Marty Millner

Archive for January, 2010

First time home buyers in Yardley, Newtown and the entire Bucks County area.

Those who know me, know that I really enjoy working with first time home buyers.  I think I have always been a frustrated teacher. I miss the days when my kids were younger, and I was involved in coaching all of their sports. Over the years, I coached softball for girls, baseball, basketball, soccer and tennis.

When working with first time home buyers, I feel like I am teaching. I especially love making first time home buyers, comfortable with the entire home buying process. I love their excitement, as well as their questions. They are so appreciative, and that makes me feel really good about what I do.

In no particular order, here are some of the questions that regularly come up when working with first time home buyers;

• We think we want to buy a house, where do we start?
  Home many houses should I see before making a decision?
  How will we know when it is time to make an offer?
  When should we speak with a mortgage person?
  What questions and what information will the mortgage person need?
  How will we know if there is something wrong with a house that we like?
  How long does it take to buy a house?
  Why are the real estate taxes on houses that are the same price, so different?
  What happens at the real estate closing?
  We see lots of properties listed as short sales. What does that mean?
  Shoud we buy something older or newer?
  What do we do when we find the right house?
  What do we have to sign, in order to make an offer?
  How much money will we need?
  Do we need an attorney?
  How do we find someone to inspect a house we are interested in?

First time home buyers are scared, and excited. I get a great deal of satisfaction, going through everything with them, and sharing in their joy and happiness, at closing. For those considering buying right now, I really belive that it is a great time to buy. Interest rates are extremely low, and prices are down. As evidence of my belief in buying opportunities in the current market, 2 of my 3 kids have either purchased a house within the past few months, or are in the process, right now.

In future posts, I will address answers to the most common questions that first time buyers ask.

As always, I welcome your thoughts and comments.

Real Estate Update From Yardley, Pa., Bucks County-My recent experience with Multiple offers!

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My video recap of a recent experience with a listing where we had 2 offers within  one week of listing the property.  How and why? what can you do to sell you house faster?

Lambertville, New Hope, Pa – Bucks County – Winter Festival 2010 – January 23 to January 31, 2010

Lambertville, New Hope, Pa  – Bucks County – Winter Festival 2010 – January 23 to January 31, 2010.

Winter Festival 2010 is upon us! This year it starts on January 23^rd and goes through January 31, 2010.

There are many of your old favorites along with what will be come your new favorites this year.  The Chili cook-off, the Winter Festival Concert (XPN Welcomes Daniela Cotton), and the Parade, but look for some new and updated offerings such as the Taste of Winter Fest and the Photo Tour.

You will have the opportunity to visit over 30 free events as well as 5 ticketed events. For a complete listing of events and to learn more, click on Events on the Winter Festival site.  Tickets are currently on sale for all of the ticketed events – click on the Tickets link on the Winter Festival site to purchase.  Most events sell out in advance, so be sure to get your tickets early.

Proceeds from the Festival go to many local organizations in need.  You can also place donations,  in canisters at all events and along the parade route.  Non-perishable food items would be great, to help fill shelves of the organizations in need.

Please email me if you have any questions about the events.  Hope to see you there!

Upper Makefield Township, Bucks County, 2009 real estate year in review

On my last post, I took a detailed look at what happend in 2009 in Lower Makefield Township real estate market.

Today, we are going to check out the results from 2009, in Upper Makefield Township real estate market.

Here is what the real estate market looked like, as we finished 2009, in Upper Makefield Township.

Inventory in Upper Makefield Township

There were 101 homes for sale, as of the end of 2009, in Upper Makefield. This compared with an inventory of 134, as of the end of 2008. There were 113 homes for sale, at the end of November, 2009. This represents a decline in inventory of 24.6%, from the end of last year. Normally, that is a good sign for sellers.

Pricing Trends in Upper Makefield

The average price of a home for sale in Upper Makefield, at the end of 2009, was 1.43 million. At the end of 2008, the average price of a home for sale, was 1.59 million. This represents a decline of 9.8% in list pricing.

There were 72 homes that sold in 2009, and they sold at an average of 88% of the asking price. 71 homes sold in 2008, and they sold at an average of 91% of the asking price.

Summary;

Inventory levels are down and unit sales are modestly, up. Probably the most telling statistic is that at the current sales pace, there is a 16.8 momnth supply of homes in inventory. We consider a balanced market when there is approximately a 6 month supply. You can clearly see that there is a strong, buyers market in Upper Makefield Township, at the current time.

Average days on the market for all price levels, is 111 days. For homes priced between 1-3 million, the average days on market are considerably longer, and the supply is measured in years!  82% of the 72 homes that sold this year, were priced below 1 million!  55% of the current inventory, is priced above 1 million. Specifically, based on the current rate of sales for homes over a million, there is a 4.3 year supply! 13 homes sold over 1 million in 2009, which represents 1.08 per month.

It is particularly telling that the average sale price in 2009, was 762,000 yet the average price for the current inventory, is 1.43 million!

It is evident that there is a lot of competition in Upper Makefield, especially at the higher price levels. It is critically important, that you price your house correctly, if you intend to sell.

As always, I welcome your thoughts and comments on any of this information. I will review additional communities, in future posts.

Lower Makefield Township real estate year in review

I posted the other day, a wonderful chart that tracked the rise of fall of real estate values, in a number of markets in Bucks County. 

Today, I am going to start to review 2009, community by community.  We will start by reviewing 2009 results in Lower Makefield Township.


First, prices in Lower Makefield Township, delcined in 2009, by 6.7%.  Please see the table that details pricing in Lower Makefield, starting from a base year of 2000.  The price of an average house in Lower Makefield Township was 288,000 in 2000, and was 462,000, as of the end of 2009.

We ended the year with an inventory of 174 homes, which happened to be exactly the same as what the inventory was, at the end of 2008.  There were 196 homes for sale, as of the end of November of 2009, so inventory dropped a bit in December, but remained exactly the same as a year ago.

How about pricing?  The average price of a home for sale in Lower Makefield Township, at the end of 2009, was 501,000.  This compared with 562,000, at the end of 2008.  This represents a drop of 10.9%.

Unit sales for 2009 were 255, and those homes sold for 91% of the asking price.  This compared with unit sales of 251 for 2008, and in 2008, those homes sold at 94% of the asking price.

Currently in Lower Makefield, there is an 8+ month supply of homes on the market.  The average days on the market is now 84, compared with 67 last year.  We consider a market to be balanced, when there is a 6 month supply, so you can see that conditions are favorable for buyers.  I am sure that this does not surprise anyone.

All of these statistics are based on all house types, including townhomes, but do not include condominiums.

In future posts, I will examine the year for other communities, including Newtown, Upper Makefield, New Hope and Buckingham.

As always, it is critically important to price your house well, if you want to sell.

Please let me know if you have any thoughts or comments.

Brokers Open house in Yardley, Pa., Bucks County

Whenever I put a house on the market, one of the first things we schedule, is an open house for realtors, called a brokers open house.  I created a short video, showing what goes on, at a typical brokers open house.

Realtors attend brokers open houses, so that they are familiar with what is on the market.  Often they are trying to determine whether a particular house will suit the needs of their client. 

My brokers open houses are generally catered, but will always include food.  We invite realtors to join me for lunch, while previewing the house.  This strategy ensures a strong turnout.  Realtors love to eat, and I find that the better the food, the more people come.  The interaction with agents, gives me a good opportunity to get a sense from other realtors, about their reaction to the price, and also to get feedback about any suggestions for improving the way the house shows.  I can often get a very strong indication, just from the brokers open house, whether or not it will take a long time for the house to sell. 

The video was taken at a brokers open house at 225 Arborlea Ave, in Lower Makefield Township.  We had almost 50 agents join us, which is a great response, and actually had 4 agents bring buyers with them! 

Overall,  I got just what I was hoping for, from this brokers open house. 

Thoughts and comments are welcome.

Writing from Yardley, Bucks County; 5 critical cell phone tools.

Pretty much everyone has a cell phone these days. However, I received a note today, from a client of mine, with information about 5 things a cell phone can do, that some of you may find really helpful. Most of these, I was not aware of. Here goes:  

1. Emergency

According to the information I received, the Emergency Number worldwide, for cell phones is 112. If you find yourself out of coverage and there is an emergency, dial 112 and the cell phone will search any existing network to establish the emergency number for you. This number can even be dialed if the phone is locked.

2. If you locked your keys in the car?

If you find that you have locked the keys in your car, and you have a spare set at home, call someone at home on their cell phone, from your cell phone. Hold your cell phone about a foot from your car door and have the person at your home, press the unlock button, holding near their cell phone. Your car will unlock. Much easier than having someone drive keys to you! You could be hundreds, even thousands of miles away from someone who has a spare set of keys, yet if you can reach them, you can unlock your car door.

3. Hidden Battery Power

Imagine that your cell battery is really low. (Happens to me all the time, which is why I have a car charger, and basically charge my I phone, wherever I am) To activate this feature, press the keys *3370#. Your cell phone will restart with the reserve and the phone will show a 50% increase in battery. This reserve will get charged, the next time you charge your cell phone.

4. How to disable a stolen cell phone.

First, you need to know the phone’s serial number. To find that out, if you don’t have a record of it, key in the following on the phone: *#06#. You will see the 15 digit code. Save this number. Should your phone get stolen or lost, you can phone your service provider and give them this code. They will be able to block your phone, so that even if someone takes the SIM card and installs it in a new phone, the phone will be useless. I guess if everyone did that right away, there would be no point in stealing cell phones.

5. Free Directory Service.

Cell phone companies generally charge between $1.00 to 1$1.75 for 411 information. If you need to find a number, instead of using 411, as an option, simply dial (800)FREE411, or 800-373-3411. Program this into your phone, and never pay for information assistance from the cell phone company.

As I mentioned, I was not aware of any of this, so I hope that you find this helpful. If so, pass it along to family and friends.

Back to real estate, with my next post.

New listing! Slideshow 225 Arborlea Ave; Yardley, Pa. 19067

Bucks County, Pa 2009 Real Estate market recap

Now that 2009 has ended, we can beging to examine what happened to the real estate market, in the various communities that I serve, in Bucks County, Pa.  For my first post, examining market trends, entering 2010, I thought it could be helpful, to take a look at a chart that shows per year price appreciation (or depreciation) in markets that I serve, as well as throughout the county.

The table below, tracks very specific year to year appreciation, along with units sold, in various municipalities in Bucks County.  It is interesting to see, that the markets all are different.  For example, looking at Lower Makefield Township, prices declined by 6.7% in 2009, while in Newtown Township, prices dropped by 3.7% in 2009.


 

For all of Bucks County, prices dropped by 6.8% in 2009. 

These statistics are based on houses that sold, and they include all homes other than condominiums. 

In future posts, I will be taking an in depth look, at market statistics, in the Yardley, Newtown, Upper Makefield, Buckingham, and Solebury areas.

If you have any questions, or would like any clarification of this information, please contact me.

225 Arborlea Ave; Yardley, Pa. 19067

Just listed an absolutely fabulous house in Lower Makefield Township, Bucks County, Pa. 

Address is 225 Arborlea Ave, Yardley, Pa. 19067.  I did a short video, on this charming and unique home.  I have lots of fabulous pictures, which I will post, tomorrow. 

Price is 449,900, and it is a 4 bedroom, 1 1/2 bath home, on a gorgeous, wooded lot.  Check it out, and let me know what you think.