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NJ Market Update – 2nd Quarter 2010
Terry Iwaniw | Create Your Badge
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Where is their focus?
Posted by admin on Aug 8, 2010 in Editorial
I just received another call from a prospective customer. They called about one of the HUD owned homes that I market. I started out by asking the standard questions about their search and one of the key questions I ask is if they are currently working with another agent? Another question I ask is if they had called any other real estate agent about the property. I do this because I don’t want to waste their time or mine giving out redundant information about the property.
Well, the prospective customers told me that they 1) were not working with any other agent, and 2) yes, they had called another agent about the property; that they had called and left a message on the other agent’s voicemail, but that they hadn’t called them back. At this point, I have to add that I had called this prospective customer because I received a notification that I had a voicemail. Now, this is problem I encounter quite often with my current carrier; where I will have my cell phone sitting next to me but it hasnt rung. Moments later I get a notification that I have a voicemail waiting. Weird. But that’s a story for a another time.
So, I’m speaking with this prospective customer who has contacted a few other real estate agents about this particular property. I asked him where he found these agents about this property? It seems that he found them on a classified ad site (which will go unmentioned here). He saw their ads about the property and made a phone call. And to be honest, one agent did return his call but when the other agent asked this prospective customer if they had been pre-qualified for a mortgage, the prospective customer told the agent that they had not. Now, remember, all the prospective customer did was call to get some information on the property that this agent was advertising on a classified ad site. So, what did this agent say to this prospective customer? The agent told him to call him back when he has been pre-qualified for a mortgage. Wow! Now, the prospective customer did give me the other agent’s name, albeit reluctantly, and I have heard from other of my customers that have called him that he has said the same thing to them. Needless to say, they’ve never called him back…even after getting pre-qualified. Why? Because he couldn’t even spare a few minutes to help them out or even try to find out their level of knowledge about the pre-qualification process. I have found that in the vast majority of cases that prospective customers don’t know anything about the pre-qualification process or where it fits in the grand scheme of trying to find a house. I, on the ohter hand, will and do take a few minutes to explain this. But I also make sure that I answer any questions the caller contacted me about in the first place.
So, what about the other agents this prospective customer called? They never called him back. Well, maybe he didn’t give them enough time. That will be my first presumption about the situation and my reply is usually that maybe the they should give the other agent more time. At this point, almost always the answer is that they have given the other agent more then enough time, that they had called and left a message many days ago. They then ask me how long should they wait?
So, I’m left to wonder about these other agents? Where is your focus? Why aren’t you calling these people back? Why are you leaving them hanging there and frustrated? I know that anyone that calls me isn’t going to be going around telling others that I don’t return calls, never contact them, or otherwise left them in the dark. Do these other agents know that the next agent that these prospective customers call end up having to apologize for them so that these customers don’t think that ALL agents are like this? By not focusing on customer service these other agents are soiling the pond that the rest of us have to swim in?
But to answer my own question. My focus is customer service. I don’t have that much control over other agents, the current housing market, or even the mortage industry, but I do have control over my own business focus. And that focus is customer service and to maintain a clear line of communication with my customers and clients. To keep them informed. I have always prided myself on being accessible to my customers and clients. I may not be able to answer the phone that very second, but be assured that I will be calling you back within an hour or 2….not a day or 2, or a week or 2.
Lastly, I always make a point of giving any prospective customer as many options in contacting me as possible. You can contact me via my cell phone (609-417-1086), e-mail at terry@terryi.com, Facebook, web site, follow me on Twitter, or call me on Skype (ID=terryriw). I am always available to help with people’s real estate needs in southern New Jersey.
Terry Iwaniw
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Protecting the Title to Your Property
Property is, typically, a big investment and new property owners want to protect the money that they invest in their property. One of the fundamental things that property owners want to protect is their ownership rights. Accordingly, it is important to have a title search conducted on the property and to purchase title insurance in case anything was missed during the title search.
Title Search
A title search, if done properly, will give you a chain of title for the property, show any restrictions on the property, such as easements, and identify any outstanding liens on the property. A title search is done by searching the local land records in the town, city or county where such records are kept for the property.
Anyone can go to the office where land records are kept and perform a title search. However, many people choose to employ a title search company or an attorney to do the title search for them. It is important that a title search be thorough and reveal all encumbrances, liens, and owners of the property so that a person buying the property knows:
- that he is buying a piece of property that can be legally sold to him; and
- if there are any restrictions or encumbrances that he will become subject to or liable for when he becomes the property owner.
For these reasons, prospective property buyers should have a full title search done. Limited title searches may be done if property owners are not changing such as during a refinance of the property.
Title Insurance
While a thorough title search will reveal potential problems and give a buyer the opportunity to rectify them, it is always possible that the person conducting the title search missed something. Since the government only provides a method for checking property ownership and encumbrances and does not verify such ownership or encumbrances, it is important to protect your investment with title insurance.
Title insurance protects property owners from incurring financial losses because of a problem with the property’s title. Title insurance companies require policy owners to have a title search done before obtaining insurance. Most banks require mortgage applicants to obtain title insurance prior to issuing a mortgage so that they can be assured that their interest in the property will be honored if a previous lien, owner or other encumbrance should come to light in the future. Title insurance policies may be issued as an owner’s policy if it is purchased by the homeowner or a lender’s policy if it held by the mortgage lender. Typically, the cost of title insurance is a one-time fee and the insurance remains in effect as long as the same owner maintains ownership of the property. A subsequent owner would need to purchase his or her own title insurance policy as they are nontransferable.
Most United States jurisdictions maintain public, yet complicated, systems of land records. Home buyers should conduct title searches, or hire someone to conduct a search, and purchase title insurance in order to make sure that their property purchase is protected.
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Sharing Your Property With Tenants
If you are lucky enough to own a piece of property that has a backhouse, cottage or granny flat on it then you may wish to rent that structure out for additional income. In fact, the opportunity to use that structure to help pay your mortgage or provide you with additional income may be one of the reasons why you bought the property in the first place. However, if you are thinking about becoming a landlord and renting out part of your property there are some important things to consider and to decide before you begin looking for a tenant.
The Landlord Tenant Agreement
Whenever you become a landlord, your landlord tenant agreement, or rental agreement, is always very important. It is especially important when you are going to be sharing the property with your tenant. In addition to the standard terms of a landlord tenant agreement such as the amount of the rent, when the rent is due and describing who is responsible for maintenance, repairs and insurance, an agreement to rent a backhouse should include information about:
· How common areas such as lawns and pools are going to be shared. Are you going to allow your tenant to access them at all or only at certain hours?
· The number of guests your tenant can have on your property at one time. Are you concerned about parties and how that will affect your ability to relax or work at home?
· How many tenants are going to occupy the rental space. You may be concerned about the safety of the tenants, the potential noise and the wear and tear on the structure.
· The presence of children and / or pets both of whom can damage your property and create unwanted noise.
The Tax and Legal Implications of Renting a Backhouse
There are always tax implications to being a landlord. However, if the tenant shares your property then your tax liabilities are a little more complicated than if you have a separate property to rent. It is important to keep track of the expenses for the part of the property that you use and the part of the property that you rent. Your tax deductions are dependent on you keeping careful records and taking proper deductions for the part of the property that you use personally and for the part of property that you rent to others.
Since you will be living in close proximity to your tenant, it is best to have a real estate attorney review your landlord tenant agreement before you provide it a tenant for his or her signature. A real estate attorney can also advise you concerning the tax implications of your arrangement. Then, you can be confident that the rental will provide you with income and that you are protecting your property interests.
If the rental of a backhouse, cottage or granny flat is done in the correct manner then it can provide real benefits to the property owner / landlord. Therefore, it is important to consider your options and create an agreement that will be beneficial to you now and in the future.
Are you really trying to sell that house?
Posted by admin on May 5, 2010 in Editorial
That’s the question I tend to ask when I come across a listing with no photos and/or no public remarks/description.
Now, right from the outset let me say that I see a large amount of listings each and every day. I do this as a part of my real estate business. Besides completing CMA’s for prospective customers/clients, search out homes for my buyers, prepare potential properties for my expired listing marketing campaign, I also complete 5-7 BPO’s for lenders each day. For all of those I have to research acceptable comps and therefore I need to view the listings in the general vicinity of the subject properties. With that said, I have lost count of the number of listings I have seen that have been on the market for over 90 days and have no photos of the property at all. Also, in some cases there has been no description, at any level, of the home. How are you trying to market the property? I can see that there may not be any photos after 6-8 days after getting the listing. You intend to go back and take photos during better weather or give the home owners a opportunity to properly stage the home. But after 90 days, you should at least have a photo of the exterior of the property. What is the listing agent thinking? That buyers will be interested in seeing the property just out of curiosity? I doubt it. Buyers feel if there are no photos showing any aspect of the home that it probably isn’t worth even viewing. Leave out interior photos and they will presume that the interior is in such bad shape that the listing agent didn’t want to scare off the buyers. So, they move onto other listings.
As for the lack of property descriptions, I just don’t understand this. The listing agent has been in the home. They had to be in there to make their presentation as to the market price and their marketing plan, so why not just pit down some basic information about the home…a verbal narrative of what the buyer can expect to see when they view it, highlights of the key areas of the house. I don’t know which is worse, have a blank and empty public remarks/description section or stating “Property description to follow” still showing after over 90 days on the market.
As a professional marketer and businessman, it sets my teeth on edge whenever I see such listings. The listing agent took the time to make their presentation to the home owner, establish an agreed to marketing price, and then had the home owner to sign a listing agreement. For what? To have the home owner’s home wallow on the market with no activity and a very slim chance to sell? These agents are my colleagues, my competitors, and I wish they’d find another line of work. They are tainting the market for the rest of us. We have to follow behind them and apologize for their lack of skills, knowledge, and professionalism.
Now I start wondering if the property listing has no photos and/or description then how does the listing agent expect to market and sell the home? I’m left with one conclusion. Price. If you price something low enough you will definitely get lots of interest regardless of the property condition. But the days of overpaying on homes is over. Under pricing a home just to generate interest is not doing your home owner any favors. Buyers still remember what happened during the last real estate “boom” when people over-paid on homes, made offers over the asking price. They remember the end results of people who have a home that is now valued at less then what they owe. So, why would buyers want to pay over the asking price, even if it is considerably less then where it should be? The listing agents aren’t home marketers because they aren’t properly representing the home owners or giving a true picture of the home being sold. In the last year the actual sold price vs. asking price has been less then 95%:
1. Camden County - avg. actual sold price was 89% of the avg. asking price
2. Burlington County - avg. actual sold price was 90% of the avg. asking price.
3. Gloucester County - avg. actual sold price was 90% of the avg. asking price.
4. Cumberland County - avg. actual sold price was 91% of the avg. asking price.
So, you’ll note that the average price that a property sold for was less then the average asking price. The actual sold prices are NOT 100%+ of the asking price. Then why market via price only? The listing agent isn’t doing their client any favors.
Real professionals look out for their client’s best interest and make a point of knowing the market area and what it takes to insure that the property is sold at the optimal price. As important as price is, proper presentation and promotion is just as important.
Terry Iwaniw | Create Your Badge
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Energy Saving Tips For The Home
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5 Tips for Saving Energy in the Family Room
Reduce your electricity bills by systematically purging your family room of wasteful energy practices. Read
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12 Tips for Saving Energy in Your Home Office
Cut your power consumption, lighting, and heating and cooling costs when you work from home. Read
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7 Tips for Saving Energy with Home Lighting
Lighting eats up as much as 20% of your annual electric bill, but using energy-efficient bulbs and making other simple changes can cut lighting costs dramatically. Read
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10 Tips for Saving Energy in the Kitchen
Maintain your large kitchen appliances is part of a smart home energy efficiency plan. Read
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7 Tips for Saving Energy in the Laundry Room
Understanding your laundry room appliances is part of a smart plan to help you save energy in your home. Read
Visit houselogic.com for more articles like this.
Copyright 2010 NATIONAL ASSOCIATION OF REALTORS®
The blog is back up!
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
Why hasn’t my home sold?
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
Are they in business or not?
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.
The Current Financial Crisis Explained in Simple Terms
I saw this YouTube video posted on one of my friend’s updates on my Facebook page. I think it explains this very simply and clearly. The video poster split the video into 2 parts, you will need to view both.
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