How to Keep Unwelcome Pigeons at Bay - it's not title insurance, but.....

Title insurance from Vested Land Services LLC, the consumer's title agent, will not keep pigeons away from your railings, roof or other places they might gather.  But here's a quick answer from the NY Times that might be of help.

How to Keep Unwelcome Pigeons at Bay

Q: I live on the 15th floor of an Upper East Side co-op with windows facing First Avenue. Pigeons are roosting on my window ledge. The birds’ vocalization is loud enough to wake me up in the morning and they leave behind gray and white stains from their droppings. I shoo the birds away when I’m home, but cannot do this all day. I want to be able to open my window in the spring without worrying that the germs from their droppings will enter my room. What can I place on my window ledge to discourage the pigeons from roosting there? I do not want to use anything that could fall off the ledge, endangering a pedestrian below, or poison the birds. What is a safe remedy?

A: You should be able to open your windows this spring without worrying that a pigeon will fly into your apartment or its droppings will soil your home. While their droppings do not generally pose a serious health risk, they are still unsanitary, and gross. But your building, not you, should get the birds off your ledge. As a shareholder, you are responsible for everything inside the walls of your apartment, and the co-op board is responsible for the building. So the board needs to figure out how to get the birds to find a new home.

 “Residents should not attempt a solution on their own,” said Daniel Wollman, the chief executive of Gumley Haft, a Manhattan property manager.

Write the managing agent and the co-op board a letter alerting them to the pigeon problem and insisting that they fix it. If the birds are nesting on your ledge, they are probably nesting on another resident’s, too. In the letter, ask that management also clean the ledge of any droppings.

The building should be able to get the birds to nest elsewhere without damaging the facade or risking the safety of anyone on the street below. For example, at a Gumley Haft-managed property with a pigeon problem in its inner courtyard, management suspended netting over the area to keep the birds away.

Netting will not solve the problem at your building, but there are other methods. John McGowan, the director of operations for Bugged Out Pest Management in Brooklyn suggested that your building consider using Bird Barrier Optical Gel, a bird deterrent, which he described as “awesome.”g

This article and others may be read on-line at

nytimes.com/2018/04/14/realestate/how-to-keep-unwelcome-pigeons-at-bay.html

For your next commercial real estate transaction, house purchase, mortgage refinance, reverse mortgage, or home equity loan, contact us. We can help. Located in Fairfield, NJ, we are the title insurance agent that does it all for you.

For your next title order or

if you have questions about what you see here, contact

Stephen M. Flatow, Esq.

Vested Land Services LLC

165 Passaic Avenue, Suite 101

Fairfield, NJ 07004

Tel 973-808-6130 - Fax 973-227-0645

E-mail sflatow AT vested.com
@vestedland

Sphere: Related Content

Finding Peace of Mind for Your Home Away From Home

Title insurance from Vested Land Services LLC, the consumer's title agent, will protect the title to your home or second home.  But how do you protect that second home from a distance.? The NY Times has an answer.

"Nathan Lavertue and Geneva Simms keep tabs on their country house in Dutchess County with a range of smart home tools.

"Geneva Simms and Nathan Lavertue were driving to their country house in Dutchess County one recent weekend when there was yet another spring snowstorm. But when they arrived late that night, their home, which was built around 1780 and was once a Quaker meetinghouse and a stop on the Underground Railroad, wasn’t bitterly cold. That is because during his lunch break in Brooklyn, Mr. Lavertue had turned on the heat remotely, using his smartphone.

“We have three cameras — two exterior and one interior — four Nest thermostats, two Echo Dots, one Echo Show, one traditional Echo and 10 smart lights. And also the Nest smoke detector,” said Mr. Lavertue, a global experience design director for IBM, who installed the equipment himself. “The cameras are for security, but they provide plenty of entertainment. I have really funny footage of Geneva running after a U.P.S. truck.” 

Seems very smart to me - to read the full column, go to
nytimes.com/2018/04/13/realestate/finding-peace-of-mind-for-your-home-away-from-home.html

Any comments?  We'd love to hear from you.

For your next commercial real estate transaction, house purchase, mortgage refinance, reverse mortgage, or home equity loan, contact us. We can help. Located in Fairfield, NJ, we are the title insurance agent that does it all for you.

For your next title order or

if you have questions about what you see here, contact

Stephen M. Flatow, Esq.

Vested Land Services LLC

165 Passaic Avenue, Suite 101

Fairfield, NJ 07004

Tel 973-808-6130 - Fax 973-227-0645

E-mail sflatow AT vested.com
@vestedland

Sphere: Related Content

Dramatic changes in New Jersey - a report from Vested Land Services LLC, the consumer's title insurance agent

Vested Land Services LLC, the consumer's title insurance agent, is proud of New Jersey-

See the 7 most dramatic changes in N.J. over the past half century

The only thing still recognizable of New Jersey of 1968 may be its borders. 

The last 50 years have starkly reshaped the landscape of the Garden State, from its sardine-packed Gold Coast to the white sands of Cape May. We analyzed decades of Census data to show the myriad ways New Jersey has evolved.  

What emerges is a portrait of a society that's constantly shifting and potentially foreshadows the challenges of the years ahead. The graphics below detail seven of the most dramatic shifts, which are fundamentality shaping who we are as a state.

Packed like sardines

This likely isn't news to most residents, but it's important. New Jersey is the most densely populated state in the nation, packing more than 1,200 people per square mile of space. This colors not only how development proceeds, but could also have impacts on how growth occurs. 

The Great Slowdown

After experiencing nearly exponential growth from the 1790s through 1970, New Jersey has been adding fewer and fewer new residents. As New Jersey is outpaced by other states around the country, its Congressional delegation has suffered.

Growth has slowed to a near halt over the last decade or so, which could imperil one of the state's 12 seats in Congress after the 2020 Census.  

Read the full story- http://www.nj.com/data/2018/04/7_ways_new_jersey_has_changed_over_the_last_centur.html#incart_river_index

For your next commercial real estate transaction, house purchase, mortgage refinance, reverse mortgage, or home equity loan, contact us. We can help. Located in Fairfield, NJ, we are the title insurance agent that does it all for you.

For your next title order or

if you have questions about what you see here, contact

Stephen M. Flatow, Esq.

Vested Land Services LLC

165 Passaic Avenue, Suite 101

Fairfield, NJ 07004

Tel 973-808-6130 - Fax 973-227-0645

E-mail sflatow AT vested.com

@vestedland

#NewJersey

#homebuyer

#mortgage

#refinance

Sphere: Related Content

NJ Governor Murphy recommends changes to bill allowing prepaid property taxes - a report from Vested Land Services LLC

It's not title insurance but NJ Biz, a report on New Jersey taxes from Vested Land Services LLC, the consumer's title insurance agency- 

Murphy recommends changes to bill allowing prepaid property taxes

Gov. Phil Murphy has recommended certain technical changes to a proposed bill that would permit New Jersey taxpayers to make dedicated prepayments toward anticipated property taxes.

Murphy took this action in response to President Donald Trump’s signing into law the Tax Cuts and Jobs Act, which limits a person's maximum state and local property tax (SALT) deductions to $10,000.

Murphy wants to eliminate possible confusion in Bill 3382by explicitly “clarifying that taxpayers may indeed prepay their property taxes, regardless of whether the municipality had issued the quarterly tax bills prior to submission of the prepayment. This clarifying language is retroactive to July 1, 2017, and applies to any taxpayer who attempted to prepay a third or fourth quarter property tax installment for tax year 2018 in calendar year 2017.”

New Jersey residents pay among the highest property taxes in the nation.

Read the full article at - http://www.njbiz.com/article/20180406/NJBIZ01/180409875/murphy-recommends-changes-to-bill-allowing-prepaid-property-taxes

For your next commercial real estate transaction, house purchase, mortgage refinance, reverse mortgage, or home equity loan, contact us. We can help. Located in Fairfield, NJ, we are the title insurance agent that does it all for you.

For your next title order or

if you have questions about what you see here, contact

Stephen M. Flatow, Esq.

Vested Land Services LLC

165 Passaic Avenue, Suite 101

Fairfield, NJ 07004

Tel 973-808-6130 - Fax 973-227-0645

E-mail sflatow AT vested.com

@vestedland

#titleinsurance

#homebuyer

#refinance

Sphere: Related Content

5 Home-Buying Nightmares Your Title Insurance Could Prevent - a report from Vested Land Services LLC

Vested Land Services LLC is the consumer's title insurance agency!  Trust us to avoid the headaches in this story-

5 Home-Buying Nightmares Your Title Insurance Could Prevent

Imagine that you have found your dream home. Your offer is accepted, you close the deal, you move in. Then, just as you've started to make the house your own, the mail carrier delivers news that turns your world upside down: There was a lien against a previous owner, and now it's been passed on to you.

That’s exactly what happened to Lori Moore and her husband.

“We had barely gotten everything settled in the house when two weeks later we received a letter from an attorney about a pre-existing lien on the house against the prior owner that now carried over to us as the new owners,” says the Louisville, KY, resident. The lien had been missed during the title search process because, Moore says, the county clerk had filed it in a way that made it hard to find.

At first, Moore says, they weren't too concerned.

“We remembered paying for title insurance, but our Realtor® explained that policy only covered the lending institution for any title problems, not us as the homeowners.”

The Moores were left holding the bag for $2,000 to pay off the lien and attorney costs.

Read the full story at https://www.realtor.com/advice/buy/5-home-buying-nightmares-title-insurance-prevent/

For your next commercial real estate transaction, house purchase, mortgage refinance, reverse mortgage, or home equity loan, contact us. We can help. Located in Fairfield, NJ, we are the title insurance agent that does it all for you.

For your next title order or

if you have questions about what you see here, contact

Stephen M. Flatow, Esq.

Vested Land Services LLC

165 Passaic Avenue, Suite 101

Fairfield, NJ 07004

Tel 973-808-6130 - Fax 973-227-0645

E-mail sflatow AT vested.com

@vestedland

#NewJersey

#titleinsurance

#homebuyer

#refinance

Sphere: Related Content

Title Insurance - Clifton, N.J.: Where a Lot of Little Worlds Commingle

Title insurance will get you through!  From Vested Land Services LLC, the consumer's title insurance agent, a New York Times story about Clifton, New Jersey:

Though happy to be near family, Ms. Rosario, a tax accountant who is now 39, and Mr. Gerda, a 33-year-old programmer, saw practical reasons for choosing Clifton. 

There are multiple ways to commute to their jobs in Manhattan, some 15 miles away. There are national retailers and movie theaters along the Route 3 corridor — “a great place to do anything we need to do,” Ms. Rosario said. Significantly, similar houses in desirable Montclair were priced up to $100,000 higher than the $375,000 they paid across the border in the Montclair Heights section of Clifton. “We’re near all those restaurants in Montclair,” Mr. Gerda said, “but we didn’t have to pay those Montclair prices and taxes.” Clifton, in southern Passaic County, is an unpretentious, predominantly middle-class city of 85,000, crisscrossed by highways, two of which — the Garden State Parkway and Route 46 — intersect twice within its 11½ square miles. 

Framed on the west by a wooded mountain and on the east by the Passaic River, the city has pockets of both industry and agriculture (three tiny farms that survived the postwar development boom). The population is as varied as the landscape. The personal finance website WalletHub this year ranked Clifton the 25th most culturally diverse city in the United States and No. 3 in linguistic diversity. The latter distinction jibes with local officials’ finding that more than 70 languages are spoken in the homes of public school students. “There are a lot of little worlds, religiously, ethnically and locational-ly, that thrive in Clifton, yet they’re all happy to be part of the total picture,” said Ernest J. Scheidemann, a local real estate and insurance agent and lifelong resident. The spirit of acceptance was famously demonstrated three years ago when the Clifton High School senior class selected a Muslim student who wore a hijab as its best-dressed female student.

Read the full article at https://www.nytimes.com/2018/03/14/realestate/clifton-new-jersey.html

For your next commercial real estate transaction, house purchase, mortgage refinance, reverse mortgage, or home equity loan, contact us. We can help. Located in Fairfield, NJ, we are the title insurance agent that does it all for you.

For your next title order or

if you have questions about what you see here, contact

Stephen M. Flatow, Esq.

Vested Land Services LLC

165 Passaic Avenue, Suite 101

Fairfield, NJ 07004

Tel 973-808-6130 - Fax 973-227-0645

E-mail sflatow AT vested.com

@vestedland

#NewJersey

#titleinsurance

#homeowner

#refinance

#reversemortgage

Sphere: Related Content

Title insurance is for everyone! A Real Estate Dynasty Passes the Torch

We are the consumer's title insurance agency.  But here's a story from the New York Times about a successful commercial real estate family which, by the way, buys title insurance when they invest,.

A Real Estate Dynasty Passes the Torch

As an apartment tower rises in Murray Hill overlooking the East River, the reins of one of New York’s highest profile family-owned development firms are being passed from one generation to the next.

The building is 685 First Avenue, a 42-story, obsidian condo-and-rental combo from the Solow Building Company, which has been active in New York since the 1960s.

Its founder and chief, Sheldon H. Solow, 89, is known as a hands-on manager who works independently, without joint-venture partners, and at his own pace, meaning projects can take years to come to life. He is legend for his patience — and litigiousness.

But the billionaire Mr. Solow seems to be loosening his tight grip. His son Stefan Soloviev, 42, who has spent years running a sprawling cattle and wheat agricultural business in New Mexico and other states, has stepped up to a bigger role at the company, with 685 First being the first major result. (Mr. Soloviev uses the family name as it was spelled before the family arrived at Ellis Island.)

Read the remainder of the story at  https://www.nytimes.com/2018/04/06/realestate/a-real-estate-dynasty-passes-the-torch.html

For your next commercial real estate transaction, house purchase, mortgage refinance, reverse mortgage, or home equity loan, contact us. We can help. Located in Fairfield, NJ, we are the title insurance agent that does it all for you.

For your next title order or

if you have questions about what you see here, contact

Stephen M. Flatow, Esq.

Vested Land Services LLC

165 Passaic Avenue, Suite 101

Fairfield, NJ 07004

Tel 973-808-6130 - Fax 973-227-0645

E-mail sflatow AT vested.com

#titleinsurance

#homeowner

@vestedland

Sphere: Related Content