Lancaster PA Real Estate Blog

There's a new listing for a 3 bedroom 1.5 bath single family detached home coming on the MLS tomorrow - along Miller Road in East Petersburg, PA.  According to the listing agent it will be priced at only $145,000!  That's a great price for a detached 2-story home in Hempfield Schools.

I pulled a photo off the tax records to show you the style.  It's about 1,200 square and has a finished basement - .24 acres too.  I believe this price is very low - contact me ASAP to see this house before it goes!  Call me at 799-0851 to set up a showing through me.

Don't be late!

Ah, the rumors are swirling...

For those of you who don't know, our local real estate behemoth Homesale Services Group left the Coldwell Banker franchise April 1st, making the announcement that morning at a surprise agent meeting and via email as I have heard it.  They decided to change their affiliation to Prudential, claiming an improvement in service to their customers.  Of course there's much more to that, I'm sure...rumors of financial instability at CB corporate are all over the business sector.  I was pretty blown away by the move, my marketing experience telling me that they would be forfeiting 25 years of brand recognition.  After all, let's face it - customers are looking for the blue logo, and that's it.  I suppose that after a few years the new identity will sink on to Lancaster's collective consciousness, but wow...it must have taken a serious falling out between the two firms to cause such a traumatic move.

So Coldwell Banker, the logo so synonymous with real estate in Lancaster PA, is gone.  But wait!  

Today the new breaking news is that another decent-sized local firm has brokered a deal to take over the blue logo.  When I heard which company, I was completely unsurprised.  In fact, I had thought of this company immediately once I had heard about Homesale giving up the franchise.  I'll decline to name the company until the official announcement, but only say that I used to work there and know the owners to be innovative and able to see the potential with taking over the Coldwell Banker logo here in Lancaster and surrounding counties.  Frankly, I wish I had the money to have done it!  

My understanding is that a well-known broker from another office has joined forces with the new local franchise under the name of Coldwell Banker Select Professionals to create a Lancaster Coldwell Banker presence.  We'll have to wait for the official announcements - but you heard it here first!

In honor of Tax Day I researched the year-to-date sales stats for Manheim Township, one of our popular destinations here in Lancaster County PA.  Homes for sale in Manheim Township historically have sold well, and many in-demand neighborhoods such as Grandview Heights, BelAir, Cobblestone Court and Wetherburn are situated in Manheim Township.  More recently, building pressures have started to put the "squeeze" on open space in Manheim Township, and new listing prices have continued to climb accordingly.  Here's the summary:

Year-to-date, there are about the same amount of new listings, with a 9% increase in initial listing price.  Unfortunately, the average sale price declined by 11%!  Sold homes are down 22% over last year to date.  Pending sales are down too, by 16%, and average days-on-market is up 14%.   There are 28% more homes on the market than in 2007, and expiring listings are up by 37%. 

Overall, not a great market report.  I can't think of anything good to say here, other than that buyer activity is up and many are looking in Manheim Township.  Let's hope for a more productive second quarter...

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For Lancaster PA homes for sale click here. Jeff Geoghan is a top real estate expert in Lancaster County, PA, and an involved community member. Jeff's work has been featured in the Lancaster Newspapers, WGAL Channel 8, PA Business Journal and Wall Street Journal. Jeff's blog on Lancaster County and its homes is nationally-featured. Contact Jeff for more help with your Lancaster PA Real Estate needs. Jeff is also a photographer - view some of his portfolio. Comments are welcome!

I thought I'd share some prognostications from talking heads in the media that I came across recently:

• “The prices of houses seem to have reached a plateau, and there is reasonable expectancy that prices will decline." (Time, December 1, 1947)

• “Houses cost too much for the mass market. Today’s average price is around $8,000—out of reach for two-thirds of all buyers." (Science Digest, April, 1948)

• "The goal of owning a home seems to be getting beyond the reach of more and more Americans. The typical new house today costs $28,000." (Business Week, September 4, 1969)

• "The era of easy profits in real estate may be drawing to a close." (Money, January, 1981)

• "The golden-age of risk-free run-ups in home prices is gone." (Money, March 1985)

• "Most economists agree… [a home] will become little more than a roof and a tax deduction, certainly not the lucrative investment it was through much of the 1980s." (Money, 1986)

• "Financial planners agree that houses will continue to be a poor investment." (Kiplinger’s Personal Financial Magazine, November 1993)

Lancaster General Hospital is a large Lancaster city PA operation with an expansion program underway in 2008.  It's an employer hundreds of local residents - I regularly work with homebuyers who are either already employed there or looking for employment there.  The hospital has created a cutting-edge "Home In the City" homebuyer settlement assistance program I wanted to tell you about. 

In an effort to promote employee home ownership as well as encourage employees to walk to work, Lancaster General Hospital offers mortgage insurance and settlement cost assistance (which means closing costs help) in the form of loans up $10,000 (recently upped from $7,000).  There are some stipulations that go with the program:

• The purchase price must be up to $200,000 - not a problem, in fact you can get an incredible large home in the area of Lancaster City for only $160,000 these days.
• Homes can only be 1 or 2 family units, or approved condos.  There's a map showing the Homebuyer assistance covered area.
• An approved mortgage with all lending criteria met
• The home must be the employee's primary residence - no rentals, but you could buy a two-unit and live in one and rent the other.
• Lancaster General will forgive the loan at 20% per year up to 5 years of your employment there.
• The homeowner will have to pay Lancaster General Hospital back for the unforgiven portion if they sell the home, convert it to a second home or leave the hospital's employ.
• The loan funds may only be used for closing cost assistance.
• Of course, the employee must apply for the Settlement Assistance loan through Lancaster General's lending firm and meet credit guidelines.
  

There are a few more details as to how to apply for the "Home In The City" homebuyer assistance program which can be read at the LGH website here.  On top of the assitance offered to home buyers, LGH offers a "curb appeal" renovation program with up to $2,500 towards facade upgrades.  I'll post about facade programs in Lancaster City in a later post.

As a busy realtor working regularly within the coverage area of this program, I would highly recommend it to employees looking to own a home!  It's a great way to go, especially when you could use the closing costs paid for.  For those moving into the area who plan to work at Lancaster General's Lancaster City Facility, I would highly recommend that you take a look at the Lancaster City homes for sale within the coverage area before you decide on a home to purchase.  You'll be surprised at the great neighborhoods and home options available within Lancaster City! 

For a list of current home offerings within the Lancaster General program area as well as daily updates of new listings, feel free to contact me.  I can review your home needs with you and compare homes that might fit your criteria.   

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With the huge pickup in business for me this year, I'm coming into contact with many more homebuyers in various stages of thought about their move.  Let me tell you, there continue to be a lot of misconceptions out there about real estate professionals and what they do.  I'd like to address one constant issue today - the existence & role of a "buyer's agent".

When a homebuyer decides to start the process of looking for a property, they typically begin by surfing the internet.  (I know this because I get lots of contacts from them at this early stage).  At some point they are exposed to any number of real estate salespersons via their websites, MLS, company websites etc.  It is at this point that the potential homebuyer needs to understand something up front; they will only get to work with one real estate professional by the time they are actively looking at homes.  That active stage can come up fast, so the buyer should know right now that they'll be forced to make a choice among possible candidates for their loyalty.  

Why is this?  Why can't the buyer access the expertise and databases of many realtors? Because each one of those agents is hoping to be "the one" that the buyer eventually chooses.  The concept of (intentionally or unintentionally) playing agents against each other won't work for very long - one of the agents will ask for the buyer's business and the honeymoon is over...and this is as it should be.

When the buyer reaches the active comparison and offer submission stage, he or she will want to have a buyer representative at their side, advising them, drafting documents & negotiating on their behalf.  In PA the real estate license law provides for what's called "buyer agency", which simply means that consumers (that's the buyer) actually hire via contract an agent represent them.  I often use a "law & order" analogy in explaining the PA law to buyers; the representational responsibilities are similar to the way a lawyer represents his client - the need for client confidentiality, a continuous good-faith effort, etc.  

So, if you're a prospective homebuyer today, realize that it's in your best interest to first interview realtors to be your buyer representative, and then hire one that you feel has the best service and expertise for your needs.  Then, use him/her to access the MLS and interpret the data for you going forward.  Also, you can pick the agent's brain regarding areas, prices, condition and many of items you may not have expertise in.  This will save you lots of time and wasted hours in front of a monitor staring at third-party home websites like Zillow, etc.  Also, this will save real estate businessmen time and raise the competitive bar for us.  Hooray!

If you have any questions about buying a home in Lancaster County, or how buyer agency works and the contract involved, I'd be happy to answer you at info@yourlancasterhome.com or 717-799-0851.

Next, I'm going to tackle seller agency in PA - and hopefully answer another misconception about realtors - that they're all the same when it comes to listing your home!   Stay tuned...

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For Lancaster PA homes for sale click here. Jeff Geoghan is a top real estate expert in Lancaster County, PA, and an involved community member. Jeff's work has been featured in the Lancaster Newspapers, WGAL Channel 8, PA Business Journal and Wall Street Journal. Jeff's blog on Lancaster County and its homes is nationally-featured. Contact Jeff for more help with your Lancaster PA Real Estate needs. Jeff is also a photographer - view some of his portfolio. Comments are welcome!

We did actually make it to Washington DC for Friday and Saturday last week, for those of you who were wondering!

I peeled off a couple of representative photos to give you the flavor of our getaway.  On Friday we got down to our hotel about noon.  It was the Holiday Inn Capital Washington, right in the middle of things and only 2 blocks from the Air & Space Museum - honestly it was a lucky guess on my part after surfing over dozens of worthy hotels.  The rate was good considering that it was still the Annual Cherry Blossom Festival in DC.

After checking in early (very flexible folks at this hotel - a plus) we uncorked the bicycles and hit the National Mall.  This was our 9-month old's first time on a bike, and she seemed to like it.  Or perhaps she was just zonked from the car trip...

We rode down past the Washington Monument to the WW2 monument, then decided to head around the east side of the Tidal Basin to the Jefferson Memorial.  This took longer than it sounds, with endless street crossings.  I'm sort of surprised that the city allows so much traffic to pass through this sensitive area - pollution, chances of accidents with tourists, etc.  The place was packed with Cherry Blossom Spectators, but we got through OK with our bikes.  Susan wanted a photo of us, so we asked some folks to help out with that (I'll suppress the wife photos out of deference to her).

After continuing around the Jefferson Memorial we headed up the Potomac to the Lincoln Memorial, and Carys was asleep again.

The Vietnam Memorial was the most moving, in my opinion.  People were forced by the design to walk the entire length of the memorial - it is hard to avoid all those names.

We realized at that point that it was after 7pm!  The day was awesome - not cloudy as expected.   We rode back to the hotel and flopped into bed.

I was up at 6:15 and decided to take my camera out onto the Mall to grab what I could of a Washington sunrise over the US Capitol.  How'd I do?

I also got a cool photo of the facade of the Museum of The American Indian:

After a good breakfast back at the hotel, the boys and I walked back out to the now-busy Capitol steps to see the parade of tourists and class trips.  After lunch the whole clan spent the afternoon at the Air & Space Museum - one of our stated goals for Saturday.

We closed the place around 6pm and grabbed a nice dinner at the grill at the hotel before hitting the road.  We were home by 10pm.  A good use of less than 48 hours, if I do say so myself...

Back to business!

Introducing 1137 Louise Avenue - an exquisite new offering in Grandview Heights. I'm proud to offer this magnificent home to you this week! At 2020 square feet, it's absolutely huge compared to the typical Grandview-era home. The centerpiece is the custom gourmet kitchen featuring glazed cabinetry, undermount stainless sink and granite throughout, including a monstrous breakfast/socializing bar that straddles the kitchen and the living room.

Offered at $264,959, this home is packed with great features:

Large finished basement with fireplace, full bath and outside entrance – possible ILQ

First-floor bedroom with full bath, also can be den, family room or office with built-ins

Hardwood floors exposed throughout

Large granite breakfast bar with pass-through to living room

Stone fireplace in Living room

High-end replacement windows throughout & new furnace means energy efficiency

One-car attached garage

Three large second-floor bedrooms

Two options for master bedroom

Bonus room/walk-in closet/office nook

3 full baths – one on each floor

Loads of closet and storage space everywhere

Landscaped grounds

Rear parking and alleyway access

Fenced rear yard

Optional all-wood playset.

Large covered patio

Call me today to see this magnificent home - 717-799-0851 or email me.

My family is going to try to leave for Washington DC tomorrow, to take the boys on a bike tour of the National Mall and a visit to the National Air & Space Museum.  Of course, eveything was absolutely nuts with real estate today (TV interview, showing homes, successfully completing a listing presentatio, etc) and I got home after 9pm.  Help me, O blogosphere!  I need your forward thoughts to get us out the door at a relatively early time.  Its a 2.5 hour ride from Lancaster, PA to D.C. but we've got our hotel - which is good.

I'll post on our adventure with all speed - in the meantime wish us well!