Realtors

The Philadelphia Board of Realtors is about to enter the publishing business. The first issue of its Philadelphia Real Estate Express will appear Nov. 17, according to Bruno Friia, one of the project's organizers. The Express will run advertisements to sell or rent residential properties in the city. Friia, chief financial officer for Friia & Cos., a Realtor with offices in Philadelphia, Hawaii, Montana and San Francisco, said the free weekly would have a circulation of 75,000.

The Philadelphia Board of Realtors, in conjunction with its Northeast Council, will hold its first trade exhibition and round-table forum on Sept. 19. Trade Expo '88 will be held from 8:30 a.m. to 2 p.m. at the Adam's Mark Hotel on City Avenue. The trade show will be open to the public, said Nan Genther, spokeswoman for the board. More than 50 exhibitors are expected to display products, services and developments in residential and commercial real estate there. Genther said Trade Expo '88 is designed as a service to members and "to pull together people in the city and in outlying areas.

ATLANTIC CITY - Stress-management guru Loretta LaRoche thinks Americans take life much too seriously. And as snow fell on a recent weekday, the Brooklyn-born author and TV personality delivered her message in Hall A of the Atlantic City Convention Center to a standing-room-only audience of men and women who, of late, seem to be some of the most stressed-out Americans of all. Realtors. Several thousand dues-paying members of the National Association of Realtors (NAR) from Pennsylvania, New Jersey and New York had gathered there earlier this month for the region's Triple Play Convention and Trade Expo.

My heartfelt sympathy to Gerald and Carol Fox and their children for the harassment they have been exposed to by their neighbors in the City of Brotherly Love. The Pennsylvania Association of Realtors' 21,000 members understand the civil rights laws, because they are constantly reminded by their local Boards of Realtors, their state and national associations. Unfortunately, however, the public does not always understand the law. The unfortunate turn of events in Southwest Philadelphia points up the need once again for the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development and the state Human Relations Commission to embark on a massive public education program.

The Whitpain Board of Supervisors has approved an amendment to the sign ordinance, despite a plea by area real estate representatives that a decision be postponed and talks be opened between the two sides. During a brief hearing Monday, the board voted, 4-1, to amend its four- month-old sign ordinance to allow lease and rental signs to be displayed in the township. Supervisor James Woods cast the only negative vote. He said that the signs and the amendment were not needed. "I didn't think it should be amended, I like it the way it is. . . . No lease signs," Woods said.

Harrison G. Schweig, 86, an importer, Realtor and developer, died Monday at Thomas Jefferson University Hospital. He was a resident of Center City. Mr. Schweig got his start as an importer in the family business of George E. Schweig & Son. As a teenager during the 1920s, he decided to import "Le Testophone," the King of Horns, from France to be used by motorists in their cars. At that time automobiles were not routinely equipped with horns. When Mr. Schweig returned to America with about 100,000 of them, his father was waiting on the dock, according to Bernard Granor of Granor & Co. Realtors in Glenside, a business associate of Mr. Schweig's.

J. W. Yarborough leans forward on his desk and explains to a young woman on the phone the state laws on car insurance. First his voice is patient, then tolerant, then laced with a tinge of frustration. As the conversation comes to a close, he melts back into the calm yet punchy tones he uses when advising and philosophizing. "Take your time," the Realtor assures the woman. "We've been here 50 years. We're not leaving. " As a 40-year veteran in the office of Wilbur M. Whitney, the first black Realtor on the Main Line, Yarborough has spent decades as a spokesman for the boss he likes to call "Mr. W. " Now 84 and unavailable for interviews because of his health, Whitney began the business in the early 1950s.

The Philadelphia Board of Realtors is hoping to make it easier for home buyers to register to vote at their new city address. Under a plan announced Monday, the board is trying to get all 2,200 Realtors in the city to provide voter-registration forms to buyers at settlement. Last year, a slow one for real estate, there were just under 4,000 real estate transactions in the city. The board is following the lead of the National Association of Realtors, which has been urging local boards to encourage voter registration.

The city's Realtors are upset that the Goode administration wants to delay a plan to reduce the city's real estate transfer tax, the highest in the nation. Retaining the current rate - 4.07 percent - "sends the wrong message to the citizens of this city," Alan Domb, president of the Philadelphia Board of Realtors, said yesterday at a sparsely attended City Council budget hearing. Last year, Council passed budget legislation that called for gradually lowering the rate to 3 percent over five years, starting with a reduction to 3.92 percent for the fiscal year that begins July 1. But the administration has introduced a bill that "basically delays the step-down in the tax by one year," said Michael Masch, director of economic analysis for City Council.

On Wednesday, Allan Domb, who has set national records selling Center City luxury condominiums, will take over as president of the Philadelphia Board of Realtors at a time when many Realtors are bailing out of the business. Homes are lingering on the market for months, sales in the first half of last year were down 26 percent from 1988, and several Center City real estate offices have closed. "I'm not afraid," said Domb, 34, who began selling real estate 10 years ago. "This is a great time to be in real estate.

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.

Joseph J. D'Amico, 94, of Drexel Hill, who rose from humble beginnings to become a Realtor and insurance broker, died Monday, Jan. 21, of prostate cancer at his home. Mr. D'Amico, the eldest of seven children, was the son of a seamstress and a Sicilian shoemaker in Philadelphia. He worked alongside his father as a young man. He graduated from Overbrook High School in 1936. His first job out of school was laying steel track for the Pennsylvania Railroad; it was the hardest work he ever did, he later told family.

For many years, I made attending the annual gatherings of the nation's Realtors and home builders part of my schedule. Since 2009, however, I've been able to attend these events - confined to my two least favorite locations, Las Vegas and Orlando - from my office computer. It saves time and money, and it is, in a virtual sense, just like being there. This year, however, I was beginning to feel a bit out of the loop, and, needing a day at the beach even in December, I spent $10 on a round trip from Lindenwold to Atlantic City for the regional Realtors' convention.

ATLANTIC CITY - Five weeks after Hurricane Sandy scored a direct hit on the Ocean County shoreline, Linda Stefanik says Seaside Park still has "no electric, gas, or sewer, and no promise of repopulation until Dec. 31. " Most of all, the veteran real estate broker is tired of hearing the stretch of Shore from Point Pleasant south to Seaside Park described as "ground zero. " "It's a little overused," says Stefanik, who is also chairman of the New Jersey Real Estate Commission. Stefanik was in Atlantic City last week for "Triple Play," an annual convention that draws Realtors from New Jersey, Pennsylvania, and New York.

  At the Jersey Shore this time of year, real estate agents usually find themselves beginning the annual ritual of linking next summer's vacationers with owners of second homes looking to rent them out for the season. But in Sandy-ravaged beach towns, some agents this year see a more urgent task - matching people displaced by the storm with owners of second homes willing to donate or rent their properties at reduced rates now. Jeff Quintin, an agent at Prudential Fox & Roach in Ocean City, sent an e-mail blast to his clients asking whether they would be willing to donate use of their vacation homes to storm victims.

Gov. Christie has named Eugenia "Jean" K. Bonilla, a Realtor from Delanco, to the New Jersey Real Estate Commission. The appointment of Bonilla, who is an associate broker with Prudential Fox & Roach in Mount Laurel, was announced Monday in Trenton. Bonilla was president of the Burlington-Camden County Association of Realtors in 2009 and its Realtor of the Year in 2008. She is active with the state Realtors' association.    - Alan J. Heavens

Median existing single-family home prices are rising in more metropolitan areas, but a lack of inventory - notably in lower price ranges - is limiting buyer choices in an increasing number of markets around the country, National Association of Realtors said Thursday. Second-quarter median prices year-over-year rose in 110 out of 147 metropolitan statistical areas, including 2.6 percent in the Philadelphia region, based on closings. In the first quarter of 2012, there were 74 areas showing price gains from a year earlier, while in the second quarter of 2011 only 41 metros were up, the Realtors said.

Commercial lending standards have tightened in the past year for small businesses and scuttled a major portion of contracted transactions for smaller properties, the National Association of Realtors reported Thursday. "There have been notable improvements in capital for large commercial transactions valued at $2.5 million or higher, but there remain significant challenges for small business," said Realtors' chief economist Lawrence Yun. According to Real Capital Analytics, more than 13,000 major properties valued at $2.5 million or higher traded hands in 2011.

If you want to rile a New Jersey resident, two words will do it: property taxes. Most state residents — 89 percent of the 800 registered voters surveyed in early April by the state's Realtors, according to the poll's results — maintain that property taxes are too high, but they are less united about proposals to lower them. "Property taxes continue to be a major concern, even ahead of the economy and jobs," said Joe Goode, senior vice president of American Strategies, who has been conducting the poll for the New Jersey Association of Realtors for the last five years.

George Bard Ermentrout, 88, a Realtor and Bucks County community activist, died Sunday, Feb. 26, of heart failure at Chandler Hall in Newtown. Mr. Ermentrout, a native of Southampton, Bucks County, graduated from Abington High School. During World War II, he served in the 84th Infantry Division in Europe. In November 1944, the division met heavy resistance as it fought its way into Geilenkirchen, Germany, on the Würm River. A private, he was awarded the Bronze Star "for meritorious achievement in ground operations against the enemy.