The Housechick Blog

I’ve been putting together an Open House tour of Vail area homes over the last week or so. I’ve got the website up, and it is nearly complete, at www.HomeTourTucson.com. I’ve got a listing out in the area, and we’re hoping to get some potential Buyers into their cars and onto the streets down in Vail. If you’ve never explored Vail, c’mon out and visit us on August 5th from 1-4pm! We’ve got around 14 homes scheduled to be held open, in all sorts of price ranges.

You can take I-10 East to the Vail/Wentworth exit and head North, or you can head down Old Spanish Trail to Camino Loma Alta and follow the signs. There’ll be plenty!

I talked to a woman at Realtor Magazine a couple weeks ago, who had called with questions aplenty about my blog. And now little ole’ Housechick Blog has a nice mention in the Realtor Magazine Online version, here. It’s probably silly to be flattered, but I am. Cool!

I’m listing a house soon over in Vista del Prado, near Davis Monthan Air Force Base.  The owner has been making some repairs and upgrades, so I stopped by the other day to check on the progress.

I left the neighborhood by a route unfamiliar to me, when I turned a corner and all of a sudden, there was the Boneyard.  Hundreds of little unexpected airplane behinds staring at me. 

More formally, that’s the “Aerospace Maintenance and Regeneration Center” as those in the know will tell you.  Planes are “mothballed” and stored for future use, sometimes long after production of those aircraft has ceased.

There’s an interview with Colonel Michael Spencer from 2006 in the Arizona Daily Star where he makes the argument that the “boneyard” is not a place where aircraft go to die.  Rather, the Colonel states that there are 4,400 airplanes at the AMARC, valued at $33 billion, and for every dollar the AMARC spends, it brings back $12.43 as a giant parts store for the US Military.  And, he says, they do regenerate entire airplanes.

Locals call it the Boneyard, and it’s a sort of fascinating history of planes, sitting out in the field.  You can take tours by bus, run by the Pima Air and Space Museum.

Oh, and that’s a sweet little 4 bedroom, 2 bath house over in Vista del Prado - nice big yard, tile floors except in the bedrooms, no funky additions, new roof, new paint, 1 car carport, and an evap cooler - there’s some touch-ups left to do, but it should be ready in a couple weeks.  Give me a call if you’re looking for something in the area.

Yesterday, I had the pleasure of dining with some friends at the Cup Cafe in Hotel Congress, in downtown Tucson. 

It was my first visit to the Cup, much to the amazement of my friends.  If you believe them, I may be the last person in Tucson who hasn’t eaten there.  Even Rachael Ray has been there.  Who knew?

It’s an eclectic place - the floor of our dining room was covered, every square inch, with pennies.  I’m not sure if they were lacquered in place or what, but there was some kind of clear coat holding them all in place.  I wonder how many days and weeks it took to place all of those pennies individually?

The Cup sits in the ground floor of Hotel Congress, which is also home to Club Congress, which describes itself as a rock club and a “must stop” for the incorrigibly hip.  The Hotel was built in 1919, with 40 rooms that have been renovated, but they pride themselves on maintaining the original ambience (read: no TV, but they do have wireless internet access).

Back to the Cup.  This is my Tuscan Salad, which was excellent.  After mortifying my friends by taking a picture of it (evidently, not a “hip” thing to do), I dug in.  Delish.  The menu said there were white beans in this salad, but happily, I found none.  Next time, I’m going to have to try the Thompson Automatics appetizer: shredded chicken marinated in Frank’s original red hot sauce, wrapped in an egg roll with gorgonzola and deep fried until crispy.  Sounds like heaven to me!

My friend had the Club Vegan, which is 3 layers of pita, stacked with hummus, lettuce, tomato, cucumber, kalamata olives, and radish.  I didn’t want to embarass her by taking a picture of her sandwich, but it was enormous and, I’m told, very tasty.

The service was fine.  My water glass was dirty, but was replaced quickly.  There were several other items on the menu that looked interesting, and I’m told I have to try the feta garlic dressing.  All in all, it was a nice lunch, and an interesting place to dine. 

There’s a lot of road construction going on right now in the area, with the rebuilding of the 4th avenue underpass.  Normally, you can just head West on Broadway onto Congress and you’re there, but it’s not so easy right now to come from that side.  Parking is mostly at meters, so bring a couple quarters.

Well, our MLS system made an interesting decision yesterday.  Unfortunately, the decision made by the MLS board may impact our clients adversely, and for a while yet to come.

Here’s the short story:

The MLS board decided to enforce the rule that commission amounts should be marked with either a dollar symbol or a percentage symbol.  Notice was given at the start of the month to all agents.  Upon receiving the notice, our office administrator asked for a clarification of the rule, never received a response, and was never given a deadline to have all listings corrected until about 3 days ago - when they said that all listings would be withdrawn temporarily if the were not in compliance with the rule.

So yesterday, about 3000 listings were withdrawn from the MLS system, in one fell swoop.

That’s about a third of our inventory in the Tucson MLS.

I can argue that notice was given, and that there was plenty of time to bring all listings into compliance, and I can even support having a deadline and consequences for not following the rule.  But instead of handing out fines, they decided to withdraw the listings - which can do a lot more harm to our clients than it does to ourselves.

So what about the agent and seller, who priced a home yesterday when some of the Active competing properties were shown as Withdrawn from the market?

What about the home buyer searching the MLS online yesterday? 

What about some of the smaller, one-agent brokerages?  What if they are out of town and haven’t corrected their listings?  What happens to their Sellers?

What about the monthly statistics put out by the board?  We’ll have anomalous data for a while yet.

What about all the home buyers that are on auto-prospecting systems, where new listings are emailed out to them?  They’ll be emailed with properties, seemingly “new” on the market because of the change in status from Withdrawn to Active, although the houses may have been on the market for a very long time.

So I’m sorry, folks.  As an agent and member of the MLS in Tucson, I think a poor decision was made, that could adversely affect my clients.  The actions of the MLS board punished not only those agents whose listings weren’t in compliance with the rule, but they impacted you, and me, and potentially a huge portion of the home buyers and sellers out there.  Kind of a cluster….fudge. 

I don’t know if you know this, but I’ve been calling myself the Housechick for just about 4 years now.  That’s my website, too: www.Housechick.com.  I gotta tell ya: when you call yourself the Housechick, you’ve really got to go all out.  There’s no halfway for a name like that.

I realize it’s an unusual choice.  Most people find it amusing, or at least interesting.  At the bare minimum, it’s memorable. 

I like giving out my email address over the phone, it’s always the same reaction:

“Okay, here’s my email, it’s Kelley k-e-l-l-E-y”  (pause for the person on the other end of the phone to write it down)

“At Housechick (small pause) dot com”

They always ask, “Did you say House… Chick?”

And I assure them, yes, indeed I did, and spell it out for them.  There’s always some kind of comment after that: a little giggle, a drawn out oooookkkkaaaaaayyyyyyy, some sort of small remark.

So, you know, I know it’s not typical.  In my years as an agent in Tucson, I’ve only had one person object to that moniker, at least to my face - he thought it was unprofessional, although he had known me for about 5 seconds when he said that.  Oh well - not a bad track record, all in all.

When I started in real estate, it was only natural for me to build a website immediately, as both my husband and I have degrees in software.  We stumbled onto the idea of Housechick while brainstorming for domain names one night, and it was the one idea that stuck.  It’s catchy, it’s unique, and it sounded like a lot of fun.

So here I am, 4 years later, as the Housechick, ready to serve.  It’s become a nickname for me around the office - you never know when someone is going to yell it out to get my attention.  That’s always good for a couple head-turns when an acquaintance yells it out in a crowded place.

 And that’s my story.  Some folks ask how I got the name.  So there you go.

Now, who’s your Housechick, baby?

I’m working with a nice couple trying to buy their first home in Tucson, and we’re in negotiations currently for a property.  They’re faced with a counter offer from the Seller, with an “As-Is” clause.

First, “As-Is” doesn’t negate a Buyer’s right to thoroughly inspect the property, at least as far as Tucson real estate is concerned.  The language a local Tucson agent would use to make a home purchase “As-Is” clearly states that the Buyer has not only the right, but the obligation to do inspections on their own.  Also, if a Buyer were to find a problem with the house that would make them not want to buy it, then the Buyer can give proper notice and walk away from it with their earnest money.

(…unless you’ve got some kind of crazy language written in - if you’re in an “as-is” transaction, go ask your agent for specific advice regarding your contract.)

Also, the Seller is still obligated to disclose every material fact that they know about the property.  The Seller doesn’t get to hide any known information.

So what’s the risk?

Well, a typical concern for an “as-is” home buyer is that there are major problems with the house.  This may, or may not be true.  Remember, the Seller is obligated to tell you about the issues and defects that he knows about, so he shouldn’t be hiding anything.

There are myriad reasons why a home might be sold “as-is:”

• the house might be owned by a lender or relocation company
• the house might be in foreclosure
• the Seller may not live in the area, so it would be difficult to coordinate repairs
• the Buyer may take a house “as-is” to get a discounted price for the house
• the sale might be an estate sale, where the Seller hasn’t occupied the property and doesn’t want to warrant the house systems
• the Seller may not have enough funds from the sale to pay for any repairs
• and yeah, at times as-is sales involve run-down homes in bad repair.

If you’re considering buying a house “as-is”, just know that you need to go into the transaction with open eyes, you need to thoroughly inspect the house so that you are comfortable with the condition and are making confident decisions.

I discovered the Energy Advisor at the Tucson Electric Power site today.  It’s a little cumbersome, but kinda cool.  You can see it by going to www.tep.com and clicking on Energy Advisor over on the left hand side.

I’m guessing this is some kind of software that TEP has purchased and integrated into their website, because it asks questions about basements and attics and oil heating, none of which are common in Tucson.  However, once you get past all the questions, there’s some neat features.

For example, you can answer specific questions about your heating or cooling systems and it will recommend ways to save on your energy bill.  Some results for my 60 year old wire cut double red brick house with half original casement windows and half new dual pane windows, and pitched roof with rolled insulation:

• Sealing leaks in the air ducts may save me $32-54 annually, and cost $15-25.
• Replacing the windows may cost $3750-$6250, and would save me $6-10 per year. 

Overall, there’s some decent cost saving ideas in there.  It would be interesting to run a comparison to see what home improvement would save more money in the long run for a specific property: updating the A/C unit or installing new windows and insulation? 

Some of the answers are a little funky, especially for a house like mine.  I would expect that changing out the remaining old windows for new dual pane windows would help a lot more than $10 per year - but the way the questions were asked, the system thinks I have a brick house with a very small amount of insulation.  Which is true, to a degree.  There’s not much insulation in this house, really only in the ceiling, but with a double brick exterior, the walls are thick enough to provide some insulative (is that a word?) value.  My last house had a tongue and groove ceiling and not a lick of roof insulation on a burnt adobe structure - and that poor A/C unit ran and ran all day trying to keep the place cool.  This house has about the same thickness of walls, but has a pitched roof so we’ve got some rolled insulation up there - the house stays so much cooler, and the A/C runs a lot less.

Regardless of the quirks, it’s still cool to see TEP put actual numbers to the cost of improvements and estimated annualized savings.  Check it out for yourself!

1. The screws that come in the bag with the new door pulls for the cabinets are not long enough to use on the drawers.  Also, when you present the too-short screw to the guy at Ace Hardware and tell him that you need the same thing, only a half inch longer, make sure he gives you something that’s really a half inch longer, not a quarter inch longer.  Ideally, you should do this IN the store and not when you get home.

2. You can’t tell if the pilot on the water heater is really out every morning unless you’re lying flat out on the dirt about half an inch from the little window at the bottom of the water heater.  Also, it takes an average of 12 clicks to light the pilot, and 20 minutes to accrue enough hot water for a shower.  Every morning.

3.  U-haul will buy back unused boxes, so get plenty at the start.

4. Many new in-sink disposals don’t come with a power cord - the cord is sold separately, and conveniently, right beside the disposals (which you’ll notice on your second or third visit).

5. Every smoke alarm at both the new and the old house will have the batteries die within 48 hours of each other, most typically between 2am and 4am.  Keep several AAs on hand.

6. Do all of your laundry BEFORE you move, as the handyguy may not be able to get to the new house to hook up the washer and dryer for several days, and you only have 3 comfortable pair of work-appropriate pants.

7. If you put something in your cart at the Home Depot, make sure it gets purchased.

8. If you purchase something at Home Depot, make sure it gets into one of the bags and into the car.  You’ll be back a third time to return it for something of the correct size, so go ahead and save your receipt.

9. New utility knives are much sharper than you think, and cut knuckles bleed much faster and more profusely than you’d expect.

10. After close to 9 months of renovation, take a minute to relax and enjoy the new home.  The reward of the house is far greater than the more temporary hassle of moving.  Also, ask a neighbor right away which day is trash day, or else you’ll miss it and have to stockpile trash for a week.

The Tucson MLS has released the numbers for June 2007.  Here’s the quick numbers:

• Average Sales Price: $298,477
• Median Sales Price: $229,000
• Average Days on Market: 64 days
• Active Listings: 8725 listings
• New Listings: 2820 listings
• Number of Sales: 1226

So what does that mean?

Well, the average sales price is actually the highest recorded for Tucson, up about $18,000 from last month.  Median sales price is usually regarded as the better indicator, the theory being that a couple properties selling on the high end of the scale could throw off the numbers.  The Median sales price was $229,000, also a record high number for Tucson, up $5500 from last month.

Breaking it down into types:

• Average Single Family Home Sales Price: $324,526
• Median Single Family Home Sales Price: $245,406
• Average Townhome Sales Price: $202,887
• Median Townhome Sales Price: $163,750
• Average Condo Sales Price: $157,406
• Median Condo Sales Price: $149,950

Remember that a Condo is a form of ownership, and a Townhome is a style of housing!

Average Days on Market is not a good measure for the Tucson Real Estate market, as DOM can be reset very easily.  A better figure is the absorption rate, which would be how long it would take to sell all the existing inventory, at the current sales rate.  Balanced markets are usually in the 4-6 month range.

The absorption rate for all residential types is about 7 months.  This continues our downward trend in absorption rate, which would signal a slow return to a more normal market.  Here’s a graph - the dip in months of inventory was during our rush in 2004, you can see the buildup over 2006, and a slow decline in 2007.

We’ll get to absorption rate for the various areas and types of housing in another post.  Let’s stick to broad strokes here.

Positive indicators: a lower absorption rate, higher median sales price, and a drop in new listings (we’re pretty flooded at the moment)

Negative indicators: number of sales are down from last month when they more typically go up in June (and down in July), and our sales volume for the year is still lower than last year.

And that was June 2007 Tucson Real Estate Market Statistics!  Watch for a more detailed absorption rate analysis in a couple of days (for all you numbers geeks out there).