Why I Write (and Sometimes Drink)

About an hour ago, I asked my friend Kaye the Broker for a level-check. Should I be some level of furious that the title company called my condo sellers into sign without sending me the settlement statement AND not telling me they were coming into sign in the first place? You know, in case I wanted to check the numbers first AND wanted to go with my clients? That, by the way, would be my job and what my clients hired me to do. 

Her reply was, "Be tactful."

I am not feeling tactful at the moment, so I settled for an e-mail to the title officer saying, "How awesome they got to sign! Any chance I could see the settlement statement please?"

See! I said please.

And lest you think that was a wee bit snarky, after 51 years, that was as tactful as I could muster. Not sorry. But then again, I haven't seen the settlement statement just yet either. So, my level of decorum can possibly go down. Fortunately, I know how to soften a blow with three little words, "Bless your heart..."

This is the second awful transaction in a row I have had with this particular title and escrow company. In both cases, the buyer picked the title company. Per the contract, they have that right. However, I think at this point, I am going to start pushing back on this particular contract item. I hate incompetence. I my sellers may potentially be put into a harmful situation (what on earth did they sign???). I hate that I need to be tactful to a high-level of incompetence. Stuff like this gives the real estate industry a bad name with the public.

Trusted Advisor University

Every month my pal Sally and I meet for a cauliflower crust pizza lunch and then head off to TAU--Trusted Advisor University. It is free for us real estate folks. Essentially, us participants get together and listen to a fabulous and knowledgeable speaker give the state of the market speech. It is 90 minutes of charts and graphs and other fascinating bits of knowledge to help us be better at what we do. Here's a few tid-bits:

• There are currently 23 homes for sale in Gilbert AZ under $300,000. There are 240,000 residents in Gilbert. So, yes, a shortage.
• The home market index for the greater Phoenix metro area is 200.7. If I may break that down. Think of an index of 100 as "balanced"--just enough buyers and sellers. This means there are 2 buyers for every home for sale.
• The average percentage of sold price versus listing price (under $500,000)  right now is approximately 103 percent. So homes are selling for 3 percent higher than their list price.
• Even if there is an upcoming recession, recessions don't tend to hurt real estate prices and inventory. Historically, the two recessions that impacted real estate pricing and inventory in the last 50 years were in 1991 and 2008. Given there are currently in the Phoenix metro market 2 buyers for every 1 home on the market, a dip in the market at this point, would mean we might have 1 buyer for every 1 home on the market. Also, "recessions" mean two quarters of a flat economy. Historically, we are through a recession by the time someone gets around to announcing we are in a recession. The obvious exception is 2008. The second obvious exception is 1929-1930. Those two recessions lasted a bit longer and if you look at some of the economic policies in place, that might have contributed to the length of the economic downturn. But what do I know? 
• Condos can now receive FHA certification again.
• Most homes being built in the Phoenix metro area right now are multi-family. This is partially because of the lack of land available to build homes. It is also because there is such a huge demand for affordable housing right now.
• Roughly 95 percent of the agents in the room had their license less than 5 years. I found that fascinating. I am considered an "old timer" because I was around through the boom of 2004 and the bust of 2007.

The Great Road Trip

Let me introduce you to David. David is the oldest of Bonus Dad's two sons. The younger one, Icky, is a bonus brother. David is not. I dated David for about 20 minutes when I was 17 and I just simply can't refer to him as a brother. He laughs when I tell him that. David is a Bonus Good Friend. I am very grateful to him and his wife who opened up their home to me last week when it looked like I was going to be stranded in Chicago overnight because of airline travel hell. Oh, I should probably add, David, his lovely wife and two daughters live in Chicago.

Right now though David is up at the charming 1936 cottage in mid-state Michigan with Bonus Dad and me. He has inherited the cottage from Bonus Mom when she passed and he wants to rebuild. I can't say I blame him. The basement is caving in and--it was nice of them not to tell me this until last night at midnight--there has been a bat spotted hanging around the basement, with a few random theories thrown out about how it got down there to begin with.

The home was hodge-podge built since 1936, with the fireplace and basement added in the 1940s. The downstairs bath was added in the 1950s. The dining room and 55 degree staircase was added in the early 1960s. The upstairs was expanded in the 1990s. At that time, the roof was raised so that even us short people could stand up straight on the second floor. The upstairs half bathroom added in 2002. I don't know when the screened in porch became a room.

This is rural America. I would like to think there were permits pulled and licensed contractors involved. Most likely. Probably. Maybe. But dang! This place is charming.

Anyway, David is rebuilding this sweet cottage. He has decided he wants to explore having a modular home put on the property. The closest modular home manufacturer is in Iron Mountain Michigan, which is only a 6-ish hour drive away. Mind you, there are dealers who sell this particular home much, much closer, but the actual buildings are built in Iron Mountain. Bonus Dad is a retired engineer and who doesn't love a good road trip? So, we went to investigate.

Iron Mountain is in Michigan but on the Wisconsin border.

We arrived for our factory tour at 4 p.m. Thursday, only because Iron Mountain is in a different time zone. Otherwise, we arrived at 5 p.m., Eastern Time. We left that morning around 9:30, which would have been grand, except the bridge traffic was down to one lane. There was a boat-load of construction on Highway 2 and the Bob's Bigboy in St. Ignace had more than 10 employees working for less than 10 patrons, but nobody, nobody I tell you!, could figure out how to get a burger cooked.

I wish I had taken pictures of the building process. It was truly fascinating! It is an assembly line, with each 50X20 module built on a separate stage. Each module is sent through the assembly line, where different aspects such as electricity and plumbing or cabinets are added. A house can have as many modules as the plans call for. So a 2 story four bedroom home could be 4 to 6 blocks, linked together. All of the homes are built, inside out, so the exterior walls are the last to go on. This way they can adjust whatever they need to adjust (outlets, insulation, etc.) as the process goes through. Is it cost-effective way to build a home? I don't know.

For those of you architect types or just have a curiosity, here is the web site: https://dickinsonhomes.com/

We stayed the night in a hotel that this company had built in this fashion. We were told it was 30 separate modules, had we not been told this, I wouldn't have known. It looked like a normal building with a brick facade.

In Michigan, homes are built on basements or crawlspaces, so that the foundation doesn't crack when the ground freezes and thaws. This company doesn't build basements, but they do subcontract out the work so they have the right specifications. Also, as one could imagine, building out here is not a year-round type of occupation. If one is building a modular home, it can't be placed on the site until the weather is good.

The next day we toured the models and David got a better sense of what he wanted. They gave him tons of plans to review. I guarantee Mrs. David is going to have a lot of opinions that she doesn't know she is going to have once they get this party started. I foresee a road trip for the David family to Iron Mountain in the future.

David wanted me to go with them on the trip because I know something about houses. I don't know how helpful I was. I asked a few questions that seemed reasonable. But let's face it, I know about Arizona houses. Anyway, I need to find an accountant, because I am now wondering if I can write off part of this trip. Even if I can't, it was a lot of fun to talk shop and see how these homes were made.

The Devil We Know

I love it up here. 

I am in Michigan. I have been to most every part of Michigan since Tuesday. Is it really only Saturday?

Right now I am at the dining room table in this amazingly charming 1936 cottage. Bonus Dad is in a recliner on his laptop. Neither of us are talking. Instead, we are both comfortably sharing a space, doing our own thing. Out the window, I have a view of the lake, where the loons and geese are hanging out. Today's high might be 75 degrees.  All is right in this little patch of the world. This is the way summer should be.

Yesterday morning, Marty accepted a job in the swamp. I got the news while we (Bonus Dad, his son and I) were in Iron Mountain--which is on the border of Wisconsin in the Upper Michigan Peninsula (More on that trip later). I then spent the next three hours of our trip across the UP (Upper Peninsula) when I had cell service, texting and e-mailing those who needed to know. I talked to investors, contractors and family. I called Uncle Sunshine. I asked Bonus Dad if I could stay until October instead of going home and packing up my life (He said sure!). In between those chats, texts and calls, I enjoyed the view of Lake Michigan next to Highway 2. Blue skies, blue water and green trees.

This morning, Marty called me at 4:50 a.m. his time to tell me he changed his mind. This wasn't the right time/opportunity or something. In any case, he has chosen to unaccept a job he accepted. We aren't moving. I asked him to please stop the job hunt for now. It is hard on the kids. It is hard on my digestive track. It is hard on friends and family who are riding this roller coaster with us.

Because Marty works for a defense contractor who just saw some astronomical loss from their commercial division, who knows if he has a job in six months. That's ok. We will deal with that then. But we will deal with it in the Phoenix metro area.

Eventually we will leave AZ. I don't like it there. It is too hot. It is too crowded. But for now it is home. It is the devil I know. Eventually I will meet the angel I don't know.

Happy Problems

Though the house isn't going on the market for a few more weeks, there is work to be done for my listing in Peoria. My graphic artist friend Scott needs to make postcards for me. I need to put the listing on a few super-secret FB sites only real estate agents can access. There is a post to order. Photography to schedule. There might even be tours to coordinate if we get that far.

Then there is the nagging issue that we haven't even priced the house because the market is so fluid right now and prices are going up as I breathe.

Happy problems.

Muffy is in Charge

Today is the scheduled Community Outreach meeting. I will be missing it because I should be on a layover in Chicago by the time the meeting is called to order.

What a bummer! I won't be there to hear Muffy summarily shut down everyone else's ideas when she calls for a discussion, explaining, "it won't work," before the unsuspecting person can even finish their point. Muffy will then ask if anyone else has any better ideas and when nobody will speak, she will just announce everything will be done her way. It is like Junior High without the the protection of a juvenile criminal record if she purposely accidentally got bitch-slapped by an annoyed horde of real estate professionals.

I looked over the agenda yesterday. The Community Outreach Committee is still battling the same challenges it had last time I went: they need donations for lockboxes for the first responders. They also need to "find" a way to write letters to soldiers. And, they need to find speakers for the Critical Needs fund.

It seems to me an effective Chairperson should be looking for long-term solutions for such things. But what do I know? I am not in charge.

Random Adventures

Marty had five job interviews in a week. FIVE! They were with three different places. I didn't do the interviewing, but I am exhausted.

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The buyers of the cute little condo felt that perhaps their demands were a tad... demanding and backed down. Good thing, because, even though the place is under contract, I have had two agents show the place.

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Bonus Dad's son called me last week, "What do you want to do when you get here?" he asked. I said, "I want to read books, do jigsaw puzzles and laugh. And most of all, I don't want to make any decisions," was my answer. Then he asked me if I needed to go visit a winery up in Northern Michigan while I was there. I guess my mood was oozing through the phone. And yes, I want to go to the winery.

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