Andrew's Podcast - SoundSage

View Details

Showing Time, using Bright MLS statistics, has released its Local Market Insight report for single-family homes in Delaware County, Pennsylvania through December 2023. This report allows us to compare all of 2023 to 2022.

If you would like more information about this or any other County or any specific municipalities in the Delaware Valley, please contact me or visit my website, AndrewWetzel.com. I am only a phone call, an email or a text away! I respond promptly to all inquiries....

Year-Over-Year Statistics (2023 compared to 2022):

As far as the statistics, there were 6586 new “For Sale” listings through December 2023 compared to 7747 through December 2022, a decrease of 15.0%. There were 5563 “closed” sales through December 2023 compared to 6983 through December 2022, a decrease of 20.3%. These are obviously huge changes. The median selling price through December 2023 was $315,000, up 5.0% from one year ago. The decline in the number of newly listed properties impacted the number sold while slightly increasing their selling prices. Again, this was County-wide and may not reflect your local experience.

Month-Over-Month Statistics (December 2023 compared to December 2022):

In December 2023: the number of new listings was 275, down 14.3% from last December 2022 (321). The number of “active” property listings was 512, down 13.0% from one year ago (532). The Days on the Market (DOM) was 25 (22 YTD) and the “Sold to List Price” ratio was 97.6% (100.1% YTD). The “Months of Supply” (MSI) was 1.5 months, down 10% from one year ago, still a strong “sellers’ market”.

The decreased inventory combined with pricing and demand have created our current market although the impact of higher interest rates, even if historically low, remains to be seen. Again, these numbers vary throughout the County: the underlying data shows a wide range of results in all categories among the 49 different municipalities in Delaware County....

Here is a link to the full Blog post.

Thank you for listening to/ reading this information.

Remember, when it comes to selling or buying what is likely your biggest asset and largest overall investment in money, time and effort,

There is no time for inexperience, empty promises or false expectations!

HIRE WISELY: We are not “all the same”!

If you would like to discuss this topic further or have any other topics you would like to discuss, please contact me at your convenience.

If you would like information about Delaware County PA or any other County/ specific municipalities in the Delaware Valley, please contact me or visit my website, AndrewWetzel.com.

I am only a phone call, an email or a text away! I respond promptly to all inquiries.

Click here to read my Blogs.

Click here to listen to my Podcasts.

Please remember, when thinking about selling or buying what is likely your biggest asset and largest overall investment,

There is no time for inexperience, empty promises or false expectations!
HIRE WISELY: We are not “all the same”!

View Details

“The NATIONAL ASSOCIATION OF REALTORS (NAR) Profile of Home Buyers and Sellers is an annual survey of recent home buyers and sellers who completed a transaction between July 2022 and June 2023. The report has been published since 1981…. The survey contained 129 questions”.

The over-arching theme is that, while the pandemic is over, the housing market “offers limited housing inventory and affordability constraints”. Your experience may be different so I recommend talking to a Real Estate professional to see what is going on in your local market.

Today’s focus is buyers, both first-time and repeat.

Here are some buyer highlights:

To read the "highlights" or the whole Blog, please click here.

To conclude:

One statistic that was not mentioned is how many weeks a typical buyer spent getting ready to formally start the process. Historically, these surveys showed that buyers spent about three weeks before contacting a Real Estate agent. During that time they looked online and did other things to identify houses to consider, including visiting open houses and requesting showings. While their choice, I have met a number of prospective buyers over the years who learned that they needed to do “some work” to qualify for financing or, even worse, learned that buying a home was not possible in the short-term.

The three weeks they spent “getting ready” delayed their eventual plans or were a waste of time. Sadly, some agents will show houses and spend time with prospects who have not taken the steps to acquire financing. Most sellers will not respond to an offer without evidence of financing. It must be frustrating to find a house you really like and then have to wait to arrange financing while other “better-prepared” buyers have a chance to put a house under contract that you really like.

There is enough information available so buyers should know how to start the process. Real Estate professionals must guide them once a prospective buyer contacts them.

If you would like to discuss this topic further or have any other topics you would like to discuss, please contact me at your convenience.

If you would like information about Delaware County PA or any other County/ specific municipalities in the Delaware Valley, please contact me or visit my website, AndrewWetzel.com.

I am only a phone call, an email or a text away! I respond promptly to all inquiries.

Click here to read my Blogs.

Click here to listen to my Podcasts.

Please remember, when thinking about selling or buying what is likely your biggest asset and largest overall investment,

There is no time for inexperience, empty promises or false expectations!
HIRE WISELY: We are not “all the same”!

View Details

Today’s focus is sellers.

Here are some seller highlights:

To read the "highlights" or the whole Blog, please click here.
To conclude:One major take-away that seems consistent over my years in Real Estate is the wide disparity in selling prices between Real Estate–assisted sales and those achieved by private sellers. Sellers working with a professional have more exposure (marketers call that “eye-balls”) through the multiple listing service, generally offer some compensation to agents representing buyers (many FSBOs will not) and possess the experience, education and training that typical private sellers do not.

That being said, people have their reasons for wanting to undertake such a potentially complex process on their own. Private sales often involve sales where the seller knows their buyer and other situations where perhaps maximizing the selling price is not the goal. To each their own I suppose. Most sellers I have met want to maximize their “return” so they can use their “equity” to buy their “next home”.

If you would like to discuss this topic further or have any other topics you would like to discuss, please contact me at your convenience.

If you would like information about Delaware County PA or any other County/ specific municipalities in the Delaware Valley, please contact me or visit my website, AndrewWetzel.com.

I am only a phone call, an email or a text away! I respond promptly to all inquiries.

Click here to read my Blogs.

Click here to listen to my Podcasts.

Please remember, when thinking about selling or buying what is likely your biggest asset and largest overall investment,

There is no time for inexperience, empty promises or false expectations!
HIRE WISELY: We are not “all the same”!

View Details

It took more than 26 years working in Real Estate and meeting with and working for hundreds of homeowners but I finally got to experience some of what many sellers have to deal with when trying to sell their homes. Sure, I understood logically what selling your home might feel like. I know the process, the forms and have seen what can go right and what can go wrong. I have mediated disputes between sellers and buyers since 2002. I have also served on every level of my REALTOR Association’s Professional Standards Committee so I am very familiar with disputes between agents and their clients. But I was never actually involved on the selling end.

I have had numerous discussions, often emotional, with sellers concerning their frustrations and anxiety but living through it reinforced what I have tried to provide as far as advice although I better understand the process now. How a seller handles and manages the selling process and their emotions depends on their circumstances and their personality. Selling your own home or the estate of a relative or friend is different from selling an investment property. It is more “personal”.

Years ago, my mother-in-law told me that she wanted me to sell her home when the time came. This was after my father-in-law died. I guess I assumed that she would be alive and moving to her next home when the time came. Unfortunately, that was not the case. I listed and sold her estate, the house my wife and her eight brothers and sisters grew up in and where I had spent many holidays and family gatherings. My wife was the executrix which added to the process even if I were not the actual seller.

After hearing about my experiences with listing and selling Real Estate and working with buyers over the years, my wife got a formal introduction into what I do. Starting with discussing the house, marketing, comparable sales, the paperwork including the property disclosure and what can happen leading up to settlement, we began the process. My wife was objective so the emotion was minimized.

Fortunately, the location and the house generated a lot of interest. That being said, I got to experience firsthand how a “seller” reacts to scheduling appointments, receiving feedback and actual showings. There were issues, more like inconveniences than major problems, since the house was empty so showings were easy to schedule. We weren’t there so we do not know when agents actually showed up but feedback suggested that all but one did show up. One agent did not show up or cancel which we learned when he rescheduled his showing hours after he was supposed to be there....

To read the rest of the text/ Blog, please click here.

There is no time for inexperience, empty promises or

If you would like to discuss this topic further or have any other topics you would like to discuss, please contact me at your convenience.

If you would like information about Delaware County PA or any other County/ specific municipalities in the Delaware Valley, please contact me or visit my website, AndrewWetzel.com.

I am only a phone call, an email or a text away! I respond promptly to all inquiries.

Click here to read my Blogs.

Click here to listen to my Podcasts.

Please remember, when thinking about selling or buying what is likely your biggest asset and largest overall investment,

There is no time for inexperience, empty promises or false expectations!
HIRE WISELY: We are not “all the same”!

View Details

Suppose you contacted me to discuss my helping you sell your home or any piece of Real Estate. What would you think if I told you that I could greatly increase your proceeds by reducing what you expected to pay me by my not using a portion of my fee to pay the agent representing the buyer? Would you be thrilled or skeptical?

There are different business models for compensating Real Estate agents. Our rules and regulations require that we disclose how we are paid and that the fee is negotiable. Having the seller pay a negotiated commission or fee to their listing broker/ agent at settlement or the closing of a sale remains the most common. In turn, the listing broker would offer compensation to the buyer broker/ agent who got the property sold and settled. That offer is an incentive to show and sell Real Estate.

While that business model makes sense and has worked for years, as I will explain, over the years many have questioned having a seller provide the compensation that would ultimately end up paying the buyer’s agent. That “question” finally caused enough of a stir that a major change has occurred with respect to compensation.

My local MLS, and I suspect many others, adopted a change to how properties are listed in the MLS. As stated in a recent release to agents, the MLS now will “allow users to enter any amount in a listing’s cooperative compensation fields. Prior to this update, the cooperative compensation fields required entry of at least one cent….. the fields will allow any amount, from zero and up.” The release went on to explain the change as allowing “subscribers to engage in transparent negotiations with their clients.” That seems logical, doesn’t it?

Real Estate agents have two commodities to trade for the opportunity to earn a fee or commission. One is our time, meaning that any time we devote to developing leads and working with prospects, customers and clients has to be invested wisely as the amount of time we have is finite. Time management is one of many topics we have to master. How much is our time worth? Can we differentiate between important tasks and urgent ones? How is our time best spent? Some agents have a better handle on this than others.

One of our challenges is to evaluate which clients to accept based on the likely outcome of our working for them. It boils down to probability: am I likely to sell a client’s house or is a buyer likely to buy a house? Of course, this is a “people business”. Nothing is guaranteed and we will all spend some time for which we know we will not be compensated. The goal is to manage our time as best we can or at least recognize when “time” spent is becoming a concern such as when it distracts us from more efficient and effective pursuits....

To read the rest of the text/ Blog, please clic

If you would like to discuss this topic further or have any other topics you would like to discuss, please contact me at your convenience.

If you would like information about Delaware County PA or any other County/ specific municipalities in the Delaware Valley, please contact me or visit my website, AndrewWetzel.com.

I am only a phone call, an email or a text away! I respond promptly to all inquiries.

Click here to read my Blogs.

Click here to listen to my Podcasts.

Please remember, when thinking about selling or buying what is likely your biggest asset and largest overall investment,

There is no time for inexperience, empty promises or false expectations!
HIRE WISELY: We are not “all the same”!

View Details

A recent article posted on RETechnology.com discussed a survey conducted by the WAV group which pointed out several “truths” about multiple offers and how losing buyers feel afterwards.

Here is a breakdown:

1) Almost 51% of respondents said they faced competition; 38% said they were not sure. Exactly how did they “know”?

2) Over 46% felt they had an “equal opportunity” to win, slightly higher among white buyers (49% vs. 45%). Again, how did they know?

3) Most of the white buyers said they were outbid while 68% of them felt that finances were at fault when the process was unfair. Cash offers and investors were viewed as having an advantage with financing. Some felt that a seller “favored” their buyer or had bad advice.

4) 62% of minority buyers also cited finances as being the difference with cash buyers and investors being part of the issue. 6% felt some discrimination ....

Let me start by saying that multiple offer situations sound fantastic for sellers and dreadful for buyers. Maybe; maybe not. There is no “one size fits all” description and feelings about them likely fit a combination of how one feels when they learn that there is competition and then how it turns out for them. “Multiple offers” simply means that more than one buyer is interested in the same house. This is NOT retail so there may not be more than one house of a certain type to be bought. ..

Let’s focus on there being competition. My first question is always this: is there competition? How do you know? Having multiple people at an open house or an individual showing is not conclusive. Having a listing agent tell you there is “multiple interest” or “multiple offers” is also questionable. I have been lied to. As I have blogged before, as a listing agent I specifically discuss the possible scenarios with my sellers and am reluctant to disclose multiple offers and never multiple interest. Unless the multiple offers include at least one that is worthy of being signed, having more than one unacceptable offer means nothing. Multiple interest is nice but, unless it generates any serious offers, so what? ...

Let me be specific. Discrimination sucks and has no place in society. Sellers have every right to negotiate and make decisions based on objective needs. Suppose a seller accepts a lower offer with a better settlement date or some other variation? How do those who offered more money feel? Do the differences get discussed or does the losing agent or buyer make reckless claims? ...

It would be nice to know EXACTLY why the process stalled.

Remember, when it comes to buying or selling what is likely your biggest asset and your largest overall investment of money, time and effort,

There is no time for inexperience, empty promises or false expectations!

HIRE WISELY: We are not “all the

If you would like to discuss this topic further or have any other topics you would like to discuss, please contact me at your convenience.

If you would like information about Delaware County PA or any other County/ specific municipalities in the Delaware Valley, please contact me or visit my website, AndrewWetzel.com.

I am only a phone call, an email or a text away! I respond promptly to all inquiries.

Click here to read my Blogs.

Click here to listen to my Podcasts.

Please remember, when thinking about selling or buying what is likely your biggest asset and largest overall investment,

There is no time for inexperience, empty promises or false expectations!
HIRE WISELY: We are not “all the same”!

View Details

Showing Time, using Bright MLS statistics, has released its Local Market Insight report for single-family homes in Delaware County, Pennsylvania through September 2023....

To read the full BLOG, visit https://andrewwetzel.wordpress.com/2023/10/28/bright-mls-september-2023-delaware-county-pa-residential-housing-report/

Jumping to the statistics:

As far as the statistics, there were 5216 new “For Sale” listings through September 2023 compared to 6414 through September 2022, a decrease of 18.7%. There were 4160 “closed” sales through September 2023 compared to 5496 through September 2022, a decrease of 24.3%. These are obviously huge changes. The median selling price through September 2023 was $315,000, up 5.0% from one year ago. The decline in the number of newly listed properties impacted the number sold while slightly increasing their selling prices. Again, this was County-wide and may not reflect your local experience.

The number of currently available “Active” properties (648) is 2.9% below one year ago. The Days on the Market (DOM) (19) is down slightly (3 days) from one year ago and the “Sold to List Price” ratio (100.4%) is up 1.1% from last year, showing the evolving market. The MSI (Months of Supply) is 1.5 months, compared to 1.3 months one year ago, still a strong “sellers’ market”.

This is historically the time when sellers take their properties off the market to avoid activity over the Holidays and decide when to resume their marketing. Some will wait for Spring when they will likely face competition. Depending on their motivation, I encourage sellers to plan and prepare for resuming the marketing in January if the weather is conducive. That may provide them with a good opportunity if there is little competition.

Buyers can continue to monitor the market and, assuming they are prepared to take action, they can evaluate new listings and price reductions to see if any properties appeal to them.

Thank you for reading this information. If you would to discuss your plans, please contact me or visit my website, AndrewWetzel.com.

Remember, when it comes to selling or buying what is likely your biggest asset and largest overall investment in money, time and effort,

There is no time for inexperience, empty

If you would like to discuss this topic further or have any other topics you would like to discuss, please contact me at your convenience.

If you would like information about Delaware County PA or any other County/ specific municipalities in the Delaware Valley, please contact me or visit my website, AndrewWetzel.com.

I am only a phone call, an email or a text away! I respond promptly to all inquiries.

Click here to read my Blogs.

Click here to listen to my Podcasts.

Please remember, when thinking about selling or buying what is likely your biggest asset and largest overall investment,

There is no time for inexperience, empty promises or false expectations!
HIRE WISELY: We are not “all the same”!

View Details

Let me start by offering two thoughts. First, I am NOT an attorney. Second, Real Estate fees or commissions are NEGOTIABLE by law. Brokers and their agents are REQUIRED to disclose their fees and how they are earned to their prospective clients. Local market may “appear” to establish a “range” of fees that work or do not work as far as listing and selling Real Estate but it is still the client’s choice as far as whom to hire and what they will pay. That being said, some consumers are better at negotiating than others. This plays out when offers are written, submitted and responded to....

Generally speaking in my market, sellers agree to pay a negotiated fee to their agents if their property goes to settlement. Listing agents market their listings to the public through a variety of means. If the use the multiple listing service they typically offer some specified compensation to the buyer agent who successfully sells and settles their property listings. While the MLS does NOT require the offer of compensation, there are reasons to offer a market-oriented compensation to encourage property showings and offers that must be managed.

The reason is simple: agents representing buyers are expected to have formal, written contracts and they should include any fees and how they are earned. While practices may vary, in my experience, buyer agents are willing to accept compensation from listing agents with the specific understanding that their buyer-clients will offset any difference between what the buyer agreed to pay their agent and what a specific listing agent is offering through the MLS. The key question is will a buyer be willing to pay anything directly to their agent AND pay a “fair market” price to the seller? Do they even have the funds but I will go into that later.

All that being said, there is NO STANDARD fee and COLLUSION between firms is against the law. However, competition is NOT! I read a number of studies and articles over the years in addition to working with many sellers who had been unsuccessful trying to sell their properties with other agents. It is my opinion that property listings that offer less compensation than their local competition tend to take longer to sell and often achieve lower prices.

To read the full Blog, visit https://andrewwetzel.wordpress.com/2023/10/28/should-sellers-and-buyers-compensate-their-own-agents/

As with many things that "appear to make sense", BE CAREFUL what you wish for. There are ALWAYS consequences and the unintended ones can be painful!

Remember, when it comes to buying or selling what is typically your biggest asset requiring your largest overall investment in money, time and effort,

There is no time for inexperience, empty promises or false expectations.

HIRE WISELY: We are not “all the same

If you would like to discuss this topic further or have any other topics you would like to discuss, please contact me at your convenience.

If you would like information about Delaware County PA or any other County/ specific municipalities in the Delaware Valley, please contact me or visit my website, AndrewWetzel.com.

I am only a phone call, an email or a text away! I respond promptly to all inquiries.

Click here to read my Blogs.

Click here to listen to my Podcasts.

Please remember, when thinking about selling or buying what is likely your biggest asset and largest overall investment,

There is no time for inexperience, empty promises or false expectations!
HIRE WISELY: We are not “all the same”!

View Details

Showing Time, using Bright MLS statistics, has released their Local Market Insight report for single-family homes in Delaware County Pennsylvania through December 2022. If you would like more information about this or any other County or any specific municipalities in the Delaware Valley, please contact me or visit my website, AndrewWetzel.com. I am only a phone call, an email or a text away! I respond promptly to all inquiries....

To read the full Blog, click here.

If you would like to discuss this topic further or have any other topics you like me to "discuss", please contact me at your convenience. I would welcome your input.

If you would like information about Delaware County PA or any other County/ specific municipalities in the Delaware Valley, please contact me or visit my website, AndrewWetzel.com.

I am only a phone call, an email or a text away! I respond promptly to all inquiries.

Please remember, when thinking about selling or buying what is likely your biggest asset and largest overall investment,

There is no time for inexperience, empty promises or false expectations!
HIRE WISELY: We are not “all the same”!

View Details

The National Association of REALTORS (NAR) has published its annual report. The report is based on surveys of recent home buyers including those who sold one property to buy another. The survey consisted of 129 questions mailed to 153,045 recent home buyers. These reports began in 1981 with just 59 questions and are intended to provide insight into consumer behavior, specifically their needs and expectations.

The reports are as unique as the economic, social and demographic environment. The time period covered ran from July 2021 through June 2022 and was impacted by a number of major events including a Real Estate market in transition.

The highlights are broken down into several characteristics.

To read the Blog, please click here.

If you would like to discuss this topic further or have any other topics you like me to "discuss", please contact me at your convenience. I would welcome your input.

If you would like information about Delaware County PA or any other County/ specific municipalities in the Delaware Valley, please contact me or visit my website, AndrewWetzel.com.

I am only a phone call, an email or a text away! I respond promptly to all inquiries.

Please remember, when thinking about selling or buying what is likely your biggest asset and largest overall investment,

There is no time for inexperience, empty promises or false expectations!
HIRE WISELY: We are not “all the same”!

View Details

That depends. What is your strategy, meaning what do you think will happen?

The Pennsylvania Association of REALTORS Listing Contract has a clause that states in part, “Unless prohibited by Seller, if Broker is asked … Broker will reveal the existence of other offers …”. Broker could mean Agent since the contract is really with the Broker.

This “conversation” should take place at the time the listing contract is being signed so that there is no misunderstanding about what the parties have agreed to do. Frankly, I am not sure that all agents really discuss what the seller is signing, that all agents completely understand the listing contract or that every seller really understands what they are signing or that they really care as long as their property gets sold. My experience as a mediator and serving on Professional Standards hearing panels has shown time and again that a number of sellers and buyers claim that they did not understand what they signed. The agents may have done their job or not. Electronic signing can make this more problematic as people rush to execute contracts and get properties on the market and under contract. How sad! Real Estate is typically our biggest asset and largest investment. Mistakes can be very costly!

At the very least, this MUST be discussed before there is any interest in a property or there could be a problem especially if the seller thinks their agent acted unethically. Absent discussing the paragraph, the “default” position as stated is that the agent has been “authorized” to disclose whether or not there are multiple offers. If asked, the answer could be yes or no.

Many buyer agents will call to ask if there are offers “in hand” or “other interest” in a property before preparing an offer; some will even call to ask before scheduling a showing. In “hot” seller’s markets these instances will increase. Why is this a concern at all?

From a buyer or buyer agent’s perspective, they may not want to waste their time pursuing a house that may be unattainable as doing so may result in their missing out on their “second choice” if a seller has or is about to sign another offer. Our multiple listing service requires that the listing status be changed within one business day of executing a contract but a lot can happen in that time. Listing agents may have advertised a due date for offers that others assume valid only to find that something was signed sooner than expected. Real Estate sales are a “moving target”. Even if I answer your question now, the answer could change.

As far as the disclosure, some buyers may be willing to “compete” so thinking that there is competition may cause them to make their “highest and best” offer at the outset. On the other hand, some may decide not to compete. Are they entitled to know anything short of an agreement of sale being signed? No they are not unless the seller grants that permission.

What should a seller do?

If you would like to discuss this topic further or have any other topics you like me to "discuss", please contact me at your convenience. I would welcome your input.

If you would like information about Delaware County PA or any other County/ specific municipalities in the Delaware Valley, please contact me or visit my website, AndrewWetzel.com.

I am only a phone call, an email or a text away! I respond promptly to all inquiries.

Please remember, when thinking about selling or buying what is likely your biggest asset and largest overall investment,

There is no time for inexperience, empty promises or false expectations!
HIRE WISELY: We are not “all the same”!

View Details

That depends. How would that information affect your level of interest?

As long as a property is “still available” to bid on and you know if a contract signing is imminent, you have a decision to make. Even then, there is no guarantee that, regardless of the type of market or the amount of competition, a buyer will have a "second" chance when making an offer to buy Real Estate. If they really like a house they may want to consider making their best offer at the outset. Should a buyer offer "more" if there is real or perceived competition or "less" if there isn't? Shouldn't they base their offer on HOW MUCH they like and want to own a house and what they can manage financially?

A market analysis is helpful as is concern about an appraisal if financing is involved but why should a house be "worth more" because someone else may like it? Here is the underlying question: what is the point of making an offer on Real Estate?

In my opinion, the point of putting a house "under contract" is simply to lock it up so that the buyer and seller can go through the process of seeing if a sale works for both parties. When a house goes “under contract” before a buyer can make an offer or their offer gets rejected that opportunity does not exist. There may be no "second chance". First impressions may doom an offer even if there is no competition. Not to minimize the process but both parties likely have one or more chances to reconsider their interest in closing a sale.

We are dealing with human beings. How they respond to real or perceived “competition” will dictate whether and how they react. If they reach a “meeting of the minds” with a seller will they come to think they paid too much? Home inspections and appraisals can help. Do they have remorse, wondering if they bought the best house for their "needs and wants”? I have specific strategy to help ensure that a buyer will have minimal if any "second thoughts" but, in reality, other houses will keep coming on the market which can tantalize a buyer not fully committed to a house they have under contract. I have had buyers want to see a house while in the inspection process. I remind them about how they arrived at the decision to make an offer on the house they have under contract. We also have no idea about competition, what it will take to get a signed contract or what inspection issues may exist.

Competition is what it is. Others may be in a better position to buy what you like. If you start looking before you are plan and prepare, you may be forced to watch someone buy the house you wanted to own. All any buyer can do is "know their limitations" and act accordingly. An experienced, trained and educated professional can help!

Frenzied markets typically result in buyers and sellers having regrets, especially if they failed to plan and prepare. Did buyers jump too quickly and overpay? Do they wish they had waited or bought a different house? Did they wait only to find that nothing nicer came on the market? There is no perfect house search!

I have recently read articles about buyers having remorse. What a shame! They may not be able to sell for what they paid or recover their costs. Real Estate is likely our biggest asset requiring our largest investment. Mistakes can be very costly!

If you would like information about this or any other County or any specific municipalities in the Delaware Valley, please contact me or visit my website, AndrewWetzel.com. I am only a phone call, an email or a text away! I respond promptly to all inquiries.

There is no time for inexperience, empty promises or false expectations!
HIRE WISELY: We are not “all the same”!

View Details

We are at the three-quarter point for 2022 and the Real Estate market continues to be affected by recent economic developments which have resulted in a substantial increase in the interest rate and the lingering effects of the pandemic (which contributed to an inventory shortage and then pent-up demand for housing). All of these have added uncertainty to what is generally considered a long-term decision. What will sellers and buyers think later when they reflect on these days and how they responded to them?

As always, this report compares current year-to-date results to one year ago during the same time period. As with all Real Estate statistics, two things are true. First, the performance within individual zip codes can and will vary significantly from the overall County. Real Estate is local and results can vary from neighborhood to neighborhood and even block to block. There is no such thing as a “national” Real Estate market any more than there is a national weather forecast so, whether you may be thinking about selling or buying, please contact me for details about your areas of interest. I can provide current information and keep you informed about the evolving market. Deciding whether it is the right time to sell or buy, again a personal decision, typically involves a number of variables, some of which you can control and some of which you cannot. I can provide the knowledge and insight to help you decide what works for you.

My second point is that, unfortunately, all Real Estate statistics involving sold data are stale. This is especially true if you are relying on Internet valuation models which use recorded sales data rather than up-to-date MLS information. Even then, while a sale may be reported as having settled or closed today, the real question is when was the offer negotiated? Typically, financed sales can take 45 to 60 days to close so the market today may be different from when the offer was presented and negotiated. This is especially true as markets change. Up-to-date information, even if not perfect, is important!

As far as the statistics, there were 6414 new “For Sale” listings through September 2022 compared to 7403 through September 2021, a decrease of 13.4%. There were 5496 closed sales through September 2022 compared to 6041 through September 2021, a decrease of 9.0%. The median selling price through September 2022 was $300,000 compared to $270,000 through September 2021, an increase of 11.1%. The decline in the number of newly listed properties impacted the number sold while substantially increasing their selling prices. Real Estate is a “supply and demand” commodity!

The number of currently available properties (667) is above last month (615) and well below one year ago (767). The Days on the Market (DOM) (21) is up from last month (16), the “Sold to List Price” ratio (99.3%) is down slightly while the MSI (Months of Supply) rose above one month (at 1.2 months), about the same as one year ago. Again, these numbers vary throughout the County: the underlying data shows a wide range of results in all categories among the 49 different municipalities in Delaware County.

What happens going forward? Only time will tell.

There is no time for inexperience, empty promises or false expectations!
HIRE WISELY: We are not “all the same”!

View Details

Repeat after me: we are NOT in a "housing bubble". We are NOT in a "housing bubble". Now let me help you believe it!

For those who lived through the "dot.com" fiasco around the turn of the century, I never dreamed I would say those words but there was a REAL housing bubble 15 years ago. This market is CLEARLY different. That is not to say that it lacks drama or that it has not been incredibly frustrating on many levels, but let's be CLEAR: this is NOT a "bubble". And no, I am not changing the meaning of the word “bubble” as some are doing with the word “recession”.

The current Real Estate market is softening in many areas due to increased inventory (including "leftovers" that needed less competition or lower pricing to sell) and rising but still historically low interest rates. Over the past couple of years a frenzy was created by a combination of historically low inventory, a global pandemic and competition which greatly elevated prices. This frenzy among buyers will have lasting implications. Many are now regretting their purchase decisions. Whether they came to feel that they overpaid or they cut corners including buying “sight unseen” or without inspections to compete, many are stuck with homes whose values may have dropped or that may have had unknown or undisclosed “material defects” or homes they rushed to buy without doing enough “due diligence” to make sure it really met their needs and wants. Many sellers overplayed their hands and wish they had sold! None of this makes the recent market a “housing bubble” as the frenzy was created by the actions of buyers and sellers.

The "housing bubble" 15 years ago was caused by government meddling that led to loose financing standards designed to increase homeownership among certain groups. We can debate the details and/ or the intent if you wish but the “ends did not justify the means”. While some may have enjoyed months of owning their own home, many lost those homes and their savings when the “bubble” burst and almost crashed our entire economy....

Please call me if you would like to discuss this in further detail. I can add knowledge and insight to whatever data and information you have. Remember, when it comes to buying what is likely your biggest asset and largest overall investment:

There is no time for inexperience, empty promises or false expectations.

HIRE WISELY: We are not "all the same"!

View Details

I listed and sold Real Estate during the build-up to the crash of 2008. I contend that this market is NOT the same. Let me explain.

Google defines “bubble” as a good or fortunate situation that is isolated from reality or unlikely to last. Good? Fortunate? That depends on your perspective which makes the definition vague, allowing people see both markets as more similar than they are.

Whatever you think caused the crash in 2008, I will focus on my personal experiences. Starting around 2002, the specific months and years involved varied across the country, interest rates dropped dramatically to generate buyer interest. Interestingly enough, the rates that created that heated market were very much like what we see today which has many complaining about rising rates. How is that for perspective?

In addition, and very troubling, lending standards loosened dramatically. The changes included a reduction in the minimum credit score required to “qualify” for a loan as well as increased ratios, meaning that prospective buyers could use more of their gross and net income to buy Real Estate. Ever hear the phrase “house poor”? Let me digress for a moment.

"Jumping forward ..."

Semantics? Perhaps but I have heard too many equating the two markets. While I respect and understand buyers expressing concern about buying Real Estate today, wondering if prices are sustainable, there is never a guarantee that Real Estate prices will appreciate in a straight-line, if at all. Look at the stock market regularly and you will see this in action. There is always risk in ANY “investment” but what are the alternatives? If you are renting, is that a more prudent bet than owning? You will never recover your rent payments and they continue for as long as you rent. If you have delayed your plans to move, what is the cost to your personal happiness and any other factors impacted by your staying put wherever that may be?

Buying and selling Real Estate are personal decisions that deserve a lot of consideration. This type of market does not typically offer time to decide. These are emotional decisions justified with logic. Planning and preparation are critical even if the time available is shortened. The time to plan and prepare is not after you find a house you think you like so you can watch someone else better prepared buy it. Start before looking! Some lessons from the real “bubble” should be helpful.

Contact me in 5 or 10 years and we will have a clearer picture of what happened!

There is no time for inexperience, empty promises or **false expectations!

HIRE WISELY: We are not “all the same”?**

View Details

Showing Time, using Bright MLS statistics, has released their Local Market Insight report for single family homes in Delaware County Pennsylvania through March 2022. If you would like information about this or any other County or any specific municipalities in the Delaware Valley, please contact me or visit my web site, AndrewWetzel.com. I am only a phone call, email or text away! I respond promptly to all inquiries....

As far as the statistics, there were 1868 new “for sale” listings through March 2022 compared to 1862 through March 2021, a slight decrease of .7%. There were 1577 closed sales through March 2022 compared to 1498 through March 2021, an increase of 5.3%. The median selling price through March 2022 was $269,000 compared to $245,000 through March 2021, an increase of 9.8%. The flat number of newly listed properties had no effect on the number sold while substantially increasing their selling prices. The number of currently available properties (391) is below one year ago (444). The Days on the Market (DOM) (29 vs 27) and “Sold to List Price” ratio (101.2% vs 99.5%) are improved while the MSI (Months of Supply) is less than 1 month (at .7 months), down 42% from one year ago. The low inventory combined with pent-up demand has created our current market. Again, these numbers vary throughout the County: the underlying data shows a wide range of results in all categories among the 49 different municipalities in Delaware County. What happens going forward?....

If you want or need to sell any type of Real Estate, now or in the future, whether you tried and did not succeed before or are planning for the first time, it is never too early to start the planning and preparation. Please do not wait for what you think is a better or the best time to start. Buyers look all year long and can only see and buy properties that are available to see. Based on what we experienced in 2021, is waiting something you would consider?

There is no time for inexperience, empty promises or false expectations!

HIRE WISELY: We are not “all the same”!

View Details

Tri-County Suburban REALTORS and Showing Time have released their June 2021 Local Market Insight report for single family homes in Delaware County Pennsylvania. The report uses Bright MLS statistics. If you would like more information about this or any other County or any specific municipalities in the Delaware Valley, please contact me or visit my web site, AndrewWetzel.com. I am only a phone call, an email or a text away! I respond promptly to all inquiries.

The Real Estate market continues to recover from the pandemic shutdown and resulting economic impact. As always, your experience may differ depending on your location and how you have been personally affected. As I always say, the decision whether or when to sell or buy Real Estate is a personal one influenced by a number of lifestyle factors and external variables. The past year or so typifies that. Some have not been deterred causing a frenzied sellers’ market while others have decided to delay their plans to sell or buy.

The report compares current month and year-to-date results to one-year ago. We are past the halfway point but the statistics continue to include pre- and post-pandemic time frames so it is not a true “apples-to-apples” comparison. As with all Real Estate statistics, two things are true. First, the performance within individual zip-codes can and will vary significantly from the overall County. Real Estate is local and results can vary greatly from neighborhood to neighborhood and even block to block. There is no such thing as a “national” Real Estate market any more than there is a national weather forecast so, if you are thinking about selling or buying, please contact me for details about your areas of interest. I can provide current information and keep you informed about the evolving market as well as provide you with the knowledge and insight to help you decide what works best for you.

My second point is that, unfortunately, all Real Estate statistics involving sold data are stale. This is especially true if you are relying on Internet valuation models which use recorded data rather than up-to-date Bright MLS information. Even then, while a sale may be reported as having settled or closed recently, the real question is when was the offer negotiated? Typically, sales can take 45 to 60 days to close so the market today may be different from when the offer was presented and negotiated. This is especially true as market conditions change. Up-to-date information, even if not perfect, is important!

As far as the statistics, please remember that these numbers include a variety of single-family homes throughout the County. There were 1003 new listings in June 2021 compared to 880 in June 2020, an increase of 14%. YTD 2021 shows 4802 new listings compared to 3800 in 2020, an increase of 26.4%. The 5-year June average is 906 new listings.

To continue reading, please click here.

To learn more about buying and selling Real Estate as well as to search thousands of listings, please visit my website.

There is no time for inexperience, empty promises or false expectations!

HIRE WISELY: We are not all the same!

View Details

Whether you are starting the process of buying your first or “next” home, engaged in the process of house-hunting or you have already been denied a house you really wanted to own, I want to share some time-tested advice. I am going to address the main question in three parts. This is not intended as legal advice and not intended to interfere if you have an existing business relationship.

Let’s start with the premise that you have made an offer and it was rejected. You may have had no response or you may have been given an opportunity to negotiate that did result in a signed contract. If a buyer makes what they think is a reasonable offer and the seller did not accept it, they should have no regrets. Easy for me to say. However, did the buyer have the right expectations and understanding about the process? Could or should their agent or the listing agent or the seller have done anything differently?

If the seller was given the opportunity to review all offers and was properly informed of any possible interest that could generate additional offers and they accepted what they thought was the best offer, who has any reason to complain about the process? Every executed agreement will not close so it may be best to remain on good terms with everyone involved. You may get another chance to get a house you want to own, if you want one, but do not assume you will.

I provide my buyer-clients with a few pearls of wisdom I have gained through experience, training and education. The process of buying or selling Real Estate is typically an emotional decision justified with logic. It should be treated as “business” and not taken personally. It is also not retail. Looking for a house can be a full-time job but it is worth the investment of time and effort. Your life will get back to normal after you succeed. Bad decisions are costly and their effects can last a long time. Real Estate is typically our biggest asset and requires our largest ongoing investment so buying or selling it deserves a lot of attention.

I have already discussed how a buyer might manage their search and making their offer in a previous post. Those are both important but there is more work required to get the house you like under contract. Respectfully, you may have had the best planning and preparation and made your best offer but there are still two potential obstacles to having a signed contract: they are the listing agent and the seller.

To continue reading, please click here.

For more information, please visit my website to search for thousands of listings and learn more about buying and selling Real Estate.

There is a lot more to buying or selling Real Estate than marketing, showings and writing offers. This is NOT retail! There is no online “shopping cart” or a “Buy It Now” option. Again, this is a business decision which is often emotional and justified with logic. While the public has endless access to data and information, it takes an experienced, trained and educated professional to bring the knowledge and insight that Real Estate sales often require.

There is no time for inexperience, empty promises or false expectations.

HIRE WISELY: We are not all the same!

View Details

Whether you are starting the process of buying your first or your “next” home, actively engaged in house hunting or you have already been denied a house you really wanted to own, I want to share some time-tested advice. I am going to cover this from four perspectives. This is part 3 of 4. This is a broad topic with no “one size fits all” answers. My advice comes with two disclaimers: this is not intended as legal advice and it is not meant to interfere if you have an existing business relationship.

Let me start with the premise that a buyer or you made an offer and it was rejected. If a buyer makes what they think is a reasonable offer and the seller does not accept it, they should have no regrets. Easy for me to say. If yours was the only offer, I would assume that you had a chance to negotiate with the owner but could not reach a mutually beneficial solution. If you were competing with other buyers, only one offer could win. Did the buyer have the right expectations about the process and how it might go? Could or should their agent or the listing agent or the seller have done anything differently? If the seller was given an opportunity to review all offers and was properly informed of any possible interest that existed and they accepted what they thought was the best offer, there may be no valid reason to complain about the outcome. Every signed agreement does not close so you may get another chance, if you want one, but do not assume you will. In fact, depending on the type of Real Estate market, you may want to assume that you have competition and that you will not have a chance to change your initial offer.

I provide my buyer-clients with knowledge that I have gained through my years of experience, training and education. I have also learned a lot from conducting mediations between buyers and sellers and listening to ethics complaints about agents. Fundamentally, I believe that the process of buying or selling Real Estate is best looked at as a business decision, not a personal one. It is also not a retail transaction.

Looking for a house can become a full-time job but it is worth it. Your life will get back to normal after you succeed. Bad purchase decisions can be costly and their effects can last a long time. Real Estate is typically our biggest asset and requires our largest investment so buying or selling it requires planning and preparation. It deserves our full attention.

As I discussed in part two, The Search, once a buyer starts to identify possible houses to consider looking at and buying, there is a process to narrowing the list down to the best and getting in to see and evaluate them as quickly as possible. I remind buyers that proper planning and preparation will position them to compete better and that they are not the only buyer seeing the search results they receive. It all comes down to making an offer that will appeal to the seller or, at the very least, maximize the chance that the seller will offer a counter-proposal. The purpose of negotiating is to keep talking. While that can wear someone down, it is better than silence. That being said, buying Real Estate can be very competitive so ....

To read the rest, please click here.

Please feel free to share, like, comment and follow!

For more information about selling, buying and the Real Estate market, visit my web site.

There is no time for inexperience, empty promises or false expectations.

HIRE WISELY: We are NOT all the same!

View Details

I recently created a podcast on “Multiple Offers” and how two different agents viewed them. I want to explore one of their comments further. One agent said that multiple offers are the result of pricing a property too low. While I don’t agree, I do feel that there is something to this. Let me explain.

Suppose an agent is working with a buyer “pre-qualified” and comfortable spending up to $300,000 on a house. Pick any price. What “price range” should they search? I say “range” because no one would search for one specific price. You can start at a certain number or go up to a certain number. This is why pricing is different than before we had the Internet. Agents have to “factor in” what a consumer may be thinking rather than trying to interact with the mindset of an experienced, trained and educated agent. Let’s start with the minimum first.

For some buyers, such as investors, I do not set a minimum. They may be open to considering whatever is in their search results and open to driving by or studying what I send them to eliminate houses that do not appeal to them. Buyers looking for their next home, especially if they are financing the sale, may need to pick a starting point to meet their needs and abilities as well as the requirements of their financing. Some houses simply need too much work. How far they look below their “top number” depends. Sometimes the areas that interest them or the features they include will provide some guidance. Otherwise, they may evolve into “knowing” that anything below $x is a waste of time.

What about the top end? They are “pre-qualified” and comfortable spending “up to $300,000” so why wouldn’t that be the number? This is where it gets tricky. The market will suggest or dictate what you should do if you want to succeed. In a buyer’s market, if houses are getting less than full price, you can search higher than their top number. That does not guarantee success as there may be competition even in “slower” moving markets. A seller may still want full asking price.

In a seller’s market, when houses are getting more than full price, you may want to search lower than $300,000, expecting to have to raise your offer, if given the chance. In a hot market every house will not sell so this is not a blanket statement but you may not succeed by offering full price.

The MLS offers data comparing the selling price to the opening and final asking prices. However, “data integrity” may be lacking if incorrect information is entered, possibly impacting the overall report. An agent has to look “within the numbers” to see what is really happening with pricing....

To read the rest, please click here.

Please feel free to share, like, comment and follow!

For more information about selling, buying and the Real Estate market, visit my web site.

There is no time for inexperience, empty promises or false expectations.

HIRE WISELY: We are NOT all the same!

View Details

Competition and multiple offers seem normal these days. Your opinion about them probably depends on whom you represent and your personal experiences. They do not guarantee success for a seller but make it harder for buyers and their agents. I recently heard two very different opinions about them.

A buyer’s agent, frustrated by losing yet another bidding war, told me that multiple offers are the result of pricing a property too low. I guess that makes some sense, pricing it higher might reduce the amount of competition but is that best for a seller? Would that result in their seeing the highest and best possible offer? Who knows? There are a few things I think I can say in general:

· Competition tends to produce the “highest and best” offer, even if it is not what a seller wants. When there is only one offer a seller may think a better one will come later. They often do not.

· Looking at and comparing multiple offers can get tedious, especially if they seem repetitive. I have had several listing agents tell me that, at some point, their seller stopped reviewing additional offers. Presumably, they had at least one they liked but that concerns me. A buyer agent who shows a house and takes the time and effort to prepare an offer should be able to trust that their buyer’s offer was considered. We have forms to confirm that but the bigger picture is that offers not presented may be better than what a seller accepts and that those that “appear” uncompetitive may just be a starting point for a buyer who really likes a house.

· Some agents actively encourage a flood of showings hoping for multiple offers and a quick sale. There is nothing wrong with that but it creates an environment that must be managed. What is the goal? I assume it is to shorten the marketing time and to get the “highest and best” offer that will appraise and close. The real dilemma may be knowing whether to accept an offer or question whether it will appraise. What if it doesn’t? Having a pre-listing appraisal may help but may not be ideal, especially if the market is rising.

· While there is nothing wrong with multiple offers, I think it places some responsibility on everyone involved. Our clients must be advised of the advantages and disadvantages.

This agent was frustrated with writing offers that failed and having to start showings again. Imagine being a buyer who loses your preferred new or “next” home to competition, especially if it happens again and again. We are in perhaps the best sellers’ market I have ever seen and its major attribute, if you want to call it that, is that the number of buyers far exceeds the number of available properties. While this does not mean that every property will sell, every buyer will not get a house.

Another agent posted on social media that a buyer’s agent who writes offer after offer is not doing their job. I would love to have these two agents in the same room ....

To rest the rest, please click here.

Please feel free to share, like, comment and follow!

For more information about selling, buying and the Real Estate market, visit my web site.

There is no time for inexperience, empty promises or false expectations.

HIRE WISELY: We are NOT all the same!

View Details

The type of Real Estate market produces some creative ways to “protect and promote” the interest of our clients. The ebb and flow of who has “power” and “leverage” is interesting. What may work (or frustrate others) in one market may appear insane in another. That being said, we are required and expected to respect different “business models”. However, do we have to do as we are told?

Many listing agents use a “Presentation of Offers” form which spells out what they want included in a purchase offer and how they conduct business. I respect different “business models” and think the concept makes sense but I am left wondering about some of what they expect. As long as the seller agrees that is fine but some of what I see seems counter-productive. Here are a few examples:

· An agent must submit an offer before being allowed to show a property;

· A buyer must perform inspections before submitting an offer;

· Do not have any contingency expire on a weekend or holiday. If you do, add language to the agreement stating that the time frame is extended to the next “business day”;

· Offers received after 5pm will be presented to the seller the next morning;

· Offers received after 5pm on Friday will be presented to the seller on Monday;

· Offers are to be submitted at a “specified time” and will be reviewed at a “specified time”.

Respectfully, if a seller agrees with any of these or other terms, perhaps that is their wish and their choice, fine but some of these make me wonder. Real Estate is not a 9-5 job although it should not be 24/7 either. I guess it all comes down to the type of market. The question is: do we have to comply?

We are in the hottest seller’s market I have seen in years. Every house seems flooded with showings and multiple offers which, combined with the pandemic, many sellers and buyers are finding very frustrating. To accelerate what I refer to as the “second step” to selling or buying Real Estate, the “third step” being when an offer is negotiated, some listing agents are doing one of two things to generate immediate interest. They start showings at an “open house” or use a “Coming Soon” strategy to make buyers salivate before they can legally get in. Both can work but may be creating a frenzy that will not play out as expected. Some buyers are making offers “sight unseen”, waiving inspections and/ or going well over asking price, all in an effort to beat real or perceived “competition”. Some agents just make their listings “active” and let the fun begin. The market will change. It always does.

To read the rest, please click here.

Please feel free to share, like, comment and follow!

For more information about selling, buying and the Real Estate market, visit my web site.

There is no time for inexperience, empty promises or false expectations.

HIRE WISELY: We are NOT all the same!

View Details

Whether you are starting the process of buying a home, actively engaged in house hunting or you have already been denied a house you wanted, I want to share some time-tested advice. I am going to cover this from four perspectives. This is part 2 of 4, The Search. This is a broad topic with no “one size fits all” answers. My advice comes with two disclaimers: this is not intended as legal advice and it is not meant to interfere if you have an existing business relationship.

I provide my buyer-clients with knowledge that I have gained through my years of experience, training and education. I have also learned a lot by conducting mediations between buyers and sellers and listening to ethics complaints about agents. Fundamentally, I believe that the process of buying or selling Real Estate is best looked at as a business decision, not a personal one. It is also not a retail transaction.

Looking for a house can become a full-time job but it is worth it. Your life will get back to normal after you succeed. Bad decisions can be costly and their effects can last a long time. How long do you plan to live in your “next home”? Real Estate is typically our largest investment so buying or selling it requires planning and preparation. It deserves our full attention. How a buyer and their agent conduct “the search” will help determine the outcome. Is the buyer convinced that they are aware of every house that is a potential match?

As I discussed in part one, Planning and Preparation, I suggest that buyers do three things before they even start looking at houses and this includes not visiting open houses or looking online. Once you have hired an agent, spoken to a lender to determine your financial comfort level and thought about your “needs” and “wants”, you are ready to move forward. There is no guarantee of success but working on those three items can be a real asset later. All you can do is put yourself in the best position to compete. The search then becomes the focus....

To read the whole article, please click here.

View Details

Tri-County Suburban REALTORS and Showing Time have released their March 2021 Local Market Insight report for single family homes in Delaware County Pennsylvania. The report uses Bright MLS statistics. If you would like more information about this or any other County or any specific municipalities in the Delaware Valley, please contact me or visit my web site, AndrewWetzel.com. I am only a phone call, an email or a text away! I respond promptly to all inquiries.

Many areas continue to be affected by the pandemic and resulting economic impact....

The report compares current year-to-date results to one-year ago, same time period. It only covers three months and crosses over from pre-pandemic to pandemic time frames so it is not “apples-to-apples”....

As far as the statistics, please remember that these numbers include a variety of single-family homes throughout the County. There were 811 new listings in March 2021 compared to 667 in March 2020, an increase of 21.6%. YTD 2021 shows 1882 new listings compared to 1941 in 2020, a decrease of 3.0%. The 5-year March average is 859. There were 444 active listings in March 2021 compared to 848 in March 2020 with a 5-year average of 1337. Low inventory levels continue to affect the market: the “Months of Supply: is down 62% as compared to last year. There were 518 closed sales in March 2021 compared to 486 in March 2020, an increase of 6.6% with a 5-year average of 498. The median selling price was $256,000 in March 2021 compared to $229,900 in March 2020, an increase of 11.4% with a 5-year average of $214,370.

What effect did the large decrease in new listings have on the market statistics? It created some anxiety resulting in multiple offers, perhaps well over asking price, and buyers taking other actions to make their offers more competitive. These include buying “sight unseen” and/ or waiving inspections....

On the other hand, some buyers may come to regret a hasty decision to get a property under contract at “all costs”. Buying “sight unseen”, especially without inspections comes with a risk. Sellers and their agents need to consider how to manage such offers as they may have appraisal issues and/ or be more likely to result in buyer remorse after the buyer gets to learn more. Given the expense and complexity of a typical Real Estate purchase, buyers and sellers need to fully understand what they are doing and what can go wrong. Even with our property disclosure law in PA, many sellers either do not know about underlying issues with their properties or forget to disclose them. Whatever your feelings about property inspections, they can provide important information to a buyer. Getting a contract signed is only the first step to completing a Real Estate sale....

To read the whole article, please click here.

View Details

Whether you are thinking about buying a home, are actively engaged in house hunting or you have already been denied a house you wanted, I want to share some time-tested advice. I am going to cover this from four perspectives. This is a broad topic with no “one size fits all” answers. I strongly believe that planning and preparation will put you in the best position to identify houses that may interest you and, when you find one, maximize your opportunity to own it. There are many variables in the home buying process, some of which you can’t control. I encourage serious buyers to control what they can.

My advice comes with two disclaimers: this is not intended as legal advice and it is not meant to interfere if you have an existing business relationship.

Let me start with the premise that a buyer (or perhaps you) made an offer and it was rejected. If a buyer makes what they think is a reasonable offer and the seller does not accept it, they should have no regrets. Easy for me to say. If yours was the only offer, I would assume that you had a chance to negotiate but that you could not reach a mutually beneficial solution. If you were competing with other buyers, only one offer could win. Did the buyer have the right expectations about the process and how it might go? Could or should their agent or the listing agent or the seller have done anything differently?

If the seller was given an opportunity to review all offers and was properly informed of any possible interest that existed and they accepted what they thought was the best offer, there may be no valid reason to complain about the outcome. Every signed agreement does not close so you may get another chance, if you want one, but do not assume you will. In fact, depending on the type of Real Estate market, you may want to assume that you will not have a chance to change your initial offer.

I suggest that buyers do three things before they even start looking at houses and this includes not visiting open houses or looking online. The goal is avoid being teased or distracted. They may not even be consciously thinking about buying a house. If they are, most buyers want to jump right in. Frankly, looking at houses and imagining “what if” is the fun part although that can “get old” really fast especially after an offer has been rejected or terminated....

So what are the three things? ....

To read more, please click here.

In part two, I’ll discuss the search for your first or “next home”.

There is no time for inexperience, empty promises or false expectations.

HIRE WISELY: We are not all the same!

View Details

As is usual, my best answer is it depends! Can the answer be a “tie”? I would like to think that when Real Estate is sold that both people “won” but Real Estate is a competitive process where two people have opposite if not adversarial motives. No buyer ever said I want to give the seller as much money as possible unless, of course, they know there is competition or they intend to use their successful offer as leverage to negotiate something to their benefit later such as inspection results. No seller ever said they wanted to give a buyer the lowest price unless they wanted to dump the property or intended to make no repairs. Most sales happen between those extremes. Getting to settlement is another matter.

The market today, Spring 2021, is as competitive as I have ever seen and I have been doing this since 1996. The years from 2003 through 2008 were fairly hectic but that was a true “bubble” fueled by government manipulation to increase home ownership that relied on loose lending standards which financially destroyed many of the buyers it was supposed to help. Sadly, many who bought were not really qualified to manage the finances and, frankly, many flippers took advantage of the market and sold bad rehabs. I could go on but my main point is that this is NOT what is happening today.

Today is very different. The market has been created by a combination of perpetually low interest rates, extremely low inventory and pent-up demand delayed by the pandemic. Lending standards appear to be solid so buyers are better situated today, at least financially. That being said, this cannot go on forever. Interest rates have been rising slightly but there is plenty of money to lend.

Two significant variables are likely to change. One is the number of buyers. If this is anything like the “bubble years”, buyers have jumped off and over the proverbial fence and decided to buy earlier than they had been planning. Sooner or later the market runs low or out of qualified buyers and I hope that does not result in easing lending standards. The other variable is the inventory level. My best guess is that the number of properties for sale will rise once whatever is holding owners back changes. Just as the number of buyers was inflated by a number of factors, I believe that owners have been held back by a number of factors. These diverging trends produced what we are seeing today.

Real Estate depends on “supply and demand”: buyers and sellers are on opposite ends of a proverbial see-saw. The supply of one often exceeds the supply of the other causing prices to rise and fall. Competition drives prices up; excess inventory drives them down. External factors like interest rates, the general economy and other variables like a pandemic play a vital role. So back to the original question, is it a better time to sell or to buy? Let me break it down this way.

I believe that the group that has or had the most to gain in the current environment are ....

To read more, please click here.

Buying or selling as a single, disconnected act is one thing. No one can predict what tomorrow will bring and decisions always look clearer in hindsight.... All you can do is get the best information you can, decide what you want and need to accomplish and know when to make a move or when to hold back.

There is no time for inexperience, empty promises or false expectations.

HIRE WISELY: We are not all the same!

View Details

That depends. Depends on what? There are several things to consider. Let me discuss two.

First, pricing is an art and not a science. No matter what data and information went into determining your asking price, the price is an educated guess at best. Is it realistic or hopeful? If there is little or no information to rely on, it might just be a shot in the dark. Either way, what would convince you to consider lowering it? Some sellers think a reduction is the same as a loss when it might well be the difference between selling or not.

I suggest that a seller give this some thought at the beginning of the market process. Their thinking may change but waiting to consider how to react to the market when a house is on the market can be stressful and cause a seller to miss a great opportunity. Some sellers measure success by showings. However, a lack of showings may the result of poor or ineffective marketing. What about a house that gets many showings but no offers? That is likely a price problem as it suggests that buyers found more for the same price or the same for a lower price.

Second, a listing agent needs to have a discussion about pricing. The points already mentioned would make a great conversation. In addition, a market analysis will provide historic information as well as some insight into what is happening now, both of which have a degree of subjectivity and built-in error. As part of looking at the market and evaluating what the owner is selling, a listing agent needs to know their seller-client’s motivation: is it time or money? If the seller is committed to selling sooner rather than later, a price reduction would be more likely to be considered. Of course, in that instance an asking price might have been aggressive at the start. If it works, great. If not, some sellers will think they have already agreed to accept less than the market value. If they prioritize the amount they receive, they may be reluctant to reduce at all and if they agree, it could take time. Again, having this discussion early on will save time later and may prevent problems.

Historic sales are just that. Depending on the time frame you use, they may cross months, seasons and even years. Even if a property settled yesterday, when was the offer made and negotiated? It could be weeks or months old and not indicative of the current market. A look at the pricing for houses under contract, while not providing the number the seller accepted and not being subject to an appraisal, will at least tell you what one buyer found compelling enough to consider. You may see a trend higher than or lower than the settled pricing. Of course, any agreed-upon price could be quite different from the then-current asking price and you won’t know that until after settlement.

Depending on the market, I believe that when a new listing hits the active market, it has its greatest chance of attracting interest as there may be more prospects looking at that time than will enter the market in the next few weeks. It has been my experience that new listings can and should get a flurry of activity quickly and then, if activity or interest has been lacking, the seller has a decision to make ....

To read more, please click here ....

When you pick your price, you pick YOUR competition. There is no magic to it ....

There is no time for inexperience, empty promises or false expectations.

HIRE WISELY: We are not all the same!

View Details

I received an email from the staff at Listenable. They provide an online platform that offers “powerful, bite-sized audio courses authored by well‑loved experts”. They said: “Congratulations on launching your first course on Listenable! We’re excited to have you on board! We sincerely appreciate the work you’ve done to create such an outstanding course and we are proud to have you on the Listenable team.”

I am happy and excited to add my content to their impressive lineup of courses. The title of my course is “The Basics of Selling Residential Real Estate”. Why did I create it?

My passion for Real Estate led to my writing blogs and recording podcasts. Someone at Listenable heard my podcasts and contacted me to ask if I would be interested in creating an audio course for them. The subject matter was up to me and this topic seemed an obvious choice.

As I have learned over the course of my career as well as through my involvement in various roles within the Real Estate community, Real Estate is not rocket science by any means although many make it far more complicated than necessary. The process of selling or buying residential Real Estate generally involves a number of basic steps that must be completed in order to succeed. Hiring a professional should increase your chances for success. Our experience, training and education can provide the knowledge and insight typically needed to navigate the home selling or buying process.

My course consists of 13 lessons averaging about 8 minutes each. I break the steps of selling Real Estate down into “the basics” and explain what we do and why we do it. My goal is to take some of the mystery out of what people think we do and clarify it so that the typical listener will be more comfortable with the process. I discuss the entire selling process from hiring an agent through settlement/ closing. I hope that you will listen to it and recommend my course to people you know.

Here are the lessons: The “Five Steps to Selling Real Estate”; Hiring an Agent; Preparing Your House for Sale; Marketing Your House to Sell; Pricing Your House to Sell; The Listing Contract; Your House is on the “Active” Market; Congratulations, You Have an Offer; Contingencies; Closing the Sale. I included two “bonus” lessons: Andrew’s Time-Tested Real Estate One Liners and The Code of Ethics and Standards of Practice of the NATIONAL ASSOCIATION OF REALTORS.

Here is a direct link to Lesson 1 . To enjoy14 free days of Listenable, use this link.

I have an extensive catalog of blogs and podcasts posted on several websites including my primary agent website. If you haven’t followed them, I encourage you to give them a try. If you have read and listened to my material, thank you. I will keep adding new content.

Best wishes and thank you for listening and reading! As always, I am a phone call, email or text away if you have any questions.

There is no time for inexperience, empty promises or false expectations.

HIRE WISELY: We are not all the same.

View Details

This is a question that most agents and buyers never really have to think about. How often does this happen? I like to raise the question in my ethics classes for these very reasons. Once people do think about it, it can generate a lively theoretical discussion which generates emotion and opinion. I am not sure there is a perfect answer but I think it has so many aspects to it that it is worth discussing. Better now than in an ethics hearing. Let me start with some disclaimers.

First, this is my opinion and not intended as legal advice. Second, I am in PA where this practice is not considered “dual agency”. In fact, our contracts specifically allow this to happen which I will discuss later in further detail. However, it is considered “dual agency” in some states which makes me wonder why, how can that be: it either is or it is not “dual agency”. How can it be looked at differently in different states? If it were considered “dual agency”, which is not allowed in some states, that would at least provide some direction as to how to handle it and remove my concerns. Third, my intent is not to interfere with any existing business relationships although I would respectfully suggest that buyers should know if this situation might come up so that they can make an informed decision before entering into a business relationship that might not work for them. In PA many agents refuse to act as “dual agents”. I wonder how they view this topic?

I am an analytical thinker so I will look at this from several perspectives. Let’s start with some contract information, meaning some language that a potential buyer-client should know before hiring an agent to represent them. This assumes that a buyer hires an agent and actually discusses their respective roles. Of course, if an agent does not follow our rules and regulations, a member of the public may not be as well informed as they should be. While well over 90% of the public searches online for Real Estate listings and information, I do not believe that most really understand agency representation. We do more than open doors and write contracts. Do prospective buyers know what to ask agents they might hire? Are they resistant when an agent tries to do their job by discussing contracts and agency disclosures? I am going to talk about this from the perspective of being a REALTOR, not just a licensee. This means I will refer to out REALTOR Code of Ethics as well as our state’s “standard forms”.

To read more, click here.

Please visit my agent website to view thousands of Real Estate listings and learn more about selling and buying Real Estate.

My New Audio Course is LIVE on Listenable.io. The title is "The Basics of Selling Residential Real Estate". Click here for Lesson 1. To enjoy14 free days of Listenable, click here.

View Details

Tri-County Suburban REALTORS and Showing Time have released their January 2021 Local Market Insight report for single family homes in Delaware County Pennsylvania. The report relies on Bright MLS statistics. If you would like more information about this or any other County or any specific municipalities in the Delaware Valley, please contact me or visit my web site, AndrewWetzel.com. I am only a phone call, an email or a text away! I respond promptly to all inquiries.

The market continues to be affected by the pandemic and resulting economic impact. The weather has also been a factor. However, generally speaking, the results in many areas are encouraging and, as always, your experience may differ depending on your location and how you have been personally impacted. As I always say, the decision whether and when to sell or buy Real Estate is a personal one influenced by a number of lifestyle factors and external variables. The pandemic typifies that. Some have not been deterred while many others have decided to delay their plans to sell or buy.

The report compares current year-to-date results to one-year ago, same time period. This report only covers one month so I would not over-react to the information. As with all Real Estate statistics, two things are true. First, the performance within individual zip-codes can and will vary significantly from the overall County. Real Estate is local and results can vary greatly from neighborhood to neighborhood and even block to block. There is no such thing as a “national” Real Estate market any more than there is a national weather forecast so, whether you may be thinking about selling or buying, please contact me for details about your areas of interest. I can provide current information and keep you informed about the evolving market as well as provide you with the knowledge and insight to help you decide what works best for you.

My second point is that, unfortunately, all Real Estate statistics involving sold data are stale. This is especially true if you are relying on Internet valuation models which use recorded data rather than up-to-date MLS information. Even then, while a sale may be reported as having settled or closed today, the real question is when was the offer negotiated? Typically, sales can take 45 to 60 days to close so the market today may be different from when the offer was presented and negotiated. Up-to-date information, even if not perfect, is important!

As far as the statistics, there were 534 new listings in January 2021 compared to 586 in January 2020, a decrease of 8.9%. The average number of active listings in January 2021 was 441 compared to 994 in January 2020. Low inventory levels continue to affect the market. There were 544 closed sales in January 2021 compared to 438 in January 2020, a 24.2% increase. The median selling price was $240,000 in January 2021 compared to $202,000 in January 2020, an increase of 18.8%. What effect did the large decrease in the number of properties being listed and available have on the market statistics? It likely created some anxiety resulting in multiple offers, perhaps well over asking price, and buyers taking other actions to make their offers more competitive. These include buying “sight unseen” and/ or waiving inspections. The result was a huge increase in selling prices along with ....

To read the rest of the blog, please click here.

There is no time for inexperience, empty promises or false ex

View Details

Tri-County Suburban REALTORS and Showing Time, using Bright MLS statistics, have released their Local Market Insight report for single family homes in Delaware County Pennsylvania through December 2020. If you would like more information about this or any other County or any specific municipalities in the Delaware Valley, please contact me or visit my web site, AndrewWetzel.com. I am only a phone call, an email or a text away! I respond promptly to all inquiries.

The market continues to be affected by the pandemic and resulting economic impact. However, generally speaking, the results in many areas are encouraging and, as always, your experience may differ depending on your location and how you have been personally impacted. As I always say, the decision whether and when to sell or buy Real Estate is a personal one influenced by a number of lifestyle factors and external variables. The pandemic typifies that.

The report compares current year-to-date results to one-year ago, same time period. As with all Real Estate statistics, two things are true. First, the performance within individual zip-codes can and will vary significantly from the overall County. Real Estate is local and results can vary greatly from neighborhood to neighborhood and even block to block. There is no such thing as a “national” Real Estate market any more than there is a national weather forecast so, whether you may be thinking about selling or buying, please contact me for details about your areas of interest. I can provide current information and keep you informed about the evolving market as well as the knowledge and insight to help you decide what works for you.

My second point is that, unfortunately, all Real Estate statistics involving sold data are stale. This is especially true if you are relying on Internet valuation models which use recorded data rather than up-to-date MLS information. Even then, while a sale may be reported as settled or closed today, the real question is when was the offer negotiated? Typically, sales can take 45 to 60 days to close so the market today may be different from when the offer was presented and negotiated. Up-to-date information, even if not perfect, is important!

As far as the statistics, there were 8309 units listed for sale through December 2020 compared to 8993 listed through December 2019, a decrease of 7.6%. Low inventory levels continue to affect related data points. There were 7139 closed sales through December 2020 compared to 6984 through December 2019, a 2.2% increase. The median selling price through December 2020 was $250,000 compared to $227,000 through December 2019, an increase of 10.1%. The large decrease in inventory, meaning the number of properties being listed, had a relatively small effect on the number sold while substantially increasing their selling prices. The number of currently available properties is well below one year ago and the Days on the Market (DOM) and “Sold to List Price” ratio are much improved. Do we have an inventory problem or pent-up demand? Again, these numbers vary throughout the County: the underlying data shows a wide range of results in all categories among the 49 different municipalities in Delaware County.

To read the rest of the blog, please click here.

There is no time for inexperience, empty promises or false expectations!

HIRE WISELY: We are not all the same!

View Details

Showing Time, using Bright MLS statistics, has released their Local Market Insight report for single family homes in Delaware County Pennsylvania through November 2020. If you would like information about this or any other County or any specific municipalities in the Delaware Valley, please contact me or visit my web site, AndrewWetzel.com. I am only a text, email or phone call away! I respond promptly to all inquiries.

The overall market continues to be affected by the pandemic and resulting economic impact. However, generally speaking, the results in many areas are encouraging and, as always, your experience may differ depending on your location and how you have been personally impacted. As I always say, the decision to buy or sell Real Estate is a personal one and the current environment typifies that.

The report compares current year-to-date results to one-year ago, same time period. As with all Real Estate statistics, two things are true. First, the performance within individual zip-codes can and will vary significantly from the overall County. Real Estate is local and results can vary from neighborhood to neighborhood and even block to block. There is no such thing as a “national” Real Estate market any more than there is a national weather forecast so, whether you may be thinking about selling or buying, please contact me for details about your areas of interest. I can provide current information and keep you informed about the evolving market. Deciding whether it is the right time to sell or buy is a personal decision typically involving a number of variables. I can provide the knowledge and insight to help you decide what works for you.

My second point is that, unfortunately, all Real Estate statistics involving sold data are stale. This is especially true if you are relying on Internet valuation models which use recorded data rather than up-to-date MLS information. Even then, while a sale may be reported as settled or closed today, the real question is when was the offer negotiated? Typically, sales can take 45 to 60 days to close so the market today may be different from when the offer was presented and negotiated. Up-to-date information, even if not perfect, is important!

As far as the statistics, ....

To read the rest of the post, please click here.

View Details

The court-ordered Delaware County (PA) reassessment project is nearing its conclusion. When completed, the County will have a total value for all of its over 203,000 parcels of Real Estate. Then they will determine the “millage rate” or tax due per thousand dollars of Real Estate owned needed to generate the tax revenue required to fund the different parts of government including school districts.

I served on 1 of 5 auxiliary tax reassessment appeal boards and have reported on various aspects of my experiences including the purpose of the process and suggestions on how to appeal your proposed assessment. The purpose of this report is to provide an overview of my board’s results. I have no way of knowing how these compare to the other boards nor do I know what happened after my board rendered its decisions. Those whose appeals were rejected had a final opportunity to appeal our decision. Some may have accepted our decision or decided to wait to see what happens to their taxes. Perhaps some whose appeals were accepted decided to appeal further, seeking an additional reduction.

As far as my experience, our board remained intact for 26 days of hearings, we were scheduled to hear 1389 appeals, 329 appellants did not report for their hearing (23.7%), 59 appeals were withdrawn after being scheduled, 13 scheduled appeals were re-scheduled and we actually heard 988 appeals (71.1% of those scheduled). 493 (49.9%) of the appeals were done virtually, meaning over the phone. 18 of the appeals resulted in our not making a decision due to their complexity so we referred them to the Board of Assessment. Few appellants used attorneys. In a number of cases, both in-person and virtually, a school district sent an attorney to observe or listen.

In a number of our hearings it was a school district appealing the proposed assessed values, seeking to raise them which, while perhaps adversely affecting individual property owners, spread the school tax burden more uniformly. Only a few property owners appeared to refute their school district’s argument and some of them were able to retain the County’s proposed assessment.

A significant number of appeals were accepted. The people who came prepared, generally succeeded. The best preparation consisted of one of two strategies: appraisals, if based on the July 2019 timeframe, substantiated the contention that the proposed assessed value overstated “market value” and pictures demonstrated that the County had an incorrect view of property condition, especially when the interior of the property was in “below average” condition since the process relied on exterior views. Unfortunately, for a variety of reasons, too many came to their hearing unprepared to document their case, with many assuming that the new assessment would proportionately increase their tax burden.

To read the rest of the blog, please click here.

View Details

Bright MLS has released their Residential Market Statistics (which they call Local Market Insight) for single family homes in Delaware County Pennsylvania through October 2020. If you would like information about this or any other County or any specific municipalities in the Delaware Valley, please contact me. I am only a text, email or phone call away! I respond promptly to all inquiries.

The report compares current year-to-date results to one-year ago, same time period. As with all Real Estate statistics, two things are true. First, the performance within individual zip-codes can and will vary significantly from the overall County. Real Estate is local and results can vary from neighborhood to neighborhood and even block to block. There is no such thing as a “national” Real Estate market any more than there is a national weather forecast so, whether you may be thinking about selling or buying, please contact me for details about your areas of interest. I can provide current information and keep you informed about the evolving market. Deciding whether it is the right time to sell or buy is a personal decision typically involving a number of variables. I can provide the knowledge and insight to help you decide what works for you.

My second point is that, unfortunately, all Real Estate statistics involving sold data is stale. This is especially true if you are relying on Internet valuation models which use recorded data rather than up-to-date MLS information. Even then, while a sale may be reported as settled or closed today, the real question is when was the offer negotiated? Typically, sales can take 45 to 60 days to close so the market today may be different. Up-to-date information, even if not perfect, is important!

As far as the statistics, there were 7282 units listed for sale through October 2020 compared to 8133 listed through October 2019, a decrease of over 10%. Low inventory levels are the cause of related data points. There were 5684 closed sales through October 2020 compared to 5879 through October 2019, a decrease of over 3%. The median selling price through October 2020 was $250,000 compared to $227,500 through October 2019, an increase of almost 10%. The large decrease in properties being listed had a relatively small effect on the number sold while substantially increasing their selling prices. Again, these numbers vary throughout the County: the underlying data shows a wide range of results in all categories among the 49 different municipalities in Delaware County.

To read more, click here.

View Details

Bright MLS has released their Local Market Insight statistics for all single-family homes, meaning both detached and attached, in Delaware County Pennsylvania through September 2020. If you would like more detailed information about Delaware County or any other County or any specific municipalities in the Delaware Valley, please contact me. I am only a text, email or phone call away and I respond promptly to all inquiries.

This report compares current year-to-date results to one-year ago, same time period. As with all Real Estate statistics, two things are true. First, the performance within individual zip-codes can and will vary significantly from the overall County. Real Estate is local and results can vary from neighborhood to neighborhood and even block to block. There is no such thing as a “national” Real Estate market any more than there is a national weather forecast so, if you are thinking about selling or buying, please contact me for details about your areas of interest. I can provide current information and keep you informed about the evolving market. Deciding whether it is the right time to sell or buy is a personal decision typically involving a number of variables. I have the experience to provide you with the knowledge and insight critical to helping you decide what works for you.

My second point is that, unfortunately, all Real Estate statistics involving sold data are stale. This is especially true if you are relying on Internet valuation models which use recorded data rather than up-to-date MLS information. Even then, while a sale may be reported as settled or closed today, the real question is when was the offer negotiated? Many sales take 45 to 60 days to close, sometimes longer if there are issues, so the market today may be different. Up-to-date information, even if not perfect, is important!

As far as the statistics, there were 6417 properties listed for sale through September 2020 compared to 7370 listed through September 2019, a decrease of 12.9%. Low inventory levels are having a major impact on the Real Estate market in many areas, with many buyers competing. There were 4893 closed sales through September 2020 compared to 5296 through September 2019, a decrease of 7.6%. Compare units listed to closed sales and it is obvious that many houses did not sell. The median selling price through September 2020 was $250,000 compared to $230,000 through September 2019, an increase of 8.7%. Interestingly enough, all statistics just for September 2020 are much improved over September 2019, suggesting that the market has continued to rebound after a sub-par spring. Again, these numbers vary throughout the County: the underlying data shows a wide range of results in all categories among the 49 different municipalities in Delaware County.

To continue reading, please click here.

There is no time for inexperience, empty promises or false expectations!

HIRE WISELY: We are not all the same!

View Details

“Data integrity” ensures that reported information is accurate and can be relied upon. In Real Estate this could be the status of a property, the price, the type of property and its features. The importance of accurate information cannot be overstated as people make costly decisions based on what is reported.

A seller needs a “ready, willing and able” buyer to complete a sale. Buyers “acquire” Real Estate information from a variety of sources. They expect that all properties matching their search criteria will be in their search results so that they can evaluate them and decide whether to take any action. Suppose they get wrong information or they do not know that a property is available? They may never get to see it so they cannot buy it. Houses may sit on the market unsold causing the listing agents to ask the sellers for an unnecessary and costly price reduction which reduces their proceeds but does not make it any easier for buyers to find their property in their search results. Think Google search.

Errors will affect a market analysis for both sellers and buyers. Sellers looking to price their property according to its location, features and condition may rely on bad information causing them to overprice or underprice their property. Their house could sit on the market unsold or they could accept less than they should have. Buyers need accurate information when deciding how much to offer a seller.

Houses that do not sell typically have a pricing or a marketing problem. By marketing I mean wrong or missing “searchable” property features, missing or poor-quality pictures and missing or poorly written property descriptions/ remarks sections. In addition to excluding properties that really matched their search criteria, poor marketing may cause buyers to dismiss properties because they “look” bad.

Bad information can also impact the mortgage appraiser. They evaluate selling prices based on reported comparable sales. They rely on and verify what is reported but how would they know if something is missing? Appraisers rely on pictures, features and the public remarks to try to identify the prior sales most similar to the house they are appraising. What is the cost of inaccurate or missing information? If relying on bad information makes it appear that a buyer paid too much, their sale may stop unless the seller lowers their asking price OR the buyer comes up with more money OR they somehow work it out. Mortgages are based on a percentage of the appraised value so errors matter.

To conclude, data integrity is a BIG deal. Many sellers have wasted months or even years on the market when they really had little chance of selling given the inaccurate information. I call these “fatal errors”. Marketing exposes property information to potential buyers, their agents and anyone else who may need or want to rely on what they hope is accurate information. Garbage in; garbage out!

The Internet has made this more complicated. Most buyers “shop” online, many even after hiring an agent. The MLS syndicates property information to the major search engines. If the MLS information is inaccurate, this magnifies the problem because the information is going directly to the consumer, unfiltered. Your printout is literally like a resume.

To continue reading, click here.

There is no time for inexperience, empty promises or false expectations!

HIRE WISELY! We are not all the same!

View Details

Bright MLS has released their Local Market Insight statistics for single family homes in Delaware County Pennsylvania through August 2020. If you would like more detailed information about this or any other County or any specific municipalities in the Delaware Valley, please contact me. I am only a text, email or phone call away! I respond promptly to all inquiries.

The report compares current year-to-date results to one-year ago, same time period. As with all Real Estate statistics, two things are true. First, the performance within individual zip-codes can and will vary significantly from the overall County. Real Estate is local and results can vary from neighborhood to neighborhood and even block to block. There is no such thing as a “national” Real Estate market any more than there is a national weather forecast so, if you are thinking about selling or buying, please contact me for details about your areas of interest. I can provide current information and keep you informed about the evolving market. Deciding whether it is the right time to sell or buy is a personal decision typically involving a number of variables. I can provide the knowledge and insight to help you decide what works for you.

My second point is that, unfortunately, all Real Estate statistics involving sold data are stale. This is especially true if you are relying on Internet valuation models which use recorded data rather than up-to-date MLS information. Even then, while a sale may be reported as settled or closed today, the real question is when was the offer negotiated? Typically, sales take 45 to 60 days to close so the market today may be different. Up-to-date information, even if not perfect, is important!

As far as the statistics,

To continue reading, please click here.

If you want or need to sell any type of Real Estate, now or in the future, whether you tried and did not succeed before or are doing it for the first time, it is never too early to start the planning and preparation. Please do not wait for what you think is a better or the best time to start. Buyers look all year long and can only see and buy properties that are available to see.

There is no time for inexperience, empty promises or false expectations!

HIRE WISELY: We are not all the same!

View Details

On July 1, 2020, property owners in Delaware County PA were mailed letters advising them of their new “assessed values” to be used starting with the 2021 tax year. This began the formal tax appeal process. I have heard from many, especially on social media, concerned that their taxes may skyrocket given how much their “assessed value” had risen. I empathize and ask people to remain calm.

Taxation has ALWAYS been a point of contention for Americans going back to our founding. However, I am finding that, with the combination of the pandemic, social protests, the economy and the upcoming election, some may not have been paying much attention as the reassessment process moved forward and they are now shocked as it starts to “get real”. Reading both sides of the mailing should provide some comfort but many focus only on their assessed value and what it could mean. Let me provide some background. There is ample information available for anyone who wants to learn more and now is certainly the time to get engaged with the process.

Delaware County was last reassessed in 2002. That was a major undertaking. The current process seems easier because the information is more current and technology has improved. There are over 203,000 parcels to assess so every property could not be visited. Property owners have had two opportunities to appeal the new valuation.

The reassessment was court-ordered after two families filed lawsuits alleging that the system of determining assessments was not fair. As a REALTOR I am very familiar with the complexity of trying to be uniform in determining assessments, especially across municipalities and with respect to new construction. The judge ruled that assessments were so inconsistent that they violated the state constitution. Property taxes are an “ad valorem” tax, meaning that they should be uniformly levied in proportion to property value. The goal was to make the process more transparent by using “market value”, while specifically preventing a tax windfall to the County.

Several steps were taken to determine a property’s value as of July 2019. Owners were mailed initial paperwork to review to see if the County “knew” what they actually owned. There was an “appeal” process if there was a disparity. Now that the “final” values have been mailed there is a second, formal “appeal” process. The last day to appeal is September 1 with all appeal hearings to be concluded no later than October 31 so that the new assessment rolls can be certified no later than November 15. Only then can they can determine the millage and the actual taxes.

The “burden of proof” rests with the property owner to provide competent and credible evidence that their valuation is incorrect. An appraisal is not required but can be very helpful as far as meeting the "burden of proof" standard necessary and an owner may wish to hire an attorney. Absent an appeal, or if someone does not report for their hearing, the assessor’s value is presumed correct. I have heard some say that they do not feel comfortable with the appeal process and I can appreciate that but that is how the system works. Facts, not presentation skills, will determine the outcome. If your value “appears” reasonable, you may decide to do nothing. That is your choice.

The goal is to arrive at a County-wide assessment total. Once that is established, the County will need to link that with their budget by determining the “millage”. Only then will individual property owners have the opportunity to know their tax liability.

There is no time for inexperience, empty promises or false expectations!

HIRE WISELY: We are not all the same!

View Details

Selling Real Estate in and of itself, as an “independent act”, can be interesting enough. Contracts and paperwork aside, it has to be marketed/ exposed, identified as matching someone’s needs, visited, negotiated, inspected and eventually survive several steps proving that both parties can and want to complete the deed transfer. Every one of these steps can be lengthy.

I have found that there are really three basic scenarios possible when someone wants to sell a property. While similar at their core, the different scenarios each add their own dimension to the process and an agent and their client need to know the scenario and what makes them different.

The least complicated sale is one where a seller simply wants to sell a piece of Real Estate. “Least complicated” does not always mean simple or easy. The agent needs to know the seller’s motivation, is it a matter of time or money? Do they want a quick sale or require a certain “return”? Are their liens? What is the condition? What is the “fair market value”? What is the local market like? How easy is it to schedule showings? Over time these may change and more questions may arise. It takes an experienced, trained, educated and knowledgeable agent to properly advise their client as there is so much more to this than uploading the information to the MLS and Internet, installing a “For Sale” sign and waiting for a stampede of anxious buyers. This is not a “retail transaction” and often gets more complicated once buyers and their agents start to express interest. Experience will allow a professional to better prepare their seller-client for what the seller does not know might or will happen.

Many sellers need to sell to buy something else, even if not another piece of Real Estate. The biggest difference here is that they “attach” a number to the sale that they think has to be met or the process does not make sense for them. Even if they simply want to achieve a certain level of proceeds that changes the basic sale and may well end it before it starts. If they want to buy another property that connects one evolving process to another and, at times, synching two evolving processes can become challenging. For example, can a seller move into their next home when they need to or will they own two properties at the same time or will they need a place to stay for a short time? Sometimes a sale happens without a seller knowing what happens next. Sometimes they find their “next home” without having sold their present home. While these situations often work out nicely, there are times where sellers who become buyers do not have any idea how juggling two evolving processes can possibly work out but history suggests that it does. However, it requires more than luck.

Some sellers are looking to sell and buy but do not “need” to coordinate both processes. They can carry two properties and are willing to do that which makes both aspects easier to manage. This does not mean that they are comfortable doing that or that their thinking won’t change later so a professional must ask enough detailed questions to avoid later surprises.

Not to minimize the time, effort and training required, it is relatively easy to get a listing contract signed and upload the information to the MLS and Internet. Technology has made the marketing so much easier but we are paid more for what happens next and throughout the process, likely earning nothing if a property does not sell or if a sale falls though.

There is no time for inexperience, empty promises or false expectations!

HIRE WISELY: We are not all the same!

View Details

Today I want to discuss the 2019 NAR or National Association of REALTORS Profile of Buyers and Sellers. The report comes from a survey using 125 questions mailed to over 159,750 recent home buyers who purchased a primary residence between July 2018 and June 2019. This was a national survey so your market may be quite different. Real Estate is local: there is no national Real Estate market so please contact me for information about your local market.

This is Part 2 of 2. In Part 1, I focused on buyer characteristics, meaning who is the typical buyer. In Part 2, I will focus on the process the typical buyer used to find their home, the results they achieved and how they felt about the experience. There will be some overlap between the parts.

As I learned years ago, buying a home is an emotional decision justified with logic. This is what can make it fun or not. The process can be interesting enough when there is only one buyer involved. People have different ways of making decisions and we all handle challenges and stress differently. Buying a home typically offers plenty of both. When more than one buyer is involved, there can be quite a negotiation between the parties and they often seek my opinion. Purchasing a home is typically the largest financial transaction anyone will ever make and it involves many lifestyle factors. It is a serious process.

To see the statistics, please click here.

Buying Real Estate is a unique purchase: not only is it much less frequent than other purchases, it typically involves multiple steps, each offering their own challenges. If you would like to discuss buying or selling or if you have any thoughts about this, please contact me. Please look for Part 1.

There is no time for inexperience, empty promises or false expectations!

Remember: HIRE WISELY! We are not all the same.

View Details

This is Part 1 of 2 and will focus on buyer characteristics, meaning who is the typical buyer. In Part 2, I will focus on the process the typical buyer used to find their home, the results they achieved and how they felt about the experience. There will be some overlap between the parts.

To see the statistics, please click here.

To conclude, buying Real Estate is a unique purchase: not only is it much less frequent than other purchases, it typically involves multiple steps, each offering their own challenges. If you would like to discuss buying or selling or if you have any thoughts about this, please contact me. Please look for Part 2.

There is no time for inexperience, empty promises or false expectations!

Remember: HIRE WISELY! We are not all the same!

View Details

Since March 19, 2020, the PA Real Estate market has been in a form of suspended animation. For those agents who followed the law, business stopped on a dime. Properties that went “under contract” prior to that date were allowed to move forward although many municipalities and contractors were not willing or able to help complete the sale. Even then, many of those owners were frustrated in their efforts to buy their “next home”. Some ended up paying two mortgages.

Otherwise, agents were not allowed to conduct business “in person”, owners with “active” listings could not have actual showings and buyers could not visit properties to see inside. Business could be conducted “virtually” which likely worked better with “under contract” properties since those prospective buyers had likely seen the interior of their intended purchase.

Owners still looking for buyers had issues. Most buyers are reluctant, even in a competitive market, to make an offer without actually being able to see the interior. Buying “sight unseen” happened but I liken it to “online dating” where someone tells or shows you what they want you to “know”. What could go wrong? At least that was better than going on a “blind date”!

While I respect different “business models” and understand that some buyers and sellers needed a “creative” solution to work past our being the only state where Real Estate was considered “non-essential”, buying “sight unseen” is risky. For a few hundred dollars a buyer could use a property inspection as a way out. While not intended as legal advice, it happens. Some buyers cannot afford to waste any money so this may not have been an option for them. What about a seller who risks this happening to them? If the listing agent follows the rules, the property history may stigmatize the property if others thought there were issues with the house whereas the problem was really the buyer.

Fortunately, there is a new “dawn” albeit with some restrictions. Some sellers and buyers will jump at the opportunity; others may choose to wait to see what happens. How many are currently unemployed and unable to get financing? How many sellers need to buy their “next home” and are not ready to compete or who feel that the “right one” is not yet on the market? If possible, some sellers may want to get their house sold even if it means renting for a short time. At least their purchase won’t be tied to a sale and they may be able to determine if they really like an area they were considering.

As I always say, you cannot “time the market” so I encourage buyers and sellers to determine what is in their best interests. I am an experienced, trained and educated REALTOR and can offer the knowledge and insight to help you evaluate what is best for you. Assuming that people follow the guidelines and requirements for resuming Real Estate activity, my hope is that PA continues to improve so that we can avoid a set-back. Time will tell. Either way, I can help you now or later! I do suggest doing some planning and preparation so we can do an effective and efficient campaign when you are ready. That could make all the difference.

In the meantime, please visit my web site, listen to my podcasts and read my blogs.

There is no time for inexperience, empty promises or false expectations!

HIRE WISELY: We are not all the same!

View Details

Today I want to discuss the 2019 NAR or National Association of REALTORS Profile of Buyers and Sellers. The report comes from a survey using 125 questions mailed to over 159,750 recent home buyers who purchased a primary residence between July 2018 and June 2019. The focus of this podcast will be buyers who sold one home to buy another. This was a national survey so your market may be quite different. Real Estate is local: there is no national Real Estate market so please contact me for information about your local market.

To see the whole blog with statistics, please visit:

https://andrewwetzel.wordpress.com/2020/05/09/how-sellers-sold-real-estate-in-2019-who-is-the-typical-seller/

The bottom line is that this can be a very confusing process. This NOT a retail transaction! It is typically costly enough without making expensive mistakes. Unless you do this regularly, I respectfully suggest that you trust a trained, experienced professional. Whether you want to trust your most valuable asset to someone with little experience or someone who has a long track record is up to you but any professional is likely to know more than an average seller looking to save a few dollars. I understand that signing a formal contract with someone, even if recommended to you, is quite a leap of faith. Most of us can offer options to increase your comfort level. After all, we want to make sure that you “fit” with us as well.

Selling Real Estate is unique compared to most typical purchases: not only is it much less frequent than other purchases, it typically involves multiple steps, each offering its own challenges. If you would like to discuss selling or buying or if you have any thoughts about this, please contact me.

There is no time for inexperience, empty promises or false expectations!

HIRE WISELY! We are not all the same!

View Details

The pandemic is having a major impact on the world and our country. My deepest sympathy goes to everyone who has been personally impacted in any way. Life is very different today than it was just a few weeks ago. For example, Real Estate, a major component in our economy, has been directly impacted by a number of factors including “social distancing” rules, slowing or stopping most activity. In PA Real Estate is considered "non-essential".

The “spring market” is usually going strong by now. Many owners plan to move after school has ended or before enjoying the summer. However, many plans have been put on hold. Many owners whose properties were on the market have stopped their marketing. In PA we are not allowed to show homes to buyers although we can do this virtually or buyers can make offers without actually visiting them. Relying on technology is great but that puts buyers and their agents into an awkward position most do not want: buying "sight unseen". What could possibly go wrong? Taking new listings is equally difficult if we follow the rules. Sadly, many aren’t and only time will tell if that was worth the risk.

We can do paperwork electronically but many of the processes that typically occur between signing a contract and settlement are stopped so many properties under contract are not moving forward. These include property and municipal inspections, repairs and appraisals. Even worse, many sales are being canceled, mostly due to employment issues or changes in financing. While the long-term results are unclear, this touches on something I see and say every fall and winter.

Fall, specifically September and October, is typically the second wave of Real Estate activity. While Real Estate can and does sell every day of the year, there are two major seasons. After summer and enjoying the great outdoors, I suspect some return home from vacation feeling claustrophobic as they adjust to spending more time indoors while others want to sell before the new year.

What is interesting and happens every year is that many owners who were unsuccessful trying to sell, decide to wait until the next spring. Some are frustrated by the process; others want to enjoy the coming holiday season. Every year I remind people that houses sell every day, that most houses look their best in the fall and, as we are clearly seeing NOW, who knows what spring will bring? There are many who came to regret leaving the market in 2008. Then the market crashed. How many might have sold and moved on had they continued trying to sell? And now this. Obviously this is different.

We started off 2020 with nice weather so the Real Estate market performed well. Some still kept their houses off the market. Inventory levels remained low which undoubtedly concerned many owners wondering where they might move. What happened to their plans? How long will this last? What will life be like afterwards? What will be “normal”? How quickly will our booming economy return? There are so many questions but we have to look forward, don’t we?

I am confident that this will pass. Owners will have an opportunity to decide whether to move forward with their plans, albeit delayed, or wait until some later date, perhaps “next spring”. I am here to help you and provide knowledge and insight to help you make an informed decision. Whether sooner or later, we can get back to normal and move forward with your plans.

There is no time for inexperience, empty promises or false expectations!

HIRE WISELY: We are not all the same!

View Details

When we experience a “seller’s market”, meaning that there are more buyers looking than there are properties available for them to buy, the competition often leads to frustration. This is especially true when getting to see inside becomes an issue. It is not unusual for a buyer to have to bid on several houses before getting an offer accepted. At least they got to see inside and make an offer, right?

A new policy created by NAR, the National Association of REALTORS, and implemented by Bright MLS has added to the drama. As a result, some are making offers to buy Real Estate “sight unseen”. What does this mean and what are the implications?

We have experienced “seller’s markets” before and we will again. Generally speaking, a combination of low mortgage interest rates and low inventory causes houses to sell quickly, making many buyers and sellers act differently than they might in a more balanced market. Asking prices may be the “floor” rather than the “ceiling” when it comes to making an offer and a buyer, assuming they have an opportunity to see inside a house and make an offer, may not get a second chance so it may be wise to offer their “highest and best” from the beginning. However, the regulations covering appraisals are stricter than in the past so offering above the asking price is not always the best answer. What to do?

For the rest, please visit https://andrewwetzel.wordpress.com/2020/03/14/buying-real-estate-sight-unseen/

There is no time for inexperience, empty promises or false expectations!

HIRE WISELY: We are not all the same!

View Details

Happy New Year! I am looking for owners to help this year. Whether you want to sell a house or an investment property, I can help. There is no experience required.

As I find every January, many sellers tried but did not succeed with selling their properties last year. Have they delayed their plans for making a move, perhaps waiting for what they think is a better or the best time to sell? Or, have they tried and given up, thinking it wasn’t “meant to be”. Please consider these two questions. What led to your deciding to sell, especially if selling involved making a move, and what happens in the long run if you do not sell? People have various reasons for selling and I have met many who wished they had sold sooner. Every situation in unique but most offer an opportunity if a seller and their agent work well together. Whether you tried to sell before or were waiting for this year, now is the time to plan for 2020.

If you want or need to sell, why wait? What are you waiting for? Why not start or even restart the process now or start planning for success this year? Please do not wait for a “better time”: buyers look all year long and can only see and buy properties that are available on the active market. When many sellers take “time off” there is an opportunity since there is less competition.

If you are considering selling or making a fresh start, I would like to meet with you to discuss your plans and needs and show you how I can sell your property. There is absolutely no obligation so there is nothing to lose and much to potentially gain. I can have your property on the market as soon as you like. Of course, if you want or need to wait, I can help you when you are ready.

To read the rest, visit: https://andrewwetzel.wordpress.com/2020/01/18/happy-new-year-message-to-sellers/

There is no time for inexperience, empty promises or false expectations!

HIRE WISELY: We are not all the same.

View Details

Bright MLS has released their Residential Market Statistics for single family homes through December 2019. In today’s podcast I will discuss 2019 results for Delaware County Pennsylvania. If you would like information about this or any other County or any specific municipalities in the Delaware Valley, please contact me. I am only a text, email or phone call away! I respond to all inquiries.

The report compares current results to one-year ago, same time period. As with all Real Estate statistics, two things are true. First, the performance within individual zip-codes can and will vary significantly from the overall County. Real Estate is local and results can vary from neighborhood to neighborhood and even block to block. There is no such thing as a “national” Real Estate market any more than there is a national weather forecast so, whether you may be thinking about selling or buying, please contact me for details about your areas of interest. I can provide current information and keep you informed about the evolving market. Deciding whether it is the right time to sell or buy is a personal decision typically involving a number of variables. I can provide the knowledge and insight to help you decide what works for you.

To read the rest of the blog post: https://andrewwetzel.wordpress.com/2020/01/18/bright-mls-december-2019-residential-housing-report/

I hope you had a great holiday season and have a happy and healthy new year! If you want or need to sell any type of Real Estate, whether you tried and did not succeed before or are planning for the first time, NOW is the time to plan for 2020. Please do not wait for what you think is a better or the best time to start. Buyers look all year long and can only see and buy properties that are available to see.

There is no time for inexperience, empty promises or false expectations!

HIRE WISELY: We are not all the same!

View Details

Bright MLS has released their Residential Market Statistics for single family homes through November 2019. In today’s podcast I will discuss YTD results for Delaware County Pennsylvania. If you would like information about this or any other County or any specific municipalities in the Delaware Valley, please contact me.

The report compares current results to one-year ago, same time period. As with all Real Estate statistics, two things are true. First, the performance within individual zip-codes can and will vary significantly from the overall County. Real Estate is local and results can vary from neighborhood to neighborhood and even block to block. There is no such thing as a “national” Real Estate market so, whether you may be looking to buy or sell, please contact me for details about your areas of interest. I can provide current information and keep you informed about the evolving market. Deciding whether it is the right time to sell or buy is a personal decision typically involving a number of variables. I can provide the knowledge and insight to help you decide what works for you.

My second point is that, unfortunately, all Real Estate statistics involving sold data is stale. While a sale may be settled or closed today, the real question is when was the offer negotiated? Typically sales take 45 to 60 days to close so the market today may be different. Up-to-date information is important!

As far as the statistics ...

To continue reading: https://andrewwetzel.wordpress.com/2019/12/21/bright-mls-november-2019-housing-report/

Have a great holiday season and a happy and healthy new year!

There is no time for inexperience, empty promises or false expectations!

HIRE WISELY: We are not all the same!

View Details

Real Estate agents are licensed by the state. I am in Pennsylvania. Once approved to represent or “work for” clients, they are bound by RELRA, our Real Estate Licensing and Registration Act, which is enforced by the state Real Estate Commission. If an agent becomes a REALTOR, which means they belong to national, state and local REALTOR Associations, they are bound by a Code of Ethics which is very similar to RELRA although enforcement is handled through a local Association in most cases.

Once a REALTOR is “hired” to represent a buyer-client they owe them certain “fiduciary duties” which are spelled out in the rules and regulations. They should review and discuss them with their buyer-client to ensure that they are committed to working together. Here is a list of things NOT to do even if the buyer-client asks you to do them or if they accept your doing them. Most of this list comes from real-life examples, fortunately not my own. I have been mediating buyer-seller and client-agent disputes since 2002. In addition, I have served on all levels of our Association’s Professional Standards Committee which means I have heard, reviewed, evaluated and resolved many ethics complaints. As I like to say when I teach ethics to my fellow agents, you can’t make this stuff up.

Here are some examples of what NOT to do when representing a client buying Real Estate: ....

To read the rest, please visit

https://andrewwetzel.wordpress.com/2019/12/14/51-things-a-buyers-agent-should-not-do-even-if-their-client-accepts-them/

View Details

Once a REALTOR is “hired” to represent a seller-client they owe them certain “fiduciary duties” which are spelled out in the rules and regulations. They should review and discuss them with their seller-client to ensure that they are committed to working together. Here is a list of things NOT to do even if the seller-client asks you to do them or if they accept your doing them. Most of this list comes from real-life examples, fortunately not my own. I have been mediating seller-buyer and client-agent disputes since 2002. In addition, I have served on all levels of our Association’s Professional Standards Committee which means I have heard, reviewed, evaluated and resolved many ethics complaints. As I like to say when I teach ethics to my fellow agents, you can’t make this stuff up.

Here are some examples of what NOT to do when representing an owner selling Real Estate: ....

To read the items: https://andrewwetzel.wordpress.com/2019/11/15/49-things-a-listing-agent-should-not-do-even-if-their-client-accepts-them/

... Of course, this list is really intended to show you most of what we are expected to do, even if actual performance may vary from one agent to another. Our “fiduciary duties” require that we obey your lawful instructions, be loyal to you, disclose what we know, keep your business confidential, account for any monies we handle and that we provide reasonable care and due diligence to you. There is so much more to working for sellers and buyers than simply doing the paperwork. Even if you have sold or bought Real Estate before, we have knowledge and insight gained through experience, training and education. We are expected to protect and promote your interests throughout the process and to be knowledgeable and competent in what we do. Our clients have the right to expect nothing less.

When it comes to selling what is typically a person’s largest asset:

There is no time for inexperience, empty promises or false expectations!

HIRE WISELY: We are not all the same!

View Details

Bright MLS has released their Residential Market Statistics for single family homes through October 2019. In today’s podcast I will discuss YTD results for Delaware County Pennsylvania. If you would like information about this or any other County in the Delaware Valley, please contact me....

To read the entire BLOG post, visit: https://andrewwetzel.wordpress.com/2019/11/15/bright-mls-october-2019-housing-report/

... The overall economy is doing well with some adjustments here and there. Statistics aside, what are you planning to do? Real Estate is generally a long-term investment unless you are looking to fix and flip it or planning to move within a short period of time. There are opportunities out there. As with the stock market, it is very difficult to pick the best time to make a move. All you can do is get the best available information, determine what is in your best interests and then start the process. I am a phone call or email away and getting started is easy once you take action.

There is no time for inexperience, empty promises or false expectations!

HIRE WISELY: We are not all the same!

View Details

There are two primary tools used for conveying property information for buying and selling Real Estate. While there are literally hundreds of possible ways to communicate this information, except for specific market segments which may use or need a different approach, all but the top two pale in comparison as far as efficiency and effectiveness. Real Estate agents are the “match makers” bringing sellers and buyers together: we participate in over 91% of Real Estate transactions.

By efficiency I mean having the ability to mass market information as quickly as possible. Marketing means exposure and exposure should ensure that a seller achieve the highest possible selling price in a reasonable amount of time. Whether the value the market attaches to a property meets the seller’s expectations or not is another story. The fact is that Real Estate needs to be exposed to the mass market, properties have to be available to be shown to prospective buyers and sellers need to believe that the value they are offered has not been negatively impacted by poor or limited exposure. Sellers are either motivated by time or money so some may be willing to settle for less if they sell quickly.

By effective I mean that prospective buyers and their agents must be able to readily identify all of the options which meet the buyer’s wants and needs. Buyers need to be able to believe that they are getting the best value for their dollar by being able to compare what is available for purchase and to compare what is available with what has been sold as far as location, features, condition and price. The concept of “data integrity” means that information is uploaded accurately so that it can be identified by people searching for it. Of course, listing agents and mortgage appraisers need to rely on the information as well. No one benefits from inefficient or ineffective means of conveying Real Estate information....

For the entire Blog: https://andrewwetzel.wordpress.com/2019/11/02/bright-mls-listing-statuses-and-what-they-mean/

View Details

Bright MLS has released their Residential Market Statistics for single family homes for the third quarter of 2019. In today’s podcast I will discuss YTD results through September for Delaware County Pennsylvania. If you would like information about this or any other County in the Delaware Valley, please contact me.

The report compares the current results to one-year ago, same time period. As with all Real Estate statistics, two things are true. First, the performance within individual zip-codes can and will vary significantly from the overall County. Real Estate is local and results can vary from neighborhood to neighborhood and even block to block. There is no such thing as a “national” Real Estate market so, whether you may be looking to buy or sell, please contact me for details about your areas of interest. I can provide current information and keep you informed about the evolving market. Deciding whether it is the right time to sell or buy is a personal decision typically involving a number of variables. I can provide the knowledge and insight to help you decide what works for you.

As far as the statistics, ....

To read the whole blog:

https://andrewwetzel.wordpress.com/2019/10/22/bright-mls-quarter-3-2019-housing-report/

View Details

This week Bright MLS announced a new policy regarding property listings that are “advertised”. The policy begins with the following language:

“The MLS system encourages competition in the marketplace while also ensuring cooperation and compensation among real estate professionals. Full participation in the MLS ensures the seller has the largest possible marketplace, and the buyer has the widest possible selection. This policy will help provide transparency and access to information in the real estate marketplace”.

*The reaction on Facebook was as swift and voluminous as I have ever seen in my years of engaging in social media. I called the response “nuclear”. While many, including myself, agree with the thought behind the policy change, a majority found it objectionable, questioning the ability of the MLS to interfere with how they conduct their business. Let me add some history and context to the situation.

To read the whole blog:

https://andrewwetzel.wordpress.com/2019/10/22/new-bright-mls-listing-policy-october-2019/*

View Details

The Philadelphia Inquirer recently ran a Real Estate story that made many people angry. REALTORS were not involved. What has happened and will undoubtedly continue to happen is sad and, perhaps, entirely preventable.

The article talked about people buying Real Estate, such as vacant land, from people with a high level of urgency or people with limited information. The article described many as being poor which adds to the emotion. The buyers either searched for people they thought would want or need to sell property or responded to owners looking to sell quickly. In many cases the buyers “flipped” the properties for huge profits, often without making any repairs or little added cost to themselves. Now the sellers and others are blaming the buyers, saying the buyers took advantage of the sellers. But did they?

Would I like to have this done to me or someone I know? Absolutely NOT! So, what is the answer? Assuming these transactions were not coerced, who is responsible for this? Whether the sellers were misled about the “market value” or worth of the Real Estate is a separate issue. What is the seller's responsibility as far as learning the "market value" of what they want or need to sell? What should the buyers have done differently? What is society’s role: do we want to require a third-party to review and evaluate sales to protect whomever we think “vulnerable”? That would seem excessive.

Please do NOT misunderstand me: the article did not accuse the buyers of fraud and I would certainly NOT condone that. In fact, the buyers say they do a lot of work to put these deals together and provide a benefit to sellers. Frankly, what we have are two parties with their own interests and motivation as well as two different ideas of property value. The same thought applies to a sale where both parties are represented by professionals although they would have an added layer of “protection” if their agents performed as we are supposed to.

In Real Estate there have always been a number of "private sales", meaning there are no agents involved. About 8% of national transactions do not involve agents although many of these involve parties who know each other. Sadly, many who buy or sell Real Estate without professional representation come to realize there was a problem AFTER the sale closed and those sales tend to result in lower proceeds even when you consider that the Real Estate fee was not charged.

While the article has several very sad stories, absent fraud, many of these sellers need to look at what they did and what they expected to happen. They took a risk by not hiring a professional. Could they really have gotten “top dollar” on their own or did they have the resources to maximize the “highest and best use” of the Real Estate? Again I ask: whose job was it to protect and promote their interests? They had choices, even if somewhat limited, and now they have the consequences of what they did.

While anyone can make the decision to buy or sell Real Estate without an agent, what is the TRUE co$t of trying to save the fee? If the issue was a matter of time, trying to sell fast usually comes at the expense of profits since the market was not allowed to function properly. Absent hiring a professional, please, at least pay an attorney to review any documents involved and/ or hire an appraiser to determine the true “market value” of your property. While doing either may not get you what you think you are due, at least you will know your options. Certainly do NOT trust random online property valuations and, respectfully, do not rely on friends and family. Business is business!

In the event there was any fraud or misrepresentation, pursue that through legal channels.

View Details

I have been helping frustrated owners sell properties that other agents could not sell since 1996. What does this mean? I use the multiple listing service to monitor daily residential and multi-family properties. I look for property listings that might appeal to my buyer-clients, that compete with properties owned by my seller-clients and those which come off the active market without selling.

During the course of any year a number of property listings are canceled or their contracts expire before there is a sale. Some of these properties will come back on the market with the same agent, perhaps at a lower price, some owners will hire a new agent thinking that will solve any problems they had and a significant number of properties will remain off the market for months or longer! I always wonder **what happened with whatever plans those owners and families had.

To read the rest, please copy and paste this link:**

https://wordpress.com/post/andrewwetzel.wordpress.com/2656

View Details

Bright MLS has released their Residential Market Report for single family homes for the second quarter of 2019. In today’s podcast I will discuss YTD results through June for Delaware County Pennsylvania. If you would like information about this or any other County in the Delaware Valley, please contact me.

As far as the statistics, 3310 properties were settled through June with an average “selling price” of $288,887 and a “median” selling price, meaning that half of the sales were higher and half were lower, of $227,564 compared to 3429 settled last year at an average price of $266,570 and a median price of $209,900. The DOM or “days on the market” for settled properties rose to 61 from 55. The ratio of the “average sold price” compared to the “original asking price” was 95.7% with the percentage dropping as the days on the market rose. The “inventory accumulation” remains under 3, which suggests a slight seller’s market overall. The underlying data shows a wide range of results in all categories among the 49 different municipalities in Delaware County.

We can debate whether averages or medians are more important but what really matters is how your property or one that interests you compares to those appraised and settled with similar location, features and condition. Appraisers rely on nearby settled properties so average or median pricing loses some validity but may provide insight for both the short term and the long term.

What about the properties that did not sell? Many came off the market and remain unavailable. Houses may get showings without generating offers unless buyers think they are priced within the range of their perceived “worth”. Most property listings whose contracts are canceled or allowed to expire have asking prices considered high for their market and/ or they were poorly marketed, meaning that some buyers may not have even known that a house was available to purchase. Of course this may well depend on the ratio of buyer and sellers so there is more to this than raw statistics. If a market has a lot of inventory, some buyers may not be willing to look at houses priced high compared to the rest of the market. While sellers may be open to negotiating their price, many never get the chance. I will happy to discuss specifics with you.

The overall economy is doing well with some adjustments here and there. Pushing statistics aside, what are you planning to do? Real Estate is generally a long-term investment unless you are looking to fix and flip it or planning to move again. There are opportunities out there. As with the stock ma

View Details

I created and am teaching a class on representing sellers from the Consumer Notice through settlement. As part of my preparation for the class I reviewed the PAR Listing Contract in detail. I have always questioned two specific statements in paragraph 13 which is titled ADDITIONAL OFFERS. I have worked around these two statements in my own business and used the classroom as a way to see if other agents agreed with me. Most did. Here are the statements and my thoughts.

Line 118 basically says: "Unless prohibited by Seller, if Broker is asked …, Broker will reveal the existence of other offers". While I understand and appreciate that we have to be honest, our primary duty as stated in Article 1 of our Code of Ethics is to protect and promote our client’s interest. Generally speaking, I am not sure that telling an agent or a buyer that you have an offer on a property really helps the seller especially if the offer is not something they are likely to sign and/ or the buyer wants to avoid what may not really be any viable competition for the property. The question demands a yes or no answer, not a maybe. Suppose you have an unopened email or a package that you know contains an offer for a property you have listed. You may have no idea about the details: it could be full price or above asking or well below. There could be contingencies that are unacceptable to your seller client. Are you supposed to tell others that you have an offer? Again, you cannot say “maybe”.

I offer two alternatives for rewording the sentence to be more proactive. One would be a statement that the agent will not reveal the existence of other offers unless authorized by the seller. Or it could state that the agent is authorized. Either way, the statement is plain and simple. This may be semantics but I like these phrasings better. The other alternative would be a check box offering the seller the choice to accept or waive disclosing the existence of other offers at the time of signing the listing contract. When the disclosure is waived the agent would respond by saying they are not authorized to answer the question. Again, if authorized the answer is an honest yes or no. In addition, suppose you say yes or no and the circumstance changes, perhaps an offer dies or one comes in. Does the seller or the buyer’s agent or the buyer expect a real-time update?

At the very least, my hope would be that there is a greater likelihood that a conversation would take place than is probably happening now and that is a good thing. Too many of my seller clients who have worked with other agents before hiring me have told me that they were negotiating an offer or heard there was interest and then nothing happened. When I mentioned my concerns to my students I sensed that many never gave a thought to the downside of this: some buyers run the other way when they hear about competition and line 118 does not differentiate between viable and non-viable offers. Of course, we have many different business models and if a property is located in a market that thrives on any type of competition, disclose to your heart’s content but one size does not fit all. We have to know our clients, their circumstances and their local market.

Within the same paragraph, line 120 states that “ONCE SELLER ENTERS INTO AN AGREEMENT OF SALE, BROKER IS NOT REQUIRED TO PRESENT OTHER OFFERS”. My office policy has always been to present any and all offers and let the seller decide what to do. Admittedly this may require their seeking legal advice if they like the latest offer even though under contract with another buyer with their having no apparent right to terminate the existing offer without creating a default. Experience tells me that the grass is not always greener bu

View Details

Everyone knows that Spring is the best time to sell Real Estate. It came and went. Were you planning to make a move this year? Every year around June and October I see and hear the same thing again and again and recent history was no exception. Many sellers take their homes off the market, apparently adjusting their plans: some delaying them until Fall or next Spring, others perhaps giving up entirely. That is obviously their choice but I always wonder why so many owners decide to remain in a house they were willing to leave. Many of those properties remain off the market, unavailable to see and buy. What is the cost of not selling or delaying your plans? Let me offer a few thoughts.

Some owners think they cannot achieve their financial goal so they give up even if only temporarily. Price is NOT always the issue when a house sits on the market unsold. I have seen and helped many frustrated owners by simply adjusting the marketing. I use the term “Google search” to demonstrate this point: buyers and their agents must be able to find YOUR house in their search results. Unfortunately many MLS listings are inaccurate or, frankly, so pathetic that people cannot identify all of the houses that match their needs. Even worse, the listing agent may not realize what is really going on and ask for a price reduction when one is not needed. How much does that cost? How does that impact your plans? Keep in mind that if the MLS is inaccurate, the Internet will likely be wrong as well. Sellers should look at their MLS printout and search for their own house online!

Buyers are out looking every day of the year, even if only online. While there is no guarantee that your house will sell if it is on the market, it will not sell if it is not. If buyers and agents cannot find a house in their search results, they will not know it is available so they will be unable to schedule a showing and it will sit unsold. Sellers who keep their houses on the market when others do not will increase their odds even though fewer buyers may be looking at any particular time of year.

I fully understand that selling Real Estate can be inconvenient even if a property is vacant. Agents you do not know bring buyers they may not know (and who may not be qualified to buy) into your house and look at your stuff. They come when they want, perhaps late, and impose on your lifestyle. Showings are a must but we can do a better job managing them. It gets worse if you have a lot of activity with no offers or low offers but showings are a vital part of the selling process.

The two busiest selling times are Spring and Fall. Of course the reasons people buy their first or next home are varied but these are the best times in terms of inventory level so frustrated sellers often take their homes off the market until the next “best” time comes which is also when they will have the most competition. Why not start now?

When June arrives many of us assume the market will stop so they think about vacation and wanting to enjoy time with their families. Many sellers do not want to deal with showings during these months which is a shame because a house can sell any day of the year!

Whether you are thinking about selling for the first time or if you have taken take time off, I encourage not to wait too long to resume the process. The earlier you start the better. My suggestion, if you have not already committed to an agent, is to call me so we can discuss the market, your house and your plans. I will give you honest advice with no obligation. If you plan to buy another home I can also provide information about areas and houses that may interest you. All I suggest, respectfully&

View Details

Bright MLS has released their Housing Report for single family homes in Delaware County PA covering year-to-date statistics through May 2019. If you would like more information about this or any other County in the Delaware Valley, please contact me or visit AndrewWetzel.com.

As with all Real Estate statistics, two things are true. First, individual zip-codes can vary significantly from the County. Real Estate is local and results can vary from neighborhood to neighborhood and block to block. There is no “national” Real Estate market so, if you are thinking about buying or selling, please contact me for details about your areas of interest. Deciding the right time to make a move is a personal decision involving a number of variables. The Internet can provide information and data but I have the experience, training and education to provide knowledge and insight. I can also provide current information and keep you informed about the evolving market.

Second, all Real Estate statistics involving sold data is stale. A sale may be settled or closed today but the real question is when was the offer negotiated? Sale typically take 45 to 60 days to close so the market may be different today. Current information is important!

As far as the report, 2196 properties have been settled this year with a current average “selling price” of $282,000 and a “median” selling price, meaning that half of the sales were higher and half were lower, of $237,000 compared to 2384 settled last year at a then average price of $260,000 and a median price of $210,000. Both prices have trended up while the number of settled properties is down 7.9%. However, the number of pending properties is up 4.7%, suggesting that some buyers delayed making offers or settling them compared to last year. Inventory levels are much lower than last year which affects demand and pricing. Again, there is a wide range of results within the County.

Which number is more meaningful, median or average? We can debate that but what really matters is how your property or one that interests you compares to those appraised and settled with similar location, features and condition. Appraisers rely on nearby settled properties so average or median pricing loses some validity but may provide insight for both the short term and the long term.

What about the properties that did not sell? Many came off the market and still remain unavailable. Houses may get showings without generating offers unless buyers think they are priced within the range of their perceived “worth”. While sellers set the asking price, buyers determine the value. If a market has a lot of inventory, some buyers will not even consider houses priced high compared to the rest of the market. Most property listings whose contracts are canceled or allowed to expire have asking prices considered high for their market and/ or they were poorly marketed, meaning that some buyers and their agents may not have known that they were “For Sale” because they were not in their search results. While sellers may be open to negotiating their price, they may never get the chance if buyers do not know their house is “For Sale”. Of course there is more to this than time permits. I will happy to discuss specifics with you.

The overall economy continues to do well with some adjustments here and there. Are you or someone you know thinking about buying or selling? There are always opportunities out there. As with the stock market, it is very difficult to pick the best time to make a move. All you can do is get the best infor

View Details

What I have Learned in Over 22+ Years in Real Estate!

When hiring an agent, pick the one who lets you sleep better knowing they have the training, experience, knowledge, integrity and character to work in your best interest
Sellers are either motivated by time (they want to sell sooner rather than later) or money (they want or need to meet a certain goal)
If you are selling to buy another house, what is the cost of taking longer to sell?
The fee/ commission is negotiable but you have to compete with your competition or your first price reduction will cost more than what you thought you were saving
Every property has a price at which it will sell
The first offer you receive is usually the best
If you price your house too low, you probably won’t need me to help you sell it; if you price it too high I probably can’t help you sell it
Houses that do not sell either have a pricing or a marketing problem; many have both
A price reduction is a co$tly way to try to overcome poor marketing and it may not work
If buyers and agents cannot find your property in their search results, they will not know it is available so it will sit on the market longer than it should
If a house does not sell, buyers either found something similar at a lower price or they were willing to pay your price but wanted more features for their money
A price reduction either has to make your house appeal to a new group of buyers or convince those who know about your house to want to take action (make an offer)
Buyers are buying the neighborhood and a lifestyle so they need to engage in the process
Negotiating an offer is like playing poker: you can focus on what the other person is thinking or do what is in your best interests. A seller or buyer may not get a second chance
After a purchase agreement is signed, one party is generally happier than the other and how the process plays out depends on who thinks they gave up more
Getting an offer signed is like getting engaged: the goal is to commit to the process and make sure it is the right decision. It does not always end well
Hiring a friend or family member may feel great but what happens when a problem arises? Business does not always mix when a personal relationship is involved.

Remember: HIRE WISELY! We are not all the same!

View Details

Let me start with an analogy. I am a football fan and I find it fascinating that the game has gotten so complicated that coaches roam the sideline with huge, color-coded charts telling them what to do in various situations. For example, after scoring a touchdown, should they try a 2-point conversion or just kick the “extra-point”?

Many Real Estate agents have a “mental” chart that they use when a house is NOT selling. Unfortunately, most of them have a “one-size fits all” answer: REDUCE THE PRICE! While circumstances may require a price “adjustment”, lowering the price is not a universal cure: it may accomplish nothing and it co$ts money. I wonder how many agents told a Seller that their initial “asking price” was reasonable only to have to admit later that it was too high?

Trying a higher price is not necessarily a problem as long as the seller has the time to wait should doing that delay a sale. Pricing is an art and not a science so trying to figure out exactly what a “ready, willing and able” buyer will offer makes little sense. Of course, a selling price has to make sense to buyers and appraisers when evaluated with sales of comparable homes.

To be effective, any pricereduction has to accomplish one of two things (doing both is even better). Otherwise, you may literally be wasting money!

Would the proposed lower askingprice make your house more attractive to prospective Buyers already looking within your local market and price-range? If there are 10 houses similar to yours, would a lower price motivate someone to want to see yours earlier in the "shopping stage" or make yours more appealing as compared to your competition? For example, if your current price is $259,900, what is the next lower-priced house? A reduction should have a strategy! You don’t want to just give away your profit.
Would the new price "introduce"/ "expose" your house to an entirely new group of prospective Buyers who may not otherwise even know your house is available for purchase? Buyers tend to look in price ranges so unless you enter a different price range, you may be marketing your house to the same buyers. That may not be a bad thing depending on your competition, Using the prior example of a house priced at $259,900, what impact does reducing to $250,000 have as far as attracting new Buyers? Most Buyers “shop” online for several weeks before contacting an agent and they often identify the house they will try to buy. This makes pricing even more important.

Obviously an agent and a Seller need to know the local market (the “competition”): reducing the asking price co$ts REAL dollar$ which may impact a Seller’s plans or their ability and desire to do repairs or offer a seller assist. That being said, a Seller should be able to discuss strategy and make (or not make) an informed decision BEFORE giving up their hard-earned money.

Simply lowering the asking price, especially if the real issue is poor or ineffective marketing, may not change anything! If the marketing is ineffective (meaning that agents and buyers are not able to find your property in their search results), few if any may even know you lowered your “asking price”. Guess what happens next? An agent may suggest that the reduction was not sufficient and ask for more! OUCH!

There is no time for inexperience, empty promises or false expectations!

Remember: HIRE WISELY! We are not all the same!

View Details

An offer to buy Real Estate consists of three sections: the price, the terms and the contingencies. Contingencies are “conditions” or requirements which one person places on another as part of their offer to do something. “I will do this if you will do that”. Contingencies provide options if something, like an inspection, raises concern. The potential list of contingencies is endless, the expectations may or may not be realistic and the right to terminate the offer may not be negotiable. Both parties have specific responsibilities once an offer is signed.

When a buyer and seller enter into an agreement for the sale or transfer of Real Estate, the buyer agrees to pay the seller/ owner and complete the sale IF certain conditions are met. The seller agrees to the same process IF certain conditions are met. All of this is subject to negotiation. Selling Real Estate differs from “retail” where you enter a store and can quickly pay for and receive something you want. The online transaction delays taking possession but still has minimal steps. Acquiring Real Estate can be a lengthy process, typically providing several opportunities for either or both parties to re-evaluate their interest level. Here are some examples.

A seller establishes a specific asking price along with any terms and conditions they want or need. This might include the type of financing they will accept or when they can settle. A buyer’s offer starts the negotiating process to see if they can reach a mutually-acceptable agreement. In theory, an agreement can only be reached when a buyer wants the house more than what they are paying and a seller wants what they are receiving more than they want to own the house. In addition to the price, a seller will most likely want a buyer to provide some evidence that they are financially “qualified” to buy the house and to conclude the sale on the specified date.

One of the major contingencies or conditions controlled by a buyer is the inspection contingency or “due diligence” period. While a seller may be required to complete a disclosure statement advising potential buyers of known material defects in their property, most buyers will want to inspect one or more aspects of the property to reduce or eliminate potentially costly surprises. When a buyer makes a formal offer to a seller, in addition to reviewing the disclosure forms and walking through the property, they are basing their offer on a number of factors such as what they are willing and able to spend, what the market suggests as a possible selling price, how they view the property as far as features and condition and anything else they want to use to begin the process. Once an offer is fully negotiated and signed, the buyer will order whatever inspections were included within their offer. The bottom line is that one of three things will happen after any inspections are completed: the buyer may be more satisfied with their decision, they may have learned some things that concern them which were not factored into their offer or they may terminate the sale. When a buyer wants to move forward but is concerned about what they learned from one or more inspections, there is another negotiation to see if the parties can agree to a solution that satisfies both of them. If they cannot agree to a mutually-beneficial solution, the sale may fall through. How will the seller handle what they now know about their house? Is it fact or opinion? How will other prospective buyers view a house that has come back on the market? How long will it take for another offer and will it be better?

If the sale continues moving forward and the buyer is using lender or mortgage financing, the loan still has to be approved. The approval process is typically dependent on the buyer’s financial qualifications, their ability to insure the property, the seller’s ability to provide a “clear title” meaning that they are able to transfer

View Details

PA state law requires that a seller disclose known “material defects” (as described on page 1 of the form) in writing to a buyer before entering into an agreement of sale. Sellers should complete the form in a timely manner so that it is available when a buyer wants to make an offer as they need to review it and accept it. Unavailable or incomplete forms can frustrate a buyer and delay or prevent them from making an offer.

While it is expected and assumed that a seller will make the appropriate disclosures, I have been involved in a number of mediation conferences where a buyer/ new owner had a problem after settlement and questioned whether the seller had been completely honest. I am told that the form remains valid after settlement to some extent until the property is sold again. The passage of time and what the new owner does to their house will impact that but it is an important legal document and should be treated as such.

An agent cannot complete the form but they should review it before making it available to other agents and their buyers. I review them to make sure that they are completely filled out but I do not know enough about a client’s house to know whether the answers are correct unless I see something obvious.

Generally speaking, for those who are required to complete the form (see page 1 of the form), there are very few questions that do not require an answer within the check boxes. I strongly encourage my clients to use as many check boxes as they can to minimize unchecked lines. Here are some specific thoughts:initial and date the lower left corner on the appropriate pages and sign and date the last page;
read an entire section/ paragraph before answering any individual questions;
answer based on “first-hand” knowledge (what you know), not based on what someone told you. Even if the property is an estate or “flip”, most sellers have some knowledge they need to share on the form;
explain any “yes” answers. Be as concise as you can or use an additional page if needed. Make sure you write legibly in case there is an issue later;
answer all of the questions even if “unk” or “N/A” is the answer. Please do NOT skip questions or sections that do not seem to apply or jump ahead;
in the paragraph “Other Equipment and Appliances”, only check items that will remain in the property NOT those that will be “negotiable”. I suggest that sellers circle the words “will, or may,” to minimize issues when negotiating an agreement and to avoid having a buyer assume you will be leaving something for them at no cost only to find it gone later. Unless requested in a formal offer, items are excluded;
due to the sheer size of the document, I encourage sellers to do it in steps. If you can do the whole document in one sitting that is great but it has to be done properly. I suggest using pencil in case you make a mistake. Crossing answers out or using “white out” may raise questions later;
sellers are expected to update the form if anything changes. We have an addendum for that purpose;
please let me know if you have any questions or need another page/ form. I do not know your house but may be able to explain something that is helpful.

This is not intended as legal advice or meant to scare you but the form is very important.

As far as the “Residential Lead-Based Paint Hazards Disclosure Form”, here are a couple of thoughts:this is a federally-required form;
do NOT assume that your house had lead-based paint solely based on its age;
two paragraphs require initials (line 12 or 13 and line 18 or 19); sign and date at

View Details

I want to buy a house. How and where do I start?

I wish more buyers felt comfortable enough to ask Real Estate agents for advice when starting their home search. Instead, they typically search online for several weeks before contacting a professional. Shopping is fun but what is the goal? Does it help or hurt the process? How best can this time be spent?

An effective and efficient house search requires planning and preparation. Serious buyers will want to identify all of the properties that match their needs and wants and they need to be in a position to make an offer when they find "the one". Anything that negatively affects either of those could lead to frustration. Are you willing to accept your second or third choice? Are you willing to let others bid on a house you really want to buy while you get ready to make an offer?

Good agents have the training, experience and knowledge needed to manage the process. Unfortunately, many Internet Empowered Consumers focus their efforts online which can become a time-consuming distraction. Searching online has its advantages but it should not be the main focus because it can delay arranging the financing that most buyers need and it may cause a buyer to miss the opportunity to buy a house they really like if they are not properly prepared or do not know it is available. In addition, much of the information found online about buying a house is incomplete or wrong. Let me explain.

I recommend that serious buyers focus on three steps. These apply to any type of Real Estate purchase:

Get pre-qualified with a reputable, local lender. You can try doing this online but I suggest using a live, local person rather than an impersonal, faceless website. Mortgage financing requires a personal touch. Some buyers will not be able get financing while others will need to do a few things to qualify for a loan. Whichever the case, it is better to know the details as soon as possible. When you identify lenders to consider, be thorough. Do NOT just look at an advertisement especially if the interest rate appears too good to be true.

Getting pre-qualified will accomplish two things. First, it will establish a maximum monthly payment and price range while telling you how much of your own money you will need to complete a purchase. Knowing this will help you focus on locations and house features that match your comfort level. The second benefit is that you will have documentation to provide to a seller when you make an offer on their house. Most sellers require proof of financing before negotiating. If you are competing with other buyers, this is especially important. Sellers like to know as much as they can before taking their house off the market and they want to minimize the risk of a sale falling through.

Hire an agent. Ideally, this should be done before looking at houses. I know that that is the fun part of the process but do you want a tour or do you want to be represented by someone who will work for your best interests? As I mentioned earlier, the Internet can be a distraction. In addition to delaying your getting financing, the Internet can delay your hiring an agent since you can easily access property information on your own and most agents will be happy to show you any house, especially if it is their own listing.

Do you want to hire a "dual agent", meaning someone you "share" with the seller? It is allowed in PA with full disclosure to both parties and with their informed consent. You need to know the advantages and disadvantages. I liken the c

View Details

Since 1996 I have been helping Sellers whose properties did NOT sell with other agents. I have literally spoken to and helped hundreds of Sellers understand why their properties did not sell before their listing contract expired. Sellers have different reasons for wanting or needing to sell and there are often consequences when they do NOT achieve their goal. Sadly, many of them NEVER had a realistic chance to sell in the first place. Let me discuss this further.

Reasons for selling vary

Some Sellers need more space (or less); some want a better school district for their children or a better neighborhood for their family; others may be facing personal or financial difficulties. Generally speaking, Sellers are either motivated by "timing", meaning that a potential move is tied to the calendar (such as for enrolling children in school or accepting another job) OR by "money", meaning that, as much as they might like to move, they need to achieve a certain financial goal to make moving possible (examples include paying off any existing loans or qualifying to buy their next property). Selling quickly may result in lower proceeds whereas selling with a specific financial outcome in mind may make the process longer.

As a professional, I need to know what motivates my prospective seller clients so that I can best assist them. There are times when I cannot help a Seller. While that is frustrating, I need to be honest and explain the situation, perhaps referring them to someone for advice. The consequences of NOT selling vary and could include not getting into a new school or neighborhood, having a longer than desired commute time to a new job or an outcome that is sad: I have seen Sellers who have been approved for a "short sale" risk losing their homes because they never had a chance to sell and, eventually, their circumstances only got worse.

Why do property listings expire?

When Sellers sign a listing contract they place their trust in their listing agent. The end result could be a sale, a listing contract that keeps getting extended (meaning the Seller and their agent extend the expiration date of the contract), an expired listing (the contract reaches its "end point" without a sale or extension) or the listing may be withdrawn from the market before the end date was reached.

When a property does NOT sell there may be a number of possible explanations but there are really only two logical reasons. One is that the property was priced too high for its location, features and condition. When this happens, prospective Buyers may decide NOT to schedule a showing appointment. Those who view the house may decide not to make any offer or to make an offer the Seller will not or cannot accept. When Buyers do NOT make an offer to buy a house, assuming they were financially qualified to do so, it is likely that they found something similar at a lower price OR that they found another similarly-priced house that offered more for the same amount of money. Real Estate is NOT a mystery: the Internet has made consumers very aware about pricing and “condition” (pictures are worth a thousand words!). Unfortunately, much of what we see online is inaccurate and/ or misleading. I can help with that.

The other reason some houses have trouble attracting interest is even more disturbing because it is completely avoidable: prospective Buyers and agents could NOT find the property listing online (Internet and multiple listing service) because there were errors or omissions with the features listed. This goes beyond displaying lousy looking pictures (or worse, no pictures!) or botching t

View Details

What is showing “feedback” and why do listing agents and sellers complain when the buyer’s “exclusive agent” doesn’t respond to feedback requests or tell them anything substantial about their showing experience and why the buyer is not making an offer? I have used the analogy that buying and selling Real Estate, or, for that matter, any type of serious negotiation, is like playing poker: you have two or more people trying to satisfy themselves while knowing little if anything about what the other person is thinking or willing to do. Trying to reach a mutually beneficial outcome takes work especially if the parties are far apart from the beginning. It would be nice but completely unrealistic to think that every buyer and every seller will be able to get what they want when they want it. There is often no interest in a house based on what the buyer needs or wants so any feedback they might offer would be meaningless.

Selling Real Estate is unique in that we have “showings” where agents we may not know bring prospective buyers they may not know (and who may not be financially “qualified” to buy) into your house to look at your stuff. Your “first showing” occurs online these days so the number of actual showings has generally declined making each one that much more important. Frankly, most showings do not result in a sale, many agents show up late or not at all and the seller is often left wondering what happened. It can be very frustrating but showings are important. This is not a “retail transaction” and there are typically a number of moving parts to manage.

Many seem to think that feedback will provide the necessary answers. What stopped the buyer from making an offer? Was it the asking price? What the house has to offer or its condition? Did they find something they liked more? Was it the location or neighborhood? Many agents assume that the asking price is the issue while sellers should question the marketing or the seriousness or financial ability of the buyer. Admittedly, getting showing after showing without any offers, even low ones, can be very frustrating but is the lack of feedback to blame?

If a buyer is interested in a property their agent will contact the seller’s listing agent to make sure it is still available and, if so, begin a conversation that might lead to a formal offer. This also applies to investment and commercial properties. However, if there is no feedback or contact from the buyer’s agent, the buyer may simply not be ready to move forward at the moment. That may or may not change but it is too easy to assume that there is no interest. Shouldn’t a listing agent follow up? There are times where we are told an offer is coming and then we hear nothing further. So, why do we rely on feedback? Most feedback offers nothing substantial.

Prior to “buyer agency” all Real Estate agents were “sub-agents”, presumed to be working for the best interests of the seller so they were expected to tell a listing agent what a buyer thought about their property listing. There was no buyer representation or “confidentiality”, regardless of what the buyer thought. This is why we have a Consumer Notice in Pennsylvania. We want to make sure that buyers and sellers know their options for representation and what our duties are to them based on the nature of our business relationship.

Sellers often tell me that their prior listing agent said that buyer’s agents did not offer any feedback. Perhaps. When I act as a buyer’s agent I know that most listing agents will not ask for feedback unless they use an automated email process. Even then, they may not question what I tell them to see if my buyer may have some interest or to learn something that might their sellers with future showings. So much

View Details

Buying and selling Real Estate is like playing poker: you may not know what the other person is thinking and you have to start the process to see how they play their cards. A seller can pick any asking price and respond to an offer however they wish, if at all. They pick their price but the market, meaning buyers, determines the “value” by comparing houses based on a variety of criteria. The most common are the location, the features of a house and its overall condition. In multiple-offer situations, meaning there is more than one buyer interested in buying the same house, the offers may be quite different depending on what is motivating each buyer.

The negotiation process can be very frustrating for one or both parties. One of the parties will typically be happier with the signed offer than the other and that may determine how the process plays out. Will both parties work well together? Some details may be known about the house such as whether it is part of an estate, is it a short-sale or foreclosure, is it vacant and does it need work. The listing history may be helpful: how long has the house been on the market, have there been price adjustments, has it been under contract? A buyer’s financial disclosure and the structure of their initial offer may provide useful information to a seller. Then the fun starts!

A buyer may want to consider several perspectives when formulating their initial offer. They need to understand that they may only get one chance to impress the seller. There may be little to guide them other than knowing their own financials and what is motivating them.

Here are a few things to consider:

What is the buyer’s motivation? How much do they really want or like the house? Perhaps they have their present home on the market or under contract or their lease is expiring. How long have they been looking? Have they had other agreements fall through? What are the alternatives if they do not get this house? Their attitude may affect the process, putting undue stress on them. If they offer too little a seller may refuse to listen to another offer; if they offer too much a seller may fear an appraisal issue;
Is it a buyer’s market or a seller’s market? A market analysis will provide some guidance;
How does the house compare to others on the market and recently sold? Some buyers get very analytical when deciding how much to offer a seller. This may cost them time and opportunity. Buying a house is an emotional decision justified with logic. Until you get an appraisal, the numbers are just opinions;
Is there any competition for this house? You may not know. An experienced buyer’s agent will ask but a listing agent may not be allowed to answer the question. Competition, real or not, can scare someone away from making an offer;
How realistic are the contingencies? The amount of an offer generally has some bearing on what a seller is willing to deal with when deciding how to respond to an offer, whether to accept an offer and how to respond to whatever comes up later. Money is important but how does the rest of the offer sound?;
Know your limits. Whether you are willing to go as high as what a lender tells you or what a seller is asking, a buyer needs to know their comfort level and plan accordingly. The dollar amount on the pre-qualification paperwork is important: do you show your maximum or not? Different agents and buyers have different opinions. I have mine!

Two thoughts. First, the buyer’s goal is to get a house under contract and off the market. A signed offer is only the first step of many. Both parties will likely have opportunities to re-evaluate the process and decide how or whether to keep moving forward. Seco

View Details

Sharing property listing information and making our listings available for other agents to show to their prospective buyer-clients is at the heart of the Real Estate profession. Listing agents control the inventory and how they handle their inventory greatly affects their seller clients and how buyers and their agents perceive them. We call how we do this “cooperation”. There are two related issues: compensation and procuring cause that I will avoid at this time.

One of the hottest topics today is “Coming Soon” property listings. These are properties not yet on the active market or available for showings where the agent has put up a “For Sale” sign with signage that says “Coming Soon”. Whatever the thinking behind it, these signs generate interest which could help a house sell fast or it could frustrate some agents and buyers if not handled ethically. Many buyer agents seem to feel that the practice is deceptive and designed to allow listing agents to find buyers for their own listings thereby earning them more commission dollars. Like most things in life where there are opposing points of view, this issue can quickly develop into a hot debate involving feelings and emotions regardless of the actual facts. The practice is perfectly legal and can be very effective for sellers if handled properly. My concern is that it may cause some buyers to have a less than favorable impression of us and our industry.

As I like to say, we are not all the same. Some agents may do things that do not conform to our rules and regulations and I like to think that these instances are unintentional, perhaps resulting from a lack of understanding the rules or not thinking about how an agent’s actions may be perceived by others. However, when a listing agent’s actions cause a buyer to miss out on a house they like and/ or a seller is deprived of additional competition that could have earned them a higher selling price, that is unacceptable. A competitive market for scarce listings only adds to the situation.

Let me start with two disclaimers. First, this NOT intended as legal advice. Second, while the practice is legal if done properly, the devil is in the details and that is where “Coming Soon” property listings intersect with rules, regulations and emotion. The fact that someone feels slighted may not necessarily mean that something wrong happened.

If a private citizen posted a “For Sale” sign on their own lawn with a sign that said “Coming Soon” we would have nothing to complain about. Of course we would expect them to allow anybody interested in their home to see inside so that they could try to sell it for either the highest price or in the shortest period of time, wouldn’t we? That changes when another agent posts the sign. The difference is “competition”.

Our PA Real Estate Licensing and Registration Act, RELRA, and our Code of Ethics both require that an agent have a seller’s permission to post a sign on their property and to advertise a property as being “For Sale”. Whether an agent is a REALTOR or not makes no difference. The ideal documentation for this permission or authorization is a formal listing contract such as the one PAR created and updates from time to time. I say that because it is a legally-approved form that also includes details relevant to forming a business relationship including the term or length of the arrangement, the duties of the listing agent, the amount of compensation earned and how it is earned among other important protections. I suppose that a seller could send you an email asking you to put a sign on their lawn and authorizing you to advertise their property but would you? If you only want the opportunity to generate buyer leads and are not concerned about selling the specific house or getting paid when it

View Details

When I began my Real Estate career in 1996 the term “seller assist” was relatively new with many sellers viewing it as an option they could accept or reject without affecting the selling process or their proceeds. While it obviously impacts a seller’s proceeds by reducing the selling price, many felt that they should not provide what is really “closing cost assistance” since nobody helped them buy the house they were now trying to sell.

My office is located in an area that always seems to be a “seller’s market”, meaning that there are more buyers than houses to sell. Those that are properly priced sell quickly, often receiving multiple offers and exceeding the asking price. A seller assist used to be a deal-breaker unless buyers added it to the asking price. Then the housing market changed and appraisal procedures changed making that harder to do. Many areas practically require that a seller assist with buyer closing costs if they want to sell. While no one can force a seller to do that, they have to understand that how they respond to a request for a seller assist goes a long way as far as determining whether they sell or not and, if so, how quickly. A serious, motivated seller has to know their market, meaning their competition, decide whether they are more motivated by time or how long it takes to sell or whether the amount of the sale is the major factor. A quick sale for top dollar is nice but unlikely in some areas so a seller needs to think about the cost of not selling and how that impacts their plans. I always tell people that you cannot “time the market”: many held out for higher prices in 2007 and 2008 only to see prices fall dramatically. If a seller is going to buy, they will need to consider how the parts fit together.

So, what is a seller assist? In the past a buyer most likely needed to put 20% down to get a loan. Over time more financing options became available to handle the growing segment of the population that either did not have 20% to put down or who were unwilling to deplete their savings. As the Real Estate market evolved it faced a variety of challenges. For many, wages were stagnant and it became harder to save while prices continued to rise. While lending rules changed which seemed to hurt first-time buyers the most, those who could qualify for loans often lacked the savings to pay out-of-pocket costs that a loan would not cover. The seller assist made that less problematic for the buyer while obviously adding a “marketing expense” for the seller. The type of loan and the amount of the buyer’s “down payment” determine how much of a “seller assist” a lender will allow and there are rules covering which expenses an assist will cover. For example, a buyer is not allowed to walk away with “unused” seller assist money. Some agents either do not understand that or fail to properly advise their client which can cause a problem at the closing table. Also, a seller credit to offset needed repairs can pose a problem and be considered “mortgage fraud”.

Listing agents and buyer agents must educate their clients about pricing and related issues, including the use of a seller assist, so that there are no surprises. I still see sellers who do not understand this even though many of them had their houses on the market before meeting me. Buyers may delay buying because they are unaware that a seller may help them with their closing costs. I would like to think that, given the high percentage of consumers relying on the Internet for Real Estate information, they understand the concept of a “seller assist”. The fact is that many do not. Buyer and sellers encounter a great deal of data and information online but do NOT have the knowledge or insight to process it, assuming of course that it is not incomplete or untrue.&

View Details

One of my favorite expressions in Real Estate is “as-is”. Unfortunately, it means different things to different people. I don’t hear it as often as I used to but it comes up every now and then so I decided to discuss it. I am not an attorney so this is NOT intended as legal advice.

Let’s look at the term from the seller’s perspective first. When a seller tells me that they are selling their property “as-is” they typically mean that they will do no repairs. Whether they price it low to sell fast or they do not want the inconvenience or expense of making repairs for a sale that may fall through does not matter. I prefer that we disclose their intention up front to avoid any confusion or time wasted with a buyer who insists on repairs. At the very least, the seller’s intentions should be made know once the start to negotiate an offer.

Some have used the term “as-is” to mean that they do not want to complete the property and lead-based paint disclosures which are required by law. The term “caveat emptor” or “buyer beware” does not mean that the seller can withhold knowledge about material defects or environmental hazards. I have been mediating disputes between buyers and sellers since 2002 and, other than buyers and sellers trying to resolve who gets the deposit money when a sale falls through, many of my mediations have involved a buyer who thinks that a seller failed to properly disclose something to them. In PA the law requires that sellers disclose “material defects” in their property in writing to prospective buyers so that they can make an informed decision before making an offer. There are exceptions to the law. In addition, there is a federal lead-based paint disclosure form for houses built before 1978 and I am not aware of any disputes regarding how that form has been used.

From the buyer’s perspective, in addition to reviewing the disclosure statements, assuming they are available which is not always the case, a buyer has several alternatives if they wish to make an offer on a property with obvious issues which some nicely call “deferred maintenance”. They can subtract the anticipated costs of addressing the problems from their offer (assuming they can justify the amount they deducted), they can ask a seller to correct specific problems as part of the negotiating process or they can ask for a “seller assist”, assuming they do not jeopardize their ability to finance a purchase or commit mortgage fraud. Whichever option they choose, the result may turn off a seller or make their offer less competitive if there are multiple offers. I would respectfully suggest that a buyer not discount an offer and then ask for a repair anyway or avoid mentioning an obvious concern as this may cause a seller to think the issue does not concern the buyer. Negotiating an offer can be challenging enough without creating a later issue when property inspection issues needs to be resolved.

When a property is marketed, there is a general expectation which is written into two different paragraphs of the PAR Standard Agreement for the Sale of Real Estate. In paragraph 25 REPRESENTATIONS, the language states that “Unless otherwise stated in this Agreement, Buyer has inspected the Property … before signing this Agreement or has waived the right to do so, and agrees to purchase the Property IN ITS PRESENT CONDITION, subject to inspection contingencies elected in this Agreement.” In Paragraph 18 MAINTENANCE AND RISK OF LOSS, the language states that the “Seller will maintain the Property …specifically listed in this Agreement in its present condition, normal wear and tear excepted.” In other words, the buyer is buying what they saw when they walked through the property. There is a trend in some markets to buy a property “sight unseen” and this can get complicated by the

View Details

The preamble of the REALTOR Code of Ethics states that REALTORS “are zealous to maintain and improve the standards of their calling and share with their fellow REALTORS a common responsibility for its integrity and honor…. They identify and take steps, through enforcement of this Code of Ethics…, to eliminate practices which may damage the public or which might discredit or bring dishonor to the real estate profession”.

Our most basic purpose is to bring sellers and buyers together. We are matchmakers. Typically the formal process starts with showing a prospective buyer properties that interest them. Most showings require scheduling and confirming a specific appointment before entering a property. Whether occupied or not, regardless of the type of property or its usage, someone owns it and our profession requires that we respect the private ownership of Real Estate.

The concept of showing properties should be simple: a listing agent shares the instructions for accessing the property, a buyer learns about a property and expresses interest in seeing inside to see if it matches their wants and needs, they meet an agent for the tour and evaluate what they saw compared to other possibilities.

While a listing agent and seller have no idea whether a buyer is serious about buying or can even qualify to offer the seller what they want or need to complete a sale, the minimum expectation should be that the agent and buyer show up within the scheduled time frame, that the property be entered in accordance with the seller and listing agent’s instructions, that the people respect the ownership of the property as well as any personal property inside it and that, when they leave, they leave the house as they found it which typically means that they turn off the lights and lock the doors. Unfortunately, some of this seems difficult for some agents and buyers.

For whatever reason, one of the constants in listing Real Estate for sale is that some agents either fail to show up within their scheduled time frame or they do not come at all. There are going to be times when showings run longer than planned which may affect arriving on time for the remainder of the scheduled tour or when there are problems with traffic. The remedy is to call to see if it is possible to change the scheduled time so that the seller knows what is going on. It is not acceptable to just assume that you can enter someone’s property whenever you get there. The owner may have thought you were not coming and was not prepared to welcome you at your convenience.

The larger issue is when an agent and buyer do not show up at all. It should be assumed that a courtesy call will be placed to advise the seller that the showing has been canceled. The showing may or may not be rescheduled but, at the very least, the seller should be told if you are not coming as scheduled that day.

Common sense dictates that selling Real Estate is going to be quite different from simply living in it. Showings are not always convenient no matter how much a seller wants or needs to sell, even if the property is vacant. Sellers do not know whether they are having their time wasted but they generally endure even if it means delaying a meal, changing their plans or doing something that accommodates someone they do not know. Inconvenience is one thing, it is expected, but failing to show up for an appointment without canceling is rude, unprofessional and shows a lack of courtesy and respect for others and their property. Again, there may be a perfectly valid reason but this happens too often and most agents will never call to apologize or explain what happened. This reflects badly on our profession and causes some members of the public to think poorly of us. We are collectively respons

View Details

Real Estate, like many professions, has its own vocabulary. In addition to using many acronyms, Real Estate uses what appears to be common words that really mean more than they imply. One such word is “cooperation” which generally means “the process of working together to the same end”. While largely true in Real Estate, a profession which is based on bringing sellers and buyers together, there is more to it than that simple statement.

Cooperation among competing professionals in any line of work is unique and competition is at the heart of the Real Estate community. We compete for and on behalf of buyer and seller clients and then cooperate to match them with each other, with each party typically having their own exclusive representative. While the “end” result may appear similar, meaning that both parties have to agree to transfer ownership of a property, there is much that happens along the way. This is NOT a “retail transaction” where funds and goods are swapped instantaneously. Cooperation embodies the relationships among agents and our rules define the requirements.

REALTORS have a Code of Ethics consisting of 17 Articles. Our Code of Ethics is built on the principal of protecting the public and advancing the interests of home buyers and home sellers. Cooperation is so important and intrinsic to what we do that it has its own Article and it is number 3. It begins with the statement “REALTORS shall cooperate with other brokers except when cooperation is not in the client’s best interest.” The client is the boss and gets to make or not make the critical decisions and we owe our clients 6 “fiduciary duties”. One of them is “obedience”, meaning that we have to obey their lawful instructions. There are times when clients will not want us to cooperate with each other but that does not relieve us of the obligation to act ethically and professionally. For example, we need to respond to inquiries even if to advise the person inquiring that we are not “cooperating”.

Article 3 has ten “Standards of Practice” (or SOP) which interpret the Article. Standard of Practice 3-10 defines cooperation. It says “The duty to cooperate relates to the obligation to share information on listed property, and to make property available to other brokers for showing to prospective purchasers/tenants when it is in the best interests of sellers/landlords.” That means that listing brokers will make their property listings and information about them, such as property disclosure and lead hazard statements, available to other brokers. The goal of course is to identify prospective purchasers or tenants. Accordingly, the default position for REALTORS is cooperation. Sharing listings and listing information benefits the consumer. Sharing increases “exposure” which should theoretically result in maximizing the selling price while minimizing the marketing time. There are many variables that can affect either of those but no one can doubt the potential benefits to consumers.

Article 3 also discusses respecting the private ownership rights of the seller. SOP 3-9 says “REALTORS shall not provide access to listed property on terms other than those established by the owner or the listing broker.” This means that a broker must have permission to enter or to allow others to enter a property which includes how to schedule showing appointments and inspections, arriving when scheduled, managing delays in arriving on time and canceling showings when necessary in addition to who must be present for appointments and showings. It is safe to assume that an agent is expected to accompany all showing and appointments.

The Code of Ethics was created in 1913 and has been amended over the years. The greatest changes to it have be

View Details

Many buyers express regrets after moving into their next home. Some feel the need to resell it which can cost thousands of dollars in closing costs not to mention the possibility of their selling it for less than they paid. Others will remain in the house and deal with whatever regrets they have. Over the years many sellers have told me that they should not have bought their house.

This is worse than “buyer remorse” which may cause a buyer to terminate an agreement before taking possession. That still may have a serious cost attached to it especially if the buyer defaults on a purchase agreement. Either way, I respectfully suggest that many if not most buyer regrets are the direct result of buyers choosing to conduct a search “their way” instead of following a tried and true plan. Many buyers wait to hire an agent so they are left to fend for themselves. Competition may also lead to a hasty purchase decision. The 24/7 availability of information gives many buyers a comfortable feeling about the process. However, they are, at best, receiving a lot of conflicting, incomplete or false information rather than using REAL knowledge.

When I meet a buyer I ask that they do two things: get financially pre-qualified so that they know their situation and comfort level AND determine their “wants” and “needs” so that we can begin to focus on identifying locations, prices and features for them to consider. Once they start to embrace those two foundations, we can really begin to put together a list of properties for them to consider. Unfortunately, many buyers get distracted by the lure of seeing houses which may lead to their finding one they think they like without their being prepared to pursue it or knowing if it is really THE BEST ONE available for them.

So, what is my plan? I use their information to do an initial MLS search. The criteria I use will likely evolve but we have to start somewhere. Of course I fully expect my clients to search online as they consider different options as well as to attend open houses and do anything else that they think they need to do as long as I know the best criteria to search. We are a team and need to have the same goal.

If my search yields dozens of houses, I suggest they narrow their focus. If I only identify a handful they should likely expand their options. My typical buyer makes a purchase decision after actually viewing 10-12 houses. Trust me, after awhile they start to blend together! Many buyers forget what they saw by the time a house tour ends so I try to limit a tour to 5 or 6 houses but that depends on what they want and their circumstances. Buyer agents who do relocation probably wish it were that easy. I have shown 17 or 18 houses during a tour and that generally makes no sense for most of us even if they are tightly clustered.

After identifying the initial “list” of properties, I email them to my clients and ask them to look at them and then drive by all of them so that they can prioritize them. This not a perfect situation as the MLS may be incomplete as far as pictures and descriptions so a buyer may not really be sure they will like the house. If they wait for the agent to complete the MLS information it may be too late to get in let alone to make an offer. Even though a specific listing may not appeal to them, driving into and through neighborhoods may help a buyer evaluate whether they like those areas or not especially if they are not familiar with an area they have chosen to consider. They may think they know an area really well but probably have not traveled on every street. Buyers may also find areas they had not considered.

The goal is twofold: finalize the list of wants and needs to help me continue to identify new possibilities as the

View Details

A Real Estate sale is a negotiation between a buyer and a seller. While either may be more knowledgeable or have better representation than the other, it is a “one-to-one” exchange and most are what we call “arm’s length” meaning that neither party is under duress or pressure. A seller puts their property on the market and prices it however they see fit. A buyer can make an offer based on how much they like it and want to own it. If the sale is financed, an appraiser will compare the selling price and terms to the market.

There are various steps that may occur between executing a purchase agreement and getting to settlement. One of them is a resale or “use and occupancy” inspection that is required by many municipalities regardless of the details of the agreement. Who pays for the inspection and any subsequent repairs, if any, is subject to negotiation but a clear certification or a “conditional” one may be required to settle.

The municipal inspection allows the municipality to collect a fee for inspecting the property. Many require an additional fee should a reinspection be needed. These inspections generate revenue. Beyond that, what is the point of their poking their nose into an otherwise private transaction? They will tell you that it is to make sure that there are no safety issues which would be understandable if they only inspected “public” areas like sidewalks, curbs and anything that could cause harm to the general public. I think that reasonable although the obvious flaw in that logic is that this intrusive process only encompasses those properties being sold, whether they settle or not, ignoring the majority of properties that do not change ownership. What happens if they have broken sidewalks or curbs? People who sell their property are essentially being penalized.

My concern is that many municipalities go beyond what seems appropriate, choosing to enter the structure and dictate what has to be done in order for the transfer of ownership to be allowed. I had one inspector require a Living Room wall to be completely re-painted because someone had drawn a line on the wall with a magic marker. Regardless of whether the purchase agreement has any inspection contingencies or not, regardless of how much the buyer is paying the seller to complete the sale and regardless of the competence of the principals and anyone else involved, many municipalities think it their business to inject themselves into a private transaction, some to the point of being as onerous as an actual property inspection. I consider this meddling and an example of over-reach. It also fails to achieve a realistic goal as many houses do not change hands for many years so they are not inspected regardless of their condition. Look at how many people perish annually because properties lack working smoke detectors? I am not saying that this is the fault of the municipality but wonder why they don’t visit every property regularly if safety is their priority?

I do believe that rental inspections make sense as, unfortunately, there are many landlords who do not properly maintain their properties and many rentals occur without the benefit of a licensed Real Estate professional. I do find it interesting that many sale inspections are more intrusive than rental inspections which makes no sense to me. I think that tenants deserve more protection than many of these inspections afford them. At the very least, both inspections should be similar.

Over the course of my career, I have heard many horror stories about municipalities requiring repairs that were costly, made no sense and were in fact not wanted by the buyer or seller. They have even caused consenting adults to delay settlement. Fortunately, the Real Estate community in PA pushed back and was abl

View Details

Pricing is more art than science and its importance cannot be overstated. Every house has a price at which it will sell and different buyers will see a different value when they think about your house. The asking price is one of four tools used to market any product including Real Estate and it is the only one that a seller controls. The others are location, the features and condition of the house and how the house is marketed or exposed to the public. Most sellers will not or cannot make substantial changes to their house and the Internet has changed how we market Real Estate. Here are three different pricing perspectives for sellers to consider.

1. What is the market telling you? An agent can do a CMA (comparative or competitive market analysis) to tell you what is going on within your local market. Who is your “competition”? When you pick your asking price you pick your competition meaning the houses buyers will consider along with yours. A house should be priced to compete based on location, features and condition or prospective buyers may be able to find similar houses for less money or get more for your same price. When interest rates are low, buyers will “qualify” for larger loans and may be willing to spend more to get more rather than making upgrades later. Buyers may not offer you the opportunity to negotiate your price. Know your competition in terms of what they have to offer and at what price. What is “under contract” and what has been selling? A good agent will keep you informed!

2. Sellers pick the price but buyers determine the value! As I mentioned before, when you price your house you determine your competition so price strategically and stay on top of the evolving market! Buyers and appraisers can be very objective. A good agent will help their client stay focused and balanced. After putting their house on the market, too many sellers forget about their competition while they wonder why they are not getting showings or offers. You cannot assume that you will get a chance to negotiate the price, especially if your local market has houses offering more in the way of nicer or newer features in better condition at your price or offering what you have at a lower price. Buyers will take their time to compare and evaluate. Buying Real Estate is an emotional decision justified with logic. A seller who is getting no showings or showings but no offers may have a pricing problem. If you decide or are told to lower your price, think about what you are doing or you may be throwing money away for no reason. Will your new price motivate buyers who know about or have seen your house? Will it “re-position” your house strategically so that a new group of buyers will know your house is available? Again, the importance of pricing cannot be overstated. Most buyers “shop” online for Real Estate. If they find houses they like in their search results priced lower than yours, they may never adjust their criteria to find your house. That being said, perhaps what you have is really a marketing problem. If you do, buyers who could or should be interested in your house may not even be aware that it is on the market because they are not seeing it in their search results. If that is the case, a price reduction may not be necessary and lowering your price will not solve the real underlying marketing problem.

3. Will your house appraise? The two biggest hurdles in selling Real Estate are the inspections and the loan approval which includes a property appraisal. “Buyer remorse” after an inspection can be overcome through negotiation meaning that a seller agrees to do some repairs or they offer the buyer a credit or both parties agree to adju

View Details

Let me start with some background and definitions. Of course you know that this is not legal advice!

According to RELRA, the Real Estate Licensing and Registration Act of 1980, Chapter 2, the word “agency” is defined as a relationship whereby the broker or licensees in the employ of the broker act as fiduciaries for a consumer of real estate services by the express authority of the consumer of real estate services. The legal definition of agency from merriam-webster.com is “a consensual fiduciary relationship in which one party acts on behalf of and under the control of another in dealing with third parties; the power of one in such a relationship to act on behalf of another.” Dual of course means two.

In the NAR Code of Ethics and Standards of Practice, Article 1 requires that REALTORS “protect and promote the interests of their client” and says that this obligation is primary. Further, we have 6 fiduciary duties owed to clients, meaning people with whom we have a formal representation contract. Briefly, the six are obedience, which requires that we obey their lawful instructions, our giving them our undivided loyalty, our disclosing all information concerning the transaction that might affect their decisions, our not revealing their confidential information, our accounting for monies involved in a transaction and using reasonable care and due diligence to protect them from foreseeable risks or harm. In most Real Estate transactions each party has their own exclusive agent making these responsibilities easier to understand although conflicts will still arise.

According to the PA Consumer Notice and RELRA, Chapter 2, “dual agency” is defined as occurring when an agent represents both the buyer and seller in the same transaction. In Chapter 6, Duties of Licensees, Section 606d, it states that a licensee may only act as a “dual agent” with the full disclosure and informed consent of both parties to the transaction. Further, it states that an agent may not take any action that is adverse or detrimental to either party’s interest. Can you see how this concept may cause a conflict in terms of our properly carrying out our fiduciary duties to both parties in the same transaction?

The concept of “dual agency” is inherently complicated when you have two parties trying to do business with each other and perhaps at the expense of the other, meaning that a buyer and seller are not always equally happy with the outcome even though a deed may have transferred from one to the other. A single agent is in the middle of what may well evolve into a “tug-of-war” with either or both sides trying to exert their will on the other party by manipulating the agent. This can happen with two agents as well. This is why many agents question how one agent can properly represent two parties with potentially opposite goals. Some refuse to be “dual agents” even though the practice is perfectly legal in PA.

When we represent both parties, how can we make each party’s interests primary? Can they be equal? By definition, “dual agency” requires that we adjust our fiduciary duties. Can we obey the lawful instructions of two parties? I think so although there may be some conflict. We may not be able to provide undivided loyalty to more than person unless their combined goals complement each other. Accounting for money would seem easy to accomplish. The two duties that are compromised are disclosure and confidentiality: I cannot disclose to another what one party considers confidential. Frankly, what does confidential even mean? I take it to mean protecting something that could cause harm to another although many people simply demand more privacy than others and want information or details kept private which would n

View Details

In the NAR Code of Ethics and Standards of Practice, Article 1 requires that REALTORS “protect and promote the interests of their client” and says that this obligation is primary. Further, we have 6 fiduciary duties owed to clients, meaning that we have a formal representation contract with them, which requires giving them our undivided loyalty, our disclosing all information concerning the transaction that might affect their decisions, our not revealing their confidential information and our protecting them from foreseeable risks or harm. In most Real Estate transactions each party has their own exclusive agent making these responsibilities easier to understand although conflicts still arise.

According to RELRA, the Real Estate Licensing and Registration Act of 1980, Chapter 2 defines “dual agency” as occurring when an agent represents both the buyer and seller in the same transaction. In Chapter 6, Duties of Licensees, Section 606d, it states that a licensee may only act as a “dual agent” with the full disclosure and written consent of both parties to the transaction. Further, it states that the agent may not take any action that is adverse or detrimental to either party’s interest.

The PA Consumer Notice states that as a “dual agent”, the licensee works for both the buyer and seller.

The concept of “dual agency” can be complicated enough when you have two parties trying to do business with each other and perhaps at the expense of the other, meaning that a buyer and seller are not always equally happy with the outcome even though a deed may have transferred from one to the other. Many agents question how an agent can properly represent two parties with potentially opposite goals. Some refuse to be “dual agents” which is perfectly legal in PA.

However, while not considered “dual agency” in PA, what happens when one agent represents two or more buyers each interested in purchasing the same property? I respectfully suggest that this is more like “dual agency” than not in terms of its practical application. Most of us will never have an opportunity to confront this and when I discuss it in my classes many agents admit that they never really thought about. Let me explore this.

Let’s start with my having one buyer interested in a house and assume they have made an offer and heard a “counter-offer” from the seller. It is reasonable to assume that our fiduciary duties preclude us from disclosing their interest, including the amount of their offer, to anyone else (think of the fiduciary duties of loyalty, confidentiality and reasonable care) as well as letting anyone else know how a seller countered their offer as doing that could harm my buyer’s position. So, what happens when I either have two buyers interested in the same or similar properties? Let’s keep it simple: whether 2 or 200 makes no difference although it gets geometrically more complicated as the number rises. While RELRA may not see this as “dual agency”, I think it in the best interests of all involved to treat it as if it were. Let’s look at two general examples.

First example. I am working with two buyers, each looking at different price ranges. One is looking up to $200k; the other up to $190k. The $200k buyer makes a $180k offer on a $200k listing which the $190k buyer considered out of their price range. What would happen if I informed the $190k buyer that the $200k seller countered at $195k? From the seller’s standpoint, since I have no fiduciary duty to them, I would think they have no recourse for my disclosing their counter-offer although how a seller counters an individual buyer does not establish what they might accept from another and, presumably, it is in the seller’s best interests to have

View Details

While there are many different business models as far as how sellers and buyers compensate their Real Estate representatives, the one that seems to remain the most popular is based on closing a sale meaning that the agents work on full commission. Typically the seller pays the listing broker a fee due at settlement and that broker offers a portion of their fee to buyer agents as an incentive for them to show their listings.

Anyone working on a full commission-basis has to constantly focus on finding new clients if they want to continue to generate income. While most agents will have opportunities to work with friends and family as well as people referred to them, we also need to identify prospects from people we do not already know. The point I want to stress is that Real Estate agents, and perhaps anyone who works on full commission, have two commodities to trade for the opportunity to earn a commission. One is our time, meaning that any time we devote to developing leads and working with prospects, customers and clients has to be invested wisely as the amount of time we have is finite. Time management is one of many topics we have to master. How much is our time worth? Can we differentiate between important tasks and urgent ones? How is our time best spent? Some agents have a better handle on this than others. One of our challenges is to evaluate which clients to accept based on the likely outcome of our working for them. It boils down to probability: am I likely to sell a client’s house or is a buyer likely to buy a house? Of course nothing is guaranteed and we all will spend some time for which we know we will not be compensated.

The other commodity we have to trade is the combination of our skills, knowledge and ability. Our actual experience is only one part of this as some of us spend a lot of time, money and effort to learn more so that we are better prepared for the unexpected. While some clients may be more self-sufficient than others, perhaps minimizing what we do for them, others are much less so and will need more time from us as we advise and counsel them.

One of the basic facts of Real Estate is that commissions are negotiable. In fact, when a group of agents get together we are NOT allowed to discuss commission as doing so may be perceived as collusion. Offices and companies set their rates or fees, we try to avoid the word “commission”, and may or may not allow their agents the flexibility to charge what they can or need to in order to acquire clients. There is more to our fees than simply comparing one company to another.

I have heard since my first day in business that our fees were under assault. Different business models have done a variety of things to capture market share and, frankly, many focusing on low fees have not survived. Some consumers do not value our services as highly as others, reducing our role to preparing documents and unlocking doors while others demand a lot of our time, seemingly expecting to learn everything we know regardless of whether or not their situation requires it. I do know that when the market went crazy, some sellers thought our job easier so they wanted to pay less. Of course, I never had a seller offer more when it took longer to find a buyer for their house. Conversely, no buyer ever offered me more even though it took writing and negotiating several offers to get them a house. I often joke that when I look at my commission check I either think I was overpaid or that it was not nearly enough!

The word commission is an interesting one as is the concept of only getting paid when a house is sold regardless of how much time and effort we have invested or whether or not the seller and buyer were really motivated to get it done.&

View Details

Today I want to discuss the 2018 NAR or National Association of REALTORS Profile of Buyers and Sellers. The report comes from a survey using 129 questions mailed to over 155,000 home buyers who purchased a primary residence between July 2017 and June 2018. 7191 were returned. This was a national survey so your market may be quite different. Real Estate is local: there is no national Real Estate market so please contact me for information about your local market.

This is Part 1 of 2 and will focus on buyer characteristics, meaning who is the typical buyer. In Part 2 I will focus on the process the typical buyer used to find their home, the results they achieved and how they felt about the experience. There will be some overlap between the parts.

33% were first-time buyers. The typical buyer was 46 years old, with those age 25 to 34 accounting for 24% of all sales;
Buyers moved a median distance of 15 miles while those who sold one primary residence to buy another moved a median distance of 20 miles;
There were several reasons mentioned for buying: 84% felt that a home purchase was a good investment; 66% of first-time buyers wanted to own their home as did most buyers under age 61; those over 61 mentioned being closer to family and friends or down-sizing;
Buyers expected to live in their homes for a median time of 15 years with 19% saying they did not plan on making another move;
As far as motivating factors: 58% prioritized the quality of the neighborhood, 41% the affordability of the house (owning can be cheaper than renting!) and 24% the quality of the school district. When you buy a house, you are buying the neighborhood and a lifestyle: this is more than simply buying a product;
44% of buyers looked online before doing anything else with 95% using the Internet at some point during the process; 17% started by contacting an agent; 11% started by looking online for information about the process; only 7% started by contacting a lender or bank. This can be good or bad, depending on what a buyer really knows and understands about the process and their local market. There is a wealth of information online but my experience suggests that much of it is wrong or does not apply to all markets. Some buyers will spend valuable time “shopping”, which is admittedly the “fun part”, instead of doing other things that might make their search easier, especially if they find that they need to do some homework to get financing. They might find a home they really like only to find themselves unprepared or unable to compete with other buyers who had a better game plan. The process can make all the difference;
93% of buyers relied on the Internet for information; 86% on an agent. Traditional methods are still used but to a much lesser extent than in the past. For example, only 53% visited open houses, 46% looked for “For Sale” signs and 13% looked at newspapers. Please keep in mind that these statistics refer to sources use to search for available properties, not necessarily what led to a sale;
67% walked through homes they found online; 41

View Details

Today I want to discuss an article posted on “REALTOR® Magazine Online” (December 2018). The article can be found on my Facebook business page.

Since the Internet inserted itself between the consumer and the Real Estate professional, which is called “disintermediation”, the so-called Internet Empowered Consumer (IEC) has often sought information on their own while delaying contacting a professional. We humans tend to do that and, in terms of buying or selling Real Estate, it can lead to costly mistakes. We tend to be drawn to sources that reinforce what we think or which offer pleasant information. While buying and selling Real Estate is NOT “rocket science”, it typically involves doing basic things to achieve your goal and delaying or failing to manage these steps can derail the best of intentions. Here are the 6 myths and my comments.

1. The longer a home has been on the market, the more negotiable the deal is. Prices are what they are. Sellers have various strategies in mind when attaching an asking price to their property. Buyers have strategies when making offers. However, if there is a mortgage involved, the lender will order an appraisal which will consider how a specific property compares to recent sales of similar homes and a loan will either be approved or not. Aside from any perception about seller flexibility, I would suggest that buyers not avoid a house simply because it has been on the market for a long time. Do not assume it is a bad house just because it has not sold. Of course, if it has been under contract and then re-activated there may be something you need to know.

2. An open house must be part of the marketing plan for a home. While practices may vary, I generally discourage sellers from having open houses because I have heard of too many issues with them. While they may work, the percentages are low. I prefer private showings for my buyer clients.

3. A 30-year fixed-rate mortgage is the best form of financing. The length of the loan should be considered, especially if you have a specific idea as far as how long you plan to own a house but I am more concerned with the interest rate and my client’s comfort with their monthly payment. A professional lender is better able to advise my client than the Internet and I prefer a face-to-face meeting rather than chatting online.

4. Overpricing your house leaves room for negotiation. Perhaps true but the bigger concern is whether or not your house will come out in a buyer’s or agent’s search results. If a prospective buyer can find suitable options at a lower price, even if your house is in their search results, they may never come to see your house or prefer to make an offer on a house that is already more affordable for them. In the long run, a sale that is financed involves an appraisal so thinking that a buyer will pay above-market may not be the best plan and your sale could fall through.

5. Online evaluations can give you an idea of home value. The primary tool or attraction of so-called third-party web sites is property listings. They use them and assorted ancillary tools like property evaluations to attract eyeballs so they can use “views” or “hits” to solicit advertising. That is how they make their money. While these sites cost money to operate, I am not convinced that they spend enough on quality information or that they can do everything needed to ever replace human beings. Much has been written about valuation models and their algorithms and it has largely been negative, meaning that the valuations are too often off the mark. While they may have more rel

View Details

Today I want to discuss the 2018 NAR or National Association of REALTORS Profile of Buyers and Sellers. The report comes from a survey using 129 questions mailed to over 155,000 home buyers who purchased a primary residence between July 2017 and June 2018. 7191 were returned. The focus of this podcast will be buyers who sold one home to buy another. This was a national survey so your market may be quite different. Real Estate is local: there is no national Real Estate market so please contact me for information about your local market.

NAR has been collecting seller data since 1985 when the typical owner remained in their home for a median time of 5 years. In 2018 that number was 9 years which suggests that buyers may want to think long-term about their investment. What appears to be a solid investment today may look different later. Unfortunately, I still see sellers who paid more for their house than it is worth today and that can delay being able to sell it;
Sellers between the ages of 18-34 typically sold within 4 years while those over 75 sold after 17 years;
The median selling price was 99% of the final asking price. If you are an owner whose house is not attracting serious interest, meaning offers, this is important to know. Many buyers think they are better at negotiating than they really are and are hesitant to start with their “best offer”. In a very competitive situation they may not get a second chance. On the other hand, a buyer may prefer to make an offer on a house closer to its market value to avoid having an appraisal issue or risk losing their second choice to another buyer when their offer on a house expires. Whether a listing agent should disclose the existence of other offers is debatable but this should only be done when a seller allows it. In some markets and with some buyers, competition may be welcome. In others, not so much. Sellers may also think themselves better at negotiation than they really are so they need good advice from a trusted and respected representative. Ego can be a terrible thing to overcome. Last point, showings are nice but they do not guarantee a sale;
13% of houses purchased sold for more than asking price with 26% achieving the asking price and 24% selling for 95% or less than asking price;
The typical seller was 55 years old;
68% were repeat sellers while 32% were selling for the first time;
70% who purchased another home stayed in the same state; 16% moved to another region; 14% stayed in the same region but a different state;
44% bought larger homes; 29% bought a similar size; 27% down-sized. The age of the seller strongly correlates with these statistics;
50% bought a newer home than they sold; 28% bought one the same age; 22% bought an older home;
47% spent more than their selling price; 27% spent less;
The most common reason for selling was that the house was too small (15%), followed by moving closer to friends and family (14%) and job relocation (13%);
29% of first-time sellers cited size as being too small whereas repeat sellers cited moving closer to friends and family (17%). Selling is an expensive proposition so having to move in the short term because you outgrew a house or simply needed more space can be costly;
91% of all sellers used a Real Estate agent with only 7% being a FSBO. 91% is the highest result recorded despite the presence of the Internet. The % of FSBOs has steadily declined since 2000 even though the Internet was thought to have helped with exposure;
The median selling time for all sellers was 3 weeks. There is a correlation between the % of the final asking price achieved and the length of time it takes to sell. While it can be a distracting obsession, many buyers look

View Details

While becoming a Real Estate agent is relatively easy compared to many other professions having less impact on the public, becoming and remaining a REALTOR requires an added commitment to a formal Code of Ethics. Living up to its ideals takes effort; failing to do so has consequences for the agent and the public.

Many in the profession believe that it is far too easy to get a Real Estate license. Until recent changes were made in Pennsylvania, you needed to take two 30-hour classes, pass a test in each and then pass a state test. That requirement has been increased which is good as neither of the classes really prepare agents to help sellers and buyers with their largest purchase. Much of the “real-life” training, including how to run your own business and understanding the law, the rules and regulations, the paperwork and the process of completing a Real Estate sale continues to fall on the agent and their office. Most agents who change offices seem to feel that their office did not support their professional development. While perhaps true, an agent must be motivated and take the initiative to learn more.

Becoming a REALTOR requires attending an ethics class and joining a local REALTOR association. Why wouldn’t someone take that extra step as the benefits far outweigh the additional effort and cost? Perhaps if the public understood and embraced the difference between agents and REALTORS that would change.

To maintain a Real Estate license, you needed to complete 14 hours of state-required mandatory continuing education every two years and a nationally required ethics course every four. Our local association requires that we complete an additional course every two years which covers the content of national course. While recent changes in Pennsylvania changed the requirements for entering Real Estate and maintaining your license, which is a good step, it is still harder to become a hair dresser than to get a Real Estate license.

In addition to the ongoing education requirement, we have to pay dues for renewing our license and continuing to be members of our REALTOR association as well as paying other ongoing assorted fees. Compared to many people who start and run their own businesses, we have it easy.

There are well over a million REALTORS in the United States, about half of all Real Estate licensees. As I have explained, a typical licensee really has to do little to earn the right to advertise him or herself as a REALTOR. However, I strongly believe that we need to do a great deal to live up to the high expectations we place on each other and ourselves even if many in the public think we are all the same. The most obvious difference is that REALTORS have a Code of Ethics.

I would like to draw a distinction between being a REALTOR and earning designations or certifications. I am an Associate Broker and hold several professional designations and certifications offered by the REALTOR community as well as performing several roles for my REALTOR association. Earning these credentials and meeting the challenges associated with each of them took a great deal of time and effort. They have ongoing obligations and I have to live up to their standards! You can learn more about them and their requirements and see my professional qualifications on my web site.

All agents have minimum standards as established by the PA Real Estate Commission while REALTORS have a higher set of expectations as exemplified by our Code of Ethics. I think the public deserves the accountability that goes along with such a set of established standards. That probably will never happen so, at best, I hope that the public comes to realize the difference between agents and REALTORS.

Remember: HIRE WISELY!

View Details

This is Part 2 of 2. In Part 1 I focused on buyer characteristics, meaning who is the typical buyer. In Part 2 I will focus on the process the typical buyer used to find their home, the results they achieved and how they felt about the experience. There will be some overlap between the parts.

86% purchased existing homes; 14% bought new construction;
Nationally, buyers typically paid 99% of the asking price;
56% of buyers said that finding the “right property” was the most difficult part of the process; 24% mentioned financing (including saving for a down payment (13%) and getting a loan (8%)), 20% cited the paperwork and 16% mentioned understanding the process. And yet, buyers often avoid or delay seeking professional assistance. Given 24/7 access to the Internet, some may find this interesting. I am not surprised as it supports my belief that Realtors bring value to the process of buying Real Estate above and beyond simply providing houses to look at. While that is obviously important, buyers need to arrange financing and determine what they want and need in a house so that they can evaluate their options and make the best choice for themselves, keeping in mind that they may have serious competition. Some houses sell quickly. Buying a home takes time and effort. For example, I have worked with many buyers during my career and have been able to identify houses for them to consider that they did not or could not find on their own. My experience working with sellers, especially those whose properties other agents could not sell, has taught me a great deal about marketing homes to ensure that they appear in buyer’s search results. Think “Google search”. This knowledge helps me with buyers. I will be happy to explain this in detail;
88% financed their purchase, typically financing 87% of the price with first-timers financing 93% and repeat buyers financing 84%;
9% found the mortgage application process to be much more difficult than expected with only a 1% difference between first-time and repeat buyers. This explains why so many wait to do this, perhaps to their detriment. Sellers tend to focus on three parts of any agreement: the amount of the offer, the buyer’s financing and the terms and conditions of the offer. Sellers want to avoid or minimize the risk of a failed sale;
13% reported that saving for a down payment was the most difficult step with 50% of those citing student loans. This is a problem that has been well reported. It delays many aspects of life;
50% of buyers found the home they purchased online; 28% through an agent; 7%

View Details

Gordon Gecko might say "technology is good" but Dirty Harry Callahan would add (paraphrasing for effect) that humans have to understand its limitations!

In the 1970's I was fascinated with Texas Instruments calculators. They quickly went from very basic to very complicated. Just look at a modern-day financial calculator! Today many of us seem unable do simple math without a calculator. In the 1980's I was fascinated with dial-up modems and being able to send and receive email. Then I was introduced to Lotus 1-2-3 and Symphony. Wow! In the 1990's I got my first home computer. It had a huge storage capacity of 8 megs (yes, I said megs!) and enabled me to set up a spreadsheet for a pool team I ran. I could also word process a weekly newsletter for my team.

In 1996 I became a Real Estate agent. The industry was evolving from what the more experienced agents call "the books" for distributing information about property listings to Internet-connected computers running on 3.5" disks. Until that change, property listings were collected and disseminated to offices and agents in books every couple of weeks and manually searching for listings and comparable sales was time consuming and inexact to say the least. The data was beyond stale when received. It was a major achievement to be able to access information about property listings online and then in our homes!

The Real Estate world shifted monumentally in the new century as the public was allowed to peer behind the curtain and get property listings in their homes and businesses, allowing them to bypass over a million trained agents who had controlled the data since the first cave dweller decided to relocate. Over time, while the data was limited to active, coming soon and under contract listings, third-party web sites began using valuation models to help buyers and sellers "understand" the financial landscape better. At least that was what they were told. There is so much more to say about that but I want to focus on technology and how it has inserted itself into Real Estate.

Seth Godin recently blogged about the evolution of technology and he accurately describes the first three cycles, stating the we are now in the fourth. However, at least as far as Real Estate is concerned, the fourth, while on the horizon, is far from settled. Sure, we saw a computer beat a Grand Master in chess and win on Jeopardy BUT they have not come close to perfecting a self-driving car and the track record with predicting home values is pathetic.

So, while many of us will continue to love and embrace technology, with many being "early adopters", I would respectfully encourage my fellow humans to engage with professionals when it comes to Real Estate. Buying and selling is not so easily predictive as answering a question, creating a question when offered an answer or even moving chess pieces and predicting the outcome of a head-to-head chess match. There is no doubt that computers can do a seemingly endless array of lengthy calculations faster than we can blink or access a history of information if entered and stored properly but, can computers act illogically or emotionally? Buying and selling Real Estate are emotional decisions justified with logic. It is one thing to provide quick access to property listings and then to try to display comparable sales history to evaluate but it is quite another to create and present a purchase offer and then negotiate what may be many steps to make sure that both parties remain committed to completing a sale. This is not a retail transaction!

Technology has its place and there is no going backwards. The critical factor is knowing its value, its limitations and where it fits into the process. Information and data are not the same
as knowledge and insight!

View Details

"Flipping" is a trendy way to "invest" in Real Estate. TV shows and infomercials advertising FREE SEMINARS are everywhere! I suspect that many people are making lots of money telling others how to flip houses and wonder how many of these "coaches" have done even one flip.

Flipping expands on the old mantra: buy low; sell high and adds a critical “make it or break it” step. Unless you are lucky and can buy something below market value and then sell it without doing any work, you have to renovate flips to make money. Therein lies the unknown. You paid a specific amount and there is likely a ceiling on your eventual selling price: you have to fill in the blanks!

The old-fashioned way of investing, buying rentals and becoming a landlord, has lost some of its appeal to many for a variety of reasons although there are still opportunities. Flipping allows you to get in and then get out, hopefully with a return that justifies the investment and risk. Some flips will be homeruns while others will be singles. Serious flippers do volume and can handle the ups and downs. Many stop after trying one.

Flipping is a multi-stage, interconnected AND interdependent process. You have to check all of the boxes to make it work. Success requires hiring a competent agent to identify, negotiate and acquire opportunities, access to money, the ability to properly evaluate what a property needs to maximize interest, the ability to complete the work in a cost-effective manner, the ability to RATIONALLY assess an eventual selling price and patience if the rehab and/ or the marketing take longer than expected. If you use your own funding, this may be easier than paying someone else although using an equity loan as some do has inherent risk.

While many have done quite well, others have failed, some miserably. If you overpay, under-evaluate what is required, overspend on the rehab, over-estimate a selling price and/ or pay too much for your "seed money", you will have issues. The market itself introduces a degree of uncertainty so timing is important although not a science. A number of incomplete renovations always end up on the active Real Estate market looking for someone to finish the job.

This is truly NOT the time for inexperience, empty promises OR false expectations!

HIRE WISELY: we are not all the same.

View Details

Real Estate offers many opportunities to peer into the personalities of people with whom we work. Sometimes what we find is not what we expected. As a professional I have laws and a Code of Ethics to guide me as well as my integrity and value system. My clients have the same except for the Code of Ethics, of course. One topic that brings this into focus is that of “multiple offers”, meaning that more than one buyer is actively interested in buying the same piece of Real Estate.

Some buyers are so interested in a specific property and so willing to compete for it with others that they will plunge into the deep end of the pool to do whatever they can to win. They may start with their “highest and best offer”. Others, despite being interested, are either risk-averse or perhaps distrusting of others when told there is competition. Some may wish to avoid competition to prevent over-spending or they may need to meet a deadline for finalizing a move.

One of my favorite analogies is comparing buying and selling Real Estate to "playing poker": each party wants to know more about the other. Buyers may want to know whether there is competition for a specific property. Some people, including licensed agents, may think the answer a matter of courtesy or simply being honest. However, the PAR listing contract is the governing document. The language in paragraph 13 (“Additional Offers”) states that “Unless prohibited by Seller, if Broker is asked by a buyer or another licensee(s) about the existence of other offers on the Property, Broker will reveal the existence of other offers”. A separate matter is whether the actual terms are confidential or not.

Let’s assume that the word “existence” means written, executable offers and not the mere expression of interest from someone. If the seller permits this disclosure, the listing agent must say “yes” or “no”: they have to answer truthfully! If prohibited from answering the question, the agent must respond with words to the effect that they are not authorized to answer the question. Is providing knowledge about competition in the seller’s best interests? How important is the “if asked” aspect?

One of the primary reasons that a seller should hire a professional is to rely on our knowledge and insight. The Internet and your friends and family may or may not provide a great deal of data and information but a professional can put it all together. I tell my seller-clients that I assume that I AM PROHIBITED from making this disclosure and discuss my thinking with them. I may ask them to change that later but I have never had a seller disagree. Which is more likely: a buyer will make an offer when they know there is competition OR a buyer will walk away when they do not know?

Taken literally, if not prohibited from answering the question, a listing agent would have to disclose the existence of low offers which may not interest their seller-client. Does that make any sense?

Unfortunately, many buyer-agents do not even ask if there is competition. I am told that many listing agents are allowed to disclose the existence of other offers and think it a great strategy but should they disclose that without being asked by the buyer's agent? Many buyer-agents do not even make the effort to confirm that a property is still available. Bright MLS allows listing agents 3-business-days to update the listing status so an “Active” property may not really be available. Can a buyer be harmed by their not knowing that someone else purchased the property? At the very least, time was wasted preparing an offer. Even worse, perhaps their showing should have been canceled!

View Details

Bright MLS has released their Residential Market Report for single family homes for the first quarter of 2019. In today’s podcast I will discuss the results for Delaware County Pennsylvania. If you would like information about this or any other County in the Delaware Valley, please contact me.

The report compares the current results to one-year ago, same quarter. As with all Real Estate statistics, two things are true. First, the performance within individual zip-codes can and will vary significantly from the overall County. Real Estate is local and results can vary from neighborhood to neighborhood and even block to block. There is no such thing as a “national” Real Estate market so, whether you may be looking to buy or sell, please contact me for details about your areas of interest. I can provide current information and keep you informed about the evolving market. Deciding whether it is the right time to sell or buy is a personal decision typically involving a number of variables. I posted an article on that topic on my web site AndrewWetzel.com that offers several ideas to consider.

As far as the statistics, 1099 properties were settled this year with an average “selling price” of $264,674 and a “median” selling price, meaning that half of the sales were higher and half were lower, of $200,000 compared to 1224 settled last year at an average price of $247,389 and a median price of $190,000. The CDOM or “cumulative days on the market” for settled properties dropped to 81 from 85. The underlying data shows a wide range of results among the 49 different municipalities in Delaware County.

Which number is more meaningful, median or average? We can debate that but what really matters is how your property or one that interests you compares to those appraised and settled with similar location, features and condition. Appraisers rely on nearby settled properties so average or median pricing loses some validity but may provide insight for both the short term and the long term.

What about the properties that did not sell? Many came off the market and remain unavailable. Houses may get showings without generating offers unless buyers think they are priced within the range of their perceived “worth”. Most property listings whose contracts are canceled or allowed to expire have asking prices considered high for their market and/ or they were poorly marketed, meaning that some buyers may not have known that a house was even available to purchase. Of course this may well depend on the ratio of buyer and sellers so there is more to this than raw statistics. If a market has a lot of inventory, some buyers may not be willing to even look at houses priced high compared to the rest of the market. While sellers may be open to negotiating their price, many never get the chance to do so. I will happy to discuss specifics with you.

It is worth noting that the weather, despite minimal snow, was somewhat harsh early in 2019 which slowed activity although that has changed in many markets. The overall economy is doing well with some adjustments here and there. Pushing statistics aside, what are you planning to do? Real Estate is generally a long-term investment unless you are looking to fix and flip it. There are opportunities out there. As with the stock market, it is very difficult to pick the best t

View Details

Why is the Initial Marketing Time so Critical?

Imagine this: your house just hit the market after weeks of planning and cleaning and dreaming about how it would all turn out! Would you get full price, any unusual requests or conditions, would you be able to find a new home that made leaving your present home easier to handle? Everything seemed possible.

Then NOTHING HAPPENED! The market essentially yawned. What does this mean?

Even though getting your home on the market created so much anticipation and disruption in your life, let’s look at the other side of the equation. You dipped your toe into an already churning market with however many prospective buyers already looking and evaluating and making decisions. Whether you are in a buyer’s market or a seller’s market, there is a good chance that you will not see every prospect looking for a house like yours but you would like to see as many as possible. Of course there is no way to know how many are looking right now so let’s take a broader look at what is possible.

How many buyers will enter the market tomorrow? How many have already decided to make an offer on a specific house or are currently negotiating one? How many have given up, deciding to wait for whatever reason? You may be able to appeal to any of these, including buyers already “under contract”, as long as they like what you have and they have a way to end their current process. However, your listing MUST be able to be found in their searches or they will not know it is For Sale.

Let’s go back to my original point. I would argue that the current number of prospective buyers is greater than the number who will enter the market in the next few weeks. So, if none of them makes an offer, what do you do? Perhaps some will come to see your house and do nothing. They could change their mind later if they were getting their finances in order and/ or evaluating the overall market before taking action. Or not. Perhaps one of more will make overtures that could become promising if your agent knows how to handle that opportunity. Or not. The real question is how long do you wait before taking action to increase your odds for succeeding?

You can wait for the market to re-form or you could attempt to hook a buyer already looking but not committed to a house. How do you do that? If you are satisfied that your house is being properly marketed, meaning that, other than the price, it will come out in the proper search results, the price has to be a concern. If you think that your competition has more to offer than your house you could wait until they all get contracts. Of course, new competition will present itself. It always does.

Patience is a wonderful thing and I respect sellers who are patient but, at some point, unless a seller decides to remain in their present home, something has to change. You cannot keep doing the same thing over and over and over again. A seller has two controllable variables: the agent they hire and their asking price. Sometimes changing agents is good as it provides a different perspective. Changing your price requires a strategy and it may affect your overall plan.

A price reduction has to accomplish one of two things: it either has to motivate a buyer who knows about your house but has not made an offer OR it has to re-position your house to a new group of buyers. Pricing is important and taking a reduction just for the sake of taking one, especially if marketing is THE real problem, only serves to lower your proceeds and perhaps impact your options.

There is no time for inexperience, empty promises or false expectations!

Remember: HIRE WISELY! We are not all the same!

Thank you

View Details

Why I Enjoy Being a REALTOR®

After working in retail for a number of years I decided to make a change. Like many, I was fascinated with Real Estate and made plans to get my license. I did three things to prepare myself for the adjustment. First, I started reading books about sales and then about Real Estate. I read 12 books on sales and then 4 about working in Real Estate. I stopped when the books got redundant and I felt that I knew enough to move forward. Second, I selected 4 different Real Estate companies to contact and interview. I found two of them interesting even though I was not yet ready to make a commitment.

The third step was time consuming but critical: I wanted to try a sales position to make sure it was something I could enjoy before pursuing a career in Real Estate. While many of us think it too easy to get licensed, it does require investments in time and money so I wanted to be prepared. After becoming comfortable in sales, I was ready to commit to a Real Estate company. The rest is history.

I took an extra step and became a REALTOR® which means that I belong to local, state and national REALTOR® Associations and subscribe to a formal Code of Ethics. I have also taken many courses and earned several designations and certifications to improve my knowledge so that I can better represent my clients. I consider myself an advisor rather than a salesperson. As an Associate Broker I am allowed to call myself that whereas a basic licensee is not. I work for sellers and for buyers, advising them and helping them reach their goals. I view our relationship as a partnership although they get to make the decisions.

Like many, I had a mixed perception of “sales people” and did not want to use persuasion to convince people to do things that were not in their own best interests so that I could earn a living. Sadly, I see people in different sales positions whose only goal seems to be to make money. This can be especially problematic in Real Estate given the costs involved and the impact on people’s financial situation.

As a seller agent, I have enjoyed helping sellers move on in their life, many times helping sellers who had tried and failed to sell with one or more other agents. Listing contracts typically “expire” as a result of over-pricing and/ or poor marketing. People move for a variety of reasons and they need to determine whether the selling price or the length of time before selling is more important to them. I have helped sellers who wanted larger or smaller homes, wanted a better neighborhood or school district for their children, were tired of dealing with tenants, who were selling estates of family members as well as other reasons. I can assist a seller with the preparation generally required before we market a home and make it available for showings and offers. There are many more details along the way than most sellers realize just as there are a variety of reasons for selling Real Estate. All agents are not the same!

As a buyer agent, I have helped many purchase their first home, their next home or an investment property. This can be very interesting if they are selling one property to buy another. I enjoy showing people houses where they can begin a new chapter in their life or continue on their path. Having children involved can make it more fun. There are times when their children do not want to move and there are times when seeing children excited about their new adventure makes the process very fulfilling. When people buy a home they are buying a lifestyle, making it a very important decision.

Helping clients these days is more complicated than it was during my first few years. The Internet has changed things and it often a

View Details

What is “data integrity”? It means that the data we collect, store and report is accurate. What do I mean by data? It could be the status of a property listing (is it available to see and buy? Has it been put under contract? Has it settled?), the price, the type of property and its features. I want to relate the importance of accurate data to three different groups of people, all part of a sale.

Let’s start with buyers. A seller needs a “ready, willing and able” buyer to complete a sale. Whether a buyer hires an agent to search the MLS or they search online, the expectation is that properties matching what the buyer is looking for will appear in their search results so they can evaluate whether to take the next step or they will not know a house is even available to consider. If they cannot find it in their search results, they will not see it and they will not buy it. Even worse, a listing agent may not know there is a fixable error and ask the seller for what may be an unnecessary price reduction which reduces their proceeds and still not make it any easier to find the property in search results. I have many examples and will share two.

(1) Early in my career a buyer identified two possible elementary schools for her daughters to attend. She drove the neighborhood and found a “For Sale” sign on a house, called me for information and asked me to search the area for homes like the one she was fortunate to find. I found several other houses for the family to consider but the one she saw was not in my search results. The listing agent had entered the wrong zip code. Imagine if she had not seen the yard sign and the house had remained on the market unsold. She would have missed seeing the house they bought and the sellers may have been asked to lower their price. By the way, the family is in the same house many years later;

(2) A frustrated seller called me a few days ago. His property had been on the market recently and his listing contract expired without a sale. He called me to see what I could suggest. I looked up the property, discussed it with him and quickly found a major error: the MLS showed the house as having a single bathroom. He said it had two full baths. People searching for two full baths did not know his house was available even after he reduced his asking price. This is sad and avoidable.

In addition to limiting the number of available houses for buyers to consider, which could lead to a buyer not seeing their best options, errors will affect a market analysis. Buyers usually want to know what comparable houses have been selling for before they make an offer. Houses that are not accurately listed as well as those whose statuses are not correct could impact a buyer’s perception of what to offer, perhaps causing them to lose a sale.

Similarly, a seller looking to price their house according to its location, features and condition may be relying on incorrect or incomplete information. Their house could sit on the market unsold or they could accept less than they should have. Over the years I have seen a number of houses not properly reported as being sold. Instead, the listing contract expired or the agent withdrew it from the market making it look like the property did not sell which is often interpreted as meaning that the price was too high.

The last person this misinformation can impact is the appraiser. They evaluate selling prices based on reported comparable sales. They can only rely on what is reported even if it is inaccurate. In addition to the status, appraisers rely on pictures, features and the public remarks to try to identify the prior sales most like the house they are appraising. What is the cost of inaccurate information?

View Details

We just moved our clocks forward so Spring will soon be here. Are you planning to make a move this year? Every year around October I see the same thing again and again and 2018 was no exception. Many sellers took their homes off the market, apparently adjusting their plans; some delaying them, others perhaps giving up entirely. That is obviously their choice but I always wonder why so many owners decide to remain in a house they were willing to leave. Many of those properties are still off the market. What is the cost of not selling or delaying your plans? Let me offer a few thoughts.

Perhaps some think they cannot achieve their financial goal so they give up even if only temporarily. Price is NOT always the issue when a house sits on the market unsold. I have seen and helped many frustrated owners by simply adjusting the marketing. I use the term Google search to demonstrate this point: buyers and their agents must be able to find YOUR house in their search results. Unfortunately many MLS listings are inaccurate or, frankly, so pathetic that people cannot identify all of the houses that really match their needs. Even worse, the listing agent may not realize what is really going on and ask for a price reduction when one is not needed. How much does that cost? How does that impact your plans?

I fully understand that selling Real Estate can be inconvenient even if it is vacant. Agents you do not know bring buyers they may not know (and who may not be qualified to buy) into your house and look at your stuff. They come when they want, perhaps late, and impose on your lifestyle. Showings are a must but we can do a better job managing them. It gets worse if you have a lot of activity with no offers or low offers but showings are a vital part of the process regardless of what is in the MLS and online.

The two busiest selling times are Spring and Fall. Now is the time to plan for Spring. Of course the reasons people buy their first or next home are varied but these are the best times so frustrated sellers often take their homes off the market until the next “best” time comes which is also when they will have the most competition.

When October arrives many of us think about the upcoming holidays and we want to enjoy time with our families. Many sellers do not want showings during those months which is a shame because houses tend to look their best inside during those months.

Thank you as always for listening. Remember, HIRE WISELY: we are NOT all the same!

Andrew's Podcast: Recent Episodes

Andrew Wetzel