Central New Jersey Real Estate and Community News » RE-MAX

Spring Cleaning

Jbend — Sat, 12 Apr 2008 19:47:20 +0000

Now’s the time of year to get some spring cleaning done! This year when you’re cleaning out the cobwebs why not add a new consideration. When choosing your cleaning products and procedures think about the environment. Natural products like vinegar, baking soda, and lemon oil work great for a lot of cleaning jobs. Not only are they better for the environment they can also be more economical than traditional products. There are many green alternatives available in commercially prepared cleaning products like Seventh Generation, Method, and Simple Green. Even Clorox has just released a new line of natural cleaners called Green Works.

If you just don’t have the time and choose to have someone else do the cleaning for you, you can still go green by choosing an environmentally friendly cleaning company. There are several nationwide cleaning services that use nontoxic and nonpolluting products like Maid Brigade. To find green cleaning services in your area try to find companies that are certified by Green Seal or EcoLogo. Web resources include epa.gov and Lowimpactliving.com which provides lists of green cleaning companies by state.

Finding the Right Home Inspector

Jbend — Fri, 11 Apr 2008 12:20:55 +0000

For most people buying a home is the biggest investment they will make in their lifetimes. For this reason the home inspection is no place to try and save a buck. A home inspection is your chance to make sure that the investment you are making is a good one. Many potential problems that a home may have are invisible to an untrained eye. Hiring the right home inspector can help to ensure that small problems will be found before they become big problems.

Not only is having a home inspection important it is important to select the right home inspector. If your Real Estate agents has some names they recommend, that’s a great place to start. The next thing you should do is make sure that your inspectors is licensed and ASHI certified. Then check with them to see if they carry errors and omissions insurance.

With all your homework done you can go into the home inspection process with confidence that your inspector will do their best to identify potential problems. You do, however, need to be realistic in your expectations. There are some problems that are impossible to detect, no home inspector can guarantee that they will find everything that may be wrong with a home. All homes will have problems and repairs that need to be dealt with just as a matter of maintenance.

The best thing that you can do to guarantee a productive inspection is to attend the inspection yourself. That way any potential problems can be pointed out and explained to you. You can also pick up a number of important maintenance tips from a good inspector.

This Week at Re/Max Classic Group

Jbend — Mon, 07 Apr 2008 15:33:53 +0000

Tuesday Morning – Re/Max Supreme Office, Pricing Seminar
Tuesday10am – Branchburg Training Room, Ethics Training
Wednesday 9:30am – Branchburg Training Room, Office Meeting
Wednesday, After meeting, Mini Seminars on Marketing system and Settlement Room
Wednesday – West Milford Office, Office Meeting
Thursday 6pm – Branchburg Training Room, Ethics Training
Friday 11am – Berkeley Heights Office, Office Meeting

NEXT WEEK – Thursday April 17^th Sales Rally, with Bob Procter/The Secret (sign up today for your disount.

It takes Courage to Encourage

ENCOURAGEMENT

Today, it is about Encouragement. More specifically it is about your role as encourager. Many of our clients, our friends, or family members, ourselves, need our encouragement. As a leader, people will come to you to help them. (In this current market I personally have had a lot of you come to me) The best way to help them is to diagnose how they are feeling. I have attached a list of 32 ways a person may feel who is desiring encouragement. The best thing about this diagnosis is that many of the people will tell you which of these emotions they are feeling.

Once you have established the word that best describes their current state, then you can help them. For example, those who feel stressed, out of control, out of balance, disorganized, overwhelmed, out of focus, etc. tend to need realignment. Peter Drucker (one of the greatest leadership/management thinkers of all time) would help in this way. Mr. Drucker would say, “I need to take the one or two things that I need to focus my attention on right and do them.”

You would ask the “What is the one thing you need to do right now?” Focus them on that one thing and get them to do it. (For somebody who feels like a failure, worthless, insignificant, or discouraged, it might be, “What is the one thing you need to focus on right now to get another client?” Then help them do it.)

The fall and winter time of the year is a time that these feelings are especially rampant, but with the challenging market we have today it does not matter what it is doing outside. Go out there, be open to people’s issues, be that strong lighthouse, and listen. This is a major step in the development of you, the leader.

Here’s the list of the 32 ways people may feel:

1. Cranky

2. Discouraged

3. Disillusioned

4. Disorganized

5. Doubtful

6. Drowning in Debt

7. Dumb/Stupid

8. Failure

9. Fatigued

10. Ignored

11. Insecure

12. Insignificant

13. Lonely

14. Mediocre

15. Negative

16. Out of Balance

17. Out of Control

18. Out of Focus

19. Overwhelmed

20. Nervous

21. Pressured

22. Rejected

23. Resentful

24. Stressed Out

25. Stuck in a Rut

26. Trapped

27. Uncreative

28. Undisciplined

29. Unloved

30. Unmotivated

31. Victimized

32. Worthless

By tapping into and tuning into how others feel, you will be the strong empathetic leader people are looking for in a friend and a professional. Look at each feeling and imagine yourself counseling the person. What would you ask? What do they need? What is the appropriate question and what would be the appropriate follow-up question? What if your friend told you he or she was lonely? cranky? pressured? By imagining this beforehand, it will make you a better listener, friend, leader when they need you most.

Somerset Patriots Fan Fest ‘08

Jbend — Sat, 05 Apr 2008 17:46:52 +0000

It’s almost that time again, opening day for the Somerset Patriots is only a couple of weeks away! If you can’t possibly wait that long to get your fix then head on over to the Commerce Bank Ballpark in Bridgewater today. The Patriots are hosting their annual Fan Fest today starting at noon. The Fan Fest is a free event that includes the opportunity to get autographs from some Patriots players and manager Sparky Lyle. It is also the official opening of the ball park for the season. There will be carnival games, clowns, and face painters. The Patriots mascots Sparkee and Slider will also be sure to make an appearance.

Season ticket holders can pick up their packages starting today at the event. Season tickets can also be purchased at a discounted rate.

Open tryouts were also scheduled to take place this morning before the event, but have been rescheduled. Open tryouts will now be held on April 12^th from 9:00 – 12:00.

The first 500 fans to arrive at Fan Fest will receive a free T-Shirt, so get out there now!

Why Lower Home Prices are a Good Thing

Jbend — Fri, 04 Apr 2008 14:39:35 +0000

Home prices are continuing to creep lower and while it may not seem like it to some, especially those trying to sell right now, this is actually a good thing for the Real Estate market. A recent Newsweek article explained why lower home prices are the only solution to the housing slump. “It’s elementary economics. Pretend that houses are apples. We have 1,000 apples, priced at $1 each. They don’t sell. We can either keep the price at $1 and watch the apples rot or cut the price until people buy. Housing is no different.”

There are not too many homes on the market right now, there are just too many that the current buyers can not afford. Prices went so high for so long that buying a home became considerably more difficult. Added to that are more stringent mortgage requirements creating an even more troublesome situation. The only solution is more affordable home prices. How much prices have to drop to become affordable to buyers varies significantly from area to area, even neighborhood to neighborhood.

The problem with declining prices other than sellers losing money when they sell is that decreasing prices have scared some buyers. Even as home prices become more affordable buyers continue to be reluctant to make a purchase. Also the increasing rate of foreclosure makes borrowers reluctant to borrow because they are afraid they won’t be able to pay what they borrow back. For the most part many buyers will see opportunity in the number of homes on the market that fit their criteria and the new more affordable prices.

For the complete Newsweek article visit http://www.newsweek.com/id/118914/

Tax Time is Upon Us

Jbend — Wed, 02 Apr 2008 19:10:18 +0000

The following are 5 Tax Deductions you may miss, from my friend Chris Bird

Tax Planning Deserves Year-Around Consideration
The reason so many IRS deductions go unclaimed—Realtors and business owners don’t know about them. Or they don’t know about them early enough in the year to collect necessary information as they go along.

As a person running your own operation, tax consequences need to influence how you conduct business, day in and day out. Where to spend—or not. How to structure transactions. When to act. How much you must pay in income taxes can easily determine whether your operation turns out to be profitable for the whole year. You’re entitled to claim every expense and write-off the law allows. That’s money in your pocket.

As you read on, take a bow for those you’re already doing. And resolve to benefit from others that fit your situation (which now won’t pass you by). There’s still time to include these tax-saving deductions for your 2007 Federal tax return.

Section 179 Property—Personal Property Write-off
Receive an up-front write-off of up to $125,000 for personal property purchased for use in the business. (This increases to $128,000 in 2008). That covers computers, printers, office furniture, fixtures, etc. It’s no longer necessary to depreciate the cost over the asset’s useful life, since you can expense the entire purchase price the year the asset is acquired.

Notice that this deduction cannot be used for personal property like appliances and furniture in residential rental property, however. But it would apply for such equipment in commercial rentals.

Travel Expenses
The Internal Revenue Code defines travel expenses as the "ordinary and necessary" expenses incurred while traveling away from home for your business, profession, or job. They include transportation, baggage, lodging, meals, laundry, telephone calls, and tips. Travel expenses do not include expenses for entertainment.

Special Note: Regulations require that business travel expenses be substantiated by evidence like diaries, logs, receipts, paid bills, and expense reports. You must separately report each expense for transportation, lodging, and meals. Indicate the date you left and returned for each trip, and the number of days away spent on business. Note down your destination and the business reason for the trip, or what business benefit you expected to gain.

Entertainment Expenses
The IRS restricts your ability to write off the cost of meals and entertainment. Unlike other expenses, only 50% of what you actually spend can be deducted as business expense. In my experience, Realtors too frequently under-claim entertainment expenses they’re entitled to take.

Avoid the risk of scrutiny by keeping certain information for each deduction:

Date and time
Place
Amount claimed
Relation to the person or event
Anything else relevant

There are several areas where the 50% reduction does not apply. So break those figures out and write them off 100%.

Transportation to and from an event
Open houses for listings
Events to reward employee performance
Business gifts or incentives up to $25 per customer or client

Home Office Deduction

You may write off the portion of your home used regularly as the office of your business. Deduct a percentage of the utilities, repairs, maintenance, and depreciation. The tricky part—that area must be use exclusively for business purposes. And you cannot also have another off-site office where you conduct substantial work or administrative tasks of running your business. This topic is so important for Realtors (and widely misunderstood), that I’ll devote a future article to this.

Put Family Members on the Payroll

Hire family members to work for the business. Pay them for the work done at the rate you’d pay someone else to do it. Minor children, your spouse, grandma, etc., can help with necessary tasks—answer the phone, cleaning and maintenance, record keeping, distributing flyers, performing computer tasks, etc. Keep detailed records of their tasks and hours. And the person does have to do the work. The numerous advantages of involving family members in the business go way beyond saving taxes. And since they really earned it, the "kiddie tax rules" do not apply.

Get in the Habit of Finding Legitimate Deductions

Taxes won’t go away. But by claiming every deduction you’re entitled to, you can cut them down to size.

April Fools Day

Jbend — Wed, 02 Apr 2008 00:47:52 +0000

Did you happen to make it through the day without a sighting of some plastic vomit or a whoopee cushion? Maybe your friends are a little more creative and you have to tread lightly when the first day of April rolls around. The origins of April Fools Day are somewhat uncertain. It is believed to date back to the Middle Ages and may be associated either with the changing of the seasons or the beginning of what was once considered the new year. Either way it has become a tradition of lighthearted joking celebrated throughout the Western world.

If you let the day pass this year without pulling one over on a friend here are some ideas to keep in mind for next year. Not that I’m suggesting any of these. As always there is a certain level of risk involved when pulling pranks, the consequences are usually fairly closely related to the sense of humor of the prankee!

These are actual pranks that people claimed to have pulled on a recent CareerBuilder.com survey.

1. Placed a pair of pants and shoes inside the only toilet stall in a men’s room to make it appear someone was using the stall. It sat there for hours until someone called security to check if the person had died.

2. Sent a fake love note to a co-worker from another co-worker.

3. All the women in office individually spoke to the president, confiding that she is pregnant. By noon, he ‘knew’ that all of his female workers were pregnant and he could not tell anyone because each asked for confidentially.

4. Called electric company, used a co-worker’s name and told them he was moving so the electricity got turned off at the co-worker’s house.

5. Filled the vending soda machine with cans of beer.

6. Rigged the bosses chair to drop suddenly during a staff meeting.

7. Placed a sign on the restroom door that read, "The company ran out of toilet tissue; please use your own resources."

8. Paged a co-worker over the loud speaker claiming the CEO was looking for him. The worker went into the CEOs office and the CEO didn’t know who he was or why he was there.

9. Shrink-wrapped everything in a co-worker’s cubicle.

10. Put a ‘house for sale’ ad in the newspaper regarding a co-worker’s home.