Quote:
Originally Posted by kristin1
Nobi - thanks for you reply! It is really hard to get a grasp on what is going on in my area, especially when you here all the "gloom and doom" forcasted for the spring market.
Some realtors have told us to sell, drop the price as low as we can go, and take our money and run before the market crashes. Some have told us that the area in which we live (Ridgewood) has not been hit as hard because there are always people who want to buy here, and to just wait it out. We have a starter home, so we are in the lower price range for our area.
We don't HAVE to sell right now, but the commute for my spouse is about 2 hours each way, so we'd really like to sell ASAP. It's just really hard to figure out what to do, considering all the conflicting opinions. And all these realtors are trying to get us to list with them (we were doing a FSBO) so it's not like I'm getting an unbiased opinion.
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When you look at
Craigslist on Edison NJ, you would understand real estate in NJ is, in fact, moving very fast, not overheat like past years, but moving very fast.
So where are all these hundreds of sellers who were able to sell their condo/townhouse/house at Edison recently go? They seemed have NO place to go but BUYING bigger house or better places for their personal need. If that's the case, there got to be hundreds of houses in somewhere NJ sold or to be sold soon...
For example, I know there is a retired lady who sold her 1br 1ba condo at $255k cash at Edison Hollow South to investor that rented it out to a graduate couple of Rutgers Univ for 4 years at $1,650. And the seller and retired lady went on to buy a 2br 2ba condo at Springfield near her daughter's family. So, how about the seller of 2br 2ba condo at Springfield? They are buying a house to move up.
Another example is the owner of EHS who, after got 5 offers, decided NOT to sell and rented out the unit that his father bought him when he went to Rutgers Univ. Then, he went to Bellville bought a house after he got married with job at Northern Jersey. So, what would the seller who sold him the house do? Apparently, move up to buy a bigger house after sold this starter house.
So, what can you do if you want to sell your house at Northern Jersey? Where are your prospective buyers? I believe some of your prospective buyers are at Edison who are among all these hundreds of sellers who just sold their condo or townhouses. You should approach them.
How do you approach them? Thru realtor is one way who already connected to some realtor network, but you do not have to if you can handle open houses, you can just use discounted real estate services, but if you see discount services like Foxton just filed Chapter 11 on 10-2-07, you know it may not work.
You can still use a full service realtor, but put listing agent 2% of commission, and selling agent 4% (yes, total 6%, that will make your unit stand up). Do you want to let "listing agent" who normally come to "chop the price for you" to chop 2% or increase 2% commission. I believe you should "increase 2%". In the case, listing agent disgree with your price with 5%, that is time for your to give 9% commission, not 4% and don't ever let listing agent to "chop your price". Although the outcome may be the same, if you let listing agent to chop 5%, after you sold your unit, your good neighbors of entire community would have 5% loss because of your decision.
If you really want to sell by yourself, there are many websites you can use free; however, the key is "how you describe your property, and how well you present them". This is one strengh of professional realtor.
However, I have come seen some posting on Craigslist (broken link) that is much more powerful than realtor website. That is to say, you can come up an ads that is specialize to introduce "prospective buyers from Edison" to buy at your town, knowing many of them sold their unit and become buyers and looking to buy.
A plain text description with one or two links are no longer enough to "speed up" prospective buyer's buying process. You need to have wiki text and links, maps, photos, ...etc to help prospective buyers to gain enough information about your home, town, commute, ...etc. to make decision.
If there are no buyers out there, why I was able to make Gold Medal of Million Dollar Club in 2006 ? That is to say I have to produce over 10 millions sales. Where did those buyers come? The answer is "created". I created my buyers pool.
For example, I help my client who bought a condo from me years ago to rent out his 1br condo at Edison, and he becomes a buyer to buy a 3br townhouse at Piscataway from my other client who I helped bought the townhouses, then I helped the 3br townhouse owner to buy 4br/5br house at Piscataway, then I helped the seller to buy million dollar house at Warren. This is what I called "Migration Path".
In your case, it is fairly straight forward. Go talk to your neighbors and find out where they lived BEFORE moving to your neighborhood. You would be surprised that they all came from just a few places.
For example, someone told me last November his friend's townhouse at Traditions South Plainfield could not sell. I went over to chat with dozens of neighbors and identify, most residents came from Edison/Blueberry Village, Durham Woods Apt, Rivendell Apt ...etc. So, I broadcast all the listing and sold info to these communities. Guess what? I got dozens of condo/townhouses at Traditions all sold. This community almost sold out, even now.
As a by product, since I also found out by sellers where are they moving to after "my friend" bought their unit, surprisingly, many moving to Piscataway, Warren, Basking Ridge and Princeton.
That is to say, if you own a house at Piscataway, Warren, Basking Ridge or Princeton, chances your buyers are from Traditions at South Plainfield.
Another way to find out migration path is to look at the "listing agents" of condo/townhouses at realtor.com. e.g. If you see a listing agent of a condo at Edison is from Piscataway, then more or less, the seller move up to buy a house at Piscataway area. On the other hand, if you see a listing agent of a condo at Bridgewater with office at Edison, then you know the seller is moving up to house at Edison.
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