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THE WARREN-WATCHUNG CONNECTION
NOVEMBER 2013
New Jersey's
Leading
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birdsallbath.com 908.753.8181
Visit our showroom at
993
US Highway 22 North Plainfield, NJ
Call BIRDSALL for an appointment.
In the beginning of my career in
the late 1980’s, Ronald Reagan was
president, the Reagan days. The real
estate market was booming because
prior to Reagan, Jimmy Carter was
president with interest rates over
20%.
Because of that, real estate
prices on home values were very low.
Then Reagan comes in and interest
rates drop to 10%. The overabun-
dance of inventory cleared out. It was
not the economy that drove real
estate to move, it was the interest
rate. Soon after, real estate values
dropped quite a bit. There were a lot
of relocation/transferee buyers from
large corporations. The corporations
would buy out the sellers if their
homes did not sell. Almost without
fail, when the corporation took over
their client’s home, they would paint
the interior, clean or replace the car-
pets and have the house profession-
ally cleaned.
In the beginning of my career I
used to always tell my clients, the
best thing you can do to sell your
house is declutter it, stage it with
what you have. Don’t buy pictures,
furniture or drapes; work with the
furniture you have; move it around
so it looks more spacious, put some
of the furniture in the basement or
garage. Take the magnets off the
fridge, remove some or most person-
al pictures from the walls, keep the
house clean and tidy, do a little bit of
weeding and landscaping on the out-
side, power wash if needed, and you
are ready to sell your house.
The real estate market took off
again from 2002-2007. I had one
client that had over 10 offers on his
home at one time. That was a market
where unemployment was down,
the stock market was up and con-
sumer confidence was high. Interest
rates hit a national low of 3%, cor-
porations were booming with profits,
and relocation and transferees were
responsible for new subdivisions
being built with a price point slightly
above and below the million dollar
price range. In fact, the million dollar
houses on the market today mostly
came from that era. That was the
time when everybody was doing
well. The rule of thumb was still there
about tidying up, decluttering, and
staging even though there were bid-
ding wars. If the house was staged
nicely and showed well, it got a high
bid. After 2007 the market stabilized
and depreciated about 25%, with a
5-8%
increase in 2013. We are in a
good market again, stable, with a
slight lack of inventory, and an over-
abundance of buyers who are finally
feeling good about the economy.
“25
years later, in real estate some
things never change.”
REAL ESTATE, SOME THINGS NEVER CHANGE
By: James Madalone
REMAX PREMIER, THE JAMES MADALONE REALTY GROUP
60
Mountain Blvd, Warren, NJ 07059 • Direct Office: 908-754-1587 • Cell: 908-963-8470
Email: jamestm6@hotmail.com • www.jamesmadalone.com
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