10) Too cluttered - Nothing turns a buyer off more than walking into a potential new home and seeing it filled with stuff. If you really want to sell your home at least take the time and effort to put away, or better yet, dispose of some of your less useful belongings. That collection of McDonald’s plastic toys sitting on your computer desk might have been worth a chuckle when you bought them 3 years ago but c’mon.. get rid of them. Chuck it, stow it, or store it.

9) Too homey - This is hotly debated both ways with one side advising to keep it personal and the other side voting for “less is more”. If your house has an abundance of personal photos, knick-knacks, quilts, and those little marks on the wall from when the kids were growing up, it very well…

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Adding to the explosive growth in Marana, AZ is the steady progress of a new 1.3 million square foot retail shopping center dubbed Marana Spectrum. It will be located at the southeast corner of Camino de Manana and Linda Vista Boulevard (east of I-10 between Cortaro and Avra Valley) and will cover nearly 170 acres. Estimated to have roughly 100 stores, Marana Spectrum will carry 3 “anchor stores” of at least 100,000 sqft, making the total square footage approximately equal to that of the Tucson Mall. That’s HUGE!

The ball started rolling about one and a half years ago and plans have been released by the company in charge of the construction of the center (Kimco Developers Inc.).

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Ever since the housing craze of 2005 the growing consensus was that the US was going to experience a housing “crash” across the nation that would weaken, if not cripple, our economy. Fortunately it looks like it has been more of a soft landing and for the most part it has been much softer than many experts predicted.

In the Tucson Real Estate market the results of the past few years of activity is finally becoming evident with home values growing just .01% in the first quarter of 2007, according to the Office of Federal Housing Enterprise Oversight. In a new article on CNN.com from yesterday (May 31, 2007), the National Association of Realtors cited home prices in the Tucson market declining 2.5% from one year ago.

This isn’t really a surprise; there are…

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Visualizing your way to success!
by Michael Krotchie - Tucson Realtor

 

Most real estate agents have a reason they began their career. For some, it is because they enjoy the day-to-day interaction. For others it is the everlasting journey to riches. Whatever your goals may be, visualization techniques are an underutilized and often mis-interpreted aid to your success. Just mentioning the word 'visualization' probably causes many of you readers to smile, snicker and be skeptical in general. But to those of you willing to read a bit longer you will find that visualization techniques are actually a very powerful tool that should be used more often.

Have you ever noticed that the people who tell everyone they have bad luck consistently have bad things…

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Top 3 Mistakes Rookie Real Estate Agents Make -- And How To Avoid Them
by Michael Krotchie - Tucson Realtor

    First off this is by no means a comprehensive guide to avoiding rookie blunders but it is definitely a starting point for any of you thinking of becoming an agent or those of you just starting out in the real estate world. The more informed you are the better off you'll be!

1) Not interviewing with several brokerages / Selecting brokerage for wrong reasons
-- One of the most important decisions you face as a new agent is choosing which company you will go to work for.  Many new agents will simply go with the big-name companies they've seen on billboards around town or on TV commercials without talking to other brokerages.  It is in…

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Tucson Real Estate - Growth Continues
by Michael Krotchie

    Salutations everyone! Just a brief update on the continuing growth of Tucson real estate market in Pima County, in particular the Northwest side of town. The town of Marana, which covers approximately 120 square miles, has been experiencing rapid growth the past few years. With a soon-to-come Town Center consisting of a mix of commercial, residential, and corporate/public uses the town is anchoring a solid foundation of a market that is already attracting large developers eager to take advantage of the swelling population.

Tangerine Road Developments

    One of the more exciting developments to come is the Westcor development, a 295-acre spread located at the I-10 and Tangerine Road…

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I stumbled across a reporter's blog entry while reading up on the article about requiring Arizona loan officers to be licensed (from this blog) and look what I found!

 

Sam Wercinski, the relatively new commissioner of the Arizona Department of Real Estate, has formed four groups to look to issues affecting licensees. One group is looking at the possibility of a lifetime license for real estate agents.
In the midst of the mortgage and real estate fraud problem in Arizona, several real estate agents have contacted me saying their industry should not only be licensed but be required to have more ongoing training. -- Catherine Reagor, The Arizona Republic (link to blog)

 

In researching a bit more I came across the "News Alerts" page of the Arizona…

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