Columbia University Libraries Digital Collections: The Real Estate Record

The Record and guide: v. 35, no. 892: April 18, 1885

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April 18,1885 The Record and Guide. 419 THE RECORD AND GUIDE, Published every Saturday. IQl Broadwav, IST. '^. TERMS: ONE YEAR, in adraucc, SIX DOLLARS. Communications should be addiessed to C. W. SWEET, 191 Broadway. J. T. LINDSEY, Business Manager. Vol. XXXV. APRIL 18, 1885. No. 892 Opening of the New Real Estate Exchange. The verbatim report we give elsevi-here of the speeches made at the opening of the Real Estate Exchange will be found very inter¬ esting reading to everyone who owns or deals in real property. The report will be a valuable one in years to come, as the future history of the Exchange will be judged by the purposes of its founders and officers as expressed in these addresses. All the speakers seemed impressed with the conviction that the Exchange was to be something more than a mere trading mart, a place for buying and selling real estate. The organization, it is expected, will undertake to exercise a direct influence upon state and local governments so far as they affect the interests of realty. It will endeavor to reform our land transfer laws and prevent waste of tlie public monies ; but, while enforcing economical practices, wiU have sufficient public spirit to favor desirable improvements and guard the health of the community, even if that good work demands large expenditure. Taxpayers have the reputation of being parsimonious, of opposing all legitimate expenditures for worthy objects for fear of assessment, but the Real Estate Exchange could never afford to take this position. It would lose in the estimation of the public were its main objects merely to relieve property-holders from necessary taxation. But the busiuess features of the Exchange are not to be ignored. It will bring buyers and sellers together. It will fix commissions and agents' charges and eventually reduce them to a minimum. In the fullness of time dealers will care less Tor high commissions and pay more attention to increasing the number of transactions. The '• nimble sixpence" will be preferred to the "slow ahilling." Dis¬ putes which now cause litigation with a consequent waste of money aud time will hereafter be settled promptly and inexpensively by the Arbitration Committee of the Exchange. Brokers and ageuts will gain in public estimation by being represented by an organiza¬ tion which must enforce discipline and maintain a high standard of professional honor. The formal opening of this institution will, in the opinion of its promoters, mark a new era in dealings in real estate in the metropolis. ,--------.»-------- Tlie rules aud regulations of the new Real Estate Exchange and Auction Room (Limited) may seem formal and dry to the general reader, but they will be perused with eager interest by every agent and dealer in this city and its neighborhood. For the first time com¬ missions and charges are officially announced. In fixing tliese rates the officers of the Exchange called to their assistance the leading outside brokers and dealers. All the auctioneers were convened at first and the commissions were submitted to them. Amendments and changes were suggested and were accepted, if deemed wise, by the Board of Directors. There was also a meeting of agents and and brokers, other than members of the Exchange, and an under¬ standing was arrived at with them before the rates we publish were definitely agreed upon. It is just barely possible that people who buy and sell who are not auctioneers, brokers or agents may think the charges too high. If so they can doubtless make their opinions felt at some future time. The tendency on all the exchanges is towards lower commissions, but at any rate buyers and sellers hereafter will stand on an equal feoting. The charges will be the same to every one. The regulations we publish will certainly be amended from time to time, and will doubtless be of a different character five years hence from what they are now. The rules will be altered and modified as will be required by the future exigencies of the Exchange. So much has been said in the daily press about Buddensiek and his buildings that further comment on our part would be super¬ fluous. The vital point in the matter seems to have been over¬ looked. Bad and dangerous buildings are rendered possible under our present building laws. These are so framed that there is little responsibility on the part of the builders and no security for the public. "Snide" builders who operate as Buddensiek is said to have done can so arrange matters that it is impossible to bring the fault home to any one. It is said that this particular builder represents a syndicate of people like himself, but their affairs and contracts are so manipulated that it is impossible to hold any of them to a legal responsibility. Efforts are made every year to amend the building laws, but the " snide" builders are always able to kill tho amendments to the present law. A very excellent building law got through the Legislature in the spring of 1884. It had the countenance of all the honest interests in the building trade, but to the surprise of every one President, then Governor, Cleveland vetoed the bill because of some alleged defect in its phraseology. The word title was used when it should have been act or something of the kind, and New York has been cursed with a thousand ill-built houses in consequence of the verbal scruples of the executive. The same law substantially has been before the Legislature this year. It was introduced early in the session and had the endorsement of the Peal Eslate Exchange. There was no reason why it should not have been passed in February, but it will probably be kept to the end of the session to see how much the " snide " builders are willing to pay to kill it. True it has passed the State Senate under the popular wrath over the Sixty-second street disaster, but there is time enough to defeat it before the Leg¬ islature adjourns. •--------•-----— The Merchant Marine of the World. In view of the probability of a foreign war attention is, of course, directed to the ocean and the possible changes which may take place in the trade of the world if hostilities should extend from land to the sea. Before the Civil War two-thirds of the foreign trade of the United States was carried on in American vessels. In 1884 five-sixths of our foreign trade was carried on in foreign vessels, and over half of the foreign trade is in the hands of owners of English vessels. The SuH recently published some statistics on this subject, from which we extract the following : The sea-going merchant fleets of all nationalities aggregate about 56,000 vessels, and about 23,000,000 tons. The tremendous preponderance of England in tho carrying trade of the world aud the order in which compet¬ ing nations foUow her long lead are shown in this table of approximate flgures: Vessels. Tons. Great Britain................................. 22,.500 11,200,000 United States................................. 6,600 2,700,000 Norway...................................... 4,200 1,500,000 Germany..................................... 3,000 1,400,000 France....................................... 2,900 1,100,000 Italy......................................... 3,200 1,000,000 Russia........................................ 2,300 600,000 If the comparison is confined to steamships, which now carry so large and so important a part of the commerce of the world, the supremacy of Great Britain is exhibited in a still more striking way : Steam Vessels. Tons. All nations.................................... 7,764 9,232,000 Great Britain.................................. 4,649 5,919,000 ' Prance ....................................... 458 6