What happens if either the buyer or the seller fails to comply with the terms and conditions of the contract? The Arizona Association of Realtors® purchase contract makes provisions.
There is a “cure period” which is a three day period in which the party which defaults has to “cure” that default. The party which has been breached sends a “cure notice” to the breaching party stating they have three days in which remedy the default. If the non-complying party continues the default, breach of contract is assumed. The non-breaching party can request all earnest money as liquidated damages and may cancel the contract. The non-breaching party may also bring action against the party who has breached the contract through mediation and arbitration.
Provision is made for alternative dispute resolution and all mediation costs are to be paid equally between both parties. Unresolved issues will be submitted to binding arbitration and both parties will agree on the arbitrator in accordance with the American Association of Arbitration Rules for the Real Estate Industry. The decision of the arbitrator is final.
However, if parties do not want to go to binding arbitration where the judgment is non appealable, they may elect to go to court action within 30 days after the mediation conference.
Any action by the US Government such as Internal Revenue, Small Claims Court, Judicial or Non Judicial foreclosure or any lis pendens does not constitute a breach and are excluded from the Alternative Dispute Resolution. In the event that legal action is undertaken, the prevailing party has the attorney’s fees paid by the non-prevailing party.
Section 8 consists of 29 blank lines in which any additional terms and conditions of the contract can be written. If the buyer desires something to be removed from the property such as a pile of bricks, the agent would specify “bricks at northeast corner of property to be removed from property and area to be landscaped so bare ground is not visible,” or something to that effect.
When we think about real property, we know nature can take her toll. Between the contract acceptance and close of escrow, if there is a loss to the property, such as a tree falling on the house, and the damage exceeds ten per cent or more, either the buyer or seller may cancel the contract. If it is less than ten percent, the damage must be fixed and the terms of the contract can be enforced.
The price of the property is public record and the contract reiterates that. The contract is governed by Arizona law and time is of the essence. The parties, including the Realtors® must act in a diligent manner.
Compensation to the parties is through a separate agreement, usually the Exclusive Right to Sell, otherwise known as the Listing Agreement. If the buyer is paying his/her own commission, funds are to be collected at the close of escrow.
Copies and counterparts include faxed copies, Xeroxed copies, e mailed copies, other electronic type copies and generally electronic signatures are acceptable. The only form where counterpart signatures are unacceptable is the Lead Based Paint form. All signatures must be on the same form.
All days are calendar days and begin at 12 midnight, ending at 11:59 pm. If we signed something on Tuesday, the counting of the days will begin Wednesday at 12 midnight. If close of escrow is Friday, and signing must be three days prior to close of escrow, that signing must take place on Monday. Tuesday would count as the third day, Wednesday, the second day and Thursday the day before close of escrow.
The contract must be read in its entirety and include any addenda. The buyer has the right to accept subsequent offers but any subsequent offer is a backup offer and will only go into first position if the primary offer is cancelled.
If a party wishes to cancel the contract, this may be done by writing stating the notice for cancellation and delivering the notice to the Escrow Company as well as the other party. Delivery of notice can be by hand delivery, faxed, sent by electronic mail, or by overnight courier service.
Earnest money will be made out to the Escrow Company and should not be cash. The form of earnest money will be described such as personal check, cashier’s check, money order, etc., and the place of deposit is identified.
The seller and the buyer are indemnifying the brokers for anything they can discover about the property during the inspection period and this includes loans, insurances, or other investment information.
The last section of the contract identifies when acceptance by the seller is to occur. Until acceptance, the buyer has the right to cancel the contract.
The signatory page identifies all parties to the contract, the buyer, the seller, the buyer’s agent, and the seller’s agent. If a counter offer is to be issued, the seller will indicate that on the signatory page. If the seller rejects the offer, provision is made for that condition also.
Contract documents change from time to time and are not cast in stone. The Arizona Association of Realtors® and the forms committee has spent many hours laboring over this document and other documents which are made a part of the transaction. I have attempted to explain this contract so that you understand what you are signing.

Tucson  has many benefits other parts of the country don’t enjoy…warmth, sun, an environment for outdoor activities including golf, hiking, camping, or just wandering around. But especially on this morning, I am so grateful we do not change the clocks!

I never knew if we had to go forwards or backwards despite that ditty many of us learned, fall forward, spring back. I remember one Sunday I showed up for the Sunday School class I was teaching an hour early. That was painful, I hung around waiting, thinking “oh, I could be in bed!”

When I was a teenager, I had an 11 pm curfew when staying at my Grandmother’s. I was invited to a dance by a young man whom I thought was an Adonis, and I came home an hour later. My poor Grandmother was frantic, but I just flippantly said, “Well it’s really 11 pm, not midnight” not thinking clocks don’t get turned back until 2 am.

I especially love Arizona twice a year when I don’t have to think about turning clocks ahead or moving them back. It makes it hard for people who call Arizonans because they never know what time it is…we are Pacific time during the summers and Central time during the winters.
But now, instead of getting phone calls from the east coast at 5 am in the summer, it will be 6 – and I will have had my first cup of coffee.

It’s the weekend, I’m trying to keep  Saturdays clear  to do things around the house; the normal – clean, pick up paper mess, put things in order, generally take care of all the mess made during the week.  Sometimes the disorder can be substantial!  And of course run the vacuum around the tiles and then mop the floors.

But it’s springtime and the roll-offs are in the neighborhood which means it’s a grand time to clean out the garage and trot all the junk to the roll-off.  This saves multiple trips to the dump for everyone in the neighborhood and I am eternally grateful that our little enclave orders the roll-offs from the city.

Last weekend the pool was the order of the day.  It is now sparkling, having fished out some of the Arizona Elm leaves which find a home in the bottom of the pool, along with the tiny leaves from the pomegranate bushes.  The birds enjoy a feast for a king when the pomegranates begin to turn from green to red, and then the fruit is full of small holes where seeds have been pecked.  Occasionally I find spots of red bird droppings and smile to myself because I have more than a few plants of various species which came from just that type of planting.

John and Debbie, who own Fiesta Growers and are regulars at the St. Philip’s Plaza Sunday Farmers Market, brought me the seeds I ordered last Sunday.  This weekend I will plant them in pots so I can eat fresh salad for the next few months, at least until it gets so warm I will give up watering. The lettuce mix will provide red leaf and green leaf lettuce, a bit of endive and I will mix that with the peppery arugula which makes a tasty meal or sandwich filling.  The spinach is always dark green and almost sweet, delicious right from the pot and so tender it is a raw treat.

For fun there is French Breakfast Radishes and I confess, they germinate fast and I like to see progress.  Crunchy with a bite, they are delicious just pulled from the pot with the dirt scraped off and eaten in a few bites.  But the bulls blood beets provide beet greens for salads and vegetables and eventually have a bulbous sweet deep red beet.  That’s a two for oner…greens and beets!

Basil grows well in Tucson and I spike my salads with fresh basil for a refreshing change of pace, and I can freeze what is leftover for fresh herbs during the rest of the year.  The cilantro is a Tucson staple for Mexican food as well as Chinese food, and that too along with the parsley is good in salads or as garnishes.

Learning to garden in Arizona is not akin to gardening on the east coast. It takes a few years of practice.  I don’t want the rabbits to eat my fare, nor do I want the javelina to snort around, hence the pots.  It’s a beautiful weekend and I’m going to enjoy the fruits of my labors!

Resources:

Fiesta Growers

http://fiestagrowers.com/

African Art

Assorted pottery and rugs

The Gem and Mineral Show is winding down.  Vendors are packing huge crates with their wares, many of which will be stored here for next year’s show.  For people who are afficianados of gems, minerals, beads, jewerly and the arcane, make it a point to attend next year’s Gem and Mineral Show!

Get your reservations at the hotel early because the entire city is a mecca of gems, minerals, and other wonderful items from around the world.  Just wandering and looking is a treat!

So here are several more photos from my wanderings on Friday for you to enjoy!

Rather than write about it today, I thought I show you some of the myriad of things you can purchase at the Tucson Gem and Mineral Show.  It will be a gorgeous weeked and the last weekend of this year’s show to get out an “window shop”.

The economy is expanding, real Gross Domestic Product is up but the economy is facing some headwinds which include housing, the public sector, and the lack of mobility, said Marshall Vest,  Director of the Economic and Business Research Center at the Eller College of Business, University of Arizona.  Vest spoke Thursday at the Tucson Association of Realtors Summit.

Vest sees 2011 to 2013 as continuing to be economically better, but that expansion of the economy will not begin until 2014.  Credit is still shrinking despite fiscal and monetary policy which are at “full throttle” .   The housing and public sector will be a drag on the economy which will impact growth, and mobility rates are at a 60 year low.

On the brighter side, the economy has registered six quarters of positive growth and the GDP numbers being released today (January 28) should show growth in the 3 1/2% range.  It is anticipated the growth during the fist quarter of this year will be in the 4 1/2% range, Vest said.  (Numbers released this morning show a 3.2% GDP growth rate for the last quarter of 2010-see report in Resources below.)

Corporate profits are high and business is thinking about hiring which should ameliorate the jobs condition somewhat.

Household credit continues to decline and consumer confidence is positive compared to the last few years, “up over five full points at 60” which is still a recessionary level.   Consumers remain concerned about the value of houses and are cautious and business is still uncertain about taxes, financial regulations being considered by Congress, health care costs,  and weak demand.

Arizona has “an enormous inventory of vacant houses”, 130,000 or 4.9% of  housing when the normal vacancy is 1.5%.  The credit squeeze and the inability of people to sell houses in other areas impacts Arizona.   Half of the migrants to Arizona are from California, and California has been hard hit by economic conditions.  Vest said half of all Arizona homeowners are “upside down” .

Housing is “bumping along the bottom”; the tax credit has ended, building permits are down as are existing homes sales, home prices are down, and although foreclosures show a 4% decline from 2009, they are still high. Comparing 2005 to today, building permits are 2,000 verses 12,000; existing home sales are at an annual rate of 10,500 compared to 19,000 in 2005, and the median price in Tucson is now $140,000 and $120,000 in Phoenix.

Tomorrow: More of Marshall Vest

Resources:

GDP Report January 28, 2010

http://www.bea.gov/newsreleases/national/gdp/gdpnewsrelease.htm

Saturday, a beautiful, sunny day in Tucson, turned  murky and dark with the events on the southeast corner of Ina and Oracle.  The shooting of the 19 people at the Safeway Shopping Center casts a pall over Tucson.

Residents, this Monday morning, continue to look at each other and  murmur about the irrationality of one man’s act which  claimed six lives and put others in jeopardy, including Congresswoman Gabrielle Giffords.

Each life, precious in it’s own right, but the death of the nine year old girl who has not even experienced “life”, is unfathomable.  And Gabe Zimmerman, always professional and polite when I’ve spoken to him,  half the age of some of the victims, about to begin life in a new chapter as a married man, leaves huge voids in the lives of those who love him.  Those victims in their 60’s, grandparents and parents, mindlessly cut down by “an unstable” person, leave a vacuum in the lives of their family and friends.

We begin our week going back to our jobs, our routines, but we will not forget the events of Saturday.  We keep the victims in our thoughts and prayers, and  appeal to the powers that be for a full recovery for those victims who survived this horrific day.

The Tucson Convention Center is the scene of the Arizona State Home Show this weekend. Doors open at noon today (Friday January 7, 2011) and the show will run until 7 pm tonight. Saturday hours are from 10 am to 7 pm, and Sunday, the show opens at 10 and closes at 5:00. Tickets are $8.00 at the door and a $2.00 off coupon is on the website.  The link is listed under resources.

This show is brought to you by American Shows, Inc. out of California, and is not to be confused with the local Southern Arizona Home Builders Association (SAHBA) Home Show which draws more than 20,000 people each spring.

The SAHBA show, sponsored by the home builders of the Tucson area, features many local businesses. A “charity” component such as building for Habitat or working for Tucson based charitable organizations is usually a part of the SAHBA show. Proceeds benefit SAHBA which gives back to the community through organizations such as Hearth, an organization which provides shelter for homeless women with children, or Habitat for Humanity, another organization supported by Realtors® .

A Modern Lifestyles Expo is contained within the Arizona State Home Show and includes puveyors of nutrition products, exercise information, self improvement techniques and products, personal image information, and information especially geared to Seniors, in addition to the normal cabinets, counter tops, and bathroom re-do vendors.

If you are thinking about a renovation project, attending such a show can provide ideas.  Take a digital camera  or your cell phone.  When you see something of interest,  snap a photo and take various viewpoints. Bring a pad and pen to take notes.  When talking with people manning the booths ask for a business card if your interest is piqued.

There are always “show specials” but be careful. Impulse buying happens, and the excitement and fast pace of the show may urge you on to purchase something without fully researching the item. Vendors are there to sell product and they see you as $$$.   Just like those end of the aisle specials in the grocery store, sometimes they are priced higher than normal.  Research the project before committing to purchase.
Resources:

http://www.sahbahomeshow.com/

http://www.americanshowsinc.com/LifestyleExpo.html

While much of the country is facing bone chilling temperatures, mounds of snow and snow drifts making roads nearly impassable, and heating bills which will totally upset the family budget, we here in Tucson Arizona are facing temperatures in the high 60’s and low 70’s.  Our evening temperatures dip about 30 degrees which is typical of desert weather. 

It may be time to consider a move to the sunny southwest where there is sunshine nearly 350 days of the year.

The price of homes has dipped considerably.  For retirees, homes in many areas are extremely competitively priced, and that combined with the $8,000 first time home buyer tax credit – which is applied to anyone who has not owned a home in three years, sweetens the purchase price.     The home buyer who has owned a home which sold and is buying again may be entitled to a $6500 tax credit.  Checking with one’s accountant is always prudent. But one can purcahase a comfortable two bedroom home in an active adult community for $250,000 or less.

For families and military personnel, buying in Tucson may be a sound financial decision,  Using a VA loan with no money down and the military housing allowance, then calculating costs and deducting the tax writeoff for interest and property taxes, many military people will come out paying far less for a home on a monthly basis than they would for a rental.  Find a Realtor who can help you calculate the costs, and then run the costs before a reputable loan officer. 

The average and median price of housing here in Tucson has decreased substantially within the past two years.  Savy buyers with a good Realtor can look at both short sales and foreclosure properties.  Buyers who want to give a property their own touch have a golden opportunity to purchase a foreclosure property which may be deeply discounted, and then take the money saved and turn the home into their own private palace.

And if you are coming from a situation where you must sell your own home, remember you may take a haircut on your home when you sell, but you can probably  purchase at an equally low price. 

Ask your local Realtor to put you in touch with an agent located wherever you want to move.  Your agent and that agent can work in tandem to maximize benefit for you, and your Realtor will be paid a referral fee by the Realtor from whom you purchase a home.  It is a win win situation for everyone!