Phoenix Area Among Lowest Foreclosure Areas

From The Cromford Report - Lender Processing Services has completed the transition to its new identity "Black Knight Financial Services" but I am glad to say it is still publishing the useful monthly report Mortgage Monitor.
The report for April shows the non-current percentage on homes loans in Arizona is down to 4.5% with 3.9% delinquent and 0.7% in foreclosure. The only states with a lower non-current percentage are Minnesota, Wyoming, Montana, Alaska, Colorado, South Dakota and North Dakota. Arizona's non-current loan percentage has declined by 23.1% since April 2013. This is no longer the highest decline for any state since the following have shown even greater percentage falls:

• Nevada - down 33.7%
• Florida - down 32.5%
• California - down 29.3%
• Washington - down 25.0%
• Illinois - down 24.7%

All states have shown some improvement since April 2013 with West Virginia improving the slowest at 2.6%.


#RealEstate #Avondale , #Goodyear , #Buckeye , #Glendale,  #Phoenix, #Surprise, #Peoria, #Tolleson, #Laveen, #Waddell , #Wittman

Lenders Have Responsibilities Too!

There is a huge gap in the responsibilities handed out by the Dept. of Real Estate regarding lenders.

In the Arizona contract, the lender is supposed to supply valid pre-qualifications, provide accurate loan progress updates on a regular basis, and provide closing documentation 3 days prior to close.  HAH!

I learned a long time ago that when push comes to shove, and the lender hasn't performed - that's when you learn that lenders are only incidental parties to the contract, and they don't have to abide by what is in the contract!

In Fact, Lenders are the free spirits of the Real Estate World.  Yes, they have to comply with government regulations, but those regulations are oriented towards keeping the lenders from taking advantage of innocent and idiot buyers - not towards providing truthful information on a timely basis, or having a procedure to guarantee that transactions close on time.

In Fact, it doesn't matter when you set the close date - if the loan officer was ill and someone didn't take up the slack, if the loan officer went on vacation, if the loan officer just didn't feel like doing their job one day - your transaction will not close on time.  And there is no recourse - the lender just says "too bad, so sad", and does things on their own time.

The lender could care less that people have a truck heading for the house loaded with their belongings, and no arrangements to store them.  The lender doesn't care that you now have to find a hotel to stay in because you have moved out of one house, and cannot move into another until the first one closes.  You might get a lender's sympathy, but that won't pay for the hotel, it won't magically re-schedule the movers, and it won't make you any happier. 

Choose your lender with care - just any one will not do!  Consult with your Realtor - they will know who brought the transaction in on time.



#RealEstate #Avondale , #Goodyear , #Buckeye , #Glendale,  #Phoenix, #Surprise, #Peoria, #Tolleson, #Laveen, #Waddell , #Wittman

PHX Market - Glass Half Full?

From the Cromford Report:   Sometimes good news and bad news cancel each other out. If you want to see the most optimistic chart I created today, take a look at the average price per square foot for pending listings (charted below). It just hit its high point for the year. On the other hand the glass-half-empty folks can enjoy the average price per square foot for monthly sales (charted below) which has dipped below $128 and is now lower than it was at the end of December.

What really happened is that a bunch of cheaper homes closed yesterday. This left behind a pool of higher priced homes still in pending status. The last working day of each month is usually a big day for closings. In May we had 876 with an average price of $123.53, quite a bit below the current trend line. At the end of April we saw slightly more (939) and a higher price ($128.98) per square foot. If the pending $/SF had stayed level or gone down this would have been a bad sign. However the increase in the pending $/SF means we have a preponderance of higher priced homes carried forward into June's closings. Overall pricing remains roughly flat and the change in mix just adds noise to the signal.


If the second half of the year behaves as normal then we will probably see a slight downward price drift between June and December. Annual $/SF appreciation has already dropped to 6.2%, almost half of what it was at the end of last month.

Solar Power - Not So Sunny - Part 4

People with children should be especially careful about Solar Power Leases.  Not because of safety, because it is as safe as any electricity - but because the savings don't last!

Consider the Smith's situation - not their real name, but a true story.

When they first entered into a solar lease, they were quite happy.  They had a high electric bill, and with their 4 teenage children at home, they were always looking for a way to save a few pennies.  At first, it was wonderful, but then the children began to leave home.  When the children left, so did the savings on their electric bill.

The Smith's had obtained a solar system that was based strictly on their usage of electricity at the time, failing to consider that the reason for much of the usage was going to leave home.  Now, they pay 30% more to the leasing company for their leased system than they would pay to the electric company if they didn't have a solar system.  They will do this for the next 12 years.  Don't forget that to sell their house, they have to find someone willing to pay the lease (not likely unless they have 4 teenagers) or pay the lease off.

Of course, the solar representative could have mentioned this when they got their solar system, but they didn't.

So, now they are stuck.  Even thought the house is too large for them now, they cannot "down size".  They cannot rent because the rent would not cover both the Solar Lease payment and the mortgage, and they cannot sell.


#RealEstate #Avondale , #Goodyear , #Buckeye , #Glendale,  #Phoenix, #Surprise, #Peoria, #Tolleson, #Laveen, #Waddell , #Wittman

Dogs Do Not Sell Homes!!! Reader's Digest - Wrong Again!

Dogs Do Not Sell Homes!!!

Who would have thought that Reader's Digest would have two goofs in one issue!

One article talks about how a couple in Chicago purposely put their dog in all the photos of an apartment that they were renting, but the article title says they sold their home.  It crows that you don't need an agent to rent an apartment if  you have a cute doggie in every photo.  It says that the couple rented their apartment out in only 24 hours because of the cute doggie.

This can't be further from the truth for selling homes!  Animals are best left out of the photos entirely.  Even if you have the most beautiful dog, cat or turtle ever conceived, potential buyers sometimes won't even look at a property with obvious animal occupation.  Some people are afraid of dogs or cats.  However, most people don't want to deal with the inevitable spots on the rug, dander that sets off their allergies, or the rub spots that kitties leave behind, or any one of a hundred negative things that people who don't have pets imagine that pets cause.

Why would you want to narrow the set of prospective buyers before they can ever see the property?

Keep Pets Out Of Property Photos!


#RealEstate #Avondale , #Goodyear , #Buckeye , #Glendale,  #Phoenix, #Surprise, #Peoria, #Tolleson, #Laveen, #Waddell , #Wittman

13 Things Home Inspectors Won't Tell you

I have been reading Reader's Digest for as long as I can remember.  It is full of great articles, but I really started reading it because of the cartoons.

Over the past couple years, they have had a monthly feature that lists things people you interact with wouldn't normally tell you.  This month, it is "13 things your Home Inspector Won't Tell You".

#1 on the list is "Don't find a home inspector through your real estate agent.  It's on the agent's best interest to have the deal go through quickly so some pitch inspectors who find few problems."

What a crock!

Real Estate Agents are acutely aware that the performance of anyone they recommend is going to impact their relationship with you, and affect future sales possibilities.  There is no way that an agent would refer you to someone who is known to do a poor job - it just isn't smart.  My clients get a list of inspectors to check out - 3 inspectors that have done good jobs for my clients in the past.  Then my client chooses and inspector, and if they wish, I make the arrangements.

The rest of the list - paraphrased and edited by me -  is:

#2 Inspectors should spend at least 2 hours at a house - Unless it is a really dinky house - this is true.

#3 If an inspector says "this house has a lot of issues" be prepared to spend a lot of money to fix it up - an inspector will tell you what is wrong - it is up to you to decide if the issues are overwhelming.

#4 If you are the seller, make sure your house is clean on inspection day - True, the buyer often attends the inspection.  If your house is a mess, it can impact the buyer's decision on repairs.

#5 Ask for a sample report before you hire an inspector - Not a bad idea.  I have seen some pretty sketchy reports

#6 Even Brand-New Homes should be inspected - True.  Homes are about the last thing built entirely by human hands.  Humans have a way of messing things up

#7 Read the full report, not just the summary - True.  You paid for it, you should read it.

#8 An inspector encounters hazards on the job like creepy-crawly things - True

#9 As a seller, an inspection prior to putting your house on the market is a good idea - True.  It can alert you to potential sales problems, and give you some extra time to have things fixed.

#10 Ask all your questions at the end of the inspection - good idea

#11 Inspectors can't see inside walls or under the slab so I might not find defects that are in these places - True

#12 Some of the worst homes are owned by Do-it-Yourselfers - True

#13 Roof and foundation issues can stop a sale fast - True

Here are a few things that the Digest left out:

#14 Sometimes inspectors overstate the importance of a fault - like reversed wires on an outlet burning down a house.  It doesn't matter that the outlet has been that way and functioning fine for the past 15 years, now it is a huge safety concern.

#15 Inspectors carry loads of insurance - I once knew an inspector to be sued because a roof leaked - 4 years after the sale!  

#16 You don't have to hire an inspector - I don't recommend this path, but you can do your own inspection if you feel capable, or want to save the money.  Inspections usually start at about $300, and then go up if the house is bigger than about 3500 sq ft.  This varies from inspector to inspector.

#RealEstate #Avondale , #Goodyear , #Buckeye , #Glendale,  #Phoenix, #Surprise, #Peoria, #Tolleson, #Laveen, #Waddell , #Wittman

Hazards to Understanding the Market

May 26 from the Cromford Report - Over the last 2 years there has been an increasing trend for the true meaning of UCB status to change from "under contract accepting backups" to "pending but I like my listings marketed on Zillow®". These listings can often be difficult to show because many are not really available to accept offers. This is not something any individual agent is likely to admit when it is ARMLS asking, because it is a violation of ARMLS rules to have a listing in UCB status if it is not available for showings and actively accepting backup offers. However it is very clear to us that a large number of normal listings are being kept in UCB status purely because of the existence of Zillow (and to a lesser extent Trulia). In earlier times they would have been marked Pending, but pending listings don't appear on Zillow. Now they are used for a kind of bait and switch marketing program fishing for leads. The more listings on Zillow the more leads are generated, goes the theory. However Zillow does not create buyers, it just redirects a small number of them to different agents than they would have chosen to represent them if Zillow did not exist. NAR recently showed us that most leads still come from referrals from existing clients or repeat business from former clients. Zillow's impact on leads is nowhere near as big as they like to think.


From our perspective, it is unfortunate that the accuracy of ARMLS is being degraded in this way. Zillow is inaccurate enough itself without it having a viral effect on the accuracy of the ARMLS database. However we at the Cromford® Report have to measure the real world not the ideal world.

From Tim:  What this practice does is prevents the true number of Pending transactions to be counted accurately, and messes up the market statistics.  For any given area, it gives an inaccurate reading of absorption rates (how many homes are being sold in a period of time),  Average Days on Market, and the general activity in the marketplace.   Then, when the listing is finally marked "sold", it shows an unnatural disparity between the number of pending and sold properties.  Taken to its extreme, if no listings were ever marked "pending", then homes would magically go straight to being sold, without any indication of how many homes in an area are currently in escrow - a very important number if you want to sell your home!

#RealEstate #Avondale , #Goodyear , #Buckeye , #Glendale,  #Phoenix, #Surprise, #Peoria, #Tolleson, #Laveen, #Waddell , #Wittman