Best Time to Make An Offer
By Tim Thornton

If you are looking for the best time to make an offer on a home, there are a couple of things to keep in mind. First of all, and most importantly, if you can make an offer without a competitive bid, you have a great deal more leverage to negotiate. Making an offer when there are no other bidders can be as simple as jumping on an opportunity as soon as you find the right property. Most buyers know the right home for them almost immediately. Experienced buyers know they must move quickly. The inexperienced may want to wait, or think about the purchase for days or weeks–often waiting until it is too late. I would say that this is the most common mistake made by first time home buyers.
Some additional “rules of thumb” to consider when timing your offer include:

* “Low Times” in the calendar. There are certain times in almost every quarter when you may be the only person bidding on a property. For example, between Thanksgiving and December 26th are seasonal lows, when fewer buyers are out looking for houses. Buying a home when the weather is particularly bad may be ideal due to the lack of other buyers to compete with your bid.

* The beginning of the week can be a good timing strategy, but if you find a house on a Friday in the peak summer months and then you wait until Tuesday to make an offer, you may be disappointed–as the same things that you liked about the property may be attractive to other buyers as well and in the end, you may have unexpected competition.

* Buying an inventory home from a new home builder at specific times can give you a huge advantage, but you have to understand what is important to that particular builder at that point in time. All builders have different financial drivers and fiscal calendars. This is where you need a savvy Realtor to help you determine what motivates a given builder, when and where the best deals can be made–based on their quarterly revenue and sales motivations at that point in time.

* 30 days after school starts in the fall can be a good time to harvest a deal from sellers who did not sell in the peak season from May to August. These sellers may be feeling anxious about the fact that their home did not go under contract. Not all sellers are desperate and not all sellers have to sell. Each situation has to be taken as a unique opportunity. It is important that your Realtor help you figure out as much as possible about the opportunities at hand.

* Making an aggressive offer on a house that has been listed above market value for more than 90-120 days can be a good strategy. If you wait until the house comes down to market value, you will have more buyer competition–but getting in before the seller decides to lower the price may mean that you create their new price-point and then close the deal with no competition.

* Short Sales may be a good opportunity, but only if you have lots of time, and a great deal of patience. Getting a short sale can take many months, and may require making many offers on properties before you get a bank to start negotiating over your offer. These are the most difficult and convoluted of today’s real estate market. Anyone who tells you that short sales is easy should be challenged and asked how many short sales they have completed this year. The very best short sales experts will tell you that it is not a business for the faint of heart or those whose deadlines are already set.

* Foreclosures. Once again I have to qualify the opportunity and say that not all foreclosures are good deals, and foreclosures generally violate all of the other premises of this article. Foreclosures almost always have high visibility among buyers. To win in the foreclosure market you must be smarter and faster than “the next guy”, and you have to know what you are doing to diagnose, repair and remodel a home. If you have only seen it on TV, never really remodeled a home that has significant issues and challenges, you are taking a big risk in thinking that foreclosures are a place to save big money in Real Estate. It is not as easy as it appears on the flat screen in your living room.

At the end of the day, there are always opportunities. My recommendations to you: (1) Find the right Realtor. (2) Find the right community or area. (3) Find a home that you connect with emotionally. And then plan a strategy to buy that home. If you can buy when there are few other buyers bidding on that particular home, and you play it smart with your Buyer’s Agent–you could come out ahead of the game.

This may seem like self serving advice, but I believe it is seldom in your best interest as a buyer, to go directly to the seller or the seller’s agent and negotiate without a buyer’s agent (Realtor®) representing you. This is true for new homes as much as for resell homes. I know this seems counter-intuitive and you may feel as though you have a cost advantage by going directly to the seller or you may think that your business skills make you a better negotiator than your Realtor. However, if your Buyer’s Agent is a smart business professional and a strategic negotiator, you should come out ahead every time by partnering with a Realtor® for your next home purchase..

I think we’ve officially hit the “dog days” of summer! It’s been a long time since I can remember a summer starting out as sultry as this one has. Temperatures are high … and so will be energy bills! For those homeowners who didn’t feel the sting of their electric bill over the winter months, you probably are now that the air conditioning is running 24/7 to keep your family comfortable.

Don’t forget: there are still Federal tax credits available through the end of 2010. I encourage anyone considering a home improvement project to heavily weigh the benefits of doing it NOW so you can take advantage of the tax credits – and energy savings.

This month’s article is about making your home green (and energy efficiency is, naturally, one of the aspects).
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FEATURE ARTICLE: WHAT MAKES A HOME GREEN?
It wasn’t that long ago when we rarely heard of anything being sold as “green,” yet today, you’d be hard pressed to find an industry that isn’t branding themselves as greener, more environmentally conscious, and/or more energy efficient.

In fact, the home building industry is no different, and you are probably seeing more and more new homes touted as “green.”

But do you know what makes a home green?

As one of the first Certified Green Professionals (CGPs) in the area, I often get asked this question, and here’s my answer.

There are five broad-based categories that go into making a house (or any building, for that matter) green. They are:
1. Site selection and preparation
2. Energy efficiency
3. Efficient use of building materials
4. Indoor air quality
5. Water conservation

Let’s explore each one in a little more detail.

Site selection and preparation – One of the first steps in building a green home is the selection of where the home will be built. In the green building process, it is important to select a site where infrastructure (utilities, roads, etc.) already exists. Additionally, site preparation is extremely important in the green building process. The builder will try to preserve mature trees; this reduces landscaping and future energy costs. Trees also help provide winter wind breaks or summer shade.

Energy efficiency – There is so much about a home that falls under this category. Windows, doors, insulation, appliances, water heating units and the home’s mechanical system all play a huge role in how efficient your home is, and ultimately, what amount of natural resources (i.e., gas, oil or coal) your home uses to stay comfortable. A great place to begin is to select EnergyStar® appliances and electronics.

Efficient use of building materials – Factory-built components including trusses and pre-hung doors allow for more efficient use of raw materials, which makes the most out of every piece of lumber. These products also eliminate the need to cut wood on the jobsite, further reducing waste.

Indoor air quality – Choosing low-VOC (volatile organic compounds) materials – wood flooring, carpets, paints, stains, varnishes and caulks – improves the indoor air quality of the home. Additionally, the filter attached to the mechanical system that controls the home’s heating, ventilation and cooling can remove the majority of the allergens inside your home.

Water conservation – New toilets have redesigned bowls and tanks that use less water, but function more efficiently than the first-generation low-flow models. Advanced shower and sink faucet aerators provide the same flow regardless of pressure to reduce water use and the energy required to heat it. Some homeowners have even installed rain barrels to collect rain for use in watering flowers or washing their cars.

In the coming months, I’ll go into more detail about each of the five categories. However, if you are thinking about improving the energy efficiency of your home this summer, give us a call at (717) 560-3400 to schedule a free, no-obligation consultation. We’d be happy to discuss options that will work within your budget.

(Source: NAHB)

This home has it all. Located in York Suburban School District, this adorable home is ready for a new family! Minutes to York College & York Hospital, this 3 bedroom home offers a large private yard for family gatherings. For more details and photos, check out HOMES.

Located minutes from Maryland, this executive ranch offers a unique floor plan. Spacious rooms, high ceilings, and quality upgrades provide a perfect home for the discriminating buyer. Nestled on a private 1.4 acres, this home provides the perfect sanctuary after a long day at work. EXECUTIVE RANCH

  Great time to consider investing. The tax credit has just expired and sellers are going to be aggressively “wheeling and dealing”.  Add to that, a good selection of inventory and excellent interest rates. Definitely the recipe for making a profit.

            I uncovered this property-excellent cash flow INVESTMENT PROPERTY

If you are interested in this property or any others, please contact me. I would be glad to run a “pro-forma” and discuss financing options.

Regards,

Walt Wensel

Say good by to tax credit!

The tax credit is not a reason to ruch into making a bad decision, but it does represent an unprecedented opportunity. Please contact us for additional information or to discuss your real estate needs.

       Recently, you may have heard the term ”shadow inventory”. Shadow inventory refers to homes that have NOT been placed on the market . These are properties that Sellers would like to sell, but have refrained from listing. Generally, the reason is a combination of lack of urgency from the Seller and belief that market conditions will improve.   I’m experiencing a sharp increase in listing appointments. Sellers are anxious to take advantage of the tax credit motivated buyers. The growing optimism on the economic front has also resulted in an increase in seller activity. We should see some excellent opportunities in the next 45 days. Incredible interest rates (yes there is money for qualified buyers), depressed home prices, and NOW-fresh inventory. I anticipate marketing a wonderful attached home in the Red Lion area. Quiet neighborhood, great fenced yard, well maintained, minutes from I-83. Should list for under $145,000. I have another pending listing the Central School District. Features a cute yard, patio, and fish pond with privacy fence, wood floors in the living room & dining room, 4 bedrooms-minutes to I-83. Should hit the market in the next 10 days, under $140,000. If you know anyone that might be interested, have them contact me for a personal showing. WALT-800-494-7816

The government announcement states: “To help facilitate the return of repaired and habitable properties to the market in a timely fashion, additional exemptions to the 90-day resale restriction period must be granted for the purchase of properties by investors. This policy change will help to sell properties that may otherwise remain vacant for up to 90 days, while offering affordable housing options to buyers wishing to use FHA-insured financing.” Please contact us for additional details.