The world of Real Estate in Arizona is about shift.  July is a big month for the technically savvy agent because our property listing system is being completely overhauled.  But more importantly, it’s a big month for you because the system that you rely on to view property searches is being vastly improved.

Client Gateway is a clunky online system that allows you to see various properties based on searches that I have created for you.  Client Gateway will soon be a think of the past.  The new Flex MLS system enables you to login to a free online “Portal” to your property information.  Through this portal, you have far more information that Client Gateway could ever provide, and the system is much more efficient and responsive.  It’s also fun to use.

Rather than attempt to describe how it works or outline all of the features, I’ve included a link to a video tutorial that you can watch before you get started.  I’ve also provided you with a user name and login to my Guest Account which you can use to preview the features.

If you’re ready to begin searching for a home and you’d like to have your own personal portal login please complete the form below and I’ll set you up.

To Login to the Guest Account please use the link above or in the upper right-hand section of the website:

USER NAME: guestuser
PASSWORD: guest

To create your own account and begin searching for properties, please complete the following form:

cforms contact form by delicious:days

As I mentioned in my previous post about Independence day, the annual tradition of cycling from Scottsdale to Tempe to watch the fireworks show was put on hold this year.  Last year, Mike Whalen hosted a get together at his brother in law’s house and again this year at his new home, which was a bit off the beaten path that we’re so used to traveling on the fourth.  Rather than cycling, we decided to join our friends and it was well worth it.

I was skeptical of how the fireworks would fare from atop a hill in Papago Park, but it turned out to be just about one of the best places to view the annual festival of fire in the sky.  I cooked up some photos as you can see in the gallery below.

Don’t forget to DIGG this post!  Click the DIGG icon to the right!

It’s that time of the year when we gear up to barbecue and watch fireworks.  Even in this hot, desert state of Arizona we manage to blast off into the lower atmosphere with our eyes and ears trained on the glory of beautiful colors and crackling noises.

Every year for the past four years I’ve made it a tradition to bicycle from my area of town, Hayden and McDonald, 12 miles down the greenbelt to the north shore of Tempe Town Lake to watch the fireworks.  Every year I have been pleased.  The ride, if leisurely, will take you about an hour, unless you choose to stop for dinner at Prankster’s Too, a small sports bar alongside the greenbelt.  Once you’re there, enjoy not having to deal with traffic as you casually ride up to a great front seat show.  The south shore of the lake during this event is miserable.  I highly recommend cycling.  Make sure if you go that you bring some water and give yourself enough time to park yourself in a comfortable spot.

Be safe this year.

I frequently find myself in conversations with people who are unaware that they could in fact purchase a home.  There is a misconception that homes come with more bills than apartments, and that owning a home locks you in to living in one place forever.  Ownership doesn’t mean you’ll incur additional expenses if you choose the right place for you.

On the latter point, if you’re planning on making a move and you’re hoping to get rich quick, don’t hold your breath.  It costs more to sell a home than it does to buy a home because of the marketing costs involved, so you’ll want to make sure you stay in your home long enough for the value of the home to exceed the brokerage fees you’ll incur when selling.  So, yes, you would probably be looking at a longer stay in a home if you own it than if you rent it, but here’s why it’s a better financial decision for your long term financial growth.

Owning real estate builds wealth.  Renting builds someone else’s wealth.  How can this be?  Let’s look at a simple example.  We’ll take two single adults, Joe and Larry, each making $30,000/year.  (Note: I am not a lender and cannot be held responsible for the accuracy or realism of these calculations, but I’ll do my best.)

Joe Makes $30,000 year.  He rents.  His monthly rent is $1000.00.  For the sake of simplicity, we’ll assume he has no other expenses.  I know, not too realistic, but it cleans the canvas for the brevity of my point.  Joe pays the government based on a 15% tax bracket.  His tax bill for the year will be roughly $4099.00.  That means that of Joe’s $30,000 salary, he takes home $25,901 and of that, he spends $12,000.00 on rent, leaving him with $13,901 for the rest of his discretionary and non-discretionary expenses.

Larry also makes $30,000 / year.  He bought a $160,000.00 home at roughly 6.25% for 30 Years, fixed.  (No idea how mortgages work?  Check out one of my sponsors, Michelle Minnoch.)  His mortgage payment is about $1000.00 / month, but the key difference is that part of the mortgage payment is interest to the lender, and the rest pays down the balance of the loan.  Over the course of one year, where Joe would be throwing away $12,000.00 in rent, Larry only “throws away” $10,100.00 and the difference of $1900 becomes equity in his home and increases in value over time.

So, while Joe has thrown away $12,000.00, Larry has saved nearly $2000.00.  Not only has he saved over the course of the year, he can also reduce his taxable income because the interest paid to the lender is tax deductible.  Where Joe found himself in the 15% tax bracket, Larry can reduce his taxable income by the amount of interest paid out during his first year of ownership which amounts to about $10,000.00.  Larry is still in the 15% tax bracket but he is taxed on only $20,000.00, which means his tax bill will only add up to $2599, a savings of roughly $1500.00 over Joe.

Joe pays Uncle Sam $4099 and throws away $12,000.00 on rent.  Larry pays Uncle Sam $2599 and throws away only $10,000.00 on tax-deductible interest.

When Larry bought his house, he gave himself a $3500 raise.  Joe is still renting.  They both spent $12,000.00.  Which one do you want to be?

If you’re thinking about buying a home but for some reason you don’t believe that you are a qualified candidate, give me a chance to talk to you about it…you owe it to yourself to begin building wealth and living the American dream.

As though we haven’t heard this plea enough, it’s time for sellers to let go of unrealistic expectations. There are too many people who are testing the market and aren’t serious about selling their homes and many of them forget that they aren’t the only one taking the hit. When we list your home, our job is to market the home.  We will put it on the market for SALE, not for tour, not for show…for SALE. Right now, more than ever, price is driving the sale of the home.

Supply and Demand

My goal as your Realtor is to analyze the market in your area and help you determine what the most realistic asking price for your home should be.  It’s up to you to set the price.  It’s up to me to point you in the right direction.

Supply and demand are the two opposing forces that are intertwined in the process of determining the right price.  Typically, when you increase the supply, provided that it is not a response to increased demand, the price of the item falls.  There’s more of it, so the consumers have more choices, and they can afford to shop for a lower price.  If you decrease the supply, as long as it’s not in response to changing demand, the prices tend to go up because there are more buyers than there are items for sale.  (To read my quick article describing supply and demand, please click here)

Is it possible to artificially affect pricing without affecting the supply?  Yes, but it requires artificially altering consumer demand by offering incentives or specials, or conveying a sense of urgency for the buyer.

Is it possible to artificially affect demand by changing the price?  Yes.  How?  Lower the price.  If you offered a gallon of gas at 50% of the surrounding competition’s prices, you’d artificially increase demand for gas in that area.  The problem with this is that the gas station won’t make any money, so lowering the price too much is not in their best interest.

Is it possible to increase the value of a product by artificially inflating the price?  In other words, if I want to sell my peanut butter for $1.00 more than all of the competition, will that increase demand for my product?  Will it increase demand for the product that’s $1.00 cheaper?  No, and no.  Increasing the price of a product that is competing against less expensive products is not going to increase demand for higher prices.

It is our job to get the highest price that we can for your home.  We cannot do this by pricing your home higher than the competition, no matter what the condition of the home.  Even if the home has upgrades, the price you set may be too high for the area to bear.

In order to sell a product to a consumer, the price must be right.  Your neighborhood is like a grocery store filled with products.  Those products are homes.  When you shop in the grocery store, you look for the best products at the lowest price.  Sometimes you pay more for a better product because it has 10% more!!!  Sometimes you pay more because of the brand name.  Sometimes you settle for bargain basement prices because name brand aspirin is the same as the local grocery store aspirin, and you just don’t care.  But, if you find a product that is clearly over priced, it is guaranteed that you’ll pass it by with only a glance.

Manufacturers spend millions of dollars every year to market these products to you.  Realtors also spend their money on your home to make sure that it is marketed as effectively as possible.  If you, the seller, set a price that is too high, you may generate interest in the product simply because it’s on the same block as more realistically priced homes, but nobody will buy it, especially when three other identical products down the street sold at a price far lower than yours.

“But our house is upgraded.”

There is a very clear difference between a home that is upgraded and a home that simply has new features that are already expected.  Is it really upgraded, or is it just more sellable?  Just because a fixture is new, or tile has been laid doesn’t mean that you have a home with upgrades.  What it does mean is that you have a clean home.  What makes those items upgrades?  The quality of the items.  New linoleum is still linoleum.  It doesn’t increase the value of your home nor will it command a dollar for dollar investment recovery at sale.  A pool is a great feature to have, but what type of pool is it?  Is it a pool that most people expect, with a diving board and/or decorative rocks surrounding the perimeter, or is it an enlarged spa?  In Arizona, in the 200-300K price range, a pool adds about $5,000 in value.  Sometimes more, sometimes less.  This really depends on how many homes in your sub-division have pools.  In some countries, as you can see in the illustration, pools are in very high demand.

Paint is not an upgrade.  An air conditioner just like the neighbor’s is not an upgrade, even if it was installed yesterday.  Sure, it’s new, and that may influence whether or not someone will consider your property, but it will not support a higher price.  It is a deferred maintenance item.  An air conditioner twice the size of the surrounding neighborhood could be considered an upgrade, unless you’ve upgraded yourself out of the market.

Basically, anything that is expected to be in a standard single family home in the 200K - 300K range will only add to the sellability of the home, not the value.

Be careful when you spend money on your home, because some items don’t fit.  A 6-Burner Viking Gas Stove in a 300K Home with Corian counter tops and laminate floors won’t increase the value of your home.  It will make it sell faster, true, but you won’t recover your costs.  Nobody expects there to be that high of an upgraded item in your home.  Consider upgrades to be vast improvements over not just the condition of the previous item, but also the quality.  The items you perceive to be upgrades may only be what you believe to be upgrades and the rest of the world may expect more.

The Bottom Line

Your house has an inherent value to someone.  Until the home closes escrow, your home’s value is basically unknown.  What you do know is:

• How much others have paid for similar homes, recently.
• How much you paid for your home.
• How much money you put into your home.
• How much you still owe.

The average return on Real Property is around 4% annually.  2005 really screwed up homeowner’s perception of value in housing.  If you purchased your home in 2003 for $150,000.00, and you apply the average rate of return, a realistic price for your home in 2008 would be about $185,000.00 give or take.  That’s $7,000 per year in value, and it’s realistic.  If your neighborhood comparables show that properties just like yours are selling in the $220,000 range, then your return is HUGE and you need to realize that it’s completely abnormal.  Many homeowners screwed up by tapping into that artificially bloated equity to upgrade their homes or buy other properties or a boat or other luxury item.  Now, they think they can recover it, and they can’t.

Let’s just hope that Sellers will become more realistic about looking at how much value they have gained already and consider it a blessing, and to not be greedy.  If you are thinking about selling your property, and you thought it was worth more than it actually is, think again about your reasons for selling.  If you must sell, get realistic about the price and sell.  The offers are there and there are plenty of hungry buyers.  If you don’t have to sell, hold the property or rent it out and take a small monthly hit for a while.  You’ll benefit from it in the long run.

If you have no idea whether or not you’re in the right position to sell your home, give me a call at (602) 312-3262 and I’ll be happy to work up a Market Analysis of your home so you can make the right decision.  When you’re ready to list your property, know that I will take care of you through the entire process and in the most cutting edge ways.

I hope to hear from you.