Villages at Westridge Park is a brand-new gated community located near Thomas Road and 75th Avenue. Floor plans range from 1,286 to 1,894 square feet and base prices run from about $138,000 to $154,000. That’s somewhere in the $600 range for principal and interest depending on your interest rate; property taxes and insurance would be separate. And, again, these are base prices so upgrades can add to the cost.

Still, for someone paying $800 or more to rent someone else’s property, to have zero chance at appreciation, to have to ask permission to paint a well or get a pet, to have to wonder whether your owner may decide one day to sell the house and leave your family in need of a place to live …

The Villages at Westridge Park are in west Phoenix but similar options exist across the Valley. Price points will be a bit higher on the east side, but that’s just the way of the East Valley. Real estate’s more expensive out there unless you’re heading out to San Tan Valley or Florence.

Rather than take my word for it, call me today at 602-502-9693 or e-mail me at info at allphoenixrealestate.com and we can talk about what you’re trying to find and what new home community will work best for you. Leave the multiple offer hell behind and start fresh in a new home.

Oh, and as always, DON’T GO TO A NEW HOME COMMUNITY WITHOUT AN AGENT ON YOUR FIRST TRIP!!! It’s worth your while to have independent representation.

Why? It’s rather simple …

• Multiple offers are the norm and, if someone else comes in with cash, an FHA or VA offer is DOA.
• FHA offers often have seller concessions to closing costs attached which, when placed side-by-side with a conventional loan, renders a FHA or VA loan DOA.
• VA loans come with additional costs to the seller. So, while these offers often are golden – it’s hard not to get a VA loan approval – the escrow fee and underwriting fee legally charged to the seller render the VA offer DOA.
• FHA and VA appraisers are wildly unpredictable but too often seem to err on the side of lower valuations.

VA loans seem to carry an extra stigma because, relatively rare as they are, many listing agents don’t have the slightest idea how to handle them.

There is, however, a simple solution to escape the multiple-offer hell that is the Phoenix real estate market. Purchase a new build.

Build times for a brand new home are four to six months. Spec homes generally are ready to go in four to six weeks.

And, as long as the community has been approved for FHA and/or VA financing, buyers needn’t worry about the stigmas many sellers attach to those loans.

New builds are available throughout the Valley; for information on what might be available in your price range that fits your needs, call me at 602-502-9693 and we can talk more about finding the right house for you.

The Reserve at Plaza del Rio features six different floor plans with square footage ranging from 1,404 to 2,492 and both one- and two-story models. Prices start at $204,000 for the smaller models and go up from there; some incentives are available through Maracay if you use their designated lender.

Actually, let Maracay tell you about more about the community:

This vibrant neighborhood enclave provides the perfect backdrop for introducing our New Arizona Living Collection, a series of contemporary home designs carefully crafted to address the unique needs, preferences and lifestyles of post-recession Arizona homebuyers with more convenience, more connectivity and more choices.

The one- and two-story designs within the distinctive Monogram Collection at Maracay Homes’ The Reserve at Plaza Del Rio range from 1,404 to 2,492 square feet and offer innovative amenities, such as spacious great rooms, walk-in kitchen pantries, front courtyards, 2- and 3-car garages and more, depending on the plan. Each layout comes with FlexDesign® options to tailor your home to meet your family’s individual needs. All homes are Energy Star® certified and include Maracay Homes’ Living Smart® program for high performance and energy efficiency.

Aside from easy access to Loop 101, Plaza del Rio is close to the Arrowhead Towne Center, Peoria Sports Complex and Westgate City Center and is less than a mile away from Rio Vista Park and the Rio Vista Community Center.

Want a brochure with additional information about the community and also the floor plans? Call me at 602-502-9693 or e-mail me at info at allphoenixrealestate.com and I’ll send it your way.

One final note: DO NOT go to the models without bringing an agent on your first trip. Once you go solo, you’ve forfeited individual representation (unless you plan on paying for it out of pocket. As my Dad told me when I bought my first car on my own, them sales people might seem nice but they’re not your friend.)

Between my two buyers agents and me, we’ll get you both represented and well taken care of.

Take, for example, those folks who go to Neighbor City.com, which scrapes MLS data and sells leads from those scraped listings to participating agents for a referral fee. The site tells you “the right agent is the key to your new home”; what it doesn’t say is there are a few hurdles in the way of an agent helping a client.

Such as this … if I were to call a buyer I received through Neighbor City, I can’t call direct. I’m giving a phone number that I call that thanks me for contacting the Neighbor City client and then I’m patched through to the buyer. If the buyer doesn’t answer, I can’t leave a voice message – Neighbor City cuts in and says to try later.

Not all that efficient, when you think about it.

As for the incoming calls I received after accepting a lead? I was getting two to three calls a day through the phone number given and told it was “a call from a Neighbor City client.” Except it never was. Every single time, it was a sales call offering me advertising, or pencils, or whatever the hell the scumsucking telemarketers were offering.

Hard to see where this benefits the buyer who just wants to purchase. And, apparently, they realize the same thing though a bit too late:

“Is the home on Quail and 37th available? Why are you so difficult to reach?”

We (the agents) are difficult to reach because you’re not reaching out to one. You’re reaching out to a third party looking to collect their 30 percent referral fee for doing absolutely nothing other than constructing obstacles in between you and your new home. In the Phoenix market, the last thing you need is more challenges.

If “Mike” were to contact me directly I could answer his question. I also could then tell him the home he’s asking about sold almost three years ago. Or, hell, maybe he asked about it three years ago and he’s just being assigned now.

In any event, it’s a scam. Nothing more, nothing less. Stay away and caveat emptor.

Last month, there were 6,980 closed sales of single-family detached homes in Maricopa County as reported by the Arizona Regional MLS (data deemed reliable but not guaranteed, check your local listings for details.)

This compares to 6,287 last year when there were higher inventory levels and 7,138 back in 2011.

Of those 6,980:

• 505 … yes, only 505 … were bank owned homes (also called REOs or foreclosures)
• 881 were short sales
• 127 were HUD homes

Put those together and only 21.6 percent of the sales were of distressed homes. The rest were traditional sales.

As of the moment, we’re sitting at 9,341 single-family detached homes across all of Maricopa County. Roughly speaking, there’s less than a six-week supply of homes at the current sales pace. That’s not many at all.

If you’re an accidental landlord or otherwise have been holding out for better prices, it might be worth counting your chips and considering departing the table.

Oh, yes, the offer … want numbers that rate more directly to your area? Market reports are being uploaded today and tomorrow to the Market Reports tab. Now, that page of links is password protected … send me an e-mail, sign up for the newsletter or register on our home search page and I’ll send you the password. It’s just that easy.

Until next time …

Which makes yesterday’s announcement that RE/MAX is teaming up with Trulia all the more troubling.

Much of my business through the years has come through the interwebs. This is, after all, the place where 9 out of every 10 home buyers begin their home search. The ultimate goal was to make it to page one of Google for Phoenix Real Estate, the online space where giants roamed.

Well, the giants certainly are there now. In fact, the first page of results is crowded by brokerages and advertising sites using listing syndication to bolster their stock price.

An individual agent hardly stands a chance anymore. And more’s the pity.

Most of what you hear about a certain company name signifying a certain quality of agent is, in a word, bullshit. This is a business where 99 percent of brokerages measure success in quantity versus quality, collecting desk fees and figuring the sun’s got to shine on every agent’s head once in a long while.

There’s a reason why about half of the licensed agents out there complete one sale or less a year. They’re hanging around on the edges of the business, working a full-time job and holding a license only so they can help a friend or relative who doesn’t quite realize the agent has next to no experience in handling six-figure transactions.

“Trulia has the tools to help RE/MAX accelerate the success of its agents,” said Pete Flint, Trulia Co-Founder and CEO.

Not really. What RE/MAX and other brokerages can do to accelerate the success of its agents is to step aside, stay the hell out of the way and let Darwinism run its course. What this pact does is give RE/MAX brokerages an additional recruiting feather that can be used to attract agents willing to pay the office fees.

I’ve long past tried to stop arguing with agents who buy into the defeatist notion that “our clients are on these sites, so we better be there too.” It’s an argument for the weak-minded who lack the conviction and determination to pull consumer eyeballs away from the false data and back to where they belong.

To see one of the nation’s big brokerages fall for that same notion is distressing. And sad.

May market stats coming tomorrow … stay tuned.

UPDATE – 3:21 P.M. - Just received an e-mail that says my own brokerage, Realty ONE, has done the same. Lovely.

“If loan docs are not signed three days prior to close of escrow, can the seller cancel the contract?”

Ah, yes … you can can feel the love brought on by a strong seller’s market, can’t you?

In any event, let’s start with the disclaimer that I’m not a real estate attorney, this only is one man’s opinion, mileage may vary, etc.

The answer is no, not if the parties were using the Arizona Association of REALTORS Residential Purchase Contract.

Deep in the contract, around page seven of nine, there is a section that introduces a Cure Notice. Basically speaking, if one side or the other does not perform one of their duties in the contract, they are not automatically in breach. The offended party, for lack of a better term, has to send a Cure Notice to the potentially breaching party, notifying them that they’ve been a naughty girl or boy. The potentially breaching party then has three days to correct the potential breach. If they do, all is well and the contract marches on. If not, then they really are in breach and the offended party can cancel.

Easy enough?

So in the case of loan docs that weren’t signed three days prior as required by the contract (it’s actually four because the contract views days as full 24 hour periods – don’t ask, just go with it), all a seller can do is send a Cure Notice to the buyer, which triggers the three-day Cure Period and gives the buyer three days to sign the docs. Only then can the seller cancel.

***

Now the second half of this is why would a seller be so anxious to cancel? And that takes us back to 2005, when the market was appreciating noticeably from week to week and sellers were more than happy to watch a buyer walk away because an even less cautious and price-sensitive person would be waiting.

We’re not at that point here in Phoenix. Not quite.

Low inventory continues to drive prices higher in an unsustainable manner, appraisers are starting to come along for the ride and there seems to be no end in sight. Except there is. Should interest rates move higher and, horror of horrors, buyers have to pay 4 or even 5 percent interest – rates that still are ridiculously low in a historical sense – or if inventory should rise appreciable, the party could stop on a dime.

Incidentally, I should mention that sellers have virtually no “outs” once their home is under contract. Sure, they can refuse to make any repairs and generally annoy the buyer but the ultimate decision rests with the buyer all the way down the line – unless, of course, the buyer leaves an opening that the seller can “cure” their impotence.

Beautifully updated home with a wonderfully open floorplan with vaulted ceilings

Sounds pretty good. The listing went on to say there were new granite countertops in the bathrooms and new carpet in the bedrooms. What more could a buyer ask for from a fix-and-flip property, right?

Except, as it turns out there were quite a few rough edges.

First off, there were paint smudges where whoever was using the roller went a bit to far and hit the ceiling. And not just one or two, but at least a half-dozen. I don’t judge, considering such marks are my personal signature (and currently can be seen in my own dining area.) But when you’ve purchased a property for $100,000 and are trying to sell it for $60,000 more, make sure to get someone in who can paint.

Speaking of the ceiling, the popcorn’s still there. Not only that, it’s been freshly painted – this makes it a bit more difficult to remove, not insurmountably so, but comfortably in the royal pain in the tuchas range. And whoever was using the sprayer managed to get white paint on top of the freshly painted brown walls.

Again … not tragic, but sloppy.

And that’s really the issue here. When a potential buyer sees such sloppiness on the little things, he can’t help but wonder what may have taken place with the bigger items that might not be quite as obvious. The last thing you want to do as a seller is leave a buyer with questions, yet that’s what this seller is doing.

If you’re going to fix and flip a home, make sure it’s completely fixed before you flip it lest things still look a bit … sideways.

Some 17 months after the real estate market well and truly turned here in the Phoenix area, appraisers are catching up.

I’ve had recent listings where we had no trouble getting a contract but the sellers and I were crossing any appendage we could think of in anticipation of the appraisal. On at least two of these occasions, I didn’t there there was a snowball’s chance in hell of getting the appraisal.

And yet we did.

Conventional loan. FHA. Hasn’t mattered. Appraisers seem to be going back to the geometry theorem version of appraisal – look at the contract to see what the answer might be, then look to see whether there are comps and/or upgrades to justify the price.

But wait, you say … aren’t appraisals supposed to be opinions of value? Well, yes. They are exactly that – opinions. And they are ordered by the lender for the sole purpose of determining whether to take the risk on a loan on a given property. The bank doesn’t care what the house’s real value is; the lender only wants to know that it’s worth at the inherent risk.

That is why appraisals vary depending on purpose. Appraisals for refinancing, for instance, almost always come out higher than appraisals for purchase because the bank knows there is underlying equity in the house, lowering the overall risk of the loan.

Truth be told, the geometry theorem method of appraisal is far better than the “I know more than you do and I’ll keep the market down myself” version.

What really is the value of a property? Whatever price that a seller agrees to sell and a buyer agrees to buy. If not for financing – third parties, if you will – it would be that simple. It’s that simple on cash deals.

On finance deals, the value is whatever price where a seller will sell, a buyer will buy and an underwriter will release the finding.

Intrinsic value of a home? Doesn’t really exist. And even if it did, does it matter? Paper gains and losses are just that – paper gains and losses.

For the vast majority of people, the value of their home shouldn’t matter much until the time comes to move. Unless they like just staring at equity (or the lack thereof) on their list of Quicken accounts.

On Monday – Memorial Day – I e-mailed the agents to set appointments, since only a couple of the properties were vacant. And on one, I also inquired whether the seller would accept a contract with a VA loan since neither FHA or VA was indicated.

Long story short – the seller wouldn’t work with any VA buyers. Enjoy your Memorial Day, when we remember the sacrifices … oh, never mind.

Why would a seller not work with a VA buyer? Here are a few thoughts …

VA Appraisal Issues

These can fall into one of two categories. Either the list price is pushing the upper end of the market and the listing agent, rather than appropriately price the home, has told the sellers to skip VA or FHA buyers because those appraisers tend to be a little more price sensitive (but less so now than before), or there are issues with the house that a VA appraiser would say need to be fixed before the loan can be funded.

Seller Greed

VA loans are slightly different in that there are a number of (mostly) junk fees that the buyer isn’t permitted to pay. VA buyers aren’t nickeled and dimed all the way down the line; the veteran pays a funding fee (often rolled into the loan) and thus escapes extra fees added by buyers and escrow companies.

More often than not, the fees come in at somewhere between $1,000 and one percent of the purchase price. And since the seller has decided its more important to be a greedy jerk than assist a veteran in purchasing a home, VA loans are pushed to the side in the interest of getting full price without concessions.

But to blindly say no is akin to saying that only a full price offer will suffice. And if the seller’s thinking in those terms, and the listing agent is enabling that line of thought, there are a couple of villages missing idiots.

Listing Agent Stupidity Inexperience

I can cop to this one, at least very, very early in my career when I didn’t know much of anything about VA loans. Rather than be faced with situations that I had zero idea how to handle, I simply skipped the VA checkbox when entering the listing and hoped no one with a VA loan wanted to purchase. Got lucky, there.

One or two VA loans, however, is all it takes to learn that it’s not a particularly complicated or expensive process. Yes, there are a number of things that VA appraisers look for – roofs with apparent issues, no apparent drywall repairs not completely repaired (including paint), rotting wood, peeling paint, missing built-in appliances … rather basic stuff, honestly. But nearly all are correctable in some way, shape or form. For instance, a roof certification may suffice rather than a full roof repair as the state of a roof, like many inspection items, often is in the eyes of the beholder.

And all of this points once again why it’s important to make sure you’re hiring an experienced agent to list, market and sell your home. Especially in this market, there are veterans who are trying to purchase homes and often in price points where homes aren’t moving quite as quickly.

Why would anyone in their right mind intentionally limit their pool of buyers (not to mention screw over a class of citizen who has helped guarantee our ability to be a selfish, ignorant jerk.)

If your listing agent doesn’t know how to handle VA loan contracts, get a different agent. It’s that simple.