Real Estate Information Archive

Today, at the ERA International Business Conference in Orlando, ERA Justin Realty was honored for raising  over $10,000 to send Muscular Dystrophy kids to summer camp in 2007. Because of the generosity of ERA agents, clients and area professionals, ERA actually raised over $12,000 which helped the ERA New Jersey Broker Council raise the most money for MDA of  all the Broker Councils across the country and helped ERA raise over $2 million for MDA. The photo below shows me with the 2008 MDA Goodwill Ambassador Abbee Umali (a real cutiepie) and her family. Abbey, 8, of Redlands, Calif., has Dejerine-Sottas disease, a neurological disorder characterized by muscle wasting, lack of coordination and some loss of sensation in upper and lower extremities. She’s ambulatory with braces. Umali attends various events with her family to speak on behalf of the Association. She’s a third-grader who loves swimming, singing and playing the piano.

Now it's time to begin the 2008 MDA Summer camp campaign. To find out about MDA summer camps click here.

When you are checking out homes, there are several items in our market you need to be aware of - including man-made siding. A lot has been said about L.P.( Louisiana Pacific) OSB (Oriented Strand Board) products, and they have borne most of the bad press.

But did you know that there can be issues not just with LP, but with Omni Board (made by Masonite) Stimson Fortestex, Weyerhauser and others? You need to know, Siding replacement can cost tens of thousands of dollars!

When the time is right, ask us about ASHI home inspectors and the benefits of making your offer contingent upon YOUR approval of a home / siding inspection where necessary.

For more info on failing siding issues click here. This site is from a company that installs and replaces siding, but it has a lot of good info on the issue.

I recently attended a seminar regarding short sales. A short sale is when you sell a house for less than the amount owed on the mortgage. It can only be done when the bank (mortgageholder) agrees to accept it. Most banks will only do this when they are close to foreclosing, they know the house is worth less than the amount owed, and they feel that it makes more sense to let it go for less than foreclosing. A short sale will help a bank because they are able to get the liability off the books without the cost of a foreclosure. Banks usually do not want to foreclose because it means managing real estate until they are able to resell it and banks are not in the real estate business.

Short sales are also beneficial to the homeowner because it frees them of the financial and emotional burden of having a mortgage that they cannot pay, avoids the stigma of foreclosure or bankruptcy, protects their credit and helps them create a future for them and their family.

Sellers need to be careful with short sales though. The IRS looks at a short sale as income gained and will tax the seller on the amount forgiven. There is a bill in Congress right now to change this, but it has not yet passed.

For more info on short sales or any other real estate matters, call me direct at 877-85-Glenn (877-854-5366)

In January I attend the annual Sell-a-bration conference in Honolulu. HA, a very nice place for a conference (lol). This conference is sponsored by the Council of Residential Specialists and is attended by about 1,000 REALTORS who have the CRS designation. These are the best of the best agents in the country (only about 4% of all agents hold the CRS designation and I am proud to be one of them). At this conference, I picked up many ideas to help me better serve my buyers and sellers (even after 32 years in the business I'm still learning). But the one thing that really made an impression on me was hearing how bad the housing market is in many parts of the USA. I'm happy to say that the North Jersey housing market is much better than many areas. While prices have come down some around here and housing inventory has increased, it is nothing like it is in many area. That's why, when you read newspaper articles and hear radio and TV reports on the horrible housing market, you have to realize that housing markets are local and every market is different, but many times the press is reporting on the national housing market. 

I am proud to annouce that ERA Justin Realty Co. ranked 89th in 2007 Total Closed Sales compared to over 4,000 ERA companies nationwide. This is quite an achievement when you consider that many ERA offices are multi location companies with hundreds or, in some cases, thousands of salespeople. The Top 100 certifacate is shown below.

I just listed a new 2 family in Lyndhurst, NJ. This home needs some TLC but it is situated on a 50 x 150 lot. To view the details of this listing click here or visit http://www.514Kingsland.info. To view a video flyer  click here.

Note: This listing is under contract (on market for less than 1 week)

Please note: This property is SOLD and Closed.

Here are the Rutherford 1 family Sold stats for the past as of January 2008. Stats are listed in this order: Number of Solds, Average Sold Price, Average days on market, average percent of sold price to listing price

January 2008  5   $559,000 105  92.15%
Year 2007 124 $499,083 101 91%
December 2007 4 $448,750 89 86%
November 2007 11 $455,727 85 92%
October 2007 10 $508,900 66 93%
September 2007 10 $543,416 107 94%
August 2007 13 $485,692 118 90%
July 2007 18 $527,353 76 95%
June 2007 10 $445,400 87 92%
May 2007 8 $466,488 83 95%
April 2007 7 $482,857 90 90%
March 2007 11 $560,182 126 89%
February 2007 9 $532,444 154 88%
January 2007 10 $481,650 147 84%
Year 2006 104 $516,618 101 91%
December 2006 10 $467,850 110 90%
November 2006 9 $447,778 91 92%

Note: Data provided by NJMLS and might now include every sale