Blog
Latest NewsN. Mark Kramoltz, JD, GRI, CIPS writes blog articles on the metro Phoenix, Arizona, national and global real estate markets. Written from his perspective as a designated broker and real estate attorney, his articles avoid the inaccuracies and vacuous industry propaganda common to most real estate writings. Due to his love of animals and military history, he also frequently writes about dogs, cats and horses that have played a role in military conflicts. Subscribe to his blog now!
More Chinese, Less Canadians.
U.S. real estate purchases by Canadians used to lead the way in U.S. international sales, but that’s not the case anymore. Chinese buyers represented 45% of all purchases totaling $27 billion in sales, followed by Canada ($8.9 billion), India ($6.1 billion) the U.K....
Do you Have a HOA Dispute? Part 2.
Arizona law provides homeowners and homeowners associations a method for resolving disputes between them. This is an alternative to the civil court system, and does not limit the legal rights of the parties to litigate or arbitrate if need be. Strangely those...
Agents are Not Trusted, Part 2.
The D.A.N.G.E.R. report, commissioned by the National Association of Realtors, states that a problem with agents is “[t]he knowledge and competency gap from the most to the least is very large, due to the low barriers to entry, low continuing education requirements,...
Global Sales Market Volume Up, Sales Down.
Waning economic growth in many countries, higher home prices and the strong U.S. dollar resulted in a slight decline in international sales dollar volume in the U.S. over the past year, according to NAR’s Profile of Home Buying Activity of International Clients....
Agents are Not Trusted, Part 1.
Last year Consumer Reports magazine said "[t]he real-estate-agent business is saddled with a poor reputation" and "[a]ccording to the real estate agents we surveyed, that reputation is sometimes earned." This is also reflected in an earlier study of the most trusted...
Closing Costs – Who Pays and How Much? Part 1.
Escrow and Title. The 2 main costs charged by escrow companies in Arizona are the escrow fee and the premiums for the title insurance policies. The standard AAR contract used here states that the escrow fees will be split equally between buyer and seller, and the...