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Real Estate 2009 vs 2010

Denise Ham — Thu, 19 Aug 2010 17:04:18 +0000

Here is some information that the newspapers are not sharing when they report the housing market. Realtors like myself are in the trenches everyday looking at stats, talking with buyers and sellers and in the MIS (multiple listing service) everyday. At our Keller Williams meeting this week there was a report about 2009 vs 2010 home sales. All of this information was pulled from our local MLS:

2009 home sales vs 2010, about 95% of all cities/towns in AZ are up in 2010!

Lender Owned, 2009 average July 5300, average 2010 down to 3900

Short Sales 2009 average July 1265, average 2010 up 2610

64 % of all homes listed Active on the MLS are Short Sales and REO

34% of all homes listed Active on the MLS are regualr sales

Average home sold price $181,000

Average amount of days on market before a home sold 99days

Expired & Canceld Listings have drop, due to more homes selling and staying on the market

Active homes for sale currently on the market for sale 36097, this highest amount of home to date this year.

Did you watch the video that I posted last week? About home prices vs Interest rates? Scenario, if you wait for a home price to drop most often the interest rates move up. SO the difference in the drop in home pricing and the increase in the interest rate will cost you more money. So buy now, search out a lender, run scenarios on pricing and interest rates, see what happens.

If you would like more information contact me

Denise G. Ham, Realtor

www.HomesForCars.com

Licences in Arizona

Why it is a good time to buy a home.

Denise Ham — Tue, 10 Aug 2010 22:45:56 +0000

Is now a good time to buy? What trends are affecting the value of my home? What new economic policies will be shaping my real estate. If you are still waiting for home prices to drop watch this video. Would like your feedback on your thoughts after watching this video. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mb65dIG6m80

Denise G. Ham, Realtor

http://www.homesforcars.com

How much can you purcahse

Denise Ham — Tue, 13 Jul 2010 18:23:23 +0000

Happy Tuesday! This will be breif today as I am heading in for surgery on my right hand today so typing for awhile will be a bit limited.

Anyway my tile is about knowing what you can afford before you start the looking process on a home. Many buyers start the looking before they establish what price range they can afford. Go speak with a lender first, they do not bite. Talk with someone you have done business with before when purcahsing a home and or let me know and I can send you some references.

Knowing what price range you can afford assist all parties in the transaction. The buyer being the most important one. This keeps the whole process in persepctive, keeps you focused. When you start looking at homes that you can not afford then the buyers seems defeated when the lender says, no this is all you can get for a loan. So save your self all that stress and know ahead of time. Plus when you find that dream home and want to make an offer your LSR (loan status report) is already to go. The LSR must be submitted here in Arizona with the purcahse contract, it is a written part of the documentation.

So my goal for buyers out there today is know your FICO score and get preapproved for your loan. Call me and set up an appointment to talk about what you want in a home and garage.

Remember it is all about the journey!

Denise G. Ham, Realtor

Keller Williams Realty Sonoran Living

deniseham@cox.net

Arizona Restorer takes on a 1936 Stainless-Steel Bodied Ford

Al Tracy — Sun, 11 Jul 2010 15:27:00 +0000

by Sharon Thatcher, 7-8-10

Lon Krueger has restored a lot of unique automobiles,
but none like this 1936 Ford Tudor.

As an auto restorer with a penchant for the unique, Lon Krueger of Scottsdale, Ariz., has experienced a lot of challenges. But one car presented him with the one-of-a-kind challenge he won’t ever likely experience again: the restoration of a stainless-steel 1936 Ford.

The stainless-steel two-door sedan is one of six 1936 Ford Tudors built in a unique partnership between Allegheny Ludlum, a pioneer in stainless-steel production, and auto pioneer Henry Ford. It is one of only four that survives today. Add to the tally five newer stainless-steel models built in 1960 (two Ford Thunderbirds) and 1967 (two Lincoln Continental sedans and one Lincoln Continental convertible), and the total of stainless-steel cars known to exist is just nine. That makes Krueger’s restoration experiences as unique as the cars themselves. It also required some trial and error to master the process, with no room left for error in the final product.

An older photo of the car soon after it was sold out
of the Allegheny Ludlum fleet.

First in the process was assessing the car’s condition and defining what needed to be done. The six ’36 Fords were created to show off the benefits of stainless steel and to investigate the potential for its rustproof properties in automobile construction. The 1936 Fords were not treated as trailer queens; rather, they were used in everyday travel by Allegheny Ludlum sales staff, each racking up 200,000 miles of road wear before being retired.

The car restored by Krueger, and owned by Krueger and Leo Gephardt, also of Scottsdale, was owned by a Chicago dentist after its departure from Allegheny Ludlum. It had never been abused, but did show signs of use and some repair work.

Breaking down the car for a good inspection had its challenges, but comparable to any thorough restoration.

“There’s the obvious disassembly process, like the window mechanism, you have to pretty much gut the substructure to gain access,” Krueger explained. “The hood and fenders are open panels, but you have to remove headliner and interior substructure to get behind the doors and body panels. On panels that had any sound deadening or undercoating, that also had to be removed.”

Only the skin of the car was stainless steel; otherwise, the floors, substructure and firewall were of regular steel and subjected to the same weathering as any other Ford Tudor of its day. Fortunately, the damage he found was not insurmountable.

These two photos (top and bottom) show the stainless-steel
Ford prior to restoration. Although well maintained
throughout the years, all the stainless-steel models were
used extensively by Allegheny Ludlum sales staff, each
racking up 200,000 miles of road wear before being retired.

“It had seen few modifications from new,” Krueger said of the car. “It was very complete but had seen moderate use, with some rusting in non-stainless panels. Lower inner doors that weren’t stainless steel had some rust and required replacement; the very front of the tow board (footboard) area in the very front was very rusted; and the very rear, lower trunk area was rusted – a sub area of the trunk covered by plywood and used as a tool storage area.”

Still, to restore it back to new required major work. To accomplish that, the body was removed and the chassis stripped bare and components repaired or replaced with original parts. Also needed was a new gas tank, and “all the normal things that a person would have to do in a high-quality restoration and rebuild: hoses, brake lines, tie rod ends, suspension,” Krueger said.

His 85-year-old father, Orville, a retired master aircraft mechanic who worked in the Point Beach power plant refueling reactors, helped with the engine assembly and transmission work.

Up to this point, most of the work was routine. Not so routine was working with the stainless steel.

Krueger said 2,400-2,600 hours went into the total
restoration. The sanding and polishing process alone
took more than 1,000 hours, using sanding grits
starting at 80 grit and working up to 1,000 grit.

“It had sustained what I’ll call minor to moderate damage in various places. Those areas then had to be all straightened (metal finished),” Krueger said. One case in particular was a door that was damaged and wouldn’t close and needed to be stretched back into shape.

As a professional restorer, he was very familiar with working with metal and he did notice some similarities in working with stainless steel.

“Regular steel and stainless steel are very similar with the exception that with stainless steel, you have a problem with work hardening; it does not take to annulling (the use of flame to heat an area to soften it and make it malleable),” Krueger explained. “If you have a dent and you go behind it to move that metal back to the contour of what it originally was, with most steel, it moves the same amount each time you pound it. But with stainless steel it moves the first time, the second time it moves about half the amount, the third time it doesn’t move at all. This makes it extremely difficult to work with.”

Leo Gephart (left), owner of Gephart Classics in
Scottsdale, Ariz., and Lon Krueger (right) are co-owners
of the 1936 stainless-steel Ford. Krueger is a professional
restorer, now retired, who works only on personal projects
such as this.

It posed the largest challenge on the project. Krueger’s prior experiences were restricted to small areas of stainless-steel trim, not entire body panels. “At least it was the most out of the ordinary,” he said, “not the process, but the extent you had to take the process.”

As for its similarities to aluminum he said: “I worked on a ’20s Lanchester that had a polished aluminum body. But aluminum is a lot more malleable. The time it took me to recreate the Lanchester was 25 percent of the time it took to do [the stainless-steel Ford] project. [The Ford] is not a highly complicated one-off vehicle from any other standpoint, only the body [material] was unique.”

Consequently, it took a lot of time and effort just to move the metal.

“The metal is 74 years old and has already seen damage and previous repairs that have compromised the metal in some areas,” Krueger went on to explain. Prior to Krueger’s acquisition, there had been an attempted repair by someone obviously not familiar with stainless steel. “[In an earlier repair attempt] some areas were pounded out, welded and finished with a grinder,” Krueger described. “The fenders required a fair amount of work. They were not destroyed by any means, but there were a lot of areas that required a significant amount of straightening.”

With no auto experts in stainless steel to turn to, trial and error was needed to find the best method. He proceeded with caution.

Only a shell of stainless steel makes this ‘36 Ford Tudor
extraordinarily unique. Everything in the interior and
under the hood is standard 1936 Ford fare.

“What I did first was to attempt to use less drastic procedures such as bumping with leather mallets and sand bags to attempt to straighten the damage,” he said. “I tried with a leather hammer thinking I might be able to straighten without using a body file. With a body file you have seven or eight curved teeth per inch, and when you push that blade over the surface, it removes minor amounts of metal. Generally, if you have to resort to using a file blade, you’re down to the basics, you’re not trying to tease out a blemish.”

“Teasing out” a blemish, in fact, was not possible with this project. Leather mallets and sandbags didn’t work.

“I had to use more and more pressure and courser and courser procedures,” he said. “Various body hammers, dollies, bullseye picks and a shrinking wheel, all the normal things you do to metal finish a surface, you had to use those same tools, but with more pressure applied.”

Primers and fillers were not an option because the car was never painted.
The next big challenge was taking the straightened panels to a final finish.

“To take it from a filed metal finish to a smooth, high finish required hundreds and hundreds of hours,” Krueger noted. “I know I have more than 1,000 hours in sanding and polishing alone.”

It was a long and tedious process. “In the sanding process I used various grits starting at 80 grit and working up through 1,000 grit,” he said.

More specifically, it went from 80 to 180, then to 220, 320, 400, 600 and finally 1,000 grit, each progression of sanding needed to sand out the previous sanding marks to ultimately leave the surface smooth.

Finally came the buffing process with jeweler’s rouge and a cotton, high-speed buffing wheel.

“My logbook shows 2,400-2,600 hours in the total restoration,” Krueger said, noting that some of the final hours were never logged.

As he proceeded with the restoration, Krueger came to understand some of the reasons why stainless-steel automobiles never caught on with automakers.

For one, the stamping process ruined factory dyes. Also at the time, the electric welder had not come into use, so all the seams on the ’36s were gas welded. “It was wonderful at the time, but by today’s standards very poor,” Krueger said. “When I saw the backsides of some of those panels, boy it wasn’t nice. Electric welders make for a more controlled and smoother weld,” he said.

Repair for the customer was a further concern. “You can imagine if a door was damaged and you had to take it somewhere to be repaired, how difficult it would be to find somebody who could do the work,” Krueger said.

So far, Krueger’s ’36 Ford is the only stainless-steel car ever fully restored, and it says as much about the car as it does about Krueger personally.

“I’ve always been someone who truly enjoyed and looked for restoration projects that weren’t your normal projects,” he said. “Of the close to 300 cars I’ve restored, I’ve done many one-of-a-kinds and many prototypes and have always looked for the unusual. That is what drew me to this project. It was something I had never seen before and had never attempted to work in this medium before.”

His career experience has included mostly concours-level cars, with a few unusual ’50s and ’60s cars added to the mix. They’ve included such notables as a Pierce-Arrow Model 66 custom built for silent movie comic Roscoe “Fatty” Arbuckle; a highly publicized 1954 Oldsmobile F88 concept car (arriving in crates); and a 1954 Plymouth Explorer concept, currently in the Petersen Automotive Museum in Los Angeles, Calif.

“I’ve been pretty fortunate in my career to have a lot of people who have allowed me to work on some very unusual cars,” he said.

Not a bad career for someone who didn’t even take “shop” in high school. “I was in music and the sciences,” he said. “At one time I thought I’d end up as either a fireman or a paramedic,” he said. His college degree was in zoology.

After college, he interviewed for a job as a forensic analyst. “I took the test and did well on the test,” he said, but while waiting for a job to open up, he went to work with someone who restored cars. The rest, as they say, is history.

Today, Krueger is retired and only working on his personal projects. At the time of our interview he had just finished restoring his 1934 Auburn V-12 Salon Speedster and was nearly finished with a 1923 four-cylinder Ace motorcycle. He was also working on a 1950 Monarch woodie station wagon, one of only four counterparts to the American Mercury known to exist.

Link to this original article at: http://www.oldcarsweekly.com/article/1936-stainless-steel-ford

FREE online magazine

This article originally appeared in the summer issue of
Old Cars Guide to Auto Restoration. It is currently available
on newsstands for $4.98, but you can also now view
the online version of the magazine FREE.

Ask Yourself these questions before purchasing a home.

Denise Ham — Tue, 06 Jul 2010 21:43:50 +0000

When starting your process to purchase a home ask yourself a few questions first. Answering these questions will help you to stay focused throughout the whole process from start to finish.

Who will I work with? A REALTOR someone that can assist me throughout the whole process. A REALTOR that understands my wants and needs. A REALTOR that can give me resources. A REALTOR that works for me.
What am I looking for in a home? What style home am I looking for? What do I like and or dislike about my current home? What must be in the new home? What am I willing to live without? What price can I afford? What is the process to purchasing a home? What lifestyle am I looking for? What is our budget for a home?
The When; ask yourself these questions: When do I need to move,time frame? When will I start my process in looking at homes? When do I need to close on the home?
The Where;Where do I want to live, city/town? Where will our children go to school? Where are the nearest hospitals, medical facilities, airports?
The Why; Why am I moving, lifestyle change, work related, weather, retirement?
The How;How long do I have to look before purchasing a home?

Ask yourself these questions and write down your answers so that you stay focused on your goal. Many Buyers just start looking a homes without know what they can afford. Contact a lender, if you need some resources contact me. Once you know what you are comfortable with as a purchase amount then start looking at homes. There is power in knowing what you can purchase. No sense in looking at a home and then find out you are looking outside your price range. Contact me to assist you in some of your answers and finding you the home of your dreams.

Talk soon,

Denise G. Ham REALTOR

deniseham@cox.net

Purchasing a Home with or without a big garage

Denise Ham — Wed, 30 Jun 2010 20:58:35 +0000

Happy Wednesday,

I know I missed the Tuesday bolg, forgive me. I was just full blown in the middle of a home inspection on a home that is to close today.

I just want to pass along a few things that I hear as a Buyers Agent when representing a buyer.

Example: I will be showing a home for instance that may not have a big garage but a lot with the current home that looks to the buyer as another garage/building could be added. Hence I stated “looks to the buyer as an garage can be added” due to the buyer seeing the large amount of land with the home. FYI: this is not always true that a garage can be added because of the visual room to do so. Each city/town has their own codes/rules and regulations of how much land can be covered by the home and other buildings, most often called a building envelope. It is the Buyers responsibility to talk with whom they need to at the city/town about the buyers thought of adding the additional building. Remember to always get the answers in writing. SO before you place a offer to purchase a home, do your do diligence. Also check with the HOA(homes owners association) for any restrictions.

Example: Buyer is shown a home that has a yard that is fully enclosed with a walled fence. Buyer states “great, I can park all of my cars behind the fence.” Again as a Buyer you need to investigate if that is all possible through the city/town and or HOA.

Example: A Buyer is looking at a home. Buyer ask the Seller “if I purchase your home, can I add more garage space and or another building?” Seller,” sure, no problem, was thinking of it myself.” Again Buyers do your homework , make sure this is correct before being held accountable to purchase the home.

I as a REALTOR I cannot take the responsibility to state to the Buyer that any of the above can be done. The discussion and documents is between you and the authorities that can give the buyers approvals. Some buyers take this as the realtor does not know anything. As a REALTOR I can offer the buyers some resources but can not do the homework.

There is a great document that in on Arizona Department of Real Estate called the Buyers Advisory, see the attached link. A buyer can use this site to answer/ learn many things before purchasing a home here in Arizona. Please each city/town most often have a website that you can find contact numbers ask questions. Do your homework in purchasing a home just as if you where purchasing a car. http://aaronline.com/documents/buy_advis.pdf

One last thing. A BIG THANK YOU to all of the men and women that have fought and still are fighting for us all to live in this beautiful country USA!!

Happy 4th of July. Be safe

Denise Ham

WWW.HomesForCars.com

deniseham@cox.net

Classic Car Appreciation Day, July 9th, 2010

Al Tracy — Wed, 23 Jun 2010 05:20:23 +0000

Please spread the word that the US Senate has passed Senate Resolution 513 making Friday July 9th,2010 “Classic Car Appreciation Day”. It is important that all of the car nuts….”nationwide” participate in supporting this day and helping to organize special cruises or car related events on that Friday or that weekend to fully take advantage of this opportunity….and hopefully, it will become an annual event. But more importantly we, the people who are passionate about the vintage automobile can show the politicians what a huge contingent of this country “car people” are…..including street rods, custom, sleds, muscle, rat rod, lowrider, purist and all facets of the sport…….PLEASE HELP!!!!!

Homes For Cars Tuesday Real Estate Blog

Denise Ham — Tue, 22 Jun 2010 20:16:12 +0000

Hello All and Happy Tuesday!

Homes for Cars Tuesday Real Estate Blog is back! Look for my blog every Tuesday about real estate and homes with big garages. Let me explain a few things before I go any further. I am a REALTOR in the Scottsdale Arizona area. I have a passion for cars and own a few that my husband and I drive most every where. My niche in real estate is assiting buyers in finding the home that has the right garage and Listing homes for sale that offer the big garage. www.HomesForCars.com is my website. I designed the site for the Auto Enthusiasts, for Buyers that need not only the right home but the right amount of garage space and Listing these homes that offer big garage. As you all know if there is never enough garage space for our cars.

Being an avid enthusiasts myself I understand a Buyers needs in not only wanting the right home but the rignt amount of garage space. When a buyer states they need a 12′ plus ceiling in the garage, or at least garage for 5+ cars flat on the floor and being able to open the doors without hitting the others cars, I understand. So if you are a buyer looking for the right home and the right amount of garage space contact me, deniseham@cox.net.

I cover many areas of the valley and or can asssit you in finding a realtor to assist you to in your area of request that is outside my area of expertise. I work in these areas as a rule Scotsdale, Fountain Hills, Cave Creek, Carefree, Mesa. I also list and asist buyers looking for homes that have the normal 1-4 car garages, that is still someones dream garage.

As you are aware this is a great BUYERS MARKET! You can purcahse homes now that where possibly out of your reach a few years back. What I can offer you is my reseach on the Multiple Listing Service (MLS) of the areas of your wants and needs in a home and garage. My knowledge of seeing these homes on realtor tours, knowing the areas and finding you your answers. You can email me your request in a home and garage space but please include bedrooms,baths, city/town, amount of garage space, do you want ceiling height in the garage for a lift, pool or not, your time frame to purcahse and of coures a price range to stay under. I then will email you the homes for you to view of course I want you to be as loyal as I am to you and call me to look at the homes when you are ready to purcahse. I will try to answer all your questions in the mean time.

Meanwhile please let me know whats on your mind about the real estate market. I will do my best to answer them. Lets build a blog that is educational and fun at the same time. So shift into gear next week on Tuesday and read my blog and lay down some rubber with your answers and request. I will work on some good topics for next week.

Have a great week and remember it is all about the ride and the journey it takes you on. Do not just store your cars use them!

Talk soon,

Denise G. Ham

Keller WIlliams Realty Sonoran Living

New MOVE OVER Law

Al Tracy — Tue, 08 Jun 2010 05:02:30 +0000

Hopefully everyone has seen this new law, if not you might want to read it because its a real expensive ticket. Heads-up!

New “Move over law” was signed by Gov. Gregoire March 31st In this state the penalty is higher up to $5,000 fine and 60 day suspension of license, or even one year in jail. Please see this site for details: http://www.burientow.com/new-law-protects-wa-emergency-crews/ . New Law: If a patrol car is pulled over to the side of the road, you have to change to the next lane (away from the stopped vehicle) or slow down by 20 mph. Every state except Hawaii and Maryland and the D.C. Has this law. In California, the “Move-over” law became operative on January 1, 2010. Http://WWW.moveoveramerica.com/ .

A friend’s son got a ticket for this recently. A police car (turned out it was 2 police cars) was on the side of the road giving a ticket to someone else. He slowed down to pass but did not move into the other lane. The second police car immediately pulled him over and gave him a ticket. He had never heard of the law. It is a fairly new law that states if any emergency vehicle is on the side of the road, if you are able, you are to move into the far lane. The cost of the ticket was $754, with 3 points on your license and a mandatory court appearance. Please let everyone you know that drives about this new law. It is true (see details at the following web address). http://www.snopes.com/politics/traffic/moveover.asp.

Net Results on Cash For Clunkers

Al Tracy — Tue, 29 Sep 2009 16:06:40 +0000

From a real “Car Guy” out in Los Angeles, CA.

SO…you took FEDZILLA up on its offer of $4500. dollars
to trade in your old “Clunker” (interesting choice of words)? Well,
let’s see who got the best of that “deal”…

If you traded in a clunker worth $3500, you got $4500 off for an
apparent “savings” of $1000. You could have gotten $3,500 if you had
just traded the car in. So you really are $1,000 ahead (depending on
your clunker’s value) at this point. Not too bad…

However, you WILL have to pay taxes on the $4500 come April 15th
(something that no auto dealer will tell you). If you are in the 30%
tax bracket, you will pay $1350 on that $4500.

So, rather than save $1000, you will actually pay an extra $350. to the
feds. In addition, you traded in a car that was most likely paid for.
Now you have 4 or 5 years of payments on a car that you did not need,
trading in a “clunker” that was costing you less to run than the
payments that you will now be making. Even if you save $1,000. dollars a
year in gas due to better mileage, you’re still gonna be in the red for
five years….hello?

But wait, it gets even better: you also got ripped off by the dealer.
For example, the month before the “cash for clunkers” program started,
every dealer here in LA was selling the Ford Focus with all the goodies
including A/C, auto transmission, power windows, etc for $12,500.
because competition was stiff due to poor sales from the stalled
economy.

When “cash for clunkers” came along, they stopped discounting them and
instead sold them at the list price of $15,500. So, you paid $3000 more
than you would have the month before. Honda, Toyota , and Kia played
the same list price game that Ford and Chevy did. Now let’s do the
math…

You traded in a car worth: $3500

You got a discount of: $4500

———

Net so far +$1000

But you have to pay: $1350 in taxes on the $4500

——–

Net so far: -$350 (that’s minus…in the red)

And you paid: $3000 more than the car was selling
for the month before

———-

Net Loss: -$3350

We could also add in the additional taxes (sales tax, state tax, dealer
prep, etc.) on the extra $3000 that you paid for the car, along with the
Five years of interest on the car loan; but let’s just stop here while
you kick yourself. Suffice it to say that those costs will be much
higher than any savings you get from “better mileage”.

So who actually made out on the deal? FEDZILLA collected taxes on the
car along with taxes on the $4500 they “gave” you. The car dealers made
an extra $3000 or more on every car they sold along with the kickbacks
from the manufacturers and the loan companies. Manufacturers got to
dump lots of cars they could not give away the month before. Lots of
good or repairable used cars got taken off the market, crushed and sold
as scrap metal to (ready for this?) CHINA! (Look it up…) And the poor
consumer got saddled with even more debt that they cannot afford.

FEDZILLA’S merry men (who promised that people making less than
$250,000. would pay “not one red cent more in taxes”) will make millions
in new tax revenues after convincing Joe Consumer that he was getting
$4500 in “free” money from the “government” In fact, Joe was giving away
his $3500 car and paying an additional $3350 for the privilege. Chicago
politics gone global…with an agenda.

If you find errors in this math, please let me know…being a simple
guy, I’m always willing to learn new things; and if you took “advantage”
of the Clunkers deal, I have some swamp land down in Florida that’s for
sale…

One final note, if you are not already ticked off. This program was designed by the Washington Morons as a way to boost the American Car makers and jump start the emonomy. Since the Feds did not limit the program to Domestic cars, Japan and Korea had an excellent month. Early figures I have seen show over 65% of program sales went to imports.

Way to go Washington! Our Tax $$$ being well spent!