The Scott's Sell Scottsdale

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Is Solar Energy in our Future??

Solar energy is harnessing radiant energy from the light of the Sun to convert the suns energy into mechanical energy. This technology requires no toxic fuel and relatively little maintenance, is inexhaustible, and could eventually become directly competitive with conventional technologies in many locations. These characteristics make solar energy one of the most promising sources for many current and future energy needs.

The new solar energy industry has the potential to create jobs and investment opportunities that would boost our economy -- manufacturers, construction workers, engineers, roofers, electricians, and plumbers.
Solar energy can provide day-lighting techniques to optimize the use of lights in buildings, solar water heaters for homes & swimming pools, solar cells, solar cookers and solar vehicles. 

This new renewable energy source is penetrating the evolving revolution of green building techniques.

Currently high production costs and political support are some of the challenges effecting solar energy development. But, as the research continues better and more efficient solar cells will develop. The costs of these innovative techniques will eventually be reduced resulting in a reliable, less expensive and better for the environment form of energy! 

Solar Energy

 The future is looking bright…. 

Contact Gary and Claudia @ AZ-real-estate-sales.com
                                             garyandclaudia@cox.net

0 comments • Gary and Claudia Scott - Scottsdale, AZ Real Estate • September 18 2008 12:24AM

So, what exactly is “green building” anyway?

          green logo
The Office of the Federal Environmental Executive defines green building as:
“the practice of
1) increasing the efficiency with which buildings and their sites use energy, water, and materials
2) reducing building impacts on human health and the environment, through better siting, design, construction, operation, maintenance, and removal--the complete building life cycle."
According to the U.S. Department of Energy, the residential sector accounts for 22% of the total energy consumed in the U.S. and 74 % of the water.
For the homeowner, there are several green measures will reduce long term costs, particularly those features that involve energy and water efficiency.
There are a variety of resources available to begin your search for improving the efficiency of your home while helping the environment.
Locally both APS and SRP provide ideas of what you can do to make your home more efficient and also offer rebates for your efforts.
  • Arizona Public Service (APS) offers:
Energy Star® CFL Bulbs: ENERGY STAR bulbs use 75 percent less energy
Solar& Renewable Rebates: Take advantage of the many renewable energy resources available in Arizona
AC Rebates: Rebates available by replacing existing heat pumps or AC systems with high efficiency equipment
Green Choice Rates : Renewable energy from a variety of resources including solar,  wind and geothermal.
  • Salt River Project (SRP)
EarthWise Energy: You can buy renewable energy.
DesertWise Living: Get ideas and tools for water conservation at home
    Get a home appliance rebate customers can receive a
   cash rebate toward the purchase of highly energy-efficient
   appliances.

Gary and Claudia Scott, GRI, Realtor ®, Scottsdale Realtors - 480-948-0550
 
 
1 comment • Gary and Claudia Scott - Scottsdale, AZ Real Estate • September 15 2008 06:12PM

WARNING! Don’t List Your Home Until…(part 1)

. . You research the marketing plan of your future Realtor!!!
In today’s real estate market, it is imperative that you to promote your home’s best features to the largest number of potential buyers possible. Advertise is so to attract buyer leads. By utilizing a the high ‘traffic approach’, your house is going to sell in statistically 55% of the time on market and it is going to net 2.7% more money.
One of the proven strategies we offer sellers is an “automated response hot line”.
Our business is open 24 hours a day, seven days a week!
This hot line system is set up specifically for you and your home. It’s a system that gives you 24-hour-a-day advertising and it generates hundreds of sales leads! Here’s how it works. We advertise your home with a call-to-action ad (rider on For Sale sign, flyers, printed ads and all web sites including the MLS). It tells prospects to call for recorded information and fax-on-demand information anytime, 24 hours a day. Prospects dial in to hear a recorded description of your home and the best part is when they connect, we get their name, address, and phone number automatically – 100% of the time, whether they leave it or not! So we can follow up on every possible lead! Absolutely nothing slips through the cracks
Whenever someone calls and listens to the advertisement describing your home, our system automatically notifies me in 15-20 seconds, with their phone number, name and address and the fact that they've inquired about your home. So we can call them back right away, while their interest is at a peak.

This is just one of the tools we implement to assist you in selling your home in the least amount of time, get the most money and the least amount of hassle.
 
Watch for further blogs that explain some of our other fundamental marketing techniques that make us successful in selling your home in any market conditions!!!
 
Read about the importance of Communication with Your Realtor
Gary and Claudia Scott, GRI, Realtor ®, Scottsdale Realtors - 480-948-0550
 
Disclaimer: The information provided herein is supplied by several sources and is subject to change without notice. Selling Scottsdale Real Estate Blog does not guarantee or is any way responsible for its accuracy, and provides said information without warranties of any kind, either express or implied. Entries on Selling Scottsdale Real Estate Blog represent the opinions and ideas of the authors.
0 comments • Gary and Claudia Scott - Scottsdale, AZ Real Estate • September 11 2008 03:34PM

Does Your Realtor Communicate With You???

One of the most frequent complaints among sellers is poor communication with their real estate agent.
There are a variety of issues preventing a listing agent from obtaining feedback from showings of your home. Being caught up in a game of phone tag, disbelief in the actual feedback given or that the showing agent never responded are not acceptable responses.
As professionals in the business, we want to keep our sellers informed and make sure all parties in the transaction are on the same page at all times.
We subscribe to HomeFeedback™. This website provides sellers with what is happening at any given time while their home is listed. Here are some of the features included with this service:
· A request for showing feedback along with the property information is automatically sent directly to any agents showing your home immediately after they show the property.
· You can view all the showings logged for you property, and how many feedback requests have gone out to the showing agents and their buyers.
· You can view all feedback gathered on their property to date with date/time stamps.
· You will get the overall opinion of your property by looking at the statistical report.
· You can read any comments that you have left for you, and send one to back to us if you wish.
· You can review important documents (ex: listing agreement) that you've uploaded into your account.
· And more…
 
You can access your account from any computer with an internet connection and its available 24 hours a day, 7 days a week..
 
We would be happy to provide a sample of the reports available with this proven system to you. 

Contact us directly at
garyandclaudia@cox.net
 office 480-948-0550
cell 602-402-8595
 
0 comments • Gary and Claudia Scott - Scottsdale, AZ Real Estate • September 03 2008 06:46PM

Multiple Listing Service (MLS) still the most accurate source of listing information available

The conclusion of a recent independent real estate study conducted by the WAV Group released in August 2008 determined that the Multiple Listing Service (MLS) is the most accurate source of listing information available. The ’accuracy’ was defined as a percentage of listings on a site that matched the MLS.
 
Online real estate search engines have become an established part of the home-buying process over the past decade. Some popular real estate search sites such as Trulia, Google or Zillow rely on listings added by local agents, brokers and third-party resources. With less comprehensive coverage the number of properties being added to these sites is significantly smaller than the actual MLS for an area. Thus, the accuracy of the data as compared with the actual MLS was much lower. Some sites had as low of an accuracy as 8%! With less access to what is available in an area these sites struggle to collect a comparable, comprehensive data set of accurate listings. A site based on information from a local MLS will give consumers a more accurate picture of what’s available in a local market. Many local realtors will offer an Internet Data Exchange (IDX) search of their MLS on their web sites, and public sites such as Realtor.com or Roost.com are enabled by the MLS offering a more accurate representation of the actual markets.
 
We offer a free IDX searches of the Phoenix metro area market on our web site. We also offer a Power Search that allows you to search by individual city and subdivision. Sometimes the volume of information available can be overwhelming. We know the local area well. We can help you narrow your search and weed out properties/communities you are not interested in. Simply send us a request to create a “Personalized Web Page” for you that is automatically updated twice daily with any listings meeting your requirements. This page is available to you to review by logging on at any time. The interactive format offers detailed listing info, tax records, maps, comparisons and much more! You can categorize each listing, add comments to individual listings, and send direct email messages to us requesting a showing or additional information about a specific property or properties. We specialize in Service to our Clients.
The current market for home buyers with good interest rates and home prices still low provides a great opportunity to purchase a property. 
The number of homes for sale continues to drop and the competition for homes will increase as we enter the second busiest home buying season of the year here in the Phoenix metro area. 
 
Please Bookmark our site to search for your new home at any time: 
 
1 comment • Gary and Claudia Scott - Scottsdale, AZ Real Estate • September 03 2008 01:16PM

Our New Adopted Rescue Dog!

As animal lovers, it was very distressing when our beloved 15 year old mini Schnauzer, Daisy, passed away in June.  We allowed some time before we began our search for a new dog to join our family.  After such a long time of not having to search for a pet, we found that there are multiple sites on line for pet searching.  In today’s environment with many pets needing homes, we opted to look to adopt  a ‘rescue dog’ instead of a simply finding a new puppy. One more dog saved from facing ultimate death for lack of a new owner!!

We eventually found the size and type of dog we were searching for and she has now cheerfully joined our family. Of course, she already thinks she ‘rules the roost’. She has proved to be very sweet and bringing enjoyment into our lives.  

We appreciate the many rescue organizations and  shelters that work so diligently to  save pets awaiting death at the county pound!  We would highly recommend adopting your next pet through one of these reputable pet adoption agencies!

Meet Heidi

0 comments • Gary and Claudia Scott - Scottsdale, AZ Real Estate • September 03 2008 08:32AM

Condo in Salida del Sol - Scottsdale, AZ

Condo in gated north central Scottsdale prestigious community Salida del Sol

EXCEPTIONAL 2 BEDROOM - 1.5 BATH CONDO IN LOCATION IN PRESTIGIOUS NORTH SCOTTSDALE GATED COMMUNITY OF SALIDA DEL SOL. TERRIFIC CONDO: NEUTRAL COLORS, OPEN FLOOR PLAN, VAULTED CEILINGS, CEILING FANS. WASHER/DRYER REFRIGERATOR INCLUDED. RECENTLY PAINTED. LARGE MASTER WITH MIRRORED CLOSET DOORS. MOUNTAIN VIEWS. COMMUNITY OFFERS HEATED POOL & SPA. CONVENIENT TO SCOTTSDALE AIR PARK, GOLF, DC RANCH, RESTAURANTS, SHOPPING, WEST WORLD, PARKS AND THE 101 FREEWAY. PET LIMIT 30 LBS

Check it out at  AZ-real-estate-sales.com  or garyandclaudiascott.point2agent.com

0 comments • Gary and Claudia Scott - Scottsdale, AZ Real Estate • August 29 2008 08:45AM

Upgrades to Realtor.com

 
Did you know that REALTOR.com® is the most visited real estate web site with 6+ million visitors each month? And, these visitors stay 4 times longer and return more often than they do on other real estate web sites. This trusted web site is an official website of the National Association of Realtors providing reliable information to consumers. 
Now REALTOR.com® has become even better. The newly enhanced REALTOR.com® includes plenty of cutting-edge features and technology-including a new section that home buyers and sellers will find invaluable. The listings are updated every 15 minutes.
The new features include: new technology making the consumer search easy and informative.
· Find Home Values: a comprehensive search and content destination that displays property values and much more for any neighborhood. Site visitors can view the estimated value for a specific home or neighborhood, or they can explore a given area using an interactive map-based interface.
· Find a Neighborhood: Allows consumers to window shop by zooming in to any neighborhood they choose to view activity in that neighborhood.
Check out this upgraded web site: REALTOR.com®
The Internet has been revolutionizing real estate for years now: according to the National Association of Realtors (NAR) more than 80 percent of buyers look at homes on the Internet. Working with an Internet-savvy agent is as important for buyers as it is for sellers!
We are proud members of REALTOR.com® . We use syndication to publish our listing widely. In addition to the MLS, REALTOR.com® , Homes.com, our personal web sites we syndicate your listings to Myspace, Postlets, Zillow, Trulia, Craigslist, Yahoo!, Google, and MORE. 
 
0 comments • Gary and Claudia Scott - Scottsdale, AZ Real Estate • August 28 2008 12:26PM

What Makes a Green Home?

What Makes a Green Home?

A green home incorporates smart design, technology, construction and maintenance elements to significantly lessen the negative impact of the home on the environment and improve the health of the people who live inside. No matter your location or living situation, the opportunities for living a greener life at home are limited only by your imagination.

On average, green buildings save 10% of utility costs each year -- and sometimes much more.

Check out the Green Home Guide below to discover ways to make your home more efficient

Green Home Building

 

 

0 comments • Gary and Claudia Scott - Scottsdale, AZ Real Estate • August 27 2008 04:59PM

Today’s “Buyer’s Market”

   
Today’s “Buyer’s Market” - In today’s transitioning marketplace with a large inventory and uncertain direction, the buyer is often very anxious. The slide in late 2005 is in the process of recovering although no one has a crystal ball to predict when this market will turn around. Some buyers in these uncertain waters are concerned about the future value of the home they buy.
Buyers are not necessarily being greedy but many buyers are prepared to walk away from sellers who are unwilling to negotiate in this market. It is key for the seller to price his home realistically - price it right for maximum exposure. The longer a home is on the market the less attractive it appears. Listen to the experts, you are paying your Realtor for his advise and expertise. Review the comprehensive market analysis provided by your realtor and then go with your Realtor and actually preview your competition. The price should be set at what fair market value you can get, not at what you ‘think it is worth’. The appraisal you had in 2005 is not necessarily the value of your home in today’s market. With the tools available to them, buyers are well educated in the value of the homes in your neighborhood. The only thing that matters is what a buyer is willing to pay for the home today. 
Obviously the condition of your home is significant. You don’t necessarily have to install granite counter tops, but put your best food forward. Make sure it is clean, well maintained and free of extra clutter. If there are obvious items that need repair or replacement get it completed prior to listing the home. A fresh coat paint of one of the new “in colors” is an inexpensive way to give the home that designer look. Showcase your home to make it stand out from the crowd!!
Buyers—If you are serious about buying a home, you should decide if you are ready to actively shop and then negotiate a fair deal instead of waiting for prices to drop. Now is a great time to buy as it is like buying premium stocks when the market it down!! 
If you are thinking of buying or selling, contact us! Toll Free 899-464-2140
 
 
0 comments • Gary and Claudia Scott - Scottsdale, AZ Real Estate • August 25 2008 10:00PM