The goal of the Community Reinvestment Project – CORE – is to turn government-owned properties into productive use to provide workforce housing for target markets such as first-time homebuyers, teachers, firefighters, and police officers. CORE will help individuals realize the American dream of homeownership, stabilize communities in urban centers, and provide an additional revenue stream for municipalities. CORE is a collaborative effort between the Pennsylvania Association of Realtors® (PAR), the individual local associations that comprise PAR, and individual municipalities in the Commonwealth.
CORE is highlighted in the Winter 2012 issue of On Common Ground, a publication featuring Realtors® and smart growth.
Why does Pennsylvania need CORE?
PAR has a rich tradition of promoting homeownership and encouraging investment in real estate. CORE reflects that mission by helping Pennsylvania’s working families achieve the American dream of homeownership.
Many working families are priced out of today’s real estate market in communities across Pennsylvania. CORE will help provide much-needed affordable housing for first-time homebuyers, teachers, firefighters, police officers and others who are essential to the economic vitality of our communities.
As municipalities struggle to find new sources of revenue to fund their services, CORE will help local governments generate much-needed revenue by selling government-owned properties and getting them back on the tax rolls.
Using the expertise of local Realtors®, CORE will simplify and streamline the process of selling government-owned properties and help to revitalize communities.
The Goals of CORE are...
To provide workforce housing for key target audiences such as first-time homebuyers, teachers, firefighters, and police officers.
To turn government-owned properties back into productive use to stabilize communities and provide income stream for municipalities.
To transfer distressed properties to responsible buyers willing to rehabilitate them.
To simplify and streamline process of selling government owned properties using expertise of local Realtors®.
CORE Principles
For purposes of the following CORE Principles, the term municipality shall refer to municipal authorities or other government entities that are permitted by law to list and sell real estate.
CORE participants shall abide by the following:
PAR will encourage local associations to implement the CORE project and to be a point of contact for municipalities.
CORE will provide municipalities with a pool of trained Realtors® who are knowledgeable in the guidelines of the CORE project.
CORE will counsel municipalities on guidelines for the listing and sale of properties in order to maximize the opportunity for a property to be purchased and utilized for workforce housing.
Municipal governments will be encouraged to adopt guidelines for buyers that will maximize the likelihood that properties will be returned to the active tax rolls in a timely fashion.
The CORE project will provide public education and outreach regarding the objectives and outcomes of the project at the local level.
The CORE project will strive to establish partnerships and sponsorships with other organizations to further the project objectives at the state and local level.
How to become involved in CORE
Every Realtor® currently in good standing can become involved in CORE. But CORE is not for every Realtor®. Properties listed for sale under CORE are often blighted and abandoned properties, which require special expertise to market and sell. Sale of CORE properties may not generate a large income stream for the Realtor® that sells them. But for the Realtor® that chooses to become involved in CORE, the benefits are clear: you’ll help to provide much needed affordable housing for first-time homebuyers, teachers, firefighters, police officers, and others who are essential to the economic vitality of our communities, and you’ll help to generate an income stream for municipalities while building your real estate business.
To learn more about CORE, take the 7-hour designation course “CORE: Understanding the Purchase and Sale of Government-owned Properties”. The online course will teach you how to market and sell CORE properties, how the sale of CORE properties will open the door to a wider market, and how you can parlay that knowledge into other areas of your real estate business. The course, priced at $175 for members of PAR, is available through the Pennsylvania Realtors® Institute.
If you’re interested in helping to bring CORE to your municipality, whether you’re interested in selling properties or not, you can still be involved. Express your interest in the project to your local association executive or government affairs director. Local associations are encouraged to form CORE committees that will be tasked with meeting with municipal officials about CORE. Members of the CORE committee will take a 3-hour CORE Administrator Training Course developed by PAR. At the conclusion of the training, participants will be able to:
Explain the purpose of CORE
Summarize the messaging of CORE
Identify local government municipalities that may have properties to sell
Distinguish between the roles of different local players
Create an appropriate plan of action to contact a local municipality
Create an appropriate plan to work with a local municipality
Justify the CORE program to a local municipality
How is CORE funded?
The CORE program has been developed and is supported by PAR and is partially underwritten by the National Association of Realtors® through an Ira Gribin Workforce Housing Grant.
The Ira Gribin Workforce Housing Grant seeks to provide state Realtor® foundations and associations with the resources and support to take the initiative to address workforce housing issues in their state. Ira Gribin, former President of the National Association of Realtors®, was a tireless advocate for fair and affordable housing for diverse populations. This grant initiative honors his memory and promotes Realtors’® commitment to increase housing opportunities by assisting working families to reach the first rung on the homeownership ladder. Pennsylvania was eligible for and received a $120,000 grant based on our membership population. The grant monies have been used to purchase property assessment data, design and implement software to map government-owned properties, develop the CORE website, and offer informational and educational programming.
Why use CORE?
Thousands of government-owned properties across Pennsylvania are sitting abandoned, blighted, and off the tax rolls. These properties are unavailable to hard-working individuals and families who are priced out of today’s real estate market in communities across Pennsylvania. By allowing Realtors® to market and sell government-owned properties to buyers able to rehabilitate them, CORE will help provide much-needed affordable housing for first-time homebuyers, teachers, firefighters, police officers, and others who are essential to the economic vitality of our communities. As municipalities struggle to find new sources of revenue to fund its services, CORE will help local governments generate much-needed revenue by selling government-owned properties and getting them back on the tax rolls.
One predecessor to CORE is Baltimore’s SCOPE program. SCOPE stands for Selling City Owned Property Efficiently. SCOPE was created and successfully implemented by the Baltimore Efficiency and Economy Foundation (BEEF) and the Greater Baltimore Board of Realtors® (GBBR) in September of 2003. The primary purpose of SCOPE is similar to CORE – to put properties into productive use and back on the tax rolls.
Current statistics on SCOPE:
Properties Settled
273
Total Dollar Value
$6,770,715.00
Average Sale Price
$24,801.00
Total Commissions Paid
$682,500.00
Net to City
$6,088,215.00
Est. Value of Rehab.
$38,220,000.00
CORE is already working in Pennsylvania. The City of Philadelphia has about 19,000 government-owned properties distributed between 15 public agencies. In February 2009, the Redevelopment Authority of the City of Philadelphia (RDA) partnered with the Greater Philadelphia Association of Realtors® (GPAR) for a limited pilot of the CORE project. Due to its success, the RDA has committed to listing up to 360 additional properties with CORE.
PAR has launched a pilot project with the City of Reading. The Reading City Council unanimously agreed to work with the Reading-Berks Association of Realtors® to simplify the process of selling government-owned properties through CORE in October 2011. The commitment means that select properties owned by the Redevelopment Authority of Berks County as well as the City of Reading will be marketed and sold by CORE designated Realtors®. Read an update on the project in the Winter 2012 issue of On Common Ground, a publication featuring Realtors® and smart growth.
How are properties determined for sale?
PAR has obtained property data for nearly every county in the Commonwealth. By analyzing this data, PAR can determine which properties are government-owned and various other identifiers, such as property condition and assessed value. PAR has developed a software mapping system that will allow viewers to see government-owned properties, and the impact they have on a community.
Realtors® will work with individual municipalities to determine which properties to put on the market. Realtors® involved in CORE have taken a special course to learn the tools necessary to accurately price, list and sell government-owned properties and will work with local entities to monitor market conditions.
Get CORE working for your community! Contact PAR today!
Interested in purchasing a CORE property?
CORE will help provide much-needed affordable housing for first-time homebuyers, teachers, firefighters, police officers, and others who are essential to the economic vitality of our communities.
The sale and purchase of a CORE property will be unique. Properties will often be in disrepair and may be sold in “as is” condition without the seller making improvements or repairs. Because a CORE property may be in disrepair, care must be taken when visiting a CORE property.
The most dramatic difference between a traditional transaction and a CORE transaction is that in a CORE transaction the seller is a government entity. Communication may be slower and your agent and the listing agent will be communicating with municipal employees who have many other responsibilities as well. Transactions will likely take a number of months from when an agreement is signed until settlement due to renovation plans needing governmental approval.
For more information on a CORE transaction, watch this three-minute video with PAR Counsel Jim Goldsmith, Esq.
CORE Forms
Most real estate transactions in Pennsylvania are conducted using some sort of pre-drafted “standard” real estate forms rather than having forms drafted from scratch just for that transaction. One big advantage of utilizing widely accepted standard forms in real estate transactions is that representatives of both parties will generally have a basic understanding of the main terms of those forms. This helps to reduce negotiation time as well as making it easier to understand what contractual elements might need to be adjusted in any particular transaction.
PAR maintains a library of over 60 standard forms for use in Pennsylvania. These forms are drafted by committees of real estate practitioners and attorneys with many years of collective experience, and generally are reviewed and updated every 3-5 years to keep up with changes in the market. The vast majority of residential transactions use one or more of these forms – particularly the PAR Agreement of Sale. PAR has modified several of its standard forms, and created some new ones, to accommodate some of the unique issues that may arise in CORE transactions.
The basic CORE forms are below. Some local municipalities may use other forms as part of their local programs, and we will add those forms as partnerships evolve with other entities.
We work hard to make our data accurate, but because of variations and problems in our county data sources, information will from time to time be inaccurate. We appreciate your help in refining and correcting our data! Please let us know the problems you see, and we will do our best to fix it up.
