Text size:

Can't stay put: Serial home buyers like to keep moving

BY DAN VAN BENTHUYSEN | Special to Newsday

February 1, 2008

Real estate agent Terry Sciubba says she realized at some point that, when it comes to home ownership, she is not like most people she knows. Not even like many of the customers she serves.

Sciubba, 54, owner and manager of Sherlock Homes Realty Corp., says she likes buying homes so much that she and her children have lived in six different houses. At one point, she and her family occupied four homes in six years.

Call her a "serial buyer."

All of the homes have been in the one-square-mile Village of Sea Cliff, where Sciubba's 11-year-old real estate firm is based.

Sciubba is among that rare breed of homeowner undaunted by the prospect of packing up and moving five, six or more times. Some are motivated by a quest for more or better space; others can't resist the urge to turn a profit on a fixer-upper, and some, like Sciubba, just love homes and the process of selling one and moving to another.

Serial buyers are not necessarily independently wealthy or tapping into financial sources not available to others. But they are adept at spotting bargains and recognizing potential in distressed or overlooked properties. Ilyce Glink, a syndicated columnist who covers personal finance and real estate, says the trend has been encouraged in the last 15 years by changes in the tax laws that allow an individual to reap up to $250,000 profit tax-free on the sale of a home (or $500,000 for a couple) as long as they've lived in the home for two of the last five years. She says that in recent years, the Internal Revenue Service has added exclusions that allow homeowners to sell even before meeting the law's two-year residency requirement, for example, if there is a medical need, a death in the family or a job transfer.

Many of the homes Sciubba has owned in Sea Cliff have been historic, and her frequent buying is so well-known that she says an annual house tour guide once proclaimed, "And we'll see where Terry Sciubba is living this year." She says, "I always figured that as long as the new mortgage payment was close to what the old one was, I could afford the move."

Sciubba admits her wanderlust sometimes has been an element of stress for her family and that, in fact, it contributed to her divorce. "My ex and I joked about it when we were married, and we still joke about it today," she says. "When we were married, he would sometimes say, 'I'll call you from the office when I'm ready to leave, and you can tell me where we live.'"

Sciubba also says that she sent her kids off to summer camp and when they came home, the family lived in a different house. Twice.

'There were opportunities'

Michael Casale was a New York City homicide detective for 22 years before taking retirement and starting his own security firm, Mount Sinai-based MCI Security, which he has run for more than 30 years. "When I got out of the police department, I was doing security work with developers out here on the Island, and I began to see the possibilities," Casale says. "I saw where there were opportunities."

The family's first two homes were in Flushing. Subsequent purchases included homes in Manhasset Hills, Woodbury and Muttontown. Now, Casale is in his seventh home with his second wife, Lynne, in Mount Sinai.

Lynne Casale says she doesn't mind all the moving around. Not surprisingly she worked in real estate for 10 years herself.

Casale's daughter, Kathleen Pisani, 51, is the Syosset-Muttontown branch manager for Daniel Gale Sotheby's International Realty, where she oversees 40 agents. "My father really should have been in real estate," Pisani says, adding, "when I was growing up, in grade school and in high school, he used to take me along to open houses at places he was considering buying.

"My father has 130 people over on Super Bowl Sunday, and you know what? He'll talk real estate all afternoon." But does he follow the game? "Oh, absolutely. But real estate is what he lives and breathes," Pisani says. Nonetheless, her father has never made his primary income from buying and selling homes.

Supervising seven locations

Frank Petrone and his wife, Patricia, have owned seven homes all within Huntington where Petrone is town supervisor. He most recently moved to the Hamlet Golf and Country Club in Commack last August. "Maybe that's why I can be town supervisor. I've lived in so many neighborhoods," he says with a laugh.

Upon reflection, Petrone admits, "I'm a frustrated developer and real estate broker. I love going to open houses."

Petrone's last purchase was from an estate, a type of deal he says he loves. "In an estate purchase, as a buyer I can offer, let's say, $100,000 less than the asking price, but the sellers are heirs who want to get rid of this property, and $100,000 less might actually translate into only $20,000 less for each of the heirs, therefore much more palatable than such a reduced offer might be to a single couple or seller otherwise. Remember, they want to get rid of it. They don't want to continue paying the taxes and maintenance."

Patricia Petrone, a retired assistant principal, says she has been fine with all the moving. "I grew up as one of five children in a family that moved around a lot," the result, she says, of having a father who was a manager relocated by IBM.