Author: Joe Montenigro

By Posted on Posted in Buyers, Listings, Sellers, Snappy answers to stupid questions, Uncategorized No Comments
Dec
20
2010

I guess if I ask a dumb question I get a dumb answer….. like what did you think of the price?  feedback image

South Jersey Home Sellers

Almost every seller wants Feedback from the buyer after showings on their property. What they want is a honest and objective assessment of the property and what they can do to improve the saleability or if anything will entice the buyer to make a reasonable offer.

What we often GET instead of Feedback is a bit of Pre-offer negotiations with the buyer’s agent saying the property is overpriced !  So with the vast majority of responses saying the property is overpriced, I think I could be selling a $1 bill for 50 cents and they’d STILL say it’s overpriced.   So does that really help the buyer in the negotiations, IF they even make an offer?   I don’t think so.

Then if we do get the low offer, the agent explains all the reasons why the buyer doesn’t really like the property. Oh Really??!! Then why on earth are they making an offer ?? Now THAT’s really bad negotiationg !!

By Posted on Posted in Buyers, Listings, Sellers 2 Comments Tagged with , , ,
Oct
18
2010

South Jersey Real Estate

4 open houses over 4 weeks, I know it’s not a scientific study, but I already know the answer to the question of “Do open houses work?” 

Back in the day when I was a newbie, I did about 40 open houses a year and it was a good prospecting tool and to help build my database of potential buyers and even some sellers. Selling the house was Read more »

By Posted on Posted in Sellers No Comments Tagged with ,
Oct
17
2010

Let’s say that you own a home but want to move to a better home.   Most people start the process by looking for the new home first… and then it hits them…. how am i going to pay for this thing?!    For the sake of brevity, let’s say you don’t want to rent your current home and that you have some cash/savings for a down payment but not enough to buy the new house outright with no mortgage.   small house

So, if you want to buy the new home FIRST, you must qualify for the new mortgage while you still have a mortgage on your current home… that’s tough for most people.   Also, you run the risk of making two mortgage payments while waiting for your old house to sell… that can be a little scary because the potential for loss is almost unlimited.   The advantage of buying first is that you know exactly where your moving to, when your moving, the cost of the new house and best of all, you can move right away.  Read more »

By Posted on Posted in Buyers, Listings No Comments
Jun
14
2010

South Jersey Lease Purchase Homes  cartoon house

It seems to me that people get caught up in looking for a lease purchase because they think that it’s somehow better than renting…. in most cases, and this is just my opinion,  it’s NOT.    Maybe it makes them “feel” better than renting?

  1. Myth Buster 1…..The truth is that if you don’t clean up your credit so you can get a mortgage your wonderful Lease Purchase ends up being aregular old rental and if you don’t pay the rent, you get regular old evicted.
  2. Myth Buster 2….. your rent CAN NOT get applied 100% to the purchase price because the lender that you use to get a mortgage to buy the house is only going to let the seller credit you amounts that you pay over and above the fair market rent for the property, as determined by their appraiser at the time of the purchase.
  3. Myth Buster 3…..it makes more common sense to find an affordable rental in a good location with a Landlord who wants to RENT long term(and not pressure you to buy) and then you can take your time to fix your mortgage qualifying problem(s).   THEN once you can get a mortgage there are LOTS of houses to choose from and you won’t be limited to only lease purchase homes.

The other problem I see in the market today is sellers who can’t sell thier property, decide to rent or lease purchase without knowing all the responsibilities of being a landlord.    It’s not easy being a landlord and most home sellers don’t know what they don’t know….this creates all kinds of tenant headaches and potential disputes…. maybe I’ll cover that in the next blog article 🙂     In the mean time, see below my current list of affordable rental homes in South Jersey that might be a good alternative to a lease purchase.

[idx-listings linkid=”87015″ count=”10″ showlargerphotos=”true”]

By Posted on Posted in Buyers No Comments Tagged with , ,
Dec
23
2009

This is real estate 101… for the first buyer’s in the crowd!

Before I get started, let me first say how important first time buyers are to the south jersey real estate market and to ANY real estate market for that matter.   With out first time buyers, move up home sellers can’t move up.   It’s estimated that every time a first time home buyer purchases a home, there are FIVE subsequent transactions.   Bottom line… that FIRST home transaction sets off a chain reaction of home sales and economic activity…. well, it’s a beautiful thing  🙂  mymoney1 Read more »