Betsie Melter's Real Estate Blog: Arizona: Chandler

13331 E. Cindy St. Chandler, AZ 85225

FOR RENT! $1200/Month

3 Bedrooms/2 Bathrooms, Split floorplan, Greatroom, Vaulted Ceilings, Breakfast Nook

Huge Yard with No Neighbors Behind

Close to Chandler Gilbert Community College and The 202!

Available Immediately

Click Here to see the Video of the House

Well, this is the time of year when we start complaining about living in Arizona and all of the cooler states can start rubbing it in. I am not really complaining because I get to rub it in from October til April about our lovely weather. But, today I can say I'm feeling Hot, Hot, Hot. My A/C just broke in my car. We all know how our cars are our offices. Luckily the repair shop can fix it and hopefully I will be blowing cool air soon enough. In the meantime, I will just sit back and dream of cool weather in the not so close future.

In the spirit of the temperature I thought I would share some Arizona Heat Jokes and why you should live here:

It's so hot in Arizona That...

the temperature drops below 95 and you feel a bit chilly.

you won't go into the pool until it is 90 degrees because it is too cold.

you can attend any function wearing shorts and a tank top.

you learn how to drive your car with only 2 fingers.

it's noon, summer vacation, and not a single person is out on the streets.

hot water now comes out of both taps.

you can say 113 degress without fainting.

the four seasons are Tolerable, Hot, Really Hot and ARE YOU KIDDING ME?!

I am just joking, I love Arizona and won't move anywhere else.  

Happy Summer and 4th of July!!!!

Well back in February I had a client interested in purchasing an auction property at the trustee's sale. I posted questions and did a lot of research until we both felt confident in our decision to jump in and decide to place a bid. We had located the property, and were anxiously awaiting the day of the auction and what the opening bid would be. One day before the auction it was postponed for 1 month. Bummer. We were sad but felt like 1 month wasn't that long to wait. We continued searching and found a few other properties to bid on. Same thing, postponed. 1 month came and guess what, our original house was postponed again. This time to April 27th. So, here we are again. One week from auction and crossing our fingers it doesn't get postponed again. I think the most frustrating part of it is that we have no idea what the opening bid is going to be. If we at least knew that, then we would know if we can even bid on it or not. I mean, really, if it is over our price range, then we could at least have closure and move on.

Even while we are waiting on the auction properties we have still been searching for homes through short sales and foreclosures. Even those are not working out for us. My poor buyer is getting frustrated and who can blame her. Starting the process last July as an excited buyer has now led to a beaten down person who wonders if they will ever get a home. Luckily they don't have to move into it right away, but still how hard is it to find a house? She has cash and is ready to move but these short sales haven't been getting accepted. Maybe we are just picking the wrong houses.

All we can do is keep looking, continue to submit offers and wait. But I am hoping next Wednesday afternoon I will have an update that reads something like this: "Success at the Trustee Sale Auction"! Until then, we will just keep plugging away.

Our Market in Phoenix and the surrounding areas seems to be recovering slightly. For the most part our numbers have increased since last month. Our Active Listings are down, sales per month are up and days on market stayed about the same. These may not seem like huge numbers, but any movement up is heading in the right direction.

The Market Index is looking very good. The Cromford Report measures the market as such: If the number is below 100 then it is a Buyer's Market, if it is above 100 it is a Seller's Market. Since January the index has stayed above 100 which is showing that the market is switching toward a Seller's Market.

We hope to see prices appreciate slightly in the next 6 months. It appears we have moved out of the bottom and are starting to recover. Let's hope it is for real this time, unlike April 2009 when we hit our first bottom.

Gorgeous Home in Chandler available for only $385,000 and not a Short Sale or Foreclosure!

4810 S. Hudson Pl. Chandler, AZ 85249

4461 Sq. Ft. with 5 bedrooms + Huge Game Room, 3 1/2 Baths, Landscaped yard with no neighbors behind and more!  Click on the address to see more information and pictures.

Arizona Association of Realtors is going to be rolling out their new "pre-qualification form" in February. I saw the template yesterday and it is a great form for Buyers, Listing Agents and Buyer's agents. It is very detailed and really lets the buyer know everything such as the monthly payment including taxes, insurance, and HOA, what documents they have gotten to the lender and which ones they still need to get to them. It tells the seller that the lender has done their due diligence in researching this buyer and that they should feel comfortable taking their home off of the market for this buyer. It also lets the agents know what type of home they are approved for (such as HOA or no HOA, manufactured, or condo). It even talks about marital status which might help with title issues at closing. It is a great form and I think all parties involved will feel confident when they receive this form with an offer.

Here is my disclaimer and my most important part of this blog today. BUYERS- don't procrastinate to get pre-qualified with a lender. Buyers must talk to a lender at least a couple days prior to looking at homes in order for this to work. I know many buyers say, "well let's just see what is out there". The problem is often times a buyer finds a great house that day. If they wait too long, it may be purchased by someone else. That is why I am going to say it again. BUYERS- please talk to a lender before you start looking at homes.

There is nothing more sad to me than when we find a perfect home and we want to make an offer but the buyer's haven't officially talked with their lender. They have "sort of" told them what their income and credit is like, but that is not an approval. When this form goes into effect in February, there will be no way for a lender to do all of the research that they need to do in order to complete the form in a matter of an hour or two. In Arizona we can not submit an offer without this "pre-qualification form".

Let looking at homes be a happy and fun occasion. If you talk to a lender and submit the documentation needed up front, then once you find that perfect home, you will know that you can make an offer with confidence. Plus, you will feel comfortable because you have been educated about the mothly payment, closing costs that will be needed and any other issues that may arise with the loan process.

If you need a lender, I work with a number of great people who are knowledgeable, licensed and can walk you through the process step by step.

And always, feel free to contact me about searching for that new home at  www.betsiemelter.com, 480.734.3644 or on Facebook

Many people have been holding off on buying a new home because they wanted to wait and see what the market was going to do. Well, 2010 is almost gone and my advice would be to put buying a home on your resolution list for 2011. There are many reasons now is the time to buy. I will outline just a few of my thoughts:

1) Interest Rates are going up! Interest Rates have been creeping up for the last few weeks and are predicted to be into the 5% range at the first of the year. Holding off too long will mean maybe changing your price point on that new home. The higher interest rates go, the more a buyer might need to drop their price in order to stay in their comfortable range of monthly mortgage payments.

2) Home Prices are still at an all time low! The Phoenix Market place has had another drop in price from July to October. The prices have stabilized since October and are moving up and down slightly. It is a great time to buy with the prices so low. Even if the prices drop slightly, they are expected to rebound again.

3) Competition is Down for now. Many buyers seem to start looking in the Spring. This adds more competition and likely a bidding war on the house you might be putting an offer in on. I know, you think I am crazy when I say "a bidding war". But it is true. Even in the past 4 years, I have had multiple homes that my buyer's have gotten into bidding wars on. They say it is a buyer's market but when a nice house comes on the market, many buyers jump for it and creates a frenzy. So, if you start looking now, before the Spring Rush, you may dodge a bullet and not have to compete.

4) Real Estate is a good investment! In the past few years, many have lost money in the Real Estate Market. But the old Theory stays true "Buy Low and Sell High". This is the Low that everyone talks about. So you might as well start making an investment in your future now and see how it grows in the long term.

I am anxious for the New Year and can't wait to help many people find that new home, or vacation home here in Arizona.

Happy Holiday!

I just wanted to let consumers out there know a little bit about what we deal with behind the scenes of a short sale.

The most recent scenario happened to me on Wednesday. I called the listing agent of a short sale that my buyer has an offer in on to check on status. He said that the first mortgage had offered the 2nd mortgage (who was the same bank by the way) $2100 at closing. The 2nd mortgage had responded to the agent (because apparantly the 1st and the 2nd mortgage don't talk to each other eventhough they are in the same building) that they wanted $3000. The 1st mortgage then decided to only offer them $1500. The agent now had to go back to the 2nd mortgage and tell them that the original offer of $2100 had decreased to $1500. HA HA HA HA.

This is what we are dealing with everyday. The banks aren't on the same page and the agent has to do triple the work when really shouldn't the 1st and the 2nd be working it out on their own. Especially if they have a standard amount that they accept on the 2nd mortgage, shouldn't the 1st mortgage just know that they routinely accept $3,000 on a short sale for the 2nd mortgage and just offer that and be done with it. The poor listing agent has been going round and round with these 2 for over 2 weeks now.

This is just one example of what we do on a daily basis in order to make a short sale work. I have had great success with short sales because I hire an amazing negotiator. But really, these loops are starting to kill us.

I try to explain to both buyers and sellers, some of the circumstances and obstacles we may run into while waiting for an answer from the short sale bank, but I can never predict what they will say and I have found that every transaction throws something new at me. So, if you are thinking of buying or selling a short sale house, please be prepared for jumping through hoops and not being surprised by anything the bank says. Think of it as your daily dose of humor and just laugh because that is all you can do sometimes.

This is a question that I get asked a lot. I thought that it was 7 years, but I recently read in the Arizona Realtor Magazine that it could be more like 3 years. Wow, that isn't that long to have to wait. I was really shocked. But that could be great news for people who did a strategic walk away and are working on getting their credit back in order.

According to Patrick Ritchie, the author of the article, some consumers will have a chance in as little as 3 years from a foreclosure to purchase again. The FHA guidelines allow for a loan to be obtained 3 years after as long as NOTHING else has been delinquent. Any negative reporting or any missed or late payments will negate it, but if everything has been paid on time, then more than likely a buyer can purchase again.  Now, there are circumstances where an FHA, VA or USDA loan may have a claim against them in the Credit Alert Verification Reporting System. If that is the case then the 3 years starts after that claim has been paid. A loan officer can check in the HUD system to see if a buyer has a claim against them. This might be something a homeowner may want to check on sooner rather than later if they plan on purchasing another home in the future.

Just because a person has waited 3 years and hasn't missed any payments, doesn't mean they are automatically approved for a loan. As we know, right now there are very tight guidelines. That would just be the first step in knowing you can try. Any borrower still has to have good credit, make enough money to qualify for the loan, and have a down payment. Employment is also a big deal. The borrower needs to have been employed for at least 2 years with the same company or in the same industry.

The underwriter has the final say, of course, as to whether or not a borrower will get the loan. But at least now we know it isn't an automatic 7 years, like I had previously thought.

If you would like more information on what time lines exist for short sales, bankruptcy's and other situations, click the link below. The National Association of Realtors has put together a chart for different experiences.

http://www.realtor.org/wps/wcm/connect/1919ce80433346c5849787b0e53c74b2/government_affairs_impact_credit_events_07112010.pdf?MOD=AJPERES&CACHEID=1919ce80433346c5849787b0e53c74b2

My webmaster and IT extraordinaire introduced our office to QR codes this week. QR codes are a little graphic that you can put on print media and people who have smart phones can use them to scan info to their phones. It basically takes a picture of the graphic and it tells your phone where to go and brings up the website that the graphic has embedded into it. It is pretty cool.

He recommended using Scanlife, but there are a number of different companies out there doing it now. So, my next goal is to search out these QR codes and practice using them to see if they work and how easy they are to scan. Then, I am going to start putting the codes on my flyers for buyers or renters to use when driving by a property. My only problem is going to be getting the word out to people so they know what QR codes are and see the benefit to them. This way when I put a QR code on my flyers, people will actually use them.

I think it will be a really cool tool once people get used to them. The benefit for the client would be that when they are driving by one of my listings they can scan the QR code and my website or the specific home will pop up and they can see all of the pictures or the virtual tour right there on their phone in front of the house.

The technology that has come out in the last couple of years is just mind-boggling. I feel like I finally get the grasp of one thing and in the meantime 10 other things have already come and gone. I do see the usefulness of this and the instant gratification to the consumer. But like all things, it has to be used in order to be helpful and worthwhile.