LISA BELL

Seller tips

Selling a home can be a daunting task. There are many steps involved to complete a transaction such as making sure a home is priced right, prepped for sale, and marketed to buyers properly. Some tips to consider:

• Be realistic. The average length of time it takes to find the perfect home varies depending on buyer expectations and local markets. Similarly, the average length that a home stays on the market can vary depending on location and other local market forces.

• Get your house ready for sale. To ready your home for sale, remove clutter, starting in the kitchen; make whatever fix-ups you can afford to, and depersonalize the house, putting photos and keepsakes away so buyers can visualize it as their own.

• Work with an expert. REALTORS® are professionals who can help guide property owners through pricing, marketing, financing, negotiating and closing on a home. Click here to find a REALTOR®. Find out why it pays to work with a REALTOR®. Download a free brochure in English and/or Spanish.

• Price your home properly. When it comes to selling a home, it's important to keep in mind that value depends on what the buyer is willing to pay for your property and many factors contribute to their perceptions. Prices depend on local characteristics such as job opportunities, housing supply, school systems and more. Sellers should stay realistic and set the price with a REALTOR® who can help determine which factors are at work in a given marketplace. Also, the time the owner "must" sell or the amount of repairs the home needs can play a large role in setting a fair price. Overpricing property is a common mistake that can turn off potential buyers immediately, make competing homes look like better values and have buyers make false perceptions about your willingness to work with them.

• Market your home effectively. The marketing of homes has shifted more towards new technology, rather than only putting an ad in the local newspaper. Sellers should be open to innovative and creative marketing techniques recommended by their REALTOR®. By considering virtual home tours and concentrating on well-lit, high quality digital photos for website listings can give your home a chance to be noticed in front of the increasing majority of buyers who turn to Internet listings first.

• Facing foreclosure. If you are having trouble making your mortgage payments and are facing foreclosure, click here for more information and alternative options.

Additional Resources

Home Buying and Selling 101: Steps New Jersey Residents Should Take to Make Sound Real Estate Decisions

RISMEDIA, January 21, 2010-(MCT)-According to David Crowe, chief economist of the National Association of Home Builders, home builders, mired in their deepest slump since the Great Depression, are likely to see a rebound in sales in 2010 as stabilizing home prices and record-high affordability conditions draw buyers into the market.

"The stage is set for the consumer to return," said Crowe. "It won't be a strong recovery, but it will be a recovery." Crowe predicts that housing starts will rise more than 25% in 2010, to 700,000 units, from 550,000 in 2009. Low interest rates will continue to help the housing industry: Even though they are expected to rise, the 30-year mortgage-now just above 5%-will stay below 6% through the year, predicted Frank Nothaft, chief economist for mortgage agency Freddie Mac.

But Crowe and other economists speaking at the International Builders show, being held this week in Las Vegas, cautioned that there are plenty of reasons to be cautious about the home building outlook for 2010. Even home builders themselves are reluctant to embrace the positive predictions.

Any optimism on home building should be tempered on a number of counts, said Ed Sullivan, chief economist for the Portland Cement Association, whose members provide concrete used in residential and commercial projects. "I'm much more cautious as to the magnitude and timing of when that optimism comes," Sullivan said. "There are hurdles still facing this industry and the issues don't start to abate until the second half of this year." Single-family starts could rise 20% in 2010, but that is "from a desperately low level and pathetically mild in absolute numbers," he said.

Sullivan laid out six items that work against any big recovery in housing in 2010:

-A slow labor market recovery. "Much hinges on the labor market and when that turns," Sullivan said. But both the government's payroll survey and the household survey show continuing, if moderating, job losses. "Employment is the No. 1 reason caution persists," Crowe said. "We're not going to add jobs for at least several more months."

-Payback from the expiration of the home buyer tax credit. "The tax credit is pulling people forward who were in the market anyway. So the sales pace isn't quite as vibrant as suggested by the raw data. There could be a payback that materializes in July when the current version expires," Sullivan said.

-Rising foreclosures. Moratoriums on foreclosures and an unworkable backlog that paralyzed many lenders made it look as if the foreclosure situation was easing in the second half of 2009. Expect the pace to accelerate this year. "Serious-delinquency rates haven't peaked yet," said Nothaft. "That usually happens six to 12 months after the employment recovery begins."

-Price pressures. A rise in bank repossessions of homes will undoubtedly create additional pressure on home prices, Sullivan said. "Home prices have stabilized, but is that permanent?" asked David Berson, chief economist for PMI Group, a mortgage-insurance firm. "You'll see more price declines-part is seasonal because we always see declines in the winter, but we'll see more delinquencies and foreclosures," and that could add to inventory increases and price cuts. "It could be three years before we get back to the long-term trends of home price appreciation," Berson said.

-Tight lending standards. Mortgage lenders are unlikely to ease underwriting standards with the labor market soft and home prices unstable. That will crimp housing demand, Sullivan said.

-The potential for interest-rate increases. Lenders may demand a bigger risk premium for home loans in this environment and with the Fed about to wind down its purchases of mortgage-backed securities, there is a potential that interest rates will rise this year.

The good news? "Once we get out of this, there is going to be a lot of pent-up demand that is going to be released in 2011, 2012 and 2013," Sullivan said.

Though December 2009 was another slow month for housing, sales and traffic picked up immediately following Christmas and continue to show more strength into the New Year, according to John Burns Real Estate Consulting's January survey of home builders. "Traffic improvements are more about quality than about sheer numbers," said Jody Kahn, a vice president with the firm. "Still, this better end to the year buoyed builders' perspectives for the next six months."

Kahn said new home prices were mostly flat around the country, with four key regions-Southern California, Texas, Midwest and southern Florida-showing stable prices for the first time since the downturn began. That price stability, though, may have contributed to slowing sales in all but the southern Florida region.

According to the survey, many builders are starting the year with low inventories of homes for sale, following a strong fall for deliveries. But Kahn said a rise in inventory is expected through March as home builders anticipate a strong spring selling season, sparked in part by the April 30 deadline to qualify for the home buyer tax credit.

Lower prices make homes more affordable. The median price of a single family New Jersey home in the 3rd quarter of 2009 is 11 percent lower than in the 3rd quarter of 2008. The housing affordability index during the same time period increased by 22 percent. NAR's housing affordability index measures whether or not a typical family could qualify for a mortgage loan on a median-priced, existing single-family home. Increasing levels of affordability mean a home purchase is within reach for more New Jerseyans than the same time the year before.

Waiting for prices to drop could cost you.

A buyer obtaining a 30-year mortgage of $300,000 today at a 5 percent interest rate will pay approximately $1,610 each month in principal and interest. If that same buyer waits until sale prices drop five percent, he/she runs the risk of interest rates going up. A 30-year mortgage of $285,000 at a 6 percent interest rate will cost the buyer $1,708 per month in principal and interest. Those few percentage points can equate to thousands of dollars over the course of a mortgage.

Subject: House for sale in New York


House
, located near the intersection of Ave T and Van Sicklen is
Brooklyn's smallest house.

Occupying what used to be a driveway, it's a one bedroom, one bathroom
home that sits on a parcel of land 7.25 feet wide and 113.67 feet long.
It's interior area is just under 300 square feet.

Here's the living room, looking towards the front of the house...

Here's the living room again, looking towards the back .

Here's the kitchen. Note that despite t
he small space,they've managed to fit a washer and dryer into the place.

Here's the bedroom. It comes with a Murphy bed, which is a necessity in
such a space. This is what itlooks like with the Murphy Bed down

And here the bedroom with the Murphy Bed retracted:

You also get some patio space out back.Here it is, looking towards the
front of the house:

And here's the patio looking towards the back:

Here are the home's 'Listed Features':
* Completely redone
top-to-bottom, front-to-back!
* Tumbled stone entrance walk
* Renovated Bath
* Renovated Kitchen with new stove, new cabinets and new stacked
washer/dryer
* Bedroom with Murphy Bed + 'Built-ins' ... (doubles as a den)!
* Walkout to fenced patio
* 100 Amp service
* 2 Satellite Dishes and Receiver
* Window Air Conditioner Available

THE PRICE ? ? ?

You get all this for...
.
.
.

.

ONLY $479,900.00!

Only in New York !