Snark

“Amare” for the home team

by Chris Butterworth on August 30, 2010

in Op Ed,Photoblogging

Professional sports ain’t what they used to be, what with free agency and all..

You want to get behind the home teams, and you want to love the home players, but those players seem to come & go every year.  So I root for the teams, and when I have to buy something player-specific (like a #11 Fitz jersey for a 6-year old at Christmas), I gravitate towards players who are “good guys” and who I think will be in Phoenix for a long time.

Hobby-2010-449a

The guy in front of me yesterday had to be disappointed this summer, since he’s now supporting the New York Knicks’ top player…

Your has never gotten all the way behind free agency Realtor,

Chris Butterworth


chris

Chris Butterworth spends more time analyzing statistics and reading economic reports than is healthy. He's also a husband, father, writer, and amateur photographer. In his spare time he trained for and competed in his first triathlon.

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Sometimes it’s just too much

by Heather on August 29, 2010

in Lifestyle,Op Ed

indulging our kids.png

This was taken with my Blackberry, so the color tone is ‘off’. I didn’t capture the whole closet because I was trying to avoid showing anything personally identifying (it’s not my kid, or even my clients’ kid, and the house is currently for sale).

Nevertheless…

I saw this in a home I was showing last weekend. It’s the walk in closet belonging to a child who is about 4 years old, based on the pictures of her in her room. It measured about 5 or 6 feet square. (perspective: many starter homes built in the early 2000s have bedrooms about 8 or 9 feet square)

Sometimes we indulge our children a wee bit too much.

I’m not judging, I swear. I have too many material things in my life and I’m on a blitzkrieg campaign to simplify, small-ify and generally reduce my life/budget/waistline. I’m just wondering if this picture isn’t a perfect reflection of how so many of us got into so much debt.


heather

Heather Barr is a Realtor. She's a chow hound, a gym rat, and a political junkie and a happy workaholic.

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New house, same old lot

by Heather June 16, 2010 Lifestyle

Sometimes making the most of the livable space available isn’t quite as important as not pissing off the neighbors. – real estate wisdom by Heather (picture credit, Dwell.com’s “Houses We Love” contest. NOTE that the caption is mine, not theirs! Three of the finalist homes are in Arizona, and were designed by merzproject. Voting continues [...]

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More Bad MLS Photos

by Heather March 18, 2010 General Musings

Wow! You mean that stuff on the counter comes with the house? Cool! Heather Barr is a Realtor. She’s a chow hound, a gym rat, and a political junkie and a happy workaholic.

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Lenders Behaving Madly

by Heather February 27, 2010 Buyer Help

An illustration of just how ridiculous lender requirements have become, direct from an email written by a loan officer and sent to loan specialist Rob Chrisman: “Rob – The following is an actual underwriting condition from a large wholesale lender which is known for having the best wholesale pricing for conforming loans. (As background, the [...]

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Where has modesty gone?

by Chris Butterworth February 11, 2010 Op Ed

Haven’t we crossed the line in the whole “any publicity is good publicity” thing? Seems like every email I receive (from a salesperson), every radio ad I hear, and every website I read all claim to be “the best”, loudly and repeatedly.  I’m tired of it – more than that, I’m sick of it.  If [...]

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Fix and Flippers, Bustin’ Your Chops Again

by Heather January 22, 2010 Op Ed

Alright folks. I’m going to rag on fix and flippers again. I can’t help it; they leave themselves wide open. Investors! Listen up! When you buy a home at foreclosure auction, it’s going to need some work. Paint and carpet might not be all the house needs to make it livable. Case in point (these [...]

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The Sleazy Side of the Business

by Chris Butterworth January 18, 2010 Op Ed

It’s not hard to figure out why real estate agents have a bad reputation as a whole. I saw this ad on FaceBook a couple days ago: (note – the ad is directed towards Realtors, not consumers.) Wait..  What?!  You advertise one thing but do something completely different??  I don’t get it. First of all, [...]

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More MLS Funnies

by Heather January 10, 2010 Op Ed

Bathrooms are beautiful with tile, and cabinets. Golly. I’m glad the bathrooms have cabinets. You can’t always count on that. . New double payne windows. . . Did you mean pane? Or maybe pain, like I have to install them myself? . Oh those Internets! Such an endless source of entertainment for someone like me [...]

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I’m here to serve you (but not if “you” is another agent)

by Chris Butterworth January 4, 2010 Op Ed

I received an email from an agent last night which I want to share.  But first a quick set up of the scenario (I’m keeping the percentages & relationships the same, but changing the actual numbers.) We put a new listing into MLS last week: The agent in question submitted an offer on behalf of [...]

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Phoenix Driving

by Chris Butterworth November 4, 2009 Op Ed

Our good friend Tracey sent one of those chain-type emails, but this one was so dead-pan accurate I couldn’t stop laughing.  I’m sharing it below, copied & pasted directly from email.  Original author is unknown. (but note if you arrived here looking for legitimate information about driving around Greater Phoenix, Arizona, see our posts on [...]

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I’m On My Soapbox Again

by Heather October 5, 2009 Op Ed

I have a short sale listing. Back in March we got 5 offers, all above list price, and I sent them to the lenders. Lender Number One approved the short sale in May and offered $2,342 to Lender Number Two, a.k.a. Chase Mortgage. Chase has been dithering about the deal since Spring but emailed me [...]

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