by MICHAEL BODEEN | Feb 25, 2013 | Mike's "Real State" of the Market
Constant Change ~ Is the New Normal?
Well, unless you live in the basement of a rock for the past several months, you’ve heard a lot of news about our resurging real estate market in Metro Phoenix. But is it true?
Yes, it’s true! But as every ad states: For a limited time only!
The market will change. Up, then down. Down, then Up. The days of normal are behind us. Phoenix will never be just “normal.” There is no more normal. Our industry is, our housing market is, hurtling at a pace NEVER ever seen before, EVER! We may have statistics that point to certain periods in our past, but can they be accurately translated to this time, this era?
From Mike’s arrival in the Valley in 1994 until 2004, the Phoenix Metro real estate market was considered stable, VERY stable. Average annual and consistent appreciation was 3-4%.
If you purchased a home ten years ago in the Metro Phoenix area (and most anywhere in the U.S. for that matter) and then Rip Van Winkled away the past decade, you would have awoke to find the value of your home in Phoenix exactly what you paid for it back then, as in zero home appreciation.
So, the Rip Van Winkles of the past ten years may be the real winners. They stayed in their home and didn’t worry about home values. It wasn’t why they bought a home in the first place. They bought a home for their families to be raised in, or a home to retire in, or a home on the lake to enjoy. They also didn’t use their home as an ATM machine, like many of us did. Yes, having equity is a good thing, but as we all witnessed, it was but a vapor – and then it was gone.
If you know of anyone who can buy a home, now is the time to buy a home. This is not a slick and greasy sales approach, but this is based on the facts we have currently at hand which are:
• Extremely low home prices, (which are moving up again)
• Bottom basement level interest rates
• Still fairly generous tax advantages, but these will all change in time.
And constant change is now the “New Normal.”
![The Extra Mile – a Sonoran Foothills Auction Story]()
by MICHAEL BODEEN | Jun 5, 2012 | Mike's "Real State" of the Market
What are these Realtors doing at a Foreclosure Auction? would have been the question being asked by the regular Auction Hunters at the downtown courthouse last week if they had known we were there. Realtor’s and Auctions rarely collide for one simple reason – commissions (or lack thereof).
This day was no different than any other at the courthouse steps. It was not even June, yet, and the temperatures were already necessitating Arizona summer attire. The informality of this process was accentuated by bidders sporting baseball caps, tank tops and flip flops. Transactions – that for most would be among the largest of their lives – were being done at breakneck speed. Homes ranged in price from under $100K to nearly $1million. They all sold in mere minutes.
Auction at Sonoran Foothills in Phoenix
An hour into the auction, the address of our client’s future home was called. Our associate, Brad, served as the proxy bidder in this transaction. The opening bid was called out at $240,000. Within less than a minute, the price had been bid up to $320,000, which separated the men from the boys. Only one other bidder stood between our clients and their new house. Bidding slowed to increments of $500 at a time, as the price slowly inched up to $325,000. We knew that the price could not go much higher, but it continued to rise. Bids increased by $100 now. Like watching water boil, the price crawled up to $330,000…and continued to climb. The only two remaining bidders whispered frantically into their Bluetooth headsets, urging their clients to increase their bids. Three minutes seemed like 3 hours, but we finally were able to breathe a sigh of relief as the auctioneer shouted “going once, going twice, sold!”.
Our client had emerged victoriously! Although they paid more than they hoped to, they still got a great deal…and their dream home in the Sonoran Foothills.
For a minute, let me put my Realtor cap back on. For most home buyers, the auctions are not a good way to go. First of all, you have to pay cash – which eliminates most of us from this conversation. Second, you are not allowed to see inside the home prior to purchasing it. Third, the sale is “as is, where is”. If you find a foundation crack or some other major defect after the sale, it’s your problem now. For these reasons, I do not advise most clients to go this route.
However, I tell this story because it is one of many examples of how the Bodeen Wilford Group of HomeSmart International strives to go the extra mile for our clients…even if it sometimes means taking a hit in our commissions. We treat our clients like gold because we understand that if we do right by our clients, then they will spread the word about us.
