February 2012

I saw this question somewhere on the net, but I can't remember where. It surprised me a little that someone would question the legitimacy of it.

Q. I have been in the market looking at buying property for a few. Lately, I noticed that a property will go on the MLS one day and next day it is in contingency. Is this legitimate? 

A. To answer I'll give you and example of the last weekend in which I put in 5 offers. House 1 had 5 offers on the first day. House 2 had 3 offers in the first half of the day it hit the market.

House 3 had an offer accepted the same day it hit the market. House 4 had 30 offers on the second day it was on the market. When I called the listing agent, she said, "I have about 30 offers in my inbox so far and several agents

That's how it is. Either everyone is buying 10 homes each with high leverage in 2004-2007 or no one is buying homes like in 2008-2009 or everyone with cash on hand or any ability to get a loan is buying a house in 2011 and especially in 2012, after the market hit bottom. It's been a long time since we had any balance between buyers and sellers.

So when you ask an agent, if they have any offers and they reply that they have 30 so far, or if a home is on the market 1-2 days and already the seller has decided that no more people can come in because they have had so many and there are already offers coming, you know you have a balance issue. 

Now the market is a seller's market, even if those sellers are distressed. 

Interestingly I still get

We've just added two very cool graphs to the site in the market trends section.

The graphs are:

Active properties in Greater Phoenix, though this is an interactive map so you can select the city, property type, status on whim and get ver detailed information like bank owned condos in Scottsdale or single family homes that are normal sales in zip code 85012. I think that's pretty awesome and it puts a lot of information in front of your readers helping us get to our goal of keeping clients well informed with information to help make better decisions.

Notices of Trustee Sale is the second addition. This graph shows a monthly number of 'notices of trustee sale' These are notices that a home is pending a foreclosure. Many of these homes will go into

The very floor we walk on in our homes has changed drastically over the past few decades but, have your feet noticed? Your pocket might.

At one time it was most common to find ‘Lino’ in all wet rooms, but taste and technological improvements in the manufacture and production of materials has seen a growth in popularity of none-carpet flooring throughout the home.  Wood, stone or tile effects are now amongst the range of materials or vinyl patterns that you can purchase and in looks they often match the originals extremely effectively.   Possibly the most significant feature of carpeted alternatives is the cost.  For example; vinyl floors costs a fraction of the price of real wood or stone flooring and it is easy and cheap to install. With

I'll say it right out. It makes me nervous when investors come from out of town and want to invest in small multifamily properties like triplexes, fourplexes or even a little larger units with the intent of hiring a management company.

I cringe and almost feel like declining helping them, because I don't want them to get into a situation that most out of town investors get into with hiring management companies.

However it is possible to do this thing, but...  First let me get into the common issues I've seen over and over for many years and I'll follow up with some possible alternatives. 

Common Problems

The common problems you'll notice come across is that the management companies have a different goal then you do and a different way

When you break away from the mountain communities of Utah to Phoenix, it is like an escape to an entirely new world.  Phoenix is diverse and vibrant, the climate is warm, and the area offers exceptional things to do and see.  

Phoenix Things to Do

Just as Utah, Phoenix is filled with outdoor water recreation and the mountaineer will have no troubles getting their share of sun.   The Salt River offers great activities and a place where tourists can spend a day on the beach, picnic, stroll, canoe, fish or boat.  Throughout Phoenix, there are urban park lakes stocked with catfish and trout and other fish varieties.  

Hiking and biking: Phoenix is considered ideal hiking with its many trails in the Sonoran Desert, mountains and lakes.  South

40% of single family and condo sales in Greater Phoenix in January 2012 were cash purchases. 

It means people smart enough to accumulate that much cash have a lot of confidence in what they are doing, which bodes well for the market. 

It does somewhat make it more difficult for people with a loan to buy a home, especially a loan that is weak and more prone to falling apart, but 60% of sales are with some type of financing so it's very do-able.

It's almost time again for Fat Thursday - Tlusty Czwartek - a big day in the Polish community, and stuffing yourself silly with those Polish pastires called Paczki. So where can you find these: check out the listings at the bottom.  They are worh the extra few calories.

The Polish community in Phoenix which seems to be growing exponentially as people flee the cold of New Jersey, Connecticut and Chicago, to new plush homes, plenty of parking and of course the warm weather, has brought with it the paczki and every year we have several thousand people find this site because of this post. The Paczek is the king/queen of Fat Thursday. This fried dough filled with jam symbolizes this day and there are more places to get them now then ever before in

I'm a bit annoyed right now. It seems that Jan 1st was just a few days ago and it's already February 1st. I now cringe in disgust when I hear the cliche 'time flies' or 'time goes by faster as you get older.'  It used to sound like BS to me, but now I see it's all true. Maybe it's because the world is so fast paced now. There are many more obligation, small bills nit picking at the pocket book for stuff that few could imagine decades ago and everyone is connected and on demand. 

My uncle is a residential and commercial electrictrician, a really good one by the way. He is getting a batch of new business cards he wanted me to glance at. One line said, "service 24 hours a day". Does he really want someone calling him at 2 am?  Probably not, but it's