About
Please scroll down for the Phoenix Real Estate Guy comment policy and info. Or click here.
Jay is a real estate broker, father, husband and all-around nice guy. He likes to volunteer for what some people consider crazy things–like serving on his Home Owners Association board of directors, or getting on the Town of Gilbert’s Human Relations Commission. Jay even served as a substitute teacher at his kids K-8 school. The kids at the school frequently said he was “the coolest sub ever”. His autograph is highly sought after by students under 9 years old…
Jay’s lovely bride Francy is also a real estate agent. She’s also a native Arizonan (Arizonite?) which is a dying breed out here. She’s the best real estate agent in the known Universe. Probably in other parallel universes too (which is a nod to Francy’s sci-fi/Star Wars/Trekkie side). She’s cool, she’s hot, and she’s just a little weird… I love her to death.
In February 2008, Jay and Francy left the only real estate brokerage they’d ever known, Century 21 Aware Realty, to start up their own independent boutique brokerage — Thompson’s Realty. Promising “The Power of Technology with a Personal Touch”, Thompson’s Realty delivers the ultimate in customer support and satisfaction.
Our two kids James and Lauren are both happy, funny, and well adjusted kids. They’re wicked smart too. Really!
Blog Policy, Rules and Such:
This policy is valid from 11 August 2007
This blog is a personal blog written and edited by me. For questions about this blog, please contact Jay Thompson (Jay at ThompsonsRealty dot com). Opinions are mine and mine alone. When I present data, it is believed to be accurate, but is not guaranteed. You should never make financial or real estate decisions based on anything you read on the internet anywhere without first consulting your financial adviser, CPA, attorney and/or real estate professional.
The owner of this blog is occasionally compensated to provide opinion on products, services, websites and various other topics. Even though the owner of this blog receives compensation for some posts or advertisements, we always give our honest opinions, findings, beliefs, or experiences on those topics or products. The views and opinions expressed on this blog are purely the bloggers’ own. Any product claim, statistic, quote or other representation about a product or service should be verified with the manufacturer, provider or party in question.
Less than one out of three hundred posts are paid/sponsored posts. Paid/sponsored posts will ALWAYS be prominently disclosed as such within the sponsored post and/or post title.
This blog abides by word of mouth marketing standards. We believe in honesty of relationship, opinion and identity.
This blog does not contain any content which might present a conflict of interest.
Comment Policy:
Reader comments are encouraged! But please, be civil. This does not mean you have to agree with anything I say here. In fact, I welcome debate and encourage people to express what they feel.
Spam is not tolerated on this blog. I loath spam. There are multiple spam filters in place here, but occasionally something slips through. When I find them, they will be deleted. In addition to the “typical” spam of things such as prescription medication, porn and deeply discounted software, blatant self-promotion and advertising will not be tolerated.
Personal attacks will not be tolerated and will be deleted.
I will *occasionally* edit a comment, but will *never* change its intent or content. The only thing I will edit a comment for is format, and then only if it “breaks” the blog display. I will also edit the occasional URL to “hot link” it for the convenience of other readers. Strong language may be edited — kids read here. Trust me, I’ve been known to drop the F bomb, but let’s keep it off the blog please.
Collection and Use of Personal Information:
I hate spam more than you do. I will *never* sell or release your email address to anyone, unless order to do so by a court of law. I also despise old school hard-sell sales tactics and will never send you any form of marketing material unless you specifically request it.
Copyright:
All content is protected by US Copyright. “Fair Use” allows for small portions of text to be used and quoted as long as there is a prominent link back directly to the post URL. “Scraping” this site and/or RSS feed and/or republishing content without permission is unacceptable. We will aggressively pursue any and all legal avenues to protect our copyright and intellectual property. Trust me, you don’t want to go down this road.
If you're new here, you may want to subscribe to this blog via email or RSS feed. Thanks for visiting!
{ 5 trackbacks }
{ 3 comments… read them below or add one }
The AZ Real Estate Guy 08.13.05 at 3:53 pm
Hey Spammers! (I know, they will never see this, but it makes me feel better…)
Don’t bother putting your site’s URL here. I have to approve everything posted, and I will NEVER allow your link here. So no sites for Viagra, weight loss drugs, get rich quick schemes, etc etc etc blah blah blah.
Majal Mirasol 03.16.06 at 8:12 am
Hi Jay and Francy,
My name is Majal, I just started working for Prosper (www.prosper.com) — we do people-to-people lending — and someone in my company forwarded me your site. I see you’re writing about real estate investing, and I guess our lending/borrowing site will be interesting to you. So I wanted to introduce myself and our website.
The Prosper site just launched (we got some play in the New York Times: http://www.nytimes.com/2006/02.....9Drsu2/lww and I’m contacting a few topically relevant bloggers asking for feedback on the site – good and bad.
If you have a few minutes, shoot me an email and let me know your impressions. If the site interests you or you have any questions or comments, I can help get you in touch with anyone internally here (e.g. our Product Manager, CTO, CEO, etc.) and generally get questions answered.
Anyway, check it out. If you have any questions, email me anytime.
Sincerely,
Majal
Customer Service: 1-800-208-0103
Noel 08.08.06 at 4:04 pm
I have just read your real estate blog and thought you might be interested in publishing this article…
Destroy The Greatest Real Estate Myth And You’ll Come Out Better Off!
By Noel Peebles
We’ve all heard it said, “The most important thing in real estate is LOCATION, LOCATION, LOCATION!” As many will say, “it’s the reason why real estate does or does not sell.”
To that I reply, “RUBBISH, RUBBISH, RUBBISH!”
Sure, location is important, but to elevate it to the status of “the most important reason” is in my opinion, unjustified. In truth, there are 4 key factors that determine whether or not real estate sells. They are:
- PRICE
- CONDITION
- MARKETING
- LOCATION
You’ll notice I put location last on the list. Now don’t get me wrong, location is important, but to say it is the most important factor in any real estate sale is just not true! Let me explain…
Of the four, location is perhaps the least important because of one often overlooked point, which is – Location cannot be changed by anyone in the real estate negotiation process. Just think about that for a moment. Location cannot be changed by anyone in the negotiation process. So, unless you can put your house on wheels, it will stay where it is, meaning you (and your potential buyer) must accept the location as a fixed negotiating point.
Now, there are possibly a few exceptions. For example, it is not uncommon to move a house on the back of a truck from one location to another. In fact, I once watched as a multi-level hotel was lifted and moved on rails from one side of a busy city street to the other. It wasn’t a small building, so I couldn’t believe what I was seeing!
Also, without physically moving a property, it is possible in some circumstances to have a property rezoned by the local authorities. It does depend on your laws relating to where you live. However, I have seen properties triple in value when they were rezoned from ‘rural’ to ‘commercial’. But, as I say, the laws are different from country to country.
Anyway, unless you can alter the location or status of the location, you must generally accept the location as being fixed. Which brings us to the other three points – price, condition and marketing. All three are variables that you can control. Here’s what I mean:
1. You can raise the condition of your property to meet your asking price. Or…
2. You can lower your price to meet the condition of your property. And then…
3. You can run a powerful marketing campaign that makes your property stand out from every other property in town.
Do you see what I mean? You can change the price, change the condition and change the marketing… but the location of your property remains static.
So, to say that LOCATION, LOCATION, LOCATION is the number one reason why a property does or does not sell is just a real estate myth. The truth is; price, condition and marketing rate as more important factors in the real estate negotiating process.
For more information http://www.your-real-estate-resources.com/ or http://real-estate-knowhow.blogspot.com/