J. Philip's Real Estate Blog

Pirro to Sell Home

Former Westchester DA and state Attorney General Candidate Jeanine Pirro is selling her modest abode in Harrison, NY for only $4.3 million.

Their 7,873-square-foot Italianate mansion in Harrison is listed for sale on the Westchester County Board of Realtors web site for just under $4.3 million. It's described as an "impressive home with exquisite architectural detail" and "a luxurious ambiance for large-scale entertaining." Highlighted features include six bedrooms, seven bathrooms, a pool, cabana and small guest house.

I have seen the house on the MLS and it is quite impressive. In one of the articles on the recent listing, Pirro was quoted as comparing building it to giving birth. That's a little awkward, but I do have to give the former DA credit for choosing an agent who is no slouch. I can look up market share data and she sold in excess of $20 million last year. One of my pet peeves is when people choose their Aunt Ida or cousin Mel to broker the biggest transaction of their life, and then when they invariably goof things up, complain about how crummy agents are. Savvy business people choose a professional and seldom have cause to complain.

 

First Post

This is the first post of this web journal, which is the commentary of a real estate broker on the real estate business. Who is J. Philip? My full name is J. Philip Faranda, and I own and operate J. Philip Real Estate, based in central Westchester County, NY. My wife is a co-owner of the LLC and is the webmistress of our company website along with about 400 other behind-the-scenes duties which allow me to do what I do, which is sell houses. We also own and operate a unique, 100% internet based real estate brokerage that primarily serves Long Island.

Why should you care about what I think? Good question. The not-so-humble (but true) answer is that in addition to running my own companies, I am a top 1% producing agent, a mortgage banker, a landlord, an investor, and I have closed literally hundreds of buyers and sellers in my 11 years of experience. I cut my teeth under the mentorship of a phenomenal broker from 1996-2000 in a severe buyers market in Rochester, NY, so the changing market is not unfamiliar to me. On the contrary, I am more comfortable in this environment than the feeding frenzy we all witnessed from 2001-2005. I started the company in the summer of 2005, moments before the market cooled, yet in 2006 I was the 25th ranked listing agent out of 7800 in the Westchester-Putnam MLS. I know this business, and what I think should matter to you whether you are a casual observer of the market or have a large vested interest in real estate.