Author Archive

Family Friendly, Neighborhood Block Parties are alive and well in Maplewood and South Orange, NJ!!!

The more homes in New Jersey that I have shown you, the more you have heard me say: “I like my house, but I LOVE my street.”

I say it partly to emphasize the idea that no house is perfect and as potential home buyers we all have to make some compromises. And, partly because it is absolutely the truth.

I do love my “street”. When my family moved here, we had no idea that we landed among some of the best neighbors anywhere. And, our Annual Block Party in Maplewood, NJ is the day we come together to celebrate our luck of geography!

IMHO, this is undoubtedly the most family friendly place to live.

When the weather starts to get warm, we begin to think about “readying up” for some good old fashion family fun. Hula hoops come out for practice. Adults and kids start sizing each other up for “good” egg toss partners (must be unrelated/married pairs). And suddenly everyone is fighting over one dining room chair (only slightly kidding).

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New Jersey’s “Midtown Direct” area home buyers are now back in the game.

For home buyers in New Jersey’s Midtown Direct towns (Maplewood, South Orange, Millburn, Short Hills, Summit, Chatham, Madison, Livingston, West Orange) the time has come.

Interest rates  continue to be at records lows. First time home buyers, I get it, you were in high school when rates were in the double digits, trust me they REALLY were that high!!! 5% is a GREAT place to be.

Today, in this market, at these prices, great homes (the ones you all want) are selling like hotcakes! In the fall we were seeing buyers  sit on the sidelines and wait for the market to “maybe” go even lower, and now the shift the past few weeks is that buyers are realizing that homes are selling instantly when they are priced right. Read the rest of this entry »

Paperless Paperwork for New Jersey Real Estate Transactions

Go GREEN, Go paperless!

Things have been hopping around here in New Jersey, lots of contracts being written. And, with every Real Estate transaction there is a lot of paperwork but, I’m learning, that doesn’t have to mean a lot of PAPER!

As part of our “GREEN-ing”, we have tried to implement paperless transactions where ever possible. Emailing, Faxing and Online listing databases and transaction management calendars, as well as shared online files have certainly paved the way to reducing the amount of paper used. Before the online MLS, each agent had an MLS book, full of all of the active listing for a given area (currently there are 457 homes available in: Maplewood, South Orange, Summit and Millburn alone). What a waste of paper!

When I schedule Buyer Appointments, I print out as few (if any) copies of the MLS listing sheets as possible. Instead, my clients and I review online listing and narrow down our home selections online. And, I have noticed that my clients no longer want to take every piece of paper that the Listing Agents leave out. Savvy buyer’s think: “I can pull up everything on my phone…why carry around a bunch of papers and kill more trees.” Love That! Read the rest of this entry »

Bicycle, Bicycle…I want to ride my Bicycle. Ode to Freddie Mercury.

Week 3 of my “Greener Evolution”.

I was stopped at a light at the corner of Morris Tpke. and Millburn Ave. when four teenage girls, say 14 or 15 years old, nearly gave the “MOM”in me a heart attack. Two of the girls dangerously ignored the cross signal and road their bikes across the busy street narrowly avoiding oncoming traffic. The other two waited until it was slightly safer to ride across, but if any of their mothers had been there..OY!

In our area the number of residents who are thinking along the same lines seems to be hitting a critical mass. On July 21st a vote on this issue is scheduled at the Millburn Township Committee Meeting. If passed, it will provide bike lanes and safer bike travel around a portion of South Mountain Reservation from Brookside Drive to Ridgewood Road. The project is supposed to include striping along Glen Avenue, road markers with the bicycle symbol, and kiosks with information about the path and signs. In addition to running along Glen Avenue, the path would link to downtown Millburn on Lackawanna Place. Now this is something everyone (especially all of us Greenies) would love to see happen! Read the rest of this entry »

Going Greener, a year long quest. (Look out Ed Begley Jr.)

This week I completed the first portion of my GREEN Designation Course for REALTORS. And it has made me think. Where do I fall on the “Greenie” spectrum, and can I do more. I think I am like most other people,  I am neither a “True Believer” nor a “Skeptic”, nor am I eco-chic (unless I find something cool and GREEN at TJ Maxx). I am somewhere in the middle – a “lifestyle” environmentalist.

As a person, I think green in good. As a home owner, I think an energy efficienct home is good. As a mom, I think Sustainability is good. And, I thought I was contributing a decent amount to the green movement. I recycle a lot, I use reusable shopping bags religiously, I only give my children Organic Milk and I shop locally and organically whenever possible.

But, I don’t or didn’t ever stop to really look around my home and examine how green it is.

After two intense days under Mimi Weisinger’s “tutelage” my eyes are open (wider) and I want to do better. Following in the footsteps of the start of the green movement in commerical real estate. I am focusing on the bottom line and over the next 52 weeks vow to make my home more energy efficient and more GREEN.

I live in a 1920’s colonial in Maplewood NJ. So it’s not like I can start from scratch, say by finding a brownfield, remediating the contamination and building a LEED home. No, my steps will have to be more home specific to my existing home and more calculated to fit within our budget. Read the rest of this entry »