OK, the house is SOLD! Attorney review is complete and the under contract banner has been pasted across the for sale sign on the property. Now it is time for the home inspection. This can be a particularly stressful time during the process, not to mention a step that can upend a successful deal. Sellers, some who have been in their home for many years, often have a hard time understanding that there are issues with their property. And buyers, some who may be purchasing their first home, often have a hard time understanding that no house is perfect.            That said, there are several …

While there is no law against the transfer of property with an underground oil tank, it is increasingly difficult to do so — especially in a buyers' market! Even properly decommissioned tanks run the risk of having leaked at some point in time. The cleanup of contaminated soil is the responsibility of the homeowner — regardless of when the leak occurred. In other words, if you buy a house with an underground tank and a year later you pull the tank to convert to natural gas and there is a leak, then YOU are responsible for the cleanup. There will be no going back to the prior owner for help …

Is it still a buyer’s market in this area?  The answer is “yes” and “no.” It depends. Where do you live? In which price range are you buying or selling? Frustrating, right? I think it’s frustrating only if you are trying to sell a house.   Almost anyone will tell you that "real estate is local," but when there is so much negativity in the news and local predictions are indicating that there will be another 6% drop in real estate values it doesn’t matter much that Basking Ridge is a prime location with terrific schools, easy access to NYC and in some cases, inventory levels** that are as low …

At this time of year, I have the, "Should we stay on the market through the holidays?" conversation multiple times, typically followed by the question, "Is it OK to put up a tree?" While the answer varies for different sellers depending upon their needs, the basis for my response is always the same—if your house isn't on the market, it definitely will not sell! You might feel like the last thing on anyone's mind is to buy a house during the holidays. But, in fact, this can be a great time to sell a home, especially this year as consumers look to take advantage of current low interest rates. …

Low interest rates and high inventory (indicating the availability of homes for sale on the market) add up to making this a good time to buy a home. There are a lot of reasons to buy a home: tax deductions, equity building, freedom to do what you please with your home versus having the restrictions of being in a rental, the stability of being in the same neighborhood and being part of a community.  I'm sure we could think of lots more. Despite all of those reasons, many are wondering if now is a good time to make the move to home ownership. I can assure you that now is a very good time to buy…

As I'm sure you know, there has been a lot in the media about real estate, including gloom and doom reports about the housing market. Most of what you read is indeed true for a particular market, but real estate is a local phenomenon. So don't expect to pick up a five-bedroom Colonial on Canterbury Way for $600,000, just because you saw something online that said there might be a foreclosure in that neighborhood! Nevertheless, some areas have been hit very hard by the recession, and that can make it more of a challenge for pricing a house to be placed on the market. Most recently, I wrote …

Last month I wrote about selling your home in the summer time - - since the summer started, there have been 128 new listings and 105 contract sales in Basking Ridge, proving that homes do sell in the summer time!  What really makes that happen though is pricing the property to meet the market. Proper pricing is sometimes very easy to determine – for example, when comparing properties in Spring Ridge, Hamilton Woods, or Patriot Ridge, where there are lots of sales and similarities between the properties, if there is data to review, it's easy to see the trends and determine a good list price. …