Page 3 - Main Line Today - Top Realtors 2021

In the midst of a late-winter storm, Derek Donatelli donned his hat and gloves, shoveled his driveway and drove through swirling winds to a home in West Chester that had just come on the market.
His client, a determined house
hunter, met him there, braving icy roads in hopes of avoiding a blizzard of competitors. “It meant my client had a shot at the house because 20 other people weren’t going to be looking at it in the middle of a snowstorm,” he says.
Fast forward to spring, when
“For Sale” signs traditionally pop up
on lawns like daffodils. For now, prospective sellers are sitting on the sidelines, reluctant to show their homes until the pandemic subsides. Meanwhile, buyers desperate to move are bidding
up prices, dropping contingencies, and waiving home inspections. “It’s a terrible conversation to have to call someone and tell them there were 30 other people who wanted a house, and they didn’t get it,” says Donatelli, who leads the Donatelli Group at eXp Realty in West Chester.
Simply put, there are far more buyers than sellers in this region, and the pandemic has fueled a dramatic shift in consumer trends. Buyers are clamoring for suburban locales, home offices, outdoor living spaces and swimming pools. Many
are compromising on condition, taking on homes that need serious updating. Others are willing to sweeten the deal by paying both the buyer’s and seller’s share of the transfer tax.
For a property in Drexel Hill, Donatelli recently organized a virtual tour with 84 would-be buyers. “We sold it for $25,000 above the asking price without anyone ever setting foot in the house,” he says. “We’ve had sight-unseen sales before a house even goes on the market.”
One young couple with two children was bursting at the seams in their townhouse in Media, where both spouses were working remotely and the kids were attending classes via laptop. Their home sold in a weekend, but the couple was outbid on two of the only three houses available in their school district.
Determined not to lose out again,
they wrote a letter to the seller, asking
him to choose them because they love
the neighborhood and would cherish
the house. The couple waived the home inspection. They bid $20,000 over the asking price, giving up their vision of
such niceties as stainless steel appliances and a luxurious master bathroom. It worked. “The kitchen wasn’t updated, the bathrooms weren’t updated, but they were still willing to pay a premium to stay in the same school district,” Donatelli says.
Everywhere, buyers are putting
away money they would’ve spent on
travel, vacations and other events waylaid by the pandemic. A physician was able
to borrow against her projected future income. Two nurses who had to cancel plans for a formal wedding used the money they’d saved for the reception to bid $45,000 over the asking price for their first home. Others are taking advantage
of the COVID moratorium on penalties for withdrawing money from an IRA. To make home ownership more accessible,
the Pennsylvania Association of Realtors
is advocating for a first-time buyer savings account program as an incentive to save toward the purchase of a house. Money saved would qualify as a deduction on state income tax returns.
PRICES STILL ON THE RISE
Often, the most desirable homes are snapped up before they even make the multiple listing service. A 5,000-square- foot house near Ardmore’s Linwood Park that had been renovated from top to bottom sold for $950,000 before the paint was dry. In Bryn Mawr, nine competing bidders pushed the price of a home
with a new roof, open-concept kitchen and master bathroom into the mid- $600,000s—$22,000 over asking price. In Narberth, an 1,800-square-foot house
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