It has long been said that you don’t simply marry a person, you marry into a family.  It can also be said that you aren’t just buying a house; you’re buying into a community.  You may find that the community in which you live makes you feel more “at home” than the actual house you choose to buy.  Your choice of community is even more important than your choice of house.  As a Montclair NJ realtor, I can tell you this is a great community to invest in no matter what home you choose.

One way of checking out the health and vibrancy of a community is by checking out the local festivals and parks.  Essex County has a huge and active parks department that is integral to the community.  The Essex County Department of Parks, Recreation and Cultural Affairs serves all 22 of the county’s municipalities by maintaining over 6000 acres of open space.  This acreage includes undeveloped areas as well as numerous neighborhood parks, an arena, a zoo, an environmental center and three golf courses.

The department doesn’t just maintain open land.  It is also responsible for many special events and on-going programs.  The Cherry Blossom Festival and Summer Concert Series are two popular annual events.  The department also hosts programs for children and their families as well as seniors and it supports the local arts community.

Upper Montclair is hosting one such arts festival this month.  Fine Art & Craft at Anderson Park will take place, rain or shine, on September 11 and 12 from 10:00 am to 5:00 pm.  It’s free to the public and offers a unique opportunity to meet the artists and learn more about their work.  Over 140 artisans will be participating.  This juried art show promises to transform Anderson Park with hand crafted jewelry, photography and all manner of arts and crafts. A variety of food vendors will be tempting you with treats both sweet and savory.  It’s sure to be the highlight of the fall.

Local parks can also have a pronounced influence on your home’s resale value.  Homes within walking distance of a clean, well-maintained, thriving park are almost always seen as more valuable and sell at a higher value.  Ask any Glen Ridge NJ realtor about the incredible park system in Essex County or just go explore a few on your own.  The health of this community is evidenced by this thriving system.

You can call it a loan modification, a restructuring or a mortgage modification.  All these terms mean the same thing.  The idea is that a lender works with the borrower when the home owner is facing serious financial trouble and cannot meet his mortgage obligations.  The lender chooses to work out a reduced mortgage payment rather than to foreclose on the home. 

When you are house hunting with your Glen Ridge NJ realtor, this is probably the farthest thing from your mind.   If you become suddenly unemployed, face a costly illness, have made a poor choice resulting in unaffordable payments or otherwise fall behind in your mortgage you may need to know how and when to restructure.  Remember, your lender is not obligated to modify your loan.  However, most would rather work out a plan to keep payments coming in instead of taking over a home that could languish on the market.

Eligibility
If your mortgage is taking up more that 38% of your monthly income, you may be eligible for a loan modification.  You may also qualify if your home’s market value is less that the total owed on your mortgage or mortgages.  If you are at risk of defaulting on you loan you might be able to secure a modification as well. 

Some borrowers will not be eligible for modifications at all.  Speculators or investors cannot secure a loan modification for their investment properties.  Loan modifications will only be made on properties that are owner occupied.

Securing a Modification
The first step in getting help is to ask for it.  Call you lender and ask for the loss mitigation department.  Explain your situation with complete honesty and condor.  This is not the time to sugar-coat your situation.  Document everything.  Keep track of each person you speak with and the matters you discuss. Your notes will be very valuable, especially if you do face foreclosure later. 

A HUD-approves counseling agency may also be a good place to call for advice.  HUD-approved counselors will not charge you for their assistance.  Be very wary of anyone who asks for payment up front to reduce your loan payments.  Homeowners in financial trouble can make easy marks for con artists and scammers.  If it sounds too good to be true, it usually is.

How and Why
Lenders may change rates or adjust balances to modify a loan.  They could also change the term of the loan or any other factor to make it more affordable.  So why would a lender agree to take less that the originally agreed-upon payment?  Government incentives make this more palatable for the lender.  In addition, the lender doesn’t want to get “stuck” with your home.  They are in the business of selling loans, not houses.  They are losing money for every day a foreclosed home stays on the market.  At least with a modification they get a good portion of the payment.

You can usually avoid loan modifications and foreclosure by being a careful buyer.  Ask your Montclair NJ realtor about setting housing budget that won’t get you into financial trouble.

Summer may be winding down but the temperature won’t be dropping for a while yet.  The mercury continues to rise during August and sometimes even into September.  If you have listed you home with a Montclair NJ realtor, you’ll want to make it a cool retreat for potential buyers to enjoy.

Staging your home is the art of getting buyers to see themselves living in your home.  You don’t want them to see your current life; they should see their future.  You want them to see a warm, cozy spot in the cold winter months and a cool, comfortable haven in the hottest part of the summer.  Staging should be appropriate for the current season.  Here are a few tips to keep you and your prospective buyers feeling cool as a cucumber till fall officially arrives.

Paint
Choose light, airy colors when you repaint.  Lighter colors with a cool tone reflect the sunlight in a pleasant way.  Avoid dark shades.  They seem out of place in the summertime.  Pick colors in the blue to green family to make a room feel cooler and more soothing.  Reds and oranges are considered “warm” colors and may make a room seem hot and closed in, even if it is not.

Art and Accessories
Your art and accessories should reflect the season, too.  You’d probably never put out your Christmas decorations in August or your favorite Easter basket in November.  Take a look at your paintings in the same way.  Switch out the winter landscape scene for a more suitable summer one.  Put away heavy, dark accessories and try a bowl of seashells on the coffee table.  A few bright floral pillows give life to a sofa or chair and make it seem more friendly and inviting.  A few white or cream slipcovers can give dark furniture a much-needed pick-me-up.

Fans
Using a few fans can keep the air flowing in your home and make it feel cooler.  You can put them on a timer for showings.  This will have the added bonus of freshening up the air, too.

Thermostat
It’s important for your home to be truly, physically cool for showings, too.  Even if you’re trying to cut back on energy costs, you will need to keep the house cool for showings.  Install a programmable thermostat to keep the house at a cool temperature when you need it and a money saving one when no one is home.  Make sure you schedule showing with your Glen Ridge NJ realtor for when the house is coolest.

It can feel as hot as a desert in the summer.  When you’re selling, make your home an oasis for your buyer.

It’s often said that kitchens and baths sell houses.  That saying didn’t become common because it wasn’t true.  Your Glen Ridge NJ realtor will want to talk to about updating your kitchen if you are selling.  The market is competitive and strategic updates may make a quick sale.

Most sellers think they either have to spend a fortune gutting their kitchen or just leave it to the next owner.  Neither option is really wise these days!  You’ll be glad to hear that there are options for updating that won’t bust your budget or leave your buyers wishing for more.

Paint
It sounds simple but a fresh coat of stain blocking primer followed by a new layer of paint will work wonders in a kitchen.  Degrease any stains and splatters before painting so they won’t show through.

Backsplash
If your backsplash still features barnyard animals, it’s time to update it.  There are many cost-effective options like glass and ceramic tiles or stainless steel.  Stay true to the feel of the kitchen to avoid a style clash.

Sink
A new sink will make the whole kitchen feel cleaner.  Rust stained, chipped or dented sinks bring down the look of the kitchen.  Make a great impression with a new sink.

Hardware
One of the least expensive ways to update a kitchen is with new hardware.  A $50 to $100 worth of stylish drawer pulls and cabinet knobs will give a far greater return on the investment.

Island
If your kitchen has room, consider adding an island.  You don’t have to call a custom cabinet maker.  There are plenty of ready-made pieces of furniture at home improvement and décor stores.  You can make it part of the sale or take it with you.  Just have your Montclair NJ realtor make it clear to the buyer if the island is not included.

Counter Cladding
Few sellers will be surprised to hear that buyers want to see natural stone counters.  Replacing your counters may not be in the budget but cladding them could be.  An installer makes what amounts to a shell that goes over your counters.  You get the look of custom-cut stone at a fraction of the price.

Cabinet Refacing
You can also reface the cabinets at a reasonable rate.  Solid doors can be sanded down and stained while lower quality doors can be painted.  Done well, either option will make the kitchen look new again.

Floors
Pay attention to the floors.  You might need to bleach your tile’s grout or lay new peel-and-stick laminate squares over a damaged “no wax” floor.  Fill in deep gouges in wood floors with wood filler.

These updates won’t cause your budget too much stress but they might make you home the fastest seller on the block.

When you are ready to list your home, one of the first things your Montclair NJ realtor will talk to you about is updating.  Even if your home is fairly new, there is a lot of competition in the market.  Your home needs to stand out for all the right reasons.  A few updates in key areas can make your home the first to sell.

Kitchens and baths are the rooms where buyers have the biggest expectations.  Regardless of price, buyers want to be impressed, especially by the master bath.  Your Glen Ridge NJ realtor can tell you more about what buyers looking at your neighborhood expect to see in your home’s price range.

One of the first places you can give the look of a major update is in the bathroom.  You don’t need a serious renovation to give the impression of an upgraded bathroom.  There are some relatively painless ways to make a bath feel new.

Medicine Cabinets
Replacing an old medicine cabinet will give a bath a fresh feeling.  Hang a large mirror instead, but with an eye for a future buyer.  Be sure your new mirror is large enough to accommodate a wide range of heights and be attractive to many different tastes.

Faucets
New faucets are a great way to update a bath on a budget.  Choose a style that blends well with the style and age of the home.  In other words, don’t go ultra-modern if you have a Victorian.  Follow the directions for installing the new faucets carefully to avoid messy leaks under the sink.

Ceramics
The ceramic fixtures, meaning sinks and toilets, can become stained by age, rust and scale build-up.  If your ceramics are looking tired or outright nasty, replace them.  This isn’t the time to get creative, though.  Buyers will likely prefer a simple white sink over a basin painted with fancy fish.

Counters
It may be cheaper than you think to replace a bathroom counter.  Most baths don’t have huge stretches of counters so you won’t need as much in materials as you would in a kitchen.

Refitting
Tubs and showers can be refitted at comparatively low cost.  A new fiberglass layer is applied over your old tub or shower.  You have a pristine new surface in a day or two.

Talk to your realtor about what updates your bathroom needs.  A few updates might just make your sale happen faster.

RESPA Rules

Starting in January this year, you and your Glen Ridge NJ realtor have some new tools to protect you from unfair lending practices.  The new Real Estate Settlement Procedures Act (RESPA) regulations went into effect as of January 1, 2010.  This consumer protection act is meant to make you a better loan shopper.

The origins of RESPA stretch back to the early 1970s, but it has become an important measure of protection in the wake of recent problems in the industry.  The act requires a lender to disclose certain bits of information to the borrower at specific times in the process.  It also prohibits practices that increase the settlement costs.  RESPA covers mortgages and loans for the purchase of most residential properties, refinancing loans and equity lines of credit, among others.  The act is enforced by one of the offices of the department of Housing and Urban Development (HUD).  HUD’s website and your Montclair NJ realtor can show you what your lender should be showing you based on this legislation, but here are a few of the details.

At the Application
Disclosure begins in the application process.  One of the most important things the lender should give you is a Good Faith Estimate (GFE) of the cost you will have to pay at settlement.  A Mortgage Servicing Disclosure Statement should also be given to you.  This tells you if the lender intends to transfer the loan to another lender and gives you information about complaint resolution.

Before Settlement
Some lender will ask you to use one of their affiliates during the transaction, like an appraiser or an attorney.  A Controlled Business Arrangement (CBA) disclosure will explain that you are not required to use that affiliate to represent your interests.  This document lets you know you are free to find your own provider for the services.

At Settlement
Both borrower and lender should be given a HUD-1 Settlement statement showing all the actual settlement costs of the transaction.  You should also get an Initial Escrow Statement showing all the costs, fees, taxes, premiums and other charges that will be paid from your escrow account.

After Settlement
Your lender should provide you with an Annual Escrow Statement to summarize all escrow payments made in the preceding year.  This report will tell you of any shortages, overage or actions taken in regards to your escrow account.  If your lender sells or transfers your loan to another lender, you should be notified with a Services Transfer Statement.

This is only a short summary of all that RESPA covers.  Take some time to educate yourself on the details of this important consumer protection act.  It will make you a smarter borrower.

Avoiding Equity Scams

Many news stories over the last couple of years have been dedicated to unscrupulous lending practices.  As a result, consumers are much more aware of the scams in the market and many of the unsavory characters have been weeded out of the industry.  However, there are still some “bad apples”.  Your Monclair NJ realtor can point you to some legitimate lenders, but responsibility for your safety lies with you.

Flipping

Outright scams are easier to spot.  The more subtle tricks of a dodgy lender are harder to see.  One such trick is called loan flipping.  It starts with a legitimate “cash-out” refinancing.  Many homeowners are using cash-out refi’s to make home improvements rather than selling their current home and buying another.  This is a great option for a lot of owners to access the equity they have already built in their homes and use it to build more.

The trick comes in after the refi is finished.  The lender contacts the homeowner after a few payments have been made and offers another refinancing to finance a dream vacation, a car or another luxury.  The offer of more cash is tempting but the lender tacks on high fees, often disguising them within the loan.  Ultimately, this can leave the homeowner with no equity and an even greater debt load.

Duck this practice by asking for a printed copy of all fees and costs.  Take the time to compare the lenders rates with other companies.  Don’t be taken in by offers that expire quickly.

Stripping

Equity stripping is another common ruse.  The lender encourages the borrower to be less than 100% truthful on their applications.  The lender makes it sound as if it’s OK to exaggerate or stretch the truth to qualify for a larger loan.  He may lead you to believe that you are entitled to better than what the banks will offer and a little of embellishment will get you what you deserve.

Any falsification of information on your loan application is loan fraud and illegal, no matter who encourages you to do it.  The point of this game is for the lender to con you into a mortgage you cannot afford.  When you fall behind on the payments he will be able to take your home, sell it and pocket the proceeds.

You can avoid this dangerous scam by being totally honest, even if it you qualify for less.  Know your budget and stick to it.  Don’t let house envy get you into trouble.

Talk to your Glen Ridge NJ realtor about scams and unprincipled practices.  She can help you wade through the lending process without getting trapped.  Ask her about the disclosure rules that went into effect last January to help make spotting these “bad apples” a little easier.

Spring Cleaning for a Fast Sale

When the weather begins to warm up, the house hunters come out of the woodwork.  It seems like nearly everyone puts in a call to their Montclair NJ realtor in the springtime.  If you’re thinking about putting your home on the market, take advantage of this season’s renewed interest in real estate.  But before you list your home, make sure you’ve don’t your spring cleaning.

Clean Green
When you start you spring cleaning projects, remember to think green.  Use environmentally friendly cleaners; they’re easier on the Earth and on your body.  Don’t just toss out old clothes and furnishings.  Send them where they can live another life, like to a shelter or local charity. 

Watch the Details
Your Glen Ridge NJ realtor will tell you it’s the details that sell a house — unless those details are grubby and covered with fingerprints!  Open up all the window treatments and get a good look at your window sills, trim moldings and baseboards.  A simple mixture of mild dishwashing liquid and water will take off most of the dust and grime that accumulates on these surfaces.  Clean the surfaces that surround your door knobs and cabinet pulls.  Give any spots that still look discolored or dirty a fresh coat of paint.

Don’t Forget the Garage
Buyers will be looking at every corner of your home.  This includes under the sink, inside the cabinet and definitely inside the garage.  You may not think the garage can be spruced up but there are lots of ways to get it looking its best.  Start with a thorough cleaning out and get rid of the junk.  This could be a great time for a garage sale.  Organize what is left and put up some shelving so everything has a place.  Use a pressure washer to clean oil spots from the floor and rid it of dirt.  If you have stubborn stains, get some paint designed for concrete or an epoxy garage floor finish.  Either one will give you a new looking floor.

An Inside and Outside Job
Don’t forget that spring cleaning is both an inside and an outside job.  Your patio, desk and walkways could probably use some attention from that pressure washer, too.  If you have vinyl siding, check for mold and mildew growth and spray that away as well.  Clean out the gutters and downspouts and get the lawn looking healthy with some patch filler and fertilizer.

When you’re done you’ll not only be ready for a competitive housing market, you’ll also have a fresh, clean home to enjoy until you get that perfect offer.

I’m very excited to report that a great new charity is born!  It’s called Baby Steps and it’s a clothing drive for children ages 0-4 who are among the 900 families living below the poverty line in the Montclair area.  The new or like-new clothes will be collected and given out to these families twice a year, in May and October.  The drive will begin this May, 2010.

How Baby Steps Was Born
This charity is both a grass roots and interagency joint effort among the Montclair United Way, The Salvation Army Montclair Citadel and local parents. It began with the parents, who often have so many clothes to dispose of as their babies and toddlers grow and who wanted to see the items go to the best use possible.  Many of them give the clothes to family members, friends or drop them in a bin – unsure of exactly where they end up.  Getting clothing directly into the hands of those children who need them most is a very exciting and simple way to help. 

Baby Steps will put the clothes directly into the hands of the local families who need them most.  These families already come to the United Way under the WIC Program (Women, Infants, Children) for food stamps, counseling and other services.  And The Salvation Army provides a host of services through the Emergency Assistance Fund for Families.

How to Get Involved
If you have some new or like-new clothing to donate for children ages 0-4, you can drop them off on Wednesday, May 12th at The United Way Building on South Fullerton Ave, next to The Montclair Public Library.   You will receive a receipt for tax purposes.  If you would like to volunteer some time to help sort through and give out the clothes, just contact me and we’ll sign you up!  If you would like to make a donation of money instead of clothing, your checks can be made payable to The Emergency Assistance Fund for Families and then The United Way and Salvation Army will put it to good use.  You may, if you wish, earmark the money for a specific purpose.

Baby Steps Clothing Drive Information

Clothing Drop Off Day: Wednesday, May 12, 2010   9:30-4:30pm

Location:   The United Way Building
                      South Fullerton Ave (next to library)
                      Montclair, N.J. 

Volunteer times:  Thursday, Friday and Saturday, May 13, 14 and 15th

I get this question ALL the time.  I have clients who call me over to their home and ask what I think.  I also have buyers who ask if they should buy a smaller house and build an addition later.  I’ll discuss both scenarios – and tell you what I plan to do with my own living situation this year.

If You Already Own and You Need More Room

There are many questions to ask but the first and simplest is, ‘Do you love your location?’  If you don’t, forget the addition and just buy a bigger house.  It’s a huge investment to add on – not to mention the inconvenience.  Why bother investing in a spot that you may want to leave before the equity has increased enough to justify the expense?

But, if you do love it, that’s a good motivator for improving.  You can change just about everything about a house except the address. It’s possible that you might not find another location as good as the one you already have.  And if you have great neighbors and your kids have loads of friends on the street, it’s even harder to leave.

Structurally Speaking

Is a doing an addition structurally prudent?  If all the homes around yours are about the same general size, it could be a huge mistake to build a big addition – making your home the largest on the street.  Most buyers are hesitant to purchase the largest house in the neighborhood.  In fact, buyers often lean the opposite way and purchase the smallest home on the best street they can find.  It’s important for resale value that your home be ‘amongst its peers’ and not stick out like a sore thumb.
How Much Does an Addition Cost?

A local contractor recently told me that the cost of building an addition in the Montclair, New Jersey area is $120 – $140 per square foot.  For a 1,500 sq foot addition, that’s $180,000 – $210,000.  And that’s before you pay for appliances, light fixtures, sinks, tubs, toilets, flooring and carpeting.  Financially, the cost of borrowing money right now – to buy or to build – is extremely low.  However, if you will owe more than 50-60% of the new value or worth of the home after you put an addition on, be very careful about moving forward.  You may need to stay in the house a very, very long time for the renovated house to appreciate enough to sell and not cause you to lose money.  This scenario was one of the major cautionary tales of the subprime crash.  Over-improving caused millions of Americans to go into foreclosure or to declare personal bankruptcy.

The best advice you can get is to call in a realtor before you make this momentous decision.  Let him or her tell you whether or not it’s advisable and what it might be worth when the addition is complete.  Best of all, the realtor’s advice is free so you have nothing to lose by doing your homework.

If You’re Looking to Buy a House and Add on Later

First, congratulations on buying a home right now.  We will probably never have a better climate  in which to buy real estate than today.  It’s a virtual candy store out there with loads of inventory to choose from.  That said, the market is improving in Montclair, Glen Ridge, the Caldwell’s, Verona and other towns in Essex County, New Jersey.  The window of opportunity will close.  Interest rates are already bouncing back up over 5% and expected to climb steadily throughout 2010.  A fraction of point climb can make a big difference in your monthly mortgage payment.

What I’m Going To Do in 2010

So, what size home should you buy?  Should you purchase small and add on later or – buy as big a house as you can find?  I’m actually a potential buyer myself right now so let me share my plans with you as a way of answering the question. I currently own a home and am looking to trade up this year and am planning on making location my #1 consideration and size the #2 factor.  I am much less concerned with the interior condition because I know that I can always improve it over time.  Personally, I’m not really interested in dealing with the hassle of an addition.  I don’t want to spend the money to move walls around and spend months living amid debris and dust – or worse, spending thousands of dollars on a short term rental to move into while the work is being done.

I want a bigger house in a fabulous location and I’ll save loads of money for two reasons. First, I’ll buy my ‘forever’ house at a record low interest rate and second, I’m not going to pay a premium for someone else’s ‘move-in condition’ home.  I’ll make the interior upgrades myself, even if they are somewhat inconvenient. But, they won’t be nearly as inconvenient as building an addition.  So, bring on the old kitchen and bathrooms!  Just give me size and location – and let the contractors go build an addition for someone else!