Edits

For those having the deal with the market in the price range under $200,000 that state of the market is quite clear: it's very competitive, there are other buyers interested in the same properties, there are a lot of cash buyer and inventory is dwindling. 

At last look inventory is under 3 months for homes under $200,000 and often around 2 months for many price segments.

One such example of many is the tale of one client who has already put in 27 contracts with only 2 successfully landing in escrow. That is a paltry ratio. These are properties where our offer price is 0-15% above asking price, these are properties that are not under priced. Most are short sales and a few normal sales.

REO properties are virtually inaccessible since most have a…

What is the American Dream.

Listening to NPR - which is probably the only media I soak up besides online sources and print - the famed words 'The American Dream' come up often in all sorts of ways, but mostly how it is so elusive. I think it may be so because it is elusive and probably none existent, at least not in the way most people thinks about it. The American Dream if it really existed was a short term phenomena limited to the post world war II era and ended starting the 1980's.  That is only 2 generations and really it seems only the baby boomers had it or a chance at it. 

Certainly it's attainable still. This is a great country for those who have the ways and means to meander the society, but most people can't and opportunities for a…

I'm sitting in my back yard at a table as the sun goes down, the pool twinkles and my dog, a smooth fox terrier - a lovely beast, is laying in the tea house observing the surroundings and listening to the birds. A good beer at my side and my trusty Apple MacBook Air beneath my fingers and of course the telephone on the left.

My eyes are near tears from the good feeling this weather is bringing. Today's high was a perfect 70º F. It's not nippy yet. There is still a good amount of heat radiating from the summer soaked ground and asphalt, but it still feels good.

My roses look amazing. They are bursting in flowers as if revealed from the summer of suffering: they look and smell extraordinary.

The air smells wonderful too. It's hard to explain…

This is a great book, despite the cover which initially turned me off. Get rich stuff is a dime a dozen and most of it is basic and overall useless. I'm especially disappointed in the recently released 'Get Rich Click' a book so basic it should be free, but this - The Millionaire Fastlane: Crack the Code to Wealth and Live Rich for a Lifetime. - is not the typical book about making money, it's really not about the money, though it is.  

This book will open your mind, make you mad, turn your gut and it will get you thinking about the common conventions. It's about destroying the myth of get rich slow or of waiting until you retire to be wealthy and enjoying wealthy. 

I'll state up front that it's not for everyone, but your though process will…

Arizona Apartment Investor is a website purely for those aspiring to be small income property owners and current owners who want to improve their businesses by spending less and making more. 

It is a site rich in articles to help reduce vacancy and made owning a property less stressful and more profitable.

The articles are based on real life experiences and experiments: from the real front of landlording small (2-4) unit to medium sized apartment buildings.

Some of the popular and recent articles include:

• GETTING READY TO BE AN INCOME PROPERTY LANDLORD

• GETTING TENANTS FOR YOUR PHOENIX MULTIFAMILY PROPERTY

• RESEARCH CRIME STATISTICS AROUND THE POTENTIAL PHOENIX REAL ESTATE INVESTMENT.

• NEED TENANTS FOR YOUR…

Jon Talton has an interesting series going on Rogue Columnist blog: Phoenix 101, a collection of articles about Phoenix in the past and how it relates and translates to the Phoenix of now.

The new addition is on Phoenix Malls - those quintessential Phoenix landmarks that are more than for shopping, they as moms with stroller indicate are for entertainments, a stroll or walk. In the summer they serve as the metro areas parks.

Park Central - first mall - now partially an office building and at Central a strip of restaurants from The Good Egg, Starbucks to Thai Basil, it's regained some status as a meeting place at lunch and the Starbucks at this location, I hear, is one of the busiest in the city.

So far twice this week our clients and I were part of a heard of people to visit a home that just hit the market.  Both homes were in Central Phoenix, but this phenomena is prevalent throughout the valley. 

Inventory of homes is exceptionally low at just over 3 months and those 3 months includes a bunch of over priced and mis-marketed homes which are really on the market rather then in it.

So when a nice property in any of the three popular flavors of traditional, bank owned or short sale comes on the market the market comes in to even out the score. When the home is priced for the market there is less of a pull, but when the homes are under-priced then the market floods in to quickly fill the void.

One of the homes is near a historic…

In the mornings on certain days you can see the air saturated with moisture rolling down the side of the mountains. 

The air is usually crisp and for a desert refreshing.  Those are rare days, but certainly memorable ones.  It need not be one of those unique days to enjoy living near the Phoenix Mountains Preserve.  

The Phoenix Mountains Park and Dreamy Draw within its midst is an amazing grouping of mountains and hill in the middle of Phoenix, a gateway into the diverse desert with fantastic views where one can get lost surrounded by nature and not a sound or view of the city.

photo: inPhoenix Realty Partners ©

The Preserve is surrounded by several distinct neighborhoods, namely: Paradise Valley, Biltmore area, Sunnyslope and the…

Graph: ARMLS PPI

What an interesting measure, this ARMLS PPI.  We all want to know what the future may bring, or do we?  It depends on the accuracy.  Inaccurate prediction are as good as worthless, but accurate ones are the golden goose especially when you can make bets for potential profit on the declines as well as the increases like with stocks, but alas those who purport to know, for certain, the future are usually quacks even though they often have a following.

In the short term it's easier to make an educated estimate then the long term and the ARMLS PPI certainly falls into the former category, extending predictions only 4 months.

From the looks or it we're in for a wobbly ride with a slight increase in the next 2 months followed but a…

photo: Artur Ciesielski

It's not that this home appeared from nowhere. It's been there since 1929, one of the earlier homes built in this subdivision, but for many years if was hidden behind a thick mix of trees and bushes obscuring not only its presence but also the architecture.  

This type of architecture, tudor, is more typical of homes in Willo then the Uptown's Windsor Square.  It's is a rare piece, one of only a few if not a couple of other similar homes in the neighborhood mostly characterized by ranch homes.