St Mary's Westside Food Bank

Today was a day to give back to the community - just a little.

A dozen Keller Williams Realty agents met at St Mary's Westside Food Bank late this morning to volunteer our services. This is not about real estate - but it is about people.

For three hours we sorted donated food, checking for expiration dates - putting the "good" stuff in like-type bins and pitching the items that are unsafe.

I sorted out my pantry not long ago and was surprised to find items more than five years old. The oldest I found today at the food bank was a donated item with an expiration code from 1998 - it went to the circular file. So did a lot of other out-of-code items.

When you donate - and it is a good thing to do - watch for expiration dates. They'll take canned goods that are up to year year past "best sale date" but dry food is acceptable only one month past expiration date.

The numbers fed thanks to donated foodstuffs is staggering - only one state topped Arizona last year in feeding hungry people. You can help. The food bank is on Elm Street, just east of Dysart and south of Bell in Surprise.

Phoenix Condo

Early in October I met a young man interested in seeing a condo - near Greenway and the 51. That's not my part of the valley, but he'd called the office and the agent of the day called me - and I had time, so I headed over there. Cute condo, very inexpensive, but there was already an offer in the works so that one got away.

I set him up on an automated search and it wasn't long until we found one that would work for him. Same part of town. Short sale. We made an offer, the seller accepted - and the wait began. And went on, and on, and on.

After 90 days, the young man - whose wife was expecting their first baby - asked to look at another condo. Same part of town. Same condition. Same price - more or less. Only this condo had no strings attached - no banks involved. While we (buyer, pregnant wife and I) were looking, around 10am, wife's contractions began - so that was a REALLY quick look. We made offer, seller accepted, (baby was born that evening!!), we did inspection the next day - seller agreed to correct the few minor issues. We cancelled the first contract - and his earnest money was returned.

And yesterday we closed! I met him at the property - along with his wife and the baby - and gave them the keys to their new home.

This is - except for rentals and referrals - the smallest commission check I've ever received. Yet it is one of the smoothest and most gratifying transactions in my career. Great seller's agent. No surprises. And happy buyer.

Housing Market - Finding the Value

I got a call yesterday from the owner of an older home in Phoenix asking how much their house might sell for. Until a couple of years ago, the property had been home to the couple for 20+ years. Over time they'd expanded it (more than doubled its size), updated the kitchen, decorated it to suit themselves, enjoyed the pool - it was home. Then, when their neighborhood had aged and the market dropped, came a great job opportunity in another city. They moved away, leased it out, the lease ends in February and now they have a decision to make. Find another tenant? Sell? Or ...?

Ideally, to determine list price I'd find two or three homes built within about five years of the house, similar in size and condition, with pools, in the same subdivision that have sold within the past three months. I can't make that work - so I'm working outside the subdivision but within a mile and a half radius of the property. What's been selling falls pretty much into two categories - distress sales, where the house - at least in pictures - looks pretty sadly neglected, and remodels - with gorgeous kitchens, updated bathrooms, new flooring and decorator touches.

I haven't seen their house for a couple of years, so the best I can do is give them a range. If it's looking pitiful, given its age and the neighborhood and how the tenants took care of it, it'll probably be in the mid to high $30s per square foot. If it is knock-your-sox off stunning, with no maintenance issues, it could be in the high $50s per square foot. Anyway you look at it, at least from a seller's standpoint, the figure is disappointing.

What complicates real estate transactions is - of course - purchase money. Someone who is paying cash wants to be sure he is not over-paying, but may be willing to over-pay if the property is everything he wants. However, someone who is borrowing from a lender will have an appraisal before the lender will close the transaction. The appraised value will dictate how much the lender will lend. Market value is really determined not by what a willing buyer will pay (unless he's a cash buyer) but by what a willing lender will lend.

Price it too high and a buyer won't look. Price it too low (bait) and you're in violation of the Real Estate Commissioner standards.

So what I'll end up telling the homeowners is that, depending upon condition, and depending on how quickly they need to sell, their initial list price falls somewhere between x and y - which in this case is a spread of about $30K. When a seller owes more than they expect a buyer to pay, the initial pricing decision is on the low end - and ultimately in a short sale the seller's lender will determine the sales price.

Someday, foreclosures and short sales may be just a memory - I hope. Until then, they are sure giving buyers a lot of bargain-priced properties to choose from.

Cholla

I am always looking for business. A couple of years ago or so I contacted a seller whose listing with another company had expired, just to see if he might still want to try to sell. Nice person - very courteous and willing to talk about what it might take to bring a buyer. His price was simply too high for the market, so we agreed that when the market improved, if he still wanted to sell, that he'd give me a call.

We talked a few times after that - and stayed in touch through my monthly newsletter.

I got a call from him in September. He'd been trying since the first of the year to get his bank to modify his loan, and they suggested that he short sale it. The house was getting a little too much for him to maintain, so he agreed that a short sale was the best solution for him - and he called me.

I listed it and showed it before we even got a sign in his yard. We had a buyer very quickly, and the seller's lender has a good reputation for efficiency, so I thought we'd have an acceptance in no time.

Well, not so much. If I'd been smarter, we might not have had the hiccups that we had. I knew from the beginning - and had told the seller's lender - that seller's income was limited to social security and a small pension and because of his income he had not filed tax returns for the last ten years. Weeks after submittion the offer and accompanying documents, seller's lender denied the short sale because the file was incomplete - incomplete because there were no pay stubs or tax returns.

It took a little doing, but upper management at the lender institution coached me as to what they were looking for by way of documentation (it's not all that intuitive as to how you demonstrate that you DO NOT do something - like file taxes) - and with only a little additional delay, we provided a complete file and the lender approved the short sale.

During the interim, the October 5th hail storm hammered the roof of the house - so the seller's insurance company got involved, and then the seller's lender had some additional requirements to be satisfied. (Nothing is easy).

But we did it - we closed before the end of December. Buyer is happy with their new investment property - and the tenant found to go with it. Tenant is happy to have a lovely home. Seller is happy to be in his new apartment, with less upkeep, and no more stress from a short sale. And once the vendors have completed the work they've committed to do in addressing the hail damage, this story will have a happy ending. Oh yeah - and I got paid.

Avondale - Gated Community

It was probably a year ago, maybe longer, that I met a lovely Colorado couple interested in buying a vacation home. When we first talked, they didn't know what part of the valley might work best for them. They got partially educated on line, as most people do, so when they came to Arizona for a visit, we drove around a bit to validate the conclusions they'd come to.

We found a property in Coyote Lakes in Surprise - and made an offer on it before they returned to Colorado. It was a short sale. And a long story. Eventually that property went from short sale into foreclosure. Not the plan that we'd had in mind. So the Colorado couple still did not have their Arizona vacation home.

Last fall, we started looking again - still long distance. This time we shifted location toward Avondale, and we made an offer on a lovely home in a gated community. Another short sale. Very very low price - about $40K less than the one that got away.

They made their offer from Colorado on the strength of pictures. Once the seller's lender approved the sale, they came out for visual inspection - and liked what they saw. (Whew!) Home inspection and appraisal went well - no issues - and we closed before the end of December.

Really nice people. They're in Arizona as I write - at the house - and starting the process of redecorating to put their own personality all over it. Another happy ending - or maybe new beginning ....

Arrowhead by the Lake

I love it when good things happen. On this transaction, I represented the seller - a very nice man whose job change required him to move out of state. With the market as it is - meaning it is a great market for buyers looking for bargains and a challenging market for sellers who need to get their money out of their property - the seller needed approval from his lender in order to do a short sale.

We had a couple of challenges along the way - a seller contribution toward closing that we couldn't handle, and an appraisal for the buyer that wasn't as high as the sales price.

But they turned out to be minor, and closing occurred a couple of days before Christmas.

Buyers now have the home they wanted, and seller can move on with the rest of his life. And I got a paycheck ....

Grace at 90

I went to a birthday celebration for a 90 year old friend last Saturday. There must have been 70 or more people there to honor her - family, friends from her career as a teacher, friends from her days as a WAC (Womens Army Corps), friends from church. Grace was touched that so many came, and that people were not bashful about taking the mic and telling how she had touched their lives.

And there was cake! I always like it when there is cake.

I guess I've known Grace for maybe the last five years. She and her daughter Joyce changed churches and started coming to Glendale Christian - that's where my husband and I have our membership. Grace is a magnet - she's tiny, she's friendly, she twinkles, she smiles and she exudes warmth. She doesn't see very well, but she gets around easily with the help of her daughter. She's at church when the doors open and is involved in Bible studies outside of Sunday morning. She's wise, and funny, and she doesn't take herself or her life too seriously though she is pretty darn serious when it comes to eternal values. I'd say she is a role model for a lot of us.

One unanticipated benefit: I ran into a friend of Grace's that I had not seen for over 25 years! We'd worked together once, and she looks great - just as if it had been yesterday. Now there's a woman who takes good care of herself! And I had no idea that she was Grace's friend. Small world.

It's truly an honor for me to be counted among her many friends.