Video 24: Dean Ouellette discusses some market stats for the Tempe condo market and Phoenix condo market in September 2009. The activity is way up almost tripple what was a year ago, but prices for both the Tempe and Phoenix condo market are way down. In August the Tempe condo market had a bump in value due to a sale of a unit in Bridgeview. For more information you can leave a comment or e-mail me Dean Ouellette.

If you read the post below this one you have already heard about frustration with the most recent bank I have been dealing with on a “quick” cash foreclosure closing. I know personally these days when I go to blogs I would rather watch videos than read a post, so I decided I would add more video to my blog. Here is my first installment which summarizes why REO banks suck post below. Would love to hear your feedback. And yes I know, I have a face for radio and a voice for print.

I have a cash buyer looking a quick closing because his son is going to be going to ASU and he wants a small condo or house to fix up and live in. With school starting in three weeks we needed to move quick and found a condo that worked out perfectly. I went to the property two days after it was on the market and it had yet to be trashed out, and it was trashed!

On August 5th we submitted an offer for full price, waived any inspections and offered a quick close of August 21st.

On August 8th we get notice that the bank wants to work with us. The sent us their addendums and they set the closing date on or before August 28th. My client is not overly happy, but I told him we would do what we could to try to make it before. My out of state buyer signs the addendums and we send them back to the bank on August 8th.

In the bank addendums it has standard language:
The closing shall occur on or before August 28th, 2009. If transaction does not close on time as agreed, at no fault of Seller, Buyer agrees to pay a $100.00/day per diem charge to the Seller.
Do I like the language, no. Do we have any choice, no.

Fast forward to August 27th, is the buyer ready to close? Shoot, he has been ready to close for two weeks now, one slight problem, the Seller has still not signed off on their addendums from August 8th that they sent us. Guess we are not closing on time. We don’t even have an officially executed contract. Fast forward to September 8th, our extension is about ready to run out, the trash out has still not occurred and the Seller is still not signing off on all their docs. We need another extension and the Seller has sent over an extension giving them until 9/28/2009. Meanwhile my client is living in a motel because school started three weeks ago.

I decided to draft my own extension and send it to the Seller, this one read close of escrow shall be on or before 9/14/2008 and if it does not close on time at no fault of the Buyer, the Seller agrees to pay a $100.00/day per diem charge to the Buyer. It seems fair to me, they wanted us to close on time or pay a penalty, why not hold them to same standard?

Well guess what, for the first time since we started working on this quick closing cash deal over a month ago the Seller is quick to respond. No. Yea – no surprise, I never expected them to sign it, but it does prove a point. Foreclosure banks want you to hurry up and perform, and will fine you if you do not, but they will make their own rules for themselves.

I know, we didn’t have to sign the addendum, but then my buyer does not get the Phoenix Condo they wanted. We are at the mercy of the banks right now. They are writing the rules and not only are they completely in their favor, they are completely non-negotiable. Under normal market circumstances I would never advice my clients to sign the language in a bank addendum, but these are not normal market circumstances. If you want the house, if you want that condo or house foreclosure deal, you need to sign it. Yup, it sucks.

The short sale market in the Phoenix area is changing quickly because of the low level of bank owned foreclosures on the market. It used to be when I met with a new buyer and we were talking about what they wanted I would explain to them the short sale process vs. the foreclosure process and they would almost always tell me to forget short sales. But times are changing.

Just a couple months ago there were so many foreclosures on the market in the Phoenix and Tempe area you would not need to look at the short sales, but that is no longer the case. Last week I started working with a new couple who contacted my via this site and they we talked about what they wanted. They wanted to stay in Tempe and were looking at either single family homes or possible Tempe condos.

If you look at the market today, there are 373 active single family detached homes in Tempe as I type this and 105 active Tempe condos. Of those single family homes that are active, only 23 are foreclosures and of the 105 Tempe condos only 5 are bank owned foreclosures.

No longer can the buyer looking in a limited area focus solely on bank owned foreclosures, they need to consider short sales, unless they need to be in a home within the next couple of months.

So what has this done to the short sale market in Tempe? If I called on a foreclosure property a couple of months ago there may have been a few offers on the property, but when I called on the short sale homes there were rarely offers. I just finished calling on three short sales properties in Tempe which had all been on the market for less than three weeks. The three properties had 2, 7 and 13 offers on them.

This is good news for the person who needs to sell their home via a short-sale, but not good news for buyers. If you are looking to sell your home or condo on a short-sale, and you price it right, there is little reason you should not have offers in the first few days. Of course that all depends on the price and condition of your home too.

So for buyers short sales have become a viable option. After bidding on multiple homes for the past six weeks they may have become frustrated about always being outbid and are thinking of the short sale side of the market. There is still less competition on the short sale side than the foreclosure side, but that gap is starting to close.

I was previewing a few condominiums in Tempe for an out of state client this afternoon and it struck me, there are some great deals in the Tempe and Phoenix condo markets. If you are thinking about a property for yourself or your ASU student, now is a great time.

All you need to do is look at my post from last night on the March 2009 Tempe condo numbers and you will see the market is slow. While the foreclosure market in the surrounding areas is booming, the condo, and especially the luxury condo market, is lagging behind. That leads me to short list on why now is a great time to buy your Tempe or Phoenix condo.

1. Plenty of inventory – no shortage of properties in every price range.
2. Low prices – the market has taken a beating and prices have been slashed.
3. Low interest rates – they are low, but how long will interest rates remain low?
4. Banks willing to negotiate – banks are willing to work with you to get deals done.
5. Compete buyers market – Most areas of the market are more balanced, but when it comes to these condo markets it is still a buyers market.
6. People are moving to Phoenix and Tempe – This will help the market recover quicker.
7. Stability - Did you know Tempe had more high tech jobs than any other city its size?
8. Light Rail – The light rail system has made it easier to get in and out of city.
9. Entertainment – Tempe’s entertainment life has exploded recently
10. Kiddie Condo loan – Great option of financing if you have a student going to ASU soon.

The City of Phoenix is launching a new program which will help homebuyers in the city purchase single family homes and condominiums. Potential homebuyers may qualify to receive up to $15,000 in down payment and closing cost assistance to help buy foreclosed properties in the city.

Phoenix is calling the program the Phoenix Neighborhood Stabilization Program Homeownership Assistance Program. Say that ten times quick.

The money the buyer receives will need to be repaid to the city. The repayment would be due upon the selling of the condo or home or the refinancing of it. Any Phoenix condo or home that would be eligible to receive the assistance from the city must meet U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development Housing Quality Standards and cannot be used for property rehabs. The property also must be in the City of Phoenix and be sold at least 15 percent under appraised value.

The buyers must also qualify under FHA guidelines and complete the NSP eight-hour Homeownership Education and Credit Assessment counseling and must also live in the Phoenix condo or home as their primary residence. Eligible families can earn up to 120 percent of area median income which is based on a family size. A family of two could earn up to $61,650 and a family four could earn up to $77,050.

There were some sessions today in Phoenix to teach more about this program and there will be more to come. We will notify you when we hear about those upcoming dates.

There are plenty of foreclosure properties in Phoenix and hopefully this is one way to help fill some of those condos, homes and townhouses.

More information can be found here in this fact sheet.

*Editors note: While this program looks great on the surface, the killer is going to be the home must be sold at 15% under appraisal. The devil is in the details.

One of my best friends called me the other day and said his dad may have some buyers for me. His father is a former Air Force General who currently owns an import/export business that does work in China. Many of his contacts in China had been asking about luxury condos in cities such as Los Angeles, San Diego and Phoenix.

I told him I could help him out in the Phoenix and Tempe condo market. There were plenty of Tempe and Phoenix condos on the market that would match what they may be looking for. He was hoping there would be somewhere they could view properties with pictures online. Of course the easy option is do an IDX search and just populate the MLS results into a web page they could view. But I am a tech geek and that was not good enough for me. What I wanted to do was build a web page for each listing in the MLS then using Google, translate the page into Chinese for them.

While if I had gone with the IDX search I would not need permission to include anyone’s listings in my project, I decided I would ask each listing agent if I could create a page for their listing on my site that would be used to advertise to the potential Chinese investors. Of course I would show the page to the listing agent.

As I saw it, basically what I am offering is another free advertising tool for their high end luxury Tempe and Phoenix condos for free. Worst case scenario I waste 15 hours of my life building the site out for no results, best case scenario I bring buyers to the market which helps me and the seller’s agent.

I pulled some listings I wanted to start with and ended up e-mailing 15 listing agents. After e-mailing all 15 in the last 24 hours I have heard back from 11, one was a bad e-mail address and I am still waiting to hear from the three other agents. Of the 11 that responded, 10 gave me permission and seven of those 10 went out of their way to tell me how thrilled with the idea they were.

Then there was one agent we will call Diane. She was not as happy. She told me in no uncertain terms that I was not allowed to use her property, only she was allowed to advertise it. I had no problem with her decisions at all, it is her listing she can do what she wants. After talking with another agent today he pointed out something I really did not consider. Can you imagine being the owner of an $800,000 condo, having your unit on the market for months and your agent turned down a new free advertising opportunity?

What do you think? Send me an e-mail or leave me a comment. Let me know what you think of this one listing agents decision.

To be a real estate agent in the Tempe and Phoenix areas over the last few months has been an exciting time. House prices have dropped to the point where investors and buyers are coming out from hiding. All these new buyers have made my year very busy so far and I look forward to it staying that way.

This year I have been blogging every day at other real estate websites and that has cut into the time I have spent here on my own site, but that has been changing. Over the last few days I have been making more time to make sure I keep this site more up to date. Over the next few weeks I will be expanding this site adding two new sections.

My first expansion is going to be Tempe Condos. This section will introduce you to some of the amazing opportunities in the Tempe condo market and I will blog about the latest happening in Tempe and how they effect this market. After that section is rolled out I will be launching a Downtown Phoenix Condo section. These two areas are going to become a greater focus on this website.

I look forward to having a conversation on Tempe condos and Phoenix condos with you in the future. Fell free to contact me any time with questions or ideas.

One interesting Tempe fact: Last night at Ignite Phoenix 3 I learned that Tempe has more high tech jobs than any other city its size in the country. Tempe and Phoenix are great destination locations and will continue to grow for the foreseeable future.