Markwood, aka “Siena,” is one of the Most Attractive Communities in South Chandler
I have been involved in a few transactions in the Markwood or “Siena” community in Chandler. I simply believe the community is one of the most attractive in South Chandler and the homes in this community have represented some of the best deals through the market downturn in Chandler.
The community is located at Cooper Road and Queen Creek Road in South Chandler and was built around 2004-7 by Trend Homes Inc. Legally, this company is now defunct, though there is a T2 Homes that looks just like the previous company except that it is under new ownership. That’s a different story altogether. Original pricing for these homes started around the $400s and easily ran into the $700s for some homeowners.
An Awesome Product
Trend Homes Inc. put a lot of design touches and elegance in these homes. There were tons of options available with these homes from the type of wall texture to kitchen cabinetry to lofts and extra rooms, etc. The homes have both superior curb appeal with their Tuscan and Spanish style exteriors with extensive rockwork to the superior design elements inside the homes.
Some examples include heavy-duty gourmet style kitchens with huge islands and very large pantries, exquisite bathroom features, large bedrooms with tall ceilings up and down, smooth texture on the walls for added sophistication, fireplaces in some bedrooms, and other premium touches. Markwood, or Siena, has broad greenbelt areas and parks. This increases the visual appeal for the community in my opinion.
Homes range in size from 2,155 square feet for one of the single-level designs to a two-level home with over 4,000 square feet. However, most of the homes fall in between with a single level model at 2543 square feet, and two-level models ranging from 2,900 to 3,676 square feet.
All of this makes the Markwood community one of my favorite communities in the area. Because the architecture and floorplans are more unique, these homes aren’t for everyone. The prospective buyer pool is definitely more limited given their more unusual appeal and so I have found buyers either love them altogether or don’t care for them altogether.
Unfortunately, Timing is Everything
Because most homeowners in the community bought at the market high, to sell today means they either take a large hit to any and all equity they had in the property in order to sell, or they have to short sale or foreclose in order to sell. Values have dropped so far here that it is simply unlikely all but a few homeowners have significant equity in their homes if they purchased them in the late 2004 to early 2007 timeframe.
I recall helping a home buyer renegotiate their home during the downturn and they were set to pay $570,000. They ended up paying $500,000.
Opportunities for Buyers
For a short time, buyers have an opportunity to get a home that is a cut above most in the area in terms of quality and design for the money. Though the community is near the Chandler Airpark, homeowners have been very happy with their homes and the community of in Siena and I can certainly understand why. These homes are simply gorgeous and well complemented with upgrades and features.
Today, a similar home has sold for closer to $325,000. As you can imagine, for buyers who like some of the designs in the community, this has been a fantastic time to purchase homes.
I take my role as a Realtor very seriously and I work to look after my clients’ money as if it was my own and I was the one purchasing or selling a property. As such, I wanted to share with you a recent experience that highlights what “Fiduciary Duty” really means in practice.
From the National Association of Realtors site, the following spells out the major aspects of a Realtor’s Fiduciary Duty to clients.
- “Loyalty: To act at all times in the best interest of the principal and to put those interests above all others, including yourself.
- Obedience: To obey promptly all lawful instructions of the principal.
- Disclosure: To disclose all known, relevant facts to the principal.
- Confidentiality: To safeguard the principal’s secrets, unless keeping the confidence would violate disclosure requirements about the property’s condition.
- Reasonable care and diligence: To diligently use real estate skills and knowledge when pursing the principal’s affairs.
- Accounting: To account for all funds and property entrusted by the principal”
Appreciating that I have a higher level of commitment than just a customer relationship with the people I work for, here is the example I mentioned.
When Larger Economic Issues Have an Impact Locally
My buyers decided on a home in Chandler recently. The inspections were performed and we had just moved successfully past the 10-day inspection period when I got a call from the listing Realtor.
Unfortunately, the message was not good. The sellers in this case were moving to Colorado as a result of a job relocation. However, the seller worked for General Motors and had just found out that GM was closing the Colorado facility and he no longer had a job to go to there or here for that matter. This was the week that GM officially filed for Chapter 11 Bankruptcy protection.
Between the listing Realtor and myself, we had never seen a transaction go south like this. It’s one of those rare instances where no one is happy with the circumstances - not the sellers, not the buyers, not the lender, not the title people, and not the Realtors.
Buyer Out $663?
Once notice of cancellation was received by title from the sellers, title issued a letter of cancellation for all parties to sign. Now, in this circumstance, there is not really much recourse in the way of getting reimbursement for the buyer’s expenses. This is an open hole in the Residential Purchase Contract. There are protections for the buyer and their earnest monies but not for their expenses if the seller does not conclude the transaction or cancels - at least not without painful, legal procedures. Of course, this doesn’t happen often at all. Usually, the seller is more at risk from the buyer failing to perform.
So, my buyer was facing a loss of $663.00 here.
- $280 - Home Inspection
- $38 - Termite inspection
- $345 - Appraisal
Fiduciary Duty Means Fighting for the Clients’ Hard-Earned Money
Fiduciary duty means that you fight to preserve the clients’ money as much as possible why working to get them the best value possible. In this case, my concern was that they would lose $663 here. So, I inquired as to a reiumbursement by the relocation company with the other Realtor. Truth be told, I didn’t believe the sellers would contribute here given their unfortunate circumstances. My hope was that the relocation company would assist here.
So, I worked to get the relocation company to reimburse my clients. As such, we didn’t provide the cancellation letter signed by my clients until we had some level of written agreement that they would do this.
Agreement on Reimbursement
We got it. The relocation company was cordial enough to agree to reimburse my clients for their expenses. My clients are pleased with this outcome. In truth, this could have been money that they could have lost altogether and chalked up to an unfortunate circumstance that affected everyone. In the end, the best possible outcome for my clients in this situation is that at least they don’t lose money.
Losing Money is Never Easy, Especially Now
Losing money is never easy but in today’s climate where every dollar counts, it is all the more important. Having said that, I was pleased with the outcome here. Though I can’t help with the time and emotional toll of not getting the home my clients wanted, I was at least able to get them the money back they spent on services in the process of buying this property.
As for the sellers, my best wishes for finding a new job and getting through this difficult period.
The Supreme Court has sided with the State of New York Attorney General’s appeal that it should be allowed to proceed in its investigations of numerous national mortgage lenders for potential discrimination in lending practices.
A lower court had blocked this based on the grounds that the New York Attorney General essentially had no jurisdiction in the case given federal fair housing laws. For more background on this, see Cuomo vs. Clearing House Association, L.L.C. Clearing House Association is a consortium of national lenders that included some of the lenders that received ‘letters of inquiry’ from the previous New York Attorney General in the matter.
As a Realtor who understands much of how we got into the mess our local market and the nation is in, I favor the investigation. There simply was a lot of action based on greed and though I don’t have any idea as to whether minorities were charged higher interest rates and other fees for their loans, it is clear that an environment that promoted such a hyper-growth in profits can lead to other improprieties.
One can argue that if there was not any wrong-doing, that the lenders will be cleared in this respect and there should be no objection to the investigation moving forward. However, I am not naive to ignore that these companies will incur substantial legal bills and potential bad public relations even if nothing wrong was perpetrated. Nonetheless, this is an important issue to pursue to determine whether improprieties exist or not.
Here’s a final opinion on the case from Banking Law Prof Blog that I found insightful:
“The Cuomo opinion must be read in light of the subprime lending crisis which has bloomed into a recession after the commencement of this case. This case was brought for the express purpose of blocking State investigation into abusive lending. Unchecked abuse is exactly what happens when a powerful federal agency crusades to enlarge its own jurisdiction and protect rather than regulate the industry it oversees. Common sense has indicated for at least the last five years that the OCC [Office of the Comptroller of the Currency] has neither the staff nor the inclination to enforce consumer protection laws. How could it not have been apparent to Congress and the courts that acquiescing in this agency’s aggressive efforts to prevent any other entity doing so would have disastrous results for consumers and for the economy?”
The Office of the Comptroller of the Currency “Administrator of National Banks” was the federal agency that tried to block the New York Attorney General’s investigation here in addition to the Clearing House Association, L.L.C. stepping in to lend support behind the OCC. The author here is calling out the obvious in that the OCC is asserting jurisdiction over enforcement of consumer protection laws in the case of national mortgage lenders while at the same time, clearly not showing any significant past enforcement of the very issues that created the mortgage financial crisis in the first place. It is that past purported lack of enforcement, the author suggests, that lends credence to a concern for how national banks treat consumers in the future.
The decision was penned by Justice Antonin Scalia in a 5-4 vote.
The following article link had some basic tips on selling your home in the current real estate market. I thought I would provide the link here as it is always good for prospective sellers to review this kind of information to arm themselves with tips and tricks to help get their home sold.
From CNN, 5 Steps to a Quick Home Sale
Tip #1
Now, you really have to understand that the author is talking a ‘quick’ sale which would justify the comments in the first tip. Real estate and home values are local. You have to understand comparable pricing in your area to know what it would take to effect a quick home sale. And by quick and given the discounts mentioned in the article, we are talking two weeks or less.
Now, for those more patient and looking for a more reasonable value for the property and not in an urgent hurry, then pricing might start higher with the expectation that it could take some time to get a contract.
One comment: Whether you are selling a Scottsdale custom home or a Chandler home, nothing gets a Realtor more anxious than if the pricing brings in a buyer within 1-3 days and the seller didn’t deliberately price the property really low for a quick sale. This can mean that the property was underpriced and money is being left on the table.
Tip #2
Tip 2 has some great suggestions but there are certainly a lot more aspects to this to consider to improve curb appeal and interior appeal. But reminding people to think of this is a great idea.
Tip #3
The online aspects are very important. Most critically, the listing needs to be detailed, accurate, and communicated across all the local home search sites possible so that the most potential buyers (and Realtors) see it. Facebook and Twitter represent additional marketing tools but in some sense, these are more broad-based marketing than targeted marketing in my opinion and secondary to that above. Nonetheless, the more people who see your home for sale, the better.
Tip #4
Now, with regard to tip 4, there is another train of thought here. When I set up home searches for home buyers (I customize it based on exactly what they are looking for), I don’t put a range in pricing so much as I just include the maximum. This is for the fact that most buyers don’t typically search for homes based on wanting to spend $300,000 to $350,000. Most buyers, especially in this climate, are willing to spend ‘up to.’ However, if they could find what they are looking for at a lower price than their range, they would jump on it.
So, when pricing, if a homeowner is priced near $300,000, I would suggest a price of $299,999 versus $300,001 because the property will get noticed by more buyers who are looking up to $300,000 in addition to those looking above $300,000. It’s about visibility and the seller shouldn’t care if the buyer is at the top end of their range or the bottom so long as the buyer is a strong, viable, candidate for successfully closing on the property.
Tip #5
With regard to item 5, I like this as well. Speed is the advantage to a normal home seller as is relative simplicity of the deal as compared to foreclosures and certainly, short sales. So, I would highlight both aspects here - ”Normal sale - not a short sale or foreclosure. Ready to close.”
I have many other tips but honestly, I like to walk a property and point items out that I think we can change to improve on the home’s appeal. This is the best way to address what might need to be done. As well, I try to preempt what a buyer might think and what feedback we could expect to get so that my sellers aren’t surprised when we start hearing something that was likely to come up when I visited the property.
As well, one important aspect for sellers is that the tips above always apply, daily. A homeowner has to keep the house looking sharp at all times for a potential showing. It’s a lot of work but the potential impact is to reduce the time on market (assuming proper pricing and positioning), and a higher sales value.
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