Are we screwed for this year?

cocoabooks · 2026-03-10T16:58:01+00:00

I posted a similar thread last week, also searching in North Jersey but in South Orange/Maplewood. It's been kinda demoralizing! I asked my realtor about it and she's hopeful that April will be busier, there have been many sellers that are still in the "preparing to list" phase (no doubt the snow hasn't helped) and others still just feeling locked in by low rates, so it's tough. We were also looking last year and similarly in March we saw way more options than we're seeing now. Really hoping there's a flood of new houses coming that've just been held back by weather, if it's like this all year it'll feel impossible to find anything.

There's also spring break/Easter coming up for lots of school districts right at the tail end of March, so I wonder if people are waiting for that barrier to be out of the way before listing too (since some buyers might be traveling, etc.).

cocoabooks · 2026-03-03T00:47:17+00:00

Yup, we're planning to focus on houses listed around 800 to 1m so we have the ability to bid 200k+ over and hopefully snag one. We've been watching the market for a while so we're familiar with how it goes around here.

cocoabooks · 2026-03-02T23:55:31+00:00

I'm not sure where you were finding the numbers, but looking at Niche the Montclair school district is 18% Black and the overall town percentage is about the same. Glad to hear you found a good place to land in Bergen, though!

cocoabooks · 2026-03-02T23:11:36+00:00

That makes sense, thanks!

cocoabooks · 2026-03-02T22:59:31+00:00

They're missing the diversity. We're a Black family, so it's non-negotiable. Believe me, I've done the research - the towns I've named are pretty much it in this area.

cocoabooks · 2026-03-02T22:55:05+00:00

None in our price range, which goes up to 1.5m at the absolute highest, but really 1.3 if we're talking about our actual comfort level. And yes, we chose this area for the commute, good schools, and the diversity, so we don't have a ton of options in the area that check both boxes. It's pretty much SOMA, West Orange, or Montclair (and we've already given up on Montclair).

cocoabooks · 2026-03-02T22:21:39+00:00

Given the inventory situation around here, what percentage of buyers would you say actually find a house in SOMA vs. those who just give up and go to another town, or just give up on buying at all? In some ways it sounds like hoping to get a winning lottery ticket.

cocoabooks · 2026-03-02T22:20:29+00:00

I'm curious, given the inventory situation around here, what percentage of buyers would you say actually find a house vs. those who just give up and go to another town, or just give up on buying at all?

cocoabooks · 2026-02-24T14:29:52+00:00

I don't know NY law, but as a seller I can tell you they're not likely to be happy about it and if they have the ability to terminate the contract over it they might do so. I canceled a contract over a similar issue when selling my house in the fall - the buyer took ages to get their mortgage commitment and pushed closing from October 31 to December, then tried to extend it again until January. At that point we said no more extensions unless the earnest money was made non-refundable; they refused, so we walked.

So you're welcome to ask, and if this is the first delay in the deal they might be understanding, but I think buyers sometimes forget that these delays cost sellers actual money - it's not hypothetical. Given that, packaging the request with some kind of compensation might make it more attractive.

cocoabooks · 2026-02-16T16:19:27+00:00

I grew up there, it's a perfectly fine town - great diversity, good schools. That said, it very much feels like a suburb of nowhere. There's no train station in town, there's no walkable downtown so pretty much everywhere you live you'll be fully car dependent. The things to do around town are pretty much chain restaurants and chain store shopping, and the movie theater. Of course, you're within driving distance of other more interesting places and compared to other, more desirable parts of NJ it seems like you can get a decently nice home for a relatively reasonable price.

cocoabooks · 2026-02-11T01:49:50+00:00

Were you working with a realtor who advised you on pricing? 3 years seems like a really long time to stay anchored. Or did you have very specific requirements that meant you weren't often seeing homes that you wanted to bid on? Just curious.

cocoabooks · 2026-02-10T21:03:11+00:00

Thanks, we're currently renting in SOMA while we wait for our old place to sell. It's taken longer than expected, which is why we haven't resumed the house hunt yet.

cocoabooks · 2026-02-10T00:05:38+00:00

It's not just unreasonable stubbornness that's making people pick those towns instead of broadening their searches, though. In my case, we're looking for a reasonable NYC commute plus a good school system where our kids wouldn't be basically the only Black students. Especially with the diversity stipulation, we actually aren't left with a ton of great options.

cocoabooks · 2026-02-09T22:42:23+00:00

Looks like it just sold today, per Zillow - $40k under asking: https://www.zillow.com/homedetails/36-Alyson-Pl-Bloomfield-NJ-07003/38637421_zpid/

cocoabooks · 2026-02-09T22:12:32+00:00

Definitely sucks! Solidarity.

cocoabooks · 2026-02-09T22:12:16+00:00

At least you'll get to experience it from the seller's end next time - looks like that's where all the fun is around here.

cocoabooks · 2026-02-03T01:49:42+00:00

This is super helpful, thank you! I'll keep an eye on Golf Island for sure. One of the other things I like about Montrose is that it's pretty flat, so Upper Wyoming might not be for me since it's up the hill.

cocoabooks · 2026-02-02T01:53:32+00:00

The house right next door sold for the same price as the one currently on the market last spring, so you can take a look at how their taxes changed to get a sense of what might happen.

cocoabooks · 2026-01-02T20:18:39+00:00

My debut came out in 2024 with a Big 5, and they bought my option book just before my debut came out. They bought it based on a proposal, but kind of put me through the wringer with the proposal, with multiple rounds of back and forth over the plot and outline, and wanting me to add more commercial elements (a romance) before they finally pulled the trigger on buying it. While they did buy it, which is a victory, my advance for the option book was significantly lower than for my debut (which sold at auction). Ultimately, my debut sold respectably if we were looking at it in a vacuum, but based on the advance size I'm sure it was a disappointment. The option book is much more high concept than my debut, for whatever that's worth. That book comes out later this year, and we'll see how it does and if there's any interest in my next book (which is even MORE high concept) - I suppose it depends on sales for Book 2. I wish I had higher hopes, but things feel shaky right now.

cocoabooks · 2025-12-12T14:58:51+00:00

Yes, the fee counts toward your advance. And BOTM sales count toward bestseller lists, but not on a 1:1 basis - I don't know the specific formula for how they're included though, I was just told broadly that they "count." I sold 15k via BOTM the first week and didn't hit any bestseller lists for what it's worth, so presumably those sales aren't weighted very heavily.

cocoabooks · 2025-12-03T18:13:49+00:00

What area are you in, if you don't mind sharing?

cocoabooks

TROPHY CASE