Short Hills, NJ

"To do List:

1. Poo poo stagers report on Mom's unit.

2. Have brother put in writing that I am a model home interior designer and that what I did on Mom's apartment is pure model home strategy. (ugh! What do stagers know about design anyway?)

3. Call realtor to drop the price $20K.

4. Call estate sale woman to reschedule house clearance. Realtor says it will take a while to sell Mom's apartment. Guess the market really stinks up there.

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Juliet Johnson has been offering home staging services in New Jersey with often quite nice results. Here's a full price offer, opening weekend - 2 weekends ago:- (June 14, 2009)

What a white sofa from Ikea can do for a home! Not that I, as a humble stager, know anything about design!

Sometimes you walk into a home and just go "aaaaagh, how beautiful!  Can I tweak it, some?"  Such fun.

Isn't that tone on tone living room just to die for? I loved it and have been plotting how to have one in my future --

JulietJohnsonStaging has been home staging NJ in the luxury niche for 7 years. To see this and other elegant, sublimely livable Short Hills homes, please call Debbie Rybka-Howard at (973) 376-4876.

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/

The New York Times reviewed our very own

We have been going to Enzzo's since it first opened fifteen years ago. I will admit tho'...the fact the owner's name is Perri Urso is cool...can't say I meet many other Perri's spelled the same way.

The food is delicious and the restaurant is family friendly...always a plus.

Check out the review.

If you want to learn more about Short Hills call this Perri at 973.650.4727 or search on your own for Short Hills homes for sale

This week I attended the Inman News Global Connect Real Estate Conference in NYC, where Gary Vaynerchuk from the Wine Library's Keynote speech entertained us and inspired us.

I live in the Glenwood Section of Short Hills, so The Wine Library is around the corner from my house. Most Saturdays when I finish work, ( well, except today because its snowing), Peter and I go to for their weekly wine and cheese tastings.

After Gary Vaynerchuk's key note speech, I ran up to him during break and threw my arms around him even though we actually never met. I mean, he's my local wine guy and I'm his local realtor, right? Well, he knew me from my online presence, so that of course made my day since I think he's the most brilliant marketer around.

If you haven't listened to Gary before, he's famous for his wine library tv where he spits out wine that he thinks is awful ( yes, wine that is in his own store!) and has developed such a following for his brutal honesty. He thinks we should do this as Realtors.

Picture this - I preview a new listing at a realtor open house in Short Hills, then make a video stating how overpriced it is and how ugly the wall paper is. I tweet it out on twitter, blog it on my blog, do a blast it to the 7,000 people in my www.sueadler.com email database, and add it to my facebook profile. Then 2 days later one of my buyers wants to see it anyway- Hmmm, What are the chances of that homeowner ever letting let me in the door? - not to mention its a great way to make enemies of every listing agent along the midtown direct trainline towns.
I think what makes Gary so entertaining is the fantasy factor of what he does. I mean, I'm pretty good at coming out and just saying what I think to my clients, and doing it publically makes for great entertainment ( like winelibrary TV) , but I can't imagine pulling off what he gets away with and keeping a great reputation in the real estate world.

To see the video click here.

Sue Adler, Keller Williams Realty (973)464-9129 www.SueAdler.com