Melissa's Blog

Grandson #2

Melissa Corman Sieg (Corman Home Sales & Property Management) — Wed, 13 May 2009 15:06:20 -0700

Well, I wanted to follow up my last blog entry with the story of the birth of my second grandchild! Here are some pertinent facts to get us started: My son and his wife live about 1 1/2 hours away, the hospital is 2 hours away. My daughter-in-law's due date was January 27th. We are all (her family and ours) die-hard Steeler fans!

When the Steelers won the AFC championship, Betsy just looked at my son and said - "Well, we now know what day the baby will arrive!" -of course presuming Super Bowl Sunday - February 1st. We all thought - no way! But as the day grew closer, the nagging thought kept entering our minds.

Low and behold - about 8:00 or so in the morning on Super Bowl Sunday the phone rings. It's BJ telling us they are on their way to the hospital and would call us when they knew for certain "this was it" (unforunately, they had a couple false alarms before this day). He called mid morning to say that yes, this was it but it would probaby be a while. We chose to stay home for now and got regular updates.

Let me back up for a moment to explain a few other things - I was supposed to go to Washington DC this Sunday afternoon for REALTOR meetings over the next couple days and would watch the Super Bowl in a room with hundreds of my "closest REALTOR friends" on a big screen and Bill was going to be home alone watching on our 50 inch flat screen. A couple days before we had loaded him up on food and beveages so he was all set and my bag was packed. We figured the baby would probably come sometime during the game and didn't want to be on the road listening on the radio and also we wanted to be present at the hospital to offer whatever support we could! (For those of you who read the blog on the birth of my first grandson - I waited in the Waiting Room the entire time - I told my son and his wife, if they wanted me in the room with them I would be happy to be there - but would only venture back if I was invited!) So, we traded in our large screens TV's for the AT MOST 20 inch screen in the hospital waiting room!

We thought about driving separately and I would then drive on to DC while he returnd home after the birth of our grandson. The longer she went through the day without a lot of progress, the more I realized that it wasn't going to happen in a timely basis Sunday evening and I would not have felt comfortable leaving town while they "labored" - pun intended! So, needless to say, I cancelled my hotel reservations in DC, left my overnight bag at home and we drove down together. We left the house about 2:30ish so we would get to the hospital in time for the start of the game - we even packed some snacks and beverages (non-alcoholic, of course) so we could "tailgate" in the waiting room. Thankfully the only people in the waiting room the entire time were us, her sister and niece who drove up from Virginia and her parents who came into town from Ohio. They had all arrived much earlier in the day.

As halftime approached, she was still no where close to being ready to go. Our son asked if we would drive to their place and walk their dog and his in-laws dog who was dropped there much earlier. They had both been locked up in the house pretty much all day. He said we could watch the second half there and he would call to give us updates. So - as soon a half time arrived we raced to the car so we could get to their house in time for the 3rd quarter to begin. We arrive with the 3rd quarter JUST getting underway - I pull out my keys (as my son had sworn to me he gave me a key-that story to come later) and, can you guess where this is going....... I did not have a key. Oh, I had lots of keys - just none that worked in their door. Needless to say, Bill is not amused. As we listened on the radio and try whatever keys I can find, I can hear the grumbling...... Finally, he said - get in the car! We found a local Hooters about 5 minutes away - we walked into the restaurant just in time to see the field goal attempt where the Cardinal player ran over our holder so we got a new set of downs.

I have to also pause here to say that I have been in a couple different Hooters over the years and I know my husband has been in a few more than me. While there were probably 20-30 TV's in the entire restaurant, there wasn't a single television with a clear picture. Either they had lines in them, was too dark, too light or too green or something. Oh well -it was better than listening on the radio.

Well, you all know what happened in the game so I don't have to go over that part of the story - Whew!

After the game was over, we trekked back to the hospital - by this time it's probably about 10:30ish or so.... Well, we wait around a couple more hours. It gets to be about 1:30 AM - All I can say is it's a good thing the Steelers won as it would have been heartbreaking to watch those highligts of the game over and over and over again if we had lost!! With her labor still not progressing very far or very fast, this time our son gave us HIS key and sent us back to their place to walk the dogs and he would keep up posted. So off we go back down the highway to their place. We arrive and the key works!! Thank goodness! HOWEVER, the dog which belongs to the in-laws - doesn't know us and won't come to me so I can put her on the leash. Instead she runs all over the house - upstairs and down while peeing as she goes!! Finally, we just open the door (heck, it's 2:00 in the morning - like anyone is going to notice!) and step out of the way and out run both of the dogs. After we spend a little time corralling the dogs, back inside we go and I spend the next twenty minutes cleaning up after the dog who peed as she ran!

Bill lays down on the sofa and I laid back in the recliner while watching more of the same highlights. About 3:00 am I get a text message telling me they were preping Betsy for a c-section soon. I text back "how soon?" He text back "10 minutes". So - since it's a 30 minute trek - I wake Bill, we throw cold water in our faces and off to the hospital we go. When we arrive, the baby is born and everyone is doing fine. Since Betsy's parents were staying for a few days and sleeping at our son's place, we had already determined ealier in the day we were going to drive on home. However, we wanted to wait until we could see the baby and Betsy. By now, it's 4:00 am. So we wait.....and wait..... In went her parents.....we wait.....and we wait....in goes her sister and niece.....and we wait.....and we wait.....I think it was 5:30 or so until we finally got to go in to say hi and see the new little guy! We ooohed and aaahed for a few minutes or so and then said - We're going home! Love you all but we need some sleep! When I Left the hospital around 6:00 am Monday morning - I thought - "Boy, I could now be on my way to DC for meetings!" That would have been good. I don't think they would have appreciated my snoring during the meeting! I'm not a coffee drinker so was drinking diet coke as quickly as I could so I would stay awake driving home! Needless to say, I also spent time eating mints, cracking the window for fresh air and, of course, listening to the radio for more sports talk highlights of the game.

Back home we went -called into the office to tell everyone about our new grandson and not to look for us in the office so we could catch up on our sleep! As we did with the first grandchild, we had a bottle of champagne waiting for us to celebrate the expansion of our famiy - but once again, we decided to wait until the following evening to enjoy it instead of when we arrived home at 8:00 in the morning!

Here is William Nolan, my Groundhog Day Baby instead of my Super Bowl Baby!

And here is my little guy just a couple weeks ago!

We just had a family gathering over Mother's Day week-end at our house - Son, wife and grandson, daughter and grandson, my parents and Bill's Mom. When we invited his Mom - she said she would be delighted to come visit - but she didn't care about Bill and I or HER grandkids - she wanted to see the great-grandkids!! I guess I can understand how she feels!

Have a great day everyone! Enjoy your family as they are important!

300-302 E. Howard Street & 301-301 Pike Street, Bellefonte, Pa

Melissa Corman Sieg (Corman Home Sales & Property Management) — Fri, 08 Feb 2008 13:20:34 -0800

ANOTHER INVESTOR ALERT!! Located in Bellefonte, these two buildings are located one behind the other with shared off street parking. Total of six units including 4 - two bedroom units and 2 - efficiency units. NOI of over $14,700. Management services available or can use other or own.

300-302 Howard Street 301-303 Pike Street

Give me a call or send me an email if you would like more information for you or your client. Full APOD is available either via fax or email. Great investment potential located in a small town atmosphere just 15 minutes from Penn State Main Campus. List Price $200,000

320 & 326-328 Pine Street, Bellefonte, Pa

Melissa Corman Sieg (Corman Home Sales & Property Management) — Fri, 08 Feb 2008 13:06:39 -0800

INVESTORS ALERT!! Located in the town of Bellefonte, this investment opportunity bares investigation!! Two buildings with a toal of 7 units; 4 - one bedroom units, 2 - two bedroom units, and 1 - three bedroom unit! With an NOI of over $17,000 you should check this one out for your or your clients! Out of Town Investors - management services available either through my company or I can refer you to others - your choice!

320 Pine Street 326-328 Pine Street

Give me a call or send an email if you would like more information regarding this great investment potential for either you or your client! Situated in Bellefonte - close proximity to down town and only 10-15 minutes to Penn State Main Campus! List Price - $225,000

REAL ESTATE MARKETS ARE LOCAL!!

Melissa Corman Sieg (Corman Home Sales & Property Management) — Fri, 25 Jan 2008 13:42:11 -0800

I saw a headline in the newspaper today that the "Sale of Existing Single Family Homes in 2007 Sees Largest Drop Since 1982". It was an Associate Press article in our local paper. http://www.centredaily.com/business/story/354536.html While I agree that MAY be the case in an average across the country or perhaps just in pockets, it is certainly NOT the case here in Centre County. In addition, while we may not be at the BOOM level seen in 2005, we are now at what most of us call back to "normal" levels seen earlier in this new century, not back to the level of sales seen back in 1982!

As you will see below, we here in Centre County have stayed fairly level. I'll get into the reason for this later. While I am not normally a "stat" kind of girl, let me share some numbers with you. Plus I've provided a couple of graphs below. (All numbers are provided by the multiple listing service of the Centre County Association of REALTORS). Our MLS is broken down into school districts all within Centre County. They are State College (SC), Bellefonte (BF), Bald Eagle (BE), Penns Valley (PV) and Philipsburg-Osceola (PO).

The difference between our total residential markets in 2006 versus 2007 is a sale of 2 units less in '07. TWO! Whew! A crash to the market two units does NOT make! While SC area was down from 955 to 906, the rest of the county was up. BF from 269 to 283; BE from 69 to 83; PV from 71 to 79; and PO from 88 to 99.

The truly interesting thing to note is that the average listing AND selling prices have risen in ALL areas of Centre County. I know some like to talk Median versus Average. So I'll tell you that while the median price dropped in the PV area, all other areas are up.

The other two stats agents and consumers like to take a view to see what the real estate market is doing are Days on the Market (DOM) and average list to sales price percentage. While the DOM is longer in all areas, not one is by more than 19 days. The list to sales price ratio is UP in BE and BF and DOWN in SC and PO by less than a percentage point in each. PV is down by just a tad bit more.

The reason for this phenomenon: Mainly, it's because State College is also the home of University Park and Penn State University's (PSU) main campus. Because of PSU being located here, we also have a good number of corporations and industry which feeds off them. While over the years we have seen some of them (some small, some big) close their doors and/or move out of town and people in the area lost jobs because of it, there is enough other industry either growing or moving into town which mostly absorb those numbers over time. Plus, (and I may be a little biased here) I think Centre County is just a nice place to live and work!! I'll come back later and offer some additional reasons you should be checking out Centre County for your next home or investment!

In closing, while the national news will continue to state how bad the housing market is - and I know it is bad in some places around the country - I urge you to contact a REALTOR/Agent in the area where you plan to buy/sell to find out exactly what is happening in that local market. It may surprise you!

Area	Units Closed	% Total Market	Dollar Volume	Average List Price	Average Sale Price	Avg % List Price Received	Median Sale Price	Average DOM
Bald Eagle	69	4.30%	$7,836,829	$116,906	$113,577	97%	$115,500	61
Bellefonte	269	16.80%	$46,701,194	$176,820	$173,610	98%	$165,000	72
Philipsburg Oceola	88	5.50%	$7,629,759	$90,676	$86,702	96%	$74,925	80
Penns Valley	71	4.40%	$11,926,941	$172,277	$167,985	98%	$146,000	68
State College	955	59.50%	$227,186,964	$242,421	$237,892	98%	$201,200	48
All	1,452	.	$301,281,687	$159,820	$155,953.20	98%	.	65.8

Area	Units Closed	% Total Market	Dollar Volume	Average List Price	Average Sale Price	Avg % List Price Received	Median Sale Price	Average DOM
Bald Eagle	83	5.2%	$10,516,420	$130,204	$126,704	97.3%	$128,000	68
Bellefonte	283	17.6%	$52,922,666	$190,009	$187,006	98.4%	$173,000	86
Philipsburg Oceola	99	6.2%	$8,791,694	$92,900	$88,805	95.6%	$75,000	99
Penns Valley	79	4.9%	$13,221,830	$173,820	$167,365	96.3%	$142,000	72
State College	906	56.5%	$220,128,935	$248,943	$242,968	97.6%	$210,000	69
All	1,450	.	$305,581,545	$167,175	$162,570	97.25%	.	79

Mastiff Rescue?

Melissa Corman Sieg (Corman Home Sales & Property Management) — Wed, 23 Jan 2008 14:16:48 -0800

I thought this would be just as good a place to check as all the others I'm trying or have tried - As many of you saw in my previous posting about my dog - I have a Mastiff - Hogan. We had a mastiff in the past - Duke - who lived to be almost 12 years old and weighed at his peak a little over 200 pounds.

My husband and I are now considering adopting a Rescue Mastiff or perhaps starting a Rescue service here in central Pennsylvania - does anyone out there in the Active Rain community who are dog lovers know anything about it? I've been to the web sites for MCOA and FORM (Mastiff Club of America and Friends of Rescued Mastiffs) and read all about them. I've even filled out applications and forms to volunteer. Unfortunately, I haven't yet heard anything from either of these sites.

These dogs are loveable and adorable - while very large and can be somewhat slobbery (as my 4 year old niece says it), they are loyal creatures who just want to be loved and unless trained to be so, do not have a single mean or vicious bone in their body. I laugh at watching Hogan when someone walks past the house with a dog of their own. He barks this very deep sounding ferocious bark while running back the opposite direction but looking in the direction of the "trespassers".

Unfortunately, there are people around the country that either mistreat, outright abuse, or just can't take care of these big guys and either have them taken away by a local authority or need to find them a new home. If any of you know of someone in this predicament - please pass along my name and contact information. My husband and I will be happy to help where we can.

Look at this face - don't you just want to give him a big hug!!! :-)

Bellefonte - a town still basking in "small town living"!

Melissa Corman Sieg (Corman Home Sales & Property Management) — Wed, 23 Jan 2008 09:48:05 -0800

I need to begin this post by saying that I was born and raised in Bellefonte and have lived in the Bellefonte area for all but about 1 1/2 years of my life. I guess you could say I'm a bit biased! I admit it! I'm a small town girl - always have been and always will be. I enjoy visiting the cities - Harrisburg, New York, Pittsburgh, Philadelphia and beyond - but I always come home with the thought in my head of why I like to live in Bellefonte, Centre County.

A little geography lesson for those not familiar with Centre County, Pa. Bellefonte is the county seat - State College (about 15 minutes away) is the home of Penn State University so is by far the largest populated area in the county. Since the mid to late '80's new construction has been booming in the State College area. Now that buildable land is becoming more scarce, the constuction of highways to make commutes easier, and buildable land in the Bellefonte area is less expensive, we are finding developers setting their sights on the Bellefonte and surrounding areas for their new neighborhoods. I'm OK with that - not just because I'm in the real estate business - but also becaese I know what it means for the area. More homes, more communities, more families means an expanded tax base for the area. It means the things that are needed, i.e. bigger & better schools, parks and recreational facilities and municipal services, can be expanded and the cost spread out over more of us living in the area.

Back to Small Town Living - Even with all this growth and the struggles that take place with growth - Bellefonte is still maintaining is small town image! While we will soon have a much larger grocery store as Weis Markets is going to be building in a new location at the Rt. 220/Bellefonte Interchange, we also still have two home town pharmacies with the same family ownerships since I was a little girl - the one even still has the service bar which sells the actual "old time" fountain drinks and some of the elders of the area gather for a cup of coffee in the morning.

Events which happen each year include: an Arts and Craft's Fair every August. Not one of those fairs or festivals that have grown so large you can't walk without bumping into someone or their carriage every two steps and items are so expensive that no one but the elite can afford to buy - this is one of those home town fairs where even the kids can go home with something for not much money out of their pocket! Each summer there are free concerts in Tallyrand Park overlooking Spring Creek. Visitors can feed the large fish or watch the ducks play!

Also in the summer is a great event called "The Last Cruise"! This began as a remembrance of one of those wierd traditions which began back in the 70's of teenagers and young 20's "lapping the block" around the downtown area in their cars. Long story short, it went on for years, as drivers got bolder began clogging up traffic and Bellefonte became know for it for miles around. As you can imagine the town council didn't appreciate being known for this kind of event so changes were made to traffic patterns - one way streets, ordinances put in place, etc. - so this could not occur. Over the years it was left in the memories - Well, as those teens and twenties got older and more mature they went about it a different way - It was made into an event to celebrate - so for 2-3 days over the summer, people come to town for an antique and old fashion car show, food, music entertainment, usually a sock hop of some kind and of course, lapping the block.

Bellefonte's most famous event, however, is Victorian Christmas. Bellefonte is home to many beautiful victorian homes located mostly in the Linn and Curtin streets area but you will also find some gorgeous Victorian and other vintage style homes on Allegheny, High, Bishop, and Howard streets just to name a few. Each December the entire town is decked out in Victorian type decorations, tours of homes are scheduled, musical concerts are given at the Court House and a Victorian Holiday Ball is thrown. This is just a snippet of the things that happen at such a special time of year.

However, the things that add the most to this small town living - is that when you walk down the street - most, if not all the time, people will look you in the eye and greet you with a "hello" whether they know you or not, traffic slows or stops to let pedestrians cross the street, and if you want to catch up on what's happening around town just take a trip to the grocery store! If you so desire, there is almost always someone you know in each and every aisle willing to stop and chat about what's up! Bellefonte even has a great movie theatre, the Garmen Theatre, which brings back memories so thick I need to wipe them from in front of my eyes! Yes, it shows popular movies of today and no, it's only one screen not those giant complexes you find today. But it's an old fashion theatre with the old seats, the ticket booth with the window in front with the round hole you talk through, and balconies we remember from when we were young.

As I stated earlier, this is just a snippet of what Bellefonte has to offer. In the future, I'll talk about our Train Station, and some of the historical signficant of Bellefonte - like how there are seven governors (5 Pennsylvania and 2 other states) who are all from Bellefonte....... Hope you come to see us soon and, of course, if you have any real estate or other topic questions, you can always give me a call!

Dog Story to entertain!

Melissa Corman Sieg (Corman Home Sales & Property Management) — Tue, 22 Jan 2008 23:17:14 -0800

We have a 2 year old Mastiff named Hogan. He is big and weighs about 135-140 pounds.

Last summer my 23 year old son was playing with Hogan out in the back yard. He (Son - BJ) was hitting a glow in the dark golf ball up into the field behind us (it was dark) - Hogan would run up and get it and bring it back. It was quite comical looking as Hogan would carry the golf ball, which was glowing, in his mouth. All you could see was this glowing ball floating up and down in the air until he got closer. Well, you can probably guess what happened - after the third trip, just as I was going to tell my son he better stop since the ball was so small in Hogan's mouth.......Hogan was running back to the house when all of a sudden the ball disappeared! We looked all around that night and the next morning but it was not to be found. So we figured Hogan must have swallowed it.

I called the vet to ask advice and see what symptoms we should be looking for in case it was causing a problem with his insides - blockage or whatever. To make a long story short, the vet x-rayed Hogan but couldn't quite tell if the ball was in there or not. Hogan didn't seem any worse for the wear after several days so the vet said to let it go and see if it "passes" out the other end. We never saw anything that looked like an intact golf ball in his droppings (that was fun looking, I can tell you!) so over time we figured that the golf ball must have broken up and passed through his system in small pieces. That was last July. Hogan has been his typical self all along - crazy and fun loving.

Well, this past week-end (six months later!) Hogan was not feeling well - he was friendly enough, but not eating well - had terrible bad breath and was passing gas that was far worse then the "typical dog gas" and had diarrea. Forgetting all about last summer, we just did what we could to make him comfortable and gave him lots of love. Sunday we could no longer take the odor of his breath and the "other" and my husband gave him a Rolaids thinking it might help to settle his insides. Well, about 4:00 in the morning we awoke hearing that wonderful sound dogs make when they are attempting to throw up - those of you with pets know what sound I'm referring to - only this was really loud. After about the second or third time, we immediately heard something hard hit the floor and dribble away. My husband immediately said - "I know that sound - that's a golf ball!"

Low and behold, Hogan had finally "yorked" up the golf ball - it was now a color of black instead of that yellowish color it was when it went down but it was totally intact - glow stick and all! Here we are two days later, Hogan is feeling MUCH better! Eating great again and not so smelly!

There could have been some bad consequences over this but we were lucky! We've learned our lesson - no playing fetch with golf balls! We stay strictly with soccer balls and frisbees which he LOVES to fetch and there is no danger of swallowing!

Nobody is Immune from Family problems!

Melissa Corman Sieg (Corman Home Sales & Property Management) — Wed, 09 Jan 2008 15:08:34 -0800

After reading Kimberly's long explanation for the reason for starting this particular group about coping with raising a family and having a successful real estate career, I had to join and offer my two cents. Kimberly, I feel your pain! When I joined the real estate business almost 24 years ago, I was pregnant with our first child. After he was born and just when I thought things were starting to "kick in" with my personal business, I became pregnant with our second child so once again took some time off after she was born.

My kids are now 24 and 21 both are married and my youngest got her real estate license last summer saying - "the real estate business did pretty good financially for you and Dad so it must be good enough for me and my family". I wanted to scream at her - "ARE YOU KIDDING????? Don't you remember those days and nights I wasn't home and you complained!!!!" I still have hanging on my bulletin board in my office a card my daughter made on the computer - one of those cheesy greeting card programs from the 90's - which states "Welcome home from work - I missed you" But I gently reminded her of the long hours she would have to work, especially in the beginning. She said she remembered and was fine with that and hoped she could be as successful at raising a family and having a career in real estate as I was! How could I argue with that?

Yes, there were times I missed something or other because of an appointment or two. Yes, there were times the kids revolted and didn't like that I missed something or other. However, I would venture to guess that all kids revolt and feel their parent didn't do something right no matter what job that parent has. I know I did with my dad! There were times I had to explain to my kids that in order for us to be able to pay bills and/or have extras (trips, nice extras at home, etc.) I needed to keep certain hours.

I can remember feeling first proud and then miserable when we went to one of our son's early grade school dinners where all the parents were invited. Each child was asked to draw a picture of something they liked to do with their parents or something their parents liked to do and then stand up and share it with everyone in the room. My son drew a line down the middle of his paper. On one side he drew a picture of he and his dad playing catch with a football. On the other side was a picture of a house with a for sale sign in front and me along with clients in front of it with his description saying"My mom likes to sale houses". He even had the color of my jacket and the sign in front of the house in the proper colors for the franchise we had at the time. I thought - how cool - now everyone will know for sure I'm in the real estate business and perhaps I'll get some business out of it. However, then it began to creep into my mind that he thought of something fun with his dad that included our son in the activity. But he didn't when he thought of me. That ate at me for some time.

At the other end of the sprectrum, I'll share another story I have shared with others - I had my son in the car with me one day as I delivered a contract to another agent - he was about 12 or 14 at the time - He saw in the development we drove through that the houses were much bigger than anything he had ever seen or been in or we could afford. He asked "Mom, why don't we live in a big house like that?" Thinking back to that picture he drew years ago, I answered - "Well, honey, for us to be able to afford to live in a house like that I would have to be away from home working far more often than I was now and not able to spend as much time with you and your sister" His response was "That's OK, Mom. We can stay in touch by email!" I just laughed!

After a few years in the business, as my career in real estate grew stronger, I was able to be stronger in telling clients I was not available during family events. I was amazed at the "freedom" and "confidence" I felt the first time I acutally told a client - I'm sorry I can't meet you on Monday but how about Tuesday? or I can't meet you at 6:00 but how about 8:30? and they actually said "Sure, no problem!" How liberating that was!

Kimberly, I also work alone (or did until my daughter joined the business). I gave it a try with an assistant once but it didn't work out and i got burned. I haven't had the gumption to try it again since. Did I do as much real estate business as I know I could have done during those growing years - absolutely not. However, anytime I was asked by a potential client why, I always stated that I kept my clientel to a manageable number on purpose so I could spend time with my family and keep my sanity. I chose ON PURPOSE to maintain my business in such a fashion. Most potential clients became actual clients as they felt more important that I chose to "accept" them as a client versus taking everyone who called! Even if you do accept everyone who calls - they don't have to know that!

I hope you are keeping your sanity - if I can help offer any words of wisdom to you or anyone else, don't hesitate to contact me directly! Take care and enjoy your life and your kids - they grow quickly and will be gone out of the house before you know it!!