Bankrate.com recently featured a range of tips for first-time sellers to help them stay competitive in today’s real estate market. Here are some things you may want to discuss with your sellers:
Pricing a home competitively from the beginning is important. “Your largest number of showings will occur in the first two to three weeks,” says Mark Ramsey, broker with the Ramsey Group/Keller Williams Realty in Charlotte, N.C. “The (multiple listing service) systems and the Internet tend to drive the majority of showings.” That’s why real estate experts stress that it’s important sellers get a competitive, realistic price from the start.
Consider sweetening the deal. Sellers may be able to lure more buyers by offering some extra incentives, whether that’s leaving that top-of-the-line gas clothes dryer or other items that would be difficult to move, like the two wall-mounted, flat-screen TVs. The perks may add a little extra to attract buyers and become extra selling points too.
Make sure the home is show-ready and in move-in condition. In smaller homes, for example, clutter can mean the difference between cozy and cramped, experts say. Be sure the sellers keep homes clean and clear of clutter, particularly kitchen and bathroom countertops that tend to accumulate personal items that can hamper showing the home’s features.
However, make sure sellers don’t go to the other extreme and clear away too much.
“Don’t neutralize it so that it’s sterile,” says Pat Vredevoogd Combs, vice president of Coldwell Banker AJS Schmidt in Grand Rapids, Mich., adding that small mementos and photos help make a house feel like a home.
Real estate experts also stress the importance of sellers’ getting a home in move-in condition—such as fixing all repairs and replacements—before it is even listed.
“From a presentation standpoint, you want them to feel it’s turnkey — ready to go,” says Mark Ramsey, broker with the Ramsey Group/Keller Williams Realty in Charlotte, N.C. “Because your competition is doing that. In this market, it’s not just a price war but a beauty contest at the same time.”
Source: “7 Tips for the First-time Home Seller,” Bankrate.com (June 2011)
PHILADELPHIA’S FINEST RESTAURANTS + AWARD-WINNING MURAL ART TOUR = FANTASTIC FOODIE FUN!
The City of Philadelphia Mural Arts Program is pleased to announce a Murals & Meals Tour Series hosted by Philadelphia celebrity chefs. Get a taste of Philadelphia’s renowned murals and lunch at an outstanding restaurant. Discover the one-of-a-kind food and public art Philadelphia has to offer through this extraordinary VIP experience. At lunch, enjoy a tasting menu and a special presentation by the host chef.
Murals & Meals Tours will be held on the following select Saturday’s with the mural tour departing on an antique trolley at 10 a.m., followed by lunch at 12 p.m. Tours depart from and return to the restaurant location. Pricing is $50 per person unless otherwise noted, advance reservations are required and space is limited to 35 attendees per tour.
MAY
21st Percy St. BBQ (900 South Street) A special presentation by Chef Erin O’Shea
JUNE
18th Fork (306 Market Street) A special presentation by Chef Terence Feury
25th Sampan (124 S. 13th St.) A special presentation by Chef du Cuisine Khamala Vongsakoun
JULY
16th Distrito (3945 Chestnut Street) A special presentation by Chef Maria Schmidt
23rd Kokopelli (1904 Chestnut Street) A special presentation by Chef Gina Rodriguez
AUGUST
6th Seafood Unlimited (270 South 20th Street) A special presentation by Owner David Einhorn
13th City Tavern (138 South 2nd Street) A special presentation on the restaurants history
SEPTEMBER
10th Le Virtu (1927 East Passyunk Avenue) A special presentation by Owner Francis Cratil
OCTOBER
1st Noble (2025 Sansom Street) A special presentation by Executive Chef Brinn Sinnott
8th Adsum (700 South 5th Street) A special presentation by Chef Matt Levin
22nd Le Bec Fin (1523 Walnut Street) A special presentation by Georges Perrier - $60 per person
29th Cafe du Jour (2001 Market Street) A Taste of Philadelphia menu with tips on catering at home
NOVEMBER
5th The Farmer’s Cabinet (1113 Walnut St.) A special presentation by Chef Peter Felton
To book your ticket, visit: http://muralarts.tix.com/ScheduleCalendar.asp?OrganizationNumber=2978
I just read this article on Philly.com. I think it’s a great idea and anything that helps Philadelphia go green get’s a thumbs up from me. Go Philadelphia!
Porous street unveiled in South Philly
By JAN RANSOM
Philadelphia Daily News
ransomj@phillynews.com 215-854-5218
Tired of trying to navigate your car through flooded roadways when it rains or trying to walk across street puddles that resemble miniature lakes?
Imagine a city where you didn’t have to wear knee-high water boots when it rained, or worry about backed-up sewer systems creating havoc on your block - because your street suddenly became a sponge.
Today, Mayor Nutter, Deputy Mayor Rina Cutler and Councilman Frank DiCicco will unveil Philly’s first porous street - on Percy, between Catharine and Christian and 9th and 10th - in South Philadelphia.
“This will take a lot of pressure off of storm-water draining, and maybe we can get a handle on flooded basements,” said at-large Councilman Jim Kenney. “The less water we have to treat, the better we are economically and environmentally.”
A porous street is made up of permeable materials including porous asphalt, which is specially designed to allow water to soak through the surface, thus eliminating storm-water runoff.
Beneath the porous pavement lies a layer of stone that acts as temporary storage for water as it slowly soaks into the soil.
The Green Street initiative is a part of the Philadelphia Water Department’s Green City, Clean Waters program, an effort to improve the city’s sewer infrastructure and reduce the amount of storm water that enters it.
Similar to most older cities, parts of Philadelphia have a combined sewer system that includes both the sanitary sewer system - water from showers and toilets - and a storm-water system, said Andrew Stober, chief of staff for the Mayor’s Office of Transportation and Utilities.
During heavy rain, treatment plants can’t accommodate the water, and consequently the toilet and storm water flows together into the city’s rivers.
“This happens 50 or 60 times a year,” said Stober. “We’ve created a street that can literally absorb water. [This is the] first of its kind, the first of many.”
Percy Street was completely reconstructed with a new sewer system, main and piping.
Construction of the city’s first porous street cost $330,000, including the sewer, water and gas lines and the permeable pavement.
The city will complete its second porous street, on Webster between 13th and Broad, later this spring.
There’s a new website that’s perfect for philly sport history buffs and sports trivia - phillysportshistory.com
You’ll be the go to person when people want to know something that happened in the past. It’s a great conversation starter (possibly ender,too) - the star of the bar.
Here is one piece of trivia that’s actually funny:
Home Run Baker Nearly Kills Secretary Of State
This bit recalls President Taft throwing out the first-ever Presidential first pitch as the Washington Senators squared off against the Philly A’s, before the A’s Baker blasted a foul ball that careened into the Presidential box and smacked the Secretary of State in the head, which concerned many, though Taft was just psyched to steal his Cracker Jacks in the ensuing shuffle.
Read more and enjoy.
To rent or to buy: what used to be a given – that you would buy a home as soon as you could afford to – has become an agonizing conundrum for many a would-be homebuyer, in the face of the housing market’s big bust and super-slow recovery. Low prices seem to create a wide-open window of opportunity, but they also create the concern that prices will keep falling after closing. And that Catch-22 has hundreds of thousands of buyers-to-be stuck on the fence.
Fortunately, there are handful of life, mortgage and local market signals which indicate that the time *might* be right to hop – scratch that – leap off the fence and into homeownership:
Mortgage rates are going up. Home prices have been low for the last several years, and in fact are currently looking like they’re heading back down to the same levels they were at the depths of the real estate recession. During this same time frame, interest rates have also been low – this one-two punch has created record-high affordability for the last four years running, causing buyers to believe that this window of opportunity won’t be closing anytime soon.
While prices don’t look like they’ll be skyrocketing anytime soon, interest rates are another story. Rates have been on a rollercoaster over the past few months, and with inflation and Fed rates set to spike later this year, today’s low interest rates might be as good as they’re going to get for a long time to come. And I mean a very long time – in the next few years, governmental intervention in the mortgage markets is likely to wind down, and that means higher mortgage interest rates are not only inevitable, they’ll probably be here for a long, long time.
Mortgage rates on the rise are one signal that now might be the peak of home affordability, and the peak of the opportunity to buy.
Rents are going up. Rental rates in many areas are also on the rise – in fact, the foreclosure crisis has acted created additional demand on many markets’ rental housing inventory in several different ways. First, former homeowners who lost homes to foreclosure now need to rent; as well, buyers in foreclosure hot spots have been hesitant to buy, many electing to stay renters far beyond when they would have otherwise. On top of all that, super-tight lending guidelines have stopped even some who would like to buy homes from doing so. As a result, rental homes are in high demand – and rents are rising.
Rising rents at a time when the prices of homes for sale are low and, in some places, falling? One more signal that now might just be the time to buy. (Of course, where foreclosures are high, the chances of continued depreciation are, too – to offset this risk, have a long-term plan, to minimize the possibility that you’ll owe more than your home is worth when you need to sell. Read on for more on how to plan for the long term and minimize your homebuying risk.)
Your income and career are stable for the foreseeable future. The smartest homebuyers look to their lives, not just the market, for signals about when the time is right to buy. Homebuying is a long, long-term endeavor these days. The goal is to be able to commit to staying in the same place, geographically-speaking, for 7 to 10 years before you buy (more in a foreclosure-riddled market, less in an area that has been more recession-resistant). Most lenders will require that you’ve been at your job – or in the same general field of work – for at least two years before you buy. But that’s the bare minimum – beyond that, you don’t want to be barely beginning a career in which you think you may need to move sooner than that, nor do you want to buy when you’re advanced in your career, but in an industry which is dying or downsizing the workforce in your region (unless you have a strong Plan B).
When you get to the spot in your career where you can realistically project a stable income 7 to 10 years out, life might be giving you a green light to move forward on your homebuying dreams.
You can reasonably predict the home you’ll need in the years to come. Since successful homeownership requires that you be ready to be in the place for a good number of years, best practice is not just to buy a home with the space and number of rooms you need right now – rather, you should aim to buy the home you’ll need 5, 7 or even 10 years down the road (to the best of your ability to predict, of course). You might be a newlywed with no kids now, but you plan to have them in a few years. Or maybe you’re a newly minted empty nester right now, but can project that you’ll want to retire - and might not want to climb two flights of stairs to get to and from your bedroom - 10 years down the road. Before you buy, you should be in a position to buy the home that meets your future needs – not just your current ones; and that requires that you have a reasonable idea of your life vision and plan for the future.
If you’re able to predict – and afford, at today’s prices – a home with the space, amenity and geographic location you’ll need 7 to 10 years from now, you might be in a good phase of life to get off the rent vs. buy fence.
With that said… buying a home is a massive decision and includes multiple, long-term financial and lifestyle obligations, so if one or more of these signals are present for you, that doesn’t mean you have the green light to run out and buy a home tomorrow – rather, it’s a good sign you should begin down that path, if you’re so inclined. You’ll still need to do the work to make sure your personal finances and holistic life picture are also in alignment before you buy, as well of the work it takes to ensure that your real estate and mortgage decisions are sustainable and smart, over the long-term.
It’s not overkill to check in with a mortgage pro, a tax pro, a local real estate broker or agent and a financial planner to make sure all your ducks – not just one - are in a row before you make your move.
MORE IMAGES For redesigning Franklin Mortgage & Investment’s snack list, Supper got a brand new set of cocktails in return, including gems like the Espolon Reposado/ Campari/ Kahlua “Aftermath” and the Wild Turkey Rye/ Cocchi Americano/ Yellow Chartreuse “Odyssey & Oracle”, which easily trumped “Caravan & Miss Cleo” in the “Best Minivan and Fortune Teller” category.
Read more: http://www.thrillist.com/bars/philadelphia/pa/19147/south-street/franklin-night-at-supper_bar-food_great-cocktails#ixzz1Kj2iWejL
Pure Fare
Opening Apr 18th, at 7a; 119 S 21st St; Center City West; 267.318.7441
Improving stuff through science and tech is a mixed bag: on the one hand, it’s the only way you’re going to make that dinosaur theme park or cure Alzheimer’s with sharks; on the other, Sam Jackson’s getting eaten either way. Improving the healthy non-Jackson food scene with a heady dose of science and technology, Pure Fare.
Pure’s a rustic panoramic space serving calorie-smart noms prepped to ensure both nutrition and deliciousness (thanks to a Columbia U nutritional scientist) trackable on their custom-built website should you want to better your lifestyle, but not better your Lifestyles, which would just be not wearing one. The menu, with no dish ever crossing 500cals, includes a laundry list of international salads, sammies like a tuna romesco stuffed with albacore, and main offerings of a baked salmon plate with cucumber dill yogurt sauce and even a flat iron steak with shiitake mushrooms and a Thai peanut sauce, which Bear Bryant calls “kissing your sister peanut sauce”. On the tracking end, hit Purefare.com (or download their to-come app) to enter your vitals and weight goals, and you’ll get a daily cal count and recommended protein/carb/fat percentage; every dish you get at PF’s auto-deducted from your cal allotment, and there’re 40,000 market/resto foods for you to enter manually as you follow your progress week-over-week, also the headline when Screech Celebrity-Boxed the Welcome Back Kotter dude.
On the thirst-quenching side, PF’s the first Philly outlet for San Fran’s Blue Bottle Coffee, and they’re also doing up smoothies like carrot/ pineapple/ OJ and one slushing dairy with dates, which Sam Jackson won’t be going on, unless his shark/dinosaur has also eaten a girl.
Read more: http://www.thrillist.com/food/philadelphia/pa/19103/center-city-west/pure-fare_breakfast_cheap-grub_coffee_healthy_lunch_sandwiches_websites#ixzz1JbVbGlSl
A lot of restaurants talk sustainability these days, about sourcing ingredients locally and paying homage to the seasons, the farmers, the heirloom roots and little piggies that go into every dish.
But Johnny Della Polla is a man obsessed with earning his “green cred” at Kennett Restaurant. That means plenty of prime-time action for root veggies and brussels sprouts during these winter months, not to mention braised collards instead of fries beside the burgers.
The greens are an offbeat “healthy” flourish, I suppose, that I found somewhat shrill beside the brazen decadence of a burger blended with bone marrow. Still, I love people and places that live their convictions, and Della Polla with his business partner, former-Starr server Ashley Bohan, have given Kennett the full eco-treatment from top to bottom.
Read more at: http://www.philly.com/philly/restaurants/20110313_Kennett_Restaurant.html
I’ve written about the new restaurants that have opened in Queen Village but I think it’s time to write a little something about our old stand by - For Pete’s Sake. I love that place. I had lunch there recently and I have to admit that their grill cheese with soup was one of the best. Lot’s of cheese and grease - my two favorite food groups.
Dinner is always fabulous. The the burgers are always the best - grilled to perfection. My favorite though is the macaroni & cheese with crab meat. Yummy. Have that with a glass of wine or one of your favorite beers and life is good.
The waiters and bartenders are always taking good care of me. Some of them know me pretty well. It’s the “Cheers” of Queen Village.
I highly recommend For Pete’s Sake. With all the new restaurants opening up in Queen Village - don’t forget this one!
As Philadelphia’s first neighborhood, Queen Village draws on a rich past that makes it one of the city’s most interesting places to live, work and play.
Extending South from Lombard Street to Washington Avenue and East from the Delaware River to 6th Street, Queen Village is sandwiched between patrician Society hill and the tightly woven Italian and ethnic communities of South Philadelphia - drawing its character a little from each.
Here you’ll find the city’s most famous and eclectic shopping district (South Street), the oldest and largest fabric row in the country (4th Street Fabric Row) and a lively restaurant and entertainment scene. The neighborhood, which is home to over 7,000 residents, is within walking distance of Independence Hall, Penn’s Landing, the Italian Market, and Center City.
Here also are outstanding examples of 18th-, 19th-, and early 20th-century architecture.
Queen Village has perhaps more unaltered historic houses, interior courtyards, and original street paving than any other section of the city.
Queen Village is home to residents whose families have lived here for generations along with young professionals, artisans and writers, doctors and lawyers, shopkeepers and families with young children. Its thriving business and residential areas make it one of the city’s most vital, charming and livable communities.
