Millburn, NJ

You can say anything, right?

If you're reading this, you are part of the publishing revolution. you are either participating as a reader of mostly free content or are an active blogger yourself. The blogosphere has likely revolutionized publishing forever. It has officially toppled governments and there is no putting that Genie back in the bottle.

Just ten years ago anyone with something to say would need to submit their work to a publisher, who was strictly in control of distribution. Unless we’ve been living in a cave, we know today the web has allowed a meritocracy in publishing. Anyone can post anything and it’s instantly available to everyone. What is most interesting can go viral and what is not gets relegated to the forever archives of Google.

The good news is that most of the dross is easily filtered out and what’s left is the golden age of expression.

What is the responsibility of a blogger, though? Is a blogger a writer? Is a blogger a journalist? Does a blogger deserve protection of the press because he or she ‘published something’? Are a blogger’s sources protected if he or she behaves like a journalist, whatever that means?

What is the bar we must set for ourselves as active bloggers? Can we puff ourselves to attract business as marketers and still call ourselves objective interpreters? Can we subtly trash the competition as politicians and still say we’re market leaders? Can we say anything then deny any responsibility because we merely repeated sources which we cannot reveal? Are we just feeding the never looked at archives of Google?

Any first year law student will tell you that liberty is not doing whatever you want, but is closest to doing what you ought. Off course most of us will disagree on what that pesky ought means much of the time, and therein lies the rub. We all know the first amendment doesn’t allow us to scream fire in a crowded movie theater if there isn’t a fire, but things get murky pretty quickly beyond that.

What is the bar for bloggers?

What is the bar for Realtor bloggers? That one almost feels like a double edged sword. Off course we want you to buy or sell a home with us, so where is that line drawn? Do we need a disclaimer at the bottom of every site warning readers as we would a consumer information statement?

Many questions, not so many answers.

My take is that most readers are not gullible and self aggrandizing stunts reek from a good distance. Write well by trying to beat the good writing of others, and that ups all our game. Come from a place of genuine service and value add and the goodies will come if the service and value add are truly meaningful. That is meritocracy at it’s best.

Our Goal is excellent customer service, continuos improvement and we strive for perfection!

Whenever I hear people or companies' goals for excellent customer service or striving for perfection, I can't help but feel how those statements are lip service that let people off the hook.

Someone can offer terrible service while striving for perfection. Companies can stink but as long as they stink a little less than they stunk yesterday, they are true to their continuos improvement mission.

Getting a knife stuck into me and then having it pulled out halfway probably isn't going to make me very grateful. How many times do we feel that way in our everyday life while surrounded by 'striving' to be the best euphemisms?

Our typical semi-annual foray into Nordstroms coincides with their two sales. On a recent visit, a salesmen showed us a pair of slacks, which were similar to the kind we'd already bought and thought didn't wear very well. The salesman chided us for not having brought the slacks back. We smiled and said we had bought them years ago. No matter, he said. Bring 'em back. We exchanged them a few weeks later (feeling a bit silly). This is not a commercial for that one retailer, but it is noteworthy because:

1. We've been trained to accept that if something is just OK, it's good enough.
2. We felt silly for somehow expecting that they would take them back years later even after being told to bring them back.
3. We only shop when there are sales, so it's not any costlier than other retailers who would simply shrug their shoulders.
4. we got a new pair of pants for free.

Would I pay a little more for that? Hmm….Would I write about it? Hmm...

This is the difference between a guarantee (remember those?) and a warranty. We've conceded guaranteed satisfaction with accepting a warranty against manufacturing defects. I know as well as anyone that paying a premium for great customer service upfront is hard to justify sometimes. it's not all that hard to justify after the fact when the proverbial fan splats, or even when there are minor issues like this one.

What is our ultimate responsibility to great customer service? Is it a strive, or is it a do?

How Buyers Can Find Their Money Sooner is a reprint of our blog from 2009.

This topic is still one of the least understood concepts by so many buyers that we decided to update and re-post it.

One of the scariest financial mysteries to many home buyers surrounds the tax advantages of mortgage interest and property taxes. Although most buyers conceptually get that there are advantages to home ownership, the actual numbers don’t generally make their way into most people’s financial planning and typically come as pleasant news at tax time. The news turns less pleasant when buyers who weren’t aware of the tax advantage realize they might have made other decisions (specifically affording more house) than they really did.

Buyers that do understand these tax advantages can lower their monthly withholdings and get the advantage when they need it most: when paying their monthly bills.

The Basics:

If a buyer earns $100,000 per year and pays 20% taxes, they must have withheld $20,000 throughout the year to not owe anything. If our buyer has $25,000 in deductions (reductions to their gross income), their taxable income would be reduced to $75,000.

If we can assume the same tax bracket, their tax liability would then be $15,000, which is 20% of $75,000.

Can that $5,000 provide a nice refund? You bet it does, however it can also serve another even more important purpose many people don’t consider. Our buyer can decrease his withholding by $400 a month ($4,800 to make the math easy), and essentially have an extra $400 in hard cash to pay for their mortgage or other living expenses.

This is not Enron monopoly money. This is simply figuring out your taxes for the coming year and adjusting your withholdings so they match your taxes prospectively.

I certainly grew up thinking about tax refunds (a retroactive adjustment) as the only option but I learned this was not the only way to think about it. For me, it was not even the best way to think about it.

Taking a real world scenario where a buyer has a 30 year $400,000 mortgage at 5%, the interest the first year will be $19,866. Now let’s assume a realistic yearly property tax of $10,000. This creates a simple gross income deduction of $29,866.

Having this deduction can be thought of as a traditional refund or as having an extra $500 a month by withholding less! Plug your numbers into the live spreadsheet below to see how your interest and taxes can be used monthly. 

Speak with your accountant to validate how this affects your particular situation as Uncle Sam doesn’t like people not withholding enough to cover their taxes. Do it well however, and you can use the money when you need it and break out even at tax time. Talk to your accountant, then talk to us!

Vote here to keep the Millburn Kindergarten program as all day. Anyone who has kids, or anyone who has seen cranky parents that have kids knows just how little a half day program gives a parent.

There is a better way and there are other ways to conserve that don't impact the already impacted family core!

Vote!!!!