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Introducing Home Expressions

A short, quick note regarding a change in this blog and email newsletter.

Friends, Family Members, Clients (past, present, and future!), Colleagues - Please keep your eyes open for an email from me in the next day or two titled "Home Expressions." It will be the same great content you've come to expect, but in a better-looking format.

Realtors, Loan Officers, and other industry specialists - I'm making this change in an effort to help you. Please visit www.8DollarFarming.com to see how you can cultivate the same long term relationships with your friends and clients that I have enjoyed.

As I mentioned in my last article, I will continue to write about things homeowners find useful and interesting - anything and everything is fair game, but I am going to distribute this content via a direct email newsletter, rather than the current format of publishing a blog post and then having a service auto-email my blog post to you. And thus, "Home Expressions" is born...

Thank you,

Chris Butterworth

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What $300,000 buys in the East Valley

The Valley of the Sun is a big area - somewhere in the neighborhood of 900 square miles. (For comparison, Washington DC is about 75 square miles and the State of Rhode Island is about 1,500.) And as can be expected for an area of that size, there are significant differences between different neighborhoods - styles, communities, and yes - prices.

Today I thought I'd take a look at what a $300,000 house looks like in different parts of the East Valley.

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Programming Note - upcoming change in format

Before we get started, I have a major announcement regarding my website and this newsletter.

Beginning next month, I will be separating this newsletter from my website, creating a true newsletter - whose content is distinct and unique, and will only be distributed via email. The name will change as well; it will no longer be called Viewpoint.

For the last several years I've published these articles on my website at ThePhoenixAgents.com, and the website has emailed them to you as the "Viewpoint" through the magic of rss technology.

In summary - you will still receive the same great newsletter you've come to expect, only it will have a different title and will only be available through email.

And now, back to the East Valley...

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Before we look at the homes, let's discuss the parameters - how exactly did I choose these homes?

• I pulled (from ARMLS) all the Single Family Detached homes that sold in February for each city.
• If the city had more than one home which sold for exactly $300,000, I chose the home which sold the fastest as my example.
• If the city did not have a home sell for exactly $300,000, I chose the home which sold closest to, but not above, $300,000.
• If the home looked like a statistical outlier in some way and did not represent other homes from the same price range and area, I skipped it in favor of the next home which matched the above.

The Results - What does $300,000 buy in:

Scottsdale

• 2,100 square feet on an 11,000 square foot lot
• 3 bedrooms / 2 bathrooms
• Built in 1968
• Swimming pool
• Bank-owned / Foreclosed property
• 13 days on the market
• Located west of Loop 101 between Indian Bend and McDonald

Mesa

• 2,400 square feet on a 10,000 square foot lot
• 3 bedrooms + den / 3 bathrooms
• Built in 1995
• 135 days on the market
• Located southwest of Greenfield and Brown

Gilbert

• 2,900 square feet on an 8,000 square foot lot
• 4 bedrooms / 3.5 bathrooms
• Built in 1988
• Swimming pool
• 45 days on the market
• Located east of McQueen between Warner and Elliot

Queen Creek

• 3,200 square feet on a 12,000 square foot lot
• 4 bedrooms + den + loft / 3 bathrooms
• Built in 2004
• 35 days on the market
• Located east of Ellsworth and Rittenhouse

Conclusion

These four homes are very different; so are the four neighborhoods. Year built, size of house (and yard), and the quality of appointments (cabinets, counter tops, fixtures, hardware, etc.) stand out the most. Using size as the most basic measurement, the homes get larger as you get further away from the center of the Valley: 2000 ft in Scottsdale, 2400 ft in Mesa, 2900 ft in Gilbert, and 3200 ft in Queen Creek.

I also see differences in the quality of the MLS photos - for example, the Mesa house's kitchen picture appears to be a large family-style kitchen, but if you look closely there are only 5 tiles between the edge of the picture and the kitchen island. The photo was taken with a camera lens that makes it look much larger.

Considering it can be upwards of a 2-hour drive from one corner of the Valley to the other (think Surprise to Queen Creek), where you buy can have a profound effect on what you think about the "Phoenix area."

Please give Cheryl or myself a call-email if you have any questions about different areas, or if you want to see more photos of certain neighborhoods. We can set up an MLS search for you to see all the listings of a specific area, based on whatever criteria you choose.

Thank you for reading,

Chris Butterworth

Note - All photos are copyright of ARMLS (Arizona Regional Multiple Listing Service). All data is believed to be accurate but not guaranteed. Home sizes and lot sizes may have been rounded.

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Keeping a Clean House - the simple way, part 3

This is Part 3 of a 3-part series discussing some of the habits of people who always seem to have a clean house, regardless of when you might stop in. (You can read Part 1 and Part 2 of the series here.)

It's important to understand with all of these habits, that these are not "things to do in order to clean your house" or "extra steps needed in order to clean your house." These are simply habits that people have - people whose homes are generally clean.

These habits are more about time-shifting - doing things you will have to do at some point anyway, but doing them sooner and with more regularity. They're about changing your mindset to one where cleaning isn't a giant evil chore, but instead a simple completion of the current activity.

And with that, let's take a look at three more habits people with clean homes practice:

6.) Put your clothes away, everyday

When you get home from work, you change into your 'casual hanging out around the house clothes', right? But what do you do with your work clothes?

People who keep clean homes put them away. Dirty clothes go into the hamper. Jacket, belt, and tie get hung up. Shoes go back in the closet, and anything that might be worn again before being cleaned gets hung up or folded and put away.

The other clothes that get put away everyday are the newly folded laundry. Since you're doing laundry everyday, your clean clothes pile shouldn't be very big, so it's easy to put these few items away.

The payoff for Putting Your Clothes Away Everyday: No piles of dirty clothes lying around on the floor, no piles of clean clothes stacked to the ceiling and sitting on top of your dresser, and no confusion about where a particular piece of clothing might be.

7.) Clean as you go

People with clean homes tend to think of cleaning up as the final part of the task, rather than keeping it as a separate chore to do later.

Dinner - Clean the prep area and dishes while the main course is in the oven, and you only have to worry about half the mess after dinner is over. Clean up immediately after dinner (which shouldn't be too hard since your dishwasher was emptied in the morning), and you finish the night with a clean kitchen.

Projects, Games & Activities - Finish one (which means cleaning up and putting it away) before you get into the next one. And this one holds even more true for the kids - getting them into this habit will help keep your home cleaner as well as giving them a headstart on keeping clean as they get older. Board games, crafts and scrapbooks, sports equipment, homework - it all falls into the same pattern: get something out, play with or use it, and then put it away. Lather, rinse, repeat.

The payoff for Cleaning as you Go: Less clutter, and less cleaning chores to do. Spending a few seconds (board games) to a few minutes (dinner prep dishes) doesn't feel like much of a task, especially compared to a Saturday "power cleaning session" where you have to make a day out of the same work.

8.) Nighttime routine

You ate dinner, spent some family time together, watched a little tv, and helped the kids get ready for bed, before finally getting a chance to relax and unwind for the evening. People with clean homes use a few minutes of this time to finish up their day (tying up any loose ends) and prepare for tomorrow.

Picking out clothes to wear tomorrow, making tomorrow's lunch, and taking a walk through the house to tidy up and maybe turn off a light that had been left on or putting away a cup that had been left on the counter; these are all simple routines - things which don't take a lot of time or energy, but which are much easier to do without the time-stress-crunch of late-for-work or late-for-school of the morning.

The payoff for a Nighttime Routine

It's difficult to overstate how much calmer and easier some of these tasks are in the quiet of a late night house compared with the hectic stress of a running-late morning. Not only are the tasks themselves made simpler and more relaxing, but they now free up that much more time in the morning, which leads to less stress and less hectic mornings. It's a win-win.


These habits of people with generally clean homes, just like those we discussed in Part 1 and Part 2, are more about doing small tasks frequently compared with waiting around for a large chore to be required.
Spending one minute each day may be the same as spending seven minutes on the weekend, but you don't have clutter around the house when you do it each day, and you don't have to waste your weekend on cleaning chores.

I would even argue the larger chore will take more time than all the smaller tasks combined, due to lost pieces, confusion, or even stuck-on dirt and grime.

I hope you give these a try - hopefully you can get into a few of (or all of) these 8 habits. Your home will be forever cleaner if you do.

- Chris Butterworth

This was Part 3 of a 3-part series. Read Part 1 and Part 2 here.

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Real Estate Pricing - has the market recovered?

It's been a full year since I pulled some statistics from the ARMLS database and took a detailed look at pricing trends. In the meantime, I've had conversations with multiple people recently centered around the price of their home as compared to what it would have sold for "at the peak". Obviously, that seems like a good place to start looking around.

From Peak to Valley to Comeback?

The Phoenix real estate market peaked in August, 2006, as far as the lightning fast, white hot, crazy market went. Prices, however, continued to rise for another several months.

Once prices started dropping in 2007, they dropped fast and far, before bottoming out in late 2009 or early 2010.

For comparison purposes, I pulled sales data from the 4th Quarter of 2006, 2009, and 2015. This should give us a good read of where we've been and where we are currently.

Median Sales Price

Chart showing 4th Qtr 2006, 4th Qtr 2009, and 4th Qtr 2015 - for several cities in the East and West Valley. (click to enlarge)

It's clear that prices have rebounded a long way from the bottom, with a few cities' prices approaching their 2006 peak.

Here's the table containing the data, for those analysts out there.

Median Price per Square Foot

Same time frames, same cities, but this time we'll look at the price per square foot, as this will adjust for changes in prices due to larger or smaller homes being built over the last 10 years.

Well, the charts aren't identical to the Median Price charts - the 2015 numbers haven't rebounded quite as high as the median prices' chart. This means that homes are larger than they were in years past. But it doesn't change the trend; the peak-valley-rebound images are very similar to the previous charts.

Number of Homes Sold

Once again we'll pull the same time periods and cities, only this time we'll put pricing aside and just look at how many homes have sold.

What does this chart tell us? No, seriously, I'm asking you.. I've looked at these numbers two dozen times, and I'm not sure what they're saying, other than to point out that Phoenix is far and away the largest city in terms of housing units.

Some cities are relatively flat over all three periods, while others vary wildly, but I don't see a relationship to east-west, north-south, big-small, landlocked-outskirts, socioeconomic, etc.

Summary and Forecasting

What does all this mean? Well, that's the million dollar question.

Prices have been rising for seven years in a row, and they're getting close to peak levels in some cities. At the same time, I'm not sure how much wages have been rising. I know lots of people who are making the same amount (or less than) they made a decade ago, and not too many who are making significantly more. (although some of this is gut feeling, since I don't have access to everybody's current salary.)

It does feel as if employment levels have stabilized. I remember a time a few years ago when a job posting on craigslist brought about a hundred resumes on the first day. These days I know a couple companies who have had a harder time finding good help.

Last year I was worried about interest rates, or at least that there was so much more room for rates to increase compared with the opportunity for rate reductions. And what happened? Several countries' central banks have moved interest rates negative - banks have to actually pay interest to keep surplus money on hand!

I'm not smart enough to figure out what is going to happen next, but I can say this is a strange economic environment - one we've never seen before. And I still think interest rates have more room to increase than to decrease. (The next chart below is from last year's post, showing how much an interest rate change can affect monthly payments.)

Final Advice

I'm not going to tell you whether to buy, or sell, or what city is "hot", or anything else you should be doing with your investment dollars.

I'll simply advise to be careful. Cover your bets. Make decisions based on well-crafted plans. Don't be surprised if the market doesn't do exactly what you expected it to.

And give Cheryl and myself a call if you have any real estate needs! (that's my best advice, after all.)

- Chris Butterworth

* All data was pulled from the Arizona Regional MLS system, for Single Family Residence detached homes which successfully closed escrow between October 1st and December 31st of 2006, 2009, and 2015. Data is believed to be accurate but not guaranteed.

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Keeping a Clean House - the simple way, part 2

"If I had to pick one thing, which you as a homeowner has control over, that makes the biggest difference in how a house "feels"? Having a clean and clutter-free home wins the prize, every time."

Earlier in the month I wrote about a couple simple habits that people with clean homes do everyday. They're the kinds of things that take 5 minutes in the morning, yet they can make a profound difference in how your home looks, functions, and feels. (And I'm not talking about Martha Stewart style deep cleaning or crafting your own furniture - these are just simple routines, doing things you would have done anyway but just a little bit differently.)

Well, since this is Part 2 (you can read Part 1 here), let's get down to it. Here are a few more habits of people whose homes tend to always be clean:

3.) Do a load of Laundry every day (for families - not as important if there's only two of you.)

Laundry is a bad deal. At best it's a pain in the butt chore; at worst it's a Sisyphean task that can never be accomplished! Let's see if I can sum up how laundry usually works:

• During the week everybody's clothes pile up into hampers, until they eventually overflow (and make the bedrooms look cluttered.)
• At some point during the week, somebody is going to want or need to wear something they can't find. "Check the dirty clothes" will be your reply - and then you'll have to determine what to do with this request.
• In addition, you may find some dingy smells lingering around - especially if your teenagers play sports.
• Eventually, probably on Sunday, you'll have to get psyched up for "Laundry Day", where you'll hole up in the house and crank out load after load of wash.
• You can't really get out and do things, because you need to be there to empty the dryer and change out the next load. So you basically lose a weekend-day.
• Forget about it on the weekends when you also need to do sheets and towels!
• And who's going to fold that mountain of clean clothes - yikes.

Yeah, that's how our laundry system ran for years, until my wife eventually figured out a better solution. Now we do a load of laundry everyday, and it looks more like this:

• Each morning, as the boys wake up and before breakfast gets started, round up the few items from everybody's hamper and throw them in the washing machine.
• Depending on the day (and your energy plan), they either go into the dryer that morning on the way out the door, or they go into the dryer when we get home from work.
• Later in the evening it takes a couple-few minutes to fold the clothes while a tv show is on.

The payoff for Laundry Everyday: No lost weekends, no clutter or overflowing smelly clothes, and no problems with not having something available to wear when you want or need to wear it.

4.) Don't Procrastinate

You got the mail? Good. Bills go in the office, greeting cards go on the shelf, and junk-mail gets shredded. And you're done - no clutter.

Your package arrived from Amazon.com? Awesome! Your new doohickey gets the attention, but the receipt gets filed, the air bubble bags get popped and thrown away, and the box gets broken down and placed in the recycle bin. And you're done - no clutter.

The kid out-grew some t-shirts which are now sitting in a pile next to his dresser? Get 'em outta there - put them in a bin of "to be donated" in the garage. And you're done - no clutter.

Are you sensing the trend here? You're going to have to address these things at some point - opening and sorting mail, throwing away packaging and boxes, etc. Why let them sit around and clutter your house for a few days, or weeks? Better to just do it, and be done with it.

The payoff for Not Procrastinating: This one's a no-brainer: You're not spending a single second extra - these are the exact same tasks you'll have to do later anyway, but now your house stays clutter-free.

5.) Use Baskets to Eliminate Clutter

This one almost falls into the home design and function category, but because we're talking about people's habits, I'm going to include it in our list.

Every room has those few extra things - too small to permanently mount but too big or too many to leave laying around. Get a good basket (that matches your decor), and put all these little miscellaneous things into it. Yes, put them away. Every time.

• In the living room you've got multiple remote controls, some coasters, and a pair of reading glasses. When you're finished using them, put them away. Every time.
• The kitchen is the worst offender, with extra keys, scissors, some coupons, pens and pencils (only half of which actually write), a screw that goes with heaven knows what, and a couple things you aren't even sure what they are. The first thing to do is to get rid of (or find a more permanent home for) the things you never use. Then, keep everything else handy and yet out of sight in a basket or drawer. Get something out when you need it, and then put it away again. Every time.
• The bedroom is another place with lots of small items which get used frequently: watches, jewelry, wallet, car keys, loose change, a pen, etc. Have a place available to put these things where they won't be clutter and where they won't get lost, and then put them away - Every time.

The payoff for Using Baskets to Eliminate Clutter: You can get baskets (or boxes, or containers) in any size, color, or style to match your needs and your decor, so they'll help make your home look great. They'll reduce clutter because all those little pieces will be hidden from view. And they'll help you keep your stuff from getting lost - be honest, who hasn't wasted time digging through the couch or wandering from room to room looking for a tv remote or their car keys?!


When you take a step back and look at the big picture, these people whose houses are always clean don't do any more cleaning - they have simply developed the habit of spending a few extra seconds "now" to finish a task, rather than waiting until later to do the same task (or in some cases an even larger task.)

2 or 3 minutes to start a small load of laundry in the morning - frees up time for the weekend. Three seconds to put the tv remote in a basket when they're done watching tv - saves the next person 90 seconds trying to find the remote. Another 3 seconds dropping their car keys into a container when they get undressed - saves 5 minutes of stressful chaos trying to find keys when you're late for work the next morning!

Small amounts of time, small amounts of energy. Simple habits. Big Results!

Hopefully you can develop some of these habits too, and turn your home into an always clean and always ready for guests home!

- Chris Butterworth

This was part 2 of a series; read Part 1 here.

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Keeping a Clean House - the simple way, part 1

My wife read an article recently which outline a few simple things people who have clean houses do everyday, and she was happy to report we do them all. (well, she does them all mostly, but I'll step in to take a little of the credit!) And as she reviewed the list with me, I was blown away by both the simplicity of it, and by the number of people who don't do it.

We all know the difference between a clean house and a, well, not-so-clean house, right? You probably have a few friends with homes you like to visit, and a few others with homes you can't wait to leave!

Clean homes are more inviting, they're more relaxing, they're less stressful - they're just better, both in the short term (day to day living) and the long term (more home value, less maintenance repairs), so why wouldn't you keep your house clean?

Probably because it's too much work, or at least it's perceived to be, and you don't have enough time. Well, let's take a look at these habits people with clean homes have, and see how difficult they really are.

Here are the first 2 things people with clean houses do:

1.) Empty the Dishwasher in the morning

A dirty kitchen is probably one of the huge differences between homes where you want to hang out, and homes where you don't.

If you spend 3 or 4 minutes emptying the dishwasher in the morning, you'll have a perfect place to put your dirty dishes the whole rest of the day, rather than letting them pile up in the sink, or on the counter and stove.

• The dishes will have to be put away anyway, why not in the morning?
• Once the dishwasher is empty, it takes about the same amount of time to set a dirty plate in the dishwasher as it does to set it in the sink. (maybe there's a 4.62 second variance, but that shouldn't be enough to complain about - you're not THAT busy!)
• If you rinse the plate off before putting it in the dishwasher, you're probably saving yourself time compared with having to scrape off that crusty food when you finally get to the dirty dishes later on in the day, or tomorrow.

The Payoff for an Empty Dishwasher: For the rest of the day (and everyday thereafter since you'll do this everyday), your kitchen will be less cluttered with dirty stuff all over the place. In addition, you won't have as many breeding grounds for bacteria to fester and grow.


2.) Make your Bed when you wake up

This doesn't seem like that big a deal at first glance. After all, you generally aren't inviting people into your bedroom on a regular basis. But the difference in overall appearance will surprise you.

• Once your bed is made, the room looks more complete and comfortable. There's an emotional / subliminal piece (or peace - both are true) here as well - "finishing" the room can lead to lower stress levels.
• When the bed is made, piles of stuff on the floor look much more out of place - you'll have a desire to pick these things up (or to not drop them there in the first place anymore.)
• When the bed is made, any dust or pet dander that lands on the bed during the day will now be on the outside of your blanket, rather than inside where you sleep. This should make a for a better, and possibly less itchy, night's sleep.

The Payoff for a Made Bed: It's the primary focal point of your bedroom; when it looks clean the rest of the room tends to follow.


When you think about the rooms where you spend the most time, your kitchen and bedroom are probably the top two. These two simple habits - emptying the dishwasher in the morning and making your bed when you wake up - will cost you less than 5 minutes each morning, but they'll have a profound effect on keeping your house clean.

I'll write more about the simple ways to keep your house clean in the coming weeks, so stay tuned.

If you don't already practice these habits, give them a try - I'd love to hear what you think!

- Chris Butterworth

This was part 1 of a series. Read part 2 here.

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5 steps to healthier trees and shrubs

New home builders have done a great job with drainage over the last couple decades, building subdivisions with such efficient drainage that the yards and streets are cleared of water within minutes after a heavy monsoon downpour. The downside to this awesome drainage is that your trees probably aren't getting enough water to develop a deep and healthy root system.

Now that the we're nearing the end of summer (I promise - it won't be too much longer!), this is a good time to see if you can get your trees some relief from the last 3 months' brutal heat.

Here are 5 simple ideas to help your plants do better next year:

1.) Check your drip system.

Turn on your drip system and take a walk around the yard, stopping to inspect each plant's emitters. You'll probably find a couple that are clogged and not dripping much water, and a couple that are broken and spraying gallons of water more than they should be.

Next turn the drip system back off and replace the broken emitters.

2.) Move your drip flags away from the base of the tree.

Just as your tree grows taller and wider, its root system is trying to grow deeper and wider. Moving your drip emitters away from the base of the tree will allow the roots to grow wider, ultimately making the tree stronger and healthier.

As a rule of thumb, the roots underground should reach out about as far as the leaves do above ground.

3.) Dig a well.

If your property is graded so that standing water runs off very quickly, and you have a tree that needs more water than some of the other trees, you can dig a well around the tree to allow water to pool and soak deeper into the ground.

Dig up some dirt from the high-ground side of the tree, and place the dirt onto the low-ground side of the tree. This should give you a circle of level ground around the tree.

Next use some of the extra dirt to build a dam (or a wall, berm, or well) around the tree.

Now you can fill the well with water, without having the water run down the yard and into the street, and your tree will get deep watered.

Most of us don't have yards quite this steep, but this picture shows the idea of using earth from the higher side of the tree to fill in the lower side of the tree. (image credit here.)

Once you have the ground somewhat level, you can build up a well to allow water to pool and soak into the ground, rather than running down the rest of your yard. (image credit here.)

4.) Get a bucket.

If you have a tree or bush in an area that your drip system doesn't cover, drill a small hole in one of those 5-gallon buckets from the hardware store. Fill the bucket with water and let it slowly drain out near your tree.

I have a pygmy palm tree in a corner of gravel in between the driveway and the front entryway. I'm not yet up for digging under the driveway to run a drip line, so I've been using the bucket method once a week, and the palms are doing really well.

5.) Prune, shape, and cultivate.

You can keep your trees and bushes healthy and looking good by trimming away dead and unwanted branches. Let the tree focus its energy into new growth in the areas where you want it to grow, rather than growing out new branches that you're just going to cut off once they get larger anyway.

Healthier trees with deeper roots make for better homes. The trees are less likely to blow over in the next windstorm, and they're roots are less likely to pull up your driveway in search of shallow water. They look better, too, which helps raise your property's value!

- Chris Butterworth

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