About J. Philip Faranda
First and foremost, if you are behind on your mortgage, owe more than your home is worth, or are in danger of foreclosure, Phil Faranda can help. Find out more here at his Short Sale resource site. This blog is the collection of success stories, reflections and opinions of one of the most successful short sale REALTORS you will ever meet. Contact Phil here.
J. Philip Faranda is the principal broker and owner of J. Philip Real Estate, LLC. A native of Westchester County, NY he was educated at Villanova University and graduated with a BA in English in 1989. After 6 years in publishing sales he became a licensed real estate salesperson at Home Safari LTD of Rochester, NY from 1996-2000. It was at Home Safari where Phil learned the business, and became familiar with short sales, real estate investing, and many other niches. He relocated back to Westchester in 2000 and got into mortgage finance, becoming a high-producing loan officer in the refinance boom in the earlier part of that decade.
In 2005 he started J. Philip Real Estate out of a home office. In 2006 he sold 30 homes. In 2007 he was the number one-ranked agent in the Westchester-Putnam MLS (approx 7000 members) for single family homes sold with 59 closed transactions. In 2008 his combined transaction total was 51 closing sides in spite of a severe downturn in the market. The company has grown to 3 offices with 15 licensees in 6 counties and growing. The almost counterintuitive growth in spite of unfavorable market conditions is the result of exploiting niches, smart and aggressive marketing, and relentlessly hard work.
The Journal News and TheRealDeal.com are just two of numerous media that have sought Phil out as an expert source. His commentary on equal housing, the mortgage crisis and short sales is widely respected.
Phil is married with 4 children. His wife Ann, an MBA and licensee herself, is his partner in the firm. They reside in Briarcliff Manor, NY.
Areas We Serve
The company primarily serves the “bedroom counties” of New York City, such as Westchester, Putnam, Rockland and Dutchess Counties. For short sales, that area expands. The company and its affiliates serve the entire New York Metroploitan area, Long Island, the Boros, the Hudson Valley, and Western Connecticut. The affiliate network, an arrangement the firm holds equity in, leverages technology and networking, to extend our reach upstate to western New York, including, but limited to Albany, Binghamton, Syracuse, Rochester and Buffalo. We can do a successful short sale in Buffalo as easily and smoothly as a short sale in the Bronx, White Plains or Danbury, CT.
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
