Wednesday, February 27, 2008

Builders going out of business!

As many of you know, the new home building industry is going through some dramatic changes.

Trend Homes is now in bankruptcy
Engle Homes is now in bankruptcy
Randall Martin just walked away from all their subdivisions
HomeLife just sold to another company
Taylor Woodrow has merged with Morrison

See the Builder Implode-O-Meter here

At this time, I am recommending that my buyers purchasing a newly-constructed home, even if it’s a spec home, make their earnest deposit check out to the title company instead of the builder. There should also be language in the contract that the money does not get released to the builder until the close of escrow.

Yours to Count On,
Erika Madsen
Real Estate Consultant
Re/Max Power Realty
"Your Advisory Team" Founder/Manager
480-695-6572

p.s. if you or anyone you know is considering a move in the current real estate market- you deserve an agent who has a strong knowledge to help you succeed! Visit http://www.PhoenixAreaMls.com/ to learn more about Your Advisory Team & Our Performance GUARANTEES!!

Tuesday, February 26, 2008

Arizona ranks Top 5 in Foreclosures

view the news story at the link above & also visit a Fraud Alert about Foreclosure help Here

Yours to Count On,
Erika Madsen
Real Estate Consultant
Re/Max Power Realty
"Your Advisory Team" Founder/Manager
480-695-6572

p.s. if you or anyone you know is considering a move in the current real estate market- you deserve an agent who has a strong knowledge to help you succeed! Visit http://www.PhoenixAreaMls.com/ to learn more about Your Advisory Team & Our Performance GUARANTEES!!
Michael Jackson's Neverland Ranch set for Trustee Sale

Yours to Count On,
Erika Madsen
Real Estate Consultant
Re/Max Power Realty
"Your Advisory Team" Founder/Manager
480-695-6572

p.s. if you or anyone you know is considering a move in the current real estate market- you deserve an agent who has a strong knowledge to help you succeed! Visit http://www.PhoenixAreaMls.com/ to learn more about Your Advisory Team & Our Performance GUARANTEES!!

Tuesday, February 19, 2008

Foreclosure Hot Spots

too close to home for me! Can you name this neighborhood?

Yours to Count On,
Erika Madsen
Real Estate Consultant
Re/Max Power Realty
"Your Advisory Team" Founder/Manager
480-695-6572

p.s. if you or anyone you know is considering a move in the current real estate market- you deserve an agent who has a strong knowledge to help you succeed! Visit http://www.PhoenixAreaMls.com/ to learn more about Your Advisory Team & Our Performance GUARANTEES!!
After fielding this question yesterday.... I ran across this post from a local agent who has eloquently put into words my exact thoughts...

My Realtor is Busy, Can you Show Me a Home?
22 Feb Buying Real Estate, On Being a Real Estate Agent, Real Estate, Selling Real Estate 14 comments

We get calls like this all the time…
“Hi! My Realtor is busy, can you show me a home?”
“So you are working with a Realtor?”
“Yeah, but they are too busy, and we really want to see this home. We just need you to show it to us.”

OK folks, here is the deal….
We CAN’T show you a home if you are working with another Realtor. “Why not?”, you may be asking yourself.

Well first, if I may be so blunt, why should we? You want us to get in the car, drive over to a home, open it up, show you around (and assume the legal liability surrounding this process), and answer your questions. Then, if you like the home, you plan to return to your too busy Realtor so they can write up the offer and proceed to collect their commission check.

Meanwhile, what do we gain from this endeavor? We earn our living helping people through real estate transactions. We can’t earn a living driving other Realtor’s clients around acting as a showing service.

I will (and have) freely admit that one of the best things about being a Realtor is the “warm fuzzy” you get from helping people through an often daunting process so they can enjoy owning a new home. It’s a great feeling. I do however, have to feed my children and pay my own mortgage. I do this by helping MY CLIENTS through this process. I have plenty of clients. I love my clients. I do not have time to show someone else’s client a property just for the fun of helping a fellow human being. Doing so takes time away from my own clients, and from my own business needs and development (not to mention what little personal life I may have).

The other reason I can’t show a home for another Realtor revolves around our Code of Ethics, the sometimes confusing subject of procuring cause, and my own personal ethical standards. You see, I’m obligated to not “steal” a client from a fellow Realtor, no matter what their competence level might be. Now before another agent jumps in here correcting me, let me make this clear…
Technically, I can’t solicit a client who has signed an agreement to work with another Realtor. Technically, I COULD show a home to another agent’s “client” if they have no signed agreement, and I could make an excellent case that I was the “procuring cause” of the transaction and am therefore entitled to the commission on the sale.

I don’t work that way. If an agent is actively working with someone, in my mind that someone is their client, regardless of whether or not they’ve signed a binding agreement (commonly referred to as a Buyer Broker Agreement). Here’s one place (of several) where my own personal ethical standard is at a higher level than the National Association of Realtors (NAR) Code of Ethics.
Honestly, it makes me ill when I get calls from people who say their Realtor is too busy for them. Or if they say, “My Realtor will only show me five homes, and I have a couple more I really want to see”. (I’m not making this one up folks, I’ve heard it more than once.) Those people made an unfortunate choice in Realtors. But again, I’m ethically bound to not bash my fellow brethren, so I can’t tell the poor souls in this situation what they should do. (namely, RUN AWAY and find a good agent — and there are MANY of those).

I will gently explain the our situation to these folks, as well as discuss options that I’m permitted to discuss. A significant portion of calls like this come from people using friends and/or family members as their agent. Bad idea most of the time, but that’s a whole ‘nuther blog entry.
So to those out there who find themselves in a situation where they are working with a Realtor that’s too busy to help them, or are working with a Realtor who has the ludicrous practice of limiting the number of homes they’ll show, about all I can say is take a step back. Reevaluate your commitment to using this Realtor. You are working on what will most likely be the single largest financial transaction of your life. You need, and deserve, to work with the best. And there are many many great agents out there. Unfortunately, there are several bad apples as well. Be careful.

To the Realtors out there with clients that have to resort to calling another agent to get help, about all I can say is…. shame on you. Perhaps you should consider another profession.

Yours to Count On,
Erika Madsen
Real Estate Consultant
Re/Max Power Realty
"Your Advisory Team" Founder/Manager
480-695-6572

p.s. if you or anyone you know is considering a move in the current real estate market- you deserve an agent who has a strong knowledge to help you succeed! Visit http://www.PhoenixAreaMls.com/ to learn more about Your Advisory Team & Our Performance GUARANTEES!!

Tuesday, February 12, 2008


New Housing Options click photo to enlarge for reading.


Yours to Count On,
Erika Madsen
Real Estate Consultant
Re/Max Power Realty
"Your Advisory Team" Founder/Manager
480-695-6572

p.s. if you or anyone you know is considering a move in the current real estate market- you deserve an agent who has a strong knowledge to help you succeed! Visit http://www.PhoenixAreaMls.com/ to learn more about Your Advisory Team & Our Performance GUARANTEES!!

Click on the photos to enlarge and read articles


Yours to Count On,
Erika Madsen

Real Estate Consultant
Re/Max Power Realty
"Your Advisory Team" Founder/Manager
480-695-6572

p.s. if you or anyone you know is considering a move in the current real estate market- you deserve an agent who has a strong knowledge to help you succeed! Visit http://www.PhoenixAreaMls.com/ to learn more about Your Advisory Team & Our Performance GUARANTEES!!

Click Graph to enlarge, updated as of 2-4-08; there is a bit more movement happening within the market as buyers begin to find fantastic deals and use the lower interest rates to purchase.

Yours to Count On,
Erika Madsen
Real Estate Consultant
Re/Max Power Realty
"Your Advisory Team" Founder/Manager
480-695-6572

p.s. if you or anyone you know is considering a move in the current real estate market- you deserve an agent who has a strong knowledge to help you succeed! Visit http://www.PhoenixAreaMls.com/ to learn more about Your Advisory Team & Our Performance GUARANTEES!!

Saturday, February 09, 2008


TORONTO'S SMALLEST HOUSE IS FOR SALE IF... ... You live alone or with one other person or if ... You don't have much stuff or if ... You miss that cute little apartment you lived in while teaching English in Japan

THEN THIS IS THE PLACE FOR YOU!
This house, located near the intersection of Dufferin Street and RogersRoad is believed to be Toronto 's smallest house. It occupies what used to be a driveway. It's a one bedroom, one bathroom home that sits on aParcel of land 7.25 feet (2.2 metres) wide and 113.67 feet (34.6 metres)Long and has an interior area of just under 300 square feet (under 28Square metres).


Here are the houses's 'Listed Features':* Completely re-done top-to-bottom, front-to-back! * Tumbled stone entrance walk* Renovated Bath * Renovated Kitchen with newer stove, new cabinets and new stacked washer/dryer* Bedroom with Murphy Bedd + 'Built-Ins' ... (doubles as a den)!* Walk-out to fenced patio* 100 Amp service* 2 Satellite Dishes and Receiver * Window Air Conditioner Available
THE PRICE ? ? ?
You get all this for:$179,900.00!

Yours to Count On,
Erika Madsen
Real Estate Consultant
Re/Max Power Realty
"Your Advisory Team" Founder/Manager
480-695-6572

p.s. if you or anyone you know is considering a move in the current real estate market- you deserve an agent who has a strong knowledge to help you succeed! Visit http://www.PhoenixAreaMls.com/ to learn more about Your Advisory Team & Our Performance GUARANTEES!!
Top 10 Ways Sellers Can Guarantee Their Home Won't Sell: (I found another well written article by another local realtor, Paul Pastore.)

1. Be casual, not serious, about selling. A sage once quipped, "Money is only important when you don't want something enough." Real estate expert R.L. Brown said that if half of the 58,000 sellers in Maricopa County removed their for-sale signs we'd be at normal inventory levels. Actions speak louder than words in this market. Discretionary sellers should wait for a less competitive environment.

2. Price it wrong. A home properly priced is half sold. No amount of full-color ads, glossy fliers, multiple photos, virtual tours, agent luncheons, Goodyear blimps or pom-pom girls will compensate for a wrong, timid retail price.

3. Ignore your agent. Attorneys believe if you represent yourself, you have a fool for a client. Doctors don't self-diagnose. Professionals use professionals. Even though many people believe they're experts on raising kids and real estate, full-time, career pros usually know what's best. Listen to them very carefully.

4. Micromanage the marketing. If you sold cookware in college, carts in California, or carpeting in Cranston, it does not qualify you to second-guess your agent. If you had a real estate license years ago, save your stories about the "good old days" for your children. You can share your concerns and timelines, but leave the details to the listing pro.

5. Reject staging suggestions. Someday shag multi-colored, sculptured carpeting will come back. Whitewashed cabinets, Navajo white walls, linoleum flooring, lots of personal photos, and Elvis paintings on black velvet need to go. Now.

6. Let Fido loose. I recently entered a house and had two frisky, friendly black Labs run up to sniff me. Unfortunately, I had light-gray dress slacks on that day. Both wet stains lasted for hours. Until that day I didn't realize dogs enjoyed chewing the tassels on expensive loafers.

7. Talk to the buyers. Life gets lonely at times. Why not ask the buyers where they grew up? Or how much they qualify for. Tell them about the vacant rental next door. Maybe they could babysit next weekend! Why not share war stories, horror movies or meatloaf recipes?

8. Sell personal items. Wow, maybe the buyers want to buy the patio furniture or rotary lawnmower. You have only four more boxes of Girl Scout cookies to sell. Why not ask for a donation for the March of Dimes, the Humane Society, the local PBS station? Remember the saying, "loose lips sink ships."

9. Discount that smell. My house doesn't smell of pets, baby diapers, curry powder, garlic, fried fish, coconut incense, cigars, manure, mulch, dairy farms or low tide. The buyer must be confusing my castle with a tract home.

10. Dismiss feedback. What do buyers know anyway? They can't possibly mind my barbed wire fence, heavy-duty rebar, backyard bomb shelter, airport runway views, lights from the power plant, hum from the high-voltage lines, railroad tremors, scorpion skeletons, termite mud tubes and pet snakes. What are they thinking?

Yours to Count On,
Erika Madsen
Real Estate Consultant
Re/Max Power Realty
"Your Advisory Team" Founder/Manager
480-695-6572

p.s. if you or anyone you know is considering a move in the current real estate market- you deserve an agent who has a strong knowledge to help you succeed! Visit http://www.PhoenixAreaMls.com/ to learn more about Your Advisory Team & Our Performance GUARANTEES!!

Wednesday, February 06, 2008


Re/Max Valley Market Share, click on photo to enlarge.


Yours to Count On,
Erika Madsen
Real Estate Consultant
Re/Max Power Realty
"Your Advisory Team" Founder/Manager
480-695-6572

p.s. if you or anyone you know is considering a move in the current real estate market- you deserve an agent who has a strong knowledge to help you succeed! Visit http://www.PhoenixAreaMls.com/ to learn more about Your Advisory Team & Our Performance GUARANTEES!!

Saturday, February 02, 2008

Morrison Ranch (Higley & Elliot) Community Garage Sale

Feb 8th, 9th & 10th... it's time for the 7th Annual Community Garage Sale!!! THIS YEAR THERE ARE 2 OPTIONS... participate with all your neighbors in your own driveway on the days listed, OR drop your stuff off at Highland Park Elementary to benefit the 6th Grade Science Camp fund (watch school newsletter for more info)

If you want to do it the old-fashioned way: I will place the following advertisement in the Arizona Republic for the benefit of the homeowner’s to hold a community garage sale: HUGE COMMUNITY GARAGE SALE HIGLEY & ELLIOTT, MORRISON RANCH AND SURROUNDING AREAS 7AM- ? Follow The Signs! ## Homes Involved!! Friday, Feb. 8th, Saturday Feb. 9th and Sunday, Feb. 10th, 2007 This ad will run the Friday, Saturday and Sunday prior as notice to the “hardcore” shoppers AND again on Friday, the 8th and Saturday, the 9th! I will place very noticeable signs at Higley & Elliott. Homeowners need to be responsible for placement & removal of signs leading to their street or home. If you'd like to help the school watch for more info soon! Happy Selling! Erika Madsen 480-695-6572

Yours to Count On,
Erika Madsen
Real Estate Consultant
Re/Max Power Realty
"Your Advisory Team" Founder/Manager
480-695-6572

p.s. if you or anyone you know is considering a move in the current real estate market- you deserve an agent who has a strong knowledge to help you succeed! Visit http://www.PhoenixAreaMls.com/ to learn more about Your Advisory Team & Our Performance GUARANTEES!!