Midtown Direct Real Estate News

With the crazy stuff the National Association of REALTORS is doing with trying to get local real estate boards to make the local REALTORS stop using the term MLS Search, what will consumers end up doing? [Read more →]

Well you come to the right place.  I have been working long and hard to bring you the best Summit NJ Home Search tools that can possibly be delivered to the public.  [Read more →]

DeHart Place New Construction Home Community in Morristown New Jersey 07960 with homes priced from $1,260,000 to $1,300,000.  The homes have been built South of Maple Avenue on DeHart Street in Morristown New Jersey.  This is a prime location in a historic area of Morristown. [Read more →]

The best way to find you next home now available.  Visit Chatham NJ MLS Search to search for your next Chatham NJ home with the nicest working open and free to use NJ MLS search available in our area.  You can search by town name, zip code or MLS number if you have it.  When you are ready to talk to a REALTOR just send me a e-mail from the site of give me a call 973-647-0253.

Chatham is one of the most desireable towns in Northern New Jersey to live in.  Located on the Midtown Direct train line Chatham is just 40 some minutes outside of NYC Manhattan.  The Chatham school system is very highly rated, and there are lots of attractions within minutes of town.

James Boyer
REALTOR Associate
RE/MAX Properties Unlimited
973-539-6300 Office
973-647-0253 Direct

Now available a new and robust easy to use MLS SEARCH for Summit New Jersey.  If you are in the market for Summit NJ Real Estate you really should check out Summit NJ MLS Search there you can search for free, you don’t have to register until you are ready to talk to a professional Summit NJ REALTOR.

Summit New Jersey, one of the most desireable towns of the Midtown Direct line.  If you are looking for information about Summit New Jersey or other towns along the Midtown Direct line visit the link above titled Summit NJ REALTOR.

All my best:

James Boyer
REALTOR Associate
RE/MAX Properties Unlimited
973-539-6300 Real Estate Office
973-647-0253 Direct to your REALTOR James Boyer

Summit NJ Home Sales for January 2008

January 2008 was uncharacteristically busy for home sales in Summit.  In total there were 14 home sales / closings during the month which is more than one would expect for the month of January when the news media has been screaming for 12 months strait for people not to buy a home. 

While New Jersey as a whole has experienced a week real estate market for the past year, towns like Summit, Chatham and other towns of the Midtown Direct train line have been holding their own, or even seeing slight price appreciation in some cases.

Here are the home sales and addresses for Summit New Jersey January 2008

If you have any questions about Summit NJ Real Estate or are thinking of buying or selling in the near future please do not hesitate to call me at 973-647-0253 or visit my website at Summit NJ REALTOR.  James Boyer REALTOR, RE/MAX Properties Unlimited

For a free Summit NJ Area MLS Search, please be my guest at Summit NJ MLS Search.

January 2008 home closings in Chatham Boro & Chatham Twp

2008 has started out strong for home sales closings in Chatham New Jersey.  16 homes sold and closed during the month.  To be sure most if not all of these deals actually came together before January, but January itself has been a uncharacteristically strong month with buyers being especially active in towns along the Midtown Direct train line.

Here are the actual home sales for Chatham Boro & Chatham Twp including addresses, listing price, sold price, and days on market.

If you are thinking of buying or selling in or around Chatham New Jersey, give me a call for experience that makes a difference. 

James Boyer REALTOR, RE/MAX Properties Unlimited 973-647-0253

To search for all homes currently available visit my Chatham NJ MLS Search for all the homes currently for sale along the Midtown Direct Train line and beyond.   

Did you know, the Federal Reserve has cut the interest rate they charge banks 1.25% over the past few weeks?

Have you talked with your mortgage person lately?   With every 1% mortgage interest rate reduction the typical mortgage payment drops 9%.  This can make a huge difference in the home you can afford.  For example, if you thought that the highest home price you could afford was $500,000 you could move that number up to $545,000 with a 1% mortgage interest rate cut, and still have approximately the same mortgage payment.

For a complete NJ MLS Search of off all the local homes for sale please be my guest and visit www.jboyerhomes.com/search.php

 James Boyer REALTOR, Serving the towns of the Midtown Direct Train Line, from South Orange NJ, Summit NJ, to Chatham NJ, and on out to Morristown NJ.  For Professional and Experienced representation, give me a call at 973-647-0253.

Things are changing in the Summit NJ real estate marketing world.  But how is it changing and is the Summit NJ REALTOR you are about to select to sell your home really “up” on what it takes to get your home sold in today’s much rougher and internet based real estate selling environment?

If the Summit NJ REALTOR you are thinking of hiring is not up on things here are the things you will here during your real estate listing presentation.

·         Your home will be listed in the MLS

·         Lots of Open Houses

·         Your home advertised in the newspaper real estate section

·         Real estate brokers open house

A savvy New Jersey REALTOR who understands today’s marketing needs will tell you that more than  80% of home buyers spend 6 months or more researching New Jersey real estate online before they even contact a New Jersey REALTOR.  They also look at an average of 7 homes before they select the one they want to buy. (Statistics from the National Association of REALTORS)Here are some additional things you will hear from an Internet savvy New Jersey REALTOR:

·         Great Google placement for the REALTOR’s website which your home will be marketed on.

·         Full MLS search on the New Jersey REALTOR’s website to ensure that there is always a high number of home buyers coming to that site to search for homes.

·         Featured placement of your home in places like REALTOR.com

·         Individual website dedicated to your home with your homes address as the web address, containing a full virtual tour of your home.

In the changing world of real estate marketing, hire a New Jersey REALTOR who is prepared for this new world.  After all, if you are reading this posting, it means that you found it on the internet.  You probably even used a search engine such as Google, the same place where 80% of buyers begin their search for their next house.

James Boyer REALTOR, Serving the Real Estate Markets of the Midtown Direct Line.  When thinking of buying or selling a home in New Jersey, think about the towns of the Midtown Direct line, Think about the continuing and excelerating demand for homes in these towns and how that will tend to push home appreciation higher than in non train line towns in New Jersey.  For a full and easy MLS search visit http://www.jboyerhomes.com/search.php where you will find all the homes currently listed for sale in the local New Jersey MLS

Those were the words of State Senate President Richard Codey when talking to a gathering at the annual Morris County Chamber of Commerce luncheon.

As well it should be in trouble.  Someone please explain to New Jersey Governor Corzine that the last thing New Jersey needs is higher or more taxes.  If Governor Corzine and the State Legislature want to address New Jersey’s debt problems they need to find ways to grow the New Jersey economy.  New or higher taxes will not do anything to address that!!

Already New Jersey has some of the highest taxes in the county, and real estate taxes in New Jersey are totally out of line in many towns and counties.  High taxes are contributing to job loss in New Jersey and contributing to the problems in the New Jersey Real Estate market, especially in towns not served by train lines such as the Midtown Direct which tend to help support demand in towns with train stations, because many of those people can commute out of New Jersey to where the high paying employers would rather be based.

James Boyer REALTOR, Serving towns along the Midtown Direct train line from South Orange NJ, Maplewood NJ, to Short Hills NJ, on up to Summit NJ and Chatham NJ and all the way out to Morristown NJ.  Call on James Boyer 973-647-0253 for expert NJ real estate advice, and professional service above what is normally expected.

Wow, my phone has been ringing off the hook since January 2nd with home buyers wanting information about one Midtown Direct train line town or another.  The questions keep coming in about towns such as South Orange, Maplewood, to Short Hills, Summit, Chatham, and Madison.

The home buyers are out there shopping early this year.  They know what they want, are willing to pay fair market value for it, and they are very home price savvy. 

My best advice to anyone wanting to sell their home this spring:  It is time to list it for sale right now.  The home buyers are out shopping right now, but there are not that many good homes which are properly priced to choose from.  If you wait until March or April there will be many many more homes re-listed for sale after not being able to obtain the prices the home owners were looking for last year.  Many of these home owners will have figured out that pricing was the issue and substantially reduce their prices from last years asking price.  They will be your competition.

Home sales in the Midtown Direct home markets have been much stronger than the rest of the state, but it is still a buyers market, so don’t kid yourself thinking that you will be able to get spring of 2006 prices in 2008, you might be able to get spring of 2006 prices, but you will need to wait until more like 2012.

James Boyer REALTOR, Serving towns along the Midtown Direct Line from South Orange NJ though Short Hills NJ, and on out to Morristown NJ.  For a free home pricing evaluation call James at 973-647-0253

Some information in this post is totally the experience of me, James Boyer REALTOR, and other parts of the post are drawn from information learned at Otteau Valuation Group conferences.

306 Homes SOLD in Millburn Township New Jersey in 2007

222 in Short Hills and 84 in Millburn.

Despite the near constant screaming by the news media about the national real estate market, Millburn Township real estate  and Short Hills Real Estate appreciated in 2007 with the Average Sold Price increasing by 2% and the number of Homes Sold increasing by 13% over 2006 home sales in Millburn Township.  This is yet another example of people coming back to the train line towns of the Midtown Direct New Jersey Transit System.  When thinking of buying a home in Northern New Jersey, take a look at the towns along the Mid-Town Direct Train Line.  Many Experts are predicting that these towns will continue to outperform non train line towns for appreciation for the foreseeable future.

Though Millburn Township New Jersey is the actual town name, most people from outside the area only know of the Short Hills section, which is really a shame since many other parts of Millburn Township are very nice and very desirable as well. 

Millburn Real Estate

Average List Price:  $608,440
Average Sold Price:  $602,348
Average Time to Sell: 52 Days
Sold Price As A Percentage of List Price 99%

Short Hills Real Estate

Average List Price:  $1,615,011
Average Sold Price:  $1,559,166
Average Time To Sell: 65 Days
Sold Price As A Percentage of List Price   96%

James Boyer
NJ REALTOR Associate
RE/MAX Properties Unlimited
973-647-0253 Direct

There is a dirty little secret that some Midtown Direct Real Estate listing agents are keeping.  This little secret eventually gets out but usually not until it is to late for the home owner or anyone else to do anything about it.

It all starts with the real estate commission which is negotiated at the time that the home owners sign their listing agreement.  What happens is a decision is made as to how that total commission is to be split.  The normal practice is to split the commission 50/50 between the listing agent and the buyers agent.  Sometimes when the listing agent is trying very hard to bring in a buyer quickly the listing agent will pay out a higher commission to the buyers agent as a incentive to get more showings.  Same thing that many car companies do when they offer rebates on certain cars, the number of people looking at that type of car increases and the sales increase.

Now to the dirty little secret:  In a few of the cases this has taken place it just so happened that the home seller was looking over the Hud1 form (The legal form that spells out where all the money from a real estate settlement is going) and asked why the listing agent was getting much more money than the buyers agent.  In other words the seller was unaware that there listing agent was paying them self much more than half the commission and the sellers did not even realize that they had agreed to that.  To me this seems more than a little shady!!

Why is this a bad thing to have happen?  It is not a bad thing to pay a higher real estate commission for performance, but 9 out of 10 times the listing agent for a home is not the selling agent.  The listing agent is going to do about the same amount of work if the real estate commission is 50/50 or arranged in some other way.  Don’t get me wrong, a listing agent should get paid for the services they provide, and many times a 50/50 split is fair, but in my view it is never fair to the home seller or to the buyers agent for the listing agent to be receiving 20% more of the real estate commission than the buyers agent is.

I regularly use the commission split to the home sellers advantage.  How do I do that, I regularly will make sure to be paying out to the buyers agents a higher percentage than is the norm in a given area.  This helps to generate more showings and more showings usually means a offer earlier in the sales process, which usually means a higher price for the home seller.

James Boyer REALTOR 973-647-0253 your Midtown Direct REALTOR.

Trying to sell your New Jersey home, but the home buyers just are not making any offers?

 The current buyers market here in Northern New Jersey has left many home sellers wondering what they need to do in order to get their home to sell at a reasonable price.

Many New Jersey home sellers don’t seem to understand that the longer the spend trying to sell their home, the less money they will get for it when it finally does sell.

Get the information you need to make wise decisions and make the decisions quickly.

Listen to what the NJ REALTORS who have shown you home have to say. Many times they will give you the keys to what it will take to get your home sold. While it is important to find out what their buyer thought of your home, it is much more important to get the NJ REALTORS impression of the home. If the problems the showing REALTOR sights are centered around location, reduce your price and get the home sold. If the showing REALTOR sights improvements that need to be done, have them done as quickly and professionally as possible.

 Talk Strategy with your REALTOR:

Your real estate professional may have done all he or she can do to get your home sold. Time to find that out before you sign another listing agreement with the same REALTOR. Real Estate marketing is much different today than it was even five years ago. Many REALTORS have not figured out how to cope with the new realities of how real estate buyers shop for a home. It is vitally important if you hope to get your home sold for a fair price to have your home marketed well on the Internet.

Remember, not all New Jersey REALTORS are the same. Interview at least 3 NJ REALTORS before signing a listing agreement. At least one of the REALTORS you interview should be listed on the first page of a Google search such as “City State Real Estate” and example of that is “Morristown NJ Real Estate“ as that REALTOR is paying attention where the home buyers are.

 James Boyer REALTOR, specializes in the Midtown Direct Real Estate markets from Morristown New Jersey to Summit New Jersey to South Orange New Jersey.   Call with any questions at 973-647-0253 or visit my real estate website at Morristown NJ Realtor.

2007 came and went and some 165 homes actually sold in Chatham Township New Jersey.  In 2006 Chatham Township had 163 home sales.  Wow, wait a minute, didn’t the news media screem at us all year saying that there was a real estate crisis.  Didn’t the news media try to tell us that home sales and prices were droping through the floor?  I guess when it comes to towns like Chatham NJ the news media dousn’t know what in the heck they are talking about.

                                                                              2006                   2007

Average Chatham Township sales price      $935,917           $1,049,155   
Average Days to Sell in Chatham Twp.             52.1                      73.4
Number of homes sold                                         163                        165

When it comes time to sell a home it is becoming much more important to be sure to hire a Internet Marketing Savvy  REALTOR.  Why you might say, here is why:  As of 2007 more then 80% of home buyers were doing the majority of their home search online.  If your home is marketed online to these home buyers in a powerful way your home stands a much better chance of selling faster and for more money.  So it is very important to interview more than one Chatham NJ REALTOR before you hire one to market your home for you. 

Here are the Chatham Township NJ Real Estate Sales for 2007: