Monthly Archives: February 2013

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25
Feb 13

Why the Newest listings for Bergen County Sometimes…Aren’t!

Why the Newest listings for Bergen County Sometimes…Aren’t!

You are doing some serious house-hunting.

You’ve been Googling ‘newest bergen county listings‘, but when you click on the most popular sites, somehow the ‘newest bergen county listings’ are the same ones you’ve seen before. Worse, some of them turn out to have been sold! Or the price was wrong! Or the agent isn’t even the agent anymore!

What is going on? Doesn’t Google (or Bing, or Yahoo!) promise to show you sites with the newest listings in Bergen County? How can the most popular sites (at the top of their results page: Zillow, Realty.com, Trulia) be showing ‘newest listings’ that were sold last month? Or contact numbers that take you to an answering machine that never calls back?

The answer is not mysterious, but it can take a while to catch on. The top of the search engine results pages show the biggest national real estate sites because they target the national audience (and pay huge amounts to the search engines!). Hundreds of thousands of house-hunters click on them all the time because everyone in the country sees them first.

The disappointment comes because of the near impossibility of their keeping current in every locality in the U.S. They can’t keep up with the avalanche of changes: changes in the asking price; changes in the listing agent; changes in availability. That becomes obvious when your contacts return a ‘home under contract,’ or ‘property sold,’ or – infuriatingly — silence.

The good news is that the solution is just a couple of lines lower on those Bing or Google search results. Serious area buyers do figure it out eventually, and look down the search engine listings to find a web address that looks more like it connects with a local real estate brokerage. That leads to listings overseen by Bergen County businesspeople who deal every day with the homes their pages show. When they change, Bergen County agents know it first.

Even better for you, you’re already here – a click away from what you are looking for – and just one click more from my invitation to visit the newest listings in Bergen County!

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21
Feb 13

Happy To Announce The Sale of 109 Riverwalk Way in Riverwalk in Clifton NJ!!!

Happy To Announce The Sale of 109 Riverwalk Way in Riverwalk in Clifton NJ!!!

Happy To Announce The Sale of 109 Riverwalk Way in Riverwalk in Clifton NJ!!!

Homes in Wyckoff / Luxury Homes in Wyckoff — No Comments
18
Feb 13

Staging Approach Helps Wyckoff Home Sellers

Staging Approach Helps Wyckoff Home Sellers

We all know the feeling – the one where guests are due and you haven’t had time to clean the house.  You shove all the…well… stuff into the back bedroom and shut the door (you’d lock it if you could).

Now imagine that feeling times 10.  If you are trying to sell your home this spring, and you have rooms full of that…well…stuff — you’re in for exactly that.

You can prevent it all with just a touch of the staging approach for your Wyckoff home.  Not everyone has $5,000 or more to spend on professional staging, but then again, you can’t offer your home in “lived in” condition and expect to have buyers racing to write you their high-priced offers.

Real estate is in large part an emotional selling proposition – beyond their basic housing requirements, buyers want to see themselves living a better life in their Wyckoff home. The quickest and easiest way to make that possible is to simply get rid of that same stuff!

Here’s an easy example: while a messy home office – one stuffed with papers and files – will cause many potential buyers to think too cramped for me, a well-staged home office helps them imagine their own paperwork in control. To achieve a look that’s clean and simple, box up your files and clean out the dust bunnies.  If you have allowed extra furniture to accumulate (like that folding table in the corner that holds last year’s tax records), go ahead and de-accumulate it!

Staging of any kind may not be your first choice for how to spend an afternoon, but selling your local home is a business transaction, and when you approach the process confident that a little elbow grease will go a long way, your pocketbook will register the difference.

If you are, in fact, preparing for this spring’s selling season, contact me to discuss practical strategies for economically handling the repairs, remodeling, and staging that will speed the sale of your Wyckoff home.

Homes in Wyckoff — No Comments
13
Feb 13

Buying a Wyckoff Home … With a $0 Down Payment?

Buying a Wyckoff Home … With a $0 Down Payment?

Zero Down Mortgage

Some of the Wyckoff’s wealthiest buyers may be getting a mortgage without putting a single dollar down. And we aren’t talking about single-bedroom fixer-uppers, either!

It’s called 100% financing, and, at first blush, it looks suspiciously like a version of the strategy that sent the economy reeling in 2008.  But lenders feel that well-heeled Wyckoff residents who are getting a mortgage through these programs are totally different.  How so? you may ask.

For openers, these loans are offered only to the super-qualified: those with serious investment portfolios they can use as collateral. That means getting a mortgage with zero cash for the down payment. That can carry an additional tax benefit, since the borrower won’t have to pay a capital gains tax on investments liquidated to fund a down payment.

Since current mortgage rates can be as low as 2.5%, since even middling investment accounts often return a higher rate, the difference make this strategy what the Wall Street calls an ‘arbitrage play’.

So what would a homebuyer getting a mortgage in Wyckoff need to do to qualify for one of these mind-bending loans?  In addition to the willingness to put up two forms of collateral (the property and a portion of your investment portfolio), the Wall Street Journal offers some relevant details:

* The amount that can be borrowed against any investment account depends on what’s in the portfolio. Usually up to 95% of account cash; up to about 80% for bonds; between 50% and 75% for most stocks. Withdrawing pledged funds is usually restricted.

* To get the lowest rates, clients who already have significant assets at a particular bank should consider applying for 100% financing there.

* Borrowers still need to pass regular underwriting requirements. They’ll need —  high credit scores, a low level of overall debt, and documentation of substantial income or assets.

Of course, getting a mortgage doesn’t require a seven-figure portfolio.  If you are seriously thinking about buying a Wyckoff home, call me — we’ll get started by getting you pre-qualified.

Franklin Lakes Real Estate — No Comments
05
Feb 13

Franklin Lakes Homes For Sale, Luxury Real Estate

Franklin Lakes Homes For Sale. Luxury Real Estate

Frankin Lakes Real Estate

(Click on Image for More Photos)

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04
Feb 13

We Believe In Finding You A Home.

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04
Feb 13

Wyckoff Businesses Helped by Housing’s ‘Snowball Effect’

Wyckoff Businesses Helped by Housing’s ‘Snowball Effect’

Wyckoff Real Estate Prices

The Weather Channel has nothing to do with it. What’s happening up in the ski resorts, likewise. The ‘snowball effect’ being discussed in print and on TV won’t soften anytime soon (even if the groundhog was right about winter being over)..

This is an economic snowball — one that’s gathering momentum following what CNN’s Money website describes as “the best year for U.S. real estate market in five years.” Businesses that stand to benefit from growth in the Wyckoff housing market are watching closely.

The Wall Street Journal’s snowball report took form in last Monday’s Marketplace section, where the top headline read “Housing Recovery Opens Spigot…Makers of Products From Carpets to Air Conditioners Feel Effects of Rebound.”

It was even more heartening as a counter to last week’s government indications that the greater economy seemed to slow. The housing sector’s performance was so strong it acted as a tonic to its many associated industries: among them, many Wyckoff retailers.

The snowball effect was noted widely. The company that makes Carrier air conditioners said that orders rose 20%; Honeywell International reported the “first sign of life we have had in a while.”

Locally, fingers were crossed that Wyckoff businesses will be swept up in the snowball. National suppliers expected that to happen. “Housing is what we see leading the economy out of the doldrums,” according to the CFO of United Technologies Corp. The WSJ reported evidence that Americans are spending more to build and refurbish their properties.

With sales of existing housing registering the largest annual jump since 2004, it should come as no surprise if Credit Suisse’s Daniel Oppenheim proves correct in predicting a 7%-8% rise in home improvement spending. He expects it to keep going for at least the next two years. That’s a pretty solid forecast, and in line with what most observers are saying.

All in all, the boost from the housing recovery is one snowball no one seems to think is likely to melt soon  — regardless of what Punxsutawney Phil has to say about it.