Zillow Ranks Lancaster County 7th Best Place to Buy a Home!

Welcome Back Readers!  Today we are bringing you some particularly awesome news, Zillow has recently ranked Lancaster County PA as one of the top places in the nation to buy a home 2011!  We hit the list at Number 7, which considering we were competing with literally thousands of places across the nation is pretty spectacular! The best thing about this ranking?  It takes into account what is happening NOW.  In this economy, with the current unemployment... Read More

Ask The Property Manager: What is Lancaster Pa Property Management?

Welcome Back Readers!    This week we have the beginning of our guest columns from Sam Gorgone, Property Manager/Owner of Hometown Property Management Services.  Sam gets alot of questions, from landlords looking for help renting to tenants looking for apartments or homes to rent in Lancaster Pa.  We thought it would be helpful to you to put these questions out there one the blog, lets start with the biggest one, what exactly is property management?  ... Read More

Did You Know That We Can Blame it All on Snow?

Welcome Back Readers!  Or should I say viewers?  This is the first of many video blog posts on www.TheLancasterConnection.com .  I’m excited about being able to bring you this content in a way that is relevant and timely but don’t worry, there will be more than just video posts to keep you up to date on what’s happening in real estate and the rest of Lancaster County, as we’ll still have all of your favorite guest authors... Read More

The New Age of Social Media and Blogging – An Ethics Minefield?

Social networking sites such as Facebook, Activerain, RealTown, Trulia Voices, etc. provide a myriad of ways to connect consumers and colleagues alike with real estate info.  Blogs have proliferated in the last few years, people are writing them reading them and commenting all over the internet.  These formats allows for a free and open exchange of info, sometimes a little too free and open as commenter’s/authors occasionally forget that we, as... Read More

Fannie Mae Offers Closing Cost Assistance and Appliance Incentive

Welcome Back Readers!   It’s been a busy month in real estate, so many things happening both locally and nationally it seems everyday there is something new!  That’s actually the becoming the normal state of affairs nowadays and I don’t mind as it gives me lots of things to write about! I wanted to let you know about a program announced today by Fannie Mae.  Fannie Mae has a little problem, namely 50,000 homes they now own through... Read More

The Trouble with Tribbles or Why Loan Modifications are Failing to Solve the Foreclosure Problem

Welcome Back Readers!  I put up a post the yesterday about how FHA has recently changed their policies to allow loan modifications for qualifying borrowers before they miss a payment .  This is a great policy and I sincerely hope it will help more people stay in their homes.  The problem though is that in many cases it won’t.  Loan modifications nationwide are failing to help avoid foreclosures.  Why is that?  What does it have to do... Read More

FHA Allows for Loan Modifications for Homeowners Who Haven’t Yet Missed a Payment

Welcome Back Readers!  It was a busy week last week in the real estate world, the Lancaster County PA Real Estate Market is moving quickly.  I apologize for the shortage of posts recently due to this but you can expect a little more consistency in the coming weeks.  I wanted to start of  this week with a nice change announced by HUD last Friday. Until HUD made this change to the rules for FHA loans, in order to qualify for a loan modification,... Read More

Did FHA Just Throw First Time Buyers in Front of the Bus for a PR Gain?

 Welcome Back Readers!  I apologize in advance for the negative tone of this post, but it is information that people who plan on buying this year need to have.  Let me start with this:  There are many solutions available to FHA’s problems, and there are other programs that allow cash poor buyers to still purchase homes.  It is not the end of the world, FHA is still a fine program, but I have an issue with their changes not offering a... Read More