The dog days of winter are here!!  But I’m thinking spring– longer days, green lawns and the first signs of budding trees and flowers.  It’s such a pretty time here in our New Jersey Midtown Direct communities.  It makes me think of all the great spring and summer resources like our fabulous farmer’s markets, summer concerts and festivals.  And come to think of it, summer is only 5 months away and many parents are now combing through the yellow pages and kids resources for the best area summer camps.

For some, camp is a way for generations of the same family to share similar memories.  And for others, camps provide kids with a chance to take a break from school and winter routines and have a few weeks of good old-fashioned fun.

There are plenty of good traditional camps in New Jersey.  I can personally speak about Stonybrook Day Camp in Randolph, NJ and Meadowbrook Day Camp in Long Valley, NJ where my daughter, Abby Seitchik, worked as a counselor for many summers and loved them.  A few other very popular area day camps include Camp Riverbend, Camp Harmony, Jeff Lake Camp, Gesher Day Camp, Willow Lake and JCC Camps.   Some favorites for toddlers include Mini Camp at Far Brook and The Connection.  I have heard hundreds of wonderful, fun-loving stories from friends, neighbors and clients about how many of these camps were monumental in the development and growth of their children.  Oh, I wish I were a kid again!!

Today, many camps specialize in one particular area like sports camps, art camps (Creative Hands Art Studio, The Messy Artist, The Visual Arts Center of New Jersey, Montclair Art Museum Summer Camp) girl scouts, drama camps (Dreamcatcher Repertory Theatre, New Jersey School of Dramatic Arts, Acting with Emily), computer camps and the list goes on.  Ultimately, it comes down to the right fit for your child, location, timeframe and structure.  So do a little research, take a visit and you will be amazed at the wonderful choices right here in New Jersey.

Believe it or not, many have application deadlines coming up very soon!  With so many good ones to choose from, it’s hard to know where to begin….

Hoping this provides a little help from someone who’s been there many times.  Happy camping!!

Sue Adler

The SUE ADLER TEAM website The SUE ADLER TEAM website

I just received  an email marketing a listing from a NJ Realtor that made me want to write this post.

There was a QR code in the email that says ” Scan this with your smart phone.. links to a listing website”  WHY would I do that? Wouldn’t it be easier for me to click a link to the listing than  grab  my iphone, go to the app, and  scan  her QR code on my computer? Even if I were on my iphone or ipad, it just seems easier to click a link. Am I the only one who feels this way?

Hey, I really get technology for real estate and consider myself an early adopter, but it annoys me when I see how not just agents, but many industries use certain tools for the “cool” factor and just embarrass themselves by using them all wrong.    My favorite is the facebook or twitter icon on a billboard.. like you can actually click through.  OK, back to topic…

Seems QR codes have the ‘IT” factor going for them right now but from a practical stand point, I get how it could be great in some industries, such as a QR code next to a description of a bottle of wine on a menu, leading to reviews and a full description of that wine ( thanks to Rob Hahn for showing a great example of that on facebook) .

As a real estate consumer, if you  were interested in learning more about a property, price, etc..   if you saw a QR code on a real estate sign in any of our New Jersey Midtown Direct Train Line Towns,  would you ….

1. call the free recorded message telling about the property?

2. call the agent’s direct line?

3. pull over, go to your QR code reader app ( if you have one) and scan  the code to see the photos?

4. google the address to to see the photos?

5. use another real estate app that you already have to see the photos?

If you’re looking for a house, please respond. It would help me as well as the other realtors in the industry understand the consumer thought process.

Another scenario…… you walk into an open house, or see a house with your Realtor, and the property brochure on the dining room table house has a QR code. Would you use that to access the floor plan or additional photos at a later time? Or would you just use the direct link, for example: www.sueadler.com/42Tillou that is on the brochure for more info once you’re back to your computer? I’m really curious so if you wouldn’t taking a minute to respond, I’d greatly appreciate it.

Yours to count on,

Sue

The SUE ADLER TEAM website The SUE ADLER TEAM website

Looking for a playground in New Jersey?

Sheila Sayah has created www.NJPlaygrounds.com – all from exploring New Jersey’s playgrounds as a great way to keep her 3 toddlers busy. She recently joined Amy Lamperti of www.theplaygroundguide.com and together they have provided parents a HUGE playground guide.

Here are links to playgrounds in our New Jersey towns:

Chatham which is known for Castle Playground and Memorial Park.

Livingston Community Center, Littell People’s Park by Livingston High School

Maplewood has Memorial Park, which is in a centralized location to Maplewood Village and Maplewood Train Station.

Millburn – There’s Gero Park, right by the Millburn pool, and Taylor Park, located in town.

Madison – Visit Dodge Field, walking distance to Madison Train station.

South Orange – Farrell Field

Summit – Wilson Park, Mabie Playground, and my favorite – Memorial Field.

New Providence – Morris-Union Joint Venture Playground

Westfield – Tamaques Park, Memorial Park, and Mindowaskin Park

Berkeley Heights – Snyder Ave Park, Columbia Park

Click here for an Indoor Playgrounds!

Go ahead… “like” NJ Playgrounds on facebook and stay up to date on New Jersey Playground News!

The SUE ADLER TEAM website The SUE ADLER TEAM website

Every year in our NJ Midtown Direct Town neighborhoods we can count on certain houses  getting decked out for Halloween. I live in the Glenwood Section of Short Hills and our neighborhood refer to the house in the video as “The Halloween House”. That home is for sale now and when I went on the listing appointment, we even said, ” Oh, it’s the Halloween house!”.  Now The Glenwood Section, much like the South Mountain Section, is a haven for trick or treaters because you can cover alot of houses in a short period of time. The kids quickly figure that out.  When the weather is nice, we go through as many as 12 bags of candy! But the parents are all outside drinking wine, so no one’s really counting.

One year, the day AFTER Halloween, my daughter and her friend decided to visit every house in Glenwood with their emptied pillowcases, telling the unsuspecting homeowners, ” We were sick on Halloween and couldn’t go out. Do you have any extra candy?”…. and of course – this is the day after Halloween when homeowners were anxious to get rid of their excess candy,  people emptied entire bags of candy into their pillowcases.  Pretty smart 4th graders, eh?

So witch Halloween stories come to mind for you?

The SUE ADLER TEAM website The SUE ADLER TEAM website

Calling all classic car enthusiasts and anyone looking for a fun day and night on the town! Rev up your engines, appetites and enthusiasm for Wheels and Wishes, a car show, auction and more, taking place near your Westfield home. This exciting day will be full of unique fun and entertainment that will benefit the Make-A-Wish Foundation of New Jersey. Complete with a live auction of collectible and memorabilia items as well as an evening event, come prepared to be dazzled by this car show’s events. Whether you live in Westfield and enjoy car shows or just want to try something new for the Halloween weekend, Wheels and Wishes is where you want to be. The Car Show will be held at the Westfield Armory (across from Westfield High School).

The fun begins with the Car Show Saturday October 29th at 10 a.m. and the Car Auction will take place from 11 a.m. to 6 p.m. Tickets are $5 for the day event. $1 of each ticket sold will be donated to the Make a Wish Foundation of New Jersey. Kids under 12 are FREE. The Evening Event will be held from 8 p.m. to midnight and will include music and dancing along with food tastings from over 25 of Westfield area’s finest local restaurants and eateries. Tickets for both the day and evening events are $30 each, all inclusive. $6 of each ticket sold will be donated to the Make a Wish Foundation of New Jersey. For more information, click here.

The SUE ADLER TEAM website The SUE ADLER TEAM website

I’ve been fortunate to speak at several major real estate conventions over the years, but this time, I was lucky to have the King of Video, Kenn Renner, on stage with me because he filmed our whole panel!

Ben Kinney and Cary Sylvester interviewed us about how we have dominated our local markets with our web strategy and use of videos. I discussed my community videos and how they attract relocation buyers who will be working in NYC, want an easy commute to work and great schools. The reason buyers stay on sueadler.com typically more than 5 minutes,  is because the site gives the real estate buyers and sellers the information they are typically researching –   commute, schools, home sale stats, restaurants and shops, recreation, community blog posts, seller blog posts with staging and pricing tips, and of course listings with floorplans and tons of photos. But it’s the community videos that make our buyers fall in love with our towns and make them want to come in and see it all in person. Do you agree?

We also discussed SEO and the fact that only after a couple of months, my new website is at the top of google for most of my towns, which is pretty cool considering how new it is.  BTW, if you’re on google plus, go ahead +1 the site if you like it. Thanks  I also do pay per click advertising for my www.LatestNJlistings.com site, which is my NJ home search site. I made a point to the Realtors in the audience that they need to make sure not to just throw money at pay per click advertising unless they have a website that has “stickiness” with great content that people won’t just click out of. Also, they need to have a great long term follow up system in place or they are just throwing money out the window.

We discuss my new chat feature that we just  added for everyone who is browsing the site. If  my team and I can be there to answer someone’s questions while they are on my site, I’ve found that people are so appreciative, especially in this day and age where everyone has ADD  and would also like to stay anonymous.

If you have any suggestions for the site, I’d love to hear. Are we missing anything?

Aside from all of the  national and international referral business I get from speaking ( which amounts to 4 or 5 new clients a week) , this is what makes it all worthwhile: My favorite tweet:

Want to follow all of the other twitter chatter?  Enter #kwmc in the search bar.

Thanks Keller Williams for allowing me the opportunity to share, and learn from the other top agents in our amazing company. Believe it or not, when I spoke at my first Mega Camp back in 2006, I was so terrified of public speaking that I would have rather jumped out of a plane, but now I really look forward to it!

The SUE ADLER TEAM website The SUE ADLER TEAM website

10 Reasons why you should move from Manhattan to our awesome New Jersey towns….

1. NJ Transit- Midtown Direct Train gets you into New York Penn Station in 25-50 minutes from South Orange, Maplewood, Millburn, Short Hills, Summit.  After Summit, the trainline branches off to: Chatham, Madison, Convent Station…  and the other branch heads to New Providence and Berkeley Heights….   If you click on link above, you will see parking options whether you live in one of these towns or one of the surrounding towns. Need to commute to downtown to the financial district? Just take the train to Hoboken, and then the path or ferry.

Oh, did I mention that there is valet parking at the Millburn train station, and that there is a jitney bus to get you to and from the Maplewood & South Orange train stations during morning and evening rush hours?

Great Schools

2. We have great public schools! 2010 New Jersey School Report Card

3. Our towns are absolutely charming and beautiful. They are SO not like the New Jersey stereotype. Each town has its own personality(and different sections within each town do as well), and you’ll find that living here you will frequent all of the surrounding towns for different things from shops to restaurants to theatre to fitness centers to art, piano or karate lessons.

Town Tour Videos

Town Tour video of Millburn & Short Hills

Town Tour video of Maplewood & South Orange

Town Tour video of Summit

Town Tour video of Chatham

Town Tour Video for Livingston

4. There are very active Newcomers Clubs in each of our towns. A great way to meet other newcomers & put the “bourbon back in suburban” is to attend the Octoberfest or Spring Formal. My husband and I STILL go to the monthly wine tastings at the Millburn/Short Hills Newcomers Club because we’ve made so many new friends at this event. Newcomers Club Sample Activities, Activities with Children

5. We have lots of Golf Courses in New Jersey . Prefer tennis instead? There is the Racquet’s Club in Short Hills or the Orange Lawn Tennis Club in South Orange. You can join for tennis or just get the social membership. There are always tons of activities going on. But the cherry on the top is- each of our towns has its own town pool, a relatively inexpensive and popular option.

6. Contrary to Manhattan real estate, in New Jersey, we have a Multiple Listing Service (MLS), so ONE realtor can show you all of the listings in the Garden State MLS.  Search all MLS listings now

7. Cars today have navigation systems, so you can wander around our beautiful winding tree-lined streets and not get lost if you move here.

Short Hills Pond

8. We have beautiful parks, arboretums, the South Mountain & Watchung Reservations, and local dog parks in Millburn and Livingston. You can go to Millburn Deli and stroll through their parking lot into Taylor park to eat, and relax to a concert or movie in the park as well during the summer.

9. We have a variety of great restaurants!

Scalini Fedeli in Chatham, La Focaccia or Fiorino in Summit and Bascilico in Millburn are my favorites for Italian. For Asian/Thai food, I recommend Khun Thai or Samuri Sushi in Millburn or Monster Sushi in Summit.  If you love a juicy steak, Roots in Summit is really great ( reserve early!), and for Happy Hour, there is Winberries in Summit, and Martini’s Bar and Bistro in Millburn, or head over to Toro Loco in South Orange. If you would like to add your favorite restaurants to this post, please comment!

10. You are not, I repeat… ARE NOT… allowed to pump your own gas in New Jersey. Is that great or what?!?

The SUE ADLER TEAM website The SUE ADLER TEAM website

Just released : the 2010 New Jersey School report card  

 Our local NJ schools continue to be strongly ranked - Millburn, Livingston, Chatham, Madison, Summit, Berkeley Heights, New Providence and others are among the top ranked New Jersey public  schools.   So listen up all you suburbia-phobic New Yorkers – come in for the town tours, and visit our great schools….. OK, ”free” may be arguable since you’re paying for it in your taxes,  however, it’s still less expensive than New York private schools, and only a 25 to 45 minute direct train into midtown Manhattan.

The SUE ADLER TEAM website The SUE ADLER TEAM website