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 […]
Author Archives: Deborah Hornstra
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. […]
Jersey Girl Properties 