Here’s how you can support your favorite charity: refer us!

Please support our Charity Referral Network.

Hunter, in Phoenix, did just that. Last week, we helped his friends Shawn and Charlie close on the home shown in this video. True to our word, we will make a donation to Hunter’s favorite charity.

You can to. Its simple. When you are talking to friends at a party, at the office or that family dinner you’ve been avoiding for months, and when somebody mentions they need a realtor, kindly remember us!

This is our attempt to focus positive attention on those charities that you care about, and which do so much good work here in Phoenix.

Here is how it works. If you send us a referral for a home sale or purchase, and that transaction closes, we will make a donation to the charity of your choice. We will post on our blog and on Facebook that your referral was instrumental in making that donation happen.

Meanwhile, enjoy this pre-renovation tour and try not to get seasick from the selfie stick I had to use to get this video.

It is as simple as that. Thank you!

Please give us a call today at 602-456-9388 for more.

As many of you know, I’m a fan-boy for the Phoenix Public Works Department’s efforts at building a circular economy.

Here’s the difference between the two. And, yes, the difference is huge for not only our sustainable future, but also for our local economy.

A linear economy is wasteful, expensive and does not create as many jobs as it could. It costs more money and jobs to ship raw materials here from out of state, or out of country and it adds carbon emissions.

Click here to see the video that these screen captures come from.

A circular economy takes advantage of materials that are already in our waste stream, and re-uses them in a way that creates new jobs and businesses.

When you think about waste streams, think numbers. Over 7 million people in Arizona are all throwing away trash every day. We currently recycle less than 20% of our trash, despite all of those blue bins that we see in our neighborhoods. Office and industrial waste is often passed right in to the landfill.

Hey, just imagine what is happening to all of the metal, wood and concrete that comes off of those many homes that you see being renovated right now.

So, I’m particularly interested in the work that ASU is doing in collaboration with the city to find ways to extract the monetary and employment value from this waste stream. Check out the Resource Innovation and Solutions Network, which has just started its “Call for Innovations.” This will result in an demo and expo day, which will certainly lead to new business opportunities.

At a time when there is a lot of talk about bringing jobs back to the US, these folks are making it happen. After all, the more basic materials we can re-use here, the less we need to import from across the ocean.

Watch these folks. They are certain to have more to report as they are building a circular economy.

For the September 2017 Market Update, we check in again with Tina at the Cromford Report.

“Supply remains lower than last year, but the gap closed slightly compared with last month in terms of active listings with no contract. We are starting to see more new listings than last year. The third quarter is up 2.5% from last year and up 5.5% from 2015. So far the extra supply is not having much effect, but if it continues for several months finding a property could start to get a little easier for buyers.

The monthly sales rate is up only 1.8% compared with a year ago. Both August 2016 and August 2017 had the same number of working days (23) so we have a fair comparison to draw. Since the year over year growth was 5.7% in June and 3.0% in July we again see a continuing slow downward trend in the advantage that 2017 has over 2016 in sales volume. Growth in the annual sales rate has almost stopped with 95,000 proving to be a difficult line of resistance. All these point to a gradual fading of demand. The serious shortage of supply obscures that fade.

We experienced a seasonal price drop between June and July, but prices have already bounced back during August and are likely to remain on an upward track for the rest of 2017 at least.

We still have a seller’s market in most locations and price ranges, but the current trends means the seller’s advantage has very little momentum. Before buyer`s get too excited, the trends are very mild in nature. As such we do not currently see major increases in buyer’s bargaining power coming anytime soon.

Of course, the market could change quickly, as it did in the summer of 2013, but there is not much sign of this in any of the numbers at the moment.”

Anecdotally, we are seeing a huge number of renovation project that seem to dominate the market. I would go so far as to say that they are probably driving prices upward, as the investors are seeking high profit margins and buyers are willing to pay, given a lack of options in CenPho.

In a way some renovations are sad for the historic neighborhoods. I’ve heard many concerns from neighbors that the renovators are taking this historic souls right out of the homes –turning them in to trendy replications of an Anthropology clothing store.

If you are thinking of purchasing a renovated property, please be certain to have a realtor represent you, even if its not us. Many people don’t know that renovators are still responsible for disclosing the condition of the property, even if they claim they never lived in it. You need an agent to protect your interests.

Call us and we can give you more details at 602-456-9388.