Part Time Realtors Cause Frustration

Blogging giant Kris Berg out of San Diego posted recently about the phenomenon of the part time agent.

“Real estate is my only job, but I am feeling like an anomaly today. I see too many signs. Perhaps they are just signs of the times, but they sadden me nonetheless. When we recently noted in a listing that the “seller would cooperate with a 1031 exchange at no cost to buyer,” we fielded no fewer than four calls in the first week. “What’s a 1031 exchange?” the agents asked. Three times this week I have had to brief a cooperating agent on either a new form or on a new law that made an old form obsolete. Trying to negotiate an offer with an agent’s full voicemail box is becoming a routine frustration.”

In boom times, it was very easy to make a lot of money selling houses. Sign the sellers to a listing agreement, enter the data in the MLS and bammo! in a day or 2 tops, you’d have buyers tripping over each other to buy the house, often above list price with no contingencies. Everybody and their brother in law got their real estate license. In fact, my broker, Jay Thompson posted some stats and a nifty chart proving that back in March 2007 “you can not swing a dead cat in the Phoenix metro area without smacking a licensed real estate agent upside the head.”

The housing bust has caused many, many Realtors to flee the business. Why? Because it’s actually hard work to sell a house. Deals are fewer and farther between which means incomes are plummeting. Getting “another job” is commonplace.

I don’t fault anyone with a real estate license who decides they need to pay the bills in other ways. But, please, if only out of pity for those of us who remain in real estate full time, please exit the business completely. Hang up your license and transfer your remaining clients to someone else.

I’m sick to death of calling for information on a home, reaching the pseudo-Realtor’s voicemail and never hearing back. That happens on roughly 1 out of every 10 or 15 homes I call about. Pseudo Realtors,  you’re doing your clients a huge disservice. The home will never sell if no one can reach you for showing and other information. Importantly for you, if it doesn’t sell, you’ll never get paid.

Pseudo Realtors, you’re also making me sound & look like an idiot becuase I’m left to explain to my buyer clients, “I don’t know how we can get in to see that house. It’s a combination lockbox and the listing Realtor isn’t returning my calls asking for the code, and nobody in his/her office knows it either. I know it looked like a great bargain. I’m really sorry.”

<rant over. back to normal programming tomorrow>

Downtown Phoenix Block Party

logo shamelessly borrowed from CopperSquare.com in order to help promote the event via this blog post.

The 2nd Annual “Happening” is happening this Saturday, November 1, 2008, from 10am till 2am.

The event is sponsored by the Downtown Phoenix Partnership in conjunction with the Phoenix Community Alliance, the Mayor’s Office, and the Greater Phoenix Chamber of Commerce. The Happening is designed to highlight the growing array of living and entertainment options in the 90-block area that makes up downtown Phoenix.

The event includes a loft and home tour, a pub crawl, the What’s Happening Street Expo, the third annual Parade of the Arts and the first It’s Happening sweepstakes. Get more detailed information on the Street Expo, pub crawl, Parade of the Arts and sweepstakes here at the Downtown Phoenix website. (April 2010 -this post has been edited at the request of Downtown Phoenix Partnership, who runs the Downtown Phoenix website to which I link.)

The skinny on the Loft and Home Tour:

• Runs 10:00 am to 4:00 pm
• Event begins on 5th Street, between Roosevelt and Garfield streets (map below)
• You must check in on 5th between Roos & Garf to get your wristband and tour book
• Free shuttles will run up and down the tour route during the event
• Admission is $8 pre-paid and $10 on the day of the event
• Tickets are available from the Copper Square website ticketing page

Properties on the Tour:

• Century Plaza
• Portland 38
• Portland 2
• Chester Place
• 44 Monroe
• Summit at Copper Square
• 215 E. McKinley

again, logo shamelessly borrowed from the It’s Happening website, in order to help promote the event

Get out there Phoenicians, and find out how funky-cool our downtown is becoming!

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Phoenix’s Reverse Lanes in Limbo

The Phoenix City Council voted on Tuesday October 7 to table any decision about changing Phoenix’s unique reversible traffic lanes for a further six months. See here for a little background on Phoenix’s unique solution to moving more traffic quicker during rush hours.

According to one of my favorite local news blogs, Downtown Voices Coalition, Council members Maria Baier and Greg Stanton support leaving the lanes as-is, while Council members Tom Simplot and Michael Nowakowski want to remove the lanes.

The Council noted their desire to study the effects of the coming Light Rail on street traffic. Light rail service is scheduled to get underway in December.

Related Posts – Phoenix’s Reversible Traffic Lanes

By the Way – Light Rail’s Grand Opening is Saturday and Sunday, December 27 and 28. Rides are free all day, both days. There are also station celebrations – including music, exhibits and activities – scheduled for Saturday the 27th from 10am to 5pm. Volunteers are needed to help out with the opening and folks who volunteer will get a special up-close look at the rail system as well as training to handle the events.

Foreclosure Crisis Solved!

Channel 8 ran a great little piece tonight about the foreclosure crisis (which you can hear here), with 3 different viewpoints on how we could get out of it.

The 24-hour news cycle has generally meant that “news” is now comprised of 2 to 10 ‘experts’ shouting their talking points at each other in 2 minute segments. I usually ignore it all. But I often count on PBS for thoughtful and polite discussion of news events. I’ll admit PBS is left of center, but I haven’t found any right of center sources for thoughtful, polite discussion, so I keep watching public television.

Tonight’s three experts (who never once shouted at one another and thus made their Mammas proud) were

• Bruce Marks, the Chief Executive of NACA, the Neighborhood Assistance Corporation of America, a not for profit advocacy group
• Dan Alpert, founder and Managing Director of Westwood Capital, a small investment bank
• Neil Irwin, a financial reporter covering the situation for the Washington Post

Bruce Marks of NACA made a point that I was explaining the other day to my hairdresser.  Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac own or service 50% of the country’s mortgages. They were “too big to fail” which is why the Feds bought them out. Being too big to fail also means that policies they put in place are generally adopted by nearly every player in the sector.

NACA’s Marks continued. Since the US government now owns The Two F’s, Treasury Secretary Hank Paulson already has the power to fix the foreclosure problem and just isn’t doing it. If the Two F’s tweaked their policies for handling delinquent mortgages, they’d solve the problem for the loans they own/control, and the rest of the industry would follow along.

It’s discouraging that this very salient point is getting so little news coverage.

Marks says the Two F’s could immediately fix the foreclosure crisis by working with individual troubled homeowners to agree to a deal that would:

• adjust down the principal owed on the mortgage, and/or
• decrease the interest rate, and/or
• extend the loan period from 30 years to 35, 40, 45+

While lenders won’t be getting their 9%, 10%, 14% or more interest payments anymore, they will avoid spending the money on foreclosing, and will have a homeowner who continues making payments for years into the future.

But instead, Marks says Fannie’s current rules state that:

• Fannie will not reduce the principle owed in any circumstances
• Fannie will not reduce mortgage interest rates below the current going market rates
• homeowners must be 4 months behind on payments before they’re eligible for help

Neil Irwin of the Washington Post reminds viewers that renegotiating home mortgages involves private contracts, which cannot be forcefully renegotiated by outsiders. Since mortgages were sliced & diced, securitized and sold, finding all the parties involved in getting new mortgage agreements is a Herculean task. These include the original lenders, servicing companies, trustees and even the securities buyers such as foreign governments and/or pension plans.

Irwin also offered an anecdote: Sheila Bair of the FDIC had an experimental plan for massive mortgage renegotiations when the FDIC took over IndyMac in early August. IndyMac had 60,000 troubled mortgages and as of last week had only managed to renegotiate 3,500 loans.

Irwin went on to describe the new government rescue plan (how many government rescue plans is that now?): banks voluntarily renegotiate loan terms and in exchange the government guarantees the lender against any future losses (if the homeowners default again in future, which is sadly quite likely and the subject of a whole other post).

Daniel Alpert of Westwood Capital politely disagreed with NACA’s Bruce Marks, and generally agreed with Irwin. Then he presented his group’s alternate plan. This involves requiring lenders to immediately work towards agreements with troubled homeowners that include the following:

• troubled homeowners volunteer to be foreclosed on
• banks and homeowners agree to a lease back for a term of 4 to 6 years so homeowner stays in beloved home
• homeowners retain the right to buy back their home at lease end at then-current market prices

Alpert says his group’s plan helps lenders avoid the high cost of foreclosure (which can be up to 30% of the value of the original loan!). It also helps homeowners stay in their homes, while rebuilding their credit and eventually re-buying the home, potentially at a price lower than originally negotiated. The key to Alpert’s plan is making it mandatory for lenders to participate in the plan. Alpert agrees with Irwin’s anecdote: giving banks room to say “no thanks” only leads to higher foreclosure rates.

What did I take away from PBS tonight? I think that we should lock Alpert and Marks in a room until they mush their two ideas together, then give the reporting job to Irwin. ‘Kay?

South Mountain Pics

Hiked South Mountain on Saturday morning. Yes, I know the blog name is NORTH Phoenix Agent and I do normally focus on stuff north of Camelback Road. But the pictures were so pretty that I couldn’t help posting.

You can click to enlarge each of these photos. The first (big) one is a view looking north to the Phoenix city skyline. The second looks south towards Ahwatukee, and the third looks generally northwest to Phoenix.

Interested in hiking in metro Phoenix? The City of Phoenix website has some great introductory hiking information.

There’s a super hiking group online at Meetup.com, called Hiking Hikers Hiking Group. The group is active all over the Valley and has an event nearly every day, and sometimes multiple events per day. They hike from east Mesa to the White Tanks in the west, and also plan overnight hiking/camping events. One thing I really like about the group is that they take a head count before, during and after the hike to make sure everybody’s accounted for, and do a good job of accomodating different fitness levels on individual hikes. For example, on big hikes with dozens of people, they’ll have a lead hiker who hikes with the super fit folks who want to run bits of the trail, and a caboose hiker who hikes with the folks who stroll rather than hike.

The weather everybody moves here for has arrived – get out and get active!

Another Valley Builder Gone

Brown Family Communities shut their doors, reports Builder Online. They were one of only two private builders left in the Valley market. Brown’s website isn’t functioning at the time of writing, but from what I can tell, they mostly built in the East Valley and had a building site in Prescott. The 76 year old CEO, Dave Brown, told Builder Online in September of this year that the company closed 826 homes worth $156 million in 2006 and 522 homes in 2007, but expected to close only 225 homes in 2008. Brown cited lack of buyer interest as the major factor in his decision to shutter the company’s doors.

The Arizona Department of Real Estate maintains a list of home builders known to be in financial distress.

All About Mortgage Insurance

All about Private Mortgage Insurance (PMI) by one of my favorite lenders, Jeannie Bolger of Suburban Mortgage.

pdf-what-is-mi

It’s not a pretty looking link, but it IS helpful. Trust and click.

Jeannie Bolger

Sr. Loan Officer

Suburban Mortgage, Inc.

7310 N. 16th Street, Suite 210

Phoenix, AZ 85020

602-216-2300 x115  Office

602-343-6894  EFax

602-550-8674  Mobile

800-350-5465  Toll Free

www.submort.com/jeanniebolger

Bad National News Further Slows Valley Market

The LA Times reports that Southern California residential real estate is selling faster and slipping prices continue to fuel the buying boom.  While official September numbers showed the Valley following that trend (see below), a quick check of the Valley’s October numbers show that the credit crunch and ongoing bad economic news is slowing the Valley’s already struggling housing market.

Like most mainstream media reports, the Times relies on official numbers posted by organizations like the National Association of Realtors and Case-Shiller, and compares this year to last year. FlexMLS sales stats support the LA Times piece and show metro Phoenix prices down 30% in 2008 but the number of homes sold up by 46% through the end of September.

September 2007

• Median Price – $242,500
• Properties Sold in Month – 3,265

September 2008

• Median Price – $172,000
• Properties Sold in Month – 6,064

(These numbers are taken from the FlexMLS system used by Valley Realtors and represent all properties sold in which a Realtor used the MLS to affect the sale. Foreclosure auctions and private sales of all kinds are not included.)

Looking back at past months (as above) showed we were booming along, selling lots of properties each month and making headway towards a “normal” market. But looking forward to October’s to-date sales shows the nation’s bad economic news is depressing sales. While September sales were booming along in the Valley, the number of closed sales so far in October has plummeted.

Click chart to enlarge; “Back” button to return to story

Looking particularly at the two highlighted columns, you’ll see what I see. Sales through the 22nd of September totaled 5,796 properties, or 11.18% of the total inventory.

Sales through October 24th, have dropped roughly by half, to only 5.94% of the total inventory. A closer look at the MLS shows the median price has dropped again, to $167,000 (not shown in this chart).

This is bad news for the Valley’s ongoing housing health. For about 18 months now, one of our main problems has been too many houses for sale. Our saving grace has been that while new homes kept hitting the market (due in large part to increased foreclosure rates) we kept selling them.

Go back to the chart and look at the “Months of Inventory” and “Active Listings” columns over the entire year. The number of active listings held pretty steady all year, while our ever-increasing “sold” numbers kept chipping away at the months of inventory. That’s the sign of an improving market. Most experts accept 6 months’ inventory as a ‘balanced, normal’ market. We were getting there!

Apparently this month’s awful economic news (and possibly the national “holding of breath” waiting for the Presidential election to finally be over) has slowed real estate sales to a crawl.

Since the number of foreclosures isn’t expected to slow, the sinking sales volume could spell real trouble for Phoenix’s long term real estate market.

Interview the Expert: FHA Loans

Today begins a periodic series of posts spotlighting an interview with a local expert on topics related to the housing market. First up is Jeannie Bolger of Suburban Mortgage. Jeannie’s been in the mortgage game for 20+ years and in that time has seen it all. She specializes in first time homebuyers, does a little credit counseling prior to purchase for those in need, and is an expert on FHA loans.

Contact Jeannie:

Jeannie Bolger, Senior Loan Officer
Suburban Mortgage
Office: 602-216-2300, ext 115
eFax: 602-343-6894
email: jBolger@SubMort.com
web: SubMort.com/JeannieBolger

Interview the Expert
Jeannie Bolger on FHA LOANS

First, FHA loans are great options for first time homebuyers, those with no credit rating or poor credit, and those needing down payment assistance. Interest rates are competitive and the loan application process is similar to ‘regular’ mortgage applications.

The FHA program is very forgiving when it comes to medical debt and student loans, and in some instances will ignore these items on your credit report altogether. FHA also allows those buyers who have  literally no credit history to establish credit (for the purposes of the mortgage) by showing a history of on-time payments to utilities, cell phone companies, car insurance companies, and the like.

There’s a TON more information available, so please don’t hesitate to contact me or reach out to Jeannie! On with the interview….

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Q: Is it true you must be a first time buyer to get an FHA loan?

A: No. However, FHA rules allow homeowners to have only 1 high ratio FHA loan at one time. If a 2nd home is desired, at least one of them must be at a 70% or lower LTV (loan to value). Some exceptions apply, so you should check with your lender.

Q: Are FHA loans still ruling the marketplace?

A: Yes. For loans under $357,000, FHA is king.

Q: What are current FHA loan limits?

A: In Maricopa County, the current FHA loan limit is $346,250. That’s the max amount buyers can borrow, for now, and represents a temporary increase in the upper limit. We’ll have to wait and see what Congress does to these limits in the future.

(NorthPhoenixAgent Note: The max FHA loan amount is $346,250. With a 3.5% down payment, this loan amount translates into a $357,000 purchase price. Buyers with more money to put towards the down payment can shop at a higher price point, put more down and still get a max FHA loan of $346,250.)

Q: Is it true that down payment requirements are getting stricter in the future?

A: Yes. For now,  But, that ruling only effects mortgages assigned a case number after January 1. So, you can write a purchase offer on December 20, with a closing date of January 15, and still put only 3.0% down. (NorthPhoenixAgent Note: the mortgage officer orders your case number, buyers need only be concerned about completing the application paperwork).

Take Home Lesson! Planning on using an FHA loan to buy? Pick a property and make the loan application before the end of the year! Wait and you’ll have to have a bigger down payment.

Q: What are the down payment requirements for investor puchases?

A: For the most part, investor loans right now require 25% down payment. If the buyer is a repeat investor and they plan to rent out the property, we can offset their future loan payment with expected future rent payments, after completing an appraisal and Rental Analysis Schedule. Investors buying their first rental property must qualify for the purchase without taking future rent into consideration.

Q: Can foreign nationals still get purchase loans for Arizona property?

A: We have a program for Canadian buyers which requires 25% down, it must be a 2nd home, full documentation is required and we pull an International Credit Report. Unfortunately, I have nothing right now for other foreign nationals.

Q: Tricky question: will the US Presidential election have any immediate affect on the housing market?

A: Presidential elections always affect the market, and therefore affect everybody. Now that we’re 2 weeks away from picking our next president a lot will happen and once the new Presdient is elected the markets will react in a positive or negative way… it’s a waiting game. Who has the Magic Crystal Ball??

Update on Landmark Towers

June 2, 2009

Hello All,

Thanks for finding me and coming on over to read. There has been a TON of interest about the Landmark Towers and the comment thread is wonderful – full of info from actual residents.  Thank you all for reading and taking the time to comment!    

Please note that all new comments (and the entire blog) have been moved to:

http://thephoenixagents.com/landmark-towers-even-more-updates-opinions/

The rest of the blog is available at www.ThePhoenixAgents.com

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I’ve got some updates on the info in my August post about the troubles plaguing Landmark Towers.

I got this info through various buyer showing appointments, talking to some HOA management representatives, talking to some residents in the elevators and lobby, and quizzing a local Realtor acquaintance who lives there.

Regarding the A/C issue. A resident I met in the elevators said they need a new chiller and the expected cost was $1M. I’m unsure if the Landmark has a chiller instead of an A/C system, or if the chiller is a component of the existing A/C system. Wikipedia makes them seem inter-related: a chiller is either air-cooled or water-cooled and pumps cold air through ducts to cool buildings, and a chiller can be stand alone or part of an integrated HVAC system.

Mechanical engineering aside, my inside informant confirmed this. Plus his inside tipster on the HOA Board says they’re cutting some other areas of the budget so that they can absorb the chiller repair cost without raising HOA dues for 2009. Some of the expected cuts for 2009 are the valet service is gone, and the Direct TV satellite service will be changed a bit too. Since there are 2 central elevators that run from the parking spots in the basement to rooftop, the valet service always seemed a little silly to me, but what do I know? My informant said the valet cost about $125,000 a year to maintain. Holy Short Trip Driving, Batman!

I can tell you from personal experience that the climate control system at the Landmark currently works like gangbusters. No matter whether it comes from a chiller, an A/C or a group of hamsters running treadmills in the basement, that air blows cold!

I showed about 10 or 12 condos there on October 9 and 10 when it was still really hot and sticky. The units with A/C on and blowing were our favorites. Standing in front of those blowing ducts was like an icy blast from a wind turbine. That stuff blows cold! We also visited several condos with the power off completely and therefore no A/C blowing. Those units were fairly comfortable to stand in for 10 minutes at a time or longer. Considering that 1 entire wall of every condo is floor-to-ceiling glass, and these units have been on the market for months without power, I was impressed by the building’s overall ability to hold in the cold and keep out the heat.

My buyers and I calculated that at most, the cost of absorbing some increases to the monthly HOA dues to cover repairs to the climate control would be either $0 as the HOA Board indicates, or at most a thousand or two spread over time.

Considering we were looking at a 6th floor 1-bedroom unit with 180 degree views off the North side of the building, from the White Tanks to Camelback Mountain, and the asking price was $42,900 – we were all pretty sure it was still a great deal.

Bottom line – I’d buy in the Landmark. In fact, I was trying to figure out where to scrounge $42,000 to buy that 6th floor view once my buyer client took a pass.

(BTW, this bit I can’t confirm… my friend the Landmark resident says there has been a lawsuit either considered or filed over the local newspaper story covering the Tower’s troubles. I can’t confirm or deny that, but wouldn’t be surprised. Prices at the Landmark have plummeted in the past year, more so than other nearby towers that were also affected by the Light Rail construction.)

Related Posts – Century Plaza Condos

Sunday Stats

photo credit to MiamiAmia,  via StockExchange.

Click here to see the entire Sunday Stats series, and for historical perspective.

Not much going on this week compared to the past 2 or 3 weeks. We’re in a holding pattern, which isn’t surprising given the current economic news. The future of the American economy is as clear as mud, and when consumers see mud they bury their heads in it and hope for something that looks and smells better in the future.

The one bright spot for sellers continues to be ZIP 85024. While 85027 has slowed a from it’s previous quick sales pace, it’s still a good place to be a seller. Inventory is selling, and quickly. Sellers don’t have to agree to every buyer demand. Of course, most of the properties sold here in the past few months have been lender owned, or at least priced at the low lender owned fire sale prices. A competitive price rules the day in these ZIPs. Listing priced even a smidge above the last sold comp will be sporting their sold signs till next holiday season.

The nice news is that ZIPs 85024 and 85027 are also good places to be buyers! There are lots of little condos and patio homes in these ZIPs that can be bought up for under $125,000 or so, fixed a bit (paint, carpet, good cleaning, minor repairs) and then rented for an immediate cash flow!

Interested in jumping into the real estate investing pond? These ZIPs are good for that. Most investor loans these days require at least 10% down, sometimes more like 20% or 30%. But for folks with decent credit, a bit of money put by, and an adventurous spirit can make a go of it.  I forget who said it, but it’s true that you can make money buying real estate when there’s blood in the streets. The Motley Fool doesn’t have an investment strategy called “Contrarian” for no good reason:

“We simply attempt to be fearful when others are greedy
and to be greedy only when others are fearful.”
– Warren Buffett

Of all the Oracle of Omaha’s orations, this one holds a special place in Foolish investors’ hearts. When looking to bag a bargain, a panicked sell-off by jittery investors offers you a great chance to snap up stocks on the cheap.

Substitute “real estate” for “stocks” in the above quote from the Fool’s website, and you’ve got a recipe for getting rich slowly with real estate investments that pay you over the years.

The average sold price over the past 30 days in ZIPs 85024 and 85027, respectively, are $158,000 and $111,000. Want to drive an even harder bargain? Properties in ZIP 85012 have been selling like molasses in Alaska for months. With absorption rates in the triple digits, buyers can call all the shots, and with the average sold price in the past 30 days at a mere $84,933, it’s not even painful to come up with the down money.

Intrigued? Call or email me.

More Fun with Spam Email

As a followup to my recent post, “Your Urgent Help Needed“, here’s another little junk email gem that arrived for me today.  All for meeeeee!  THIS? Has got nothing whatsoever to do with real estate, but it had me rolling around on the floor laughing.

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• From: Mustapha Mohammed Al Zawahiri. [al.zawahiri96@gmail.com]
• Date: Oct 18, 208
• Subj: Your Life is in Danger (Death Approved)

Hello,

It is of utmost importance that you read this email with all carefulness and seriousness. It might interest you to know that someone who does not like your existence on Earth has paid us (Fatah Al Islam) to eliminate you. It was maintained that you have occupied a position that you ought not to have occupied, but due to your greedy nature you worked yourself up to that post. We have been following you around and from all indications you will be executed by tomorrow.

For your information, you do not need to inform anyone or even the police about this, it will never change anything, and rather you will also be endangering the lives of other members of your family.

You can always reach us on this email if you wish to make any contribution. Be warned!!!

Mustapha Mohammed Al Zawahiri.
Spokesman.

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Now, while I admit to being a left leaning liberal, and even being arguably a wee bit soft on crime at times, I highly doubt that Al Qaeda’s top brass is searching for me.

A little Googling shows that this email has been bouncing around the old Internets for a while. See here. Of course, the writer is counting on Americans’ general ignorance of Arab names, and hopes we’ll all confuse Mustapha Mohammed Al Zawahiri for Ayman Al-Zawahiri, who is one of the FBI’s 10 Most Wanted Terrorists.

Ayman Al-Zawahiri is thought to be the personal physician to Osama bin Laden, and is the founder of the Egyptian Islamic Jihad who has been indicted for his alleged role in the August 7, 1998, bombings of the United States Embassies in Dar es Salaam, Tanzania, and Nairobi, Kenya.

I’m sure he’s too busy to come find little old me.

After re-reading this gem, the best part of all is “from all indications you will be executed by tomorrow.” Really?? You’re following me and you’re obviously bad men with guns, and yet you only have indications of the time for my impending death!?  Somehow it seems that I might be able to cheat death through a timely bribe, because you remembered to mention that [I] can always reach you if [I] wish to make a contribution.

Brilliant! Is that tax deductible?

Yard Sale at Northtown Tomorrow

Neighborhood yard sale Saturday and Sunday Oct 18 & 19 at Northtown! Come early for the best stuff.

Northtown is an active adult community of about 200 or so homes at the northwest corner of Cave Creek road and Greenway road, south of Greenway Parkway.  Today I met one of the homeowners named Bob, who used to serve on the HOA Board and gave me lots of helpful information about the neighborhood and the sale.

The community yard sale is held several times a year, always on the weekend before they’re scheduled for bulk trash pickup. Each neighbor who wants to participate sets up their wares in their yard and driveway. Anything that’s not sold is easily disposed of on the following weekend’s bulk trash day.

Northtown is full of well maintained, cute little homes with mature landscaping and pretty mountain views throughout the neighborhood. The average home is about 900 or 1100 square feet, 2 bedrooms and 1 or 2 baths. Sizes range from 660 square feet up to about 1400 square feet.

Some homes here are 1 bed, 1 bath, which seems (to me) like it’d be the perfect size for empty nesters truly looking to downsize, or have a little winter vacation spot of their own. Few homes have a private pool, but there is a heated community pool.

The homes were built in the early 1970′s and are mostly brick construction. Yards are smallish, averaging about 1/10th of an acre, or 4,500-5,500 square feet. Community rules state that at least 1 homeowner must be 55 years old or older, and no one living in the home can be 18 years old or younger.

Given today’s economic woes, pricing in Northtown is really attractive! There are 10 homes currently for sale ranging from $95,000 to $169,000 and recent sales prices are in the $100 to $130 per square foot range.

These are pics of the typical Northtown home:

Rainbow Donuts

This is the first in an ongoing series called The Donut Tour of Phoenix. See the entire series here. Wondering why a real estate blog has restaurant reviews? First, I love to eat. Second, I work with quite a few out of towners buying Phoenix real estate for the first time and they almost always ask for restaurant suggestions. Eating my way through Phoenix, just to serve!

Rainbow Donuts
15834 N Cave Creek Rd, Phoenix, AZ 85032
(602) 867-9502‎

Rainbow Donuts is located on Cave Creek road just south of Greenway Parkway. There are 2 other shops in town with the Rainbow name but I learned today they’re independently operated. You can also find Rainbow on 1347 E McDowell Road and at 8714 N 7th Street.

The Cave Creek road shop has been there for about 6 or 8 years and is run by a two-person team. Gina runs the front of the house, and her partner does the baking overnight in the back. They open at 4:00 am and there’s even a drive-thru!

A note about the pics – These are camera phone pics and are blurrier than I’d like. Thought the phone would be less conspicuous than the camera. Turns out I forgot that ordering 4 donuts and then aiming my phone at them would kinda give me away.

It’s all about the donuts here at Rainbow. The big glass display case up front is all donuts, all the time, without any unnecessary frills. Think Dunkin’ Donuts, not Starbucks. Joe Sixpack would be completely comfortable here. So would Joe the Plumber, but I think he’s kinda busy these days.

The shop is tidy, neat and really clean. Gina uses tongs to grab your chosen pastry delight, and while the tongs get a little gummy with glaze, who could really complain about too much glaze? Besides, there’s none of those disposable plastic gloves to clog up our landfills.

Rainbow offers an assortment of other morning needs, including milk, soda, super-caffeinated drinks and bottled water for those who don’t drink coffee. Talk about coffee! This stuff is good and strong, served piping hot. If you need a pick-me-up to get you through the day, a size Small will suit you fine. Need to pull an all nighter to cram for exams? Try the Medium. For those who stir stuff into their coffee, Rainbow provides sugar, sugar substitutes (pink, blue and yellow), half-and-half and powdered non-dairy creamers in various flavours.

I tried the above-mentioned Small coffee and 4 donuts: plain glazed, sugared (both yeast style), apple crumb and chocolate glazed (both cake style). Gina has 2 employees helping her in the morning rush hours and they willingly offered to photograph me with my pastry stash. Hmmm, reminder to “do” my hair before doing another restaurant review.

The cake style donuts were really good – not too dense and not too light, with a little hint of lemony zing in them. I thought the chocolate glazed could use more glaze, but then again that’s me. I’m pretty sure I’d eat cardboard if it had enough chocolate glaze on it! I liked the Apple Crumb quite a bit too, especially because of the little whiff of cinnamon spice in the crumb mix.

The yeast style donuts were excellent and the plain glazed rival the defunct Krispy Kreme variety in my opinion. KKs were so overly sweet they made my teeth hurt. Rainbow’s plain glazed are just right.

Gina reports that while she’s got lots of regular customers, the current economic downturn has slowed traffic a bit. So get out and support independently owned restaurants in Phoenix – go taste the Rainbow.

Read Google reviews of this Rainbow Donuts shop.

Related Posts:

• Ninetta’s Passion Bistro
• Moto Sushi

Of Writer’s Block and Donuts

The blog’s been pretty quiet lately. I’ve got writer’s block.  Given the upheaval in the world’s economies and the rollercoaster that is Wall Street and how it all stems from my industry, every draft post ends up seeming trite, immediately outdated by new information, or both.

I’m comforted to know I’m not the only blogger unable to write lately. Blogosphere giants Kris Berg and Jay Thompson wrote about their writer’s block too. But a quick review of Jay’s and Kris’ spots proves they have moved on. Sadly, I have not.

So, in order to indulge my current craving for comfort food to take away all the economic bad news….. I’m going to do a short series called A Donut Tour of Phoenix.

Call for Readers’ Help!
Do you have a favorite spot for donuts, pastries, Krispy Kreme replacements, danishes or any other sugary breakfast treat that you love to eat but know you shouldn’t? Write and tell me about them!

What’s this got to do with real estate? Wellllll, <thinking furiously> I do work with lots of out of towners buying Phoenix area real estate and they almost all ask for restaurant recommendations. So there.

I volunteer to test out the shops recommended. (I’m simultaneously renewing my gym membership and signing up for spinning classes to work off the extra calories.)

Let’s start things off with Rainbow Donuts on North Cave Creek Road just north of Thunderbird Road. I drive past it almost daily and have been meaning to go in and check ‘em out for months. Check back tomorrow for pics, info and a review.  <insert Homer Simpson voice here> Mmmmmmm, donuts!