About New Jersey Real Estate Market Trends
How to Sell Your Own Home in New Jersey
There are a few landmark moments in any person’s life, and buying your first home is a big one. Most likely, you aren’t going to live in
that home forever. When it inevitably comes time to sell it, you hit another big milestone. Your first time selling a home will come with a
wave of questions and unfamiliarity. Fortunately, the technology, including the internet, has made the process of selling your home home
significantly easier than it has ever been.
Traditionally, when you wanted to sell your home by owner, you would have to go through quite a process. Researching real estate values
in your area, reviewing comp, deciding on a list price, and getting your home listed in various publications. This can be very time
consuming, manual process. It could get so overwhelming, often times home sellers recruit a real estate professional to take on all of
these responsibilities. This comes at a cost. The cost is paying the agent 6% of sales price when your home closes.
The internet has changed all of that. While you will still might want to hire a realtor to sell your home, pricing and marketing your home
can be taken care of quickly and simply by yourself online. Using online listing services, you can price and list your FSBO (for sale by
owner) home online, get maximum online exposure, without signed a listing agreement with an agent. There are so many fsbo listing
services, it could get tough to manage them all individually.
This is where Fizber’s multiple listing service (MLS) comes in. When you list your home on the New Jersey MLS, your work with a for sale
by owner friendly broker and they will assist you in getting your listing on the New Jersey MLS. The agent will help you upload your
property listing to just one place, and it syndicates to hundreds of real estate websites. This gives you maximum online exposure to
thousands of buyers and agents that are looking for homes in your neighborhood. The NJ MLS also pairs you with a local New Jersey
agent, to ensure that you get maximum local exposure around New Jersey areas as well.
The best thing about the MLS NJ? The money that it saves you. Listing your property using a realtor will typically cost you a commission of
6% of sales prices. Fizber charges a flat fee for listing, of just $295 for six months. If you plan on listing your home on the New Jersey MLS,
you will want to offer a buyer’s commission (typically 2%-3% of sales price) so buyers agents have incentive to show their buyers your
listing. This allows you to save the listing portion of the commission and a lot of the time, this can save homesellers thousands of dollars.
Current Market Trends
After a dip in 2012, the New Jersey housing market has been on the rise. In fact, since just last year, median home values in the state have
risen by 2.7 percent year over year, and experts are predicting that the market will continue trending up, rising by a projected 1.2 percent
over the next year. Foreclosures are almost twice as high as the national rate in New Jersey, but the rate is declining steadily.
Newark, particularly, is experiencing a lot of growth. There is a reported $2 billion worth of development underway, with 5,500 total
newly built houses on the way, and 1,500 of those already under construction. Developers are investing in the city en masse, helping it to
shed a formerly negative reputation to become a “rising star” of the real estate world. This growth will hopefully have a domino effect on
the rest of the state, and contribute to the aforementioned New Jersey housing growth.
Pricing Your Home Accurately
When it comes to pricing your home accurately, there are a lot of factors that you must take into consideration. Among the most
important are square footage, the current local market, location, amenities and schools close by, how long your house has been listed,
and so on. There are a lot of home value calculators online to help you figure out pricing. Fizber provides a free home valuation that can
give you the confidence you are priced right.
The average home price in New Jersey is currently $292,500. As mentioned earlier, your location makes a huge difference where you are
selling your home. If you check here, you can see the counties listed my average listing price. When you compare that with this list of the
most popular counties to live in, and you will have a better idea of how much you can list your property for in your home’s county.
Some Tips to Know When Selling Your Home in New Jersey
So now you know how to list your home, you are just about ready to go! But first, make sure that you are aware of some of the basics of
selling your home. Here are a few of the main tips:
Receive a Home Inspection— Getting a home inspection before you list your home will give you confidence that your home is in good
condition. Getting a home inspection does cost a couple hundred dollars, but if you want the peace of mind that your home is in good
condition. You will want to get one of these. Reviewing the home inspection can also help you identify potential upgrades that if made,
could help you get a high sales price.
Make Renovations—buyers are looking for homes that they can imagine themselves living in. Making certain renovations and upgrades
can really add value to a property. This also makes staging very important.
Know the Market—we have already given you a basic market overview, but you will want to get together with a professional in your area
to really understand your local market. They can help you know when the best time to list is, and what price range to list your home.
Don’t Overprice—again, we have given you a few basic tips on pricing, but it is worth restating just how important pricing is. You don’t
want to price yourself out of many potential buyers before they even see your property. Again, work with a real estate professional to
make sure that you get your pricing absolutely right. If your house has been listed for a long time, it may be time to re-evaluate your
listing price.
Now that you know the basics, you are ready to get started. Get your listing together and upload it to the New Jersey MLS today!