The Phoenix Real Estate Advisor

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.