It’s amazing to think the New Year is upon us and we’ve started a new decade. We’d like to wish everyone a Happy New Year from both Stephen & Angela! As we reflect back on 2019 we’re extremely appreciative of the opportunity to help so many of our friends, family, and past clients this year with their real estate needs. We never take that opportunity for granted and will continue to deliver on our commitment to meeting all of your real estate needs with expertise to make it as smooth of a process as possible.
As part of that mission of helping our clients, family, and friends we’d like to engage even more with you in 2020 to see how we can help you with your questions, your business, and continue to improve our own business. Therefore, please reach out to us via phone, text, or email if you have questions you’d like to see us address in this newsletter, a business or event you’d like us to highlight or help volunteer for, or even if you’d just like to catch up with us for lunch! It’s our resolution this year to become even more engaged with those around us in our local community. We wish everyone a fantastic 2020 ahead!
Did you close on a home recently, transfer title on a property, or start a new business perhaps? If so, you might have received one of these letters in the mail offering to provide you a “Property Assessment Profile” or “Recorded Deed.” This solicitation looks somewhat official but costs $86.00 and is completely unnecessary since the information they’ll “provide” is all publicly available. Don’t fall prey to this waste of money!
Team Woodall is pleased to be among the elite members of the newly formed Long Luxury Alliance. These agents are among the select few in town with extensive experience representing buyers and sellers in the luxury real estate market and have shown this through continued sales performance. Among the many benefits of Team Woodall being associated with the Long Luxury Alliance are access to networking opportunities among the other top Long Realty agents working the luxury sphere, statistics put together on buyer and seller trends, and exclusive marketing opportunities. While Stephen and Angela work all price points of the Tucson market, having this expertise in the luxury market is a great benefit to our clients and the exposure, networking, and access available through the Long Luxury Alliance will only further the benefits realized by clients. Below is a picture from the initial meeting of the Long Luxury Alliance group.
Gorgeous weather has arrived in Tucson! The Fall time of year is an amazing time to get out and enjoy the outdoors for recreation. However, we also challenge everyone this next month to swap a typical car ride you’d take and instead head out for a walk, bike, or run. Whether that’s going to lunch, running an errand, or meeting up with friends, consider saving the gas and hopping on a bike instead. Not only does it save some money but it also reduces your carbon footprint while having the extra benefit of being good exercise. We’ve already begun this journey with a short ride to lunch this week and will continue making these treks out for lunch, to the grocery store, and even bringing the kids along as well. We think you’ll enjoy that change in your routine that makes a typical errand a little more interesting.
Catalina State Park is one of the most popular destinations for locals and tourists in the Northwest Tucson area. This protected land offers a diverse mix of wildlife, great bird watching, and after rainfall can have several excellent locations to dip your feet into flowing water along the Sutherland Wash, which then feeds into the Canyon Del Oro Wash. Weekends often feature activities like concerts, wildlife exhibits, and guided hikes so be sure to check out the newly revamped Catalina State Park website for details.
One of the shortest trails in the whole park can often get overlooked, but is well worth a quick stop. This trail is the Romero Ruins Trail and is only about three quarters of a mile long, but takes you back in time. The trail begins right off the main entrance road but well before the main trailhead area, so look for signage. Romero Ruins is the location of an ancient Hohokam village dating back to about 500 A.D. There are plenty of interpretive signs along the trail to explain the history of the area which include an old village wall, pit houses, a ball court, and trash mounds. In our more recent history Francisco Romero chose this site to build a home, the remnants of which still exist today. Head up to this hillside location and you’ll understand why both Romero and the Hohokams picked this spot as the views are absolutely incredible Take a few minutes on your next trip to Catalina State Park to check it out, but please observe signage to stay on the trails and do not collect any artifacts from the site.
Oro Valley residents will notice a big disruption at a fairly major intersection in the near future as the La Canada & Moore intersection will be closed from September 18th – November 22nd. All traffic will have to detour through surrounding neighborhoods during this time frame as construction gets underway for a roundabout which replaces the existing 4-way stop. The installation of the roundabout has been a much discussed project in the area as both this roundabout and a traffic light option were under consideration. Ultimately the roundabout was selected, but due to delays in getting started the Town has chosen to shut down the intersection entirely in order to reduce the construction period and get the project complete before the Thanksgiving holiday.
A map of the detour can be found here and further information about the project can be found at Oro Valley’s Public Works website here. Hopefully the project stays on schedule to limit the amount of time the detour is necessary as this does take traffic through residential neighborhoods. Please use caution and be aware of the lower speed limits on the detour route as it’s sure to be heavily patrolled by Oro Valley Police. The resulting roundabout will do a good job of handling the traffic flow at this ever busier intersection.
Twice a year Long Realty creates a broader look of the entire Tucson region where trends can really be identified, and one of these was just released with the Mid-Year Housing Report now available! Among the more notable statistics that jump out are the decline in available listings which dropped 11% and the corresponding rise in median price which is up 8%. Even though this creates a Seller’s market, all hope is not lost for Buyers today. While prices are basically eclipsing peak market values from 2006, the actual buying power remains much stronger due to historically low interest rates under 4% compared with over 6% in 2006. Definitely take a look at this interesting Mid-Year Housing Report.
According to Zillow, in Pima County, 91.2% of homes sell within +/- 20% of their Zestimate. That means, if your home’s Zestimate is $200,000, it is very likely to sell between $160,000 and $240,000. Uh, thanks for the help, Zillow! 81.9% of Pima County homes will sell within +/- 10% of their Zestimates, so in your case between $180,000 and $220,000. That’s still a $40,000 range! When you get down to a 5% difference, which would be $190,000 to $210,000 for that $200,000 Zestimate home, there is only a 64.6% chance of it selling in that range. That’s a D!
Zillow says so themselves, the Zestimate “is a starting point in determining a home’s value.” Your home’s Zestimate is calculated automatically using an algorithm that relies heavily on sales prices of similar homes nearby. “Similar” in this case only takes into consideration public record data like square footage and number of bedrooms though, and it works best in production neighborhoods where homes are similar. The Zestimate algorithm doesn’t know which homes have road noise, great views, blue shag carpet, updated kitchens, or a neighbor with eight cars in his front yard, and these things, along with many other details, really make a difference.
Tip: You can claim your home on Zillow and update its information, including any errors or omissions and any renovations you have done. This may change your Zestimate!
But didn’t we already prove that Zestimates are not very accurate? So why does it matter? Answer: The reality is buyers look at Zestimates, so if you can increase yours, it can help justify a higher sales price in the future.
Before you get excited or discouraged about your home’s Zestimate or the Zestimate of a home that piqued your interest, give us a call. Zillow suggests that those wanting to go beyond the Zestimate should start by “getting a comparative market analysis (CMA) from a real estate agent.” With a visit to your home and some research, our expertise and local market knowledge can help you arrive at a much more accurate value than a Zestimate, and our detailed assessment is also free!
There is an endless list of ways in which you can “be more green,” but don’t feel that you need to do them all in order to have a positive impact. Every little bit helps! The following list includes some very simple tasks to ideas with limitless possibilities. You needn’t spend a fortune in order to be green. Some of the ideas below are free, and many will save you money!
1. Replace ALL of Your Bulbs with LED Lights
LED – Light-Emitting Diode – bulbs have life spans of about 25,000 hours and emit very little heat, which is a huge improvement over traditional incandescent bulbs which only last for about 1,200 hours and emit quite a bit of heat. Switching to LED bulbs will definitely save you money over time even if they are more expensive up front. Not only do you have to purchase far fewer of them, but your air conditioning doesn’t have to do the extra work of counteracting the heat produced by incandescent bulbs. Switching to LED bulbs is one of the best things you can do to save energy and money. Here is an excellent article comparing LEDs to CFLs and incandescents.
2. Don’t Heat or Cool Your House When You’re Not Home
It’s more energy efficient to only heat or cool your home when you need it rather than keeping it at the same temperature all day. Having to remember to keep turning your thermostat on and off is not practical, so a smart programmable thermostat is the solution. There are a few different brands out there, but the Nest is the only one that is eligible for a rebate from Tucson Electric Power. They cost $169 or $249 each, depending on the model, and the TEP rebate is for $35 each. You’ll need one for each thermostat in your home. I ordered them online and was able to install them myself.
The Nest thermostats themselves can sense motion nearby and use that to determine if you’re home or not, but I don’t think that would be particularly reliable in my home, so we use the other method which is tying them to our phones. Any time that both of our phones are outside of our home’s Wifi coverage, the Nest thermostats turn to Away mode which is set to use Eco Temperatures, a much wider range of 60-85 degrees Fahrenheit rather than the 72-78 range while we’re home. Usually this means the HVAC won’t run until we return home. Because the Nests are controlled from our phones, we can always set them back to normal temperatures before we arrive so that the home isn’t shockingly cold or hot when we walk in.
Another feature of the Nest that I really like in the winter is that early in the morning it heats your house up to the temperature you want it at, just in time for you to wake up (assuming you tell it those wake up times). The Nest learns how long it takes your home to heat up and takes into consideration the current indoor and outdoor temperatures. No longer do you program the thermostat (also done conveniently from your phone) to switch to different temperatures at different times of day but rather for the home to BE at different temperatures at different times of day. It takes the guesswork out of it and uses just the right amount of energy to keep you comfortable.
Water is precious, and the longer your shower, the more water you’re using. Kids are notorious culprits when it comes to unending showers, so a handy device like the Shower Manager can be helpful in setting clear limits for them. I wrote an entire blog post about why and how to use a Shower Manager. You can purchase them online for $149 for one, $260 for two, or $360 for three and install them yourself.
If you’d rather not limit the length of the shower but limit the water that comes out of the shower head instead, you can purchase a Watersense Qualified Shower Head, and Southwest gas provides a $5 rebate for them.
4. Avoid Throwing Food in the Trash
Once food hits the landfill, it emits methane, one of the worst greenhouse gases, because with trash piled on top of it, the food does not get exposed to oxygen was it decomposes. Rather than put your food in the trash, compost it! There are some rules of course. Animal products (meats & dairy) will still need to go in the trash, as they will stink up your compost bin and attract pests, but fruits, vegetables, and grains are all fair game. Even egg shells can be composted.
Here’s how it works: We put our eligible food scraps in a small stainless steel bin under the sink as we collect them, and once that fills up, we dump it into the compost bin in the backyard. When we first got the bin from Home Depot, we added about 6 inches of sticks in the bottom to create space for air. The bin doesn’t smell, and it looks inconspicuous.
Foods are “green” material, and on occasion you’ll need to add about twice as much “brown” material, which can include dried leaves, dried grass clippings, coffee grounds, wood shavings, shredded paper (our go-to “brown” material), and other materials which are easily researched online. About twice per week, we use a shovel to stir it all up in the compost bin (that exposure to oxygen is critical), and we add some water if it’s particularly dry. A few times per year we add some bagged organic soil.
Once you get set up, the whole thing is actually pretty low maintenance, and you get the added benefit of top-notch organic material to add to your garden. Every time I plant something, I mix some compost (aiming for the dark, even material and avoiding any chunks that haven’t decomposed yet) with potting soil, and my plants thrive with this combination. After years of composting regularly, it’s amazing how our bin has not come even close to filling up, so don’t worry about running out of space!
If you live in an apartment or just don’t want to deal with all of this, you can pay local company Scraps on Scraps $16 per month to pick up your compostable materials.
5. Extend the Life of Your Electronics and Appliances
Reduce. Reuse. Recycle. In that order. Reducing the number of appliances you go through in a lifetime is better for the environment than just relying on recycling them each time you need to get a new one. We recently lost our refrigerator to a power surge, so we had to replace it. It died young. With a whole house surge protector, you can protect everything in your home without surge protectors hanging out of every outlet. We recently got a quote from a local electrician for $299 which includes parts and installation. Not bad when you consider it could have saved us a refrigerator!
6. Reduce Your Plastic Bag Usage
Plastic bags cannot be recycled, and they are not biodegradable. It’s no secret nowadays that plastic bags are downright terrible for the environment. Although you cannot put them in your recycling bin, you can return them to your grocery store, and they will recycle them…into more plastic bags. Unfortunately, these recycled bags are thinner, requiring more items to be double bagged. More bags! Once again – Reduce. Reuse. Recycle. In that order. Reducing your plastic bag usage is far superior to recycling them.
Get out of this messy plastic bag cycle all together, and start using reusable cloth bags. They are available for purchase at grocery stores, and you may already have some that will work, from conferences, expos, and various vendors. You can even use an Albertson’s bag at Safeway (I’ve done it). Nobody cares. Just don’t take the plastic ones!
Forgot your reusable bags at home or in the car? Take one for the team and put your groceries directly into your cart and car (it helps to have a box or organizer in your trunk to keep things from sliding around). You can always transfer your groceries into the bags when you get to the car or when you get home before carrying them inside. Just avoid taking on more plastic bags!
7. Educate Yourself About Passive & Active Rainwater Harvesting
Rainwater harvesting projects can range from small changes to your landscaping to large expensive cisterns with lots of options in between. Your opportunities depend a lot on your home, your yard, and your water needs. To learn more about what might work well for you, visit Watershed Management Group’s Living Lab located at Speedway and Dodge (1137 N. Dodge Blvd). Not only is it the local non-profit’s headquarters, but it also serves as a model for all kinds of rainwater harvesting as well as other water-saving measures like gray water usage, composting toilets, and native plant selection. You can take a free tour, and they have lots of fun and educational public events to attend. Tucson Water also offers rebates if you decide to move forward with a project at your home:
Rainwater Harvesting Rebate (Tucson Water): Up to $2000
We bag our trash, so bagging our recycling seems like the logical thing to do. Recyclables have to be sorted though, so they’re just going to come out of that bag anyway, taking more time and money (which will be passed on to customers) to handle it all. The City of Tucson explicitly says, “All recyclables go loose into the Blue Barrel, together – – no sorting! Please put them in individually, not inside a box or bag.” Don’t risk your bag of recyclables being thrown into the trash instead!
Shade trees help cool your home, make your yard more enjoyable, reduce the urban heat island effect, prevent erosion, and of course turn carbon dioxide into oxygen like we all learned in science class. You can get heavily discounted shade trees from Tucson Electric Power’s Trees for You Program. Make sure to plant them far enough from your home so that their roots don’t interfere with your plumbing or foundation as they grow.
10. Take Advantage of Rebates from Local Utilities
Tucson Water, Tucson Electric Power, and Southwest Gas each encourage environmentally friendly upgrades by provide a number of rebates to their customers, but those rebates change often, so check out their websites for the most up to date lists. Here they are as of 10/5/18:
High Efficiency Toilet Rebate (Tucson Water): $75 per toilet, $150 for two toilets
Watersense Qualified Shower Head Rebate (Southwest Gas): $5
Solar Water Heater Rebate (Southwest Gas): Up to $2000
Energy Star Windows Rebate (Southwest Gas): Up to 75% of equipment cost
Living green is near and dear to my heart. I’m always seeking out new ways to do it. Because of my passion for sustainable living, I hold NAR’s Green Designation which “provides advanced training in green building and sustainable business practices so that you can seek out, understand, and market properties with green features.” Stay tuned to TeamWoodall.com for additional insights into green living.
Twenty dollar electric bills are a beautiful thing! It’s consistently in the 100s here in Tucson right now, and our air conditioning seems to be running non-stop, but the cheap electric bills keeps rolling in. We had our solar panels installed by Technicians for Sustainability in February, and it’s been smooth sailing ever since.
The Installation Process
Although TFS had originally told us it would take until April to get them installed, they had an opening suddenly and were able to start installing on February 8th. The plan was to finish on the 9th but with high winds that day, it took one more day, and they came back on Monday the 12th to finish the job. Oro Valley’s inspector came out the very next day on the 13th to check out the work, and TEP installed the new bi-directional meter the next week which was when the system officially got turned on. This timing turned out to be perfect, as we had an abundance of sunny, yet cool days up ahead, allowing us to produce a lot of energy without having to use much of it. We banked so much energy in the Spring that we are likely to make it through the entire summer without having to pay any more than our $20 base electric bill.
Data Monitoring
On February 28th, we had a follow up appointment at the house with a TFS technician to set up the data monitoring. We are able to view our energy production stats on an app on our phones, and TFS is also able to monitor the status of the system remotely. There have been a few hiccups in our wireless network, and TFS has caught it each time, reaching out to us to let us know they are unable to see our system. We’ve had a technician come out once already for free to make sure everything was still hooked up correctly. These issues only involved the communication. Our solar PV system has been generating electricity consistently without any hiccups. Data monitoring from your phone is extremely common and available from most companies, regardless of who you choose.
Sometimes Solar Just Doesn’t Fit Your Home
During our install time, another friend had three companies come out to her house to give quotes: TFS, Tesla, and one other. Once again, TFS was the only one to go onto her roof to take measurements and assess the viability of panels. TFS was also the only one that gave her the bad news that her roof was not oriented in a favorable way for solar panels, and it would not be possible to generate enough electricity to meet all of her home’s needs. The other two companies gave quotes that would produce all of her energy. She decided to forego solar installation based on the recommendation of Technicians for Sustainability.
So When Are the Rates Changing?
This keeps getting delayed, but the very earliest possibility is just a few days away on August 14th. This is when a contract would have to be signed with an installer, not when the panels would need to be installed. The Arizona Corporation Commission is having an open meeting again on the 14th and may finally make a decision then, but there have been numerous open meetings in the last year, and it has yet to be decided, so it’s possible that it may be pushed off once again.
"Stephen and Angela are the epitome of professionalism, teamwork and results. In a market crowded with agents look no further than these two." - Julio & Lisa
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