Harleysville-Lansdale Real Estate and More: September 2009

Is a dog park right for you and your dog?  Dog parks are springing up in more and more communities.  They offer dogs a chance to run, play, and interact with other dogs off-leash and in a safe setting.  In Montgomery County PA, we’re friendly to man’s best friend with several dog parks in and around the area.  Check out this list for a dog park near you:

• Hatfield Dog Park (at Hatfield Community Park), 2500 N. Chestnut St, Hatfield
• Horsham Dog Park (at Kohler Park), 1051 Horsham Rd, Horsham
• Bark Park Montgomery Township, Welsh Rd, North Wales
• Mondaug Bark Park (at Mondauk Manor), 1130 Camphill Rd, Fort Washington
• Reynold’s Dog Park (near Schuylkill Canal Park), 100 Longford Rd, Phoenixville
• Pretzel Dog Park (At Manayunk Park), Silverwood and Rector St, Philadelphia

There are a few “rules of etiquette” and precautions that you would want to follow at a dog park:

1. Never leave your dog unattended. 
2. If your dog becomes too unruly, take them out of the park.
3. Always clean up after your dog.  Failing to do so is the #1 complaint of dog parks visitors.
4. Make sure your dog is up-to-date on their shots, flea/tick prevention, and has a valid license.
5. Take extra care if you dog is not spayed or neutered.
6. Don’t bring food or cigarettes to the dog park.
7. If you bring children with you, supervise them closely so they don’t have any problems with the unleashed dogs.
8. Don’t bring too many dogs or kids, you are responsible for them and you may not be able to adequately supervise all of them.
9. Let your dog off their leash as soon as you arrive in the off-leash area.  Leashed dogs may feel threatened and growl or bark when off-leash dogs greet them.
10. Keep moving in the park.  This keeps the off-leash area neutral territory.
11. First time visitors should come during non-peak times to acclimate themselves and their dog to the park when it is not crowded.
12. Each park will post their own set of rules, read them over and respect them.
13. Watch for potential sprains, cuts and overheating from your dog’s play.  Make sure your dog has plenty of water and take him home when he seems tired.

Now that you are equipped with a destination and some guidelines, enjoy a trip to the park with your pooch.

What’s So Great About Montgomery County PA?  We’re doggone friendly.

Contact Scott Loper, Associate Broker, Realtor®, RE/MAX Realty Group at 215-513-1333 to buy or sell a home in Lansdale, Harleysville, Hatfield, Souderton, Skippack, Collegeville, North Wales and the surrounding areas of Montgomery County Pennsylvania. To Search for Homes For Sale in Montgomery County Click Here.

Copyright © 2009, The Scott Loper Team, All rights reserved.  WSGA Montgomery County PA: We’re Doggone Friendly.

For this post, it’s all about location and the plethora of fun things to do nearby.  From most places in Montgomery County, you can be skiing in the Pocono Mountains in as little as an hour.  For those who like the big city, Philadephia is very close and even New York City is reasonably so.  But consider that it also takes just 2 hours or less to get to the beaches.  In my mind, that’s close enough for a day trip and last week I took take advantage of the fact with a needed day off.  My friend Ed and I recently heard some reports of big bruiser bluefish (up to 20 pounds) being caught from the beach.  So, we packed up our gear and headed to Island Beach State Park for a little surf fishing. 

For background, Island Beach State Park is a barrier island between the Atlantic Ocean and Barnegat Bay.  The park has a lot to offer and explore.  If you like the usual summertime lounging on the beach or dip in the ocean, there’s nearly a full mile of guarded beach.  This stretch of sand is served by ample parking facilities and large, well maintained pavilions with restrooms, changing areas, first aid stations, and concessions.  The park extends for a whopping 10 miles, however, and offers so much more than sunbathing and fishing.  There are 8 walking trails throughout the park with nature and history exhibits along the way.  Three different interpretive centers provide fun and educational tours for a more in-depth view of the park’s history and ecology.  The main road has an 8 mile designated bike path.  The park also allows horseback riding in the off season and bonfires are permitted in certain locations on the beach.

As summer fades to fall, the park becomes a haven for surf fishermen (and yes, we are graced with the presence of the occasional fisherwoman).  In my view, there are two main reasons.  First is the good probability of actually catching some fish.  From late September through November large schools of bluefish and striped bass migrate south feasting on mullet and bunker along the way.  This is known as the fall run and it passes right by Island Beach State Park often bringing these fish within casting range of the beach.  There’s also a spring run when the fish return northbound, but it’s typically not as productive.  Another big reason for the park’s popularity with fishermen is that you can drive on the beach (assuming you have a 4 wheel drive vehicle and a proper permit from the park).  This makes it easy to cover a lot of beach in search of good fishing action.

So, back to last week.  Ed and I left Lansdale a little before 5 am.  I know that’s nuts for an ordinary person’s day off, but it’s actually a bit on the late side for fishermen.  We made the usual stops at a WaWa to fill-up on gas and get some snacks and then off to Betty and Nick’s bait shop for a couple of bags of mullet (snacks for big bluefish).  We were at the park gatehouse just before 7am and stopped to talk to the ranger and get our drive-on permit.  Just as we were heading out of the door, we were greeted by Scooter.  Scooter is a red fox that, according to the ranger, frequents the gatehouse in the hopes of an easy breakfast.   Red foxes are pretty common in the park, but this was the first time I had seen one.  Somebody hit the nature button for us; awesome!

With our permit in hand, we aired-down our tires (a must for driving in deep sand) and assembled our fishing rods.  We were on the beach and actually fishing by 7:30am; not bad.  Within about 20 minutes, one of our rods bent over like a party switching politician.  A real exciting start, but the fight was short lived in this fish which turned out to be just a cow-nosed ray.  Not exactly what we were hoping for, but it was still fun to real in and neat to see.  We had similar luck for the rest of the day with a total count of 3 cow-nosed rays, 3 flounder, 2 small bluefish, and one sea robin.  So, we didn’t catch any bruiser blues, but I got a needed dose of nature, caught a few interesting fish, and spent the day with a good friend.  We packed-up our gear, aired-up the tires, got on the road just after 3pm, and beat rush hour to make it back to Lansdale by 5pm.

What’s So Great About Montgomery County PA?  For me, it was being less than 2 hours from the beach one day last week.

Note: I forgot my camera on this outing (bag blogger).  So, the pictures are actually from a few previous trips to the beach.

Contact Scott Loper, Associate Broker, Realtor®, RE/MAX Realty Group at 215-513-1333 to buy or sell a home in Lansdale, Harleysville, Hatfield, Souderton, Skippack, Collegeville, North Wales and the surrounding areas of Montgomery County Pennsylvania. To Search for Homes For Sale in Montgomery County Click Here.

Copyright © 2009, The Scott Loper Team, All rights reserved.  WSGA Montgomery County PA: Being Less Than 2 Hours from the Beach

This past June, I wrote a blog targeted towards home sellers and their Reasons to be Optimistic if You Can Lure First Time Buyers.  Within that post, I pointed out that the current market requires sellers (regardless of which type of buyer they are targeting) to compete more for buyers in three main areas: Location (can’t feasibly change), Condition, and Price.  In this post, I want to specifically address the relationship between Condition and Price with some real life examples.

For these examples, I’m using the five most recent sales (within 6 months) in our local neighborhood of Stonegate.  Stonegate is a beautiful, yet affordable, townhouse community in the Lansdale, PA area.  Its popularity stems from a great combination of features; modern construction and styling, centrally located to job centers and major commuting routes, reasonable price point, low association fees, well kept grounds, close to great schools, shopping, parks – the list goes on.

Here’s a summary of the five sales:

The main features (#bedrooms, #baths, garage, etc) of all these homes are identical.  There are some differences in base square footage between the interior and end-units, but they’re relatively small differences.   Nevertheless, end-units historically sell for higher prices (I would say on the order of $5,000) than comparably appointed interior units.

Having shown four and sold two of the above homes (the exception being Hill Dr), I can speak firsthand about their showing condition.

The Cosmetically Challenged - In the case of Hillcrest Ct, the home showed okay but nothing more than that.  The kitchen and baths were very basic and showed some wear.  The carpets and paint also showed wear and the décor was a hodge-podge in terms of color and style.  Home #2 on Bloomfield Cir was challenging; very basic kitchen and baths, worn carpets, a partially completed/partially demo’d finished basement, a whiff of pet odor, and the décor (nearly 100% pink interior walls).  From what I remember of home #3 on Bloomfield, it was also very basic and worn, but the original hunter green carpets are what really stick in my mind about this one.

The Cosmetically Enhanced - Now for the homes that sold for an average of about $20k more.  I didn’t personally tour Hill Dr, but from the photos it looked quite nice.  The kitchen and baths had some moderate upgrades as did much of the flooring in the home.  It also had a neutral yet warm décor, new carpets in many rooms, crown moulding and chair rail accents, etc.  Valley drive had a similar décor and upgraded flooring (hardwood) in much of the first level.   The kitchen and baths weren’t really upgraded in terms of the cabinetry and counters, but they were in good condition and again had that warm, neutral décor (get the idea here).  Both of the higher priced homes did have nicely finished basements which accounts for some of the price difference, but that’s probably limited to around $5,000-$7,500 on resale for these particular finishing jobs.  I also want to point out that these homes did not have extensive kitchen/bath upgrades; no granite, cherry cabinets, high-end ceramic flooring, etc.  In fact, I believe the kitchen cabinetry material was a very similar oak in all five homes.

In my estimation, the price differences were largely a result of how the homes showed.  And the better showing conditions were really achieved with a few moderate upgrades and attention to cosmetic basics such as carpet and paint.

The points are these:

1)      If you spend a modest amount money (or time and energy) improving the showing condition of your home, you can reap significant benefits when you sell.  Plus, you’ll get to enjoy those improvements up until the time you do sell your home.

2)      If your home is lacking in terms of its showing condition, you need to be realistic about pricing relative to homes that have upgrades or have been recently improved.  You home will still sell even in the current market, but you should be prepared to list at and accept a significantly lower price compared to those “improved” homes.

One other interesting note is that the homes on Bloomfield Circle were both bought by investors as opposed to owner occupants; perhaps suggesting that a seller will alienate much of the larger “owner occupied” market with poor showing condition.

Contact Scott Loper, Associate Broker, Realtor®, RE/MAX Realty Group at 215-513-1333 to buy or sell a home in Lansdale, Harleysville, Hatfield, Souderton, Skippack, Collegeville, North Wales and the surrounding areas of Montgomery County Pennsylvania. To Search for Homes For Sale in Montgomery County Click Here.

Copyright © 2009, The Scott Loper Team, All rights reserved.  The Condition-Price Conflict.

August marked the 21st consecutive month that home prices have fallen from their previous year levels in Montgomery County, PA. For this past August, the average price of a home was 13% below the same month in 2008. But before you make any hasty, negative judgments about our market, take a look at the charts below and note the following:

• From the latter part of 2005 through early 2008, our housing prices could be characterized as relatively flat and stable. It wasn’t until late 2008 that we started to see some more significant decreases in our average selling prices. And even during this period, our monthly year-over-year price declines were pretty much confined to a 5% to 15% range.

• We actually saw a typical, seasonal price increase over the 2009 spring/summer selling season. The average price increased from a low of about $271,000 in February to a high of $322,000 in June; nearly a 19% increase.

• Probably the most encouraging data involves the number of homes sold. This past July, we actually saw an increase (1.6%) in the year-over-year number of homes sold. That marked an end to a streak of 38 consecutive months in which the year of year number fell. It was also followed up by a 0.5% increase in August’s year-over-year number. Only time will tell if this is a turning point, but it’s definitely a positive sign.

• Lastly, and more just a point of interest, the charts clearly show some interesting and repetitive seasonal trends. Within the real estate industry, we’re well aware of these trends and many consumers are now savvy to them as well. Seeing the data, however, really takes the mystery out of the “selling/buying seasons”.

Contact Scott Loper, Associate Broker, Realtor®, RE/MAX Realty Group at 215-513-1333 to buy or sell a home in Lansdale, Harleysville, Hatfield, Souderton, Skippack, Collegeville, North Wales and the surrounding areas of Montgomery County Pennsylvania. To Search for Homes For Sale in Montgomery County Click Here.

Copyright © 2009, The Scott Loper Team, All rights reserved. Montgomery County PA Home Prices and Home Sales.