Appraisals and your Mortgage

I went to a training today given on appraisals and your mortgage.  

Lenders, as a reaction to their losses in the sub-prime markets, are re-assessing their risk and making not only your loan qualification guidelines more strict but the guidelines for appraisers as well.  Maricopa county has been identified as a declining market. Our home sales prices have dropped in the county, with some areas hit harder than others.  This means the Appraiser is having to assess the sold price of the home down the street from 6 months ago with adjustments added or subtracted in for the market changes.  They are also required to have information about the current listings, the days on market and compare very similar properties.

The lenders have the same access as you to checking out approximate value: websites like Zillow offer Zestamates, but don’t consider all of the specifics of condition, location, upgrades etc in a home.  The Appraisers job is to look at all of the factors with each home and determine value. Two homes on the same street may be valued at very different amounts due to condition, lot size or position in the community. 

Foreclosure properties figure in as well.  If there is just a few in an area, the effect may not be as great to property values, they are considered in the appraisal process separately and adjusted.  If there are lots of foreclosures in the area, the foreclosures start to weigh in more heavily and effect the values of the community. 

Why share this with you?  When considering a home, or a community look at the whole community, not just the home as an individual house.  Your investment is in your home, and your home is in the community.  Once again, the magic words in real estate,  Location, Location, Location. 

Thank you Robyn Robertson of Suburban Mortgage, Anita Bell with TSA Title, and Scott Wortendyke with Instant Certified Appraisals for  the class.

McCormick Ranch’s town home community, El Paseo

At the south east corner of Hayden Rd and Via Linda you will find the town home community of El Paseo. There are 141 homes in El Paseo, with over half of the homes having private pools, just over 20 homes back up to the Camelback Walk . Most of the homes have large master suites, with large bathrooms and closets, high ceiling’s and fireplaces. With no community pools or other amenities, the HOA fees are low at $80 per month and include the front yard maintenance. This is a great location to be close to everything, and keep the expenses down.

Scottsdale’s Camelback Walk thru McCormick Ranch, a video tour

The Camelback Walk is a multi use path that meanders thru the parks, under roads, along the golf courses, lakes and communities of Scottsdale.  It was designed to support the water flow of a hundred year flood, creating for us the wonderful open spaces to enjoy.

Spring is in the air

Spring is here! Our first Daffodil is in bloom! I love this time of year. We have trees starting to bloom (not the greatest for allergy sufferers) flowers popping up, and everything starts growing like mad. It is also time for Spring Training. For baseball fans, it is one more joy of living here in Arizona.

Arizona is home of the Cactus League . The Cactus League has 12 major league baseball teams in their training schedule. Scottsdale’s Stadium is the spring training grounds of the San Francisco Giants who’s first game starts Feb 28th against the Chicago Cubs .

Cell Phones

Since it is our season, we have everyone here in town, all of our snow birds and year round residence.  I have noticed a few of my neighbors standing in the front drive, talking on their cell phones.  When I asked why, they let me know the phone didn’t work in the house.  Ah Yes, I remember that.  There is something about my neighborhood, the flat roofs with lots of foam maybe, building materials, something blocks the cell signals.  I started with Sprint, that didn’t work, then had a contract with Verizon, that didn’t work any better.  I thought it may be just my phone, and that I needed to get a better one.  But my husband had the same phone, different carrier, and his worked just find in the house.  So now, I have Alltel, and the running outside of the house every time the phone rings is a thing of the past.  So if your looking for a carrier, consider Alltel they have the best service I have had here in the Valley.

Remodeling? Just remodeled? Check out the Tax Credits!

Almost all of the homes in McCormick Ranch are built about 25 plus years ago.  For most people that means updating is due.  Some of the homes have had updating and remodeling completed already.  Others are original condition.  When considering a home in McCormick Ranch, think about which you would like.  The Remodeled, or Original condition. 

Both conditions offer positives, the remodeled, means you just move in and get living.  For many people that is the way to go, life is just too busy already to add in the chaos of  doing a remodel.  If you like to pick out all of your décor, then an original condition will be perfect for you. 

Something to consider, is the energy efficiency of the remodeling that has been done, or is still to be done.  Many of the homes have single pane glass windows,  if there is an older AC unit still in the property, what do you replace it with.  Here is the EnergyStar site to check on what products offer tax credits.  Here are a few more sites to check out as well.

The Energy Policy Act of 2005
Consumers Guide to Energy Efficiency and Renewable Energy 
Federal Tax Credits for Energy Efficiency
Federal Tax Credit Chart

McCormick Ranch’s Country Horizons

I prefer to work with buyers, and in many cases will refer any listings to another agent I partner with with who is a listing specialist. So I don’t do many open houses, and as I am writing each of my blog posts, I have been going by open houses, and taking photos of the communities to share with you. While talking with the other agents sometime you learn about unique qualities in the community, that would be missed otherwise.

This weekend, I stopped in the Country Horizons community. It is a single family home community with the home owners association taking care of all front yard maintenance. Making the community look beautiful. The community also has two casitas, available to the home owners to rent for their guests. Country Horizons is next to Mountain View park and the homes back up to the Camelback Walk , giving 22 of the 67 homes in the community no neighbor to the back. Over 70% of the homes have private pools, and many of the homes have 3 car garages, and all of the homes are single level. The average size of the homes in this community is 2600sqft.

Scottsdale’s McCormick Ranch home sales Statistics

Here are the numbers for the beginning of the month.  We see an increase of listings, and that is expected.  People who held off listing their homes over the holiday season were busy getting their homes ready for being shown.  We have lots of homes in the pending status.  Next month will see an increase in solds and that is a good thing.  Remember the solds reflect a purchase of 30 days earlier or more. 

Have a great weekend, enjoy and be safe with all the Super Bowl parties. 

	Sept - 07	Oct - 07	Nov - 07	26-Nov-07	2-Jan-08	1-Feb-08
Total Active Listings				568	523	578
Single Family Homes				264	246	277
Patio/Town/Gemini Homes				168	153	157
Apartment style Homes				136	124	144
Total Pending Listings				51	36	57
Single Family Homes				21	19	36
Patio/Town/Gemini Homes				17	11	17
Apartment style Homes				13	6	4
	Sept	Oct	Nov		Dec	Jan
Total Sold	33	34	36		38	29
Single Family Homes	19	20	14		17	14
Patio/Town/Gemini Homes	6	7	10		11	11
Apartment style Homes	8	7	12		10	4