Deal Killers - Don't Let Your Deal Die - Free CE from Lieb School at Viana Hotel in Westbury

Instructor: Andrew Lieb, Esq

Date: May 12th, 2015 at Viana Hotel & Spa in Westbury

Course Summary: You get the client, spend months looking for the perfect deal, find it, negotiate it and send it to an attorney to close it. Then, what? It dies. Have you ever wondered if you could do anything differently to have more of your deals close? Learn some of the main reasons that deals die like issues with the Sales Agreement, Title, Escrow Deposit, Closing Date, Financing / Contingencies and the Seller’s Concession. Next, learn how to proactively save your deals and earn a commission. Knowledge is commission.

To Register: Login To Your Lieb School Account and Click "Enroll" or "Join Waiting List"

Consumer Step-by-Step Guide for the Mortgage Purchase Process

The Federal Government’s Consumer Financial Protection Bureau (CFPB) recently released a Home Loan Toolkit, a step-by-step guide through the mortgage purchase process, for consumer use. This is a must use tool for real estate professionals to create realistic expectations for their clients and customers. 

This toolkit helps consumers to:

1. Calculate affordable monthly mortgage payments;
2. Understand the importance of credit scores to obtaining better mortgages;
3. Pick their mortgage type;
4. Choose the best down payment amount;
5. Shop with different lenders;
6. Understand and know about issues that may arise;
7. Choose a mortgage closing agent; and
8. Understand the overall closing process.

This Home Loan Toolkit has fillable text fields, buttons, and list boxes, allowing consumers to update the toolkit as they work through the process. It is designed to be much easier and more accessible version of the existing Settlement Cost Booklet that is currently provided to consumers and should be used in connection with the new (and simpler) Loan Estimate and Closing Disclosure forms that will be effective on August 1, 2015.

Though creditors are required to provide the toolkit to all potential homebuyers, the CFPB encourages that real estate agents understand and provide this toolkit to their clients as well. The more informed the parties, the smoother the real estate transaction will go.

Does The Fair Housing Act Cover Disparate Impact Discrimination

Check out Andrew Lieb's latest article published in The Suffolk Lawyer.

Does The Fair Housing Act Cover Disparate Impact Discrimination

Watch Andrew Lieb Discuss Top 10 Neighbor Issues - Video Clip Now Available!

Andrew Lieb, Esq discusses 10 secrets to dealing with neighborly disputes.

10 Secrets to Dealing with Neighborly Disputes

These are the top 10 legal issues that you may face with your neighbor and how they will be resolved, in court, according to the law. Perhaps, this article will show you that a private, non-legal, neighborly, agreed-upon resolution is a better option for your predicament than turning to the courts. Then again, perhaps not.

Read the published article written by Andrew Lieb, Esq. in Dan's Papers by clicking here.

Brookhaven hosting Free Tax Grievance Seminar

Tax Assessor James Ryan will be at the Manorville Fire Department at 14 Silas Carter Road on April 29, 2015 at 6pm.

Bring your questions as Grievance Day is May 19, 2015.

Employment Questions on Rental Applications – A Housing Discrimination No-No

Andrew Lieb's latest article has been published in The Suffolk Lawyer.

In January 2015, a new Human Rights law went into effect in Suffolk County, to wit: Local Law No. 25- 2014. While the Suffolk County Human Rights Law (hereinafter “SCHRL”) is similar to the Federal Fair Housing Act and the New York State’s Human Rights Law, the SCHRL now adds the protected class of “lawful source of income” to prohibited housing discrimination throughout the county; a protected class that does not exist in either the federal or state law.

To read the full article, click here.

JUST RELEASED: Lieb School's Sizzle Reel - Video Clips of Andrew Lieb Conducting Real Estate Trainings

Lieb School's 200th Class - Divorce Deals in Southampton 3/5/15

We are thrilled to announce the opening of our 200th Lieb School Class!

Divorce Deals: Selling the Marital Residence

Instructor: Andrew Lieb, Esq., MPH

Date: March 5th, 2015

Location: 230 Elm, Southampton NY

Click Here to Register

Class Description: Watch out! Here comes a headache, exposure to liability and impossible commissions. Ever work with divorcing spouses before? Then you know. Good luck getting them to agree on anything from sales price to showing dates while selling their homes or commercial properties? What happens when they start asking you to write letters about how their spouse is not cooperating on the deal? Ever get a call from their lawyers? How about when you get subpoenaed to appear and testify in their Contempt Hearing? What do you do? Where do your duties lie? What can you say and which documents can you provide?

A divorce can pull everyone and everything into its grasp. This course is designed to teach real estate agents how to navigate through all of the complexities of divorce deals from properly listing the property to procuring a purchaser and receiving commission in compliance with License Law.

Learn about the Domestic Relations Law’s concept of marital property. Prepare yourself to stay above the fray, make the deal, get paid and keep the divorcing clients responsive and cooperative along the way. Good luck.

Neighbor Issues: Your Neighbor is Operating a Business in the Residence Next Door

Your neighbor's commercial vehicle (with loud and colorful electrician advertisements throughout the truck) is parked on the street abutting your driveway every day. Crews meet for coffee out front every morning at 5 AM, prompt, in order to gather for their workday. Your spouse parks in your driveway and you have to park down the street. The morning noise drives you nuts and you can't take it anymore.

Regardless if the business is lawful, pursuant to the local municipal code (i.e., zoning code), New York's highest court has said that "no one may make an unreasonable use of his own premises to the material injury of his neighbor's premises".  Meaning, that there are no hard and fast rules in this field of law, which is called a private nuisance cause of action, but, instead, a trier of fact (i.e., judge or jury) must determine if a given business activity is unreasonable at the location where it is being conducted.

In determining if an activity is unreasonable, the following factors should be analyzed to assess the totality of the circumstances under which the activity is being conducted:

1. The location of the property at issue;
2. Who was at the location first, the complainant or the business operator; 
3. The nature of the business' use of the property;
4. An overall character assessment of the neighborhood where the activity is occurring;
5. With respect to the injury claimed, how frequent is it occurring and to what extent or level is it occurring; and
6. How, specifically, the business is effecting the complainant's enjoyment of life, health and property.

A private nuisance cause of action has been used to shutter the following types of business operations: raising and keeping of pigs, quarry operations, nightclubs, auto racetrack and open air concerts. In fact, the Courts of New York have held that a business cannot defend such an action by arguing that "the defendant's business or works is lawful, and is a great benefit, utility, and convenience to the public, and is rightfully carried on in a proper, suitable, and convenient place, and in a careful and orderly manner, and in the best and most improved manner". Such a defense is irrelevant.

So, if you wish to shutter the business, exercise your rights and make a claim that the business is a private nuisance to your use of your property, you can let a court decide if the activity should be stopped. Further, let a court decide if you should be compensated for your lost use and enjoyment during the time that the business operated. To establish your lost value, look to the diminished rental value of your property during the time that the business operated from what that value would have been if there was no such business existing during that time. Now, go live in peace and quiet.