We’re most pleased to announce the latest addition to the Thompson’s Realty agent team – Vince Muscat.

Vince got his real estate sales license in 2002 and is the managing member of Apparent Technologies, LLC – which is creating PaperFree Agent — an advanced computing system for real estate offices. I’ve had a look at both the lead routing product and the beginnings of a real estate transaction management system that is, honestly, second to none. Look for more about PaperFree agent soon.

Vince is a graduate of Springhill College, where he received his B.S. degree and the Maston Medal for excellence in chemistry. He is also a graduate of Florida State University, where he received his doctorate in chemistry. He is a published author of scientific work and is recognized with a National Registry in Clinical Chemistry.

I could throw out some fancy job titles Vince has held in the past:

• Director of Marketing and Client Services at Sunquest Information Systems in Tucson
• Co-director of IT at Maryland Medical Lab in Baltimore
• VP of Marketing at Motorola/Emtek Healthcare Systems in Phoenix

Yes, he’s crazy smart. But you know what’s more important?

He’s a good man, and treats his clients right.

Vince has two children, a son Chris who is the Assistant Women’s Volleyball coach at the University of Missouri and his daughter Jen teaches 3rd grade in Avondale.

He’s the proud Grandfather of Will and Hannah, has another grandkid due in two weeks and #4 will be here in four months.

If he had more time, he’d be on the golf course. He even makes his own clubs! (I wonder if he can craft something to fix my slice…)

We like Vince. You will too.

Thompson’s Realty Welcomes Vince Muscat! is a post from: The Phoenix Real Estate Guy

It’s starting to sound like, “The Song that Never Ends”…

On Sunday, HUD Secretary Shaun Donovan implied on an interview with CNN’s Ed Henry that the Obama administration that the $8,000 home buyer tax credit could be revived.

From the transcript:

HENRY: Let’s end on two quick points. First of all, along the lines of this debate, there are some critics saying the federal government can’t keep up the intervention to try to prop up the industry much longer. Along those lines, you mention the $8,000 first-time home buyer credit expired a couple of months ago. Many people believe that’s why some of the housing numbers were so bad this past week. Is that housing credit now dead?  Or does the administration think you should try to revive it to try to prop this industry up?

DONOVAN: Look, Ed, I think it’s too early to say after one month of numbers whether the tax credit will be revived or not. All I can tell you is that we are watching very carefully. I talked earlier about new tools that we will be launching in the coming weeks, and we are going to be focused like a laser on where the housing market is moving going forward, and we are going to go everywhere we can to make sure this market stabilizes and recovers.

Will the tax credit return? Who knows. But it’s not beyond the realm of possibility…

Should it be revived? Did the tax credit really help the housing industry, or did it just pull in buyers that would have bought anyway?

I’ll go out on a limb and say there are many agents salivating at the thought of a revived tax credit, and I’d be shocked if the National Association of Realtors didn’t lobby, hard, for it.

Personally, I have yet to be convinced the home buyer tax credit did much to truly help a housing recovery. And I am completely convinced that buying a home just to score an $8,000 tax credit is a bad idea. A really bad idea.

As I wrote on May 1st in, Home Buyer Tax Credit: So long, and thanks for all the fish, and in June 2009’s, How the Government can Fix the “Foreclosure Crisis”, I feel that the government – and We the People – need to understand that housing market will correct itself. Will we like it? Will it be pretty? Nope. But further mucking about in the market will only postpone the inevitable, and quite possibly through unintended consequences make it even worse.

We need to suck it up, and give the market time to correct.

Here’s an article from CNBC (courtesy of @MortgageProBlog) where the author seems to agree with me. She went the extra step to contact HUD spokesperson who responded:  “No news here…there are no discussions underway to revive the credit.”  Granted, there are no discussions yet, but anything can happen in D.C. — especially in an election year — and some politicos are already weighing in that reviving the credit may be a good idea…

Hat tip to Inman News on the Donovan interview (this article will slip behind Inman’s pay wall tonight).

Will the Homebuyer Tax Credit Return? Should it? is a post from: The Phoenix Real Estate Guy

Earlier today I was chatting with a random stranger. Oddly enough the topic of real estate came up. Random stranger said he’d often pondered getting his real estate license.

I tried to wave the guy off, but he wouldn’t listen.

He asked me a question that I couldn’t answer…

How many Realtors are there per capita, and how does Arizona compare to other states?

I felt relatively confident in saying that Arizona was near the top (or bottom depending on your perspective) of the list of states with a high Realtor count. Lots of my real estatey friends across the country often seem surprised when we chat about how many agents are in our area. There are a LOT of real estate agents in Phoenix. You can’t swing a dead cat in this town without smacking an agent across the head. Seems everyone has a mother, brother, cousin or in-law that is licensed to sell real estate.

But I had no clue where Arizona actually stood when compared to other states. You know, empirically with data, not anecdotal evidence gleaned through some random conversation.

In a bizarre stroke of coincidence, today the National Association of Realtors (NAR) released their Monthly Membership Report for July 2010.

Put that data together with a little estimated population data from the Census Bureau, apply some higher math (division) and one can calculate the population per Realtor.

Why would anyone care?

Why. Would. Anyone. Care.

Well, you probably don’t. But I don’t care for being asked a question that I can’t answer. I took the NAR data from the top ten states by total Realtor count, and looked up those states total population. Turns out, Arizona ranks seventh overall in agent count. But take a gander where Arizona ranks in “Population per Agent”:

So there is one real estate agent for every 153 people living in Arizona. Sure, California has almost four times as many agents as Arizona, but they also have six times the population.

There you have it, another #1 ranking for Arizona real estate (at least among the top ten agent count states).

Incidentally for another bit of minutiae, the agent count dropped from July 2009 to July 2010 in 48 of 50 states. Only Massachusetts and North Dakota showed an increase in agent count over the past 12 months. 

Bet ya didn’t know that!

Wheeee!

Photo credit: albany_tim on Flickr. CC License.

How Many Realtors are Out There? Per Person? is a post from: The Phoenix Real Estate Guy

Real Estate Success Tools is sponsoring the “No B.S.R.E” panel event on Tuesday in Scottsdale.

If you are a real estate professional, and anywhere near the Scottsdale area, you may want to attend. The cost is right – it’s free!

If you’ve never had the pleasure of hearing Russell Shaw or Jeff Brown speak, you are in for a real treat. Russell is a mega-producing agent, and Jeff has one of the sharpest minds in real estate I’ve ever seen.

Honestly, I wonder what I’m doing on the same stage with these guys.

You’ll get a big dose of free advice and insight that can help your business. And I guarantee you that it will be an open, educational and fun event.

The Details:

When: Tuesday, August 24 at 6:30pm.
Where: Fairmont Scottsdale Princess Resort Hotel. 7575 East Princess Dr. Scottsdale, AZ 85255 (map)
Registration / Info: No B.S.R.E event page (scroll past speaker bios for registration form)

Hope to see you there!

Time is running out! The No BS Real Estate Panel in August 24 is a post from: The Phoenix Real Estate Guy

Look Ma, another new blog!

Introducing RealEstateBlogPro.com – the latest blogventure of yours truly.

Why? Or more accurately to quote my wife, “Why the heck do you need another blog?”

How about, “Why not?”

Actually, believe it or not I honestly put some thought into starting this thing. Thought! Can you believe it?

Here’s my justification. It works in my mind, and maybe a little in Francy’s mind too…

• I enjoy writing about the in’s and out’s of real estate blogging.
• Many readers of Phoenix Real Estate Guy could care less about the in’s and out’s of real estate blogging.
• I like to experiment with themes, plug-ins and different ideas and concepts. Experimenting on a live blog that generates revenue is a risky proposition. Trust me, I’ve blown up TPREG on numerous occasions and had to stay up into the wee hours of the morning fixing it. Far better to blow up a less well-read blog.
• I like to share what I’ve learned about real estate blogging and having a central repository for that information seems to make sense.
• I would like to expand the consulting services I provide, so a centralized and focused site seems like a reasonable idea.

Who knows where this thing will go. For now, I’m enjoying working with the new WordPress 3.0 default theme, Twenty-Ten. And I was finally able to install BuddyPress, a built-in “Social Network” – of which I am wholly unimpressed with so far and will probably be removing it soon. SimplePress – a forum plugin for WordPress is also installed, though very sparsely populated at the moment.

There’s also a companion Facebook page, and a Twitter account as well. Feel free to “like”, “follow” and all that jazz if you are so inclined.

Check it out if you get a chance and let me know what you think. If there’s a topic you’d like to see covered, just shout and I’ll add it to the list.

Just don’t hold it against me if the thing up and dies some day. You just never know…

Now Up: Real Estate Blog Pro. A new blogventure! is a post from: The Phoenix Real Estate Guy

We are pleased to welcome Roger Childers as the latest addition to Thompson’s Realty!

Roger comes to us from Call Realty, where he had a stint as the broker in their California office before returning home to Arizona.

He began his real estate career nine years ago with a custom home builder as a customer service manager and quickly found out he loved real estate sales. Wanting more control over the service he could give, he got his sales license in 2001 and has been a full time agent ever since.

Roger has lived in Arizona all his life and has been married to his Arizona native bride Emily for nine years. They have two boys, Morris age 3 and newborn Daniel (if you’re keeping count, that makes TWELVE little future Thompson’s Realty agents we’ve added to the brokerage in the last two weeks).

Outside of real estate Roger enjoys fine art (drawing, painting and stone sculpture), weight lifting and backpacking. He lists good food and conversation with friends as a favorite past time.

Meet Roger and within minutes you’ll be impressed by his good nature, and how much he wants to help his clients. We are excited to have him join the Thompson’s Realty family!

Thompson’s Realty Welcomes Roger Childers! is a post from: The Phoenix Real Estate Guy

So here I sit, in Denver International Airport, where I’ve been for about six hours, and I’ve got two and a half more hours until my flight takes off (hopefully).

Why would I spend over eight hours at the airport?

Trust me, it wasn’t by choice. Seems the flight I paid for over two months ago was “overbooked” – a common occurrence in the airline industry. Yeah, they sell more seats than are actually on the airplane. Add to that “mechanical issues” with the original plane, and the only available “substitute” plane was smaller, and you’ve got 23 lucky travelers that get to spend the day in DIA.

When trapped in an airport, one can only drink so many beers (and in this situation, that amount qualifies as “a lot”). So naturally, my thoughts turned to real estate, and how I could equate this experience to my chosen profession. (Sad isn’t it?)

About all I can come up with (and actually, my lovely bride Francy came up with it) is the interminable waiting that short sale buyers endure.

You see, I’ve been on standby status for two other flights. As the departure hour approaches I get giddy with excitement. Maybe they’ll call my name! Please please pick me! Then the door slams shut, and they announce, “Attention standby passengers, this flight is full. Please see the gate agent…”

And I’m sad.

This is strikingly similar to how buyers of short sales feel.

They put in an offer and they wait and wait (sometimes for months). They hope that at any moment their real estate agent will call and say the magic words, “The bank approved your short sale!”

Most of the time however, the bank never calls.

And they are sad.

At least I have hope. I have a “guaranteed seat” on the 9:15 flight to Phoenix. I will get home. Assuming of course the “guaranteed seat” has more meaning than the “guaranteed reservation” I had for the 12:05 flight…

The short sale buyer however, has no such promise. Oh, they may think they do. After all, they have made a strong offer, their loan is ready. Surely the bank will approve their purchase. After all, the bank doesn’t want to foreclose on the home and sell it for less than they’ll get if they just approve the short sale.

Surely.

Yeah right.

So as I sit here, waiting and waiting and hoping to hear my name called, I find myself relating to short sale buyers. They wait and wait for the call. The call that will absolutely take a LOT longer than the call I’m waiting for.

And for the short sale home buyer, it is a call that may never come.

That is more screwed up than an eight-hour plus flight delay…

How a Flight Delay is Like Buying a Short Sale is a post from: The Phoenix Real Estate Guy

(L-R: Joe Ferrara, me, Rudy Bachraty. Summer 2007)

Since Tuesday night, when I found out that Joe Ferrara had lost his courageous battle against a brain tumor, I have cried a river of tears. I’ve been looking through old photos and videos, reading comments left on Joe’s Facebook profile and the Friends of Joe Ferrara Facebook group and talking with mutual friends of Joe.

We are all devastated by his passing. It’s taken me almost two days to get enough of a grip on my emotions to write about Joe. I do this for my own mental therapy, and to hopefully share some things about Joe with those who weren’t fortunate enough to know him.

Like many, I first met Joe “In Real Life” when he and his business partner Rudy Bachraty went on a crazy cross-country tour in a logo plastered RV. That was “Blog Tour USA” in the summer of 2007.

I met them at their stop in Phoenix, which was near the end of the trip. When I opened the door to the RV, Rudy and Joe met me with big hugs, like we’d know each other for a while.

And really, we had. Through their blog Sellsius, and through on and off-line conversations, I felt like we were old friends. I got the grand tour of the RV, which took all of 12 seconds. Let me tell you, that thing was nasty – exactly like what you’d expect in an RV that two guys had been living in for three weeks.

But there is nothing nasty about Joe Ferrara. He was one of the smartest, funniest, kind and caring people I’ve ever had the honor of knowing. Joe would give a friend the shirt off his own back. Hell, I suspect he wouldn’t hesitate to step in front of a bullet for a friend.

When Francy and I opened our brokerage, Joe was one of the first people to call and congratulate me. I told Joe (who was an attorney, amongst many other things) that one of my biggest concerns was the legal liability that comes with owning a real estate brokerage. In typical fashion, he offered a lot of sage advice and said, “Jay, if you ever need me, I will get licensed in Arizona and fly down and represent you.”

And he would have. That’s the kind of man Joe Ferrara was.

I have so many great memories of Joe. Other than the Blog Tour, I don’t think we ever met outside of some sort of real estate conference. But every single time we talked on the phone, met in person, or emailed each other Joe would ask, “How’s Francy and the kids?”, “How’s business?”, “Is there anything I can do to help you?”

Joe always put other people’s needs ahead of his own.

After Joe got sick, I set up a fundraising effort to help Joe and his family with medical expenses. Through the generosity of his many friends, we raised almost $7,000 to help pay for his care. Joe’s wife Sandra, who I’ve never had the pleasure of meeting, called me and asked me to thank everyone for donating. Talking to her was an exceedingly difficult and emotional experience as Sandra was simply devastated by what was happening to Joe. Her love for him was painfully obvious, and I felt lost because there was nothing I could say would comfort her. But there she was, talking to a complete stranger because much like Joe, she felt the need to express her love for his friends. We laughed and cried together, and I sincerely hope one day I get to meet Sandra Ferrara in person. 

A few weeks after that talk with Sandra, she called again. “Jay, I have someone that wants to speak to you,” she said. And she put Joe on the phone. He was obviously very sick, but in typical Joe fashion, he joked, “Jay, I can’t find the words sometimes. And that pisses me off. You know me, I don’t ever shut up.” Joe was overwhelmed with the support everyone was showing, and he felt bad that he couldn’t thank everyone personally. Joe, lying there dying, wasn’t thinking about himself, he was thinking about his family and his friends. Unbelievable. When I hung up from that conversation, I wept like a baby and told Francy that I was afraid it was the last time I’d get to talk to Joe.

And it was. But I cherish that conversation.

I cherish the memories too. There are too many to recount here, so I’ll end with one of my favorite memories of Joe.

We were walking together in Times Square and we stopped in one of those tourist traps that sells a little bit of everything. Joe picked up a ukulele and “tuned” it. Then he broke into song, singing the version of “Somewhere over the Rainbow” that “Iz”, a Hawaiian singer made famous. Trust me when I tell you that Joe can not play the ukulele – at all. It was hysterical. As Joe “played” and sang and danced, I laughed so hard I almost wet my pants.

Now when I hear this song, which I’ve always loved, I smile and think of Joe.

Godspeed Joe

Joe Ferrar was many things – an attorney, a speaker, a teacher, a writer, a businessman, an artist, a leader. Most importantly, he was a loving father and husband, and he was my friend. Rest in peace Joe. I’m happy you aren’t in pain any more. We will miss you terribly, but we will cherish the far-too-short time we had with you. You made the world a better place.

Others remember Joe:
Inman News (Andrea Brambila): Joe Ferrara, blogging and social media pioneer, dies
Inman News (Glenn Roberts): Thank you, Joe Ferrara
MayaREguru (Maya Paveza): Remembering Joseph Ferrara
Agent Genius (Lani Rosales): Joe Ferrara of Sellsius, TheClozing passes away 
REreflections (Bill Lublin): Remembering Joe Ferrara
True Gotham (Doug Heddings): In Memory of Joe Ferrara and All Those Touched by Cancer
Notorious R.O.B. (Rob Hahn): Farewell, Joe…
ActiveRain (J. Phillip Faranda): Joe Ferrara: God Takes His Best Work Back Early
RERockstar (Matt Stigliano): Joe Ferrara: Of Loss and Friends

Other Sites:
Fundraising / Memory Site: Joe-Ferrara.com
Bucks County Courier Times: Obituary
Joe’s Facebook profile
Friends of Joe Ferrara Facebook Group (Open group, please join and post a thought/memory
Joe on Twitter: @jfsellsius

If you know of other tributes to Joe, please let me know in the comments and I’ll add them to the list.

Services:
The Wake for Joe will be held Friday, August 6, 2010 from 5:00-8:00pm at the Fitzgerald Somer Funeral Home, 17 South Delaware Ave, Yardley PA, 19067. Funeral will be held at 8:45am at the funeral home.

A Funeral Mass will be celebrated at 10:00am at St. Ann Church, Bristol PA. Burial will follow at Newtown Cemetery, Newtown, PA.

If you’d like to send flowers, you can get 15% off on 1800Flowers.com using the discount code: couponcabin15

In Memory of My Friend, Joe Ferrara. Rest in Peace. is a post from: The Phoenix Real Estate Guy

Liberty Market in Gilbert, one of my favorite places to eat, drink coffee and hang out is at it again.

During the month of August, Liberty Market is doing “Burger Daze” – serving up a different burger every day.

And if you’ve ever eaten – anything – at Liberty Market, then you know you are going to be in for a tasty delight. If you have not been, get there post haste. Trust me, you won’t regret it.

You can see a list of August’s daily burgers at mouthxsoutwest.

Wowsa. Reading that list has me salivating stronger than Old Yeller.

Delectable eats include, a wasabi burger, sloppy joe burger, ahi tuna burger and a Thai burger — and 27 others. All unique.

Any one of these is sure to be a culinary delight. If you eat 10 different burgers, you get a $25 gift card. Do the full Daze — eat all thirty-onederful flavors — and get a $100 gift card. Just keep your receipts! Either of those gift cards would make an excellent gift for your favorite real estate blogger.

Trust me, you want to experience a Liberty Market burger. Looked what you missed today…

Liberty’s Market Guacamole Bacon Cheeseburger. Are you freaking kidding me?

I suspect I’ll be there on a regular basis. After all, I live a lot closer to Liberty Market than Evo, who is whining about protesting the event.

Liberty Market (@LibertyMarket)
230 N. Gilbert Rd. (at Page St. between Guadalupe and Elliot)

Monday – Saturday 7:00am – 9:00pm
Sunday 7:00am – 8:00pm

(PS: their breakfast kicks ass too)

Photo Credits:
Liberty Market Interior  — on Flickr by yours truly (@PhxREguy).
That insane burger – Photographer extraordinaire Jamie Mulhern (@maventheavenger)

Liberty Market: Burger Daze. Different day, different burger is a post from: The Phoenix Real Estate Guy

My good friend Lori Bee (of Bee Realty in world famous Waxhaw, NC) shared this video today.

As a father, I found a few things in here I could relate to.

OK, more than just a few…

Thanks Lori!

Dad Life: The video… Worth a Watch! is a post from: The Phoenix Real Estate Guy