The Housechick Blog

Go ahead, try and drive in this town over the next couple of days.  Tucson is about to burst at the seams, I kid you not.

Not only is the Tucson Gem and Mineral show in full swing, but the Accenture Match Play golf tournament is about to start soon. Don’t forget the Fiesta de los Vaqueros next week as well! (That’s the Tucson Rodeo, for all you non-locals.)  Add that to our usual bumper crop of winter visitors, and you’ve got nary an inch to spare.

On the plus side, the weather has been absolutely gorgeous the past couple of days, in the mid 70’s.  The next few days look a bit cold, and there’s a chance of rain tonight, but I see the 70s again on the horizion. Me, I’ve got my hammock out of storage, and am ready to log a bit of time out there in the afternoons.

There’s a little section in the real estate contract here in Tucson where a Buyer gets to decide if they want to ask for a home warranty or not, from which company, with what coverage, and who will pay for it. 

A home warranty is different from your home owner’s insurance.  Home owner’s insurance protects your house and stuff in case of a loss, in general.  A Home Warranty is an annual service where if something breaks, you call the home warranty company and they send someone out to see if the repair is covered by the warranty, and if so, fixes it.  The service call (as of today in Arizona) is $60, regardless if the repair is covered or not.

Home warranties can be purchased at the time you buy the home, and can be renewed every year.

I tend to use American Home Shield, who’s base policy is $350 per year, and then you start adding on a couple hundred for things like pool equipment coverage, or refrigerator coverage, things like that.

There’s a whole booklet that gives an overview of what is covered and what is not. 

I’ve had clients with both very good and very bad experiences with home warranties.  Sometimes, people get a new air conditioner covered by their warranty.  And some people keep making service calls and whatever is broken is never covered by the warranty.

So should you ask for the home warranty when you’re negotiating to buy a home?  If you think you’ll use it or need it, by all means.  In general, the home warranty request isn’t a deal-breaker.  In fact, some sellers offer it up front in their listings.  It’s a side benefit for them as well - they get the benefit of using the warranty themselves (with some restrictions) while on the market, and then can pass on a full year of coverage to the new buyer.

To the person who tried to chat with me from the sidebar Plugoo feature while I was in the other room arguing with a fax machine:

There are plenty of houses with pools near the University of Arizona, depending on how ‘near’ you want to be.  Within about a 5 mile radius, I found 89 homes with pools, ranging from about $169k to over $1million, with plenty of homes between the low and mid $200ks.

I hear the accelerated nursing program at U of A is an excellent program.  Please let me know if there’s anything I can do to help.

Lately, I’ve had several inquires about downtown Tucson and the real estate there.

In researching the area, I came across the Downtown Tucson website, which is a great resource. 

There’s all kinds of information there, all gathered into one place: schedules for the Rialto Theatre, the Fox Theatre, Club Congress, construction and traffic updates, daily events calendar, as well as the latest news.

Projects to watch on the Downtown Tucson Real Estate Front:

• Hopefully coming soon, The Post Lofts, a Bourn Partners project, is 52 residences in a 6 story building, with ground floor shops and restaurants, located on Congress and Scott. 
• Also hopefully coming soon, 44 Broadway, the former federal district court building.  This should be 30 residences, on floors 2-4, with a rooftop garden area on the top floor and retail space on the ground floor.
• Currently for sale, Dos Pedros Lofts, in historic Barrio Viejo.  These are 2 bed, 2 bath freestanding lofts with private courtyards and garages, in the mid $400ks.

I toured the SAHBA Parade of Homes today, a collection of 7 luxury homes up near Dove Mountain, in the Sonoran Preserve on the Bajada.

Things that appear to be “in” for luxury Tucson homes:

• coffee makers in the master bathroom
• flat panel TVs
• pavers and brick as patio surfaces, instead of scored concrete
• oversized front doors
• roof decks
• outdoor gas fireplaces
• recessed and decorated ceilings in the dining room
• Jack-n-Jill bathrooms for the secondary bedrooms
• forty-plus shower heads in the master shower (that might be an exaggeration)

This is the view from one of the roof decks, by the way.  That’s a gas fire pit on the roof, and I’m sitting on a built in banquette, taking the photo.  I saw another roof deck that had a complete gas fireplace on it!  What a lovely view, we had an absolutely gorgeous day today. 

Highlights, in my humble opinion:

• My favorite house was the one by Lathrem Homebuilders.  There’s a beautiful central courtyard, with multiple sliding doors that open the whole house onto that area, plus a very open living area with yet another lovely patio and pool.  The flooring was brick throughout, which is a personal favorite.  The tile work and finishes were exquisite.
• The patio at the Becklin home felt the most expansive, with a very nice outdoor kitchen and wood burning pizza oven.
• The front doors at the Canatsey house are iron and glass, so you can see through to the lovely backyard as you walk up to the home.  That house also had a sweet master shower with those new Kohler square shower heads all over the place.
• The huge arched wall of the great room in the Casas Bonitas house makes a huge impact as you walk in.  There is also some very nice brickwork in this house, and the Viking appliances are finished in Plum, not stainless, which was a first for me.

See that mountain in the background on the left hand side?

See those specs of white on that?

Snow.  In Tucson (ish).

The mountains in the background are the Santa Ritas, by the way, one of 5 mountain ranges that surround Tucson.  Santa Ritas are in the Southeast, the Catalinas are North, the Tortolitas are Northwest, the Tucsons are West, and the Rincons are to the East.

The white building in the foreground is the San Xavier del Bac Mission, also called the White Dove of the Desert.  Jesuit missionary Father Kino founded the original mission in 1700, and this structure was built in 1783. 

Someday I’ll head down there and take pictures - it is reputed to be one of the finest examples of mission architecture in the United States, blending Moorish, Byzantine, and late Mexican Renaissance architecture.

In the meantime, you can look through some other folk’s fabulous images of the mission on Flickr, here.

I was exploring homes near the University of Arizona in the $150,000 range today.  It looks like there are actually a couple of good townhome options.  I’m looking at six units, all within 3 miles of the University or less, two bedroom, two bath (one is 3 bed, 3 bath!), more than a thousand square feet, with air conditioning - and they run between $120-$150k.

All but one of these has covered parking, but they each have a nice little private patio area for the unit. 

All are very close to bus routes and bike lanes to the University, and each is maybe a half block from a grocery store and shopping center. 

I don’t think my MLS rules allow me to post the actual homes here, but send me an email and we can go over them privately.

I got a call the other day from a woman who wants to open a Bed and Breakfast in Tucson.  We need a lot that is nice and large and secluded.  Privacy and views. And the right zoning.

A quick search through the Pima County zoning code turns up this in Chapter 18.09.L:

1. Bed and breakfast establishments are permitted in the TR, CB-1 and CB-2 zones and as a conditional use in the RVC zone and all rural and residential zones.

3. Bed and breakfast establishments containing up to four guest bedrooms shall require a Type I conditional use permit in all rural and residential zones. Bed and breakfast establishments containing five to eight guest bedrooms shall require a Type II conditional use permit in all rural and residential zones.

10. Except in the CB-1, CB-2, TR, RVC and ML zones, bed and breakfast establishments shall have a minimum lot size of one acre.

So we should be looking for at least an acre in the residential and rural zones.  If she buys a house and converts it, we really want 4-5 bedrooms, but not more as the type II conditional use permit is a bit harder to get than the type I. 

There’s other requirements about parking spaces and signage and business entrances to the home.  We’ve also got to be sure to check any deed restrictions. 

I’m thinking some of the large 3+ acre unsubdivided parcels out in the Northeast and East, nestled up against the Catalina and the Rincon Mountains might be just perfect.