ALL PHOENIX REAL ESTATE

Giving credit where credit is due, I’ve essentially lifted an idea from my good friend Ines in an effort to help give folks a better feel for the Valley.

Aside from being a damn good agent in Miami, Ines is responsible for the website MiamismPix, which is a photo blog of the Miami area. The idea is brilliant for its simplicity … she takes photos from her iPhone and they post to the site. Scan through the archives and it’s hard not to feel the humidity see the beauty.

My own attempt to do the same thing for Phoenix launched yesterday. There only are a handful of photos so far but the plan is to post at least one a day, maybe more on those days like last week where I’m travelling from the Biltmore to Buckeye in the same day.

The only rule is all of the photos are going to be taken with my Samsung Instinct (I’m still futilely resisting the iPhone revolution) and that’s really the key. One of the reasons that I never have had a lot of pictures here is I don’t always have my camera on me and then I tend to forget to download and blah blah blah.

With the new website there are no excuses.

So while you’re waiting for the usual market stats (coming later today) I hope you’ll take a moment to see the beginnings of the Phoenix in Pix website.

What I hope to discover is that in trying to allow you to see the Valley, I’ll open my own eyes to some of the things you take for granted after 32 years.

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Rarely a couple of days pass before I receive a call about Scarlett Canyon, a small community located on the north side of Loop 101 east of 16th Street in North Phoenix.

Scarlett Canyon consists of just over 400 homes built by Beazer and two other builders in the mid-1990s. Floor plans vary 1,900 square foot single-story models to well over 2,600 homes. But Scarlett Canyon isn’t really about the homes. It’s about the mountains.

Here’s the view from a short sale listing I have on Scarlett Canyon’s east side.

As I’ve said in the past, there are mountain views and then there are mountain views. And the mountain views here are virtually unmatched for the price.

That there is interest in these homes is a no-brainer. What’s surprising, though, is the number of people who find their way into what is a fairly secluded, hidden subdivision.

The only way in to Scarlett Canyon is on 16th Street after traveling along the frontage road for Loop 101; there is no 16th Street exit. If you want to get here, you really need to want to get there. And two or three prospective buyers do just that each week.

Like much of the Phoenix market, values in Scarlett Canyon have declined from the highs of 2005. But unlike some areas, the values in Scarlett Canyon have started to come back up ever so slightly over the past couple of months.

Here’s what currently is for sale:

If you’d like more information about Scarlett Canyon or would like to take a look at a couple of the homes currently available, e-mail or call me and I’ll be happy to help.

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Our local hockey franchise is having some trouble these days. In its coverage of the Coyotes’ bankruptcy the other night, our local Fox affiliate played audio from former Coyotes player Jeremy Roenick explaining that part of the problem was the team has a great arena but it’s in the middle of nowhere and people aren’t willing to drive “50 minutes to an hour and a half” to go see a game.

Of course, if the team had built the arena at the former location of Los Arcos Mall in south Scottsdale, many of us would have been expected to drive east to attend the game. And it might not have taken that long, since it’s 30 minutes from my house in Glendale to Scottsdale but takes three hours to get from Scottsdale to Glendale. (Think about it, the punch line will come.)

One of the advantages of living in the Phoenix area for what will be 32 years on May 17 is I’ve seen first-hand the changes that many of the areas have undergone. For instance, there are relatively few of us around who attended football games at the old Gilbert High School, back before Gilbert became the Southeast Valley’s beacon of light and an example to all of us luddites west of Central. Much like Peoria and Glendale, Gilbert once was little more than a narrow strip of residential and a whole lot of farm land. Hell, Guadalupe Road used to be dirt beyond Alma School Road, making the trip a bit of an adventure.

Gilbert started growing up and eventually the then-new high school was opened, a truly wonderous one-stop creating with everything from classrooms to the gymnasium connected under one roof. Val Vista Lakes was built, giving the city a planned residential development (maybe there was one before, but if there was it’s escaping me.)

Ironically, it was at the time Val Vista Lakes was under construction that Arrowhead Ranch was being built in Glendale. No, folks, not everything in the Northwest Valley has been built in the last five years.

Speaking of which … which opened first, Chandler Fashion Square or Arrowhead Towne Center? Which area was already attracting retail development, as well as tourist dollars courtesy of a two-team spring training complex as early as 1993? Yeah, not Chandler.

My wife used to work processing cattle loans in Chandler twenty years ago. I couldn’t tell you what these were except she said they involved the ranch’s brand. Yet these days, the dear folks in the People’s Republic of Chandler tend to look down on those of us with a 623 area code because, unlike some of us who grew up on the Tri-City border and then moved (albeit across town), they’ve never ventured outside the 480 to find out what else may be around.

Until completion of the Loop 101, Scottsdale was one of the most inaccessible cities in the Valley. Take it from someone who was driving the Greenway Parkway to get across but could get to his parents’ home in Mesa in less time (and twice the distance) because of the freeway access.

But Scottsdale has mountain views, you say? There’s a reason this is called the Valley of the Sun (even if technically it’s more of a basin) … there are mountains all around us, even here in Glendale.

One thing I’ve never been very good about on this website is photography, but maybe the time has come for me to keep the camera in the car to help document what the West Valley really looks like - the shopping, the restaurants, the sports facilities, the golf, the schools (which rank right up there with the top East Valley districts, by the way) and all of the rest. Maybe Jeremy Roenick should pick up the phone and talk to Tony Clark, who lives in Glendale. (And, as I discovered last fall, shops at Best Buy).

Then again, maybe it’s best the eastsiders stay on their side of Central and continue deluding themselves that there’s nothing really happening over here. That Super Bowl? That was on a backlot, kinda like Capricorn One.

And incidentally, JR … Sun Devil Stadium’s an older stadium in Tempe some 40 miles and 45 minutes from my house. And guess what? Every Saturday gameday, you see gold-clad drivers making their way from the West Valley to Tempe to watch the games.

Location’s not the issue. Not playing winning hockey is the problem. But hey, the Coyotes did win as many playoff series this year as the Sharks did.

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… of a casita in Ventana Lakes. Ventana Lakes doesn’t necessarily refer to the gemini homes in the Gardens sections as casitas, but casita certainly has a much better ring to it than “gemini/twin home” as the Arizona Regional MLS says.

There have been two closed sales inside the Gardens sections since January 2008 … two sales in the better part of 14 months. Prices have fallen not because of a rise in foreclosed properties but rather because of basic supply and demand.

Today was this casita’s 101st day on the market since I took the listing; the overall count is closer to 22 months. And it’s also its final day as an active listing.

One of the skills in which I take the most pride is being able to match my buyers with the types of properties they’re trying to find. Many do some of the heavy listing themselves with the searches on my various websites, but after our first time out looking at homes I’m usually able to start making suggestions.

A couple of weeks back I had mentioned this property to one of my buyers. She asked me to send details and told me of a property in Peoria that she’d fallen in love with, at least as much as you can via the pitcures.

Turns out it was the same house … this lovely little casita.

And so it is that I can tell you that in 101 days, Tobey and I were able to do what only two other agents have done in the past 13 months - bring buyer and seller together for a mutually happy ending in the Gardens at Ventana Lakes.

Postscript: the second-most gratifying thing I heard today was that the casita looked just like the photographs made it appear. That’s 180 degrees away from what I usually here - that the home looked far better online than it does in person. Marketing is one thing but there’s also something to be said for not disappointing buyers when they walk in the front door of your listing.

The most gratifying thing I heard … “God bless you.”

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Palm Valley is Goodyear’s largest master planned community, stretching from Dysart Road in the east to Cotton Land and beyond in the west and roughly between McDowell and Camelbacks Roads.

At the heart of Palm Valley is the Palm Valley golf club, a 36-hold layout that runs through the much of the community. Palm Valley also boasts community parks, walking paths and considerable retail options.

On the below map are the bank-owned homes available in Palm Valley. Bookmark the page - the map is dynamic, so it will be up-to-date whether you check back in five minutes or five months.

To schedule your own private viewing of any of these properties, call or e-mail me.

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