by Paul Slaybaugh | Sep 9, 2009 | Home Selling, Scottsdale Real Estate
You’ve been punched. You’ve been cajoled. You’ve been dismissed out of hand as a serious contender. Your corner wants to throw in the towel, but it’s time to look deep inside yourself for that fighting spirit. This is your Rocky moment, and I’m your Mick.
Tempting as it may be to utter “No mas,” in the face of a younger, stronger foe, you as a home seller have your own strengths. Yes, the bank properties have been hammering your rib cage and battering you with low blow after low blow for the last eleven rounds. Every time you regain your composure, another steel-fisted uppercut in the form of a new REO listing shatters the ineffective “pride of ownership” cup upon which you have been so dependant. The referee and the fight doctor are scrutinizing that nasty gash above your eye to determine if you are still able to intelligently defend yourself.
You’re seeing triple, you say? Buck up, Rock, and hit the guy in the middle.
Now that the free-fall in property values has seemingly arrested (much like the hearts of many homeowners this year) across several segments of the local Scottsdale Real Estate market, would-be sellers can take a deep breath and catch their second wind. Even if they are still leery of making the price jump from distressed properties to resale properties, buyers are back in the market. Several straight months of increasing home sales, decreasing inventory and even modest median price increases (really?) indicate this. That’s the good news. The bad news is that most of these buyers are still purchasing the goods on the ground floor (sporting goods, evening wear and foreclosed Real Estate) while the typical mom & pop seller continue to be priced on level four.
Before resale homes start selling at a higher rate, their prices still need to drift a little further South. This is not news. You’ve been pummeled with this unwelcome assertion for the past year. My intent is not to rabbit punch you with the obvious on this day. I’m offering a momentary reprieve from the infernal pessimism (which I have admittedly dispensed with impunity). No more defeatism from your corner, it’s time to talk strategy.
Yes, the bank-owned property on the far side of the ring is a fearsome opponent, but skill and guile can slay the relentless beast. You’ve been getting drubbed over the course of this bout because you are not offering your bigger foe any angles. You’re simply turtling up with that ridiculous price of yours and accepting a merciless beating. To change the tide in this lopsided affair, yes, you do need to get a bit more competitive with your price. Until you get inside the freakish reach advantage of the banks, you’re rope-a-dope tactics will just get you roped and doped.
This is not to imply that you need to match the price of the distressed properties, you simply need to vie for the same buyers. If the banks are on the ground floor, you need to get down to level two. If you can at least mitigate a portion of the huge price disadvantage you face, you have a puncher’s chance to sell your home. Here’s why:
- The bank property across the street will convey to the buyer in “as is” condition. You have maintained your home over the years and will make any necessary repairs, within reason, to appease a buyer.
- The bank property across the street will come with a grand total of zero disclosures. You will provide a potential buyer with a Seller Property Disclosure Statement, Insurance Loss History Report and any other appropriate documentation to give a certain level of comfort to the new owner.
- The bank property across the street may not be able to be financed by a buyer due to its condition. Because you have listened to your Realtor and whipped your home into tip-top shape, you will face no such problem. Right?
- The bank property across the street may require a buyer to order utilities turned on in their name (and pay any applicable deposits for said service) in order to inspect the working components of the home.
- The bank property across the street may ultimately attract multiple offers at its supremely low price. This can benefit you in several ways. For starters, the ultimate sales price is often driven higher than the list price in such scenarios, thus making your case for higher neighborhood values. Secondly, there will be despondent losing bidders for that property that will look, perhaps to you, for alternatives. Lastly, some buyers will become disenfranchised with bank properties after having gone through this multiple offer scenario several times. Eager for less competition and an honest negotiation, some just might set their sights on the slightly higher priced property that can be negotiated downwards instead of upwards.
So there you go, champ. You are far from a hapless tomato can against the oversized Palooka who has been doing the Ali Shuffle all over your face. He’s a one-trick pony. Take away the huge price haymaker and the kid is a regular Glass Joe. If you have the moxie and the wherewithal to get your price just a bit closer to the bank’s, you have the arsenal to pull off a stunning upset and walk out of the joint with the title. The title of “former homeowner,” that is.
Now put your mouthpiece back in, get off that damn stool and get in there and fight!
by Paul Slaybaugh | May 29, 2009 | Scottsdale, Scottsdale Neighborhoods, Scottsdale Real Estate
Got floor plans?

There aren’t too many extra copies of old floor plans floating around for some of the more established communities in Scottsdale. Fortunately, we happen to have a file drawer filled with original builder plans. Included in the mix is one of the more comprehensive collections of floor plans for McCormick Ranch homes that you will find anywhere. Whether you are a buyer admiring McCormick Ranch from a distance or a resident looking for a plan for renovation purposes, etc, you came to the right place.
Click on model names to view floor plans (Those without model hyperlinks are still to be added) or on subdivision names to view the neighborhood synopsis.
Unfortunately, a few builder plans have walked off over the 30 years that we have maintained these files. Have a copy of a floor plan that is not represented here? By all means, shoot it over to us and we’ll add it to the database.
Bear in mind that several subdivisions, such as Palo Viento I, Vista Del Lago, Estados De La Mancha and Los Tesoros, in addition to pockets of Paradise Park Trails and Palo Viento II are comprised of custom homes with no readily available floor plans.
Interested in owning a McCormick Ranch home? Scroll to the bottom of this page for live streaming results of the latest McCormick Ranch Real Estate listings to hit the market!
Visit our McCormick Ranch Home Page for a comprehensive community overview
Learn more about the McCormick Ranch Subdivisions
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Camelot Homes
Subdivisions: (Vista De La Tierra, Palo Viento II, Playa Del Sur, Estate Los Arboles, Paseo Village, Paradise Park Trails, Tierra Del Norte)
Models: The Embassy | The Lancelot | The Chateau | The Windsor | The Monarch | The Regal
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Camelo Vista
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Casa Dia Festivo
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Cavalier
Subdivisions: (Paradise Park Trails)
Models: The Briarcliff | The Chartercrest | The Frontera | The Whethersfield
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Dietz-Crane
Subdivisions: (Carriage Square, Villa La Playa)
Models: The Barcelona | The Hermosa | The Valencia | The Vallarte
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Dix
Subdivisions: (Tierra Feliz, Paradise Park Manor I & II)
Models: Dix-7600 | Dix-7604 | Dix-7605 | Dix-7700 (Tierra Feliz)
Dix-7901 | Dix-7902 | Dix-7903 | Dix-7904 (Bainbridge) | Dix-8001 (The Valencia) (Paradise Park Manor)
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Evans Wythycombe
Subdivisions: (Meridian at McCormick Ranch)
Models: The Apollo | The Aries | The Bella | The Gemini | The Juno
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Gateway
Subdivisions: (Paradise Park Trails)
Models: The Avanti | The Casa Rica | The Sierra | The Tempo | The Vista
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Geoffrey Edmunds
Subdivisions: (Cuernavaca)
Models: Casa Baja | Casa Redonda | Casa Rica | Casa Santiago | Casa Viejo
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Golden Heritage
Subdivisions: (Heritage Terrace, Heritage Village, Paradise Park Trails)
Models: Plan 40 (Heritage Terrace, Heritage Village 1)
Plan 243 | Plan 253 | Plan 263 | Plan 273 | Plan 283 (Heritage Village 2 & 3)
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JA Smith
Subdivisions: (Villa Hermosa)
Models: Plan 1675 | Plan 1953 | Plan 2380 | Plan 2600
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Jaeger
Subdivisions: (Country Horizon)
Models: CH-100 | CH-200 | CH-300 | CH-400 | CH-500 | CH-600
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Key West
Subdivisions: (Suggs Rancho McCormick)
Models: Casa Rica | Hacienda | Posada | Posada (Alternate)
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La Mariposa Villas
Models: Plan A | Plan B | Plan C | Plan C (Option)
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Lakeside Villas
Models: Atwater | Edgewater | Huntington
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Las Palomas
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Malouf Bros
Subdivisions: (El Paseo)
Models: La Elegancia | La Estancia | La Miranda | La Torre Alta
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Metropolitan
Subdivisions: (Villa Hermosa)
Models: Plan One | Plan Two | Plan Three | Plan Four
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Palm Cove
Models: Plan 1 | Plan 2 | Plan 3 | Plan 4 | Plan 5 | Plan 6 | Plan 7
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Pleasant Run
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Riggs
Subdivisions: (Mountain View East)
Models: Model A | Model B | Model C | Model D
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Santa Fe Construction Co / Ballard
Subdivisions: (Santa Fe)
Models: The Barcelona | The Coronado | The Domingo | The Montego
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Sandpiper
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Spanish Oaks
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Suggs
Subdivisions: (Paseo Village, Suggs Rancho McCormick)
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Tarrantini
Subdivisions: (Paradise Park Trails)
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The Villages
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The Villages Five (Starfire)
Models: The Aurora | The Bella | The Covington | The Desert Star
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No one knows McCormick Ranch Real Estate like Ray & Paul. Whether Buying or Selling in the Ranch, we’re your guys.
(480) 220-2337 | paul@scottsdalepropertyshop.com
by Paul Slaybaugh | May 19, 2009 | Home Buying, Scottsdale Real Estate
“There sure is a lot of crap out there.”
This from a buyer who by all practical measure has been bound and determined to see every single one of the 37,000 active listings currently on the market in the greater Phoenix area.
“Yep, there sure is.”
This from the weary Scottsdale Realtor who is barely suppressing the I-Told-You-So urge.
Throw out the tighter restrictions on financing. Forget about the would-be buyers who can’t buy because they are tied to a house they can’t sell. Pay no mind to interest rate surfers and bottom seekers. If there has been one under-reported factor influencing the purchasing habits of home buyers in the past six months, it has been an overabundance of choice. Believe it or not, but many of the folks fortunate enough to be in a position to buy in this market are being held hostage by … themselves. Give a person too many perceived options and watch the latter half of Newton’s first law of physics take hold.
The buyer at rest tends to stay at rest unless acted upon by a 1% interest rate and a crowbar.
As our inventory has slowly contracted in the last few months, however, so has the rationale for delaying the purchase that you want to make.
Now, before I go any further, repeat after me: “I want to buy a house.”
Sometimes, it can be helpful to remind yourself of the penultimate objective. It’s easy to get so wrapped up in the allure of winning a negotiation or the status of the current global economy that you forget what you are actually trying to accomplish.
I told people when there were 55,000 properties on the market, and I tell them today, the overwhelming majority of the homes I see are either overpriced or in deplorable condition. The sheer volume of the listing inventory has convinced buyers that they will have thousands of viable options and that they will basically get to name their price for the home that they want, but a rude awakening often awaits.
While conditions are ripe to secure a terrific value, those who expect hundreds of impeccable options for their specific criteria will be disappointed. The good properties and the good values still come and go with lightning speed, leaving the dawdling buyer to sift through the rest of the damaged goods that have been on the market for 300 days.
Want to make a steal? You can. But you have to be fast and you have to be well qualified ahead of time. Matter of fact, the last two bank properties that I went after with clients had a total of 25 offers between them. I went 1 for 2 in my pursuit, and the prices were bid up substantially in each instance because the list price was so far below market value.
It’s like 2005 with greatly reduced prices for this segment of the market. There is an armada of cash laden buyers looking for the same turnkey property at the same bargain basement price.
As such, not only may you have to pay over full price for that hot property, but you will likely purchase it “as is” with no seller warranties or disclosures if it is a foreclosure listing. That’s just life in the big city when you are dealing with a bank. Given the pricing, it is often worth it.
There will be those buyers, though, who still believe they can knock 100-200k off of any price due to the “buyer’s market” about which they have been hearing.
Newsflash: You only knock that kind of coin off a price when there is no demand for the product. In other words, the home must be overpriced or under-maintained significantly enough that it attracts no suitors.
I don’t know about you, but this doesn’t sound like the home I’d be after.
Don’t become one of the zombie house shoppers that turns into a hobbiest through unrealistic expectations. You know the type. At some point along the way, they go from being active home buyers to tourists when they fail to match up the reality of the marketplace with their preconceived notions. They wander around aimlessly every weekend looking at open houses and half-heartedly seeking sustenance for their undead pre-qual letters.
Realtor: “So, can you see yourself living in this home?”
Zombie Buyer: “Brains!”
You have to be ready to move when the right home comes along at the right price, lest you be resigned to thumbing through the stack of also-ran listings while the more pragmatic consumers eat up the good values.
Inertia, it’s a fickle thing. If you recognize value when you see it, you will be successful in securing it. Keep missing the good ones by submitting unrealistic offers or waiting for the magical unicorn to appear with the million dollar home and $100,000 price tag, and the sedentary buyer will seep further into the earth.
It’s a great time to be a buyer, but you have to separate the hype from your purchasing decisions. You might even find that some of the better values are found in the resale market now that sellers have begun to wise up and price more competitively with the banks, but that is fodder for another post.
Now, do you want to go speulunking, or do you want to buy a house? I’m up for either, but I need to know which shoes to wear.
by Paul Slaybaugh | May 2, 2009 | Home Selling, Scottsdale Real Estate
One of the age old adages of Real Estate is that everything is negotiable. By and large, it is true. However, another adage to bear in mind is that there is a time and a place for everything. Let’s examine the sticky issue of seller repairs during the course of a typical transaction, for example.
Buyer’s aren’t the only ones who can experience a healthy degree of remorse after consummating an agreement to purchase a home. The phenomenon also extends to sellers who are convinced that they have undersold their property. Hard to fathom that anyone who watches the news these days and has an idea of what is going on in the current market would think it is possible to undersell right now, but it happens. While a remorseful buyer may look to the home inspection as an escape hatch to get out of a purchase they no longer wish to make, a remorseful seller may decide to stonewall all buyer inspection requests because “they are already stealing the house.”
There is also the case of a seller who has received a subsequently higher offer. Legally bound to the terms of the contract with the first buyer, the higher offer can only be placed in backup status. As such, some sellers with a better backup offer in hand will be inclined to stonewall the inspection demands of buyer number one in hopes of chasing him/her away. This would enable the more favorable terms of the second contract to be moved to the forefront.
Well, in each case, there is a problem with the strategy. A seller cannot retroactively change a purchase agreement to an “as is” transaction. The time to address such terms is during the initial contract negotiation. Unless overridden with constructive language, the boiler plate of the AAR (Arizona Association of Realtors) purchase contract warrants that certain systems of the home are in working order upon the close of escrow (receipted proof of any/all corrective work is required to be furnished to the buyer 3 days prior to closing).
Section 5a of the AAR Purchase Contract:
Seller Warranties: Seller warrants and shall maintain and repair the Premises so that, at the earlier of possession or COE: (i) all heating, cooling, mechanical, plumbing and electrical systems (including swimming pool and/or spa, motors, filter systems, cleaning systems, and heaters, if any), freestanding range/oven, and built-in appliances will be in working condition; …
In other words, the seller is contractually obligated to make any repairs necessary to ensure that the systems referenced in the passage above are in fully functional condition at closing (or possession, whichever comes first). I am not an attorney, but according to the suits in our downtown corporate office, “functional” is to mean “as intended upon original installation.” In other words, your A/C may work, but if it has a temperature split outside of the ideal range, you are most likely technically obligated to repair the component that is preventing it from functioning in accordance with original specifications. Faulty wiring (double taps in the breaker box, reversed polarity, etc), non-functioning fixed appliances, leaky shower valves … you are on the hook for those repairs.
Let me reiterate, I am not an attorney, so please do not refer to anything stated in this post for legal guidance. I am but a simple Realtor with a simple message:
Unless you struck the seller warranty language out of your original purchase agreement (good luck with that in this market unless you happen to be an asset manager for a bank and willing to discount the price of the home dramatically), there are certain repairs you are stuck with, lest you be in breach of the purchase contract.
That’s where fun new topics such as specific performance lawsuits come into play.
Read the contract to which you are agreeing, and don’t let your agent dismiss the fine print as “just boilerplate.” That boilerplate contains specific rights and responsibilities of which you need to be aware prior to ratification. The Devil is always in the details.
![MPj04385050000[1]](http://www.scottsdalepropertyshop.com/wp-content/uploads/2009/05/mpj043850500001-thumb.jpg)
by Paul Slaybaugh | May 1, 2009 | Home Selling, Scottsdale Real Estate
Appraisals are typically regarded as the most accurate measure of a home’s value, and for good reason. Licensed to perform one task and one task only, appraisers see and evaluate property all day, every day. While some of us more egocentric Realtors feel that we put more time and effort into our own opinions of value, considering we will ultimately bear the responsibility of bringing the home to market and selling it, that bit of vanity is neither here nor there. Appraisers, though many underwriters these days are loathe to admit it, are still considered the ultimate authority on worth outside of a willing buyer and seller.
Appraisers, however, are often hamstrung by their own guidelines in keeping pace with the current market. This can be beneficial, such as when prices were artificially exploding between 2005-2006. We agents lamented the stodgy appraisers who were too rooted in the past (closed sales) to acknowledge the present (upward trending prices) while values were exploding. You couldn’t attend an office meeting without a colleague or six bemoaning the bozo appraiser who didn’t grasp the current market. If only our industry at large had been so conservative.
Normally the protective ally of the bank and the buyer, I have noticed an interesting shift as of late, however. Appraisers have become a seller’s best friend. Before you toss me out on my heretical ear, hear me out.
Appraisers have begun to view the market in two distinct categories. There is the general non-distressed resale home market, and then there is the foreclosure market. When evaluating a property, most seem to have taken to lumping properties into one grouping or the other. Their subsequent findings are based upon the homogeneous pairings: bank-owned properties are comped against other bank-owned properties and standard resale homes are comped against other standard resale homes.
It sounds great in theory, but the problem with this new pattern is two-fold. First, there is the matter of pure sales volume. The action in our current market is more heavily dominated by foreclosure properties than any point in memory. It’s undeniable. The mini sales boom that has seen a steady increase in total closed and pending sales in each of the last several months here in the greater Phoenix area is due in large part to the allure of these lower priced options. As such, it is just not feasible to ignore this growing segment of the market when trying to determine the value of a home. The data is often quite scarce when trawling for non-distressed sales upon which to base an evaluation. By and large, the higher priced resale homes just aren’t selling with a great enough frequency to provide adequate comparison data.
The other issue is the problematic assumption that a buyer cares. If the home next to your own has been foreclosed upon and is listed at $200,000 less, do you honestly think the buyer will buy yours if all other things are equal? Is a buyer really expected to see anything beyond the price and the condition? The label of “bank-owned” versus “resale” is wholly irrelevant to what a buyer is willing to pay. Shoot, I have seen quite a few remodeled bank-owned or short sale properties that put many dog-eared resale listings to shame. And yet, they are somehow devalued or eliminated from the consideration of value for other homes in the neighborhood simply because of the conjured stigma. Buyers may start their search with one particular market segment in mind (distressed property shoppers looking for a deal, resale shoppers looking for a well maintained home), but they will ultimately look at everything that fits their price and need requirements. Labels be damned.
I sure like it when my appraisal tells me my home is worth more by ignoring completely the last four neighborhood comps, but I know the real score. No buyer will pay me what my current appraisal tells me it’s worth. No way. I know better than to be the ostrich who thinks that the homes that are actually selling right now have no impact on my property value because they are “distressed.” Guess what, buckaroo, those sales are distressing the entire market. There may be microcosms within the market at large, but they are amoebic. The uneven boundaries protruding against each other as they occupy overlapping space.
So while there is still plenty of benefit in having your home evaluated by a neutral authority, just remember not to spend all of that anticipated equity before your buyer signs on the dotted line. You just might be unpleasantly surprised when he doesn’t downgrade the competition or recent sales comps like your appraiser did.