What does the Phoenix housing market and Disney have in common? More than you may think.

I had an interesting conversation with my seven year old daughter this morning. She is getting very excited for an upcoming “big trip” to Disney World this winter. She’s been hunting down videos about Disney on Netflix, and basically doing any research she can on the computer to order to find out everything she needs to know about the place. In other words, she’s your typical consumer – she searches “the Google)” until she gets the answer she wants.

Anyway, as the OCD planner type that I am, I was commenting to my husband Josh this morning that we needed to find small bound books for the kids to use as autograph books at Disney (yeah, they need to be found NOW – even though the trip is at the end of the year… prior planning and all that stuff, ok?). Little miss nosey pokes herself into the conversation, very excited about getting Belle’s signature – but not the Tinker fairies.

Me:  “Why no autographs from the TInker faires?”
Her:  “Because they don’t go on vacation. They tinker all the time.”
Me:  “And where did you hear that… everyone needs a vacation! I’ll bet they will be there…”
Her:  “No. I read it on the computer. They WON’T.”

(Follow Dawn On Twitter)

At this point, having had no coffee, I decided to stop the conversation before my head exploded. I was thinking about the talk later, though, and realized how similar in tone it was to a lot of conversations I’ve been having with prospective homeowners and investors in our market today.

Buyer/Investor:  “I’m looking for a four bedroom, two bath house, at least 2000 sq ft, built after 1995, within 20 miles of the airport and under $100,000. Oh, and it has to be move in ready/able to get me at least 10-15% return.”
Me: “There are exactly 0 homes of that description in our MLS right now. What’s flexible in your search?”
Buyer/Investor:  “There must be something wrong with your search. When I Google those critera, I get tons of homes.”
Me: *headdesk*

Fine. I get it. If there is anything that I understand, it’s that while time may be fleeting, Google is forever. And ever. And ever. But like I tell my daughter – just because the computer says so doesn’t mean it’s true (remember when we were kids, and our parents asked us if all our friends jumped off a building, would we too? This is the new generation’s building…)

Information changes fast, and sometimes it seems like the Phoenix real estate market is moving faster than the speed of light. Even the almighty Google can’t keep up with what’s available and what’s been sold – but we, as real estate agents with access to the MLS, can and do. So unless you enjoy wasting time searching for mythical unicorns, contact one of us – if the home you’re looking for is out there, we can help you find it faster than Google will.

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