Phoenix Real Estate Blog

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.

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