Some of Arizona’s most Successful Agents call John Hall & Associates home.

Monthly Archives: July 2011

MARS Update – July 2011

by on Jul 15, 2011 | Careers and Training, Legal Issues, Real Estate News

Big news on the MARS Short Sale front this week, both from the ADRE and the FTC. We’ll probably hear more from ADRE once the Federal announcement gets digested.

Here’s an excerpt from the ADRE bulletin earlier this week.

Here’s what the FTC had to say.

So what do these announcements mean to the agents negotiating short sales in Arizona? My initial take is no more disclosure forms or announcements on web sites or other forms of advertising. For John Hall agents that means all forms 1, 2, 3a and 3b are no longer required. 1 is the advertising form for ads and web sites. 2, 3a and 3b were for short sale listing transactions. Again the MARS forms are no longer required at John Hall & Associates. Removing the ban on advanced fees might be a little trickier. Is it regulated by state statute or by the FTC? That’s why I think we will hear something from ADRE in the near future.

ADRE did clarify their interpretation on 2 agents from the same company working a short sale and teams having multiple agents including a specific short sale bank negotiator and whether they need a loan originator license or not. It’s contained in the 4th and 5th questions in the article. We’ll be talking about these changes at the office meetings coming up, so check us out on Tuesday in Scottsdale and 7/26 in the PV office.

Stay informed and practice real estate the right way.

Phoenix Business Journal: Residential Real Estate

by on Jul 13, 2011 | Careers and Training, Company News, REALTOR® Success Story

Phoenix Business JournalWarning: Placement of Feathers in Cap Ahead

Annually the Phoenix Business Journal publishes their Book of Lists. This is where they rank local businesses based on various criteria depending on the industry. Real estate happens to be a popular industry in our neck of the woods, therefore it receives several lists based on different segments; residential brokerage, commercial brokerages, residential real estate agents, commercial real estate agents, etc. Here are three definite noteworthy items…

John Hall & Associates Ranks 5th

Based on 2010 local residential sales volume, we came in fifth on the Residential Real Estate Broker’s list!  Woot! kind of an interesting note, we were fifth last year and fifth 10 years ago.

Russell Shaw Ranks 10th

Based on total dollar volume closed in 2010, Russell Shaw came in tenth on the Residential Real Estate Agents list.

Evan Carr Ranks 15th

Again, based on the total dollar volume closed in 2010, Evan Carr came in fifteenth on the Residential Real Estate Agents list.

Congrats to all the REALTORS® that ranked and especially those JHA family members.  Always cool to get recognized for your hard work!

 

 

Phoenix Real Estate Market – July 2011

by on Jul 1, 2011 | Buying, Real Estate News, Real Estate Statistics, Selling

Once again building the Phoenix real estate market report first thing on the first of the month produced some surprising results. The number of closings looks too high, especially the number and percentage of short sale closings. Even though I think these numbers will change, I’ll report them as I see them on 7/1/11.

June 2011 had 10,509 closed transactions; highest number of home sales from any June. In fact, it happens to be the highest number of home sales from any single month ever, previous high 10,250. The Arizona Regional MLS (ARMLS) has reported +10,000 sales only 3 other times: 6/04, 6/05, and 8/05. This is the first time over 10,000 in almost 6 years.

Phoenix Market Trends

Looking at recent Phoenix market trends, June 2011 sales volume increased 7% over May 2011 and by 13% over June 2010.

Fortunately in early July, we have good news on the price front as well. Both the average and median home sales price increased month over month 2% and 3% respectively – $161,000 and $111,000.

Since we have 6 months in the books, I looked at the year to date comparisons 2011 vs. 2010 and 2011 vs. all-time. Remember 2010’s number of transactions were approximately 92,000 which ranked fourth highest home sales all time. Greater Phoenix’s highest year with 104,700 came in 2005. Well, 2011 is off to a very strong start with 53,501 closings YTD. That’s 11% higher than 2010′s numbers and 1% off of the record setting 2005.