The recently unsuccessful vice presidential candidate added a memorable phrase to our repertoire but like her bid for office, the rallying cry for rampant oil exploration missed the mark.

By contrast the time is nigh for purchasing what have been deeply depressed value stocks and distressed real estate because, just as the sun follows the rain, day follows night, periods of prosperity always follow the dismal days of depression. While ours is by no means yet a full fledged depression, it has been broadly agreed to be a recession. Asset classes have declined; commodities have dropped dramatically in price. Let’s be clear, this is a period of great opportunity, especially when the majority is still hunkering down in fear.

Right now I’m working with two different first time home buyers who are looking at purchasing homes that are easily half the price they were merely three years ago. Sure the homes need work but that has been factored in to the prices they will be paying and within a few years, once the economy has recovered, they will be sitting on market appreciation of 30-50% and equity growth that will be incalculable. How do you calculate growth in equity from no money down to $25- $40,000 in equity? Clearly this is a once in a lifetime opportunity for these buyers who are choosing to ignore the fear (or maybe they are simply not reading the headlines or watching the evening news).

So, now really is one of those rare times. I just finished building a new home and I’ll bet that if I had waited just six months to start the process, I might have saved money as building materials have continued to drop and land prices in some cases, as well. But who can really pick the bottom or the peak for that matter? And let’s face it; most of us are not buying our home for its investment potential. It’s our home first and foremost; our refuge, place of enjoyment and relaxation.

Its not just the first time homebuyer’s best time to buy but also for the middle income earner and the wealthy alike. No matter what your financial circumstance, opportunities abound as there is a relative strong supply of inventory and a relative lack of competition, other buyers. As I have already witnessed several other times in my 34 years in the real estate business, this is a great opportunity and one that many will look back on with “could haves” and “should haves” and the fortunate and foresightful ones will say “glad I took the chance”. 

The real point of this entry is that there has rarely been a better time to be a buyer than right now, this winter, before the “Obama effect” takes hold and then spring fever takes hold as buyers traditionally flock to the market following the long cold winter months.

Paul Harsch, president

133 of the 134 REALTOR® members of the Berkshire County Board of REALTORS® participate in the Internet Data Exchange Service (IDX). The 133 participants are allowed to post each other’s listings on their respective web sites, assuming their site has that capability. This gives substantial exposure to the participants’ listings and increases the likelihood that potential buyers see all available listings.

Our unique member registration feature which gives you the immediate ability to search the entire Berkshire inventory and beyond and to receive automatic updates of new listings fitting your search criteria, cannot access the non-IDX broker’s listings however the link below will take you to all of them. We are happy to make your search easier and we would be pleased to have the opportunity of providing more information or to arrange showings on any of the listings not showing up through IDX but through the link we have provided below. We offer buyer representation and facilitation.

Please click here to see the homes for sale in Berkshire County that are not available through IDX.

The following is a summery of the new requirements, attached are links to the division of fire and safety’s website where you can find additional information. Note: significant differences in regulations exist state by state. Be certain to be fully informed as to the regulations in the state in which your property transaction takes place.

Legislation passed last session requiring that at the time of sale of residential property in Vermont Photoelectric-only type smoke detectors need to be placed in the vicinity of bedrooms with at least one on each floor, will take effect January 1^st 2009.  These new regulations also require that a Carbon Monoxide detector be placed in the Vicinity of bedrooms with at least one on each floor.  These detection units must be installed to the manufactures requirements.  For the purpose of meeting this statute Combination Photoelectric/Ionization Smoke detectors will not meet the requirements of this statute, However Combination Photoelectric/Carbon Monoxide Detectors will.   This Statute will take effect January 1^st 2009.

If a home is newly constructed or was constructed after 1994 the Detection units need to be hardwired into the homes electric supply.  This reflects when state building codes began to require newly constructed homes be hard wired with smoke detectors.  Detectors must be properly installed to the manufactures requirements.  This means that for older homes built before 1994 detectors can be solely battery operated and forego the hardwiring process if installation requirements of the manufacturer are met.

For the purpose of complying with this statute Photoelectric-only-type detectors will be counted.  Combination Photoelectric/Ionization detectors will not meet the requirements of this statute.  Much testimony was given to the differences in response times of the detectors compared with each other, and in what types of fires they preformed best.  Photoelectric detectors detect smoldering fires minutes faster than ionization detectors do.  Smoldering fires happen to be the deadliest fires as well.  In the interest of safety it is important people have the most amount of time to react to a fire as possible. 

Combination Photoelectric/Carbon monoxide detectors will meet this statute.  These units can be used in conjunction with one another.  It is important to note the average healthy life span for a smoke detector is 10 years and for a carbon monoxide detector its 5 years, therefore combination photoelectric/carbon monoxide units should be replaced every 5 years.

This Act requires that at the point of sale a home must meet this statute; if it does not, the buyer has 10 days to notify the seller of the noncompliance.  At which point the seller has 10 days to comply with this statute.  This law will take effect January 1^st 2009.

Link to the Division of fire and safety Certification of Compliance with smoke detector laws.

www.dps.state.vt.us/fire/       ß Division’s homepage

www.dps.state.vt.us/fire/smokecoformrevised805.doc    ßthe new compliance form

In the go go ‘90’s mortgage brokers were writing an ever increasing percentage of loans, taking business away from the traditional lenders, the banks and S & L’s. Many of us well remember the so called S & L crisis from the 70’s when there were unfortunate abuses taking place that sank some major S & L’s, principally in the west and southwest where unscrupulous borrowers were playing games creating phony transactions backed by illegitimate appraisals which later lead to a collapse of house prices as the “ponzi scheme” grew to such significant proportions there were no longer any buyers.

S & L’s were reformed, appraising licensure then became a matter of state control, so that appraisers were qualified and regulated and things settled down for a while. But along came the new growth industry, mortgage brokerage, middle men and women who arranged loans for any one of hundreds of potential lenders including banks, investment funds, insurance companies etc. The pressure increased, and so they say, became intense during the Clinton administration, to increasingly liberalize lending to make it easier and easier for the financially challenged, to get a mortgage. Lending was on a feeding frenzy, fed in large measure by the mortgage companies, not the traditional banks and S & L’s this time around.

So, we all know now what happened most recently. Lending guidelines were so lenient and liberal and in many cases, so predatory with high review rates after very low initial rates expired that many borrows were unable to pay. Couple that with the declining economy, job losses and so forth, and the current mortgage delinquency crisis was launched.

Which leads me back to my primary point: borrow from a reputable LOCAL lending institution. They may not be willing and able to make the marginal high risk loans but then again, perhaps those borrowers should wait anyway, until their financial situation improves and thus their chances of being able to keep the home they ultimately purchase.

Local banks and S & L’s being locally based, know the community, work with the local appraisers who are in the best postion to calculate value, do not charge hidden and excess fees like some mortgage companies, and generally can help insure the closing process goes smoothly. Too many times I have heard very angry borrowers showed up at their closing only to learn from the mortgage company that there were unanticipated extra costs and fees and at that point they had no alternative realistically but to close in spite of what felt like deception and failure to disclose. I have never heard of such problems with local area lenders.

Local banks may also be much more willing to modify the terms of a mortgage if a borrower becomes delinguent than would an out of town lender.

Some mortgage brokers are “local” but many borrowers have simply gone “on-line” to find a mortgage. While there are fewer problems with local area mortgage brokers who have been in the trade for years, they do not have much control over the actual lenders or the process of gaining appraisals.

Bottom line, unless there is some extraordinary reason not to, we strongly recommend that you go to the most local bank you can to obtain your mortgage. They are very competitive and many times in the end, even cheaper than mortgage brokers or on line sources.