Sue Adler www.SueAdler.com

People always ask me ” Sue, how do you do it? How do you sell so many houses in such a bad market?” Well, check out the video below and meet my real estate coach. I make sure to use his tactics with all of my clients. Follow link below, watch and enjoy! http://njexperts.com/2009/07/12/a-little-real-estate-humor/

March 13th, 2009 by Sue Adler
Categories: Livingston, Maplewood, Millburn-Short Hills, Selling a home in this market, South Orange

Its quite common to see homeowners and especially home sellers in Short Hills, Livingston, Maplewood, South Orange and other Essex County towns appealing their assessments these days since prices have come down. It can really have an impact on your sale if your taxes are too high. If you're thinking of selling your home in the next year, and your assessment is higher than you think it should be, then now is the time to apply for a tax appeal. If you miss the April 1st deadline you have to wait a whole year and that could affect your sale if your taxes are out of line.

Read rest of this post http://njexperts.com/2009/03/13/april-1-deadline-for-essex-county-property-tax-appeal-is-fast-approaching

I've lost my job. Now what?

February 4th, 2009 by Sue Adler
Categories: Short Sales & Foreclosures,

When job loss occurs, the effect on families can be absolutely traumatic. I feel I'm taking a risk by discussing this so openly because its such a sensitive, personal topic to so many people but I don't think I could live with myself unless I get this information out there to people who may need it.

If job loss has affected your family, its important that you examine the answers to these questions:

1. Check your monthly expenses against how much money you have in savings.

2. How many months can you live in your house at these current monthly expenses?

3. What is the likelihood of finding the same paying job? And to take that a step further, how long could it realistically take to find another job?

4. Have you called your mortgage company? As long as you can prove hardship, today banks are often modifying mortgage balances and mortgage interest rates. But is this the best long term solution for you?

Let's say that you bought your house 2 years ago for $1,000,000. You got a mortgage of $800,000. The market for your house bears about $850,000 now, and you have about 6 months left of monthly expenses without going into your retirement funds. If you wait 2-3 months to put your home on the market, then your risk is that you could be putting yourself in a distress situation if the market comes down further or you can't sell your house or both. At that point, without employment it will be hard to find a rental if you can't show proof of funds for the term of the lease. This is another reason waiting is not a good idea.

I can't stress enough how important it is to seek advice right away from a GOOD realtor or attorney you trust to advise you properly before you find yourself in this position. The biggest eye opener to me is how quickly things can change and most people don't realize this.

If you can no longer make your mortgage payments, get your house on the market right away and submit your financial hardship package to your bank. The LAST thing you want to do is let your house go into foreclosure. You can avoid this by selling during the "short sale" or "pre-foreclosure" period!

Here are the MAJOR differences between foreclosures and short sales. Differences that can greatly affect your future:

See rest of this article: http://njexperts.com/2009/02/04/ive-lost-my-job-now-what/

So you need to commute to NYC and you can't spend $1Million on a house??? Check out these GREAT New Jeresy neighborhoods - in these midtown direct "walk to train" locations!

February 1st, 2009 by Sue Adler
Categories: Buying a home in this market, Chatham, Communities, Commuting Info, Madison, Maplewood, Millburn-Short Hills, South Orange, Summit

What a day! 3 open houses on our three new listings - Two are getting at least one offer, and we had 27-30 people at each one. All three of these homes are priced in the $500's. My team was also booked all weekend with buyers. What does all of this mean?

1. There has been so much pent up demand for great AFFORDABLE homes that the nice ones that are priced right are flying off the market.

2. The entry level market has now come down to a level where buyers can jump into the market. Of course the low interest rates have added the cherry on the top.

3. Even in a "buyer's market", you will always be able to re-sell a well priced home with close proximity to trains to NYC. This is what most buyers moving out from NYC are looking for.

4. Has this segment of the market hit bottom?

So where can you find these more affordable homes? Below are neighborhoods in each of the midtown direct trainline towns that are under a mile to the train.

• South Orange - South of South Orange Ave, there are two neighborhoods that are easily walkable and you can find housing that won't break the bank. The area between Walton Rd and Wyoming Ave is one ( Conway Ct, Rynda, West End Rd, Lenox Ave to name a few streets) and the streets surrounding Seton Hall University are the other. North of South Orange Ave there are the Hart Dr ranch homes, and further north you can occasionally find a smaller home nestled amongst the larger ones off of Wyoming Ave. The same would be true of the Montrose Section.

• Maplewood- Much of Maplewood fits the bill and that's why so many buyers move here from Park Slope, Brooklyn, and NYC. East of Valley Rd, across from Memorial Park, is very popular among the "walk to train" crowd. Here are two examples: www.sueadler.com/35Kensington and www.sueadler.com/36Madison Houses within a few blocks of Maplewood Village may be in the $500k-700k range, but they don't seem to come on the market very often. There are homes on Jefferson Ave and some of the surrounding streets such as Brookside Rd, have sold in the $500k's and 600's as well.

• Millburn- The South Mountain Section and Wyoming Sections are the two largest neighborhoods that are "walk to train, town, Taylor Park, Wyoming Elem or South Mountain Elem, middle and high school ". There are also many small streets off of Millburn Ave that are close by as well.Homes range from the $400k's to the 800k's with a few exceptions in the South Mountain Section.In the Wyoming Section you can easily find homes in this range, but there are also more expensive homes over $1Million.

• For rest of this article visit http://njexperts.com/2009/02/01/cant-spend-1million-check-out-these-great-new-jeresy-neighborhoods-in-these-midtown-direct-walk-to-train-locations/