Elizabeth Newlin – Arizona Real Estate Agent

People ask me all the time now: “So, things are slowing down, huh?” And when I confirm their suspicions, they nod and say, “Well, it had to happen eventually.”

My response to that is: Ain’t that the truth. With Phoenix homes selling at the speed of light and prices rocketing up just as quickly, the market wasn’t easy or healthy for anyone. Now don’t get me wrong, many people benefited from real estate in the last year, but it was a pace that was bound to wear the market out a bit.

Fortunately, where we’re at right now is much closer to what could ever possibly be considered a ‘normal’ market and it’s a lot more comfortable for a lot of people. I think plenty of people over the last year or so had begun to think of the real estate game as quick and easy money. In reality, real estate always has been and in the long run always will be a safe and secure long-term investment. Sure, markets will dip and hit standstills, but overtime, whether it be fast and furiously or slow and steadily, real estate prices will increase. It’s still a good investment, but those who were looking for a quick buck have now moved on to the next scheme.

Anyway, in my weekly sales meeting yesterday, along with the market’s current pace, we discussed interest rates. Though they are still incredibly low from a historical perspective, rates are creeping up. You can still get a 30-year fixed for just under 6%, which is fabulous, but who knows for how long.

And that’s the word on the street.

This is for all those people working hard, with no end of the week in sight.

10 sites to entertain your brain (AKA, ways to kill time):

1. One of my personal favorites for snarky commentary on current shows.

2. Ever wonder what your personality type is? Take a 72 question quiz and see how you stack up again the presidents and other notable Americans.

3. To be a fashion icon you have to take risks, and sometimes those risks fail.

4. When you just need a little mindless fun.

5. You may not agree with all of his political viewpoints, but you have to admit, this man is clever.

6. Tell me I’m not the only one who likes to browse recipes when I’m bored…

7. Anything and everything you could ever want to know about who played what in which role.

8. If you don’t know what a blog is, you have no business surfing the Internet. Go here for a list of the best.

9. Mmm… shopping for deals…

10. One of my new favorites. Gotta love tea cozies with irony.

As a somewhat newly licensed Realtor, I probably should be against drawing attention to those of my kind who give us a bad name, but I have to say, this article just about knocked me over with shame for my profession and left me with an equally strong urge to remind people that we are definitely not all like this.

I am horrified that a professional real estate agent would have the audacity to order ‘adult movies’ while sitting an open house for a client or the client of a colleague. I am just as horrified by the story of the agent who brought beer to an open house to offer to visitors. There is just nothing sane about either of these instances.

When a client or a colleague entrusts me with the safety of a home during an open house, I take the responsibility very seriously. If it is obvious that children are living in the house, I don’t even allow visitors to walk around unescorted (I had an unsettling experience once when I was sitting an open house and I allowed people to walk around upstairs alone while I was talking to other visitors, only to find after everyone was gone, that someone had opened one of the little girls’ clothing drawers). I would never think of helping myself to food or drinks at the house, nor would I even ever turn on the TV. I usually bring my laptop and finish up work if I have downtime, or I bring a book. I just can’t imagine taking advantage of the people who live in the house. It would be such a violation of trust.

There are dishonest and unethical people in just about every business. Unfortunately, it sometimes seems like they really make themselves known in real estate. We hear about them all the time. If I have to point a finger as to why this seems to be such a problem, I would have to do it at brokers. You might think that being hired by a broker is a lengthy and difficult process like any other job interview. In fact, the truth is that most brokerages play the numbers game. More agents, more chances at profit. Many brokers are just looking for warm bodies. This makes it easy for people to slip through the cracks. This is not the norm for all brokerages, but from what I’ve seen, it is very common. I regularly receive mail and phone solicitations to join other brokerages, based (from what I can tell) on nothing but my name in the database at the Southeast Valley Regional Association of Realtors.

This is just another reason to really get to know your Realtor as well as possible before you give them the power to sell your home. You are the employer and it’s your job to conduct a thorough job interview. This is someone with whom you will have quite a bit of interaction before all is said and done. You want them to not only do their job well, but also to treat you and your possessions with respect.

I received a free cooking magazine in the mail the other day called Cuisine at home. I am always looking for new recipes to try, so I flipped through it a bit. I have to admit, it has some interesting articles about technique and several recipes I plan to try. I might even subscribe.

Anyway, I made one of the recipes in the issue for the family tonight for dinner and it was a big hit.

Southwestern Chicken Panini

Ingredients:

2 cups cilantro leaves
4 cloves garlic
1 jalapeno
1/2 lime, juiced
Pinch of salt
2 tablespoons olive oil
1/4 cup mayo
1 tablespoon minced canned chipotle chile in adobe
1/2 teaspoon sugar
Thickly sliced sourdough bread
Butter
Pepperjack cheese
Sauteed boneless skinless chicken breasts, sliced in half

Preparation:

Puree cilantro, garlic, jalapeno, salt, lime juice and olive oil in a food processor or blender until it becomes a pesto-like paste. Set aside. Combine mayo, sugar and minced chipotle and set aside. Butter one side of each slice of bread. Slather one of the other sides with the chipotle mayo and one of the other sides with the cilantro pesto. Top with chicken and slices of the pepperjack cheese. We used our George Foreman grill to make the cool panini lines, but a skillet works just as well.

PS – We made this meal kid-friendly by making a version with cheddar cheese and chicken, minus the pesto and mayo. It was like a grilled cheese with chicken and the kids gobbled it up.

OK, today I’ve got a few little tidbits of unrelated info for you:

1. Jason was stung by a scorpion in our house yesterday. Because it was the first time he’s actually been stung (we apparently live on some sort of scorpion world head quarters because we see them in our house all the time), he felt the need to photograph the bugger:

Mean little sucker, huh? But it did give us an opportunity to experience the wonderfulness of the Poison Control Hotline (1-800-222-1222). We called for some basic information about the sting and they told him to take pain relievers and ice it and that numbness and pain just about anywhere else on his body is pretty normal for a couple of days. They also said they get 10,000 calls about scorpion stings a year in Maricopa alone. And then they proceeded to call back every hour for four hours to check to make sure that Jason was doing OK. LOVE them. What a great resource.

2. I’m working on my bag #2 prototype:

Now I just need to make it look like a bag…

3. I’m sitting an open house tomorrow that I’m very excited about:

It’s a cute Tempe house that has been remodeled and has a great diving pool out back. The address is: 1939 E. Oxford Dr., Tempe and I will be holding it open tomorrow (Saturday, September 24) from 10 AM to 2 PM. Stop by!

Alright, so I’ve finished ‘the bag’, as it’s come to be called in our house. As in, “Honey, can you give the boys a bath so I can just finish this bit of top-stitching on ‘the bag’?” or “I hope ‘the bag’ is going to be finished soon and the dining room table cleared of the chaos that now exists on it, or I will have to kill you in your sleep.”

I feel like I now own sewing with a pattern as a skill. It was totally confusing at first, but I’ve learned a lot and I’m totally hooked. I saw a bag in a cart at the grocery store this morning and I’m already planning my own pirated version to give as Christmas gifts.

Anyway, though I am happy with how the bag turned out in general, it has some major flaws. Sure, laying on my floor all poised and posed, it looks fab:

Unfortunately, its fatal flaw appears when you actually try to carry anything in it. Then it gets all smushy and shapeless. I took it to the fabric store and they diagnosed the problem as a severe lack of interfacing. So in the version 2.0 I will be working on soon for my backtacking buddy, I will make sure to remedy this problem.

Sewing is fun!

My sister was not amused by her Internet outing as a Trekkie (or is it Trekker… there’s something there about the original versus the next generation, I’ll have to ask her what her preference is and get back to you) so I thought I’d put up something else amusing for you to look at:

I took this yesterday with our new awesome camera the Canon Digital Rebel EOS. LOVING the clarity of pictures it takes. (Helps that Gray’s so cute, too, doncha think?)

My sister says that if you’re ever in Vegas and find yourself looking for a place where the Vulcans and the Romulans peacefully coexist alongside enormous smoking drinks, Quark’s Bar and Restaurant is where it’s at:

Yep, that’s her in the middle (thanks for the picture, Chris!).

My parents have always been the type to leave a door open. They’re pretty trusting people but I think it’s probably as much about their own forgetful nature and a desire to get in just in case they can’t find their own keys. I honestly haven’t had a key to their house since I was a teenager, but I regularly ‘break-in’ through their usually open side door.

I don’t feel bad revealing all of this to the general Internet public, because as of last Friday, their open-door era has passed. Friday my parents were burgled.

It really wasn’t that bad, as far as robberies go. The got some of my mother’s jewelry (though not most of it, and not most of her favorite pieces), their digital camera and a bunch of my dad’s loose change that he’s been saving in a jar in the kitchen. Oh and they took my siblings and my baby teeth that my mother had been saving in her jewelry box (who saves someone else’s teeth for 20 years? EW, Mom). It could have been much worse. They apparently didn’t even see my parents’ Ipods and there wasn’t any paper cash in the house at all.

I stopped by to bring them dinner while they waited for the fingerprint technician and they showed me what the police thought was the path of the people who had been in their house. It was really unsettling to see all of the drawers and cupboards in the house slightly open and disturbed, like these people didn’t even have the decency to close the drawer after they rifled through it.

This little incident was a wake-up call for not only my parents, but for us as well. We generally keep our doors locked, but I know I could be more careful about it than I am. We have always thought that Dobson Ranch was such a calm, family-oriented area that we didn’t need to worry about someone breaking into our house. This was a foolish notion. If you have things in your home you want to keep, lock your doors. Make sure your windows don’t have faulty locks and if they do, put dowels in them. No one is immune to this kind of thing.

I’m sitting a cute little Gilbert home today and I’d love if you’d come out to see me!

2316 E. Pinto Dr
Gilbert, AZ

It’s listed at $255,000 (which is right where it should be, looking at current market values in the area) and has 1322 square feet and 3 bedrooms, 2 bathrooms.

I’d love to see you there!