Cash Cow, Easy Money, Low-Hanging Fruit, Meal Ticket, Golden Goose… These are just some of the words and phrases to describe how the real estate industry in New York State and New York City in particular is viewed by the powers-that-be in Albany and City Hall! And of course it’s not just the developers […]
If the business or entity you are responsible for running needs to raise its top-line revenue number, in the hopes of potentially improving the bottomline number, what can be done? Simple! The business could simply raise prices being charged the consumer for the product(s), right? Of course that answer in many cases is not feasible, as there […]
The good news? The proposed budget-balancing Nassau County fee increases to record real estate transaction documents and mortgage refinancing documents were voted down by the County Legislature! While the increased revenue from these very unpopular fees are much needed to balance Nassau County’s budget, to vote them in would not have been the politically expedient thing to […]
Both Republican and Democratic Party legislators in New York’s Nassau County have filed bills opposing the egregious proposed real estate fee hikes designed to fill deficit holes in the 2018 County budget! Of course, in the current political environment, rather than consensus for where the lost revenue might be made-up were these proposed increases not […]
If not, should you be? The term activist when describing an individual, or activism when describing a group of activists focused on a specific issue, conjures up a variety of mental images! And of course the intensity and ferocity of the images will typically vary depending on the scope of the issue and the emotions […]
When is a governmental ‘fee’ nothing more than a regressive tax in disguise? Put another way, how can politicians pull a Flim Flam Florio to raise money while hoping that no one notices? And, remember that these fees are the same whether one is buying a $200,000 property or one costing $10,000,000 or more. You do the […]
Update December 7, 2016: The new fee discussed below has been passed by the Suffolk County legislature per the County website… $300.00 per document MORTGAGE VERIFICATION FEE effective January 1, 2017 In this short video clip Nancy Pelosi opines about the proposed increase in certain real estate fees and the implementation of some wholly new ones by […]
On December 14th it’s likely that Nassau County will approve real estate fee increases making it the most expensive jurisdiction in New York State in terms of closing costs! It’s an unfortunate case of deja vu’ all over again as Suffolk County this week is prepared to do some of the same with mortgage document recording […]
