"BEACH NOTES "Buyer/Owner Edition" Online Newsletter - Ocean City, New Jersey   I started mailing out my "BEACH NOTES" newsletters on a monthly basis back in 1996 when I didn't even have a computer.  Later I did an online newsletter where I had to send out about 25 email addresses per email so as not to appear to be a spamming exercise.  Later I connected with "Constant Contact" which continues as the service that I use with this newsletter and all of my other ones. The idea behind this weekly online newsletter was to get out important information to both "buyers" and "owners," the two most important links in the real estate chain.  It can be almost the same information because all buyers want to be owners, and some owners also intend to continue to be buyers. I try to make my newslette... 12/04/2013

"Now is the Time To Sign Up for One of My Online Newsletters" ... Ocean City, New Jersey   My location is a small barrier island off the coast of South Jersey.  Ocean City (NJ) is about nine miles long and about 1.5 miles wide at the most.  This is a "resort market" with summers by the ocean drawing crowds up to 100-150,000 by late July through early August.  It is a summer rental market, a investment market for interested buyers many who rent their units during the summer months.  It is also a second home market and a retirement location as well. The winter months of December, January, and February bring our population down to about 10,000.  That is also some of our slowest months for the real estate business.  This represents my second career following a 32 year one in public educatio... 12/03/2013

Occasional Book Review - "The World Until Yesterday - What Can We Learn from Traditional Societies?" (2013) by Jared Diamond ... Ocean City, NJ   Having previously read Collapse and Guns, Germs, and Steel by Jared Diamond, a Professor of Geography at  UCLA and the Winner of the Pulitzer Prize for "Guns, Germs, and Steel," I decided to make this book one of my three non-fiction selections for the new year.  I picked three because I'm almost finished with two of them already before the arrival of the new year, 2014. He breaks these groupings into "hunter-gathers and some garden farmers," "bands" with next larger and more complex grouping, "tribes," and "complex states."  He continues with three chapterson dispute resolution, two chapters on childhood and old age, two chapters on danger an... 12/02/2013

"A New Business in Town" ... Ocean City, New Jersey   Now we get new businesses all of the time here in Ocean City, NJ.  We get some, and we lose some.  A resort community with most of the action during the summer season tends to have a lot of great efforts by lots of people who try in introduce a new business to our resort.   Some make it; others don't make it. The new business in Ocean City has made it all over the world ... 'Starbucks." And it is now here in OC.  They started to renovate a corner on Asbury Avenue at 11th Street (I think).  Just stopped for a coffee this morning, but I am almost certain that is the side street.  It is across the street from the Bookateria ... used paperback books.  Of course, there is wi-fi connections plus a great fireplace for the winter months.  Th... 12/01/2013

"Weekend after Thanksgiving ... Open House in Ocean City, NJ"   If you get an opportunity on Saturday, November 30th; check The Philadlephia Inquirer for a sale listing with photograph for 913 First Street, a great single family ... the third house from the beach and boardwalk with terrific views from inside and outside of the house.     Plus a weekend (Saturday and Sunday ... November 30th and December 1st) Open House from 9am to 1 pm both days   I plan to turn up the heat and light the fireplace, share a great deal of information, and welcome one and all to this warm, lovely, beachblock location ... a one-of-a-kind single family with the kind of views not available these days.  3BR/2.5BA, gas heat and central air, built in 1984, potential for additional construction, two-car garage, i... 11/26/2013

"Getting the Rental Properties Ready ... in Ocean City, New Jersey   All rental agents are involved in both rental listings and rental bookings.  Depending on the particular real estate agency, most rental agents receive some type of rental percentage for both obtaining the booking of the property with a rental tenant and for having "x" number of weeks rented in said property. In large agencies a rental agent can make enough income to just do that.  However, in normal arrangements most agents are both sales and rental agents.  They can often participate in a sale transaction because one of their rental tenants decided to buy a shore property.  During my earlier years, I had one or two rental tenants per year purchase a property ... and I broke it down to about 1.5 rental tenants buying ... 11/26/2013

"Maybe My Final Closing of the Year ... But Maybe Not!!!" ... from Ocean City, New Jersey   Well, once you get this close to December ... and you don't have any more of a lineup of closings coming along ... it probably looks like it will be the end of the line for 2013.  "BUT MAYBE NOT!!!"  What that means is that real estate is a somewhat unpredictable line of work.  Particularly when you are dealing with sale listings.  You do all that you can to put your listed property into the "right order" ... great pictures, a well-written summary of the property, the use of "agent comments" to further highlight the listing, etc., etc., etc. I recall one year when I had seven closings in the month of December.  Of course, they were locked up in September, October, and November.  And who can't pre... 11/25/2013

"Thanksgiving & December ... A Real Estate Turning Point" - Ocean City, New Jersey   To put in more details ... there is the Ocean City Halloween Parade, a bit colder weather, Thanksgiving (and more water and heat is turned off in the single family properties around town), and more colder weather, and then the December holidays and First Night Celebrations in Ocean City with 2014 arriving, and then a 1/1/2014 Holiday Shopping Day.  Counting most of December, we have almost three full months when real estate activitiy tends to slow down quite a bit.  Not only real estate activity, but also not much in the way of people coming on our barrier island at the time frame.  It's the slow-down that last until late February or early March often determined on how good the weather gets. It's also a... 11/24/2013

"Resort Market Real Estate" ... It's Different Here in Ocean City, New Jersey   The first difference here in Ocean City (NJ) is that we are on a barrier island ... entrances to the island are from Somers Point across the new bridge/causeway, from Egg Harbor Township (Longport and Margate) via the Longport Bridge, 34th Street from Upper Township, and past 55th Street across the bridge from Strathmere. We vary from about 10-12,000 in the winter (maybe less when more go to Florida) to 120-150,000 in the summer rental time frame during the summer months.  We have two major rental periods ... the "spring buying period" and the "fall buying period."  Obviously, you can also get into sale properties in the winter months ... but the summer rental period is the difficult time for showing sale pr... 11/22/2013

"Referrals to Ocean City, New Jersey" ... "Make the Right Pick" - Ocean City, New Jersey   A lot of real estate agents refer their clients when the particular property location gets to be "just a bit too far for them to go."  Now some agents will travel two or three hours to show a particular client properties ... however, normally this is not a once and done process.  I have found that some buyers take from one to five years to make decisions on shore property here in Ocean City, NJ Yet, it is often "guess-work" on the part of the referring agent because often they know very little about the agent at the other end.  Let me give you just a bit of a review:  starting my 22nd year in real estate, working only because I enjoy it, a retired teacher (11 years), assistant junior-senior high s... 11/20/2013

"Prepare, Organize, and Present" ... from Ocean City, New Jersey   Anyway you might look at it ... these three words (Prepare, Organize, and Present) say a great deal about your organizational skills in almost whatever you might do.  But for the real estate agent ... each of these critical aspects take you down a successful path toward some degree of success in talking with buyers, sellers, and others interested in talking about property. Prepare Preparation goes a long way toward pulling all of your information together ... to the degree that you can look at all of the details which provide you with more than enough information to tackle almost any task ... meeting with a buyer, talking with an owner about almost anything, or working with a seller to provide them with the information n... 11/20/2013

"Working on My Holiday Letter" ... from Ocean City, New Jersey   Along with being a fairly active blogger, I write newsletters under the same heading - Beach Notes - which go out to my "Buyer/Owner" List" ... an every Friday online newsletter (maybe 45 weeks per year), a "Rental Tenant List" ... an every month online newsletter (always 12 issues per year ... plus a summer print issue for rental tenants arriving in Ocean City, NJ), and a "Rental Owner List" (an irregular mailing schedule which is meant to assist rental owners before, during, and after the summer months). And I also write an online issue, once a year, entitled "My Holiday Letter" which gets sent online to all of the people receiving one of my newsletters as mentioned in the previous paragraph.  I got the idea of the holid... 11/19/2013

"Open House Wisdom ... from Ocean City, New Jersey   As many of you who read my blogs know, I am an "open house" guy.  Before I heard the words, "lead generation activities," I did open houses for many years.  After I heard these words, I knew that "open houses" were one of the special things that I did not only as a way to promote my sale listings, but also as a major part of my lead generating activities.  You accomplish two different roles at the same time.  I use to joke that just carrying my signs down the street from my former office with French Real Estate at #1 Atlantic Avenue to my sale listing (and the open house of the day) got every owner who saw me thinking that this agent might be the one for me if I ever decide to list my property.  Since 2003 I have had my VW Convertable... 11/18/2013

"Attention ... Attention:  'Fall Buying Period' Closing Down" in Ocean City, New Jersey   There are two major buying periods during the calendar year in Ocean City, New Jersey ... (1)  the much longer and larger "Spring Buying Period" which comes in after the early calendar winter months, and continues to run through mid-June, and (2) the shorter but interesting "Fall Buying Period" which starts after the busy summer season on the day after Labor Day through about Thanksgiving. So we don't have much time remaining.  But it's never too late.  The major difference between the two "buying periods" is that the time between Thanksgiving and the start of the "Spring Buying Period" you can continue to see sale properties ... but it just happens to be quite cold down here on our barrier island.... 11/15/2013

'Fire Inspection at my Sale Listing" ... Ocean City, New Jersey   A Listing Agent, or a Buyer's Agent, has a lot to do on behalf of their particular Owner or Buyer in the course of an effort to sell a property or assist in the purchase.  Each of those two tasks are somewhat the same and quite a bit different.  Today, I'll focus on one aspect by a Listing Agent. You simply have a lot of things to do before the listing is active, while the listing is active, and when the listing comes under agreement, and just before you go to closing.  I'm just going to cover a fairly simple task, but also one that can be quite difficult. A lot depends on the particular location of the sale.  Each area has a different approach to what must occur by the listing owner or his/her agent.  In Ocean City we ar... 11/13/2013

"When You're Off the Island ... You're in the Real World" ... Ocean City, New Jersey   As I often tell folks ... "the barrier island of Ocean City, NJ is definitely not the real world."  In fact, it is so very different here particularly in the eight months when almost no one is here much "from the real world.  One might even say the times during the summer months here are so much different than all the things happening in the real world.  So what am I trying to say.  Well, my wife and I took an unusual 4-day break into the real world from last Friday until Monday.  And it's Tuesday, and we're back on the island. So what got us off the island?  "It's Scorpio-time" which means my wife and her two sisters, myself, and a few other friends all have birthdays from October 30th throught about... 11/11/2013

"So What's the Most Difficult Task for a Real Estate Agent" ... from Ocean City, New Jersey   There are loads of examples ... like the negotiating phase of a deal, getting the sale listing price reduced, home inspection followup, mastering the next technology issue that you want to use, and taking enough time off for the family, etc.  But, for me, the #1 issue is "keeping ahead and organizing all of the paperwork" related to the real estate job. The best example of this was when I changed my real estate location coming on board with Goldcoast Sotheby's International Realty in mid-May, 2013.  Now I was arriving just as the summer rental season was gearing up ... i.e. just before Memorial Day.  I had rentals and sale listings with my former agency, and I was arriving with a lot of materia... 11/06/2013

"The Role of Humor" ... The Forgotten Detail ... from Ocean City, New Jersey   In real estate one must utilize all the engagement tools available.  And one of the most neglected one might be "humor."  Now it is quite obvious that a sale listing or a buyer involved in checking out sale property both represent serious endeavors.  But within that framework, an organized effort can certainly bring in an element of "humor" in most, if not many, situations. I often use the topic of "weather" as one of my humor themes ... particularly in the summer and the winter when weather is often a significant aspect to most people.  Summer often relates to "being at the beach as opposed to visiting a certain number of sale properties.  Winter often opens up when we visit an unheated house here on our bar... 11/05/2013

A "Regional Networking Event" sponsored by the New Jersey Sotheby's International Realty Affiliate Offices ... Atlantic City, NJ  (October 28, 2013)   Starting with a "Meet and Greet Cocktail Reception" at the Golden Nugget Casino on the evening of October 27th followed by a "Regional Networking Event" on October 29th ... this program enabled real estate agents from five states (New Jersey, New York, Pennsylvania, Delaware, and Maryland) to participate in an influential networking session that included a presentation by Philip White, the President and CEO of Sotheby's Interantional Realty, Wendy Purvey reviewing "Marketing and Tools, a networking lunch, a SIR Panel utilizing tools in our every day ... including time for each table to further review what they are doing, plus some gift gi... 11/04/2013

Occasional Book Reviw - "The Light Between Oceans" ... Ocean City, New Jersey   Each September our Ocean City Yacht Club "Book Club" selects the next five books for the following yacht club year which runs from Memorial Day through Labor Day ... although we do have Tuesday night dinners from early May through mid October.  So when my wife and I laid the plans for the book club, we decided to have one per month from May through September ... and did not include October because we required a bit more time to read one more book. Regardless, the first book of the 2014 calendar will be "The Light Between Oceans" (2012) by M. L. Stedman.  I started it a few nights ago and have read about a third of the book.  It is set in western Australia about 100 miles out in the ocean on a small island wi... 11/04/2013