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Welcome To YourLancasterHome.com

I'm a numbers junkie, so it was inevitable that I would be looking at numbers with you on this show. I think the numbers make you a more informed customer when the time comes to buy or sell a home in Lancaster County, PA. As of today 1/16/11 there are 3,101 homes on the market in Lancaster County. Last week, 138 new listings were added to the market. 34 Listings expired last week (which means that the listing contract ended without the agent having sold the home) and 80 listings were "extended" (meaning that the owners "doubled down" with their current listing agent as their listing contracts ended). 57 happy owners accepted contracts on their properties, and 35 even happier folks closed last week! For those who closed, their homes were on the market an average of 81 days before they got their house under agreement. This is a typical timeframe for the last year or so. Median sale price for the closed homes was $159,900...pretty low. Let's hope that trend doesn't continue.

As a west-coast refugee, I happen to really like contemporary style homes. While they are certainly less common out here in "amish country", they can be found tucked in around Lancaster County and are just a lot of fun to check out. Today I am in a small, less-expensive example but still most definitely Mid-Century Modern, localed on the west side in Lancaster Township. Check out the beamed ceilings, glass walls and high transom-type windows. This home was built by a designer in 1947 who also reportedly built one or two of the Mid-Century Modern examples up on Blossom Hill north of the city in Manheim Township. The home that am filming this episode in does not appear to have been significantly upgraded in it's lifetime, meaning that some original "modern" features still remain like the solid wood closet doors and even a very period dining room lamp. I love this stuff! Mid-Century Modern design was in vogue from the late 1940's through about 1970. This style had many iterations but most often was a one-floor layout with a flat or peaked roof and heavy beaming on the inside, without an attic. There were no basements in most cases. Floor to ceiling windows and "glass walls" to bring the outside in was a key component. A proponent of the mid-century modern movement was a builder named Joseph Eichler, who designed amazing homes on the west coast in the 50's and 60's. In Lancaster PA, Mid Century Modern styled homes are obviously few and far between. I listed and sold a wonderful one in Manheim Township last summer (I really wanted to buy it myself!). I've toured several and every so often one comes up for sale. Remember, a mid-century modern home is a contemporary, but a contemporary is not always a mid-century modern... If you'd like to talk more about mid century modern homes or contemporary homes in general feel free to email at jeff@yourlancasterhome.

Ever think about buying a home of your own, only to get a sick feeling coming over you (and not from that spicy food you tried at lunch)?. Today I explain why you might want to listen to your gut... While purchasing and owning a home can be a fun, enjoyable process there's no doubt that it can be a stressful, expensive process. Even without going into the debate about renting vs. owning (that's another episode...) it seems that there are three (3) obvious reasons why you probably shouldn't be making an offer to buy a home right now: 1) Your finances are not in order (you've heard of a budget, right?) - even after you've managed to put together enough cash to pay for the nonrecurring closing costs at settlement, there will be many opportunities for your bank account to be drained by owning a home. 2) Location, location, location - if you aren't sure about the neighborhoods you're seeing, or aren't sure about how your life will work with a given home location you may want to wait until you're more at peace with owning a home. 3) Not planning to stick around - if your life involves moving often (either for work or just for kicks), or for reasons already mentioned you see yourself potentially having to sell the home quickly, you may want to not buy right now.

Today I take us over to Lititz, PA where Scott Pusey of Everydaygreen is doing a LEED gut-rehab of his concrete foursquare-style home. Scott is an accomplished home energy audtor serving Central PA and this home will have a number of very cool features installed, not to mention outstanding energy performance. I take a brief look around...

A lot of people have never heard of a "home warranty" until they are listing their home or writing an offer on a home for the first time. Home warranties are a big business in real estate, however, and you should know about them. As always, if you have any questions or comments email me at jeff@yourlancasterhome.com!

Today I talk about some of the positives and negatives of a “lease purchase” (also usually known as “rent to own”) transaction in real estate. I get a fair number of these inquiries and most of them are from potential home buyers facing poor credit scores for a few years, generally from a recent foreclosure. I received a question from a listing client yesterday about whether it would be a good idea to discuss a lease purchase with some coworkers who seemed nice. The basic idea is that the buyer and seller write up a contract that allows the buyer to rent the property for a specified period of time, after which the renter/buyer would qualify for a mortgage and close on the home. During the rental period a portion of their rent payments may be allocated towards reducing the ultimate purchase price. Positives for a potential home buyer are that they get the home they want now, and have the critical time needed to improve their credit and gather down money. Positives for the seller are that they get their home “off the market” and can move on with their life. Negatives – there are unfortunately a lot. Just a couple I will mention: The buyer is trusting that the seller won’t go into foreclosure or keep their upfront down money for some reason. The seller is trusting that the buyer won’t trash the house (or any other rental nightmare scenario) during the rental period, then disappear before the purchase phase. There can be a LOT of assumptions made in a lease purchase (or “rent to own”) situation: the challenge is to get them all ironed out ahead of time! I would almost recommend that a seller hire an attorney for review of the proposed contract, just to make sure as many possibilities are covered in the document. If you are a potential Lancaster County Lease Purchase or “Rent to Own” customer, feel free to ask me a question at jeff@yourlancasterhome.com. I’ll see what I can do to help you in your specific financial situation. Thanks!

Today I’m discussing my favorite real estate home search apps for the iPhone (or smartphone of your choice that supports them). All of the following apps utiltize the geolocation feature heavily, and this is also where they are the most useful. Apps are as follows: 1) Realtor.com – this app is very robust for searching listings of homes for sale or rent in Lancaster County. I like the flexibility of the app and the fact that it is directly tied to the local Multiple Listing Service (MLS) through connections with the National Association of Realtors. 2) Zillow – I’ve used the Zillow app for a few years and really like the way it brings the past sales data of the subject home and any nearby homes to you on the iPhone (as Zillow does on their full site, of course). Zillow relies on the deed recordings in Lancaster County to capture it’s sales data, so there are serious time lag issues if you are searching for a sale within, say, the last six months. Disregard their “Zestimates”, please – they are also based on the deed recorded information of nearby homes, and are a flawed concept (in fairness, it’s a nice try but properties simply can’t be properly valued without more details unaccessible to Zillow). Also, Zillow’s data on current listings can be off as well, with expired and sold listings showing up as active. 3) Trulia – clean, pretty app that is basically the same as Realtor.com. I prefer Realtor.com… 4) Walkscore – This app estimates a score from 0 to 100 based on the location’s proximity to walkable amenities like stores, theaters etc. I like to use this app in and around Lancaster City, PA homes for sale to see which ones are truly more “walkable”. 5) Mortgage Calculator – A handy, one screen input app that will crank out mortgage payments based on your rate and down payment for any purchase price. Nice. Thanks for watching, and if you have any comments or questions feel free to reach out to me at jeff@yourlancasterhome.

WGAL Channel 8 Lancaster PA Interviews Jeff Geoghan of Coldwell Banker, Mike Sprunger of Lancaster City Living and a cllient of Jeff's who bought a home in the city to avoid the high cost of gas.