I was asked this question from a friend who has a daughter graduating with a degree in History:  " She doesn't want to teach. What else can she do?"  My friend does computers, so liberal arts are something a bit foreign to him. But he knows all the jokes about English major flipping hamburgers.  My reply:

     Tell her to be a real estate agent, like me. And I am only partly joking. For a liberals arts major, with no science or math, there are LOTS of jobs out there for which they are qualified. But you have to look beyond the obvious, think out of the box, and then sell yourself.

    First, think about the skills she has, not the courses she has taken. For instance, I know how to express myself well and I can read, research, make an argument and back it up with facts. I know people and can listen to them. Historians need to do that, but so do real estate agents. History (and so many other things) can teach you these skills, ones that  are needed everywhere. As long as she does not need specific skills (science, math...), she can apply for a job. Here's where selling herself and her abilities to learn most anything, to assimilate it, and then to run with it comes into play. Employers sometimes need to see/learn the same thing that I preach to graduates.

    I have told my kids that a high GPA ("cum", in my day) and a fancy college will get you a job. Then you have to keep it. To keep it or get a subsequent job, you only need to do three things: do your job well, do it on time, and get along with everyone. Nothing else matters as much.

    Obvious jobs besides teaching, are: academic of business researcher, National Park Service historian, minister, librarian or library assistant, legal assistant or paralegal, curator, legislative work or lobbying, journalist, work with various public and quasi-public entities that serve folks both here and abroad, museum work, most State jobs, manager of many things (stores, apartment complexes, certain offices, etc)...Get one of those job lists and look down it and you will find loads of them where her skills will be needed.  I think of a liberal arts degree as a entryway into many, many fields. While you may not be specifically trained for a particular job, you are generally trained for many jobs. You are the person who can work for a few years, then move sideways or upwards to another, quite different job, and still be able to handle it.  For some of these jobs, additional training will be needed, but isn't that the same for a new BA in science or engineering as well? Also, a liberal arts degree qualifies you to study many more job-focused subjects in grad school.

     I saw it in my day, saw it with my kids, and it is still here - how does someone who is 18 and with no more experience in life than a high schooler gets, how do they suddenly decide what they are going to during all their adult years? A lucky few do, more of them figure out something while in college, and the rest, like me, muddle into it, getting in the back or side door. I went to college to be educated and I had not really thought too deeply about the job I would have afterward. Today's students are not like that at all, but they are not children of the '60's either. Like so many during the '60's, yet even today a few lost souls (#1 Son?) never figure out a career path and make straight progress toward it.

     My oldest, Daughter #1, has a poly sci degree. She anguished for the first 2 years of college over the choice of a major, then finally was inspired by a course and settled on poly sci. By the time she graduated, she was, ahem, less enthralled. Over with schooling, she worked as a ski bum for a couple of years before she was ready to use her brains again. Then she took a bunch of courses, trying on new things for size. She settled on underwater archaeology for her MA (that one took us by surprise, though it was still liberal arts) and after one year working in the field, realized that what she liked about underwater archaeology was the scuba diving. Looking back at her life, the continual focus has been on physical, athletic things, yet she recognizes the need to use her mind as well. So, now, she is a Pilates instructor and loves it. But, with the economy as it it today, it is hard to find enough work. You don't take exercise classes if you are worried but your job or about making ends meet.

    Daughter #2 has always been the focused one, the achiever who went right for the prize. She majored in international studies as an undergrad and international economic and social development for grad school. And that's what she is happily doing. I guess I have three examples, one from each side.

It turned a bit strange, but the guy who made the offer is legit. It turns out to be Walt, someone that I have known for 25-30 years, though I had lost touch with him after he stopped farming. When I first met Walt, he was on a farm he thought he was buying from 2 cattle dealers. After months and months of excuses why he did not receive the deed, he realized that he was never going to own the place, not as long as they had his downpayment money and was making his monthly payments to them. When he stopped paying them, they listed it with me, and that is how I met him. Decent guy, though obviously naiive.

Then, a few years later, I ran into Walt in the next county over and in a similar situation. He was running the farm for an out-of-the-area owner who had promised him ownership at some point. Only he listed it for sale instead. Knowing this was coming, Walt had rented a neighbor's farm and was milking in two barns when the owner pulled the plug on the first one. After a while he left the rented place and I lost track of him.

The rest of his history, I got caught up on tonight when I spoke with him. His daughter said he wanted to see the place he made the offer on (and sure enough there were other offers on other places as well) and gave me his number. She told me to say immediately that I was calling about a farm, so that they did not hang up on me. When he heard my name, he remembered me, and we had quite a conversation and he told me what he really wanted, a farm substantially larger than the one he offered on, but with a spring possession. Was the daughter carrying out his orders, or was she reading between the lines for him?

Walt has never been one to have much money, not cash. After leaving the farm I last knew him from, he took a construction job, driving long distances every day (up to 300 miles) and earning big money, but, I'll bet, not keeping much or any of it. Well, he got injured on the job, and the $175000 cash offer came from a settlement on the injury.

I suspect Walt is like some other folks I have met over the years; they know how to do everything but conduct the business. I'll tell you about some of them. The first I met was the herdsman of the uncle of the fellow from whom I bought my first farm. The uncle retired and the herdsman took over the operation and ran himself out of business in a few months. He would work fine when someone was over him giving orders, but when on his own, got nothing done. To be fair to the guy, he may not have had enough money to start with to keep himself solvent. You have always needed either an exceptional situation and exceptional management or enough money down to get the debt load to a manageable figure. The downpayment that you have also serves as incentive to make ends meet; if you  don't, you lose it.

And then there was Tony Kildare. I bought a baler once that he had previously owned, owned, that is, until it was repossessed. Then I ran into him on a farm that I had hoped to get for sale. And for the next 15-20 years, Tony was in and out of business, always on a different farm that he had rented. The pattern was that he would go under, then find another place and get enough money together for someone to back him for the cattle and machinery that he needed. The dealers and auctioneers made a lot of money off Tony over the years.

And then there was Joe Gottschalk. I first ran into him on thet Bolanger farm. Hal had retired and rented the farm to Joe, who had worked for him for years. And had always done a good job. But knowing how to farm and knowing how to run a farm, are not the same thing. You need to know what to do when there is no one there to give orders. Hal made an even bigger mistake. After turning the farm over to Joe, he stopped going to the barn - he stopped overseeing his investment. When he finally got around to checking upon things, many months later, the 150 cows had dwindled to 40, the barn was full of shit, the cows had poor feed and were milking poorly and not in good flesh and the house needed total remodeling. Hal took it on the chin. Joe moved out, to do the same at another place. Next time I saw him was on a farm that was being listed. He was leaving it - I am not sure just why, but the owner did not say anything complementary about him. Joe bounced around for some years, got a new wife, entered into a partnership with a relative on a rather nice farm on the north side of the Mohawk River. Both of them went under there. Joe said he got out before the other fellow ruined everything. I imagine the other fellow had his own story. I know there was a divorce that involved the other fellow.  Over the years, I have gotten many listings from divorces.There was always a reason why it was not Joe's fault. And then here of a sudden was Joe again, come to look at a cheap farm that I had for sale. They were sort of farming, with a few cows milking, just enough to generate bills but not enough to pay any. For that, they had jobs at Walmart, a convenience store, and the Post Office. You gotta really want to farm to do that, especially when you are 60.

Anyway, they liked the place and worked out a deal with the owner. They had no money but did own their own home (I think she got it from her first husband). Then, I learned that they did not intend to sell their home. So, what are you going to use for money? There was none. Their $500 deposit check bounced. That cost us $20 in bank fees and even that they couldn't pay. But they wanted the place, not to worry (yeah, sure - not to worry) and were working on getting the financing. That dragged on for months, always one excuse or one (lack of) progress report after another. The owner gave them every possible chance. He was a nice guy and liked them. Finally, another buyer showed and he immediately sold it to them.

The dairy world used to be full of Walts, Tonys and Joes, but they are a dying breed. Bankers are more savvy, the ante of what you need to get started has been upped every year, and these guys don't really have a chance any longer. When I started farming, in 1974, I had $8000 of my own money, but only needed $1000 of it to get started. The rest I invested to get better cattle. When I started in real estate, in 1981, that figure had been upped to $40000 to get a 40 cow farm, which was considered the minimum size on which to get started. By the early '90s, those figures had been upped to $100000 and 60 cows. Now, you better have half a million and plan on milking 80-90 at the least.

It is sad for me to see these young couples who have strong backs, a work ethic, ambition, and knowledge of the dairy industry, and to know that this is totally insufficient for them to realize their dream. They can't get started like I did, yet the industry needs these people. They will have to forego their dream for 20 years, get jobs in industry, buy a home, and by the time they are 50, if they are not too tired or worn down by other cares, then maybe they can start. They should have the same chance to start that I did; that is one reason I started backing young people who wanted to own their own place.

* Tis the season....
The year started off with a bang - for me. At Burlington’s First Night, where we volunteer, I was suddenly struck with a plumbing problem (onset of old age?) that kept me on the go for too many months. I can live a normal life now, and at least it wasn’t the Big C. Music continues to be a high point. Finally, after so much anguish and waiting, my new baritone guitar arrived, all that I could ever wish it to be. I also bought a banjeaurine, which has been a blast to play. I didn’t get quite as many solo jobs and there were definitely less with my Irish band, which I attribute to the economy to some degree.  But the new duo we started at the end of last year, The Bentwood Rockers, is off to a good start, playing the stuff that later became bluegrass, country, and R & B. We’ve had loads of fun, ample occasions to perform, and appreciative audences. I will finish up the year with a “Last Night” celebration gig in Ft. Plain, a 3  hour long one, so come on out and hear me along with all the others. For $5, you can’t go wrong. Canajoharie’s Music on Mainstreet program finished a great year and I am proud of my part in that.

Real estate was even worse than last year, just terrible, but next year looks as it it will be brighter. The flip side of a bad year is that I get more free time. We did sell our Westford property and then acquired 15 acres with a classic stone home, 3 car garage and a pole barn. Attached to the home is a restaurant. Now that’s different. The remodeling is nearly complete on it and it is a lovely property - for someone (a someone we haven’t found). Meanwhile, a group of Mennonites are using it as a church. We are happy to provide that for them.  Our Hickory Hill place is nearly completed. That was a big job, one that provided the best part of 2 years employment for our  main carpenter. I didn’t bargain on so much work when we bought it, but must admit that it turned out beautiful. Anderson Circle came back to us when the tenants stopped paying, so now we have a total of 3 to sell. If we do, 2010 will be a bright year. Until we do, no more purchases.

For both of us, we have had mother health issues, cancer for Janet’s mom (86) and Alzheimer’s for mine (95). No immediate threats to life, but ample reason to be away from home and concerned.

Janet has continued to do more of the same, quilts in the winter and flowers in the summer - gardening for pay and for herself (not for pay). Her involvement with orchids grows (I couldn’t resist the pun) along with her delight in the greenhouse that we added just over a year ago. She has got that thing crammed with orchids and keeps finding space for more (how does she do that?).  She also continues to sing large choral works with fall and spring performances. No big biking for her this year.

Alena will pay taxes in 4 states this year. She started off with Pilates work in NY and Connecticut, then moved to Nantucket again for the season where there is lots of Pilates work for her. After the season ended, she returned to Charleston to work in a studio where there was less work  than she expected. So, she is waitressing again.  She just spent a week kite-boarding and scuba diving in Bonaire, a real treat.

Rachael changed jobs though she still has to live in the Evil City. She now works for a small nonprofit who deals globally with concerns of the handicapped. The job took her to Dubai for a week this fall.  And she is more serious with her boyfriend, Joe, taking a short cruise with him.

Cory stayed home this year, though he plans to fight fires again next summer. The big thing was the acquisition of a home, a fixer-upper to be sure, but that is something he has the ability to do. By chance, it happens to be located very near where he grew up. He works part -time for St. Lawrence University and the rest for himself, doing carpentry and woodworking.

Janet and I took some much-needed time off during the year. To heck with low income, we did it anyway. To IOCAlums, we had advertised a long canoe trip on the Buffalo National River in Arkansas. Although a few had mild interest, none came. But cavers came. We met 2 brothers from Illinois  there and teamed up with them to continue our canoeing trip. Then in late August, we used a voucher I had and flew west for backpacking in Nevada’s Ruby Mountains, the best trip we have taken in several years. They are a little-known and exceptionally nice range. No crowds, great scenery, and wonderful hiking. Both the Buffalo and the Rubys are places you should check out if you get the opportunity.

And so ends another full year, one packed with activity. We are so fortunate to be able to do all this and hope that you and yours will have the same kind of rewards for your family next year. And we wish you a...
                 Very Merry Christmas
or    Happy Holidays  if you do not celebrate Christmas (how unlike me to be politically correct)          and a Happy & Prosperous New Year (for everyone).




Roland & Janet,  Alena, Rachael, and Cory, along with Puddin Tane  (who never has anything to say and who doesn’t type)


(sorry, the graphics did not make it)

I call it “fishing”. We had one today. Out of the blue I got a call on a farm. But they didn’t want information, nor did they want to see it. This gal who called said her father wanted to make an offer.  Had he seen it? No, but he knew where it was. (Sorry, that’s not quite the same.) But no matter to them. She said he wanted to offer $175000, cash, with a quick 3 week closing. She acted like he was in a rush and want an answer tonight.  I informed her that the owner would most likely refuse the offer, since he owed more than that on it. No matter, she said, that was the offer. She knew we had advertised it as “Offers wanted”. Yes, but $175000 on a not unreasonable price of $299000?  I then asked if he also wanted to buy the machinery or the hay that was in the barn. She briefly considered this and said “Yes”; she wanted them thrown in as well. I was able to stifle the laugh.

    Who was making the offer?, I asked - but didn’t find out. So, what is going on here? I can’t be sure yet, but it stinks of illegitimacy. Let’s be generous and assume this guy is just fishing. By fishing, I mean someone who is casting out offers, one after another on different places in hopes that someone will bite and take a lowball offer. THEN, they will come look at it, but they don’t want to waste their time to actually see it until they know someone will accept far less than the asking price. I have witnessed incidences where these kind of folks had several offers out all at once. With nothing written, they can back out of any of them in case more than one gets accepted.  That is kind of a silly way to try to do business, but it is understandable. It is just hard to regard them as serious.  However, my policy is to treat all offers as serious and so I presented it the seller with my recommendation to refuse it. He did. "Did he want to counter?", I asked. "Not until we are closer on the price." I have to be careful what I say with these lowball offers. Some sellers would be mad at me for getting a low ball offer.

    Now, let’s be less generous. The call was from one town away. It is not hard to come see something when you are that close. BIG RED FLAG!!! No matter that it is his daughter calling and that he may be in California or somewhere. If you want to own something, you can ask a daughter to drive 15 miles to see it first. That’s not too much to ask. So why didn’t he? He didn’t want us to know who it was? And why not? Because he knows neither of us will deal with him if we first knew? Or some other reason?

    This is who the seller think it may be: there is a man nearby who buys lots of property. In fact he came to New York intending to buy 40000 acres. He is richer than God and dirtier than the Devil. He has his own real estate agency to sell what he buys (and other stuff as well). His name is not on it, but his fingerprints cover it. In a way he is interesting and probably deserves his own chapter - I know him well, far too well. He is dumber than sin about some things. Once, I mentioned that I had spoken to some buyers at their home in New Zealand (they wanted to buy a farm he had listed with us and we had vacationed there). “New Zealand?” he asked, “Isn’t that over by Switzerland?” But when there are dollar signs involved he is extremely shrewd, extraordinarily so. The guy never loses on a deal. And if he can make more by going to court, by suing someone, that's OK, he’ll do it. I have had several dealing with him and have watched many more. Each and every one of us has lost, every time. 

    Well he was nosing around the farm this summer, before we had it listed. The owner had it scheduled to sell at auction and this guy tried, rather forcefully, to buy it from under the auctioneer, telling the seller all sorts of stuff how he was not obligated to his contract with the auctioneer, blah, blah, blah. But the seller has some scruples and refused to do that. Maybe the seller is right about the identify of the offer-maker. It's a good guess, but I kind of doubt it is correct.

    Using a reverse phone directory, I got an address. The last name of the daughter is one that is a local name to that town, a family whom I know many members of and the ones a know are quite honest and down to earth - definitely not the kind of people who pull stunts. I now have an address and will check it out. I know most of the folks on that road and have sold 8-10 properties along it over the years.

    To be continued.... there's a lot left to learn.

The nation is in a quandary about our various wars. What do we do? Put in greater effort, more troops,  more money? Are we pouring it down a rat hole? Are there real national security issues at risk? The Bush war is turning into an Obama war - is that fair? It is at least interesting to see Republicans who supported Bush’s policies now change their coats when the man who inherited them carries them forward.

Inevitably, people draw comparisons to Vietnam. Sometimes, those comparisons are not fair or do not exist. Other times, there are real lessons to be learned - once again. I have come to  an opinion on our current wars, one that was paralleled in Vietnam. I am convinced we cannot win just  on military might alone. It is like bringing in massive pumps and trying to pump a beach dry by putting the water further out from shore. To be successful, one thing is needed above all others - we need to win the hearts and souls of the populace. Period.  If we don’t, “they” will be back as soon as we leave.

These are not wars with one army pitted against another. There is no conventional combat taking place. It is guerilla warfare with the guerillas coming out at night, so to speak, and hiding or pursuing peaceful and lawful past-times during the day. If they are hiding, it is only the populace who will find them. If they are hated, they will be turned in. If it is our side who is hated, they will be given succor even if they are not loved or even liked. “The enemy of our enemy is our friend”.

So, where this war can be won is on the street, nowhere else. The people of each country must come to realize that their support of the elected regime means something, that the people they elected can be removed come election-time if they are not satisfied with them, and that if they are voted out of office, that there will be no reprisals  and that they will leave office peacefully and become the “loyal opposition”. To most people in Arabic countries, these are foreign concepts, easier to understand in one’s mind than to believe in one’s heart.

And, as important as these concepts are to us, they may not be to these folks. Believe it or not , there are other things more important than political freedom, things we take for granted. You do not need democracy to get them either, though that will work. What am I talking about? You want the lights to work when you turn the switch and the water to fun when you twist the faucet. You want to work and support your family. You want to be able to socialize with friends and family. You want freedom from fear. You want to live a normal life, in a stable situation where you can count on things. It is worth giving up the right to vote, or even to speak your mind freely, if you know you can make a life for your family and not have to worry about being blown up or spirited away by nighttime thugs. You want the freedom to worship as you believe. And you will readily give up the clothing of democracy if you can see yourself moving ahead in life by forsaking it.

So, our greater job is to provide these other freedoms for people, to show them that life can be better under democracy, whatever version of it they select, to show them that we want to bring stability and safety to their lives and want them to have a better life. If they want to achieve that by emulating us, that’s OK. If it can be achieved in a way that is unique to them, we’re OK with that too. And it doesn’t have to be democracy; there are lots of other ways that can work as well. Remember “benevolent despots”? They can work too.

We need to have these people economically linked to us, socially if we can. Religiously will not happen. We can show them respect for our beliefs and insist that they respect ours in turn. They need to feel that the enemies we are really fighting over there are ones that they need to fight as well in order to achieve their own greater needs. They need to know that we do not want to overturn their institutions, nor do we want to make them just like us.

In my view, there are two things that populations fight for that transcend rational thought processes - religion is one. National pride is another. I am not sure how much national pride is at work in Afghanistan and Iraq, but religion is critical. Both countries have a very long history of religious intolerance. They share a faith but inhabit different branches of it, branches which they apparently feel are worth bickering or fighting about. I have no idea how to stop that and it will always be a destabilizing factor in both countries as long as it exists. Right now, many see us as a common enemy and when we leave, this  fragile union may be expected to disintegrate. It’s like, “I can fight with my brother, but you better not bother him”. I have no idea how anyone can combat that.

All that our military “solution” can accomplish is to buy us time to gain the hearts and minds of the population. We have done some of this in Iraq but far more is needed. We have not even started in Afghanistan. I feel that we will leave with these things unaccomplished. We will eventually tire of the war, like we did in Vietnam. It cannot be won militarily. Is that worth dying for? That’s a question we each have to answer. I am afraid that we will just declare a victory and go home, with many good Americans having shed their lives in vain,making us not one whit more secure in the long run and not helping the daily lives of the Afghans or Iraqis either.

What I Am Doing Here?

I have never felt I am a highly opinionated person, but that does not mean I don’t have opinions and lots of them. People who are highly opinionated, by my definition, are also inflexible in their beliefs, Sometimes, I am that way, not not usually. I like to hear both sides before making up my mind and reserve the right to change my mind if I feel circumstances change or if (horrors!)  am wrong.  That seems reasonable to me and not inconsistent, though if a politician did that, he is called “wishy washy” or a “flip-flopper”. But, not interested in any political or even corporate offices, I can be that  way . No one is perfect or makes the correct choices every time and they should be willing to admit mistakes and correct them.

So it is in my writings. I have had a long  and, I feel, interesting career and I want to share moments with others. I also want to give advice, advice that is not commonly given or found. Often that is because my specialty of farm real estate is, well, “unusual” and to take advice found elsewhere may be to fit square pegs in round holes. Still, there is much that I have written that will be of use to someone buying or selling a small business or even a tract home. It is up to them to sort out what they can use and file away the rest.

I am not a lawyer and nothing I can say is intended to supplant legal advice given from a trained professional. See, I know enough to give you a disclaimer. If you want to act upon anything I say, get advice elsewhere to substantiate (or disprove) me.  Remember, my first objective is to entertain, al la James Herriot, who also had a long and engaging career.  If I can help someone while amusing them, so much the better. Just remember, it’s all opinions, ones that I am not afraid to share.

In the course of my thirty plus years in farm real estate I meet many people. Nearly all are great folks and like to think that I am the first friend that my buyers make when they come to our area.  However, some are also characters and many have given me memorable experiences. When I can use these them to illustrate a point, one of  my opinions, so much the better. Other times, I don’t want anything to get in the way of a good story. My memory is not perfect, but my stories are at least true to my memory. Life is funny enough that it does not need embellishment.

When I was in college, farms were not in my thoughts any more than, say, skydiving, that is, jumping out of a perfectly good airplane. When asked what I “was going to be” , I always answered that my second choice was to be a school teacher, but I had not settled upon my first choice. So I took enough courses to be certified as a Social Studies or History teacher. Still not having found that first choice, I looked for jobs upon graduation and finally found - one. I took it and sort of enjoyed the year. They rehired me anyway, but then as the realization that Uncle Sam wanted me to go to southeast Asia, they asked to be released from the contract. That seemed fair to me, so I released them, and, facing a very uncertain future,  I went on to grad school, again in history. The $6000 that I earned in my one year of teaching not only met all my needs during the year, but I had saved up enough money to pay for 2 semesters of grad school and to buy a NEW car, a Land Rover (they were lots cheaper then, just as unreliable, and a very long way from fancy). Do that today.

Why History? That’s an odd story, one that illustrates how naive an 18 year old was in those days. All my life as a kid, I intended to go to college as I always new I wanted more education that high school could give me. Which particular college was not as important as just getting there. I settled on the cheapest, where my mother had gone, the University of Delaware, I also knew it was a good school. All Delawareans do. So in the midst of filling out forms, I can across a question I had not anticipated. They asked me what my major would be? I had never considered that I was going to have to major in anything. I just thought I could take whatever courses I felt like taking until I had accumulated enough credits to graduate. Hmm, this was going to require some thought. So I thought for a day or two (well, maybe it was an hour),  trying to figure out what high school subjects I liked the best. Well, it sure wasn’t math, and probably not any kind of science. But history was fun, actually anything involving the social sciences (which are not sciences, not matter what they say). So I wrote down “History and the Humanities”. I never checked to see  what majors were offered, never even realized there might be such a list. Well, humanities was not on the list, but history was, so the computer (they had commuters then, ones that took up large rooms and didn’t do as much as cheap laptops do today) called me a “History” major. That was OK by me, I just wanted an education. Looking back, “English Literature” would have been a far better choice. I read a lot, always have, and strongly prefer well-written literature top anything else. But “English” did not occur to me when I filled out that form. But History was a good choice, too. It is interesting, real stories about things that really happened, things from which we may draw conclusions to help us understand the past, to know how we got to where we are now, and to avoid mistakes in the future. It taught me to read well, to draw appropriate conclusions, to argue my points successfully, to research, and to interact intelligently with others. There are many other ways you can acquire these very necessary and very hirable skills, but History is a good way.

Getting back to the story, I was in grad school at the University of Connecticut and worried about Uncle’s claim upon me. During the course of working on, shall we say, “options”, l learned that one of them was based right at the college, something called the “Dairy Herd Improvement Association”. It was considered an alternative to military service. I had absolutely zero interest in dairy farming in the past, but if it was an alternative to killing people while giving up my normal rights as a citizen, than I was interested. An added attraction was that I would be able to continue in grad school there. So, I interviewed. Nearly everyone who interviewed got a job. But I didn’t know that of course. It was what many folks would consider to be an unpleasant job, dirty, lots of driving, ridiculous hours that changed every day, and very low pay.  But, it would enable me to continue in grad school, would provide the money to attend, and would demonstrate to my draft board that not only was I not trying to avoid “service” but that I had voluntarily began it even though not required to do so.

The job involved visiting a series of dairy farms once monthly, one farm per day, attending all milkings and ”supervising” them. “Supervising” meant weighing milk from each cow, taking milk samples for testing, and gathering various herd facts and information which a mainframe computer at Cornell would later spit back to them as useful information for herd management.  As I was trained, I would become proficient in interpreting this data and instructing the dairymen how to use it efficiently (the teacher in me?). I started part time with them as that semester I was full time in college, then at the semester’s end, I reversed it and worked full time for them. This continued for nearly 5 years. During that time, I finished grad school and met a special someone who was interested in agriculture (pure chance). I also learned that everyone had taken bets on how long I would last at my job, one month or two. They didn‘t know me; I’d had far worse jobs and this one was interesting. I met some great people and didn’t mind a little shit on me now and again. And I was learning, soaking in something that I knew nothing about, a whole new world. Visiting a farm once a month, I could see progress that the owners did not see on a daily basis and I enjoyed my small share in their progress. In short, the bug bit.

A year after my wife graduated, we sold our tiny home and used the $8000 profit as a down payment on an operating farm. We found an incredible buy, having looked at many, many farms in the process. At first, we wanted just a hobby farm and we found one that tempted us enough to cause me to think of what I could do there to support ourselves. One idea led to another and soon I was making drawings of the barn and how it could be configured to use as a dairy. We made an offer there, but it was declined. We decided then to jump in it with both feet, to go commercial and buy a real farm, which began a whole ‘nother type of search. I made the decision that doing what I wanted 7 days a week was better than having a job I didn’t care about and living for the weekend. When we found the farm we bought, there was no question that it was the right one. We had set reasonable parameters for what we wanted and thought we could afford, then adjusted them to reality as needed, but this one just shouted to us, “This is it” (it had 150 acres,  120 tillable, 2 useable barns, a home and 2 tractors and a line of machinery, all for $50000, and, yes, that was a steal even in 1974).

We put more energy into the farm than we did into our personal relationship and the farm flourished while the relationship suffered. That would have probably happened anyhow. That was the low point; high points were magazine and newspaper articles about our operation, being in the top ten for production in our size in the whole state, and receiving recognition in the farming community for our efforts;. Our auction less than 5 years later had folks lining the road for a half mile in all directions and it set the county record. It also allowed us to own the farm free and clear, for a few days, until the closing.

I took my share, went all over the US looking for another farm, seeing hundreds all over. Living out of the back of my little truck, I had an eight month vacation/farm search. When I got done, I learned two things. First, that the perfect place for you is not always to be found. I ended up settling for the best compromise. Secondly, I ended up settling back in New York. After traveling all across the country to see farms (skipping Minnesota and Wisconsin for recreational reasons), I had come to realize that the best buyers were right where I had started. More land, good land, more buildings, homes more to my liking, for a cheaper price. So, I started back in.

This time, things did not go so easily and had an unending series of small setbacks. The good part of those two years was that I got married and the marriage was a very good one, one designed to last. But the light at the end of the tunnel was tiny indeed and we finally decided to liquidate. Knowing I would need a job for a while (the plans were to keep our younger heifers and see what we wanted to do with them as they freshened a year or more later), I joined Mort Wimple as a salesman. I sold the farm with his help, at the same time initiating yet another exhaustive farm search. We ended up finding another farm which was perfect for us. Two out of three isn’t bad. The first two years were very hard, but we ended up milking again and I never quit my real estate job. The first year I had only earned $1369 and I worked 40 hours a week at it, sometimes far more, and traveled 40000 miles in the process. To my surprise, I learned that I enjoyed working with people as well as with animals. On the farm, I had lost track of that fact. I enjoyed both and success came in its own time.

Selling farms full-time and farming full-time may seem mutually exclusive. Farmers work 14 hour days, but my new farm was small and did not always require that much work, giving me time for outside employment. And most of my customers in those days were farmers themselves and when I was busy with crops, so were they. It worked out. If they arrived early for an appointment, my wife put a pitchfork in their hands. My real estate earnings went into the farm (everything always does) and I got better and bigger machinery than I might have otherwise needed, freeing up more time for real estate. Finally, years later, I had sore knees, aging parents 360 miles away (I am the only child, unless you count my foster sister, which I do), and a good opportunity to sell the herd. We took it. It was fortunate, as that we about the time our real estate web page began to take hold and my business there expanded rapidly. The proceeds from the cattle sale went into a small home nearby which we renovated, sold, and held the mortgage on, so our other real estate venture was launched.

That brings me up to date, sorta.

What is a customer worth? 

Without them (or sellers, of course), we have no business. Consider:  1) Nearly all of our advertising is directly towards securing customers. 2) The vast majority of our daily efforts - developing relationships, contacting folks, providing information and photos, discussing needs and desires, giving general area information, and a myriad of related things - is strictly customer-focused.  3) Our daytime travels are largely customer-dictated. I drive, year in and year out, 25000+ miles in my business, sometimes much more and it is nearly all toting around customers, taking care of their needs and wants and finding new places to attract them. That never ends. When I am not showing property, I am looking for it.  4) Easily 80% of my working day is customer-driven, they are that important.  5) In our area, for 8 or 9 years out of  any 10, it has been customers, not sellers who drive the market.

So, customers are what it’s about.

 At the moment, we are in the worse down market that our nation has seen since the Depression. But, it is not equally depressed in all areas of the US. Our area, for instance, has held prices steady. I attribute this to two reasons. First, while our prices rose quite a bit, compared to what we were accustomed to,  at best we really only kept pace with the rest of the country, so we maintained our “still cheap to buy” aura. Secondly, sellers have held property off the market, preferring to hang on while prices were bad. So, although there has been a low number of ready customers, there has also been a low supply of sellers, and supply and demand have been in balance.  It has taken quite a toll on our income - in one year, I saw my commissions fall to 20% of the previous year (which had been abnormally good). And it has hit buyer and sellers too -- none of them have been so free to do what they want in their lives.

I hate to waste a customer. We have invested too much time, money and effort ot lose one. What I am seeing at the moment is far more business than we have had all year. But it is not equally distributed. Right now, many good properties are still failing to attract folks to see them. Most are attracting a few, but not enough to get the appropriate share of them sold. But there are others that are perceived as better buys or for various reasons able to attract enough attention. And they have been bringing in many buyers, while other properties languish.

The trouble is, only one person can buy each place. When multiple buyers contend, all but one of them are going to be disappointed. Right now, all my few going deals have more than one contending buyer. if it were up to me there would be just one buyer for each place, so we can get  “better coverage” from our customer base. And, historically speaking, disappointed customers do not come back, even when they know it is not our fault that their bid was not the successful one. I have seen this repeated so often for so many years.

In fact, I had been selling for 20 years before I ran into Ben Garrett. He was the exception to this rule and had made his money the hard way, starting off by selling magazine subscriptions and Bibles, door to door.This he had grown into a  very successful business and now he was ready to retire and have some fun with a farm.  Able to afford whatever he wanted (there are not many like this!), he wanted a very well-kept farm, one of the few really good ones. Realizing that he was both serious and well-qualified, I was willing to spend whatever time was needed for him to find what he wanted. This meant a lot of travel with him, hours and hours of conversation and debate with him while he zeroed in on just what kind of operation would be best. He had been sort of thinking of beef cattle until the conversation got around to registered dairy cattle and embryo transfer and some of the other procedures that have revolutionized this industry. That struck a spark with Ben and we began to focus on dairy farms and, in our conversations and emails, dairy farming methods and madness. Finally, he found what he wanted, a real showplace, 900 acres, 200 cows, 5 homes and all the bells and whistles. There was already a buyer for it, a farm family from the Philadelphia area, but no final commitment had been made by either side andnothign was in writing. Realizing there was competition, Ben made an offer too good to refuse: $100,000 over the asking price PLUS $60,000 more for the owner just  to consult with him during the first year. Needless to say, that got the owners attention. So I drew up a contract, went through several modifications until it got to the lawyers, who all had their own ideas on how they wanted it drawn up. It was not a simple deal and would have taken time even if the lawyers were not involved at this stage. Finally, on a Friday, I was told that all differences between the lawyers had been resolved and it was ready for signature on Monday. Saturday, the owner called me and told me he had signed with the Philadelphia people. A call to his attorney on Monday revealed that this was done without consulting  him - he was as surprised as I was.

Let me interrupt the thrust of this chapter by telling a bit of the story of the Philadelphia folks. They were a farm family, used to getting their hands dierty, not an investor like Ben was, and the owner had made the decision that he wanted his farm to go to farmers, not to a rich guy, even though it cost him a bundle to do that. So the Philly folks, two brothers, their families,  and their parents moved up and took over the operation. Things then happened, things that were not nice. One brother hated New York, while the other loved it. The one that loved New York lost his wife to an internet lover (it really happens!). But he found a local gal a year later and got a real gem, so he came out further ahead in that department. The one that hated New York was in charge of the herd and lost his interest and let his management slip dangerously. His brother said he was too busy with the crops  to notice all that was going on wrong in the barn. Yes, that is stretch to accept, but that was his story. Then they had a barn fire and lost their milking facility, so they built a bigger new one, along with more barn space. This was all necessary but dramatically increased their debt load. Finally, the parents and the brother who was homesick pulled up and left, leaving all the work and all the debt on the remaining brother. The predictable happened and he ended in bankruptcy. He was to nice of a guy to have this happen to him, but economics don’t care about things like that. Years later, an investor ended up owning the farm, but  only after one of the two main barns had collapsed due to snow load. (When cattle are in the barn, their body heat rises to the roof and  heats it up enough that snow melts off more readily - nearly all snow load collapses occur in empty barns.)

Back to Ben. I was sure he would either abandon his search or give up working with me. But, no, he proved to be loyal and we went back to looking at property. He later wanted the farm the VanDeLigt’s eventually bought  (see another story) and doggonned if history didn’t repeat itself. After weeks of wrangling,  we got the contract all finalized between lawyers, and someone else who had seen it months earlier stepped in and bought it out from under him.  But Ben, after two such setbacks, remained undeterred in his desire to buy a farm and stuck with me as the man to sell it to him. I really appreciate such loyalty; it is so rare in this business. The problem was, he had now seen it all, everything that was out there and Ben would not settle for something less than the two he had liked before.  So, weeks later, I got wind that one such place might be ready to sell and I went right over to check out the rumor. It was true, Ben came up and looked at it and agreed then and there to buy it. He was the first party to see it. The owner must have thought I made a bundle with very little work. He had no idea how much time and effort I had spent with Ben, but he was pretty happy to get full price (which was fair), to get it immediately,  and then have no hassle with the closing. Later on, watching Ben handle his help (who got their hands dirty), Im was impressed. He paid them well and demanded a lot in return - he and got it, just like he did from me. And you ended up realy liking him. This was an ability that, while rare, had served him well in his business and went on to serve him well in the new venture. Some years later, Ben had filled his ambitions and goals on the farm and asked me to sell it for him, again at a fair price. We quickly were able to find a farm family from Maryland who were just perfect for the place and who have done well there, not only keeping it up but improving it.

I told you the Ben story as an exception which proves the point. Far more common is a case we just finished working on. It will be the subject of another story no doubt, but not until when everything is over. For now, suffice it to say, I worked long and hard to get a sale, finally found a buyer, not the best, just the best we could find that would take the place. After 2 months of legal wrangling, the deal fell apart over a small technical legal issue, one on which either party should have readily capitulated, not that either one was about to. To try to keep that deal going was like beating a dead horse and as stubborn as I can be about not giving up on people, I was forced to do that here. I felt that I had a enjoyed a cordial and good relationship with the buyer and made it abundantly clear to him that I valued his patronage. When we parted, when he let me know he was not giving up on his search, I asked him point blank if he would be willing to continue to work with me. I said that most buyers seem almost to be superstitious about failed deals and won’t work with the very party that knows them the best, blah, blah, blah. He was guarded in his response and said that if I had something that interested him, that he would contact me. Yeah, sure, that’ll happen. I could see the wings sprout on him as we talked. Our investment in him is out the door.

I suspected this would happen when, during the final bargaining, he mentioned about all the deals a competitor had. That was just posturing, I knew, but it also meant that he had at least looked at the guy’s web site. Thie other broker is someone who has a even more listings than we do, but nearly all of them are substantially higher-priced. There is nothing so high-priced that he won’t list it and he apparently thinks he can make his own market that way. Call it a difference of philosophy if you like. Hard-nosed about his commissions, he is at least honest and knows the business, even if he will not co-broke or cooperate with any other firm. And I know I can trust him not to say a good word about me or any other competitor. Knowing that my buyer just lost a deal, meaning he is willing and ready to buy, he will no doubt to say anything he can to woo my customer away. And if he can woo him away and cost me a deal, so much the better. Then when he figures out where and who it is, he will be eventually be up to my seller and try to woo him away too. Real estate is not always a nice business - kind of like what they say about making sausage or laws.  When you can find someone with true loyalty, you appreciate them for the rarity they are.

As an agent, I am like other agents: we don't like tenants. And I understand and fully accept that there may be a real need for an owner to rent his property. Owners who live elsewhere are more likely to want tenants. They may need the payments for their mortgage or maybe they are concerned about keeping it heated during cold weather, or having someone there to watch over it for them. I will watch for them too, but I am only there only every so often. And absentee landlords are just the ones who stand  the most to lose since they are not there to monitor the situation or deal directly with problems that surface. But, ask me for my opinion - I don't like to have to deal with tenants.

There are 3 repeated problems with them. The most common of which is that they will make the property less and less accessible as time goes on and they get more and more tired of their lives being interrupted by us showing up (even with appointments scheduled further ahead than we ever would with an owner). It is a big hassle to clean up and make your home available at all hours, and it's worse when you gain nothing by it. In fact, the nicer you are to agents and their customers, the more likely it is that you will have to leave your home sooner, so there's actually a disincentive. What I see happening is the tenants are fine for a while, then one time they can't be there to let you in and you have to reschedule, which may well mean a lost customer if they are driving in from some distance, as ours are apt to do. The rescheduling will happen a few more times and next they stop returning your calls and they find more and more doctor's appointments or whatever. The last step in the series is that they don't answer even when they are home for you call. Caller ID gives them warning.

Another problem is the tenant who keeps it like a pig sty. The best thing I can say about them is that they have to live in it. They have no incentive to keep it clean, other than getting tossed out by the owner. Some tenants who start out with good intentions get sloppier and sloppier as time goes on and their enthusiasm wanes about their new home. That happens often enough, even with homes that are not for sale.

And far worse, is the tenant who lies to the buyers in hopes he will discourage them and remove the "threat" to their tenancy. The lies, when I hear them are usually stuff that is hard to prove - things like "bad septic", "contaminated water", or "disease in the cattle". Buyers will believe a tenant much quicker than they will believe the owner or me - strange, but true. When I am about to enter a property with this kind of problem, I try to warn customers not to believe what the tenants may say, and I let them know their potential motives in saying such garbage. But that only goes so far, not nearly far enough.

Al had built a new home and lived off the farm, with tenants in the home for the usual reasons. I was pleasantly surprised to learn that the young mother who rented there had been the daughter of one of my clients from years ago. Her father was in his 80's when she was 16 and her older brother left the farm, leaving her alone to milk and care for the herd  and try to keep up with school. He immediately sold the cows, but what impressed me was that she was willing to keep the herd going. It was his idea to sell them, not hers.  So we did the old catching up on routine things, both genuinely glad to see each other. However the next customer was informed (out of my hearing) by her husband that the well was no good. He was convincing too. So I called Al to find out what was wrong with it. He hit the roof and read them the riot act. And here I had always found him to be mild-mannered. They were NOT to speak to any customer or to me if a customer was with me. He meant it too, and they kept abnormally quiet while I was there each time afterwards.

Of course not every tenant exhibits this behavior, and some are every bit as good as I could ever ask an owner to be.  But I would say 3/4's of them cause problems of some sort or another. And, unless the owner knows them well, you cannot be sure beforehand if they will be in the 1/4 who won't cause problems for you. Being a long-distance landlord makes it just that much harder.  I am very careful to give tenants extra warning before I come, to keep our feet scrupulously clean upon entering, and to be polite and friendly to them but not engage them in conversation beyond what is necessary to be polite, for I do not want bad tenant relations blamed on me if it can possibly be avoided, nor do I want to give them the chance to say something that should not be said. When I can, I even spend a few minutes alone with them, getting to know them and sympathising with their cares and concerns.  I am very cognizant of the precarious position they are placed in.

The flip side is the owner with a tenant or a hired man who for whatever reason is not supposed to know that the property is for sale - for fear of losing them. The extreme case was Phil, a farmer getting pretty far on in years and completely dependent upon his hired hands.  How was I to show the place and them not know? They aren't dumb. They see me start to show up regularly, with different people in tow and it's pretty easy to guess why I am here, especially since I am pretty well known around the area. Anyway the excuse, if I was asked was that I was supposed to be showing off some of his advanced machinery or barn innovations. I told Phil that he'd have to tell them that; I couldn't. But the first line of defense was to be there when the hired men were away, so I went to some pretty extreme measures to accommodate his wishes, taking convoluted routes to get there at the noon hour, wasting time or hurrying things up at the earlier showings, rescheduling customers to date when I could get them there at noon. It was a laughable hassle. Every neighbor knew what was going on and the hired men even told others about it; they'd figured it out at the start.

In some ways, such a situation is even worse, and requires a bit of dissembling from me at times (sometimes I am actually asked to be dishonest if they ask me questions - I won't do that). I tell owners to tell his employees or his tenants that maybe the new owner will want them to stay on. That is especially likely with hired men. True though it may be, it doesn't always cut much ice with an owner who with this scared attitude. I strongly think the tenant or hired man deserves to be told at least that much of the owner's business, as it could affect his home or his job (or both). And I think it is fair for the owner to offer a bonus of some sort for the men who will stick with him until the sale is consummated. I don't have these situations often, thank goodness. I dislike it more than having an uncooperative tenant. With the uncooperative tenant,  they are doing something to me (and the owner) and the blame is on them.  Better that than have the blame on me or my client.

“Make your commitment to someone else equal to that made to you”. That has become a mantra that I repeat to sellers, to get no deeper into a purchase than your buyer is into your sale. When he ups the ante and is more deeply committed, then you can do the same. Here’s how I came to do this:

After many showings, I found a buyer for Noel and Pam’s farm. They had great land, but the buildings were so-so and it’s the buildings that people excited, not the land. But I managed to convince a young couple, Mario and Beth, that this was a good place for them. It was, too. Noel and Pam had  a farm with a future - because of the land base.

So, Mario and Beth duly applied for the loan they would need. Time passed, as it will. Then we got the word - they were denied. I had not expected that. Neither did Noel and Pam. Unbeknownst to me, they had gone and bought a new place in which to live after the sale. Now, with the sale vaporized, they were stuck. They had failed to have a contingency in their own purchase, a way out if they could not sell their farm. And the folks selling to them were not going to be nice and let them off the hook, either. These people insisted that Noel and Pam had to buy the home they now could not afford.  To get out of that contract cost them tens of thousands.

And they were royally pissed about it, pissed at me. Legally, they had no recourse; I had broken no law, breached no ethics. To be fair to Mario and Beth, I had put in a contingency for them to receive their money back if they could not get financing. They had made a sincere good faith attempt  to do so and failed to get the money needed to make the purchase. There was no question of them not getting their deposit money back. By inserting this standard contingency clause, I had merely fulfilled my fiduciary duty to them as buyers. Noel and Pam had to accept this, but that did not lessen their anger toward me.

I tried to explain to them that had they only told me what they were doing, I would have counseled them to put in the another standard contingency, one on the sale of their property, to protect themselves in case the sale of their farm fell through. But they were in no mood to listen to anything I had to say. They had been convinced (by me? by the buyers? by their own optimism?) that their farm was sold, period. They were just waiting for the closing to get the money to buy their new home.

Then I made a tactical mistake. I brought someone else around to see the farm, naively assuming that they still wanted to sell it. Wrong. Wrong, big time. Noel adn Pam no longer wanted to sell and most especially they did not want me involved if they ever changed their mind. Another man done gone.

The ending to the story is twofold. Mario and Beth stuck by me and ended up buying a more expensive farm (one with good buildings and poor land - ironically, the very one that they had first looked at and wanted but had given up on as too expenive). Sometime after the sale of Noel and Pam’s place went down the tubes, I had learned of a Federal program to lend money to minority  owners. So, here’s what we did:  the more expensive farm went in the wife’s name alone, a fact which caused much merriment between them, Mario being now a hired man instead of an owner. His wife, as sole owner, was the boss. Although women outnumber men in the world, as farm owners, they are considered a minority. If we had extended the contract on Noel and Pam’s place a couple more months, they could have secured the financing after all and probably Noel and Pam might not have lost that money and we could have parted the friends that we had started out to be. To other side of the story is that a decade passed before Noel and Pam got the urge to retire again. It was quietly listed with another firm, not us, and they found a buyer. It never made their web page and they never put up signs. Noel and Pam were taking no chance that I would show  up there again.

I hate to lose friends even more than I hate to lose sales. So now, I have this litany I repeat to sellers: “Make your commitment to someone else equal to that made to you”. Repeat after me, “Make your commitment to someone else equal to that made to you”.

For part of my livelihood, I buy  “distressed property”. One of the things that I pay attention to is the form of deed. That may come as a surprise to you, but this may be more surprising: I factor the deed form into the price that I will pay for any given property.  But in my real estate practice, the type of deed rarely becomes an issue. Why is this? I believe that few buyers care what kind of deed they get, as long as they get one. And by the time it gets to someone who does care (ie- an attorney), it’s sort of a done deal.

Normally, every transaction is by Warranty Deed. That is in the fine print of all my contracts and when there is another type of deed involved, I have to remember to make that change. The Warranty Deed is the highest and best form of deed in New York.  You can probably figure out that with it, some things are warranted, guaranteed. What are they? They are called covenants and you get five of them:

1) “Seizin” - the owner warrants that he owns the place and has the right to sell it.
2) The owner warrants that he will convey the title free of any liens and encumbrances unless specifically stated in the deed. That way, you can be assured that no one else has any kind of right to the place you are buying. Or, if they do, you will know about it first. An example of the latter is a neighbor having a right to use a spring that is located on the property you are to own. Or a power company who has a line across it, along with the right to maintain that line.
3) The seller guarantees that he will defend your right to the property against potential challengers. That’s important.
4) He warrants the he will obtain whatever legal instruments are needed in order to make the title good. Also important.
5) He further warrants that if any time in the future if the title fails, that he will be liable. This mean he might have to refund y our money.

These are powerful guarantees and I have wondered in the past why any seller would make them if he could get out of it. Well, if he received a Warranty Deed when he purchased the property, then he can go back onto the man (or his heirs) who sold it to him and made the same warrants.  And so on down the line. So, with a Warranty Deed, you get a guaranteed chain of owners AND their attorneys certifying that the title is good. If your attorney passes on the title, tells you it is good (as nearly every one is), he assumes a share of the liability if he is later proved wrong. You can sue him for not doing his job. That is one reason why a few attorneys want to tie their fee to the selling price.

There are of course some insurance companies that may be involved along the way. First, the attorney has malpractice insurance. Secondly, you may decide to purchase Title Insurance. This is the only insurance policy that I am aware of that is purchased once and is good for life. You buy it and the insurer will guarantee that they will defend your title to all challengers for as long as you own the property. I believe this carries over to your heirs as well. The fact that a title company will insure it is considered sufficient proof of good title.There are other proofs. Now, if you sell the place, the insurance ends, so I find it does not pay me to buy title insurance on a place I will own for only a year or two.  I have purchased it for buyers in rare cases where the buyer’s attorney is not satisfied with the title, but the title company is. Some states and some sellers require the purchase of Title Insurance with every sale. New York is not one of those States.

In second place is the Bargain and Sale Deed (with or without “Covenant Against the Grantor’s Acts”). Another name for this that is used in some other states is “Special Warranty Deed”. This is the form normally used in New York City and I have had several humorous episodes dealing with fancy New York City lawyers who insist that their client get one instead of the Warranty Deed which we had planned on giving. Usually such lawyers are uppity, the kind that think they are so smart since they have a Big City Practice. Then they come crawling back to us asking for a Warranty Deed once they remember their basic law. Local attorneys have shared much quiet laughter with me when we get one of these episodes. 

How is a Bargain and Sale Deed different than a Warranty Deed?  In it, the owner only implies that he owns the property. There is no actual assurance that the buyer is acquiring title to the property. The owner may (or may  not) give a warrant that he has done nothing to encumber the title, but he won’t warrant what might have happened before he owned it.  Other than in the Big City, this is mostly used by fiduciaries such as executors, trustees and corporations. It is rarely seen in the country here and I have no idea how it became to be the norm in the Big City. Much legal practice, I have learned, is local norm rather than enacted law.

The other type of deed that is commonly found is a Quit Claim Deed. In my opinion, this is the lowest form of deed out there and, unfortunately for me, it is most often found on the type of property that I am apt to buy for myself. The owner doesn’t even imply that he owns the property.  With a Quit Claim Deed, the grantor merely says he will convey whatever interest he has in the property. Anyone can, for instance, give you a Quit Claim Deed to the house you live in, even though they may have never owned it or even set  foot in it. But they can convey whatever interest they have, which might be none. Or it may be a real and marketable interest; it’s sort of up to you as a buyer to make sure.

A Quit Claim Deed is often used to clear up a cloud upon the title. When I bought my home here in Sprakers where I reside, I shared an attorney with the seller to save us both some money and to speed up the process. Although he had passed on it when the seller bought the property, the attorney apparently had second thoughts on this round. My new neighbors had been the original owners, many years prior, and he asked them to give me a Quit Claim Deed to the property, which they graciously did. They  had known all these years they didn’t own it and would never be able to enforce a claim even if they thought they did, so why rile a new neighbor? It cost them nothing to cooperate and brought me peace of mind and a quieter title. So I ended up with a Warranty Deed from the seller and a Quit Claim Deed from the neighbor. If my neighbors had been greedy folks, they may have demanded a payment from me and then I, along with the seller, would have had to make the call on what it was worth to clear up that particular cloud on the title.

 All property conveyed which originated from a tax foreclosure sale is conveyed via Quit Claim Deed. If the municipality did not do their homework correctly, you may have  a problem. I have seen this happen before, several times. Once it happened to me. I bought a home at a tax sale, spent a couple of years rehabbing it and finally found a buyer. When I went to convey title, my attorney said that a previous mortgage holder, Beneficial Finance (a misnomer as far as I am concerned), had never signed off on it. “Wasn’t their claim forfeited by virtue of the tax foreclosure?”, I asked. “Well, it was, sort of”, but “sort of” was not good enough for my attorney to put his name on it, he felt I needed to get them signed off.  Now you’d think a financial institution would do this as a favor, especially when done for someone who could bring or cost them business. They knew they could never take title to the property and that they didn’t have a snowball’s chance of getting any more income from a loan which had gone south many years before. But not Beneficial. They talked with us about it, sort of. Each time my attorney went through their telephone maze, he spoke with a new person who didn’t know a thing about it and wasn’t much interested in learning any more either. So, after realizing this tack was not going to gain us anything, I offered them $500 to sign off. That was roughly what it would cost me to take them to court and force the issue, so I figured it was worht it to me to short circuit the process and speed up the closing, which was now worrying all of us. I had let the prospective owners move in a couple of months ago. My offer led to more conversations with not-very Beneficial folks who knew nothing about it and cared less. Time passed and finally we realized this was not going to speed anything up or lead anywhere. So, we sued. The court date was set, came and went, and they never even showed up to defend themselves. So we won, handily. ”Now we could have the closing?”, I asked. “As soon as the judge signs off on it”. Well, the judge was in no hurry and it took some weeks before he even looked at it, then he wanted some more documentation from my attorney, then more time passed, still with no signature.

Meanwhile, my buyers got increasingly nervous and finally asked for their deposit back. I didn’t think I could refuse the request, though I tried to persuade them that , after several months, we were only a couple of weeks from closing. They just wanted out. So, with a heavy heart, I offered to return the money, minus a fair rent for the time they had used my home. They blew up over that, seeming to think that they should have had free use of the home. They secured an attorney who after a bunch of fooforaw told them that I was making a fair and reasonable request.  Fortunately, it was a local attorney which whom I had a long-standing relationship and had conducted many closing with over the years, so he knew me quite well and knew I was not out to cheat anyone. While this was going on, the judge finally decided to sign and we had the closing, only 6 months late. No longer trusting each other, it took years to gain back my former good relationship with the buyers, a point which both of us regret.

There are other types of deeds New York, ones we rarely see, Gift Deeds, Guardian’s Deeds, and Sheriffs or Referee’s Deeds. The only one of these that I have come across (so far) in my practice was a lone Sheriff's Deed. I attended a Sheriffs auction for several parcels of land and ended up being the successful bidder on two adjoining woodlots. The price was ridiculously cheap, but it was subject to a mortgage that the previous owner had. In other words, I bought the debt along with the property. That made me a bit nervous, but I figured that even with adding the full debt to the purchase price, I still made a good deal. When I came to take title, the Sheriff’s Department didn’t know how to handle it, no one there had ever done one before. Like I said, these are not common. The sheriff’s team had to get legal advice before they could complete the sale to me. But it was completed properly and next came the time to negotiate with the mortgage holder. Eventually, we settled on a price to buy him out and only then could I feel that I really owned the property, now that it was free and clear of all encumbrances. You may wonder why the mortgage holder, a previous owner, a land subdividing firm, ever negotiated with me on what was legitimately owed to him. I did too and figure that he must have felt that there was a good chance I was never going to pay him and he’d have to go through a foreclosure to enforce his rights, and then he’d only get back something he didn’t really want.  While we bargained back and forth, I made very sure that I didn’t make any payments to them (heck, I didn’t even know the terms of the mortgage and what the payments would have been). I was lucky. They were nice to do business with, and we both ended feeling we’d done well.