Elizabeth Newlin - Arizona Real Estate Agent

Did you read this today? I have to say, I was flabbergasted when I read it, but I guess it makes sense. It certainly explains the skyrocketing home values in Gilbert and Chandler, and it also makes me feel a bit better about our struggle to find my Tempe clients a 4-bedroom home in Gilbert or Chandler. It should be hard. Everyone else in the nation is trying to find one there too!

Well, I guess we should be proud of our state. She’s all grown up now. Beautiful and popular too!

I have a new appreciation for two things:

1. Insulation: I have to admit, my husband is definitely the handy one in our relationship. I may be creative and thrifty, but he’s the one who really knows the nuts and bolts of… well, nuts and bolts. During our bathroom remodel (which is nearing completion, pics to come!) he had to dismantle the entire glass block wall that separated the shower from the great outdoors and re-frame it. Water had been leaking into the wall for who-knows how long and several supporting beams were rotting away. The pink cotton candy-esque insulation inside the wall had practically disintegrated. We spent two sweltering nights with just a tarp over that wall shielding us from the heat and keeping the air conditioning inside. After that, he had the wall re-framed and sheet-rocked so that Contractor-Ed could begin tiling the shower. I thought we would be back to the usual coolness of our bedroom, but I was wrong. It was a busy next week and he didn’t have time to get to Home Depot to buy materials to finish the outside of the wall. Consequently, our bedroom was at least 10 degrees higher than normal. When he finally got around to putting in the insulation and outer wall piece of wood, it made a world of difference. Last night our room was nice and cool. Who knew that fluffy stuff and a bit of wood made such a difference?

2. The Sewer People: Did you know that if you live in Mesa and you have creatures crawling out of your drains you can call the City of Mesa Roach Hotline (480-644-3550) and they will come right out to check and if necessary, treat, your manholes? We didn’t have roaches (thank God), but we did have slugs regularly crawling out of the drain in our extra bathroom. I know, how gross is that? So I called that number last Friday and yesterday there was a little door hanger on our front door indicating they had checked and treated our manholes. Such service, and free!

We’ve made some progress on finding a new home for my Tempe sellers. Their house is holding strong in escrow and we’ve visited about 15 properties in our search for their next residence.

Last weekend during our quest, we visited two very similar homes on the same street. The first one was a tri-level with five bedrooms and a three-car garage(perfect for a family with four teenagers like the Bennetts) and a not so fabulous backyard:

The second had the exact same square footage as the previous house, but a much larger downstairs rec-room instead of a fifth bedroom. It still had a three-car garage, though, and nicer, updated bathroom and light fixtures, as well as a backyard with a lovely covered patio:

The Bennetts decided that because the houses were exactly the same list price and they are handy enough to construct the fifth bedroom out of part of the rec room, they preferred the second house.

However, they weren’t quite ready to make an offer (it was the beginning of our search and they hadn’t really seen what else was out there yet) and both houses sold too quickly for us to get a foot in the door.

We continued to look and they began to realize just how perfect one of those houses would have been for the family. Saturday when I pulled up listings for us to go see, another property on that same street popped up, same square footage and everything. It had a little hitch, however. This property is currently owned by a Public Trustee because the previous owners defaulted on the loan. It is being sold without any seller warranties or a seller’s property disclosure statement. The MLS report also mentioned that the earnest money would become nonrefundable as soon as the offer was accepted. On the positive side, the house was listed at $25K lower than the other two houses we had seen. So we decided to at least give it a look.

It turned out to be pretty perfect. It has the five bedrooms and a slightly better backyard than the first (though not quite as nice as the second). They felt really good about the lower price, too (of course). They feel like they could use the money they’d save to really make the house what they want. It looks, from the front, more like the first house, but with a little exterior paint, they hope to make it more like the second.

We looked at three more houses yesterday, but it came down to the bankruptcy house. They decided to make an offer. I’m happy to say that I’m feeling pretty optimistic about this house. I thought that there would be bunches of offers in competing with ours, but when I spoke with the Realtor this evening, he said that ours was the only one so far. He has to fax all offers to the Bankruptcy court in Las Vegas tomorrow morning and they will make the final decision. So cross your fingers that they get to the offers before any others come in and that ours is accepted. I think my clients would be very happy with this home.