Scott's NJ Blog - Luxury Homes/Top Towns

Downtown Westfield’s Virtual Girls’ Night 2020

May 22, 2020 by Scott Gleason

Each May, the Downtown Westfield Corporation hosts a Girls’ Day and Night Out. This is a chance for women to spend time pampering themselves and simply enjoying each other’s company for one full day. This year, organizers wanted to continue this tradition. But how do you do that in the midst of COVID-19 concerns? You harness the power of the web and host Downtown Westfield’s Virtual Girls’ Night, that’s how.

The annual Girls' Night Out has become a Downtown Westfield Girls' Night In this year via Facebook Live or Zoom. Dress up. Dress down. Show up however you'd like. Just make sure to register today to receive a link on May 28th, 2020.

What: Downtown Westfield’s Virtual Girls’ Night 2020
Where: Your House via Zoom or Facebook Live
When: Thursday, May 28th, 3 pm to 5:30 pm

Downtown Westfield’s Virtual Girls’ Night 2020

Girls’ Night Out has now become Girls’ Night In. We tend to focus on the “distancing” part of “social distancing” right now. And we understand why. But now it’s time to focus on the “social” aspect. Every 10 minutes, a new guest shows you how to create the most fashionable virtual party for you and your girlfriends. Mayor Brindle, Representative Mackey, Representative Habgood, and Inside Edition’s Les Trent join Bob Zuckerman as hosts for the entire virtual soiree for the afternoon.

What to Expect at Girls’ Night

Enjoy a live Greek Girls’ Night cooking class courtesy of Patricia and Paul and the Manatakis girls. The Manatakis won the Food Network’s Family Food Showdown. Visit Patricia and Paul’s before Virtual Girls’ Night to pick up your party kit and cook along with the chef’s that night.

Learn how to make a Quarantini cocktail with Tim from 16 Prospect. Make-up artist Kiera offers make-up tips and advice while DanTee Hair Architect’s very own resident stylist Dan helps bring life to your ‘do using everyday household products. Several other Downtown Westfield business owners are also scheduled to appear as well to help you with fashion tips, home furnishing ideas, more food creations you can make at home, and even a live ukelele lesson.

Register Now

It costs nothing to join this year’s Virtual Girls’ Night Out in Westfield. But you will need to register in order to receive the Facebook Live or Zoom invite. Don’t worry. It’s easy to register. Simply visit Downtown Westfield’s website here. It only takes a few seconds. Then, let all your girlfriends know that Girls’ Night is on!

You don’t have to go out to have a great time with your girlfriends. Enjoy a night in with all of your friends. There is something for everyone at Downtown Westfield’s Virtual Girls’ Night 2020.

Scott Gleason, CRS at RE/MAX Select, Luxury Homes

May 2020 Market Update

May 18, 2020 by Scott Gleason

Curious about your home’s value?

Please click below for the market update of interest to you:

Westfield by Grade School:

Scott Gleason scott@luxuryhomesnj.com

RE/MAX SelectLuxury Homes for Sale in Westfield

Westfield Virtual 5k to Feed Frontline Workers

May 15, 2020 by Scott Gleason

Do you remember the Freshman 15 in college? Well, some of us seem to be reliving our college days. They call it the “quarantine 15”. How have you spent your “stay at home” order? Streaming movies and binging on comfort food? Those pounds sneak up fast. Out Run Your Fork wants to motivate you to get some exercise while helping feel our frontline workers. They organized a Westfield Virtual 5k set over Memorial Day weekend. Are you up for the challenge?

Get off the couch and help Out Run Your Fork raise money to feed our local healthcare workers by participating in their first Westfield Virtual 5k.

What: Westfield Virtual 5k
Where: You Set Your Own Course
When: Sunday, May 24th, anytime
Cost: Free registration, $15 donation per person preferred
Contact: Out Run Your Fork (973) 348-9898

Westfield Virtual 5k

Like any other physical 5k, you can run or walk your way through the virtual 5k course. You still must actually physically complete the entire 5k. However, you decide when and where to do it in Westfield on May 24th. Remember to continue practicing social distancing from others as well.

Out Run Your Fork plans on using the money raised from this 5k and other fundraisers they have planned to purchase food from local restaurants to feed our healthcare workers. They sit on the frontline in this battle against COVID-19. Long hours giving aid to the sick usually mean a quick lunch on the go for many. With Out Run’s initiative, they help feed the frontline workers and keep local restaurants in business at the same time.

How to Register

It costs nothing to register for the virtual 5K. But they prefer a $15 donation per person. The goal is to raise at least $10,000 to feed our healthcare workers. So, please be as generous as you can. Visit the Westfield Virtual 5K event website to sign up. Get your entire family off the couch for this fun 5k. Out Run Your Fork plans on giving away a free 28-day personal training program to one lucky person who participates. That could be you. Good luck and thank you.

Scott Gleason, CRS at RE/MAX Select, Luxury Homes

Westfield Clothing Drive for AGAPE Community Kitchen

May 8, 2020 by Scott Gleason

Expect to see cold, wet weather this weekend. It might not be the best time for yard work or projects to boost your curb appeal. But, forget the binge-watching for a moment. Instead, tackle some spring cleaning chores by clearing out your closet. Then, bag up your stuff for our local Presbyterian Church’s Westfield Clothing Drive. Money raised from the sale of donated items benefits the church’s AGAPE Community Kitchen program.

Do some spring cleaning at your house this weekend and help those less fortunate by donating your gently used clothing, linens, stuffed animals, and accessories to the Westfield Clothing Drive for AGAPE Community Kitchen on May 17th-20th, 2020.

What: Westfield Clothing Drive
Where: Presbyterian Church in Westfield (140 Mountain Ave)
When: May 17th to 21st
Contact: Janet Smith, Event Coordinator via email

Westfield Clothing Drive

Towards the end of March, the Presbyterian Church in Westfield followed the same protocols put in place for restaurants. They suspended their weekly Wednesday dinner program due to public health concerns from COVID-19. As of the writing of this post, the kitchen remains closed. However, when officials OK their reopening, they plan on firing up the grill and serving hot meals again.

To get ready for their reopening, they are hosting a clothing drive. What do clothes have to do with feeding hungry people? The money raised from the sale of your donated items helps the kitchen purchase food to feed these hungry people. All you have to do is bag up your gently used clothing, bedding, pillows, towels, shoes, curtains, ties, belts, and even stuffed animals that your children outgrew or don’t use anymore. Bring these bags down to the church between March 17th and 21st. Toss them into the white van with the church’s name on the side located in the parking lot. Volunteers handle the rest. Practice safe social distancing while helping your less fortunate neighbors.

AGAPE Community Kitchen

The Presbyterian Church in Westfield’s AGAPE program actually takes place in nearby Elizabeth. Volunteers meet every Wednesday afternoon in the Westfield church’s parking at 3:15 pm. The church’s van shuttles these wonderful volunteers to the kitchen in Elizabeth where they prepare a delicious hot meal for dinner guests. They end up back in Westfield around 7:30 pm every week. If you’re interested in volunteering, please contact the church. Students in grades 6-12 may also sign up to volunteer.

Scott Gleason, CRS at RE/MAX Select, Luxury Homes

Westfield Farmers Market Opens With Curbside Pickup

May 1, 2020 by Scott Gleason

Millions of New Jersey residents continue to follow Governor Murphy’s Stay at Home order. Currently, only essential businesses remain open, with restrictions. Usually, June marks the start of our local farmer’s market season. However, beginning tomorrow (May 2nd), the Westfield Farmers Market opens with curbside pickup available.

Westfield Farmers Market

Earlier this week, the Greater Westfield Area Chamber of Commerce announced that the Westfield Farmers Market would open up early this year. In keeping with social distancing and the CDC’s guidelines on responsible practices, patrons of the market can now place an order from vendors online. Pay for it when you order. Choose a time for pickup (between 10 am and 12 pm). Then, show up to the Westfield Train Station at your designated time.

When you pick up your order, the market staff places your purchased items in the trunk and you go back home with fresh fruit, vegetables, meat, baked goods, and more for your family’s dinner table. Basically, no contact shopping. It’s just like shopping on Amazon. But, instead of a huge corporation getting your money, you support local farmers and merchants directly.

Westfield Farmers Market Hours

Right now, orders must be placed online by Thursday evening for the following Saturday’s pickup. They plan on continuing the virtual market/curbside pickup schedule every Saturday until the regular market starts up. Organizers ask that you be patient as they work out the kinks that may arise from this new arrangement.

As long as Westfield residents continue to obey the governor’s stay at home orders, hopefully, the market starts up with business as usual in June. For the latest local COVID-19 information, please visit the City of Westfield’s Coronavirus Information Center.

Scott Gleason, CRS at RE/MAX Select, Luxury Homes

Virtually Tour Your Next Neighborhood While Sheltering in Place

April 24, 2020 by Scott Gleason

The way we buy and sell houses has changed over the last few weeks. In the past, open houses and private tours allowed buyers the opportunity to physically see a property. New restrictions make that impossible at this time. While some buyers might try to wait for their chance to “buy the dip” if that happens in a few months, others might want to take advantage of current low interest rates to buy now. Virtual online tours allow you to check out an available Westfield home for sale while you shelter in place. But did you know that you can virtually tour your next neighborhood, too?

There are a few ways you can virtually tour your next Westfield neighborhood while securely sheltering in place before you buy a new home.

Virtually Tour New Neighborhoods From Home

Google Street View

Today’s technology makes social distancing a little easier. It also makes buying a Westfield home during a pandemic a little easier, too. Virtually tour any Westfield neighborhood by utilizing Google Street View to take a virtual walk around town. Simply visit Google Maps on your computer or smartphone. Type in the address of the home you’re interested in. When you do, it should offer you a street view of the address. From there, click on the arrows to move you along the street in whichever direction you wish to go.

Social Media

Many neighborhoods use social media to keep residents apprised of hyper-local news and information they might find interesting and helpful. Search Twitter, Facebook, and Instagram for these groups.

Neighborhood Data Websites

Another way to virtually tour a new neighborhood is by visiting data websites. City-Data, Area Vibes, Great Schools, and even Yelp provide helpful information about the neighborhoods you might be interested in moving into. And those are just a few of the many available online resources at your fingertips.

Review Other Listings

How does this help? You can see what architectural styles are available in your neighborhood of choice. You’ll also see the age of the homes in your new neighborhood. Are they mid-century ranch homes, traditional, colonial? New construction or older? This helps give you a good feel for the community.

Talk to Your Agent

Finally, another way to check out a new neighborhood without ever leaving your home is by talking to your agent. Arrange a time to Facetime with them while they drive the neighborhood for you. Or ask them to take a video of the neighborhood while they’re out sometime. Also, a simple question/answer session about the specific area you’re interested in might help paint a picture for you.

If you are interested in purchasing a home in any Westfield area community, contact me right away. I’ll help in any way I can.

Scott Gleason, CRS at RE/MAX Select, Luxury Homes

Westfield Conservation Center Opens…With Limitations

April 17, 2020 by Scott Gleason

Are you practicing good social distancing techniques? With many of us spending more and more time at home lately, we seem to find the time now to tackle those projects around that house that we put off for so long. Maybe you attempted to increase your curb appeal. Or you used your time to do some spring cleaning. In either case, your trash cans might be overflowing at the moment. If you need to bring trash to the dump, you’re in luck. The Westfield Conservation Center recently opened back up to the public. However, for now, they only accept trash on Thursdays and Fridays.

Have you been using your free time to tackle your spring cleaning or completing home improvement projects? You can now bring your trash from these efforts to the Westfield Conservation Center.

Westfield Conservation Center

The City recognizes a need for the conservation center to open back up. But they also want to keep their workers safe by practicing social distancing. To do so, they must stagger their shifts. Yesterday (April 16th), the center opened its doors back up to the public. But people found themselves waiting in long lines to get in. A few hours in, the City suspended their online sales of dumping permits. About an hour before closing, cars thinned out enough to allow online sales to continue.

For the foreseeable future, Westfield Conservation Center hours for residential dumping are restricted to Thursdays and Fridays from 9 am to 2:30 pm. They temporarily put food waste, plastic toys, household bulk waste, and mattress drop-offs on hold. But all other recycling can still be dropped off for free.

How to Get a Permit

With limited staffing in place, you may only buy your annual permit online. It costs $60 for the year. Be aware, however. In times of high volume at the center, the City may temporarily suspend sales of permits online. Just check back later in the day to see if they become available again (like they did on opening day). Once you pay for and print your permit, make sure you keep your paper copy with you to show the staff at the center. For a complete list of acceptable recyclable materials for free drop-off, please visit the Westfield Conservation Center’s website here.

Scott Gleason, CRS at RE/MAX Select, Luxury Homes

April 2020 Market Update: Two Scenarios For Our Local Real Estate

April 15, 2020 by Scott Gleason

No one knows for sure what the supply and demand situation will be for the rest of the year. For the sake of this article, let’s say you want to move into your next home or be out of your current home in time for the start of school in September.

For sellers: One theory notes inventory is far below normal for this time of year. And while activity is slow it certainly hasn’t stopped. There are trade-up buyers who have already contracted to sell their starter homes, buyers seeking to protect their rate locks, buyers anxious to move out of the city. You may benefit from the scarce inventory. The flip side, if you try now and don’t sell, your home won’t be the latest thing when the likely avalanche of inventory comes out after the smoke clears.

Or you can wait for greater circulation of buyers, possible regrowth of in-person showings and modified open houses. Buyers will have more confidence after the pandemic is controlled and there is some clarity about the ensuing economic reality. Your home will be in the new crop. The flip side here—the delayed spring inventory may outpace the buyers, leading to price shrinkage.

For Buyers: You might shop now, while you know rates are historically low, and you reasonably assume sellers with their homes on the market today are motivated. Wouldn’t they wait for June or July if selling sooner were not important? The following study will show homes are selling as you read this. On the flip side, there is a chance the same or similar homes will trade for a bit less in the next few months.

Or you can wait and try to “buy the dip.” There may be a wider selection of homes for sale in June or July. If the market tilts to over supplied, there may be better buys later. But what if there is a Black Friday effect? Or if interest rate fluctuations cancel out the price improvements?

The following data encompasses all the towns we track: Berkeley Heights, Chatham, Clark, Cranford, Fanwood, Garwood, Millburn, Mountainside, New Providence, Scotch Plains, Short Hills, Summit, Warren, Watchung, Westfield.

As always, we also show you the previous month’s activity in your own town.

Curious about your home’s value?

Please click below for the market update of interest to you:

Westfield by Grade School:

Scott Gleason scott@luxuryhomesnj.com

RE/MAX SelectLuxury Homes for Sale in Westfield

Westfield Food Pantry Drop-Off at YMCA

April 10, 2020 by Scott Gleason

Did you spot any rainbows while out on your daily walk in Westfield lately? It may seem like a little thing, but they certainly raise your spirits when you see them. With unemployment filings in the multi-millions over the last few weeks, we see more and more people struggling just to put food on the table. One way you can help alleviate this strain for those in need is to donate food and other essentials to the Westfield Food Pantry. The Westfield Area YMCA offers a convenient drop-off location for anyone able to help during the pandemic.

The Westfield Area Y continues to offer an easy drop-off location for any food or personal care item donations to the Westfield Food Pantry.

Westfield Food Pantry Drop-Off

The Westfield Area Y always accepted donations for the Westfield Food Pantry. They continue to do so even though they temporarily shut their doors to the public. The Y set up donation drop-off bins in their front vestibule. You may drop off your non-perishable food and personal care items any time between 8 am and 5 pm Monday through Friday. Westfield Police pick up all donations from these bins regularly and take them to the food pantry themselves.

What They Need

canned goods (soup, beef stew, ravioli, spaghettios, fruit, veggies)
dry pasta
peanut butter
jelly
cereal
personal care items (shampoo, deodorant, toothbrushes, toothpaste, soap, travel-sized items)

Helping the Westfield Area Y

As you can imagine, shutting their doors has financially hurt our local YMCA. To help reduce the impact this has caused, the Westfield Area Y set up their YMCA Operations Recovery Fund. If you can, please donate today. This will help them continue to provide service to the community when they are able to open back up after we flatten the curve of the COVID-19 pandemic and get back to something resembling a normal life afterward. We will get there as long as we work together right now.

Scott Gleason, CRS at RE/MAX Select, Luxury Homes

Westfield Rainbows During COVID-19

March 27, 2020 by Scott Gleason

Last weekend, Governor Murphy declared a State of Emergency for New Jersey. In his Executive Order, he urged all residents to practice good hygiene practices (wash hands often and for 20 seconds at a time). He also asked that we practice social distancing to limit the potential for exposure to the deadly COVID-19. That means no gatherings of more than 10 people. Stay at home whenever possible. Leave the playdates for later. And stay at least six feet away from others when outside. To help kids (and parents) combat “cabin fever”, some neighborhoods have started putting up Westfield rainbows in their windows. Get your kids involved for free.

Spread some cheer and reduce stress while walking about (maintaining your six foot distance from others via social distancing, of course) by letting your kids color and put up Westfield rainbows on the windows of your home.

Westfield Rainbows During COVID-19

Social distancing doesn’t mean cloistering inside your Westfield home for the next several weeks. Yes, you must place a pause on gatherings involving anyone that doesn’t already reside in your house. But you can (and should) go outside for some fresh air. Exercise boosts your immune system and helps clear your mind. A nice bike ride or walk is still OK as long as you keep six feet away from other people.

While out on your walk, look for Westfield rainbows in the windows of your neighbors’ homes. This is their way of saying “we’re with you” and “stay strong”. Create a nice rainbow poster/picture of your own or download a rainbow template here to use instead. Color it. And put it up as soon as possible to let others know that “Everything’s going to be OK”. This may seem like a small or silly gesture to you but, in a time where we need to keep our social distances, it’s a virtual hug that might make a difference in someone else’s day. Stay safe, folks. For the latest info about COVID-19 in Westfield, visit the City’s Coronavirus Info Center here.

Scott Gleason, CRS at RE/MAX Select, Luxury Homes