Poconos Real Estate Blog

Bought! Arrowhead Lakes Vacation Investment Property With Instant Income

A family from Lansdale closed on their new vacation home on Friday - a lovely little contemporary, fully
furnished & equipped, and only a block from the Minisink Pool and Tennis Complex. The house is in great condition, is very clean and boasts three generous bedrooms, two full bathrooms and the obligatory Pocono screened porch. We were able to negotiate a very fair price for the home at 8 Moshannon Drive, $162,000.

These folks contacted me late last year as a result of them reading the Poconos Real Estate Blog, and we have worked to find them just the right place. We began by looking at several different communities within reasonable distance from the Northeast Extension of the Turnpike, as that is the route they take to the Poconos. We visited Towamensing Trails, Indian Mountain Lakes, Locust Lake Village and other amenity-rich communities. After evaluating their options they settled on Arrowhead Lakes because of the fact that it is a gated community, and because it has three pools. This appealed to them because they figured the pools would be less crowded.

The greatest thing about this buy for them is, in my opinion anyway, that the property came with a tenant for the summer, so there is instant cash flow of a few thousand dollars! According to the listing agent, the previous owner had rented the property so often that after awhile he had to purchase ANOTHER property in order to have something available for his own personal use once in a while. Lucky for my Lansdale buyers, the seller decided now was the time to liquidate an asset!

Arrowhead does quite a brisk business in the short-term, vacation rental department. My source tells me that this past Saturday, which as the last Saturday in June officially kicks off 'the season', there were 86 groups checking in to their rented homes in the community. The community is becoming very well known to summer tourists from the Philadelphia and New York areas as an affordable alternative to destinations reached by air.

To begin your search for the perfect second home or vacation investment property in Arrowhead Lakes or in other communities in the Poconos, email me at info@lisasanderson.com, or call me at 888.794.5589 x103.

Who Says Social Media Doesn't Pay?

Check out the snazzy new t-shirt that came in the mail today!

It's from THE Jeff Turner, founder of Real Estate Shows.   I started following Jeff around on Twitter on the recommendation of a mutual friend, went on to friend him on Facebook and have been in awe of his photography skills ever since (you really have to check out this pic). He has a lot of diverse interests which make him a real interesting guy to stalk er I mean, know. And now I find he also designs t-shirts.

Sarah told me he was a genius and I am beginning to believe her.

Thanks, Jeff, for making my day!!

Just the Facts, M'am : Market Statistics for Monroe County, Poconos, PA

There are a lot of opinions out there about the real estate market and most of them, unfortunately, are based on the national news stories which do not nearly illustrate local intricacies. I am not here to paint a rosy picture where one may not exist, but I am offering some facts for folks to generate their own opinions about our market here in Monroe County.

I will, of course, offer my opinion about these statistics near the end of this article, but all the numbers are factual and not distorted in any way.

To clarify what these numbers represent: I gathered statistics from the Pocono Mountains Association of REALTORS Multiple Listing Service (MLS) on June 3, 2008. The information, while deemed accurate, is not guaranteed, as the MLS system relies upon information being inputted by many different individual users, and does not include statistics for non-MLS sales. The statistics cover single family residential home sales for the time period of January 1 to June 3 of each year specified, only in Monroe County.

Our MLS overlaps over several counties but I felt that the data would be skewed by including them because of the changing dynamic of MLS coverage. More real estate companies are opting to join nearby MLS's in order to expand their marketing reach across regions. So today, for example, there are more listings from Lehigh, Carbon or Pike County than there were a few years ago. To keep it simple, and to make the comparisons fair, I limited the area.

Market Statistics for Monroe County, Poconos

* Info not available

For those of you for whom this basic data is not enough, I encourage you to download the latest Supply and Demand Report which offers more in-depth figures for all of the different municipalities in the County. For each municipality you will find details such as current active listings, under contract listings, year to date closed sales, and list and sale price averages. This info is very useful in determining what the local markets look like - realistically. After all, markets ARE local and even the statistics posted in the above chart will not accurately reflect what is going on in your neighborhood.

So What Does It All Mean?

There is no denying that we are experiencing a slow down. Fewer homes are being sold (although if you add the current Pending Sale inventory of 302 homes to the # of sales this year, things look a lot better), and the higher price ranges are feeling this particularly so. Buyers are bargain hunting and they are buying up the foreclosures and homes that are priced and marketed correctly. I have sold several homes in the past few weeks to savvy buyers who shopped the market and found the houses that are fair buys. They are out there. But there is a lot of inventory out there that is NOT priced and marketed correctly, unfortunately, and of course that is not selling.

What impact does THIS have on our market? The glut of under-marketed and over-priced inventory? I don't know for certain but my guess is that Buyers (and others who choose to focus on the negatives ;) ) see all this excess inventory and make the assumption that they are going to steal a home. This couldn't be further from the truth as I do not see many sellers being desperate enough to accept low-ball offers. I see banks choosing from multiple offers on foreclosure listings, and I hear 'regular sellers' threaten to take their properties off the market and wait until Buyers get off the fence about making a move.

Honestly, I wish they would do just that. The inflated inventory of unrealistic listings is not helping matters any.

Overall, though, we are doing ok: No drastic price decines, a foreclosure rate that is nowhere near that of some other areas of the country, and a market that continues to attract commuters, vacationers and second-home buyers, retirees, and investors.

Slow and steady wins the race!

Further Reading:

The Pennsylvania Association of REALTORS published an article about the PA housing market in it's latest issue of PA REALTOR Magazine.

Getting Back to Nature at the DWG National Recreation Area

The Delaware Water Gap National Recreation Area is a huge expanse of natural beauty just waiting for you to enjoy. Encompassing  40 miles of the Delaware River and its surrounding watershed, as well as 100 miles of hike-able trail including 27 miles of Appalachian Trail, this Pocono treasure is a destination to visit again and again. The Park website is packed with lots of information-I encourage you to check it out and browse around.

I have not been there yet this year, but the recent beautiful weather has me longing to go. I took the photos accompanying this article during a hike last year which we accessed from the New Jersey side at the Kittatinny Point Visitor Center off of I-80.

There are access points for the trails in the Borough of Delaware Water Gap (off of Mountain Road behind the famous jazz club, The Deer Head Inn), and in Dingmans Ferry at the Dingmans Falls Visitor Center. There are also various overlooks and picnicking areas along the river via Route 611, south of DWG, north of Portland.

There are so many things to do at this spot: birding, photography, rock climbing, site seeing, biking, and so much more. Check out the Calendar of Events for programs, lectures and other ways to enhance your appreciation for the natural beauty which is right here in our backyard.

Detailed maps of the various areas of the Park and the River, parking areas, camp sites, historical buildings, boat launch areas, trails, etc., are found here.

There are no entrance fees to get in to the park or trails - imagine that, a FREE attraction in the Poconos! There may be fees for camping and other extras.

Open House in Pocono Lake, Sunday, June 1, 2008 1-3pm