Friday Afternoon Theme Music: March 28
I want me some more Bob Marley … bound to improve any mood.
Have a great weekend!
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Do Sports Help the Phoenix Real Estate Market?
Glendale has been a sporting mecca over the past 14 months, what with the Super Bowl, the 2007 BCS Championship Game and two Fiesta Bowls being played here.
Next year the Los Angeles Dodgers arrive for spring training. And the fact the Dodgers already come here for nine games a year didn’t stop some folks for paying hundreds of dollars for a ticket to a spring training game.
That’s just Glendale. Today’s the final day of spring training in Surprise, spring home of the Kansas City Royals and Texas Rangers. Within the next few days, the Royals and Rangers fans will be heading back home along with countless others here from Chicago, Seattle, San Diego, Milwaukee and the Bay Area.
Many homeowners expected miracles when the Super Bowl was here. They offered their homes for rent - whether they were vacant or still occupied - at often ludicrous rates in hopes of gaining some income. Most did not.
Many hoped that people flocking here for the Super Bowl and other events would pull up stakes and move to Phoenix. Sports would be the salvation for the Phoenix real estate market. But it wasn’t. I’m sure many West Virginians enjoyed their trip here, but read the flavor of the local blogs and I can’t see many willing to make the trade. Well, except for when there’s snow on the ground in March.
There are folks who eventually make the decision to move here after multiple winter visits in general or to take in a few games. Friends and family often follow them down. But for the bus loads of visitors here from Calgary to see the flames play the Phoenix Coyotes, only a handful may ever commit to making the move.
Sports are not a cure-all. The arrival of a new sports complex can help property value in the long run, but not to the degree many expect. The effects also are of limited scope. For all the ads pushing homes in downtown Glendale as “close to Westgate,” miles away still is miles away. There’s little impact.
This isn’t to say there’s not reason to enjoy spring training and the like. It’s going to be 82 degrees. The sun is shining, as it has nearly every day for the last three weeks. There are beverages to be had, adult and otherwise, a tan to work on.
But for real estate … the benefits aren’t as tangible or immediate.
Technorati Tags: Phoenix real estate, spring training
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The Misguided Good Samaritans in Real Estate
Two observations for the price of one.
The first involves a family member of one of my prospective buyers who came in from Los Angeles to look at a home my buyer’s been mulling over. “Write them an offer, you know, 20 or 25 percent below and see what happens.
“Right,” she adds, looking at me.
“This isn’t LA,” I said. “I can’t guarantee it, but I’m almost certain the seller won’t even consider the offer serious at that price.”
Phoenix isn’t Los Angeles. Every real estate market is different. Which brings us to the second observation …
Someone on Trulia Voices has been kind enough to begin answering questions en masse, except every answer essentially is the same:
wait
it’s still a bubble
rent
good luck
Let’s try this on something else.
Should I fill up my tank?
wait
walk
gas will be cheaper
good luck
Should I Super Size my Big Mac?
wait
prices will go down
you don’t need the calories
good luck
With a little effort (which I will not put forth) we can turn this into Magic-8 ball inspired mediocre advice haiku!
I have no doubt that the person means well but blanket advice about real estate is all but useless. This person doesn’t know anything about any of these folks’ situations. He or she doesn’t have in-depth knowledge of the markets involved. Renting might be a good idea. It might not. But it’s not a suitable blanket reply. It’s no better than the opposite “it’s always a good time to buy” mantra. Yes. Maybe. Or not. It depends.
Not that a bubble-head ever will see it this way, but it’s not a pure black-and-white issue.
Technorati Tags: Phoenix real estate, real estate bubble, Trulia Voices
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Real Estate Photography Overkill
I’m thinking of a number between six and infinity. If you can’t get to six, you’re eliminated from the competition from the get-go. If you’re leaning closer to the infinity mark, you also probably have a date with the exit.
How many photos are too few on your average real estate listing (let’s throw out 3 bedroom, 2 bath around 1,600 square foot as “average” for the exercise)? Clearly, zero would be too few. One almost certain is as well. In fact, you ought to be able to reach the six mark - the arbitrary limit currently set by the Arizona Regional MLS without having to break a sweat:
- Front elevation
- Back elevation
- Kitchen
- Master bedroom
- Family room/great room
- Secondary bedroom/special feature
That was pretty easy, huh?
The new MLS coming to the Phoenix real estate market has the capability of unlimited photos. Some are cheering in the background at this announcement but indulge me and look around the room in which you’re sitting. How many facets of this room would you say are photo-worthy?
Taken one step further … at what point do the photographs serve to eliminate buyers (or cause buyers to eliminate your home) rather than attract them? I long ago stopped adding room dimensions to my listings not to be difficult but because I wanted buyers to see the room for themselves. It seems silly to risk someone eliminating a house based on a 17×15 master bedroom because they want 18×15. Take a look at the room and tell me if the extra 15 square feet really matter.
I read one blog where it was written with pride that the agents had taken more than a couple hundred photographs of the property. What are you photographing at that stage? Electrical outlets? Each individual cabinet? Smoke detectors?
Photographs lie. Buyers learn this fairly quickly. I can’t tell you how many times one of my buyers “favorite” houses was eliminated in short order when they saw what the pictures did not reveal. At the same time, I’ve had many buyers who are pleasantly surprised when they see in three dimensions what was rendered in two on a website.
Do you really want to risk your home not selling because someone doesn’t like your switch covers, retail value $2.27?
I didn’t think so.
Technorati Tags: real estate marketing, Phoenix real estate
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More Phoenix Real Estate Brokerage Changes
This one’s courtesy of John Wake (with a hat tip to Jay Thompson):
HomeSmart Real Estate, with 1,700 agents acquired Dan Schwartz Realty with 1,600 agents last week giving HomeSmart Real Estate 3,300 agents and making it by far the largest real estate brokerage in Arizona, the largest in the Southwest, and one of the largest in the United States.
Real estate brokerages seem to come in two sizes these days - mom and pop, and monolithic. One of HomeSmart’s advantages, from what I understand, is the same as what I’m discovering at RE/MAX Desert Showcase - a commitment to technology not for the sake of technology but to help their agents sell homes.
There’s inevitably changes that come when companies merge - agents generally don’t like to be “sold” as it were and often go their own way so as to feel like they’re in charge of their own destiny - so it will be interesting to see how everything shakes out.
Technorati Tags: Phoenix real estate, real estate brokerages
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