Alex and Deirdre Silberman's (asilberman) Blog

The South Mountain, Eagle Rock, and Hilltop Reservations will be closed for the 2010 Essex County Deer Management Program. Whether you’re horrified at killing Bambi or glad for a Venison dinner, you might want to steer clear (pun intended) on those dates.The hunt will be:South Mountain Reservati...

    I received a phone call from a computer yesterday. It was AT&T with an important message asking me to call a particular number. The computer had that familiar very pleasant with just a hint of urgency tone.I recently cancelled my AT&T service and said goodbye to my beloved iPhone as the servi...

  I had an interesting listing presentation last night. Everything went smoothly. I was well prepared with a ton of useful information for my prospective sellers, an empty nest couple in too much house. We all got along very well, the home was impeccable, we agreed on the fair market value for t...

The Wall Street Journal has been saying it, the NY Times has been saying it, I’ve been saying it, and only a few consumers are hearing it.Many self described ‘savvy’ buyers that are waiting for the spring market to get into full swing will be surprised to learn that their dream home just got muc...

  We were at a fun New Year’s Eve party* last night where we started chatting with another guest and as soon as she found out we were realtors, proceeded to tell us her tale of real estate woe. Several years ago she decided to find a bigger home for her family and was working with an agent; Agen...

  Anyone that has been following the government’s involvement in buying out mortgage backed securities is aware of the impact this has had in keeping interest rates as low as they have been.This program is set to expire in March 2010, and the glimmer that the economy has stabilized and growing e...

Humans have been faithfully breaking new year's resolutions for 4,000 years since the ancient Babylonians resolved to return any borrowed farm equipment as the new year, then in March, coincided with the start of the farming season. Sometimes the equipment was returned, and sometimes the resolut...

Most agents are not particularly tech savvy, so when choosing a website for their business, the default choice is often one of the many turnkey systems that provide websites without requiring any technical expertise. Although it sounds good at first blush, not all systems are the same (although ...

  As the holiday season is well underway, I can think of no greater example of impersonal dribble as wishing someone ‘happy holidays’. What does that even mean? If someone is Christian, shouldn’t they be wished a merry Christmas? If they are Jewish shouldn’t they have been wished a happy Hanukka...

    Most people are not stupid, and treating them as if they were leads to less than ideal results (euphemism for it's stupid to treat others as if they were stupid).   Lenders have reputations, and some are more deserved than others. Anyone who's attempted to buy a short sale would feel that ne...