Real Estate Information

                          This weekend is the annual Lancaster Sertoma Chicken BBQ taking place at Long's Park off of Harrisburg Pike. The BBQ takes place tomorrow, May 19th from 10 am to 6 pm. The cost is $8 ahead of time or $9 at the park. See more details about the BBQ here.

Enjoy your weekend!

The only one who benefits from a rent check is the landlord. Renters never see that money again, while homeowners usually profit when they sell. In addition, renters can't use any of their rent payment as a tax deduction, like homeowners can. If you or someone you know is renting, it's time to put that rent check to better use!

Can A Renter Really Afford To Buy?

The real question is whether renters can afford not to buy. The tax savings alone make the purchase of a home a wise financial decision..

Pick A Loan

To take advantage of the financial benefits of homeownership, renters must first find out how much buying power they have. We can help. Call us for information about the whole range of mortgage options now available, including low- and no-down-payment loans, and programs that allow buyers wrap home-improvement costs and closing costs into the mortgage.

Plan Ahead

Although some lenders allow buyers to use up to 41% of monthly income to purchase a house, beware of becoming "house rich and cash poor." Be sure to budget for homeownership costs beyond the mortgage, including expenses for:

moving
decorating and furnishing
homeowners insurance
property taxes
homeowners association fees (if any)
utilities-power, water, sewer, cable, trash pick-up
yard tools, supplies and general upkeep
home repairs, supplies, cleaning and upgrades.

Today, homeownership is a wonderful dream-come-true for more people than ever before. Let us help turn those dreams into a home to be proud of.

Exterior maintenance is key to increasing your homes appeal – both when you’re selling and on a daily basis. The better your home looks day in and day out, the better your neighborhood looks. This attracts the attention of onlookers and when you are selling your home, it attracts the attention of potential buyers. It could be the deciding factor between whether your house is chosen or another.

This Saturday and Sunday, May 5th and 6th, is the Spring Lancaster Art Walk in downtown Lancaster. Take a walk through downtown Lancaster and stop in at many of the local art galleries, see the variety of art pieces, meet some of the artists, and more! Find all the details at lancasterartwalk.org.

We’ve been seeing a steady increase in home sales throughout the beginning of 2012, with our Team being busier than we’ve been in many months. Today, the Lancaster County Association of Realtors (LCAR) released an update on the Lancaster County real estate market which supports what we’ve been experiencing. The first quarter of 2012 has shown a 12.9% increase over the first quarter of 2011 (almost 100 more homes were sold in 2012 over 2011). 

The average sale price for March 2012 was $169,403, an increase of 3.2 percent from the March 2011 price tag of $164,078. For the first quarter of 2012, the average sale price was $172,382, a 1.6 percent increase from the $169,644 average sale price for the first quarter of 2011.

For March, there was a 3.3 percent increase from the 791 new listings in 2011 to the 817 new listings in 2012. For the first quarter, new listings increased 8.2 percent from 1,998 in 2011 to 2,161 in 2012. The five-year average of new listings for the first quarter is 2,108.

Pending sales, homes that went under contract in the month of March, increased 18.6 percent from 409 in 2011 to 485 in 2012. Over 43.4 percent of homes that sold in March were on the market 60 days or less.

These stats show steady increase in all areas of the local real estate market throughout the first quarter of this year. With interest rates remaining low and the inventory of available homes remaining high, now is a great time to buy and many people are taking advantage of the opportunity.

It's the perfect weekend to be in Lancaster for music lovers. All weekend long the LAUNCH Music Conference and Festival will be in downtown Lancaster. Music lovers will be treated to 200 various performers representing all genres of music. Click here to get the full schedule of performances and info on tickets can be found here.

Also happening this weekend, The Edge of Austism Walk and Festival is taking place Saturday, April 28th at Schreiber Pediatric Rehab Center to raise awareness and provide information about Autism. You can choose from a variety of walk options as well as enjoy various crafts, balloon art, and much more! Click here to get all of the specifics.

Automatic thermostats can lower your monthly utility costs while conveniently regulating your comfort by adjusting temperatures on your heating and cooling systems. These can be particularly effective in homes with zoned systems where you live in one area during the day but sleep in a different zone.

There are programmable thermostats available at home improvement stores that can make the adjustments for specific times during the day and specific days of the week. They'll allow you to override the setting when needed without tampering with the programming. They'll even remind you to change your filter.

A recent development is the Wi-Fi enabled thermostat that allows adjustments from any Internet connection such as computer or Smartphone. Imagine how convenient it can be to change your temperature from the car before you get home.

Reasonably priced under $100 for most models, it makes it easy to recapture the cost of the thermostat quickly. Most of the thermostats are designed for do-it-yourselfers; however, you can always have a heating and cooling professional install it for you.

Head out to Lancaster Bible College on Saturday the 21^st from 9 am to 3 pm for the first annual Women’s Expo. Hosted by Lancaster General Hospital and BusinessWoman Magazine, there will be over 100 businesses featuring a fashion show, health and wellness, new products, massage and makeovers and much more.

A few tips if you’re considering buying your first home:

1. Check your credit score. Many people are not aware of what their credit score is at, but it plays an important role in factoring your eligibility for a mortgage. Find out what your score is. And if there are areas that need improvement on your credit report – do what is necessary to make those areas better.
2. Start saving - now! There are a lot of different loan programs out there, and the amount of money you may need to put down on a home will differ depending on loan program and price of the home. Regardless, it’s always a good idea to have as much saved as possible.
3. Picture the type of home you’d like to have. Consider what you need in a home. As someone who has never owned a home before, you may not initially know exactly what you’re looking for. Take some time to think about your must-haves and narrow down a few things that are most important to you. Perhaps it’s a great school district, or 3 bedrooms, or a 2-car garage. It’s different for everyone.
4. Work with an experienced real estate agent. You want someone representing you who has had a lot of experience and can guide you through the transaction. Someone who can protect your interests and help you along the way. Having an experienced agent will make the process much smoother.
5. Get preapproved. Before you start looking at homes, find a reputable mortgage lender and get preapproved. It’s a simple process where you give the mortgage person your basic income, asset, and debt information and after some review they tell you a base of what you can afford. This is important to know before you start looking at homes so that you are not falling in love with homes that you’ll never be able to afford, which can lead to you getting easily discouraged.

This weekend at the American Music Theater, you can catch the Gaither Vocal Band – tonight, 2 show-times on Saturday, and another showing Sunday. Find more information here.

For the family - Disney on Ice is at the Giant Center in Hershey this weekend! There is one showing tonight,  3 shows on Saturday, and 2 shows Sunday.  Join Mickey, Minnie, and friends as they take you on ride through many of your Disney favorites. Find event details here!