Maricopa Chamber Members Blog

Feb 21

City of Maricopa Rental Market

Last modified: February 21, 2008

By Terri Kingery | Email Author

Submitted by Dawn Madden
Maricopa Properties

A few months back I met with someone who had their home in Maricopa up for sale. When that wasn’t happening, they wanted to rent it out. Their agent at the time told them they could list the home for rent themselves but that was not a service she provided. She also made the comment that it most likely would not rent out either as there are so many rentals on the market today. They had it listed themselves for a month or so but weren’t getting any closer to getting a tenant into the property.

That’s when they called me. They were referred to me from a past client whose house I rented out so they knew that I was knowledgeable about rentals and was working with rentals because it is part of my business plan - not simply due to the slower market as some Agents may be.

I met with them and listed their home for rent only (not for sale also) explaining that our odds to rent it were much better than the odds to sell it considering their expectations of what they wanted to net on the home sale. Within 20 days of listing the home and my doing the marketing that I require for rental homes, we had not one but two applicants! We ran the credit, did the background checks, verified the references and then I reviewed the information with the owners. They decided to rent it to the family that wanted the home for a period of two years. Their thoughts were that in two years the builders will have corrected their production and home valuations SHOULD have started to increase again. The tenants signed a lease 29 days after the homeowners signed paperwork to list their home with me.

We discussed our property management services as far as what they encompass and the fees. These particular homeowners decided to manage the property themselves since they are staying local and have a good handle on the accounting necessary as well as the vendors that they may need in the future. I always say that property management is not for everyone but the people with patience and time could very well manage their own properties.

In any case, any agent that tells you that the market in Maricopa is bad for renting and selling homes is simply looking for a reason to be a naysayer. Renting a home is completely possible – just ask clients this past year!

For more information on listing your home for rent, please contact me at Dawn@MaricopaProperties.com .

Feb 11

City of Maricopa home sales slowing? Barely!

Filed Under Uncategorized

Last modified: February 11, 2008

By Terri Kingery | Email Author

Submitted By: Dawn Madden
Maricopa Properties

I recently met with a freelance reporter for the New York Times. She was here doing research for an article on the current state of the housing market within the City of Maricopa.

Why did she pick the City of Maricopa? You may not have known this but the City of Maricopa was actually the fastest growing city in the US for a few months in a row back in 2005. As such, we had a huge increase in demand for housing while the supply was really low. This is what I call “Stage One”.

“Stage Two”: Builders continued to build, buyers continued to buy.

“Stage Three”: Market shift consisting of a large overflow of homes on the market including resale homes and new builds.

“Stage Four”: Influx of foreclosures and short sales being put on the market.

So where does “Stage Five” take us? That’s where we are today - In a position where there are more than twice as many homes being put on the market each month than there were back in 2005. This combined with the existing inventory is leading to an overflow of supply with the same amount of demand. YES – the same amount of demand. It’s shocking to some people to hear but comparing month to month data between December 2005 and December 2007, shows there were 7 MORE homes that closed in 2007 and 41 MORE homes that went under contract in 2007.

Want more data? In a comparison between the months of January 2006 and January 2008, there were only 3 less closed homes in 2007 but there were 43 MORE homes that went under contract in 2007.

The sale price compared to list price also has a greater differential meaning that people are negotiating more for their homes instead of simply selling for list price.

All this information shows that there are still approximately an equal number of homes selling in the City of Maricopa today as there were back in 2005 (“Stage One”). The difference is that the number of homes doing on the market is greater, therefore the days on market is greater (triple to quadruple).

I have yet to see the actual article from the Reporter, but I’m hoping she took my facts into consideration when writing about the housing market here in Maricopa. Next time you hear that homes aren’t selling in the City of Maricopa, please feel free to pass that call, email or post to me. I have the data to show they are!