The Perfect House – But Your iPhone is an iBrick
October 29, 2009
If you were confronted with the choice…
Would you buy the perfect house if it had terrible cell phone reception?
Most people shop around for a home according to the features of the home – number of bedrooms, area, general condition, etcetera. But very few people will pull out their cell phone to see if they get reception there. Tucson, in my experience, has decent cell service, except for the Foothills and some very bizarre black holes in midtown.
Oh, except for my clients with iPhones. You can barely even call those people half the time…
But back to the scenario.
How important is cellular reception in your list of home needs? If everything else was right about the home, would you still buy it if there were terrible reception in the area?
I’m curious. Tell me what you think in the comments below!
Moving To A New Brokerage
October 28, 2009
Just a quick announcement to let every one know I’m moving to a new brokerage this week! I’ve enjoyed my years with Long Realty, but it is time to move to a brokerage more in line with my techno-geek style of business.
So this week, I’ll formally change my license over to become the new Tucson branch of Thompson’s Realty. Thompson’s Realty is a brokerage owned by my friend Jay Thompson, who works out of the Phoenix area. He’s another real estate blogger and we run our businesses much in the same way, with similar methods and philosophies. Overall, it will be a good move. (And I’m sure he’ll be adding Tucson to the Thompson’s Realty site soon… Right Jay?)
For you, dear reader, you’ll notice the logo on my site will switch to a new one. But it’s still me, offering the same services and benefits, just under a different brokerage name.
In fact, switching to Thompson’s Realty means I get to go even more electronic and mobile. Creating and signing contracts and other documents with my clients anywhere, anytime. No more being tied to fax machines and copiers. Electronic signatures. More efficient communications during transactions, precise systems to manage the transaction and timelines on the back end.
I’ll explain some of that new stuff over the coming weeks, let you know how it works and why I think it will be a huge benefit to my clients.
In the mean time, if you need me, I’m still where I always was. Right here.
What’s The Price Per Square Foot in Tucson?
October 26, 2009
If I told you a house was $175/square foot, is that a good deal or a bad deal?
You can’t really say, can you?
Every so often, I get asked about price per square foot – what is the average price per square foot in Tucson? Really, it isn’t an answerable question.
Think about what that price per square foot figure really tells you – the price and how large the house is under the roof.
What it doesn’t tell me is what condition the house is in, if it has an air conditioner, a pool, a 3 car garage. It doesn’t tell me anything about the lot size or the location. Doesn’t tell me if the house has been updated or not. Doesn’t tell me if that’s a five bedroom house with only one bathroom, if the house is 5 years old or 50, or if there have been unpermitted additions.
In fact, the only time looking at price per square foot makes sense is when you’re looking at a collection of very similar homes – homes of similar size, age, location, condition, and lot size. That’s what we do when we try to determine market value for a home, either to help a home buyer craft an offer, or a home seller price their house. If we can pull together a collection of very similar homes, then yes, we can start talking about price per square foot. Otherwise, comparing price per square foot on homes in different areas is really just extra and misleading information.
Urban Athletics – Tucson Bootcamp and Discount
October 21, 2009
Over the summer this year, I won a free week of bootcamp from Tucson’s Urban Athletics.
Naturally, I was terrified. I am not exactly athletic. But I consulted with my scale and figured it was worth a shot.
Turns out, bootcamp in the park is actually pretty enjoyable. Well. Maybe enjoyable is the wrong word. It’s a tough workout, but it can be adapted to pretty much any level of fitness. My heart rate monitor says I regularly burn between 550 and 700 calories during the hour of exercise.
But it isn’t the various exercises that keep me coming back. It’s the people. There’s a community of folks there to struggle along with you, encourage and assist you when you need it – and I’m there to do the same for them. Unlike going to the gym to hit the elliptical on my own for an hour – which I could never stay motivated to do for long – I go work out with a group of people, comprised of a wide variety of body sizes and ages, and we make it through together. It’s like a built in motivation and accountability system. And I’m a huge fan.
AND. It is Urban Athletic’s 2 year anniversary, so they’re celebrating with a discount.
If you sign up during October for the next session (here’s the workout schedule – it varies by location), use the coupon code "anniversary" to get $100 off your registration.
From Paul Rose, one of the owners:
Urban Athletics started as a way to prove to ourselves that we could get an incredible workout, no matter where we were. We started coming up with routines that would engage the whole body, which triggers a faster metabolism. What started as just a few friends working out in the park, has turned into a proven exercise method that works for anyone.
In our two years of training we have seen amazing results with out clients. Seeing people completely change their body type is the most gratifying part of the job – I think we help show that getting into great shape doesn’t mean changing your entire life, just a few small things.
The cookie filled holidays are approaching… Work off your future cookies now. 
Mortgage Rate Trends – Will Rates Go Up or Down?
October 19, 2009
Over at The Mortgage Reports blog, Dan Green keeps a close eye on interest rates and trends.
If we trust history, mortgage interest rates should continue to decline into 2010. The information in the chart below is from Freddie Mac, since 2006.
However, we’re in a different market than we have been in the past few years. There are several conditions that have an upward push on rates – the Fed is ending mortgage market support, inflation concerns on Wall Street, the weakened US Dollar.
Seasonally, rates should go down. Current conditions say they might go up. Will we break trend this year?
Hard to say. If you’re trying to time the market for the lowest rate, you’d better be paying close attention. As should your lender, to alert you in time for you to lock your rate.
Check out the full story here.
When the Sales Price Isn’t The Market Value
October 14, 2009
I was doing some market value research the other day for a little Central Tucson house, in a price range where home buyers wanting to use FHA financing tend to look.
I had two decent comparable sales to use – but I noticed one sold to a buyer who used FHA. And that’s a huge flag that more research needs to be done in order to use that sale as an indicator of market values.
See, many FHA home buyers in Tucson ask for closing cost assistance, if not also down payment assistance. And those are in the form of credits directly to the Buyer at close of escrow, which isn’t recorded as part of the sales price but comes directly off the Seller’s bottom line – the Seller actually walked away with less money than what the sales price would indicate.
It’s easier to understand with an example.
Let’s say you just sold your home for $200,000. With a regular home buyer, you’d get a check for $200,000. (We’re simplifying here for the example, and disregarding other sales costs and loan amounts.)
If you had an FHA buyer who needed 3% of the purchase price towards their closing costs, you’d get a check for $194,000.
If you had an FHA buyer who needed 3% towards closing costs and 3% towards their down payment, you get a check for $188,000.
The assistance just comes off the Seller’s bottom line. And if a Seller is willing to take less in the form of closing cost and down payment assistance, then it’s the same as if they sold their home for that lower value. Paying $12k in closing cost assistance is the same as taking $12k less for the house.
So if I’m using that house to find market value, and the seller took what equates to 6% less than what the sales price indicates, then clearly, that impacts market value.
The sales price isn’t always the whole story. There are all kinds of credits that can happen on the back end of the transaction that aren’t necessarily reflected in the record of the sale in the Tucson MLS. You always gotta do the research.
Tucson Market Statistics and Report – September 2009
October 12, 2009
The Quick Numbers:
- Single Family Home Average Sales Price: $217,013
- Single Family Home Median Sales Price: $170,000
- Single Family Home Units Sold: 714
- Single Family Home Months of Inventory: 7.6 months
- Townhouse Average Sales Price: $140,385
- Townhouse Median Sales Price: $135,450
- Townhouse Units Sold: 71
- Townhouse Months of Inventory: 7.9 months
- Condo Average Sales Price: $108,312
- Condo Median Sales Price: $108,000
- Condo Units Sold: 40
- Condo Months of Inventory: 10.9 months
- Citywide Average Sales Price: $205,148
- Citywide Median Sales Price: $165,000
- Citywide Units Sold: 825
- Citywide Months of Inventory: 7.8 months
Where did September go? The year is flying by…
We’re heading into our winter slow-down. Activity is actually a little higher than I expected, especially in the lower price ranges. There are lots of buyers out there trying to take advantage of that $8000 tax credit – and they all need to close on a home by the end of November.
In fact, home sales in the under $200k range were 67% of our market in September. Prime first time buyer home territory. We see this activity further verified in the number of pending sales – 2090 units, up well over a hundred units from last month in a season where sales should be slowing down. Given the higher number of pending sales, we ought to see that effect the number of sold units next month.
The average and median sales price citywide in Tucson made a small decline, coming to $205,148 and $165,000, respectively. Active listings went up a bit, to 6416 units, compared to 6374 last month.
The South side of Tucson had a very interesting September this year. There were 100 sales in South Tucson, where last month there were only 73, leaving the area with 4.9 months of inventory, an incredibly low figure, given the general market conditions. Despite the increased activity, the average sale price on the South side was still down from last month. It’s an area hit hard with foreclosures and short sales – perhaps prices there have reached the point where they’re becoming attractive again. 42 of those homes were bought with FHA financing, which would be those first time buyers again. 34 were bought with cash – possibly investors picking up bargains.
As always, there are extensive charts and statistics and whatnot, broken down by area and type of housing, over at my Tucson market statistics site. 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.
What Actually Happens at Closing?
October 9, 2009
Question from the audience: So what actually happens at close of escrow?
Answer: Well, there’s two separate events that occur around close of escrow.
In Arizona, our standard purchase contract says that a home buyer will sign their loan documents no later than 3 days prior to close of escrow. That means we need to come into the escrow office to sign those papers several days before the agreed on closing date that was specified in the contract.
The first event, then, is the signing. Typically, we’ll walkthough the house a day or two before our signing appointment and make sure the house is in generally the same condition as when we wrote the offer and make sure repairs are all complete. On our signing day, you need to bring at least one form of ID to the escrow office, along with a limber signing hand and a cashier’s check for the remainder of your closing costs and down payment. You can also wire these funds directly into the escrow account. And we get that amount needed usually a day or two before we come in to sign.
At the signing, you’ll review and sign all of your loan documents, review a final closing cost break down (called a HUD-1), sign the deed that transfers the property into your name, and various other documents.
And then you wait. If you haven’t transferred utilities into your name, this is a good time to do that.
And then – on the day specified as close of escrow in your purchase contract, the lender releases the loan funds, and as soon as they hit the escrow office’s bank account, escrow will release the documents to be recorded.
And then once they are recorded, you own a home! Usually, that happens around 4pm here in Tucson. Once we know everything has recorded, you can get your keys. And have fun moving! Remember – lift with your legs, not your back…
What Kind of Financing do Central Tucson Home Buyers Use?
October 6, 2009
I was talking to someone the other day about the current market in Tucson and about home buyers having more cash than before, and using more FHA financing than ever before. Clearly, there’s been a large change in home financing rules. In my recent experience, I’m helping people buy homes here in Central Tucson largely with FHA financing – or with cash.
So I ran some numbers this morning. Because that’s what I do.
So far, in 2009, the financing for closed home sales in Central Tucson break down like so:
- 263 cash transactions, with an average sale price of $144,401, which is 30% of the sales.
- 342 conventional loan transactions, with an average sale price of $223,091, which is 39% of the sales
- 246 FHA transactions, with an average sale price of $157,661, which is 28% of the sales
- Compare that to 2007, where cash transactions were 13% of the market, conventional sales were a whopping 82% of the market, and FHA was a mere 2% of sales in Central Tucson.
And in 2005, FHA was just 1% of the Central Tucson market. (Conventional was still 82% and cash was 14% of sales.)
Big shift? Yes indeed. The cash is back – but it’s quiet cash and those folks are picking up the bargains, many of them investment properties. And FHA is bigger than ever. If you’re trying to sell a home in Central, it might behoove you to make sure the house will meet FHA financing requirements. Otherwise, you’re cutting out a large chunk of the home buyers out there today.
Scenes from Tucson over the Weekend
October 5, 2009
Things that caught my eye over the weekend in the fair city of Tucson. The heat seems to have broken and the evenings are so beautiful. A lovely few days of cooler weather, exploring the city with clients and friends.
Coming down out of the Tucson Mountains, back towards downtown, there are moments when the curve of the road straightens out just enough to give you a look at the whole city. Sort of makes you want to come back at night and admire the lights.
These little guys found a meal out of a tipped over trash can. Okay, so the eating trash – not so cute. But watching these javalina with the tiny little one scooting about made me stop and smile.
Why did the tarantula cross the road? I didn’t ask…
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