Entries from June 2007 ↓

10) Too cluttered - Nothing turns a buyer off more than walking into a potential new home and seeing it filled with stuff. If you really want to sell your home at least take the time and effort to put away, or better yet, dispose of some of your less useful belongings. That collection of McDonald’s plastic toys sitting on your computer desk might have been worth a chuckle when you bought them 3 years ago but c’mon.. get rid of them. Chuck it, stow it, or store it.

9) Too homey - This is hotly debated both ways with one side advising to keep it personal and the other side voting for “less is more”. If your house has an abundance of personal photos, knick-knacks, quilts, and those little marks on the wall from when the kids were growing up, it very well might turn off potential buyers. To help them try to envision themselves living in your house think about keeping the “this is my house” stuff down to a minimum while it’s on the market.

Lack of Curb Appeal - If you are trying to sell your home, spend some time and/or money on cleaning up the yard/facade of the house. It never ceases to amaze me when sellers have weeds growing in their yards or still have Christmas lights hanging… in JULY. Hire a landscaper or pay the neighbor’s kid $5 to cut the grass, pull the weeds, and plant some pretty flowers that someone’s wife will fall in love with. Spending some money when you’re trying to sell a home for hundreds of thousands of dollars is a no-brainer.

7) Terrible Photos - This is something a LOT of real estate agents are guilty of. If your home looks unattractive in the MLS photos then expect less people to come by to take a look. Your home has to be appealing and enticing to potential buyers so take the time to make sure you display the best shots you can. Athol over at REagentinct.com has a recurring “Bad MLS Photo of the Day” post that shows just how bad things can get.

6) Condition of the House - Imagine this… your house has been on the market for 4 months.. several showings.. no offers.. You wonder to yourself, “How can I get this much traffic and not have a single offer?” Believe it or not, the stained carpet, warped floorboard, stuck window, and the algae-green pool might have something to with it. Wise up, roll up your sleeves, and take care of it. Better yet have someone else do it. Most home buyers want a turn-key house that won’t require any additional work to move into so keep that in mind if you won’t budge on the price.

5) Difficult Sellers - Nothing is more frustrating to an agent then an expectant seller who fights you every step of the way. If you want to sell your home try to be as accommodating as you can in terms of showings, open houses, and agent previews. It may be inconvenient at times but an hour of inconvenience may be what it takes to sell your home.

4) Using the Wrong Realtor - Be sure you know who you’re hiring when selecting someone to help you sell your home. Interview several agents from different companies and compare them side-by-side to see who will maximize the chances of selling your home. Don’t be afraid to ask for referrals from their past clients and if they can’t or won’t produce a list of satisfied customers that should raise some red flags.

3) Lack of Exposure - If people don’t know that your home is for sale that might make it a bit more difficult to actually get it sold. Newspaper advertisements, open houses, 24-hour recordings, fully stocked “For Sale” flyers, craigslist postings and “Just listed” (or maybe “Still listed”) postcards are just some of the marketing techniques that could be utilized.

2) Market Conditions - This is the beast that most of the nation is struggling with right now. Be realistic when putting your home on the market and be prepared to make adjustments the longer your home sits on the market. If it’s been four months without any significant action you should take a long look at your situation and see what you can do to improve it. Which leads us to the number one reason your home is still on the market..

1) Wrong Pricing - Regardless of the circumstances, bad pricing is the top reason why your home is still sitting on the market. The housing market doesn’t care what your neighbor sold his house for last year or whether or not you need to sell at a certain price to pay off the 2nd mortgage you got two years ago. The bottom line is, the market will dictate how much your home will sell for. If you absolutely need to sell your home NOW then adjust the price accordingly.

Keep these 10 reasons in mind when trying to sell your home and the process should be a little less painful and (hopefully) a little shorter.

Technorati Tags: Curb Appeal, sell your home, turn-key house, Wrong Pricing, 2nd mortgage, 10 reasons

I’ve already written an entry about the I-10 construction that is just now gaining momentum here in town and here is why I’m writing about it again: After speaking with several prospects/clients/friends I’ve come to the conclusion that most people either didn’t know about the construction, didn’t know the full extent of the expansion, or were misinformed about critical details. And because I think this construction will impact most Tucsonans, I’m going to explain the What, When, Where, and Why… and I suppose the How, just to round it out.

What
A 2 1/2-year project that will expand I-10 from the current three lane to four lanes in each direction between the 29th Street and Prince Road exits. There will also be extra lanes for on/off ramps. Seven new bridges and underpasses will be constructed at the following streets: Grant Road, Speedway Boulevard, St. Mary’s Road, Congress Street, Granada Avenue/Clark Street, 18th Street and 22nd Street.

When
UPDATED 6/22/2007: The closure schedule has been updated by one week. Eastbound I-10 will close from Friday, June 22, 2007, at 10 p.m. to Sunday, June 24, 2007, at noon. Eastbound I-10 traffic will be routed onto the eastbound I-10 frontage road at Prince Road. All eastbound ramps between Prince Road and 29th Street will be closed for the duration of the project.

Westbound I-10 from Prince Road to 29th will close from Saturday, June 23, 2007, at 10 p.m. to Sunday, June 24, 2007, at noon. Westbound I-10 traffic will be routed onto the westbound I-10 frontage road at 29th Street. All westbound I-10 ramps between Prince Road and 29th Street remain closed for the duration of the project.
For the next three weeks there will be several alternating closures of eastbound/westbound I-10 with the frontage roads (outlined in graphic below). After July 1, 2007, I-10 will be closed down to 2 lanes eastbound/westbound from Prince Road to 29th Street for the next 3 years. Frontage roads in both directions are being expanded to 3 lanes to accommodate the increased traffic.

CLICK TO ENLARGE

Where
From Prince Road on the north side to 29th Street on the south side. All entrance/exit ramps between these two streets will be closed until the completion of the project.

Why
Because Tucson and the Arizona Department of Transportation (ADOT) are once again reacting to a problem instead of anticipating one. What’s worse is that they “can’t” add another lane in each direction to make a 10-lane freeway (which will inevitably be needed), according to a recent Q&A article from the Arizona Daily Star: “This section of I-10 cannot be widened again after this project because there will be no more right-of-way space between the interstate and the frontage road.”

How
Not the most critical section but some people may be interested; The project was awarded as a joint venture to Kiewit Western Company and Sundt Construction, Inc. and was budgeted at $200 million.

Conclusion: Everyone will be impacted by the Tucson I-10 construction project at some point in the next 3 years and it will definitely be a big factor in the Tucson real estate market. Someone who works at IBM (on the southeast side of town) will probably think twice about moving to Continental Ranch or Gladden Farms (northwest side of town). The biggest gripe I have with this project is that the speed limit for the frontage roads and the two lanes open in each direction on I-10 will only be 45MPH. Sure to be a headache for those of you who are already in a situation like above.

Hope this information was helpful, for more detailed info and weekly traffic alerts visit ADOT’s I-10 District page.

Technorati Tags: I-10, Tucson, ADOT, Tucson I-10 construction, Tucson real estate, Continental Ranch, Gladden Farms

Alright everyone, the Tucson Association of Realtors, (TAR),has just released their figures for last month, May 2007. Here is an excerpt of the important news, I’ve gone ahead and highlighted/bolded the important points:

Sales Analysis

Average Sales Price Increases
After falling from January to February 2007, average sales price has continued to climb, reaching $280,589 in May 2007. For the second month in a row, average sales price has increased in year-over-year comparisons. The average sales price in May 2006 was $269,217 - more than $11,000 less than the average sales price in May 2007.

Active Listings Decrease From Last Month
We have reversed an upward trend in active listings we’ve seen since the beginning of the year. The total number of active listings has risen steadily since January, but in May 2007 fell to 9,721. Active listings are up 15.41% compared to May 2006.

Days on Market Reach Their Lowest Point of the Year
In good news for area sellers, the average time on market in May 2007 reached 61 days, the shortest time we’ve seen so far this year. Days on market reached a high of 68 in January 2007 and has hovered in the mid-60s from February to April 2007.

Okay, now that we have the figures out of the way, let’s actually discuss what they mean. At first glance the rise in median sales price, lower amount of active listings, and lower Days on Market (DOM) may be a sign that the Tucson real estate market is finally turning around. If the market really were still coming down than why would prices be rising and homes selling faster, right?

But the one thing that got me thinking was the number of active listings for May 2007 and how they had gone DOWN from April. In my previous post I discussed my thoughts on how the Tucson real estate market had plateaued and that we were going to start seeing signs of a relaxing housing market, and I predicted that housing supply would continue to rise. Now, here is what I think is happening: I think what we are currently experiencing in the Tucson market is a combination of several things not relating to an upturn in the market.

1. The annual summer moving flurry which always tends to re-invigorate sales. Summer is the most active moving season because the kids are out of school, weather tends to be better, and most job changes happen during these months.
2. The decreased active listings isn’t indicative of a more robust housing market, explained below.
3. The rise in median sales price and slightly lower DOM is a result of the summer moving flurry (#1) and Tucson still feeling the aftereffects of Housing Craze ‘05 (HC05).

Now, to explain what I meant above about the decreased active listings. From my post about the Tucson housing market plateauing, we can see the number of active listings from April 2007 was 10,185. Last month it was 9,721. That is difference of only.. *pulls out calculator*.. 464! Not really that big of a decrease, definitely not something indicating a market turnaround.

Furthermore, just because I was curious, I queried the Tucson MLS database to see how many listings during May had either expired or were withdrawn. (Now to be honest, this number doesn’t necessarily take away from active listing number, some listings might have been immediately re-listed). When I did the above search I came away with 2,239. And then I did the same for April, and came up with 2,121. And just to be fair, I did March also, getting 1,923.

So the question is, do those numbers really mean anything? I would think that they DO, if nothing else than showing a steady month-to-month increase in expired/withdrawn listings. Expired listings are pretty self-explanatory, listings that came and went with no agreed upon offers. Withdrawn listings can happen for a couple reasons: 1) Sellers change their minds about selling, 2) Listing agent withdraws and then re-lists either with a lower price or the same price, but mostly to make it appear as a “newer” listing when other agents search for “new” listings in the MLS.

To re-iterate, I still do not think the Tucson real estate market is completely out of it’s funk. I think we may see another month or two of rising median home prices, but then things will calm down. With nearly ten thousand active listings and rising mortgage rates, something will have to come down.

So there you have it, Tucson real estate news for May 2007. If you have any questions or would like a copy of the report from last month please feel to leave a comment below, I look forward to hearing from you!

Technorati Tags: Tucson Association of Realtors, Days on Market, Tucson real estate, Tucson MLS, Expired listings, Tucson real estate news for May 2007

Well some good news in the financial sector; Fair Isaac Corporation, best known to most of us as the source of FICO credit scores, Tuesday announced it will be adjusting it’s credit scoring standards to take into account the common practice of credit ‘boosting‘. It will no longer take into account an authorized user status when determining your credit score.
A brief excerpt from a quality blog I frequent:

An authorized user is a person permitted by a credit account holder to use an account, typically a family member who is managing credit for the first time. Used legitimately, authorized user account information has helped both lenders and consumers by enabling lenders to use FICO scores when making credit decisions for consumers who are starting to establish a credit history. Fair Isaac’s research indicates that the next version of its FICO scoring formula will deliver increased predictive power without considering authorized user accounts.

I am very pleased an industry heavyweight has hopped on board with the effort to curb some of the issues that are finally coming to light in the housing market. The bottom line of this credit boosting change (named “FICO 08″, available this September) is that it will prevent people from qualifying for loans who never should have qualified for them in the first place! There is no doubt this change comes a little late, but is that really a surprise?

Technorati Tags: FICO, credit score, FICO scores, credit boosting

Adding to the explosive growth in Marana, AZ is the steady progress of a new 1.3 million square foot retail shopping center dubbed Marana Spectrum. It will be located at the southeast corner of Camino de Manana and Linda Vista Boulevard (east of I-10 between Cortaro and Avra Valley) and will cover nearly 170 acres. Estimated to have roughly 100 stores, Marana Spectrum will carry 3 “anchor stores” of at least 100,000 sqft, making the total square footage approximately equal to that of the Tucson Mall. That’s HUGE! Take a look at the proposed layout below:

(CLICK TO ENLARGE)

The ball started rolling about one and a half years ago and plans have been released by the company in charge of the construction of the center (Kimco Developers Inc.). A brief excerpt from their site on what they do:

“Kimco Developers pursues the development of quality open-air retail shopping centers with national tenants, both on our own and through joint ventures with quality developers.

These projects will be supermarket anchored power centers, mixed-use or lifestyle centers.”

What is even more exciting about this center is the fact that it basically ensures a Twin Peaks interchange at I-10. With such a large retail center being built the Town of Marana will finally have to build the interchange that most Continental Ranch residents have been clamoring for over the past five years. It will also alleviate some of the congestion that has been building up during the past few years at the Cortaro Road interchange and also ease the traffic that will be generated from the pending subdivision of Saguaro Springs (read about it here).

(CLICK TO ENGLARGE)

The project is slated to begin in 2008 and be completed by 2010 (I wonder if that will coincide with the opening of the Twin Peaks interchange & the completion of the 3 year I-10 expansion project! ;P).

As of yet no anchor stores have been announced but possible candidates will probably be stores along the lines of Best Buy, Bed Bath & Beyond, Circuit City, etc.

This is definitely going to be a huge step in Marana’s development plan and I can’t wait for it to be finished!

UPDATED 8/13/2007 - From today’s Arizona Daily Star article: “Plan update: The developer, Barclay Group, is still in negotiations with the town of Marana on a development agreement. The retail center’s opening is contingent upon the completion of the planned I-10/ Twin Peaks Road interchange. Construction on the interchange is expected to begin in early 2008. The Town Council approved a site plan for the center on Tuesday.”

Technorati Tags: Marana, AZ, Marana Spectrum, Twin Peaks interchange, Town of Marana, Continental Ranch, Saguaro Springs, tucson real estate