Shopping for a home

An important first step is selecting a buyer's agent to help you find your dream home. He or she can represent the buyer's interest in a real estate transaction. Before making a decision, however, have a realtor explain the pros and cons of using a buyer's agent versus a sales or dual agent. A CENTURY 21® agent can guide you through every step of buying your next home. When you're ready to visit houses, ask your CENTURY 21 professional champion to arrange showings, and be sure to keep track of the properties you've seen. Each time you view more properties, refer to your "what's right for you" notes to immediately eliminate any that clearly do not meet your standards. And bring a digital camera to record what you see - you'll be happy to have the record afterwards. After touring each home, write down what you liked and didn't like. Develop a rating system that will help narrow the field. For example, pick the house you like best on day one and compare all other houses to it. When you find a better one, use the new favorite as the standard. Visit www.pablolopez.us and sign up for FREE market report for buyers/sellers. It's a great time to buy your dream home. If you are looking to buy in North Jersey or relocating to the area give me a call I will be happy to assist you. Check available inventory in Morris County, Passaic County, Essex County, and Sussex County. Your dream home is waiting for you.



Pablo Lopez
Century 21 Elite Realty, LLC.
337 Change Bridge Rd
Pine Brook, NJ 07058
973-244-7980 X215

www.pablolopez.us

Marketing Your Home Effectively

The Marketing strategy of your home can be a deciding factor on how quickly it sells or not. We live in a time and age that a sign in the front lawn and publishing a home for sale in the MLS is just not enough. Know exactly what you are getting for your buck. Marketing a home in the present real estate market can be very challenging. With my 30-day strategic marketing plan you will know right off the gate measurable goals and time line manageable. More and more buyers are relying on the internet to get a head start on their home search. The average buyer will use internet resources to search for listings, learn about neighborhoods, and evaluate homes.

First and foremost is determining the market value of your home. You need to sell and sell as quickly as possible, for this very reason your home must be price correctly. Selling for the highest allowable price that your market can bare is our number one goal. Conducting a comprehensive market analysis can help you determine your price point and what your local real estate market will allow. You see real estate is localize, what ever is happening across the country, or across town don’t have much weight on what your local market is doing. That is the reason why when selling a home you must focus on what is going on around your neighborhood, that type of information is valuable and it will help you determine the right price for your home. You want to arrive at a listing price that will generate a sale for the highest price in an available time frame.

Designing a strategic marketing plan that will sell your home within your time frame and meet your goals takes some planning and having a proven strategic plan in place. Pricing your home to compete with other similar homes in the neighborhood, enhancing your home for the best curb appeal and staging it so it can shoe easy to potential buyer, exposing your home to the real estate community, buyers and other real estate resources.
Marketing your home thru different resources is key, yard sign, MLS, social media, open houses, listing syndication, mailers to neighbors, emails to your friends and family all this is necessary to have adequate of exposure of your home. Contingency plan if the home is not sold within the time frame that you wish. Contact me today to learn more about my 30-day strategic marketing plan and learn how you can market your home effectively.

Pablo López, REALTOR® - Associate
Century 21 Elite Realty, LLC.
337 Changebridge RD
Pine Brook, NJ 07058
www.pablolopez.us

Real Estate Market Report Paterson NJ

The Real Estate situation in Paterson, in July I wrote about the market situation in Paterson and the market outlook. This is a follow up on my research and market update, while there seem to be some improvement from January to June of 09 and median sales price seem to improved last month things turned out a little different. If you read my post from July 21ST my report showed improvements during the first quarter on Multi-family sales in Paterson. Unfortunately July and August things took a different turn. In July the median sales price was the best in the past six months climbing to $185,000 Per GSMLS reports 37 Multi-family homes were sold during July that’s not counting nay FSBOs, Sheriff, or auction sales. In the meantime August tanked with a median sales price of $100,000 and only 19 Sales.

Zillow.com reports -13.4% one year decrease in the Value Index for Paterson. Realtytrac.com also reports value decrease for the Paterson, NJ neighborhoods. As the end of the tax credit creeps up on us we might see further decline in value in October and buyers going back to the fence. In my opinion this is the best time to strike a good deal on a property. I’ve seen a trend from January to August; a lot of buyers missed an opportunity to buy a home at a great price back in January. Don’t miss out again get off the fence and take advantage of the market right now.

Resources:

Garden State MLS

www.realtytrac.com

www.zillow.com

Pablo López, REALTOR® - Associate

Century 21 Elite Realty, LLC
337 Changebridge Rd
Pine Brook, NJ 07058
973-244-7980 Xt 215
Free Homes Evaluation In Paterson NJ, Clifton NJ, Passaic NJ

How complicated can a short sale get?

Transaction complications are not strange to a short sale purchases. You know that a short sale is a lengthy process to start with right of the gate. I've worked on complicated short sales before and complicated Real Estate transactions but this one beats them all. A few months ago I closed a short sale after one year of negotiations with GMAC actually 14 months to close that deal, issues all the way to the closing table. I'll make it short and sweet I began working on this deal in May 2008 with an initial offer of $225,000 after submitting the initial complete package "financials, hardship letter, net sheet, contract, BPO, approval letter, prove of funds, etc." to the mortgagee waited approximately a month for a response. After the second time on the phone with the lender they decided to order their own BPO one of many they will order thru the process. So the agent that takes the order from the valuation company comes from south NJ the home is located in Paterson Passaic County; this fellow agent don't know a bit about the current market or the neighborhood that he is working with. After numerous calls to the Lender and days later after they go the BPO the lender gets back to me with a counter offer of $325,000 wow. Mind you this was at bottom of the market here in Paterson homes were selling for $50,000 all day.
The home is located in a not so desirable neighborhood, well to make more clearly urban disaster or better yet in middle of the ghetto. Clearly the home is not worth what the lender is asking for so I go to battle with the lender, now going back and forth days go by weeks go by and months. I pull all the stops on this providing area information including aerial maps, neighborhood statistics and more. After months of haggling the lender orders another BPO once we go thru the waiting time they get back to me that they will adjust the counter offer to $260,000. Not happy with their counter offer we get back to them with a final and best of $235,000. Hmmmm I felt a nibble on the line follow by a hard tug TIME TO SET THE HOOK. Well at this time we have deal great NOT SO SOON. By the time we got to that point the buyers commitment had expired, the lender went out business now the buyer had to start from zero. It gets better by the time we got the lender to accept the deal FHA and most lenders had change the credit score guidelines and the buyer fall off the tree. Not giving up we got to bat for the buyer and after a few months and extensive work we found him a lender that will do the deal. After we identified the new lender it took a few months for them to commit on the deal. In the mean time I had the sellers breathing down my neck, the Attorneys and everyone else. Stress levels were soaring on everyone, towards the final stretch I talking about days from closing I get a call early in the morning; the closing was set for a Wednesday and I get the call the Friday before that the buyer was hospitalized for heart problems. Talk about a tense moment during this transaction, so as soon as I was able to I go to the hospital to visit and offer moral support "Mr Client please don't die on me yet please wait till you close this deal" well the good news is that he is ok the deal closed and he already moved to his new home.

Pablo Lopez, BROKER/Owner 
CRS®️, ABR®️, SFR®️, ePro®️, RES.NET REO Certified 
Recipient of NJAR BRONZE CIRCLE OF EXCELLENCE AWARD 2013-2017
ALLIANCE Home Sales of New Jersey, LLC.
3-5 Village Square East, Suite #3
Clifton, NJ 07011
Office: (973) 955-2744
Direct: (973) 277-0417
Member of: NJNAR®, NAR®, PCBOR®, GSMLS®, NJMLS®, REOMAC® , NAHREP®, RRC®

Things to Consider When Searching for a Home

Before deciding which house to buy, think about your lifestyle, your current and anticipated housing needs, and your budget. It's a good idea to create a prioritized list of features you want in your next home - you'll soon discover finding the right house involves striking a balance between your "must-haves" and your "nice-to-haves." To start, consider your lifestyle. If you love to cook, you'll want a well-equipped kitchen. If you're into gardening, you'll want a yard. If you're planning your office at home, you may want a room for a separate library or work space. If you have several cars, you may require a larger garage. Use this list as your search guide. Next, think about what you might need in the future. As you consider your housing needs, it's important to consider how long you may live in your home. If you're newly married, you might not be concerned with a school district right now, but you could be in a few years. If you have aging parents, you may want to look at homes that offer living arrangements for them as well as you. It's important to think about your new home's location just as carefully as you do about a house's features. Location is a huge part of any move. In addition to considering the distance to work, you need to evaluate the availability of shopping, police and fire protection, medical facilities, school and day-care, traffic and parking, trash and garbage collection, even recreational facilities. Perhaps the most important decision is deciding on the type of home you want. Do you want a condominium or a co-op? A town house or a detached single-family home? Do you want brick, stone, stucco, wood, vinyl siding, or something else? Do you prefer a new home or an older one? Through all of this, make sure to talk to your real estate professional about where you want to live. While more buyers now use the Internet to gain access to listings, or available properties for sale, it is still a good idea to use an agent. The agent brings value to the entire process: he or she is available to analyze data, answer questions, share their professional expertise, and handle all the paperwork and legwork that is involved in the real estate transaction. CENTURY 21 professionals have the expertise to help their clients narrow down their choices by sharing market trends and local information.

Pablo Lopez, REALTOR®

CENTURY 21 Elite Realty, LLC

337 Changebridge Rd

Pinebrook, NJ 07058

973.244.7980 Ext215

http://www.pablolopez.us