Our September listings and sales are looking good. Our previous listings closed quickly and we have more coming on soon.

Our efficiency condo at the Embassy Condominiums at 4th Ave and McKinley has some of the best views of downtown and South Mountain. This 720 square foot, 1br/1ba property is listed below comps.

See our listings page for more.

The Embassy Condos are a well-known mid-century property that serves as a lobby secured, easily accessible and conveniently located community with a unique second-floor pool and shaded parking.

The owner has priced this property very aggressively, leaving plenty of room for renovation. Properties in the same building with these views, when renovated, are going for $60,000 more.

There is a tenant in place until the end of the year, so that leaves room for income while you plan renovations, if you choose that option. After all, who wants to do renovations in the summer?

In the next month, we expect to add to our September listings a 4br/2ba, 2227sf home in Ahwatukee. The owner is completing renovations currently. With inventory in short supply, especially in that area of town, we expect this home to move quickly.

We also have clients who are nearing the end of their renovations on a 3br/3ba, 2,584sf home in North Central, near Maryland and 15th Ave. They had plans to list their home in the spring. However, with the heat of the market, the’ve decided that now is the best time. So, their March 2021 listing became a September listing.

If you are thinking of selling, now is the time to build a strategy –even if your sell date is not for 6 months. Call us at 602-456-9388.

You might have seen my interview about forest health in February of 2019 with recently-retired ASU professor Stephen Pyne. He helped me dig through some of the myths and realities of forest health and wildfires.

Well, with over 300 fires going in California alone and more than a dozen in Arizona, I thought it might be worth publishing that again. I also saw this article in the Arizona Republic about how forest health was managed before Europeans settled in the west.

As you watch the news and see many false narratives about wild fires and all that, I encourage you to have a look a these articles. Arizona needs to invest realistic amounts of money and people power in to making our forests healthy.

The nice thing is that we can generate jobs and spur industries in the meantime. It is expensive to thin forests of the underbrush that has been building up for 100 years. But if we treat it like the common good that it is, we could clear the materials that make fires worse, we could make the forest floor healthier and we could encourage new technologies, like cross laminated timber.

The sad reality, of course, is that global warming is real and we are not moving quickly enough to reduce carbon and avoid hotter weather. However, if we have a serious investment in responsible, science-based forest thinning, then we can eliminate much of the materials that make fires bigger and hotter.

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 Phoenix history and memorials. This month, she is sharing her article on the Lazy R&G Ranch.

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.

“Children, it’s time!” And with that, eager kids scrambled onto Mr. Train for the long awaited afternoon tour around the Lazy R&G Ranch.

Eugene Pulliam and his wife, publishers of the Arizona Republic and Phoenix Gazette, broke ground on Phoenix’s third company recreation area in late 1952 with the facility opening May 30, 1953. Located on a 20 acre parcel at 4747 E. Indian School Road, it would include a pool where many learned to swim, a barbeque area, baseball field, a pavilion, and other elements intended to provide a place for company employees, their families, and friends to have fun, relax, and be outdoors.

Tucked back from the road in a heavily landscaped area, many motorists wondered what was that place behind the sign. Approximately half of the property was planted with orange trees and employees were eventually allowed to pick five bags of that luscious fruit.

The company hosted numerous events including fashion shows and Easter Egg hunts, but according to Michael Ging, a former employee, “Christmas and the Fourth of July were the big events.” The fireworks show was huge and “Americana at its best.” Those firework shows are vividly remembered even today by those who watched at the Ranch and from afar.

Ging’s first encounter with the Lazy R&G was as a paperboy for the Phoenix Gazette. As a reward for subscription sales, the paper invited the top selling carriers to the Ranch. There they could use the pool, eat ice cream, find other goodies at the snack bar, and enjoy a barbeque. It was super special to be in this park-like and private setting.

The Ranch was a place where couples met and later married (sometimes holding the wedding at the ranch) or brought their dates to this family friendly atmosphere for a picnic. And many children of employees invited friends for a treat at the Ranch and a ride on Mr. Train. Teens loved to loll around the pool during the summer and wait for the evening movies in the pavilion.

Times changed and eventually the current ownership of the Republic sold the back portion (the citrus area) to Scottsdale High School District for the expansion of Arcadia High School in 2005. In 2009, Gannett sold the remaining acreage, but to date, it has not been developed.

Those three companies, Salt River Project, Goldwater’s Department Store, and Phoenix Newspapers, believed that “a happy employee is a better employee” and based on the memories of the R&G Ranch, they were successful.