Ok, here are my computer program used to form a wiki message.

When it sees A, it says Available, when it sees AR, it says "Sold under attorney review", and when it sees U, it says "Sold Under contract", and when it sees C, it says "Sold and Closed".

If that word "sold" touch your nerve, and, may be touch other realtors' since you all get "progammed" in certain way, I can change them to something without that word. For example,

A would be "may be still Available, but call listing agent".
AR would be "under attorney review, very likely to be sold". (I have MLS data that over 95% of AR units end up closed, at least in Greater Edison area).
U would be "under contract, de facto sold"
C would be "sold and closed".

Still, there are many A's are in fact, sold. e.g. if you check your MLS system 406 KESWICK Dr, Piscataway NJ 08854. It shows A now, but I have to tell you, it has been sold and passed attoryney review and under contract and will be closed on 7-31-08. I got the email from the owner and seller. and the owner has bought a nice new home at River Heights Estates http://riverheightsestates.blogspot.com/

Mon Jul 14 2008, 21:09

And Marry, let me repeat again, I do NOT promote any realtor. Not sure why you think I promote any particular realtor? I simply give the credit to listing agent or any agent reply my email inquery.

For example, I send an email to ask if a condo available to the listing agent in realtor.com and I am likely to be told by the listing agent that the unit is sold under contract, although in MLS the listing status still shows A or AR that thousands of all other agents still have no clue it is under contract.

At the same time, the listing agent may send me another unit in the same complex that may not be his or her own listing, but I will still give the realtor credit. Why? I tried to give the listing agent credit, but many listing agents do NOT want to be called, or has NO info on realtor.com Check it you by yourself.

Why is that? ok, I featured it out. If you are realtor specialized in Edison and you got a customer in Princeton want to sell his townhouse and buy a million dollar house your listed at Edison. It may end up that he bought your listing and ask you to list his townhouse in Princeton. Then, you may NOT want to travel down so far to show the townhouse there, instead, you will rely on the local realtors there to show.

If you dare to post your email or phone number, and got hundreds of buyers want you to show your townhouse listing at Princeton, you would be overwhelm.

So, now you finally realize, that many of your "suggestions' is NOT possible in reality, and you asked me to give listing agent credit, on the one hand, listing agent does NOT want to be idendified, on the other hand, it will cause so much problem to the listing agent. The listing agent just want someone to sell the townhouse listing at Princeton so that the owner can buy the Edison million dollar house...

Again, I am real estate expert. When I start research on real estate, most of the current licensed realtors are not yet born. Many are born for real estate boom in a few years ago and have no clue the current market, why there are so many buyers out there and they could not see them.

Mon Jul 14 2008, 20:55

Let me repeat, one reason that Trulia is much better than realtor.com is because Trulia has nice forum like this one, and USA Today agrees with me that realtor.com lost 10% of visitors, whereas Trulia increase 168% in 2007, and you shall see more in 2008.

I almost send email to each and every listing agents in realtor.com "if there is an email address", but as you can verify for yourself, many listing agents do NOT want to be contacted by email, and no email address provided, many has a bogus email address, and some has always respond by an automated generated response.

As a licensed realtor, Mary, you have no obligation to defend for realtor.com Basically, they are outdated, and need to improve to provide the necessary services that millions of buyers needed to be able to buy their dream home. From my expert experience, I feel, current real estate situation partyly caused by realtor.com and many realtors playing phone tags and hide and seek, so anxious first time buyers could not buy their dream home at the first place, and move up buyers could not sell their condo/townhouse to move up to buy bigger home.

For most of your questions about how I am so knowledgable on current market, you can just go to realtor.com to send email to each and every listing agent, and you will get the first hand info. Every listing agent, if willing to help buyers, they will tell you if their listing is sold or available.

This is another reason I said realtor.com is hard to use. Why can't you just post a status at realtor.com such as A,AR,U or C, rather you want buyers to send email to ask or call to play hide and seek? Many buyers see lots of listing in realtor.com, but there are many duplicates, some I even found the same home listing as many as 4 times!!! So when new users of realtors, they saw the count, they saw an inflated number of listing.

Besides, many listing have been sold and unavailable. In your mind, sold and under attorney review is not sold, but in buyers' mind, it is gone and not want to waste time on it. Why dating with someone already plan to marry? Sure, legally, it is not yet marry, but why bother?

I am not here to argue with you, but I got first hand statistics to show you how hard to use realtor.com On the other hand, now they start to show the address off listing, and that's good move, so that buyers can find driving directions to train, to mall, to school ...etc. But, they far from good, not to mention compare with Trulia.

For example, can realtor.com answer question like "which townhouse go to JP Steves High?" or "which condo community can walk to train" ...etc. If all these basic questions can not be answered by realtor.com I believe it will keep losing visitors ... and they will come to ask at Trulia.com ...

And, that's why more and more licensed realtors come to answer questions on Trulia.com ...

Mon Jul 14 2008, 20:40

OK,
First of all, all I meant was that I have no problem with you promoting another realtor's abilities. However, I do think just as Realtors are REQUIRED to say in ANY advertising of other agents listings "offered by Prudential" or "Offered by Mary Petti", you should at least give credit to the LISTING agent even if you promote another agent to try to help sell it. ANY agent who lists a house has as their primary goal... getting it SOLD. That's why when we list it in the MLS and cooperate with other agencies. we get EXPOSURE and a larger buyer base/ selling agent pool to get the house sold.

You also said in one of your posts (I am going to follow Victors lead on this):
CHENG:
Can buyer ask question on MLS? or Realtor.com? or Craigslist? ... no! Even if some buyers asked questions on city-data, they would not get as detailed info about Edison and Piscataway and Metuchen ...etc. Why? Because I do not post on city-data. Moderators there are less professional like Trulia, and they are very bias and ethnics discriminate as many told me.

MARY
While you may not be able to ask questions in a forum like Trulia on Craigs list or Realtor.com, anyone can email an agent from those sites (as long as the agent provides their email address) and ask a question. I know I get many emails from potential clients and am always happy to provide information on the market, etc. the same as I do on Trulia.

CHENG:
Dear Mary, the word "sold" buyers use is very different from the word "sold" licensed realtor used. e.g. a pretty girl already sleep with another man, in Chinese we think the girl is to be married with that man, but Americans may think, no, it is not leagally married. In computer science, it is called "overloading", meaning a word mean differently in different context. Somehow, all buyers I asked, they have absolutely NO problem understand the English, e.g.

MARY:
YES a word has different meanings in different contexts. In this case and once and for all, in the REAL ESTATE CONTEXT, nothing is "sold" until it closes. As a matter of fact, you routinely post listing statistics from the MLS. When whom ever is sending them to you looks them up, the actual listing reflects the "C" or closed status, even though they search for "sold" listings.

I have seen MANY homes be in attorney review and/or under contract, only for the transaction to fall apart somewhere down the line. I have my own analogy: Just because you look at a car and like, it doesn't mean it is "sold" to you by just making a deposit on it. It is sold when you own it and pay the full price to the seller. In Real Estate, "Attorney review" means just that...."Under Contract" means just that..."SOLD" means the transaction has been finalized.
Mary

Mon Jul 14 2008, 10:52

Dear Mary, to make you feel better, I removed the phrase "if you are interested in this community, please give Ching a call at 908 385-1698 (cell) as you can click to see ... http://theoaksatedison.blogspot.com/2008/07/oaks-at-edison.html

If you would like to help hundreds of first time buyers to buy The Oaks, please post your cell phone number, so that I can say "if you are interested in this community, please feel free to give Mary a call at ..."

Frankly Speaking, Ching won Gold Medal of MLS in both 2006 and 2007 and will be on 2008 as well; that is to say, real estate is booming in Greater Edison Area, otherwise, how could a realtor do over $10 millions of sales in a year. Hey! that's over $600,000 commission!!!

And, if you try to say her excellience performance because of Cheng's help, I am sure Victor here would definitely disagree with you. He has been tried to devalue my information, how could he agree with you? And, of course, if you call Ching, she would have absolutely NO idea what you are talking about. I know she got Gold Medal from Chinese Newspaper ads she placed, not that she told me.

But, I believe, every one got brain washed by TV news about real estate market, should give Ching a call to get the first hand fact about the real estate market in Greater Edison Area ...

Mon Jul 14 2008, 09:29

Dear Mary, By the way, when I say a community is good, I do NOT promote that community; I am telling the truth based on my knowledge on that community, for the same token, when I say call a realtor for more info, I do not promote that realtor either. It could be that I just got the info from that realtor, and it is easy to trace back. The realtor may not even know that I refer my friends and colleagues buyers to them. On the other hand, my friends or colleagues may have their own realtors, so do not just go ahead to assume anything.

If you would like me to introduce your listing or any property you think is good, as long as you post here or any where I can see, and if I agree, I will place it. But, as you know, it is NOT easy to sell something not a matched. If your listing, you can not sell it, you do not count on me.

However, as real estate expert, I can tell you where your buyers could be, and if you would do some marketing there, it is very likely to find the Mr. Right.

My point is very simple, there are hundreds of thousands of buyers out there, and if you, as a listing agent, could not find the Mr. Right, then you should not blame others who could help you. In that case, you still get 50% of commission, the person helped you got nothing. Why so greedy to want 100% commission for otherwise could not sell? How do you think?

Mon Jul 14 2008, 09:09

Dear Mary, the word "sold" buyers use is very different from the word "sold" licensed realtor used. e.g. a pretty girl already sleep with another man, in Chinese we think the girl is to be married with that man, but Americans may think, no, it is not leagally married. In computer science, it is called "overloading", meaning a word mean differently in different context.

Somehow, all buyers I asked, they have absolutely NO problem understand the English, e.g.

1802 Timber Oaks Rd is sold under attorney review ...

where as, licensed realtors seemed to have problem understand it.

Also, the "listing agent" has NOTHING to do with if I refer buyers to them; it has NOTHING to do with their credit or not. In fact, if I were listing agent, I would be very glad to pay no market cost, where as someone introduce my listing to his friends and colleagues.

If you or any listing agent would have issue on my introducing their listing to my colleagues and their friends, I simply do not introduce them. It happened once or twice. Think about it, if someone say you good, and you say "shut up! none of your business if I am good". I am sure that person will not say you good any more. why should?

So, don't use your real estate rules to govern the whole world. People not realtors do not understand those "internal rules". e.g. If you are working at JP Morgan Chase, you can not use Yahoo at office, but that does not mean others can not use it at their company.

Also, if you are licensed realtor, you do not need to read my blog, it is my personal blog for easy communication and helping my friends and colleagues rather than typing every time...

Yes, Trulia did sell the unit because many of my friends and colleagues I referred them to Trulia to see the info they want that I posted. Without Trulia, how can we communicate so powerfully and so effectively?

Can buyer ask question on MLS? or Realtor.com? or Craigslist? ... no! Even if some buyers asked questions on city-data, they would not get as detailed info about Edison and Piscataway and Metuchen ...etc. Why? Because I do not post on city-data. Moderators there are less professional like Trulia, and they are very bias and ethnics discriminate as many told me.

Mon Jul 14 2008, 08:57

1802 Timber Oaks Rd just sold under attorney review ...

Mon Jul 14 2008, 08:41

By the way, I clicked on your "blogspot" from your previous post, to check it out. The blog is only one listing (1501 Timber Oaks) and the pictures are from the MLS listing. You also mention calling Ching in that blog. I happen to know there is another realtor in the area by that name, and it is not her listing. While it is wonderful for you to promote any agent of your choice, I am not so sure the listing agent of this particular property would appreciate you using her pictures on your blog to promote another agent. The MLS has strict rules for their members which does not allow other agents to "copy and paste" pictures from another agents listing. Also, if the broker that listed the house subscribes to IDX, AGENTS are allowed to advertise another brokers listings on their websites as long as credit is given to the listing agent/agency!!! Since you are not an agent, (and I am still wondering how you get all this imformation) I am not sure how it applies to you, but I do think the listing agent should get credit for the home rather than have your blog imply it was another agents listing altogether.

Fri Jul 4 2008, 06:25

Cheng, again you are almost right. This house was NOT sold by Trulia. It was listed in the Middlesex County MLS. After an open house this past Sunday, there were multiple ofers on it, and the seller took one of those offers. We will not know what is "sold" for until it closes. I really wish you would refrain from posting "sold" properties when they are merely in attorney review or under contract. And again I ask you, where are you getting this information from???

Fri Jul 4 2008, 06:07

Wow! Trulia is really powerful!!!

1501 Timber Oaks Rd 2br 2hba Townhouse just sold under attorney review at $365,000 7-2-08 http://theoaksatedison.blogspot.com/2008/06/oaks-at-edison_27.html

Wed Jul 2 2008, 11:25

This 206 Timber Oaks Rd looks really nice ... http://theoaksatedison.blogspot.com/2008/06/oaks-at-edison.html

Have you listed your unit with Victor yet? or any powerful Trulia realtors? We got hundreds of prospective buyers from Wall St is coming to the area to buy ... In particuar, my friend's colleagues from Goldman Sachs ... many of them renting at Edison/Blueberry Village Apts that is current rented out ...

Fri Jun 27 2008, 04:04

206 Timber Oaks Rd 2br 2hba townhouse just sold under attorney review at $330,000 6-26-08

Thu Jun 26 2008, 15:18

1008 Timber Oaks Rd 3br 2hba townhouse just sold under attorney review at $448,000 6-10-08 http://theoaksatedison.blogspot.com/2008/05/oaks-at-edison.html

Mon Jun 9 2008, 22:42

How does the unit show?
I don't want to say presentation is everything but it makes a huge difference. I cannot tell you how many times I sold inferior model town homes and houses in comparison to others for much more money than their larger better positioned counter parts because of how well they showed / smell. Keep in mind all the senses should be taken into consideration when selling a home.

Ask yourself or better yet have a criticizing friend / impartial 3rd party come to your house as if they were a potential buyer and get their honest opinion on everything from the exterior to the interior to get feedback on everything from curb appeal & external maintenance to ringing the doorbell and walking through the house as if they were buying the home. Have them detail every little thing they find on paper and fix the obvious things that may put you off when shopping for a home.

TIP: PAINT... A Fresh Coat of Paint almost always makes a huge difference in presentation and makes the home smell newer as well. Carpeting should be steam cleaned or replaced if stained or badly worn.

http://www.realrep.com

Wed May 14 2008, 10:43

Victor, No problem. I understand you had no ill-will. thanks for your advises -- I'm gonna try on my own for a bit and if that doesn't work then I'll hire a realtor.

As for the attached Oaks model link below.. that model seems to be an identical unit to mine except for the following:
1. Mine has 900 sq feet basement - half finished and I know that one does not - it's near me. I believe very few Oaks end unit actually has this
2. I have