You may not know it, but if you are still in the PP&L electric generation program after deregulation, you have a good option to potentially discount your bill. It’s called the “Time Of Use” option and you can see it at the PP&L website here: http://www.pplelectric.com/time-of-use/option/

The way it works is by breaking up the day into “peak” and “off-peak” time brackets. This is obviously not a new concept but can be effective if your usage is primarily outside of peak times, which are 1-6pm this summer. How do you find out? Great Question!

PP&L also has a VERY handy “Energy Analyzer” available to users once you create a login profile on their site. You can view and download your hourly usage for any time period. I did this and created a spreadsheet to compare the two programs and found I would have saved an average of 16% over my current “flat” rate of 9.205 cents per KWH.

Switching to the “Time Of Use” rate plan was one click and an “enroll” click to do. I would suggest that if you are with PP&L it may be worth looking at your bill – you may see a way to “find” energy cost savings right at your fingertips!

Any questions – love to hear them at jeff@yourlancasterhome.com.

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Choose Jeff Geoghan for your next home sale or purchase in Lancaster PA! Thanks.

(c) 2011 Jeff Geoghan

Jeremy discussed how, by paying just $200 extra a month, you can cut your payoff time nearly in half on a 30 year $120,000 mortgage at 5% interest.  In fact, he points out how that $200 really is a great investment at 5% locked in for the life of the loan.

Any of my Lancaster PA real estate clients would benefit from a serious look at paying even a little extra on their mortgage each month.  If you are interested in how to get started, reach out to Jeremy at Jeremy@barefinancial.com and he’ll get you on the right track.

Questions? Comment?  Just want to say hi? Email me at jeff@yourlancasterhome.com

Visit our homepage for Lancaster PA Real Estate

(c) 2011 Jeff Geoghan

The ReStore is about 11 years old and has a wide variety of items for sale, from tile to paint to entire kitchens and outdoor landscaping materials. The store depends on a steady stream of donations so don’t be shy if you’re doing work and have items to give, or if you’re a business with extra product, either “firsts” or “seconds”. For a list of suggested items to donate to the ReStore check this web page: http://www.lancasterhabitatrestore.org/index.php?pID=3

The best part is that your donations and purchase monies all go to help provide homes and a stable family life for our fellow Lancastrians. Kate’s passion for the outreach was awesome and she would like to show us some of the work Lancaster Habitat For Humanity is doing right now in 2011 – so stay tuned for a follow-up episode!

If you would like more information please visit http://www.lancasterhabitatrestore.com or find them on Facebook: http://www.facebook.com/lancrestore . As always you can email me with any real estate or home questions at jeff@yourlancasterhomecom.

(c) 2011 Jeff Geoghan

LHOP’s core program is the Financial Literacy course taught by experienced staff members. This course exposes the prospective homebuyer to all aspects of the home buying process and ownership. In concert with this is a income-qualified financial incentive of $5,000 issued to the course graduate as a non-interest bearing 2nd mortgage that doesn’t need to be repaid until the house is sold. This program has been very successful — the 2011 LHOP class schedule is posted here: http://www.lhop.org/buying-a-home/class-schedule.asp . In addition LHOP recently contracted with the county to offer a Fair Housing program that will interact with renters,owners, industry professionals and beyond (this will be the subject of another video in the near future — stay tuned!).

Of immediate note is that LHOP is sponsoring a Home Ownership Fair on Saturday, April 9th at Liberty Place in Lancaster City from 10-3. Read the full flyer here: http://yourlancasterhome.com/2011LHOPHousingFairFlyer.pdf . The Fair will feature a number of local housing process vendors (lenders, realtors, insurance, builders, housing counselors) and a comprehensive set of 30 minute seminars covering important Lancaster County PA homes information (see the itinerary below). There’s no cost for this event and any prospective buyers whether first-time or otherwise are encouraged to attend. Of course, Coldwell Banker will be there…

If you would like more information on the Homebuyer Assistance program or other programs offered by the Lancaster Housing Opportunity Partnership, or more info on the Home Ownership Fair in April, feel free to call them at 717-291-9945 or on the web at http://www.LHOP.org . As always, you can find me at jeff@yourlancasterhome.com.

2011 LHOP Home Ownership Fair SEMINAR SCHEDULE:
10:30am — 10:45am
What’s Happening in the Lancaster County Real Estate Market?

11:00am — 11:30am
The Benefits of Home Ownership

11:45am — 12:15pm
Financing Options for Homebuyers Learn how to Purchase/Renovate at the same time!

12:30pm — 1:00pm
Life as a Homeowner…

1:15pm — 1:45pm
10 Secrets Homebuyers SHOULD Know!

2:00pm — 3:00pm
Aging in Place (practical home modifications, care programs, reverse mortgages)

Visit our homepage for Lancaster PA Real Estate

(c) 2011 Jeff Geoghan

This week I again was dealing with a great-priced HUD home sale in Lancaster City ($57,000 for a 2,300 square foot home on West Walnut) that was generating a lot of buzz.  This prompted me to cut an episode talking about HUD homes in Lancaster County and how you might benefit some day from buying one.

The federal Dept. of Housing and Urban Development acquires properties through the foreclosure process of certain homeowners nationwide.  Once they have these properties, they need a vehicle to liquidate them back to the public.  This is accomplished by breaking the country down into regions and giving contracts to “asset management” companies to administer the sales in assigned regions.  For Pennsylvania and some neighboring states, there are 3 asset management companies.

Now that the asset management companies have properties to market, they hire listing brokers in different geographic areas such as cities and counties.  You can search HUD homes at http://www.HUDhomestore.com, by the way.  Once you find one you want to buy, you’ll need a registered SELLING broker to place an online bid for you.  HUD rules stipulate a 30 day “owner occupant priority” period where only buyers planning to actually live at the property may bid.  Investors (and there are many) are shut out of the process until day 31 for most sales.  HUD does accept FHA mortgage financing on qualifying homes, unlike most other foreclosure listings.

Once your online bid is accepted, the sale proceeds fairly normally to closing.  There is some extra paperwork involved, but the contract is much shorter than the standard contract and since the homes are sold “as-is” there’s no complications with inspections, etc.

Buying a HUD home has never been easier and if the property works for you, the savings may be substantial over a similar privately-offered property.  Email me if you’d like more info or have comments at jeff@yourlancasterhome.com.  Visit my Lancaster County foreclosure website at http://www.yourlancasterhome.com/lancastercountyinvestors.htm. Search Lancaster PA Homes for sale.

As a west-coast refugee, I happen to really like contemporary style homes. While they are certainly less common out here in “amish country”, they can be found tucked in around Lancaster County and are just a lot of fun to check out.  One contemporary style I like in particular is called “Mid-Century Modern” and I’ve seen several around our area.

Today I am in a small, less-expensive example but still most definitely Mid-Century Modern, localed on the west side in Lancaster Township. Check out the beamed ceilings, glass walls and high transom-type windows. This home was built by a designer in 1947 who also reportedly built one or two of the Mid-Century Modern examples up on Blossom Hill north of the city in Manheim Township. The home that am filming this episode in does not appear to have been significantly upgraded in it’s lifetime, meaning that some original “modern” features still remain like the solid wood closet doors and even a very period dining room lamp. I love this stuff!

Mid-Century Modern design was in vogue from the late 1940’s through about 1970. This style had many iterations but most often was a one-floor layout with a flat or peaked roof and heavy beaming on the inside, without an attic. There were no basements in most cases. Floor to ceiling windows and “glass walls” to bring the outside in was a key component. A proponent of the mid-century modern movement was a builder named Joseph Eichler, who designed amazing homes on the west coast in the 50’s and 60’s.

In Lancaster PA, Mid Century Modern styled homes are obviously few and far between. I listed and sold a wonderful one in Manheim Township last summer (I really wanted to buy it myself!).  You can see the tour from last summer here. I’ve toured several and every so often one comes up for sale. Remember, a mid-century modern home is a contemporary, but a contemporary is not always a mid-century modern…

As many of you know, I am an advocate of greener homes. I found this video of a news story about a green remodel of a mid-century modern home in Palm Springs Cailfornia.

If you’d like to talk more about mid century modern homes or contemporary homes in general feel free to email at jeff@yourlancasterhome.

Today we’re visiting with Herb Ingram of Amerispec Home Inspections out at a home a client of mine has under agreement in Lancaster City, Pennsylvania. Herb and I chat about how he became interested in the home inspection business and how the industry got started in the first place (back in the 1970’s, by the way).

Herb talks about the types of property issues that are common in the Lancaster County region. Big ones are HVAC problems & “water penetration” (sounds so benign, doesn’t it?). With the dramatic rise in vacant and distressed properties having a trained eye evaluating the home seems to be more important than ever. Herb also explains about how the home inspection industry is now regulated and how reputable inspectors are members of one the several national oversight bodies such as NAHI or ASHI.

I hope you enjoy the episode – I know I learned something! If you have any questions or comments please feel free as always to reach out to me at jeff@yourlancasterhome.com

Today I’m discussing my favorite real estate home search apps for the iPhone (or smartphone of your choice that supports them).  All of the following apps utiltize the geolocation feature heavily, and this is also where they are the most useful.

Apps are as follows:

1) Realtor.com – this app is very robust for searching listings of homes for sale or rent in Lancaster County.  I like the flexibility of the app and the fact that it is directly tied to the local Multiple Listing Service (MLS) through connections with the National Association of Realtors.

2) Zillow – I’ve used the Zillow app for a few years and really like the way it brings the past sales data of the subject home and any nearby homes to you on the iPhone (as Zillow does on their full site, of course).  Zillow relies on the deed recordings in Lancaster County to capture it’s sales data, so there are serious time lag issues if you are searching for a sale within, say, the last six months.  Disregard their “Zestimates”, please – they are also based on the deed recorded information of nearby homes, and are a flawed concept (in fairness, it’s a nice try but properties simply can’t be properly valued without more details unaccessible to Zillow).  Also, Zillow’s data on current listings can be off as well, with expired and sold listings showing up as active.

3) Trulia – clean, pretty app that is basically the same as Realtor.com.  I prefer Realtor.com…

4) Walkscore – This app estimates a score from 0 to 100 based on the location’s proximity to walkable amenities like stores, theaters etc.  I like to use this app in and around Lancaster City, PA homes for sale to see which ones are truly more “walkable”.

5) Mortgage Calculator – A handy, one screen input app that will crank out mortgage payments based on your rate and down payment for any purchase price.  Nice.
Thanks for watching, and if you have any comments or questions feel free to reach out to me at jeff@yourlancasterhome.

As 2010 ends and 2011 looms, it’s a buyer’s market in Lancaster PA real estate, with a record number of homes for sale and historic low numbers of buyers out making offers.  If you’re serious about getting your property sold, you’ve got to approach the listing process in deadly earnest and expect to make sacrifices to prepare to impress potential buyers.

Today I talk about the basic realities you will have to deal with in listing your home (not selling it – that’s another post!).  They are 1) Get your numbers in order – mortgage payoffs, taxes, utility bills etc for the buyer to see.  2) Do the three D’s – Dump, Declutter and Decorate.  3) Get an independent 3rd party review of your property to spot issues, and 4) Think marketing, marketing, marketing all the way through your preparations.

“Keepin’ it Kevin”: KIK Sarcoma Team Sarcoma Bike, Walk and Run will be hosted at the East Petersburg Community Park Grounds to raise awareness and funds for the Liddy Shriver Sarcoma Initiative; this organization helps fund and support Sarcoma cancer research and assists families affected by Sarcoma cancer. The bike, walk and run will feature two courses: One will be a shorter course for walkers and runners, as well as those with small children and disabilities, on a paved trail. The longer course will be on the roads of East Petersburg with traffic assistance from the Manheim Township Police Department and event volunteers.  Hope to see you out there!
More info can be found at the event website, www.keepinitkevin.info. Please contact the organizing team at TeamSarcomaPA@gmail.com or call 717-682-0365 with any questions or if interested in becoming a sponsor or volunteer.

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The Liddy Shriver Sarcoma Initiative is a Collective Giving Fund within FJC, a 501(c)(3) Not-for-Profit Public Charity and a Foundation of Philanthropic Funds. As such, all donations and gifts made to FJC that are designated for the Liddy Shriver Sarcoma Initiative are tax-deductible donations to the extent allowed by United States law.

Team Sarcoma Website http://www.team-sarcoma.net/
Keepin’ it Kevin Team Website http://www.keepinitkevin.info
Liddy Shriver Sarcoma Initiative http://sarcomahelp.org/