The Housechick Blog

Had a nice discussion via the Plugoo widget about termite warranty renewals.  See that little chat box on the sidebar?  You can talk with me there.

We’ll just go ahead and assume you want to renew your termite warranty because you know that in Tucson, the question is when and not if you will get termites.  So you want to keep your home under a termite warranty.

Pricing for warranties can vary widely.  About the cheapest I’ve seen is around $100, give or take a few bucks.  On the expensive side, I’ve seen termite warranty renewals that cost several hundred.  So it doesn’t hurt to shop around and compare services and price.

However - if you want to change termite warranty companies, the new company will want to come out and do an inspection.  If they were to find evidence of termites, they’ll probably want you to have the house treated before they would warrant it.  Which costs $$$.

So the question is this: how long are you going to own that house?

If you’ve got a $200 annual renewal fee from your existing termite company, and you’ll be there about 5 years, then you’ll pay $1000 over the next 5 years.

If you change to a company with a $100 annual renewal fee, but have to have a $400 treatment to change companies, then you’ll pay $900 over the next 5 years.

Sorry, couldn’t resist.  I was in Oro Valley last week with some clients and ran across that statue in a shopping center parking lot.

And this is what Oro Valley looks like in your sideview mirror.  That’s Pusch Ridge you see there.  When people talk about mountain views in Oro Valley, it’s usually of Pusch Ridge, on the back side of the Catalina Mountains.

Just found a document released by the Tucson MLS regarding range pricing.

Range pricing is saying that a seller will accept or counter offers between $X and $Y.  It’s basically a marketing technique, trying to get more eyes on the house because it will appear in a wider set of search results, especially with online home shoppers.

The problem is that most of the Tucson home search sites only list one price, so you think a home is priced really well, and then you read the description and realize it is range priced.  So what number do you put into the one big price that most people look at?  The top of the range?  The bottom?  Something else entirely?

Turns out, the Tucson MLS says that the seller can decide whether the listing price is set at the low end, the high end, or somewhere inbetween.  For example, if a home is range priced between $474,000 and $515,000, then the most visible price listed in the MLS system can be either of those numbers or some other value within the range.

The Tucson Association of Realtors MLS says they won’t interfere in how agents and their clients determine listing price, as such interference arguably invites allegations of fair trade and anti-trust violations.  By dictating how agents market their listings, TARMLS would be limiting or controlling the business decisions of agents and their clients, which they believe would invite litigation.  Furthermore, they say, compelling the seller to set a list price at the low or high end of the variable range would "place the MLS in close proximity to price-fixing."

Agents are required, however, to disclose range price listings in the first line of the description.

We talked about range pricing last year. I think I’ll re-run those numbers and see if anything has changed. Stay tuned…

I work with a lot of people relocating to the Tucson area.  Usually, that process looks a little something like this:

Lots of emails and houses are sent back and forth, as you explore the Tucson home marketplace and I learn what you like and don’t like.

You plan a trip to Tucson to go home shopping, of at least 4 days, if not a week.  I preview a multitude of homes for you.

We go explore Tucson and find the right area and the right home for you.

Normally at this point - it’s about the time you’ve got your return flight scheduled.  Luckily, we can do all kinds of stuff remotely, from negotiating the offer to closing.

Although - it is best if you can come back for the home inspection.  That’s where you’ll really learn about the home, how it works, where stuff is, and see the problems uncovered for yourself. 

Need help relocating to Tucson?  Send me an email and we’ll get the details worked out.

Another question via the Plugoo widget.  See that box on the side there?  Say hello if you see me online.  If I’m at my computer, I try to stay logged in, so hopefully it’s not too hard to catch me that way.

So - you had your home appraised, and it came in larger than what the assessor says.  Is that a concern?

Ah - maybe.

If you’ve got an older house and we’re talking about a small size differential, then I’m probably not too concerned if I’m the homeowner, or even if I’m the person purchasing the home.  I’m told the assessor sometimes measured the exterior of the house and subtracted a percentage to account for interior walls to find the square footage, whereas an appraiser usually measures each room.  There are many ways to measure square footage, you’d be surprised.

If the appraiser and the assessor figures are vastly different, then it starts setting off warning bells in my head.  Was there a large unpermitted addition that the assessor doesn’t know about? 

Normally, if I see significant discrepancies between assessor and any one else’s square footage estimates, I have the house formally measured.  There are companies that measure homes and guarantee their results, like Floor Plans First.  Especially if you’re trying to price and sell your home, it’s important to squeeze out as much square footage as possible, so you can get the most value out of the home.

Last week, my pal and were wandering downtown in search of lunch, and came across Chile Verde.  We’d never heard of the place, but decided to give it a shot.  Staff say they’ve been open about a year now, and we were told they are in the process of opening a bar within the restaurant, hoping to draw a later dinner crowd as well as the lunch bunch.

It’s a neat little place off of Stone Ave, at 20 North Stone, just South of Pennington, in downtown Tucson.  Once you order and sit, you can see the people making your meal off to the side of the dining area, and there’s bar seating around it, as well as tables and booths along the edges.  There’s a patio outside as well, sort of placed off the back of the dining area, away from the main street, which made it rather private and enjoyable.

Since they bill themselves as "chile verde a taco joint," I had to go with the chile verde taco especial for lunch.  And was not disappointed. 

It was a pretty simple meal, really.  Steak bits in a chile verde sauce with cheese, but everything was detailed well.  The tortillas had been lightly cooked so they had a nice crispy outside, and the plate came with a grilled jalapeno and green onion, and a small bowl of beans.  There’s a salsa bar as well with several options, and a little cone of chips found its way to our table while we waited for our food.

They are very close to the courthouse, and are trying to leverage that.  I love this little card they had beside the register: Free fountain drink when you show your juror badge!

I’m late with the market report for February, and I apologize.  I am frustrated with the manner in which I must generate these numbers.  It’s incredibly cumbersome.  There’s just got to be a better way.

But on with the show, eh? 

For the Tucson Area, as calculated today:

• Average Single Family Home Sales Price: $292,441
• Median Single Family Home Sales Price: $219,000
• Single Family Homes Sold: 519
• Single Family Homes for sale: 7241
• Single Family Homes Months of Inventory: 13.95

• Average Town Home Sales Price: $198,340
• Median Town Home Sales Price: $170,625
• Town Homes Sold: 48
• Town Homes for sale: 831
• Town Home Months of Inventory: 17.3

• Average Condo Sales Price: $129,462
• Median Condo Sales Price: $126,700
• Condos Sold: 30
• Condos for sale: 585
• Condo Months of Inventory: 19.5

Which means Citywide:

• Average Sales Price: $276,685
• Median Sales Price: $205,000
• Units Sold: 597
• Active Units: 8657 units
• Months of Inventory: 14.5 months

I’ve pulled city stats as well as the individual area metrics and updated all of those files, which you can - and should - check out by clicking on “Tucson Market Stats” at the top of the page here, and then you can click on the individual areas to see how your side of town is faring.

I also split the average and median sales prices for the individual areas, as it was getting too crowded having 2006, 2007, and 2008 average and median lines all on a single chart.

Stats include only the 9 major areas of Tucson, for single family, town home, and condos only.

Good news is that FHA limits were raised for Tucson, and that sort of loan only needs 3% down, which means it is becoming more popular among local home buyers.

Bad news is that FHA has more strict requirements than conventional financing for the condition of the home.

For example: we have Termites in Tucson.  I’d say 75% of every house more than 30 years old will show some signs of current or previous termite infestation, or will have a bit of dry rot.

FHA requires that termite damage be repaired. 

Now, most people, if the termite damage is minimal, sort of cosmetic, they’ll have the property treated and won’t go back and fix all signs of infestation. 

If someone is buying a home with an FHA loan, they’re going to require that the signs of termites are fixed, which may mean filling, sanding, and repainting some wood, or replacing damaged fascia (dry rot there too).  Hopefully, it’s not too big of a job. 

So if you’re selling your home right now, and it’s priced under FHA limits ($316k or less), I highly recommend you get a termite inspection NOW.  If the inspector notes anything on the report, go ahead and fix it while you have the luxury of time.

Got an email from someone who wants to sell his Mother’s home.  It’s a big two story house, and it’s not only expensive to keep up, it’s too much house for one person, she is beginning to need to live with assistance, and the house itself is slowly falling into disrepair.

Never the most fun scenario, but it’s a task that needs to be done.

As is common in this situation, the house is not only mildly in disrepair, but it is outdated as well.  And in a market like this, we’ve got to take care of that before we can sell it.

The trick is balancing the money you put into repairs with the potential increase in selling price.  We could easily spend $20k-$30k on this home, but we’d never get it all back out.  There’s a point where the return on extra improvements starts getting smaller and smaller, so we’re aiming to come right up to that line.

Musts for this home? Fresh paint, new carpet, a thorough cleaning, and moving all the stuff out.  New sinks and faucets all around, new kitchen counters, and a couple landscape improvements.

Really want to have done?  New light fixtures.  New range.  Exterior painting.  Staging.  Some accent paint colors, perhaps.

Big cost items for this house will be the roof repairs and the polybutylene repipe - those two alone can eat $15k without blinking an eye.  The owners are going to have to decide if they will go ahead and fix those things now or wait for a Buyer to request them.  If it were me, I’d fix them right away, but it’s not my money to spend.

We’re getting estimates for the various items; they’ll start chipping away at their task list.  In the meantime, I’ll be checking out the competition so we can figure out when we’ve reached the stopping point for our improvements.

Photo via Flickr, courtesy of Sunfrog1.

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Had an interesting discussion with someone via the Plugoo widget over in the sidebar.  See that chat box over on the right side?  If I’m online, you can chat with me there.

Okay, back to the discussion.

The visitor was asking initially about whether he needed a permit to install a shed in his yard.  If I look at the Pima County development services site, it says you don’t need a permit for a storage shed that is 1 story in height and is less than 200 sq ft in floor area.  However, you still need to obey zoning, setback, association, and deed restrictions, as they may restrict the installation, location, or design of a shed.

It led him to an interesting question:

What’s my incentive to get a permit, other than to "do the right thing?"

There’s the whole needing to obey the law aspect of going through the permit application process, but is there really any *incentive*?  I guess if you’ve got a neighbor that complains about a permitted shed, then maybe they would have no recourse against you - whereas if you had an unpermitted shed and a disgruntled neighbor calls out development services, perhaps you’d be spending a chunk of money to bring it up to standards or tearing it down.  Is that an incentive?  Every reason I can think of to get a permit is more about avoiding punishment instead of a tangible reward.

I headed over to pimaxpress.com, the Pima County Development Services site, and found this: the top 25 requested permits for Pima County.

Jeez - if I’m reading this correctly, you need a permit to re-roof a house, to relocate a sink, to install a new water heater, to replace a window, to remodel a bathroom.