There is an abundance of misinformation about credit scores. The information below is accurate, thanks to Rich Hirsch from Mortgage Masters.

 1. The Players

• Beacon atEquifax

• FICO Risk Score atTransunion (Empirica)

• Experian/Fair Isaac atExperian

2. Main reason for FICO Scores is to predict your chances of default on a specific loan.

•     Scores range from 300-850.

•     Scores below 620 are considered high credit risk

•     Scores over 660 are below average risk

•     Scores of 720 or above are considered excellent.

 3.  How are the scores weighted?

• 35% is established from your payment history, collections, and public records.

• 30% is established from outstanding balances being carried on your accounts.

• 15% is based on your length of credit history. It is better to have credit for longer timeframes, so that a history is built up on your record.

• 10% is established around the type of credit you have.

• 10% is established around your request for credit (credit inquiries), meaning that every time you apply for credit, your scores are impacted within certain FICO rules.You can, however, apply for as many mortgages and car loans as you want, as long as they are in a 14-day window. FICO allows this because they are big-ticket items.

This information is provided by:

Rich Hirsch|Mortgage Master Inc.

Phone: 908-410-9066 |eFax: 908-325-0018

rhirsch@mortgagemasterinc.com

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

I’ve been in the business since 1983, when the interest rates were about 14% and on their way down.  Since that time, I’ve seen fluctuations in home prices, lending practices, mortgage rates and so much more!  I don’t remember ever seeing the stars lined up so perfectly for qualified New Jersey buyers.  If you are interested in financing a  midtown direct home in New Jersey, take note of the following current rates.

As of Sunday, November 6th, 30 year home loan rates are averaging 4.08% and 15 year home loans are averaging 3.37%.  30 year jumbo home mortgage loans are down as well, averaging 4.49% and 3.73% for a 15 year loan.  3 and 5 year conforming adjustable rates are down as well, and 7 and 10 year rates have remained stable, while 1 year conforming adjustable rates have seen a slight increase.

These rates allow more buying power for clients interested in our New Jersey homes, while rental prices continue to rise.

In this fall market, prices are down further in our Midtown Direct Train Line Towns than they are in the spring because there is less competition at this time of year. As a matter of fact, every house I’ve ever bought has been in the fall market. That happens to be a coincidence, but I CAN say that I would have paid more for my houses if I had waited for spring.

My point is,  the smart buyers are actively looking for homes and making offers because they see that this is opportunity time.   I don’t want to mislead you into thinking you can buy ANY house at ANY price because this is not the case, but if a seller is realistic and motivated to sell the house that YOU happen to like, then you will do better now, then you will in the spring when there are more buyers competing for the nicer houses.

Remember, a house is not just a financial investment. It’s a lifestyle investment for your family – schools, neighborhood, where you make your memories, so if you can find that now, with these low interest rates, and know that you will  live there for 5 or more years, then let’s sit down for a consultation and see if buying now makes sense for you.

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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!

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Whether you are buying or selling real estate in New Jersey, you can benefit from having an understanding of the local market.  The average listed sales price of a Maplewood New Jersey home for the month of August, 2011 was $327,400, with a median sales price of $517,500 for sold Maplewood homes.  Housing inventory has decreased in Maplewood when compared with  August of 2010, with 144 active listings being reported for the last day of August for Maplewood versus 161 in August of 2010.

The average listed sales price of a South Orange, New Jersey home for the month of August, 2011 was $422,000, with a median sales price of $397,000 for sold South Orange homes.  Housing inventory has decreased in South Orange when compared with August of 2010, with 110 active listings being reported for the last day of August for South Orange versus 134 in August of 2010. The big complaint of most buyers right now is the lack of inventory in these towns which are in such high demand, with their easy commute into Manhattan.

The number of closed listings for both areas combined in August was 52. The average number of days a home was on the market was 67 days in Maplewood and 112 in South Orange. If you would like to learn more these statistics, please click here for Maplewood and click here for South Orange. These statistics only include the current listing information gathered from GSMLS, so this report does not represent a full history of the property listings.  If you need information about the history of a specific listing, please call us at 973.552.2419.

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Whether you are buying or selling real estate in New Jersey, you can benefit from having an understanding of the local market.  The average listed sales price of a Millburn/Short Hills, New Jersey home for the month of August, 2011 was $1,250,000, with a median sales price of $947,926 for sold Millburn/Short Hills homes.  Housing inventory has decreased in Millburn/Short Hills when compared with August of 2010, with 94 active listings being reported for the last day of August for Millburn/Short Hills versus 107 in August of 2010.

The average listed sales price of a Summit, New Jersey home for the month of August, 2011 was $740,000, with a median sales price of $860,000 for sold Summit homes.  Housing inventory has increased in Summit when compared with August of 2010, with 96 active listings being reported for the last day of August for Summit versus 100 in August of 2010. The big complaint of most buyers right now is the lack of inventory in these towns which are in such high demand, with their top schools and easy commute into Manhattan.

The number of closed listings for both areas combined in August was 64. The average number of days a home was on the market was 42 days in Millburn/Short Hills and 56 in Summit. If you would like to learn more these statistics, please click here for Millburn/Short Hills and click here for Summit. These statistics only include the current listing information gathered from GSMLS, so this report does not represent a full history of the property listings.  If you need information about the history of a specific listing, please call us at 973.552.2419.

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Last week, The Sue Adler Team was named #103 in the “The Thousand!”  This article is published every year by The Wall Street Journal and Real Trends, Inc. and highlights the Top 1,000 real estate teams in the United States. We are so excited to be a part of that exclusive list for 2011!  The teams are chosen based on the  amount of dollar volume   for 2010, and The Sue Adler Team is the only NJ Real Estate Team to be named on this list.

The Sue Adler Team strives daily to bring you the best possible consumer experience in New Jersey real estate and it is thrilling to be recognized not only through the numbers, but also through realizing how many people we have helped.  Each closed transaction represents a midtown direct buyer or seller, a satisfied customer and a new friend.  For that we are truly grateful.  Thank you, our clients ,friends and many supporters who have recommended us, for your continued support and referrals of the Sue Adler Team and for helping us to reach such amazing goals.  We could not achieve these milestones without you!  To see the latest article rankings, please click here  http://realtrends.com/products/top-1000-sales-professionals/team-volume.

The SUE ADLER TEAM website The SUE ADLER TEAM website

This past month, Top Agent Magazine contacted me for an interview. Recognizing us as one of the top producing teams in the country, they wanted to know more about our innovative marketing and social media strategies, and the amazing results they have brought to our clients in our   New Jersey Midtown Direct Train Line Towns. This was the focus of the article which you can read here.

Our new website was once again brought up as a key tool to help relocation buyers understand commute times between our New Jersey towns and New York City, and our videos and robust community pages were highlighted as well!
The article pointed out that 43% of our business last year came from internet marketing strategies and with the new website and other services we are now able to offer our clients, that number will increase this year.

The main point of the article is that real estate has become a skills based business… pricing first and foremost, negotiating, staging advice, online marketing strategies, and having long term “action plans” in place so that transactions run smoothly.

I run my business like a business. By hiring a team of specialists and consultants, I’m able to have the best of the best in the industry as a part of my team.  This way our buyer and seller clients can always keep their pulse on this changing market because we are able to provide the home, community, and market stats to them on a regular basis and become their connector to their new community. We are also able to manage the transaction from pre-list to close because Dawn, our Transaction Manager, has contractors and the important people in town hall on speed dial - Dawn makes it happen!

I tend to get the credit most of the time, but I really want everyone to know that without my admin, consultants, and buyer specialists, we could never offer our clients the level of services we are able to today.

Enjoy the article and and dont hesitate to contact me with any questions.

Yours to count on,

Sue

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Now there is even more national recognition for Sueadler.com!  Chris Smith from InmanNext interviewed Jim Marks, CEO of  Virtual Results about his “websites that work” and featured my new custom New Jersey real estate site as an example.

When Jim and I discussed how this site was going to be built, we had the Midtown Direct Trainline Town home buyer and seller in mind with each and every page.  Most of our buyers move here from Manhattan, Jersey City,  Hoboken or Brooklyn.  I joke that there is usually a dragger and a dragee out of the city and aside from the house, their priorities are often great schools, direct train for easy commute, and a walkable town.

So….. We built sueadler.com for the buyer relocating to New Jersey who isn’t sure yet which town to call home. Our interactive map has commute times to NYC, links to all of the community info including town tour videos with locals discussing the community, and links to all homes for sale in Millburn, Short Hills, Summit, Chatham, Madison, Maplewood, South Orange, Livingston and surrounding New Jersey towns.

Keeping both buyers and sellers in mind, on each of my listings, we pulled in the corresponding community information. For example, on www.sueadler.com/38rollinghill, you will notice a community video of Chatham, the Chatham blog posts, and the Chatham yelp reviews, as well as Chatham school and commuting info.

What I have discovered is that home buyers go to real estate websites and may see a nice house, but they have no idea what the community is like.  We designed this site with the intention of providing the whole package. And our sellers are thrilled to have their New Jersey homes featured in this way, so it’s a win for everyone.

A huge thank you to Jim Marks and the Virtual Results Team.  And to Chris Smith for giving sueadler.com national exposure!  Click here to see the article or watch the video.

The SUE ADLER TEAM website The SUE ADLER TEAM website

If you are looking for a fantastic time to buy a home in Millburn or Short Hills or real estate in any of our Midtown Direct towns, now is the time to move quickly! Interest rates have decreased making you able to purchase New Jersey real estate for less or even qualify for more of a home in Chatham than you originally expected. The average 30-year fixed rate mortgage loan has dropped to 4.39%, the lowest rate since last November 2010. Even more exciting news is that buyer competition is really low due to vacations and that sellers want to sell now with the new school year approaching, to find their new homes before Fall.   Freddie Mac also reported that an average 15 year fixed loan has decreased to 3.54%, as well. Regardless of your mortgage product, these rates create a great buying market for people who want to live in Midtown Direct New Jersey homes.
The national economic slowdown is partially responsible for this change in lending rates, however Frank Nothaft, vice president and chief economist at Freddie Mac found the silver lining and shared good news for home sellers, as well. “On a positive note, there were indications that the housing market is firming. Real residential fixed investments added growth to the economy in the second quarter after subtracting from growth over the first three months of the year,” Nothaft said. ” The CoreLogic® National House Price Index rose for the third straight month in June (not seasonally adjusted) and was the first three-month gain since June 2010. Finally, pending existing home sales rose for a second consecutive month in June and was up nearly 20 percent from June 2010 when the housing tax credits expired.” So whether you are a buyer or a seller, this could mean great news for you and our local New Jersey housing market.
For up to date news on the mortgage industry, click here or email me your question. I’ll be sure to fill you in on what you need to know when purchasing or selling your New Jersey home!

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