"2013 Rental Season Over/2014 Rental Season Begins" ... in Ocean City, New Jersey   The 2013 Rental Season will certainly continue into the month of September, but in reality most of the rentals come to a rather fast ending on Labor Day.  Just as the rental season often kicks off in May of the year, the real kick-off tends to be Memorial Day.  And now most people start to again think about the "real world activities including fall sports and the start of the school year, college students back to school again as well, and the ongoing working activities of people all over the place. But what many forget is the start of the 2014 rental season which in mid-August with some agencies and in September with all agencies.  The first step in the process is the contacting of rental owners who are ... 08/13/2013

"August Market Report" ... Ocean City, New Jersey ... from Dustin A. Peters, Goldcoast Sotheby's International Realty (Ocean City, NJ)   Nineteen (19) days until Labor Day ... "Fall Buying Period" kicks off on the day after Labor Day.  The long summer nap which takes place each season while the rental tenants lock up all the shore property is almost over.  So it is now about ready for the fall arrival of buyers ready for the scramble to be the first ones to make an offer on a particular shore property.  And it is certainly an interesting time to be a Buyer in Ocean City, New Jersey. Let take a look at the real estate market: Single Family Listings ... there are now 187 single family properties for sale throughout Ocean City, 64 of that number, about 34% can                              ... 08/12/2013

"A Review of Summer Rental Problems" ... in Ocean City, New Jersey   When one considers the number of rental properties throughout Ocean City, New Jersey during the summer season, it is quite amazing how few problems occur.  In other words, for the number of different rental tenants coming in and out of shore rental properties ... and the differences in said properties (from very old to very new), we just don't have that many problems.  So why am I talking about this right now.  Well, I had two rental problems this weeks ... and it was on my mind, so I thought I'd write a blog posting on the topic. The problem that occurs the most throughout Ocean City is "the key issue."  Either the key that we have (or one of them) is not opening the door, or the lock itself is having some issues, or ... 08/11/2013

"The Last Major Rental Week of the Summer Season" ... in Ocean City, New Jersey   Although rentals can occur from Memorial Day through Labor Day ... and some start earlier in May, and others continue into later September; the normal rental season is a ten-week one with this year starting on June 22 and ending on August 31, 2013.  I generally explain to rental tenants and rental owners that it has traditionally been a bell-shaped curve in terms of rental numbers with the last two weeks of July and the first two weeks of August being the highest demand ... and then in both the front and back one has a gradual slowdown in both directions.  Many rental properties based on location, condition, size, etc. are able to get 12-14 and more rental weeks booked.  A lot depends on the property, the ... 08/10/2013

"Fall Buying Period" ... "24 Days to Go" ... in Ocean City, New Jersey   The countdown has begun for many owners, buyers, real estate agents, etc. regarding the change of status in Ocean City, New Jersey ... from a rental time frame to the Fall Buying Period which begins the day after Labor Day and runs through Thanksgiving, or a bit of time into December. This is one of the two main buying periods here on the barrier island called Ocean City.  The other time frame follows the winter and starts in late February or early March ... i.e. the "Spring Buying Period."  This one leads into the "Summer Rental Period" which starts in late June on a larger scale ... and the spring buying period is a bit longer and more active than the fall.    A lot of new listings tend to come on the sales marke... 08/09/2013

"A Time to Sell ... A Time to Buy" ... from Ocean City, New Jersey   It's all quite a cycle here in Ocean City, New Jersey.  As the Summer Rental Season comes to a close on Labor Day, the "Fall Buying Period" begins and runs through Thanksgiving.  It is our second most important time frame for sales.  We then hit the Winter Season where almost everybody forgets that the island is still functioning down here in South Jersey.  And as February ends and March begins, so does the "Spring Buying Period" starts again running through early June.  And then it's the start of the Summer Rental Season again. So that's the yearly cycle here on our barrier island.  It really isn't quite that simple, but it is a fast way to explain the process.  So right now, many Owners are taking a careful look at t... 08/06/2013

Island Life #23 - "It's All About the Boardwalk" ... in Ocean City, New Jersey   In the morning it's bike riding on the Boards.  In the afternoon, it's grabbing a fast lunch from the many vendors ... or taking a stroll to see or be seen.  And the non-beach goers like to sit on the benches and watch the people go by.  But in the evening, it's where everybody goes ... for shopping, for amusements, for mini-golf, for food, for just about everything. The Ocean City Boardwalk runs for 2.5 miles from St James Place in the North to 23rd Street in the South.  The major attractions start about 6th Street in the North and slow down about 14th Street in the South.  It's a family-style Boardwalk with great supervision by our Ocean City Police Department.  It's also filled with a lot of young teenag... 08/06/2013

Island Life #22 ... "It's a Dog's World on this Island" ... in Ocean City, New Jersey   I'm a dog lover, but not a dog owner.  But I am certainly a dog watcher.  How can one not be when you see so many dogs all over the island.  Owners walk their dogs early in the morning and later in the evening all the time.  In the off-season, many walk their dogs on the beach. The only location that is not dog-friendly is the Boardwalk where dogs are not allowed except for that one-day pass once a year. There is a "Dog Park" right off West Avenue in the 40s in the Southend.  There is a "Dog Beach" right across the Longport Bridge in Egg Harbor Township.  Although somewhat difficult, some rental owners allow dogs to come along with the family. We discovered much more about this with the pre-summer ar... 08/05/2013

"Island Life #21 ... "The 'Downtown' in Ocean City" ... Ocean City, New Jersey   Still working on a few more "island life" ideas in Ocean City.  A recent THE PRESS of Atlantic City (8/5/2013) highlighted "the Downtown" of Ocean City, NJ ... and I realized that I really needed a blog posting on this topic right away.  The Downtown on Asbury Avenue runs from 6th Street to 14th Street and spreads out a bit off of Asbury Avenue to Central toward the ocean and West Avenue toward the bay.  This is an old fashion, but up-to-date, real life downtown.  Although I live in the Northend/Gardens area and work on 34th Street, the downtown area is where I go to the bank, out for breakfast or lunch, to find a new book or a used paperback that might be out of print anywhere else, to grab some pizza, get... 08/04/2013

"A Check-In/Check-Out Day" ... in Ocean City, New Jersey   Throughout Ocean City, NJ today at almost every real estate office in town, from about 7am (when the agency offices are still closed) until about 10:30 am when most of the previous week rental parties have left their rental properties and dropped off their rental keys at the respective agencies, the continuing weekly process regarding summer rentals has started.  There is a line of traffic headed out of town on Saturday morning.  This is particularly true between the closing of 7/27-8/3/2013 rental week (#2 most rented week of the summer) and 8/3-10/2013 rental week (#1 most rented week of the summer).  Now somewhere between 7am and Noon from as far away as Pittsburgh, PA, or Virginia, or even further; perspective summer rental ... 08/03/2013

"August Arrives at the Beach" ... in Ocean City, New Jersey   What began as a damp spring calendar, and slowly through the month of June still stayed a bit colder and wet, turned into a very hot July making the beach the place to be.  And now August is here taking all the lessons from July and turning out to be a nice introduction to the month.  In fact, August at the shore is always a strange month.  It contains three solid rental weeks ... that are the some of the highest priced ones of the season.  But then it rapidly slowss down and closes out with a weak showing that leads into the "Labor Day Weekend" with September always getting all of credit. August is also the start of all of the athletic and band practices at the high schools here and there which makes it far more difficult fo... 08/02/2013

Reading the six-book series by David Downing ... from Ocean City, New Jersey   I pick up about two-to-four book recommendations every week from the WALL STREET JOURNAL weekend copies ... on Friday and the Saturday/Sunday ones.  I ran across this one in the July 20-21,2014 issue.  David Downing has finished his sixth book following the life of John Russell, the 49-year-old American born, English-bred, Berlin-based Journalist, spy, protagonist of these six great books.  Only a few years ago I ran across Alan Furst who has been doing the same thing throughout Europe creating characters and building them into true life stories based on the rise of Germany during the pre-WWII period.  In fact, on the cover of Downing's book, they mention Furst as one of the writers Downing has followed into ... 07/30/2013

Reading the "Weekend WALL STREET JOURNAL" from Ocean City, New Jersey   As part of my first retirement post graduate work, I started to read the "Weekend WALL STREET JOURNAL" (both the Friday and the Saturday/Sunday editions which have a wide variety of interesting sections on real estate, films, books, interviews, etc.).  The trick for me has been to be able to get the two copies wherever I might be.  When I am on the barrier island just off the Jersey coast called Ocean City, New Jersey where I live and work as a real estate agent doing both sales and rentals, there are always limited numbers of papers much of the year ... and in the summer many more interested buyers of the WSJ as compared to numbers of copies on the island.  I also have had the same problem whenever I go away for a ... 07/30/2013

"Real Estate:  It's All About Organization" ... from Ocean City, New Jersey   It's all "about organization" in real estate.  It starts with the real estate agent who needs to know his/her market, what's happening when, where, why, how, and for whom.  If you are an experienced agent, you carry a lot of background which hopefully is fairly solid and good stuff.  If you are a newer agent, you are constantly picking up knowledge; and it is certainly more difficult in your early years.  You work with both Sellers and Buyers ... so you must know relationships and expectations for each.  But it's not just knowing all of this ... it is also how you will apply this knowledge to the assistance for your seller or buyer.  And that leads to the next organization hurdle ... the level of knowledge and... 07/28/2013

Coming Up - "The #1 Rental Week of the Summer" in Ocean City, New Jersey   For about 20+ years I have been tracking the top ten rental weeks of the summer ... which started this year on 6/22/2013 and ends on August 31st (Labor Day Weekend).  Obviously, rentals begin before the June date and continue after the August date ... but the big ones are somewhere right in the middle of the summer ... usually the last two weeks in July and the first two weeks in August.  And the #1 rental week of the summer here in Ocean City, New Jersey is once again ... August 3-10 and closely followed by the week coming up this Saturday ... July 27-August 3.  So we will be in the heart of the rental season with the most visitors to our barrier island of any time in the entire year.  If you are in town ... tak... 07/26/2013

"July 25th ... a non-beach day at the Jersey Shore" ... Ocean City, New Jersey   It all started about 6:30 am when I went outside to pick up my daily paper.  I never got a delivered daily paper in "the real world."  Why Because I always left for work a lot earlier "in the real world," and it never was delivered early enough to make it a useful thing to get in the evening. But here at the Jersey Shore in our own little corner of the world on a barrier island just off the coast of South Jersey ... the paper arrives early ... 6:30 am. About 7:30 am it started drizzle a bit, and I realized that the outdoor tennis doubles match would not be held today.  I love rain, but I hate to have it ruin our tennis during the summer.  So I drove down to "4th of First" for a couple of scones to give my w... 07/25/2013

Occasional Book Review - "THE ENGLISH GIRL" by Daniel Silva ... from Ocean City, New Jersey   The latest book in the series written by Daniel Silva has just come out ... THE ENGLISH GIRL (2013).  This is the15th book following the major character, Gabriel Allon, an Israeli hit man and top original painting restorer.  Most of the stories have their setting somewhere throughout Europe with Allon being contacted by the secret service group from Israel.  Allon with the help of a wide variety of characters including his wife start the development of a plan to execute the challenge presented to him.  Allon is often placed in a situation which is so real that the reader questions whether he will get it done this time.   Along with an excellent plot, great characters, etc. Allon has a continuin... 07/24/2013

"Does playing early morning tennis tend to make me a better realtor?" ... from Ocean City, New Jersey   About five or ten years ago, I made the switch from singles to doubles tennis because I wasn't moving as well as I once did.  I believe I could still play some singles, but how many sets I don't know.  So the shift to doubles was somewhat slow ... I played indoors during the winter months, and it was certainly cheaper with four players paying for court time.  That was still back when I was living in "the real world." But once on the island I mostly played early morning tennis all summer.  That enabled me to get a decent workout and still get to work on time.  In the winter, the number of indoor courts is limited, but off and on I have managed to play a bit as well.  When I continue to... 07/23/2013

"Looking for Listings in All the Right Places" ... Ocean City, NJ   It's that time of year ... only about 44 days until Labor Day (and that's the day before the start of the "Fall Buying Period").  It is the shorter of the two major buying periods here at the South Jersey Shore, but it is an important time period because a lot of Buyers are out and about looking for sale property during some very lovely months.  The September, October, and November time frames can be quite beautiful here at the shore.  And no long lines, no boardwalk crowds, no traffic congestion.  Great!!! Here is where I must put a point or two as to why I am the guy that Owners should contact to sell one of their listings.  Yes, I have had almost 21 years in real estate, my second career.  It follows a 32 year career... 07/20/2013

"So What's the Good News & the Bad News" ... from Ocean City, New Jersey   In real estate everyone likes to talk about, or hear about, the good news and the bad news.  And when it comes to real estate, most of the news is presented in the form of a national perspective.  But the fact is that most of the real estate must be understood from a much more local perspective.  Another way of putting it:  the most accurate information generally comes from someone closest to the location of the property one is talking about.    Some examples:  I work in Ocean City, New Jersey ... and most of my sale listings are in two northern sections of Ocean City ... the Northend and Gardens.  That's the area from Sixth Street north to the end of the island called Ocean City.  Now the island goes south all t... 07/20/2013