Here is another good post from my friend Tazmine Loomans, who is an architect and green renovator of older homes explaining how you can save big bucks by just upgrading our water heater.

First of all, get rid of the electric water heater if you can. If you have natural gas running to the home, get a gas heater. It is worth the up-front money.

I was told once when I was the Energy Office Director by folks from Southwest Gas that it takes 1,200 gallons of water to heat a 60 gallon electric hot water heater. This is because it takes two units of electricity to move one unit of electricity from the big power plant to your home. Further, that big power plant is cooled by ground water at the rate of 100’s of thousands of gallons per day.

I installed a tankless hot water heater in my historic home in the Garfield Neighborhood. While it saved money, even over the tank natural gas water heater that was there before, I found that it used more water. Basically, it was because the tankless water heater needs to run water through itself at a certain rate, otherwise it will shut off. That’s fine if you have a number of people in the house all using water at the same time. Not so good if you are just little ol’ me.

I always liked the way the Europeans and Asians do this. They put small hot water tanks or tankless heaters at the point they use them. So, they only use that which they need and they are not heating up water just to flow 40 feet from the tank to your shower or kitchen. Much of that water and heat energy goes to waste.

So, what is the solution? First, go gas or get a heat pump. Second, go tankless if you have the demand for it.

For all you folks who have bought your dream property to rent to the world, don’t forget that you need to register with Maricopa county when you start renting!

Check out this news release.

Just in case you geek out on fair housing law as it applies to you. If you are one of the fine folks that are now proud new landlords because you picked up a rental property this year, this seminar applies to you, too.

Some people were doubting me when I said that there is actually a live auction down at the county courthouse when a house goes to foreclosure. Well I was there last week and took a quick photo of the auction, in process. Sad, yet interesting!

OK. So, maybe “Love” is a little strong.

However, if you know me, you know that I’ve been advising against buying a short sale home. You also know that I’ve been advising against trying to sell short.

For the buyer, my biggest concern has been that you would wait for months before you hear back from the bank.

For the seller, my biggest concern has been that you are led to believe that your house will sell quickly because your agent under-prices it, then it does not sell in time because buyers don’t trust the process and then you foreclose anyway.

Well, there are some trends that are indicating that things are getting better.

Don’t get me wrong. We should not turn in to a society of short sellers. That is really bad for the market and really bad for home ownership.

However, if you are getting distressed and you are really, really stuck, this might be of interest to you.

First, the number of short sales that are selling has increased. If you look at the chart, below, you will notice that the percentage of short sale homes that have sold has increased, as a portion of all of the homes that sell. These are the latest numbers.

The blue lines represent the short sales and the red line represents all of the sales, total. For you who are tracking the numbers, that equals to about 7,700 sold homes, total and 1,400 of those that were short sales. Compare that to about 4,000 total sales in Sept. 07 with only 20 short sales completed.

In other words, your chances of getting a short sale through the process before it goes to foreclosure is now up by 700% since Sept. 07. Or, by 200% since May of this year.

Second, short sales represent about 48% of the market now. So, it is more difficult to get away from them. My colleague, Leif Swanson and I have been working more on the short sale issue and are confident that we have ways to get through the process in a reasonable time. We are also interfacing with teams of people who are very good at it. If you are thinking that you might have to short sell, please give me a call at 602-456-9388.

Third, your chances of getting a home that has been terribly damaged by vacating owners is greater with a foreclosure. I don’t have any numbers on this. But a short sale requires that the vacating owner work with everybody to sell the property. Sure, they may be upset, but they are not as likely to trash the kitchen on the way out.

In the end, it is not ideal. Far from it. We just have to hope that all of the foreclosures and short sales clear the market over the next year and we can get back to a “normal” market.

But, in the meantime, we may just have to learn to love the short sale.

If you are putting off  purchasing a home because you are afraid that there might be changes at your job (layoffs, relocation, etc.), there might be an answer in Nova Home Loan’s Safe House Mortgage Protection Plan.

I work with a lot of different brokers. Others may have this, as well. But this is good to know.

Here are the features:

• If you lose your job, they will cover as much as 24 months of your mortgage (up to $1,800 per month). 12 months if you purchase the plan if when you are just refinancing a loan.
• You start the plan when you close on the house or complete the refinance.
• Cost = $770 on a purchase and $595 on a refinance. (You can pay this at close of escrow and maybe work it in to the closing costs that the seller pays!)

Eligibility:

• Ages 18-66
• Must reside in the US.
• Cannot be self-employed.
• Must be employed a minimum of 30hrs per week at time of close.

There are more details here. So, have a look. It might be something that could give you the piece of mind to move ahead and get a house in phoenix now, while you can still get the $8,000 tax credit!

Here is a news article about it.

Or, call Jeannie Bolger at Nova Home Loans at jeannieb@novahomeloans.com.

I don’t know if there is anything you could do about this, but wouldn’t you hate be the person trying to sell the house at this address. When your buyers go to check out Google Street View to check out the neighborhood, this is what they see.

Tip of the Day. Google Street View is a great way to check out the neighborhood before you drive around.

Caution of the Day. Google Street View can be a couple years out of date. Things might have changed

My broker, John Hall & Associates helps its agents, like me, get the broadest reach possible on your listings.

I just uploaded Internet Marketing Sites that shows most of the places where your property will show, if listed with me.

This way, people thinking of moving to AZ can go to their local television affiliate site, for instance, in some other state to see your property.

Yeah. It’s a perk of working with me.

My colleague Leif Swanson sent me this.

You would be surprised how many people take almost no action whatsoever to get ready to sell their home.

This is a cute video that lays out the most important things to do to get ready to get the most money out of your home sale.