Colts Neck, NJ

I have officially jumped the shark with this blog -- to write about such an obvious Colts Neck New Jersey icon.

Delicious Orchards remains Colts Neck's most famous landmark on Route 34 South just past the intersection of Route 537. The grocery started as a roadside fruit and vegetable stand in the 1950's and is now the premier food store of Monmouth County. So "D.O." could be the oldest piece of Colts Neck real estate still serving its original purpose (discounting farms).

I remember the first day I entered Delicious Orchards: July 16th 1994. My daughter's 5th birthday and the day after we closed on our first Colts Neck home for sale. (Yes, we still live in the same house.)

Delicious Orchards offers a deli counter, an extensive cheese collection, a coffee-and-candy corner and home-made desserts, but people come to D.O. in droves for the fruits and vegetables. Yes, you can purchase cheaper produce; it won't taste as good. The store stocks over a dozen variety of apples and potatoes. D.O. shoppers enjoy fresh nuts and novelty items. The outside Cider Bar serves coffee, tea, sandwiches and soups.

I'm a sucker for these California dried nectarines and Apple Cider dough nuts. My boys glom the brownies.

D.O. is closed on Mondays and donates (I believe) much of its baked goods to local food banks. The store is open Tuesday through Sunday from 10:00AM to 6:00PM. Us locals avoid D.O. on the weekends due to the tour buses that rumble in. If you do frequent D.O. on either Saturday or Sunday, arrive at the store by 5:30PM when the crowds have cleared.

If you're heading down from New York just take the Garden State Parkway to the Aberdeen-Matawan exit and drive south on State Route 34. Watch for deer and guinea hens, though!

Interested in Colts Neck real estate or Colts Neck homes for sale? 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!

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.

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!

I've resisted blogging about short sales and Colts Neck, New Jersey homes for sale. It's not that I want to discourage buyers from my blog, that I want to admit that Liddy planned the whole thing without Nixon knowing, and that Fluff is not an essential protein.

Really, I want to lie. I can't. I'm a victim of the Pavlovian reinforcement of black-to-negative-and-red-to-goiter of my Cathoiic School education. No one wants their daughter to grow up to be a nun with jumper cables.

It's just that when it comes to "short sales" or "subject to bank approval" or "pre-foreclosures" or "Dingo-ate-my-mortgage" active Colts Neck single family homes for sale, we currently have two. Yes, two short sales.

• This one for $369,000 and this one for $850,000.

There are over 3,700 single family homes for sale in Monmouth County. Monmouth County comprises 52 municipalities. The number of short sales county-wide in the Monmouth County MLS System? Four hundred and seventy five (475) or approximately 13% of the inventory.

Translated, eighty seven percent of our sellers (one can surmise) are going to decide who is going to purchase their home. Not a bank. Not a pimply-faced REO manager and not that adorable-sounding Asian woman from the BPO Internet mill who keeps calling me to work for $35 an opinion and a coupon for three free car washes.

Forgive me but if she calls again with a sultry sinus infection or Tito Fuentes playing in the background, damn, I may take the assignment.

"You had me at hello, Operator #58."

The national media would have us believe that the Short Sale epidemic started on the Mayflower when Goody Proctor showed Revered Hale her patella behind the salted pig, wiped out Easter Island and mutated into Disco around 1974. Donna Summer's been off the radio and underground ever since.

Plenty of regions across the country are devastated by borrower defaults: Florida, Arizona, Michigan. I gain no humor from my glib tone. The Monmouth County short sale, thus far, is an infrequent visitor to more affluent areas like Colts Neck and Holmdel New Jersey homes for sale.

I wrote a blog about Holmdel, New Jersey homebuyers warding off disappointment when it comes to submitting discounted offers to stronger sellers. (Not a popular article. Perhaps because I wrote it in Latin.)

Monmouth County short sales priced lower than $350,000? We have those and I can help you get one. But bring the map and leave the canolli. Sonny would have survived that Turnpike set-up if he went through the exact change lane. The Don wants his Gloria Gaynor Greatest Hits 8-track tape back.

Now has anyone seen the peanut butter? I've got a hot date. Sister Eunice is going to teach me the electric slide.

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