I ran an experiment this week following a webinar my company hosted about AI and ChatGPT. Firstly it was a very good class, webinar with plenty of excellent information. It was also mentioned how this is going to be changing very rapidly.Who knew that you can actually develop your own talking Avatar if you do not like to appear in videos. Yes, videos, with an avatar who speaks and looks just like you, or at the least the you that you have in your minds eye. Much younger and thinner for some like me. So, my experiment, I used ChatGPT to develop some topics for real estate, then took one of those and asked it for an article that was 400 words long on advice for first time home buyers, one of the suggested topics.Feel free to read it hereI then edited it, added some of my contact information and waited to see what the comments were like. Lots of praise for such a thorough list, which it was, I had been quite impressed. Not to wordy as I can be often when writing from my stream of consciousness about some subject.But, I also learned you can create a script for a video using ChatGPT, then use www.ElevenLabs.io to create a voiceover, and then take that to www.Invideo.io or www.Synthesia.io to create an avatar speaking your words. Below is a video created using this system to talk about the Consumer Notice we are required to share with consumers when we first discuss real estate.It is exciting to see what you can do, and to realize how quickly all this is going to change. How do you think you are going to use AI?
"First-Time Home Buyers Guide: Tips and Advice for Making Your Dream Home a Reality"Buying your first home is an exciting and important milestone in your life. However, it can also be a daunting process if you don't know what to expect. Here is a step-by-step guide for first-time homebuyers to help you navigate the homebuying process.Determine Your BudgetThe first step in the homebuying process is to determine how much you can afford to spend on a home. This involves looking at your income, expenses, and credit score. You'll also want to factor in closing costs, property taxes, and other expenses associated with homeownership.Get Pre-Approved for a MortgageOnce you have a budget in mind, you'll want to get pre-approved for a mortgage. This involves providing your lender with information about your income, expenses, and credit score. Getting pre-approved will give you a better idea of how much house you can afford and will also make you a more attractive buyer to sellers. I can recommend some different lenders and also suggest in today's market to get a full mortgage approval, almost like being a cash buyer so you can make a strong offer.Find a Real Estate AgentA good real estate agent can make the homebuying process much easier. I can help you find properties that meet your needs and budget, negotiate with sellers, and guide you through the closing process. I am experienced, knowledgeable, and have a good reputation in the community. I also have a long list of contacts for vendors and contractors you will need throughout the home buying process.Start House HuntingWith your budget in mind and your pre-approval in hand, it's time to start house hunting. I can help you find properties that meet your criteria and arrange for showings. As you visit homes, be sure to take notes and ask questions. You'll want to consider factors such as location, size, condition, and price.Make an OfferOnce you find a home that you like, it's time to make an offer. I will help you draft an offer that includes the price you're willing to pay, any contingencies, and a proposed closing date. The seller will either accept your offer, reject it, or make a counteroffer. I am an experienced negotiator with many successful transactions.Get a Home InspectionBefore closing on the home, you'll want to get a home inspection. This involves hiring a professional inspector to look for any problems with the home, such as structural issues, leaks, or pests. Again, I have a list of home inspectors you can select from. If the inspection turns up any issues, you can negotiate with the seller to either have them fixed or to lower the price.Close on the HomeAssuming everything goes smoothly with the inspection, the appraisal and any negotiations, it's time to close on the home. This involves signing a lot of paperwork and paying closing costs. Once you've signed all the necessary documents and paid the required fees, the home is officially yours!Buying your first home can be an intimidating process, but with the right preparation and guidance, it can also be a rewarding one. By following these steps and working with a knowledgeable real estate agent like me, you can make the homebuying process as smooth and stress-free as possible.Contact Nick Vandekar, Selling the Main Line and Chester County with Long & Foster Real Estate Inc., office 610-225-7400, cell or text 610-203-4543, or email Nick@VandekarTeam.com.
Ahhh, Spring is in the air. Yes, the winter doldrums are leaving, warm weather is here. Well it was yesterday, not so much today!We get so encouraged to rush out and buy plants to fill our beds around our homes and brighten up our curb appeal. But, it can be a costly mistake if you plant to early.Whilst we get some warm days, we spent yesterday afternoon at Longwood Gardens enjoying seeing the cherry trees and magnolias in bloom. Everywhere you looked there was evidence of life, flowers beginning to bloom and brighten the landscape. We even sat at a table and enjoyed some minutes soaking up the sun. it was amazing how busy it was.Of course, you go home and think, let's get planting, but most plants cannot take a frost. And really until much later the threat of a frost is real and those plants will suffer. I noticed this morning that the roofs had frost on them and a distinct chill was in the air, especially where you were exposed to any wind.Where we have moved it is very windy, I never knew that to be the case, but it literally howls around the houses and chills the air, you definitely feel the wind effect on the temperature.Generally a good rule of thumb is to wait till Mother's Day in our area, the Philadelphia Main Line, Chester County and the Brandywine Valley. By then any risk of a frost is past and you will not lose those plants in which you have invested your money.So, stay patient, it is just a few more weeks and you can then get planting. Remember, annuals provide a great quick pop of color whilst perennials will come back again and again, but may need more time to get established. Good luck and enjoy your yard and garden.
In a state, like Pennsylvania where Time and Date are of the Essence, how you count the days can be very important. And believe it or not, not everyone counts days the same.As Realtors we are not meant to practice law, as we are not lawyers and are not licensed as such. But, recently many agents have been inserting clauses into the agreement of sale that change dates in the contract.When I get a signed agreement of sale I use a spreadsheet to let all the parties know the deadlines and the dates to which I and my clients are working. This hopefully avoids any pitfalls where an agent counts differently to you as upfront, you are laying out the timeline of the deal for inspections, appraisals, replies to inspections, HOA document response and appraisals.In the Pennsylvania agreement our days start counting from the time the last party signs the agreement, that is day ZERO, the next day is DAY 1 etc. There is no such thing as holidays and business days, all days are the same. However, as mentioned above some agents have been inserting or asking for buyers to insert, Any days which fall on a weekend or holiday shall be pushed to the next business day. This can suddenly extend an inspection period or appraisal period and the agreement becomes subjective rather than set.Even without this clause being inserted you can have agents get confused, even experienced agents, especially those who do not realize that now that the forms we use are changed regularly as we all use online forms, and these can be changed at will to adapt to legal changes required in the contract by the state or the State Realtor Association.For example, how we count our inspection days has changed. It used to be that a buyer could select a number of days to perform their inspections, make a response and then the seller had a set number of days to respond and finally the buyer once that response was received had another set number of days to accept, or withdraw. This always led to confusion, so the agreement was changed, making each of these periods a set number of days. For example, Realtor A has written the agreement to give their buyer 10 days to perform inspections, and the seller to have 5 days to respond and the buyer then to have 2 days to decide what to do. This provides a total of 17 days total to finalize the inspection period.However, we ran into an experienced Realtor after this change was made who insisted that as the response was actually made on day 8 that day 13 was now the final response date from the seller. But the phrasing in our agreement explicitly states this is not the case, that the seller has till day 15. This experienced seller was asked to read the agreement carefully, which she refused to do as she had written many agreements over the years and knew what the agreement said. It was explained carefully to her that the agreement had recently changed, and her clients had signed an updated agreement of sale, allowing the seller to respond by day 15.There was a good reason for this change, as many Realtors had advised our State Association that they often ended up going backwards and forwards with inspection requests and responses from the seller, and having a firm deadline was more helpful than the period keep getting shortened from when the response was initially given.The agent eventually read the agreement and came to understand her mistake, but not till she had been very rude about our knowledge of the agreement and our deadlines. Luckily all worked out, and buyer and seller reached an agreement that both could live with and went to settlement on the day in the agreement.Sometimes, you have to be gentle and make sure all parties, Realtors, clients and inspectors are on the same understanding of deadlines where they are important.
All sorts of things happen in real estate, and as agents we often tell clients that it isn't sold till it closes and to celebrate then.I have also found that buyers always want to know why a property came back on the market when something does arise that prevents settlement. Buyers fear that it might the result of a home inspection, and if that buyer pulled out maybe they should not make an offer. Sometimes it is not the house's fault a sale falls apart, something else can prevent a buyer or seller reaching settlement or closing.It can be the result of buyer remorse, a redistricting by a school district, the township not allowing sub-division on a large property, or maybe not allowing for a garage to be built, potential from proximity of neighbors being on the Megan's Sexual predator List, a rise in interest rates causing the buyer to no longer be able to afford the mortgage, and as I mentioned before non payment or filing of taxes that now must be paid.I recently had a client interested in a home, it met their parameters and they wanted to know why the house had come back on the market. Calling the listing agent to ask some questions i added why did the house come back on the market? She went on to tell me how wonderful the house was, and how it had sold quickly before, but the buyer's wife had had a cardiac situation and had not survived. The buyer requested release from the contract and the seller had agreed.Whilst the PA agreement of sale actually has a section dealing with situations like this and it requires heirs to go to settlement, it was very kind of the seller to allow the buyer to be released from the settlement and luckily for them the market is strong enough that the house will sell again very soon.
There are all sorts of reasons why a transaction can go awry. Sometimes people simply change their minds, sometimes it is because of things outside of the transaction happening. And sometimes is is because of the actions of one of the parties involved directly. But, our challenge this month is to relate such an incident to and explain how we addressed the issue.This story actually is for a referral I gave to another agent just outside my area. I had the partner of a client's daughter needing to sell her mother's home. Everything went very smoothly, the agent I referred and the client got along very well. Advice was given, the home was prepared for sale, and the home went on to the market.There was lots of activity, offers were made, and one was accepted, inspections were done, everything was moving forward to settlement nicely. Then the buyer asked for a delay of settlement. The mortgage provider was not ready. A delay was approved.Then it was discovered when the mortgage provider eventually accepted that the buyer could not close, that the buyer had not filed taxes for three years on time, and now had back taxes outstanding which prevented them from being able to settle. It became evident the mortgage provider had known this for some time and had not disclosed the issue or the problem.So, the home has been relisted for sale and we shall hopefully see a quick offer and settlement. In the meantime, the seller is not going to be quick to release the deposit to the seller, in the hope that the seller will compensate them for the inability to settle by releasing the deposit to the seller.In PA both seller and buyer need to agree how the deposit is released, if they cannot agree it continues to be held in escrow till a court assigns the funds or after a certain time as designated in the contract, one or other of the buyer or seller request release of the funds directly as long as there is no legal proceedings taking place.
In Chester County in 2022 we saw a massive drop in proposed building permits to 789 from 3425 in 2021 and 2681 in 2020. These were mainly for single family detached homes, but with townhomes and apartments not far behind.At the same time commercial development also saw a big drop from 2021 into 2022 but level with previous years development. This was mostly industrial square footage, followed closely by institutional, commercial, retail/other, hotels/resorts, office and then agricultural.At the same time Chester County was praised for increasing the availability of affordable housing in the county. Median house price has risen from $350,000 to $450,000 in the past three years.Affordable housing options that opened in 2022 include 111 new units in West Chester and Kennett Square. The Willows at Valley Run in Caln will see 120 new affordable rental units, funded partly with $1.9 million from the county. Also in Caln, Habitat for Humanity is acquiring land to build 25-30 affordable single family homes for first time homebuyers, made possible through a county grant of $640,000. Habitat for Humanity have also received $500,00 in COVID related funds from the county to complete 100 housing rehabilitation projects within Coatesville over the next three years. Other projects in Phoenixville and West Whiteland are also in the works.
In Pennsylvania like many other states a seller completes a seller disclosure form which is intended to help a buyer identify areas where there may be issues they need to inspect further or be aware of if they purchase this home.If the buyer is likely to be doing a home inspection why would a seller also incur the cost of doing their own home inspection before listing their home for sale?In the last couple of years the market has been so hot that many buyers have been waiving home inspections along with many other contingencies just to have an opportunity to have their offer considered. This has made it important for seller disclosures to be accurate as buyers can sue over things that have not been disclosed. Attorneys will always advise sellers to disclose, disclose, disclose! If in doubt disclose it.Having a prelisting home inspection can do two things. It allows the seller to accurately complete the seller disclosure form and avoid a lawsuit at a later date. Secondly, if there are any items that need addressing they can be tackled before listing the house and this can also be disclosed to any buyers, giving them confidence that things have been taken care of correctly.As the market corrects from a sellers market to a more balanced one, buyers are able to include inspection contingencies. If an item is discovered in a home inspection it generally will cost a seller more than if they had fixed an item beforehand. Why is this? Some things are simple fixes and can be fixed by the seller themselves. If something does need a professional, the seller has time to find a contractor and get estimates and select the one that they feel most comfortable with to do a good job. When an item turns up on a home inspection, the buyer will generally ask for a credit for the highest amount it might take to fix the issue. Hence, getting it repaired before will save you money.If you have only lived in a home for a short period of time, a prelisting home inspection may not be needed, but many people today stay in their homes for 10 to 15 years or longer in our area. These homeowners may not be aware of an issue even though they have lived in the house.For example, I had a seller a little while back who had a septic system. Whilst he did a prelisting home inspection which identified several issues which he took care of, he assured me his septic system was working fine. Unfortunately, it was not, and the buyer conducted a septic inspection and the seller ended up having to pay for the home to be connected to the local sewer system as it was not possible to repair or replace the septic system. A very costly fix and time consuming as well. Luckily the buyers stayed with the purchase and everything worked out for all parties.If you are thinking of listing your home for sale on the Main Line or Chester County contact me for a competitive market analysis, and we can discuss if a prelisting home inspection is worthwhile for you. Nick Vandekar, Selling the Main Line and Chester County with Long & Foster Real Estate Inc., office 610-225-7400, cell or text 610-203-4543, or Nick@VandekarTeam.com. I give you the confidence to make the right decisions throughout the transaction.
In the "old days" all we had were phones connected to the wall by a cord. It is laughable to think about it today as we are so used to so called smart phones. I still remember my very first phone number from when I was a child growing up in the suburbs of London, Stonegrove 9171, and we used the first three letters to dial the number.In those days you used to answer your phone as we didn't have answering machines. If the person you were calling did not answer, you called back. If they were on the phone you got an "engaged" signal and you called back. Today, we are always available to every Tom, Dick and Harry, sometimes your smart phone tells you who is calling, but it is not always true as numbers can be spoofed and show as one number when in fact the number calling is different.I have a Google phone, which will tell me when a number is a suspected spam caller, so I do not have to answer it. But as a Realtor we get lots of calls, and frankly as people have moved around the country holding onto their original phone number the number showing can be from anywhere, yet be close by. One of the main things in reviews I receive from clients is my accessibility because I answer my phone unless with a client and then I will get back to you very quickly. I get so many Realtors thank me for answering my phone. It surprises me as it is part of my job to be accessible for clients, customers, other agents, I see answering my phone as part of that cooperation in the code of ethics.Yesterday, I got a call from a number in Virginia. I didn't recognize the number but answered anyway. It turned out to be another Realtor from Virginia looking to refer a client for a listing in our area. We had a pleasant conversation, I realized he was interviewing me and he had plenty of good questions whilst at the same time letting me know a little about the potential client. He had found me on line, possibly through my reviews on Zillow, and had decided to call me. He thanked me later in the call for taking his call and i thought, if I hadn't would he have left a message or moved onto the next Realtor he was considering.It looks like we will become partners, in him giving me a referral and helping his potential client get their home here sold so they can buy a home where he is located. All because I answered the phone.So, next time that phone rings, if it is not showing as SPAM, even if you don't recognize the number, don't just let it go, pick it up and maybe you will also get a referral.In the meantime, if you have clients looking to sell or buy on the Main Line or Chester County give me a call, in nearly every case I will pick up or get back to you very quickly if I am with a client. Call Nick Vandekar, Selling the Main Line and Chester County with Long & Foster Real Estate Inc., office 610-225-7400, cell or text 610-203-4543, email Nick@VandekarTeam.com.
Longwood Gardens in Chester County is always glorious to visit. Even in the depths of winter, and admittedly we have so far had a mild winter, what ever Punxsutawney Phil might say, it is a riot of colour, shapes and smells. These are some photos from a couple of recent visits.