October Days in South Jersey...

October 2006

So what’s a body to do? My, that’s easy … it’s the “Fall Buying Season” in the resort communities. Make the most of it.

During the past five-year boom period, the entire calendar year was a “buying/selling” season. Now it’s a return to the more traditional “Spring Period” (from late February through early June) and the “Fall Period” (from September through the end of November). In this post-boom period throughout South Jersey, but particularly for the resort areas in this column, “it is a Buyer’s Market.”

Check out your personal real estate location and market of interest … focus on single family, multi-family, and condominium property categories.

Let’s look at each one.

Single Family

Mostly one finds year-round and second-home owners here, not sellers who generally must sell. In fact, I describe many listing owners of single family properties as “taking their property out for a walk.” Be aware that you must understand that although we have talked about a Buyer’s Market, one may find less bargaining power in this property category.

Multi-Family

You can still find them, but the old idea of buying one floor for personal use and the other floor for a rental to pay the mortgage... that hasn’t worked for the past ten years, maybe longer.

This is not a property category with a great deal of inventory in resort areas throughout South Jersey. It’s generally been picked clean by builders and developers over the years.

Condominium

This is the property category to focus on for Buyers. Why? Because in all resort communities the inventory of available condominium sale properties is very high. Plus, more of these Sellers are investors who either really want to sell, or in some cases must sell, so many will be much more interested in bargaining the price. Clearly, the amount of available condominiums for sale; the variety of price ranges, unit sizes and locations, and the significant potential for some solid negotiations and price reduction make this property category the one of choice for Buyers hoping to find “the best deal.”

Finally, there remains the question regarding when will the real estate market turn again with possibly higher prices, or will it contine to get even lower. There are a variety of opinions here, but maybe the best one is that “no one can really predict what the market will do.”

Dustin A. Peters is an Agent with French Real Estate, Inc. – Ocean City, NJ. He invites readers of this column to submit comments and questions to him at Dustin@BeachNotes.net.