Phoenix Metro Realty Blog

I picked up a cool widget for my real estate blog, Global Translations by Davide Pozza. It translates my blog into thirteen other languages. You can read my blog in Japanese, Korean, Chinese, Spanish, French, Italian, German, Portuguese, Norwegian, Greek, Russian, Dutch, and Arabic. Too bad, Tagalog is not supported, that would have been too perfect. I need to have my friends who can read these languages validate the translations, it could be translating my blog into something x rated. Check it out; just click the flags on the side bar.

Welcome to Phoenix Metro Realty John. John Gregory is another Intel guy; I met him at Intel C7 cafeteria last December through Javier Parra, an old ASU buddy. John has been a license real estate agent since 2002; he is an Accredited Buyer Representative (ABR) designee. His last brokerage was 1st USA Realty. Now I have two former 1ST USA Realty agents, the other is Justin Scott. John’s specialty is real estate investment. He’s planning to take advantage of the current buyer’s market and do his own investing. John joined my brokerage last Thursday, May 1st, and today he’s already doing a transaction representing a buyer. Way to go John, that’s what I’m talking about!

Pictures of our new office in Tempe, the Corporate Fountains. We are located on the first floor, second office to the right. Its main purpose is for property management, we want to meet potential tenants first prior to showing a home, it’s for safety reason. The office is centralized to our service areas, except for the city of Maricopa, so it’s convenient for any potential tenants. Also tenants can drop off their rent between 8am to 5pm; I got the front desk receptionist to agree to receive rents, no cash of course. If you like coffee, they have a nice coffee maker with plenty to choose from. We got a great deal on a 6 month lease, I’m expecting them to jack it up when we renew, we’ll see.

Address:
4625 S. Wendler Dr. Suite 111
Tempe, AZ 85282
<Click here for the map>

I decided to make my blog look cleaner; no more transparent and picture background; it’s just hard to read. This theme was just released – Cutline by Chris Pearson. I like it a lot; it’s simple, clean and easy to customize. The forum is awesome; it provides lots of support for newbie like me. I have been learning a little bit of PHP, something to do while real estate is slow.

The spec home of the week that I posted on 4/23/2008 SOLD. That was a great deal. DR Horton spec homes are competitively priced, they don’t mess around like other builders. They are selling more homes in Maricopa compare to the entire Multiple Listing Service, MLS. Most of the homes going “Pending” in the MLS here in Maricopa are Foreclosures or Short-Sales (Pre-foreclosure). Most of my clients cancelled their listings with me; they would rather rent their homes than sell in this market. It’s a good thing that my real estate company provides residential property management. When the real estate market ever appreciates to where they want to sell, I can just call them.

Cape Cod 2748 Lot 82
4 Bedrooms plus Loft / 2.5 Bathrooms / 2,192 Square Feet
Price = $159,782 to be completed in June 2008
Features: Gas Dryer & Range Pre-Plumb, Soft Water Loop, Ceiling Fan Pre-wire at Master, Family, Double Sink at Master Vanity, Separate Tub & Shower at Master Bath,  Alternate Kitchen, Extended Covered Patio with Stucco Columns, Painted Mission Spindles, Classique Interior Doors,  Can choose Flooring, counter tops, appliances and cabinets.
Click to View Floorplan
More builder specs homes in Maricopa

It’s become more difficult to find affordable rentals as rental rates rise due to high demand.

According to the U.S. Census Bureau, the median rate for rentals has jumped 14 percent.  Rental rates have increased from $591 a month in 2003 to $673 in 2007.  Average rent is expected to rise 5.2 percent in 2008 compared to 3.1 percent in 2007 as vacancy rates decrease from last year, the National Association of Realtor® reported.

Mark Obrinsky, chief economist at the National Multi Housing Council stated “We’ve seen demand for rental housing go up. The ownership side is retrenching and we’re seeing the demand going to the rental side.  There’s a lot of hesitancy to buy. Others can’t get (financing), so they’re remaining renters longer.”

Medium rents for 12 major metropolitan areas in the first quarter of 2008 were:

Austin: $907
Phoenix: $939
Atlanta: $986
Boston: $1,645
Chicago: $1,355
Las Vegas: $1,056
Los Angeles: $1,699
Miami: $1,368
New York: $1,751
San Francisco: $1,810
Seattle: $1,211
Washington D.C.: $1,687

Source: Rentometer and USA Today, Mark W. Williams (04/22/2008)

Cars.com editor-in-chief Patrick K Olsen says drivers are passionate about green cars, particularly drivers in West Coast cities. Consider these top 10 markets if you would like to live where most neighbors are environmentally mindful with the highest level of interest in hybrids.

San Francisco/Oakland/San Jose
Portland, Oregon
Seattle
SacramentoSan Diego
Los Angeles
Denver
Washington, D.C.
Minneapolis/St. Paul
Boston

The Green Index has been created by Cars.com to monitor interest in hybrid vehicles in the top 50 markets in the U.S.  Rankings are determined by the number of searches for hybrids in a market as a percentage of all Internet searches for new cars. Where is Phoenix? Recount.

Green buildings perform better than their conventional ones in rental rates, sales prices, occupancy rates and energy savings according to two new studies.

The New Building Institute Study discovered that buildings certified by the USGBC LEED system perform 25 to 30 percent better than non certified buildings on average.  The study also showed a direct link between increased levels of LEED certification and increased savings in energy.

A new study by the CoStar Group determined that LEED structures obtain rent premiums of $11.24 per square foot and have a 3.8 percent higher occupancy rates.

Watch out for the new Fannie Mae 3 months seasoning guidelines. I just verified this seasoning requirement with four mortgage brokers. The lenders are forcing investors to keep their flip for at least three months. One of my agents has a buyer that qualified for the loan but the lender won’t fund the loan because the seller have own the property less than 3 months. So when your buying an investment home to flip, plan on keeping it for at least 3 months.