I’m a full-on gardening nerd-ball. Who else does a video just about composting, not more than once, but three times? See that here and here.

And, as the summer begins to leach the life out of most plants, this article made me reflect on how much I will miss my garden over the summer.

Oliver Sacks was a brilliant neurologist, whom I learned to appreciate on the RadioLab podcast. He said this of gardens:

“As a writer, I find gardens essential to the creative process; as a physician, I take my patients to gardens whenever possible. All of us have had the experience of wandering through a lush garden or a timeless desert, walking by a river or an ocean, or climbing a mountain and finding ourselves simultaneously calmed and reinvigorated, engaged in mind, refreshed in body and spirit. The importance of these physiological states on individual and community health is fundamental and wide-ranging. In forty years of medical practice, I have found only two types of non-pharmaceutical “therapy” to be vitally important for patients with chronic neurological diseases: music and gardens.”

I’m not a writer of any note. But I completely understand the need for a refuge. My garden is just that.

I pulled more kale, spinach and various other edible items out of my garden this year than ever before. I’m learning a little bit every year. Plus, the better I get at gardening, the more the garden is a truly relaxing place.

You may have had to suffer through my many Instagram posts about the height of my sunflowers. Those are about the only flowers that I intentionally grow. They are easy and dramatically large –my most recent pride reached over 9ft tall.

So, why is this worth a blog post? Well, because if you like to garden, especially in Arizona, you need two specialized things.

First, specialized knowledge about how to pick a house with a yard that will support three seasons worth of growth without succumbing to the brutal heat.

I can help you with that. I’ve failed a lot –meaning I’ve learned a lot. Most importantly, I have learned that the orientation of the house you choose will decide for you what you can plant.

You will also need to subscribe to Urban Farming U, a Phoenix-based website with an incredible amount of information, ranging from basic planting plans to fostering desert bees.

If you are in to gardening, or just want to create a desert oasis at your new home, then plan ahead and choose a home that works best for gardening.

Call us at 602-456-9388 for more.

Donna Reiner, a local historian and a good friend of Get Your PHX, has written many articles over the years for the Arizona Republic and others about what came before us. We use her services when we list properties of historic significance to help us tell the stories behind the homes.

We are happy that Donna is allowing us to re-publish some of her articles on a monthly basis. If you or your business ever needs a historian, let Donna know at laydeescholar “at” hotmail.com.

What can be as interesting as the architecture of a house? The people who lived there. This is one such story.

The Phoenix Country Club dates its early beginnings from late1899. After formational meetings, one member, Col. William Christy, offered the use of his property, Central Place, on the northeast corner of Central and Roosevelt for a course site. Work started immediately on the nine-hole course (dirt fairways) once considered “the best golf links west of the Mississippi River.”

An immediate success both socially and athletically, the original membership of the Phoenix Country Club grew from 75 to nearly 100 by the time of the first tournament held February 22, 1900 and forced the club to seek larger quarters.

Less than 10 years later, the Phoenix Country Club once again had outgrown its facility and purchased 80 acres along Center (Central) with forty acres north of the Arizona Canal and forty acres south for another nine-hole course. 

Financial constraints related to that canal property prohibited the expansion to 18-holes. Thus, the club decided to purchase the 160 acre Williams Ranch on the northeast corner of 7th Street and Thomas Road in early 1920.

The large residential lots in Country Club Place surrounding the new golf course went quickly with Dwight Heard Investment Company as the sales agent. The Ainsworth-McKesson House on East Country Club Drive was built circa 1928 (the value of the home had to be a minimum of $7500 according to the deed restrictions). They had a large two-story adobe erected which sits well back from the front property line to allow for a grand circular entry.

Charles and Eliza Ainsworth were long standing members of the community and country club (Charles was the first president). Their previous home is now the site of the Post Office on Central and Fillmore. Interestingly, Mrs. Ainsworth referred to her new home as Casa de Contenta.

In 1941, Mrs. Ainsworth sold the home to Theodore and Ruth McKesson who moved in with their two daughters. Nancy mentioned that she and her sister found the large upstairs room an ideal fun room for themselves and the neighbors’ kids. Both girls were married at home and held their receptions there too:  Mary Ann in 1947, and Nancy in 1957.

Along with ownership of the same house, the Ainsworths and the McKessons had other connections. All three McKesson women were members of the Maricopa Daughters of the American Revolution Chapter, the one founded by Eliza Ainsworth in 1901. Like Eliza Ainsworth, Ruth McKesson also served as Arizona State Regent of the DAR. Finally, Charles Ainsworth and Theodore McKesson were long time attorneys in Phoenix. What interesting history goes with your house?

In the last few months I’ve been on a tirade.

I’m very concerned about how wholesale buying companies are, in my opinion, creating consumer protection issues. You know the companies I’m talking about. Their ads are everywhere.

I’m not going to give them a free plug. But you know them. These are the guys who promise to buy your house quickly and you pay “only 1% commission,” or some such nonsense.

Watch this short video on how previous clients sold their home, thinking they would pay about 1% commission, but ended up giving up about 9.4% in order to sell.

So, I’m not letting it go here. I’ve published three more videos that go in to greater detail about how these companies are mis-leading consumers.

1. The first video goes in to the reasons these companies give for you to use them. Hint: they are bogus.
2. The second video takes a deeper look at what “fiduciary responsibility” is, why a realtor has that responsibility to you and how these companies get around it, all while giving the impression that they are looking out for you.
3. The third video explains how a “1% commission” can easily result in a 9% loss in your profit when you sell your home, if you are not represented.

“But,” I hear you say, “you’re just a realtor who’s afraid that your business is going away because there is a new business model, and you are not willing to adapt.”

Well, watch the videos and then call me at 602-456-9388. I don’t bite and I’d love to hear how this model in any way protects consumers.

These companies are literally having inspections and deducting repair costs off of the price of the home with little or no resistance from the seller.

They are locking sellers in to a process that goes against their interest after baiting them with the promise of low commissions.

That is about as close to a scam as I can imagine and I’m deeply disappointed that the Arizona Association of Realtors nor the National Association of Realtors (who’s job it is to protect consumers, they say) has not taken action to educate the public.

So, it’s left to me, my little camera phone and my little office.

Oh, and if you are a buyer and you don’t think this affects you, please consider that these houses are being sold with inspections that may not be honest and possibly repairs or renovations that have not been done.

Specifically, if the wholesale buyer does an inspection in order to force the price down, how do you know that they repaired all of those items? You don’t have access to the previous contract, do you? Plus, you will often see these properties sold “as-is.” If it was serious enough to warrant a price reduction, shouldn’t it be serious enough to repair for the next buyer?

If you need a real estate team that takes your interests seriously, please call us at 602-456-9388.