Thursday, January 21, 2010

The two most common types of Canadian buyers

I've found that Canadian buyers of Arizona winter homes tend to fall into one of two camps.

Single Family Homes on the Outskirts



The first camp, and by far the largest camp, are those folks that just want a place in the sun. They don't want to spend a lot of money. They prefer newer homes to reduce potential maintenence costs. They don't care if the home is located on the edge of metropolitan Phoenix because they are coming for the sun... and maybe to play a lot of golf.

The ideal home for those in this first camp would be a home in one of the newer towns like Queen Creek or Maricopa.

Condos in Scottsdale



The second camp want a place in the sun but they would also like to get out and be active when they are on vacation in Arizona. Oftentimes, they would also like to rent out the home for part of the winter to make some money when they're not using it.

The ideal home for those in this second camp would be a condo in Scottsdale. Scottsdale is the center of winter events in Phoenix. For example, the Barrett-Jackson Classical Car Auction, the Arabian Horse Show, the Phoenix Open Golf Tournament, and a zillion other activities are located in Scottsdale in the winter.

And because Scottsdale is the center of winter activities, it can be easier to rent out Scottsdale condos to winter vacationers.

I brought this all up because recently a few 2-bedroom condos in the Scottsdale area sold for just over $100,000. Some amazing prices right now! And the ones I've seen were located in resort like communities. A few even had a garage which is quite unusual indeed for condos in Arizona.

There are complications because the condos I saw at those prices were usually foreclosures or short sales. Foreclosures and short sales and not like normal sales. Here are Scottsdale foreclosure condos and Scottsdale short sale condos currently listed for sale. Call me for more information about these or other Arizona homes for sale.

Wednesday, January 13, 2010

Planning a house hunting trip to Arizona?

This website shows the cost of some cheap flights from Edmonton to Phoenix. Not bad prices at all!



Need more convincing that now is the time to buy a holiday home in Arizona, check out the current Scottsdale temperature in the sidebar.

Tuesday, January 5, 2010

Canadian Dollar above 96 cents today

Are we headed to par?



Well, that has certainly been the direction over the last 12 months.

Saturday, January 2, 2010

Makeover complete!

I've made a lot of improvements to this website that I hope will be useful to you.

Highlights



  • You can now search all homes listed for sale in metropolitan Phoenix on this website.
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  • I added the graphic in the upper right-hand corner to brag about our new home search capability.
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  • Now you can call me TOLLFREE by clicking on the "Call Me" button. (Google will ring both of our phones at the same time and connect us.)

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  • Your now have a better form to order emails of just listed Phoenix area homes.

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  • You can now find the current Canadian Dollar to U.S. Dollar exchange rate from this website. Click the link in the sidebar.

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  • Also in the sidebar, you can now easily send me a quick question. Try it!

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  • I also updated all the tutorials about how to buy an Arizona home.



The tutorials (see sidebar) are great but, unfortunately, they don't cover Arizona foreclosures. Now with this blog, I'll be able to talk about how you can buy Arizona foreclosures and Arizona short sales.

This is an amazing time for Canadians to buy a home in Arizona. Both home prices and the exchange rate are excellent!

I hope this website is able to help you understand the Phoenix area real estate market and our Arizona home buying process. I hope you are able to buy your sunny and warm winter vacation home in Arizona.

New! Blog Added to "How To Buy Arizona Real Estate"

I created this website over 2 years ago and it's been helpful to a ton of Canadians which I'm very happy about.

One problem.  I'm always running across information that would be useful to Canadians considering buying a home in Arizona but without a blog on this website, I really didn't have a good  way to get the information out.

Viola!  I finally added this blog during the Christmas slowdown and just in time for the high season that began yesterday, January 1.

In addition, I'm going to do a makeover of this website to, I hope, make it even more useful.