NEast Links: police investigation, parks commission and more

By Shannon McDonald

Here’s a summary of the week’s Northeast news we didn’t cover. See others here.

A police officer is being investigated after being seen assaulting a woman on a store surveillance camera. Officer Alberto Lopez Sr. is pictured  approaching and provoking a physical confrontation with Agnes Lawless around 3 a.m. last August. Lawless and her friends had just been in a fender bender with Lopez’s son. The incident took place at a Lukoil store at Comly Road and Roosevelt Boulevard, not far from the scene of the car accident near Northeast Philadelphia Airport. The situation is a complicated one, which Internal Affairs is investigating. Lopez has since been removed from active duty while incident is further evaluated.

Keep reading for a special gift for some campers, a cleanup in Frankford and more.

Real NEastate: Commission omission

Q: I had a real estate agent come give me a presentation about selling my home in Somerton. He told me his commission is 6 percent and I didn’t argue with him, but I heard that commissions are negotiable. Should I have asked him to do it for less? Why did he automatically say 6 percent and not tell me it was negotiable?

A: Would you voluntarily tell your boss you would do your job for less? Of course he is not going to tell you his commission is negotiable if you don’t bring it up, because no agent wants to reduce his/her commission. If you would have questioned it, it might be a different story, but you didn’t. If he would have told you it was negotiable wouldn’t you automatically ask to do it for less? By the same measure, wouldn’t your boss love to pay you less? He probably doesn’t pay you enough now.

The Parent Trap: keeping your cool when the kids pull away

As the saying goes – the more things change, the more they stay the same. We go from children clinging to our parents, to teens who think that they know everything, to adults out to change the world, to older adults who know that change doesn’t happen that quickly. Then we look down and see our children clinging to us, knowing that in a blink of an eye, they pull away.

My 16-year-old son is nice enough to tell us that he is leaving the house, and we trust him to go where he says. I understand this. When my friends would pick me up in their cars, my parents had enough trust to believe that when I said that I was going to Bob’s house in Somerton, that’s where I went. Perhaps this makes me a dull person, but I never lied about my destination. Of course, I was often a bit fuzzy on our activities.

Alan Butkovitz: Incumbent City Controller from Castor Gardens

City Controller Alan Butkovitz at the Real Estate Taxation Conference held on Feb. 23, 2007 at Temple University. Photo Courtesy of Philadelphia Forward.

By Christopher Wink

This Thursday, NEastPhilly.com is co-hosting with WHYY a panel discussion among the three Democratic candidates for city controller — incumbent Alan Butkovitz and challengers John Braxton and Brett Mandel. Butkovitz and Mandel both have ties to the NEast, so we sat down with each. See the first with Butkovitz today and our interview with Mandel tomorrow.

Alan Butkovitz is likely among the best-known city controllers in the position’s half-century Philadelphia history. That might not be saying much for the usually quiet head of the city’s auditing department, a position created in 1951, but Butkovitz  has taken to action.

When he’s not overseeing the city’s finances, the first-term city controller hangs his hat in Castor Gardens. Indeed, like one of his chief challengers in May’s Democratic primary, Brett Mandel, Butkovitz has deep ties to the Northeast. With two candidates for a citywide office holding ties to the Northeast, that makes it a story for NEastPhilly.com.

NEast Mag interviewed both Butkovitz and his opponent Mandel and will share their interviews here on NEastPhilly.com.  The incumbent is first, as seen below. See our Q&A with Mandel tomorrow.

Food for Thought: Uzbekistan

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By Donna Ward

Travel around the world in your own neighborhood! Uzbekistan is a lively Russian restaurant located at 12012 Bustleton Ave. in Somerton and opened directly across from the old Uzbekistan about a year ago. Uzbekistan is named after a province of the former Soviet Union.

For a stylish, upscale evening out where the food seems endless and the dinner more of a party, Uzbekistan is a wonderful restaurant with delicious food and a vibrant atmosphere. From the moment you pull into the parking lot, which provides ample spaces for the usually crowded venue, you feel as though you have stepped into another world.

Real NEastate: Northeast buyers’ market

By Stacey McCarthy

Q: Is the market getting better or worse in Northeast Philadelphia? My home has been on the market for several months in a great location in Somerton, and I haven’t even had one person express interest. It’s a really nice house, so why isn’t it selling?

A: It’s no secret it’s a buyers’ market in Northeast Philadelphia. It will pick up in the spring because it is historically a good time of year for the housing market in the area. But that’s no guarantee your home will get sold soon.

While the Northeast is faring much better in overall sales compared to Philadelphia on the whole, there is still currently a 11-month supply of homes on the market in Northeast Philly, up from the beginning of the year. A six months’ supply is considered a balanced market. More than six months is considered a buyers’ market.

This means if absolutely no more homes come on the market, we would expect to take another 11 months to sell all the homes currently for sale. But you know there will be more people selling. Until consumer confidence picks up, it’s a buyers’ market. If your home hasn’t sold, there are three things you should evaluate.

It’s really not about location, location, location in this market; it’s location, condition and price. You might be in the very best location in the Somerton, but if your home is outdated or your price is too high, your house will not sell - it will sit. You don’t control the market; the buyers do. If you don’t price aggressively in this market, expect to sit.

If your home is in a good location and in good condition, then I would take a long, hard look at my asking price if I were you. Ask your agent for a list of recently sold comparables in your neighborhood to see how you measure up. If your ultimate goal is to move soon, then price your home competitively in front of the market.

Good Luck!

NOTE: Last week’s questioner from Castor Gardens was able to finally get the default buyer to agree to split the deposit and his broker will be releasing the deposit from escrow.

Stacey McCarthy is a real estate agent with the McCarty Group of Keller Williams Real Esate. Her Real NEastate column will appear on NEastPhilly.com every Wednesday.

Crime Report: Somerton

Police responded to a call about a theft from vehicle on the 15100 block of Carter Road on Dec. 15 at 8:55 a.m. More than $50 in valuables was taken from the outside of the car.