Glossary Posts

Real Estate Glossary – Pot Shelves

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. See up above the kitchen cabinets where the fake green plants sit? That’s sort of a pot shelf. Here are some more. Just to prove that it’s not only working class [...]

30 June 2009 Read the full article →

When Is It Monsoon Season in Phoenix?

Glossary Posts

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, [...]

30 June 2009 Read the full article →

Real Estate Glossary – Coffered Ceiling

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 [...]

29 June 2009 Read the full article →

Banks “Hoarding” Foreclosed Homes?

Buyer Help

Tagged as:

Folks in the real estate industry have been debating for months about whether or not there’s a “shadow inventory” of homes banks have already foreclosed on, but have not yet listed for sale. The theory says banks will eventually open the floodgates, list all their hoarded inventory and home prices will take another shocking nosedive. [...]

24 June 2009 Read the full article →

Sunday Stats

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 [...]

15 February 2009 Read the full article →

Help Me Help You

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 [...]

23 January 2009 Read the full article →

Earnest Money

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 [...]

4 December 2008 Read the full article →

What’s A Fixture?

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 [...]

10 October 2008 Read the full article →

When’s The Money Due?

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 [...]

23 September 2008 Read the full article →

The Escrow Process Explained

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 [...]

5 September 2008 Read the full article →

Cash Buyer? Got Your POF?

Buyer Help

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

27 August 2008 Read the full article →

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