Shawn Tammaro in the Newspaper
The Times Herald released an article today highlighting Shawn and his real estate business.
Local Realtor Aids New Home Buyers
by Gary Puleo
Times Herald Staff
EAST NORRITON — Shawn Tammaro works hard to match people with the home of their dreams for a living, but he never expected his job to turn him into a reality TV star.
Tammaro, a realtor with Coldwell Banker in East Norriton, was featured on a recent episode of HGTV’s “My First Place” titled “Compromise or Clash,” guiding a couple through the sometimes tortuous bidding process as they considered a trio of homes in Conshohocken and West Conshohocken for their important first purchase.
“In January 2009, the buyers I was working with were selected to be on the show,” Tammaro recalled. “It was kind of like a documentary in a way, where they look at three houses and they select the one they want to buy. We document the whole process — the negotiations, home inspection and all that good stuff.”
He admitted to feeling a little self conscious having to deviate a bit from the normal manner of showing a house for the sake of the TV viewer.
“I know my real estate stuff very well, but it was a little awkward to have to announce every movement you were about to do for the camera ... ‘We’re walking to the master bedroom now,’” Tammaro said, laughing as he mimicked his on-screen persona.
By the time the show aired in March, the engaged couple was married and happily settled into their Conshohocken twin home on West 8th Avenue.
Because “Compromise or Clash” — the show’s title alluded to the buyer requesting that some major appliances be provided by the seller, which ultimately never happened — still airs occasionally on HGTV, Tammaro is still being recognized.
“When it was first on a lot of people were telling me they watched it, which made me feel good,” he said.
The newlyweds he had fixed up with the perfect home had taken advantage of a tax credit for first-time buyers that just ended last month.
“There was a flurry of activity, nationally and locally, with houses selling,” noted Tammaro, a former construction supervisor who has won several awards as his agency’s top seller. “In fact, 50 percent of home-buying activity over the last six months has been first-time home buyers. And a lot of that is attributed to the first-time home buyer tax credit.”
That scenario is vastly different from just a few years back when the primary buyers were investors, he recalled.
“Back when real estate was booming, between 2002 and 2006, the majority of sales were investment sales. Obviously, the investor buyer has all but dropped out of the market. Now it’s more like a normal market that we’re used to seeing, as opposed to a crazy hot one or a depressed one.
“We’re lucky in this area because Coldwell Banker has a very good business base here,” said Tammaro, who specializes in the needs of first-time buyers, extending his territory beyond East and West Norriton and Norristown, to Blue Bell, Conshohocken, Plymouth, Collegeville, King of Prussia, Worcester, and occasionally, even Manayunk and Roxborough.
Coldwell Banker Realty Professionals was started in 1975 by George Korkus and Patricia Stevens, who are still involved in the business, but sold it to George’s son Michael Korkus and his wife Jane Korkus.
Years later, the Stevens Korkus name shared the billing with nationally known Caldwell Banker but was eventually dropped.
“In the 1990s when all the mom-and-pop shops switched to the national franchises, we just became Coldwell Banker,” Tammaro noted. “We still run into people who know the name, so we sometimes refer to the company as ‘formerly Stevens Korkus.’ People in the area generally recognize us as one of the premiere real estate companies serving the Norristown area and we’ve always had such a good reputation for customer service.”
Even though the federal tax credit has vanished, Tammaro pointed out that Coldwell Banker has cooked up an incentive of its own.
“Certain sellers that we represent can elect to do a buyer bonus program, which essentially extends the tax credit if somebody were to buy one of those listings before the end of July. Anyone is eligible, not just first-time home buyers. The buyer is entitled to getting up to $8,000 back as a credit.”
The incentive was designed to keep houses moving a little after the tax credit dried up, Tammaro said.
“It’s another reason why Coldwell Banker is on the cutting edge of technology and stays up to speed on these different marketing programs and that’s why we’re able to offer great service to our clients because we’re backed very well nationally and we have a good reputation locally.
“The general realtor community is a little worried how things will go,” he added, “because there was that big incentive and a lot of people did jump in and buy. We’re expecting a little bit of a lull, but my opinion is that the market will come back and be pretty steady for the rest of the year, as the economy improves.”
To read the full article, visit The Times Herald's website: http://www.timesherald.com/articles/2010/05/24/business/doc4bf9edcd34903087715300.txt