Coffee with the supervisor, and I have a special guest today, and this is Tetsk House, who is the executive director of
LIBOA, and that's L-I-B-O-O, and that stands for Long Island Board of Relatives. Tell me about LIBOA. Now, I understand
LIBOA has about 30,000 members. Tell me what LIBOA does. Sure. Well, thanks so much for having me today.
As a pleasure to have you.
The longer the board of realtors, as you said, is it's 30,000 members, and we are a not-for-profit trade organization.
We serve the counties of Queens, Nassau, and Suffolk.
It's mostly residential, right?
Yes, we do have commercial, and we have commercial, and you have some industrial.
There's a separate group for industrial and commercial real estate brokers, but they also can belong and do belong to Libert.
But mostly most of the people that belong, who are members, do
residential single family homes, condos, apartments, and they do the whole host of real estate
things, right?
Correct.
So everything from buying a selling, representing buyers or sellers, as all types of real estate
condos, co-ops, single family homes, even rentals of homes, apartments, condos, etc.
So, it handles the whole gamut of real estate issues.
And due to our geography, where we cover, we are both one of the largest local associations in the country, and one of the most diverse.
Wow. That's interesting.
So, you provide the professional impetus for real estate brokers and salespeople because there's a difference.
Salespeople only need to take X number of courses.
brokers you need to take more and most brokers tend to own the real estate business that they provide.
Correct. And our role within the industry is that we are, we're a trade association,
so we advocate for our members, which, of course, means we end up advocating for home ownership and, you know, future buyers and future sellers.
Things like the mortgage interest deduction, the national flood insurance program.
These are perennial issues that are homeowner issues, but there is no national association of homeowners.
Absolutely.
So we go.
So you advocate for homeowners.
One of the things that I'm sure you're advocating is the exceptionally high fees that
is charged by the County Clerk's Office for recording a mortgages or deeds, a well and access
of the cost of providing that service.
You know, when municipalities and other entities look to add surcharges, to real estate transactions,
what they're actually doing is pricing some potential buyers out of the market.
So, you know, some fees are justified, and if they're justified and necessary, then, you know,
so be it.
But for to add extra taxes to try to just raise revenue off of the backs of purchasers and homeowners,
that's not a very good way to encourage housing.
Absolutely not, if you ever get on the way, let me know.
I was County Clerk and Suffolk County for 16 years, and I think the fees that they're
charging now is simply a way of doing a backdoor tax as opposed to a fee related to service.
Right.
Like mortgage stands and things like that.
Right.
Abs, mortgage taxes is amongst them, filing fees, etc.
We often see that, especially in economic trying times that when municipalities look at where
they can get some revenue, they go, oh well, you know,
home purchases are so large no one would notice just this. But the problem is, you know,
these are large companies making these purchases. These are individual families who save up
or individual saving up to buy that home and every dollar added can can price somebody back out.
That's important. And I know that as of late,
LIBOR has taken a lead with their housing. Yes. Oh, we're making sure everyone has an equal
opportunity to live where they want. And one of the things is sources of income. Yeah, talk a little bit about that program.
Well, yeah, as you said, you know, fear of housing has been the law since, you know, 1968.
In New York, legal source of income protection passed in 2019. So it is actually one of our newest protected classes.
And there was a lot of news in the fear of housing world. And what does that mean legal sources of income for people that
hearing the phrase for the first time while what that means. So I would encourage anyone to go visit
our website, which is home for all of us.org, where we list out a whole list of potential sources
of income, but it can be everything from alimony, foster care payments, you know, for military
payments. So all of those types of income have to be calculated when you look at someone's
purchasing ability to purchase a home.
Right. And so they're trying to rent the home.
They need to be treated as any other legal source of income. You cannot treat one source
of income differently. And of course when we talk about source of income, certain programs jump
to mind such as housing choice voucher section eight. Those are also legally protected sources
of income in New York. And section eight is? So this is a government subsidy.
Some people refer to it in other ways.
But Section 8 talks about a government subsidy for housing where if you are of low to moderate income.
Yes, and you do have to meet certain program requirements.
And it helps offset those friends so that you can afford to live in those communities.
And why does the standard for you income?
You know, that that I would send you to a housing administrator.
30%.
It's 30 percent of your income. No one should pay more than 30 percent of their income.
So if your income is zero, you pay no rent. But if your income is $1,000 and you pay
$300 towards it in the government, subsidizes the rest on the Section 8 Program. All Section
8 programs that I believe every municipality runs some type of housing program either. We do it
In fact, right next door, his housing community development office, most governments have that
if they don't, they contract with enough of profit to provide that service, like CDC or
something of that community development.
And then there's also enhanced vouchers to help get people into communities that the vouchers
haven't traditionally been hit the market price within.
So there's a couple of different programs out there.
And it all falls.
There's one waiting list, just so everyone knows that we probably have several thousand on
our Section 8 waiting list.
And I know people say, oh, Section 8, oh my God, that's not going to help on a boat.
But they're wrong because a properly administered Section 8 program has to invoke housing
quality standards, which are sometimes even stricter than local building codes.
So, I've looked through the standards, and by and large, they are just basic security that
you would want in any priority, and I would go on to say that, you know, some of these
programs have stickmas attached to them, and as you said, these are unfair stickmas, and
in fact, part of the reason we're running an awareness campaign is we want to raise awareness
of the benefits.
Right now, right in the notorious are very fresh in many housing providers' minds, but those
The housing providers that had tenants with subsidies received regular, steady, guaranteed payments.
And so now is a really good time to maybe talk about some of the benefits as we let go of some of these old stigmas.
Well, I know the state imposed rent moratoriums, which makes it very tough on landlords.
Because anyone thinking of investing in real estate has to think twice because if there's a moratorium and you have tenants that don't pay, that makes it difficult to get a return on your investment.
but as you point out on the section eight,
those reds were paid and the emergency assistance program.
We went through that like a hot night through butter.
We gave that all of us and we could have used a great deal more money.
We were one of the most efficient, quickest towns in getting that money out.
And we got that all out.
So we used all that money because there's a tremendous need for that,
particularly coming out or during and coming out of this pandemic.
And so now's a great time to talk about source of income and ensure that everyone gets an opportunity to live where they choose to live.
Absolutely. We were a great believer in fair housing and people having the ability to live where they want.
Providing they can afford it and they have the legal source of income and talk a little bit about your program about that.
sure so we launched a website home for all of us.org and the goal of the program is to
to kind of raise awareness again as I said earlier this law was just passed in 2019 a lot of
people have the seven federally protected classes from 1995 in their head but that class has been
expanded and in New York they added legal source of protection so by making sure that housing
providers are aware of legal source of income protection they can make policies and decisions
that actually comply with the law and further fair housing in their communities.
And how people wind up with a habitable place to live, something that is meet code.
We have problems all the time with people.
We have an accessory apartment law, but you have to meet certain qualifications for that.
We do not permit currently at B&Bs, and people who rent have to get rental permits.
And the reason for that is we do inspections of both the towns, villages are responsible
for inspecting for building code compliance and fire safety compliance, and we find a lot
people choose not to get rental permits because they don't want to go through the inspection
process.
Right.
But the safety part is so important when we talk about affordable housing, it has
to be safe and affordable.
Two or three blocks, we had someone die in a legal apartment that was a basement apartment
in a fire because they didn't have the egress, they didn't have smoke alarms, they didn't
have a common monoxide alums, the town wants to see everyone live in a decent house, that
will meet whether it's rented or you purchase it or whatever, or it's an apartment,
a condo or a co-op, whatever, that it meets basic New York State building codes and fire safety
codes.
That's why if you're going to rent, we say make sure you land what gets a rental permit because
that requires us to do an inspection and certify it.
And those permits I believe are good for 15 months.
So that's some of the things that happen in the town.
What are things ways that the town can help work with LIBOR?
So if you have property managers and landlords,
we would encourage them to visit our site home for all of us.
OK, dot org.
And take a look at the information we have.
We have an FAQ, about 12 questions long.
We also at the bottom have an email info at home for all of us.org.
That I think he will grow as we hear from housing providers, as we hear from community
partners in fear housing, as we hear from the public, as they add questions to that list.
We're going to add answers to that list as well.
But I would encourage them to go there and learn about legal source of income.
See all of the potential types of source of income.
And also look at the consequences for nonabiding by this law, because they are very steep.
If willful violation can come with civil penalties of up to 250,000 per cut.
And on top of that, someone who has been discriminated against can go after the defendant
for emotional distress due to homelessness.
And there is no cap on that.
And additionally, the defendant could end up paying all of the plaintiffs' turnip fees.
So it's important that if you were providing housing
that you understand legal source of income protection in New York, that you have policies
and you make decisions within your company that follow legal source of protection in
coming New York, and give everyone that fair shot at stable, safe housing that lets them
go on and build the rest of their lives around there.
That's been very helpful to our viewers.
Let me ask you maybe, and this very quick segment we're talking about other services that
membership provides a general public real estate brokers. They value in real estate transactions.
It's hard to underestimate what a broker and an agent actually do for the normal American
homeowner. We tend to stay in our homes anywhere from 7 to 12 years, which means that you go through
a resale and a purchase baby once a decade. That's not often enough to be good at anything.
It's not often enough to keep up with all of the laws and the regulations and the required
disclosures.
So a broker can help.
Having a trusted professional guiding you through this process, telling you what you need
to know, what to look out for, you know, home inspections, for example.
Home inspection.
You're buying a house.
When is it due back?
Yeah.
Get a home inspection, get someone that's in a professional to inspect, make sure all the defects
are there accounted for and addressed before you buy or at least some money set aside.
So you can deal with it if you want to purchase it, but be knowledge about that.
I've known brokers who attend closings, oftentimes, to make sure that everything is smooth,
and there isn't a problem at the closing in terms of any of the documentation.
Well, another question is that, come up, again, when you purchase a home, there tends to be a stack of papers.
Well, title search, it starts off. Make sure that you own this. Make sure that what?
You know what you're buying, that, oh, I thought that piece of property over there was part of my property, oh, I didn't realize that.
So, a title search is like basic.
And surveying and appraisal, all of these things need to happen at certain times in the transaction.
Wait, there's a shadow on the property and it's larger than the shed that's normally allowed.
So it needs to see, oh, a certificate of occupancy, oh, there's a pool and it has no certificate of occupancy.
These are things that can trip by as up.
Right, and what about out of market?
Or sell it?
I came from different markets.
I had to learn about, you know, waterfront.
I had to learn about septic.
I had to learn about garbage disposal.
Because, again, it's, you know what you know, but every home, you purchase, especially if it's anywhere outside of where you go.
Every town.
A lot of questions.
Every town is different in brokaving.
The town created little garbage districts, which put them out to bed, so it's competitive.
And we get the best price.
And we serve as 119,000 single and two family homes.
We don't service, apartment houses, condos, co-ops, we don't service any commercial industrial, so that's just homes
And they get two pickups a week, and one recycling pickup, 471 pickups a year, so that's what we do in this town
But other towns are different, Babylon town for example, where your office is located, right, at the junk-child sunrise highway near 109
Right, on the south side of sunrise highway
is in Babylon handles all garbage, commercial industrial, multi-family, and single-family
home, so every town is different in their approach and they obviously have a much higher
garbage expenses than we do. So it's interesting to learn and the one person I think that
can probably help people who are buying homes is the broker because the broker is local, many
that brokers have been around for many years, they know the community and they get your answers
to questions that people might have about garbage or sewage. Some of our town is on cesspools.
Some of our town is on sewage and it depends on where you are in the town.
Right. And so again, having a guide and advisor to kind of walking through answer the questions
that you have and also sometimes say you don't you haven't asked me this right you know
so it's I've been in the industry almost two decades that I've been working in and around
realtor associations with real estate agents and I still have as many questions as I did what
about my first time right are you on well water which you will probably we will ask so much in
But in Brookhaven, in parts of our town, there are people still on well water, as opposed to what would be called public water.
Well, the Suffolk County Water Authority Water.
So, these type of questions are so crucial for getting a broker involved, so you know what you're buying.
You know the location, and again, what are the three most important things in choosing real estate?
I think it's location, location, location.
And you know what's interesting is that that is different for every single person, right?
You know, when we go back to talking about housing choice, whether it's source of income or anything else
Why someone chooses that this is the right place for me. It might be relative to the work
It might be relative to family. They wouldn't be close to it. It might be for any number of reasons that would not matter to anyone else
Right, and that's why it has to be housing choice that we have to help people get into the homes that they can afford and if they want whether
Tell me your source of income. I'll tell you what's available where the communities that you want to look at here are some things that would interest you
Yeah, and so so that's yeah again, it's it's realtors and and and real estate definitely go hand in hand
Well, I you know
It's hard to thank all the realtors for what they do
But it's easy today because long Island border of realtives like what represents all
or almost of the people who are real estate sales and or brokers either in the
residential commercial industrial market. So I want to thank you for coming in
and giving us a better view of what library, the professional organization for
real estate does. So, Tess, thank you so much. Thank you so much, it's been great to see you.
Great, good to see you.