Pinetop White Mountain Blog

Good Afternoon Everyone,

If you have been thinking about buying a bit of land for a future build, now is the time to get serious about it.  Land Prices have fallen considerably in the past few years and what might have been out of reach in 2006 is not really affordable.

Take for example the following: 

1.14 Acres with Power/Phone - $9,500.

.29 Acre Creekside Lot on private cul-de-sac - Homes only area $17,500. OBO

.40 Acre Cliff & Creekside Lot with Views - All utilities including sewer - $44,000.  Down almost 20K from a year ago. Seller will Carry.

.33 Acre Lot in established neighborhood in town - $47,400 OBO

.31 Acre Corner Lot - tall pines - all utilities - Custom Home area - $58,500. Seller will Carry.

1.12 Acre Lot in very pretty area just outside of Show Low.  Paved streets, all utilities except sewer - $62,000. Seller will Carry .

12.41 Acres of High Country Land. Never used for any purpose, power & phone available.  Great Location. $72,000.

See what I mean? A few years ago you couldn't have touched these quality properties. The downturn does have benefits and this is one of them. Investment Opportunity! Think of it as an investment in your future.  They ain't making any more land!

Thanks for reading, until next time....!

Sandra Paulow, Associate Broker, GRI, SFR, REALTOR® 928-242-0300

Your High Country Connection for Real Estate Sales & Service!

Serving the White Mountains of Arizona.

Good Afternoon Everyone,

I was just reading an article that I thought was excellent about when a Bargain is really a bargain.  

I can't tell you how many times I have been out showing property with Buyers who were absolutely positive that they were going to find the bargain of the century.  Well a bargain is a bargain only if "it fits". It is similar to going clothes shopping.  You see the Sale of the Century at your favorite clothing store.  When you get there though, you find the only things that are on sale are the left over sizes and styles that no one wanted.  There really are no bargains, only odd pieces and ugly colors in styles that just don't fit you.

The same thing goes when you are Home Shopping.  You saw it on the internet and it looked wonderful.  It has to be a good deal, right?  Well maybe, but chances are the answer is no.  What those pictures and the property description didn't show you was the ceiling that fell due to a roof leak, the trashed floor coverings, the stove that hasn't been cleaned since the last century, or the roof that blew partially off in the last wind storm. So does it fit? Probably not.

The bottom line is that if there is an exceptionally inexpensive property listed, there is an underlying reason it is priced the way it is.  There is most likely something about that property that is not going to "fit"!

Much has been said about the great deals that are in the marketplace.  There are some that are good values, but if the price is exceptionally low, there is a reason.

Thanks for reading, until next time.....!

Sandra Paulow, Associate Broker, GRI, SFR, REALTOR® 928-242-0300

Your High Country Connection for the Listing & Sale of Real Estate!

Serving the White Mountains of Arizona

Good Afternoon Everyone,

Every day we are bombarded with all kinds of information in relation to Real Estate.  Some of it is true, some of it is speculation, and a good majority of it is much to general to be taken as truth.

I was reviewing my listings on some of the other sites where my listings are posted.  I am always very careful about putting information on websites to make sure it correct and up to date, but there is one site that particularly irritates me and that is Zillow.

Zillow has these wonderful things called Zestimates, giving the public an estimated value of a particular property.  I really have a problem with that because they have never seen those properties.  They have no idea how it compares to other properties in an area or what kind of upgrades the home might have, and yet they have the audacity to tell the world what they think it is worth.

They are wrong most of the time! I looked at my listed properties today and there was only one of them that was even close to the actual value.  My issue here is that this site is where much of the buying public goes for information and then they come in to my office with a price point that they are willing to pay for a property.  It becomes very difficult to convince then that the zestimate value is wrong.

Please, when you are looking at property don't take the Zillow Zestimate value as gospel.  It may truly be wrong.  Your best bet is to hook up with a good Real Estate Professional and ask them what they think about a property.  Much of the online information on these free public sites is out of date and just wrong.  They don't update effectively and many of the properties you might find are going to be sold or perhaps the property is no longer on the market. 

As a REALTOR® this false or misleading information bothers me.  Unfortunately it isn't something I can do anything about.  I can control the information about my own listings to a point, but a word of caution, don't take everything you see or hear in relation to Real Estate as the gospel according to Zillow. The site does not update as often as it should and you can't take everything you see at face value.  

Have a wonderful week, until next time....!

Sandra Paulow, Associate Broker, GRI, SFR, REALTOR® 928-242-0300

Your High Country Connection for the Listing & Sale of Real Estate!

Good Afternoon Everyone,

After a very pleasant long weekend spent with friends in Tucson, Arizona I am back at it today trying to find properties for some of my buyers.  It seems the inventory of homes in the White Mountains of Arizona is a little thin right now.  I'm not sure why that is, but I suspect that Sellers have gotten discouraged with the results in the past few years and have decided to sit tight.

I can't say I blame them, the opportunities for a sale have not been the greatest in the past several years.  Too many REO's & Short Sales in the market has made it hard to compete.

That may be changing this year, although it is a little early to tell.  The Buying and Selling season hasn't really started here in the High Country so I'm not sure what to expect.  I will say this however, if you have been wondering if now is the time to Sell, it might be the time to get that home on the market.

There are Buyers looking around and right now I don't have much to Show them.  If you own a Free & Clear home and you can Carry a Note, all the better.  Many Buyers have the money to buy but for some reason, either employment longevity or a Foreclosure or Short Sale, they cannot qualify under today's tight underwriting standards.  There are many very responsible people out there who through no fault of their own, now have a nasty ding on their Credit Report who long to become Homeowners once again.

Even if you can't carry a note but are not upside down on your values, and there are homes out there that are not, this might be the time to consider listing, because we are in the preseason buying time and inventory is sadly lacking.

It you want to sell, give me a call.  Let's talk and see if now is the time for you to get your home on the market.

Have a wonderful week!

Sandra Paulow, Associate Broker, GRI, SFR, REALTOR® 928-242-0300

Your High Country Connection for the Listing & Sale of Real Estate.

Good Afternoon Everyone,

I wanted to address the current market in the White Mountains today. If you are thinking about selling your property, now might be a good time to get serious about it.  I know that it has been a pretty negative selling environment for quite a long time now, but times are changing. I don't mean to imply that we are entering a time of rapidly accelerating pricing, but we are seeing a lessening of the number of homes on the market.

I have been pretty busy lately with buyers looking for homes and we have been finding that the choices are a bit limited.  Whether that will remain the case long term, right at this time there are not that many homes in the marketplace.  Particularly in the mid-range homes from the 150 to 300K range.  Luxury homes still are plentiful, but affordable homes are seriously in short supply.

If you have a home in the White Mountains that you have been thinking about selling, now might be a good time to talk to an agent about it. There are buyers out there looking and in choices are rather limited.

If you would like a free market analysis of your home, give me a call. This might be the time to get it listed because the buyers are looking but they aren't finding what they are looking for.

Have a wonderful Super Bowl weekend, until next time.....!

Sandra Paulow, Associate Broker, GRI, SFR, REALTOR® 928-242-0300

sandra.paulow@russlyon.com

Good Morning Everyone,

Today's Real Estate market raises lots of questions, one is whether holding on to an underwater property is the right thing to do.  There is no simple answer, the only answer is that "it depends".

The first thing you need to ask yourself is whether the home still meets your needs?  If it does, and the only reason you are considering making a change is lost value, maybe it makes more sense to hold on.  Oh, I know it is frustrating to pay for something that is worth less than it was when you bought it, but we do that every day in every other aspect of our lives.  

Consider this, you buy a new car and drive it off the lot and you have lost value.  Do you immediately decide that you don't want it any more because it isn't worth what you paid for it?  No, of course not, it is accepted because you need  the car to get to and from work, to take your children to school and activities, and because it is a necessity in your life.   

Why is a home so much different then?  You bought it because you needed a place to live.  A place to call home.  Yes, it is a much larger investment and it hurts to think you have lost value on the property but in truth, a home is a place to live.  It was never intended as a Short Term Investment.  Over time that asset will increase in value and the amount you owe will decrease and eventually things will even out. 

The point of this post is to help you see that just because your home has lost monetary value does not  automatically make it not worth holding on to.  Buying a home is not now, nor has it ever been, a get rich quick investment.  It is a place to live and to raise your families.  investing in a home is intended to be a long term thing, the phenomenon of the mid-2000's was not normal.  Values appreciated much to quickly because investors were artificially driving up values.  Get rich quick schemes and illegal dealing abounded.  We were all affected by the down fall of the Real Estate market.

So what can you do.  You can hold on because in many places values are stabilizing.  No, appreciation isn't happening yet, but it will.  If you are really hurting, contact HUD and look in to the newly revamped HAMP program.  You may be able to refinance to a lower value under the new HAMP guidelines.  Many of the past programs fell flat in many areas, but this one really has promise.  Go to www.HUD.gov to check it out.  Contact your current lender and ask them about the new HARP program.  That is truly the best place to start to get the information you need to see if this new program will help you. 

If that doesn't work or the home just doesn't fit your needs any more, contact a Real Estate Professional.  They can guide you to the individuals you need to talk to about making the best decision for your situation.  The market is troubled, there is no question about that.  There is help out there though, and things really are looking up - really!

Have a wonderful week.  Give me a call if I can help you with the tough decisions. 

Thanks for reading, until next time.....!

Sandra Paulow, Associate Broker, GRI, SFR, REALTOR® 928-242-0300

Good Afternoon Everyone,

Some new hope for underwater homeowners.  Check out this video from today's Think Big Work Small Daily Video.  Good Information for everyone.

http://tbwsdailyshow.com/2012/01/17/harp-breathes-new-life-into-refinances/

More soon. 

Thanks for reading, until next time....

Sandra Paulow, Associate Broker, GRI, SFR, REALTOR® (928) 242-0300

sandra.paulow@russlyon.com

Good Evening Everyone,

So far so good, I survived another Friday the 13th.  Actually I have always found this day to be a good one for me.  Some of the biggest events in my life have occurred on Friday the 13th.  I closed on my very first house on Friday the 13th.  I put an offer in on my second one on the same day.  So...at least for me it is a lucky day.

I was talking to an associate of mine today and we were kidding about the fact that we often see the same people on our websites.  Potential clients will jump from one website to another searching the MLS and we wonder why.  Did you realize that every MLS link on every site in a particular area is the same?  You can search my site or my friend's site or someone else's site, and you are searching through the same information.

The same goes for the Real Estate feeds like Realtor.com, Trulia, or Zillow.  All of the online sites, no matter who owns them, pull the same information from the MLS service in that area.  You aren't going to find anything different on one site over another except perhaps how the information is presented or looks.  It is called an IDX feed and the same information comes off that main internet feed.

It is just a point in passing, but if you are serious about looking for a property, pick and agent and pick a site and stick to it.  You aren't going to find anything different on anyone else's site and you will find that the service you receive from your chosen Real Estate Professional will be much better if they feel you are being loyal to them.  Jumping around isn't going to yield any different information on that particular MLS feed.

Have a wonderful weekend everyone, contact me if I can help you narrow your search and help you find what you are looking for.  It it's out there, I'll find it for you. 

Until next time....

Sandra Paulow, Associate Broker, GRI, SFR, REALTOR® (928) 242-0300

sandra.paulow@russlyon.com