Holmdel, NJ

Thank you Governor McGreevey ... again.

Hizzoner passed the New Jersey real estate millionaire's mansion tax in 2004, imposing a transfer tax on the New Jersey home buyer for the first time.

In the good old days a real estate agent could figure the sales tax on New Jersey (called the realty transfer fee) with a calculator.

Now we need a Cray supercomputer.

Governor Corzine followed McGreevey's lead and continued increasing the realty transfer tax to fill the Garden state coffers. The New Jersey Association of Realtors led a spirited campaign against the mansion tax but failed to wean Trenton off it's tax-and-spend teat.

Sellers (now millionaire buyers) pay the tax at closing.

What's happening in New Jersey? The rich are leaving. They're leaving in droves. New Jersey has lost over $70 billion dollars of wealth between 2004 and 2008. How does one quantify $70 billion?

It is the Gross Domestic Product of Vietnam. New Jersey is losing a nation's worth of wealth. Other states are aggressively recruiting our best and brightest.

Such a financial and professional drain of resources accelerates a whirlpool effect that does not disadvantage the wealthy (for they have already packed their Gucci bags and purchased their $5 million residence on the World Cruise) but adversely impacts the lower and middle class.

People who actually build stuff with their hands!

What use are the wealthy to a society other than suck the life-blood of the working man? Easy with the Socialist mantra coming from Washington D.C.

"Trickle-down" isn't so much a class warfare rallying cry as it is plain old common sense (Will Rogers coined the phrase during the Great Depression):

• The wealthy re-invest their earnings, typically in local projects where they can manage and grow their investments.
  
• They build bigger houses and so employ the construction trade. Re-assessment results in higher property taxes on the renovations, which in turn fuels education (not to mention the additional permit fees paid to the town and county). Close to 85% of local property taxes in Monmouth County go towards Education.
• When spurred by a business-friendly climate, the rich expand their local businesses and so create jobs.
• When a nation over-burdens its citizens with onerous taxes the government actually stimulates overseas investment instead of domestic re-investment.

I do know one niche that bucks the trend, that benefits from across-the-board increases in New Jersey taxes.

Moving companies are doing a booming business by packing up our New Jersey rich folk and taking them to Pennsylvania, the Carolina's, Texas and Florida. New Jersey doesn't just tax real estate and income; there's a hefty estate tax waiting for the affluent resident lucky enough to die here.

If you purchased a million dollar home in New Jersey what's the additional tax waiting for you at the closing table?

1% of the purchase price equal to or greater than $1,000,000.

So the purchaser of a $1,100,000 executive home in Holmdel, New Jersey, for example, can expect to pay an additional $11,000 in realty transfer tax. What if the home costs $990,000? No mansion tax.

You see the game within a game here.

Keep your purchase under one million dollars if you're shopping for a luxury New Jersey home. We have a new Governor now, Chris Christie. Let's see if the new Hizzoner can bring fiscal responsibility to Trenton and all residents of New Jersey.

• Would you like to purchase a million dollar plus Holmdel New Jersey home for sale? Click HERE to preview the complete inventory of luxury homes. Get ready to sign another check payable to "The State of New Jersey Treasurer."

• You want to keep your new home search in Holmdel New Jersey under $1 million and avoid any unnecessary taxation? Click HERE then.

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

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Some folks shopping for Holmdel New Jersey homes for sale include a fireplace in their list of "Must Have's" when selecting their next home.

Many buyers find a fireplace a plus when seeking to purchase a home, especially in colder climates where it can serve both an aesthetic and functional purpose.

If your fireplace is outdated, it can attract a buyer's attention, but not in the way you intend. If you are selling a home with a fireplace, it's important to look at it with a critical eye to be sure it remains appealing to buyers. Consider these ways to give your fireplace a makeover:

• While brick was traditionally used to surround a fireplace, many people are now using concrete, stone or marble.
• When deciding which type of material to choose, think about what will best complement the rest of your home.
• Marble would work well in a contemporary-style home, while a stone surround that extends up to the ceiling creates a rustic look.
• Once you've made your choice, take home a sample of the material you plan to use and let it sit next to your fireplace for a few days. This will allow you to see how it will look in different lighting as well as how it coordinates with the rest of the room.

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

• If you're a Holmdel, New Jersey real estate for sale by owner, you might find my real life analogy interesting.

Looking out the kitchen window I see the pool is covered under two feet of snow. Beneath the snow is a sturdy green-mesh tarp the pool salesman told me could support the weight of an elephant.

Maybe two elephants.

That first year I expected to maintain our pool until I realized I lacked the common sense. I learned the hard way. The children's dreams of swim-overs and racing contests evaporated under a green algae haze. Hot summer days passed, their dry noses pressed against the windowpanes.

"Stop this nonsense and call the pool guy," my wife insisted, "you're getting nowhere this way."

Defeated, I called the pool guy a week later. Not because the children begged me. Not because I saw a swirly swimmy thing coil beneath the scum.

Okay, so right about now I should seque into Holmdel New Jersey for sale by owner. A few more paragraphs please.

I called the pool guy because I nearly blew off my right hand.

You see I filled a floating canister with granular chlorine (tablets go into the dispenser, not powder). Right product, wrong application. (The pool guy would have known better.)

The tiny pellets interacted with the water, creating an instantaneous chemical reaction. Heat intensified inside the blue-and-white jug. A large hiss warned me so I dropped my homemade bomb back into the pool and ran.

BOOM!

A few seconds later the canister blew around me into tiny shreds of confetti. It shook the rear windows of the house. I still stutter when I tell the story.

Dear Holmdel New Jersey Real Estate For Sale By Owner (FSBO),

• The odds are you're not going to lose a limb from a For Sale By Owner sign.
• The odds are you're not going to find two elephants skinny-dipping in your pool.
• The odds are you're not going to fashion an explosive from household items like some dark-side McGiver.

Interested in buying or selling a Holmdel, New Jersey home for sale? E-mail Andrew at alenza@weichert.com or call me

on my Mobile (732) 580-0822.

Andrew J. Lenza, ABR GRI MBA Broker Associate

Weichert Realtors, 43 East Main Street, Holmdel New Jersey 07733. Office (732) 946-9400 Extn. 223

(c) Copyright, 2009. Andrew J Lenza

Want to search properties like a local Real Estate Agent anytime you want?

You could hire the "secret" listing agent or interview a listing broker with an online presence to buy or sell your Holmdel, New Jersey real estate.

Behind the oil furnace of 83 Woodward Avenue lay a corner so sooty, cob-webbed and musty we rarely dared to crawl back there. My father forbade it, said we risked getting jammed or worse -- forgotten. Today, it's still the scariest place I've ever experienced, right underneath the dining room floor boards. The same floor boards our dirty little feet barely scraped while we sat perched upon hand-me-down wicker chairs.

But if you were playing Hide-and-Seek against four siblings and the day's Champion won an extra helping of Cool Whip and raspberry red Jello, then you crawled back there. You curled up in a small ball, scraped your elbows against the concrete foundation and held your nose from the cat pee.

You heard feet rustle outside the room, the damper lid clank up and down when the oil-sucking behemoth chortled, dipping its iron beak into the tank line.

Then silence.

They stopped looking for you. Too creepy even for older tormentors. An hour later you crawled out of that hole victorious.

How My Childhood Memory Relates to Real Estate Today

For the naysaying real estate agent Social Media is the ominous furnace that swallows children.

The knock on Facebook, Twitter, Linked-In -- these are just fanciful Internet games real estate agents indulge in to avoid earning the old fashioned way. Frivolous portals the lazy and shiftless wile away peak work hours.

Not so. I can't imagine how one would succeed in Holmdel New Jersey real estate without these tools.

What is the daily goal of a salesman? To book appointments. There's no wrong way to book appointments. It took me a few years of selling real estate to exit the "Hiding" phase and enter the "Seeking" phase. Finding buyers, finding sellers, finding referrals, finding properties. That's what real estate agents do.

We find. The seller instructs us to "find" a buyer. The buyer instructs us to "find" a bargain.

Realtors without an Internet presence aren't even in today's digital Hide-and-Seek. Remember the stakes are bigger than an extra scoop of aerosol cream.

Forty three percent of Internet users who accessed my latest Virtual Access Tour for a Sleepy Hollow Freehold Township MLS Listing were referred by Internet applications I use to interact with

my personal network.

Social media outlets empower savvy Realtors to maximize the old adage: It's who you know.

The other 57% of homebuyers who accessed the tour came from behind the furnace: the scary, strange hole we call the Internet. We're in it right now. You don't know me and I don't know you.

Yet.

You're hiding. I'm seeking, but we should really be on the same side -- finding the next buyer if you're a seller. Finding the next bargain if you're a buyer. Wait, that's too generic. Finding the right Holmdel home for sale that qualifies for the $8,000 federal tax credit if you're a first-time homebuyer.

Okay, Mr. and Mrs. Consumer (let's say your name is Frank or Lisa) you can come out now. I knew you were back there all along, but unlike my backwards competition I'm not afraid to find you. At least you won tonight's Jello. Lucky you. Word upstairs is Mom's baking her world famous fruitcake for tomorrow's dessert. I call dibs on the attic hiding spot.

• Click here to preview Holmdel New Jersey houses for sale under $1,000,000. Call me for additional information on any of these Holmdel MLS listings.
  

E-mail Andrew at alenza@weichert.com or call me on my Mobile (732) 580-0822.

Andrew J. Lenza, ABR GRI MBA Broker Associate

Weichert Realtors, 43 East Main Street, Holmdel New Jersey 07733. Office (732) 946-9400 Extn. 223

(c) Copyright, 2009. Andrew J Lenza

Want to search properties like a local Real Estate Agent anytime you want?

Click HERE

to join Listingbook for the insider advantage!