What are home buyers thinking?

In today's rapidly changing real estate market, buyers are just now beginning to jump off "the fence". It's been way too long and the wait seems to be over! Now that the Northern New Jersey real estate market has started to stabilize, inventory should start moving quicker than the previous two years. The serious buyer ready to move in todays market realizes that with mortgage rates rising slowly but surely and homes that are priced to market value are selling fast, the spring market is quickly upon us! What does that mean for the rest of the buyers out there? It means that maybe what you're looking for doesn't exist? Or maybe what you're waiting for will quickly pass you by in the blink of an eye? Sellers are finally getting it and seeing that there's a tremendous amount of opportunity out there if you know what you want. There's hundreds of reasons why homes are quickly going on and coming off the market but the truth is that the buyer pool is always the same and renting just doesnt make a lot of sense for most these days.

The moral of the story is:

If you are a serious buyer working with an experienced, full time buyers agent who you can trust, you should have 100% confidence that he/she will negotiate a price for you that is at least market value or hopefully better, get you to the closing table with out a glitch and honestly refer that agent to everyone you know, you have a great shot at having a long time professional on your side!

If that's NOT how you feel about your agent, FIRE them and find a good agent FAST!

Buyers should understand, home purchases are for most the biggest transactions of their lives and this IS a business transaction, so be very careful about letting your emotions take over and who you choose to represent you could make or break the deal of your life!

Good luck and happy house hunting,


~OSH

STUDY: Moms Over 40 Have More Facebook Friends Than Their Children!

A survey of more than 2,000 mothers over the age of 40 found that a majority have more Facebook friends than their children, and that they know how to better take advantage of their presence on the site.

The U.K.’s Daily Telegraph reported the study, without including key like which journal published the findings and exactly how many mothers over 40 have more Facebook friends than their children. But the overall claims make sense nonetheless. Women with children younger than college age might not only have their own friends, but also their coworkers, their children’s friends, and their children friends’ parents among their contacts. Kids, on the other hand, generally have a much more limited social circle until they go to college. They also tend to stick with their own age group. It would be interesting to know, however, which group has more friends they have never met in real life, or that they met online. And who uses it as a dating outlet the most?

Tammi Williams, who conducted the study, told the Telegraph that she created six categories to explain how mothers generally use Facebook. The two most popular groups might surprise you:

•The Feel-Gooders: These are the kind of mothers who actively play games on the social network, and interact with their contacts in a purely social way. They genuinely enjoy the community spirit of Facebook and like to see what their friends are doing. “They get involved in games like Farmville and like sending virtual gifts to their neighbors,” the researcher explained.

 •The Do-Gooders: These women use Facebook as a tool to raise awareness on causes and safety issues, and not as a way to reveal or share personal information. An important follow-up survey on this group would be to know how often they share links on news items, and from what kind of sites, as well as what their political or religious backgrounds are. Certainly it seems that they are the ones who would support, for example, safety Amber Alerts becoming standard on Facebook.

Less popular than these two are ones that you’d expect to have the most friends on the site:

•All about me: They use Facebook to show the best pics of themselves, or to boast about their latest achievements.

•Business bodies: They are the most Internet savvy and use social media to network or promote their work.

As I read and thought about these categories, I wondered why the study didn’t take into account how mothers negotiated their Facebook presence depending on whether they were friends with their children and extended family. Also, was there a specific group that was more prone to befriend their children and monitor their activities online, or is this something that all mothers do on social media?

What do you think about mothers over 40 having more friends on Facebook than their children?

[Source: allfacebook.com-Posted by Jorge Cino on January 31st, 2011 12:47 PM]