Joseph J. Chang's (realtynj) Blog

The USDA Rural Development Guaranteed Housing Loan Program is the most under utilized mortgage loan product out there in my opinion. While the name may indicate "farm or farmland" to a lot of people. It is primarily  intended for single family one unit homes located in smaller communities. Genera...

Lots of Carlsbad buyers are seeking REO (real estate owned; bank owned; foreclosed) properties in our area. True all over I suppose. More so in some areas than others  There are some things I like to know when starting to work with REO buyers since they have some hoops to jump through, and I am l...

Lately, speaking to many of my home staging clients, I find that the HGTV version of staging has really confused and distorted the idea of what staging is all about in real life. It is NOT about ripping out walls and doing a full kitchen remodel in 2 days. It is NOT all about putting phoofy trays...

My second day of open houses and filming for REALTOR® Magazine's Masters Series started very early with a workout at the gym. Katie and Gabe filmed a bit of my session while John, my trainer, did not go easy on me just because I was in the spotlight. C Tann-Starr came along for the "fun" and  Kat...

A fellow emailed me about two weeks ago, and told me that he would like to visit with me about listing his house for sale.  He had picked me from an Internet ad. I sent him some information, even visited with him by telephone.  We set up the appointment for the morning time a few days later. So I...

  This is as about elementary as it can get supply goes down and prices go up   A funny thing happened while I was doing a search for a client tonight. I plugged in their price range, deleted all short sales and hit enter. My first thought was "That can't be right".  I went back and re-checked t...

Not long ago, I was asked by my friend Mike Price to host the "Carnival of Real Estate", which is essentially a gathering of blog posts each week about our industry.  Sounds like fun to me, so I said a hearty "Yes!".  Since I've held lots of contests during my blogging career, I have a little exp...

December 2009 saw the demise of Editor & Publisher Magazine, which had been around since 1854. It lays claim to being the chief chronicler of the American newspaper industry and has presided over the business for 125 years and is a clear signal that an era is rapidly drawing to a close. NEWSPAPER...

For many, 2010 will undoubtedly prove to be one of the toughest years in the mortgage industry. The underwriting guidelines still continue to change daily, government regulation and intervention is at an all-time high, legislation is being proposed to change compensation models for Loan Originato...

Thanks to Margaret Rome, Active Rain bloggers in the Baltimore area ate well tonight. Margaret provided dinner at the Olive Branch restaurant in Pikesville, MD. A special bonus was that the dinner was being videotaped by Realtor Magazine for an article they're doing on Margaret, for their Master ...