Corrections or additions?
This article by Kathleen McGinn Spring was prepared for the
April 18, 2001 edition of U.S. 1 Newspaper. All rights reserved.
How to Buy a House in a Seller’s Market
Just last week a family in Hamilton put their
three-bedroom,
one-and-a-half bath house on the market. "There were four offers
before it hit the computer," says Joan Eisenberg, one of
five real estate agents who own ReMax Greater Princeton. "They
listed in the mid-$190,000s," she reports. "The people who
got it had to go over $200,000."
Welcome to the spring real estate market, a joy for sellers, but a
challenge for buyers. "Prices are escalating with every sale in
every neighborhood," says Eisenberg. "It’s still a seller’s
market." The biggest gains are young houses, those that were built
two or three years ago. But even in sectors that had been lagging,
sales are brisk. Condos moved slowly for years, she says, but are
now in demand. "A colleague just put a one-bedroom condo in
Plainsboro
on the market. She had three or four offers in the first week."
Eisenberg speaks at monthly free seminars on "Buying and Selling
a Home." The next seminar is held on Thursday, May 10, at 7 p.m.
at the Courtyard Marriott on Route 1. Call 609-951-8600.
Eisenberg, a Long Island native, began her career in real estate when
she moved to West Windsor 10 years ago. She and her husband, Elliott,
a consultant, had been living in Gramercy Park, and made the move
for a classic reason — a yard and a good environment in which
to raise a family. The couple have two sons, a 16-year-old, who is
in the 10th grade at West Windsor Plainsboro High School North, and
a 19-year-old, who is in his first year at Penn State.
Real estate was something Eisenberg "was just going to try."
She holds a psychology degree from Ithaca College and a master’s in
social work from Yeshiva University. She moved to New Jersey after
spending 15 years working with abused children and multi-problem
families
in Manhattan Family Court. She says a career in residential real
estate
sales is every bit as stressful, but a good deal less depressing,
and she finds it a good fit.
Technology has made it a career that fits well with family life.
"Bless
the cell phone," Eisenberg says. "I have two." That means
she can field calls from anxious buyers, and still sit in the stands
during her son’s football games "and not miss a play."
Cell phone or not "I absolutely work seven days a week," she
says. "It’s a constant pace. Yesterday was my birthday, and I
had a special dinner planned." She went ahead with the
celebration,
sitting with close friends for hours, but then "on the way home,
I had to stop to get contracts signed." This flexibility, the
ability to schedule work around family time, is a plus for the
profession,
she says.
While all real estate agents are in business for themselves to one
degree or another, Eisenberg and four colleagues took their
involvement
up one level when they opened their own agency last year. "We
got to the point where we knew we wanted a certain type of office,
a certain type of equipment," she says. The five agents, all
women,
share the administrative tasks of running their office, which is
located
in Forrestal Village. This type of arrangement is "not common
at all," she says, but is working out "better than we ever
thought."
As the spring selling season gets underway in earnest, Eisenberg
offers
buyers this advice for coping with a tight housing market.
a Saturday, and the buyers would call on Tuesday to say they wanted
it," says Eisenberg. Now, mulling over the decision for three
days is unthinkable. Eisenberg combs through "hot sheets"
of new listings right after she sees her son off to school, and checks
them again three, five, seven times a day. When a listing that matches
a client’s requirements comes up, she calls. "If they’ve been
waiting for something special, definitely they should go see it
immediately
after work," she says. For while Eisenberg lets no new listing
slip by her, she says there are other eagle-eyed agents out there
scanning monitors for their clients.
plan to pay $200,000, don’t offer $170,000," she says. "It’s
insulting." A house is often a seller’s most precious possession,
and he will not like a buyer who throws out a low-ball offer. For
sure, the low offer will set a negative tone for the entire
negotiation
process. What’s worse, in this market it could crater the sale.
"Years
ago, maybe when my parents bought a house, it was a game,"
Eisenberg
says. Now sellers know what their house will fetch. Try to play games
and "they will bump you if another offer comes in during the
attorney
review period."
And don’t haggle over the washing machine. This is not a market in
which it is a good idea to get hung up on details of what will, or
won’t, be included in the sale. "If you want it, ask,"
Eisenberg
says, but don’t make an issue of small things unless you are willing
to risk losing out on the house.
house, Eisenberg says. Sellers in the happy position of choosing a
buyer from among several bidders may well go with the one who can
close at a time that suits them. Another key factor sellers look at
is a buyer’s ability to get a mortgage. Surprisingly, cash does not
always rule the day. "I’ve seen cash sales fall through,"
she says. This can happen when the money involved is to come from
family members, and there is a disagreement among them. With a
pre-approval,
a lender has seen all the documentation and agreed to grant the buyer
a loan up to a specified dollar amount. Pre-qualified is not as good,
Eisenberg says. It means a lender is inclined to grant a buyer a
mortgage,
but generally has not seen all of the buyer’s financials.
fearful that credit problems in their history will rule out a
mortgage.
Not so. "There are so many products out there," she says.
Nearly everyone can qualify for a mortgage. In the worst cases, credit
problems may indeed doom a current application, but she says there
are a number of lenders that will work with would-be homeowners to
help them get their credit in shape so that in a year or so they will
be able to qualify to buy a house.
time to look into obtaining a mortgage and buying a home, Eisenberg
says. "It’s less expensive than renting, especially when you
include
tax considerations," she says. An added incentive could be a
run-up
in rents that is outpacing even rising home prices in some cases.
"A townhouse in Princeton Landing was $2,100 last year," she
says. "It just came on the market, and now it’s $2,800."
n
Corrections or additions?
This page is published by PrincetonInfo.com
— the web site for U.S. 1 Newspaper in Princeton, New Jersey.
Facebook Comments