What’s “THE LIST”?…..

The Short List. You know what the short list is. You make them all the time when trying to choose from too many things to begin with. So you start to eliminate things from your list of possibilities so that you can make a choice from an amount you can manage. The Short List. Getting on to the Short List is the name of the game this year at the Jersey Shore.

Up and down the coast Sale Customers started to swarm the day after Christmas with inquiries about property for sale. Holding stacks of listings that had printed out on the internet that all say the same things. But its when you walk through the properties in person that the rubber meets the road and at that point traction is very important. If you slip at all you will not make “The List”.

The cable channels are full of listings for shows that are built around the idea of designing to sell. This is the kind of show your prospective buyer is watching and you need to understand this. And then you have to act accordingly. Team Sea Isle is the only Full Service Real Estate Team in Sea Isle City and we have everything you need including an on staff designer. We will tour your home using our 30 point review system and then deliver to you an affordable solution that will get your house on THE SHORT LIST.

Here are some of the most important considerations when getting your property in the condition it needs to be to sell this year.

Point #1 – The Drive Up

Most new home buyers have put you on or eliminated you from “THE LIST” the second they pull up in front of your home. Small things make all the difference. Is your front door rusty. Is the hardware on it new. Have you power washed the siding along the first level so that the house “shows clean”. How does the garage door present itself. Small things make the difference.

Point #2 – The Foyer

Put yourself on the position of your prospect. What do you think when you hit the front door of a house you are looking to purchase. Is the carpet clean? Is the tile grout stained.

Point #3 – The Stairs

Stained carpet on the stairs is an easy way to turn off a buyer and is easy to remedy.

Point #4 – Interior Doors

Replacing doors that date your house as 15 years or older will hurt your ability to generate a higher offer. There is probably no more obvious tell out there for dating a home than old style interior doors with rusty hinges that have been painted over too many times. Replacing the doors with blanks is affordable and worth the expense.

Point #5 – The Kitchen

This is the big one. The most important statement you will make. What does your kitchen say. Replacing just the doors is a fraction of the cost of all new cabinets and looks the same. Granite like countertops make the statement you need if you want to generate an offer. Tile back splash is a great way to generate a “WOW” at an affordable price.

Point #6 – Furnishings

Have you ever been to a new development and toured the model homes? The impression that furniture selected by a professional can make is amazing. And it does not need to be expensive. It just needs to be color coordinated. Our designer can help you make your home show at its best.

Point #7 – Walls and Floors

Color Coordination is the name of the game again. Almost everyone who lists their home for sale considers painting and flooring. The difference is in the selection of materials. Once again our designer will make the difference.

Point #8 – Custom Cabinetry and Built-Ins

This is not just for custom homes anymore. It just requires an artistic eye and some unused space for you to add something special to your offering.

Design to Sell…..Flip This House…….House Hunters……..

Your prospective buyer is watching these shows and others like it. These shows tell them they can get a great house in exciting condition if they just look hard enough. Your best chance to meet there expectation is:

Team Sea Isle – Sea Isle City’s only Full Service Real Estate Team

Call 609-263-5301 and ask for Stephen Freda

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.

If you list Your Property with Sea Isle Realty We will guarantee the following services.

1. Real Estate has changed. Potential customers are starting their search for second homes almost exclusively on the Internet. They are investigating properties online before they take the trip down for the day. How your property is displayed on the computer is Critical. That’s why all of our New Listings will be photographed by a Professional Photographer, using State of the Art Digital Equipment and placed in a feature on our Website. We will also create a Streaming Video Picture Tour. This will guarantee your property shows at its best. No more poorly lit and framed photographs that don’t do your home justice.

2. We will feature your property in “THE GUIDE”, Southern New Jersey’s premier Real Estate Publication for the last 20 Years.

3. Direct Marketing works, we subscribe to the two largest Lead Generation services in the industry. These services deliver to us the names of people who are looking to purchase Real Estate in our area. Your listing will be delivered to them by E-Mail as soon as their name hits the system. We also use extensive direct mail marketing to a list of hundred’s of people who we have had direct contact with. They have requested to be kept up to date on New Sale Listings and will receive info on your property as soon as you list with us.

4. We will develop and distribute a feature on your property that will be delivered to every working Real Estate Agent in Sea Isle City and Avalon, insuring their awareness of your homes availability.

5. We will have your home inspected by at least ten realtors from our office and other companies here in Sea Isle. You will receive these reports with a summary from Us as to the reaction and suggestions of those Realtors. This objective process will be invaluable in helping us to do things like price setting and making a to do list for getting the property in showing condition.

6. We will have a Broker Open house Luncheon within 2 weeks of your signed listing. Broker Open Houses are an invaluable tool in exposing your property to the Real Estate Community. These are the people we need to enlist in our efforts to Sell Your Home.

This sounds like a lot of service, but it’s the kind of value you deserve for YOUR MONEY. Let us put our actions in place of these words, let us give you Your Best Chance to sell, let Sea Isle Realty be your Listing Broker.

Thank You,

Stephen Freda
Broker/Owner