Main Line Homes Blog

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 (From L to R): Nick Vandekar and Terry Kirkwood accept the inaugural Distinguished Achievement Program award from 2010 Suburban West REALTORS^® Association Chairman Bill McFalls.

 Janet Rubino, Vice President and Manager of Long & Foster Real Estate's Devon office, is pleased to announce that Nick Vandekar of the Devon office has recently received the Suburban West REALTORS^® Association inaugural Distinguished Achievement Program award.  This honor is in recognition for his exemplary commitment to his career, clients and community in general. 

To achieve this honor, Nick demonstrated the importance of going beyond the boundaries of his real estate career to develop the skills, professionalism, and vision necessary to help the needs of the Berwyn and Devon communities.  For consideration of the award, Nick:

•  volunteered extensive hours to professional real estate associations; including serving on various Suburban West committees and as a Director of the Pennsylvania Association of REALTORS^®; 
•  actively participated in the democratic process on local, state and national level; including serving as a Director for the Suburban REALTORS^® Alliance legislative organization and as liaison to Tredyffrin township municipal government; and
• has been consistently involved in his local community through organizations and causes; including serving as President of the Berwyn/Devon Business and Professional Association and an Main Line Antique Show Committee member.

During the presentation of the award on January 20, current Suburban West REALTORS^® Association Chairman Bill McFalls commented, "Nick has shown an extraordinary drive and willingness to give of himself.  For this, both the organization and community is fortunate to have REALTORS^® like Nick that are willing to give of themselves in this way."

Nick currently serves as a Director of the Pennsylvania Association of REALTORS® for District 2 covering the Suburban West REALTORS® Association. Nick holds the ABR (Accredited Buyers Representative) and e-PRO designations, and is a multi-million dollar producer. He can be reached at 610-203-4543 direct or at the office at 610-225-7400. Also visit his website, www.VandekarTeam.com. 

More and more people are not paying their mortgages. we are hearing more and more stories of a rising number of homeowners deciding to pay down or off credit cards before making a payment to their mortgage. Believing that the banks already inundated with foreclosures and short sales will not take action quickly many homeowners are choosing to hold off on a payment to get their other debts reduced.

Hoping that baks will be willing to modify loans, and many banks won't modify or talk about modification till a homeowner is behind on payments, credit card debt is being reduced across the country.  Whilst being late on payments will affect credit scores, reducing their high interest credit cards may be a savvy way forward. This tactic if credit card debt is paid off frees up more funds for mortgages from their paychecks. So when they do speak to the bank they are in a better position financially.

However, on top of this are many older executives who are out of work are finding it hard to new positions and are using up savings to avoid foreclosure. Having accessed these funds these homes are coming on the market as short sales and even those areas that have not been hard hit by foreclosures and short sales are seeing rises in the number of homes on the market tagged as bank owned, short sale or foreclosure sales.

This provides opportunities for those qualified buyers who are willing to be patient and work their way through the improving system of short sales, foreclosure and bank owned properties. Banks at last seem to be getting systems in place to get properties sold rather than have them sitting on their books.

At some stage also banks should be able to know what the cost of these mortgages truly are and be able to refinance them in the market using their past sales as proof of price for these investments allowing them to then make further profitable loans.

Just last night a quick search of two counties, Chester and Delaware counties, here on the outskirts of Philadelphia came up with over 200 homes tagged as being short sales, bank owned or foreclosures. These homes are good for those who are pre-approved for mortgages or those investors looking for rental properties that will when the market truly stabilizes and begins to improve will give an excellent return on investment.

Price just reduced to $292,000 great value close to downtown Media, wonderful historic home.

2010 is the 4708 Chinese Year of the Tiger.  All of the stars were aligned properly for the Asian/American golfer Tiger Woods to make it his personal "Year of the Tiger".  He has won fourteen (14) major professional championships.  Only Jack Nicklaus, one of his idols is ahead of him with eighteen.  Three of the four 2010 major championships were to played at favorite venues of Tiger Woods...the Masters at Augusta, the US Open at Pebble Beach and the British Open at St Andrews (the PGA is at Whistling Straights).  Tiger was on track to win at least one, or more, major championships this year. 

However, 2010 turned out to be a "paper tiger" for Mr. Woods.  He is probably not coming to California for the Open (unless he warms up at Nicklaus' Memorial tournament) and the Masters appears to be out of the picture unless Elin lets Tiger come out to play in Arnold Palmer's Bay Hill Classic as a warm-up. 

Tiger said in his February 19^th monologue at TPC's headquarter's location to forty carefully selected friends, supporters and six hand picked press that his central focal point was his marriage, his family and his future life.  Less than a mile away at the Sawgrass Marriott the rest of the "press in attendance" watched and listened to Tiger Wood's well scripted (I hope he wrote most of it) fourteen minute comments, during which it could be said, "The lights went out."  You see there were two television feed cameras in the room.  One head on and the other to his left.  Could there have been any symbolism to the straight on camera malfunctioning and the other camera having to pick up his comments.  (You could have laid a wager at a British betting parlour that Tiger would cry during his remarks.  Now the area below his eyes was hidden.)

Probably the most incredible part of this entire situation - to date - is that ABC, CBS, and NBC stopped programming for Tiger's remarks.  What have we come to when an athlete's remarks are more important to network television that all of the cable alternatives they have created to fill air time?

How will the new Pennsylvania Agreement of Sale be viewed by agents, buyers and sellers. Where does the balance lie between buyer and seller?  

There have been some major changes and the agreement looks very different. One agent asked me while we were going over these changes in a class "Is this Agreement more in favor of the buyer?" My response was to ask how she viewed the current agreement. Many of those present agreed that the current, the 2005 version is very favorable to the buyer and leaves the seller without many teeth.

I think going over this new agreement that several of the changes are improvements on the sellers favor. Deadlines are tightened up, causing the buyer to take action earlier and respond quicker so that if an agreement is going to not proceed the sellers home can be returned to the market place quicker. The mortgage blocks have changed in that there is now an option for loans to match loan to value ratios, a quasi appraisal contingency, although of course you can use the old appraisal contingency if you wish. Deadlines for mortgage applications are tightened up including payment for appraisals and application fees. Buyers pay when they apply for their mortgage and cannot put off arranging the appraisal.

But I think many of the changes being made are more for clarity for both parties. Sellers assists are moved to where the offer of compensation is and not tucked away further in the agreement a big improvement allowing the seller to clearly see what is actually being offered.

Inspections are more defined and grouped all together, including insurance, which had been stranded when it was introduced. I still think that there has been no definition of what is 'reasonably acceptable" terms but as this does not seem to have been addressed obviously it has not caused problems for sellers or buyers that have resulted in law suits. Several more inspections are defined and buyers now initial to acknowledge the inspections being carried out, a more significant step of selection. Gone are the two options with a combined result that allows buyers to accept the property, terminate or propose a written corrective proposal within the deadlines of the contingency.

There is a large section on distribution of deposits in the case of disputes allowing both buyer and seller to come to an agreement ahead of time on how to distribute deposits in the case of a dispute and what happens to deposits if a dispute does go to litigation.

These are just a few of the major changes, but what do you think of the new agreement? In whose favor does it fall or is it more evenly balanced between buyer and seller?

The American Dream has always been to buy your own home. However with the current housing crisis many people are reassesing whether this is the best thing for them. This housing crisis has and will change things going forward so what are some of the steps you should take before you start looking.

1. Make sure you get a copy of your credit report. You can easily obtain this free online once a year. Check your credit report over to make sure there are no errors. If there are contact both the bank or creditor to sort it out and the credit reporting agencies. There are three, Transunion, Equifax and Experian
2. Make a budget and stick to it, pay your bills on time and don't spend everything you earn.
3. The last few years mortgages were easy to obtain, that has changed with banks demanding more money as a down payment. Start saving now! That may mean revising your budget and making some sacrifices so you can build up a sizeable down payment, but it will help you later.
4. Don't forget you will also require money for closing costs these vary from state to state and township to township, a realtor can advise you on these for your area.
5. Lastly consider if buying is right for you now. It may make more sense to postpone buying and renting or staying with family instead. It is easy for a Realtor to draw up a rent versus buy comparison that takes into consideration tax breaks you get for owning a home, make sure it includes homeowner association fees if there are any to get a true comparison.

It may be right for you to buy a home, but it may not, so make sure you get good advice and don't be pushed to buy before you are ready. But taking these few steps now may help when you do decide to buy a home.

Every year the Pennsylvania Association of Realtors reviews different forms. Last year the Pennsylvania Agreement of Sale was given a review in light of comments from Realtors using the form. These changes are just about to be released with the new version of the Agreement of Sale in 2010. There are a lot of changes to language but let's discuss a few of the highlights.

How will these changes affect you as an agent, a seller or as a buyer? As an agent you need to become conversant with the new forms and what changes have been made and how these affect your customers.

As a seller or buyer the forms now have all parties involved in the transaction located on the front page with the address of the property, zip and school district noted as well. Not only is broker information provided but also all contact information for the agent handling the transaction for each party.

The seller assist has been moved to right below the offer price, so it is now more obvious to a seller if they are being asked to provide any monetary assistance to the buyer. Whilst this does not show the net the seller will receive it does make it more understandable and gives less chance of being missed in a review of the agreement terms.

The mortgage block now includes a loan to value appraisal option for both the first and second mortgages if this contingency is selected, alternatively you can still use a separate appraisal addendum. Buyers if using the defaults are now required to act quicker to apply for their mortgages and arrange appraisals. Also buyers are required if given the option by their mortgage provider to lock their loan rate not less than 15 days before settlement.

Under inspections gone is the confusion between option 1 and 2. There is now only one option that requires the buyer to either terminate the transaction or submit a written corrective proposal to the seller within the agreed time lines. Each inspection is now initialed to select or waive, making it much clearer what inspections are being selected, these include an option for a survey, not usually done in Pennsylvania but not a bad idea if you want to be certain of what you are buying. Again time lines have been tightened up.

New language has been inserted to cover the oil, mineral and gas rights that have become a large issue in many parts of the state due to the Marcellus Shale and the natural gas rights being leased.

All paperwork, other than homeowner and condominium documents if delievered to the agent for the buyer or seller is considered delivered to the seller or buyer. However, condominium and home owner association documents must be delivered to the buyer direct before time lines take effect.

Another big change is the information regarding deposits and how they will be distributed in case of a dispute and how this can actually be decided by both parties before there is a dispute.

Mediation is a now a default rather than being selected.

As I said these are just a few of the changes to the new agreement of sale, when writing an agreement make sure you understand fully what you are agreeing to and take time to read over the notes as well as the agreement itself.

Upper Providence Township in Delaware County is holding a meeting next week to disucss raising the Real Estate Transfer Tax by 0.5% making it the highest suburban Philadelphia Transfer Tax. With home sales already suffering the township is considering raising taxes on home sales? What are they thinking?

This will affect all sellers and buyers of homes in the township making their transaction more expensive. The state legislature along with many other townships has seen the light relaizing that Real Estate Transfer tax is unreliable and very narrowly focused. It being far better to tax on a broad base rather than a narrow base. But Upper Providence is going against the grain. With home prices dropping and economists predicting further price drops in 2010 this township simply ignores what is best for their residents and future residents by making the cost of transferring a home more expensive.

Feburary 11th is the hearing come out and make yur voice heard.

In a recent article in the Main Line Suburban Life Chris Polites this years chairman of the Easttown Board of Supervisors put a call out to citizens who live and work in Easttown to give advice on the township budget. During the process for this year there was outcry at the suggestion of an earned income tax being implemented. Hundreds tourned out to the board of supervisors meetings. Whilst this was avoided for the current year, by raising property taxes and implementing a new $52 business tax on anyone who works in the township the threat of state budget cuts creating further pain on the Easttown budget for the coming year cannot be avoided.

However, before jumping to conclusions Chris Polites called for local citizens and those who work in the township to contact him at cpolites@eattown.org who desire to serve on a citizens advisory budget group. The group will look at numbers but also at other options as well. Chris Polites expressed his belief that the township ran well but admitted there is always room for improvement.

I was at a seminar yesterday in Philadelphia where many of the agents were from the Main Line, Bucks, Chester, Delaware and Montgomery Counties as well as some from New Jersey where the speaker asked everyone present who knew someone who was behind on their mortgage payments to raise their hands. Wow! The whole room had their hands up. Seriously, I am not kidding, this roomfull of Realtors all knew someone who was behind on their mortgage payments. Last week I was talking with another realtor who knew several friends across the country who had not paid their mortgages for a year and yet had not been foreclosed on yet.

Earlier this week I listened to Austin Jaffe, economist for the Pennsylvania Association of Realtors give a presentation on the market ahead. He also commented on the shadow inventory out there, homes the banks have not foreclosed on where homeowners are behind on their mortgages and that this is going to impact the market in the next year or so causing prices to drop a further 10-15% possibly according to many economists. RealtyTrac reports that 1 in 45 homes are in foreclosure. If this is reality and there are even more homes behind on their payments what lies ahead. As can be seen from the Case Shiller graph prices have dropped, supposedly $5 trillion has been removed from the housing market. Whilst this is not good news it is reality.

The governement has indicated they will stop buying mortgage backed securities at the end of March, leading to rising mortgage interest rates. So if you are considering selling, now is the time to sell, get you home on the market, use a realtor to market it, qualify the buyers and get it sold as soon as you can before higher interest rates cause prices to dip further than they have.

If you seriously can wait three or even four years you may see prices begin to recover, but it will be longer before they return to the prices of the last few years but if you have time....otherwise act now and be realistic, be agressive, get ahead of the curve, don't chase your market down always following but always too late, price it right from the beginning and you will see your home sold.