Tucson Writer’s Block Not What You Think is a post Scrapped and Stolen from: Tucson Real Estate if you are not reading this in your Reader.

The past two weeks have flown by so incredibly fast I can’t believe it. I’ve had a bad case of writer’s block, but not the kind you might be used to hearing about.

Typical writer’s block is when you can’t think of anything to write about.

My writer’s block has been far from it. I have lots to write about, but no time to write. Sometimes Real Estate takes time away from writing about real estate.

I don’t even have time to write this at the moment, but I can’t let this blog sit another day longer without feeding it something less it die of “malwordtrition”. That is death by the lack of words in a timely manner.

My Tucson Writer’s Block

• New clients, several new clients looking for homes
• New listing near Benson, Arizona
• New listing on the East side of Tucson
• Update to the Oro Valley Real Estate blog
• New blog on an Oro Valley Subdivision
• 2 Open Houses
• Blog platform upgrade from Wordpress 2.1 to 2.2
• Project Grad, up all night and clients in the morning
• Daughter’s last day of school and trip to England, France & Spain

I won’t bore you with the details of some of the items on this list other than to say there was more than one that entailed very little sleep over the course of the last 10 days. I haven’t even been able to keep up on the massive amount of reading I do to analyze the Tucson Real Estate Market. (I’m catching up, kind of).

For example a new listing entails.

1. A complete photo shoot of the home inside and out.
2. Photos of things near the home that might be of interest to a potential buyer.
3. Creation of a website just for the listing.
4. Creating flyers for the listing.
5. Putting up the sign, yes I put up our own signs. Digging a hole in the ground around Tucson is like digging right through concrete.
6. Scanning and posting of any pertinent documents for the property (SPDS) etc.
7. Creating a video montage of the listing for on it’s website.
8. Creating a map page for the listing with location of the property and places of interest around the property.

I had two of those this past week, both still need some additional work.

The night before the early drive to Phoenix for the flight to Europe we had a night visit to Kitt Peak observatory which ended at 11 pm with a drive off the mountain without headlights so as not to mess up the telescopes. We got home at 1 am.

I’ve got more photos and will write this week about Kitt Peak the home of the National Observatory and it’s relationship with Tucson.

On the Burner

• Absorption Rates vs. Day On Market as a measuring tool.
• Kitt Peak (as mentioned above)
• Tucson Water in Perspective
• Photo montage of Tucson in Bloom in May and June
• Remember the Milkman
• Commentary on MLS Statistics for May
• Sand trout flourishing in Tucson rivers and washes
• Continuing Analysis of the Tucson Real Estate Market

Writer’s block indeed. BTW, those are slump blocks in the picture at the top, they are popular as a building material in Tucson. Some are built with burnt adobe, but most homes are stucco these days.

Where was the Listing Agent? is a post Scrapped and Stolen from: Tucson Real Estate if you are not reading this in your Reader.

There was an interesting little article in our paper  yesterday.

Arizona Daily Star “Around the Nation“ 

“WISCONSIN

Potential buyers find homeowner dead

JANESVILLE — A couple checking out a house for sale were shocked to discover the 55-year-old homeowner dead in her bed. Authorities said foul play was not suspected.

Real estate agent Linda Chabucos-Galow stood in the dining room while Justin and Colleen McKeen walked through a house Monday night. Before long, she heard Colleen McKeen scream.

“I thought, ‘What’s wrong?’ Maybe it was a dead mouse or something,” Chabucos-Galow said.

But then she peered into the bedroom and saw the body of Linda L. O’Leary.

An autopsy determined O’Leary had been dead for two to three weeks, Rock County Coroner Jenifer Keach said. “

My question WHERE WAS THE LISTING AGENT?

Apparently there was no “phone to show” or they left a message and no one answered.  People often stop answering their phone the week after they die.

I can’t imagine a listing agent being out of contact with their buyer for more than three weeks with no communication.

Listing agents typically:

1. have contact with their sellers several times a week
2. check the listing to see if there is a need for more flyers
3. check the listing to see who has signed in and shown the property
4. brought new sign-in sheets
5. make sure the seller doesn’t need anything (for single older sellers)

The list is longer if the house is vacant. 

I’m thinking about adding this to the listing presentation:

“If you should die in your sleep it won’t be three weeks before anyone knows, If you list with us” : )

Tucson New Construction Master Bath is a post Scrapped and Stolen from: Tucson Real Estate if you are not reading this in your Reader.

What do you mean
This is where the Master Bath goes?

Tucson Butterfly Mountain is a post Scrapped and Stolen from: Tucson Real Estate if you are not reading this in your Reader.

Butterfly Mountain Gated Community

Tucson Butterfly Mountain Estates has a total of 28 lots.  Each lot is  3.3 acres.  There is a pair of iron and native stone gated entrances.
There are beautiful Tortolita and Catalina Mountain views.  The Tucson city lights and sunset views bring a perfect transition from evening to night.

Native stone accents and butterflies with colored stones are located throughout the community, beautiful mountains, sunset and city views, an abundance of lush desert vegetation and gorgeous flora and fauna.

Tucson Winter – Baby It’s Cold Outside is a post Scrapped and Stolen from: Tucson Real Estate if you are not reading this in your Reader.

As you can see we know how to bundle up when it gets cold outside.  A couple of weeks ago we had a few nights below freezing and one night it even went down to 20 degrees in some areas around town.

Twenty degrees in Tucson is really cold and our vegetation isn’t used to weather that cold.

Now around Christmas time there is a tradition of putting red Santa hats on top of cactus for decoration at the same time serving as a protector against frost on the cactus.

Since most HOA’s around Tucson require that all seasonal decorations be put away within two weeks of the holiday most of those cute Santa hats have made their way back into storage bins in the garage until they are needed next year.

Then the freeze hit and of course inventive Tucsonans had a solution.  Take that coffee cup when you are done with your morning coffee and recycle it.

Tucson Cryogenic Snowmen is a post Scrapped and Stolen from: Tucson Real Estate if you are not reading this in your Reader.

Snow isn’t something we see a lot of here in Tucson especially snow actually on the ground.  Maybe we see it in the mountains surrounding the city but not down where most of us live our everyday lives. When it does happen to land on our own front yards it is a big event.

On January 22nd I wrote about the Tucson Snow and the elves making a snowman.  When he slid off the car and onto the pavement they scooped him back up brought him home and used him as ammunition against your’s truly.  I didn’t think anything about it until the other night when I opened the freezer side of the refrigerator and there, in our freezer, I found what was left of the snowman.

It was like a scene out of “Silence of the Lambs” or a Jeffrey Dahmer copy-cat.  Here was the poor snowman (or what was left of him in our freezer).

Apparently the elves (the girls) couldn’t part with their snowman just yet, so they gathered up what was left from the snowball fight (one sided I might add) and put him back in the tupperware and in the freezer.

My elves cryogenically froze our snowman.  I don’t doubt there are snowmen all across Tucson at this very moment also being cryogenically preserved in an effort to hold onto the magic of winter in Tucson.

I know for the rest of the country this seems strange, maybe even very strange.  If you are in up state New York right now you have somewhere around 10 feet of snow on the ground and 2 to 4 more feet expected by Monday night. 

I’m sure the last thing on anyone’s mind there is putting a bit of snow in the freezer to keep so you can remember what it was like.

This however, is part of the charm of living here in the high desert of Southwestern Arizona.  Tucson is at the center of that charm.

Do any of you have snowmen cryogenically preserved in your refrigerator?

Tucson Christmas Gifts Cactus? is a post Scrapped and Stolen from: Tucson Real Estate if you are not reading this in your Reader.

Yesterday while out running errands, picking up some after Christmas specials and attending to a couple of our listings I saw these two trucks moving a couple of Sahuaro cactus.  I don’t know if they are a late Christmas present or a return.

Moving a cactus is a lot like petting a porcupine.  As you can see they don’t have very deep roots. But they are rather easy to transplant and have them survive.

I got to thinking this is a sight a lot of people have probably never seen.  If you move to Tucson, maybe some day you will have a ring of the doorbell and your very own Sahuaro cactus may be coming to your new home.

What a wonderful house warming present!

Tucson Starter Home buy half a house : ) is a post Scrapped and Stolen from: Tucson Real Estate if you are not reading this in your Reader.

They say necessity is the mother of invention, with the median price of a new home in Tucson now over $218,000 it is estimated a household income needs to be $80,000 a year just to buy a home in Tucson. This is well beyond the income level of many families in the Tucson area. 

Not to be outdone by this market developers have come up with a new concept in housing here in Tucson. Buy half the house now and when you can afford it in a few years they will come back and build the other half of the house.

With home values rising this past year at a rate of 32% and even with the slowing of the market an increase of over 15% is expected for the next several years. This makes it possible for families to use the equity in their new home to build the other half of their home in a relatively short period of time.

The price of these starter homes are in the $180,000 to $220,000 range depending on the upgrades.

Almost everyday I would go by this home as it was being built thought it looked odd from the angle I would see it while driving down the road.  One day I took the camera along and shot this photo.  It always looked to me like just half a house, and that is when the wacky idea came to me about building and selling just half a house.

For now, I don’t know of anyone doing this, but who knows what could possibly happen in the future.

Anybody out there think this is a good idea?

15 Minutes of Magic at La Encantada in Tucson is a post Scrapped and Stolen from: Tucson Real Estate if you are not reading this in your Reader.

There is real Magic in the air in Tucson’s La Encantada Mall.  Every Friday and Saturday night at 6 and 7 PM there is 15 minutes of magic, with snow (Tucson style) and Christmas music and singing.  The whole place lights up with people gathering to see the snow and hear the music.  It is a magical moment.

La Encantada is one of Tucson’s newest malls with the latest addition of Tiffany’s to many other high end retailers at the mall.  A J’s Fine Foods has an outdoor fireplace and grill making for a perfect place to eat one of the many fine desserts they make right there.

There is an upper deck at the mall with a bench positioned perfectly for viewing the Tucson city lights.  From La Encantada the city of Tucson looks like it is lite for Christmas all year round.

If you are going to be in Tucson on a Friday or Saturday evening before December 23rd consider one of the fine dining places at the mall with a dessert from AJ’s and time it so you can be a part of the 15 minutes of magic.  It is a wonderful holiday experience.

Tucson Cure for The Common Cold is a post Scrapped and Stolen from: Tucson Real Estate if you are not reading this in your Reader.

Tucson has a very active medical community with lots of research going on in various locations around town and at the University.  But this cure isn’t coming from any of those facilities.

It is from The Metropolitan Tucson Convention & Visitors Bureau which provided the photo above as well.  It is a new campaign desiged to attract people from colder climates to Tucson. I love it, a great play on words.  If there is anywhere I enjoy being in the winter it is here in Tucson.  I love having days in the 70’s and nights crisp and cool. I like having a moring in December where I can put on my shorts and long sleave shirt and go out for breakfast and actually see others wearing shorts as well.

For me Tucson certainly has been the cure for the common cold. 

You can read the entire article Selling Tucson in Cold Climates and find additional information about Tucson in the News at the bottom of the righthand navigation.  We put direct links to real estate articles of interest that are in the local Tucson newspapers. 

This one is there along with one that was in the Sunday December, 3rd “At Home” section by Kenneth Harney about “Media overblowing housing market woes”.  Now that a revelation.  I didn’t think they could do that!

If you