Elizabeth Newlin – Arizona Real Estate Agent

I was perusing the housing listings on the multiple listing service today, trying to become more acquainted with the different types of searching functions, and I stumbled upon the historic district listings. It was like opening a treasure chest. I checked out homes and condos that spanned the price spectrum and was equally delighted by each one I found. I’m drawn to the idea of old homes. I like that they used to be made as individuals, rather than as a part of a subdivision where there are only four different models. I like that they are often remodeled; old on the outside, but new and modern on the inside. I like that they have interesting little niches that make them different from any other home. I love that they’ve often had many owners and families who’ve occupied them over the years.

If I was single and working downtown, this would be my dream place. I love the remodeling they’ve done. It looks sleek and modern but with plenty of built-in bookshelves to make it warm and comfortable. It’s right downtown in the middle of the city life and amazing restaurants. The HOA fee pays for almost all needed utilities. It seems like a dream to me.

I find this little gem adorable too. I’m fascinated by the guest house in the back. Is that where you put the teenagers when they’re especially surly?

Now this one is where I will live someday when my kids are in college and I’ve written my novel and am a famous published author. I will create amazing epicurean delights (because it’s not just called dinner in a kitchen like that) on those fabulous granite counter tops with that gorgeous subzero as an aid. I can see expensive original artwork on those walls and modern, but comfortable furniture on those beautiful floors.

Yes, the historic district is a treat. Do you want to go see it with me? We can just pretend you’re looking to buy…

I have a new client who is interested in waterfront properties. Because of this I have been doing some serious research on neighborhoods with lakes in the East Valley. There are several, in particular, that I have paid close attention to: Val Vista Lakes, Dobson Ranch, The Islands, The Springs, Ocotillo Lakes and The Lakes. I knew that I needed more information about these areas, but I was having trouble nailing it down. Then I found this website.

The Arizona Neighborhoods site is a great resource. It has maps of each community, a list of schools, fire stations and parks, and even general info on properties for sale in each area. I recommend looking up your own neighborhood just to see if you can learn anything.

Speaking of the waterfront, this is the view from a home in The Islands in Gilbert that I visited this evening. With all of this talk and gorgeous pictures of properties on lakes, Jason and I have been thinking: We could live like that… But let’s not get ahead of ourselves; we have a remodel to undertake.

Well, we have decided that the bathroom is not the only area in need of a major overhaul in our house. The kitchen has been an issue for both of us from day one here. It is small, with hideous linoleum, a bad wallpaper border and an extraordinarily inefficient use of cabinet space. The kitchen and lack of storage space is so bad, in fact, that I have seriously considered just moving to a house with a larger kitchen. However, that isn’t going to happen anytime soon. I love many of the other things we’ve done to our house (this is one of my favorites:
)
and really, the kitchen has a lot of potential; it just needs a serious renovation.

So, we’re currently in the process of refinancing our house (we got a great deal with Wells Fargo) and will soon be in possession of $20,000 earmarked for remodels. Jason pretty much has me talked into the idea of doing it ourselves. I’m not looking forward to several months of total chaos in our bathroom and kitchen, but I know that we will be much happier with the end result if we do it ourselves. There’s something to be said for the pride that comes with accomplishing a project without the help of a professional (although, there’s also something to be said for the happiness of our marriage when we’re not in the midst of a home improvement odyssey). I also would like the bulk of our money to be spent on the gorgeous materials I have in mind, rather than labor. We will see, though, I’m not committing to anything just yet.

I may be totally naive as to how far I can stretch our dollars, but here is what I want to definitely be done with by the end of this: new shower (maybe out of these), bathroom floor, light fixtures for the bathroom, sinks, cabinets and towel bars, new floor for the kitchen, counters, cabinets, stove and dishwasher. If we have any money left over, I want new front doors and to paint the outside of our house, which currently looks like this:

but I would prefer it to look like this (this house is across the street from us, doesn’t it look nice?):

And that is the plan… I’m an excellent bargain shopper and Jason’s practically a pro-contractor. I think we have at least a shot at accomplishing this before we end up in marriage counseling…

What southwestern dweller doesn’t love a good chicken tortilla soup? I certainly am a fan. The key to mine is to make your own chips. You can substitute them with Frito’s, but I don’t recommend it.

Ingredients:

White corn tortillas (cut into short strips)
Vegetable oil
2 boneless skinless chicken breasts
Tablespoon of soy sauce
Can of condensed tomato soup
Can of beef broth
1/2 onion, diced
Can of diced green chilies
1/2 can of corn
2 cloves of garlic, diced
Handful of fresh cilantro, diced
Salt
Pepper
Cumin
Chili powder
Shredded cheddar cheese
Chopped avocado

Preparation:

Place chicken breasts in a glass dish with a lid. Add inch of water and soy sauce. Cover and put in 350 degree oven until not pink in the center. Heat an inch and a half of vegetable oil in an electric fondue pot (400 degrees) or on the stove on high. Toss tortilla strips in hot oil in handful batches. Remove when they stop bubbling and start turning a bit browner. Put tortilla strips on a plate covered in paper towels and salt. Put tomato soup, 1 can of water, beef broth, onion, corn, garlic, cilantro, salt, pepper, cumin and chili powder in a pot on the stove on medium high. Stir until bubbly. Remove chicken from water and shred into smallish pieces. Add chicken to pot. Spoon soup into bowls and top with cheese, tortilla strips and avocado. (Sour cream is a nice addition too, if you like it.)

Are you thinking of moving to Arizona from another state? Have you been dreaming of our temperate winters and beautiful desert-scape? If you are an out-of-stater and are even considering making Arizona your home, please contact me and let me know what your general interests and
thoughts are and I will send you an individualized packet with information about:

Schools
Shopping
Subdivisions
Freeways
Parks
HOA fees
Utilities
City sizes
Other attractions

I’ll include pictures of areas you might be interested in and median home prices. Let me give you some extra details to help you make your decision!

So maybe you’re thinking about looking at buying a house. Nothing definite, nothing for sure; you don’t even know if you could find something good enough to make it worth all the hassle of selling your house and moving. Your first step is to check out what’s out there, right? Get a Realtor and look around a bit? Wrong. The problem with this line of reasoning, is that the purpose is to find your beautiful, perfectly priced, perfectly located dream home, right? So then what if you find it? What if that very first day you come upon a house that you absolutely can’t live without? Then what is the next step?

With the market moving so quickly like it currently is, if there is a great house out there, and it’s well priced, it definitely won’t stay out there long. When we bought our house almost three years ago, I went and saw the house on a Wednesday, Jason couldn’t get in to see it until Thursday and we didn’t actually make an offer until Friday. Today, the house would likely be long gone. If you find your dream house, you want to make an offer then and there.

When you make an offer on a house right now, you need to have three things: a signed contract offer, a check for one to two percent of the price you are offering for the house (this is your earnest money) and a CLA. I’m sure you’re familiar with the first two necessities, but the CLA may be new. A CLA is a conditional loan approval. It’s basically just a form from a bank or other lending institution that proves to the seller of the home that you’ve been pre-approved for a loan to buy the house. It firms up your offer and makes you a more solid candidate.

A CLA is very easy to obtain. If you already own a home and have a mortgage on it, you can call your current lender and explain to them you’re thinking of home searching. They don’t want to lose your business and will happily help you out. CENTURY 21 Arizona Foothills partners with Hamilton Mortgage. The loan officer who works in my office is named Matt Puzz, and he is very nice and knowledgeable. You can call him at 480.838.7900. You can also call the bank you have your checking and savings account at; they also would be happy to keep your business.

Don’t worry that you need to find the best interest rates or closing costs when you get your CLA. Just because you’ve been approved by a bank to get the loan does not mean that you have to use them to get your loan. You are not locking yourself into anything, just letting them know that there is at least one lending institution that will loan you the money to buy the home. And generally, CLA forms are good for about six months. So do it now, before you need it, and save yourself the last minute worry and hassle of getting one together to send in with your offer.

As of May 1, your Arizona Realtor of choice (hopefully yours truly) will be using a new contract. Every few years the Arizona Real Estate Commission gets together to rework the approved contract. They take any bugs that have been found or any loopholes that have been abused and smooth them out. Wording is changed to improve clarity and to remove any possible misunderstanding about how the process will work. It’s generally a positive change for all. I’m sure, however, that there will be a period of adjustment. Personally, I have only been using the previous contract for a short time, so I shouldn’t have too much trouble switching over to the new one. More seasoned agents who have become totally comfortable with the old contract, though, may have a tougher time getting into the groove of the new contract. So use me! Just kidding… the new contract really should not present any problems in your home buying process, but it is something to be aware of. Make sure your Realtor goes over all of what you are signing with you (of course, this is always a good rule of thumb, even when we’re not in a contract transition). Know all of the nuances of what you’re signing. If it doesn’t make sense, ask questions. Make your agent earn his or her commission!

Last weekend we went out on my parents’ pontoon boat for a trip around the little subdivision lake they live on. We’ve made the trip all the way down and back lots of times and looked at all of the homes, but this time I took my camera and looked specifically for the most beautiful backyard I could find. There were lots of pretty ones, and plenty of homes much bigger than my parents’, but honestly (and yes, I’m probably a bit biased), the nicest one I saw, was my parents’ backyard.

They just completed a total renovation of the backyard. They tore down the original gazebo and had that beautiful new one put up. The dock/patio is brand new and the path down from the house was redone as well. You don’t often see a backyard as beautiful or functional as theirs.

The most common type of mortgage on a first home is an amortized 30-year fixed interest loan. What that means, is that the amount you borrowed to buy your home will be paid off over 30 years, with equal payments each month that include money paid to the principle loan balance, the interest, taxes and insurance. This loan is also sometimes called a Budget loan (because you pay taxes and insurance throughout the year instead of in one big payment; it helps you to budget your money) or a PITI loan (principle, interest, taxes, insurance).

The last I in the PITI loan, insurance, actually sometimes encompasses two things: home owner’s insurance, and if you did not put at least 20 percent down on your loan, mortgage insurance. Mortgage insurance is usually referred to as PMI (private mortgage insurance) for a conventional loan and MPI (mortgage payment insurance) for a government insured loan, like an FHA loan. The idea behind mortgage insurance is that if you don’t have at least 20 percent equity in your home your lender considers you to be at higher risk of defaulting on your loan. You are therefore required to pay for an insurance premium in case you do just that. This can be a fairly substantial monthly payment. We pay $105 per month (roughly 10 percent of our total payment) for this alone.

Something to think about, in this time of quickly rising home values, is that even though you may not have put at least 20 percent down on your home originally, you may have benefited from the the quickly moving market and not even know it. If you bought your home for $120,000 three years ago, and you put down 3 percent ($3,600), but now home values have risen so far that you could easily sell your home for $180,000, that means that you gained over $60,000 in equity without paying out cold hard cash. If you were to refinance your home now, the bank would appraise it at the current home value standards and you would no longer be responsible for your monthly mortgage insurance payment. That’s an extra $100 or so you could be applying toward the principle of your loan, or even to new cute shoes once a month!

Make sure, before you decide this sounds too good to pass up, that you find out what your current interest rate is as compared to the market interest rates. If your rate is lower than what the market stands at, you probably want to stick with it. Also be sure to ask your new lender about closing costs. Many large lenders have deals that involve refinancing with no closing costs. This may come with a slightly higher interest rate, but if you don’t plan to stay in your house the full 30-year life of the loan, it’s probably worth going with the higher rate minus the thousands of dollars in closing costs.

Check it out, it may just be the smart decision for you!

We’ve determined what our new home improvement project will be:

Yes, you can feel free to be horrified. As I have mentioned before, our house has needed a lot of work. Our shower has finally squeaky-wheeled itself into the next position for improvement. Not only is it ugly (don’t you love the marbled green and gold?), but water has been leaking behind the panel under the glass block since before we moved in. Jason pried the panel off this weekend to find disintegrated Sheetrock and a full inch of silicone that some previous owner had put in place in an attempt to stave off the inevitable mold.

Our plan is to totally gut this bathroom. We would like to do an all tile shower stall. We also plan to tile the floor of the bathroom outside of the shower (instead of the current linoleum) and of course replace all of the gold towel bars and light fixtures. I’m torn between having this done by a professional and attempting to do it ourselves. We have some experience with tile (we did the extra bathroom’s floor and walls) and a decent wet saw, but I’m intimidated by the idea of the all tile shower. We have a do-it-yourself manual that explains the process step-by-step, but the idea of water running constantly over an area we could have not properly sealed fills me with the fear of mold. And then again, the idea of turning control over to someone else, doesn’t make me sleep easy either. At least half the fun of our home projects for me has been the meticulous attention to detail we’ve paid. Shopping for fixtures and picking out the perfect shade of paint is a perfect Saturday for our family. So it’s all still up in the air. But don’t you worry, there will be many pictures to follow of the entire process.