Tell PA House Members To Repeal the Sprinkler Mandate

The sprinker mandate for new, one and two-family, residential construction that became effective on 01/01/11 has received considerable attention from RAMP Government Affairs.  Late Friday afternoon, PAR launched a Call-to-Action that asks PA House Members to vote "YES" on HB 377, which would repeal the sprinkler mandate...

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Tell PA House Members To Repeal the Sprinkler Mandate

The sprinker mandate for new, one and two-family, residential construction that became effective on 01/01/11 has received considerable attention from RAMP Government Affairs.  Late Friday afternoon, PAR launched a Call-to-Action that asks PA House Members to vote "YES" on HB 377, which would repeal the sprinkler mandate.   According to the Nat'l Fire Incident Reporting System, in PA there is a 99.7 % chance of surviving a fire in a one or two-family home with an operating smoke detector system, which all new homes are already required to have, and we support. HB 377 makes a significant contribution to enhancing safety for firefighters by providing fire floor protection, which is not currently mandated by law. It also requires homeowners be provided with information about sprinkler systems prior to purchasing a new home. We support consumer choice, which HB 377 promotes.   HB 377 is scheduled for a Labor Committee vote on Monday and is scheduled for a ful ...

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Standing Together to Preserve Mortgage Interest Deduction

As the belt-tightening continues in Washington, D.C., we must stay steadfast in our refusal to yield on the matter of Mortgage Interest Deduction (MID).  President Obama's budget proposal calls for scaling back this sacred  REALTOR® and homeowner deduction.  Having spoken in several offices lately, I have heard from many of you about how concerned you are, too. NAR has put together a page that discusses that gathers the facts on MID, and provides some compelling statistics on how widely felt any changes would be.  Click here to view their page.  You can also download the flyer with the key statistics by clicking here. As of this writing, there are 41 co-sponsors to H.Res. 25, which expresses the sense of Congress that the current Federal income tax deduction on interest paid on debt secured by a first or second home should not be further restricted.  So far, no Congress Member from Pennsylvania has signed on, but locally ...

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Just When Have Our Neighbors Last Reassessed?

Auditor General Jack Wagner released a report last week that "finds significant flaws in the state tax equalization board's property market values."  Click here to read the news release from his office on it.

If you want to see when the other counties last reassessed, then click here for a very illustrative map.

Pres. Obama's Budget Contains Cuts in MID Deduction

In an un-valentine move, Pres. Obama revealed his budget propsal on Feb. 14th that calls for changes in the mortgage interest deduction (MID).  Basically, his MID changes would work as follows:

• Individuals earning at least $200,000 and couples earning $250,000 could still take all their deductions, including MID, but the value of the deductions would be capped at 28 percent instead of 35 percent.

Of course, RAMP joins NAR in firm opposition to any changes to MID.

Here are two items you might wish to read on the topic:

Slash Deductions for the Rich?  Fat Chance.

Blog Post by Robert Freedman of REALTOR® Magazine

RAMP REALTORS® Qualify for REALTORS® RPAC Hall of Fame

RAMP is pleased and proud to learn that we will have two members inducted into the REALTORS® RPAC Hall of Fame in May 2011.  Victoria Lowry and Janice Smarto will be recognized as individuals who have invested an accumulative amount of $25,000+ in RPAC. They are the first members from RAMP to achieve such distinction! RAMP's recent iPad Sweepstakes is but one example of a successful RPAC fundraising effort, which totaled $3,700 in investments for RPAC.  RAMP is pleased and proud to learn that we will have two members inducted into the REALTORS® RPAC Hall of Fame in May 2011.  Victoria Lowry and Janice Smarto will be recognized as individuals who have invested an accumulative amount of $25,000+ in RPAC. They are the first members from RAMP to achieve such distinction! RAMP's recent iPad Sweepstakes is but one example of a successful RPAC fundraising effort, which totaled $3,700 in investments for RPAC.  RAMP is pleased and proud to learn tha ...

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Allegheny County Historical Plat Maps

RAMP has received the following message from the AlCo Dept of Real Estate regarding Historical Plat Maps: ******************* Allegheny County Department of Real Estate has most recently added HISTORICAL PLAT MAPS to its on-line imaging and indexing records. Historical plat maps are often used to find historical ownership and sales information on properties, and are most often used by title searchers familiar with property mapping.  These maps are based on municipality, and are only used to access information on properties in which the geographic location is known.  They are not used to search by owner or parcel number as they contain no geographic or parcel number references. These maps were previously only available in paper format and unable to be copied well.   They are now available at our office on the same computers used to look up deeds, and online athttps://pa_allegheny.uslandrecords.com Please click the Historical Plat Map Search Tab in the Free Search.   ...

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Update on Legislation to Repeal Sprinkler Law

A bill is making its way through the PA House to repeal the Sprinkler requirement for residential construction.  HB 377 would:  remove the sprinkler mandate from the Uniform Construction Code makesa significant contribution to enhancing safety for firefighters by providing fire floor protection, which is not currently mandated by law require homeowners be provided with information about sprinkler systems prior to purchasing a new home RAMP gives thanks to the following Representatives from Allegheny County have already signed on as co-sponsors for this repeal:  Rep. Dom Costa Rep. Anthony DeLuca Rep. Dan Frankel Rep. Mark Mustio Rep. Mike Turzai Rep. Randy Vulakovich We are also pleased to note the following Representatives who have committed to voting "yes" for the repeal of the sprinkler mandate: Rep. Paul Costa Rep. Marc Gergely Rep. Bill Kortz Rep. Nick Kotik Rep. Joe Markosek We will updat ...

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RAMP Realtors® Raising Our Regional Profile

RAMP's Centennial Year is exciting on many levels, and part of our celebratory push is to publicize the many wonderful attributes about our region.  A recent article in PAR's "Just Listed" details the active manner in which RAMP is working to spread the word, combined with the numerous accolades our region continues to receive.  

Click here to read PAR's summary

Straight Talk About Sprinklers - complying with the new state requirements

Have you been wondering about those new Sprinkler Requirements?   Though in 2010 we had success in getting the PA Senate to agree to changes in the requirements, the PA House did not take up the issue after the November 2010 election.  RAMP was among those lobbyinghard for this over the past year, meeting numerous times with State House and Senate members that represent Allegheny County.  PAR also opposed the sprinkler requirement for new construction.  At this time, all new residential construction (for which building permits are pulled) require a sprinkler system as of January 2011.  This includes one and two-family homes.  The PA Builders Association has put together some guidelines that help spell out the new requirements more clearly.   A new bill has been introduced by Rep. Everett that seeks to dial back or make changes in the regulations.  Among the things it seeks to remedy, HB 37 ...

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