonprofit and for-profit partners that they are just finally pulling together here, need to be in the position to control the destiny of their neighborhoods by picking the strategically important properties, getting control of them and fixing up the properties,” Nickerson said. So far in the program, he said, banks have made deals on about half the bids made by municipalities. Most major lenders have joined and the financial companies on the list so far represent 65 percent of foreclosures nationwide, Nickerson said. Lender Wells Fargo, among the top three in Long Island foreclosure cases for the past 18 months, has signed up at the trust and interested in identifying local properties for the program, said senior vice president Tamara Swain. “We know we’re selling it to a responsible party,” Swain said, “and we definitely believe that getting homes reoccupied as quickly as possible is essential to rebuilding the housing market.” The trust was created to bridge the gap between “two disparate worlds,” Nickerson said. Housing advocates complain lenders have been slow to help them rescue foreclosures, and banks say they don’t want to be in the real estate business but are limited by investors on what how cheaply they can sell foreclosures. But Nickerson said both sides are often unaware of the workings and needs of each other. __ELLEN YAN ]]> http://weblogs.newsday.com/realestate/blog/2009/06/in_the_next_few_weeks.html http://weblogs.newsday.com/realestate/blog/2009/06/in_the_next_few_weeks.html Foreclosure Tue, 30 Jun 2009 15:18:53 -0500 Retake: Roosevelt house doubles as salon Roosevelt is for sale.

Retake this photo, please ...]]> http://weblogs.newsday.com/realestate/blog/2009/06/retake_roosevelt_house_doubles.html http://weblogs.newsday.com/realestate/blog/2009/06/retake_roosevelt_house_doubles.html Retake these photos, please Roosevelt retake this photo please roosevelt Tue, 30 Jun 2009 06:07:00 -0500