Ten Pieces of Information Every Hoboken Buyer Should Know
10) First Time Home Buyer Credit: In order to make the April 30th deadline, you must be out of attorney review by the deadline. Realistically it means your offer must be in by April 15th. Attorneys will be swamped the last two weeks. If you want to get it done, build in the buffer. Need to understand the tax credit ? See The Homebuyer Tax Credit Chart
9) The Mortgage Market: What are the interest rates, given your credit score? Are there lenders that are more likely to lend to you? What are the potential pitfalls you should anticipate? A real multi-part answer. This is an encompassing piece that gets to the heart of the matter. Local lenders know their markets better. Connect with a local Hoboken Lender.
8) List vs. Sale Ratio
What's the average discount rate? 2%, 3%, 4% ,10%? It's a moving target based on segment and market conditions. Buyers must know what is reasonable negotiation position.
7) The Last Three Months Of Sold Hoboken Condo Comparables.
Sold comps will run 45 to 60 days behind the market. While they will not give you a real time understanding of today's market they are the only real data points that a buyer has. It's like trying to predict a stock price based on yesterday's information. However, coupled with market direction, sold comps give a buyer a way to understand what the true price range should be.
6) Under Contract Hoboken Condo Comparables
Under Contract comparables bring you closest to the target on figuring out the market. What are other people buying right now. More importantly, what are the asking prices and types of properties in demand. Uptown Hoboken, close to the PATH, parking, elevator, outdoor space? How does this help the buyer? Studying under contract comparables call help buyers identify the hot segments and find the bargains, which properties are likely to have many lookers and which are the wall flowers. Fifth floor walk ups on Sixth and Monroe priced at $350/sqft may be in more demand than an elevator building on First and Garden priced at $500/sqft. Find the value and find the properties that sell.
In The Science Of Hitting, Hall Of Famer Ted Williams describes breaking down his hitting area into seventy seven different zones. In days before the internet, prolific video, and stats guys Ted Williams realized that there were sweet spots and clearly identified them. If Ted were a home buyer today he would have his spreadsheet breaking down every home attribute figuring out the most sought after and most value priced opportunities on the market.
5) New To The Market Properties
After a few weeks of earnest searching most buyers have exhausted their pool of homes with desirable attributes. They need fresh meat. New to market properties give the buyers what they want. Most agents provide this but without the context of the other nine points, it's somewhat meaningless.
4) Inventory Levels
Inventory levels is another way to ask How's The Market? Lower inventory means higher prices. Higher inventory means lower prices. Buyers have a herd mentality. When the media pundit s says "It's a buyer,s market.", here comes the herd and inventory levels get bumped out whack. The axiom holds that a six month supply is a balanced market. Less than a six month supply and sellers have the advantage, more than a six month supply and buyers have the advantage. For example, Miami Beach condos priced at over a million dollars are sitting a four year supply.....Advantage Buyer. In Hoboken the supply has been holding steady between six and twelve months.
3) Market Trends
Trends are longer term views of what is happening. Trends are great for seeing if prices going up or down over time. Trends can be used to see if homes are taking longer to sell. It is big picture stuff.
2) Segment Breakdowns
The fact of the matter is that all of the trends, charts and statistics mean anything except within the segment that the buyer is looking to purchase. If all real estate markets are local, then local real estate markets are really mini-markets. Hoboken's one bedroom market has a whole different dynamic than the three bedroom market. Buyer's in these mini markets have different wants, needs, and motivations. A one bedroom buyer trying to capture the first time home buyer tax credit will move more quickly than a three bedroom buyer where the credit makes less of an impact on the purchase price. Everything is different. Days on the market, inventory levels, list to sale ratios, etc.
1) Analysis
Professionals with experience and the ability to capture and interpret data provide the most value. Typically when someone makes a large purchase like a flat screen tv, they will read reviews, study product features, compare prices of several televisions and then settle on the one or two that are the best fit. Then they will scour the internet for the best deal. I think it took me two months. In real estate, the information is not as easy to come by. Currently I provide buyers with four types of information. 1) Listings 2) The Hoboken Real Estate Report which has segment analysis and comparables 3) The Hoboken Market Snap Shot which has property level detail on user defined segments and 4) A Hoboken Market Report which provides trending information. A combination of these reports will arm any buyer with enough local targeted information to make educated real estate decisions in Hoboken.
Ten Pieces of Information Every Hoboken Buyer Should Know
In The Science Of Hitting, Hall Of Famer Ted Williams describes breaking down his hitting area into seventy seven different zones. In days before the internet, prolific video, and stats guys Ted Williams realized that there were sweet spots and clearly identified them. If Ted were a home buyer today he would have his spreadsheet breaking down every home attribute figuring out the most sought after and most value priced opportunities on the market.
5) New To The Market Properties
After a few weeks of earnest searching most buyers have exhausted their pool of homes with desirable attributes. They need fresh meat. New to market properties give the buyers what they want. Most agents provide this but without the context of the other nine points, it's somewhat meaningless.
4) Inventory Levels
Inventory levels is another way to ask How's The Market? Lower inventory means higher prices. Higher inventory means lower prices. Buyers have a herd mentality. When the media pundit s says "It's a buyer,s market.", here comes the herd and inventory levels get bumped out whack. The axiom holds that a six month supply is a balanced market. Less than a six month supply and sellers have the advantage, more than a six month supply and buyers have the advantage. For example, Miami Beach condos priced at over a million dollars are sitting a four year supply.....Advantage Buyer. In Hoboken the supply has been holding steady between six and twelve months.
3) Market Trends
Trends are longer term views of what is happening. Trends are great for seeing if prices going up or down over time. Trends can be used to see if homes are taking longer to sell. It is big picture stuff.
2) Segment Breakdowns
The fact of the matter is that all of the trends, charts and statistics mean anything except within the segment that the buyer is looking to purchase. If all real estate markets are local, then local real estate markets are really mini-markets. Hoboken's one bedroom market has a whole different dynamic than the three bedroom market. Buyer's in these mini markets have different wants, needs, and motivations. A one bedroom buyer trying to capture the first time home buyer tax credit will move more quickly than a three bedroom buyer where the credit makes less of an impact on the purchase price. Everything is different. Days on the market, inventory levels, list to sale ratios, etc.
1) Analysis
Professionals with experience and the ability to capture and interpret data provide the most value. Typically when someone makes a large purchase like a flat screen tv, they will read reviews, study product features, compare prices of several televisions and then settle on the one or two that are the best fit. Then they will scour the internet for the best deal. I think it took me two months. In real estate, the information is not as easy to come by. Currently I provide buyers with four types of information. 1) Listings 2) The Hoboken Real Estate Report which has segment analysis and comparables 3) The Hoboken Market Snap Shot which has property level detail on user defined segments and 4) A Hoboken Market Report which provides trending information. A combination of these reports will arm any buyer with enough local targeted information to make educated real estate decisions in Hoboken.
Ten Pieces of Information Every Hoboken Buyer Should Know 
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