West Orange, NJ

BE CAREFUL, AVERAGE PRICE DOESN'T TELL THE WHOLE STORY.

We produce The Beacon report for West Orange residents and want to reproduce portions here. In the last issue of The Beacon we reported a 15% price drop in the average sale prices of residential homes when comparing the first half of 2009 with 2008. Now, we’ve expanded the view over a three-year period (right). Our town peaked in 2006 with an average sales price of $491,836 between July and September. The big freefall began in early 2008 when the average sales price plummeted from $463,743 to $381,664 within nine months, causing an 18% drop in the average sales price.

There are also some myth-busters here. Myth: You will get your highest price only in the Spring market. You get more buyers in the Spring market, but you don’t always get the highest price. It’s more than just the time of the month, it’s what’s happening with interest rates, lending practices, government incentives and the world market. The highest price in 2007 came between April and June, which means for a house to be sold during these months the owners could have received an offer in February, March, or even a little earlier. The next price spike came with closings in the first quarter (January—March) of 2008, which means an owner received an offer during the winter. This shows that the traditional logic that a seller will only get the highest price for a home in the Spring market just doesn’t always apply anymore in West Orange.

To figure out how much a house is worth use the average price in town and/or what the neighbor’s house sold for. In West Orange, you can easily find two houses on the same block with a $50,000 or more difference in price. We discuss average prices because that is how the nation and the market tracks real estate. However, we can’t show it all here, but the abbreviated chart below gives a general idea of the huge price gap we are experiencing in town and how going by just the average price in town can be very misleading. If it wasn’t for the newer, high-end construction and the private gated community of Llewellyn Park the town’s average price would be lower: 50% of our sales this quarter are under $350,000. Sales taper off after you pass $450,001 and our true sweet spot for sales really doesn’t make it too far pass $400,000.

Sellers between $500,000 -$600,000, and even at $450,000, are truly feeling the pressure of proving their value because buyers are all but disappearing. They are going to the competition in Maplewood and South Orange now that their housing affordability range increased and our taxes continue to feel unbearable to many. For example, two West Orange houses sold between $450,001-$600,000 in the first quarter this year compared to 14 in Maplewood and South Orange combined. If a West Orange house exceeds $600,000 it is either new construction, a complete new renovation, or very well-appointed AND in a prime location.

One hundred sixteen single-family homes sold last quarter according to the Garden State Multiple Listing Service: 43 sold in July, 36 in August, and 37 in September. For a copy of this full quarterly sales list, send a quick email. Keep this information handy and pull it out when you’re thinking of selling or talking with real estate agents. Most don’t track the market and take the time to know what’s really happening the way we do. You just may know more than them. If you want to learn even more about the market and how you can play to win, give us a call at 201 647 6144 or send us an email anytime. We can also send you a copy of our previous issue that provides an analysis of the West Orange real estate market for the first six months of 2009.

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Only you know when a town is right for you. You may like the city life or the country life; or somewhere in between. In a town like West Orange, New Jersey you can get a little bit of both; it's really up to you how you enjoy the great community living. Every town has its pros and cons, but we moved here a few years ago and hopefully we will welcome our grandchildren to the West Orange house we live in now (our children are only 9 and 11 now) and keep it in the family for generations to come. That's how much I like where I live. A neighbor was driving around town the other week and took a few pictures of our neighborhood in the midst of Fall. I have shared a couple here. To see them all visit the St. Cloud Neighborhood Group page on Facebook.

I was just walking our dog the other day and spoke/waved to others as they jogged, walked or drove by. I chatted with someone else new, too. At our halloween parade, I just stood out talking with neighbors for quite awhile as my husband took the kids around trick o' treating. It's fun and relaxing to catch up with neighbors, to know the kids next door babysit for them. We needed to borrow a lawnmower the other week and it wasn't a problem at all. Today, my husband helped the neighbor with the leaves. That's the great community living atmosphere I enjoy here in West Orange, New Jersey. That's why I never have a problem promoting West Orange, NJ or the nearby towns of Maplewood, South Orange or Millburn-Short Hills. Each one gives its own community feeling and each person has to find the one that's right for them.

I also adore the annual Halloween parades each of the elementary schools do around here every year. The kids really do just walk around in a circle a few times while the parents ooh and aah. Then they go back to their classroom and have some type of party and come home psyched.

The West Orange schools distributed this YouTube video on the great halloween performance the Roosevelt Middle School principal and teachers did for the students. You must watch it.

We all know, schools are a personal choice, too. Many go to the public schools but others go to private and parochial schools. There are many options to choose from.

Just as there are options of where to shop like the many downtown areas each town has or Livingston Mall, The Mall at Short Hills and the dozens and dozens of stores on Route 10. Many people like West Orange, Maplewood and South Orange, New Jersey because they like the close proximity to the highways like Interstate 280, New Jersey Turnpike, Garden State Parkway and the Holland and Lincoln Tunnels. They like being able to get to the bus and train station quickly to get into New York City or around the area.

We bask in culture all around us, too. Nearby cultural highlights include the Newark Museum, the New Jersey Performing Arts Center, the Montclair Art Museum, and the Paper Mill Playhouse to name a few. We enjoy the many golf courses, Turtle Back Zoo, hundreds of acres in the South Mountain Reservation and the Codey Arena. Some say you don't need to live here to take part in these things. You don't. But it's the convenience of feeling like you are 15 minutes from anything to satisfy any mood you have and when you walk out the door or in your door, you know you can sit back and relax because you found home and it feels good. If you ever need a tour around town, give us a call at 201 925 8199 or contact us. We love to show you home.

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Whether you celebrate Halloween or not, you probably wouldn't mind celebrating being in the company of friends and friends to be. That's part of what Halloween is all about in West Orange, NJ especially the St. Cloud section of town.

We have lived here for years and we have always looked forward to the annual Halloween parade that began about seven years ago. We all meet at a corner and walk a few blocks together. It's a great way to see neighbors and meet some new friends. It's a time when we get to step from out of our doors and really chat with people, wave, and pass on a well wish or two. And, no, we don't forget the candy. Kids, and kids at heart, are sure to complete the St. Cloud Halloween parade with boat loads of candy and cheer.

Some neighbors had music playing, others had their animals in funny costumes. Even with the little rain drops we just kept on going.

We got the signs up, posted the news on our St. Cloud neighborhood Facebook Group page and hundreds showed up again. We look forward to getting this going for years to come.

Halloween in the St. Cloud section of West Orange, NJ was definitely a place to be. Community spirit shined bright.

Whether a buyer is looking to purchase a home in South Orange, West Orange or Maplewood, New Jersey -- or anywhere else in the nation for that matter -- the top three places buyers found their home last year were: the internet (32%), a real estate agent (34%), and a yard or open house sign (15%), according to the National Association of Realtors.

This is why part of our Bev & Bob Method to selling includes an advanced virtual tour as part of our 45-point delivery system. Check out this tour to see the difference. You'll see various options at the bottom. One is the Space Designer that allows a buyer to place furniture throughout the house just the way she wants. This helps the buyer to personally begin to make the house more of a home for her and to start to become more attached. The Style Designer does something similar, letting the buyer change the colors of the walls, floor, and trim of a room and even the cabinets and countertops in a kitchen so he can get a feel of how the house could look when he moves in and does it the way he wants. With this tour, the seller gets to see what is working. A report tells you how many people viewed the home, which rooms they viewed and where the visitor came from.

Since we know buyers search on the internet the most when looking for anything related to purchasing a house and focuses on the internet when it's time to actually buy, we make sure when they find your house, they truly can get a sense of all your house and area has to offer.

From delivering the advanced virtual tour, to blogging about it, to getting your house on at least 30 websites, and so much more, contact us to experience the Bev & Bob Method to selling and you can get sold, too.

As part of our 45-point delivery system, we provide one of the most extensive exposure plans to market a house than anyone around and we deliver consulting services that simply can’t be beat.

Call us in. We bring results and the best peace of mind you’re able to have. Partnering with us, you’ll know you’ve done everything possible to sell your home for the highest price available today.

An educated consumer is our best client and partner.

A buyer doesn't choose a house because the real estate agent listing it is part of a company that has over 100 real estate agents. The buyer purchases the house because he/she was able to find it and it meets their needs at the right price. At Towne Realty Group (TRG), we bring the house to the buyer and the contract to the seller.

People ask us why we moved from a big company to a smaller boutique one. We always say it's not the number of people a company has but how satisfied you are and what that company does for you and delivers to you.

So we just smile when a person tells us they have to go with a particular real estate agent or company because they saw their sign or because the company is a national brand. We smile because we know they are unfortunately picking someone to represent probably the most valuable asset they have, the most money they will transact, without doing any research or really knowing how the market works.

According to the National Association of Realtors (NAR) 2008 Profile of Home Buyers and Sellers study, the internet is the #1 place buyers go to do their general home buying research and where they find their first home.

When Buyers are on the internet NAR says the top 4 places they look are:

1. Area Multiple Listing Service - for our area this is GSMLS.com
2. REALTOR.com
3. A real estate company's website
4. A real estate agent's website

With TRG we bring your house to the buyers like no other can. We think out-of-the-box to deliver the type of creativeness that can bring more interest and buyers to look at your house.

Just 3 examples:

1. TRG is the first to run color inserts in local newspapers to promote our clients' houses, making them stand out above the rest.

2. We insure your house will be on over 30 internet sites. There are not too many agencies around like TRG that can say your house will be on over 30 internet sites -- and this doesn't include the multitude of other real estate agency and agent sites that will automatically receive a feed of your listing so your house will show up on all of their sites, too.

3. Bob and I deliver an advanced virtual tour that few others do. Visit the ultimate tour and see how a buyer can decorate a room and change the paint color by playing around with the Space Designer and Style Designer options at the bottom of the screen.

Towne Realty Group is a place where we can be the Best we can be. Sounds campy doesn't it? But, true. We don't have any corporate constraints on what we can do. We can try new things without the hassle of red tape or many meetings to get approval. We actually get together and brainstorm, constantly. We actually help each other out. We're not fighting for a call that comes into the office because we each receive all of our calls for our own listings. This insures the owner that the person who knows your home the best, the person you actually hired, is the only one answering questions about your house.

When you're looking for a real estate agent, see how they make their seller's house look online because that's where the buyers are first. See how many places you can find it. Said another way, do you want the class valedictorian leading you to a successful sale or just one of the classmates. With Towne Realty Group you get the valedictorian -- you get us.

So when people ask why we left a big real estate agency last year for a boutique one: it enables us to sale the best; to deliver the best marketing, consulting and negotiation capabilities to bring a successful sale to our client's door. As two full-time agents in this business for the long haul we chose the company we keep carefully; shouldn't you?

An educated consumer is our best client and partner.