Scottsdale Real Estate Blog - News & Articles

My First Warm Weather Love Was Florida

For as long as I can remember, every year during Easter vacation my family would jump in the aqua 1950 something Buick and drive to Sarasota, Florida. We would leave at 2-4:00 a.m. and drive until around 6:00 p.m. when we would stop at a Holiday Inn for dinner and sleep. Then we’d do it again the next day until we hit Sarasota. I remember one time we had to wait for a cow to get off the road.

When Mom would fall asleep Dad would rev it up to 100 mph. As soon as Mom woke up, we'd tell her and she'd say "Oh Bud!" and give him a hit on his arm.

We stayed in the same motel every year. It was owned by a couple who lived on-site and my parents became friends with them.

The private gated pool was across the street. There were 1-bedroom to 3-bedroom…

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I Finally Took My First Flight - At 45

One of my life goals was to travel to distant places like Egypt and France. Can’t do that in a car. So at the age of 45, we got a trip to Cancun as a Christmas present from my then boyfriend's parents. I couldn’t turn it down. In fact, prior to going I read some books on Mexico (more on its rich history) and was excited about the trip.  This was in the 1990's.

But I wasn't excited about my first plane ride. I had never taken a Valium but I was trolling for some. I got a couple from someone I knew. I was excited to go to Mexico but I still wasn’t looking forward to flying there.

In fact, I envisioned the scene in Airplane where a woman is going crazy and everyone goes up to her to punch her (or hit her with something) to shut her up. Even a nun hit…

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Married But Not Living Together?

I read another article yesterday that was almost unbelievable. It stated that recent census reports show that more than three million couples actually live in separate residences.

The article was about a Cave Creek couple that got married and stayed in their respective homes instead of moving in together because they already had their pet peeves about each other. One was that she was a neat freak and he was a packrat. The other was the fact that he had a music studio in his place and she needed quiet to do her work at home. They actually split up the wedding gifts between the two homes and they do spend nights with each other and have dinner together. They also conveniently live across the street from each other.

I've recently read an article about…

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My First Impressions of Arizona

My parents had been living in Mesa, Az. for many years (10-15) before I finally visited them. When my boyfriend Jimmy (now my husband) heard I had never been there he insisted on taking me. My parents were very excited to finally be able to show me their home and their new state of residence. This would have been around 1999-2000.

I was finally excited to be going. As I've mentioned in a previous post, Arizona was not calling my name.

After departing the airplane I noticed that the Phoenix Airport seemed small and more congested than our two Illinois airports. Not impressed yet.

Driving from the airport to my parent’s house didn’t instill much excitement in me, either. I did notice that things seemed cleaner from my highway view. I enjoyed…

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Scottsdale Arizona Housing Outlook

If you ask someone what their opinion is on Scottsdale real estate in 2006 with interest rates inching up, you'll get many different answers. Here are some of them:

Diane Swonk of Mesirow Financial in Chicago was interviewed. Diane feels the real estate market will be slower but not a collapse. I agree with Diane that although Arizona certainly felt the real estate boom of the past 5 years, we were not on the highest end of that frenzy. So our softer market won't be as drastic as other markets.

Lawrence Yun of the National Association of REALTORS® (NAR) was also interviewed. I will sum up his interview. Mr. Yun feels that rising interest rates are certainly not going to be good, yet at a prediction of 6.7 percent, they are still historically…

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My Parents Left Us

OK, so I was 32. But I was the one with the grandchildren. One of my brothers was already living in California. My 18-year-old brother was now left with a decision of moving with my parents (unless they chose a retirement area for 55 and older), staying in IL (I don’t think he had a decent job at the time), or moving in with my brother in California. He chose the latter. In fact, he’s been there ever since and is married to a California girl and they have 2 children and live in the garlic capital of the world, Gilroy.

My other younger brother, who had lived in CA for some time, moved back to IL for 3 years to work for Motorola. After that stint, he went back to CA and has lived in San Jose with his wife and kids ever since. They also have a second…

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Hello From Scottsdale Arizona

If you see the date, this was the first post on my Scottsdale real estate blog that was made in 2005. It is now 2022 as I'm updating this and I've had several different web designs since this was first posted. You are viewing the latest, even if it's past 2022. Whatever you're seeing now is the most recent look of our blog.

This blog is active with helpful tips and information for both buyers, sellers, and current homeowners. We have since become popular enough that we have been contacted by guest bloggers who have shared their articles with us.

This website has brought me many clients and in my best year, which was 2007, around 80%+ of my real estate sales came from this website!  Our home search has been upgraded over the years and I hope you…

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