What are Our Team Members Thankful For?

There are many great Phoenix area homes for sale. Click here to perform a full home search, or if you're thinking of selling your home, click here for a Market Analysis so you know what buyers will pay for your home in today's market. You may also call me at (602) 413-8195 for a FREE home buying or selling consultation to answer any of your real estate questions.

Our team is here today to say thanks. We are so thankful to be in the real estate industry, serving amazing clients like yourself. We are very proud of our team, and we want to share with you what all of our team members are thankful for.

Our transaction coordinator is Seng Lhotka. Her job is to take all the escrows from pending to close, handle all the other closing details, and make everything as smooth as possible. She is most thankful for living in the beautiful sunshiny state of Arizona, having grown up in the cold winters of Minnesota.

Sara Barker is our listing coordinator. Her job is to market each of our homes beautifully to get them sold quickly. This holiday season she is thankful to be a part of our team and for being able to spend the holiday with her son.

As a buyer specialist for our team, it's Holly Huntimer’s job to save you time and money while finding your next home. This Thanksgiving she is very excited to enjoy the time with her family and get her hands on some of that delicious cranberry sauce!

Tom Ross is our preferred lender at Nova Home Loans and is thankful for the opportunity to work with us and share some of his knowledge with us on our videos. We are thankful for Tom, too!

And of course, I am Monique Walker. During Thanksgiving, I am most thankful for my two little girls, Sol and Alejandra. I can't wait to spend the whole day with them!

If you have any questions, or would like to tell us what you are thankful for this holiday season, feel free to give us a call or send us an email. We look forward to hearing from you!

November 1: Battle of the Sexes Tennis Festival

As many of you know, I am on the board of The Guerrant Foundation, a non-profit whose main purpose is to provide small business loans for the world's poor. Ann Guerrant, the company's founder, is a friend of mine and I have seen first-hand how passionate she is about her mission and how careful she is with the money we raise.

The Guerrant Foundation provides small business loans as little as $40 to as much as $400 that change people's lives. This kind of work provides small business owners with a starting point, which they can then build off of and thrive from. Check out a short video about the foundation here.

I am on a mission to raise $5,000 this year for the foundation by November 1, 2014. That is the date of our most important event of the year, the Battle of the Sexes Tennis Fundraiser. 8 women (including myself) and 8 men will be battling it out on the court to see who will prevail, in an ode to the 1973 Battle of the Sexes match between Billie Jean King and Bobby Riggs.

I just wanted to take this time to cordially invite you to the event, which will be held at The Phoenician Resort on November 1st, from 2-4pm. There will be plenty of music, food, raffles, and of course, tennis.

Please consider making a donation to this noble and growing foundation today. Whatever you are able to give helps. All you need to do is CLICK HERE to donate.

Check out some of the photos from last year's event below, and GO HERE to see the entire photo album!



If you have any questions about the event, please feel free to give us a call. We'd be glad to answer them for you.

Fixing Water Damage in Your Home

There are many great Phoenix area homes for sale. Click here to perform a full home search, or if you're thinking of selling your home, click here for a Market Analysis so you know what buyers will pay for your home in today's market. You may also call me at (602) 413-8195 for a FREE home buying or selling consultation to answer any of your real estate questions.

We have had some really crazy weather in Phoenix lately. 6 inches of rain in one day? It doesn't seem possible, but we are now dealing with the repercussions of the flooding and have been running into a lot of issues lately with water damage. We want you to make sure your home is safe from lingering damage, so we have invited Bruce LaBell, from Royal Home Inspection Services to explain to us the steps you need to take to protect your home from water damage.

Home inspectors like Bruce are first going to look to see what's happening on the outside of the home. If your home lies on a negative grade, you are in danger of letting water seep into your home. If water appears to seep in, the next step is checking the walls.

After they check the outside of the home, inspectors will then head inside to determine the extent of the water damage. To do this, they will use moisture-sensing tools to determine if water has, in fact, leaked in. The next step is opening up the wall in the affected area to dry everything out.

Once all the water damage is dried, Bruce or another one of his mold assessment technicians will test to make sure no mold is growing inside of the house. It's important to catch mold early on because it starts growing in 24 hours and starts spreading in 7 days.

If you have any questions about protecting your home from water damage or are curious about what your next step should be, please give us a call. We can get you in touch with somebody who will be able to take care of your needs.

Meet the Newest Member of Our Team: Chris Walker

There are many great Phoenix area homes for sale. Click here to perform a full home search, or if you're thinking of selling your home, click here for a Market Analysis so you know what buyers will pay for your home in today's market. You may also call me at (602) 413-8195 for a FREE home buying or selling consultation to answer any of your real estate questions.

 We are excited to announce that we have a new director of business operations and marketing here at the Monique Walker Team: Chris Walker! On the business operations side of things, Chris will be implementing new systems and software to enhance an already efficient and expeditious process. For marketing, he will lead our software and social media efforts, which will result in increased exposure for our selling clients, faster close of escrow, and an increase in net profits for our clients.

Chris is a fantastic addition to an already stellar team. Monique has been in the real estate business for 11 years and professionally trained by one of the most reputable coaching programs in the U.S. for 8 years. She was rated the #1 Re/Max Excalibur agent in 2012 and 2013 and the #2 Re/Max agent in Arizona in 2013. This kind of success is reflected in the number of families her team has been able to help - 80 in 2012, 100 in 2013, and 80 already this year to date! As you can see, the Monique Walker Team keeps getting better and Chris is only going to add to the success.

If you are looking to buy or sell your home in the Scottsdale area, give us a call or shoot us an email. If you're selling, we will net you the most amount of money in the quickest amount of time on the sale of your home; if you're buying, we'll help you find your dream home in a professional and expedient manner. Get in contact with us soon for the best real estate experience in town!

A 1031 Exchange can Save You Money on Taxes

 There are many great Phoenix area homes for sale. Click here to perform a full home search, or if you're thinking of selling your home, click here for a Market Analysis so you know what buyers will pay for your home in today's market. You may also call me at (602) 413-8195 for a FREE home buying or selling consultation to answer any of your real estate questions.

What is a 1031 Exchange?

Today I have Dave Tornell with me to tell us about what a 1031 Exchange is and how it could affect you and your real estate endeavors in Phoenix.

A 1031 Exchange is a section of the tax code that allows investors of investment properties to defer their taxes when they sell. This is the simplest form of it. Broadly stated, a 1031 exchange is a swap of one business or investment asset for another. Although most swaps are taxable, if you come within 1031, you’ll either have no tax or limited tax due at the time of the exchange.

So, when you sell your residential rental, commercial property or land, the IRS gives you the benefit of deferring your taxes if you use a 1031 Exchange. 

As far as the transaction goes, it's a regular real estate transaction except prior to the close of Escrow, you have to arrange a 1031 exchange with a company like Dave's (IPX 1031). Once you set up a 1031 exchange agreement, the proceeds from the sale of the property are set up into an account instead of being given to the seller. This account is held for the investor by a qualified intermediary (which is required by regulations) until a replacement property is found. 

A client has 180 days to purchase a new property from the close of Escrow on their property, and has 45 days from the sale of their former property. 

There are some rules you have to follow when doing 1031 Exchanges, but the big benefit is that you can save 15-30%.

However, primary homes, secondary homes, and vacation properties do not qualify for 1031 Exchanges. Fix-and-flip properties do not qualify either. However, you can use this exchange for land that you own or on residential rental properties. Anything held for investment or anything used for business can qualify for a 1031. 

There is a lot more information that we could continue talking about, but we don't want to keep you all day. If you want to reach Dave for more information, you can call him at (602) 793-1558 or email him at david.tornell@ipx1031.com. We highly recommend Dave and his company to any of our clients here in Phoenix.

In the meantime, more information on 1031 Exchanges can be found here: http://www.1031.org/about1031/faq.htm

As always, if you need any assistance buying or selling in Phoenix, please contact me and I would be glad to speak with you. If you need any more information on 1031 Exchanges, please feel free to call me.

Avoid the Pitfalls of Internet Home Searches

There are many great Phoenix area homes for sale. Click here to perform a full home search, or if you're thinking of selling your home, click here for a Market Analysis so you know what buyers will pay for your home in today's market. You may also call me at (602) 413-8195 for a FREE home buying or selling consultation to answer any of your real estate questions.

 

Today I will talk about the pitfalls of online home searches because you need to know that the information you find on Zillow, Trulia, and Realtor.com is not always accurate! I can't tell you how many times my clients have called me thinking they had found the perfect home, and then I check the MLS (the accurate search engine for realtors) and have to break the bad news to them. 

Another reason to be wary of these websites is that they will sell your information. What I mean by this is that they will track your activity on the website, and when you request to speak to a realtor about a property, you will likely not actually be speaking to the listing agent. It will actually be three or four other realtors that will bombard you with questions about your search activity. 

If you're a seller, there is no accuracy in the listing of your home. Each website uses different algorithms to come up with a price for your home, so there is no consistency. These websites also gather their information from the county assessor's office, so if you've had an addition on your home that wasn't recorded by the assessor, then your value will not be accurate on those websites. 

These websites do not take into account the changing conditions of the real estate market. March has been a very good month for us here in Phoenix and Scottsdale, but these websites will not aggregate that into their property information. They don't show you whether it's a buyer's market or a seller's market. The information they use is outdated, and usually consists of market data that is at least 3 months old. 

If you're a serious buyer looking for your next dream home, call me so I can find it for you. If you're a seller, please call me too because my performance and experience will outsell any promises out there.

Consider me your top real estate resource in the Phoenix and Scottsdale areas.

Introducing my Real Estate Professionals to You & How We Work to Save You Time and Money

There are many great Phoenix area homes for sale. Click here to perform a full home search, or if you're thinking of selling your home, click here for a Market Analysis so you know what buyers will pay for your home in today's market. You may also call me at (602) 413-8195 for a FREE home buying or selling consultation to answer any of your real estate questions.

 
Today I am going to step out of the limelight and introduce my team that helps me bring excellent service to you. We all work very hard here, and I thought I'd let my team introduce themselves and how they can help you as a client.

•    Sara Barker, Listing Coordinator: Sara's job involves all aspects of the listing and marketing of a home. She assists in administrative duties and also coordinates agents to show our listings. You can contact her at (602) 730-1983 or email her at LC@MoniqueSells.com

•    Seng Lhotka, Licensed Transaction Coordinator: Seng's job is to move your home from an accepted offer to a close of Escrow (in the smoothest way possible). She also handles many administrative duties which allows me extra time to buy and sell client's homes. Seng also fields lots of questions from clients, so feel free to reach her at (623) 330-2290 or email at Seng@MoniqueSells.com

•    Holly Huntimer, Licensed Realtor, Buyers Agent: Holly researches the market daily in order to find appropriate homes for buyers to save you both time and money. She also hosts open houses and previews properties. She really has become an excellent home-finder for our clients. She can be contacted at (623) 451-8494 or email her at Holly@MoniqueSells.com

•    Tricia Jefferey, Buyers Agent: Tricia assists Holly in finding homes so that you don't waste time or money in the process. Tricia has a good command on the local market, and helps find homes for buyers that will suit them for years to come.