When I finally made the decision to become a First Time Home Buyer, stop making my landlord’s house payment and start making my own, I didn’t know what to expect. I was worried about making mistakes or making a bad decision. But, as my real estate agent, Dan Bozza, led me through the process of buying my first home, my excitement grew and my fears subsided.

Dan told me that I needed to find a loan officer to help me attain pre-approval status. He said I could select a lending institution or that he could recommend a few loan officers some of his other clients had found courteous and thorough.

I really didn’t think that I would be able to borrow enough money to buy a home of my own. My loan officer assured me that there was no guess work involved. He explained that the lending institution would pre-approve me for a total mortgage loan amount, based on my income, monthly debts, credit history, and assets.

Once we knew I what I could afford, Dan asked me to tell him what I saw as my dream home. This was the most fun for me. Dan took me to see a variety of houses that fit my criteria and price range. I couldn’t believe what was out there for first time home buyers. I could have looked at houses forever. When we found the house for me, I knew it instantly. Not only did it have my dream kitchen, it had room in the yard for a vegetable garden. Dan wasted no time. He explained that we needed to make an offer.

Dan told me not to be shocked when I seen the paperwork. “This is just the first truckload,” he said with a laugh. We went over it all. Dan made sure I understood each piece. He went over the proposed selling price, explained earnest money, inspection contingencies, made sure that the contract included all interior and exterior items included in the sale. He answered all of my questions and told me of some areas where I needed to pay special attention. This was when I began to believe that it was really going to happen. I was on my way to owning my very first home.

When the day of the inspection came, I got nervous all over again. What if something was seriously wrong, and all this hope and excitement turned to dust? I watched as the inspector tapped, crawled and poked into every corner. The report was thorough. Although nothing really alarming came out in the report, we did end up with a list of small repairs to make sure the owner completed before the deal was complete. I was glad that Dan had advised me to make the sale contingent on the outcome of the inspection.
The next step was the appraisal. Dan and my loan officer explained to me that the appraisal would document for the lending institution and for me that the selling price of the property was appropriate for its size, location, age and condition. I could see that my lending institution was really looking out for me.

Dan, the seller’s agent and I went through the house to do the final walk through. We ticked off all the items on the list of repairs and made sure everything was in order. Dan showed me the link on his web page with all the phone numbers to transfer my utilities. I was set! Everything had gone so smoothly, I couldn’t believe that in just a few hours, the house would be mine.

When Dan and I arrived at the attorney’s office, I saw that Dan was right. There was more than a truckload of paperwork. We worked our way through it all until the keys were placed in my hand.

“Are you going to move in today?” Dan asked. I just looked at the keys in my hand and smiled. Straight from the closing, I drove to the house and walked around. Somehow, I just had to see it. As I walked through the rooms of the quiet, empty house, living room, bathrooms, bedrooms, I had one word going through my mind. Mine. Mine. Mine.

Thank you Dan!
Nancy

NJ Realty Cafe is getting a new look! I will add our “Today’s Specials” board when something special is going on.  :)We are clickable!!!!

Jeremiah Phillips of Custom Mortgage Solutions has a new loan program you’re going to love! Drop him an email at jphillips@cmslending.com to learn all about it!  Keep checking back here we have lots more coming!

Current Mood: Happy

I Received an email today asking me if this was a real estate blog or a real estate website (from a fellow agent) and I guess I would say both. I love the real estate business and I also love to talk/blog so it’s sort of the best of both worlds. I am adding more features this week including easy access graphic buttons at the header, a property search box on the side panel, hopefully I will complete the property watch section and just for fun I’m adding a nice picture album (not real estate related). I’m not sure about the current header once the other buttons come into play so maybe a change there also. Please notice I have created a few child pages under the left sidepanel because we seem to be filling up pretty quickly, so the All About Mortgages tab now contains a child page (All about Pre-approvals, and a few more are being added in as well. That’s it for tonight. 

visit me tomorrow on Dan’s www.monmouthcountyhouses.com I’ll be working all day!

Job Fair
for
Seasonal Employment
Saturday, January 6, 2007
10 am- 2pm
Hominy Hill Golf Course
Mercer Road, Colts Neck
Directions
***MUST BE MONMOUTH COUNTY RESIDENT***
***MINIMUM AGE OF 16 YEARS***
Come and learn about seasonal (3 to 9 months) employment opportunities within the Park System. Staff will conduct on-site interviews for the following positions:

           Pool and Oceanfront Lifeguards
        Counselors/Recreation Leaders
          Sports Instructors/Assistants
       Gardeners
         Park Maintenance Workers         

  Nature Activity Leaders
          Golf Maintenance Workers
           Golf Shop Staff
           Historical Sites Interpreters & Tour Guides
          Arts & Crafts Instructors    

       Program Instructors
           Preschool Assistants

Come prepared! Download an employment application.
Can’t make the job fair?
Mail resume and a completed application to:
Monmouth County Park System
Attn: Personnel
805 Newman Springs Road
Lincroft, NJ 07738-1695

For more information regarding the job fair, call (732) 842-4000 ext 4219 or ext 4339. Persons with hearing impairments, please call 711.

Current Mood: Happy

First we would like to congratulate our listing on Hudson on the Sale of their home and the purchase of a new one!!!!   Frank V. on your home purchase in South River and JP on your Browns Mills purchase and finally to our owners on West on your pending offer!!!!   Whoo hoooo to our buyers and sellers!!!!!  

Now for all the news and happenings!  The first time buyer site is starting to see a nice increase in traffic with first time home buyers taking advantage of all the tools and useful info we have over there. Our E-Mentor Course will be out very soon and I am so excited about that!  Watch for advertising on that, it’s going to be HUGE!  Our RE/MAX of NJ site at http://www.callmehome.com  has a new look and easy functionality!   The buyer and seller reports will be changed to NO sign up required!   A welcomed surprise hearing from a past client (((( Leticia))))) glad you are doing well!   The market seems to be picking up nicely and those homes that are priced right are selling, so homeowners listen to your agents and drop those prices!  We are working with another fine agent Andres Garcia in Hoboken, so for any of our clients looking in Hoboken or surrounding area’s he will be your contact!   I will be a certified home stager very soon and I am looking forward to offering free home staging advice to Dan’s clients!  No it’s not just on TV anymore, however, I was watching Clean House the other night and it did give me some great ideas     (another post)  It appears RE/MAX is in the lead again for the Monmouth/Ocean county MLS standings, anyone who is interested drop me an email and I will send you the report!  The first of our new recipe cards went out last week with a scrumptious recipe for “meatball sub casserole” being the first!  I made it and it was so incredible!  If you aren’t yet on our recipe list please drop me an email (dbozza@remax.net)  and I will send it out to you ASAP  and you will also get all future recipes to the tune of once a month. If you don’t want to receive the actual US mail then just send your email and I will scan it for you…trust me anything with meatballs, garlic and cheese oozing with sauce is worth the effort of an email!  LET’S EAT! 

I’m starting to feel like a teenager neglecting her diary but I have been real busy lately. I also have my very own domain names now Homesbymom.com cute right? I also registered www. homesNearMom.com too so all of you competitors that thought you might snatch that one up, …too late! I don’t have them directed to a website yet, thats Friday night’s big event.

The callmehome.com domain list has grown into about 70 names now. There was so much research to do before adding such a large amount of names. It will not have any affect as far as SEO issues go because I did not mirror the websites. I simply have a large quantity of names pointing towards the home pages of about 4 sites. Google won’t be upset with me and as long as google is happy I’m happy.

The reasoning behind the names is pretty simply, they are all targeted names which consumers may type in the address bar. Lets say someone is looking for a house in monmouth county, at times people will simply go up to the address bar and type in monmouthcountyhouses.com. Make sense? So it started with about 10 names that were tracked and the list grew from there, examples monroenjhome.com, oceancountyhouses.com and so on. Easy to get to for buyers and most times the traffic is direct navigation and with more visitors it’s more exposure for sellers.

The opening newsletter about the domains is available now online House Shopping 101(thanks to comcast storage and a lot of patience, if anyone needs help getting a publisher print file turned into a web doc and uploaded to the web, let me know, I have it figured out now) Have a good night!

Here is a very good article on Direct Navigation

I’ll be posting more later this week, I have been researching some very interesting internet related marketing and so forth… Direct navigation domains; not only are they on the rise, but also very important for any company marketing on the internet. Basically there are two types of direct navigation, known links and unknown links. The interesting part is the unknown links. People actually bypassing the search bar and typing in the goods, services and whatever they are seeking directly into the address bar. I am very certain more articles and data will be available about this subject. There are a few articles online now with the most recent press release which can be read here. Direct Navigation Press Release
A must read for anyone marketing online.

Shifts in the housing industry often impact an oft-overlooked segment of the real estate world: rentals. Around the nation, signs of increased rental activity and rising rents can be seen. While there isn’t yet any evidence of a widespread leasing boom, there are indications that an overall landlord’s market may be developing.

Why are rental markets picking up in many areas?

For this Newsletter and Others Visit Daniel Bozza of RE/MAX Central at www.callmehome.com

Busy, busy week so far with many phone calls coming in for listings, showings and iquiries. A big Thank You to Valerie Wechsler from RE/MAX Central for showing Dan’s property in Howell (GO VALERIE!) and getting right back to us with feedback! Check back here tomorrow for another brand new listing Dan took in Monroe Twp. (A Sprawling Rancher) Special thanks to Jeff Fox Broker of RE/MAX Central for the great marketing flyers which we received. Website traffic for www.callmehome.com is on steady increase since this time last week! We have received 2 letters asking for a few more features on the website which will be implemented shortly. We had our first 3 Springtime and Summer Fun pics sent in and posted in the Community Section of callmehome.com.

*Dan’s been on the road non stop with our buyers, inspections, listings and so forth.

*3 of Dan’s properties are out of attorney review (I hope I change them in the computer before the MLS reads this) LOL …just kidding the MLS is the Best!

*I have increased marketing and internet exposure.

*Dan has joined the Children’s Miracle Network! (See press release)