Joseph Ross Locascio Jr.

We hired Joe to represent us buying our house in an HOA in Dobbs Ferry NY. Right before we were set to wire our 10% deposit to Escrow for our house, Joe called to tell me, at the last minute, that there was a potential assessment we would face (we moved into an HOA with 116 units). We asked him fo...r what and how much. He said he would call me back, and when he did he said "it's to repave XYZ Road, they are not sure it will happen, but if it does it will cost me only$ 1,000 or so." We trusted him and proceeded with the transaction. When we went to the annual board meeting of our HOA a month after close (we closed 10/11, the board meeting was 11/16), one of the major topics discuss was the "infrastructure project" which is a massive project that has been in discussion for more than a year and is estimated to cost $700,000 to $1,000,000 dollars. At that point it was clear it would cost us, when it went through, ~$6,000 to $8,600 depending on the final bid. Initially we thought the seller lied to us and committed fraud. I joined the board at the annual meeting and had access to the board minutes from the prior year meeting at which the board mentioned the project could cost $850,000 to $1,000,000, and I had the sign in sheet showing the seller was in attendance. Clearly he was aware of the project and the cost which was improperly relayed to me. When I asked Joe to help me go after the Seller for fraud, he said he'd "check his notes" and never got back to us after checking in with him for a month. After speaking to others around the transcation, and given Joe refused to help us, it became pretty clear Joe has a reputation for rushing transactions to collect his fee, and most likely fabricated the $1,000 number so we would not back out of the transaction. To this day Joe has not produced any kind of evidence, written or otherwise, that the seller told him this $1,000 amount or that the seller told him any amount. At best, its negiligence and incompetence on his part for not digging deeper and even requesting HOA minutes, but we firmly believe he actually committed fraud. Joe is at the tail end of his career and is looking for easy; he is not someone who will exert any extra effort advocating for his clients and will say and do whatever is needed to complete a deal and collect his flat fee. Avoid at all costs. Feels a lot like the experience had by the first reviewer below (2013, 2 stars)

Joe represented me in 1999 when I purchased my home in Dobbs Ferry to my satisfaction. I am now selling my home and could not find his contact info readily and hired one of the attorneys recommended by my real estate agent. My closing attorney requested a copy of my deed, title insurance and survey.... I found my deed, but had already packed the other documents with my closing documents as I did not know that I would need those to facilitate the closing. I found Joe's contact info with my deed paperwork. I called his office today and within 6 hours Joe personally called me back and emailed me the documents I needed. He clearly knew that I had hired another attorney or I would not be asking for these documents. I found him to be professional, courteous and a pleasure to work with. I recommend him.

I was overall, very disappointed by my experience as a client of Mr. Locascio, who represented me in the purchase of real estate in the state of New York. While Mr. Locascio, who has several decades of experience in representing clients in real estate transactions, was clearly quite knowledgeable in ...his field, I found the level of client service and transparency provided by him and his office to be unacceptable. As an example, Mr. Locascio was generally extremely difficult to get a hold of throughout the entire process, leaving his relatively untrained staff to answer all but the most pressing questions. On the off chance that I was able to speak with Joe directly, his primary objective was to get me off the phone as quickly as possible. Furthermore, when I requested that Joe get in touch with the attorney representing the other party to my transaction and relay specific messages or requests, he would typically tell me that he would call them as I had requested and then call me back once he had the conversation. However, 9 times out of 10, I would never receive a call back. When I would eventually call Mr. Locascio again to follow up, and he would either a) not remember what we had initially discussed and what I had asked him to do, or b) literally fabricate a story about a fictitious conversation he had had on my behalf (I once caught him contradicting himself over the course of a conversation, unearthing the fact that he was simply lying about a 'call' he had made for me.) As is the case with many real estate lawyers, Joe charged a flat fee to represent me in my transaction. Given this fee structure, it doesn't take a brain surgeon to understand that he had no incentive to advocate for me in any way that would delay or potentially jeopardize the deal, or require him to spend any additional time with me. It's clear that Joe's singular objective was to close the deal as quickly as possible, collect his flat fee, and move on to the next transaction with the minimum amount of effort, irrespective of what would have been in his client's best interest. I appreciate that the real estate market in Westchester County doesn't exactly have a reputation for transparency and honesty, but I found my experience with Mr. Locascio to be particularly and surprisingly lacking. While I can't accuse Mr. Locascio of any wrongdoing or legal misconduct, I would certainly characterize his style as terse, opaque, and borderline dishonest, and would have guessed that someone with such extensive experience would at least have been able to humor his clients and give the impression that he was working hard on their behalf and looking out for their best interests. I unfortunately cannot recommend working with Mr. Locascio.