Site of the Week Archives - The Phoenix Real Estate Guy

Social Follow of the Week: Produce on Wheels – With Out Waste (P.O.W.W.O.W.)

July 28, 2015 By Shar Rundio

Produce on Wheels

This week’s social follow is a food bank based out of Nogales, AZ (that’s down south right on the Mexico border for those of you not familiar with your geography). Boarderland Food Bank offers a program called Produce on Wheels – With Out Waste or P.O.W.W.O.W. Borderland *rescues* 30-40 million pounds of nutritious produce annually from over 120 donors that would otherwise go to waste.

Each Saturday from 6-9am you’ll find a station (or a couple) at various schools, churches, or other entities around town. For a $10 contribution you’re able to receive up to 60lbs of fresh produce. The selection varies from week to week….tomatoes, squash, cucumber, grapes, etc. Great for those who like to can or preserve, or with large families, or to share with your neighbors, etc. The church we attend in South Scottsdale has a little clothes closet and food pantry once a month and this is a great addition to the food bags that we give away.

So check P.O.W.W.O.W. out on Facebook or follow them on Twitter. Read more about their service and find distribution sites near you on the website. And you can also subscribe to the newsletter for recipes, etc. Let me know what you think when you get a chance to check them out! And tell me what you did with your 20lbs of tomatoes. 🙂

Raising Arizona Kids: Site of the Week. And more.

January 7, 2010 By Jay Thompson

It’s been WAY too long since we featured a “Site of the Week” here”¦ Not because there aren’t any good web sites out there, rather because”¦ well”¦ let’s just say, “I forget”.

Be sure to read through the article for info on an upcoming magazine issue: The 2010 Schools, Etc. Directory.

RaisingArizonaKids.com

RaisingArizonaKids.com is the on-line site for Raising Arizona Kids magazine.

This site is a wealth of information. It is loaded with content, including a comprehensive calendar of local and statewide events for children of all ages (that would be Phoenix and Arizona to those of you that aren’t from around here). They’ve got web exclusives, category topics broken out by grade level, “RAK Radio” podcasts with local celebrities, parents, and business owners, special offers on admission to Phoenix places like the Phoenix Zoo, Arizona Science Center, and the Children’s Museum.

I could go on and on. Just check it out. If you’ve got a kid (or grandkid), or are thinking about having kids then I guarantee you it will be worth stopping by on a regular basis.

The 2010 Schools Etc Directory

I can’t begin to tell you how many questions we get about schools in the Phoenix / Maricopa county area. The Raising Arizona Kids 2010 School Directory will be available on January 15 and promises to be the Maricopa County comprehensive guide to preschool, private, charter, district, special needs schools and more. Weighing in at 144 pages listing over 600 schools, this should be your one-stop place for Phoenix schools information. Texas is also home to PCS Woodlands, where the classical education style lives on.

From their press release:

2010 Schools, Etc. directory
A complete guide to your child’s education ”“ from crib to college

January 5, 2010 (SCOTTSDALE) ”“ Parents want the best for their child’s education, but finding a school can be a daunting and tiresome task. Each year, Raising Arizona Kids seeks to ease the process with Schools, Etc., the Valley’s most comprehensive guide to private, charter and public school district information in Maricopa County.

NEW THIS YEAR: Preschools and post-secondary schools
A child’s education does not begin with kindergarten, nor end with high school graduation. That is why for the first time, Schools, Etc. includes preschools and post-secondary schools, with 249 charter and 131 private schools also featured. Look for information about programs offered, tuition costs, accreditation and teacher-student ratios.

2010 Schools, Etc. includes the up-to-date information on Arizona boarding schools, online learning, tutoring services and education resources, with definitions of education terms and a list of resources from organizations that seek to inform parents.

Schools, Etc. will be available for purchase at Valley Borders and Barnes & Noble locations on January 15, 2010 for $4.95. Order online at www.raisingarizonakids.com or by calling 480-991-KIDS (5437).

If anyone is interested in bulk copies, let me know. I’ve got contact information and the rates are excellent:

100+ ….. $2.50 per copy
50-99 ….. $2.75 per copy
1-49 ….. $3.00 per copy

Disclosure for the FTC / Blogging Police: I have no financial arrangement to “pimp” RaisingArizonaKids.com or the 2010 Schools, Etc. Directory. No affiliate program, no discount, heck I don’t even get a free magazine. I know RAK’s Community Relations Manager personally and simply think this is a great site, magazine and school guide. If I didn’t think this, I wouldn’t write it.

The Perfect Loan Officer Blogger

October 23, 2009 By Justin McHood

“The lenders I work with are great. They get my loans done, customers love them and I really only have one complaint…

I wish they would blog.“

best loan officer — Craving Technical Mortgage Talk?

I have heard the above statement more than once from a Realtor – and usually I just smile, shrug and say something like “yeah, that is weird… just let me know if you ever need a guest post!”

The truth is that for some reason, being a loan officer and blogging seem to be a combination that only a few people have managed to balance, no matter what geographic market they work in. And of the loan officers that do end up writing about mortgage stuff, many of them don’t write enough about <insert your favorite mortgage-related technical topic> and just end up writing about funny stories that have happened to them.

I know, I probably fall into that camp – but sometimes writing about mortgages is kind of, well… boring.

So I thought I would let you know who the perfect loan officer blogger is for anyone who needs technical-mortgage-related information downloaded daily into their brain… only he isn’t a loan officer – he is the Director of Capital Markets at RPM Mortgage and his name is Rob Chrisman.

Rob simply provides the best daily commentary on what is going on in the mortgage market that there is. He has been helping me sound educated for about a year and a half just by adding me to his email list and he was probably the secret-behind-the-curtain for many loan officers long before I heard about him.

So if you can’t get your loan officer to talk technical to you… now you can get your daily dose of mortgage expert from the best in the business.

Shhh, don’t tell anyone – let’s keep this little secret to ourselves so other people think we are smart.

About the Author: Justin McHood is a mortgage broker with VanDyk Mortgage Corporation. You can find him at Arizona Mortgage Team, on the Zillow’s Mortgages Unzipped Blog, and at most East Valley Friday Nights gatherings. He’s the one in the blue shirt.

Stimulating the Unemployment Line

July 11, 2009 By Jay Thompson

Often a well constructed chart speaks volumes and is way better than prose”¦

This beauty is from a blog called Innocent Bystanders. I love this blog. It’s an eclectic and sometimes irreverent collection of stuff from a bunch of folks who claim not to be bloggers, but commenters. Seems to have a very active community and is entertaining (and educational) to read. I’m sure there are folks out there that would find some things there offensive. Personally, I’m basically unoffendable and any blog that has a commenter named “Nancy Pelosi on a Peyote Bender” is worth reading.

I name it my Site of the ~~Week~~ ~~Month~~ ~~Quarter~~ Whenever I Get Around to Picking One.

Hat tip to Matt Heaton (@timu_matt) of Timu.com

CrimeReports.com: Cool Site of the Week

June 3, 2009 By Jay Thompson

We get lots of questions on crime statistics.

There are a plethora of sites across the web to find information on crime, but recently I discovered CrimeReports.com, which seems to be one of the better sites around for gleaning all sorts of information related to crime, traffic accidents, pedestrian stops, you name it ”“ whatever the police are called out for, you can find it on CrimeReports.com (even deaths, which seems kind of creepy).

That is if your local police department subscribes to the service.

The site reports they currently have about 400 jurisdictions signed up, with more on the way. In Arizona, only Gilbert, Lake Havasu City, Show Low and Snowflake-Taylor are participating. (Yes, there really are towns in Arizona called Show Low and Snowflake.) California looks to be well covered. If you are residing in North Dakota or Vermont, you are out of luck for now.

Local Police Departments feed reports directly to the site, which are then displayed on a Google map with icons representing different crime categories. The user can zoom in and out of the map, and pick and chose different categories and date ranges to display.

Here’s a screen shot for Gilbert, AZ:

Clicking on each icon will reveal limited information about the “event” (of note, for privacy reasons no personally identifying information is displayed).

You can also sign up for an account (free) and set up alerts that will notify you of whatever crime types you select. I set one up using my address and told the system to send me weekly updates for anything reported within a mile of my home.

Pretty cool stuff.

How did I find out about this site / service?

Yep, that would be where some truck made an illegal left turn into Francy’s car to the tune of $3,123 and nine days in the body shop”¦ Fortunately no one other than the Altima was hurt.

If the area you are thinking about buying a home in has a participating law enforcement agency, then CrimeReports.com is a nifty little site for investigating all sorts of stuff about your neighborhoods of interest.