Real Estate Chatter

Taking a look at homes for sale in the MLS today in Mesa, Arizona. 

How much IS the least expensive single family home for sale in Mesa?  A home that’s a regular resale being sold by a regular seller?   That would be a 816sf 2 Bedroom, 2 Bath home built in 1972.  Listed by Russ Lyon and located in Apache Trails near the intersection of Elsworth and Broadway, the home is advertised as needing a little updating…but hey…it’s only $69,900…there are cars that cost more than that!

The most expensive home listed looks worthy of the title.  9176 gorgeous SF with 4 Bedrooms and 7 Baths, pool and 4 car garage.  Top of the line…well…everything really.  Situated on over an acre in the exclusive gated Diamond Point subdivision in Las Sendas and listed by Coldwell Banker.  List price $4,000,000.  There is one other “home” that’s listed higher at $5,200,000 in Mesa but it has yet to be built…so didn’t make my list.

How do I know summer is almost over?  Canadian buyers are planning their house buying trips to the valley.  I’ve taken 2-4 calls every day this week from Canadians who are looking for their vacation and retirement homes in the sunshine. 

A recent post on the Canadian Real Estate Blog highlighted the fact that almost the entire US is “on sale” when it comes to real estate and that’s not really an exageration.  Our prices are lower than they were last fall and the trend doesn’t seem to be correcting.

However, homes that are priced well and that are in good condition are still selling even if they are selling for less than they would have a year ago.  Several of my listings have sold in the last month.  When a home is priced well, competing offers are still occurring driving the price up even above list (though not ridiculously as was happening 4 years ago).

So, it’s not all doom and gloom here in the valley, contrary to media reports.  We still have what few other places have…Weather that’s second to none.  Of course, you have to like sunshine.

It’s no secret that Arizona has been a top retirement & second home destination for years. Growing up in Illinois, I remember my mom talking about Sun City, AZ. At the time she said she never wanted to live in a community surrounded by “old” people. She was 75 at the time and I guess everything’s relative.  Unfortunately, mom passed away 7 years ago and her cremated remains are in a pretty box on a shelf in my home…located in a ‘retirement community”.  Mom had a great sense of humor…I hope she’s laughing about that.

But, once again, I digress… As I was saying~ I represent many buyers in the Sun Lakes area and I’ve noticed a trend with Canadian Buyers. Seems their final 2 choices for second home locales are a toss up between one of several active adult communities in the Phoenix valley and Palm Desert in California.

Personally, I don’t think there’s any comparison.  Palm Desert has much higher humidity which makes you feel miserable because you can’t cool off. But the biggest turn off for me in Palm Desert are the HUGE cockroaches. Ok, some try to make them sound less disgusting by calling them “Palmetto Bugs”. Cute name but when you find them in your drawers and the food in your canisters and pantry, I guarantee you’ll call them cockroaches. Gross. I know, I know…we have bugs in the Phoenix desert too…but nothing like cockroaches as big as your head. And the the humidity seems to help them multiply. Gross…again.

So my vote remains for Sun Lakes (though I may be a bit biased living in the area) and many of the Canadians I’ve represented agree. There’s really nothing quite like living in the Valley of the Sun.  Anyone disagree with that?

Continuing with the series of the highest and lowest priced homes in the East Valley. Today I’m checking out Gilbert. Again, I’m looking at single family homes (not condos or townhomes), that are regular resales by regular sellers (not short sales or bank owned).

Today’s winner of the lowest priced homes goes to a 2 bedroom, 1 bath 1053 sf home near the intersection of Elliot & Gilbert Rds. This home was built in 1973 and has a 1 car garage.

The award for the highest priced home in Gilbert goes to a 6180sf 4 bedroom 7 bath (7 bathrooms? Is that necessary??) home listed at $2,995,000. Situated on an acre lot with a pool and 3 car garage. You’ll find this home in San Tan Lakeside Estates near the intersection of Riggs & Higley.

If you’d like more information about either of these homes or any in between just let me know!

Thought it might be fun to check out the lowest priced regular resale, single family (not a condo or townhome) Chandler home listed in the Arizona Regional MLS today, September 21st. 

Not counting bank-owned or short sale homes. Not counting a tenant occupied home looking for an investor.  Just a regular home being sold by a regular seller looking for a regular buyer.  That’s a lot of “not’s” I know…but that’s our market today.  Filled with nots. 

The lowest priced home listed in Chandler today is listed as a 3 Bedroom, 1 Bath 1230sf home built in 1947 and priced at $99,900.

So what about the most expensive home listed in Chandler? Drrrrrrrrrrr (that’s a drumroll) 

That would be the one listed at $10,000,000 for 13,600 sf.  I used to live across the street from this home and I’ve been saving up for it ever since I moved to Arizona.  Can I call this one a ”regular seller looking for a regular buyer”?  Ah…why not!

If you’d like more information about either of these homes~  Just let me know!

Once upon a time in a not so far away land lived a princess.  The princess lived in a castle that she bought herself.  Her perfect castle had 3 bedrooms, 2 baths and a garage just big enough for her pumpkin coach. 

The princess worked very hard to make her castle beautiful and it was.  It was so beautiful in fact, the neighbors used to slow down just to admire it’s beauty when they rode past. 

Inside, the castle was just as lovely.  The windows sparkled and the floors shined.  Three magical mice decorated every room with flowers they brought in from the garden and little bluebirds made the beds.

The princess loved her house, but she didn’t like living near her ugly stepsisters.  So, one day the princess decided she would sell her perfect castle and move to the other side of the kingdom. 

It was decided by the Real Estate Wizard of the land that the princess’s perfect castle was worth 100 gold tiddlywinks and the Sign-Elves placed a royal “For Sale” sign her front yard.

Soon buyers from all over the land were visiting her perfect castle and telling her what they didn’t like about it.  She was surprised that anyone would be afraid of magical mice and she explained over and over that the little bluebirds that made her bed, never pooped on anything…not once.  But it didn’t matter.  All she heard was “you can only park one pumpkin carriage in the garage and you don’t have a moat”.  It seemed no one loved the castle as much as the princess did and it made her very sad and very, very tired.  She was so tired in fact that she accidentally stepped on one of the magical mice leaving a large brown stain on her perfectly white carpet.  

The princess’s ugly stepsisters kept telling the her that there were a lot of castles for sale and lots of them were bigger and better than hers. Some had countertops made of gold and rooms big enough for a pet dragon. 

The ugly stepsisters also told the princess stories about how some villagers couldn’t afford their castles anymore so the Tiddlywink Trolls had taken their castles away from them and now the Tiddlywink Trolls were selling those castles for several tiddlywinks less than the castles were worth.

“But most of those castles are falling apart and my castle is perfect!” the princess argued.  “Doesn’t matter,” replied her ugly stepsisters 

“Oh my!” the princess cried,  “How will I ever sell my castle? Must I live near my ugly stepsisters forever?”

Then one day some visitors from a land far, far away came to the kingdom.  They had heard that castles were being given away in the kingdom and they were looking for a smokin’ castle deal.  The visitors went to see the princess’s castle and decided they wanted to buy it.  The princess was so excited.  She was finally going to be able to move to the other side of the kingdom!  But, alas, instead of offering even close to 100 gold tiddlywinks for her castle, they only wanted to give her 80 and asked her to throw in her bed-making bluebirds, magical mice and the pumpkin coach too. 

“WHAT? 80 gold tiddlywinks? Have they been drinking witches brew?” she cried.  “No, I will not sell my castle for 80 or even 90 gold tiddlywinks.  I would rather kiss an enchanted toad.” 

The Real Estate Wizard calmed the princess and told her to relax.  She said the villagers from lands far away had simply heard the news that Arizona castles are being sold for bits on the tiddlywink.  She suggested the princess counter the low offer with one that was acceptable to her.  But the princess was insulted and refused.

A few weeks passed by and the Real Estate Wizard suggested it was time for the princess to lower the price of her perfect castle by a number of tiddlywinks.  The Princess was aghast.  Lower the price on her perfect castle?  Was the wizard whacked?

So the princess waited for the perfect buyers to come along and as she waited the prices on the castles around her continued to fall.  There were castles with moats and fountains and magical kitchens that cooked all by themselves.  Castles complete  with window cleaning dragons and magical firefly lighting (which were upgrades of course).  The castles that were selling either had many more upgrades than the princess’s castle, or were priced much less.

The Real Estate Wizard tried again, explaining that the Appraisal Gnomes would never say her home was worth 100 tiddlywinks, especially without a moat.  So the princess finally agreed.  She listened to the Real Estate Wizard’s recommendation and priced her castle at just the right number of tiddlywinks.  Just like magic, a buyer from the Land of Reason came along and offered just the right number of tiddlywinks for the perfect castle and the princess was almost happy until she remembered she would have had more tiddlywinks if she had not been so hasty to reject her first offer.

So, the princess was finally able to move to the other side of the kingdom away from her ugly stepsisters and to this day she and the bluebirds, the 2 magical mice along with her enchanted toad (there’s always an enchanted toad) live happily ever after. 

Moral of the story: Don’t let your moat dry up while you wait to get more tiddlywinks for your castle.  Your Real Estate Wizard is wise about castles and tiddlywinks. Listen to the Wizard.

The End

I want to add my 2 cents to all the short sale nonsense.  A recent post by Heather Barr, (another great Phoenix area blogger by the way) hit the nail on the head as far as the misconception of the “Short Sale Deal”.

I’d like to cast my vote for the best oxymoron since Jumbo Shrimp.  The real estate term “Short Sale” which I’d never heard of until just a couple years ago.  Short sales are neither “short” and often don’t result in a “sale”. 

I’ve taken fewer and fewer questions about “what is a short sale” as the general public are becoming more familiar with the term.  A short sale, which is defined as “The sale of a house in which the proceeds fall short of what the owner still owes on the mortgage. Some lenders will agree to accept the proceeds of a short sale and forgive the rest of what is owed on the mortgage when the owner cannot make the mortgage payments.”

Short Sales have become the bane of our real estate market.  Every Real Estate Agent I know has a horror story that goes along with their first (and usually last) short sale transaction.

I receive calls almost daily from buyers who are interested in purchasing a short sale.  My first question to these callers is “why?”   Who wants to shop for homes that are listed at ridiculous and unrealistically low prices that no bank is going to accept in the first place.  Take the time to write an offer.  Submit the offer and wait 4-6 months only to find out the bank rejected your offer and the home is being foreclosed. Not a good use of my time…and certainly a waste of a buyer’s emotional energy.

What most Realtors really want to know is when are short sales going away?  They’re just sitting around cluttering up our market. What’s it going to take?  Why don’t banks just skip to the chase and foreclose when they know they’re going to more than likely do it anyway?  Don’t get me wrong…my heart breaks for those sellers who find themselves in the position of no longer being able to afford their monthly payment.  But these seller’s are being drug through the wringer as well, hoping against hope the short sale will magically materialize.  

I vote for changing the terminology at the very least.  Let’s not sugar coat reality with a cutesy name like “short sale”.  Let’s get real and call them what they really are.  I vote for “Energy-sucking transactions from hell that are a total waste of everyone’s time”.  Yea…that pretty much covers it.

Riggs Residents for Retail Diversity have renewed their concerns about the possibility of a Wal-Mart store at the Northeast corner of Riggs Rd & Arizona Ave in Chandler. 

A Wal-Mart Supercenter was prposed for the site back in 2004 but was withdrawn by the Developer Diversified Partners due largely to community opposition.

New development plans for the “Riggs Gateway” has renewed community concerns due to the Diversified Partners apparent close ties to Wal-Mart.  Diversified maintains they are not talking to anyone yet.

Once zoning is approved the Developer will begin marketing the 250,000 square foot location to retailers.

Some of the community concerns revolve around the fact that the location is pretty much “out of the way” at the South end of Arizona Avenue.  Will the area support a development of this size?  And, if not, will it end up a big white elephant eyesore?  Will it increase traffic in a mostly sleepy residential area? (outside of a few gas stations, car repair and some train tracks that is)

I like a good bargain as much as the next guy…but do we really need a Wal-Mart on every corner?  I mean, hasn’t Walgreens already filled that spot?

Homes for sale today are sitting on the market longer which wasn’t a big deal in days of ’yore.  A seller used to have the luxury of saying “I’m in no hurry…I’ll wait till I get my price”.  But holding out today for “my price” usually means selling it in 5 months for THOUSANDS less than you can today, leaving many sellers wishing they hadn’t been so hasty to reject that first offer 3 months ago.

As short sales languish and morph into bank owned properties with lower and lower price tags, they’re dragging everyone’s home values down with them.  Lenders are cracking down on underwriters who are cracking down on appraisers who are …yep, you guessed it, cracking down on the appraised value of your home.

As a Realtor, pinpointing a home’s value today is like trying to hold on to a handful of dry sand.  The value’s there one minute but gone the next.  Tracking the market in every one of my listing’s neighborhoods has become more important than ever.  Why? Because appraisals aren’t a given anymore.  Appraisers aren’t just filling in the “value blank” with the offer price like they used to. 

I heard from one of my lenders today that appraisers are only looking at the last 3 months worth of sales to value a home.  They used to go back 6 months.  That means what your neighbor’s home sold for 4 months ago doesn’t hold any value at all.  Even though your neighbor’s home was almost identical to yours.  Had the same granite countertops, Travertine flooring, Venetian tiled swimming pool and gold plated toilet bowls.

Today an appraiser will determine the value of your home by using homes in your neighborhood that have sold in the last 3 months.  And if nothing has sold that’s as nice as yours…it’s ok, your other neighbor’s home will be used.  You know the one…Front yard full of weeds, 17 newspapers in the driveway, 4 broken windows, nothing in the backyard except a pool which contains a thick, blackish-green substance that was probably water at one point.  Opening the front door, you get a whiff of a smell which really can’t be described, to find stained (so, that’s where that smell is coming from) flooring and walls that if they had little mouths would be screaming for mercy.  Yes…this gem of similar square footage to your home is going to be called pretty darn near equal in value to your palacial abode…Although you will get a slight bonus for those gold toilet bowls.