Episode 5 of Life and Living At The Jersey Shore


Welcome To Episode 5 of LIFE AND LIVING AT THE JERSEY SHORE

EACH WEEK WE TRY TO BRING YOU FUN, INFORMATIVE AND INTERESTING TID BITS ABOUT THE BEST KEPT SECRET AT THE JERSEY SHORE. . . SOUTHERN OCEAN COUNTY

HERE’S THIS WEEK’S MARKET BREAKDOWN: When you are selling your home there are some national statistics that I find pretty valid here in southern ocean county: It usually takes about 12 showings of your house before you can expect an offer; if you get no showings in the first 45 days of listing your home you are priced way too high…it means no agents in the mls are showing the home. If you get showings and no offers you are likely priced a little too high…agents see the value but the buyers don’t.
So talk frankly with your agent – unless it’s me, and then just nod at everything I say and we’ll get the job done

Fun Stuff In Ocean County This Week
February 10th - 11th – 12th Our Gang Players presents, Hello, Dolly at OceanFirst Theater, Stafford Township Arts Center, 1000 McKinley Ave. Manahawkin 7 pm. For more information call 609-597-0553 or www.ourgang.org

FEBRUARY 12 - 20 IS CHOCOLATE WEEK ON LONG BEACH ISLAND.
Chocolate Week On LBI includes dining deals, lodging specials and one of a kind events to make the Winter break a little sweeter. For more info call 609-494-7211 or visit www.VisitLBIRegion.com

Tom’s shameless plug:
You know, for the last 15 or so years I’ve been taking my cars to Mike’s Automotive on the corner of Hilliard Blvd and Rt 9 – near Southern Regional High School. Now, I don’t plug someone I don’t trust and when it comes to auto repair it’s hard to find a good mechanic who charges a fair price and is stand up honest. Mike O’Malley is that guy. Tell him I sent you… that’s Mike’s Automotive on Rt 9 in Manahawkin (609) 978-7291

CONGRATULATIONS TO OUR HAPPY HOME OWNERS

LUKE R. who purchased his home on 2/11/10 in Manahawkin

BRIAN AND LAURA who purchased their home on 2/11/08 in Egg Harbor

MY WISE ASS COMMENT OF THE WEEK:
What is a FORECLOSURE: I get a lot of calls from folks looking to buy foreclosures and that term is a misnomer. Let me explain: in NJ a foreclosure is another word for lawsuit. Now I’m not giving you legal advice here; I’m just giving you my take on how I understand the terminology. Basically, each state has their own rules on how a home can be taken back by a lender. There are “judicial states” and “non judicial states” the difference is also sometimes called “recourse” or “non recourse”.
NJ is a judiciary or recourse state. That means in order for a lender to take possession of the collateral you put up for a loan (your house) they have to sue you for breaching the contract (that’s the note attached to the mortgage). If you don’t pay your mortgage the lender sues and asks the court to take over the collateral and sell it to pay off your debt.
Once the court agrees (that’s when the lender wins the lawsuit) the court orders the collateral, your house, to be sold at auction to the highest bidder by the County Sheriff…that’s where you here the term Sheriff’s Sale.
At the Sherriff’s sale the lender will send a representative who will bid the amount you owe. If there are not higher bidders the Sherriff will then give the deed to the house to the lenders’ representative (usually the bank you have the loan with or a servicing company working for the lender). At that point (roughly) the bank now owns the house.
So for the sake of terminology at ‘foreclosure or pre-foreclosure” is any home that is in default (that’s if you haven’t paid the mortgage) or are in the middle of a foreclosure process (the lawsuit). Any home that has been deeded back to the back – after the lawsuit process – is called a “bank owed” or “REO”. REO stands for Real Estate Owned and is the term used by the banks to designate their inventory of homes. Just to complicated things a little more, gov’t owned properties go through the same process but since the gov’t agency involved (FHA, FanneMae, Freddie Mac, USDA, VA, etc.) backed the loan they take possession instead of the bank. For the most part they are still “lender owned”.
So Foreclosure and pre foreclosure mean the house isn’t yet owned by the bank. Bank owned and REO are actually owed by the lender/bank or government agency.
By the way, all of these properties are assigned and listed by local Realtors who then market the properties just like any other home…in the Multiple Listing Services, on realtor.com, youtube , facebook etc. Next week I’ll really screw up your thinking…I’ll be talking about short sales.



BEING A SMART HOMEseller IN 2011 MEANS:
BANISH THE CLUTTER! TRIM THE BUSHES! HIDE YOUR STAR WARS COLLECTION! TAKE DOWN THE FAMILY PICTURES!
WHAT THINGS CAN YOU DO TO PREPARE A HOUSE FOR SALE?
HERE ARE TIPS, HINTS, THOUGHTS AND IDEAS FOR SPRUCING UP, CLEANING OUT, DECORATING, STAGING, CREATING A GREAT FIRST IMPRESSION AND MAKING A HOUSE APPEALING TO BUYERS.


WELL, THERE’S ANOTHER 5 MINUTES OF YOUR LIFE YOU NOT GETTING BACK. OUR SHOW IS WRITTEN BY TOM “he really doesn’t shut up” SMITH, AMANDA “I need a raise to put up this guy” NICHOLS AND DONNA “I can’t believe I said ‘I do’” SMITH.
THANKS FOR VIEWING AND HAVE A GREAT WEEK!

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