The Phoenix Real Estate Advisor

We’ve heard a lot fromm people that “Investors” is what started this housing crisis. Most of us that work with short sales and foreclosure know this to not be true. We’ve understood that the vast majority are people like me and you that simply can not afford their home. Here’s an article from AZ Central that speaks to this subject: 

A group that works with people who “walk away” from homes instead of fighting to keep them out of foreclosure has released its first data. Almost 30 percent of the homeowners who contacted it from Arizona have other mailing addresses or own other homes, according to Carlsbad, Calif. You Walk Away. . That signals they are most likely investors. The figures, which have been compiled since the beginning of the year, show almost 50 percent of the people who are “walking away” in Florida are investors.  The top state for residents who contacted the firm is California. Then it was Florida, Nevada and Arizona at no.4. Those four states have much in common - the biggest speculator-driven home price run ups in 2004-05, and the fastest rising foreclosure rates now.

The firm tracking the trend says the figures show the majority of people considering walking away are primary homeowners, so the trend isn’t being fueled by speculators. However, the data is only from the beginning of the year. Some housing analysts believe speculators were the first to ”walk away” in Arizona when foreclosures started to really climb last summer. http://www.azcentral.com/members/Blog/CatherineReagor/26985

This means that 66% of the homes are owned by people that need help because they’ve gotten in over their head either by risky loans or loss of employement. This is why I’ve formed the group www.PhoenixHomeRescue.org, call us if you have questions 623.271.4234.

OK, what’s going on with the market? Over the last few weeks I’ve noticed an increase in the number of homes selling here in Phoenix, Arizona. Does this signal the Phoenix market is changing or just a spring sale blitz?

I think the market is on it’s way to making a come back. When homes in Surprise and Maricopa sell in a few weeks (sometimes days) this means either the buyers are finally coming back or the home prices are finally catching up with the market.

I’ve had buyers in the Surprise area looking for a single story home, 4 bedrooms, 3 baths and under $260,000. A couple of months ago this would have been easy but now the homes are receiving 2 and 3 offers over a weekend. Most of these homes are forclosures so the bank will look at all offers over a few days and make a decision which one to accept.

I’ve been on both sides of the decision so I’m telling my buyers it’s time to get real with their home purchase. As a buyers agent, I want to make sure my buyers get in while the prices are low so they can see the greatest equity gains over the next couple of years.

Right now buyers need to start thinking, is this the bottom? Should I be out looking for a home right now? And most important, if I wait until the print media starts talking about this will I be too late?

I attended another interesting seminar today. It was a seminar on how to better handle Short Sales and keep people out of foreclosure.  While most agents think it’s “too hard” the reality is we are really the first line of defense for most people. With the help of agents that care about their situation they can spare their credit score a big hit (sometimes as much as 200-280 points). This combined with allowing people to stay out of foreclosure or bankruptcy makes it worth it.

Now I must say a lot of agents have no idea how to handle a short sale. Agents that bring buyers think it can close quickly…agents listing homes have no idea how much the banks will typically accept and the worst part can be the buyers agents calling every day or two asking “Have you heard anything yet?” that drive most agents crazy. The other side of the coin would be the agent that says they can help a client and then mess up the whole thing. The answer is better education and it would help if more agents persued this.

OK, so what are Phoenix, AZ agents to do? Should agents throw up their hands and say “I won’t show short sale homes” or “I’m not interested in listing short sale homes”? Well I guess the easy answer is YES and maybe with the amount of part-time agents in Phoenix they should do just that.

I’ve taken another path…I’ve educated myself, I’ve made sure I have the details and guidelines to ensure a smooth transaction. Armed with lists of bank’s loss mitigation contacts and a working undestanding of Short Sales I feel very confident helping people work through these tough times.