Phoenix homeowners have kept a close watch on the housing market with a certain air of disappointment. Chances are they had high hopes for their homes. For most people the idea behind home ownership is to buy a home, live there for as long as the location and characteristics of the home suit their lifestyles, and sell the home years down the line while pocketing a little extra built-up equity — or using it to buy a better home. Time is running out to short sale and avoid possible tax liability.

Prices on Downtown Phoenix homes have been steadily rising for the past year. When inventory goes down, prices go up (you probably learned that in your high school econ class) But, that’s not bound to last. Home builders are ramping up quickly. So, the rising prices will level out a little later this year.  People are buying in the late spring and summer for job relocations and to close in time to get kids in to new schools, etc.

So if your looking to sell your home, now’s the time. I truly enjoy helping people make smart real estate decisions. Call today

Here’s a little more background: Since 2007, the Mortgage Debt Relief Act has allowed owners selling their homes through a short sale to do so without having to pay tax on the amount their mortgage holders forgave them. In previous days the money that the bank forgave on the loan would have been considered by the IRS as some sort of income on which you must pay taxes!

That will end December 31, 2012, giving homeowners until the end of this year to get out from under their debt without facing tax consequences.

Real estate brokers and agents specializing in the listing and sale of short sales have become the busiest in the industry. The moral here is that if you are going to do a short sale, do it now.  While most short sales take 3-4 months, some can take longer.  You do not want to be sweating out a December 31st closing.

Call us today at 602-456-9388 and we can make it happen for you!

Many people think “I’ll make an offer on a home and figure out later how I’ll pay for it.” But if you want your offer to be taken seriously and if you want to avoid complications when you close on the home, you must get pre-qualified before you start looking.”

See the image below of the form, below.

Pre-qualification quick but very important as you get ready to make offers. And in this market, where houses are selling in days, you can’t NOT have that pre-qualification form ready.

Why? Because there are 3 people who will benefit from your preapproval: You, your Agent, and the seller from whom you eventually buy a home.

Prequalification serves two primary purposes:

• It demonstrates to both you (and to sellers) how much house you can afford.
• It gives you the purchasing power to make a legitimate offer. (In fact, many financial institutions will not accept an offer on a house without a pre-qualification letter.)

But the benefits continue.

A mortgage loan prequalification is simply an estimate of how much house you can afford and how much money a lender would be willing to loan you. The best time to get a prequalification is right at the beginning of your home buying process, before you even start looking at houses. Realtors also prefer that you have a prequalification letter before they start showing houses so they know the price range you have qualified for.

And, in the event you’re competing with multiple offers on your dream home, most sellers will consider offers with prequalification letters before those without. In this market, that’s extra handy. Last year at this time there were about 6,000 active properties, today their are only about 2,000.

The Prequalification process involves either sitting down with a lender or talking with one on the phone, and providing information on your income, assets, debts, and a potential down payment amount. The lender would then provide you with a ballpark figure in writing of how much he thinks you could afford to pay for a monthly mortgage. There is no cost involved and there is no commitment on either side. This estimate is just helpful in helping you figure out if buying a home is a viable option, and if so, what your price range would probably be.

So if you’re thinking of buying a home in downtown phoenix, Call Jeannie! She’ll help you with the whole process.

Or call me for more information about the market: 602-456-9388.

We’ve reached a critical point as a city. Now in our hundredth year, the city of Phoenix has a terrible habit of demolishing it’s own history. Most of our historic properties are gone. As a city we need to constantly work to preserve historic properties in Phoenix.

The Lugo Bakery and W.L. Bobo House are two historic sites, built between 1910 and 1920 looking for investors to save the structures from disrepair. Written assessments have been done on both structures, but they need willing buyers to rescue them.

The Luis Lugo Bakery known originally as the La Pantellera was constructed in 1917. It’s a 2,000 square foot commercial structure, complete with a basement, 1,300 square foot addition, and vacant lot for possible parking. Overall, the Lugo Bakery is in poor condition.

Poor design, haphazard construction techniques,weathering, neglect, and unsympathetic renovations have not been kind to certain exterior building elements which require immediate attention to prevent further deterioration and/or lost of historic fabric. This building is in need of some serious TLC, ranging just under $400,000 according to the Building Condition Assessment Report.

The building has strong potential as an office, art gallery, sandwich/coffee shop, or bakery (duh). The bakery and grocery store was in continuous use for
nearly 50 years. The Luis Lugo Bakery is a rare example of an early Hispanic commercial
property in downtown Phoenix and should be saved

The property has a two story private residence attached, which is also in disrepair. This update is estimated around $170,000

The W.L. Bobo House  is in the McKinley Park subdivision. The W. L. Bobo House, a charming Craftsman bungalow at the southwest corner of 13th & Roosevelt Streets, is threatened with demolition.  It’s on a double lot and has a porte cochere on the 13th Street side and a detached garage at the rear. The house has numerous architectural features that set it apart as an unique design. Character-defining features include:

• Medium-pitched intersecting gable roofs
• Gables with decoratively cut wood shingle siding
• Broad porch on stuccoed brick piers, supported on massive, tapered cobblestone bases
• Cobblestone foundation wall at porch, and battered cobblestone chimney mass
•  Trellised porte-cochere
• Double-hung and casement wood windows, some with leaded and beveled glass

It’s a true fixer upper, but the building is in pretty good shape considering it’s from 1912. The house needs new roofing, the foundation needs repair, and some window fixes and a fresh coat of paint would do it some good. The interior needs all new plumbing, heating, electric, and replacement woodwork. Most of the fixes are minor, and according to the  Building Condition Assessment Report the total updates would cost approximately $143,240.  This residence could have a future at a single family home or a business/art gallery depending on the buyer.

Despite the cost , rehabilitating the residence would undoubtedly broaden the historical setting of the Lugo Bakery and Bobo House and add charm to the street scape. Historic Properties like these are priceless to our community’s history and future.

You have to give it to them. Despite upcoming triple digit temperatures, the Phoenix Bike Community never stops peddling.

And why would they? All Valley Metro buses are equipped with bike racks and the city is finally expanding bike lanes to help support this very green form of travel.

And I have to say finally! I remember about 12 years ago I tried to ride my bike to work from the Willo neighborhood to downtown. I was certain every morning that I was going to die. The drivers would buzz me as if to say, “yeah, buddy, we’re gonna enforce this here no-ride zone.”

Anyway, in Celebration of the city’s growing bike scene, Twenty-five top local graphic designers will show their original bicycle-themed poster artwork for Third Friday festivities and through the month of April by appointment all leading up to Pedal Craft.

The one night event will feature lots of bikes, plenty of beer, and a bike themed poster show highlighting Phoenix bike culture. Throughout Phoenix, bicyclists, walkers, and pedicab riders will be visiting downtown Phoenix restaurants that have installed bike racks and are offering special menu discounts for PEDAL CRAFT PHX participants. Those bike racks were created in part by SideWalk Phoenix, a newly formed advocacy group for walkable, bikeable, and livable communities, will display a dozen one-of-a-kind bicycle racks designed by local artists and metal sculptors.

SideWalk Phoenix will be raising awareness and funds at Pedal Craft to create a temporary infill “pop-up” park at the quarter-acre Ro2 Lot at 1005 North Second Street. According to Pedal Craft Co-organizer, Jim McPherson,  “Fun, community-minded events like PEDAL CRAFT PHX help to raise awareness and, knock on wood, support for much needed bicycle transportation initiatives in the Valley.”

These are great community organizations and members working together for the great phoenix area. I’m inspired every time I see a new project like this come together.

THIS, my friends, is why people are flocking to Phoenix.

Over the years, brokers have gotten a bad wrap. I work with people everyday who want to go with big banks and credit unions for their loans (because they haven’t done anything wrong in the past few years, right?).

Just recently I had a client who went with a big credit union for her loan, and 7 days before close of escrow, they decided to pull the loan because the bank had issues with the HOA. Lucky for us, Jeanie Bolger from Nova Home loans came in and saved the day. I can’t tell you the number of times this happens.

Here is what I learn and I want to share with anybody who is thinking about finding a lender:

1. Big banks are just that BIG. They’ve got lots of red tape and work to get through everyday, before they even think about giving you a loan. On the other hand, a mortgage broker is a certified professional who seeks the best mortgage terms for you by accessing a network of lenders that includes major banks, trust companies, credit unions and finance companies.
2. Big banks and credit unions tend to be more conservative on loans. So, if you have something out of the ordinary going on, like a second property, a divorce or a spouse with bad credit, stay away from the big banks, especially.
3. Underwriters work fast with Brokers. Jeannie’s brokers are in the same office, so she can work with the underwriter to make sure everything they need and you need is in place. Jeannie can physically walk down a hall and ask an underwriter a question about a loan and get an answer right away. They can’t do that in the mega bureaucracies.

I recently worked with Lonna to find a home downtown. Lonna wanted to go with a credit union because they had given her pre-approval. One week from closing escrow, the credit union pulled the loan and we once again turned to Jeannie.

Lonna loved working with her. “Jeannie answered all my questions immediately and spoke to me like she was trying to help. It feels like your being interrogated when your with a Credit Union, like you’re just a case number, but with a broker it was like they cared.” Once Jeannie took over, it only took two days from when the underwriter received the application to approval.

So, let me be clear: from the time we started to the time we close, Jeannie swooped in and got it all done within 5 days! Its gotta be a record!

So if you’re thinking of buying a home in downtown phoenix, use a broker. Heck, Call Jeannie!

Or call me for more information about the market: 602-456-9388.

I’m sure y’all have heard that “broken window theory” of criminology, made popular by  James Q. Wilson and George L. Kelling in 1982. Basically, if law enforcement does not address small crimes like broken windows then it becomes harder to fight more serious crimes.

I’ve seen this in reverse since I moved to Phoenix in 1998. I’ve seen greater attention on the part of the city and police to things like graffiti and petty crimes. As a result, and along with hard work of urban pioneers, things have gotten much better here.

Well, as city budgets have been cut (thank you Grover Norquist and the like), we are not training new cops and we don’t have the ability to respond quickly to graffiti like we once could.

So, we citizens have to respond in new ways. That is why I am happy to see that Mayor Greg Stanton has created an advisory committee to advise him on current issues impacting phoenix neighborhoods. Mayor Stanton believes “our city is only as strong as our individual neighborhoods, so we must keep an open line of communication.”At Quarterly meetings the committee, comprised of 29 members, will discuss such topics as law enforcement, parks, streets, neighborhood services, etc. The first meeting is set for the end of this month.

On of the reasons we love and live in downtown phoenix, is because if it’s walkability and promise for future communities. It’s important to support the local community and neighborhoods, not only for our quality of life downtown, but our home values in the future.

Did you know 40% of single family and condo sales in Greater Phoenix in January were cash purchases. Now, I’m not talking about sacks or briefcases full of cash, but people are buying homes outright and their are some benefits.

• Psychologically,  there is a big benefit in knowing that you own your house free and clear. You also free up quite a bit of income because you will have no rent or mortgage.
• Buying a house with cash means that if the value of the home goes down by 10% then the money you put in also goes down by 10%. The most you can lose is the amount of money you put in. In the case of a 20% down mortgage, if the house’s value goes down 10% then you lose 50% of the money you put in because of leverage.
• When you have the cash to pay for the full amount of a house, it means that there will be no contingencies on getting a loan and the amount of time needed to close a deal is shorter. This generally gives you the buyer more negotiating power for a discount on the price of the home, and with the number of homes on the market quickly drops timing is everything.

But is it for you? Well there’s no tax advantage. But if the amount of cash you spend does not consist of a significant portion of your liquid assets and the amount of savings you get from an all cash deal versus a loan deal is significant, cash might be for you. In other words, you might be earning more money on your investment in a house than other investments.

Now, I’m not a financial advisor and I suggest you speak with one before you purchase a home. But if you want to know more about the market, please give me a call at 602-456-9388.

The following is an Op Ed piece from Kimber Lanning Published in the Downtown Phoenix Journal.

I really encourage y’all to read this and share it. Kimber is leading the discussion about how we need to protect our local businesses and how we need to reform our out-dated tax structure. The more we let on-line retailers get away without paying their fair share, the more we shift the tax burden to you and me.

Please read and share!!

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We are surrounded by small businesses in Downtown Phoenix, and we know much of Downtown’s success rests on the shoulders of these business owners. As we survey the current economic climate, it is critical to understand the impact a national retailer can have on the health of our local economy. Kimber Lanning, founder and executive director of Local First Arizona, provides insight on the ramifications of the current sales tax impasse between the State of Arizona and Amazon.

Last week at the Arizona State Senate subcommittee hearing Don Isaacson, the lead attorney for Amazon, took the podium to make the case that economies change over time. “We all remember the days of mom and pops,” he said, “and then there were the days of the big box retailers….” I surmise this to be a very honest glimpse into the world vision Amazon holds, but what does it mean for Arizona?

For the moment, let’s forget the fact that there are over 40,000 independent businesses operating in Arizona today, with a payroll of around 21 billion per year, and let’s focus on our state’s economy and what would be left of it if Amazon’s vision becomes reality.

Read the rest of the story here.

Arizona is a beautiful place full of fantastic neighborhoods and if you’re moving here, you’ll probably need a little help deciding what community is right for you.

Jeannie Bolger and I have created a guide for new home buyers with links for information about schools and attractions for different parts of the valley.

This guide will be really handy for people moving in to phoenix neighborhoods or for companies to have on hand for their employees.

If you know of somebody thinking to move to Phoenix, or a company that is expanding in Arizona, please share this resource with them.

Download it here and keep it on hand in your office. Ken Clark’s Relocation Guide

Of course, Jeannie and I are just a phone call away if you need anything.