Archive for March, 2010

I received this information this morning in my sales associate newsletter.  Given that I am working with several people short sale or foreclosure issues, I thought it was improtant to share it.  The Home Affordable Foreclosure Alternatives (HAFA) program will go into effect on April 5, 2010. Part of the government’s Home Affordability Modification Program (HAMP), HAFA was designed to help stabilize the residential real estate market by allowing the short sale process to move forward more easily.

Under HAFA, borrowers will be allowed to receive pre-approved short sale terms before listing the property, as well as $1,500 in relocation assistance, and they will be fully released from any future liability for the first mortgage debt. In addition, HAFA prohibits servicers from requiring a reduction in the real estate commission agreed upon in the listing agreement, up to 6 percent.

In order to be eligible, the property must be used as a principal residence, the first lien must have been originated before 2009, the unpaid balance must not exceed $729,750, and the borrower’s total monthly payment must be more than 31 percent of their gross income.

This new, streamlined process makes short sales a better option for mortgage servicers, who are expected to now choose short sales over foreclosures in many cases. The decrease in foreclosures should help to stabilize the housing market. In addition, real estate sales professionals will be able to close more short sales and keep more of their commissions.

For more information on this program, please contact me directly.  Once we have the Frequently Asked Questions document completed, I will be happy to share it.

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Seven properties went under contract this past week in Basking Ridge.

For more information on any of these properties, please contact me directly or search for more Basking Ridge homes for sale. You can also review closed sales in Basking Ridge.

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Pride in Our Parks & Pathways Day is an event created by the Department of Parks & Recreation and the Recreation, Parks & Pathways Advisory Committee to build community pride through volunteer service and promote awareness of Township parks and pathways.

This year’s event will focus attention on the various open space properties throughout the Township recently acquired for passive recreation and established parks with walking trails and nature access.

Brief presentations with information on the history, acquisition and property features will be conducted at the properties below at 1PM, 1:30PM, 2PM & 2:30PM.

Contact me for more information!

Our newest parks:

Whitenack Woods – Entrance and parking located on Mine Brook Road
Sons of Liberty Farm & The English Family Woods – Entrance and parking located on Allen Road
Farmstead Park & the Passaic River – Entrance and parking located on King George Road
Mountain Park Walking Trails – Entrance and parking located off Martinsville Road and Mountain Road 

A bus tour will also be available at 1PM and 2PM, departing from Town Hall at 1 Collyer Lane, Basking Ridge.  The tour will highlight properties such as Schmidt Park, the Dead River Trail, and McCollum Farm.

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As you know, Governor Christie announced his budget message last week.  This included massive changes to school budgets throughout the state.  Bernards Township is losing $4 million for next year and an additional $1.6 million this spring.  As in past years, we are once again looking at changes including partial-day kindergarten, modified enrichment programs and an eight period day at the high school.  The final budget to be presented to voters is due on March 31st – that’s coming up soon!  There are two school board meetings between then and now: March 24th and March 31st, both will be held at Oak Street School at 7:00pm.  For more information you can read the memo from Valerie Groger, Bernards Township School Superintendent.

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I spent an inordinate amount of time this past week on a potential deal for one of my listings.  We had seven offers on the table – yes, SEVEN, in this supposedly dead real estate market (more on that later as this market is certainly not dead!).  The subject of my commission came up several times – my seller and more than one of the bidders asked us to reduce our commission in order to pull the deal together.  I can’t let that go without some sort of comment … I have two messages:

1. To the Buyers, commission is between the seller and the listing agent, you cannot change that and if your agent wants to reduce his or her commission to make your offer stronger, he or she needs to present a letter from their managing broker agreeing to that fact before I will let my seller sign the contract. 
2. To the Sellers, you signed a listing agreement giving me and Weichert Realtors the exclusive right to sell your property and you agreed upon a commission rate at the time that you signed that contract – please don’t ask me to address my commission again when we are negotiating a contract. 

Take a look at my current article over at the Basking Ridge Patch, it addresses real estate relationships in the state of New Jersey.  It is important to understand the difference between Buyer’s Agents, Seller’s agents and Disclosued Dual Agents.  You won’t necessarily get a better deal as a buyer if you work with directly with the listing agent; and as a seller, if your agent brings the buyer,  he or she immediately becomes a disclosed dual agent and you will not have the upper hand in the transaction.

If you have any questions about agency relationships please don’t hesitate to contact me directly.

Considering a move into or out of Basking Ridge?  It’s a great time to make a move – buyers and sellers alike.  The market is moving in Basking Ridge; showing activity is up on most of my listings and as I said earlier, I am even entertaining multiple offers in some instances.  I can set you up for listing alerts in Basking Ridge or you can search Basking Ridge homes or townhomes yourself.

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Only four contract sales this week:

One Spring Ridge condo, list price $259,000
One Society Hill Townhouse, list price $299,975
One single family home in the Hills, list price $799,900
One other single family home , list price $829,900 (I sold this one!)

There were two closings this week – 214 English Place, a Society Hill condo closed for full price – $239,000.  It had been on the market for that price for only FIVE days when it went under contract.  Prior to that, it had been on the market for quite some time – with an initial list price of $287,000.  2602 Hemlock Place in the Cedars closed for $275,000 after 22 days on the market.  This property had been listed before at a high of $350,000.

There are 193 listings currently available in Basking Ridge as of this evening – ranging in price from $195,000 to $4,850,000.  With most of the properties falling between $500,000 and $1,000,000.

Current market absorption is reflective of a normal market at 6.03 months of inventory.  If you are considering a move into or out of Basking Ridge, you might be intersted in knowing the current value of your home or looking at what has recent sales in Basking Ridge.  Sign up for listing notifications in Basking Ridge – then you can call me when you are ready to look at some homes!

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It’s been quite some time since I’ve posted – I’ve been very busy!  Believe it or not, I have been managing mulitple offers on several of my listings and for one of my buyers.  The market has certainly picked up.  In fact, there have been TEN contract sales in the first TEN days of March.  That’s pretty terrific.  List prices for these properties have ranged from $299,000 to $1,100,000; five town houses and five single family homes.

There were THIRTY new listings here in town since the first of March.  Two of those properties are under contract and one is in attorney review.

Are you considering a move into or out of Basking Ridge?  Now is the time to make that move!  Visit my website for information on what has sold in Basking Ridge or to search homes for sale in Basking Ridge.

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20 Old Coach Road in Basking Ridge is a traditional center hall colonial with an expanded kitchen featuring a center island, french doors, skylights and two pantries. It boasts a huge family room with cathedral ceilings and a first floor study. It has a great fenced yard with a two tiered deck and an inground pool. There is recessed lighting throughout the house, a newer roof(’07), two zone central air and several rooms have recently been painted. It also features a terrific master bedroom with lots of light, two walk-in closets and a bathroom with two sinks, a stall shower and a jetted soaking tub. 

List Price: $929,000

If you are considering a move into or out of Basking Ridge, please visit my site for information on what has sold in Basking Ridge or to sign up for listing alerts.

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Yes, 2010 tax assessments have been published. And yes, they are lower than they were last year.  Mine dropped almost 7%.  But this does not mean that all listings currently on the market are overpriced! (okay, I will admit that there are probably lots of listings on the market that are overpriced, but that’s not because of the 2010 tax assessments and we can talk about that later.)

Tax assessments in Basking Ridge follow the market – NOT the other way around.  I wrote about this in June and I do often analyze sale price to tax assessment when working with buyers and sellers – either to set a list price or to make an offer.  But – we only have past data to look at.  We KNOW how properties are selling relative to 2008 and 2009 taxes, we do not know yet how properties will sell relative to these new 2010 tax assessments.  I have told all of my current seller clients that my pricing recommendations will not change just because we got our new green tax cards.  And to any potential buyer who brings up the new assessment, my counter offer will be this: “we cannot base a current sale price on the new 2010 tax assessments, we can only look at what we know – which is relative to 2009 tax information, not 2010.” 

Another angle – Jeffery Otteau, at his last seminar, stated that prices have dropped approximately 4% this past year.  My tax assessment dropped 7%.  There’s a 3% discrepency there – why would I base a negotiation on the lower number?  I’d rather base it on recent comparable sales.

Visit Basking Ridge Real Estate for information on the value of your Basking Ridge home – relative to current tax assessment or not.

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