Johnathan Smith

We are know being a real estate agent we sometimes get locked into showing homes and doing listings hours after hours but we all have to make time for US!! I see more and more agents working like dogs and not taking care of the famly life etc. Hit the gym, take a work, take a day off! its ok your clients will still be waiting for you tomorrow or within a few hours. You have to stop and think about it real estate is a job and dont let it control your life!

I just started to hit the gym after taking about 1 year off! I think every agent should take some time of and if your a agent on staten island please email me and I will give you a 2 week free pass to my gym on staten island!

As you all know that being a real estate agent is a 24/7 job and we dont get to much time off for fun and fitness!. I started going back to the gym this week after months (ok maybe a year) off!

I have to say that I feel alot better and I am not getting alot more work done too. So if your a real estate agent I think you should join a gym and start to work out. I found now that I been working out I am still getting all of my work done and maybe more!

Take time out of the office and hit the gym it will really help you alot and the more work you get done is the better it is.

PS I JOINED LA/FITNESS IN STATEN ISLAND

My name is Johnathan Smith and I was born in Brooklyn, New York. After going to high school I did a number of jobs from plumbing to DJing in the best clubs in NY to computer programming for the best firms in NY and NJ.

I started doing real estate a few years ago and I love it. I worked with two large staten island real estate firms over the past few years. I teamed up with Debbie Romeo, She is a great co-agent. We work great in and out of the office and soon she will also be my wife. We are both rated one of the top agents in Gillani Homes. We had a number of deals that had sold in less then 14 days and one that we sold in 1 day! Right now I am working with Gillani Homes.

Gillani Homes is a great office offering exclusive real estate services to buyers and sellers of residential and commercial property in New York.

We can be reached at Johnathan Smith (646) 400-4363 / Debbie Romeo (646)578-1355 or visit us on the web at www.johnresales.com

If you have any real estate questions Call us anytime, seven days a week, for an immediate response and see the difference Gillani Homes can make.

We are look forward to hearing from you. To checkout some great real estate or to find out some more information check out http://www.johnresales.com Real Estate is a 24/7 job but I do have a life outside of it.

I am a great person who is very loyal to my friends and co-workers.

I also have 3 great kids that I love more then anything in the world.

NEW YORK (CNNMoney.com) -- Single-family home prices dropped 7.7% in the first quarter in the largest year-over-year decline since the National Association of Realtors began reporting prices in 1982.

The median sales price fell to $196,300, down 4.8% compared with the last three months of 2007.

Lawrence Yun, the chief economist of NAR, attributed much of the record decline to liquidity problems dragging down high-priced markets.

"These are highly unusual results because there were very few jumbo loan originations in the latest quarter," he said. "So sales are much slower in high-cost areas."

Jumbo mortgages skew results

That sales slowdown changed the mix of houses sold.

In California, according to Yun, homes bought with jumbo mortgages - more than $417,000 - accounted for 40% of all sales before liquidity for these loans dried up during the summer of 2007. Since then only 10% of sales in California involved jumbo loans.

In February, Freddie Mac and Fannie Mae, the government sponsored enterprises that guarantee a market for conforming loans, have raised the $417,000 cap to include mortgages of up to $729,750, but lenders were still charging much higher rates for these "conforming jumbos," between 1% and 1.5% more than ordinary conforming loans. The higher rates are discouraging sales in higher price ranges and so skewed NAR's median price results.

Many of these same markets were also among the hardest hit by the subprime implosion, which forced many lower priced homes back on the markets, again dragging down NAR's results.

That helped put many California and other Sun Belt cities, with their toxic combinations of both high prices and heavy proportions of subprime mortgages, among the biggest losers.

In California, Sacramento prices plummeted 29.2% to $258,500 compared with last year and Riverside prices fell 27.7% to $287,100. Prices in Las Vegas fell 20.2% to $247,600 and those in Phoenix dropped 15.4% to $222,200.

Some Midwestern cities, hard hit by factory closings, also suffered huge losses with Lansing, Mich., prices falling 26.9%. Saginaw, Mich., had the lowest median prices of any of the 150 markets studied; a median house in Saginaw sold for just $65,400.

"You have two themes: the weak industrial economies under increasing pressure by struggles of the Big Three automakers and the deflating of what were once the most prominent bubble markets," said Michael Youngblood, an analyst with FBR Investment Management.

About of a third of the markets did show gains. The best performer in the nation was Binghamton, N.Y., where prices rose 11.8% to $109,700. Then came Peoria, Ill., up 10.4% to $119,000 and Spartanburg, S.C., where prices rose 10.2% to $130,300.

Regionally, in the Northeast, single-family home prices rose slightly, 3.2% to $280,000. But prices in the South dropped 7.5% to $164,200, in the Midwest they fell 7.9% to $142,700 and in the West they plunged 12.3% to $296,300.

Foreclosures put more homes in play

Hurting home prices were big rises in foreclosure rates over the past 12 months, which threaten to get even worse. Delinquencies more than doubled over that time and more than 155,000 lost their homes in bank repossessions during the first three months of the year. With many adjustable rate mortgages (ARMs) poised to reset this year to higher interest rates, defaults could go even higher.

"Yes, but I hasten to say it's not merely the ARMs," said Youngblood. "Fixed rate loans are performing poorly as well."

All that foreclosure activity added to the glut of homes on the market. The total inventory has risen to an average of 10 months worth of unsold homes. In addition, a record number - 2.9 million - of vacant homes are up for sale, according to the Census Bureau.

The big inventory has led to aggressive price slashing and increased incentives by builders looking to sell homes. They've also cut way back on housing starts, which are at a 17-year low.

The pace of existing home sales, at about 492,000 a month, is about a third less than its peak during the summer of 2005.

Condo prices fared a bit better than single-family homes. The median price fell just 3% since early 2007. The worst hit market was the Sarasota area, where condos dropped 35% over the past 12 months to $268,500. Sacramento condo price cratered 33.4% to $147,200. In Miami, prices fell 26.4% to $176,100.

The best performing condo market was about as far from the madding crowds of South Beach as one can get: Bismarck, N.D., condo prices soared 36.4% compared with 12 months ago, to $124,900.

The price declines in falling markets may not have run their course. Some analysts point to low home prices in many Midwestern cities and assert there's not much room for prices to fall but Youngblood disagrees.

"If we'd had this discussion a year ago, we would have said the same thing - how much further can they fall?" he said. "But jobs are declining and people are moving out and you're getting sharper home price declines than you ordinarily would."

Also, according to Youngblood, the sheer volume of foreclosures takes a toll. "Recent studies report that foreclosed properties sell for an average of 20% less than comparable properties that have not been foreclosed on," he said.

As for the bubble markets that have already lost 30% of their values, Youngblood thinks their declines are not over. He expects some to drop another 20% or so through February 2009.

Disclose!!!

Sure it can be frustrating, exhausting and time-consuming to sell a home in some markets, but don't try to cut corners by failing to make the proper disclosures.

Not only is it illegal for you and your agent not to disclose certain material facts that can affect the value, desirability or salability of a home, most savvy buyers will quickly walk away if he or she suspects deceit.

If you lie by omission and get caught, not only can you face both local and federal charges, you'll still have a home to sell in a less-than-hospitable market. The extra time to sell your home and your day in court could stigmatize the property.

Of course, if you honestly don't know about an issue, or there's little if any chance you could have known, you obviously can't report it.

It's not a bad idea to get a home inspection so you do know. An inspection reveals your attempt at discovery, it will help you determine which items need repair or replacement (not that you are required to make certain repairs), you can use it to price your home and it's a good negotiating tool.

In any event, a good rule of thumb, when it comes to whether or not something should be disclosed: "If you can't figure it out, don't leave it out."

Otherwise, here's are some more specific disclosure tips.

• Each state has a different set of disclosure rules. Your local or state real estate association, as well as your real estate agent, has the proper forms. Both you and the buyer must sign and date the disclosure report to acknowledge delivery and receipt.
• Common items to disclose include, a noisy neighbor, trees uprooting the sidewalk, crime and proximity to busy streets, golf courses, equestrian trails and short term rentals, among a host of others. If you'd want to know, the buyer probably would too.
• Include any problems with construction or home systems. That includes problems with the foundation, roof, windows, doors, electricity, plumbing and the like. For a home improvement completed without a permit (which could itself stop the deal cold), get a permit and make sure the work is to code -- even if that means ripping out the old work and getting it done right.

Rather than reporting "repairs" -- which could imply a defect was permanently corrected -- explain what work you've had done. You called the electrician for faulty wiring at a junction box or you had a plumber fix a leak under the sink, for example

Likewise, you can tell the prospective buyer that you replaced the roof, installed a new water heater, added wind shear protection or installed a sump pump in the basement, etc.

• Disaster prone states often require sellers to disclose information about the home's proximity to fire, flood, earthquake and other hazard zones. It's not a bad idea to know if your regional climate is the victim of climate change, given today's earth-conscious buyer. Do disclose zoning, easement or local ordinance issues and the proximity to other natural hazards like mudslides, landslides, even noise, air and ground pollution, among others.
• Disclose insurance claims. Don't let the buyer discover insurance claims against the property when he or she applies for coverage. Give them a C.L.U.E (for Claims Loss Underwriting Exchange) report. Only home owners can obtain it, but buyers can make the deal contingent upon seeing a copy.

Available to property owners once a year for free from ChoicePoint, the report is a record of claims and claim inquiries on a given property. Insurers use the information to decide to issue a new policy, renew or raise rates.

• A federally mandated lead-based paint disclosure is required for all transactions if the home was built before 1978, but most agents advise making the disclosure for any property. The seller doesn't have to inspect for lead, but must give the buyer materials that discloses the hazards of lead-based paints and related consumer information.
• Among some miscellaneous disclosures that are required or should be considered includes the locations of registered sex offenders, housing market conditions, and, if they happened in the home, certain deaths and certain causes.

If the deceased won't walk into the light and you see dead people, you've got to report that too. Even if you haven't had any bumps in the night, but word's gotten around the house is haunted house, you've got to let the buyer know some ectoplasmic spirit already possesses the home.