Here are some photos of a complete bathroom renovation that we did in a condo building in Jersey City.  The bathroom was gutted down to the four walls and floor.  The  shower walls were removed and replaced with Hardibacker Board; the shower body was replaced; a new self-leveling underlayment was poured to re-inforce the subfloor, the drywall was skim-coated with compound, and a combination of beautiful 12×12 and 3×6 (subway) Grecian White Marble tiles were used to finish everything.  Of course, a new toilet, vanity, medicine cabinet, and lighting were installed.  The only thing that was salvaged was the bathtub, which was reglazed.

Located at 341 Forrest Street between Bergen Ave and MLK Blvd, this is a commuter’s dream.  Walk 1 minute to the MLK Light Rail stop or 30 seconds to Bergen and catch a bus.

This middle floor apartment in this beautiful pre-war, 7-unit, 3-story walk-up building has tons of old world charm.  With 13 new windows, 9 foot ceilings, and a beautiful floor plan, this 1200 square foot apartment feels even larger than it is.

This home also boasts refinished harwood floors, a new bathroom, new appliances, and lots of closet space.

Only 1 month security required.  Move-in now or for October 1st.

Call or email Mike to see it today. 201-264-6272

Located at 341 Forrest Street between Bergen Ave and MLK Blvd makes this a commuter’s dream.  Walk 1 minute to the MLK Light Rail stop or 30 seconds to Bergen and catch a bus.

This top floor apartment in this beautiful pre-war, 7-unit, 3-story walk-up building has tons of old world charm.  With 13 new windows, 9 foot ceilings, and a beautiful floor plan, this 1100 square foot apartment feels even larger than it is.

This home also boasts refinished harwood floors, a new bathroom, new appliances, and lots of closet space.

Only 1 month security required.  Move-in now for July 1st.

Call or email Mike to see it today. 201-264-6272 info@dmrealestatellc.com

This year, in working through this excercise for one condo association I manage, I noticed something that made me raise an eyebrow – the water bill for the property was about 17 percent higher than the previous year.  This increase warranted a closer look.

So I broke out the water bills and started my investigation.  First thing I did was make sure that I didn’t make any bookkeeping errors – check.  Then I verified that there wasn’t a substantial increase in the water and sewer charges in the last 2 years – check.  Next I took a look at the total usage in gallons – bzzzz.  Our usage was up about 13 percent from the prior year.  Could it be that the tenants of this 16 unit building actually used that much more water?  Yes it is possible, but highly unlikely.  It was time to roll up my sleeves and start snooping around at the property.

I went to the building and started in the mechanical room.  I checked to make sure that there weren’t any leaks in the boilers, hot water heaters, slop sink, or anywhere else in the basement.  I then went outside and made sure that the lone spigot wasn’t leaking and that the knob wasn’t present.  Yes, I removed the knob about a year ago so that this didn’t become a public watering hole.  The only place left to look for leaks was in the individual apartments.  So I hand-wrote a note stating that I would be inspecting all apartments on Saturday morning between 8:30 and 9:30 and that all tenants should arrange to allow access to their unit.

Saturday morning came, and fortunately everyone cooperated – I got into 15 of 16 apartments.  Good news.  I believe I found the culprits – two running toilets and a dripping faucet.  One owner had no idea their toilet was running, probably because it was running constantly.  The other tenant with an intermittently running toilet said that they had been meaning to have it fixed.  And the owner with the dripping faucet said that he didn’t think it was a big deal.

I asked all three of the tenants if they’d mind if I worked on their plumbing issues right there on the spot.  They all agreed, and an hour later we had taken a step toward saving the condo association money as well as saving one of our most valuable natural resources.

One observation that I’d like to make is that when a tenant doesn’t directly pay for a utility such as water (the condo association does) they are much less likely to take the appropriate steps to conserve.  I will now be implementing a quarterly inspection policy in all of my buildings to ensure that water is not wasted.

Well, I can’t show the association a savings on water this year, but next year things should be different.

No matter what job I am doing for a client, I have their fiscal best interest in mind.  From changing a light bulb, to securing the premises, I aim to do it in a way that saves them money.  One might think this sounds a little ridiculous, but allow me to give you an example to prove my point.

I manage a six story walk-up apartment building with 48 units (eight per floor).  When I took on the management of this building, the average electric bill was approximately $520 per month.  The first thing I did was assess what was using electricity.  This was a pretty straight forward case, as is with most apartment buildings.  The biggest draw was the common area lighting, which consisted of 4 surface mount lights on each floor, 6 surface mount lights in each of two stairwells, 1 light in the main vestibule, and 4 outdoor flood lights in the front of the building.  There were also 2 gas boilers and a gas powered furnace for the building, which draw a negligible amount of electricity.  Because the building was negelected, their was an assortment of bulb types and sizes being used and the outdoor lighting was on 24 hours a day.

Right off the bat, I figured that I could cut the electic bill down by 20% by employing new, energy efficient, low wattage light bulbs and installing a daylight sensor for the outdoor flood lights so that they are only illuminated when it’s dark outside.  The cost of all new bulbs was $90, the cost of the sensor was $22, and the installation was another $120.

I was slightly off in my original assessment.  The electric bill was $406 for the first full month after the changes, which translates to a savings of 22%!  So it took 2 months for my client to recoupe the $232 that was spent to change the bulbs and install the sensor.  The next 10 months of the year was all SAVINGS!  This amounted to a savings of $1,140 the first year.

I’m sure you’ll agree that it’s better to put that money in your bank account than in the utility company’s?  Plus, we did our small part in saving the planet.

This is just one of the many money saving tricks D&M Real Estate has up its sleeve.

Contact D&M  Real Estate now so that we can start saving you money!

While the ongoing housing crisis may be crippling markets nationwide, the one place that has been less affected by the downturn is in Manhattan and the closer in areas of New Jersey.  However, that has sdtarted to change.

At this time of year, the housing market has come off a relatively quiet Second Quarter homebuying season and is starting to slow down significantly now that Fall is here.

While significantly less inventory came on the market in the last 12 months, the list price level is still showing some softness.  Even though things are slowing, Jersey City home sellers still hope for some price gains when they sell their properties.  This is primarily because of the higher price levels in Manhattan and Hoboken’s continued resurgence.

The slowdown in new condo construction in Jersey City has been accompanied by an overall slowdown in new construction list price appreciation and by some “significant” list price discounting of many new construction units.

In 2008, average condo prices in Jersey City Downtown were 4% higher than in the same period in 2007.  What we see in 2009 that is particularly significant is that there is much less inventory on the market in 2009 versus either 2008 of 2007.  Even so, some buyers are still experiencing competition for the best properties in Downtown Jersey City.  Total inventory stands at about the 10-12 month level.

Jersey City (along with Hoboken and other towns in the NY Metro area) has lagged the national real estate slowdown; but, we are now seeing some developers bring new construction and condo conversions to the market with significant incentives and list price discounting to both Buyers and especially to their Realtors.

Given its ideal location directly across from Manhattan, Jersey City still benefits from the higher price levels in Manhattan.

The newest and largest addition to the housing inventory over the last year were the new condos at Montgomery-Greene, Liberty Terrace, KHOV at Exchange Place (77 Hudson), the “A”, Crystal Pointe, Grove Pointe, Gulls Cove, and the range of Liberty Harbor North buildings.  The Portifino, Zephr Lofts, and the Avalon Tower also added additional updated properties to the housing inventory this year.  In the next couple years, additional condo properties at Trump Plaza, and Liberty Harbor North are all in the pipeline plus an assortment of smaller buildings.

Reported by Pam Bell, Broker ABR & ABRM & ePRO

A Quinnipiac University poll asked residents if they would support merging school districts and municipalities to lower property taxes.  Some 73 percent said yes.  Only 22 percent said no.

That response does not surprise us.  Of course, a majority of New Jersey residents probably would agree to just about anything if the offer was accompanied by the words, “reducing property taxes.”

Notwithstanding, the results are interesting.

It is true that merging some towns and school districts is not going to solve the state’s property tax crisis.  No one should think that.  But merging jurisdictions and eliminating high-paid public jobs, and the benefits that go with them, would help.

Most of those who like home rule are those doing the ruling.  That is why we do not see mergers.

Just about every recent governor has talked about reducing the more than 1,100 combined school districts and municipalities in New Jersey, but the talk does not go very far.

The record is clear.  With rare exception, towns are not going to combine themselves. (One exception may be the Chesters in Morris County where a merger is being considered.)  Before that, the last municipality to voluntarily “go out of business” was Pahaquarry in Warren County.  The town had fewer than 50 full-time residents and most of it was parkland.

“Freddie Mac’s multifamily business had a solid year in 2008, in spite of considerable housing market and economic turmoil,” said Mike May, senior vice president of Multifamily for Freddie Mac.  “Holding true to our vital mission, Freddie Mac continues to provide critically needed liquidity and stability to help keep the country’s multifamily housing finance markets working.  During the past several years, Freddie Mac has spent a considerable amount of time and resources to build its multifamily housing capabilities, and those efforts are enabling Freddie Mac to support the market, our customers and families from coast to coast in this difficult economic environment.”

Highlights of Freddie Mac’s multifamily business in 2008 are:

- Approximately $18.8 billion was settled through Freddie Mac’s conventional programs, which included approximately $2 billion of conventional structured volume;
- Nearly $5.5 billion in targeted affordable housing products was transacted, including over $3.6 billion in targeted affordable housing structured business;
- Over $3 billion in Capped ARM financings (1) and just over $2 billion in Acquisition Upgrade and Acquisition Rehabilitation MortgagesSM;
- $10.4 billion of the transactions used the Freddie Mac Early Rate-Lock option;
- Commercial mortgage-backed securities (CMBS) purchase volume of $1.4 billion;
- Purchases of approximately $1.2 billion in seniors housing mortgages;
- Purchases of more than $580 million in student housing mortgages;
- Completed approximately $450 million of business for the Freddie Mac Targeted Affordable Fully Delegated UnderwritingSM program; and
- Nearly $415 million in Capital Markets ExecutionSM (2) activity.

1. Capped ARM financings are loans which have adjustable-interest rate terms and contain provisions to limit the maximum interest rate or index rate associated with the loan.

2. Freddie Mac began purchasing multifamily loans backing apartment housing during 2008 with the intent to securitize and guarantee these loans for sale to third parties.

Since the launch of Freddie Mac’s multifamily business in 1993, it has provided more than $214 billion in financing for approximately 56,000 multifamily properties.

Freddie Mac was established by Congress in 1970 to provide liquidity, stability and affordability to the nation’s residential mortgage markets. Freddie Mac supports communities across the nation by providing mortgage capital to lenders. Over the years, Freddie Mac has made home possible for one in six homebuyers and more than five million renters.