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Millburn, NJ Real Estate News

By Alex and Deirdre Silberman
(Keller Williams)
The Wall Street Journal has been saying it, the NY Times has been saying it, I’ve been saying it, and only a few consumers are hearing it.Many self described ‘savvy’ buyers that are waiting for the spring market to get into full swing will be surprised to learn that their dream home just got much more expensive. Just today interest rates in my local market crept to 5.375%, which is a 3/8% difference from two weeks ago. What does this mean? On a $400K mortgage for 30 years, that house just got $32,000 more expensive!What will happen to those buyers that are on the fence? The cost of sitting will get costlier, and it that dream home will be much more difficult to afford. Some economists are predicting more than a 2% rise in interest rates. Personally, I think that’s a doomsday scenario f...
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By Alex and Deirdre Silberman
(Keller Williams)
  We were at a fun New Year’s Eve party* last night where we started chatting with another guest and as soon as she found out we were realtors, proceeded to tell us her tale of real estate woe. Several years ago she decided to find a bigger home for her family and was working with an agent; Agent Nice. Her agent handled the transaction smoothly and professionally. Agent Nice had not asked if her client was interested in selling her current home since she was looking for another home.Our home owner thought the market was hot, so she decided to try selling her home on her own. Her plan was to run an ad for a public open house, and if the house didn’t sell within two weeks, she would then engage an agent. We all know that one agent who sticks his or her nose in everyone’s business, and in...
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By Alex and Deirdre Silberman
(Keller Williams)
  Anyone that has been following the government’s involvement in buying out mortgage backed securities is aware of the impact this has had in keeping interest rates as low as they have been.This program is set to expire in March 2010, and the glimmer that the economy has stabilized and growing ever so modestly, further suggests that the program will not be renewed. Home owners that are staying put and are considering refinancing are not on the top of most people’s minds, however there is an opportunity that exists now, which is rapidly closing. Most experts agree that interest rates will go up by half to a full percentage point when banks can no longer dump their bad mortgages. The backdrop to this is that several large lenders have closed many of their regional call centers creating a...
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By Alex and Deirdre Silberman
(Keller Williams)
Humans have been faithfully breaking new year's resolutions for 4,000 years since the ancient Babylonians resolved to return any borrowed farm equipment as the new year, then in March, coincided with the start of the farming season. Sometimes the equipment was returned, and sometimes the resolutions were feckless (sorry, couldn't help myself).Ancient Romans (meaning Romans a long time ago, not really old ones) joined the party by counting the previous year's stock and setting goals to accomplish more the coming year. The Chinese are said to have had a special new year's resolution to clean their house squeaky clean. I myself avoid house cleaning for the new year, but I do enjoy visiting my Chinese friends right after they've cleaned.Wikipedia tells us (therefore it must be true) that o...
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By Alex and Deirdre Silberman
(Keller Williams)
Most agents are not particularly tech savvy, so when choosing a website for their business, the default choice is often one of the many turnkey systems that provide websites without requiring any technical expertise. Although it sounds good at first blush, not all systems are the same (although most look the same).Agents can choose from systems that require registration before any real information is served up so they can follow up with visitors (pursuit mode). Agents can also choose systems that freely allow searches, providing items of value so that visitors regard them as sources of vital information and entice those visitors to come to them (attraction mode). As a consumer, I happen to prefer not to register on websites because I know the avalanche of emails and phone calls that wi...
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By Alex and Deirdre Silberman
(Keller Williams)
  As the holiday season is well underway, I can think of no greater example of impersonal dribble as wishing someone ‘happy holidays’. What does that even mean? If someone is Christian, shouldn’t they be wished a merry Christmas? If they are Jewish shouldn’t they have been wished a happy Hanukkah two weeks ago? Don’t even wish someone a happy Ramadan as it passed months ago and is not about happiness that way. Perhaps a happy Kwanzaa might be more appropriate for some this week.What is this rant about? Get to know who you are talking to beyond the superficial fear of being politically incorrect. Wishing someone happy holidays is phoning it in (yes, I don’t like waiters singing happy birthday to me, either). There are people I wish happy holidays to also, and that is my internal clue th...
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By Alex and Deirdre Silberman
(Keller Williams)
    Most people are not stupid, and treating them as if they were leads to less than ideal results (euphemism for it's stupid to treat others as if they were stupid).   Lenders have reputations, and some are more deserved than others. Anyone who's attempted to buy a short sale would feel that negative reputations were earned. Banks have been notoriously slow to respond to the extent that purchases have been regularly in limbo for 9-12 months.   Lenders that are more proactive have begun working with home owners and realtors and have begun approving the sale price much earlier in the process. This has allowed agents to list the homes as bank approved. This is  huge difference to the purchase, making a 30 day close realistic as opposed to unheard of.   Today's recipe for a great real est...
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By Alex and Deirdre Silberman
(Keller Williams)
  Today, the New Jersey Senate Commerce Committee approved two bills, which could have a profound effect on our business.The first creates a mandatory requirement for continuing education for real estate brokers, broker-salespersons and salespersons. If signed into law, the bill will require up to 16 hours of continuing education before a real estate license can be renewed. This in and of itself cannot be bad unless the course work is irrelevant gimmes. I’m a firm believer in a challenging continuing education system as a means of avoiding mental calcification and I can think of a realtor or two that could benefit from some computer skills, ethics, or simple manners, but I digress.The second bill would allow brokers to offer rebates to home buyers and require those rebates to be docume...
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This is all true in some places, just not in my little corner of the universe (thankfully). I constantly see local articles on various versions of doom and gloom, and they make me wonder whether the authors know something I don’t, whether media hysteria is at play, or whether different realities coexist side by side. More on that later...A local article yesterday bemoaned how buyers were struggling to get financing and even well qualified buyers needed a 20% downpayment because of the uber stringent requirements that banks have implemented.Is it that that lenders are being more stringent or is it that they're brought back the standard lending practices they became lax on? Do some agents still think that a warm body is a qualified buyer (apologies to all warm bodies)?Just the other day ...
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By Alex and Deirdre Silberman
(Keller Williams)
  In the most positive report in almost two years, the labor department has reported the smallest job loss since the recession began.    The smallness of the bad news is extraordinary. Most experts agree we’ve emerged from the recession and expect mild growth next year.    There are still over five million long term unemployed people, and many more that are working reduced hours so the picture is far from great. We’ve heard the term ‘jobless recovery’, which is a euphemism for corporate not personal recovery.   What does this mean for real estate?   The affordability index in my local markets is at historic heights but is already starting to come down (your buying power is still great, but just a wee less great). If you are considering real estate, this is an outstanding time to plunge...
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By Alex and Deirdre Silberman
(Keller Williams)
  People that follow real estate trends by studying media reports and surfing diligently certainly can get a feel for the general state of a market. Unfortunately that general overview is only helpful if one is interested in macroeconomics. People that are looking at real estate in a given community are very likely to miss both the really big picture, and that special house.   What does that even mean? The real estate market nationally is a mess. There are areas that won’t recover for many many years. We hear about that daily and that’s certainly one reality and one of the big pictures.    Looking at New Jersey specifically there is roughly a nine month inventory of houses, which suggests a pretty decent market that ever so slightly favors buyers. We could stop right there and conclude...
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By Alex and Deirdre Silberman
(Keller Williams)
I am thankful that Thanksgiving is behind us, and as I study my local market, the next few months present some interesting facts: Inventory levels are extremely low (lowest in years). Home values have stabilized and in some instances are on a slight climb. Homes are selling close to asking price. Prospective home buyers get general ‘summary’ information about markets from web searches and the media, but they are often delayed or even wrong in understanding local conditions. Savvy agents will list homes, which will be sold before the spring market starts (It’s easier for a home to appear as the best value when there are fewer competing options for buyers). Prospective buyers that are not prepared to act quickly, have their finances in order, or can present a clean offer, are simply losi...
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By Alex and Deirdre Silberman
(Keller Williams)
  As we go officially go into the holiday season (ignoring holiday creep: Halloween), this has been a tumultuous year for many, but do we have things to be thankful for?    Family and friends come first, off course, but then comes business. Can money buy you happiness? It can’t really, but it can buy you a boat big enough to sail right up to happiness and wave hello with a margarita in your other hand.   Interest rates look like they’re going to remain low for the next few months and there are tax credits to be had. In my market: inventory is the lowest it’s been in four years, prices have stabilized (and even increased over last year in some cases), and there are more homes sold than last year. All this and the spring market is ahead of us.   If you’re considering selling you may have...
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By Alex and Deirdre Silberman
(Keller Williams)
When prospective buyers decide to make an offer for a home, they predominantly focus on the price they will offer, and often think about the other terms as something that will get worked out later. In my local market, that has led to some very surprised rejections, even in this economy. Any offer that doesn’t come with a pre-approval letter from a reliable lender is not considered worthy. Having an offer that’s contingent on a property to sell is also a non-starter to most sellers. The closing date can also be a critical factor. That much is pretty well travelled ground. Is there more?In the areas I focus, 454 homes closed since 9/1. Of those, we have data on 312 of them (come on guys, update the MLS), so we’ll just look at sales we have data for. For homes under $300K, 48% were financ...
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By Alex and Deirdre Silberman
(Keller Williams)
      We’ve seen our share of home negotiators beat up the other side over a few thousand dollars under the guise of getting the best deal. Is that a good practice for home buyers? Many prospective buyers get into a competitive position when negotiating with sellers and miss out on larger issues that have a bigger effect on the overall cost of their purchase.   When negotiating for a home, buyers should remember that it’s not a two party negotiation (buyers and sellers). It’s at least a three party negotiation (buyers, sellers, mortgage rate). Most buyers simply forget about the interest rate variations and focus on the seller’s concessions (price, inclusions, etc).  Perhaps it’s the one on one nature of negotiating with ‘the other side’, which is easier to focus on than an anonymous co...
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President Obama signed into law on Friday the extension of the first time home buyer’s tax credit, putting in our hands $24 billion of stimulus money. This is huge any way you slice it (and it can be sliced a couple of ways), but first the particulars:First Time buyers can get up to a $8,000 tax credit if they buy a home before April 30, 2010. The salary limits have been raised from $75K / $150K (individuals / couples) to $150K / $225K. That alone qualifies many buyers that were not eligible before.Existing home owners who have lived in their home for five years are also now eligible for up to a $6,500 tax credit. That, too is a significant change. Only homes under $800K are eligible.What does this mean? Let’s look at a $500K house (which in my market is a first time buyer). $8,000 can...
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By Alex and Deirdre Silberman
(Keller Williams)
Most home owners would not dream of selling their bedroom or the bathtub in their bathroom, but when they take out the equity in their homes, they are doing just that. One of the most revered goals in our great nation has been the promise of home ownership. People taking the plunge and little by little building equity over the years so they can have a retirement nest egg is the American dream. Markets go up and markets go down, but until someone figures out how to make more land, real estate is still one of the best economic choices most of us can make.Some national lenders are dramatically scaling back their home equity loan programs (reducing the available credit or just downright canceling HELOCS). They have their reasons for doing this, but we should take notice, and know better if...
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By Alex and Deirdre Silberman
(Keller Williams)
You’ll be reading about this all day!!!Yesterday (November 4, 2009) the Senate officially passed a six month extension on the first time home buyer tax credit of $8,000, which is intended to encourage more people to buy homes and spur economic activity. The bill has expanded to include ‘trade up’ buyers (present home owners that have lived in their home for at least five years can get up to $6,500).The bill will now move into the House, and then to President Obama’s desk for his signature, at which point it becomes law.If you have any doubt that this is huge, don’t! This is huge. Read some of my other posts on the need for every tax deduction we can get. We’re going to need it!There is an $800,000 maximum for the purchase price of the home, and the income caps which has been raised to ...
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By Alex and Deirdre Silberman
(Keller Williams)
Thanks to everyone that commented on 'How Much Is My House Worth?' post. Certainly what one's home value might be is a topic near and dear to many people, but I was surprised at all your responses and kind words, thank you. Some of you were wondering how the numbers might affect your particular markets and situations and the spreadsheet below might be helpful. Simply plug in the year a home was purchased and what the appreciation or depreciation rates for EVERY year your particular market uses and you are interested in. Enter values in the WHITE cells. The values there are samples ONLY!!! This will allow you to mix and match whatever values you feel are most appropriate, and if you are so inclined, to forecast future performance. Immediately below the spreadsheet is a chart that may be...
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By Alex and Deirdre Silberman
(Keller Williams)
As it frequently happens when I’m at a party, the subject of occupation comes up and when people discover I’m a realtor, the conversation usually gets very personal because people immediately want to know from an insider how they’ve been affected.This weekend was no exception. We were at an excellent Halloween party (no you don’t get pictures of my costume) and the subject of a particular market came up. Although it seemed as if different price ranges were talking, the question was the same: What is my house worth and when will I get my money? How should someone who is contemplating the value of their home feel? As always, it depends when one bought, and when they are thinking of selling. If someone bought their home in 2001, they enjoyed six unrealistic and unsustainable years of 10-2...
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