Requiem for a Phone

Today I bid a tearful farewell to my beloved Treo 755p. We had such a short time together, just a few months. I’m really going to miss her.

If you’ve been wondering why I haven’t posted in several days, it’s partly to do with the death of my Treo – which boasts phone, camera, calculator, dayplanner, email, web browser, contact manager, Google mapping feautures and lockbox software – in other words, my life.

It went wonky on Friday evening, returned to life briefly on Saturday and died completely late Saturday evening. I spent much of Sunday in my local Verizon Wireless store and on the phone to tech support, trying to revive her. By Sunday evening my poor Treo had deteriorated to the point where the only working button was the ON power button (but not OFF), the ENTER button and the incoming call feature. On the other bright side, I do have insurance on the phone. So they’re shipping me a new one today.

Also on the bright side, the Verizon service guy from my local store wants to buy a condo or townhouse. He asked me to ballpark the monthly mortgage payment on a purchase price of $170,000. I reached for my holstered phone to run a few numbers on the calculator. My holster was empty and the Verizon guy was holding my broken baby, fiddling with it and pushing buttons while it squeaked and beeped forlornly.

This left me feeling literally (and momentarily) panicky. I had that sinking feeling I get when I think I’ve forgotten my car keys, or left the stove on. I also had a microsecond’s burst of feeling maternal and protective, like “hey don’t hurt my baby!”  Which is of course absurd, but also illustrates the point – I’ve become completely dependent on my PDA and feel lost and exposed without it.

I wonder if this is how gentlemen in the 16th & 17th centuries felt when made to remove their swords? Or how modern day military personnel feel when back in civilian life, walking around without a gun on their hip?

 

 

Housing Bill Not Signed

You can read and hear the story of the latest Congressional foul up over the housing bill here, on National Public Radio’s show Marketplace or over at Reuters.

• See Bloomberg’s take on the story
• And see the New York Times article yesterday for background on the bill, which has a 3-pronged plan to:

1. Help homeowners facing foreclosure by assisting them with a refinance, or getting banks to write down some loan balances,
2. Offer incentives to first time home buyers who want to buy currently vacant homes (many foreclosure properties sit vacant and risk becoming blight in the community), and
3. Implement some new regulatons on Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac, the government regulated lending behemoths

Apparently, our US Senators have not signed this bill today as originally thought and intended. Instead, they spent the day haggling over whether to add energy tax breaks to the bill. Democratic Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid wanted the bill passed today (and most sources say it would have), but Republican Senator John Ensign wouldn’t let the bill go to a vote without the addition of his pet project, $7 billion in renewable energy tax cuts.

Encouraging the use of renewable energy sources is a laudable, noble goal. But what has it to do with the foreclosure crisis? Nothing. Senator Ensign is trying to tack his tax credit bill onto the foreclosure assistance bill simply because he knows foreclosure assistance will pass, and his tax credits plan likely wouldn’t, unless it is attached to a popular, will-pass measure.

American homeowners are hurting, and badly in many places. I don’t often like to sound like I’m commenting on politics here. It isn’t the place. But this is just truly depressing news. It seems our elected officials still don’t get it. Some of them would still rather wrangle and scrap over pet projects with little chance of success than get behind a much-needed bill that was sure to pass anyway and will help tens of thousands of truly hurting Americans. 

By the time the Senate returns from the Independence Day holiday to deal with this bill again, tens of thousands more Americans will have received a foreclosure notice on their home. The bill will almost certainly pass, even with Ensign’s tack-on tax credits. For shame, Senators. I wonder which of Ensign’s ‘close friends’ and business associates stand to benefit from the $7 billion he’s going to hand out for renewable energy sources?

Related Posts on The North Phoenix Agent Blog

1. Definitions of REO, Foreclosure, Short Sale and Bank Owned
2. Mosquito Eating Fish for Green Pools?
3. Countrywide Offers Assistance to Struggling Homeowners
4. I Got a Notice of Trustee’s Sale. What Now?

Listing Back on Market

Buyer walked after 4 days. Their flake-out might be your (or your client’s) gain! Click here to see a 2/2 condo in gated area for $129,900. Last one like it sold June 5, 2008 for $155,000. Click to see pics and info.

Having Low Credit Score is Expensive

My mortgage lender friend Shailesh Ghimire posted a great little article recently that includes a chart showing how much extra you’ll pay for a home mortgage at varying credit scores. Having a FICO score below 620 will cost you about $5,500 extra in lender fees. Yikes! The same is true for car loans, credit cards and other consumer debt.

View the entire article on his website the AZ Mortgage Guru.

Updated – As of July 14, 2008, FHA loans have risk-based pricing on their mortgage insurance. Again, it’s more expensive to get a loan if your credit isn’t so good. Click to read the AZ Mortgage Guru’s explanation of risk-based PMI on FHA loans.

Related Posts from Other Bloggers

• The XBroker Explains (once and for all) How Your Credit Score is Calculated, and How it Impacts How Much Your Loans Cost You

Favorite Local Vendor – Ductz

There’s some disagreement in the general public about whether cleaning your home’s ducts is actually worthwhile. Some say the air circulating through the ducts surely cleans them out. Others swear by duct cleaning, saying it improves overall circulation and even prevents the build up of microbes and mold inside the ducts.

I won’t weigh in on the debate, but will say if you’re going to clean your home’s ductwork, at least use someone who’s certified to do so. Recently one of my sellers agreed to clean the ducts during a buyer’s inspection negotiation, or BINSR period. We used Ductz Indoor Air Professionals and I recommend them. Here’s some of the info from their brochures:

1. Children are more likely than adults to be affected by polluted indoor air (Dept of Consumer Affairs)
2. The EPA claims indoor air has been found to be up to 70% more polluted than outdoor air
3. Air ducts contain more germs than chicken coops (American Lung Association)
4. A build up of 0.42 inches of dirt on a heating or cooling coil can result in a decrease in efficiency of 21% (EPA)

Vince DiVarco handled the duct cleaning for my seller and I; ou can contact Vince at 623-466-8625. He was a good communicator, very knoweldgeable about his job, and extremely careful to protect the seller’s home from his equipment. Vince set up a portable generator and the hosing systems needed to attach to each duct in the home. Vince brought along rubber corner protectors that he placed on the corners of the bookcases. He wore paper booties to protect the flooring from tracking unwanted dirt inside. The whole setup took about an hour or so for a 1900 square foot, 2 story townhome. The cleaning actually took less time than the setup and tear-down of the equipment.

The Ductz brochure indicates the benefits of a good cleaning last 3 or 4 years. The cost was $395. Ductz also offers additional services: duct sealing, deodorizing blocks that suck odors out of the air, dryer vent cleaning and air duct sanitizing.

Did it work? I can’t say. Vince & Ductz have the statistical information to back up what their claims about how important clean ducts are. I’m sure there will continue to be people who think duct cleaning is a silly thing to do. But the Buyer was happy. Given our current marketplace where it’s so incredibly difficult to sell a home, I count that as a success.

 

New Listing – Makena Place

•  $489,000
•  2 Beds, 2 Baths
•  2193 SF

•  27617 N Makena Place, Peoria AZ 85383

Brand new listing, MLS #3013081. Gorgeous, gracious and upgraded on the 16th tee at Trilogy at Vistancia golf course. Click to see more pics, specs, and info.

Dear HUD, Stop Being a Bully

HUD’s at it again, trying to ban down payment assistance programs. You can see the history of HUD’s efforts to squelch homebuyers’ efforts to catch hold of the American Dream in my previous blog entries and you can see AmeriDream’s reaction on their website or Nehemiah’s reaction in a Conde Nast online publication called Portfolio.com.

HUD’s contention is that down payment assistance artificially inflates the price of homes. They also point to the higher default rates of homeowners who used down payment assistance to buy their home. I have a lot more to say on this subject but have to run out momentarily – to show a home to a first time homebuyer, by the way, who’s struggling to save a down payment.

I say to HUD, why now? Congress is working it’s way through legislation to add further regulations to the down payment assistance programs. Why not let those efforts play out? If you’ve got a system with a few bugs, fix the bugs. Don’t scrap the system.

Favorite Local Vendor – Sleep America

I realize that Sleep America isn’t really local in the sense I usually use the term “Favorite Local Vendor”. They have 40 locations across Arizona and I usually reserve the term for local, one-store only, Mom-and-Pop shops.

Today I wanted to highlight the excellent customer service on display at the Biltmore area Sleep America. One recent hot day I spent the day fussing arout getting a new listing staged. The owner/seller happened to have a bunch of model home furniture (long story) and wanted to use it, rather than renting furnishings from one of my favorite local staging companies (Staging Solutions, LLC).

Movers brought the stuff in, but I had to place it all and put the beds together. Started on the beds after several hours shuffling the rest of the furnishings around. Yikes! I realized I didn’t have the proper sets of bolts and so forth. I’m a total girl, I don’t know what these things are called. bolts? screws? nuts? I’m sure they weren’t nails. But I digress.

I went around the corner to the local Sleep America store, thinking, “surely they sell these bolt thingys that I need, they’re a bed store, right?”  Well, no. NotSoMuch. Duh! I should have known I needed to go to a hardware store. But it had been a long hot day. I plead exhaustion and dehydration.

The very nice man manning the counters told me they didn’t sell bolts. But then he said, “Come on back to the register. We’ve got a toolbox full of spare parts. Maybe we’ll have what you need.” In the end, the exceptionally nice crew of the Biltmore Sleep America sent me on my way with a free set of 4 bolts and washer thingys plus an ice-cold bottle of water. That’s customer service!

Need help picking a new bed set? Visit the Biltmore Sleep America crew. They do customer service the way it should be – above and beyond. They offer products by Sealy, Simmons, Serta, Tempur-pedic, Select Comfort (the “sleep number” people), Kingsdown and Stearns & Foster. Deliveries 7 days a week. Plus they’re green! Sleep America will donate your old mattress to the St. Vincent de Paul Society upon your request and provide you with the tax deductible receipt.

Sleep America – Biltmore

Jim Rogers, Area Sales Manager

2112 E Highland Avenue

Phoenix AZ 85016

602-955-2900

Home Care Tips by Jason Farrier

From one of my favorite home inspectors, Jason Farrier of Elite Home Inspections, LLC. You can reach Jason at (602) 793-0123. Or try Jason’s custom home building skills out when you’re building your dream home.

Consumerism is the name of the game in the US, and people who have been participants for any length of time usually end up with more things than they can comfortably fit into their living spaces. So the items which are no longer in regular use but are too valuable to toss or give to good will often head for garage storage.

This system, however, has one major drawback; if enough things make their way to the garage, the garage stops being a garage and turns into a garage storage unit. It may become so overloaded that it cannot even be closed, or have pathways between boxes and furniture by which people can access what they are looking for.

Eventually, however, most homeowners with overstuffed garages surrender to the reality that they need to do a garage storage cleanup. And those who do will help themselves a great deal by realizing that if they haven’t used some of the things in the garage since they were tucked away months or even years ago, they are not likely to use them in the future. It definitely makes the throwing-out process much less painful.

Getting Started  -  If your day of reckoning with your garage storage problem has finally come, arm yourself with the biggest, strongest trash bags you can find, and prepare to be merciless. If you have a van or truck into which you can place each bag as it is filled, even better.

If you have someone who can drive the truck or van to the nearest good will center as soon as it is filled, even better still. The more distance you can put between yourself and the things which constituted your garage storage problem, the easier it will be.

Re-Organizing  -  When you have eliminated all the things you can no longer use from the garage storage equation, it’s time to re-organize the rest. If you find things that really belong elsewhere in your house, put them in cartons marked with the names of their final destination, and get them out of the way.

Break down the remaining garage storage items according to their uses; place like near like. Paints, thinners, brushes and roller pans can go together; grass seed, lawn feeder, and other gardening necessities can go together. Just keep going until you have a place for everything, and everything is in its place.

When you’ve reached that point, you’ll be in a much better position to determine if its time to upgrade your garage with new garage storage cabinets and wall shelves. More importantly, you’ll have the room to do it!

If you know someone in need of a home inspection please contact Jason Farrier at 602-234-9233 or visit Elite Home Inspections LLC on the web.

Favorite Local Vendor – Nails by Carrie Chairez

Ladies, have you been looking for a great nail tech? Look no further (at least if you’re in the North Phoenix area). Carrie Chairez at Knotty Image Salon is an acrylic nail artisan. She doesn’t use a drill, ever. Carrie does it all by hand, from scratch and with an eye to detail that you just can’t hardly find anymore.

I’ve had trouble over the years with the nails lifting, which Carrie just recently helped me figure out was due to my obsession with applying cuticle cream during the day. But before we figured that out, Carrie took the time to adjust the acrylic solution, the undercoat, the primer, and the length, shape and thickness of the nails. Essentially Carrie’s been doing my nails differently every time, for months now, all because she really cares that they’re right.   Plus, she guaranteed my most recent full set for 2 weeks against breakage.

The price list and contact info is below. If you need a reputable nail tech in the North Phoenix area, you can’t go wrong with Carrie Chairez.

Knotty Image Salon
602 W Union Hills Dr #6
Phoenix AZ 85027
623.434.9899

NE corner of Union Hills & 7th Street

They do hair, tanning & waxing as well as nails. Prices are:

• Acrylic full set  – from $40
• Fill in / Back fill – from $25/$35
• 1 Tan – $6
• 5 Tans – $25
• 20 Tans – $75, monthly package available
• Eyebrow Wax – from $12
• Leg Wax, half/full – From $30/$70
• Haircut, Mens – From $15
• Haircut, Womens – From $20
• Haircut, Kids ages 10 and under – From $10

Sellers, Ask to See Your MLS Entry

What’s with the eery glow outside the living room windows? Wonder if the sellers have to nail down things in the kitchen to keep them from rolling away?

Sellers, you should always get a chance to review your MLS entry once your agent has entered it. Check the text and details for errors or typos. Check the pictures to see that they’re flattering. Because why in the world would anybody buy a house if they only saw pictures like these? I won’t name the names, but these are photos of houses currently for sale in the metro Phoenix MLS. The living room shot is a house that’s been for sale for 4 months! For the first 2 months, there weren’t any pictures. I’m not sure this is an improvement.

Sellers, check the MLS entry. With 55,000+ homes for sale today, buyers will just keep moving if your photos look this bad.

Real Estate Glossary – Absorption Rate

“Absorption rates are a  calculation of how long it will take for all the homes on the market to be sold, or absorbed, based on how many homes are on the market and how many were purchased in the last 30 days.”  – This is courtesy of blogging legend Theresa Boardman from Minnesota.

Think of it this way – if no more houses were put up for sale, and buyers continued buying at the current pace, the absorption rate is the number of months it would take to sell all the available homes for sale.

Why’s this important? Absorption rate is a good indicator of how balanced the market is. Most real estate experts and practicing Realtors agree that a 6 month absorption rate is about ‘normal’.

Absorption rate less than 6 months? It’s a seller’s market. Sellers have the upper hand and are in a position to be choosy about who they sell to, and to demand a little more from buyers: more earnest money, a bigger down payment, a nonrefundable clause for the earnest money, buyer to pay their own closing costs, etc. In extreme sellers’ markets like metro Phoenix experienced in late 2005, homes sell in hours or days for significantly more than list price.

Absorption rate more than 6 months? It’s a buyer’s market. Buyers have time on their side. They can be picky about finding exactly the right house, and take their time making a decision about which house to make an offer on. Buyers can also offer less than asking price and request that the seller pay for negotiables like closing costs and appraisals. In severe buyers’ markets (like much of metro Phoenix has been in for recent months) buyers can also ask for seller assistance towards down payments.

Related Posts

1. How Much Earnest Money?
2. May 2008 – Metro Phoenix at 9 Month Absorption Rate
3. Dec 2007 – When Will it End??
4. See all posts in the FAQ files here

NorthPhoenixAgent Joins… the ButterGuy?

It’s official – I’m now a member of The Butterworth Group at Thompson’s Realty.  I’m really excited about the opportunity to join the growing family at Thompson’s! Jay & Francy are both superior Realtors and terrific people. Chris Butterworth is a buzz of energy and an inspiration to me.

I wholeheartedly endorse the Butterworth philosophy:

Lasting success can only come from working hard and treating everyone with genuine respect. . . I just don’t think you can take short cuts and expect to have good results.

And I couldn’t agree more with the Thompson’s motto: 

The Power of Technology with a Personal Touch - Thompson’s Realty delivers the ultimate in customer support and satisfaction.

I’ve spent every day of my 3+ years in real estate striving to improve, to serve my clients needs more completely and effectively. I think being a member of The Butterworth Group at Thompson’s Realty can only improve my results!

Having said all that, I think I’ll take this opportunity to improve my blog too, with a little theme switch.  Trying to simplify and this theme called Simpla seems just the thing.

Bank Owned, Foreclosure, Short Sale – What’s the Difference?

Here’s a brief breakdown that should simplify some of the language being tossed around the real estate world these days.

Pre-Foreclosure – In Arizona, this term doesn’t really have a legal meaning. What it usually means in day-to-day practice is that the home owners are trying to sell because they know they have either stopped (or will soon stop) making the mortgage payment. Often, the home owners also know or suspect that they can’t sell for what they owe on the home, and any resulting sale will be a Short Sale.

Short Sale – In this case, the homeowner has usually stopped paying the mortgage. In addition, the home is worth less than what they owe the lender. If they’re able to (1) find a buyer and (2) get the lender’s blessing on the deal, the lender will accept a portion of the total loan payoff amount. The lender is left short, hence the name. My colleague Chris Butterworth has a great series of blog posts about the Short Sale buying process. Or you can see my 4-part series on short sales here.

Short Sales are sometimes great bargains for buyers, but know that buying a short sale property can take months. The home comes without any disclosures about condition, and is sold As Is. Buyers can inspect the house but Sellers/Lenders won’t do any repairs. Sellers/Lenders will almost certainly not contribute to the Buyers’ costs. (Update August 2008 – In recent months banks are making exceptions and covering some buyer costs when the buyer is a first time homeowner using an FHA loan program.)

Finally, you have to play a waiting game. Lenders are overwhelmed, they were never set up to operate a real estate brokerage in the first place, and will probably take a month or more to even acknowledge receipt of a Buyer offer. To add insult to injury, if you don’t submit a complete package of documents, you’ll be waiting even longer while the lender requests docs one at a time.

Foreclosure – In Arizona, this has a legal meaning. Here, we don’t sign mortgages; we sign Deeds of Trust. It’s the same idea as a Mortgage, just with an extra party inserted into the process. There’s a borrower (homeowner), a lender and a Trustee. The Deed of Trust works just like a mortgage except in the cases of foreclosure. Get 3 or more months behind on your mortgage payments and the lender will issue a Notice of Trustee’s Sale.  The Notice states that the homeowner has 90 days in which to bring the mortgage payments current or the Trustee will auction the home, often on the court house steps. Trustees are often attorneys and sometimes the auction takes place in their offices. A homeowner facing foreclosure may try to sell the house to pay off their lender. If the sale proceeds won’t entirely pay off the mortgage amount, then it’s going to become a Short Sale.

REO – Also known as Lender Owned. One way or another, the lender now owns the home. Maybe the homeowner just mailed in their keys and disappeared. Maybe the lender was stoopid and didn’t approve a short sale Purchase Contract when presented with one. Maybe the home wasn’t bought at auction. In any case, the lender owns it. They’ve already taken a loss against the original loan balance on the property. REO properties carry all the downsides of Short Sales except that you’re more likely to get an answer within days or weeks on REO properties. However, the bank is unlikely to take much below list price. They’re already taken a big loss and usually these properties are listed pretty close to the rock bottom of what the bank will accept.

Want More Info? See my friend Chris Butterworth’s site for 2 blog posts about the difference between Short Sales and REO properties. Try Steve Belt for advice about why listing your home for sale if you’re facing foreclosure is a good idea. Steve works the Desert Ridge and North Scottsdale market. He and I overlap territories a bit so technically I’ve just recommended my competition to my readers. But we’re totally different personalities, so some potential clients will “gel” better with Steve, or with me.  Or see my friend Dru Bloomfield’s blog post on Tips for Buying a Short Sale. Dru works the McCormick Ranch area of Scottsdale and can help you out if you need a Realtor who specializes in that part of town.

Related Posts at NorthPhoenixAgent

1. How to Buy REOs, Foreclosures, and Short Sales
2. The Dirty Little Secret About Short Sales

WSJ Says Housing Crisis OVER

The Wall Street Journal says the US housing crisis is over. They actually say we hit the bottom in April.

Of course, all real estate is local. Your neighborhood may be doing worse or better than the national average. Outlying areas like Queen Creek, Surprise and Buckeye are still experiencing severe downward pricing pressure as the foreclosure wave continues. Established neighborhoods close to central Phoenix and central Scottsdale aren’t faring so badly.

You can check out local real estate statistics by ZIP code at Jay Thompson’s Phoenix Real Estate Home.