November 13th, 2008 by Dean

e.Republic’s Center for Digital Government and Digital Communities magazine has named the City of Mesa one of the top digital cities in the nation through its eighth annual Digital Cities Survey. The 2008 Survey examined how cities use technology to create a seamless environment between local government and constituents.

The City of Mesa has recently started using Twitter. For those on Twitter you can follow me here.

November 13th, 2008 by Dean

If you are looking to buy a home in Maricopa County, and looking to take advantage of an FHA loan, now may be the best time to buy. The current limits for an FHA loan in Maricopa County are $346,250, but that will be changing after the first of the year. Come January 2009 the maximum limit of a FHA loan in Maricopa will be $271,050. So if you are looking to buy a home that is more than $271K and looking to use an FHA loan, now is the time to start looking.

November 13th, 2008 by Dean

Looking for a new idea on where to take your family out for dinner Friday night? Check out the East Valley Tribune’s list of their top 100 restaurants in the East Valley.

November 12th, 2008 by Dean

BusinessWeek Magazine has named Gilbert as the best place in Arizona to raise kids. BusinessWeek teamed with OnBoard Informatics to rate the best communities for families to raise kids. Other Arizona communities to make the list included Phoenix and Scottsdale.

If you are interested in looking for a home in Gilbert you can use the search to the right or contact me.

November 11th, 2008 by Dean

With nearly 50,000 homes on the market for sale in the Phoenix metro area, if you want to sell your house it needs to stand out. There are two ways to make it stand out, either price it under the market value, or make it a home that when others walk in they say to themselves, I have to have this house.

There are some small changes you can make to your home to make it stand out. Every house has little quirks that can easily and cheaply be fixed to make it look better. You may not even notice these things because you are so used to living with them, but trust me, buyers will notice them.

Patch holes in the walls. If you have any small holes or cracks in your walls either patch them yourself or hire a handy man to do it for you.

Cracked floors and counter tiles. You may have lived with that cracked tile on your back splash or floor for the last two years and not think it is a big deal, but a buyer is going to see that and think the house was not taken care of properly.

Many homes have a leaky faucet. Take a few minutes to try and fix these yourself or hire a plumber to help you. It may only be a few bucks to fix the faucet where a buyer may be thinking I can ask for another few hundred off the price to replace all the faucets.

Fix any doors or kitchen drawers that don’t work properly . If the buyer is really interested in your home, they will be opening all the doors and drawers so make sure they are all operating properly

That favorite sedona red room you have, consider painting it a neutral color. Neutral colors not only can help make the room look bigger, but chances are the buyer is not going to like your bright colors and again will be thinking about a discount on the selling price to have the house painted.

Make sure all your lights are working properly. If you have any bulbs that are burnt out take a minute to replace them.

These little fixes can make a big difference in a competitive market. Make your house stand out. Don’t be the house that has the orange bedroom and the broken utensil drawer, be the house that was loved and taken care of.

November 10th, 2008 by Dean

I’m a fairly handy guy, I usually do most of my own automotive and other repairs. Recently I had a problem with my push mower and after tinkering with it for a few hours I could not get it to run. I assumed it was a carburetor problem, but wasn’t sure. I took the mower into Roy’s Lawnmower &GoKarts for service. They gave me an estimate of about ten days and $70. A little over a week later I get a call, it was my carburetor and the mower was ready to be picked up. The mower now runs great. In today’s world you to often find service shops and other establishments that do not meet their estimates or do not provide the level of service you would hope for. As mymoto goes, Commitment. Service. Results. I am glad there are still others that live by the same philosophy. Thanks for the great service! If you need a mower repaired Roy’s is at 3050 S. Country Club Dr #11 in Mesa.

November 10th, 2008 by Dean

Looking to pick up some used items at a good price? Mesa may be able to help. The City of Mesa holds surplus sales at their warehouse locations on Tuesdays and Thursdays. The items for sale are surplus items from the city and items picked up in police raids.

The warehouse is open from 8am until 12pm every Tuesday and Thursday. The warehouse is located at 7041 E Adobe, Mesa which is located North of University at Power Rd east on Adobe. For more information you can call 480-644-2663

November 9th, 2008 by Dean

Is your significant others birthday coming up soon? Or maybe your wedding anniversary is just around the corner and you are looking for a great new idea for a date. A new website called DateDesigner.com may have a solution for you.

The new site can give you all types of suggestions. Some sample categories you can search are over 55, under 21, fun date, romantic date, classy date, family friendly and more. All you do is select your category, select your area in the valley you would like to go there you go, a date idea you may not have thought of.

You can also build your favorite date into the system and let others know about your hidden gem. Never again will you be in Tempe, Mesa, Chandler or Gilbert and wondering what to do for a new date idea.

H/T Jay Thompson for pointing this site out.

November 2nd, 2008 by Dean

As many as 2000 scheduled foreclosures by Bank of America have been halted in the Valley. BofA purchased Countrywide last year and many of these foreclosures are from that purchase. BofA has agreed to temporarily halt foreclosures on loans made up until the endo of 2007 and work with the buyers to restructure the loans.

October 30th, 2008 by Dean

It is being reported in today’s papers that fares for the new METRO light rail could be increased before it even opens. Daily passes could be raised from $2.50/day to $4.50. This would not have been an issue if they had not released fares before hand, but they did. This move could end up turning off riders from Mesa and Tempe who may have already been a little reluctant, but keeping an open mind.