The Scottsdale Real Estate Files: October 2008

Holy Sneakers!  The Scottsdale Foreclosure Value of the Week is a 1416 square foot, 3 Bed / 2 Bath red brick home in South Scottsdale for … drum roll please … $160,000!

Built by Hallcraft in the late 1950s, this entry level subdivision of Scottsdale Estates is minutes from Old Town Scottsdale,  Sky Harbor Airport, the Loop 101 Freeway, ASU and Scottsdale Community College.  Homes typically sell in the mid $200,000s nowadays for properties in average, to slightly below average condition.  Matter of fact, the bank actually purchased this one back at auction for $230K according to public records, so you get a feel for the kind of bargain this is.  It will go fast, and it will need work!

If you need any convincing on the quality of the neighborhood, I’ve owned two properties in the subdivision and sold countless others.  Great for use as a primary residence as well as an investment property given the price point and abundance of possible tenants (students, professionals, retirees, etc). 

For more information on this or other bank owned property opportunities in Scottsdale, contact your Scottsdale AZ Real Estate experts today!  And don’t forget to sign up for email alerts which will notify you of updates to this blog by clicking the button below!

Hurry up and wait.  Now wait a little longer.

You already know that the short sale process is prohibitive to all but the most resolute and patient buyer, but patience is a pre-requisite of pursuing that bank-owned property as well.  You submit your offer, you wait a couple of business days, you are lobbed a non-binding verbal counteroffer or urged to throw out your original offer in favor of your "highest and best" shot.

Once you receive verbal confirmation that you are the winning bidder (that's right, you are often bidding for property again when it comes to the REO market), you wait a little while longer for the contract to return, fully executed by the bank representative.  The listing agent is tired of his phone ringing off the hook about this property, so you feel moderately secure in your position.  He already pended the thing in the MLS after all ... surely you can rest easy now.  Right?

Not until it's signed, sealed and delivered, baby. 

Now that the lister on the property I am chasing with a buyer right now is screening my calls, I've had to come up with a few diversions to keep my overactive imagination at bay.  Be you a fellow agent tap dancing on the hot coals of the Real Estate underworld or a buyer just trying to understand why the offer you penned a week and a half ago is still in limbo, I offer the following avenues of endless entertainment:

• Drunken cartwheels - By day three you will be drinking heavily.  It's the only thing that stills the twitch you have developed on the left side of your face.  Nothing goes hand in hand with alcohol like gymnastics, so get cartwheeling!  If you can make it to five without running into a wall or losing count, you need to drink a little bit more.

• Apply for federal bailout money - Banks, insurance agencies, automakers, bingo parlors, Joe the Plumber, Rod the Rocket Scientist, Hank the Tank, Barry the Bovine Intestinal Specialist ... all are jockeying for poll position at the federal teet.  Your resume is as good as the next guy's, so figure out why your operation is "too big to fail" and make application.  Be sure to include pictures and crayon diagrams so that it is easily understandable to the Department of the Treasury.  Monosyllabically speaking, they like small words, too.

• Buy a resale property.

• Compile list of defunct loan programs - Actually, scratch this one.  It would require a degree in advanced mathematics and a complete abandonment of hygiene to complete before the end of Obama's presidency.  That's right, I said it.

• Create office pool for next bank to go under - This could also be extended to countries.  I've got The First Bank of Azerbaijan in mine.

• Author 50,000 tweets about your cat, Mr. Fuzzynuzzles.

• Work on impersonation of Bobcat Goldwaith circa 1986's "Police Academy 3: Back in Training."

• Write stunning expose which details how Kabbalah is directly responsible for transforming female pop icons into overly muscled men

• Beat own face in with hammer

• Register listing agent's cell number with every lead generation service on the web.  Can you hear me now?  Good!
  

You can find great deals in bank properties, but you've gotta have a sense of humor or a Flowbee to pass the time.

In typical Real Estate marketing, an agent directs efforts towards selling either a product or his/her services.  In turn, that is how most professionals gear blogging habits.  We post our listings and promote ourselves as buyer and/or seller representatives.  One avenue that is lightly explored, however, is the direct marketing of our buyers to sellers.

Given the sheer immensity of active inventory in many markets throughout the country, the art of mating buyer with property is not always as refined as it could be.  For example, we have about 50,000 listings currently on the market in the metro Phoenix area.  With that raw volume of choice, it is almost incomprehensible that the right property will not be among that throng.  As such, common practice would dictate an agent send the prospect the best 10-20 options, show the prospect their favorite 8-12, select the prospect's top three choices, make an offer on the favorite, move down the line if acceptable terms are not met until you strike a deal.  Easy.

While great in theory, I find this method works far better for the investor than the user.  There are bargains to be had all over the market, but value is only one part of the puzzle for the person who will use the home as a primary residence.  Especially true of someone who does not want to do much, if any, fix up, an agent is often left with far fewer viable options than would ever be conceivably possible in such a strong buyer's market. There's just a lot of junk to sift through, quite frankly.

I have several clients who have been looking off and on for that perfect house for well over a year.  These aren't folks who demand to see property every week, but ones who will act if and when the perfect confluence of wants/needs appears.  There is absolutely no pressure to buy, and they will essentially move when they are forced to by the manifestation of the perfect home.

For such buyers, trawling the MLS for new listings is the first, and unfortunately, only step that many agents will take.  The search will become staler and staler until it vanishes into cyberspace altogether, lost in the apathetic binary code of a decreasingly motivated agent. 

There is a more proactive route that an agent can take for such hard-to-place buyers.  As enterprising agents have mailed or door-knocked communities in years past to drum up candidates for the discriminating buyer, we can use our blogs to canvas the internet.  With our postings reaching into inboxes all across the communities we serve, relying solely on the MLS for inventory is antiquated.

Think about it.  What is the first thing a homeowner will do when mulling the notion of putting his home on the market?  While we agents would prefer they fetch our calendar or business card and call us immediately, the truth of the matter is that they will sit down at the computer to do a little amateur detective work.  In doing such research, they will plug in certain defining aspects of their homes.

If I have already posted a buyer need for a client that wants a 4000 square foot home on an acre in the Chaparral School District in Scottsdale, Arizona for up to $1.2 million, a potential seller of such a property very well might find me before I find him. 

Google is a beautiful thing. 

So while we continue to place our listings all over the internet for buyers to find, we shouldn't lose sight of the power of the internet for drawing out the owners of unique properties as well.  I would certainly expect a receptive response from the homeowner who is not too keen on a lengthy and uncertain stint on the open market.  A one-shot showing to a qualified buyer would have to sound quite appealing to a seller right about now.  No accumulation of days on the market, no long-term commitment ... it could be just the tonic for the thirsty would-be seller who has been leery of putting a home on the market in the current environment.

Buyer Touts:  They're not just for office meetings anymore!

So about that 4000+ sq ft home on an acre in Scottsdale or Paradise Valley for up to $1.2 million ... my clients prefer newer construction.

I'll be awaiting your call.

A weekend at the Railroad Park is a tough act to follow.  Knowing this, Brandi and I reached into the bag of parental tricks and headed to the Southeast Valley yesterday.  Queen Creek, to be precise.  We knew we'd have to dig into our jeans for a bit more cash for this week's excursion, but what can you say to plaintive pairs of baby blue and brown eyes?  If you are like us, you say, "Wanna go see the animals?"

This was our second trip to Schnepf Farms in as many years.  While we enjoyed our initial foray last year, we didn't make it down during the Christmas Festival hours.  It was nice to beat the throng and enjoy having the grounds almost entirely to ourselves (cheaper, too), but this year's adventure far exceeded the previous one. 

From the moment we pulled into the overflowing parking lot, we knew this was going to be a far different experience.  Ponying up $14 a piece for Brandi, Jack and I (children under 2 are free), we were anxious to see what manner of entertainment would be provided to justify the expense.  Not fifty yards from the front gate, a traveling performer was wowing the crowd with assorted juggling skills and a talented canine assistant.  We stayed and watched until he started lighting stuff on fire to juggle.  If you have followed my blog for any length of time, you will understand why I draw the line with juggling and fire when Jack is in attendance.  Such a demonstration would assuredly force me to up my homeowner's policy and keep Wyatt in fire retardant clothing at all times.

Next stop was the playground with all manner of slides, trikes, sand toys, train replicas and more.  With a perfect vantage point for catching the train which circles the farm's perimeter, we weren't allowed to leave this venue for quite some time.  When finally the little dictators allowed themselves to be manhandled to another attraction, we cruised the peacock enclosure before grabbing some barbeque.  The food was excellent, if a little pricey, with bench seating in view of a local country/western band. 

Time for the petting zoo and the rides.

Piglets, goats, lambs ... what more can a young parent ask for when looking on in horror as your little ones jam their fingers into their mouths and ears after a little wild kingdom interaction?  I think Brandi is still washing their hands.

There were ample rides from which to choose, but the boys were limited to a single flight on the "Bee Ride."  Climbing aboard the individual "bee" cars, it was the kind of deal where you simply go around in a circle, but with the ability to control your elevation by pulling or pushing a handlebar.  Wyatt had a huge smile on his face as I rode with him, and Jack appeared to as well as I snapped a couple of pictures of he and Brandi in the trailing car.

The boys WERE NOT allowed on the flying swings and roller coaster.

As we did last year, we traversed the corn maze, with the boys ignoring all posted rules about staying on the path.  Matter of fact, Jack managed to find a few unclaimed ears of corn deep within the bowels of uncharted maize.  Lord knows the farm will want all of it for the ethanol subsidies which keep corn planted in just about every open field anymore.

Finally, we weaved our way to the pumpkin patch.  This was auspiciously why we had come.  While still no substitute for the now defunct Young's Farm just south of Prescott Valley, it is nice to have a passable replacement for a family tradition.  Once you pick that perfect pumpkin from a patch, you'll never want to buy one from Albertson's again.  The boys made their picks, and we made our way back to the car.  Amidst an unseasonable string of 90 degree days, it didn't come a moment too soon for our pink cheeks.

We had a wonderful time, and highly recommend bringing the family down to Schnepf Farms as part of your Autumn ritual.  Click here for park hours, directions, events and more.