The summer of 2020 has brought on a bombardment of offers on our listings. Markets like Phoenix, Flagstaff, Las Cruces, ABQ, amongst a few others have seen an astronomical rise in activity. To put this in perspective, in Flagstaff as of this writing, I have only 1 active listing. Every other listing I have in Flagstaff is under contract. In Phx, nearly half of our listings are under contract. In Las Cruces, I listed one of my own personal properties through our firm and it had 4 offers the very first weekend.  Without a doubt, buyers are taking advantage of insanely low interest rates. In the coming weeks, I will write a more detailed blog outlining exactly how I prepped my Las Cruces property and what techniques I used to gather 4 offers on the very first weekend of publishing to the MLS. I will map out an outline that will help our sellers mirror some of my personal techniques in their own listings.

ARMLS Flat Fee MLS Listing:

Arizona Flat Fee MLS Listing

Phoenix is still our home base and the market I follow most closely. Since 03, we have seen the rise, fall, and rise again of property value in the Phx Metro Area. Phoenix is serviced by the ARMLS system. Year in and Year out, Congress Realty ranks in the top 10 for all Valley agents when it comes to total properties sold. 2019 was no exception. Through our flat fee MLS program, Congress Realty sold over 50 Million dollars worth of residential real estate in the state of AZ alone. ARMLS includes Phoenix and all of the surrounding area. This includes Buckeye, Florence, Queen Creek, Scottsdale, Anthem, Carefree, Mesa, Chandler, Fountain Hills, and so forth. In all of these areas, we offer both Electronic Lockboxes and Sign and Post installation. With nearly 20 years in the Phoenix market, we are looking fwd to another exciting year.

Interested in purchasing a home at Arabella Scottsdale by DR Horton? Why not get 2% of the purchase price back at closing! Congress Realty will rebate 2% of the purchase price directly to the buyer at closing through our buyer rebate program. There is no cost to the buyer to participate in this program. Reach out to us for details and how to get registered.

Arabella of Scottsdale is a new gated community forthcoming by DR Horton near the intersection of Bell Rd and Tatum. DR Horton paid 80 Million dollars for this land in early to mid 2019. The community will feature a 5 acre common area for residents.

Happy New Year! We are excited to take on 2020 and continue to build upon the success of 2019. This past year, we worked with more buyers than ever before who were taking advantage of our buyer rebate program. If getting cash back at closing sounds like something you are interested in on your next purchase, reach out to us. We will rebate 2/3rds of any commission paid to our office back to the buyer at closing.  You will be amazed how simple it is to get thousands of dollars back at closing.

A few notes from the start of the year, Arizona continues to boom. We have seen a remarkable increase in offers coming in on listed properties with Congress Realty in Arizona since after the holiday. More and more agents are using the showing time app in Arizona and Texas. If you are listed with our firm or considering listing and have questions regarding Showing Time, reach out to us. It is a simple tool to use to manage showings and review Realtor feedback from previous showings on your property. Las Vegas, Nevada continues to see a spike in closed sales and slight decrease in supply on the market.

We will continue to provide market updates for available inventory and sold data for various markets that we cover throughout the year.

Inventory is up 4% from this time last year. (March 2018 compared with March 2019)

Closed sales for the year in the 1st quarter were down about 20% compared to 2018.  This # isn’t a huge concern, as 2018 reflects an astronomical # of sales compared to years prior.

The market can really be looked at in 3 groups right now. Under 300k is clearly a seller’s market. Inventory is low and reflects less than 3 months of supply. 300-500k is considered to be a balanced market with just under 6 months available inventory on the market. And Lastly, over 500k is trending towards a buyer’s market, with over 10 months available supply on the market.

*These figures reflect the Flagstaff, AZ market only

What happens next? I’ve signed my name on the dotted line…

The first thing that needs to happen is you want to ensure the escrow is opened within 1 business day. To open the escrow, any party to the transaction needs to get a fully signed contract to the escrow officer. You can walk it into their office or email the documents. In addition, the buyer must deposit the earnest money with the title/escrow company. This should happen within 24-48  hours of acceptance of the offer. As a seller, you can confirm the earnest money has been deposited through the earnest money receipt provided by the escrow officer.

Once the escrow is open and the EMD is deposited, you want to ensure you have the SPDS to the buyer or their agent no later than 5 days from acceptance. The term SPDS simply refers to the seller disclosures. As of this blog posting, you want to use the updated 2017 version. You can find these and download these at anytime through our private client area by clicking on State Files. Once you provide these to the buyer or their agent, they will review and they should initial and sign the SPDS AND return a copy to you. It is very important you have a signed copy from the buyer. The next step is the CLUE report. Essentially, this is a 5 year claims history on the property concerning insurance. It tells the buyer if the seller has made an insurance claim on the property over the specified time period. A CLUE report can be obtained online or you can contact your insurance provider and let them know what you need. Claim reports are almost always free from your insurance provider and you can get them within about 2 days of requesting. At this time, it’s also necessary to provide your buyer with any other agreed upon disclosures per the purchase contract that you signed. For example, this could include the LBP disclosure, mold disclosures, etc…

From that point, you are on your way to the inspection and BINSR period. We will update the blog to go over the BINSR in our next posting.

ARMLS has recently gone through a lockbox exchange via SUPRA. As with many other markets in recent months, Supra has introduced the blue tooth functional “I” boxes to the ARMLS market. We currently have about 10 in stock. If you have an old box and would like to exchange it, please email us at info@congressrealty.com or call us at 800 657 6579 ext 1.

** ARMLS is the MLS system for Phoenix, Scottsdale, and surrounding markets.

While national websites like Trulia and Realtor.com have a lot of traffic, don’t forget about the exposure your listing will receive on local IDX-enabled websites.  A Realtor’s own website specializing in Paradise Valley, Arizona, will have a small fraction of the national traffic of the national websites, but his traffic will be highly-targeted to the area and price range that he is actively working.  Someone might initially browse listings on a national website, then move onto a site that is area-specific.  They might want specific information about neighborhoods, property values, trends, etc. that is not necessarily reflected in national data or generic search queries.  Using the Paradise Valley website as an example, an online homebuyer can click on a search for the Montelucia Residences, and not only see all the active listings but get a brief write-up about the number of homes, the fact that they are adjacent to a luxury hotel, and the grocery store that residents would most likely shop at.

There seems to be a bit of confusion surrounding the Phx/Scottsdale market right now. Different homeowners have very different points of view on this topic. The reason for this is simple – Location.

It is nearly impossible to buy a SFR entry level home in the Phx/Scottsdale area right now. Most every property that fits this criteria will see 10-15 offers within a few days of being on the market. Outside of this spectrum, activity has increased dramatically for areas outside of the Phx/Scottsdale area, however, we aren’t seeing the same kind of multiple offer frenzy that we are in Phx/Scottsdale. (There are exceptions of course)

What is really nice is the high end market is starting to pick up as well. We are seeing more and more offers on properties in the 400-800k area and even a few in the 1Million plus range. We recently had a listing in Phx in the 400k range that saw 3 offers and went under contract within a few days of listing.

What advice do we have for sellers?  Don’t get overwhelmed and get yourself into trouble with multiple offers. If you aren’t certain how to handle a multiple offer situation correctly…. Call us at 800 657 6579. We can assist you with just about anything involving a multiple offer situation. We can go over the highest and best technique versus issuing multiple counters to find out which is best for your specific situation.

If you are a property owner in Arizona, it is very important to realize that there are many different MLS’s throughout the state. It is imperative that your property be listed on the correct local MLS. To illustrate this point, Tucson, Green Valley, and Rio Rico all have different MLS systems. Each city has their own sep system. As a seller in these areas, you want to ensure your property is on the correct system. Listing a home in Rio Rico on the TARMLS website for example will provide little to no value. In this example, your home needs to be placed on the Santa Cruz County MLS system.

Anytime you are interviewing full service agents or limited service agents, always ensure that agent is a member of your local MLS. Do not be fooled by national companies who try and trick you into listing your property on the largest available MLS instead of your local MLS.

Local is always better in the world of MLS exposure.