According to the New York Times “New Fed Rule for Mortgage Brokers” article – huge amounts have been paid to the brokers by banks and other lenders through various fees and rebate programs.

What a rip-off! At least in the Real Estate you know exactly how much you’ll pay your agent and the rates are negotiable! Not to mention that there is much more work involved in a real estate transaction.

There is definitely a significant increase in “Closed” transactions in the price range over $700,000. Hopefully this is a new and sustainable trend.

I’ll still keep and expand my Real Estate business, though. Thanks to having support from a team of three well experienced and knowledgeable agents, that I lined up at the beginning of last year, I can concentrate on providing advice and designing the best suited strategies for buyers and sellers.

There is definitely a reason why my clients call me “Tucson’s Smartest Realtor”. Thanks to my financial background and economics knowledge, as well as acquired real estate know-how, I am able to give people an unbiased opinion and “inside information” and bring logic and extensive analysis into emotional decisions.

In the current economic and political chaos, with the wide range of opinions – from deflation to inflation, from recession – to depression – or to significant economic growth, from double-dip to the new heights, people are looking for professional guidance, not just help from a salesperson.

By the way, our real estate team is one of the top-producers with Keller Williams Southern Arizona and my clients receive full real estate services in all price ranges and all areas of town, which I was unable to achieve just by myself.

Relocating to Tucson and diving into the booming Real Estate trend worked well in 2004 when we had a newborn baby and were ready to buy our first house. 6 years and 2 babies later, it feels just right to expand back into what I was really good at – chess and finance.

Opened last summer, Catalina Foothills Chess Academy is showing awesome results. Students with 6 months of experience, not only hold their ground against opponents who have been in chess for 4-5 years, but bring home trophies and medals. A brand new class of 4- & 5-years old has been added last week – GREAT kids!

Meanwhile, I am very excited to be teaching Risk Management & Derivatives class at Eller College of Management. The abundance of Risk Management disasters in the last few years makes it a necessity to teach undergraduate and graduate students to understand and appreciate various risks and have the tools and discipline to deal with them.

As I mentioned earlier, I didn’t expect much from it. My clients know and trust me, so the change in the company name didn’t matter to any one of them. My transition into team work environment went even better than I expected and I was ready to get back into my reasonably successful daily routine, when I suddenly discovered that…

To my huge surprise, I became a big fan of Keller Williams Realty. From the first day of transition, the new company gave us ton of new and mostly free tools, training, books, resources and ideas. To make sure that we implement and use the resources provided, we got enrolled into BOLD training and competition – a 7 week adventure of reinventing ourselves. Read more at http://www.FoothillsInsider.com/desert-olympians/

This was a beginning of a very interesting chain of events. In the next few weeks, I received a ton of e-mails and phone calls from known and unknown, large and small real estate companies from all over Tucson. I didn’t know half of them existed! Now, I needed to choose from among different cultures, varying commission splits and scattered office locations, etc.

The three main companies to consider were of course the newly established Keller Williams Southern Arizona; Realty Executives International, whose CEO came to Tucson in a heroic effort to save the Realty Executives brand, agents and presence in Tucson; and rapidly expanding low-office-fee Tierra Antigua Realty. Of course, I had no intention of returning to the extremely high split-commission-fee of Long Realty, nor join some unknown realty on the other side of town.

I’ve been in Real Estate long enough to understand that the company matters little, for as long as it doesn’t ruffle the agent’s business. To me, it was an even choice between inconvenience (having to change my business cards, marketing materials, Internet presence, and established connections) and excitement of change (new opportunities, new actions).

Each of the three companies had its own appeal. After three long weeks of deliberation, I finally decided to move to Keller Williams Southern Arizona. Why? Don’t expect me to give you the common BS reply: “Because it will serve better my clients”. I still have no idea how well it will serve both me and you. When I find out how good (or not), I’ll let you know.

The reason I’ve moved to Keller Williams Southern Arizona is … I have joined the Team of Ledford, Clark & Clark, with whom I was working closely in the last year or so. I found it to be a huge advantage to have the reliable agents whom I can trust with my business and who are ready to step up at any time when I get more business than I can handle by myself. So, when I got an offer from Cheryl, Dick and Karen to join their team, my choice boiled down to one question – is Foothills Insider® a lone wolf or a team player? By now, you already know the answer.

When I called J.P.King – an organization which ran the Condo Auction, I was told that only 18 Units out of 58 had been sold. 16 of them due to the Developer’s commitment and only 2 more after that. The price ranged from $72,500 to $120,000, but Buyers had to pay extra 10%. In the adjusted numbers it become: $79,750 – $132,000.

Due to the outcome of the Auction, Developer is selling 10 Condos post-auction at $89,900+10% or $98,999 total.

Tucson MLS has it now as Listing #20909843:
7255 E SNYDER Rd, Tucson, AZ 85750 Active (03/05/09)
Beds: 3 Baths: 2
Sq Ft: 1209 Lot Sz: 7500sqft
Area: North Tucson
Year Built: 1995
Price/SqFt: 81.89
ONLY 10 UNITS AVAILABLE AT LOW POST-AUCTION PRICING OF $98,999/UNIT. THE AUCTION HELD ON APRIL 28 SAW VALUES AS HIGH AS $132,000/UNIT. Features: 2 & 3 bedroom floorplans * Quality, affordable living * Many units leased offering income potential * Excellent permanent residence, vacation home or rental investment opportunity! DEVELOPER WILL ONLY SELL 10 MORE UNITS. BUYER CAN PICK FROM REMAINING INVENTORY.
——————————————————————————–
The terms of sale include: 10% non-refundable down payment, 30 days closing time, Sold AS-IS and no financing available (except for private financing, if you can arrange one). The reason for no financing – the development doesn’t meet the guidelines of Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac.

If you are interested in buying a Luxury Condo in Tucson and have cash for a low price tag of “Villas at Sabino Canyon” or interested in Tucson Foreclosures / Short Sales you can finance – give me a call at (520) 370-0700 Anjelina. I am licensed in Arizona Real Estate agent and I specialize in the Catalina Foothills area.

This is quite different compare to the previous Auction. Most of the Condos auctioned last year were nicely renovated with granite counters, tile and carpet flooring, stainless-steel appliances.
This however is not the ONLY difference with the last year Auction. It looks like J.P.King has a different style than Real Estate Disposition Corporation. Instead of Auctioning separate units from a certain base price, “16 Absolute sales” would mean the following to the Buyers:

• First 16 lots are comprised of ALL THE AVAILABLE CONDOS on the list.
• The highest bidder of the first lot WILL CHOOSE which Condo he likes to pick. This Condo is taken of the list.
• The same for the next 15 lots.
• The seller is committed to sell those Condos for the final bid price.
• For the rest of the Auction – 42 Condo Conversions left on the Auction list will be bid separately and it will be up to the Seller to Accept or Reject final bid price.

Nevertheless, the place seemed to be quite crowded with prospective Buyers and Investors and a brief interaction with one of them revealed the following:

The bids at the Auction are expected to be quite less than last year. The main reason of course is the overall Real Estate market deterioration. However, significant role will play Buyers’ increased difficulty in getting financing for Condo Conversions.

Most likely banks will require at least 40%-50% down payment, so everyone who is pre-qualified at 20% down doesn’t stand a chance. Lately, banks put Luxury Condo Conversions into HIGH RISK category. This statement didn’t sound as a specific to this particular development, Tucson or Arizona, but rather as a general observation or insider’s knowledge. After all, how much Real Estate market in Tucson is different than in Phoenix, San Diego, Las Vegas, and Miami? Each market has its own specifics, but all of them got overbuild, over-converted, overpriced… Now they are full of short sales, foreclosures, auctions. Though, some might rightfully argue that Tucson is in better situation than other mentioned places.

Nevertheless, banks are especially cautious right now about lending money to the troubled areas. And Catalina Foothills’ Luxury Condominiums community – Villas at Sabino Canyon – is definitely one of them. At the first auction Condos were selling at about 50% discount… Most of the current owners are “upside down” on the property… Over 50% of the units are rentals… Special Assessment might be needed to boost HOA funding…

If all this doesn’t scare you and you are well capitalized to take a gamble, do your due diligence and come to the Auction. Bare in mind that the last few paragraphs are based on what we heard from the investor who already owns a few Condos in the Villas at Sabino Canyon and will probably acquire more.

Some of the largest models are:

4558 Sq. Ft., 5BR /4.75 BA, 1+ Acre and 3-car garage – $599,990 (down from $766,346) – MLS # 20810682 in The Preserve at Sycamore Canyon (Sahuarita & Harrison).

4350 Sq. Ft., 6BR /4 BA and 3-car garage – $499,990 (Former Model) – MLS # 20900646 in Sycamore Canyon (Sahuarita & Harrison).

3500 Sq. Ft., 5BR /3.75 BA and 3-car garage – $449,990 (Former Model) – MLS # 20838107 in Sycamore Canyon (Sahuarita & Harrison).

3500 Sq. Ft., 5BR /3.5 BA and 3-car garage – $399,990 (down from $490,025) – MLS # 20841640 in Sycamore Canyon (Sahuarita & Harrison).

3002 Sq. Ft., 5BR /3 BA and 3-car garage – $449,990 (Former Model) – MLS # 20900780 in Tierra Linda (Emigh west of Sandario).

2722 Sq. Ft., 5BR /3 BA and 2-car garage – $399,990 (down from $513,559) – MLS # 20841635 in River’s Edge (Lambert Lane & Pusch View Lane).

For more information on these and smaller models, please give me a call:
Anjelina Belakovskaia -Tucson Real Estate Agent
520-370-0700.