Elizabeth Newlin – Arizona Real Estate Agent

Here’s the latest from Amanda:

If you’re like me, you’ve got visitors in town this weekend. What to do after the feasting is over?! Never fear, I’ve got your weekend planned…

*Mesa’s Turkey Trot – Earn your turkey dinner! Red Mt. Park, Thur morning

*Thanksgiving Day Parade – Fountain Hills, Thursday

*Zoolights! – Yep, it’s that time already. This is a must for a Valley Christmas.

*Las Noches de las Luminarias – Desert Botanical Garden, promises to be gorgeous.

*APS Festival of Lights – Saturday, 5-9pm, Mill Avenue

*AZ International Auto Show. Went to this one last year and it was AWESOME. Over 500 vehicles.

*Fall Foliage Finale – Boyce Thompson Arboretum. Sat and Sun, 11-3. Bring a picnic and apple cider, live music and activities in the pistachio grove. Free with admision.

*Tempe Thanksgiving Block Party – Bring a can of food for the food bank, and you’ll get music, rides, food and special guests. Tempe Sports Complex

*Celtic Thunder – Friday, Dodge Theatre

*The Nutcracker – Ballet Etudes, Chandler Center for the Arts, into December

*Farmhouse Village Boutique & Craft Fair – Farmhouse Village, Gilbert. Saturdays through Dec 20

*Movies at the Park – Double Holiday Feature! The Grinch and It’s a Wonderful Life. FREE with canned food donation. Downtown Chandler. Saturday 5-9pm

*Native American Ornament Sale – Heard Museum. Friday & Saturday.

Best Place to Take Out-of-Town Guests:
Arizona-Sonora Desert Museum. This is one of my favorite things to do in all of AZ.

Restaurant of the Week:
Beyond Bread
If you go to Tucson for the above-mentioned museum, and you forget to pack a turkey sandwich, why not stop at this awesome sandwich place in town on your way back up to Phx. It’s a must on the rare occasion I venture down that direction.

Website of the Week:
Stop those pesky Yellow Pages from clogging up your cabinets, and help the planet!

Interest rates and gas prices seem to be currently going hand in hand. Just when you think, ‘Wow, look how great these prices are, they can’t possibly get better,’ they do.

Gas is dipping below $1.90 in some areas and conventional 30 year fixed interest rates with some banks are at 5.5%.

Both of these facts make me seriously happy, in general. My minivan (or ‘The GOV’ as we call it, for Giant Orange Van) takes 19 gallons of gas, and I fill up a couple times of week. So at the peak of gas prices this summer I was paying like $78 for a tank of gas. Now I’m down to about $37 a tank, or a savings of $82 a week!

The dipping of interest rates is also awesome. Based on a $200,000 loan, the monthly payment with a 6.5% interest rate is $129 a month more than a loan with a 5.5% interest rate. That means my clients can afford more, or are just way happier with the payment they will be making.

So here’s the negative in my life. You know we are building a new house:

to be done at the end of the year. We had a 60 day interest rate lock at 6.25% because interest rates had jumped up to 6.85% (my loan officer locked me just before the repricing came out). When rates got down to 6% last Friday and I had heard talk of repricing for the worst, I made a call to my lender and decided to do a one-time float down to 6% and just be done with the whole thing. I also resolved to quit looking up rates on a daily basis and just be happy with 6% (a really, in general, awesome rate). But then rates came out today SUPER low and I got like 10 emails and several tweets shouting at me that interest rates are now lower than I actually locked at. Boo.

However *deep, mature breaths*, the point is that 6% is an awesome interest rate all in itself. My parents tell stories of 12-15% interest rates in the 1980s. Historically speaking, we are still in awesome shape interest-rate wise. (This is what I will continue to tell myself, regardless of if the interest rate are down at 4.25%.)

Last weekend I took a break from the hustle and bustle of real estate and hiked it up North to Camp Verde with a collection of women friends (and their mother and sisters, etc) to celebrate the 40th birthday of one in particular.

We really miss out on the changing of the seasons and the fall colors down here in the valley, but up there they were in full bloom.

We started at Montezuma’s Castle:

And finished up at Tlaquepaque (or as one of the ladies’ husbands apparently calls it, Talockurpockets):

The house we rented for the weekend was pretty awesome also. It was 3700 square feet, four bedrooms plus a pool house, a huge pool with awesome water slide and grotto, and tennis courts all on 2.8 acres of land. It needed some general updating in places, and I did NOT love the stuffed mountain lion, ram and deer heads in the entryway, but otherwise, it was really a fabulous property. It was actually on the market for sale up there for $597,000, which I kind of think is a pretty good deal. It would make an excellent summer home, I think, if you lived in Phoenix and had the extra cash.

All in all, it was a fabulous weekend. I even managed to get some Christmas shopping done at the outlet malls. Girls, we must do it again!

I was gone for the weekend on quick trip up to Northern Arizona (more on that later in the week) and when I got home this afternoon, I discovered that Jonas had learned a new trick while I was away. I like to call it “The Most Annoying Trick Ever”. It goes a little like this:

Hi, I’m just sitting here in my high-tech high chair with the awesome detachable trays that allow you to feed me and stick them in the dishwasher. I’m not doing anything fishy. Don’t mind my hand here, it’s not important. Just normal business here, no worries.

Didja see how I did that? With the food flying everywhere? It was awesome, right? You loved it, huh? I know, I totally just figured out how to do that by myself.

That’s fine, you can totally put it back. I swear I won’t do it again. It was a one-time thing. We’ll settle down now. Feel free to put more food on my tray, I’m going to eat it now. It’s ok, you can trust me.

BWAHAHAHA! I can’t believe you fell for that!!! That was hilarious. Seriously, you should have seen the look on your face, it was priceless. When that pea hit you in the forehead? I will never get tired of that one. Hee. Lean forward, you have a little hotdog in your hair.

Mommy? Um, I love you… please put down the matches and my blankie. We can work through this.

Yeah, I’m not promising his blankie made it through this one.

I’m adding a new feature to this site (one of many new things to come), and I haven’t had a chance to get all of the details properly worked out for a formal unveiling; but rather than put it off indefinitely until I manage to squeeze 26 or 27 hours out of every day and am able to get it together the way I want, I’ve decided to start this out with a little test version, or ‘beta’, if you will.

I’m going to have a couple of guest bloggers on my site once or twice a week. The first one will be Amanda, who is one of my very best girlfriends and who always has her finger on the pulse of the East Valley community, with a column we’re calling (right this very second, until I can think of something more creative) Things To Do:

My favorite pick of the week: letting your pup run around on Chase Field! Read on…

Hike of the Week: West Fork of Oak Creek One of my favorite AZ hikes, and it’s perfect this time of year. Easy 3 miles.
Thanks, Panda!

I am currently working with three different clients who have radically different viewpoints on house repairs.

Client #1:

A first time buyer who is stressed about anything that appears to be broken in a house. Drywall cracks are especially disconcerting to the couple (and unfortunately, common in Gilbert, the primary location we have been looking in) but we’ve discussed several other issues that have made them uncomfortable with the idea of purchasing one property or another.

Client #2:

A buyer with much in the way of DIY skills, who wants to purchase a property with lots of potential in the ’sweat equity’ arena. We’ve looked at houses with partially finished additions, houses with doors that lead out to nothing but a 15 foot drop and houses with termite infestations. None of these issues have deterred him, just the complications involved in obtaining a mortgage on these houses.

Client #3:

A seller with a house that has great bones, but that cannot catch a break concerning the escrow in which we’re currently embroiled. This poor house has encountered in the last three months: pool equipment theft, inadvertent locking of a security door causing the house to be inaccessible, a slow leak into the kitchen cabinets causing water saturation and mold, pool pump leaks, a brand new garage door opener not opening, a bizarre leak/paint bubble in an exterior wall in the master bath and various other small issues/necessary repairs.

All of these home buyers/sellers have different motivations for their strong feelings about what needs to be repaired in the houses they’re dealing with. Client #1 does not have a lot of capitol to put into a house after purchase, so they need it to be pretty move-in ready. Client #2 wants something that he can put his own stamp on. He loves things that are not as attractive to other buyers, but that maybe he can polish from a stone into a diamond. Client #3 knows that his house isn’t a lemon, but is frustrated with the bad luck he’s had regarding repairs.

My personal view about home repairs is that anything can be fixed. Termites can be treated, mold can be re-mediated, leaks can be repaired, pools can be degreened and refinished. It’s all a matter of how much it will cost, and who is going to pay for it. And this is why you need a decent real estate agent, because those are the big questions in real estate. How much is it going to cost to make my house into my home… And who will pay to do it? Your agent needs to be there for you to get that answer and make sure that it is the one the will work for you.

I’m going to let you in on a secret, just between the two of us, and only because you’re a faithful elizabethnewlin.com reader.

Come a little closer… just lean in a bit and keep your voice down. That’s right, you’re cool. Nothing exciting here to see, People, keep moving.

Ok… I’m going to give you the recipe for Party Potatoes. SHHHHHHH! I said keep it down!! Act a little more nonchalant! Good lord, you want the whole world to know?

Party Potatoes is an age-old Disbrow Family recipe. Mom/Grandma Jackie only makes them on holidays and special occasions and gave me the recipe when I got married, with the expressed instructions that I was NOT ALLOWED to bring the dish to any occasion at her house.

They may not look like much, but I regularly bring Party Potatoes to Tolar/Newlin family events, alongside various other ‘gourmet’, billion-ingredient dishes, and the one that is gone first is always: Party Potatoes.

So I’m sharing this recipe with you, because Mom/Grandma Jackie Disbrow does not read blogs. However, you are officially sworn to NEVER BRING THIS DISH TO A DISBROW FAMILY OCCASION. Do you hear me Internet? Because I am not joking. Use this recipe for your own personal taste bud joy, but do NOT upstage the Jackie. Because I will cut you. Don’t cross me.

It’s very simple, People:

1/2 white onion – chopped
1 can condensed cream of celery soup (undiluted)
4 oz cream cheese
3/4 package frozen potatoes O’Brien
1 cup shredded cheddar cheese

Mix the first three ingredients and microwave them for 3ish minutes (until the onions are clear). Stir with frozen potatoes and bake at 350 degrees for approximately 30 minutes. Cover with cheddar and bake until cheese is melted.

Yep, it’s that easy. Take it to Thanksgiving Dinner and let the praise roll in.

Our new house is currently under construction and due to be completed and close December 23, 2008. Which, I know, is an insane date to attempt any kind of move. But I’ve decided that I’m kind of into it. I really do not love the whole ‘decorating for Christmas’ thing and I actually think it will be pretty special to spend our first night in the new house on Christmas Eve.

Anyway, we are building in a new planned community out in North East Mesa called Mountain Bridge. It’s a Blandford Homes community and I couldn’t be more excited. Check out the view from our balcony off of the master bedroom:

Yeah, that’s right; a green belt AND MOUNTAINS. I’m genuinely sick-to-my-stomach-ecstatic over the idea of mountain views from my own balcony. WITH ENOUGH BEDROOMS FOR ALL OF MY KIDS TO HAVE ONE OF THEIR OWN (yep, that’s how excited I am, I’m shouting at the Internet). Whee!

But enough of my own glee. My point is that building a new home is kind of an awesome option. I have several clients who have either gone this route, or at least considered it recently. I’ve shown 3,600 square foot houses for $299K out at Signal Butte and Elliot. I’ve sold 1,800 square foot houses in Maricopa for $114K (last month!). I currently have a client under contract to build at McQueen and Ray on an over-sized lot, 2,200 square feet, for $250K. There are fabulous deals to be had. There are great builders still in business.

Don’t however, make the mistake of going this route alone. The deals may be amazing, but the pitfalls are deep. Builders continue to declare bankruptcy without warning. Brown Family Communities, a local builder who was in good standing with all of their creditors, abruptly filed for bankruptcy, October 24 of this year, leaving buyers under contract high and dry. Keep yourself covered. There are things you can do to protect your earnest money. Hire an agent to show you the way and watch your back. And keep a close eye on this page.

How happy are all the Zonies to be living in the land of the sun right now? In our family, we couldn’t be more thrilled that it’s finally perfect park weather. Today we loaded up the wagon (Gray calls it the ‘Santa Wagon’ because Santa gave it to them last year for Christmas) and walked over to the park near our house.

And that is why we live in Arizona. Mid-November trips to the park where you can accidentally get caught in the sprinklers and not freeze to death.

Edited to add: This is also one of the reasons why I am a REALTOR. I need to remember days like this (Thursdays when all the other corporate drones are sitting at desks in cubes and I am at the park running around with my monkeys enjoying the gorgeous weather and winter green grass) when I am beating my head against the wall trying to meet under-writing’s final funding conditions that seem like they will never end while simultaneously calming my buyer who is ready to draw lender blood. These days make my chaotic lifestyle worth it.

I’m currently trying to schedule enough continuing education classes in, around and between the activities to which I’m already over-committed, to manage to keep my license in good standing when it comes up for expiration at the end of February. Today I wedged three credit hours of Disclosure into the morning and then three ‘General’ credit hours dedicated to ‘Blogging for Realtors’ into the afternoon. The class was taught by Rob Gibbs and although I didn’t have extremely high expectations for the class (the Disclosure teacher was a little ‘new’ and ‘nervous’, so to speak), I walked away motivated, inspired and enriched.

This blog is good for me and my business for several reasons. I need to recommit myself to making it work. I know that it is going to require some time and dedication, but in the long run, it will be worth it. Part of my problem in keeping with it in the past, is routed in my perfectionist, do it the BEST or don’t do it at all attitude, which tends to veer into the ‘don’t do it at all’ lane on a regular basis (IE: most of the time, my house is kind of a pig sty, except the random night when I’m vacuuming lampshades and taking a toothbrush to baseboards and not sleeping until 3AM).

The point that I’m attempting to embrace is that it’s better to post SOMETHING of small to medium value on a regular basis than the equivalent of “War and Peace” once every six months. And thus, a plan is born. Here are my goals: Five posts a week; two of general real estate content, one kid/my life related, one recipe and one about a local event/restaurant/activity. However, I do not guarantee length, or even Earth-shattering-ness (or, for that matter, even all actual words).

That said, feel free to categorize this post as General Real Estate Content. And here you go, on to the real estate related portion of the post. During my Disclosure class this morning, the teacher (also a home inspector) gave us a list of useful websites to help buyers obtain information about the house they are buying:

Arizona Repair Masons & Arizona Ram Jack
Arizona Registrar of Contractors
The Arizona Geological Survey
Environmental Data Resource
Better Plumbing

So there you go. I’m going to do my best. Hope to see you often!