|
|
Another entry in my “You might have a bad agent” file, a client contacted me about a listing that he saw that lined up with what he was looking for. I stopped in yesterday and previewed and agreed, it was a match. I contacted the agent and told him that I was going to take a client through his property soon. His response, oh, I have a contract on that listing. So my typical question was when did you get it, his response took me a minute to comprehend, a couple of weeks ago.
So after some back and forth, he felt it was a weak offer and that he should continue to list it on the MLS just in case it fell apart. What is sad is that this is not the only case that I’ve found of this practice, so I patiently went over the MLS rules with him and he promptly ignored me. Now most agents in my shoes would have just hit the report an error button and turned him, which is what I should do, but I try to educate and be educated. That didn’t work, knowing his broker as well as I do, I sent the email thread to him and asked him to look into it before this becomes a PR problem for their brokerage.
The Phoenix Real Estate market is starting to take off again and I’m starting to see some bad behavior again, so it just means more work for the rest of us to keep up with those doing bad things and as the client, just be aware, not every agent plays by the rules and we do the best to overcome the challenges that they present.
Maricopa County has started a program where you can register your cell phone and your home address and if any Emergencies that cause the Reverse 911 system to be in-acted will page your cell phone. The program is really meant for those that don’t use a landline anymore and keeps the public safe. You can currently only register one address, I’m hoping to expand that so I can register my work address as well as my daughter’s school so if anything happens in those areas I can be notified as well. I like the idea and recommend that you should register your cell phone as well.
For the past couple of days, there have been lots of talk about interest rates and for the most part, everyone agrees that interest rates will remain low throughout 2012. Based on this press release sent to me by one of the Mortgage Companies:
Information received since the Federal Open Market Committee met in December suggests that the economy has been expanding moderately, notwithstanding some slowing in global growth. While indicators point to some further improvement in overall labor market conditions, the unemployment rate remains elevated. Household spending has continued to advance, but growth in business fixed investment has slowed, and the housing sector remains depressed. Inflation has been subdued in recent months, and longer-term inflation expectations have remained stable.
Consistent with its statutory mandate, the Committee seeks to foster maximum employment and price stability. The Committee expects economic growth over coming quarters to be modest and consequently anticipates that the unemployment rate will decline only gradually toward levels that the Committee judges to be consistent with its dual mandate. Strains in global financial markets continue to pose significant downside risks to the economic outlook. The Committee also anticipates that over coming quarters, inflation will run at levels at or below those consistent with the Committee’s dual mandate.
To support a stronger economic recovery and to help ensure that inflation, over time, is at levels consistent with the dual mandate, the Committee expects to maintain a highly accommodative stance for monetary policy. In particular, the Committee decided today to keep the target range for the federal funds rate at 0 to 1/4 percent and currently anticipates that economic conditions–including low rates of resource utilization and a subdued outlook for inflation over the medium run–are likely to warrant exceptionally low levels for the federal funds rate at least through late 2014.
The Committee also decided to continue its program to extend the average maturity of its holdings of securities as announced in September. The Committee is maintaining its existing policies of reinvesting principal payments from its holdings of agency debt and agency mortgage-backed securities in agency mortgage-backed securities and of rolling over maturing Treasury securities at auction. The Committee will regularly review the size and composition of its securities holdings and is prepared to adjust those holdings as appropriate to promote a stronger economic recovery in a context of price stability.
Voting for the FOMC monetary policy action were: Ben S. Bernanke, Chairman; William C. Dudley, Vice Chairman; Elizabeth A. Duke; Dennis P. Lockhart; Sandra Pianalto; Sarah Bloom Raskin; Daniel K. Tarullo; John C. Williams; and Janet L. Yellen. Voting against the action was Jeffrey M. Lacker, who preferred to omit the description of the time period over which economic conditions are likely to warrant exceptionally low levels of the federal funds rate.
Which is in line with this CNN report on the Federal Reserve report.
Here comes my big beware clause, just because rates will remain low (which does make me happy), that doesn’t mean prices will remain low and from experience for the last couple of months, prices are going up and inventory is coming down. If you are waiting to hear that we hit bottom, well in the Phoenix Real Estate market, we done hit bottom and we’re starting to see prices creep up, especially in the under $200,000 price range.
On the heals of Apple announcing quite the incredible earnings seen in technology history and the market’s response by making it the most valuable company, I have another prediction of how Apple is going to change the future, specifically the restaurant industry now…
Continue reading “Apple and the iMenu” »
Arizona Regional Multiple Listing Service (ARMLS) just released their monthly Rent Check Report. I like this little report because I’m working with several Buy-and-Hold Investors right now and this report helps them not only gauge the rental market, but see how their competition is starting to stack up. We typically work in areas were the rent goes for about $0.75 per square foot, landing several rentals in the $1,100 to $1,200 range. According to the Report, we’re pretty spot on.
We’re also seeing a short Days on Market time frame, typically 21 to 30 days from listing to first rent check. The heat map that they have included in the report shows me where there is the most competition for rental listings and those areas I try to discourage my investors as there will be more competition and chances of price wars pushing the price down.
The report spans the last 10 years, I was first drawn to the dramatic increase of numbers of the years, and like most, I drew to the conclusion that the distressed market and number of Foreclosures/Short Sales have pushed more towards rental/investments. I do want to put a small footnote on that, ARMLS wasn’t very popular for listing rentals and we’re seeing a change in the last couple of years as more agents are working with more renters, partially to be ready to help those renters buy in the future and partially because they need to maintain a revenue stream to stay afloat.
I expect that this year we will see those number stay high and increase a bit, but after that, as renters start to come out of probation and can start to buy again, we’ll see a switch to more owner occupy homes being the desire.
|
 .
|
Recent Comments