The Jannone Team

The Lastest News from Prudential New Jersey Properties

Mon, 1 Sep 2003 1:00:00 EDT

Click on the following link to learn the latest news about Prudential New Jersey Properties, http://www.prunewjersey.com/news.asp

Updated Home Capital Network Rates Announced

Mon, 1 Sep 2003 1:00:00 EDT

Home Capital Network is pleased to announce an increase in the conventional conforming loan limit for mortgages secured by one-to-four family properties.

This increase in the conforming loan limit reflects an increase in the national average price for single-family homes. The new limit is a 7.8% increase over the prior years limit. As a comparison the single-family mortgage loan limit increased from $333,700 to $359,650.

The new conforming loan limits for mortgages secured by one-to-four family properties are as follows:

New Loan Limits

Property Types Continental US Alaska & Hawaii

Single Family $359,650 $539,475

Two Family $460,400 $690,600

Three Family $556,500 $834,750

Four Family $691,600 $1,037,400

About Home Capital Network, PNJP's Mortgage Affiliate Company

Mon, 1 Sep 2003 1:00:00 EDT

About Our Company

We offer the best mortgage tools available on the Internet - easy, convenient, on-line shopping for the best loan programs and most current rates available, together with the assistance of an experienced, "live" loan officer to guide you through the often difficult and confusing process of choosing and getting the exact loan to meet your specific needs.

Get Your Dream House

Home Capital Network, our long standing Mortgage Company affiliation is ready to offer you their complete line of one-stop mortgage products and services. Working with Home Capital Network will be one of the smartest financial decisions you have ever made. Buying a home will most probably be one of the biggest financial decisions you will make in your lifetime. Home Capital Network will guide you effortlessly through the entire process so you can have comfort and security while fulfilling your personal "American Dream".

Home Capital Network is always committed to providing you with fair and extremely competitive rates while delivering superior customer service. This along with a fast and very efficient loan process and the ultimate amount of financing options.

Available Loan Products

     * 1st or 2nd Mortgage
     * Purchase, Refinance
     * Home Equity
     * Jumbo Mortgages
     * FHA Loans, VA Loans
     * Conventional Loans
     * Reverse Mortgages
     * Damaged Credit

To speak to a Home Capital Network representative, contact:

Robert Tronolone
Senior Mortgage Consultant
1996 Washington Valley Road
Martinsville, NJ 08836
(732) 469-1515 X 304
rtronolone@att.net

Click on the link http://www.homecapitalnetwork.com/ to access the Home Capital Network Web Site for useful information and tools to help you with your mortgage needs.

PNJP forms PNJP Advisors, LLC to provide insurance to our clients

Mon, 1 Sep 2003 1:00:00 EDT

We are extremely pleased to announce that we have formed a new company, PNJP Advisors, LLC, to better serve the insurance needs of our clients, employees and associates. The new company will be led by Jim Fitzsimmons, who brings 20+ years of experience in the insurance industry to his new role. Most recently, Jim held the position of Director of Personal Lines Sales for Commerce Insurance Services. Prior to that, Jim owned his own insurance agency in Summit for 17 years. Jim will be both the president and a principal in the new company. PNJP Advisors will be able to help your clients obtain a homeowners declaration page and paid receipt for their closing, as well as help them with all of their other insurance needs. Our primary insurance companies will be Allstate, Chubb and Fireman's Fund.

PNJP Advisors, LLC is located at 469 Morris Avenue, Summit, NJ 07901 and their primary phone number is (908) 598-9302. We have listed below the roster of our insurance professionals, together with their contact information:
     * lstvan Hamza - Manager, Ext. 225
     * Ronnie Lynne Smith CIC, Ext. 224
     * Joanna Areiniegas, Ext. 226
     * John Randis CLU CHFC, Ext. 223
     * Jack Mount , Ext. 230
     * Robert Tabor, Ext. 229
     * Bill Windram (Financial Services), Ext. 222

There are 4 ways to obtain a home or auto quote from PNJP Advisors for you or your client:

     1. Call any of the insurance advisors at 908.598.9302
           (9:00 am-5:00 pm M-F).
     2. Fax your current auto/home policies to the Insurance
          Department at 908.598.9640.
     3. Complete the auto/home insurance questionnaire on
           http://www.pnel.com and fax it to the Insurance Department
           for a quote at 908.598.9640.
     4. Schedule an appointment to meet with an insurance advisor to
           review your needs in person at our Summit office or at a
           Prudential New Jersey Properties office.

This new venture is extremely important to Prudential New Jersey Properties for the same reasons that Home Capital Network and Associated Title Agency are so important:

       1. They enable us to enhance the one stop shopping experience
              that the consumer is now expecting.
        2.  They enable us to exercise more control in bringing the
              transaction to a successful conclusion.
        3.  They provide us with another revenue stream, which will be
              utilized to financially strengthen Prudential New Jersey
              Properties and better enable us to compete with the larger
              companies in our marketplace.

Next week we expect to begin the process of contacting our buyers so that, if needed, we can provide them with a quote for their homeowner's insurance policy. However, we are ready right now to accept your client referrals and to provide quotes for any of your personal insurance needs. I want to thank you in advance for your support of this new venture.

Sell Your Home - Fast

Mon, 1 Sep 2003 1:00:00 EDT

If you're looking to sell your home in a matter of days rather than months, you might want to take some tips from 32-year-old Mona Ross Berman.

To get her Washington, D.C., townhouse ready for sale in early 2004, the interior designer went through every room, sweating the details. She rearranged furniture, added sophisticated coffee-table books and strategically placed vases and throw pillows to create a cozy environment. She then organized every closet to showcase her ample storage space. Finally, she removed all personal items, including her wedding photos, so potential buyers wouldn't associate the house with someone else. "I think that if you can get a home to show well, it can get you [better results] than it really should," Berman says. Her strategy worked. Within four days of placing her property on the market, she had five offers in hand.

Long gone are the days when you can simply throw some cookie dough into the oven and get an offer for your house. Thanks to the Internet, home buyers are more sophisticated and demanding than ever before. At a bare minimum, would-be sellers need to dispose of clutter and make any necessary repairs. But to really make a property stand out from the crowd and sell quickly, sellers might need to do the following.

Hire an Interior Designer
A well-decorated home will sell faster and for more money than one that looks frumpy. That's why more and more sellers are hiring interior designers to do everything from rearrange furniture and paint walls a neutral color to rent artwork. This service, known as "staging," can cost anywhere from a few hundred dollars for a small job to several thousand dollars for high-end properties, says Patricia Dugan, a realtor with The Corcoran Group.

Experts across the country agree that the investment is worthwhile for most properties. According to 2002 data from Coldwell Banker, staged homes in the San Francisco Bay area spent just 25.3 days on the market and sold at the asking price, while "non-staged" homes languished on the market for 48.2 days and sold for 2% below the asking price. This information is based on more than 3,000 homes sold between Jan. 1, 2002 and Oct. 31, 2002.

Hire an Organizer
A lovely décor will get you only so far. To really get the buyers chomping at the bit, you need to highlight your home's storage space as well. That means everything should be clean and organized — closets, bathroom vanities, the garage and basement. It might sound trivial, but your home's sale really could rest on whether your linen closets can comfortably store your towels.

If you identify more with Oscar Madison of "The Odd Couple" than with Felix Ungar, it might make sense to hire a professional organizer for $75 to $100 an hour. This is especially helpful for those who've lived in their homes for many years and don't know how to dig themselves out of the mess. Some organizers will even help run a yard sale that could end up paying for their services. If you're not sure how to find this type of service, ask your realtor. Most have a list of pros at their fingertips.

Hire a Photographer
Up to 74% of home buyers start their search online, according to the National Association of Realtors. Indeed, the Web has become such an important marketing tool that all the realtors we spoke with encourage their clients to hire a professional photographer, which can cost as little as $100, for their online snapshots. Think of it this way: If someone doesn't like how your home looks on the Web, he or she won't bother to make an appointment to see the property in person. Is that a risk you're willing to take?

While putting photographs online isn't exactly new, there are some emerging trends. Six years ago it was OK to have one outside shot of the house, says Tara Rogers, director of marketing for Real Living, a Columbus, Ohio-based real-estate firm. Now, some potential buyers want to see up to a 10-picture slideshow detailing multiple rooms before they commit to a walk-through, she says. Dare to post small, grainy pictures, and risk little foot traffic in your home.

Try Marketing Gimmicks
Despite impressive national home-sale figures, some local markets are starting to soften. For example, homes in the western suburbs of Boston are starting to languish on the market for up to 90 days after previously selling in just 15 to 30, says Nelson Zide, co-owner of ERA Key Realty Services, a Framingham, Mass.-based real-estate brokerage. Zide recently started implementing marketing gimmicks to increase the number of potential buyers to walk through his clients' homes. "I haven't done this in 12 or 13 years," he says.

What strategies does he use? Rather than slash the asking price, he might encourage condo owners, for example, to pay the maintenance fees for a full year, or ask home owners to provide buyers with a cash rebate that's marketed as a decorating allowance. Nine times out of 10, such gimmicks cost less than it would to drop the asking price enough to attract a buyer with a smaller budget, says Zide. It's just one more way to get a potential buyer excited about your home.

Hold Open Houses
The benefits of an open house are debatable. Industry experts agree that they tend to benefit realtors more than home owners. (After all, it's a great way for realtors to get new clients.) But that doesn't mean that they can't work. The key is to hold them at various times of the day and week so that folks with busy schedules can squeeze in a viewing. Real Living's Rogers says her company's agents make sure to schedule open houses on Saturdays, as well as in the evenings so people can stop by after work.

Another technique more people are implementing is to hold open houses at the time of day when their house shows the best. If you have a beautiful garden, show it off during the morning before the flowers start to wilt. If you have a stunning view of the sunset, make sure people get to see the late-afternoon light. In other words, if there's one thing that you love most about your home, be sure to share it with potential buyers.

Important IRS Tax Law Change

Mon, 1 Sep 2003 1:00:00 EDT

On October 22nd, 2004 President Bush signed into law some major tax law changes that took effect that very day. One of the many affected the sale of a Personal Residence Acquired in a Like-kind Exchange.

Taxpayers who convert rental property to a principal residence should know that a tax law change may limit their ability to exclude gain on the sale of that residence if they obtained the property through a like-kind exchange. Generally, a taxpayer can exclude up to $250,000 of gain on the sale of a home, provided the individual has owned and used it as a principal residence for two out of the five years before the sale. The exclusion is $500,000 for a married couple if both meet the use test. The American Jobs Creation Act of 2004 does not allow any exclusion if the taxpayer sells the home within five years of acquiring the property through a like-kind exchange. The new law applies to sales after October 22, 2004.

For more information on this change, and all the other tax-related news items, click on the link http://www.irs.gov/y.com/.

Increasing Your Credit Score

Mon, 1 Sep 2003 1:00:00 EDT

Good credit translates to lower interest rates for borrowers. Here are just a few quick tips that can help put you in a better position under the discerning eye of an underwriter!
     • Do you have past due balances that have been neglected? If they
       are showing up on your credit report and you want to purchase a
        home, make sure you bring them up to current status whenever
        possible.

     • Do you have outstanding debt that you can afford to pay off right
       now? Try to get these accounts down to a zero balance, or at
       least a lower balance. If your cash on hand doesn’t allow you to
      do this, try to distribute the debt amongst other open credit
      cards. You can also consider opening a new line of credit and
      transferring part of the balance off a card that is close to being
      “maxed out.” If you can get the resulting balances below 50% of
      the available credit, you’re on the road to improving your credit
      score considerably in most cases.

     • Do not close existing credit card accounts, even if you don’t want
       to deal with the company any more… Believe it or not, the credit
       history is a good thing to have!

     • When married couples keep separate credit card accounts,
       some or all of the balances can be transferred to one spouse’s
       list of accounts. This gives the other spouse an opportunity to
       increase their credit score and designate him or herself as the
       sole borrower on the mortgage loan. Ownership of the home can
      remain in both names!

     • See if your credit provider will increase your available lines of
       credit. This can, in turn, reduce the overall debt ratio, but only do
       this if your credit card company can do that without a hard credit
       inquiry.

     • Do you have past dues and charge-offs within the last two years?
       Pay them off now, if you can! Past dues older than two years will
       have little to no impact on your credit score if they are paid, but
      can possibly bring the score down, which is something we don’t
       want to do... Focus on that 2-year time frame.

     • Do you see errors in your report? Request the credit bureau
      delete any outstanding debt that is incorrectly charged to you, or
       things that should have been removed that you have already paid.
      They have an obligation to reconcile this within 30 days. If you see
       items on your report that are less than two years old and you have
       the money to pay it off now, mark the back of your payment check
       with the following notation: “Accepting this check is evidence that
       the transaction is complete and this charge will be deleted from
      my credit record.” If necessary, you can use this cancelled check
       as proof of the transaction in the event the outstanding debt is not
      removed promptly and interferes with the closing of your loan.

The Jannone Team Thanks You for Your Referrals!

Mon, 1 Sep 2003 1:00:00 EDT

The Jannone Team would like to take this opportunity to thank you for all the referrals you have provided to the Team.

We at The Jannone Team would like to recognize at this time the following clients who have provided us with referrals. These clients are listed on the Client Appreciation Center Page under The Jannone Team Navigation Bar on the Home Page our our Website!

When looking to buy, sell, rent or manage a property, please contact us and see how we can put the power of the Team behind all your real estate needs - The Jannone Team.

For more information on the latest Jannone Team's Client Appreciation Center News and Events, click on the following link, http://www.jannoneteam.com/client_appreciation.html.