In South Orange: Husband and Wife Start Home Buyers’ Tour Visiting 5 Essex County Towns

SOUTH ORANGE, NJ — If you’re a New Yorker searching for a new home in Essex County, a husband and wife team of domicile hunters wants to take you shopping.

Jay and Maria Hassler are the founders of Town Hopper Tours, a new company that aims to make it “faster and cheaper for New York residents thinking of buying a home in New Jersey to pinpoint their ideal neighborhood.”

New Yorkers home hunting for a crib in Jersey most likely have to rent a car and arm themselves with research before heading to scout properties in the Garden State – a process that could cost up to $820 per weekend when tallying up car rental, insurance, gas, tolls, and time, the pair claim.

Town Hopper Tours plans to remedy that with a three-hour tour that costs $149 per person and visits five towns in Essex county that are within an hour train commute from Manhattan.

The inaugural tour on Sept. 17 will depart at 9:30 a.m. near Newark Penn Station and visit Bloomfield, Glen Ridge, Maplewood, Montclair and South Orange.

The couple – an author and a classical musician – say that they are not realtors and won’t profit from any home sale.

Town Hopper Tours will offer a guided, luxury mini-bus tour that shows guests where the schools are, point out train stops, touch on parking permit wait lists, places of worship, parks, fitness centers and review taxes by town. Guests will also get to see what $250,000, $500,000 and $750,000 affords in each town by driving past homes that sold at these price points within the past month or two, the Hasslers said.

Tickets cost $149 per person. Space is limited and reservations must be made online. For more information, click here.

Photo courtesy of Maria and Jay Hassler

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