A Fax from March 2005

Posted on January 3, 2012 by Liz Johnson

Okay, I’ve beat the moving thing to death, but as I was purging old files tonight I found an interesting fax from March 2005.  It was from a listing agent on a house for which my buyer had made an offer.  He obviously sent it to a bunch of us at once, here’s a portion of it:

Thank you all for your time and energies.  I can definitely understand any and all frustration that you and your buyers are going through.  What does it take to get a home?  I have been there too.

We had approximately 35 Realtors come through with their buyers and probably another 5-8 buyers come through without a Realtor.  (This was 14 days after the house was listed on the MLS.) We currently have 9 offers on the table.  One of which was written by me for a buyer without a Realtor.  I have been told that 2 more are on the way.

It was a crazy world in 2005.  Definitely different from our current real estate market here in the Phoenix area.  We are seeing multiple offers again, but not like we did then.  Buyers and sellers have different attitudes, they are being presented differently, handled with less frenzy…most of the time.

Posted in Buying | Leave a comment

Purging the Junk before Moving

Posted on January 2, 2012 by Liz Johnson

I’m sure you remember that I moved the day after Christmas and that I’m horrible at moving.  I think I could be better at packing and moving if I took some of the advice I share with my clients.  It’s a five step process in purging things.

Step 1 – This is the worst part because it involves going through everything in the house and determining what goes.  I can make this process take years.  As I was moving this week, I had barely packed anything.  So it felt like an episode of Hoarders as my family asked, “Liz, what do you want to do with this?  Stay? Or go?”  Oy.

Step 2 – Sort things into sell, donate and trash.  (I know, it’s not original, they do it on the tv shows but it works.)

Step 3 – By Friday call your local bulk trash pick up and schedule a pick up for the following week.  Schedule a pick up with Valley Big Brothers Big Sisters or Goodwill (oh awesome awesomeness, they have online scheduling now!!!).

Step 4 – Hold your garage sale Saturday and/or Sunday of that weekend.  At the end of the garage sale, add the things that didn’t sell to the trash and donate piles.  It’s best if those two piles are at the front of the garage.

Step 5 – On the scheduled pick up day, push the trash pile and/or donate pile out of the garage, label it (especially if they are on the same day!).

By the time you get home from work, the pile will have magically disappeared and your house will be less cluttered.

Posted in Buying, Renting, Selling | Leave a comment

New Awesome Experience – Seller’s Proceeds Check

Posted on December 31, 2011 by Liz Johnson

Today I got to do something I’ve never done before – I handed my home seller client the proceeds from the sale of her home.  Sounds weird, I’ve been in real estate over 7 years and this is the first time I’ve handed someone their home sale proceeds check.

Usually I get to hand home buyers their keys, which up to today was my absolute favorite part of my job.  Waaaay back in the day, when MySpace (remember that?!) was the “thing,” they asked “Who would you like to meet?” as one of the profile questions.  I got so much grief from a friend when I answered that I wanted to meet more home buyers because I love giving buyers the keys to their new home (he said it was a lame answer).  More than a few of my buyer clients have run back and forth across the house saying, “this is my closet!”  ”This is my kitchen sink!”  ”I’m going to put ____ over here!”  It is really fun to watch.   Buyers kind of need us to give them their keys.  Otherwise, how would they get into their new house?  Leaving a key under the doormat is so anti-climactic.

But Sellers can have their proceeds wired to another title company for the purchase of another home, wired to their bank account, or they can pick up the check from the title company themselves.  Yesterday I offered to bring my seller client her check.  I just thought it would be more convenient for her and I wanted to see her again to say thank you.  I’ve seen sellers on their moving day, at signings, helped them close on their next home, etc. but not yet handed someone their check.  Today, I got that privilege.  I just have to say, it’s totally awesome.  It is so nice to share in the moment when someone gets to look forward to the next stage in their life and be a part of making it happen.

Posted in Selling | Leave a comment

I Moved the Day After Christmas

Posted on December 28, 2011 by Liz Johnson

No, I’m not kidding.  I totally got the keys to our new place at 9 am on December 26th.  It’s funny, real estate can get kind of quiet around the holidays, but I tell ya, this year it’s just hoppin’.  Maybe its because I’m working differently than I normally do, maybe our market is on freakin’ FIRE, or maybe like me, others have not seen the holidays as this massive hurdle to moving.  When I told my very sweet and sensitive seven year old we were going to move the day after Christmas, she was very much and frequently vocally against it.  But, Jesus’s birthday or not, we got a great deal on a fantastic place that we are very happy to have.  So we moved.  And I found that there are some awesome benefits to moving the day after Christmas:

1.  Family is already in town!  You just say, “Glad you enjoyed the humongous dinner I just cooked, while you were clearing the table I made up some boxes in the garage.  Let’s pack.”  And they do it!  Well, mine did.

2.  Instead of wrapping your breakables in brown paper or newspaper, you can use the sparkly green and red holiday tissue paper.  It’s way more fun.

3.  Many of the kids toys (the newly gifted ones) are already in boxes!  You just throw them in one bigger box, haul them over to the new place with a pair of scissors, and they are entertained while you work.

4.  The leftovers.  You do not have to cook while moving!  And you don’t have to order out every meal.  Just put a ham at the new place, the turkey at the old one, and you and your helpful elves will have something to dine on.

5.  Instead of telling the kids they have to clean out old toys for moving you can tell them its to make more room for more toys.  My kids are little hoarders.  They will keep a stupid Jeep toy with three missing wheels just for the heck of it.  I promise, they have plenty of toys.  But if I tell them they have to clean the junk out to move, they cry.  If I say its to make room for toys from Santa they are much more cooperative.

We still have lots to do, wish us luck!  I hope you had a wonderful holiday season, we have one more to go so Happy New Year!

Posted in Buying, Kids, Renting, Selling | 1 Comment

Merry Christmas from Chandler 2011

Posted on December 26, 2011 by Liz Johnson

Merry Christmas!  The kids and I had a wonderful day!  We are so thankful to be surrounded by those we love. I hope you and your friends and family had a wonderful day too, filled with love, joy and blessings.

A mom friend on the school playground asked me one morning what are the things to do during the holidays in the Phoenix area.  She’s new to Chandler and wanted to make sure her family hit the highlights.  So I’ve been thinking about all the fun things to do in the Valley of the Sun during the holidays, here are some I’ve come up with:

ZooLights at the Phoenix Zoo

Polar Express at the Grand Canyon

North Pole Experience at Greer Lodge

Las Noches de las Luminarias at the Desert Botanical Gardens

What did you and your family do this year that you enjoyed?

Posted in Around Arizona, Kids | Leave a comment