Tucson Real Estate – If you are a 720 & 20, We’ve Got a Property for You!

 

As housing affordability is still one of the real estate market’s strongest plus factors, there is increasing activity in the Tucson, Arizona area that begs for attention. According to April Residential Sales Statistics:

• Total Sales Volume increased 11.90% from April 2011
• The Median Sales Price increased in April to $134,000, a 1.52% increase over April 2011
• Average List Price is up 5.62% over March 2012
• Average Days on Market decreased from 77 in March 2012 to 74 in April 2012

Houses are selling and they are selling rather quickly, and prices are continuing to rise. Our residential real estate guru, Frank Estrella from Mountain Vista Real Estate, showed us four condos all under $200,000, and all part of a golf course community. These homes are perfect for full-time living, or as an investment and treated as vacation rentals (which we can help you with, too!).

Now the only thing we are looking for are 720 & 20 buyers. These “magic numbers” represent the credit score acceptable to most lenders (the 720) and the 20 refers to the 20% of sales price down payment that lenders do look for and that keep the buyer out of the gloom of PMI (private mortgage insurance).

As Mr. Estrella continues to say,

There has never been a better time to buy a home or investment property in the Tucson area. Prices are going up and inventory is going down, so buy now before housing affordability is a thing of the past!

You can reach Frank Estrella on his cell phone at 520-240-5050 or by email frank@weknowtucson.com . He will help you find the right property for you!

Tucson Arizona – the Greenest Desert in the World

Does it sound like an oxymoron that a desert is green? When you think of deserts, do you imagine the Sahara where there are simply miles and miles of sandy dunes? Well, Tucson Arizona is a desert but it’s a blooming desert and it has often been called the Greenest Desert in the World! Of course part of that title is the fact that we are very eco-conscious, but it’s also because we have some of the most beautiful cacti in the world (and some really weird plants to boot!).

Tucson is actually in the Sonoran Desert, and bordered by the Catalina Mountains. Many of the golf courses, luxury hotels, and residential communities in the area are blessed with panoramic vistas that include both the desert and the mountains. It really is a spectacular experience to wade in your backyard pool and be able to view the mountains at dusk or see the sunrise over the desert. Not many places in the US or the world can lay claim to such stunning scenery from virtually any vantage point.

If you’ve never visited Tucson, then now is the time to book a trip. We have great suggestions for lodging, food, events, and activities. If you want to play golf, we have you covered! We can work with you to plan the ideal golf vacation that will include both lodging and three rounds of golf at three different courses. Or, we can book you into a luxury resort and you can enjoy three rounds of golf without leaving the hotel’s grounds. It’s totally up to you, and once we know what you want and desire, we will make it a reality. We know Tucson golf because we live and play here all year round!

If you’re looking for a second home or maybe to relocate, or plan for your retirement, we can help you with that, too. Our in-house real estate experts at Mountain Vista Real Estate will not only find you the home or investment property of your dreams but we will also manage its rental and maintenance for you so that you can realize income without the headaches. We know Tucson real estate, and we are eager to share our knowledge with you!

What are you waiting for? It’s time to visit Tucson and to see the blooming desert. Give us a call 520-877-7924 because we are eager to see you!

Market Update from Mountain Vista Real Estate – Vistoso Condos and the Tangerine Corridor

We are lucky to have some insider information this week from our residential real estate expert in Tucson! Real estate broker Frank Estrella from Mountain Vista Real Estate shared with us his thoughts about the increased real estate activity in the Tangerine Corridor. The real estate market is heating up and this is the perfect time to buy a second home or invest in a vacation rental! Here’s what he had to say about the condo market in one of our favorite neighborhoods in the Tucson area – Vistoso:

 I’m going to jump right into it … how fast things change! The sales market is on fire and the rental market as well!! I firmly believe we have turned the corner and we are finally heading in the right direction. I know, I know, don’t get carried away and I agree that the prices are not rising yet, but there is a plethora of activity out there and I don’t believe it will stop anytime soon.

 The buyers have always been here, they have just been waiting for the market to stop dropping, which it did the fourth quarter of 2011. Now the buyers are getting off the sidelines and doing what they do best, buying! This new found “buyer activity” combined with “smart sellers” pricing their properties correctly could really help build momentum for the rest of 2012 and moving forward.

 I do believe the Tucson market is getting healthy! If you are interested in selling, buying another property or just have some questions, please call today because our team is ready to help you! As you know, Mountain Vista Real Estate & Tucson Golf Vacations specialize in all three sections of the Vistoso Condos and the entire “Tangerine Corridor”!!!

In an effort to keep you updated on the condo market, below are all the listings and sales in all three sections since April 2011 (bold indicates Mountain Vista Real Estate activity).

Active Listings – For Sale
 655 #259  $135,000     655 #129  $155,000     655 #133  $157,900
655 #140  $168,000     655 #233  $171,500     755 #226  $199,000
655 #105  $165,000     655 #136  $167,900

Active Contingent Listings – Under Contract
655 #244  $189,500

Closed Listings – Sold
 655 #151  $124,900     755 #101  $201,500     655 #210  $148,000
655 #152  $155,000     655 #227  $165,000     755 #110  $172,000
655 #228  $175,000     655 #235  $195,000     655 #231  $177,000
655 #254  $170,000     755 #117  $190,000     755 #109  $185,000
755 #113  $185,000

As always please email frank@weknowtucson.com or call us 520-240-5050 with any suggestions because our entire sales team & office staff looks forward to helping you any way we can!

Arizona Real Estate is Hot, Hot, Hot but Inventory is Low, Low, Low

More good news about real estate hit the Web this week from our friends at Realtor.com. They posted their list of the Top 10 Real Estate Metros with the greatest DROP in for-sale inventory. Need we tell you that the Phoenix-Mesa, Arizona metro area is number 3 on the list? We bet you could’ve guessed that fact! The spring buying season has begun and so far it looks really good!

Perhaps Realtor.com put it best when they wrote:

U.S. housing market trends tracked by Realtor.com show a trifecta of promise: a shrinking number of homes on the market, fresher inventory, and an increase in median list price.

Houses are selling like hotcakes in our area, so we asked Frank, our Mountain Vista real estate expert, to give us a few of the hottest listings to share with you! You will be amazed at the quality of homes for sale; all under $500,000 and all with a pool. But you’ve got to act fast because as Realtor.com put it, the inventory is low and these won’t last long.

Look at those mountains! 509 W Highlands View Place Oro Valley, AZ $498,000 4 BR/3 BTH

 

 

 

A quick, refreshing dip! 1027 W Par Four Drive Oro Valley, AZ $429,900 4 BR/4 BTH

 

 

 

An entertainer’s paradise! 11437 N Verch Way Oro Valley, AZ $439,900 4 BR/3 BTH

 

 

 

 

Hot tub and pool! 12694 N Spirit Mountain Road Oro Valley, AZ $469,000 3 BR/3 BTH

 

 

 

A desert oasis! 12732 N Morgan Ranch Road Oro Valley, AZ $399,900 3 BR/2 BTH

 

 

 

Not only will we find you your dream home but we will also rent it out for you when it’s not in use if it’s a vacation home. This is a great time to buy a home, vacation home, or investment property and Arizona is the place to do it! Give Frank a call – he will help you out! 520-877-7924

Arizona is A Top Hot Spot for Foreign Real Estate Investors – Especially Canadians

A leading real estate information firm, Inman News, has recently published its annual report on the Top 10 Hot Spots for Global Homebuyers. They used data collected by DataQuick and interviewed real estate experts to create the list. Not surprisingly, number 6 on the Top 10 list is Phoenix-Mesa-Glendale, Arizona area. We whole-heartily agree because we know the real estate market from Scottsdale to Tucson!

Why is Arizona such a hot spot for foreign home buyers? The Inman report sums it up well:

• Homes and condos under $200,000 (although that’s changing) in Arizona,
• Investing in Arizona real estate is a good hedge against the Canadian dollar,
• Foreign investors look for real estate in areas with well-known universities, professional sports teams, and a leisure component to the economy,
•  A strong vacation rental market, and of course,
• The weather, the weather, the weather!

During our more than 10 years in the real estate market in Arizona, we’ve seen a lot of changes, but some things have remained the same. Real estate investors – whether foreign or domestic – know that the realization of income from a second home or vacation home purchase in Arizona is an important component of a sound investment strategy. That is one reason we developed our Luxury Vacation Property Rental management program – to help clients of our Mountain Vista Real Estate company keep their investment properties occupied when not in use by the owner. With the real estate market now in recovery, it’s important to act now to buy a property.

Here are three turnkey vacation rental condos in a premiere golf course community that are available now for under $200k. These are the perfect real estate investments for foreign homebuyers, but they are moving fast. Give Frank from Mountain Vista a call – he will help you out! 520-877-7924

Realtor.com Names Tucson Top Real Estate Investment Market

There’s good news in real estate and Tucson, Arizona takes top honors! The real estate data aggregator, Realtor.com, examined inventories, price trends and unemployment in 146 markets and named Tucson as the best real estate market in the US in which to invest. Of course, we’d like to say “We Told You So!” but we shouldn’t be that obnoxious, should we?

Realtor.com analyzed a lot of data to find which real estate markets were worthy of investment. When they looked at the Tucson, Arizona real estate market they found quite a few positives that bode well for Tucson home buyers.

“Thanks to the jobs boom surrounding the University of Arizona and the Davis-Monthan Air Force Base, and an 8.19 percent drop in real estate owned (REO) properties along with a 3.03 percent median house list-price increase from a year ago February, Tucson, Ariz., tops the list. A median price of $170,000 anchors the market.”

Each week we share with you the top houses and condos for sale in the Tucson-area market. A few weeks ago, five houses that we showcased in the Oro Valley were sold/under contract within days of our promotions. We know Tucson real estate – in fact that’s the web address www.WeKnowTucson.com for our real estate and luxury vacation rental management company, Mountain Vista Real Estate. Not only will we find you your dream home but we will also rent it out for you when it’s not in use if it’s a vacation home.

Here are three turnkey luxury vacation rental condos we showcased last week

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

And, here’s a sneak peek at the two amazing homes we will feature this week in our weekly email (don’t forget to add your email address to our mailing list found on our sister site Tucson & Scottsdale Golf Vacations). Buying a home, vacation home, or investment property has never been more affordable and Tucson Arizona is the place to do it! Give Frank a call – he will help you out! 520-877-7924

What Happened this Week in Golf and Real Estate?

We normally write an article or two each week about a real estate or golf item of interest. We try to cull out stories that we think our AZGH followers will want to read about. And of course, because we love where we live and what we do, we try to always give our readers a vivid picture of what it’s like to live in and play golf in Tucson and Scottsdale, Arizona. We want you to come out here to visit or stay!

This week we decided to give you a choice of things to read written by other folks that we think are particularly interesting. We know you don’t have a lot of time to surf the web looking for real estate and golf news so we did the work for you! Let us know which article interested you the most and we will be sure to cover that subject in greater detail in the weeks to come!

Buying beats renting in 98 of 100 metros

Mortgage rates surge again

B of A Tests an Option to Foreclosure

Eating Our Way Around Old Town Scottsdale with Arizona Food Tours

PGA Champ Keegan Bradley Hits Mark on Yorktown

‘Big Miss’ says as much about Hank Haney as it does about Tiger Woods

Welsh teenage golfer holes in one at The Belfry – at the famous 10th

One of our favorite stories from this past week is about the teenager with the hole in one. Imagine the bragging rights he now has! Also, the Tiger Woods’ book written by Hank Haney – we want to read it but it has that “car crash” feel about it – that it’s more salacious than anything else but we still can’t look away. Of course, the real estate news is always of interest and we are thrilled that the market is improving because it has been a rough few years. There are so many great home buys right now and some houses around here are selling before we can even share them with you! Home affordability has never been better! It has been an interesting week around here and we are looking forward to another beautiful weekend in the land of sun and golf!

Junky Real Estate Listing Data and Listing Aggregators

Most real estate consumers are familiar with the big listing aggregators – Zillow, Trulia, and Realtor.com. It’s true that these are very easy to use, and easy to search websites that warehouse millions of real estate listings. Long gone are the days when a realtor would print-out dozens of pages of MLS listings for a prospective buyer (or seller for comps). But, there’s still a problem with the listing data – no matter where it’s found – and it’s the classic “garbage in, garbage out” scenario.

This is important to understand given that some real estate brokers are pulling their listings out of the aggregators’ websites because they believe the consumer is ultimately shortchanged by erroneous data. Furthermore, they claim that on an aggregator’s site, the consumer is also steered to a broker that is likely not the listing source but one who paid a fee to the aggregator to have its contact information attached to the listing. Again, it’s assumed that the consumer will suffer from dealing with a broker who doesn’t know anything about the listing and if the listing data’s wrong, well, you can see it’s a conundrum of sorts.

But before we go any further in the discussion we ask readers to remember the basic goal in the real estate game is to sell the property in the shortest length of time for the best possible price. Period.

If a listing agent doesn’t take the time and effort at the beginning to correctly input the data about the property, then the listing information will be wrong on every platform and not just the aggregators. In most cases, that isn’t the aggregator’s fault; it’s the agent’s fault. The property owner will likely pay quite a bit of money to the listing agent when the property is sold so there should be some pressure on the listing agent to at least get the property facts right. We triple check our listing data because we know it’s our duty to our clients.

Now, there is some weight to the argument that those paid-for broker adverts at the bottom of the aggregator’s listing page unfairly steer the consumer away from the listing agent. The listing agent’s information is there but at the very bottom of the page and without the call to action “contact agent” form and button. We don’t think it gives an unfair advantage to these other agents who pay to have their name and contact info attached to certain zip codes on real estate aggregator websites. It’s part of a free and competitive market system and if Agent Y wants to pay to have her name above ours on one of Mountain Vista Real Estate’s listings that’s ok if it helps to get the property sold.

We want to know what you think – both consumers and real estate professionals. Do you think real estate aggregator websites are good for the industry? Or, do they junk up the web with bad data and agent steering to the detriment of the property owner and buyer?

Benefits of Hiring Property Managers for your Rentals

Turnkey vacation rentals available for sale now! http://www.weknowtucson.com

A few weeks ago we wrote a blog post about making money in 2012 with rental properties. It is a very popular article that receives hundreds of visitors each week so we decided to do a follow-up story about the next step in your real estate investing plan and that’s what to do after you buy the rental property. In one sentence we can tell you – hire a property manager!

There’s no question that selection of the right rental property is the most important decision to make, but once you buy one it’s now time to make money with it. We won’t lie to you – owning a rental property can be a lot of work. You have to maintain and improve the property, advertise for and then vet tenants, and after all of that you become a landlord. Each of these tasks isn’t too bad on its own, but you will need to do all of them and do them well to be successful and make money which is why you bought the rental property in the first place.

Usually the biggest hurdle for property owners is their lack of knowledge of the area. Unless you buy a rental property in the same town in which you live, it’s likely that you will not have a keen understanding of the best handymen in town, tax and other municipal issues, best places to advertise for tenants, and highest rental rate the market can bear. Property managers know the locals and understand the market.

Hiring a property manager makes sense because the manager will take care of the following duties:

• Inspect and maintain the property
• Advertise vacancies
• Screen prospective tenants
• Handle tenant inquiries/issues
• Connect you with tax and other professionals who will help you with deductions and other property matters
• Help you to set the best rental rate

Here at Mountain Vista Real Estate we not only help homeowners to sell and buy houses but we also offer property management services to our many clients who own vacation rentals here in the land of sun and golf! Owning a vacation rental is an obvious choice for anyone who regularly plays golf and wants to fund their golf hobby by owning a vacation property rental. We work hard to make sure the property is perfect for the owner when he/she visits, and then we keep it well maintained and occupied for those weeks and months the owner is out of town. Yes, it’s a lot of work, but owning a rental property can also make good economic sense. When you’re ready to find your ideal vacation rental property please give us a call. We have a lot to show you!

New Hope for Underwater Homes?

Now that we no longer have holiday music playing in the car, it was time to catch up on some news from NPR on the radio. The first story we heard this year was about a nonprofit group in Boston that has convinced Bank of America to write down principle on underwater home loans and sell them to the nonprofit at today’s market value. The nonprofit then sells the home back to the defaulting homeowner. This is exciting news in the world of real estate.

Boston Community Capital’s executive director Elyse Cherry has been working on this effort for the past few years, and she said it’s finally now at a point where the big banks understand this solution is far better than the costly and expensive foreclosure process.

A house that someone bought several years ago for $300,000 may be worth only $150,000 today, says Ms. Cherry. If Boston Community Capital can purchase the home at the lower price, the group can offer a mortgage that a low- or moderate-income worker could afford. So far, homeowners who have repurchased their homes have seen their monthly mortgage payments drop from an average of $3,300 to $1,700.

The benefit to the bank holding the mortgage? They get to sell the asset at market value – albeit distressed market value – and clear it off their books without spending thousands on foreclosures.

The benefit to the defaulting homeowner? He can rebuy his home at current market value with a manageable mortgage payment based on real data about his income.

The benefit to the nonprofit? Eventually they will sell off these now stable mortgages to investors the same way banks used to do it. Then they will use that profit to make new loans.

It’s truly a win-win-win all the way around!