If you drive through most rural areas during the summer you’ll notice corn stands or trucks filled with ears of corn along the side of the roads. In our area you’ll see signs for “Firestone Corn”.  There are two “Firestone” brothers who both have their own farms and sell their corn.

Usually family members pick up fresh corn from the farm and set up their stands.  The one that used to be on the corner of 31 and 711 in Donegal is now in the Family Dollar parking lot. How easy for those of you headed to the resorts or Ohio Pyle to just pull over and get a bag full! Look for the signs and the white truck.

Butter and sugar is the type that you’ll find at the Family Dollar store. These ears have the big yellow and white kernels mixed and tend to be very sweet!! A “farmers dozen” will run you $5.50 ENJOY! We’ve had several dozen and so far and it’s been very tasty!

July is when all of the boroughs and townships publicize their new millage rates. These rates are used along with the assessed value of your property to determine what amount of county, township/boro, and school taxes that you will pay.

Here are the new rates for all of the areas in the counties we do business 2010 Fayette Millage, 2010 Somerset Millage, and 2010 Westmoreland Millage. Each county uses a different formula for calculating the assessed value of your property. Millage for Hidden Valley (Jefferson Township) went from 48.95 to 50.26  and Seven Springs (Middlecreek Township) saw a slight decrease in mills going from 32.11 to 31.97.

Here’s an example of the difference! If your property has an assessed value of $75,000 and you are in Hidden Valley your total tax bill (county, township and school) would be $3,769.50. At Seven Springs your tax bill would come to $2,397.75  This is just one of the variables that should be considered when deciding between the two resorts!

Amenities, facilities, association fees, services, these are a few that should be at the top of your list. Then there is location, price, size, ect granted most times you will have to compromise! The best advice we can give you is make a wish list of what is important to and hold out for at least for the top three items! REMEMBER ALWAYS work with a REALTOR offering designated agency!

Wednesday the work began and it will take till next week to finish! When I tried to find out just what was being done and how long it would take I tried the Pennsylvania Department of Transportation, (Penn Dot) web site.  I was unsuccessful in finding anything about the project on line but did find some numbers to calls for help.

According to Val, “It’s from Route 381(around the Jones Mills post office) to 711 (around the PNC bank) on Route 31, that’s about a mile and a half.” This is the Gateway to the Laurel Highlands and when it’s done it will be one smooth ride! On Wednesday the milling work began on both sides of the road. There were no signs posted about the drop offs!

The resurfacing with asphalt begins as soon as the milling work is completed.  As Route 31 is down to one lane you may end up sitting outside of the Prudential Preferred Realty Office. Here’s a slide show of the construction and the gang that works in the Prudential office! Remember you pass the office on the way to Hidden Valley, Seven Springs, and the Laurel Highlands!! Stop in for ANY OF YOUR REAL ESTATE NEEDS!

If you don’t want to deal with the construction and are headed to Seven Springs, when you exit the turnpike turn right, then turn left on Hellen School Road, at the cross road turn left (it’s County Line Road) and you’ll end up at the four way stop by the Champion post office and gas station.

Between the Hidden Valley and Seven Springs communities there are 16 associations. We are here to share that as HOMEOWNERS and PROSPECTIVE BUYERS you really should read through the ASSOCIATION DOCUMENTS that apply to you! Remember that your primary residence may be governed by an association too! Dig them out of the files and review!

This BLOG post was created because of a segment we heard on National Public Radio (NPR)! The story in a nutshell goes like this, a reservist from Texas was deployed and his wife missed two payments of their association dues. Their $300,000 home was foreclosed upon, sold on the court house steps for $3,000, and then flipped for $135,000! Yes, it is being appealed but the original owners are without their home!

There are 33 states that allow forclosures to happen without involvement from a judge or arbitrator. These are called non judicial forclosures. Pennsylvania allows you to have your day in court and follows the judicial foreclosure procedure. Neither is an experience you would want to have!

Best advice we can give you is to keep those payments current! Many of our associations will allow you to pay for the entire year with a small discount included!

Remember to support NPR!

The PA Gaming Control Board just announced that Nemacolin’s Public hearing will be held September 8, 2010 at 10 AM.  You’ll need to travel to the Wharton Township Municipal Building at 114 Elliottsville Road, Farmington, PA 15437.   

This meeting allows the public to voice their opinions, for or against, the proposed casino. It is also an opportunity for the public to learn more about how the casino may impact the community.

If you’d like to share your thoughts you must register PRIOR to September 2, 2010. If you are unable to attend you may submit written comments up to 60 days after the hearing. Information obtained from the hearings will be recorded and reviewed when the Board decides who will receive the last Category 3 license.

Penn Harris Gaming  LP, Mason-Dixon Resorts LP, and the Bushkill Group, are the other three groups scheduled to have hearings. Nemacolin’s is the last hearing scheduled.

Abe attended the last one before Nemacolin pulled their application. She came away feeling that the majority of the speakers at the public meeting were overwhelmingly in favor of the casino.  “What struck me the most was the presentation that Nemacolin provided. It was the same caliber of their web site marketing.”

Many of you are wondering “WHAT” is being constructed on the left hand side of the road when you exit 91 of the PA turnpike on the Laurel Highlands Gateway (Rt 31)! According to the Donegal Township Supervisors it’s a Holiday Inn Express!

Sitting on approximately 7.9 acres some of the rooms will overlook Donegal Lake. Located across from the Laurel Highland Campland center it will give visitors another housing option during our four seasons of fun.

As we have NO city sewage these folks have to build their own treatment plant. It’s called a “packaged plant” and this one will hold up to 20,000 gallons a day. The hotel will not have a restaurant so locals are watching closely to see if a small franchise might come in too!

We keep sharing with you that this stretch of Route 31 has potential for business growth over the next 10 years. Consider that 80%? of the 2,800 homeowners from both resorts exit the turnpike at Donegal to get to their places!! Then add the tourists coming into visit the Laurel Highlands all four seasons!! We’re sure that the Family Dollar Store, Rustic Lodge Furniture, and the new Holiday Inn Express checked out the traffic count before they opened their doors!

If you have an idea for these consumers to spend money or just need more room for your company, we have the space! Check out the Visual Tour on our listing at 3843 Rt 31. With over two acres of ground and frontage on both Rt 31 and School House Lane this building is ready for you to take possession!

We started offering this valuable resource in January and many of you are NOW watching the market in real time! On a monthly basis this program updates YOU on properties for sale, properties sold during the past 3 months, days on market and much more! The actual feed for the source is from the West Penn MLS.

 Here are a few tips to consider when answering the 11 questions. The first three questions are the norm until you get to the “I am.” The program wants to know if you are a buyer or seller. We have found that the system works best if you select “buyer”.

Questions 6-11 all relate to YOUR search criteria. Here are a few zip codes that you may want to use, Hidden Valley (15502), Seven Springs (15622), Donegal (15628), and Somerset (15501). Unfortunately you are only allowed ONE selection for any of these six fields.    

HOWEVER, we have an override! For example, if under home type you would consider condos AND town homes we can adjust your search parameters to accept them both! This really gives you a clearer picture of the market activity is in any price range. You just need to ask us to “fine tune” your search!

Remember, the report won’t tell you the variables in the market place such as MARKET ABSOPTION, condition, floor plans, or stats longer than 3months! All critical information you should have in your hands BEFORE buying or selling! That’s why WE are still around! To try out the Market Snapshot program go to Laurel Highlands Home Values.

We try to keep our readers more informed on the current happenings in the Laurel Highlands which includes Hidden Valley and Seven Springs Resorts. Now you are able to set up an RSS feed from our BLOG into your reader. That way you don’t have to search for our updates they come to when we post something new.

Many of you have a dazed look on your face! RSS feed! What’s that?! More technology?? Here’s a short YouTube video from commoncraft explaining what an RSS feed is and how it works!

Ok, now that you have a better understanding of how this will keep you updated on a more timely manner go get your reader! Then open up Laurel Highlands Local, look in the right column and scroll down until you come to the RSS Subscription box.

Click on the RSS symbol and it will ask if you want to subscribe and what folder you want the post to be delivered to. I have one in my e mail folders. That way you will get the latest on what’s happening in the Laurel Highlands, or from any other Blog or news source that you want to hear from!

Houselogic.com Frustrated by the enormous amount of MISINFORMATION on the Internet concerning housing information the National Association of REALTORS created Houselogic. This site begins with 5 tabs at the top of the page, Improve, Maintain, Engage, Taxes & Incentives, Finances & Insurance, and News and Activity. Under each tab you’ll find subcategories that take you into greater detail about the topic you’re investigating. Read it and leave or build a binder with projects that you’ll see through from start to finish!

For over 100 years the REALTOR Association has championed home owner rights.  When you become a FREE member of Houselogic, NAR may ask you to partner on issues or legislation that may impact you as a homeowner.  It’s up to you whether to participate in these causes. Here’s the post we shared back in February when Houselogic was first rolled out.

Here’s a BIG reason why you should consider logging in NOW! Our National Association is bracing us for tax changes looming on the horizon! Wouldn’t you like to know when there may be a vote on capital gains or the mortgage interest deductions so that you could contact your Representatives? If so make sure you sign up! Remember the people in DC work for us. Hearing from us allows them to best represent their constituents!

Marcellus Shale, we first started bringing you information of these gas leases back in 2008! That’s when our State REALTOR Association (PAR) had Attorneys Lester Greevy and Dale Tice from Tioga County speak to our members. They specialize in these types of contracts. In June we saw our first “Hydrocarbon Deeds.” These two transfers were both filed in Jefferson Township (the Hidden Valley side of the mountain) and totaled over 3 MILLION DOLLARS!

Yes, the type of deed caught our eyes but the $1,638,127.49 and $1,371,041.49 transfer prices made us dig a little deeper!  Usually deeds for transfer of minerals are recorded WITH A $1.00 PRICE tied to them with NO transfer tax involved.  Here’s a copy of  one of Hydrocarbon Deeds if you’d like to take a peek!

Both transfers were from company to company.  In fact the Grantor on both transactions was BRC Minerals, LP from Texas and the buyers were; Oxy USA, Inc a Delaware corporation with a Texas address and BP Mineral Holdings II, LLC also a Texas company.  

Here are some questions and thoughts that came to us. Did they really pay for only a partial interest?  It appears that these transfers were for only 23-25% “undivided interest (on an eight-eights (8/8ths) basis)”. That just says to us they didn’t get the whole cow!

Where was the parcel? Of course we were thinking that it was one large farm. As the transfer was from and to out of state companies we were trying to figure out where the well would appear! After trying to read the deed and pulling up previous deeds we saw that there are MULTIPLE PROPERTIES INVOLVED!

The transfer tax was divided among 16 different school districts!  Even though it is Greek to us we’ll do our best to keep you updated with resources!