“You Do Your Job Well”
Take it from me, the compliment today was more backhanded that it sounds.
Bob and Judy are moving here from the east coast (I’ve taken a page from the great Ardell’s playbook and changing the names to protect the innocent.) They love Val Vista Lakes in Gilbert. They also love Estrella in Goodyear.
Earlier this week they looked at a home in Val Vista Lakes and fell in love. On Tuesday, one of my buyers’ agents showed them homes in Estrella and they fell head over heels in love. As Bob put it, this was the best home they’ve seen in six years of traveling to and debating a move to the Phoenix area.
The issue, however, is Estrella’s location. Though Estrella has been in existence for nearly 10 years, there’s no commercial development in the subdivision itself except for a small convenience store.
One of Estrella’s selling points is that it’s located just south of the city of Phoenix’s Estrella Regional Park - that park, as well as the Bureau of Land Management parcel to the west - mean the wide-open vistas visible from Estrella likely will remain that way for some time to come. But that also means that until Basha’s arrives, now slated for 2009, the nearest grocery store is seven miles away.
All of this is already priced into the housing market in Estrella, of course. And those folks who choose to live in Estrella often do so because it’s separated from the rest of the sprawl in the Valley.
Estrella’s amenities are virtually unmatched: a residents’ center with two pools (one a resort-style lagoon pool with a water park, the other an Olympic-size lap pool), fitness center, a marina where residents can check out boats free of charge, a packed community calendar, farmer’s markets in the fall and a full compliment of schools. Residents receive discounts at the Jack Nicklaus-designed golf course and would-be residents can choose their neighborhood style to a degree by choosing from homes in the Mountain, Lake or Golf Village.
This is what I pointed out to Bob and Judy yesterday as I sent them comps on Estrella.
When the retail development is added, I believe values will increase. I can’t guarantee they will, but I believe that they will. The same goes for Estrella Falls, the regional mall being developed at Cotton Lane and Interstate 10. The same goes for the Cotton Lane bridge providing a second road into Estrella.
All of these factors lead me to believe values will increase once the current housing market completes its correction. I can’t guarantee it, but this is what I’ve seen in other areas.
As I said, all of this was in an e-mail to Bob and Judy yesterday. When I called today, Bob thanked me both for the comps and for making the decision far harder than they thought it would be. I laughed and said that was my job and was told “you do your job well.”
In truth, as I explained once the laughter ended, it’s not my job to make decisions harder for someone buying a home. But it is part of my job to share my experience with someone to aid them in their decision.
Many times before have I seen a buyer fall in love with a house and not purchase it - be it because someone beat them to the punch, they changed their mind, or they felt the home was a little too distant. And many times I’ve seen those buyers compare every other home they see with the one that got away.
Tom Hopkins suggests a similar script as a sales ploy but the truth is, it happens. I’ve seen it and can vouch for it. Tom also suggests sitting down with a piece of paper and listing all of the pluses and minuses of a given home. It sounds somewhat simplistic, but it often helps buyers focus on what’s most important to them.
What will Bob and Judy decide? We’ll know in a few days time. Only they truly can know what home will best suit their needs.
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Great post! If you think of it, send me an email with Part 2 when it comes out.
It ends up they went for Gilbert rather than Goodyear. There were other areas in Goodyear that were closer that may have appealed to them, such as Palm Valley, but they had narrowed things down to two and that was that.