Paul Howard's (paulhoward) Blog

I'd like to see dual agency illegal everywhere AND no seller agent offers of compensation coupled with an environment in which buyers' typically entered into contracts (compensation specified) with their agents.  Maybe they would take a little time in finding an effective agent rather than one t...

Timing the market: We can (I hope) all agree that we have not seen the bottom. Yet some people will continue to buy and not be sorry. Many others will (and should) wait. It is not purely a financial decision though that is an important part. As I have said before, we will only see the bottom when...

That's right. 15 minutes. I went to the National Association of Exclusive Buyer Agents convention in Orlando last month. One of the speakers talked about time management and time blocking. I've tried to set out consistent blocks of time to get things done. Email: 1 hours 9am to 10am. Marketing 1...

Follow me on   Yesterday in the Philadelphia Inquirer Al Heavens summarized the state of the Philadelphia market (which includes parts of South Jersey).  He said "Stalemate. If you're looking for one word to describe the Philadelphia region's residential real estate market this morning, that's it...

Although home prices have declined - rents have not and there is no reason to think that they will. It is time then to dust off the rent vs buy calculators. There are a lot of them available. GinnieMae NYTimes DinkyTown SmartMoney There are dozens of calculators for rent vs buy. I'd check the num...

County Under Contract Active Listings Sold in 11/07 Sold in 11/08 Camden 359 4145 423 254 Burlington 357 3810 427 219 Gloucester 219 2368 263 160 Mercer 259 2322 290 164 The number of homes actively being marketed for sale far exceeds the number going to settlement . Anyone with a home on the ma...

  Month/Year Data from TREND MLS Number of homes that settled 10/08 351 10/07 391 10/06 471 10/05 573 10/04 644 10/03 658 10/02 582 10/01 575 10/00 523 There were fewer homes sold in October 2008 than any October since at least 2000. This shows that a lot of people are putting off the home purch...

When a consumer comes to a Realtor looking to list their home they are told "the" commission is negotiable. They negotiate "the" commission with the listing agent they select. The home is listed. They would do well to look at that listing agreement carefully. They will notice that no buyer or se...

Last week I showed 2 homes that were very similar in almost every way to a potential buyer. One of them was priced 15,000 lower than the other and both were vacant. Any Realtor knows that there is nothing colder than an unheated house in the winter. In this case the less expensive homes had the h...

  NJHomeBuyer.com Realty (serving South Jersey Home Buyers since 2002) 811 Church Rd Suite 111 Cherry Hill NJ 08002 856-488-8444   A few weeks ago I sent  a letter with information about buying a home.  Today I'm following up by asking you to answer the question. Should you buy a home now? We all...