The good news for the Princeton real estate buyers is that there is a lot of choice and the prices for some properties have come down significantly. I have been showing a lot of houses in the last several weeks. This is the an excuse reason for having not 
written as much for the Princeton Real Estate blog as I usually do.
Here is a quick look at my observations this week. For my international buyers we were looking at some spectacular Princeton homes for sale in the price range of over $3.5mln. Some of the houses we saw have been on the market for much longer than 3 months, but some have just come up and have had many buyers looking at them.
Princeton houses for sale in unique locations, for example with a view of lake Carnegie are in demand and I get a lot of inquiries about them. Unfortunately for my buyers there isn't much available there and when it is (if priced right), they are sold rather quickly.
New or newer houses in the Princeton Borough are also in demand. The key for both buyers and sellers is the price. In todays climate, some buyers concerned with further Princeton real estate market decline, offer prices that are too low. Such offers, even today, are being declined without a counter offer.
Last week has been a very busy for me. Hopefully this week will bring the house of their dreams for my clients interested in Princeton homes for sale. Hopefully my seller clients will move forward with their contracts.
Photo by Daniel Morris
If you are looking to buy a house in the greater Princeton are, you may find these articles of interest:
How to buy a house without a real estate agent
15 Reasons you should not buy a home now ...5 reasons you should
What Did That House Sell For? January 2008
Who Else Wants Clarity About Real Estate Prices
Is Princeton Real Estate Local or Global?
Secrets To Buying A House In This Market
Secrets To Home Selling In A Bad Market
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Do I need a real estate agent to sell or buy real estate in Princeton? This is the gist of the questions coming to my blog in the last several weeks. I covered this subject before, but there were so many variations on this question, that I thought it may warrant re-visiting it again. This 
time I will focus on one issue: representation. All of this discussion applies to the state of New Jersey and laws may be different in other states.
Several things happened last week, that made me realize representation is not understood by many consumers. It's not surprising: the issue is kind of technical and kind of boring unless your live and breath real estate. Surprisingly, I found not all real estate agents explain representation to their clients sufficiently, if at all.
Back to the original question. Does a buyer or seller need a real estate agent? The short answer is "no". It is perfectly legal to buy and sell homes in the state of New Jersey without a real estate agent representation. I will focus in this post on the buyers. If the question was: " would I, as a buyer, be better off using an agent ?", the answer would be - "it depends on representation."
As a buyer you can do your research on the Internet. To see the house listed with a broker, you would need to have an agent show it to you. You have several options. To understand the difference in these options, you would need to understand the different ways agents represent clients and what it would mean to you as a buyer.
1. Listing/seller's agent representation.
A seller's agent usually has a fiduciary relationship (a special relationship of trust and confidence) with the principal, i.e seller. This special relationships carries certain duties that the agent must perform: care, obedience, accounting, loyalty, and disclosure.
An agent's loyalty means that they have to place a principal's interest above all other person's. When an agent represents the seller, he/she works only for the seller and owes fiduciary duties only to them.
When a buyer contacts the listing/seller's agent, they have an option of either being represented by this agent as a dual agent, or not represented at all.
2. Dual agent representation.
Dual agent works for both the buyer and the seller. This means that the agent will not be able to put one's party interest against the other, and can't advise or counsel either party on how to gain an advantage at the expense of the other party on the basis of the confidential information obtained from or about the other party.
3. No buyer representation.
The seller's agent, has an obligation to disclose to the seller all material information supplied by you as a buyer. For the buyer without representation, this option could be really least favorable.
The interesting thing is that the buyers often believe that one of these options is in their best interest. Many feel that they will get a "better deal" with the dual representation, because the agent would be more motivated, which will translate to them somehow buying the house for less. Without any representation for the buyer, they feel the seller would be more inclined to sell for less. The first of these options is suboptimal. The second can put a buyer at a real disadvantage. The best option is the following.
4. Buyer's agent representation.
Buyer's agent works only for the buyer and owes fiduciary duties only to them. This relationship is independent of who pays the commission to the buyer's agent.
There is another type of representation, such as transaction broker, which I didn't cover, because it doesn't occur often.
The above discussion applies to competent representation only without which these points would be irrelevant.
If you are looking to buy a house in the greater Princeton are, you may find these articles of interest:
How to buy a house without a real estate agent
15 Reasons you should not buy a home now ...5 reasons you should
What Did That House Sell For? January 2008
Who Else Wants Clarity About Real Estate Prices
Is Princeton Real Estate Local or Global?
Secrets To Buying A House In This Market
Secrets To Home Selling In A Bad Market
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In the turbulent Princeton real estate market there are new things happening - some (like real estate prices) could be confusing, and some - are a bit puzzling. I am talking 
about a phenomenon of an unrepresented buyer. This type of buyer does their research on the Internet and contacts, for the properties they want to see, respective listing agents. They do not want to be represented by the listing agent (as a dual agent) or by any buyer’s agent. They want the part of the commission that would have otherwise been paid to the buyer’s agent, to be “credited” to the seller. The net effect of which, in the buyer's mind, is that they can offer less, and thus they would save a lot of money.
Assuming that the listing broker agrees to such an arrangement, what are the implications for these buyers? Is this a strategy for saving big or big losing?
This strategy could possibly work, provided these buyers have legal representation (and their legal rights are protected). The question is when could it work? The short answer: when a lot more human intelligence becomes publicly available. Here is a bit of a longer list of requirements.
The opinion on the price of the home is available from a public source. There is no such source now. Zillow, Trulia, Realtor.com, do not provide information on what makes one home more or less valuable then the other, or why a particular house on the same street sold for much more, or much less.
1. The opinion on the amount of the offer that will produce the positive outcome for the buyer is available from a public source.
2. The understanding of the inspection results for each property and the implications for the buyer are available from the public source.
3. The negotiation tactics for each property are available from a public source.
4. The ability to deal with the unexpected issues that can arise at any point in the transaction, including closing is available from a public source.
I am concerned that you as a buyer without representation, are not an equal match to the seller, with representation. Without needed intelligence available on the Internet, or from other public source, the buyers would have to do the best they know how. I am concerned it may not be "good enough", and that the potential “savings” could easily translate into big losses - financial, emotional, or both.
There are people who choose to represent themselves in court, some who are even facing imprisonment. I am not sure how many win. I know many lose. In this country it’s illegal to practice law without a license. It’s perfectly legal, though, to put oneself in jeopardy, doing it on their behalf.
The same holds true for real estate; thankfully for the buyers - their liberty is not at stake.
One of the goals of the Princeton Real Estate Blog is to make a lot of the information, previously not available to home buyers and sellers, accessible at their own time and convenience. Here are some articles that could be of interest.
15 Reasons you should not buy a home now ...5 reasons you should
What Did That House Sell For? January 2008
Who Else Wants Clarity About Real Estate Prices
Is Princeton Real Estate Local or Global?
Secrets To Buying A House In This Market
Secrets To Home Selling In A Bad Market
Photo by Jeremy Rich/Fancycanoe ____________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________
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This is a real estate market report feature of the Princeton Real Estate Blog I started this year, because people, even those who are not planning to buy or sell their homes, ask me about it so often.
This interest is understandable. There is a deep concern about what the state of the housing market means to all of us. Of course, some people are simply curios about what their neighbors sold their house for, which could give them the idea of the value of their home.
In this country the condition of the real estate market has an affect on many, if not most people, be it in the value of our own homes, real estate investments we have, rents we pay, or broader implications for the economy, jobs, etc. The news as reported by the media is confusing and often contradictory, and the clarity is hard to come by, something I wrote about before.
This view of the houses sold in February 2008 give us a bit of hard core data, that can help make more sense out of what is going on in the Princeton real estate market. I can provide information for home buyers and sellers and those who are simply want to be in the know. It can also be used by those sellers who decide to venture into the FSBO route, but with the caveat "at your own risk".
If you would like to know what houses sold in last months and at what price, you can find it here*
If you would like to learn more about the housing market in the greater Princeton area:
15 Reasons you should not buy a home now ...5 reasons you should
What Did That House Sell For? January 2008
Who Else Wants Clarity About Real Estate Prices
Is Princeton Real Estate Local or Global?
Secrets To Buying A House In This Market
Secrets To Home Selling In A Bad Market
* Information is based on the data in Trend MLS and is not guaranteed. ____________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________
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Should I buy a home in the Princeton area now or wait?
This is a question several Princeton Real Estate blog readers asked this week. I had to finally bite the bullet and answer, even if the answer is "I don't know", because I don't know you. 
Quite honestly, this post has been in a draft mode for a while for this reason. The goal of my blog is to answer important real estate questions for the Princeton home buyers and sellers. "I don't know" or "it depends" (in the words of my Phoenix colleague Jay Thompson) somehow didn't seem satisfactory. I am an expert, shouldn't I have a definitive answer. I do have an opinion. I am happy happy to share it with a buyer, after I understand more about him/her, because there is no "one answer fits all". It depends on the buyer's views, finances and where and why they are considering buying.
For my Internet readers whom I don't know, I will try to answer the question the best I could. I limit my points to the greater Princeton area market, although some concepts could apply elsewhere as well.
The first priority is to look at some of the reasons you shouldn't buy now.
You should not buy if you....
If some or all of the above applies to you, I don't think you should buy now. "Yes" answers to some of the above, could mean you should not buy at all. Some "yes" answers could mean you should wait. For example, if I knew exactly when the home prices would be at their lowest (which I don't), I would for sure wait till then.
Here are some reasons you should buy now...
The national media and the press would make you believe that somehow, there is a formula or a specific piece of information that could give you the magic answer. I don't think so. The answer depends on your finances, and your system of beliefs. If you are still undecided, you can learn more about Princeton real estate market in these articles.
How is the Princeton Market? - real estate statistics and analysis for January 2008
Princeton real estate -local or global ? - review of the differences and similarities in the local and national real estate markets
Princeton real estate statistics -2007 summary
Princeton area real estate housing prices - review of prices for the period of 2004-2007 for Princeton, Hopewell, Pennington, West Windsor, and Montgomery Township.
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Princeton NJ real estate expert, bringing 25 years of marketing know-how to make my clients' selling and buying a positive experience.
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