Elizabeth Newlin – Arizona Real Estate Agent

I’ve been a bad bad blogger. I’ve let my site go untouched for way too long. I heartily apologize. Life has been crazy (as usual). I promise not to let it happen again. OK… I guess I can’t promise life won’t be crazy, but I promise not to let it affect my site again.

To hold you over until I have more fascinating real estate content, here are some super cute Halloween photos. (Tell me Ben’s not the spitting image of the wizard himself.)

I know that most of you have probably heard of a home inspection. Almost everyone, from the For Sale By Owner’s who don’t use an agent on either side, to those who don’t cough without a contract perpetuated by their agent, hire someone to do a general inspection of the property they are purchasing. Unfortunately, I think that most buyers do not receive a clear explanation of the ‘inspection period’ and the rights it affords them from their agent.

In the current Arizona Association of Realtors approved purchase contract, the standard period of inspection is 10 days. This, of course, can be altered before an offer is made to reflect the needs of a particular buyer (shortening the inspection period to 7 days or lengthening it to 15, for instance). During those 10 (or 7 or 15) days the buyer has the right to perform any inspections in, around or about the house. During the inspection period, the buyer also has the right to cancel the contract (and have earnest money returned) for anything discovered in the inspections.

Something else I don’t think is always clearly explained to buyers is that the ‘home inspector’ is not all knowing. Their title is a little bit misleading. You might think if they’re called the ‘home inspector’ he or she surely must be able to inspect just about anything about the house with reasonable authority. This is not true. In general, a home inspector will do a broad overview of the house and carefully inspect some particular aspects like the A/C unit. The home inspector should check things like the roof, the electrical outlets and the general physical appearance of the house. It is their job to point out things that you would have found in the first few weeks of actually living in the house anyway, but wouldn’t even think to check out when you are looking to buy. I attended a home inspection earlier this week in which the inspector determined that the garage door sensor that won’t let the garage door shut if there is something in the way wasn’t working. It is a good example of a home inspector’s find. It’s not brain surgery and they can’t predict the future to tell you when the A/C unit will die, but they can give you a good idea of what is and what is not currently working in the home.

There are, however, several things about a home that the home inspector will not check at all that you may want to think about having looked at by an expert in that field. Examples of these would be the pool and spa, the alarm system and the sprinkler system. These are complex systems that a home inspector would not be trained or qualified to check to see if they are working correctly or at optimum efficiency. Just always remember if you have any worry or curiosity about something in or around the house isn’t working, you are completely within your rights during the inspection period to hire someone to come out and check it out.

I’m currently experiencing a magical moment. Both of my boys are napping (a rare event for Ben, my five year old), the cats are relaxing on our partially unpacked suitcases from the weekend adventures and I’m sitting on the couch knitting (my latest conquest) and catching up on my TIVO. It’s a nirvana of chilling (sorry, should that have been ‘chillin’?).

Life is great here in the Newlin house. The Mexico trip was awesome this weekend. The weather was gorgeous (and I am not easy to please, weather-wise). This was the view from our condo’s back patio:

The water was the perfect temperature for swimming. We saw a gorgeous and playful school of dolphins right outside our door. My husband got a chance to show off his knowledge of marine-life (one of his many hobbies) when the tide went out in the evening and we took flashlights out to the tide pools created by the exposed rocks right on our beach.

Possibly one of the most exciting moments of the weekend was when someone discovered an octopus hiding in a crevice. If you can imagine eight late-20-somethings in the dark on a beach in Mexico crowded around a rocky puddle debating the best (and most humane) way to coax an octopus out of his hiding spot (“Poke him!”, “No, that’s totally mean!”, “Aw, he just ate that sea star!”, “No, wait, the sea star’s still there!”), then you can picture the scene.

Anyway, we returned yesterday to our happy (and spoiled by the grandparents) boys and two houses still holding strong in escrow. Both homes are currently in the inspection period, though everything seems to be moving smoothly. Clean termite reports always make me cheerful.

In less happy news, interest rates seem to be steadily climbing. My clients have locked in, but it was at about a quarter point higher than what they were quoted the week before. So if you’re thinking about buying, do it now, while it’s still attractive!

Well, if you can believe it, I am off for 48 hours of total freedom. Jason and I are leaving this morning to head out to Mexico with his twin sister and her husband (who have been in the Peace Corps in Africa for the last several years, so we haven’t gotten to spend much time with them) and, bizarrely enough, my client (who is also one of my best friends) that we just finished buying a house for and selling hers. See that is the sweet center to this weekend. Not only is it a weekend on the beach (which I LOVE), not only are my parents taking care of the boys so we can sleep in two days straight, but I actually have TWO deals in escrow (which does wonders for my self-esteem) that need nothing until Monday. So we can relax without computers and cell phones and fax machines and kiddos (who I love more than anything in life, but it is still nice to have a couple of days sans the responsibility) for two entire days. I am bringing my scarf that I’m knitting, two cooking magazines I haven’t had time to read, my new fancy camera and two new swimsuits I just got on clearance. HEAVEN, I tell you.

As far as the house deals go, I couldn’t be happier about the way things have gone. They found a house they love for a great price and we sold their house in record time AND accepted a backup offer just to secure our position. I’m not anticipating appraisal problems (my arch nemesis) on either side and am crossing my fingers that all of the inspections (which will be taking place today and Monday) will not turn up anything horrendous. Both escrow periods were longer than 30 days and everyone had good to excellent credit, so everything seems secure (ooo, those were sounds suspiciously like famous last words…). For now I’m going to sit comfortably knowing that I’ve done my homework on every possible end and there’s nothing I can do at the moment to make anything run more smoothly. Life is good.

Hope you all have great weekends too!

I’m getting ready to wrap up this whole backtacking journey I’ve begun. I’ve finished my project and will mail it off today. I am honestly very glad I got involved. I feel like crafting has taken over a chunk of my life lately, but it fills a necessary slot for me. I’ve always felt more complete when I have a creative outlet and this certainly fits the bill. I also feel a great sense of accomplishment because I tackled a difficult pattern and didn’t let it get the best of me. I have come a long way from a month and a half ago when I wasn’t sure which line to cut out on when I cut out the pattern. I now know how to baste, top-stitch and make gusseted pockets (and more importantly, I know what gusseted pockets are). I’ve figured out how to make my own pattern and I can sew a basic zipper. My point is, I want my partner to know that this swap has been more to me than just an exchange of created goods. It’s been an introduction to an activity I will enjoy for a long time, I think.

I’ll post complete pics when she receives it all, but here’s a sneak peek:

Thanks again to the crafty gals who set this up!

Well, I warned you. I said if you wanted to see my latest listing you needed to call me quickly, right? If you were thinking it might be something you were interested in, but put off calling, you’ve missed out. Yep, literally 18 hours after the house went into the MLS we had a very nice full-priced offer in our hands.

However, we are still accepting backup offers. In case you haven’t heard, the statistic on homes falling out of escrow for one reason or another this summer was 30%. So those are pretty decent odds if you really wanted a house that was already sold. This is not to say that I’m not hoping I’ve done my homework and this deal is going to stick, but then again, sometimes things happen you have no control over.

Anyway, I’m very excited this house has already sold. I have a trip to Mexico planned for this weekend with the owner and it will make the partying and relaxing even more sweet now that we’ve got this handled.

The negative to all of this is that we still don’t know for sure that the offer we put on a new house for my clients has been accepted. Hopefully that will be cleared up today and it will be smooth sailing in Mexico this weekend.

UPDATE: The offer was accepted! Isn’t it nice when it all works out so perfectly (yes, yes, I’m currently knocking on wood).

I have an adorable new listing! Check this beauty out:

This little cutie is in North East Mesa. It has 1,363 square feet and 3 bedrooms/2 bathrooms. The roof, flooring, kitchen stove, kitchen sink and pool filter have all been recently replaced. There is new paint inside and out. It’s an incredibly well-cared for home. Can you believe all of this for $225,000?

Contact me ASAP if you would like to see it!

OK, I’ve been terrible about posting this week. I’ve honestly just had a lot going on between my friends who decided they’re ready to start seriously looking for a new house, and my in-laws visiting to do a Grand Canyon hike with my parents. But I promise to be better in the next week.

Anyway, I have exciting (OK, really only exciting for me, sorry) news: I got my backtack package!!! Cynthia at Big Girl Feet in Canada was my anonymous partner and she spoiled me totally rotten. Not only is she ridiculously punctual (yep, I’m not even planning to send mine out till next Thursday!), but she’s utterly talented as well. Look at this great stuff:

I love her attention to detail. Everything is gorgeous and matching and perfect. And as you can see, the kit was for a scarf and I’ve already started it. I’m so excited about it and loving the knitting so far!

Thanks again Cynthia!

Yesterday afternoon I took two clients (who also happen to be very good friends) out looking at houses. It ended up being probably my most frustrating home showing experience yet (and that includes the time I drove from Maricopa to Queen Creek showing houses and they didn’t ever end up buying anything).

I had nine houses on my list of possible ones we could go see. Out of those nine, two had purposely (I assume) false information listed. One had the lot size listed as 7,500 to 10,000 square feet, but when I looked it up in the tax records, the actual lot size was 7,099. This was a big deal seeing as how my clients, more than almost anything else want a large yard. The other one had the home square footage listed as 1,627 but when I looked it up in the tax records, it actually said 1,420. In the description it mentioned an ‘Arizona room’ with an added AC unit. So there was a walled in porch that they were allowing as livable space. My big problem with this one was that the square footage was listed as confirmed by the tax assessor, but since the tax records don’t match, it obviously was not.

Two others were not actually accessible. Even though they were listed as ‘Active’ in the MLS with ‘Vacant-Lockbox’ as the showing instructions, one did not have a lockbox at all and the other had a lockbox, that when I opened it, was empty.

Most of the others had major misspellings (Wildrose was listed as Windrose, Plata as Plana) or errors in the directions to get to the houses.

All of this was unbelievably irritating to me for three reasons:

1. I felt like I had wasted quite a bit of my clients’ time visiting houses that were obviously not what they wanted, or not being able to enter houses they very much did want to see.

2. I wasted several hours of my time doing the same.

3. As a Realtor in my first year, I am still building my business. I spend quite a bit of time attempting to convince people to entrust me with the sale of their homes. Seeing all these agents who can’t even be bothered to spell the names of streets correctly, or even to put a key in a lockbox of a house they are trying to sell makes me crazy. I know that if I was the listing agent on any of these houses, I would not only have all of these details meticulously cared for, but if something out of my control did go wrong, I would answer my cell when the other agent called to find out what the problem was (I have left messages with both the agents of the houses we couldn’t enter and still haven’t heard back).

URG.

In other, unrelated news (I like to end on a positive note), Ben told me yesterday that violet is purple in Russian. That just goes to show that he doesn’t know EVERYTHING, even though we sometimes think he does. Violet is obviously purple in French, everyone knows that.

I’m getting close to being ready to send off my backtacking project. I ended up creating another bag that I saw in a knitting store and decided would be pretty easy to make. My gal is a big knitter, and said she likes neutral, earthy colors, so I’m hoping this will be of use to her.

(You like my little monkey in there who couldn’t bear to have pictures being taken that he wasn’t in?)

So here’s what I really like about the bag:

1. I created it, pattern and everything (right, right, I stole the idea, but still, I figured out how to do it all by myself!).

2. I love the retro liner fabric and the pretty brown corduroy.

3. This is the second one of this type of bag I’ve made and I made a few little adjustments that I think really helped (interfacing, shortened it a bit and reinforced the straps).

Here’s what really bums me out about it because I’m a giant perfectionist and self-doubter:

1. When I pinned the corduroy ends to cut it out the pattern circle I made got a bit bunched, so the outside is actually smaller than the inside and it feels like there’s all this extra fabric on the inside.

2. I completely made the whole zipper thing up as I went and it is so unprofessional you cannot even imagine. It works, but I have this feeling anyone who’s ever done a zipper ‘the right way’ will take one look at it and feel horrified at my incompetence.

3. I did the whole thing inside out with a gap in the liner so I could flip it through and then I hand-sewed the gap. I HATE THE HAND-SEWING. It totally shows. How do you make it not look different?

Anyway, I think I would like this bag, but I’m definitely feeling the pressure when I look at all the other backtacker’s sites. Everything looks so perfect and stunning. I am so imperfect!

So my solution is: if I cannot give her the quality I would like, I will go with quantity. I’m also remaking the original bag I made first with the gusseted pockets and flap top. I’m going to send her two slightly flawed bags, hopefully that will make up for it.