Real Estate News • May 11, 2021

Breaking News: Eviction Ban Is Unlawful

by Carrie Deak

Court Strikes Down Eviction Ban

U.S. District Court Judge Dabney L. Friedrich of the District of Columbia struck down a nationwide eviction moratorium Wednesday, calling it unlawful. Friedrich’s ruling applies nationwide.

The eviction ban was put in place last year by the Trump administration using public health powers granted to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention during health emergencies.

The ban was most recently extended by President Biden through the end of June.

In her 20-page ruling, Friedrich said, “It is the role of the political branches, and not the courts, to assess the merits of policy measures designed to combat the spread of disease, even during a global pandemic. The question for the Court is a narrow one: Does the Public Health Service Act grant the CDC the legal authority to impose a nationwide eviction moratorium? It does not.”

The Georgia and Alabama Association of REALTORS®, two housing providers, and their property management companies, filed the suit in defense of mom-and-pop property owners around the country struggling to pay bills without rental income for more than a year.

NAR—which helped secure nearly $50 billion in rental assistance provided by Congress since December to help tenants pay their bills and provide relief to housing providers who have lost income—supported the lawsuit, saying the ban was no longer needed.

“NAR has always maintained that the best solution for all parties was rental assistance to cover the rent, taxes and utility bills for tenants struggling during the pandemic,” says NAR President Charlie Oppler. “This decision prevents two crises—one for tenants, and one for mom-and-pop housing providers who do not have a reprieve from their bills. With rental assistance secured, the economy growing, and unemployment rates falling, there is no need to continue a blanket, nationwide eviction ban. With this safety net firmly in place, the market needs a return to normalcy and stability.”

Oppler adds that “our attention now should turn to the swift and efficient implementation of rental assistance.”

Read the courts opinion.

Copyright NATIONAL ASSOCIATION OF REALTORS®. Reprinted with permission.

Real Estate News • May 1, 2021

What’s This About 1031 Tax-Deferred Exchanges?

by Carrie Deak

Over the years I’ve helped folks build modest real estate portfolios using something called the 1031 Tax-Deferred Exchange (a/k/a 1031 Exchange), actually a part of our Internal Revenue Tax Code. Now I’m not the expert in I.R.S Tax Code but I know enough about this particular code to help guide my clients and friends through the basics so they understand how using this I.R.S. tax code can benefit them. And then I roll out the big gun, Carmine Difulvio of First American Exchange. Carmine and his team have a great website that is easily navigated beginning at the top bar under Learn About 1031 or on the dashboard (first page of the website) by clicking on each of the tiles. This isn’t meant as a commercial for Carmine but rather a way to introduce you to a possible way for you to work within our Internal Revenue system to an income stream many folks still don’t know about. Here’s a link to the website for First American Exchange if your are curious https://www.firstexchange.com/learn-about-1031 Once you’ve taken a few minutes to learn more, there’s also an opportunity to help preserve this opportunity at the end of the short video.

Think this might be a way for you to begin investing? Give me a call and I’ll get right on the property search with you.

WATCH HERE: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KlQSd9Mm74w&t=2s

Prescott Arizona • April 26, 2021

Prescott Farmers Market Wants Your Kitchen Scraps!

by Carrie Deak

WE WANT YOUR KITCHEN SCRAPS!

Prescott Famers Market has recently partnered with the City of Prescott to design and implement a small-scale community composting operation here in Prescott. The project is being funded by the Natural Resources Conservation Service (NRCS) agency of the United States Department of Agriculture (USDA). Food scraps will be collected from the weekly farmers market, and several restaurants in the downtown area will be separating and contributing kitchen scraps for this pilot program as well. The finished compost will be made available to gardeners and other small-scale growers in the Prescott area for free!

The program and site are still in the planning stages – we expect to launch in earnest sometime in January. However, to get the ball rolling we will begin collecting residential kitchen scraps at our Saturday market beginning 10/31/2020. Several PFM staff members and vendors manage backyard compost systems that can accommodate more material, and they are excited to divert your food waste from the landfill!

Bring your acceptable kitchen scraps to the info booth, and a PFM staff member will dump it into a compost receptacle. We’re also accepting bags of leaves (no pine needles please).

*Note: We do not have a way to clean buckets/containers at the market. Line your containers with paper bags, woodchips, or straw to prevent odors and make to your compost receptacle easier to clean. Sealing your bucket/container with an airtight lid will produce foul odors due to a lack of oxygen. Keep any lids loose until you are ready to transport it to the market on Saturday.

Tip: Store food scraps in the freezer until the Saturday market to prevent any odors.

Questions? Contact Gabriel Kerbs: compost@prescottfarmersmarket.org

ACCEPTED MATERIALS:

Vegetables and vegetable scraps • Fruit and fruit scraps (including pits) • Egg and nut shells • Grains and grain products (bread, cereal, etc.) • Coffee grounds and filters • Tea bags • Cut flowers and houseplants • Shredded brown paper products (shopping bags, egg cartons)

NOT ACCEPTED:

Pet waste • Meat • Bones • Fish • Dairy • Fat/Oil • Greasy food scraps • Charcoal • Twist ties, rubber bands, receipts

Prescott Arizona • April 6, 2021

2021 Nesting Birds

by Carrie Deak

It is Springtime and with it comes another kind of nesting and home building, the kind done so industriously by our feathered friends. Now, some of them keep second homes in the Prescott area and only need to fly in, freshen things up a bit or make a few repairs. Others, maybe newly fledged last year and returning home this year as young adults, must go about building their new home from the foundation up, a first home for them, a sort of winged version of a first-time home buyer.

How can we help?

Plant or cultivate native bushes, shrubs, flowers, and trees that attract the insects they nosh on and grow the berries they enjoy.
Use alternative sprays, not chemical pesticides that compromise their food sources.
Keep your kitty cats indoors especially during baby bird season. Side benefit? Indoor kitty cats are safe from roaming critters and those soaring overhead on the lookout for their next meal.
DO NOT offer yarn, string or human hair for nesting material. I’ve read that every year bird rescues receive wild birds, both babies and adults, with this type of material wrapped around their feet. This can result in the bird losing a foot or leg from the material slowly cutting off circulation.
DO NOT offer laundry dryer lint. Seems like a wonderful, soft and cushy option, right? Well, it may be steeped with chemicals from detergent and softener again not so good for our bird friends young or adult.
So, what about pet fur/hair? Ask yourself do you treat your pet with flea & tick repellent? Those chemicals are nasty stuff that can again be potentially harmful to both young and adult birds.

In this area our feathered friends can find plenty of natural materials for nest building including twigs, dried leaves, grasses, reeds, flower stems pine straw, mosses and even snakeskin sheds! This and the food sources available are one of the reasons birding is such a wonderfully rewarding past time here. I’ve heard we are on a natural migratory fly way but don’t take it from me. Learn from the experts and super friendly folks at Jay’s Bird Barn located at 1046 Willow Creek Road, Suite 105 (Safeway Shopping Plaza), give them a call at 928-443-5900 or check out their cache of birding information via their website https://www.jaysbirdbarn.com/.

Another great place? Highlands Center for Natural History at 1375 South Walker Road in Prescott. Have experienced this special place personally. This science-based non-profit really does foster an appreciation of the wonders around us by inviting discovery through hikes, lectures, and their pure enthusiasm. Learn more from their website https://highlandscenter.org/ or give them a call at 928-776-9550. Be patient, they are mostly volunteer staffed.

Selling Your Home • April 17, 2020

Waiting to Write an Offer Could Cost You!!

by Carrie Deak

What’s on my mind? Well, really couldn’t put it more succinctly than what was written by Ralph McLaughlin, Trulia’s chiefeconomist. I would add that it has been my experience that many buyers’ expectations appear to be influenced more and more by the home buying reality TV shows they are watching. Come on folks, paint and carpeting. Really?

Homebuyers across the country continue to struggle with a historic shortage in homes available to purchase which has led to rising prices, multiple offers and reduced time on the market.

Highly selective buyers (particularly first-time home buyers with unreasonable expectations) are seeing homes vanish while they weigh the options over several properties that they are interested in.

Nationally, the number of homes on the market dropped for the eighth consecutive quarter in Q1, falling 5.1% from Q1 of 2016. And the inventory shortage continues to be most dire for more affordable homes.

Starter-home inventory fell by 8.7% year over year, while trade-up home inventory fell by 7.9%. Meanwhile, the stock of premium homes fell just 1.7% year over year.

“Recovering home values have proven to be a double-edged sword,” said Ralph McLaughlin, Trulia’s chief economist. “While homeowners across the country are thrilled to regain equity in their homes, many have not been in a hurry to trade up. This has added to the inventory gridlock that ties up would-be starter-home inventory from ever coming onto the market, further constraining supply and decreasing affordability.”

That disproportionate drop in starter-home inventory is making homeownership less and less affordable for first-time buyers. Right now, a typical starter home buyer would have to dedicate 38.3% of his or her monthly income to buy a home, Trulia found. That’s a 2.9% increase from last year.

The bottom line is that homebuyers need to have their mortgage ready and be able to put in an offer quickly. Chasing a home with more features or for a lower price may very well result in losing out in the market altogether.

Carrie Deak

(928) 771-2356

Fire Preparation • April 17, 2020

Wet In Winter, Fire In Summer – Are You Prepared?

by Carrie Deak

I’ve been thinking about this since the publication on April 10th of an article with a similar title in our local Prescott paper. I know many folks don’t get the local paper and some still do read it on-line. Still, remembering back to the Doce Fire in Prescott, Arizona, of June 2013, I wondered how many folks have any literature on how to be prepared.

I remember watching from our driveway, the flames creep up over then crest the top of Granite Mountain and begin a steady descent downward toward homes at the base of the mountain. For more than a week we woke up to the sound of helicopters and airplanes flying overhead to deposit the retardant on the flames. We were on alert for that whole week and our nerves were pretty frayed. We never knew when we might hear the knock at our door alerting us to evacuate. I had never had to look around our home and decide what to take and what we would have to leave behind. Hard to do and pretty sobering.

You see, at the time, we had 3 Airedale Terriers (each weighing more than 70 lbs) and 4 horses. We only had one car and could only take a minimal amount with us and have room for our dogs and their food. Fortunately, some dear friends in Chino Valley allowed us to move our horses to their property as soon as we were put on notice. Let me tell you, you NEVER want to be in a position to have to move horses at the last minute, quickly, in the dark with smoke in the air. And our notice could very easily have come late at night and with 10 minutes to move out. That’s all that other neighbors got. We also had the offer of a casita in the Tucson area from an Airedale Terrier loving friend with whom I volunteer through Southwest Airedale Terrier Rescue.

What I’m saying is we had the rudimentary outline of a plan born of being in the middle of a very tense time. Want to save you some of that stress so I’m sharing the link below which will open up a brochure of the Yavapai County Office of Emergency Management. As you will see, the brochure provides informational websites, basic evacuation procedures, evacuation levels, what to take, evacuation routes & destinations, and evacuation actions. One of the last items hits the nail on the head for me….”Prior planning will prevent stressful evacuation.”

Prescott Arizona • April 11, 2020

2021 Mayor Kell Palguta Viewpoint Subdivision Update

by Carrie Deak

Prescott Valley Mayor Kell Palguta posted this to Facebook today, April 11, 2021. Read below to learn more about the possible completion of the Viewpoint subdivision.

“Yesterday (Saturday, April 10, 2021) I attended an unofficial community meeting between Dorn Homes and about 65 concerned citizens regarding the possible completion of the Viewpoint subdivision.

Originally the meeting was touted by some on Nextdoor as another power grab from a greedy developer whose intent was to build apartments, drive property values down and then split town. This was the farthest from the truth and another example of some residents attempts to spread misinformation and spark anger and fear.

The reality was the following:

#1 Despite being zoned for 1065 homes Dorn Homes only wants to build around 675 homes.

#2 Despite being zoned for Multi Family Development Dorn Homes wants nothing to do with apartments and wishes to do only single-family homes.

#3 Unlike in the past, if approved the developer will do all infrastructure improvements BEFORE any homes are completed. This means widening Viewpoint Drive to 4 lanes, and adding a 10-foot multi use bike and walking path along Viewpoint Drive. Along with other requirements that the previous developer failed to do.

#4 Creating larger parcel homes to around 1/3 of an acre.

This is an example of how relationships between our residents and future development will be from now on. Our residents are our residents and they know what makes Prescott Valley amazing. It is not the place of a developer anymore to come to Prescott Valley to tell us what they are going to do. Growth is inevitable and it is now time Prescott Valley steers the direction of growth and not letting growth steer us.”

Love that our local mayors and leadership continue to share this kind of community-based development update as it gives me an opportunity to keep you informed!

Personal Growth • February 11, 2020

Loss!! A Very Personal Journey

by Carrie Deak

Valentine’s Day is about sharing time with the special people in your life and likely a little bit of chocolate and flowers. It is less frequently about loss.

Sadly, in my extended family this day is marked by a truly profound loss. My kind-hearted, sweet, smart, funny, beautiful “bonus” daughter barely knew her mom. Their time together was so short. Beverly was so young, just 35 when she died of kidney cancer on Valentine’s Day. Jennifer? Only just barely 3!

Introducing, mom by committee featuring Jennifer’s two fabulous aunts, her grandmother, me, and the other fabulous women that have been in her life all of her life. Keeping memories alive; cheering along the way as new memories are made; celebrating her first job as an OT, a New Hampshire winter wedding, the arrivals of Jared and then Travis, a first home, and first & second pups. Creating a cookbook featuring Beverly’s recipes; digging way back into the archives at Stanford to uncover a copy of Beverly’s dissertation. Piecing together the puzzle so Jennifer has learned how very much she shares in common with her mom.

Filling in the hole left from the loss of her mom? Not even close! Clumsily but truly authentically we gently are guiding Jennifer and honoring her mom. Proud? Indeed! Beverly would be so proud of her little girl’s accomplishments. She would be equally amazed by her handsome grandsons. Sharing their journeys has been my humble privilege.