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<SomeItem> is Broken/Old/Worn/Ugly/Stained. Should I Fix It Before I Sell My Home?

June 30, 2009

Yes.

I know it isn’t fun. 

No, we’re not going to offer an allowance instead.  Trust me.  I’m looking out for your best interests.

Let me know if you need help finding people to help you.  I know all kinds of helpful folk.

New Rule about Short Sale Disclosures in the Tucson MLS

June 28, 2009

News from the Tucson MLS regarding Short Sales today.

The notice, in its entirety:

After reviewing changes implemented by the National Association of REALTORS®, the MLS Board has implemented the following Short Sale rule, effective immediately.

As used in these rules, short sales are defined as a transaction where title transfers; where the sale price is insufficient to pay the total of all liens and costs of sale; and where the seller does not bring sufficient liquid assets to the closing to cure all deficiencies.

Participants are required to disclose potential short sales to other participants by stating the following in the Agent Only Remarks: Potential Short Sale.

No references to commission or co-op fee splits, apportionments, or reductions are permitted in the MLS. In addition, documents referencing commission or co-op fee splits, apportionments, or reductions are not permitted in the MLS. The cooperating brokers do retain the right to negotiate the commission/co-op fee outside of the MLS.

Within two (2) business days of seller’s acceptance of written contract, the listing broker shall change the short sale listing’s status in MLS to ‘Active Contingent’, ‘Active CAPA’, ’Pending’ or ‘Sold’, as is appropriate per MLS Status Definitions. Disclosure of short sale shall not be made in the Property Description, Marketing Remarks, or any other publicly viewable component of the MLS without the seller’s written permission to the listing broker.

What that means is that short sales will no longer be disclosed to the home buying public unless the Seller has given written permission.  So if you’re a trying to buy a home in Tucson and you’d rather avoid the short sales – as many time-sensitive buyers do – you’ll probably have to ask your agent to check the private agent-only comments for you on a house-by-house basis.

Tucson Monsoons

June 25, 2009

It’s raining!

Or it was, for a few minutes.

Those of you that aren’t familiar with Tucson might not understand the glee with which we greet an overcast cloudy day, pressing our noses to the window to see if it is sprinkling outside or not.

Technically, Tucson should be in the midst of Monsoons – our summer rainy season that officially starts on June 15th and ends September 30th.  However, the rains don’t typically start until closer to 4th of July, in my experience.

When the real rains do start, they are these incredibly powerful, violent storms that move from the Southeast part of town, and rip across towards the Northwest, usually in the late afternoon.  Our monsoon storms are quite impressive to watch – lots of wind and lightning, lots of fast flooding.

Sprinkles, however – like today – are for fun.  Tiny little previews of what is to come.

Fixing and Flipping Homes in Tucson?

June 23, 2009

I had an inquiry the other day from someone about to move into Tucson about potentially fixing and flipping homes along the Valencia corridor in Tucson – basically, the Southwest and the South side.

I gotta tell ya – that’s something I wouldn’t do right now, at least not operating in the open resale market.  I think the idea was to pick up a foreclosed home at a steep discount, make repairs, and resell it for profit.

The problem is that in those parts of Tucson, pretty much the only thing selling is the foreclosures.  If you find one at a crazy low price, I’d bet it is in terrible shape too.  Which means even more cash you have to put into the thing.

Not to mention that prices over the last year in that area have fallen – on average – 3% a month.  So not only do you have to recoup your repair costs, your purchase costs, the holding costs, and the selling costs in order to just break even – you lose money just owning the thing over a very short term because of the declining market.

It’s not a bet I’d be taking right now.

Floyd Koehler 1998 – 2009

June 20, 2009

I love you. Goodbye.

Tucson Market Report and Statistics – May 2009

June 12, 2009

The Overview via Podcast:

Download Tucson Market Stats for May 2009 here (MP3) or subscribe to the Tucson Market Reports podcast here.

The Quick Numbers:

• Single Family Home Average Sales Price: $223,721
• Single Family Home Median Sales Price: $183,832
• Single Family Home Units Sold: 758
• Single Family Home Months of Inventory: 7.6 months

• Townhouse Average Sales Price: $149,471
• Townhouse Median Sales Price: $140,000
• Townhouse Units Sold: 69
• Townhouse Months of Inventory: 8.5 months

• Condo Average Sales Price: $109,885
• Condo Median Sales Price: $105,000
• Condo Units Sold: 41
• Condo Months of Inventory: 12.1 months

• Citywide Average Sales Price: $212,442
• Citywide Median Sales Price: $175,000
• Citywide Units Sold: 868
• Citywide Months of Inventory: 7.8 months

Well, we’re now into the upswing of sales over summer. Pending sales are up, number of homes sold is up, All very typical for the time of year. Citywide, there are more homes sold in Tucson over summer than in any other season.

Our citywide average sales price took a small trip upwards, to $212,442, and the median rose a bit as well to $175,000. Active listings went down to 6802, finally less than 7000 listings – a place we haven’t seen since the start of 2006. With fewer listings and more sales, our months of inventory went to 7.8 months – a figure comprable to summer of 2007.

Also interesting for May – the average sales price for each of the 9 areas of Tucson went up month over month, with the exception of the West. The Western part of Tucson took a roughly $3k hit in average sales price, but more units sold there than have sold in that region for a year and a half.

Big move this month for the Southeast side – last month they had home 69 sales, this month there were 102. They recorded the lowest absorbtion rate (months of inventory) for May at 5.3 months for single family homes, which – technically – is in the balanced market region. Not that I’d call this market especially balanced! That’s a fairly big jump for the area. My best guess would be that sales increased over summer because of two factors: affordability and a school district that people seem to rate highly.

As always, there are extensive charts and statistics and whatnot, broken down by area and type of housing, over at Statistics.Housechick.com. The market in this city varies widely from one end to the other, so you can check out what’s going on in your area over at that section of my site.

Data gathered from the Tucson MLS and is deemed reliable but not guaranteed. Figures quoted here include only single family homes, townhomes, and condos in the 9 areas that make up the Greater Tucson Area: NW, N, NE, W, C, E, SW, S, and SE.

tags: market reports, market statistics, tucson, tucson real estate

Declining Home Values in Tucson and Zestimates

June 11, 2009

Excerpt from my inbox: "The Zestimate dropped $5000!  Should I still buy the house?"

Zestimates, for those of you not hip to the lingo, are estimates of home values from Zillow.  Zillow isn’t a bad place, a decent starting point.  However, it isn’t as accurate as I can usually be – I’m not an automated system, after all.  And by their own calculations, the median error in Pima County is 9.5% – meaning half the homes sold were within 9.5% of the zestimate and half were further off.

So am I worried about one house’s zestimate dropping $5k?  Not so much.

Look – we know prices are still declining in Tucson – in some price brackets faster than others.  If you’re wanting to flip a house or sell it in 6 months, then yeah, $5k might matter.  But those of us that live in homes for 5, 7, 10 years…

We’d all like to save that $5000.  But if I’ll spend $850 in rent for 6 months waiting for prices to bottom out, then where did I really save that?  Buying now isn’t the right choice for everyone.  But for some of us, it still makes sense.  Declining Zestimate or not.

Tucson market stats will be posted tomorrow… stay tuned!

The Daisy Chain

June 9, 2009

I was working with a home buyer last month who needed to sell their home in another state before purchasing here.  Luckily, their home back East was already under contract and scheduled to close soon.

Except the buyer of my client’s home back East had to sell *their* home in California in order to buy the Eastern home.  And luckily, they were already under contract with a buyer on that California home.

I call this the daisy chain.  A pretty name for what can be an ugly situation.  If the California buyer is delayed, then the Eastern buyer is delayed, which delays my client.  One thing goes wrong up the line and we have issues.  One thing goes wrong up the line – that we have absolutely no control over – and we have issues.

So if the California buyer needs to extend two weeks in order to finish loan processing, then the Eastern buyer is delayed at least 2 weeks because they need those proceeds in order to close on the Eastern house.  Which puts my client back about 3 weeks before funds arrive from the sale of the Eastern house in order to purchase one here.

You know what can happen in 3 weeks?  The good houses at the great prices are selling.  So we lose out on some really nice properties because someone in California can’t get their act together.

Don’t get me wrong, me and my client have options.  And sometimes, this scenario isn’t avoidable, given other goals.  We’ve discussed the various risk scenarios so that my client can make the best decisions possible.  But if we didn’t have to deal with a daisy chain, we’d be in a much stronger, more flexible position. 

Solar Panels and HOA Restrictions

June 4, 2009

Local Architect Jake Boen over on his In Place Architecture Blog had a good post the other day about solar panels and HOA restrictions.  On it, he explains that while many CC&Rs (HOA rules) restrict solar panels, Arizona state law doesn’t actually allow them to do so.

I hear a lot of interest from my clients about installing solar panels on their home, and if their home has an association, then it can sometimes be a struggle to deal with the HOA.  Having the law on your side and the reality of fighting it through the association can be two vastly different things.

Interest Rates are On The Move

June 2, 2009

If you’ve been shopping for a home, you  may want to call your lender and check on rates.  They’ve been swinging all over the place recently.

Not only have they been moving often, they’ve been making large changes, up over half a point in a day.

In terms of real money, on a $200,000 mortgage, if your rate went from 5.5% to 6.125%, your payment just went up $80/month.  That’s not insignificant, especially in the lower price ranges where buyers are more sensitive to monthly payment amounts.

My friend Dan Green over at The Mortgage Reports explains the recent interest rate swings all in more detail.  Go check it out – the guy knows the mortgage business like no other and talks about it in very understandable terms. 

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