East Petersburg Day 2010 Marks 16 Years Of Family Fun

(Lancaster PA – August 18, 2010) East Petersburg Borough celebrates with its 16^h annual East Petersburg Day on Saturday, September 18^th 2010 with music, games, fireworks, special attractions and annual parade. 

This special day begins at 7:00am with a prayer breakfast held at the East Petersburg Mennonite Church, hosted by local pastors ($8.50 admission).  The parade will begin at 10am and feature classic cars, emergency vehicles & bands including the General Reynolds Cornet Band, the Shriners Band, the Ceol Neamh Bagpipe Band and the Malta Band.  The parade will make its way through the borough streets to the community park where the majority of activities are located.

At 11am the day is formally begun by the Mayor and other officials at the community park.  Food sales provided by local organizations and vendors kicks off at 10:30am, with a great variety offered and some proceeds going to charity.  Activities for all ages and kids rides are open shortly thereafter.  A chili cook-off will be held at the park with celebrity judging at 11:30am - contact info@eastpetersburgday.com for cook-off entry details.

From noon through 8:30pm there will be a great combination of musicians, performers and attractions for all ages.  The Maytown Sport Parachutist Team is slated to drop in at 5pm.  Musicians include Times Two, The Billies, Noah Michael, Shaika and Ryan Wickersham. There will also be a special visit from the State Police Helicopter at 3:00pm.  Returning this year will be face painters, stiltwalkers and more!  All performances will be at the community park and are free of charge.  Also on hand will be craft vendors and other local business booths. 

At 1:00pm will be the “Paws In The Park” crazy pet hair contest, with prizes given to the best pet entries – enter on the day of.  At 6:30 pm the popular East Pete “Golf Ball Drop” event will be held, where up to 1,000 golf balls are dropped from the fire company’s ladder truck onto a golf pin.  The ball closest to the pin will be receiving a $1,000 prize (chances are available at local businesses and all day on the 19^th for $5 each). 

The South Street Band comes onstage from 5pm through 8:30pm, and the awesome professional fireworks display will burst over the park at 8:30pm.  To close the day will be a teen dance on the park grounds from 9 to 10:30 (pre-registration only, free tickets available at the borough office – no tickets available on the 19th).

In addition, to highlight and commemorate the historic tradition of the town, a book entitled the “Walking Tour of Historic East Petersburg” will be for sale at the event.  The Walking Tour book, a joint effort between the East Petersburg Day committee and the local Historic Society, takes readers on a 45 minute stroll around the center of town and through 200 years of Petersburg history.  The Tour books are available at the East Petersburg Historical Society booth with a donation of $7.00.

East Petersburg is a great place to live, work and play.  The town welcomes you to and looks forward to a great event.  For more information on East Petersburg Day, event specifics and community sponsors visit www.EastPetersburgDay.com.

For more press info contact Mayor Jeff Geoghan at info@eastpetersburgday.com or 717-799-0851

A guest post from my friend and social media guru Ken Mueller of Inkling Media:

More than a year ago my wife and I sold our house in the suburbs and moved to the city. And as I write this, there are three houses up for sale on my block. When you sell a house you work closely with your Realtor to make sure it is attractive to potential buyers. Here are 9 Social Media lessons I learned from my Realtor and others as I was selling my home and as I observe the local housing market.

1. Curb appeal is important – A lot of people won’t even look at the inside of your house if the outside isn’t attractive. As you create your Social Media presence, your platforms such as Facebook and Twitter need to feel “lived in” and be pleasing to the eye. Yes, content is important, but people won’t even get to the content if they can’t get past the ugly looks of your website and social properties.

2. Practice full disclosure – When we moved we needed to fill out a disclosure statement that told any potential buyers about any problems that we knew were inherent in the house. Did the roof leak? Was there any hidden damage? We needed to make sure that any potential buyer didn’t run across any surprises. In the same way, we need to practice full disclosure and transparency online. Complete transparency is the best policy.

3. Form and function are both important - As people shop for homes they are looking for different things. One of the houses on our block is one of the few in our area with central air. Others look nicer than others. Our social properties not only need to be attractive to the senses, they also need to be functional. Are your social spaces and website easily navigable?

4. A house might be complete, but a home is a work in progress – When the builder finishes building a home, it is done. But when someone decides to move in they have specific things they want to do to make it their “home”. And even after you move in there are changes and updates, not to mention regular maintenance. Like I tell my clients, your Social Media program is never done. Every day you should be adding, changing, and tweaking your social presence. Your house needs to feel like a home. That means making sure it stays current and in keeping with your changing tastes and interests.

5. Don’t oversell or over promise – I love reading real estate listings. They are written in such a way as to draw you in and make the house sound really attractive. But we need to be careful not to oversell. Terms like “spacious” and “elegant” are rather subjective. The key to Social Media is not to oversell, but to let your product or service speak for itself. Better yet, let your community tell others how wonderful your product is. That’s one of the wonderful things about a community. If you’re doing your job properly, your community will speak for you so you don’t have to sing your own praises.

6. Respond to questions – When our Realtor showed our house to prospective buyers, she often had to come back to us with questions. If we wanted to sell the house we needed to respond quickly and honestly. I still see many social media properties, particularly Facebook, where “fans” ask questions that seem like they are talking to the wall. We need to respond, and quickly. Otherwise the conversation will die, and your “fans” will disappear.

7. It’s a give and take – Nothing in the home selling process is one sided. Once a party is interested in purchasing a home, there is a little dance that takes place. There are generally negotiations involving price, mortgage terms, and possibly last minute home repairs. Gone are the days of where consumers simply buy a product that you produce without any input. The price might not always be negotiated, but Social Media allows for an unprecedented (and hopefully welcome) amount of consumer input into the product development and marketing process.

8. Do your homework – You don’t just put your house on the market. Our Realtor researched the neighborhood and found comparable homes that had recently sold or were currently on the market. These were guidelines that helped in determining asking price. In Social Media,, your homework is extremely important. You can’t just create social properties without knowing how they mesh with your target audience. Who is your audience? How should you craft your messaging? Just jumping in without knowing what your goals are can lead to serious disappointment.

9. It’s not over until everyone signs on the dotted line – I’ve heard stories of buyers walking away from the table at the closing over any number of things. You can execute everything in textbook style, but until you’ve reached your intended goal, usually converting a lead into a sale, your job isn’t done. Having a lot of “fans” means nothing, just like having a lot of showings is meaningless if no one buys.

Have you ever bought or sold a home? What lessons have you learned that you apply to your digital social spaces?

Last night, the Senate passed the National Flood Insurance Program Extension Act of 2010 (H.R. 5569), an extension of the National Flood Insurance Program until September 30, 2010. This will allow transactions to move forward. The bill is retroactive and covers the lapse period from June 1, 2010, to the date of enactment of the extension. NAR members sent more than 250,000 letters to Members of Congress encouraging them to extend the program.

Additionally, Congress passed an extension of the closing deadline for the Homebuyer Tax Credit, the Homebuyer Assistance and Improvement Act (H.R. 5623). The extension applies only to transactions that have ratified contracts in place as of April 30, 2010, that have not yet closed. The legislation is designed to create a seamless extension; the new closing deadline for eligible transactions is now September 30, 2010. There will be no gap between June 30 and the date the President signs the bill into law. Extending the tax credit closing deadline will help provide additional stability to real estate markets across the nation.

Another great listing from the Jeff Geoghan Realty Group is coming next week...a very nice, historic farmhouse in Brownstown PA.  Homes for sale in Brownstown are few and far between, and we're glad to have the opportunity to offer this corner lot with "village barn" that is a garage as well.

The grounds of this 1,878 square foot home are impressive, with a covered slate patio and stone fireplace for outdoor entertaining.

I'll be posting interior photos next week - lots of original features of this 1887 Farmhouse are intact!  Offered at $181,000 - drop me a note if you're interested in seeing this home first!

There's a Lancaster PA foreclosure home on the market you should know about.  It's located at 226 N. Reservoir St. in Lancaster City.  Foreclosures in Lancaster City come in lots of sizes and condition varies greatly...but this one is worth every penny!  I know because a client of mine renovated it 5 years ago and it still looks great.

Here are the photos from when it sold last time.  The current listing photos look substantially the same IMO.

• Gleaming Hardwood floors
• Huge kitchen with tiled floors
• Brand-new appliances
• Private landscaped rear yard
• Nicely-painted walls throughout
• exposed wood staircase
• 5 bedrooms, 2 on third floor connected
• 1 bath, upgraded
• 1,600 square feet
• nice basement with washer included
  
• newer windows and doors
• attention to detail!

This home is on the market at 74,900, which is $50,000 less than the owner paid for it!  If you're looking for a bargain home in Lancaster City, this would be it.  if you want to see it give me a call at 717-799-0851.

(home listed by a f/c broker - you would use me as your buyer agent).

Now that the hoopla and hype surrounding the Federal homebuyer tax credit, paid for with Chinese debt, is over - I was wondering just what the impact would be on a typical local market such as Lancaster County, PA.  Real Estate was looking pretty good in April, and the phone was definitely ringing.  When I was asked (daily) what the market was like, my usual answer was "we're in a swoon".  As people realized that congress was not going to extend it once again a bit of a frenzy ensued, as has been reported across the nation.  Pending sales were way up, everybody seemed happy, and the news reported a return to normalcy.

Well, let's look at the May returns for Lancaster County PA home sales - I expect that this story will be repeated in many similar markets as well.

April and May sales are just looking stellar, tracking with 2008 numbers (pre-TARP).  Who's going to complain about that? 

New listings reached record numbers during March and April - sellers are no fools!  Get in while the gettin's good...  However May consequently saw the lowest number of new listings in years.  Buyers looking last month had to put up with many overpriced ("didn't sell EVEN with a tax credit") homes.

Now for the really bad part.  Pending home sales fell in May from the historic high of April (as would be expected with a Federally-mandated date) to an historic low in May.

Now, there will still be a good number of homes that will close from the tax credit in June, since buyers were allowed to stretch their settlement out until 6/30.  However, with so few buyers getting in the game in May I would expect the numbers for the balance of summer to lag behind even 2009.  Even now word on the street is that qualified and ready buyers are few and far between.

So here's the snapshot of May for Lancaster County:

A 10% increase in homes closing (tax credit), a 6% drop in new listings and a whopping 39% drop in homes going under agreement.  with 17% more listings out there and 40% fewer buyers, sounds like a bad mix.

On the plus side (I guess), average home prices stayed virtually unchanged from 2009, with sellers listing for $40,000 more on average than sellers are willing to pay. 

it remains to be seen whether the tax credit really created something good for the real estate market in 2010 - it certainly helped April and May out.  What will the dog days bring???

Mount Joy “Green” Home Entrant in 2010 Parade of Homes   

Home Will be Gold-Rated by National Assoc. of Homebuilders

Lancaster, PA (June 9, 2010) – The Jeff Geoghan Realty Group of Coldwell Banker Select Professionals proudly announced a collaboration with Lancaster Career & Technology Center to market one of Lancaster County, Pennsylvania’s first purpose-built “green” homes, recently completed in Mount Joy Township.

The property will be available beginning with the 2010 Lancaster/Lebanon Parade of Homes, set to run June 12-20.  Details on the Parade can be found at http://www.lancasterbuilders.org/parade2010/.  Following the Parade event the home will be available to show by appointment with the listing agent, Jeff Geoghan.

560 Old Market Street in Mount Joy is the second home of four slated in the community named “Apprentice Green”.  Built by the Lancaster Career & Technology Center (LCCTC), the home was planned from the outset to be a model of advanced building techniques, sustainable design and energy efficiency.  Project manager Michael Dodson led a construction team of school instructors and students in the building trades throughout the fall of 2009 and spring of 2010, with the generous help of many donors of materials and time.  The completed home is a quintessential Pennsylvania farmhouse style, but with numerous readily-apparent green features.  The NAHB research center (www.NAHBRC.com) assists with the project, which is expected to earn enough program points to qualify for Gold level certification.  A complete description of the home and the project community can be found at: www.apprenticegreenhomes.com.

Open hours during the Parade of Homes will be 12-6pm weekends and 5-8pm weekdays.  LCCTC staff and Mr. Geoghan will be on hand to discuss the home with visitors and answer questions.  Visit www.LCCTC.org for more information about the building trades program.

___________________

Jeff Geoghan, a green homes advocate in Central PA, introduced last fall a new program called the SmartGreen™ Homebuyer Package, designed to bring green products and services into a “one-stop” opportunity for buyers, and to assist them with selecting homes based on energy savings & improvement possibilities.  The program website is www.SmartGreenPA.com.  Jeff Geoghan is a member of the Green Building Association of Central Pennsylvania, Susquehanna Sustainable Business Network and an National Association of Realtors Green Designation holder.

The Jeff Geoghan Realty Group, part of the Coldwell Banker Select Professionals family of real estate agents, is based at 1000 North Prince Street in historic Lancaster, Pennsylvania.  Their acclaimed website is www.YourLancasterHome.com and they serve the Lancaster PA real estate market with professional and personal services for home buyers and home sellers.  Jeff Geoghan is a top real estate expert in Lancaster County, PA, and has been featured in the Lancaster Newspapers, WGAL Channel 8, PA Business Journal and Wall Street Journal.

A new listing in Lancaster City - 315 North Reservoir Street!  This is one of the coolest tree-lined streets in town, and the home sits back with a large covered front porch to sit out on and watch the world go by...

For Lancaster PA homes for sale click here. Jeff Geoghan is a top real estate expert in Lancaster County, PA, and an involved community member. Jeff's work has been featured in the Lancaster Newspapers, WGAL Channel 8, PA Business Journal and Wall Street Journal. Jeff's blog on Lancaster County and its homes is nationally-featured. Contact Jeff for more help with your Lancaster PA Real Estate needs. Jeff is also a photographer - view some of his lancaster pa photography portfolio. Comments are welcome!