Ahh! A new month has begun. HAPPY SEPTEMBER! How was your August? If a picture is worth a 1000 words then take a look at this picture.

At the top is number of pending sales, SOLDS, Days on Market, and the Median Sales Price of Homes that SOLD in August 2009. One of the worst years in real estate when you look back over ten years of data.

Now fast forward to the numbers at the bottom of the picture. That is the close of last month. That is the big picture for me. Less than half the number of sales for the same number of agents.Pendings show the futures promise. What does the future hold for house sales in zip code 08087? About 1/3 less than it did just a year ago. Days on Market and Median Sales Price? Well, you see the picture.

A few agents have been wondering if they should stay (in the business) or go. And, that reminds me of an old question I heard a long time ago; "How Long can you tread water?"

Richard makes many good points to homeowners about the current market. Don't Chase IT! Price your house less than the one that sold down the street and you will have buyers making you multiple offers. Price sells and the home better be in move in condition. Ask yourself this, "Would I buy this house?" If the answer is not YES - lower the price and fix it up.

Phillip - wrote an excellent article about having your home ready to sell. That means the home has got to be ready to move in and priced for the bargain hunters to come out with their wallets just to take a look. The offer will come only if the buyer feels that your home is the best available property in his price range. If a real estate agent gives you a high and low number to begin your marketing - pick the low and and offer to take another 10 off. Just change Weschester to Little Egg Harbor and Tuckerton, NJ. This article was written for you.

If your home is at the Jersey Shore, Call me if you are serious about getting the home SOLD!

The tricks some agents play on homeowners. There is not a house on this earth that should require a "bonus" to the selling agent. Either the house is priced right or it is not. If it is not priced right then no bonus is going to make it sell.

Believe it or not, most real estate agents have an inner moral compass. Some call it Ethics. We are not out to put the screws to the buyer. We are not here to steal the home from the seller.

We try to get the best house at the best price for the buyer and the most money the house is worth to the seller - depending on whom we are working for at the time. Ask about buyer and seller agency agreements.

Paul Slaybaugh tells it best in easy to understand language. Please read & comment.

O.K., I'm not a kid. But, I was once and I lived in the same town where I live today. From grade 7 through High School Graduation I was able to enjoy growing up on the Jersey Shore. Summers were great! Winters were like being in a ghost town without a ride out. To me it was Purgatory living in Mystic Island section of Little Egg Harbor and I promised myself that I would never have my children stuck in a town that did not offer them things to do - all year long.

So when I moved back here and started a family I made sure we lived in a section of town where there was life 12 months of the year. I enrolled my son in Karate, Soccer, Baseball, and had him enrolled in piano instruction. The school system had a music department and various after school activities that made being a parent a lot of work. We drove from school to school doing one program after another. I know he was busy because I was busy taking him there.

So, I was a little upset to find the council giving in to the citizens of the five Adult Communities to cut the school budget and provide less services to the youth. Alright I was mad and I am still mad that there was a budget cut to the only budget the entire community is even allowed to vote on. I addressed my concerns to the council and wrote a blog on my reasons why the school budget should be left intact. It is now time to re-visit those reasons.                                    

It is summer time. When I was a kid this community center was hopping. Kids met here and played various arcade games and table tennis. There were bands playing music with dances on Friday night that had everyone looking forward to the big night. As you can see by the picture I took in the middle of the day - its closed. When it is open, it is most likely to hold a senior citizen event that can be held at their own club house because the size of the event. Check out the township web site on the happenings. So what are kids to do?

Well, there is always hanging out on the street corner or in front of the local shops for something to do. And, before you start in about summer activities of swimming, fishing, boating in a resort community; I agree with you that those are great things for the youth to be doing, but every day? Besides you must own a boat and have gas money to be out and about on a wave runner. The area beach where I was allowed to swim when I was a kid is closed for that purpose. It is only for enjoying the view and fishing. Heck, there was once a community swimming pool where the kids could meet and relax with friends. Today there is no pool and the kids in the photos may not be that luck to have one in their backyards.

Children, like adults (senior citizens) need a place where they can meet and socialize. There is more to life and making friends than what FaceBook has to offer. So, here is what I suggest to the town council. Lease me the community center for a dollar per month for two years with a use and occupancy certificate and I will give a 40/60 cut on any profits I turn out back to the township. Just give me the keys and a little bit of wiggle room to actually provide the kids in town something to do and a place to feel safe.

Why are parents Teaching their children all the wrong lessons in Life?

Alright, this is a rant. A vent, if you will. I just got back from my favorite pizza parlor with a take-out pizza. I love this place. It offers good food at reasonable prices and best of all it is near my house. I could walk there if I didn't want to carry a pizza home on foot. The owner of the place employs several local youth and always supports the community with donations to this or that event.

If the kids at school are putting on a play, he is paying for a full page advertisement. If the football team comes by for a booster, he is putting money in the coffer. The owner of this restaurant buys advertising space on anything the kids sell. He is truly a nice human being. And, he makes a good pizza.

But, as I pull up and the first thing I see is a couple of young kids maybe about 8 or 9 years of age with a donation can in hand. Leaning against the window is a guy about 35 or 40 years old that I presume to be the parent. As I walk up I notice the kids are wearing a uniform of sorts that promotes another local business that teaches young children to dance. Parents enroll their kids in just about any activity that will keep them off the street. There is a karate studio, a cheerleading club, a dance studio, baseball, Pop Warner football, soccer, etc. Some are non-profit, some are business owned and operated. I don't care. The kids that join have parents that pay or other businesses that support by donation for uniforms that carry the business name or tax dollars that purchased and maintains the grounds where the event is held.

I would be glad to help support a girl scout and buy a box of cookies that I don't want or have my clean car washed and scratched by the local kids looking to earn money for a trip, buy baked goods that end up at my work counter from kids wanting to buy new equipment. I even buy during "bake-less" sales at church to help the women's group help others within the church. I buy tickets to spaghetti dinners that I can't attend to help someone that is sick and need money for an operation. I give to the fire department guys that stand out in the middle of the street on Memorial Day and buy poppies from our veterans whenever and wherever they set up a table.

I will wear a pair of gloves and walk up the street picking up trash to help my community. But, I will not put one dime in a donation can being held by some cute kid while her Dad stands there leaning against the building. Why is he not showing those kids how to wash a car, or, bake cookies that cost twenty five cents to make and will sell for a dollar? Why is he teaching that child to beg?

The Tuckerton Seaport hosts the 8^th Annual RED Wine and Blues Festival this weekend. You know it has got to be good when they make it an annual event and each year gets better than the last. If this economy has got you singing the blues you will have a lot of company at the Tuckerton Seaport this Saturday July 15, 2010. It starts around 3PM and ends about 8PM. Wander in when you are ready.

Enjoy wine tasting from New Jersey wineries like Amalthea, Balic, Bellview, Hopewell Valley, Silver Decoy, Tomasello, and Valenzano while hearing the great licks performed by James Day & the Fish Fry, The Incenerators,  Heart Fulla Bluz, and The Cobra Brothers. There will be plenty of Vendors and Crafters with a whole lot to eat.

It's a family event with an appearance by the Blue Claws mascot and other familiar Jersey Shore friends ready to pose for that perfect Christmas Card picture. Check out the Tucker Island Light House Replica and the reconstructed Jersey Shore Shanties.  There are also demonstrations by boat builders, basket weavers and other folks from yesteryear and the cars that made it special.  You can expect about 2000 other friendly music lovers, so bring your beach chair. Come early and make a day of it. Shop at the Emporium and have lunch with Elvis at Stewart's Drive In or dine at Scojo's.

The Tuckerton Seaport Enterance is right across from the lake on Route 9 and is hard to miss once you get off Exit 58 on the Garden State Parkway. Cost is $20 for non members and $15 for members. Children under 5 are free and those aged 6 to 18 get the discount price of $5 (no wine tasting for minors).

Where to stay? There is the campers' favorite Sea Pirate Campgrounds or the more luxurious stay there is the Inn at SeaOaks and JD Thompson Bed & Breakfast. Or, you can contact me to buy a home at the Jersey Shore. Summer weekly waterfront rentals are available, too.

I would love to hear from those of you that attended and willing to share your comments and experiences.

What computer choices have you made?

Do you use the operating system that came with your computer? Mac, Windows (give me the version e.g. vista, XP, etc.) to Linux? Did you even know about Linux? It too has various versions and can be loaded from your hard drive or CD drive.

How about the internet web browsers? Which one do you use? The new Chrome from google, or, the one that came with the computer; like Safari and Windows?  How about Firefox or one of the other lesser known web browsers?

Do you have a free email account? Do you use AOL, Yahoo!, google, or, MSN hotmail? Maybe you use the one that came from your internet provider like the television cable company or the telephone company, or, is the Optonline, Netscape, or Earthlink you choose for email.

Are you using the free Open Office, Google Doc or did you pay for and use the MS Office Suite? I know there are other choices but I'm overwhelmed with the ones I've mentioned here.

Can you tell us about the one you use and why?

Should I have used Zoomerang to ask all these questions?

Help a poor real estate agent out and help speed up his old computer, please.

What computer choices have you made?

I ask you, did I have Property Tax Appeal - Victory or Defeat? I just got my "adjusted" tax assessment from the Ocean County Board of Taxation and I am not sure how I feel about it. I had written a blog about doing your own tax appeal titled, "How to Reduce your Little Egg Harbor, Ocean County, NJ Property Taxes", and it has not been as easy for me as I may have indicated in the blog posting.  The local tax administrator from Little Egg Harbor fought me all the way. Back several years ago when they hired the outside company to re-assess the property values in Little Egg Harbor they slammed me with a $308,700 assessment.

They allowed the public to then protest the amount by making an appointment to show the assessor your comps. I did that and presented them with over a dozen homes in newer and better condition than mine with an average price of $280,000 at the height of the market. But, when we went over the difference I was told to appeal at the Ocean County Board because they were within the margin of error and the prices of homes are going up. So, for three years I have been paying taxes on a house that was over assessed to begin with but fell within the acceptable range of a ten percent error ratio while the market fell and the township hired friends of politicians, bought new motorcycles and vehicles, built a new town hall and gave the council members big raises.

I present the township and the county my five comparables back in February for the previous year, October to October, showing the value of my home to be at $223,000 for fair market value. In return the tax administrator's office sends me a "compromise" letter of adjustment to reflect a market value of $284,200 for tax purposes. When I got that letter I ran down to the tax office and wanted to meet with the tax administrator to find out where he came up with that number. What were his comparables? But, no such meeting was allowed.

A week later I am sent a new letter with four homes the administrator may or may not use to justify his assessment of my home. All of the homes sit on bigger lots and offer much more in square foot of living space. I am all set. There is no way my house can be compared to these homes and I wait for the court date. I can't wait to show the panel of Ocean County Board of Taxation just how ridicules the numbers used to determine my assessment.  And, when my day arrives, guess what? I am not allowed to say anything about his comparables because he never submitted them to the court.

I can't use short sales or other distressed properties for my defense. But, almost all sales during this period have been in one form of distress or another. Out of the five comps one is declared to be irrelevant because it is listed "as is" on the Multiple Listing Sevice. It is the worst house I picked out but was close to the square footage of my home. The other homes were newer, in better condition, and had features like a basement or master bedroom suite with walk-in closet and private bathrooms that mine does not have. Yet, the tax administrator claimed personal knowledge of the sales and claimed them as being distressed or not an arm length sale. He even stated that a listing of a home that sold within five percent of the asking price was a discount to a family member that purchased the home cheap through another real estate company. Imagine selling your house at a "discount" to a family member for five percent less than your asking price and paying a real estate commission to the two separate companies and two different agents?

That is what I was up against with the tax administrator of Little Egg Harbor. He never used his comparables to justify the town assessment; he only tore into my comparables that by the MLS data sheets were not distressed sales.  He even went as far as to state the homes were under priced and that is why they sold in less than the average 120 days on the market.

If I had known he would attack the days on the market as being priced too low, I would have printed out all the days on the market when the homes were over priced and listed with the first and second real estate agencies. If I had known he was not required to present his comparables, I would not have wasted all my time and energy focused on the differences between the luxury homes he listed and that of my own home. If I had known I would not get to meet the deciding panel from the Ocean County Board of Taxation and that he would be able to take part in the process further after I was dismissed, then I would have used an attorney and hired an appraiser to fight for me. But, I will be back, next year.

So, I won more than he offered to give - but, much less than what the real market value of my home should be assessed for taxes. If you have had similar experiences with your local tax administrator, or, know how I should have proceeded in persuading the Ocean County Board of Taxation to adjust my assessment to the correct amount, I would love to hear from you. Please comment.

A few weeks back I wrote about a single woman attempting to buy a house that did not fit her budget in my blog, Is it Mortgage Fraud?. She had been out with an agent in my office and was found by the mortgage representative NOT to be loan worthy. Seems her debt to income ratio was off and the credit report had some damaging information about her bill paying habits.

She was given advice on how to correct her credit score by the mortgage representative and the agent found her a home to rent while she began the repair process. The agent also started feeding the buyers boyfriend with landscaping jobs cutting grass at vacant homes that she had listed for sale. But, when the lady wanted to look at homes again the agent had the mortgage representative check to see if she could in fact buy a home, or, was just being set up for disappointment. You know, it's happened to all of us where we have shown homes that we believe to be in the correct price range of the buyer's purchasing power only to find out that the home they love is not only out of their range, it is not even in their ball park.

The word back from the mortgage representative was clear - she is not ready to buy a home since she has added debt to portfolio by co-signing for a truck that her boyfriend uses in his "new" landscaping business.  So, the agent called her client back with the bad news. But, this buyer was determined to buy a house and start living her American Dream. The buyer called another agent and found herself another mortgage representative. Thus, a contract to buy my listing with a pre-approval letter from a reputable mortgage company found its way to my desk.

We negotiated a deal. She wanted the house cheap and she wanted the seller to pay her closing costs. We offered to pay closing costs if she built them into the agreed upon price.  Never mind, she suddenly had the money to close if we sold at the cheaper price. How does that happen? Well, the explanation was the buyer is strapped for cash and wanted her money for other expenses.  So, we move forward. She has a home inspection, an appraisal and survey is done along with the title work. So, I change the status to "under contract" and insert the sign rider. The young lady even asks the owner to sell some of the furnishings to her. Life is Good!  And, then the stuff hit the fan.

Suddenly, the mortgage was on hold while the new mortgage representative tried to "work it out" on the debt to income ratio. Her old agent in my office picks the fax up off of the machine and sees the name on the document and fills me in. I called my point of contact at the company and he spoke with the owner of the mortgage company who called in the representative to discuss this little problem. All my calls to the other agent go unanswered as I try to see if she can get a gift from her parents or if she can put the boyfriend on the loan, etc.

But, then we are doing the walk thru inspection and sitting at the closing table of buyer's attorney along with the seller's attorney and a closing clerk from the mortgage company. What happened? How did we get here?  I am left to wonder except there on the HUD-1 is the answer. Not only was the girl able to pay her own closing costs but she put up over twenty grand that no one knew she had. I am not sure if this buyer knew anything about leveraging debt but, I am happy to say "Life is Good".