Tucson By Choice!: December 2008

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December is when the oranges begin to ripen in my back yard.  The little monsoon begins at the same time, and the desert begins to look lush again.  We've had 1 1/4 inches of rain since the first of the month.  This male Cardinal has taken up residence with his mate somewhere in the arroyo behind our home, and he enters the yard by coming through the orange tree.  He's headed for the bird feeder, but not until he has looked around to make sure the coast is clear.

I'm Mike in Tucson, your preferred Tucson, AZ Mortgage lender.

Think of me as your Tucson mortgage expert.
Call me if I can help you with a mortgage to buy your next house:  (520) 349-9090

• VA Loans:  100% purchase loans for active or honorably discharged veterans
• FHA Rehab loans for fixer uppers: up to $35,000 on top of the purchase price
• Kiddy Condo loans instead of shelling out big bucks for your student's housing
• Conforming conventional loans
• USDA Rural Home Loans, including purchase loans for Manufactured Homes.

TUCSON REALTORS:  You can hire me to take your First Impression Photos.  (same phone number)

I know you'll find it hard to believe.  Snow does fall in Tucson!  December is our "little monsoon" season, and rain has been falling in the lower elevations for the past two days, while snow has been falling in the mountains.

My office is in the neighborhood of Tucson called Winterhaven.  26 miles up the Catalina highway is the tiny hamlet of Summerhaven.  It's been snowing there all week.  For you ski buffs, please note that Summerhaven is home to the southerly-most ski lift in North America!

Winter rains make for fantastic spring color in the desert, and I'm expecting to see banks of wildflowers like this come March.

I'm Mike in Tucson, your preferred Tucson, AZ Mortgage lender.

Think of me as your Tucson mortgage expert.
Call me if I can help you with a mortgage to buy your next house:  (520) 349-9090

• VA Loans:  100% purchase loans for active or honorably discharged veterans
• FHA Rehab loans for fixer uppers: up to $35,000 on top of the purchase price
• Kiddy Condo loans instead of shelling out big bucks for your student's housing
• Conforming conventional loans
• USDA Rural Home Loans, including purchase loans for Manufactured Homes.

TUCSON REALTORS:  You can hire me to take your First Impression Photos.  (same phone number)

My Darlin' and I were coming home from church this morning, and I stopped by the office to pick up a list of FHA clients.  (My office is 45 minutes from our home in the Tucson Mountains.)

I'm not usually in town on Sunday, but here we were, traveling west on Grant Road.  As I approached the intersection at Campbell, I noticed a man on the corner, painting a picture. 

It's a busy intersection, and we had the green light, so I couldn't change lanes immediately.  "I've got to go back and take a picture," I said.  "There's a story back there on the corner."  "Don't get us killed," was the quiet reply from the passenger seat, "we haven't had lunch yet."  LOL

The artist is Dale Strong, and he's painting an Arizona Mission series of paintings.  In the 1600's, Father Eusebio Kino founded a number of missions in what is now southern Arizona.  Four of them remain, either in part or completely restored.

Dale Strong is an accomplished artist, and his paintings grace the homes or estates of former Vice President Walter Mondale, Luciano Pavarotti, Johnny Carson, Frank Sinatra and Dean Martin, to mention a few.

Dale paints with oils, but doesn't use a brush.  Instead, he uses two iced tea spoons he modified by taping them to a railroad track back 1970's. 

One of the flattened spoons retains its rounded edge, and Dale uses it to blend color directly on the canvas (a wet-on-wet technique called impasto.)  His inspiration?  Vincent Van Gogh.  The second spoon is ground down to provide an edge with which Dale creates fine lines and detail in his paintings.

Camera in hand, I apologized for interrupting his work, and asked Mr. Strong if I could take a few photos.  What a gracious man!  I explained that you and others on the Active Rain Real Estate Network would be reading this post, so he invited me in to the gallery to meet the owner--Henry.

Henry El Kaim is a young guy like me.  (1948!)  Henry is an artist in glass, among other media, and when I mentioned that my Darlin' was waiting in the car, he made her a gift of an exquisite little stained glass angel!

Don't visit Tucson without checking out this beautiful little gallery.  Come on the weekend, and you're likely to see artists creating their work outside on the corner!  Here's a link to a map of the location.

I'm Mike in Tucson, your preferred Tucson, AZ Mortgage lender.

Think of me as your Tucson mortgage expert.
Call me if I can help you with a mortgage to buy your next house:  (520) 349-9090

• VA Loans:  100% purchase loans for active or honorably discharged veterans
• FHA Rehab loans for fixer uppers: up to $35,000 on top of the purchase price
• Kiddy Condo loans instead of shelling out big bucks for your student's housing
• Conforming conventional loans
• USDA Rural Home Loans, including purchase loans for Manufactured Homes.

TUCSON REALTORS:  You can hire me to take your First Impression Photos.  (same phone number) 

Time is the scarcest commodity, especially when you may have a part time job to supplement your income as a Real Estate Agent so that you can stay in the Real Estate business.

Here's the way you might look at your listing obligations. 

• Make the listing appointment. 
• Get it signed. 
• Get it into the Multiple Listing Service. 
• Double check for accuracy. 
• Make sure the photos show the features that make this home special to the potential buyer. Choose an exterior photo for the first impression.
• Done.

Let's say I'm your potential buyer.  I've got a full time job, and it's not real estate.  My spouse has narrowed down the area of town where we intend to buy a home.  We've scoured listings on the internet.  We haven't spoken to a REALTOR yet.  And then we see your new listing pop up.  A first impression is formed.

Which photo is going to evoke an emotional connection to the home and its surroundings?

(Please note:  This particular home in my neighborhood of Tucson Estates 2 is not listed, and is not for sale.)

I'm Mike in Tucson, your preferred Tucson, AZ Mortgage lender.

Think of me as your Tucson mortgage expert.
Call me if I can help you with a mortgage to buy your next house:  (520) 349-9090

• VA Loans:  100% purchase loans for active or honorably discharged veterans
• FHA Rehab loans for fixer uppers: up to $35,000 on top of the purchase price
• Kiddy Condo loans instead of shelling out big bucks for your student's housing
• Conforming conventional loans
• USDA Rural Home Loans, including purchase loans for Manufactured Homes.

TUCSON REALTORS:  You can hire me to take your First Impression Photos.  (same phone number)

The last time interest rates on fixed rate, 30 year mortgages were this low, Joe Frazier was still the World Heavyweight Champion, and the main contender was still known as Cassius Clay.

Freddy Mac's weekly mortgage rate survey began in April of 1971.  During that time, 30 year fixed rates have never been lower than they are right now.  Never!

It's the best news you can imagine if you're in the market to refinance your present mortgage, or if you're in the market to buy a home.

That's not to say that there won't be hurdles.  The very best rates are reserved for the lowest risk borrowers.  But even borrowers with credit issues in the past can expect to benefit from the current climate.

If you're an Arizona homeowner or buyer, and you would like to talk, call me at (520) 320-3683, or email me at themiraclemike@yahoo.com.  Please put the words ACTIVE RAIN in the subject line of your email so I'll know it's not spam and delete it by accident!

I've been in the office since 5:30 this morning.  Time's a'wastein'!  Grab that phone.

I'm Mike in Tucson, your preferred Tucson, AZ Mortgage lender.

Think of me as your Tucson Arizona mortgage expert.
Call me if I can help you with a mortgage to buy your next house:  (520) 320-3683

photo courtesy of Life Magazine & Google

You can't see the mountains in the distance, but they're there!  A cold front blew in this afternoon, and the strong winds that came along with it whipped up a rolling dust storm across the desert.  I live in the little community of Tucson Estates II, on the west flank of the Tucson Mountains.  Our little community is just three or four miles from the Arizona-Sonoran Desert Museum--one of the ten best Zoos in the world.  That's where I was at 4:15 p.m. when I took this picture.

Dust in the air makes for some fantastic sunsets, so we drove to the pass that connects Tucson with the west flank of the Tucson Mountains.  It's called Gates Pass, and it's a terrific place to watch the sun set.  I took this picture at 5:45 p.m. from the road just below Gates Pass.

I'm Mike in Tucson, your preferred Tucson, AZ Mortgage lender.

Think of me as your Tucson mortgage expert.
Call me if I can help you with a mortgage to buy your next house:  (520) 349-9090

• VA Loans:  100% purchase loans for active or honorably discharged veterans
• FHA Rehab loans for fixer uppers: up to $35,000 on top of the purchase price
• Kiddy Condo loans instead of shelling out big bucks for your student's housing
• Conforming conventional loans

Elsewhere in the West, and in most parts of country, I've heard these big cats called Cougars.  Here in Arizona we call them Mountain Lions.  You've read stories in the past few years about joggers in California being attacked by them.

It's not hard to imagine.  These are very powerful animals.  This one lives with its mate at the Arizona Sonoran Desert Museum in Tucson, AZ.  It's only three miles from our home in the Tucson Mountains, and a few years ago, my Darlin' and I saw one of these in our backyard.

Whenever out-of-town guests come to Tucson, the Arizona Sonoran Desert Museum is my favorite place to take them.  Listed as one of the 10 best Zoos in the world, it's been here since the 1950's, and every year it gets better.  Bring the kids; the place is all about education, and much of what's here provides kids with hands-on enjoyment.  If you come to visit Tucson, call me; we'll take you, too.

I'm Mike in Tucson, your preferred Tucson, AZ Mortgage lender.

Think of me as your Tucson mortgage expert.
Call me if I can help you with a mortgage to buy your next house:  (520) 349-9090

• VA Loans:  100% purchase loans for active or honorably discharged veterans
• FHA Rehab loans for fixer uppers: up to $35,000 on top of the purchase price
• Kiddy Condo loans instead of shelling out big bucks for your student's housing
• Conforming conventional loans

Sunday afternoon.  I had visited three open houses.  The most beautiful by far is in my own neighborhood of Tucson Estates II.  The address: 2020 S Triangle X Lane, Tucson, AZ  85713

MLS# 20827872

The owner/agent is my neighbor and Century 21 REALTOR (and agente bilingue) Pensa Dominguez.

Take a look:

You can contact Pensa Dominguez (Century 21 Heritage Realty) at (520) 390-3889.

I'm Mike in Tucson, your preferred Tucson, AZ Mortgage lender.

Think of me as your Tucson mortgage expert.
Call me if I can help you with a mortgage to buy your next house:  (520) 349-9090

• VA Loans:  100% purchase loans for active or honorably discharged veterans
• FHA Rehab loans for fixer uppers: up to $35,000 on top of the purchase price
• Kiddy Condo loans instead of shelling out big bucks for your student's housing
• Conforming conventional loans

I've just joined a new BNI group here in Tucson.  It's called the Thomas Morgan Professional Partners Chapter, and it's got some fantastic members.

Scott Genteman is one of those!  He's been in sales since his childhood days on the northwest side of Chicago, but we don't hold that against him.  LOL

Please click this link to visit his very first Active Rain post, and tell him who sent you his way. 

If you don't know about BNI, please click the link in the first paragraph.  BNI has been a solid source of referrals for me for the last three years.

I'm Mike in Tucson, your preferred Tucson, AZ Mortgage lender.

Think of me as your Tucson mortgage expert.
Call me if I can help you with a mortgage to buy your next house:  (520) 349-9090

• VA Loans:  100% purchase loans for active or honorably discharged veterans
• FHA Rehab loans for fixer uppers: up to $35,000 on top of the purchase price
• Kiddy Condo loans instead of shelling out big bucks for your student's housing
• Conforming conventional loans

While his competitors at other intersections sit on a milk crate holding a stack of papers and hoping someone will roll down the window and buy one, this guy is actually selling newspapers! 

I go out of my way to buy my newspaper from him. 

Selling has gotten a bum rap, IMHO.  I attended a seminar where the speaker went to great lengths to help the audience find ways to distance themselves from the dreaded moniker "salesperson."  "People don't want to be sold," he said."  Really?  IMHO, people don't want to be manipulated!

"Oh, I don't sell."  (As if that's a dirty way to make a living)  "I add value."  "I'm a consultant."  "I make a difference."  "I don't sell, I 'market.' "

Balderdash!  (That's about as vulgar as I get)  While you're worrying about your image, someone else is getting the listing, getting the loan, closing the deal.  And their clients love it!

In this market, with the broad reach of Active Rain and other fantastic tools at your disposal, work to become an effective, professional salesperson!  That is what commissions are paid for.  SALES!

I'm Mike in Tucson, your preferred Tucson, AZ Mortgage lender.

Think of me as your Tucson mortgage expert.
Call me if I can help you with a mortgage to buy your next house:  (520) 349-9090

• VA Loans:  100% purchase loans for active or honorably discharged veterans
• FHA Rehab loans for fixer uppers: up to $35,000 on top of the purchase price
• Kiddy Condo loans instead of shelling out big bucks for your student's housing
• Conforming conventional loans