The Independent Insurance Agents of Suffolk County, Inc. sends us good news, bad news, and 'what to do about it' news for homeowners.

The good news - the re-mapping of Suffolk County's flood maps by the Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA) is good news for thousands of property owners whose structures are no longer designated as high risk for flooding.

Property listed with The Corcoran Group

The bad news - "Everyone lives in a flood zone," according to the National Flood Insurance Program (NFIP), and "it's just a question of whether you live in a low, moderate, or high risk area." NFIP is the FEMA program that administers flood insurance, which is optionally sold through agencies and brokerages across Long Island.

What to do about it - the Independent Insurance Agents & Brokers of Suffolk County, Inc. recommends commercial and residential property owners as well as renters consider the purchase of flood insurance. In most cases, homeowners insurance does not cover flood losses.

You saw it first here - Nichols Restaurant, that Montauk Highway popular resort, changed ownership on Dec. 1. Plans were for the amiable staff who provide down home professional service to remain at the popular East Hampton pub. We mentioned it several weeks earlier - that Montauk has scored a touchdown with Eli Manning and his lovely wife building a home way out East. Welcome new Nichols proprietors and the Mannings.

That's it for self congratulations!

So, my good news columns were not taken as good news, apparently, by all of the people in the industry.

I received an unsolicited phone call from a leading broker with a top outfit regarding all the deals happening out east by people in the business who hang in there. Said the caller, who asked to be off the record only when told he was on - please if you want no attributions you have to say it or write it first, before exchanging information, but it's the holiday season, so we'll give the gift of anonymity to said broker and the company with which he works.

It was a non-stop phone call about how nothing is selling out east, everything is flat, flat, flat, and that their company - with its huge market share - has done about 80 percent less in closings compared to 2006, only getting about four to six per month right now, and that the well of financing was dry, dry, dry.

Property listed with Prudential Douglas Elliman

I don't know why we got the phone call. Were people in the undisclosed companies complaining to management when they read about the activity that is going on? Was caller saying, "Don't believe them!" - we don't have a clue.

On the other hand, we think there was at least a germ of concern for all of us - if not more - in the broker's phone call. We are told by others that, whatever happens on Wall Street up or down, this economic downturn seems to have a career of its own. Eliminating ulterior motives we know he has tried out of the box ways to make a deal.

On the other hand, one prominent hard-working entrepreneur mentioned the old canard, "Someone's bad news is usually someone else's good news" (Ugh! Don't you hate that?), so find the good news people. After all they can make it better for those, who through no fault of their own, find themselves in very tough times and are trying to keep their heads above water.

Keep news about your deals coming. Confidence in a market is important to sellers, buyers, agents, and their firms. If you are making deals and no one else is, let us know how. Are your clients doing something different than others?

If someone wants to sell and someone wants to buy and both can afford to do so, there has to be a way to get it together. So we praise the realtors who are making things work and wish the guys where things have not been working some luck. When a market is down, some smart money somewhere is finding a way to buy into it or seeking one.

For those brokers who want a bit of an edge to show off their knowledge and to better understand the area in which they are doing business visit or revisit (as we just did) the late Everett Rattray's "The South Fork: The Land and The People of Eastern Long Island." What a wealth of knowledge and 12 generations of insights that are good to know, great to share, impressive to have at your fingertips, good conversation if stuck in traffic, and better than, "Okay here's the property - I think!"

It is not an easy book to buy. But we managed with the help of Everett's son David.

East End real estate is a very strange business. So God Bless, good luck and help each other.