Real Estate

LEONARD WARREN Simpkins Jr. would be cooking a meal or riding in his car and the muted trumpet of Miles Davis would be filling the air with jazz. Leonard was a big jazz fan and the late trumpeter was his favorite, although he also dug John Coltrane, Wes Montgomery and Charlie Parker, among others. And he didn't just listen to their music. He had firm opinions about the artists - which ones were the best and why, which ones mediocre - as well as an encyclopedic knowledge of their work.

DEAR HARRY: I have a good pension plan where I work, and I have been contributing right up to the maximum allowed. The company matches my contributions up to 6 percent of my pay. Today, I saw some guru on TV telling people that any money above what the company will match should go into real estate. He was even going to the point of telling viewers to move to a bigger home with a bigger mortgage. With low interest rates and the threat of inflationary policies in Washington, he insisted that this was a no-brainer.

Want to buy a house? Need advice on what to do now that you're moving for the first time? If so, the answers can be as close as your personal computer. Log on and link up to the LibertyNet, where cyberspace meets real estate. LibertyNet is a regional computer-based network with information about lots of things - community organizations, educational institutions, historic and cultural attractions, local government and business in the Philadelphia region. And real estate.

Selling a house can be like losing an old friend. The attachment between home and homeowner can run that deep because of the sense of history and familiarity. And when the owner is an older person and the history spans decades, the loss can be quite painful, real-estate agents say. Jean Brenner of Richboro, who has sold real estate for 23 years, knows this from personal experience. After selling her home of 18 years, she found herself getting weepy all the time. "I was depressed but didn't know why," Brenner said.

In a stunning move linked to a federal investigation, Vernon W. Hill II is leaving Commerce Bancorp Inc., which he founded more than 30 years ago and built into a $47 billion bank that helped change the face of retail banking. The Cherry Hill bank said today that Hill, 61, would immediately depart from its main operating subsidiary and would retire as chairman, president and chief executive of Commerce Bancorp on July 31. Commerce stock climbed on the news, as investors placed bets that the company will be sold.

Flora K. Rubin cannot stand inertia. That's why she teaches ethics to real-estate agents, sells about $8 million worth of real estate a year, and works on a task force that is proposing revisions in real-estate law. It's also one reason why the Pennsylvania Association of Realtors recently chose Rubin, of Narberth, for its 1993 Outstanding Service Award. "She doesn't recognize the words, 'It can't be done,' " said Rubin's friend and colleague, Carolyn Eagan. It was Eagan, executive vice president of the Main Line Board of Realtors, who submitted Rubin's name to the 26,000-member state association for consideration for the award.

When the Berlin Wall came tumbling down more than two years ago, followed by the Soviet Union, Binswanger Co. saw a golden opportunity in the rush by American firms to consolidate and relocate their European operations. After a six-month test, the Philadelphia-based firm and Auguste-Thouard of Paris yesterday formally announced the formation of Auguste-Thouard- Binswanger, which will provide international real-estate services. The partnership with France's largest commercial real-estate brokerage is unique, said Frank G. Binswanger 3rd, who has been named a managing director of the new venture.

The opening of a new RE/MAX franchise real-estate office at 1001 Baltimore Pike in Springfield has been announced by Michael J. Stefonick, regional director of RE/MAX of Southeastern Pennsylvania. The Springfield office - operating under the name RE/MAX Delco - is the 46th franchise in the Southeastern Pennsylvania regional group. The franchise is owned by Paul V. Kazunas. The 4,500-square-foot office employs seven sales associates. Projections call for the addition of about 15 associates within nine months, according to Kazunas.

Two years ago Clark Firestone, an old buddy from my high- school days, was like a lot of would-be real-estate investors. He had heard about people who made fortunes in real estate while sheltering a good bit of their incomes, and he wanted to do the same. But he was scared to death. Today, Firestone and nine of his friends and neighbors are in the process of purchasing their 10th property. When the deal goes to settlement in the next few weeks, they'll own about $500,000 worth of real estate between them.

The biggest "if" in Mayor Goode's proposed $1.8 billion budget has real- estate developers and investors coming up with a few "ifs" of their own. Goode's plan to sell two city office buildings - City Hall Annex and the Municipal Services Building - for $65 million and lease them back for $14 million a year is the biggest link in the fiscal chain that would keep taxes and services where they are. But several developers said they'd rather knock...

I've grown fond of "Town by Town," the Sunday Business section feature, not only for what it contributes to my understanding of local real estate but also for the ways it expands my knowledge of other things. For example, predictions of the death of mom-and-pop real estate firms have been exaggerated greatly. Virtually every one of the communities and neighborhoods I've highlighted these last six months has at least one of these supposedly deceased businesses. Starting in the early to mid-1990s, there was a rash of acquisitions of smaller firms by larger ones, and predictions were that only "boutique" firms - those specializing in a certain kind of real estate (condos, for example)

One in a continuing series spotlighting real estate markets in this region's communities.   There was a time 60th Street in Haddington was called "Real Estate Row," because of the 22 realty offices that lined both sides of the thoroughfare. Given the changing fortunes of the housing market, that time has past in many places, not just this nearly one-mile-square chunk of West Philadelphia hugging the Market-Frankford El - which, not surprisingly, was the catalyst for the neighborhood's birth in 1903 and subsequent growth.

D EAR HARRY: We are going to move to a retirement community this summer. Reluctantly, after 47 years, we are selling our lovely home. The problem we are facing is one of choosing a broker to represent us on the sale. The house is a semi-custom one we had built with small modifications to a builder's plan. Similar homes in the area recently have sold for about $225,000. Can you please tell us what we should look for in a real-estate broker? WHAT HARRY SAYS: The market in real estate has shown some renewed vigor in the last year.

THE Daily News ' Jill Porter and Bob Warner first exposed the stolen-house scam in 2000. Here's what has happened since: * In 2001, the District Attorney's Office assigned a grand jury to investigate suspicious deeds, and 20 people were indicted. City Council held hearings on the issue. * In 2004, the Records Department began alerting owners whenever a new deed was recorded on their property. It also photographed anyone who recorded a deed. * In 2007, former Common Pleas President Judge Darnell Jones established a program to expedite fraudulent-deed cases through the civil-court system.

For 50 years, the University City Science Center has been where scientists and start-ups have toiled to build the next generation of Philadelphia-area companies. But to hear science center president and CEO Stephen S. Tang , what would really help nurture that entrepreneurial soup would be if a big life-sciences company were to put its headquarters or research operations in West Philadelphia. Given that several of the biggest drug companies locally have already made long-term commitments elsewhere, there is nothing on the horizon presently.

A West Philadelphia man was charged Thursday with a variety of real estate scams, from stealing houses to renting properties that weren't his. Philadelphia police and the District Attorney's Office accused Dwayne E. Stewart of 52 felony counts going back to 2009 that include forging deeds to illegally transfer three houses and two vacant lots to his own possession, "selling" properties he didn't own to unsuspecting third parties, and pocketing rent...

When Beatrice Katz Zitomer moved to Margate in 1979 and became a real estate agent, she had visions of catching the big housing wave powered by casino gambling. Already in her mid-40s, the former Cherry Hill kindergarten teacher spent almost a decade learning the business. In 1988, she opened Beatrice Zitomer Real Estate Inc. - just in time for the housing market to hit the rocks in one of the worst crashes in recent history. When she lost her partners, she rode out the storm solo, and prospered.

It was Oct. 9, 1914 - the first game of the World Series pitting the Philadelphia Athletics against the Boston Braves. Across 20th Street from Shibe Park, fans filled bleachers built on the roofs of rowhouses. Others sat in open windows, or on the roof of front porches or second-floor bay windows. OK, Boston took the series in four straight, but the defeat of the A's didn't make those rowhouses cheaper than when it began. These days, especially in cities where the ball teams are destined for greatness in 2013, prices for houses and condos can be higher near stadiums than farther out. Philadelphians can expect to pay a median of $145 per square foot for houses one or two miles within Citizens Bank Park, says Jed Kolko, chief economist for the search engine Trulia.

  A bankruptcy trustee has entered into an agreement with a Marlton real estate group to buy the Woodcrest Country Club for $6.25 million, according to a motion filed Friday. The agreement reached by trustee Bonnie Glantz Fatell and Cherry Hill Land Associates L.L.C., a subsidiary of First Montgomery Group AMO, will be subject to better bids for the Cherry Hill golf club, according to Fatell's motion, which proposes terms for an auction to be held May 20. A hearing on the motion is scheduled for April 1 in U.S. Bankruptcy Court in Camden.

One in a continuing series spotlighting the real estate market in this region's communities.   It's just a small part of Lower Southampton Township, Bucks County, not too far from where it touches the city and Montgomery County. Feasterville has just one-sixth of the township's population of nearly 19,000 and covers less than one of its 6.7 square miles. Yet if you ask most people for directions to either Lower Southampton or Feasterville, the crossroads of Street Road and Bustleton Pike - near the landmark Buck Hotel - is where you're likely to end up. "I'd say that's what would happen.