WSJ.com: Home Sellers Turn to Blogs To Make Properties Stand Out

In today's Wall Street Journal (online subscription required), there's a great article on how blogs can be used by to help sell homes.

Although the blogosphere is supposed to be seamless, and not geo specific, key terms in a blog - like Scottsdale or Phoenix or Scottsdale Realtor - will drive local search results to a blog.

Blogs and vidcasts and podcasts will likely become more prevelant in real estate marketing.

What Real Estate Bubble?

In today's business section in the Arizona Republic is the article: RE/MAX chief looks at Valley.

Unlike the rest of the country, according to the co-founder of RE/MAX International, there does not appear to be any real estate bubble in Phoenix. In other words, the Valley is the optimal place to invest in real estate, buy a second home or buy a winter home.

Some good quotes from the article ...

But Phoenix has a long-term bull market for real estate. It's got the diversity of economy, it's got the climate, it's got the place that a lot of people buy not just primary residences, but a tremendous amount of people are buying secondary homes.

And, regarding a bubble ...

It just does not exist. If you talk about Las Vegas or a couple other places where (prices) have been going up 50 percent a year, yes, there are some problems there. Not in Phoenix.

Give me a call if you are interested in Scottsdale real estate for a good investment, or that second home.

Keys to your home closing

When buying a home, there are many pieces to the puzzle to complete the closing process.

From this weekend's Arizona Republic, there was a great article on closing a home, a step-by-step introduction to closing on your new home.

As a Scottsdale real estate agent with more than a decade's service in Arizona, I work with all my clients from the opening of escrow to the final signing of papers and transferring of title ... and then giving those keys to your new home.

Investors driving up Valley home prices

In certain parts of the country, real estate has slowed down a little bit. However, in metro Phoenix, we are seeing the opposite as people are buying to both move to the area, as well as investing in real estate in Phoenix.

Working with a variety of home buyers, I am always looking out for their best interests - if that means upgrading to a new home, diversifying their real estate holdings, or selling at a good price. As an expert in Scottsdale real estate, I am always working on my clients' behalf.

Cardboard Pianos

When buying a home, you always have to find the perfect spot for everything you own.

When we built our home in Michigan, we plotted out where the piano would go ... when we moved to Arizona, the piano did not "correctly" fit into any room, so I ended up sending the piano to my daughter in San Francisco. All three of my kids played instruments - daughters played piano, son played the violin - and I took piano lessons when I was younger.

I used to love playing the piano, and now I found an interesting new piano. A cardboard piano sounds almost like real thing.

Maybe the perfect new gift for that Scottsdale home?

The growing tech economy

For the close to 20 years that I have lived here, I have watched the economy continue to grow and grow. The biggest industry has always been tourism - the 300 days of sunshine helps us out with that - real estate has also been big, restaurants / hospitality is a big industry - PF Changs started here, as well as other hot restaurants.

When people think Phoenix, though, they don't necessarily think technology, but we do have a lot of powerhouses with facilities and offices in the area: Motorola, Intel, Honeywell, and we have a nice growing base of start-ups and smaller technology firms. The Scottsdale Airpark is home to many such companies, and a recent article in the Business Journal talks about how the future looks bright for Arizona's public tech firms.

With more and more people moving here from California for our lower housing prices, we are getting highly qualified workers that help move our economy forward. As a Scottsdale real estate professional, I have helped attorneys, doctors and other professionals find that perfect home in the Scottsdale area.

With these types of articles, we can only look forward to a continued growing economy, one that never really seems to slowdown.

Why people move to Arizona ...

This really says all you need to know: Ariz. rated 10th-best tax state for wealthy

Or, how about this:

"Arizona levies some of the lowest taxes for retirees, ranking fifth in that category behind Hawaii, Wyoming, Delaware and Colorado.

Arizona also finished with a modest tax burden for the non-retired hypothetical taxpayers."

As a Scottsdale real estate professional, I see a lot of people that are looking to either buy for retirement later on, or are looking for a second home. People choose Scottsdale for a variety of reasons: the more than 300 days of sunshine, the close to 200 golf courses in Metropolitan Phoenix (which includes Scottsdale), the quality of life, and it appears, the pretty good tax set-up.

The start of my blog ...

Hello All,

After reading an article in Inman (yes, I know the article is no longer available), I thought I would give blogging a try. On this blog, I will write about the state of real estate in Arizona, particularly in Scottsdale and Phoenix, as well as preview current listings I may have of homes in the area.

With new tools on Blogger, it's easy to upload images right in here, and give the MSL number for my readers.

My specialty is buyer representation - I have clients from around the world come to me to find that perfect home in Scottsdale.

In the meantime, check out out my Website on Scottsdale real estate.