Tagged: New Jersey

Quick and Inexpensive Home Fix-ups that Can Help Your Home Sell for More

If you are considering selling your home but know it needs some fixing up and do not have the money for expensive repairs and fix-ups there is still hope for selling your home.  Doing some quick fix-ups to the appearance of your home can help you get more for the value of your home and won’t cost you much either.

Here are 15 quick fix-ups that can get your more money for your home:

  • Remove excess furniture
  • Remove excess clutter
  • Clean out your closets and organize anything that needs to stay in there in an orderly fashion
  • Patch up any nail holes in the wall that do not have pictures hanging on them
  • Keep your lawn mowed
  • Wash exterior and interior or windows thouroughly
  • Paint or replace your front door if needed
  • Power spray the outside of the house to get rid of excessive dirt and cobwebs
  • Replace the welcome mat at the front steps if the one your currently  have looks used
  • Paint or replace your mailbox if necessary
  • Wash or replace the front porch light fixture
  • Make sure your house has the house number well displayed and that the display is clean
  • Thouroughly clean the house before you put it on the market – sweep, mop, scrub, shampoo your carpet or wax your floors
  • Re-do anything that is worn down in your kitchen and bathroom
  • Re-paint the interior of your house if you are in need of a paint job

Having any edge over everyone else in this economy will  help your house sell for more and will make your house look more appealing and like it is worth more.  Once you have a buyer for  your house you will need to find a real estate lawyer in your area.  If you are looking for a real estate lawyer in Staten Island or if you are selling your Brooklyn, Manhattan, Queens or Bronx New York or New Jersey home you can contact us at 800.976.4904 to find out how we represent clients selling their home like you everyday and how we can be of assistance to you.

How to Find the Right Home in New York and New Jersey

Deciding to purchase a home is a big step that most people take at one point and time in their life.  It is a time in most peoples lives where they decide what area they want to live in, how big of a house they need and how much money they are willing to spend on the house.  Making sure that you get everything you want from your house is important, especially if you plan on living there for a while.  Most people wonder “How will I know which house is right for me?” you will want to make sure you figure out what you need in a house before looking for one this will help you and your realtor because you will both be on the same page and you will not find yourself purchasing a home that you are just “settiling” for.

So how do you know if you are buying the right house? There are many different things you will have to decide on as far as your house goes that you will want to decide and make your real estate agent aware of when you are looking for a house in New York or New Jersey. Here are some things you will want to decide on to help you find the right home in Staten Island, Brooklyn, Manhattan, Queens or the Bronx, New York or New Jersey these tips will help you find what you are looking for:

  • Decide on what type of neighborhood you want to live in.  Do you prefer to live in a quiet suburban area or in a urban area.  Suburban areas are often more quiet because you are further away from your neighbors most of the time and they are often slightly less expensive in price when compared with city houses.  Urban areas or “city” areas are often more populated and have less of a commute to work and school but also usually have slightly more expensive homes, are noisier and sometimes have higher crime rates.
  • Decide on what type of location you want to live in.  Once you have decided on whether you want to live in a city or in the suburbs you will want to decide if you prefer living on a busy street or on a more secluded street.  This is really just a personal preference if you are a person who likes it completely quiet all of the time you will want to avoid homes that are on busy streets or that are next to the highway because of the noise from the traffic, but if you are not bothered by the noise purchasing a home on a busier street is usually a few thousand dollars cheaper – just remember that since it can be purchased for thousands cheaper also means that when you sell it there is a chance it will probably sell cheaper.  You will also want to decide if you want to live on a corner lot or not.
  • Find an area with a good education system.  If you have children or plan on having them sometime in the future while you reside in the house you are considering purchasing you will want to make sure the area has a good education system.
  • Decide what type of home you want.  Are you interested in a single family home, multi-family home, condominium, townhome or cooperative (co-op)?  Single family and multi-family homes are usually quieter and have more appreciation but require a lot of maintainance.  Condominiums, townhomes and cooperative units usually require less maintainance but noisier and not as private because you share common walls and/or ceilings with your neighbors.  This category of homes is also usually less expensive than a single or multi-family home.
  • Determine what style of home you want.  Do you want a single story home, split level or a multi-level home? Deciding what type of style home you want is most commonly based on how much space you need, what type of layout you find more appealing, whether or not you have medical conditions that prohibit you to one floor, whether you feel safer in a one floor home or a multi-story home and if a multi-floor home is more or less convienient for your daily activities.
  • Decide what interior specificiations are important to you.  You will want to determine what specific needs you and your family have and what they need from the house for everyday living.  How many bedrooms do you need?  Will you need extra bedrooms in the future for a baby, in-law or parent?  Do you need a guest room?  Is one bathroom okay for your family or do you require 2 or only 1 1/2 bathrooms?  Determining the specific needs your family has will help you decide what qualities you need inside of your house.
  • Figure out if you want a home that is newer and will require less fixing or if you are looking for a “fix-up” home.  Regardless of whether or not you are buying a home that is apparent that it needs to be fixed up or if you are looking for a home that requires little to no repairs you will always want to make sure you have an engineers inspection (home inspection) done to make sure there are no “hidden problems” but deciding if you want to pay less for a home that needs to be fixed up or if you want to spend a little extra and purchase a home that is newer and does not require and fixing up will not only help you in the long run but will also help you map out the amount you may need to invest in the house to fix it up.
  • Try to figure out if there are any “little things” that are important.  Determining if there are any small things that will be a make or break the deal is important to figure out before hand also and sometimes are not thought about until the purchase process is already occuring. A few things to consider are does the house offer gas or electric heat, does it have central air or will you have to put a window unit in, do you want a swimming pool, if you are buying a condo or co-op are you allowed to have pets, are you willing to buy a house if it is a short sale or a foreclosure? – there are many questions that you may want to figure out the answers to before making a final decision and signing a binder for a house.

Military Members Looking to Purchase a Home Can Now Take Advantage of First-Time Homebuyers Tax Credit

If you are a military member who is looking into purchasing a home for the first time you may be curious to know if you qualify for the first time homebuyer tax credit that everyone has been talking about this year.  Many service members that purchased a home over the past year using this tax credit have quite possibly had the question run through their head “Will I have to pay back the first time homebuyers tax credit if I have to get re-stationed?” or “I just came back from a deployment – do I have enough time to purchase a house before November 30 when the tax credit deadline is?”.  Thanks to an extension and revision of the bill these questions have now been answered.

The Service Members Home Ownership Act of 2009 was presented not even a month ago for approval and last week Congress approved both the extension of the first time homebuyers tax credit for an additional year for service members who were deployed outside of the U.S. for over 90 days in 2008 and it would also allow service members to not have to pay the $8,000 credit back if they have to get re-stationed before the initial three years of owning their home.

Many military personnel who purchase homes usually either have to sell their homes or rent them out if they are getting changing locations and are no longer going to be able to live in the home.  This was causing a lot of military members to not want to purchase a home and take advantage of the first time home buyers tax credit because more than likely they would have to relocate within the first three years of owning the home and the chances that the new home could remain their primary residence is usually slim.  With the Service Members Home Ownership Act of 2009 military members no longer have to worry about these provisions in the First Time Homebuyers Credit.

Robert Dietz, the director of tax issues for the National Association of Home Builders, predicts that the approval of the Service Members Home Ownership Act of 2009 will probably result in an additional 10,000 home sales.  While he says this won’t have an impacting effect on the national level of the housing market it will have an effect on the local communities, especially the communities that are near Army, Marine, Air Force, Navy or Coast Guard bases.

No matter if you are in the military or if you are not there are certain tips you will want to use when purchasing a house whether it is in New York, New Jersey or anywhere in the U.S.  To get more information on what steps and precautions you should take when purchasing a home get a no cost, no obligation copy of “5 Myths that Can Ruin the Purchase of Your Home” by Steven T. Decker.  This book is being offered free to residents and those who are looking to become residents of New York or New Jersey.