Archive for the ‘Information for Buyers’ Category

It’s that time of the week to feature yet another great condo / townhouse community in Bridgewater, NJ. This will be the last condo community to be featured that is onVanderveer Road. Vanderveer Road is right of Route 28 and The Bridle Club, Beacon Hill, and Vanderhaven Farms are all along the road. Every community has it’s own style so I’m sure you can find something you like. Vanderhaven Farms is tucked into the back of Vanderveer and Milltown Road which creates a higher level of privacy for those who live there. Without further delay lets get right to it:

Well after many weeks of debate and speculation the tax credit for homebuyers has been extended to April 30th, 2010. This means you need to be under contract by that time in order to take advantage of the program. This is basic stuff that has been part of every conversation about first time home buyers this year. The new part of the program that is getting everyone talking is the $6500 credit for trading up and buying a new property.

No one can put it better than the New York Times:

“If you’re an existing homeowner, you qualify for the new tax credit of up to $6,500 if you have lived in your current residence for five years or more out of the previous eight years and purchase a home or sign a sales contract for one from Nov. 7 to the end of April of next year.”

Pretty simple rules and many people fall into this group. This allows for a whole new group of buyers and sellers to enter the market. Many of you who live in a condo are looking to expand your space due to many of lifes changes. This tax credit program is a perfect way to make that happen. The time for speculation has ended and we’re not that far away from the deadline of April 30th. Get the ball moving now and see if this program can work for you. Please read the full New York Times article to gain further insight on the situation.

http://ow.ly/ASCZ

Well I just pulled down all the newly sold October properties from the Multiple Listing Service and the answer is…. TREAT! Yes indeed, October was a good month for people looking to sell in Bridgewater. Not only did newly listed properties sell, some things that have been on the market forever found some buyers. This is a great sign. Take a look at the list and you will see that everything sold to pretty close to the asking price and some others around 5% less.

Take a look at the link below to look at each condo community:

http://www.bridgewater-condos.com/bridgewater-condos-sold.htm

Glenbrooke seems to have a lot of activity in both properties with high and low days on market. Also Glenbrooke had a properties sold on all ends of the price spectrum. There were properties ranging from $150,000 to $440,000. If I were someone looking to list and sell my place these numbers and prices are whats moving. People are attracted to value and a lot of these deals in Bridgewater are just that. If you have someone who knows the market and helps you come up with the right price to list then you will accomplish your goals.

To you buyers out there. With both the deals present in the market and extremely low mortgage rates what are you waiting for?

Let me know what your goals are and we’ll make a plan to get there.

I’ve posted before about condo fees and the benefits of living in a condo community. I hear from some people that they “heard” that every year the communities raise the monthly fees and theres nothing that can be done about it. Well I can say first hand this is certainly not the case. I serve as Secretary on the Bridle Club condo board in Bridgewater. I’ve been in my position for roughly 2 years and I get to see what goes into making these decisions. We just passed our 2010 budget last Weds and we didn’t raise the rates one penny. You know why? We spend a lot of time looking through the budget to make sure every dollar is where it should be. This attention to detail from both the condo management firm and the condo board hopefully allow rates to stay the same. They were raised by 5 dollars a month the first year I was on board but it had not moved before that for years. We still pride ourselves with having some of the best amenities with some of the lowest rates.

Whats the point anyway? As your Realtor to check into these things. If a condo community is constantly every year raising rates, thats a RED  flag. Do your homework and if you do it will pay off big time.  I can help you with this homework because of my background on such boards. Give me a call and lets get you moving.

As you can see from the title of this blog post, I’m a bit angry that this program didn’t exist when I bought my condo 2 years ago. With that being said, if you’re looking to buy your first place this is a pretty sweet deal. Not only can you write off the mortgage interest you pay for the first 3 years but you also get this $8,000 tax credit on top of that? Looks like someone’s going to get the tile they wanted for the kitchen.

Seriously though, this program is over very soon but by all accounts it looks like it will be extended. I even included a link from businessweek that points out why. Check it out. Read all you can about the tax benefits of home ownership and it will make your decision much easier.

http://www.businessweek.com/blogs/money_politics/archives/2009/10/expanded_home_b.html

Lets get this out of the way first, I don’t have kids but when I bought my place I made sure I looked into the school system. The bottom line when you selling your place down the road, you want to attract as many buyers as possible. Having a town with a great reputation is extremely important in reaching that goal. With there being so many towns to choose from in NJ there has to be a few thing that set town apart from each other. In many cases this the school system. Rest assured the schools in Bridgewater is top notch. They’ve won many awards and a lot of the graduates go to top schools.

With this being said, do your homework. I’ve attached the link below so you can read all about the schools and draw your own conclusions. Ask around, and I’m sure you’ll hear good things about the system and in turn about the town in general. Enjoy the reading and after your done give me a call and I can get you moving on either buying a new condo or selling your current condo.

http://www.brrsd.k12.nj.us/

If you thought anything like me while looking for your first place you would be too scared to even look. How can I afford this? I rather just rent! Maybe I’ll try in a couple years? These were all the ideas that came to mind when I thought about buying my first place. I wanted to touch upon one major benefit of home-ownership this evening. TAX BENEFITS!!!!

For the first three years of ownership you can write off the mortgage interest. As you know, during the first years of your mortgage it’s mostly all interest and very little principal. This means, when you visit your accountant you can expect a healthy tax return. It more than makes up for the short term gain you may get from renting.

I live in a condo in wonderful Bridgewater and I can tell you from experience that I get back around 300-400 back a month at the end of the year. That’s just from the mortgage interest! Needless to say it really helps you understand that owning a home is not out of reach. Your accountant or even your mortgage broker can really go into this much more in depth but I hope you get the idea.

Thats all from now make sure you think about what I wrote and let me know if you have any questions!

I know when you’re looking for a place to live you need to understand if there a bunch of great things going on around town. I have to say that Bridgewater does fit the bill because of it’s centrally located position. You go up the road and you’re in New Brunswick. Excellent restaurants, nightlife, and the vibe of a college town. Even closer down the street and you’ll be in Somerville. It’s one of the up and coming scenes in NJ. Somerville has a huge main street with a ton of great restaurants.

Take a drive of Route 206 for 25 min and you’ll hit the famous social scene of Princeton. Keep going on 206 and Philly will be in reach within a 1/2 hour. Hop on 78 East and you’re in New York City in about 40 min.

Did I mention the Wegman’s that Bridgewater has? For the people who’ve been there I don’t need to say a thing. For those who have not, then having it as your neighborhood supermarket will change your life.

The point is, there are a million things to do in town and close to your condo or townhouse

Have a great day!

From time to time its great to go back to the beginning to understand where we are today. It was only 2 years ago when I was a first-time home buyer. I thought when I graduated college that I would never have enough money to land a new place. I was invited to a first-time home buyer program locally and I received a great piece of information.

You can’t time the market, you have to be in it to win it. Now this sounds like a age old cliche but if you think about it, it makes a ton of sense. Say you have a place you love and its $300,000. You say to yourself I need a 20% down payment, closing costs, and various other fees. The next thing you say to yourself is I NEED 60 THOUSAND DOLLARS!? Thats how I felt for a very long time until I looked into it further. You don’t always need a 20% down payment AND your interest rate on your mortgage is equally as important.

So say at the time you looked at that place the mortgage rates were 6%. You save all the money you need and then look at the place again, now the mortgage rates are 7.5%! The monthly payment you were trying to get down just went back up to what it was the first time you looked. While you try to time the market it do any number of things and cause you many headaches.

If in the beginning I would have dug deeper I would have seen this very same mistake and I lost about 2 years playing the waiting game.  I found my dream starter condo in Bridgewater and I haven’t looked back. The amount I pay every month is what I would be paying for a similar apartment in New Jersey.

I’m not saying everyone is able to buy a new place the first time they look but knowing ALL your options will help you set a plan. I love being a homeowner and I still feel over 2 years later that it was one of the best decisions of my life. I hope to help you with that same decision.

How can taxes in New Jersey be a beautiful thing you ask? I’ll tell you why in one word…. RATEABLES! What are rateables you ask? It basically breaks down to the companies and businesses present in a given town. If  you’re a mega sized corporation and you have your headquarters in a given town then you are taxed a high level. The corporation pays a large sum in property taxes but a corporation doesn’t have use for many of the towns services. Sure they may need police and fire service from time to time but a corporation doesn’t go to school.

The high level of taxes and low need of town services make for lower taxes for the rest of the towns residents. In Bridgewater for example, there are countless pharmaceutical corporations who call Bridgewater home. This allows and creates a high number of rateables. This also allows for lower taxes for me and every other resident in town.

If you don’t believe me look at any property listing for Bridgewater and then look at a similar place in Raritan. You will see a noticeable difference in the yearly taxes thus making the property a little harder to manage.

For all you sellers, this is a major point that needs to come across to potential buyers.

With this being said, look at some properties on my website and we can go over everything I just wrote about in greater detail.