1. Yes
2. No
3. Maybe

No
If its no then that means you are a seashore purist. The last of a dying breed. The day of the smallish, smellyish bungalow built in the sand is almost completely gone. I grew up in these homes. My father built thousands of them. Literally. These homes covered the entire Jersey Shore from Sandy Hook to Cape May and Sea Isle was no exception. When my father got here in the late 1950’s and bought a large piece of this Island it was still marshy wetland. He hired the Army Corps of Engineers to dredge it in and he started to build. Bungalows. You might be living in one.

Yes
If it’s yes then you probably know the name of every builder and model in town. Been to the Home Depot and emorized ever product being sold or in development. Spent hours on the internet paging through screens looking at every product your going to use and probably a little preemptive furniture shopping. After all. its your dream. I am building a house right now. Should be moving in after the new year, so I just experienced everything I just wrote down. I have never had an experience that can compare to building a new home. I’ve been through it 3 times. The first time I was in my 20’s and most of the decisions were made for me. Picked a floor plan and my brother built it. Pretty easy as far as experiences go. We were kids. The second one was more involved but both of us new it was not the forever house. They say the third times the charm. I built my third home with my third wife and I’m her third husband. Holy Cow. I􀀁m glad we waited till we were married 7 years before we started this process or else we both might be eligible for a wedding grand slam. Its that involved when its the forever house. More decisions than you can imagine. But when we walk through the new house we can’t believe how excited we get. It’s going to be great.

Maybe.
This is the category most owners fall into. After all who hasn’t thought about improving their home in some way. practically no one, thats who. Improving the property we own is so basic. Almost an instinct. Actually, I think it is. Don􀀁t get me wrong, I’m not saying that Neanderthal Man used to sit and ponder the possibility of a four bedroom, 3 1/2 bath cave. I mean, who really needs the 1/2 bath when you can walk down the hallway and use the full bath. That’s as long as Neanderthal kid is not in his room listening to his IPod with the door locked. On second thought keep the powder room. So back to instincts. Yes, improving our condition is basic. Its what we do and its what we think of. If you have owned your home here in Sea Isle for more than a minute you have probably thought about building a new single or townhouse. If you have I can help you. My family has lifetimes of experience in this process. It is what we do. The numbers. The cost to build a new side by side townhouse is somewhere between 400 and 500 thousand dollars. The price you can sell 1 side for is more than that. Simple maths delivers this conclusion. You can end up living in a brand new home and put money in your pocket for the effort. Like I mentioned earlier, its a big effort. But it’s not a small amount of money that we are talking about. It’s the kind of money that can make a difference. And the good news is that if you develop and sell 1 side, the side you keep and enjoy will be worth what you own now within a few dollars. Thats the rule around here and always has been.

Land Value = 1 Unit Price

The Process.
So if you have thought or are thinking right now, you need to get all the information, not just some of it. Call and make an appointment to look at our models. We have units you can go through. You’ll see the different ways people like you have built these homes so as to fit their needs. We are sure you can do the same thing. After your Model Home Tour, we will sit down and answer all your questions. If you want numbers they will be available at that time, no mysteries here.

I have a friend who owned a house on the west side of Landis. It was an old duplex in real bad shape. He didn􀀂t have the capital to fix it up and his dream was to “Get to the Beach”. Sounds impossible right. Well he is a real guy and he lives in a real house on the beach here in Sea Isle. How did he get there? Well that’s a bit of a story.

It all began with trust. He picked me to trust and after 4 years and a lot of effort he was living the dream. Keep in mind, this was not a wealthy man. He was just like a lot of Sea Isle owners. A Philadelphia born and bred neighborhood guy, living in a Beachfront Home.

You can do it. Beachblock, Bayfront, Beachfront. You can get there. It could take some time, but it can happen.

Is it a good time to try this?

It’s a great time. Take a look at the story again. The journey I took with my friend started in the early 90’s just as we were emerging from a five year long real estate recession. The key to executing a plan like this is to list your home with the condition that upon receipt of an acceptable offer, you be able to find a “suitable replacement property”. What this means is that upon the event of an offer on your home you need to be able to find that perfect replacement in a short period of time. So it really helps to have a solid list of homes to choose from. A solid list of inventory like the one we have right now.

There is so much more to pulling off a successful trade up than I can explain in this letter, so lets just leave it at this.

If you have ever thought about trading up to a newer unit call Stephen Freda at 609-263-5301

Do you like your neighbor enough to say hello to him. That’s a real basic level.

Do you like your neighbor enough to call him when you need someone to go turn your heat up so the pipes don’t freeze? That’s a little more developed as far as relationships go. Trusting someone.

But that’s still not the level I am talking about. The level I am talking about is pretty far down the food chain. It actually should be rephrased as a new question. The question I should ask is:
Do you value your neighbor enough to not want to lose him as a neighbor when you eventually make that move to the better location that so many Town House owners aspire to . It’s a very long question that requires one of two very short answers. If the answer is no then you just fell into the 90% category. No harm no foul.

But if the answer is yes then we need to talk. If you answered yes then an this type of alliance can put you both into a New Town House with a powerful equity position and a neighbor you can live with.

How?
It’s simple. You get together and buy a tear down. Then you hire a builder. You split the costs and keep one unit each. Like I said, simple.

Simple is not always easy though. In this type of work you need to know exactly how to work your way through the steps involved in this rewarding process. That􀀂s where I can help you. I have specialized in New Construction and Pre-Construction for my entire career in Real Estate. As Broker Owner of Sea Isle Realty, I am in a unique position to help you accomplish this plan.

This is the best time in years for people like you to execute a successful development strategy. Under more normal market conditions, developers would be buying up all the good opportunities so fast you wouldn’t have the time to breathe. But not this year. This year the developers are still trying to sell off old inventory and developable property is getting listed to the open market. So talk to your neighbor and then talk to me. You’ll be surprised how easy this can be.

Stephen Freda
Broker/Owner
Sea Isle Realty Inc.

Beach Block Scenario 

Just imagine yourself away from home for a full week at the Shore and your in an average rental unit equipped with a regular old TV, no stereo and not much else in the area of media. And it starts to rain…and rain……and rain. We􀀁ve all been in that spot. Now, take yourself out of that unit and put yourself in one equipped with a 46” High Definition Flat Panel Television with a Stereo Surround Sound Home Theatre equipped with CD/DVD Player. A Playstation2 with a drawer full of games, DVD Movies and CDs that the whole family can use and enjoy. Then throw in a Digital Video Recorder an Ipod Dock some classic Board games like Monopoly and Clue and then top it all off with a set of real poker chips for a family Texas Hold-Em Tournament. Wow where is this place. Your tenants and prospective tenants will appreciate this kind of amenity so much that it will guarantee you an increase in Weeks Rented and make your repeat rate soar. So how much does this Super System Cost. I recently priced out this entire package online for a customer. He was stunned and when he considered the cost of under $3,000 against the impact it would have on his Gross Yearly Rental Income He was sold. Your Investment property in Sea Isle has to be approached like a business, and like any business owner you have to constantly consider the idea of how “Your Product” is being recieved by your Customers. The old thinking that said “just get it rented” will not 􀀁 FALL 2006 􀀁 work. You have to be thinking and acting. Not reacting. So take my suggestion and start with a trip to the local media center. You􀀂ll find out that this idea is as affordable as I have said. The chart on this page serves as an example but make sure you show up after taking some measurements of your home to make sure everything will fit the way you envision it.

One last thing I haven􀀂t mentioned. You􀀂ll love it too. The family experience at the shore for you and yours could be the better for it.

Most of the time when you ask people what they know they will end up telling you what they think. There is a difference you know. I know the Sun rises in the A.M. I know the Moon will set at night. Everything else falls under the broad heading of what I think. So if you asked me sitting right here today if I Think the Real Estate Market in Sea Isle City has completed it􀀁s correction I would have to say “Yes I Think So”.

Why Do I Say That?

The answer to the second question will not be as short as the answer to the first question, but I􀀁ll still give it a shot. So lets take a look back to when this all started. Millions of years ago before the Dawn of Man………..No just kidding.

Back on track……..In the Fall of 2003 the price of a New Construction Townhouse in the 100 Block was sitting at $724,000 and after a sluggish start to that season the price started to drive and by the Memorial day 2004 had moved all the way up to around the $789,000 mark. All the inventory had sold and the Developers started to look for tear downs for the next season.

Owners of potential tear downs in the 100 block were asking $1,000,000 for the first time ever and Developers paid it. After all, the wheel had been turning without a hitch for years. So in the Fall of 2004 the Developers brought their product to the market at $869,000.

Now while a few people did purchase New Construction Town Houses in that Fall and Spring up and around that number, the truth is that this product was being largely ignored at that price while lesser priced products here and in towns like North Wildwood continued to sell. It was the first time that had happened in years.

The Idea that the Run was over had not been spoken outloud yet though and when the Spring and Summer of 2004 came around Developers continued to purchase ground and make plans for product that would be developed in the Winter of 2005. Keep in mind that Owners were jumping at the opportunity to sell their cottage for a “Million Bucks” so things continued to move forward as large entities with momentum do.

Then The Storm Hit! ………..Literally.

Hurricane Katrina scared a lot of people. Speaking just for myself, I remember being afraid watching the News coverage and I was 1200 miles away. People love to share complex economic theories that they heard someone else put forward on the Evening News or in The New York Times. So there is no shortage of opinion out there as to why it slowed down so completely last fall. My reason is not complex at all. I think a lot of people felt the same way I did when that storm hit. I think a lot of people got scared at the same time about a lot of different things that they had not been scared of in years.

That’s how the collective mindset works. So in the fall of 2005 as all that inventory was added to the already existing unsold inventory from the year before the potential buyers began to see an opportunity in waiting. And so they did. The waited to see if the sky was going to fall and it didnt. So when the spring and summer of 2006 arrived so did our buyers. Not in the hordes they had been in years past but showed up they did. We are now in the process of selling off a very large inventory and are well on the way to doing that as more buyers who feel as if the price has settled move into the market. And as far as a Correction goes I would like to offer this.

The high water mark that was reached in the Spring of 2004 for a 100 block Town House in the blocks between 60th and 80th Streets was $789,000. The list price for that same house today is ……….. $799,000.

The truth is that the only correction experienced was from a price that never really existed. Sometime in the spring off this year we should see the completion of the “sell off” of the Developers older inventory and as new inventory comes to the market with the price adjusted for the reduced land cost , we should see a more stable price establish itself.