Paradise Lost - 06/28/10 03:36 PM

“You mean, it’s ours? It’s really ours?”
They were so excited. Even after I handed them the keys, they were slow to believe that the modest Spanish bungalow was now in their adoptive custody. Over the course of four exasperating months, we must have seen and dismissed close to a hundred homes. This one needed too much work. That one had a poor kitchen layout. Yet another sat on the “t” of a subdivision’s entrance: bad feng shui, or so I was told. Before the market skies parted and yielded the seventeen hundred square foot, clay tile miracle that appeared … (46 comments)

The Interview - 06/26/10 12:44 AM
 
[Warning: Adult language, fiction and no graphics ahead]
Sweets paused to take another drink of lukewarm water from the nearly empty Dixie cup that sat on the steel table in front of him.  He was meandering again.  Nursing the last sip while he attempted to regain his composure, he fought the urge to adjust his collar.  It had been ages since he’d last worn the blood red “closing” tie, and the thing was doing a damn fine job of "closing" his windpipe.
“Mr. Swietzer?  You okay,” asked the bored human resources manager on the other side of the desk.
“What? … (24 comments)

The Interest Rate Boogeyman: Today’s Buyer Must Think Like Tomorrow’s Seller - 06/23/10 10:53 AM
[WARNING: THIS POST CONTAINS NO GRAPHICS]
 
So you have 20% to put down for a single family home in Scottsdale AZ.  You have been gainfully employed in the same W2 position with the same company for years.  The American Express card with a $124 balance and the 2002 Honda Accord with the $112 monthy payment make up the sum total of your earthly debt.  Your FICO scores are higher than Willie Nelson on Bob Marley Day in Montego Bay.  Congratulations, you are one of the few buyers in today’s market in a position to call your own shots.

Surely … (12 comments)

A Scottsdale Real Estate Buyer's Guide to Newer Homes in Older Communities - 06/22/10 04:09 PM
You are mired that age old Scottsdale Real Estate quandary:  You want a central location in an established community, but you don't want the older construction that typically attends such preferred locales.  
You love the walking paths, lakes, nearby shops, schools, mature landscaping with honest to goodness trees (In the desert?  Who knew?).  You could do without the brass fixtures and 4x4 inch porcelain tile that look like holdovers from the set of the Partridge Family, however.
At some point in every Scottsdale home buyer's journey, a choice must be made.  Will location and community amenities win out, or will … (6 comments)

Mighty Mud Mania 2010 in Scottsdale AZ - 06/21/10 12:38 PM
Live in Scottsdale?  

Got kids?  
Got kids that like mud?  
If so, odds are you and the minions were cavorting about the same city sponsored bog that swallowed the Slaybaugh family this past weekend.  Saturday, 6/19/10, marked the 35th annual incarnation of the infamous Mighty Mud Mania event at Chaparral Park in Scottsdale, AZ.  If you missed it, you missed out.  The good news, though, is that the filthy fun will return next year.  Follow the link below to see the pictorial carnage and get a gritty taste of one of the local customs that make Scottsdale … (7 comments)

Paradise Valley Farms in Scottsdale AZ - 06/18/10 12:00 PM

 
Working the Scottsdale Real Estate market, my loyal readers are well aware of the special affinity I hold for the planned community of McCormick Ranch.  
Far from the only area I work, it receives the extra attention that is reserved for the community that I will always consider home.  In the immediate vicinity are the various phases that compose the gated golf community of Gainey Ranch, the Town of Paradise Valley and Scottsdale Ranch, among others. Nestled amidst these name brand communities is one of Scottsdale's hidden gems.  In fact, I must make a confession of sorts.  Much … (11 comments)

Rental Housing and You: A Scottsdale Real Estate Survival Guide - 06/16/10 11:24 PM
If a rental property falls in the foreclosure forest, does it make it sound?  
Lost amongst the haphazard flailing of an epileptic market at large, the rental housing subset of the Scottsdale Real Estate market is picking up unexpected steam.  Driven, perhaps, by the surge of former home owners turned tenants, the latest statistics bear out what I have noticed firsthand: the available rental inventory within the city of Scottsdale has thinned considerably.  With fewer available properties to lease and absorption rates (number of properties leased per month juxtaposed against the current number of available units) at the highest level seen in … (16 comments)

What Is, What Was and What Should Never Be - 06/13/10 03:44 PM
Predicting the future has become so passe that we now like to predict the past.  Visiting the funhouse of colossal gaffes gone wild might even be worthwhile were it not for the egocentric nature of such excursions.  The one doing the recollecting and post-mortem whistle-blowing typically prescribes himself a completely passive role in the train wreck that was, or issues himself the “greater forces at work” stamped pass that magically absolves a revisionary time traveler of all culpability.  Those passes are not dispensed with impunity, mind you.  All the other idiots should have seen the disaster coming.
In an ever-changing present, I break from … (83 comments)

Introducing the New McCormick Ranch Wing of the Scottsdale Property Shop! - 06/12/10 10:09 PM
I sell McCormick Ranch Real Estate.

Shocking, I know, to many long-term readers of this forum.  However, it has been quite some time since I last directed the focus of this blog to my first housing love.  Not one to take my significant other for granted, it is far past time I renewed my vows.
I have actually been preparing them for the past few weeks over at the Scottsdale Property Shop Blog in the form of subdivision spotlights, maps, live listing feeds of homes for sale, floor plans ... my labor of love is an early summer sonnet for … (6 comments)

If Dr Seuss Worked for the NAR ... - 06/05/10 06:25 PM
 
On the Island of Oncewas, there lived but one scamp.
One strangely stoic, scoundrelous scamp.
There used to be more, there used to be four.
There used to be four and eight thousand four more on this shore.
So many scamps scamping are hard to ignore.
 
But there was no need for eight thousand and eight.
Scamps all sold houses, and Oncewas lacked real estate.
So ten left, then twenty.  Then a hundred and two.
Then three thousand and sixty, and their brothers, too.
Until all had gone except Scampy Magoo,
Who continued his scamping, though there was no … (87 comments)

Scottsdale Real Estate Statistics, May 2010 - 06/02/10 02:13 PM
 
Scottsdale Real Estate statistics for May 2010 are now available at the Scottsdale Property Shop!  View the broad overviews for the greater Phoenix area, or drill all the way down to the Scottsdale zip code of your choice for month to month comparisons of total inventory, active listings, sold listings and new listings.  Looking for a specific subdivision or community?  Shoot us an email and we'll forward you the latest stats from the neighborhood of your choice.  No need to ask whether the market conditions are ripe for a purchase or a sale when the numbers are right at your … (2 comments)

 
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Paul Slaybaugh, Scottsdale AZ Real Estate

Scottsdale, AZ

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Realty Executives

Address: 10607 N. Hayden Rd 100, Scottsdale, AZ, 85260

Office Phone: (480) 948-9450

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