Getting the Real “Dirt”

Whether its Phoenix real estate you’re looking at, or Glendale homes for sale, even when you’ve narrowed your choices down to just two or three houses, there is a massive amount of information that you need to obtain, understand, and evaluate to determine if a house is your future home.  Here are a few general sources of information.

Inside the House - Obvious, right?  But what are you looking for?  Besides the layout, number of bedrooms and bathrooms, there can be several indications that this house might have some damage that’s worth looking into.  Any water damage can be a sign of plumbing, drainage, or flooding problems.  Pest problems can show up as smells or even as damage to the wood. 

Outlets can give a quick check as to whether older houses have been modified with modern safety equipment.  Look for three pronged outlets and a test/reset switch.  Both are relatively new, so show there has been some attempt to bring the electrical system up to date. 

Before you buy a house, be sure to have it inspected by a reliable professional who can give you an estimate of what repairs and maintenance will cost.

Current Homeowners - Some home sellers decide to provide disclosures to prospective home buyers.  Your real estate agent will obtain these if they’re available.  They will discuss the problems the home has had and what’s been done to repair them.  If there’s something that has been frequently repaired, it will likely continue to need maintenance in the future.

Even without a disclosure, homeowners can provide helpful advice.  If you intend to remodel, mention your vision to them.  It’s possible they have the same thought, but ran into some problem or unexpected cost that prevented the remodel.  Knowing if your options are limited is important.

The Neighborhood - If a neighborhood association is present, that’s great.  It means the area is a community and will likely act to increase the security and feeling of the neighborhood as a whole.  Be sure to visit a few blocks in every direction.  A noisy or smelly site nearby can be a significant disadvantage.  Also, talk to neighbors.  They generally don’t have a vested interest in selling the house, so will often talk honestly about problems in the area.

The News - Is the area prone to flooding?  Robberies?  News stories will often show dangers you weren’t considering.

The Paperwork - Ask for utility bills, tax bills, and any documentation of improvements to the house.  A cheap improvement may not be a lasting one, so consider all costs spent and to be spent.

Working with a real estate professional to find your dream home, will save you research time and ensure you are armed with all relevant information to size up a home’s real fit for you. 

Small Bucks For Big Bang!

Home improvements should add both personal enjoyment and return on investment when you sell. You needn’t spend big remodeling dollars to add enjoyment and value to your home.  Improvements in storage, open floor plans, light and bright rooms, and curb appeal are some of the top things that draw buyers and will increase your own love affair with your home.

Look in a large percentage of home garages, and they resemble storage units.  It seems few homes have enough storage space, so anything you can do to maximize storage will boost home value. Storage improvements can happen in all sorts of ways, from making usable space out of wasted space, adding shelves, cubes, etc., to increasing closet and cabinet storage space with double rods, lazy Susan’s, racks, and other organization essentials.  

Lighting in a home can affect mood and livability while also accentuating the home's design and architectural features. You'll be amazed by how well-placed lighting can make your rooms more inviting.  Add lighting wherever there is a need, whether ambient, task, or accent lighting, and update old fixtures with newer models.

For improving natural lighting, replacing a standard window with a bay window makes a room feel larger and also lets in more light than a regular window.  For added storage and function, add a built-in window seat with a bench that opens. 

A small spruce up of your landscaping can make a huge impact in increasing curb appeal and bettering the first impression of your home. Trim overgrown landscaping, fill in bare spots, and add a bit of seasonal color.  An appealing, well-cared for landscape suggests to buyers that your entire home is equally well-cared for.

A modest investment and some weekend labor can help you net a better price on your home; worth it don't you think?!

Get Excited!! Crystal Ball 2013 Real Estate Rebound

Unsure where our market is headed for 2013?  Have questions related to lending?  Interested in non-traditional markets?   Arizona’s elite title partners, Fidelity National Title Agency and Lawyers Title, present the Crystal Ball 2013 Real Estate Rebound.  This not-to-be-missed event will bridge the gap between consumers and the real estate community.  Our vision is to directly connect the consumer with the real estate community through education about the realities of our marketplace while providing accessible and reliable resources to answer all real estate needs. 

Key highlights:

State of the Market Update for 2013

Top Producer Panel

Bank and Lending Panel

Tech Connect Session

Builder Forum

Commercial Real Estate Update

Consumer Insight Panel

Non-Traditional Markets – REITs, Hedge Funds, Rentals  

Consumers and real estate professionals don’t miss out on this exciting and informative event, Tuesday November 13^th, 2012, 9:00a – 4:00p, registration starting at 8:00a.  Or better yet, PRE-register at http://2012crystalball.eventbrite.com/.

LIKE our Facebook event page to stay up to date of additional details regarding featured speakers, etc.  https://www.facebook.com/FidelityPhoenixCrystalBall2013

Mark your calendar, we’ll see you there!!  Tempe Center for the Arts, 700 West Rio Salado Parkway, Tempe, AZ. 

Need To Be More Productive In Your Work?

Mental lint.  It drifts around in your head… all these tiny bits of thought fluff; things to remember to do, to get, to buy, to try.  And just as a clothes dryer works most efficiently when lint-free, so too does your brain, and thus you’re more productive.

Entire books – hundreds, if not thousands -- have been written on the subject, but it really boils down to a few key basics.  It starts with something as simple as a list.  Get those to-dos out of your head and on to a piece of paper where they can be objectively evaluated and prioritized.  Rate each item A, B, or C based on its importance, with A items being those that you attack first.  Before you wrap up each work day, reevaluate and add to and drop from your list as needed, keeping your real priorities front-and-center.

Make sure your big items, i.e. revamp company website, are broken down into multiple small specific tasks that can be accomplished in a few hours or less. It will help you actually reach that bigger goal.

Once you are done, take a step back. Have you left enough wiggle room in your schedule for unforeseen emergencies and interruptions?  One way to ensure you have that wiggle room is to schedule only 50-80% of your work day.  Those days you end up with a free block of time and nothing presents itself, catch up on industry reports, self-education, and big-picture thinking.   

Multitasking is something we all do these days. The problem is our brains just aren’t cut out for it. When you multitask, you’re interfering with your brain’s ability to perform at max-capacity.  Do you know that when you multitask, your IQ drops by an average of 10 points, the equivalent to missing a whole night's sleep; 15 for men, five for women.  Yes, men are three times as bad at multitasking than women.  In most cases, multitasking = lesstasking.  When you make brain shifts from one context to another, you risk dropping things from your short-term memory. Do one thing at a time, minimize context shifts, and you’ll maximize brain power.

Distractions also destroy productivity.  Don’t let something else set your day. Most people go right to their emails and start freaking out. You may end up at inbox-zero, but accomplish nothing else. Set blocks of time each day to check email and pick up incoming calls and set other times when you don’t. Certainly allow for the occasional emergency call but be aware how insidious distractions can be.  You may even want to change your email settings to deliver just two or three times a day. 

The productiveness of any meeting depends on the advance thought given the agenda, and you should never leave a meeting without writing a follow-up list with each item assigned to one person.

Lastly, if you’re an experienced real estate professional, be selective in the deals you choose.  You may love short sales and hate long term rentals.  You may want to just take on listings.  Do what makes you the most money and is also the most enjoyable and then assign the other deals to someone else.  For beginning agents, you should be getting “reps in” by working on any deals until you get over the fears of talking to people, getting contracts signed, managing deal flow, and the like.  It will become clear with time what your preferences are and where your strengths lie.

Follow these tips and you’ll be driving your day in a productive manner, rather than your day driving you (bonkers!).

What Is Real Estate Escrow and How Should You Use It?

When purchasing real estate, it is often necessary to open and use an escrow account.  At times, this can seem like giving your money to a faceless bank with no real idea what you’re paying for.  Read on to understand what an escrow account is and how to use it properly.

By definition, an escrow account is an arrangement where something is stored until an agreed upon action is performed.  For example, a sum of money could be held until a job is completed, then transferred into the worker’s account once the job is done.  In real estate, an escrow account is generally used for settlement costs, property taxes and hazard insurance.

Neither taxes nor insurance are included in the mortgage or interest payments, so home buyers may not include these in their calculations of annual payments.  Because of this, many banks require home buyers to maintain an escrow account in order to approve the loan.  If it’s not required, it’s often offered as an optional benefit.

Whether having this account is required or not, it is generally a good idea.  Rather than facing one large annual payment, escrow accounts ask you to deposit a much smaller amount every month, which will be used to pay the large sum when it is due.

The determination of how much you will contribute every month is calculated by a projection of what your annual taxes and insurance will cost.  Whatever your total annual amount will be, it is divided by 12, and you pay that amount each month.  Most escrow agreements require regular re-assessments of these calculations in a process called escrow analysis.  For homes, this is generally done each year.

Because the contributions are the result of predictions, it is possible, and in fact likely, that the predicted amount will be off in some way.  It is possible that you will contribute more than is necessary to pay the taxes and insurance.  However, the extra money you contributed is still yours, and you can determine what is to be done with that money when you first set up the escrow account.  One option is to receive a refund if there is a particular amount remaining after all balances have been paid.  Another is to keep the extra money in the account to reduce the following year’s payments.  Regardless of your preference, be sure your escrow agreement clearly outlines the procedure if extra money is in the escrow account.

By maintaining an escrow account with a trusted institution, you ensure that the funds needed to pay settlement costs, taxes and insurance are available at the appropriate time.  Using a company like Fidelity National Title Agency enables you to be confident that your money is handled properly and any questions you have about your escrow account are answered accurately.

Real Estate Investment: Is Now the Time?

After years of a tumultuous economy and a housing market that seems not to favor any participant, things are finally starting to recover.  As someone who wants to invest money and receive a good return on that investment, you must ask yourself where the best place to put your money is.

Two common investments are in stocks and bonds.  Though risky, these can provide returns depending on the market.  In 2011, stocks overall provided 2.07% interest according to the Federal Reserve database.  Riskier investments, if they work out, would provide more interest, though by their nature may end up losing money.

For a higher return, real estate investment is a very attractive opportunity.  Housing costs continue to be low during the recovery of the market, as are interest rates on loans.  This means a house bought today will likely be less expensive than if it is bought after the market fully recovers.  In short, now is the time to buy.

The returns you receive depend on a number of factors, the biggest one being what you intend to do with the property after it is purchased.  Generally, the options are rent, resell, or develop.

If you intend to rent your property, there are several things to consider.  First, renting requires a continuous investment in maintenance and care of the property.  However, anyone willing to spend the time and money necessary will find the market is favorable to landlords.  As inflation increases, rental prices rise with it.  Mortgage payments do not, so there is an increased cash flow to property owners.  Properties also tend to appreciate with time, so the value of the land increases the longer you wait to sell.

Resale requires less of a long-term investment, though the value of the property will not appreciate without alteration.  Buying a property and improving it or developing it before resell will drive the price up, and all that needs to be done is a cost-benefit analysis of whether each modification will increase the value of the property more than the price of providing that modification.  Buyers are increasingly willing and able to purchase homes, so a resale or development opportunity is likely to provide good returns.

Now is the perfect time to invest in real estate.  With careful planning and some expert advice, investors can hope to make a high percent return on their purchases.