From the category archives:

Glossary Posts

Real Estate Glossary - Pot Shelves

by Heather on June 30, 2009

in Glossary Posts

No, these are not a place to keep your stash. Or your mis-spent youth. Although they often become the reliquary of all things green.

Starter Home KIT normal

See up above the kitchen cabinets where the fake green plants sit? That’s sort of a pot shelf.

Here are some more.

pot shelves in LIV RM

pot shelves in FAM RM blurry

Just to prove that it’s not only working class families who don’t know what to do with pot shelves:

pot shelves at 2M This photo is from a home listed for sale at $2,000,000.  Two million smackers and still we can’t figure out how to effectively utilize pot shelves. Personally, I put pot shelves in the category of “everybody says they want one, but then nobody uses it once they move in.” Kind of like garden tubs.

Technorati Tags:



heather

Heather Barr is a Realtor. She's a chow hound, a gym rat, and the only political junkie in the USA who can actually keep her political views to herself. Instead, she focuses on educating her clients about the often-confusing world of residential real estate.

{ 0 comments }

A former client’s question prompted this post, so thanks Jon!

According to Wikipedia:

The North American Monsoon (NAM) occurs from late June or early July into September, originating over Mexico and spreading into the southwest United States by mid-July. It affects Mexico along the Sierra Madre Occidental as well as Arizona, New Mexico, Nevada, Utah,Colorado, West Texas, and California.

When I was a kid and we moved here in the late 1970’s, the knee-jerk reaction answer to “When’s the monsoon?” was “August”.

With the heat island effect, it seems like the monsoon arrives earlier and lasts longer each year. Last year, the National Weather Service announced they would date the monsoon season in Arizona from June 15 to September 30 each year. In prior years, the weather services had dated the beginning and ending of the monsoon season based on meteorological readings of the barometric pressure, temperature, humidity, etc.

Monsoon With a Dust Storm Chaser

Monsoon with a dust storm chaser originally posted on Kathy Anderson’s AZ Active Retirement Living blog

Monsoon Clouds Over Phoenix Skyline

monsoon over downtown Phx image courtesy of The Downtown Phoenix Journal

Monsoon near Quartzite Arizona, 1976

AZ monsoon near quartzite, AZ 1976 CDouglas Stockdale on DouglasStockdale DOT com photo courtesy of, and copyright by Douglas Stockdale

Video of Monsoon Storms

Here’s a really exciting video about Phoenix monsoons created by the local CBS news affiliate, channel 10 (hat tip to Kathy Anderson for linking me to it). The video clip is undated but it appears to be a retrospective of the 2008 monsoon season, which was one of the Valley’s 10 worst.

In the video, CBS reporters talk to a hi-rise condo owner in downtown Phoenix who shot video of the August 28 (2008?) storm as it swept across town, blew out the windows in his condo, and then proceeded to dump cherry-sized hailstones into his living room!

At about the 6:28 minute mark of the video, there’s a mind-boggling shot of a huge dust storm surging across the Valley. It reminded me instantly of the videos of the 2004 Indonesian tsunami.

Just the Facts, Ma’am

Are you the type who likes detailed statistical information instead of shocking videos? Here’s the National Weather Service explaining the meteorological in’s and out’s of monsoons. Local news AzFamily Channel 3 has some more great statistics on wind speeds and dollars’ worth of damages during monsoon season.

Related Posts and Information on Other Sites

Technorati Tags:


heather

Heather Barr is a Realtor. She's a chow hound, a gym rat, and the only political junkie in the USA who can actually keep her political views to herself. Instead, she focuses on educating her clients about the often-confusing world of residential real estate.

{ 0 comments }

Real Estate Glossary - Coffered Ceiling

by Heather June 29, 2009 Glossary Posts

Usually seen in upscale (read, expensive) homes. Encyclopedia Brittanica online uses this definition:

in architecture, a square or polygonal ornamental sunken panel used in a series as decoration for a ceiling or vault. The sunken panels were sometimes also called caissons, or lacunaria, and a coffered ceiling might be referred to as lacunar.

If the builder or [...]

Read the full article →

Where to Find Homes Online

by Heather May 5, 2009 Buyer Help

Did you know that consumers can’t view the MLS? You’re probably thinking “She’s loony. I was looking at the MLS online just the other day.”
Umm, no. You weren’t looking at “The MLS.”
First, a definition. The MLS  (a.k.a. Multiple Listing Service) is a privately-owned local or regional database where all participating Realtors list their properties for [...]

Read the full article →

Sunday Stats

by Heather February 15, 2009 Central Phoenix

photo credit to MiamiAmia, courtesy of StockExchange. See the entire series for historical perspective.
Time for another edition of the Sunday Stats

Background and Color Coding: red is bad, green is good, inasmuch as it means the stats are moving towards a balanced market. Most local experts/forecasters and Realtors use 6 months’ supply of inventory on the [...]

Read the full article →

Help Me Help You

by Heather January 23, 2009 Buyer Help

Was it Cuba Gooding, Jr. in Jerry Maguire who said that? Dunno. Anyway, it reminded me of something.
Read a short article today in a Woman’s Day-type magazine about things you can do to make your doctor’s visit more efficient and effective. Over the years, I’ve developed a similar “article” which I email to folks who [...]

Read the full article →

Earnest Money

by Heather December 4, 2008 Buyer Help

WHAT IT IS
Earnest money is the amount of money a buyer submits with an offer to purchase a house. You actually write a check (or a copy of the check) and send it with the purchase offer.
Earnest money proves the buyer is ‘in earnest’, or serious about buying that house. If the seller accepts the [...]

Read the full article →

What’s A Fixture?

by Heather October 10, 2008 First Time Buyers

My broker Jay Thompson explained “what’s a fixture?” on his real estate FAQ blog, which I’d like to expand on. Normally I think everything Jay does is perfect and no expanding is needed. Buuuut, I’m running a little low in the inspiration department, even lower in the time department, and I realized that I haven’t [...]

Read the full article →

When’s The Money Due?

by Heather September 23, 2008 Buyer Help

Like a lot of metro Phoenix Realtors, lately I’ve been working with lots of out of town buyers (especially Canadians). These buyers are often used to the way purchase transactions are handled in their hometowns, but somewhat baffled by the way we do things in metro Phoenix.
From the standard AAR contract, line 13, “Close of [...]

Read the full article →

The Escrow Process Explained

by Chris Butterworth September 5, 2008 Buyer Help

You’re ready to buy a house.  You write up an offer with your Realtor.  What’s next?
You’re trying to sell your house.  Your Realtor brings you an offer from a buyer.  What’s next?
The escrow process always raises questions from both buyers and sellers.  It can be confusing, and even overwhelming, because there are a [...]

Read the full article →

Cash Buyer? Got Your POF?

by Heather August 27, 2008 Buyer Help

Cash buyers of Arizona real estate should provide a Proof of Funds statement to make their offer as strong as possible.

Read the full article →

Where Does The Commission Go When I Sell?

by Heather July 25, 2008 First Time Buyers

In metro Phoenix where I work, sellers typically pay the Realtors’ commissions. Buyers don’t pay any Realtor commissions. The biggest chunk of change buyers come up with is their down payment. For sellers, the biggest hit you take on closing day is the Realtors’ commissions.
Comissions are negotiable. So not every scenario will fit this one exactly, [...]

Read the full article →