Posted by
admin on Aug 6, 2009 in
Announcements,
Editorial Some of you may have noticed a very long gap in the blog entries. The last one was a couple of months ago and we were experiencing a problem at our end. We couldn’t access our admin site and couldn’t display any of the content. We found out it was a problem with one of the plug-in for Wordpress that we installed. We discovered this on our own after exchanging numerous e-mails with the tech people at our hosting service and the tech people at Wordpress. We kept getting finger pointing at the “other guy”. In the meantime, we posted our blog entries on all other blogs of ours except for this one.
We HAD to get this problems solved because this blog is our main one. All of the others are our secondary blogs. But we’ll be catching up. You will note there are now entries after June 24, 2009. Those are the ones that we started to update this blog with. We entered the original dates on these blogs in order to keep the flow consistent.
So, now the main blog is up and running…and it is improved! If you scroll down and look along the right sidebar you’ll see a new feature addition. The new feature is the ability to subscribe via SMS Text Messaging to recieve updates whenever we add a new blog post. This is only available on this blog. It is not on any of our secondary blogs.
So, be sure to come back often to see the updates and new content as we add it.
Terry Iwaniw
REALTOR Associate
R & I Realty, LLC
Off: 856-795-3111 x263
Cell: 609-417-1086
http://www.snewjerseyhomes.com/
http://snjrealestate.ning.com
Connect On Facebook – http://profile.to/terryiwaniw
Tags: blog fix
Posted by
admin on Aug 5, 2009 in
Editorial I’m sure that there are many home owners out there that are asking that question. And there are many possible answers to this question. The home owner can start to answer this question for themselves by doing their own analysis of the way their agent is marketing their home.
1. Does your home’s MLS listing have any photos included? At least there should be a photo of the front of your home. If your agent didn’t even bother to take a photo of the front of your home, how much are they really going to bother marketing your home.
2. Have you heard from your agent or been able to reach them by phone or e-mail in the last 2 weeks? If they don’t have time to speak to your for a few minutes every couple of weeks, then how dedicated are they to marketing your home? Their answer to you, once you finally do get in touch with them, is that they have so many other homes they are marketing. You need to tell them that they may need to cut down on the number of homes they are marketing to a number that they can manage and service. The worst thing any agent can do is to completely ignore their client once they get their signature on a listing agreement. That is completely bad business practice.
3. When you were discussing the price that your house should be marketed at, did your agent give you a specific dollar amount or a dollar range? If they gave you a specific amount then look for another agent…no one can predict the future with any amount of certainty. If they provided a dollar range, did you agree to price it at the upper range or the lower range? Whose idea was it to do this? If it was yours, you need to rethink your pricing strategy. In a declining market, one always wants to establish a price toward the lower range. If, as a home owner, you don’t know what a declining market means or how it is determined then you need to look for another agent because this is one of the very BASIC things that your agent should have told you. If the agent recommended the upper range without a set timetable for price review then you need to look for another agent because they really don’t know what they are doing. You may have a great pride in your home, to the point that you feel very strongly that your home is the BEST home in the neighborhood…with absolutely no equal…then you had better be able to quantify that. Because the market does not care about your opinion. The market (i.e. buyers) only care about things that they can see and touch.
The key to selling any home is marketing the home, promoting and exposing it to as many people as possible. And for people to take notice the keys here is price and location.
Every home is unique, but the one common thing among all of the sold homes is that they were aggresively marketed, priced to sell, and the real estate maintained contact with the home owner.
Terry Iwaniw
REALTOR Associate
R & I Realty, LLC
Off: 856-795-3111 x263
Cell: 609-417-1086
http://www.snewjerseyhomes.com/
http://snjrealestate.ning.com
Connect On Facebook – http://profile.to/terryiwaniw
Tags: home buying, home listings, home marketing, home selling, MLS listings
Posted by
admin on Jun 12, 2009 in
Editorial Everyone is saying that the market is slow. It may be true or it may not be. But that is still no excuse for shoddy customer service from real estate agents. What is this with agents not returning phone calls? I’ve left a few voicemail messages for agents in the past coiuple of weeks about the homes they are marketing and I have yet to recieve a phone call back? Can it be that all of these agents have already sold those homes and are not interested in any more buyer inquiries? I doubt it, I’m not that unlucky to be able to pick almost 10 agents who have solid buyer offers and are no longer interested in other potential sales. It just blows my mind.
And then when I call the broker or office manager I get either the basic “You’ll need to speak to the listing agent about that.” and when I tell them about my messages that I have left that they’ll “look into it”. Or I end up leaving a voicemail with the broker/manager and still no call back. This gets very frustrating when dealoing with our own buyers because we don’t want to give them a bad impression about our industry. But I gotten to the point that when my buyers ask again about what info I was able to get about a particular property I just tell them “They’re not really interested in selling the property because I haven’t gotten a call back from the agent”. I then encourage my buyers to move on to another property.
The questions that our buyers tend to ask are ones that cannot be answered by the appointment desk. Our buyers are interested in knowing specifics about the property. They have questions, either before they take the time to view it or after they view it and need to make a decision on making an offer or not. This makes one wonder if the current owners are aware that a potential sale has disappeared because their agent has been unresponsive to inquiries. Or maybe the current owners don’t care.
Tags: 2 - Listings, customer service, home listings, homes for sale, MLS listings, responses
Posted by
admin on Jan 29, 2009 in
Buying,
Editorial Renters, have you any idea of how much money you are throwing away each year?
If you only knew how much money you will MAKE just by buying a home, you’d be foolish not to buy a home through us! Did you know that in addition to the tax deductions you receive as a home owner that you can get tax money BACK from the Federal Government.
Not only is interest that you pay on your mortgage loan tax-deductible, but the US government is providing a tax CREDIT (not simply a deduction) of up to $7500 for most first time homebuyers. In short, the US Government is bending over backwards to help people become homeowners at a time when there already are real estate bargains everywhere! For a limited time, qualified first-time homebuyers may receive a tax credit up to $7,500 as part of the Housing and Economic Recovery Act of 2008.
If you plan to live in the home as your primary residence and have not owned a home during the past three years, you may qualify for the tax credit. This tax credit must be repaid over a 15-year period. Take your first step by calling us for more information and recommend the best mortgage loan advisors on our team that work with first time home buyers. You may be able to buy your first home sooner than you thought possible.
Just how much money can you gain when you own your own home? As an example, the tax deductions you’re eligible to take for mortgage interest and property taxes greatly increase the financial benefits of homeownership. Here’s how it works.
Assume
:
$9,877 = Mortgage interest paid (a loan of $150,000 for 30 years, at 7 percent, using year-five interest)
$2,700 = Property taxes (at 1.5 percent on $180,000 assessed value)
______
$12,577 = Total deduction
Then, multiply your total deduction by your tax rate.
For example, at a 28 percent tax rate: 12,577 x 0.28 = $3,521.56
$3,521.56 = Amount you have lowered your federal income tax (at 28 percent tax rate)
Plus $7,500.00 from the federal government
Equals $11,021.56 in a potential tax refund!
Linda & Terry Iwaniw
============================
REALTOR Associates
ReSales & Investment Realty, LLC
http://www.sjerseyhomes.com/
Cell: 609-417-1084
Office: 856-795-3111 x262
============================
Tags: 1st time buyers, buying a home, first time buyers, first time home buyers, home buyers, home buying, renters
Posted by
admin on Jan 16, 2009 in
Editorial,
Misce4llaneous,
Real Estate,
Selling (Edison, NJ) Preparing a home for sale in today’s market often requires more than just few cosmetic improvements – it requires keeping an open mind about what buyers are looking for, and staying up to date on the local housing market. Homeowners can change the way buyers view a property inside and out with some updated staging and marketing techniques, and should be open to their REALTORS®‘ more realistic suggestions for pricing.
“Buyers are benefiting from being able to pick and choose from a wide variety of homes on the market. They are going to be more thorough with their searches and sellers should be prepared for that,” said 2009 New Jersey Association of REALTORS® (NJAR®) President, Diane Dilzell. “In today’s market, buyers can get a great house at a great price so it’s important that sellers differentiate themselves from competing properties.”
Setting a realistic price. When it comes to selling a home, it’s important to keep in mind that value depends on what the buyer is willing to pay for your property and many factors contribute to their perceptions. Prices depend on local characteristics such as job opportunities, housing supply, school systems and more. Sellers should stay realistic and set the price with a REALTOR® who can help determine which factors are at work in a given marketplace. Also, the time the owner “must” sell or the amount of repairs the home needs can play a large role in setting a fair price.
“Sellers should be pricing to stay ahead of the market and can’t afford to rely on what the home was valued at several months ago,” added Dilzell.
“Our REALTOR® had a full understanding of today’s market and how people are shopping, and had sound reasoning for why the price we sold our home for would be beneficial, when I originally thought it was worth more. We had unbelievable traffic flow, several return viewings, and accepted a price we were comfortable with in 26 days,” said Mary Lee Hesselgrave, who sold her home in Hardyston this summer.
Get creative when marketing your home. The marketing of homes has shifted more towards new technology, rather than only putting an ad in the local newspaper. Sellers should be open to innovative and creative marketing techniques recommended by their REALTOR®. By considering virtual home tours and concentrating on well-lit, high quality digital photos for website listings can give your home a chance to be noticed in front of the increasing majority of buyers who turn to Internet listings first. Ask your REALTOR® about other ways to increase awareness about your home in places where buyers will notice.
Staging helps edge out competition. Buyers seek the least expensive home in the best neighborhood they can afford. The goal in staging a home is to maximize space and provide a clean slate for prospective buyers to make the home their own. Cosmetic improvements such as paint, wallpaper, and landscaping, are good investments to make a home generally more appealing. Mechanical repairs done to ensure that all systems and appliances are in good working condition are required to get a top price. REALTORS®, who see numerous homes, can provide suggestions that are consistent with local market trends. Simple tips such as storing away family photos or personalized decor, maximizing counter space and clearing items away from windows can be done in just a few days. Home staging professionals can even be enlisted to help get creative with renovations and changes.
“We took our personal items, put them in storage and completely staged the house,” said Cindy Sauber, who sold her home in West Windsor. “If we were going to sell, we knew we had to follow certain rules,” she said.
Stimulate buyer curiosity with curb appeal. Putting work into the inside of a home is of no use if prospective buyers don’t want to enter it. Curb appeal is the first chance to make a good impression. Curb appeal sells 49 percent of all houses, whether you have a townhouse, condo or detached home, according to the National Association of REALTORS®. Replacing light fixtures, removing dead leaves and ensuring snow is shoveled neatly from walkways and driveways are easy tasks that help entice a buyer into the home during the winter months. If a seller is unsure of what buyers are looking for, asking friends and neighbors for a fresh perspective can help them evaluate what looks old or run-down. Owners can get a “big picture” view by taking a photo from across the street.
NJAR® is encouraging New Jersey residents to Get the REAL StorySM on real estate in New Jersey with a public education campaign that features an informational website and an advertising campaign that also features real stories from recent buyers and sellers. For more information on the campaign, or simply to Get the REAL StorySM on real estate in New Jersey, visit www.REALstoryNJ.com.
The New Jersey Association of REALTORS®, with approximately 53,000 REALTOR® and REALTOR-ASSOCIATE® members, is one of the largest trade organizations in the state. NJAR®’s membership is comprised of real estate professionals who subscribe to a strict code of ethics and are members of the national and local REALTOR® organizations. As the leading advocate for the real estate industry and private property rights in New Jersey, NJAR® is committed to protecting the dream of homeownership. For more information, please visit www.njar.com.
Tags: buying a home, home marketing, home owners, home sellers, housing market, selling a home, staging
Posted by
lindaki on Dec 10, 2008 in
Editorial,
Real Estate Are gold jackets, big balloons and the big corporate logos going the way of the dinosaurs? I think so, but they won’t go down without a fight.
The economy is in dire straights, real estate sales are way down, agents are leaving the business by the score and what do big corporate real estate offices do to hold on to their remaining agents; they impose extra fees with each closing in order to shore-up the corporate dam. To the corporate big-wigs $50-$100 doesn’t sound like much, but to a real estate agent who has seen their incomes slashed by 50% or more, that money represents another big hit in their already light wallets. In addition to being gouged by their local real estate boards with increases in dues and fees required to stay in the real estate business, agents in many big box real estate companies are watching as their companies cut back on services that once were the recruiting carrots that promised to “free up” the agent to be more productive and earn more money. So now these agents have less money and less time to make money; it’s like moving around the deck chairs on the Titanic.
While big box real estate is cutting services, cutting hours and picking their agents pockets with bogus fees and charges, many small Mom & Pop real estate companies are beginning to thrive. These companies have lower overhead and can offer a better commission split in order to draw in good agents. Agents can make more money per transaction with the smaller company than with the big box companies. The smaller Mom & Pop agencies understand that most real estate is local and they don’t really need that big name logo and super bowl advertising to bring buyers and sellers through the door.
In order to keep costs down and agent commissions high, most smaller agencies don’t offer an agent a personal desk in the office. However, they do offer a virtual connection to the office with all the support necessary to see transactions to closing. With the advent of the internet, e-mail, fax machines, cell phones and blackberry’s, real estate agents no longer need the big desk in the agency. As long as the agency has a conference room for the agent to meet with clients and they have access to the office voicemail system, any agent who can operate a computer, can work from their home and car with little need to drive to the office every day. I think the day of the big desk and small commission checks is quickly coming to and end. So if you are an agent with one of the big box companies whose commission checks are being raided by franchise fees, transaction fees and management fees, take a step back from the hype and look into your local Mom & Pop agency, you’ll be glad you did.
Linda Kerr-Iwaniw
REALTOR Associate
ReSales & Investment Realty, LLC
http://www.sjerseyhomes.com/
Tags: agency, brokerage, business, dues, fees, Real Estate, real estate networks
Posted by
terryriw on Oct 8, 2008 in
Editorial,
Misce4llaneous Have you noticed the number of social networking sites that are out there? It’s amazing how it starts with just one or two sites, then if it becomes hugely successful, everyone else jumps on the bandwagon. Which one do you join? Which one do you make an intregal part of your online marketing and promotional activity? I’m always getting invites to any new social networking site that comes along. I’m already a member of so many that I have a hard time keeping track of them:
Fanbox
Activerain
MySpace
Facebook
Orkut
MyAgentBook
MyBlogLog
LinkedIn
LiveJournal
Trulia
Twitter
Stumbleupon
YourTube
Zillow
Yahoo Answers
Plaxo
360 Yahoo
Wow! I didn’t know I belonged to so many until I started to compile information for this posting. So, now my challenge is to figure out how to best utilize all of these social networks without unindating everyone with tons of invitations. I’m always looking to make connedction with people and finding ways to help them with their real estate needs. But I would prefer not to become annoying to the point that people “run in the opposite direction” when I come along. Everyone remembers that one person you meet at a social gathering that is always trying to sell you something. Well, that’s what I don’t want to become. That is why the utilization of social networks is an art form. They are the best way to meet people in today’s technological world. You want to be able to connect with people without giving them the impression that all you want to do is sell them something. As for myself, I have other interests other then trying to sell real estate to everyone I meet. I am one of the founders of the Winslow Township Genealogical & Historical Society, I am an avid student of history itself. I also am the site moderator of the American Local History Network’s Camden County NJ web site . I also love trains and to that end I have been trying to put a project together that would detail the history of Winslow Junction, NJ. So, with me, not everything is business.
Terry Iwaniw
REALTOR Associate
First Time Home Buyer Specialist
Foreclosure Prevention Consultant
RE/MAX Home Team
609-417-1086
http://www.terryi.com/
http://www.snewjerseyhomes.com/
Tags: personal, professional, Real Estate, self-promotion, social network, social networking
Posted by
terryriw on Oct 4, 2008 in
Editorial Well, it’s official. President Bush signed into law the Emergency Economic Stabilization Act of 2008. Richard Gaylord, the President of NAR, stated “This far-reaching and meaningful legislation would go a long way in helping restore confidence in the nation’s financial system. Provisions in the bill would directly benefit Main Street by making financing more available. The legislation would not only help make home mortgages more available, which would help stabilize home sales and prices, but also help families who are trying to secure a car loan or borrow money to send their children to college. It would help protect Americans’ retirement savings and small businesses across the country.”
I sincerely hope that this will be the case. I pray and hope that the money isn’t just destined for the pockets of the executives and brain-trust on Wall Street to develop more ways of fleecing money out of ordinary citizen. I know that many of my real estate colleages resent this law because they feel that they shouldn’t have to pay for other people’s decisions. I can’t blame them…because a vast majority of them are culpible in helping those consumers make those “bad decisions”. I guess my colleages believe that the consumers held a gun to the mortgage rep’s head to force them to rpovide them with the predatory loans that they got stuck with. That they, the real estate agents, were completely hands-off…that the consumers just came up with the idea that home proces would rise 200-300% over the next 2-3 years, long before their mortgages would reset. That they didn’t ask anyone else’s opinion. That the mortgage rep acted completely on their own without any support from the real estate agent. I’ve never been stupid enough to believe this. Whenever I hear one of my colleages make the statement that we shouldn’t be looking to bail out the consumers who they feel made “bad choiuces”, I look at them and think -
“Here is an accomplice to the mortgage fraud”.
But, on the other hand, should we bail out the executives who took advantage of uninformed and unrepresented (yes, even those working with real estate agents were unrepresented because the real estate agent in that case was only looking out for themselves). My answer is that we don’t have a choice. Because of all of the deregulations starting back in the Reagan years, these executives now hold our own economy for ransom. We, as a nation by buying into the lies and misinformation from our politicians over the last 20+ years have handed over our economy to people who have no moral conscience and whose only God is the Alighty Dollar. We don’t have a choice, at this time, but to pay the ransom. What we should also do is to take our ecenomy back from those people. Intelligent and common-sense regulations overseeing the financial institutions.
Since my wife, Linda, and I expanded our business into the Pre-Foreclosure market, we have spoken to many home owners who were taken in by their former real estate agents, and many are still being taken by their current agents. We have a better understanding of what happened to them and how they got into the financial mess they are in. In fairness, many of the homeowners did act in good faith and were only overwhelmed by circumstances beyond their control. We know, we were once in the same situation as they find themselves. So, we were extremely happy to hear of the provisions included in the new law to help those distressed home owners.
The act would require financial institutions to work with lenders and mortgage servicers to find ways to avoid foreclosures. It would also create a Troubled Asset Relief Program to purchase and guarantee the troubled assets from financial institutions that hold mortgages or mortgage-backed securities.
“If done right, the cost of such a plan will possibly be below the figures that have been widely reported,” said NAR Chief Economist Lawrence Yun. “In fact there is a very good chance that taxpayers will reap a positive return on this investment over the long term.”
“By unclogging the financial pipeline, liquidity will be greatly improved and mortgages will become more accessible and affordable, allowing families who dream of owning a home to do so and at the same time help current owners keep the home they have,” Gaylord said. “There will not be an economic recovery without a housing recovery, and this ambitious legislation is what our economy needs. We will work hard with the House of Representatives and the administration to ensure a quick and smooth enactment and implementation,” said Gaylord.
The Bill Will Help Homeowners and Borrowers
The Senate legislation responded to the criticisms that lenders have been slow and/or unwilling to work with homeowners and borrowers. It encouraged negotiation in short sales and consumer efforts to refinance or reconfigure existing mortgages:
- •·When the Treasury (or other federal agency that holds mortgages) acquires troubled existing mortgages from financial institutions, agencies are required to work with lenders and mortgage servicers to find ways to avoid foreclosures. (ed. – We hope that they closed the loophole that many lenders MAY be using when it comes to short sales, which we posted about previously)
- •·All federal agencies are required to work with servicers to facilitate loan modifications that will consider the net present value of the mortgage.
- •·Similar refinancing and foreclosure prevention requirements apply to mortgages involving owners of multi-family properties and owners of commercial properties. Policy goal is to assure that tenants don’t lose their residence or their place of business when an owner has problems with the mortgage.
- •·Changes to existing mortgages can include (but are not limited to) revisions in principal, interest rate and period for repayment.
Tax Relief
The Senate added an extensive package of extensions of expired and expiring provisions that had passed previously on a vote of 93 – 2. Extended provisions include the 15-year life on leasehold improvements, brownfields clean-up deductions, deductions for mortgage insurance premiums and relief from the Alternative Minimum Tax.
The Bill Will Get Money into the Financial System Quickly
The credit markets are nearly frozen. Lenders can’t lend because they are receiving no payments on existing loans. The legislation allowed the government to buy troubled loans and mortgage securities. The funds that the institutions received when the government purchased the existing portfolios were to be available to issue new mortgages with more carefully specified and monitored lending standards. Provisions include:
- •·Create a Troubled Asset Relief Program (TARP) to purchase and guarantee the troubled assets from the financial institutions that hold mortgages and/or mortgage-backed securities.
- •·A new Office of Financial Stability within the Treasury to operate TARP, with input from the Federal Reserve, Federal Deposit Insurance Corp (FDIC – the agency that works with failed and failing financial institutions to insure and protect consumers), the Comptroller of the Currency (bank regulator), Office of Thrift Supervision (regulator of former savings and loan companies) and the Secretary of Housing and Urban Development.
- •·Don’t give out all the money at one time. First release of funds to purchase troubled assets will be $250 Billion. Second release of up to $100 Billion must be authorized by the President. Final $350 Billion can be issued only on Congressional approval. Congress given 15 days to act.
Congress will keep a tight rein on TARP. Congress will have the assistance of numerous agencies charged with specific tasks and reporting responsibilities:
- •·TARP Oversight Board at Treasury — monthly activity reports to Congress.
- •·Secretary of Treasury — detailed reports to Congress for each $50 Billion in transactions.
- •·Government Accountability Office (Congress’s auditor) — financial reports about TARP activities every 60 days.
- •·Judicial Review — Federal courts may issue injunctions when there is a finding that the Secretary of the Treasury has acted in a manner that is arbitrary, capricious or outside the law.
- •·Create a new Inspector General (IG) for TARP. An IG might be viewed as the “cop on duty” who has authority to investigate TARP’s activities. IG will make quarterly reports to Congress.
- •·Appoint a Congressional Oversight Panel – receive and process all these reports to keep Congress apprised of the state of financial markets, activities of the regulatory system and the use of TARP’s asset acquisition and disposition authority.
- •·Federal Reserve — provide reports to Congress on utilization of the lending authority created earlier this year. That authority was intended to assist ailing financial institutions.
Put Brakes on the Bad Guys
Congress wanted to curtail “bad acts” of executives who gambled and lost.
- •·Assure that skilled asset managers who buy and sell TARP assets have no conflicts of interest with prior employers or firms.
- •·No golden parachute or severance payments to executives of companies that sell assets to TARP. An executive who receives a parachute payment will be required to pay a 20% excise tax on it.
- •·No tax deductions allowed for any executive’s compensation of more than $500,000.
- •·All financial regulatory agencies are required to cooperate with the FBI in its investigations of fraud, misrepresentation or malfeasance in the selling or advertising of financial products.
Give the Taxpayers a Stake in the Profits
Historically, when the government has intervened to shore up a company’s or government’s financial dealings (such as the loan guarantees made to Chrysler and the aid given to New York City during a fiscal crisis), the long-term effect has been that the government has made money back on the deal. The legislation provided an “upside” benefit for taxpayers:
- •·Any profits generated when the government subsequently sells TARP assets would be used to pay down the national debt.
- •·The government will receive warrants in the companies that participate in TARP. The warrants are similar to stock, but do not grant any voting authority to the government. If the participating company pays dividends at some future time, the warrants would allow the government to receive the dividend. Similarly, if the government sells its stake in the company, the warrants would entitle the government to any appreciation.
Safeguard Savings & Recoup What’s Still Owed
- •·Increase the amount of federal insurance on bank accounts from $100,000 to $250,000. This will be particularly helpful to smaller and local banks and small businesses.
- •·If, after five years from the date of enactment (the date the President signs a bill), the program has lost money, the sitting President will be required to present a plan to Congress for ways to recover the funds from the financial institutions that benefited from the TARP relief.
Again, we agree with NAR and applaud our politicians for taking a stand. What we are waiting for is to see if the much needed help to the distressed homeowners is really on its way or will the money be diverted elsewhere.
Terry Iwaniw
REALTOR Associate
First Time Home Buyer Specialist
Foreclosure Prevention Consultant
RE/MAX Home Team
609-417-1086
http://www.terryi.com/
http://www.snewjerseyhomes.com/
Tags: bailout, distressed owners, housing rescue, The Emergency Economic Stabilization Act of 2008, Wall Street
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