Recently I posted a question on my Facebook page asking, “Which Leadership books have had the biggest impact on you and why?” and I received many, many fantastic responses from my Realtor friends across the country, local New Jersey friends and clients, and even best selling authors.    Comments varied from Steven Ligon’s, “At the risk of sounding trite, the Bible…the best examples of servant leadership are in the Bible. There are also great examples of leadership failure,” to Alex Charfen who said, “Think and Grow Rich, Born to Run, Unlimited Power, The Fighter’s Mind, Where Have all the Leaders Gone?, Power vs. Force : some of these are not considered leadership books but they should be. They have all had a profound impact on my life and business. ”

Short Hills resident, Caroline  Updyke and others really liked The Seven Habits of Highly Effective People, stating, “It’s about character and principles and it’s one of my all time faves,” and best selling author of Seven Levels of Communication, Michael Maher, agreed and added dozens more to the list, including multiple biographies. Maher suggested you can find some great inspiration from Abraham Lincoln, Winston Churchill, Mother Teresa, and many other leaders.  After a conversation with Adam Hergenrother, I started Psycho-Cybernetics, which is absolutely a life changing book. We even got a response from Mindy Hager, Gary Keller’s executive assistant on Gary’s favorite Leadership books: Optimal Stress  byCarol J. Scott, M.D. , Practice Made Perfect  by Roberto Moretti , Margin  by Richard A. Swenson, M.D., and Mastery by George Leonard .

Check the full list  below from my facebook friends and feel free to subscribe to future posts, friend me, and/or add a comment to this post below and list YOUR  favorite leadership books, too!

• Personal Leadership
• How to Win Friends and Influence People
• The Greatest Salesman in the World
• One Minute Manager
• No BS Time Management for Entrepreneurs
• Servant Leadership
• Good to Great
• Leadership & Self-Deception
• How to become a person of influence
• Think and Grow Rich, Born to Run
• Unlimited Power
• The Fighter’s Mind
• Where Have all the Leaders Gone?
• Power vs. Force
• 6 Steps to 7 Figures by Pat Hiban
• The Dream Manager
• Great
• Winning
• Getting to Yes
• Think & Grow Rich
• John Maxwell books, including The 21 Irrefutable Laws of Leadership
• The Travelers Gift
• Mastering The Rockefeller Habits
• Art of War, Sun Tzu
• Leadership and Self Deception
• The Prince
• Psycho-Cybernetics
• AdaptAbility
• Mastering the Rockefeller Habits
• Leadership and self deception
• Lord of the Flies
• Optimal Stress
• Practice Made Perfect
• Margin
• Mastery
• 5 Dysfunctions of a Team
• Entreleadership
• The Bible

The SUE ADLER TEAM website The SUE ADLER TEAM website

This past Friday I held my 6th annual Client Mix and Mingle Party at the Racquets Club in Short Hills, NJ.  I hold this every year to show my appreciation and so that my clients who have just moved to the area can meet new friends. Thanks to everyone who attended! I hope they all made some new connections in their neighborhood. I know at least one group has already made plans for a “Girls night out”.  I’m really grateful for the friends I’ve made through my business and my team and I had a great time catching up with everyone.
Additionally, we had numerous interesting doors prizes graciously donated by our local businesses, some of whom are also our clients. I’d like to publicly thank and recognize these businesses for their generosity, and it’s my pleasure to help promote them to our community.
Steve Lupton (who was one of our sponsors for this event. Thank you Steve! He’s helped many of our clients get mortgages and has been awesome!)
ISB Mortgage Co., LLC
A Subsidiary of Investors Savings Bank
249 Millburn Avenue
Millburn, NJ 07041
908-522-6500

Leah Gomberg
Sweet Life by Design Home Staging
www.sweetlifebydesign.com
leah@sweetlifebydesign.com
973.762.3100

Pam Carlson
Ready, Set, Organize!
www.ready-set-organize.compam@ready-set-organize.com
973.818.4718

The Conscious Plate
www.TheConsciousPlate.com

Chaos to Cash by Carrie Green
Carrie Thru
www.CarrieThru.com

The UPS Store
55 Union Place
Summit, NJ 07901
908.273.7000

The Wine Library
586 Morris Ave.
Springfield, NJ 07081
www.winelibrary.com
973.376.0005

Steven Hockstein
AHM Architects
www.ahmarchitects.com
973.258.0800

Thank Greg for going above and beyond and donating a Complimentary Teeth Whitening with consultation, to EVERYONE at the party!
Greg Scheier, DDS
90 Millburn Ave.
Millburn, NJ 07041
www.familyandpediatricdentistry.com
973.762.1110

Bernadette Armiento
Shining Life Nutrition
www.shininglifenutrition.com

Etya Novik
Respira Salt Wellness Center
472 Springfield Ave.
Berkeley Heights, NJ
www.respirasalt.com
908.665-0333

Susan Krien
Happenstance Creations
www.happenstancecreationsstationery.com

Tracey Stephens
Tracey Stephens Interior Design, Inc.
37 Harvard Street
Montclair, NJ 07042
973.744.8947
tracey@traceystephens.com

Amanda Gifford Cobb
Brown Dog Inc.
www.sitandstaytionery.com

Joe Gill
Deb’s Handy Husband

www.debshandyhusband.com
jgill@debshandyhusband.com
973.820.5176

Lori Cicali
Heights Insurance Agency

Naim Bulbulia, Esq
Hartmann Doherty
nbulbulia@harmanndoherty.com
973.467.1325

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

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

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

Our team website, sueadler.com, has been spotlighted in a recent article by Diverse Solutions, a California based company dedicated to providing leading edge technology to real estate, and I wanted to share the good news with you! Click here to see the full article and find out about how our website can help you in finding a home in New Jersey. Reviewing our interactive custom map, complete with train route information, Diverse Solutions, explained that it provided a way to instantly “engage” website users who want to live in New Jersey. They also loved our choice of colors and clean design and our custom quick search which allows website visitors to quickly conduct a search for the New Jersey home that most closely matches their needs and interests. We love the fact that Diverse Solutions took the time to even evaluate our many videos which help you to preview our towns in Chatham, Millburn/Short Hills, Summit, Maplewood, South Orange, Livingston, and Madison.  Our videos are a great way to check out each town, especially if you are relocating. Be sure to tell your friends who are interested in buying or selling real estate in New Jersey, we’d love to help them settle into one of our towns, whether they prefer a home in Chatham or to live in Millburn/Short Hills.  We’re here to help!

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

If you are planning on selling your home in Millburn, Short Hills, Summit, Maplewood, South Orange, Chatham, Livingston, Berkeley Heights or New Providence,

here are a 7 tips to help you prepare so that you’re not scrambling last minute.

1. Construction Permits: Go to your town hall and make sure that any construction permits have been closed out. Even if you haven’t taken any out, the previous owners may have.

2. Underground oil tanks are THE hot issue these days, especially when you’re selling an older home.  If you don’t have proof that an oil tank  has been removed on your property, have a tank sweep done. (I’ve got a list of names if you need recommendations)  If you have record of a tank having been decommissioned, be aware that most local buyer’s attorneys are asking for them to come out anyway because there is an arguement that unless the tank is removed, you can’t test the soil beneath it. Now I’m not an expert, but I’m only making you aware of what will most likely come up so, you may want to be proactive and take it out ahead of time.   Buyers just don’t want the liability.

3.  Pre-home inspections: For homes that haven’t been updated in several years or need alot of work, have a home inspection done by a reputable home inspector prior to putting the house on the market and provide to buyers as an attachment to the seller disclosure. Either fix anything major, and state that in the seller disclosure, or sell the house in as-is condition. This will avoid buyers renegotiating your already discounted price. Even if your house has been updated, but you haven’t had an inspection done in several years, it’s not a bad idea to have a pre-listing home inspection that you attach as part of the seller disclosure. This way you have the option of fixing  issues ahead of time, and all other issues will have been disclosed. Surprise free inspections are a good thing!

4.  Check your mortgage balances - home equity lines of credit count!  If there is a possibility that your home’s value is less than your mortgage balance, and you don’t have the funds to make up the difference, we can  guide you through the process and help you with your options.  Same if you are behind in your payments. Foreclosure should be your LAST resort. Short Sales are a better way to go!

5. Before you start investing money fixing your house up for sale,  consult with a Realtor. For example, last week I was called out on a listing and the homeowner had just spent $8,000 updating her bathroom. However in one minute, I knew that the property was worth more than the house and that it would most likely be a tear down grabbed up by a builder. She basically threw that $8,000 away.

6. Staging: Paint colors matter. Light matters. Furniture matters. Clutter matters. Staging matters more than ever because the first impression today is online, not in person. Just watch some of the staging shows on HGTV or look at the photos of my listings and you’ll see what I mean. Here are some real life home staging examples: I’m happy to offer advice on this. And if necessary, will recommend  a professional stager. Whenever I list a home that didn’t successfully sell with another Realtor, 9 times out of 10 the house was not staged properly for the photos. It’s crucial today.

7. Exterior Photography: If there is greenery outside, my photographer will take the exterior pictures of your house in advance if you’re planning on  putting your house on the market during the leafless winter months. If it’s already winter ( which it is as I’m writing this post), then don’t worry about it. No one else’s exterior shots have leaves on the trees anyway.

The busy selling season will soon be underway and what you may not be aware of is that my pre-listing consultations are  free of charge and no obligation, so if you’re trying to figure it out on your own, that’s just plain silly

Sue Adler  #1 Keller Williams Team in NJ 2005-Present (973)464-9129  www.sueadler.com

The SUE ADLER TEAM website The SUE ADLER TEAM website

Today there are a so many ways to find a home from a google search of (ex) Short Hills NJ homes for sale, to plugging in an MLS number, to searching Realtor.com, Trulia, Zillow, or the numerous  IDX searches on real estate company or agent websites, inviting you to search all New Jersey homes or search the GSMLS  ( Garden State Multiple Listing Service).

So you end up registering on various real estate search sites.  But how do you know which Realtor to work with and help you navigate through the home buying process here in NJ?

1. You want to see house when you want to see houses. Agents who are solo may say to you, “I’m not available. How bout next week?”  When you work with The Sue Adler Team, this doesn’t happen. Someone on our team will always be available to accomodate your schedule with reasonable notice.

2. Local Market Knowledge: During your first conversation with the agent, ask questions about neighborhoods, schools, train and other commuting info, specifics that you are interested in knowing about. You’ll know in 2 seconds whether the agent you are speaking with is the local market expert and can help you with all of your options.

3. What are you looking for in a Realtor?  When The Sue Adler Team works with home buyers, we are your advocates. Our job is to help you get what you want. We view ourselves as your  consultants, your strategists, your advisors.  We will always tell you the truth and will always provide you  with enough information so that you can make an informed decision about your home purchase.

Ask the realtor you are interviewing how proactive they will be in finding you a home.   For example, because The Sue Adler Team has a marketing staff, we have the resources to find homes for our buyers before they hit the market. We take a pro-active approach instead of just waiting for new listings to appear in the MLS. We are happy to explain how we do this.

To find out more, contact The Sue Adler Team (973)464-9129 or vip at sueadler.com .

Sue Adler Team #1 Keller Williams Team in NJ 2005-Present http://www.sueadler.com

The SUE ADLER TEAM website The SUE ADLER TEAM website

Hiring A Real Estate Lawyer in NJ: Your advocate or Your deal killer?

In New Jersey, when a contract to purchase a home is signed, it is not binding, until it’s out of “attorney review”. What this means to a buyer is that another buyer can come along and outbid you during this period. And to sellers, it means that your neighbor’s house with the new gourmet kitchen can come on the market and lure away your buyer. This is why its in the best interest of all parties to hire competent REAL ESTATE attorneys who will protect their interests with protective clauses, and at the same time get them out of attorney review quickly.

Sounds simple, right? Well, if you follow this advice, you will be protected, and also have a much smoother transaction.

1. Hire a recommended LOCAL REAL ESTATE attorney, Notice I didn’t just say attorney. They should ONLY be practicing real estate law. A local lawyer will know what’s customary. If you’re purchasing in Short Hills, Summit, Chatham, Maplewood and other towns in our area, they will know when to add a clause in about an oil tank sweep. They’ll know which areas have had flooding issues. They’ve dealt with zoning,permits in Millburn, Summit or Maplewood town halls and are familiar with the local home inspectors and their reports. They know who to call for asbestos removal, and they know reputation of different builders, etc…. I have 4 real estate attorneys who I work with on a regular basis who really know their stuff. Email me & I’ll pass along those names. Its not a bad idea to interview a few attorneys before choosing one to see who’s style works best for you.

2. Before hiring the attorney, find out if he/she will be going on vacation any time during the next few weeks or if he/she has anything going on which will affect availability. NOT Returning phone calls & not responding to attorney review letters in a timely manner is one of my biggest pet peeves. I know that the lawyers I work with on a regular basis will NOT put my files under the pile on their desk. You need to feel confident that the attorney you choose will be available to you.

3. Inspection “Requests” or Inspection “Demands”…. Make sure you approve the attorney’s letters before they go out. I have found that when I’m trying to get through inspection issues with my buyer, sometimes the attorney “inspection demand” letters (which I would prefer to call “inspection requests”) are worded so strongly, that it immediately puts the seller’s in a defensive mode. When I bought my house in New Jersey ( after having sold real estate for many years in Philly, where we handled everything ourselves and rarely used attorneys), I used the attorney recommended by a friend, instead of one recommended by my realtor. Big mistake. She shot off letters without my approval, and when I read the harsh sounding “inspection demands” letter, I found myself calling the sellers and apologizing for the threatening tone of the letter. Afterall, didn’t our parents teach us that you catch more flies with honey?

Over the years I have categorized real estate attorneys into 4 types:

First: “My way or we kill the deal”,

Second: ” I’ll fight for whatever my client wants no matter how unreasonable the request may be, and NOT advise him. I’m my client’s puppet.”

Third: “I don’t have the time to be bothered with returning calls. I’m too busy.
Oh, closing is tomorrow? Oops, I forgot to order the mortgage payoff. ”

Fourth:” I am my client’s advocate, and at the same time, it is my job to advise my client on what is reasonable. If I can’t get anywhere with the other lawyer ( who is type 1,2 or 3), I’ll have my clients work it out through the realtors. The smoothest transactions are when we are all working together to resolve the issues in a timely manner.

Which type of attorney would you like to represent you?

Sue Adler is the #1 Keller Williams agent in New Jersey, specializing in towns with 20-50 minutes from NYC. Visit www.SueAdler.com , the ONLY real estate site you need for New Jersey real estate.

The SUE ADLER TEAM website The SUE ADLER TEAM website