Archive for February, 2010

This three to five bedroom cape has had so many updates over the last six years – it’s perfect!  It offers three bedrooms upstairs with a full bath.  There are two rooms downstairs that are currently used as a family room and a play room; they can be bedrooms or not – depending upon your needs.  The front room – currently a dining room – features a wood burning fire place and could easily be a formal living room.  A large fenced yard is hard to find in this part of town.  Contact me for all the details.

It is a great time to buy!  If you are looking at your first home purchase or to move up from a condo, this might be the perfect house.  Not interested in Bernardsville?  That’s okay, there are lots of homes for sale in Bedminster too!

There has been some decent activity in Bedminster over the last ten days. There were 13 new listings and four contract sales, and the following properties closed:

17 Cedar Court, listed at $268,500, closed for $250,000
138 Autumn Ridge Road, listed at $652,000 closed for $640,000

There are 79 properties available in Bedminster, four of them are working through attorney review.  Market absorption is 6 months.   I have seen such a huge increase in market activity over the last few weeks – if you are considering a move, it might be the best time to put your home on the market.  Interest rates are supposed to go up at the end of March, possibly by a point or more and the tax credit is only available through the end of April. While you might not qualify for the credit, your potential buyer might.  If you can try to leverage this window of opportunity!

Contact me for more information on the market in general or any of these properties in particular.

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There were seven contract sales since 2/1/2010.

There are currently 73 properties available in Bedminster, ranging from $199,900 to $9,500,000.  For an appointment to review the market – as a buyer or a seller – contact me directly and I am happy to review your real estate needs.

Market absorption in Bedminster is only 5.2 months!  This is good news for Bedminster sellers – it seems that buyer activity is starting to increase after a slow start to the year.  Visit my website for a market analysis of your Bedminster property – maybe it is time to put it on the market!

Don’t forget to follow me on Twitter or find me on Facebook!

The statistics in this article pertain to neighboring Basking Ridge (Bedminster stats are on the home page of the Bedminster Real Estate website) but the tips for getting on the market and showing your home through the winter are applicable no matter which town you live in.  So head on over to the Basking Ridge Patch and check out my latest article.

If you are considering a move into or out of Bedminster, NJ, check out what’s for sale there or request a custom market analysis.

It might have been a snow day for some, but I was busy listing another home!  This property is a vintage colonial in the heart of Liberty Corner.  It features chestnut molding and pine floors - a walk up attic with plenty of space for storage.  It has been wonderfully maintained and features many current amenities, including a new roof (2004), a gas fired cast iron stove in the family room addition and finished 12×20 shed in the back yard.  The yard is just under an acre and backs to Liberty Corner’s English Farm.  I will be hosting an open house this weekend, Sunday, February 14th from 12:00-4:00, stop by for a visit, view this wonderful home and we can discuss what’s happening in the local market.

If you are considering a move into or out of Bedminster, Basking Ridge or any of the surrounding areas, please contact me directly – selling homes is what I do best!

The real estate market continues to show improvement as mortgage rates remain at historic lows and consumers respond to the tax credits for first-time and repeat buyers. In fact, the National Association of Realtors (NAR) just announced that its Pending Home Sales Index rose 1 percent from November.

A forward-looking indicator based on contracts signed in December, the index is now 10 percent above December 2008. What’s more, December activity was the fifth highest monthly tally in two years. A sale is listed as pending when the contract has been signed but the transaction has not yet closed. Because sales usually are finalized within one or two months of signing the contract, this improvement should result in higher home sales in the coming months.

According to Lawrence Yun, NAR chief economist, existing home sales are projected to rise to around 5.6 million in 2010, an 8.5 percent increase over 2009. As sales rise and inventory levels decline, housing wealth for many middle class families will stabilize.

There were 8 new listings in town this past week: two condos listed between $209,000 and $259,000; three town houses listed between $333,000 and $540,000 and three luxury properties priced from $3,950,000.  There was only one contract sale and there was one closing.

58 Birchwood Drive – a town house – closed for $250,000 after being listed 52 days; original list price was $259,000.

Market Absorption in Bedminster is currently 7.5 months; there are 75 available properties and there have been 10 contract sales in the last 30 days.  It is still a buyer’s market in Bedminster.  To get started on your home search please visit my website to search homes for sale in Bedminster.

I posted this about six months ago on my Basking Ridge Real Estate Blog.  In the last few days, I’ve had several inquiries that caused me to go back to that post.  So I thought I would copy it over here.

I recently attended a Weichert sales meeting at which a local real estate attorney was a guest speaker.  He was there to help us help our clients navigate through short sales.  He is one of the only attorneys that I know of who has a dedicated staff member to communicate with the banks and keep on top of each transaction as it works its way through the myriad of steps at each bank.

If you are in a position where you think foreclosure is the only way out – please contact me first – I can put you in touch with the right resources to help you make that decision.  A short sale may be right for you instead. 

(According to Wikipedia, a short sale is a sale of real estate in which the sale proceeds fall short of the balance owed on the property’s loan. It often occurs when a borrower cannot pay the mortgage loan on their property, but the lender decides that selling the property at a moderate loss is better than pressing the borrower.)

If a short sale is for you, it is imperative to get the house on the market as soon as possible since the first thing on the following list is an exectued contract of sale!

To move forward with an attorney’s support for a short sale, you will need to have the following documents:

• Copy of fully executed contract.  Don’t worry if the negotiated sale price is lower than the amount of your mortgage.
• Hardship Letter.  This is written by you, detailing the hardship you are facing in keeping up with your mortgage payments
• Copy of the last two years tax returns
• Copy of the last three months pay stubs
• Copy of the lat two months of bank statements
• Written authorization for your attorney to contact the bank and negotiate the short sale
• HUD-1 Statement (the attorney will prepare this)
• Copy of the last two months mortgage statements (for the first and second loan if applicable)
• Copy of the listing agreement
• Complete list of all debts including monthly expenses
• Copy of your 401k and retirement plan(s) statements
• Market analysis prepared by your realtor
• Commission bills provided by your realtor for both the buyer and seller agent
• Back title: includes your deed, the survey and your title insurance policy

The sooner you have all of this information compiled and sent to your attorney, the better. If you want to contact the bank before hiring an attorney you can do that too – the department you want to contact is Loss Mitigation.  I strongly recommend using an attorney with EXPERIENCE in this process – there are lots of phone calls required, things move very slowly and then all of a sudden very quickly.  It is often difficult to stay on top of where things are in the process.  Except for the initial fee, I believe the balance of of the attorney fees as well as the real estate commission will be calculated into the total debt that will be resolved by the short sale.

Information on this post was provided by Rafael J. Betancourt of Triarsi, Betancourt, Walsh & Wukovits, LLC a law firm in Cranford, NJ.

If you are considering a short sale, an estimate of your home’s value in today’s market might help you finalize that decision (you can use this link for a home any area, not just Bedminster).  This information, along with your mortgage history will help you determine the best course of action.

This beautiful town house in Lord Stirling Village was listed today. A Chandler model, it boasts a private patio and a first floor den.  Freshly painted, newer first level laminate flooring and new carpet upstairs – this one is a winner!  Contact me for pricing and appointments.

If you are considering a move into or out of Basking Ridge, don’t miss the Basking Ridge Real Estate website – it  is full of information on recent sales and new listings.

I just spent a few minutes downloading closed sales information for my Bedminster Real Estate website.  It didn’t take very long – there were only TWO sales in Bedminster during the month of January.  Market Absorption in Bedminster is surprisingly high – at the end of last year, it was hovering between 3 and 5 months, during any other economic time period that would have been considered a clear seller’s market!  However, given the nature of today’s economy and recent housing “slump”, even though the inventory numbers were low, buyers still had the advantage.  All month, Bedminster’s market absorption has been climbing – wrapping up at 8 months!  There are currently 72 listings and there were only 9 sales in the last 30 days.  There were 23 new listings this month and I expect that there will be at least that many each month through the end of April.  Hopefully for seller’s buyer activity will pick up – my recommendation if you are planning to buy in Bedminster is to do so NOW.  While there is lots of inventory, and few buyers and while there is still time to qualify for one of the tax credits!

Get ahead of the game, visit my website to learn about homes for sale in Bedminster, NJ: from condos to luxury properties.  I honestly believe that it’s a great time to get a great deal in Bedminster!