These days, some home sellers will try just about anything

The Arizona Republic - November 2007

In this desperate, desolate, strung-out housing slump, it was only a matter of time before someone thought of T-shirts. When it comes to selling houses, these are the days of no shame.

There's a clever Gilbert mom who outfitted her kids with "Buy my house" T-shirts; a townhouse in Goodyear comes with Cardinals tickets. Buyers can get their closing costs paid, of course, but also seats at the Super Bowl if they seal the deal before Christmas. One far-flung seller in the Valley's nether regions is offering a new car, plus $1,000 in gas money for all that commuting.

Houses have their own Web sites and hold open houses every day. Classified ads start with "desperate" in boldface. And the national news has been abuzz with this tale: A couple moving to Arizona from the Pittsburgh area are promising that if you buy their house, they'll give you a full refund when they die, provided, of course, the deaths are not suspicious.

With the holiday housing slowdown hovering and homes snoozing on the market for an average of 95 days, it's desperation time, indeed. The housing pot is growing larger, and picky buyers are discovering their inner divas. The free flat-screen TV is no longer impressing anyone; the wine-and-cheese open house is a bore. So, frenzied sellers are concocting wacky, wily stunts to show off their homes and eke out a little attention.

"It is ugly out there right now," says Brad Sather, who is offering Cardinals season tickets with his 2,351-square-foot Goodyear luxury townhouse. "Any edge that we can have to sell the house is great.

"We're not gonna be living in Phoenix anyway, so what do I need those tickets for?"

There also is the matter of patience, and in our 24-hour world, we have little. In America, we want everything fast, and we'll pay to have it faster: faster passports, FedEx deliveries by 8 a.m., faster non-stop flights. We can have what we want whenever we want it.

We cannot, however, make someone buy a house. But, oh, how we will try.
Jeni Barton needs to sell her Gilbert four-bedroom quickly, so she busted out the iron-ons and made T-shirts for her kids that say, "Buy my house," on the front and trumpet the home's Web site, 3441evernon.com, on the back. Barton had magnets crafted for her car, complete with photos. She even rented a bounce house for the backyard and hired a baby-sitter to oversee the kids while parents perused her pad during an open house. And she made treats.

There's a job waiting in Denver, a slew of new homes competing for buyers across the street, and the Christmas crush is freaking her out. Barton's efforts are a way to calm the panic.

"I'm hoping to speed it up a little. I'm virtually exhausted from keeping (the house) perfect 24/7 and not having anyone come and look at it," says Barton, 29. "I've been trying to figure out what I can do so I didn't feel so helpless, so I felt like I was doing something."

All that and still there's nothing doing at chez Barton. She's lucky to have one person come to an open house. When people see her daughters and their T-shirts, "they just kinda laugh," Barton says.

"What (buyers) are really looking for is the best deal," says Neil , an agent at Century 21. "They're really afraid the market's gonna keep going down, and they want the lowest price right now."
You can't search the Multiple Listing Service by "free car," he says, and "you can't overprice the house and give away a free car."

"But we are a game of inches in real estate, and being able to get as many people in the door as you can is the name of the game right now," Neil says.

So, all things being equal, "if the home is priced right and looks great and you're also offering (extras), it can't hurt," he says.

But the only way to really sell a house quickly, Neil says, is to slash that price until it's irresistibly low.

Still, it's easy to get lost in this sea of stucco and "for sale" signs. There were 58,178 homes on the market as of October, compared with 47,588 in October 2006 and 23,483 in October 2005.

"It's difficult to make one stand out from the other," says Ramona of High Profile Realty in Litchfield Park. She has a tough listing way out west: a new custom home past Loop 303. She and her seller "sat and studied all the different ways to get someone to move that far out of town with gas prices the way they are."

The solution: a free 2007 Toyota Yaris plus a $1,000 gift card for fuel. Another of Ramona's sellers is offering two $5,000 gift cards for travel: one for the buyer and another for the agent who brings that buyer in.

"It's taking more than just good pricing," Ramona says. "You do what you have to do."

Fed cuts rate to help ease housing slump

AP - November 2007

The Federal Reserve sliced an important interest rate Wednesday - its second reduction in the last six weeks - to help the economy survive the strains of a deepening housing slump that is likely to crimp growth in coming months.

Fed Chairman Ben Bernanke and all but one of his colleagues agreed to lower the federal funds rate by one-quarter percentage point to 4.50 percent at the end of a two-day meeting.

"The pace of economic expansion will likely slow in the near term, partly reflecting the intensification of the housing correction," the Fed acknowledged in a statement explaining its action.

The funds rate affects many other interest rates charged to millions of individuals and businesses and is the Fed's most potent tool for influencing economic activity.

In response, commercial banks, including Bank of America, Wells Fargo and KeyCorp., announced that they were cutting their prime lending rate - for certain credit cards, home equity lines of credit and other loans - by a corresponding amount, to 7.50 percent.

The rationale behind the cuts is that the lower borrowing costs will induce people and businesses to boost spending, energizing economic activity.

Wall Street was cheered by the Fed action. The Dow Jones industrials jumped 137.54 points to close at 13,930.01.

The Fed policymakers supporting Wednesday's rate cut said the action - along with a rate reduction in September - was needed to "forestall some of the adverse effects on the broader economy" that might arise from the housing and credit troubles that have wreaked havoc on Wall Street over the past few months.

Fed policymakers indicated the two rate cuts ordered so far may be sufficient to help the economy make its way safely through the trouble spots.

They said the risks to the economy from inflation "roughly balance," or are equal to, the risks of a serious downturn in economic growth. Previously, the risks of a recession were seen as more of a threat to the country's economic health.

"The message: They are now done for the time being," said Lynn Reaser, chief economist at Bank of America's Investment Strategies Group. "They have taken out a significant insurance policy and now they believe they are fully covered against a recession risk - at least for the near term," she said.

For now, Reaser and other economists think the Fed probably will leave the funds rate alone when its meets next on Dec. 11, the last session of the year.

The 9-1 decision to cut rates on Wednesday was opposed by Thomas Hoenig, president of the Federal Reserve Bank of Kansas City. He preferred no change in the funds rate.

So far, the economy has shown amazing resilience to the housing and credit strains.

The economy grew at a brisk 3.9 percent pace in the summer, the fastest in 1 1/2 years, the government reported Wednesday. The impressive performance came even as the housing market sank deeper into the doldrums.

Fed policymakers, in their statement, said the economy turned in a "solid" performance in the third quarter. They also said that "strains from financial markets have eased somewhat on balance."

Even so, economic growth is expected to slow to a pace of around 2 percent or less in the current October-to-December period as the toll of the deteriorating housing market catches up with consumers and chills their spending.

As another bolstering move, the Fed also sliced its lending rate to banks by one-quarter percentage point on Wednesday. That was the third cut to that rate since mid-August.

Complicating the Fed's job to keep the economy and inflation on an even keel is surging oil prices. They soared to a record near $95 a barrel on Wednesday.

The Fed said "recent increases in energy and commodity prices, among other factors, have put renewed upward pressure on inflation." The Fed said that while some inflation barometers that exclude energy and food prices have improved modestly this year, some inflation risks remain. They pledged to "monitor inflation developments carefully."

If rising oil prices boost the cost of many other goods and services, then inflation could take off. At the same time, high energy prices could crimp consumer and business spending, putting another damper on overall economic activity.

Although the economy performed well in the third quarter, the housing slump deepened. It shaved more than a full percentage point off economic growth.

The meltdown in the mortgage market has made it harder for people to obtain financing to buy homes. That's aggravating problems in the housing market and leading to a mounting pileup of unsold homes. The housing slump is expected to drag on well into next year and foreclosures are expected to rise.

The Fed on Sept. 18 lowered its key interest rate for the first time in more than four years. It was seen as a pre-emptive strike to ensure housing and credit problems don't sink the economy. The Fed's aggressive action at that time prompted a rally on Wall Street, propelling the Dow Jones industrials up by nearly 336 points. It was the Dow's biggest one-day point jump in nearly five years.

Pinal County homeowners can buy discounted flood insurance

Tribune - November 2007

Hundreds of Pinal County property owners now located in high-risk flood zones can purchase discount flood insurance prior to a Dec. 4 deadline.

A multiyear project to update the county’s flood hazard maps by the Federal Emergency Management Agency wrapped up this summer, but now more than 200 parcels have been placed in higher-risk flood zones and owners could be soaked with costly flood-insurance bills.

Many of the county’s maps hadn’t been updated in 20 years, and before the new maps become effective on Dec. 4, property owners can get their flood insurance policy at a savings, said Elise Moore, Pinal County flood control/traffic section chief.

“We want all the homeowners to assess their own risk,” Moore said. “We want people to go talk to their insurance agent before the first week of December because after that there’s no going back.”

Flood insurance is provided through a national program established by Congress in 1968. The national flood insurance policy can be obtained through most insurance providers. Currently, there are 784 policies in Pinal County as part of the National Flood Insurance program.

Property owners can purchase flood insurance at their old risk level prior to the maps becoming effective. By doing that, owners will grandfather in their property, and FEMA will then recognize policyholders as “loyal customers” because they will have a policy prior to the map changes. It will also save them hundreds of dollars.

To keep that cost savings, policyholders must maintain continuous coverage, Moore said.

According to Pinal County Emergency Management, flooding is one of Pinal County’s most costly natural disasters and doesn’t just affect property owners in higher risk zones.

“Obviously if you’re not mapped in a FEMA risk zone you could still get flooded,” Moore said. “A lot of the calls about flooding we get are from areas that aren’t mapped in high-risk zones.”

For information about the updated flood hazard maps, visit www.floodsmart.gov