BlogArizona Category: Just for Fun!This page contains all BlogArizona posts related to Just for Fun!. Read a specific post by clicking on a title below, or scroll further down the page to read through all posts in this category.Friday, August 20, 2010Arizona monsoons are bad for swimming pools!The other night, it got so windy that it blew a lawn chair in my pool. It also blew a million leaves and some of our landscaping lights in the pool. Where are my teenagers when I need them? Gotta love Arizona monsoons! Posted by Shannon Hubbard, Arizona Real Estate Agent on August 20, 2010 | Permalink | Comments (6) | TrackBack Monday, August 16, 2010Commercial Real Estate Question...Here's a question for all the commercial real estate agents, brokers and developers out there. Why do commercial real estate developers always put these bumpy landscape tiles right by grocery store entrances and exits? There must be a good reason because all the major grocery stores have these. But they're such a pain because stuff starts falling off your cart as soon as the wheels hit these things. If you try to go over them slowly, the cart's wheels get stuck. If you try to go over them quickly, your cart bounces around and stuff falls off. Posted by Shannon Hubbard, Arizona Real Estate Agent on August 16, 2010 | Permalink | Comments (6) | TrackBack Saturday, August 14, 2010AZ Homeowner Needs a New LandscaperOne of these things is not like the others... two of these things are kind of the same! Posted by Shannon Hubbard, Arizona Real Estate Agent on August 14, 2010 | Permalink | Comments (1) | TrackBack Friday, November 06, 2009They're Back... Zip Codes Come Back to AZ MLS!The Zip Codes Are Back! Thank you nice folks at Arizona Regional MLS (ARMLS®)!! Zip codes disappeared from AZ MLS sheets sometime in the past few weeks. I don't know for sure when the zip codes returned, but I noticed it yesterday, (ironically) right after I finished talking on the phone with another real estate agent who mentioned the missing zip codes! He was giving me an address and didn't have the zip code because it wasn't on his MLS printout! But now I'm happy to say that MLS looks like this again...
Posted by Shannon Hubbard, Arizona Real Estate Agent on November 6, 2009 | Permalink | Comments (10) | TrackBack Thursday, October 29, 2009Zip Codes Missing from Arizona MLSDear nice folks at Arizona Regional MLS (ARMLS®), What happened to the zip code? It used to be prominently displayed at the very top of the MLS printout (after the city & state where it belongs!). It looked like this...
It just disappeared in the past couple of weeks, so hopefully it won't be too hard for you to find it. I know you're usually very good about informing Realtors® when you make changes to MLS. So perhaps you did send out an email informing Realtors® the zip code would be disappearing soon. Unfortunately, I didn't get the memo. So here I sit wondering, what the heck happened to the zip codes? Please help. Thank you!
Posted by Shannon Hubbard, Arizona Real Estate Agent on October 29, 2009 | Permalink | Comments (1) | TrackBack Tuesday, October 20, 2009Arizona Home Inspector Meets Big Swifty the Tortoise!As a Home Inspector, I come across all kinds of pets in the homes that I inspect. Some pets love me, some pets hate me, some want to eat me, others just follow me around and supervise. In recent months, I've been inspecting more occupied homes, but for awhile there it was mostly vacant houses with no animal friends. Over the years, I've had all types of animals follow me around during inspections. Afterall, I'm in their territory so I don't mind. But I never expected to be followed by a tortoise!
I don't know his real name, but I called this guy, "Big Swifty". He totally followed me around the backyard as I inspected this house. He'd start walking towards me and as soon as I moved, he'd turn and follow me. Sorry if the picture's a little blurry, he was really bookin' for a tortoise!
Posted by Scott Hubbard, Arizona Home Inspector on October 20, 2009 | Permalink | Comments (6) | TrackBack Wednesday, July 15, 2009Wells Fargo Sues Itself In Mortgage Foreclosure CaseOkay, just when you thought things in the mortgage industry couldn't get any more insane... Wells Fargo files a lawsuit against itself. That's right, Wells Fargo Bank NA v. Wells Fargo Bank NA. Apparently, the lawsuit is related to a mortgage foreclosure case in Hillsborough County, Florida. Wells Fargo spokesman, Kevin Waetke reportedly said, "The primary reason is to clear title and ownership interest in a property to prepare it for sale". Personally, I've never found it necessary to sue myself in order to prepare a property for sale. But then I've also never been dumb enough to give both a first mortgage and second mortgage to the same person on the same house either. So I guess it makes perfect sense if you're a "too big to fail" lending institution like Wells Fargo. You know, the kind where the right hand doesn't know what the left hand is doing so they end up hiring lawyers to sue themselves, and then have to hire lawyers to defend themselves too. Who knows, it might be a brilliant legal strategy because even if Wells Fargo loses, they also win! But then even if they win, they also lose. The biggest losers here are the taxpayers who bailed this company out thinking it was "too big to fail". Sometimes stupidity needs to be allowed to fail. If Wells Fargo has nothing better to do with the BILLIONS of taxpayer dollars they received under the recent government bailout (TARP), why don't they just pay it all back?
Posted by Shannon Hubbard, Arizona Real Estate Agent on July 15, 2009 | Permalink | Comments (17) Kids will be Kids in Gilbert, AZSome kids in Gilbert, AZ are entertaining themselves this summer by turning off people's power. They run through the neighborhoods, open unlocked power boxes and flip the switch, turning off all the home's power. This story has been in the news but it's a great reminder to put a lock on your electrical breaker box. Sudden loss of power can sometimes cause damage to computers and other electronic devices.
Posted by Shannon Hubbard, Arizona Real Estate Agent on July 15, 2009 | Permalink | Comments (5) Sunday, July 05, 2009AWOL Blogger Returns to BlogArizona - Happy 4th of July!I know I haven't blogged forever and a day, so I guess it's time again! How could I have stayed away so long with so much to blog about lately? Honestly, I've been overwhelmed with work and life in general. Since the end of last year, the real estate & home inspection business have kept me working 12+ hour days, 7 days a week. Funny how the free markets actually work if the government stops interfering long enough to allow it. When AZ real estate prices came down low enough (last year), the buyers started to come out and inventory has come down significantly now. No, it wasn't the stimulus or the tax credit - it was lower prices (a function of supply and demand, not government intervention). For those of you who have emailed and left comments telling me to update BlogArizona... thanks! Even after months of not blogging, BlogArizona has still been visited by thousands of loyal readers and the search engines still seem to like us quite a bit. In fact, I still rank high enough to command attention from the bubble bursting crowd (what an honor!). After being quoted in this LA Times article by Nicholas Riccardi (which was also picked up by the Chicago Tribune, etc), I was recently bashed by Boom2Bust because I wasn't negative enough when discussing the Arizona real estate market. Okay, in all fairness, Boom2Bust was actually criticizing the use of Arizona real estate professionals as sources for the article... an article which happened to be about the Arizona real estate market (need I say duh???). Here's what Boom2Bust says about the Chicago Tribune article...
There were a few other AZ real estate professionals quoted, and Boom2Bust concluded/implied that real estate agents just say good things about the real estate market so they can make money. So who should Mr. Riccardi have called to interview for his article about the Arizona real estate market... some doctors in Nicaragua? Everything stated in the article was true, and the sources for the information were fully and accurately disclosed - so what's the problem? Boom2Bust goes on to give alternate sources of information about the Arizona housing market, to balance the opinions of us greedy real estate professionals who were quoted...
Note that Boom2Bust uses only national statistics and sources to talk about the Arizona real estate market. Should we tell Boom2Bust that real estate is local? The national numbers mean nothing to us here in Arizona, even if those numbers come from Yale scholars (Yale isn't even in Arizona!). So Boom2Bust would prefer generic, national sources rather than first hand information from people in the AZ trenches? The Arizona real estate market was among the hardest hit and therefore the first to start the recovery (when prices got low enough). Who do you think is more likely to know when that recovery has started... a Yale professor or an Arizona Realtor? Okay... considering I haven't blogged in many months, I guess I should just feel loved since I'm still being contacted for interviews by major newspapers and bashed by bubble bloggers. Never a dull moment. But don't worry, I'll be back for more much sooner this time. Hope you enjoyed your 4th of July weekend!
Posted by BlogArizona BlogMaster on July 5, 2009 | Permalink | Comments (8) Thursday, April 10, 2008Don't Install Satellite on Your Roof This WayThis is bizarre but sad. Don't try installing satellite TV like this guy did. He used a gun to shoot a hole (from inside the house) through the exterior of the house instead of punching it another way. His wife was apparently on the roof when it happened and she was shot. Even dumber, he shot twice and it was the second shot that killed her. This happened last month but they just recently decided that no charges are being filed against the husband. Moral of the story: Use the right tool for the job, and don't start shooting guns through the house when your wife is on the roof (or any other time, really).
Posted by Shannon Hubbard, Arizona Real Estate Agent on April 10, 2008 | Permalink | Comments (6) | TrackBack |
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