Mountain Man and City Girl

The weekends are when we, as realtors in Cape May County, New Jersey, are the busiest.  Many folks come down here from metropolitan Philadelphia and the suburbs of New York City, which includes northern New Jersey, seeking a vacation home.  The average ride is about two hours.

This past weekend, the first weekend in February, 2008, was a typically busy weekend.  The weekend normally gets set up during the weekdays.  Folks search the internet for available properties here in the Wildwoods.  Our website offers access to the county’s Multiple Listing Service, plus there’s Realtor.com to find suitable possibilities. 

Usually by Thursday, prospective buyers call or email us with a list of the properties that have aroused their curiosity.  Now knowing their criteria, we may add a few more properties to their list.  Being so familiar with the properties on our island, we may alert them that one or two they picked won’t suit their needs.

By Friday, we have set up appointments to see all the properties on the weekend with the buyers.  If the first Saturday appointment is early, like 9:00 or 9:30, we’ll pick up those keys on Friday afternoon.

This past weekend, City Girl spent all day Saturday and Sunday showing properties.  It resulted in one contract being drawn up, and two more couples have narrowed their choice to two properties.  Meanwhile, I was busy on listing appointments and taking care of signs, inspections, phone calls, etc.  Our secretary Chris held down the fort, handing out keys all day long to other agents seeking to show any of our 42 listings.

The island was buzzing with activity.  Considering we’ve had just 3″ of snow so far this winter, folks know it’s almost a sure bet that the weather here will be nice, with temperatures running 10 to 15 degrees warmer than they find back home.  Agents were scurrying around the island all weekend with anxious buyers in the back seat.  It was reminiscent of 2003, when the Wildwood market was hot after many slow years.

At our agency, 2008 has started off like gangbusters.  We had two closings in January, and put three properties “under contract”.  We are also actively negotiating three other deals between the sellers and buyers.

We are fortunate to be a real estate agency with just us two brokers and a secretary.  We don’t have to split commissions with agents, so every commission is our own.  It also means we work six days a week yearround, and we’re available 6am to 9pm, 365 days a year by telephone.  Not a whole lot of people can keep up that pace, but we love the real estate business and enjoy our relationships with our clients.  Many have become lifelong friends.

Life is all about doing what makes you happy.  For us, a weekend looking at properties with clients makes us content.  It kinda gives us that warm, fuzzy feeling.  I guess our motto sums it up, “You’re more than a customer, you’re a friend”!

- Mountain Man

To find out more about properties available in the Wildwoods, visit our website at http://www.JewellRealEstateAgency.com

In 1976, I was hitchhiking east on I-20 in Texas along with my then wife, Mel, and dog, Osha.  From El Paso at the New Mexico border to the east Texas stateline near Shreveport, Louisiana, the state of  Texas  is an unfathomable 838 miles across.  Put into perspective, that’s the distance from New York City to Georgia.

We were tooling along I-20 east in an old Pontiac Catalina.  Near Pecos, Texas, the wind started to pick up.  The tumbleweed were rolling and bouncing across the highway, taking on an almost surreal life of their own.  As we progressed eastward, the wind really gained velocity, probably up to 40 miles per hour or so.

Knowing our ride would end soon, I pulled out my road atlas to find a suitable location to get out.  There it was - Monahans Sandhills State Park.  It had camping facilities, which also meant bathrooms and showers.  On the map it appeared to be right near the highway.  This would be our destination.

By now the wind was honking, blowing sand almost horizontally across the desert.  It was so intense that the driver put on his headlights and occasionally his windshield wipers.  At Monahans, we bid farewell to our driver and thanked him for the 85 mile ride.

Exiting the car, we were blasted by sand.  Ooooh, it stung!  We leaned forward into the howling wind, backpacks on our backs, and headed off the highway to find the state park.  Poor Osha.  The sand immediately got into her eyes.  I got down on the ground and pulled her head up into my sweatshirt for some relief.  I then found a bandana and tied it across her eyes.  She would have to blindly follow our voices.

 Twenty minutes later, sand in every nook and cranny in our clothes, skin, hair, and gear, we were in the treeless camping area.  There were three RV’s camping, and no one else in sight. 

We’d never be able to set up our tent in this gale, so we sought shelter in the restrooms.  In the men’s room, I attended to Osha.  Pulling off her improvised blind, I flushed her swollen eyes with water until the sand was gone.  She wagged her tail and licked my face in appreciation, then laid down and looked at me with an expression that said, “What next?”.

After a quick conference with Mel, we decided to spend the night in the ladies’ room.  We thought a guy might get the wrong idea if he came upon us three in the men’s room.  We moved to the ladies room, situated Osha and our backpacks in the corner, then both stripped and jumped into the oversized shower.  We actually began to feel human again as the sand washed from our bodies.

The ladies room door opened.  “What a nice dog”, a woman’s voice said.  After hesitating a bit, she added, “I’ll be waiting out here while you finish your shower.”  Now what?  This camper from one of the RV’s doesn’t realize that it’s not just Mel in the shower.  Will she freak out when she discovers I’m in here, too?

“Ummm … my husband’s in here with me”, Mel said meekly.  “Oh, that’s alright”, she replied.  “I saw you were on foot so you stay in here as long as you like.  It’s nasty outside.” 

After getting dried off and dressed, we apologized profusely to the woman.  She was very understanding, and not bothered a bit by my presence.  After she finished her shower, we had the ladies room to ourselves again.  The wind howled all night, pushing sand through every crack around the doors and windows, but we had a calm, windless sanctuary.

By morning, the sandstorm was over.  Standing by the side of the road with thumbs out, the timeless words of General William Tecumseh Sherman came to mind.  “If I owned Texas and hell, I’d rent out Texas and live in hell!”

- Mountain Man

When people think of Cape May County, New Jersey they focus on the fabulous beaches, fishing and boating opportunities, world class boardwalks, great restaurants, the laid back atmosphere and low crime rate.  Let’s face it, these are the attractions that swell the yearround population of 100,000 up to 750,000 in the summertime.

But Cape May County offers the accessibility to much more.  Millville, just 20 minutes up country roads, unveils its new 700-acre Thunderbolt Raceway this August.  A 2.3 mile road course, plus a 1.7 mile road course, will assure that sports car and grand prix car racing will be a regular weekend venue.

Just 30 miles to the north of Cape May County is Atlantic City, which as their slogan says, is “Always Turned On”.  As you may know, gambling came to Atlantic City in 1978.  There are now 11 casinos, with many touting expansions and new ones are on the drawing board.

How big is the casino business?  There are a total of 35,603 slot machines, and they paid out 3.46 billion dollars last year.  Note, that’s billion, not million.  There are 1,612 table games, which forked out $1.45 billion in 2007.  The casinos currently employ 40,788 folks.  That’s a lot of impact.

The 11 casinos, with the year they were opened are: Resorts (1978), Caesars (’79), Bally’s (’79), Harrah’s (’80), Hilton (’80), Tropicana (’81), Trump Plaza (’84), Trump Marina (’85), Showboat (’87), Trump Taj Mahal (’90), and the Borgata (2003).  A new downtown oceanfront casino, plus a 140-acre mega-casino at the edge of town, appear to be the next to add to the city’s appeal.

The future of AC looks bright, so expansions are in the works.  The Borgata, which is AC’s first Las Vegas style mega-resort, completed an expansion in 2006, and a new hotel tower nears completion.  Harrah’s new digs open next month.  Donald Trump’s Taj Mahal will be opening its new addition this fall.  Resorts pushed skyward in 2004, the Tropicana expanded in 2004, Showboat added in 2005, and Trump Plaza remodeled in 2004.

The casinos have realized that to expand their patron base, non-gaming activities had to be implemented.  Restaurants, spas, and retail stores were the answer.  The Borgata has many restaurants, with three featuring celebrity chefs Bobby Flay, Wolfgang Puck, and Michael Mina.  Harrah’s has 172,000 square feet added for restaurants, retail, and entertainment.  The Showboat added the 2,380-seat House of Blues music club.  The Tropicana opened The Quarter, a sprawling ground floor retail, restaurant, and entertainment mall.  Several upscale non-casino shopping malls, catering to Boardwalk and casino foot traffic, have brought hundreds more name outlets into the fold.

Nightlife is what Atlantic City is all about.  All the casinos have showrooms, bringing the biggest names in comedy and music to the public every night of the year.  There are also Broadway musicals, holiday spectaculars, and specialty events, like the popular Mummer’s bands.  Bally’s, Borgata, Tropicana, and now the Showboat regularly host boxing cards, highlighting some of the biggest names in the sport.  Caesars hosts boxing at the AC Boardwalk Hall, also a venue for everything from Andre Rieu to college basketball to midget car racing and monster trucks.  AC has minor league baseball with its Atlantic City Surf.

As you can see, Cape May County life offers a lot more than the county itself.  If you can’t find something to do here within a half hour’s drive, you’re not trying.

- Mountain Man

To learn more about Cape May County, visit our website at http://www.JewellRealEstateAgency.com

Sometimes I get really upset at the loss of personal freedoms for adults in America.  It seems like some bonehead, do-gooder politician is always introducing restrictive legislation “for my own good”.  Back off, Jack!

Here in New Jersey, using cell phones in your vehicle will be illegal beginning March 1st.  Actually it already is illegal, but a cop can’t pull you over for that violation.  They have to stop you for another reason, then they can ticket you for cell phone use.  March 1st marks the day when they can now pull you over for talking on the phone.  It’s a primary offense.

That said, I guess they better outlaw radios, CD players, smoking, eating, and kids in cars.  Heck, they are all distractions to a driver.  And how about the person driving down the road with a poodle standing in their lap, head hanging out the driver’s window?  Or the woman rushing to work putting on her make-up?  Maybe the government should restrict vehicles to one person only - the driver - in a one-seat domed bubble.  Everything else is too dangerous for the driver to handle.

By the way, how come it’s not too dangerous to have to fish around in your pockets or a woman to rummage through her handbag to get coins for the tollbooth up ahead.  Don’t you have to concentrate to tell the difference between a quarter and a nickel?  Oh yea, that’s government revenue.  It’s okay.

How about convertibles?  Shouldn’t they be outlawed.  After all, if you roll over in a crash, it’s all over unless your car is equipped with a rollbar.  Quick, let’s legislate!

Trailers are a potential hazard, too.  Of course, so are asteroids crashing into our planet.  But if a trailer hauling a boat or lawn mower or whatever blows a tire, it’ll get ugly.  Let’s require double axle trailers only.  You never can be too safe, right senator?

Now for seatbelts.  I don’t need the government deciding what’s good for my personal safety.  I’ll decide.  I’m an adult, so if I’m willing to gamble going through the windshield in an accident, so be it.  You’re not my mother!

Helmets on motorcycles is another freedom lost, except for in a handful of states.  I’m not a motorcycle rider, but I feel strongly that since they’re over 21 years old, they should decide their own fate.  They know the consequences in an accident.

I believe it was Alice Cooper that had a song that went, “Leave us kids alone”.  I say, “Leave us adults alone.”

- Mountain Man