Phoenix Metro Realty Blog

We celebrated our first year anniversary in Business by opening a branch in Tempe. We moved in April 3rd, it supposed to be ready on the 1st but the building property manager is slacking, the office needed to be painted and it’s hard to work with that new paint smell. This Tempe office will be the Residential Property Management Branch. The location is perfect. It’s in the middle of our service areas which are Tempe, southern Phoenix, Laveen, Ahwatukee, Chandler, Ocotillo, Gilbert, Mesa and Maricopa. We don’t want to drive more than 30 minutes to service a rental and we also do a drive by inspection every Wednesdays.

Atin Kapadia, one of my real estate agent, and I partnered up to expand our Phoenix Property Management Service. National Properties, my brother’s brokerage, is one of the biggest property management companies in the Las Vegas area. We’re expanding the property management service thought Phoenix Metro Realty. My brother, Manny Manago, is helping us get up and running by giving us the systems that made him successful in the last ten years. Atin and I are porting all the system, process, policy, and contracts given to us into Phoenix Metro Realty.

http://www.phoenixmetrorealty.com/propertymanagement.html

Since we move in the Tempe office less than a week ago, we accomplished most of what we need to be up and running. Our Phoenix Property Management Service is growing fast. We have clients from California, Oregon, New York and now the Canadians are coming. There’s nothing like two ex Intel engineers developing systems for Real Estate, it reminded me some of the good old days at Intel.

As the American dollar continues to depreciate compare to the Canadian dollar, Canadians are buying Real Estate in the US as a vacation home and residential rentals.

Washington State developers in the Finger Lake areas say over 80% of the buyers are from Canada. “The Canadians are just running out of space, and affordable space at that, so it’s driving them across the border,” says Chris Branch, Oroville, Washington City Planner.

We are also seeing a lot of Canadian buyers in the Phoenix Areas. They are buying real estate in the areas that was hit hard by the real estate bubble. Cities like Maricopa where you can buy a brand new 2000 square feet home for less than $160,000. Most of these Canadian buyers that bought new homes in Maricopa are second homes or winter vacation homes. Canadian Investors buy their rentals in town, usually in established neighborhood in Phoenix because of low vacancy and higher rents.

The Canadian inquiries I get from my property management company usually purchased multiple homes and condominiums, they often ask for discount in Property Management fee. Our monthly rate is 9% of the rent but we discounted it to 7% if they have multiple rental homes. Phoenix Property Managers are in demand because of Canadian Real Estate Investors.

http://www.phoenixmetrorealty.com/propertymanagement.html

Happy Anniversary to all Phoenix Metro Realty Agents. We made it the first year. Now lets actually sell some houses instead of just hanging our real estate licenses, jk… Party at Tim and Mei’s house tonight!

Dependable Property Management Service in Phoenix Arizona

Phoenix Metro Realty - Residential Property Management serves the following areas: Southern Phoenix, Scottsdale, Laveen, Ahwatukee, Chandler, Ocotillo, Tempe, Gilbert, Mesa, and the new city of Maricopa. These service areas are within a thirty minutes drive from our centrally located office in Tempe. We provide Property Management to single family homes, town homes, and condominiums. Our services include advertising, marketing, leasing and management.

Our property managers’ core principles are simple: Provide superior customer service to our clients, maximizing your return on investment. Utilizing current technologies, we serve our clients in both marketing and management services. Also, clients can view their status/payments/accounting and more on demand by accessing our 24/7 Rental Owner Online Web Portal.

Summary of our Property Management Fees:

• SET-UP FEE: $100 non-refundable + $200 refundable reserve.
• LEASING FEE: 1/2 of the first months rent ($600 minimum).
• MONTHLY MANAGEMENT FEE: 9% ($90 minimum).

For more information and details of our property management service, please visit our website: http://www.PhoenixMetroRealty.com/propertymanagement.html

Average apartment rents in the United States rose 1 percent in the first quarter of 2008.

According to Reis, Inc. a real estate research firm, rates have risen 24 quarters in a row.  Rates haven’t fallen since the first quarter of 2002, according to Reis, when they decreased by 2%.

The “dominant driver” pushing people to rentals is the stricter loan terms, soft housing market and falling home prices, Sam Chandan, chief economist at Reis said.

The highest average rent was in New York at $2,790 per month, and then San Francisco at $1,801, Fairfield County, CT was $1,759 with Boston rents at $1,620, Reis said.

Source: Bloomberg News

The Senate late Wednesday night announced that it had reached a bipartisan compromise on a plan to aid families facing foreclosure.The lawmakers have been at a stalemate, unable to reach agreement on key provisions that have already been approved by the House. The Senate didn’t approve a provision that would allow bankruptcy judges to reduce mortgage debt.

The compromise includes:

Foreclosure aid. A $4 billion package to aid communities hard hit by foreclosures and mortgage delinquencies. Local governments could use the funds to buy and rehabilitate foreclosed homes at a discount.

Government-backed mortgages. Increased loan limits for FHA- guaranteed mortgages.

Financial counseling. About $100 million in new funding for housing counseling for troubled families.

Tax credit. A $7,000 tax credit, over two years, for buyers of foreclosed homes or properties on which foreclosure action has been filed.

Business tax relief. Authority for home builders and other firms that are losing money to reclaim taxes paid up to four years ago vs. two years now.

The Mortgage Bankers Association applauded the plan, saying it would “keep at-risk borrowers in their homes.”

Source: USA Today, Sue Kirchhoff and Kevin McCoy

The Internal Revenue Service is paying close attention to the definition of “Real Estate Professional” when it reviews tax returns. Under the IRS Code and Regulations, real estate professionals are defined as those who spend 750 hours or more annually handling real estate-related activities.

Real estate professionals with property investments cannot record more than $25,000 in losses against their real estate income if they earn less than $100,000 and no losses at all are permitted if they earn more than $150,000. However, there are no limits to taking real estate losses against other forms of income.

Given that the IRS definition of real estate activity requires “brokering” property sales, purchases, or leases, two cases in California reveal auditors declaring that real estate agents are not real estate professionals.

Source: Realty Times, Diane Kennedy (02/21/08)

National Association of Realtors (NAR) reports that its membership declined in 2007. The total realtor membership dropped from 1.358 million to 1.338 million, a 1.5% declined from its record year in 2006.  Many part time agents in Arizona are putting their real estate license in inactive status or letting it expires, we lost two agents in my brokerage. Membership fee at a local realtor board is $375 a year (SEVRAR) and an additional fee for MLS access. So, many agents will wait in the sideline till the housing market stabilized. I remember in 2004 when we hit a million in membership. There are a lot of us full time out there, still the most competitive industry.

Alright it’s official; we started our property management in our brokerage. We already have a client and rented his house on February 1st. We are finalizing the owner’s agreement this week and we’re planning to have 10 rentals by March. Service areas are Maricopa, Chandler, Ocotillo, Ahwatukee, and Tempe.
http://www.phoenixmetrorealty.com/propertymanagement.html

“I had no shoes and complaint until I saw a man with no feet.” I saw that framed on the wall at Eifferman’s Gym next to another frame with a very small print, maybe 1 pt font, which says “You nosy title bastard”.