I came across an interesting article about U-Hauls recently that I wanted to share with you. I’m taking a little break from real estate today in order to bring you this news.

Did you know that more than 1 million people use U-Haul trucks to move each year? That number is amazing to me. Where are they moving the most? As it turns out, Seattle, Portland, and Phoenix are the destinations. There is a surplus of trucks in Phoenix because of this, and it has brought their rates way down.

 Phoenix has a surplus of U-Hauls.

If you’re planning a move from Phoenix, whether it’s in or out of state, you’ll be able to get a much better deal on a U-Haul truck here than anywhere else. In New York or San Francisco, it costs almost three times as much to rent one.

If you have any questions for us or you’re thinking about making a move, give us a call or send us an email. We would love to help you.

There are a variety of opportunities in the Phoenix Real Estate Market for both buyers and sellers. If you're a prospective buyer click here for a full home search, or if you're considering placing your home on the market, get a free home value report, right here.

Should you rent your home out or sell it? How can you ensure you make the right choice?

First and foremost, make sure you have a real estate agent you trust. When we have a consultation, we focus on what is best for you and your family and what your specific goals are. In this particular situation, if it’s better for you to rent your house out instead of selling, we won’t tell you to sell in order to make a commission.

Make sure you have a real estate agent you trust when deciding to rent out or sell your house.

The main reason you would want to rent right now is that the Phoenix rental market is at an all-time high. We would love to sit down and show you some comparables during a free consultation.

Also, if you’re buying another home, you can take advantage of these unusually low interest rates. Rates are expected to rise, so if you want to purchase a new home, now is the time.

If you have any questions about whether you should sell your house or rent it out, give me a call or send me an email. I’d be happy to help you.

There are a variety of opportunities in the Phoenix Real Estate Market for both buyers and sellers. If you're a prospective buyer click here for a full home search, or if you're considering placing your home on the market, get a free home value report, right here.

It’s a pretty well-known fact that if you’re selling your home, you’ll need photos in order to market it. However, taking photos with your phone will lead to a sub-par representation of your home online. Using professional photos, on the other hand, will benefit you in many ways.

Whether you have a $15,000 listing or a $1.5 million listing, professional photos are key to your marketing strategy. In fact, 92% of buyers start their home searches online, so their first impression of your house will come from the photos.

You’ve probably seen smartphone photos of homes online. They make the property look dark, dirty, and fail to highlight the best features of a home.

Professional photos are going to draw the buyer’s eye to your listing. If they are looking at 10 homes online and your home is the only one with professional photos, I guarantee they are going to come look at your home first.

92% of buyers start their home searches online.

Arizona plays host to a lot of snowbirds as well. Those people will look at your home 10 to 20 times before even making it here for the winter. Professional photos will make sure your listing stays at the top of their list, even as others pop onto the market.

If you’re on a golf course, drone photos are fantastic for highlighting the area. If you have a specifically unique house, a 3-D interactive tour is a great way to go. I can help you with those things, but I am always going to start with professional photos in order to get your home sold faster and for more money.

If you have any questions, please feel free to give me a call or send me an email. I look forward to hearing from you!

We get asked all the time by home sellers whether open houses actually work in drawing buyers to a listing. The answer is that it depends on three specific criteria:

1. The time of year. Do you want to go to an open house in the middle of summer when it’s 120 degrees out? Probably not. Most homebuyers won’t want to either. Open house attendance during the summer months is usually very low.

2. What kind of community are you in? Certain communities are known for their open houses and have them quite frequently. This is especially true in many 55 and old communities.

Whether an open house works or not depends on three criteria.

3. The market. Is it a fast-selling or slow-selling market? If it’s a fast market and you’re getting multiple offers, you probably don’t have time for an open house. You don’t really need one in that case either.

If you have any questions for us or would like to sit down to talk about your listing and what you should do to help it sell more quickly, give us a call or send us an email. We look forward to hearing from you.

We’ve been running into this situation a lot lately. A seller sells their home, but hasn’t secured a home to buy yet. What are your options here?

First, you could do a rent-back from the buyer. If they don’t necessarily need to be in the home on the closing date, you can rent it back from them month to month until you find the home of your dreams.

You could also rent another place. This is a difficult one for some people because they don’t want to have to move twice or put all their stuff in storage. If you do go this route, I recommend renting a furnished rental so you can get your things in storage and just take a suitcase with you to live out of in the furnished rental until you purchase a new home.

A rent-back is a great option.

How can we help in a situation like this? Well, we’ve run into this situation numerous times. People don’t usually have the finances to buy before they sell, so we’ve seen just about everything. Our experience pays off because we can sit down with you and your family and discuss your individual situation to figure out what’s going to work for you.

If you have any questions for us at all or if you want to sit down for a consultation, we would love to serve you like we’ve served hundreds of families already. We look forward to hearing from you!

Should you reach out to your Realtor to help you find a lender? Absolutely.

All lenders are a little bit different, and they each offer different products. Depending on your situation, we can help guide you in the right direction for a good fit. What specifically, though, are the advantages of going with a lender that your Realtor recommends?

For one thing, a lender chosen by your Realtor has already been pre-screened and is almost guaranteed to be good at their job. You also know that they will close the loan on time. When you pick a lender from a Google search, on the other hand, you never know what you’re going to get.

What kind of lender you need depends on your individual situation.

To that point, is it better to go with a larger institution, a smaller bank, or a mortgage broker?

It really depends on your individual situation. Larger institutions take a little bit longer to close the loan. Sometimes this can be a disadvantage in a multiple offer situation. Mortgage brokers are usually quicker to close the loan, but some don’t offer the products that smaller banks offer. Smaller banks can sometimes give you an advantage in the low down payment category.

If you have any questions or need help finding a lender, please feel free to give me a call or shoot me an email. I look forward to working with you!

With inventory so low in the real estate market, it’s common to run into multiple offer situations. Today, I wanted to provide you with a few ways to ensure your offer beats out the rest.

First, make sure you hire a real estate agent that you trust. A good real estate agent will know tips and strategies to make your offer stand out and get accepted. They will also keep in close contact with the seller’s agent to find out everything they can to highlight your offer.

Keep in mind that sometimes the seller isn’t just looking for the highest price. Some sellers want a quick close date, no concessions, or a specific type of financing. If you have that information before making an offer, you’re definitely going to have the upper hand.

A good agent will find out everything they can to highlight your offer.

There are also some very important factors that will help position you to submit the best offer. You need to be very competitive in regard to the sale price, have a high earnest deposit, and reduce the time it takes to complete the inspection.

If you would like to schedule a consultation or have any further questions, please feel free to give me a call or shoot me an email. I look forward to hearing from you.

Can you trust  Zillow home valuations?

It’s very risky. All Zillow does is create an algorithm, which is a mathematical equation that is right sometimes and wrong many other times. When looking at different neighborhoods, the type of neighborhood you're in can go a long way in determining how close Zillow’s Zestimate will be.

If you’re on an acre of land in a farm community, the Zestimate may not be as accurate as it would be if you were in a tract home community. Zillow can’t see the inside of your home. They don’t know about things like updates or whether the home was a distressed sale. There are simply too many factors that go into a home’s value, so you need to work with a trusted real estate advisor to get an accurate home valuation.

Zillow’s own CEO sold his home for 40% less than the Zestimate.

In fact, Zillow's CEO himself probably doesn’t trust their Zestimates. He recently sold his home for a staggering 40% less than what that Zestimate said it was worth!

If you have any questions about home values or you’d like a free, accurate valuation of your Phoenix home, give me a call or send me an email. I’d be happy to help.

If you’re visiting a new build site, should you take your Realtor with you? The answer is always yes!

The common misconception is that you’re going to get a better deal without a Realtor present because they’ll subtract their commission off of the sale price. This is not true. In actuality, the builder has the Realtor’s commission in a separate marketing budget.

In addition, a Realtor can help you negotiate a price. When you walk in off the street by yourself, the builder is not going to tell you that the price of the home is negotiable. What we can do as Realtors is negotiate you a better deal. Sometimes this means a percentage off of upgrades, and other times it means that we can simply get you a lower purchase price.

A good Realtor can help you negotiate price.

In fact, recently we got one of our clients $46,000 off of the purchase price of a new build in Gilbert, Arizona!

If you have any questions about purchasing a new build or anything else related to Phoenix real estate, reach out to me so that we can sit down and discuss a strategy to get you the best deal on a new home. I look forward to hearing from you soon!

Is it better to buy or rent a home right now? There are a couple of important factors for you to consider when making this decision. 

For example, the current rental market is at an all-time high. Rents are sky-high right now, which means that sometimes it’s cheaper to buy a home than to rent one. 

Rental rates are sky-high right now.

The two benefits of buying a home now are interest rates and lending programs. Interest rates are at an all-time low in our area, and there are some great lending programs available. These lending programs include 0% down loans, 3% down loans, and 3.5% down loans. 

There are also grants available to cover your down payment. There are even programs that pay for your down payment and closing costs!

If you want to get into a home for as little as $500 down, we can help you. Give us a call or send us an email and we can help you make an educated decision.