Proud and thankful to have qualified for the New Jersey Realtors Circle of Excellence for the fifth year in a row in 2016. JUST MISSED repeating my 2015 silver level performance. Congratulations to all my local (Princeton, Princeton Junction and Montgomery/Hillsborough) Coldwell Banker colleagues who made it. Buyers and sellers–call, text, email or Facebook me […]
Number two agent in the office for December (Heidi’s hard to beat!) In the Top Five of our 60+ agents the last three months of 2016. I had a great fourth quarter–thank you loyal clients!
I showed my beautiful PA listing again tonight (that’s the kitchen) and the owners gave me a copy of the original 1682 deed for the land on which this house now stands along with the six acres directly adjacent, which has been left untouched “climax” forest. You can see exactly what was traded for the […]
As we wrap up another year, I would like to send out a huge thanks to all my 2016 clients. There are hundreds of realtors in the Princeton area, and I appreciate every single person who decides to hire me to assist them. So thank you Robin and Mike, Takashi and Chiho, Denise, Aaron and […]
Absolutely gorgeous home on iconic location with views of the Delaware. Please click through to read and see more! 840 Highland Avenue, Morrisville, PA 19067
State of the art $35,000 septic system being installed in my new Hopewell listing today. The work is being done by G. M. Maintenance of Belle Mead. Here’s the charming house on 3.55 acres: Details about the property here.
Just closed my Princeton listing with the cool urban looking family room. Eight days on the market, multiple offers over asking price, seven weeks from contract to closing, final price paid 105% of original asking. Such a friendly transaction! It’s so nice when everybody is happy with the outcome!
Last week I settled the quickest short sale in the history of the universe (my universe, at least). Nine days on the market, 96% of asking price, 64 days from contract to closing, or the average time it takes a regular transaction to close. It all happened so fast my seller had to scramble to […]
Congratulations to all my colleagues. We work hard for our clients!
Today my colleague Robin Jackson and I closed the most expensive property ever to sell in beautiful Millstone Township, Monmouth County. We represented both sellers and buyers in a very complex transaction that closed at $1.355 million. The 7,000 square foot custom house originally sat on 44 acres; buyers purchased the house on 15 acres, […]
It will be interesting to see how this plays out. I am of mixed opinion. In one respect, certainly Princeton’s historically African-American neighborhood deserves official designation and protection from destruction. But regular zoning laws, already conservative in Princeton, take care of that in my opinion. Nobody’s putting up a high-rise apartment building on John Street, […]
I love all the holiday house tours in our historic towns, but this might be my favorite. Mill Hill is very compact, so not a lot of walking is required, and the homes (the oldest was built in 1826) are just spectacular in unusual ways. Mill Hill 49th Annual Holiday House Tour
It’s official: Jersey has the highest percentage of young people who can’t afford to leave home. A record 48% of New Jerseyans aged 18-34 are living with parents. They’re better educated than most, but a very weak job market, declining wages, soaring student loans, and high housing costs (including property taxes) make it impossible for them to get […]
I urge everyone to start their week right by reading this truly great essay by Pulitzer Prize-winning architecture critic Inga Saffron in today’s Philadelphia Inquirer. NOBODY predicted what happened in Philly over the last three days, while a chunk of the city was closed to cars and buses to provide security for Pope Francis. What […]
Jersey peaches are peaking right now and they are OUTSTANDING. Did you know Jersey is the country’s fourth largest producer of peaches, after California, South Carolina and Georgia? And 100% of our peaches are picked by hand and sold on the fresh market. Pick them yourself here in the Princeton area at Lee Turkey Farm in East […]
I ended up the #5 agent in the office for the busy month of July. It’s been a great year thanks to my loyal clients!
Closed this small but charming and affordable historical in the oldest section of Plainsboro yesterday, five miles from downtown Princeton and two and a half miles from the Princeton Junction train station. Walking distance to shopping and restaurants although unfortunately, still not a supermarket since the Super Fresh moved out of Plainsboro Plaza in 2012. […]
This is Princeton Landing, a California-looking development in Plainsboro with an unusual history that includes the Dutch and their propensity for growing flowers, the university and its enormous land holdings, the Rockefellers, and classified research on peacetime uses of nuclear energy. Now, it’s just a well landscaped neighborhood of mostly townhomes with open floorplans, two-car […]
Closed this large, traditional house built by Toll Brothers in West Windsor yesterday. Six days on the market, 13 showings, 98.8% of asking price (we were asking $850 and we accepted $840). All the best to my clients who are moving on to new construction in Monroe.
I used my down time last during last winter’s snowstorms to get my Pennsylvania real estate license. I feel it’s important to be able to offer buyers the opportunity to look in eastern Bucks County, PA, which is also a part of the greater Princeton area. This was the pool at my first listing in […]
Hello readers and apologies for my long absence from blogging but it’s because I’ve been so busy selling real estate! This has been my busiest spring season since 2006, BEFORE the bust of the real estate market later that year. Let’s take a quick look at some of the many kinds of houses I’ve been selling so far […]
Closed this lovely Cape Cod in Pennington Boro this morning. Walkable to town and to the park, all hardwood floors. My client is thrilled to be cutting his commute from 60 minutes each way to five!
Incredible new listing in Perrineville (Millstone Township), in the heart of Monmouth county’s horse country. Enjoy your privacy on more than 40 acres, but so close to everything! Five miles from the Peddie School in Hightstown. Princeton is 17 miles, Princeton Junction train station 14 miles, Cranbury 10 miles, NJ Turnpike Exit 8 (Hightstown) 7 miles, Route 195, […]
My new listing is all WOW factor! Large (>4200 square foot) home has been upgraded for luxurious living and gracious entertaining. Princeton Manor is an exclusive development of large modern homes in Plainsboro Township (with a Cranbury address) to suit many lifestyles (and with NO homeowners’ association fees!) Live in complete luxury in this oversized five bedroom, […]
We have so little inventory that any attractive new listing in one of the coveted towns (those with superior public school systems) gets bombarded. I’ve booked sixteen showings already in the three days since this one went live.
Closed this 50-year-old Colonial in Lawrenceville today. It had been in the same family since it was built in the early 1960s; this was the first time it was ever for sale. My first time buyers are thrilled with their new house. It is a tough market for first time buyers as they can be […]
I am proud to say I once again made it into what’s called the “Circle of Excellence” for New Jersey real estate agents. You need a certain minimum number of transactions as well as a minimum total dollar volume to receive the award. The “Distinguished Sales Club” is reserved for those who have made it […]
My new listing on Thompson Street is live! Absolutely charming house on Bordentown City’s coolest street, built in 1820.
During my break in blogging I changed brokerages and am now affiliated with Coldwell Banker in Princeton, New Jersey. Here is our office at 10 Nassau Street, across the street from Princeton University. As some of you know I started my real estate career at Coldwell Banker in Princeton Junction eight years ago, near the […]
Yesterday I discussed the impact of disasters like Hurricane Sandy on the appraisal process. If a disaster can change the value of a property for appraisal purposes, it follows that it can also change the value of a property for tax assessment purposes. If a disaster has affected your property to the extent that it […]
An Appraisal, Followed by a Hurricane On the morning of Monday October 29, Wells Fargo sent an appraiser to the house I’ve got under contract in Cranbury. The sellers allowed him access, he inspected the property and collected the data he needed, and he retreated to his home office to crunch the numbers. That afternoon, […]
Hurricane Sandy Strikes the Beloved Jersey Shore Two weeks ago today a hurricane made landfall in New Jersey for only the third time in history. Hurricane Sandy caused incredible devastation along nearly the entire Jersey coastline (over 125 miles), as well as in Hoboken, Moonachie, Sayreville, and other riverfront towns. It also caused major destruction […]
Clients worried about a new 3.8% real estate tax to start in 2013 Many of us agents have been hearing from clients worried about a new tax they hear will be imposed on real estate transactions beginning in January, to help pay for President Obama’s health care plan. There has been an enormous amount of […]
In real estate, a buyer’s market is a situation where there are more properties for sale than buyers ready, willing and able to buy them. In other words, supply is greater than demand, which makes prices go down and gives buyers more leverage over sellers. For more than five years, since the real estate market […]
Today I have the pleasure of showing three historic houses in beautiful Haddonfield to buyers who currently live in Center City, Philadelphia but are making the move across the Delaware River to the Jersey side. Haddonfield is a prime destination for such buyers and there are at least three reasons for this. The PATCO station […]
When the seller is an estate… Yesterday I closed a listing of mine in Jamesburg that was an estate sale. That is, the legal owner of the property had died and the house was part of his estate. The executrix of the estate, who was effectively my client, was the owner’s sister. I once read […]
The HUD, the RESPA–by any other name, the settlement statement My long-delayed Jamesburg listing is finally closing this Friday, so I just sent my seller a blank HUD to get her acquainted with the form. She will of course get the final HUD form at closing from her buyer’s attorney. What we call “the HUD” […]
a rare event, a house for sale in Cranbury Greene This morning I was getting out of the shower, about to make my first cup of coffee and wake up my lazy dog when I heard the distinctive ping of a text message come over my cell phone. It was just after 7 am, and […]
Burlington County’s best school district, Moorestown Because I live in Burlington county I often get leads for buyers for Burlington. In New Jersey, property values are highly correlated to the perceived quality of a town’s school district. Prices for similar houses in adjacent towns can vary greatly if one’s in a high-ranking school system and […]
The Historical Society of Princeton has announced the five houses to be featured on the 2012 House Tour, to take place on Saturday, November 3. The tour is sponsored by my brokerage. Holiday house tours are a fun way to get to see the interiors of special and often spectacular homes. Many towns in the Princeton area […]
Today I showed a very old house in East Millstone, a tiny part of Franklin right on the Delaware and Raritan Canal opposite Hillsborough. Thought to be one of the oldest houses in the township, it dates from the early 1800s and is listed by my office. The couple I showed it to are ONLY […]
when is a closing date not a closing date? It used to be that once a transaction had survived attorney review, after buyers had completed their inspections and parties had agreed how to handle any inspection issues, and assuming the house appraised at or above the contract price, you could pretty much count on a […]
This morning a client wrote to ask about rent-to-buy. She is currently in the second year of a two-year lease on a single family house in Hamilton. The house is working for her and her children and the owners are settling into their new home out of state and will not be coming back to Jersey. […]
These days it’s a given that buyers do not want to overpay. Everybody knows the boom years of easy appreciation are over and in our mobile society, many people cannot commit to staying in a property long enough to see considerable profit from the mere passage of time. I tell my buyers they are not […]
New University Medical Center of Princeton jumps Route One for Plainsboro So today after floor time (yes, we still do old-fashioned floor time in our office, which I enjoy!) I am going to show a 700 square foot one bedroom condo in Ravens Crest, a large complex in Plainsboro, about three miles from my office. […]
