Councilman Tom Simplot is leading a great bike ride tonight at 6:30pm along the Grand Canal as a way to encourage safe bicycle rides as a positive way to travel between the two cities! I know, that’s just two hours way before the ride starts, but check out where it starts and where it ends and come join the night ride…

START
Slippery Pig Bike Shop
4412 N Central Ave
Phoenix

END
Rula Bula
401 S Mill Ave
Tempe, AZ

602.262.4830

Check out Councilman Simplot on Facebook and follow him on Twitter! 

Thanks again to George Hancock and Gregory Fretz, owners of the  Phoenix Ale Brewery, along with their Head Brewer John Donehower. We had a great time last month and the food from Lunche Libre hit the spot.

Its funny. Since we had our tour of the Phoenix Ale Brewer, I see their brews all over the place in town. It just goes to show you what a little exposure will do.

We have a unique treat for you this month. We are joining with our friends at Co+Hoots to bring you dinner and a movie at Angels Trumpet and FilmBar. For about $18, you will get a dinner and drink at Angels Trumpet.

Because this is a special event screening, please note that we will do things a little differently this month. We will be at Angels Trumpet from 5:30 to about 6:15, when we will all go across the street for the screening. Angels Trumpet will have a buffet selection of their fine foods for ticket holders. Your ticket includes dinner and a movie. Drinks are on your own.

Please buy your tickets through the FilmBar website BEFORE SEPT. 18TH so the chef at Angels Trumpet has an exact count for food. Go to the Calendar and watch for a listing on September 20th for out event. Filmbar will post that as soon as they have rights to show the movie we are working to get for you. You will not be able to purchase a ticket after Sept. 18th.

PLEASE PRINT YOUR TICKET AND BRING IT WITH YOU TO THE MOVIE.

So, here’s the backstory:

You are already familiar with Film Bar. They have given us our first true independent theater downtown. Film Bar was a sponsor of last year’s Phoestivus Market, as well. The beautiful coincidence is that Film Bar is located directly across the street from Angels Trumpet.

Angels Trumpet is a great experiment in the fine art of beer tasting. You can see over 30 types of beers on the huge blackboard and choose from an ever-changing list of very fresh brews. You have to see it to believe it.

We are working with the movie distributors now on a special presentation, which is uniquely relevant to all of the revitalization that we are doing in downtown Phoenix.  Please RSVP on our Facebook page and please stay tuned.

As the summer begins to tease us with signs of fading out–the sky is overcast and the rain is supposed to continue for the next week or so, I find myself thinking about the end of the year. Specifically, I think about how the older realtors always talk about the “slow months” –November through January.

Now, I’m no old hand, but I’m not that new and I can tell you that last Halloween through New Year’s was all work for me in the real estate business.

As the story goes, people stop buying or selling houses because the holidays just creep up on them and they get distracted. The common wisdom says that the market slows down after the summer and then maybe you may be able to negotiate a better deal during the holidays and Christmas. But that has not been the case the last two years.

If you look at previous years (see below), you will see that this is generally true; especially around Thanksgiving. In the first chart below you will see the last nine years. Some of them drop off drastically, but come back around February. In the second chart you will see 2004 and 2005 compared to 2010 and 2011. In ’10 and ’11 there was a little drop around November, but then we just picked right up again.

In other words, don’t assume that the end of the year is going to be slow!

The take away?

First: Don’t assume the end of the year is going to be slow. Whether you are selling or buying, take advantage of the active market.

Second, it’s been hectic the last two years. We have every reason to believe it’s going to be hectic this year, too.

And by the way, if you’re thinking to short sale, you’re running out of time if you want to avoid the tax repercussions of selling your home short. Please see this article and learn how the Mortgage Forgiveness Debt Relief Act allows you to avoid paying taxes on mortgage debt forgiven by your lender. This act runs out at the end of this year.

This is part two of my little analysis of what you might want to consider when deciding between a house and a condo. So, let’s get right in to it.

1.      Gated security may be just what you’re looking for right now.

Perhaps you are living alone. Perhaps you like to know that there are people right next door. These are all legitimate concerns that condominiums (at least the good ones) seek to address.

Some questions to consider regarding security at condos:

• How careful is the management company with the common area keys or codes?
• Is the common are well-lit?
• Is the HOA paying for any live security? If so, how much does that impact the monthly assessments?
• When you look at the condo, does it look like the other condo dwellers take security seriously?

2.      Condos are often close to public transportation (the car-free life!)

One of the best things about urban dwelling is that you can leave that car in the garage, or just go without it completely.

Some things to consider when you’re looking for a condo:

• Some condos used to be apartment buildings and the parking may not always protect your car from the sun and weather while you are taking the light rail to work every day.
• The closer your condominium is to public transportation, the more likely that your condo will eventually sell for more.
• If you are thinking of the car-free lifestyle, also consider whether amenities such as groceries, the dry cleaners, and coffee shops are near-by.

3.      Condos maintain all the goodies: pools, landscaping, general maintenance.

 Especially on those hot summer days, it’s a great relief not to have to maintain your own landscaping, or pay somebody else to do it. This is especially helpful if the condo has a pool. Maintaining a pool at a detached residence house can cost thousands every year, and you may not even use it 10% of the time!

Some things to ask yourself before you buy a condominium**:

• Is the current HOA solvent? Do they have enough to properly maintain all of the features they promise when you buy?
• Who manages the property? Many HOA’s pay a management company to take care of details such as landscaping contracts and maintenance.
• How long has that company been working? How many properties do they maintain? What do the current residents think of their work?

** You can have a chance to ask these questions during the inspection period.

 4.      What is an assessment and what is expected of you in an HOA?

An assessment is a monthly fee on every unit in condo that goes in to a pot to pay to keep the place up. If you don’t pay your assessments, the HOA can record a lien against your property. If you have a lien against your property, you can’t finalize the sale of your condo to another person without paying off that lien.

The more units vacant in a condominium, the harder it is for the HOA to pay the bills.

Also, if there are outstanding big projects or maintenance issues on the condominium, or if the HOA board is not wise with its money (your money!), your assessment might go up every month.

Learn what you can about the HOA board, before you purchase a condominium.

5.      What is a CC&R?

CC&R means “Covenants, Conditions, and Restrictions”. It means, basically, that all of the people in a Home Owner’s Association agree that their property came with (and will go with, in the future) certain conditions and restrictions.

In other words, condo owners can’t just do anything they want with their condo.

CC&R’s outline everything from how often the board meets, to what is considered common property.

When you buy a condominium, inspecting the CC&R before your purchase is just as important as inspecting the condo’s wiring!

If you are part of an HOA, read what is expected of you in the CC&R’s. The best way to protect your investment is to stay involved in the HOA.

Please spread the word. We have two open houses this weekend.

Saturday from 12:00 noon to 2pm – 140 E Coronado Rd.

Villa del Coronado is one of the most sought after and unique co-op communities in Phoenix, steps away from museums, light rail, health clubs and restaurants. This 2 bedroom, 1.75 bath home has seen numerous improvements over recent years: opening up the living and dining rooms, UV protecting on the windows, renovating the kitchen a installing a beautiful master bathroom. Don’t miss the huge 5′ x 24′ living room balcony and the 5′ x 14′ off the master bedroom. Located in an elevator building, this unit is one of the few with a permitted full size washer and dryer and a detached garage! Cash buyers or seller may carry. All utilities and property taxes are included in the monthly HOA fee. This is perfect for refined downtown living.

Sunday from 11am until 1pm- 4729 N 76th Pl. in Scottsdale
This is a great single level home in Villa Monterey. Corner unit with rare side access gate to backyard. 2 bedrooms plus bonus den area. Updated kitchen with granite counter tops, built-in oven, smooth cook top, and eating area. Expansive living room huge window overlooking private yard. Huge master suite with updated bath. Private backyard with covered patio and mature citrus trees.

Sunday from 11am to 2pm – 140 E Coronado Rd.

Villa del Coronado is one of the most sought after and unique co-op communities in Phoenix, steps away from museums, light rail, health clubs and restaurants. This 2 bedroom, 1.75 bath home has seen numerous improvements over recent years: opening up the living and dining rooms, UV protecting on the windows, renovating the kitchen a installing a beautiful master bathroom. Don’t miss the huge 5′ x 24′ living room balcony and the 5′ x 14′ off the master bedroom. Located in an elevator building, this unit is one of the few with a permitted full size washer and dryer and a detached garage! Cash buyers or seller may carry. All utilities and property taxes are included in the monthly HOA fee. This is perfect for refined downtown living.

For those looking to relieve some pressure from the uncertainty of when to swing their buy-it-now bat and make contact with the house-ball, the number of listings  are creeping up again, wouldn’t you know it. (See the brown line in the “Monthly Average Sales Price” chart below).

Why is that, you ask?

Check out this new listing at 910 W Portland. This 1931 tudor style home is incredibly preserved and updated by the current and past owners. 

The list of upgrades is impressive: updated wiring, custom window shades, renovator’s light switches with dimmers, water filtration, original fixtures and keys. This property also has a sizeable guest house with its own laundry and bathroom. The home is has 2br/1ba in the front, but a room off of the kitchen is plumbed and ready for a half bathroom. The guest house is also plumbed and ready for a kitchen. 

The current owners have done an incredible job on all kinds of little details, from the restored built-in writing desk to the crown moulding. Features and Improvements to 910 W Portland

I’ve seen a lot of remodels in my time and this is one of the best, for sure! So, click on the picture if you want to see the listing with more photos or give me a call at 602-456-9388.

Source: CAP Board

About seven years ago my friend Roger Clark (no relation) at the Grand Canyon Trust (the folks who are cleaning up or working to retire coal-fired power plants in the Southwest) suggested that we should consider covering the Central Arizona Project with solar panels.

If you don’t know (and you really, really should), the Central Arizona Project delivers about 1.5 million acre-feet of water to central and southern Arizona from the Colorado River on the AZ/CA border. One acre-foot is about 325,000 gallons of water, so about 488 billion gallons. You use, on average, about 60 gallons of water per person per day, just to live here. Basically, if we did not have this canal, we could not have nearly the population in Arizona that we have now.

Arizona, California, Nevada, New Mexico and Colorado all take water from the Colorado River system. Very, very little runs down through Mexico to the Gulf of Baja, and what does run there is full of fertilizer and chemicals. But that is another story.

Regardless, we need to save as much water as we can. The canal loses about 4.4 percent of its water to evaporation. That equals about 66,000 acre-feet of water, or about 21 billion gallons of water. That’s a lot of water slides, people.

This canal is not covered because, as the CAP Board website tells us, the cost of installation would have quadrupled from what it was at about $3.6 billion to about $14.4 billion. So, they say it is cost prohibitive to cover the canal.

That is where Roger Clark believed that we could kill two birds with one stone. We could cut down on that evaporation while generating electricity. Why do we want to generate electricity here? Well, because in order to pump the water to Phoenix, we use about 400 megawatts of coal-fired power from a plant here in Arizona. What if we could pump that water primarily with solar power? That would be a huge drop in the amount of CO2s that we produce, as a state. Even if we can’t reliably pump the water all the time (like, when there are clouds), we could still sell the green energy elsewhere.

So, Roger, et. al were told that they were crazy and that it was all pie in the sky. I was told the same when I talked about it as a legislator and when I worked in the energy field. Since then, I’ve only dared to hope that one day I could help make this happen —way off in the future.

But the future can be now. This is where the “I Told You So” Department gets to do its work. Please see this article from India where they covered about 1 kilometer of a similar canal with solar panels and generated about 1 megawatt of electricity. The local electricity corporation did it with a contract with Sun Edison.

So, here are four reasons why this is great news:

1) Our canal is 336 miles long, or about 541 kilometers. If you assume 1 megawatt per kilometer, and take out about 25% of the total length to assume that they can’t put panels everywhere along cities, etc., you can have a power station on our canal that generates about 400 megawatts.

2) Unlike other massive projects that take up vast amounts of land in the desert, and which could possibly disturb sensitive habitat, this land is already accounted for.

3) You may not eliminate the entire 4.4 percent evaporation. But you would probably save half of that, at least. That is over 10 billion acre feet of water! Personally, I think we should commit to send some of that to the Gulf of Baja so that they can rebuild that massive Baja Delta and maybe, I dunno, rebuild and stabilize their local economy!

4) If we generate excess power that is “green power”, we get to sell it at a premium to the power hungry folks in California –the Whole Foods of power consumption. That means money coming in to Arizona, instead of going out.

So, as you probably know, I totally geek out on big infrastructure projects like this. I love them because they are also crucial for us to find more sustainable ways to live in the desert.

I hope that Paul Newman, Sandra Kennedy and Marcia Busching make it in to the Corporation Commission so they can work on this. It would also help if we got Heather Macre on the Central Arizona Water Conservation District Board.

I am very proud to announce that I have been asked to join the Elite Group at Homesmart.

What does this mean?

It means that  I had to demonstrate my competence and excellence to other elite agents.

Elite Group Agents must have sold a certain (high) volume of homes in the last year and they must have proven sufficient experience, knowledge and professionalism to excel in this rough market.

It means I’m gonna start driving a Cadillac and wearing obnoxious clothes.

Actually, no. That’s not true. I’ll stick to my trusty Prius and conservative attire.

What does this mean to you? 

It means that you can trust that I will do a great job for you, that I understand this market, that I will listen to your needs and that I will represent you the way you deserve to be represented.

I’m sure this may seem like a marketing club for realtors. But I am immensely proud of this. I became an agent in 2008 when the market was collapsing, knowing that if I worked hard in the tough times, I would be that much more qualified when times get better. Further, I reached this milestone in my career in a very short time in this market.

I worked my tail off for my clients to earn this designation and I will continue to apply what I learned then to your needs now.

If you have questions about the Elite Group or the housing market at all, please contact me at 602-456-9388.

Which is better:

The freedom of a condo? Or the land value of a house? You’ve found the area where you want to live. You have your financing arranged. But, you are stuck.

[Image:davecito]

This week and next I’ll be sharing some ideas to help you sort it all out by comparing the pro’s and con’s of each option. Today, I’m going to focus on the bonus features of a detached, residential house. (If you’re leaving toward a condo, you’ll want to read this, though, as you’ll get advice, too, since I’ll be comparing the two options.)

1.   The land Will Never Go Away

90% of all millionaires become so through owning real estate.”
~ Andrew Carnegie

Let’s face it. Buildings fall down.

But unless you live on an island in the Mississippi, your land will probably not go away.

This is a drawback for condominiums. Although many are built to last, some have been thrown up so quickly in recent years, they may not last 30 years.

Ask yourself this question:

Which is more important to me at this time in my life: being free from yard and home maintenance or buying something that I will have 20 years from now?”

[image: PrimeImageMedia.com]

2.   No Shared Walls

In a condo development, you may hear your neighbors. If you are the kind of person who does not like to see the same neighbors almost every day in close proximity, you may consider a house.

You can build a privacy wall or grow bushes around your home. Your back yard can be a fantastic get-away.

Ask yourself this question:

Do I enjoy the sense of community that I can have by sharing a common living area. Or, do I prefer more space that I can call just my own?”

How much more are you willing to pay for that luxury?

3.  Greater Flexibility to Improve and Remodel

Most condominiums, if built with block construction, give you some flexibility to re-arrange inside. You may be able to remove some walls and expand rooms.

However, once you start talking about windows, balconies, and patios, the restrictions begin to pile on.

If you have a house, you can go crazy repainting, adding features, and personalizing your home.

However, you must still adhere to city code for things like wall height and that massive Trojan Horse water slide you are planning to build in the back yard.

Get to know and love these two links:

City of Phoenix Historic Preservation

City of Phoenix Residential Building Permits

4.  Your Property Value is Tied to the Success of Neighbors

In a condominium, all owners pay into a fund that maintains the common property, including landscaping and insurance for things that owners share, such as walls and a roof.

In a house, you don’t have to pay these monthly assessments. But, then again, you have very little power over your neighbor, who has decided to park a massive pink RV between your two homes.

Or, if your neighbors don’t take crime prevention seriously, will your neighborhood likely improve or decline?

Ask yourself this question:

Am I willing to spend the time volunteering with the neighborhood association in order to protect my property value?”

Hint: You will want to ask a similar question for condos.

5.  Keeping Up Appearances

People often talk about keeping up appearances in the negative, as if it is all about superficiality.

But in a neighborhood, keeping the street looking good has a very direct impact on your property value.

If you are inclined toward a condominium because you don’t have to mow the lawn, consider this:

• The Average HOA Assessment = $200/month
• Average gardener = $100/month

6.  Other Things to Consider with Houses

Growth potential tends to be higher.

Condo boards politics can be tricky.

Houses are more adaptable for growing a family.

Always meet the neighbors before you buy, as part of your inspection period.

Kenneth “Ken” Clark
REALTOR(r)
At Your Service!
HomeSmart
(602) 561-5881
Ken@GetYourPHX.com