Elizabeth Newlin – Arizona Real Estate Agent

Well, it actually worked. I managed to scam the bank into giving me $20,000 AND lower monthly payments on my mortgage! OK, really we just refinanced our loan for a lower interest rate and got rid of our monthly Private Mortgage Insurance (PMI) payment because the equity in our home has almost doubled in the three years we’ve lived here. But the long and the short of it is: I got a check for $20,000 today! Woo hoo! So the remodel is officially funded and the old kitchen had better get ready to duck and cover. Next: the Planning Phase, and after that Demolition, baby!

Who doesn’t love a three-day weekend? We have been accomplishing much and relaxing tons; it’s been the perfect combination of work and play.

On the work front, I gave a listing presentation yesterday to a family in Tempe. I knew, going in that they have met with several other Realtors. They are feeling out the market and trying to find the right person to help them sell their house. I definitely do not blame them for this. There are, admittedly, lots of real estate agents out there, and everyone talks a different game. It’s smart to see what a few different people have to say. I felt like my meeting with them went well. I had lots of throughly researched information for them and I felt good that I was totally honest about where the market for their house stands right now. The thing is, however, I know at least one of the other Realtors they met with gave them what seems to me to be a very high estimate of what they can get for their house. I let them know it sounded high to me and showed them where I was getting my information from, but that ultimately, what to list their house at is entirely their decision. It is their house. My responsibility is just to let them know the risks and drawbacks of making a move like that. So… I’m not sure what it is that will make or break this deal for them. Is it the lowest commission? Highest recommended listing price? Most useful information presented? Honesty? Personality? Outfit? Cute earrings (hopefully this one is the most important, because I was wearing these really great dangly pearl ones my mom made me for my birthday)? The experience spawned my new poll (to the right).

And then there was the play:

Jason and the boys spent countless hours building with the insane amount of Lego’s Jason recently bequeathed to Ben. When Jason first told me about the extensive collection of Lego’s at his parents’ house in Oregon that he wanted to give to Ben, I was touched. What a sweet, fun thing for him to share with his son. It wasn’t until the day after he gave them to Ben and they had spent literally six hours building elaborate ships and castles, that I realized the ’sweet gesture’ was at least 50 percent opportunity for Jason to relive his childhood passion for architecture. And yes, it’s still pretty cute that they spend hours together playing with those square bits of plastic, but I do have to wonder if he’s hiding from the yard work back there…

Lastly, I’m so excited to share that I’ve made an appointment with a contractor to come out and quote our kitchen and bathroom project. She is a kitchen cabinet expert, but has partners that can do anything that needs to be done in the home. She’s going to come out a week from Thursday to measure our kitchen and bathroom and talk to us about what we’re looking for so she can put together a quote. She told me that we can have as much help with our project as we want, or we can do it all ourselves. AND, she doesn’t charge to quote, which already puts her about five steps above Home Depot in my book. If she makes me happy at all, I will definitely post her contact info on here soon enough. I’m so excited for my new kitchen!!

I hope you are all having fabulous weekends as well!

Yesterday, when I was pulling some property info off the ARMLS site I came across a statement in the ‘Realtor Remarks’ section that I didn’t understand at all. It said “Land lease amount in arbitration.” Now, of course I understand the definitions of the individual words (when I called and asked the listing agent what she meant by this she said, “Uh… they’re currently arbitrating the amount of the land lease.” Thanks, ma’am, I wanted to say, now that you’ve switched the order of the words around for me it makes perfect sense), but the concept of a ‘land lease’ was one that I hadn’t yet encountered. After my attempt at extracting an understanding from my fellow Realtor was thwarted, I called my manager at the Century 21 office.

He explained that someone (in this case, a trust) bought the land before any of the houses were built on it and still currently has ownership of the land. So when you buy the house, you really only buy the house. The land underneath and around the house has to be leased to you for a monthly fee. In another home I found, the land lease amount was 0.1% of the sale price per month ($469 per month). In the case of the original house I found, however, the land lease amount was ‘in arbitration,’ meaning you would be buying blind, with no amount set until some unspecified time in the future. This sounded like a real bummer of a deal to me. It sounded kind of like an HOA fee, but potentially lots higher than even the highest HOA fees I’d seen, and with none of the benefits. It’s not like the owner of the land comes around and mows your lawn for you or anything. So I asked my manager, “How would this benefit my client at all?” He didn’t beat around the bush with his answer that there just isn’t really any benefit. “I would stay away from deals like that,” he cautioned me. And that makes sense to me. In real estate, generally it’s not the structure on a piece of property that appreciates, it’s the land. The structure will continue to deteriorate and require repairs, while the land it stands on is what they defined in my real estate classes as indestructible. No matter what you put on it, how you plant it or even dig it up, a piece of land cannot be moved, and it cannot be destroyed. So the land is by far the better deal in the house vs. land debate.

Ultimately, I guess the answer to my initial question would be that it depends which side you’re on. For now, until I hear a reasonable argument for it, the only way I’m getting involved in a land lease is if I’m the one buying the land.

I have a serious weakness for guacamole. I think my love affair with the green stuff comes from equal parts of the fact that it is so esthetically pleasing (I’ve always felt that food should both look and taste good) and that I love each of the ingredients individually so much. It’s hard to go wrong with too much tomato, avocado, garlic or lime juice in just about any recipe, in my opinion, so together they are an unbeatable combination.

Break it out on a hot summer day to keep you company by the pool.

Ingredients:

3 avocados, diced
2 cloves of garlic, minced
1 jalapeno, diced
1/2 tomato, diced
1/2 red onion, diced
Handful of cilantro, diced
1/2 of a lime, juiced
Salt, to taste
1 teaspoon cumin

Preparation:

You can diced everything by hand, if you want, but I usually unearth my food processor and give everything but the avocado a quick whirl (individually, to get the right texture). A trick I learned from FoodTV about the avocado goes like this: cut the avocado down the middle around the pit longways, remove the pit, and then use the tip of the knife to cut slits in the avocado down to the skin both the long and short ways, creating a grid, then scoop the halves into a dish. Combine all the ingredients and use two forks to mash the avocados with the other ingredients so they are chunky. Serve with tortilla chips (or just eat off the spoon like I do).

I have previously presented a number of problems with the idea of inflating the selling price of your home; one, in particular, dealing with the Appraisal. This article presents a different, even scarier angle on that problem, that may end up with consequences on a national legislation level.

I’m happy to let you know, however, that the Century 21 Arizona Foothills partner, Hamilton Mortgage has taken steps to keep our customers from experiencing these kinds of problems. From a memo I received April 5, 2005:

“Currently, Hamilton Mortgage, nor [sic] any other investor (this is industry-wide period) will accept an appraisal that uses time as a means for value adjustment. Hamilton Mortgage and investors (industry-wide) will only take appraisals that use comps for property value.”

Basically, this memo was to let the agents know up front that the appraisals Hamilton Mortgage will be ordering for their loans will be conducted by the book and not padded with the knowledge that the market is appreciating at such a rate that the property in question may soon be worth more. This may make my life, as an agent, a little more difficult when I have a home that has sold for more that it appraises for, but in the long run, it will make the market a much healthier place.

OK, so I’m a native and I wasn’t even prepared for this weekend. Sure, all last week the media shouted it from the rooftops: It’s going to be really hot! Like hotter than the normal flesh-peeling hot. Like if hot is the Padres this season, this weekend was the Yankees any season other than this one where they have done some serious bottom-feeding (so that was a lame attempt at sports humor… right, I won’t try it again, sorry).

Anyway, I heard the news reports, and noted the above normal barometer predictions. I have to admit, however, that the predictions didn’t sound that daunting. 112? Eh… not that bad. It was 117 the day that I ran out of gas on the freeway right by The Buttes after I taught swim lessons all day at the Phoenix Swim Club. That was back when I was in high school and cell phones weren’t quite as prevalent as they are now. I had to walk over a mile to a gas station to call my mom to come help get gas to my car. Not to mention, of course, the day it was a record-breaking 121. Now THAT is hot.

So we treated this weekend like any other and went on with our yard work, barbecues and normal errands. Unfortunately, I was not prepared for the speed with which the mercury rose. I think the big problem is that we didn’t have the normal lead up of slowly rising temps to get us used drinking extra water and really spending the extra time to find a parking spot in the shade. Therefore, I was caught unprepared when I headed out to the grocery store Saturday afternoon. Getting into my oven of a car and driving the quick 2 miles to the store drained me, and by the time I’d paid for our weekly supplies and driven home again I was achy and exhausted. My jeans were stuck to my legs and my head was pounding. After I’d unloaded the car, it took an hour on the couch and several glasses of water to make me feel normal again. It was a lesson I should have learned long ago: If you’re thirsty, it’s already too late. Stay hydrated!!

I hope you fared better than I did this weekend and survived the heat wave. Let’s all hope it’ll cool down a bit before the heat REALLY starts in again.

Today was my birthday and we went to a restaurant that we’ve been to once before and loved. It’s up in DC Ranch (Pima and the 101) and it’s called Blue Wasabi.

Everything in DC Ranch is pretty. If Jason and I had to live in a shopping plaza, this would be the one we would choose. Everything in it is made of stone and beautifully rusted metal. The building we parked in front of had a gorgeous steel roof that had rusted and dripped down on to the concrete underneath.

The food at Blue Wasabi is pretty too. And it tastes as good as it looks. The rolls are named for pop culture references and they are a combination of traditional Japanese sushi ingredients and some exciting American additives. The Where’s The Beef roll was good:

but our favorite this time was the Red Hot Chili Pepper roll:

I love sushi. It was a good birthday. I even got a great pair of shoes.

Sushi and cute shoes, who could ask for more?

A friend forwarded me this article today. It’s interesting, and not totally negative, though I tend to disagree with the pretentious notion that Phoenix is not as ‘cool’ as New York City or Seattle. Anyway, it reminded me that I have yet to champion one of my very favorite, way ‘cool’ and totally unique to Arizona places to soak up a bit of art: The Center for Creative Photography. Of course, this museum is actually in Tucson, so it’s not technically a selling point for Phoenix, but it’s only an hour and a half away and so worth the drive. It is the largest photography archive and research center in the nation. It has an amazing gallery with shows that rotate monthly or bimonthly. It is home to almost all of Ansel Adams’ original works and negatives. Amazingly, you can even schedule an appointment and choose any works in their achieves you want to see, and they will put together a private viewing for you. It’s an edgy, inspiring and awesome museum. And no one else has one like it. So maybe, Ms. Silverman, you’re just not cool enough to know about all the really great places… have you ever thought of that?

I showed houses ALL weekend. It was fun but exhausting, and I had to sneak loads of laundry for my family in between clients. I need a nap.

Things I learned this weekend:

1. When they say “Fixer-upper,” they really mean “Squatters have been living here.” I visited an utterly horrifying home today with a client who is interested in the idea of a home in a great area that needs a little work. It wasn’t yet on lock-box, so the listing agent told me that we could look in the windows and walk around back just to get an idea of what was there. Well, the truth was, there was a lot more than just a house there. In the front yard we were mystified by a decaying boat taking up most of the yard. In the backyard there were various rusting unidentifiable pieces of machinery and a bizarre sort of double spa that was so cloudy and green we couldn’t see to the bottom of the shallow water. In the back, we also discovered that the back door was actually broken down, along with several windows. We took the opportunity to tour the inside. It was filled with graffiti and junk (plastic margarita glasses and eerie old, broken toys, to name a few bits). My client said it was a touch too much for him to fix. I didn’t blame him at all.

2. My left knee doesn’t have enough cartilage from the abuse it took during my high school dance career to work the clutch in my husband’s 6-speed 2004 Toyota Matrix for six hours a day in construction traffic two days in a row. I will be limping to the office tomorrow.

3. Maricopa (the town) and Queen Creek may sound like similar communities in that they are both on the outskirts of town and currently experiencing new building, but OH MY GOD are they far apart. My client in from Michigan’s husband suggested that we check out both areas, so we hit one right after the other. Maricopa is literally 16 miles west of all civilization, while Queen Creeks is several miles south and so far east that it is actually into Pinal county. OY, was that a bad idea.

4. Sometimes, the pictures on the MLS system just do not do justice to the loveliness of a house. Another house I visited today (with the same client as the house of horrors) had such an amazing backyard that I’m sure I will dream about it tonight. It was enormous, with a lovely shaded grassy area in the middle (there was even an inviting hammock hung between two tall trees). Along the left side of the yard was an awesome Pebble Tec pool with an attached spa. I could picture my kids running wild in the expansive grass while I laid in the hammock and watched. It was such a nice yard, it would have made up for the blue carpet inside the house for me.

5. When I call my husband and he says, “Who are you? Elizabeth who? My children have no mother; she left us long ago and we have given up hope that she will ever return…” it’s time to go home.

My super fabulous and amazing web designer (who also happens to be my yard guy, bug killer, babysitter and sometimes even my personal chef) has completed a new feature you can expect to see on a regular basis on my site. He worked very hard on it, so take a quick peek to your right and help us test it by voting on just how cool he is (it’s good for his ego and gets work done on my site!). Also, if you have a poll you’d like to see results to feel free to email me your questions!