Making the Sale

It is about pricing. Buying and selling houses is 80% about pricing. There is nothing magic to it. Price the property correctly for the market and it sells, do not price it properly and it will sit on the market. The other 20% is about timing. It is a buyers market and timing is a bit tricky, but if the price is correct the property will sell.
The problem is that sellers want the price their neighbor got for a property sold during the height of the seller’s market. That’s not going to happen, it is a buyer’s market now and buyers are taking their time and shopping around before making offers.
Sellers also want to get a specific amount from the sale of their home, even though the market may not bear that price. There are no bidding wars to help drive up prices – to help today’s seller get exorbitant prices. There is enough inventory on the market for buyers to just look elsewhere and that is exactly what they are doing.
Sellers have to price to sell rather than price with emotions. It is difficult to look objectively at the place where you have spent years living life. Where each room holds memories of people and past events; but, objectivity is exactly what is needed to price a home correctly. Being objective about houses is a realtor’s day job. The realtor works to get the seller realistic returns on their investment. In a buyer’s market that can be more challenging but meeting that challenge is why I love this job!
Read the article: Home market not so comfy

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Technorati: NJ Real Estate News, Real Estate, NJ Real Estate Blogs, NJ Housing, New Jersey, FSBO, Buyers, Sellers

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Around Town: Property Tax News

Lawrence township council has proposed a 3 cent increase in property taxes to 68-cent/$100 which would increase the average homeowner’s bill about $49. They will discuss the proposed budget “in detail” on February 6.
Read the story

In state government, the effort to reform property taxes has senate democrats seeing the reform effort as a waste.

"By the time all is said and done, (the proposals have) all been watered down so much that there's really nothing there. They're nothing more than shells," said Sen. Shirley Turner, D-Lawrence, Mercer County.
After seeing much of his work on reforms whittled down by other lawmakers and interest groups, Sen. Robert Smith, D-Piscataway, compared his efforts to those of Sisyphus, who in Greek mythology was doomed to forever roll a boulder up a hill, only to see it roll back down.
Smith said, "I went into this believing anything was possible and anything was on the table, but you can't get past those interest groups."

Well folks, it looks like business as usual in the state legislature – something potentially good shot down in its infancy. I cannot say I am surprised but I will admit to hoping for better.
Read the story

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Technorati: NJ Real Estate News, Real Estate, NJ Real Estate Blogs, NJ Housing, New Jersey, Property Tax, Tax Reform, Politics

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New Jersey Educators Weigh In

Well the New Jersey Education Association has weighed in on Governor Corzine’s property tax reform proposal over the weekend. Joyce Powell wrote the ad for the Association. She pretty much says what we all know – that “credits and caps” of Governor Corzine has a fatal flaw. I think I will just quote her here

The core of Gov. Corzine’s plan is a combination that he calls “credits and caps:” significant property tax credits for most residents, combined with strong caps on future property tax increases. It is an appealing offer, but with a fatal flaw. While it addresses the issue of funding for education, it does nothing to deal with the cost of providing education.
… New Jersey arrived at this crisis understand that property taxes are a symptom, not the root cause of the problem. For years, the state has failed to provide adequate funding to school districts to raise the necessary funds through the only means available to them: property taxes.

Ms Powell has a point. Where is the money for schools going to come from if not the state or property taxes? Since it is true in the 1990’s Gov.Whitman decreased the amount of money available to the state with her decrease in income tax, then it really is no surprise that municipalities had increase in property taxes to make up the difference for the money no longer received from the state or have schools suffer. Duh! It is not rocket science here. So what’s the legislature going to do? Probably the quick fix of “credits and caps” but not even make a stab at the root cause of property taxes and so we will have this conversation again in a few years.

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Technorati: NJ Real Estate News, Real Estate, NJ Real Estate Blogs, NJ Housing, New Jersey, Property Tax, Education, School Funding, Current Events

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