Posts in category 'The Sun'

When I moved to Hershey 10 years ago, it was under duress; we had lived happily in Tennessee for 17 years and never planned to move. But our job situation, as many of yours, changed during the "great recession." For us, that meant moving to Pennsylvania. We had leveraged our home to buy a small business a few years earlier. Now, the housing market was down, our equity gone. Investments? Tanked.

After being homeowners for 16 years, we moved into a rental house in Hershey. It was small and old. Our chipper first-grader, after walking through for the first time, asked excitedly, "Where's the rest of the house?"

I spent several weeks on the verge of tears, feeling sorry for myself and lonely. What happened to my old life? Our nice home? Our "roots?"

One afternoon, I compl...

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When COVID-19 hit, we had nine consecutive weeks of year-over-year declines. Fear of the virus, stay-at-home orders, unemployment, and fear of unemployment affected our local housing market and markets around the globe. Thankfully, after several weeks, our market stabilized then began to recover. By mid-May, new listings and new agreements of sale surpassed 2019 numbers. By mid-June, 2020 listings and sales contracts were 12 percent above 2019 numbers.

Eileen's Housing Market Update (Video): www.youtube.com/watch?v=XNTbAfxite4&t=18s

(Roughly 1,300 in 2019, 2,500 in 2020). Since then, we've enjoyed about 25 straight weeks of year-over-year growth, sometimes in the 20 percent range! This made up f...

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They say a picture is worth a thousand words. If that's the case, video of your home is worth 1.8 million words, according to new marketing research.

Why should you use video when selling your home? Because short video – sharable on social media – can help boost your exposure tremendously and help you sell your home. I like to tell people, "Video doesn't sell your home; it sells your home better."

Let me explain.

Like it or not, emotions rule our decision-making. A well-done video can put buyers smack into your home's "story," be it ultra-modern, cozy, luxurious, or historic, to name a few vibes. Video can help create an emotional attachment for the buyers, much like Hallmark ads or McDonald's' "I'm lovin' it." These examples connect their product with their audience on a deeper, more meaningful level by st...

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One of my favorite books, "Good to  Great" by Jim Collins, cites an essay written by Isiah Berlin about a hedgehog and a fox. The fox wants to eat the hedgehog, the hedgehog wants to stay alive. The fox is cunning, smart and swift, while the hedgehog has only one tool of defense: curling up in a ball, with quills  out so the fox can't eat him.

Collins says that the difference between good and great companies is this: Good companies are led by foxes; great companies are led by hedgehogs. These hedgehogs focus on one concept or action, believing that when that one thing is in place, all desired results will follow. One great manufacturing company focuses on zero workplace accidents. One great retailer focuses on increasing the average dollar amount each customer spends per visit.

Do you have an exciting job prospect taking you away from south central Pennsylvania? Maybe you've recently relocated here for a new job.

With the Med Center, The Hershey Company, our state capital, and other large employers nearby, we enjoy a fluid and robust marketplace. In fact, about 25 percent of my real estate transactions deal in some way with a relocation package, the assistance employers offer employees relocating for a job. The sale of a home and purchase of another is often involved. As such, let's discuss relocation packages and how to best navigate their choppy waters.

A relocation (or moving) package can come in many forms: a lump sum, packing/unpacking services, house hunting trip(s), help with closing costs, temporary housing assistance, storage costs, home buyout, or all of the above.

Rebekah Myler from Hummelstown benefited from packers swooping in and handling the hard labor.

"We had three...

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