About Monmouth County, NJ

A simplified guide for painless purchasing of your Bradley Beach home.

Part I of this four-part series dealt with analyzing your financial situation, getting prior loan approval, and determining your real needs/desires in your first Bradley Beach home. All that having been accomplished, you will now want to look for a mortgage and decide which is the most advantageous for you.

As with any major purchase, you will want to shop around for the best deal. Contact several lenders (bank, savings and loan, credit union, private mortgage company, or a state or federal government lender.) Before doing that, however, you need to familiarize yourself mortgage types, terminology, and options. Your real estate agent will be helpful in this mission, as will the internet. Keying in First-time house buyers, mortgage assistance, HUD, or Community Housing Partners, will result in innumerable informative sites, a wealth of information for you to consider, and, most likely, a list of questions for you to ask your realtor and/or potential lender.

For help in determining which type of mortgage is best for you, check the chart found at http://mortgages.interest.com/content/first . In an easy-to-read format, the characteristics and suitability of many types of loans (fixed rate, step, balloon, adjusted rate -ARM) are simply and clearly explained. If, for instance, you plan to live in your Bradley Beach home more than 10 years and desire stability in payment amounts, then a fixed rate mortgage is for you. If, however, your finances are currently strained, but you know that in 5 to 10 years your monetary situation will improve or that you will most likely move within 10 years, then an ARM or balloon mortgage may be better for you. Being familiar with these options allows you to discuss them intelligently with your real estate agent and/or lender and then select the type which best fits your circumstances.

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Snapped this with my phone today along Boundary Road, around the same spot I engaged in a shouting match with a runaway goat. I have to learn to projectile spit.

Thank you Governor McGreevey ... again.

Hizzoner passed the New Jersey real estate millionaire's mansion tax in 2004, imposing a transfer tax on the New Jersey home buyer for the first time.

In the good old days a real estate agent could figure the sales tax on New Jersey (called the realty transfer fee) with a calculator.

Now we need a Cray supercomputer.

Governor Corzine followed McGreevey's lead and continued increasing the realty transfer tax to fill the Garden state coffers. The New Jersey Association of Realtors led a spirited campaign against the mansion tax but failed to wean Trenton off it's tax-and-spend teat.

Sellers (now millionaire buyers) pay the tax at closing.

What's happening in New Jersey? The rich are leaving. They're leaving in droves. New Jersey has lost over $70 billion dollars of wealth between 2004 and 2008. How does one quantify $70 billion?

It is the Gross Domestic Product of Vietnam. New Jersey is losing a nation's worth of wealth. Other states are aggressively recruiting our best and brightest.

Such a financial and professional drain of resources accelerates a whirlpool effect that does not disadvantage the wealthy (for they have already packed their Gucci bags and purchased their $5 million residence on the World Cruise) but adversely impacts the lower and middle class.

People who actually build stuff with their hands!

What use are the wealthy to a society other than suck the life-blood of the working man? Easy with the Socialist mantra coming from Washington D.C.

"Trickle-down" isn't so much a class warfare rallying cry as it is plain old common sense (Will Rogers coined the phrase during the Great Depression):

• The wealthy re-invest their earnings, typically in local projects where they can manage and grow their investments.
  
• They build bigger houses and so employ the construction trade. Re-assessment results in higher property taxes on the renovations, which in turn fuels education (not to mention the additional permit fees paid to the town and county). Close to 85% of local property taxes in Monmouth County go towards Education.
• When spurred by a business-friendly climate, the rich expand their local businesses and so create jobs.
• When a nation over-burdens its citizens with onerous taxes the government actually stimulates overseas investment instead of domestic re-investment.

I do know one niche that bucks the trend, that benefits from across-the-board increases in New Jersey taxes.

Moving companies are doing a booming business by packing up our New Jersey rich folk and taking them to Pennsylvania, the Carolina's, Texas and Florida. New Jersey doesn't just tax real estate and income; there's a hefty estate tax waiting for the affluent resident lucky enough to die here.

If you purchased a million dollar home in New Jersey what's the additional tax waiting for you at the closing table?

1% of the purchase price equal to or greater than $1,000,000.

So the purchaser of a $1,100,000 executive home in Holmdel, New Jersey, for example, can expect to pay an additional $11,000 in realty transfer tax. What if the home costs $990,000? No mansion tax.

You see the game within a game here.

Keep your purchase under one million dollars if you're shopping for a luxury New Jersey home. We have a new Governor now, Chris Christie. Let's see if the new Hizzoner can bring fiscal responsibility to Trenton and all residents of New Jersey.

• Would you like to purchase a million dollar plus Holmdel New Jersey home for sale? Click HERE to preview the complete inventory of luxury homes. Get ready to sign another check payable to "The State of New Jersey Treasurer."

• You want to keep your new home search in Holmdel New Jersey under $1 million and avoid any unnecessary taxation? Click HERE then.

Call Andrew today at (732) 580-0822 or E-MAIL ANDREW

 Andrew J. Lenza, ABR GRI MBA  Broker Associate
Weichert Realtors, 43 East Main Street, Holmdel New Jersey 07733
Office (732) 946-9400 and Mobile (732) 580-0822 

 (c) Copyright, 2008. Andrew J. Lenza, All Rights Reserved

• Members, Monmouth & Ocean County MLS and Middlesex County MLS

Want to search properties like a local Real Estate Agent anytime you want?

Click HERE

to join Listingbook for the insider advantage!

Quite a few Staten Islanders relocate to Monmouth County and purchase Colts Neck New Jersey homes for sale.

• The northern point of Colts Neck is approximately 21.5 miles to the Outerbridge that connects Fords, New Jersey with Staten Island, New York. The non-rush hour commute is around 35 minutes.
• Quite a few Staten Islanders search for a new home in Middlesex and Monmouth Counties.
• Sayrewoods South in Old Bridge Township is another popular place for transplanted Staten Islanders.

Staten Islanders looking to purchase Colts Neck New Jersey real estate will start searching on New Jersey real estate portals. But Colts Neck home sellers can reach out to Staten Islanders, too.

The daily newspaper on Staten Island is called the Staten Island Advance. The paper is a popular real estate advertising medium, especially the online version called www.silive.com. Staten Islanders who've moved to New Jersey log onto SILive.com daily to re-connect with the happenings "on da' Rock.

My brother-in-law Peter Battaglia, Travis native, chef and renowned foodie (check out Peter's homemade food recipes at his popular blog) scans the site for birth announcements, community news and, sadly, obituaries.

SILive.com enjoys a deep reach for the Colts Neck home for sale; it's imperative for the Colts Neck listing broker to tap into that audience and publish compelling ad copy to showcase the Colts Neck home.

SILive.com Audience Facts & Demographics (source=SILive.com):

The median age of a SILive surfer is 46, but the website reaches across all age groups:
• 18% are age 18-34
• 52% are age 35-54
• 31% are age 55 or older

Across all income levels:
• 16% earn $50,000 to $74,999 annually
• 18% earn $75,000 to $99,000 annually
• 32% earn $100,000 plus annually
• Median household income is $87,700

And varying degrees of education:
• 37% have graduated college or more
• 34% have attended some college
• 16% are high school graduates

So if you're going to sell your Colts Neck, New Jersey home, interview a full-service local listing broker who deploys a wide arsenal of advertising weapons. Maybe even blitz Staten Island with a pamphlet drop of your home. Okay, perhaps that's a stretch.

• Click HERE to preview all the available Colts Neck homes for sale.

• Click HERE to preview the Weichert Realtors Holmdel Office listing inventory.

Buying or selling a home in Colts Neck New Jersey? Call Andrew today at (732) 580-0822 or E-MAIL ANDREW

 Andrew J. Lenza, ABR GRI MBA  Broker Associate
Weichert Realtors, 43 East Main Street, Holmdel New Jersey 07733
Office (732) 946-9400 and Mobile (732) 580-0822 

 (c) Copyright, 2008. Andrew J. Lenza, All Rights Reserved

• Members, Monmouth & Ocean County MLS and Middlesex County MLS

Want to search properties like a local Real Estate Agent anytime you want?

Click HERE

to join Listingbook for the insider advantage!

Weichert Realtors will offer consumers a company-wide Seminar on Saturday, February 20th. What is the objective of the informative session to be held at the Weichert Realtors' Aberdeen Office?

• To help prospective sellers and buyers understand the advantages offered by the combination of favorable market conditions and a federal tax credit, Weichert, Realtors will host a seminar it each of its company-owned and franchised offices on Saturday, Feb. 20, at 11:00 a.m.
• Rather than focusing on only homebuyers, this will be a market update seminar that will cover both selling and buying in today's market.
• The seminar, titled "It's Your Move: Why Wait?" will specifically discuss why now is a good time to buy a home, even if you have one to sell.
• The free, no-obligation seminar will include a brief presentation that includes an overview of the tax credit and the many benefits of homeownership, followed by a question and answer session. Presenters will also review the state of the current local real estate market.

Who can and should attend? Any member of the general public whose been considering either a purchase or a sale in the Middlesex and Monmouth County areas. The address to the Weichert Aberdenn office is 1130 State Highway #34, Aberdeen NJ 07747. The Aberdeen office number is 732-583-5400.

Weichert personnel representing Sales, Mortgage Products (Weichert Financial) and Title Company will be on hand to answer all of your questions about the home buying and selling process. If you do attend, please inform the event organizers that "Andrew Lenza of the Holmdel Office" sent you via his ActiveRain blog.

Andrew J. Lenza, ABR GRI MBA  Broker Associate
Weichert Realtors, 43 East Main Street, Holmdel New Jersey 07733
Office (732) 946-9400 and Mobile (732) 580-0822 

 (c) Copyright, 2010. Andrew J. Lenza, All Rights Reserved

• Members, Monmouth & Ocean County MLS and Middlesex County MLS

Want to search properties like a local Real Estate Agent anytime you want?
Click HERE to join Listingbook for the insider advantage!