Holiday Decorating Checklist

 Do you enjoy decorating your home for the holidays?

If you love putting up holiday decorations and hate putting them away, here are  EIGHT tips for creating a holiday storage system that works:

1. Create a decorating theme and stick to it! When your decorating has a theme or colour scheme, items that no longer work are obvious. Either change your theme or let the “orphans” go.
   
2. Store only what you want, use and love! When you begin your decorating this year, and uncover items that no longer work for you, share or donate them immediately.
   
3. Keep original packaging. Nothing protects fragile holiday decorations better than the original packaging.
   
4. Store “like” with “like”. Store house decorations and tree decorations separately so you know where everything is when the urge to decorate comes over you.
   
5. Use vertical space. Clear plastic shoe boxes work wonders for small, decorative items. Identical boxes can be stacked on a shelf or in a box to maximize storage space. Easy-to-see, easy-to-find!
   
6. Create a Holiday Tool Kit. Have everything – ornament hooks, tape, wire cutters, extra lights, scissors and ribbon – in one place when you need it!
   
7.  Label everything. Decorating is meant to be fun, not a chore. When you have a system in place and everything is labeled, there are no surprises! You know where everything is when you are ready to get started.
   
8.  Set aside time. Schedule time for decorating and “de-decorating”. Create a holiday storage system this year and next year’s decorating will be more enjoyable.

Here is to a wonderful start for the decorating season whether it starts with pumpkins at the beginning of fall or you decorate only for Christmas. Either way have fun and enjoy.

Happy 2018 Holiday Season and a Great 2019 New Year

4 Reasons Why Fall Is A Great Time to Buy A Home!

Here are four great reasons to consider buying a home today instead of waiting.

1. Prices Will Continue to Rise

CoreLogic’s latest Home Price Insights report reveals that home prices have appreciated by 6.2% over the last 12 months. The same report predicts that prices will continue to increase at a rate of 5.1% over the next year.

Home values will continue to appreciate for years. Waiting no longer makes sense.

2. Mortgage Interest Rates Are Projected to Increase

Freddie Mac’s Primary Mortgage Market Survey shows that interest rates for a 30-year mortgage have already increased by half of a percentage point, to around 4.5% in 2018. Most experts predict that rates will rise over the next 12 months. The Mortgage Bankers Association, Fannie Mae, Freddie Mac and the National Association of Realtors are in unison, projecting that rates will increase by half a percentage point to around 5.1% by this time next year.

An increase in rates will impact your monthly mortgage payment. A year from now, your housing expense will increase if a mortgage is necessary to buy your next home.

3. Either Way, You Are Paying a Mortgage

There are some renters who have not yet purchased homes because they are uncomfortable taking on the obligation of a mortgage. Everyone should realize that unless you are living with your parents rent-free, you are paying a mortgage – either yours or your landlord’s.

As an owner, your mortgage payment is a form of ‘forced savings’ that allows you to build equity in your home which you can then tap into later in life. As a renter, you guarantee your landlord is the person building that equity.

Are you ready to put your housing cost to work for you?

4. It’s Time to Move on with Your Life

The ‘cost’ of a home is determined by two major components: the price of the home and the current mortgage rate. It appears that both are on the rise.

But what if they weren’t? Would you wait?

Look at the actual reason you are buying and decide if it is worth waiting. Whether you want to have a great place for your children to grow up, you want your family to be safer, or you just want to have control over renovations, maybe now is the time to buy.

If the right thing for you and your family is to purchase a home this year, buying sooner rather than later could lead to substantial savings.

Are you thinking about buying? heres the fall home buying guide

Are you thinking of selling? Here's the fall home selling guide.

Atlantic Highland Car Show June 4 2011

State Budget Hearings Underway

State Budget Hearings Underway
In preparation for the Fiscal Year 2010 budget process, the New Jersey Senate and Assembly budget committees continue to meet while the remainder of the Legislature is on recess. The New Jersey Constitution mandates that a balanced budget be in place by July 1.
During this week's budget hearings, the nonpartisan Office of Legislative Services (OLS) revealed that state revenue will be $605 million less than what Governor Corzine projected last month in his budget address. OLS also released estimates that indicate the realty transfer fee will produce less revenue in fiscal years 2009 and 2010 combined than it yielded in 2006; the last year the fee was increased.
Reacting to the new revenue projections, NJAR® issued a press release explaining how the downturn in realty transfer fee collections shows that high taxes on real estate have a detrimental impact on the state economy.