There has been a flurry of buyer activity over the last 4 weeks.  I personally have sold 15 homes in the last 3 weeks.  4 of those sales were listings.  Of those 4 listing sales, 3 went under contract in less than a week on the market.

What does this mean?  Well, no crystal ball here, but I think things are definitely looking up.  Yes, there is still an overabundance of available homes on the market in the Phoenix Metro area, however, many of those are short sales and bank owned properties in need of repair.  So, sellers…if you have a home to sell and price it well.  It will sell.

 Now for today’s UGLY Home Marketing Photo……………..

Ugly garage seeking new owner…Well, NOW I want to buy this home.

For more Information visit Chandler Arizona Real Estate.  This information was provided by Amy Jones, a multi-million dollar top producing Realtor with RE/MAX Elite. Amy specializes in residential, vacation homes & cabins, as well as retirement communities in the communities of Ahwatukee, Chandler, Fountain Hills, Gilbert, Maricopa, Mesa, Paradise Valley, Queen Creek, Scottsdale, Sun Lakes, Tempe and the White Mountainscommunities of Pinetop/Lakeside & Show Low.  Search the Arizona MLS.

I was showing property to another couple from Canada over the weekend.  Their target price was a home under $250,000 in Chandler. 

72 listings came up that matched their search criteria.  It was interesting to note however, that of those 72 listings, over 60 of them were either short sale or lender owned!

A short sale can take up to 3 months for a decision to be made by the lending institution if preliminary work on the short sale has not yet been completed by the seller. For that reason, my buyers had already decided they would not be interested in a Short Sale property as they needed to know while they were in town whether or not their offer had been accepted. 

They decided to check out some of the lender owned, which can sometimes take awhile for contract acceptance, but as they are in town for 2 weeks, they wanted to investigate this option. 

The outcome of this investigation was not good.  Most of the lender owned property needed considerable work.  Most had missing appliances…ie.  all the built-in appliances had been removed.  Some properties were even missing the light fixtures and ceiling fans and open wires hung from the places where those fixtures had been removed.

My buyers decided lender owned properties were not going to work for them either.

What did this mean?  We had less than 12 properties that would even make the short list to be viable for consideration.  Which homes made the short list?  Those that were the nicest and the best priced.

 So, the question of the day is…how many homes are TRULY on the market for an average out of town buyer (which, I might add, are many of today’s buyers).  It’s obviously not as many as the media would have you believe.  Granted, there are more short sale and lender owned homes in the lower price ranges as this is the price range many of the investors bought into a few years back.  But there are plenty of homes listed as short sale and lender owned in price ranges up to $500,000.

If you are average Joe Seller, have a beautiful home and are willing to price it to sell (and I don’t mean give it away…just listen to your Realtor’s advice), the opportunity is still great especially at this time of year.  3 of my listings went under contract this week.  2 of them had been on the market less than 2 weeks.  Homes ARE still selling.  Your’s will too.

For more Information visit Chandler Arizona Real Estate.  This information was provided by Amy Jones, a multi-million dollar top producing Realtor with RE/MAX Elite. Amy specializes in residential, vacation homes & cabins, as well as retirement communities in the communities of Ahwatukee, Chandler, Fountain Hills, Gilbert, Maricopa, Mesa, Paradise Valley, Queen Creek, Scottsdale, Sun Lakes, Tempe and the White Mountainscommunities of Pinetop/Lakes & Show Low.  Search the Arizona MLS.