J. Philip Faranda is the broker and owner of J. Philip Real Estate, an independent brokerage in Westchester County, NY. He has been licensed since 1996 and started the firm in 2005. In 2007 he sold over 60 properties and was the number one-ranked agent for single family home closings (59) in the Westchester-Putnam Multiple Listing Service. He is also experienced as a landlord, investor, and as a mortgage loan officer. This blog is his commentary on Real Estate and related industries. He was elected a Vice President of the Westchester-Putnam Multiple Listing Service for 2010.
This is a rather old photo!
Some Frequently Asked Questions, answered in the First Person:
Q: What does the “J.” stand for?
A: Joseph. My father was named Joseph Faranda and wanted to name me Joseph, but my mother did not want a “Junior.” They compromised by making Joseph my first name but calling me by my middle name, which was different from my father’s middle name.
Q: So what do people call you? “J?” “Jay?” “Philip?”
A:You can call me Phil. I won’t be insulted if you call me J., but I’m not very accustomed to it. Some people call me J. and I don’t correct them because it confuses matters.
Q: Why did you get into real estate?
A: Like many people, real estate is my second career. I never had any intention of going into it in college. I started in publishing sales for an educational concern in New Jersey, and I advanced to management rather quickly. However, they relocated me six times in seven years and I was dissatisfied with that and the compensation. My college roommate convinced me to move to Rochester and work with him in real estate.
Q: Where do you see the real estate market going in the next 2-3 years?
A: The last big correction (or crash, depending on your preferred nomenclature) was 1987. The lost value was not recouped until the mid 90’s. Anyone who sees the market turning the corner in the next year doesn’t understand that we have years worth of inventory on the books now and a great deal of it is foreclosed property, which suppresses prices further. And there will be many more foreclosures in the next 18 months, which means a recovery is not close at hand.
We could stabilize the market very quickly if sellers were able to simply lower their prices enough to bring the buyers back, but most cannot because they owe too much. This is why short sales are so necessary to a sustainable recovery.
Q: Who is to blame for the current real estate crash?
A: Everyone shares some culpability- government, bankers, Wall Street, lenders, speculators, and borrowers/homeowners themselves. We can argue about percentage of blame until we are old. I believe that everyone lost sight of the fundamentals because they were too self interested. Responsible self regulation by the lending industry as well as prudent governmental oversight should keep history from repeating itself.
Q: You left out real estate agents. Don’t they share in the blame?
A: Real estate licensees and mortgage loan officers were the foot soldiers in the economic Waterloo we are experiencing. They are certainly paying the price for it- an attorney I know tells me that he is frequently helping real estate agents file for bankruptcy. As I said before, we are all responsible.
Q: Why are you blogging?
A: I love real estate and I love to write. My degree is in English, so I have a copy of the Elements of Style right next to my real estate books. I also feel that my commentary is credible due to the fact that I am in the field daily and not an armchair quarterback. I am one of the few real estate brokers I know with substantial mortgage experience and I am an active investor. The perspective from my marketplace is also rather unique- I straddle a very cosmopolitan New York market, suburbs, and a rather rural Hudson Valley. All that is a wide lens.
J. Philip Faranda