A Local Business Every Film Buff Should Know: No Festival Required

As part of my continued effort to highlight local business people around Phoenix, I recently sat down with Steve Weiss of No Festival Required. Check out our interview to learn more.

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Recently, I had the pleasure of speaking with a very special guest: Steve Weiss, who is the executive director of No Festival Required—a local business that endeavors to bring independent films to Downtown Phoenix. Cited below for your convenience are timestamps that will direct you to various points in the video. Feel free to watch the full message or use these timestamps to browse specific topics at your leisure: 00:15 - Introducing today’s guest: Steve Weiss 00:33 - Steve shares the history and vision of No Festival Required 02:23 - Steve explains his own background and experience with film 03:41 - Steve speaks on the growing prevalence of film in the Arizona arts scene 04:35 - How Steve has carved a unique niche for sharing film outside of festivals 07:19 - Steve shares information about an upcoming screening for “Five Seasons: The Gardens of Piet Oudolf” on Wednesday, October 30 starting at 7 p.m. If you have any other questions for Steve, would like ticket information for “Five Seasons”, or have any other questions about No Festival Required, visit www.nofestivalrequired.com. Otherwise, as always, please don’t hesitate to reach out if you’d like to speak with me about your real estate goals. I look forward to hearing from you soon. 

How Social Spin Laundromats Are Improving Our Community

Christy Moore is the owner and founder of Social Spin Laundromats, and a long-time friend of mine. She sat down with me recently to talk all about her business and how it’s improving our community.

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I’m delighted to be joined today by Christy Moore, founder and owner of Social Spin Laundromats. We’ve known each other a long time, and I was very excited to get an update on all the wonderful things she’s doing in the Phoenix community. Here's an outline of our discussion with timestamps so that you can skip ahead to the section(s) that interest you the most: 0:30- Christy gives us a background on her life, her career, and her work at Social Spin 2:20- The two goals of Social Spin, according to Christy 3:30- Why I think Social Spin is such a brilliant idea for our community 4:10- Where Christy would like to take Social Spin 5:25- Where to find Social Spin Laundromat and a look at the services they offer Thanks so much to Christy for joining me. It’s so great to see someone with a passion for building our community up. If you have any questions for me in the meantime, or know of a local nonprofit that we could talk to for our next video, don’t hesitate to give me a call or send me an email. I look forward to hearing from you soon. 

Is Phoenix Entering a Buyer’s Market?

After being in a seller’s market for quite some time now, it looks like a shift is on the horizon. Here’s what you can expect.

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After several years of continuous price gains, the real estate market seems to be reaching its price cap. In June, the last month for which we have complete numbers, 14% of all listings saw a price cut. That's up from a low of 11.7% at the end of 2016. In the same month, housing demand fell 9.6%, the largest decline in over two years. Mortgage applications to purchase a home have decreased as well. A few things are at play here. One is rising mortgage rates, which have been steadily climbing for much of this year. Another is an overall decrease in affordability, resulting from a combination of the growth in home prices and mortgage rates. If this is the start of a buyer's market, it's unlikely to be just a momentary blip. One sign of this is that homebuilder sentiment has recently fallen to the lowest point in almost a year. In other words, homebuilders are losing confidence in their business due to the aforementioned affordability concerns.  

This is certainly good news if you’re looking to buy a home.

So what does this mean for you? Well, it's certainly good news if you're looking to buy, because it means you will have more choice at more affordable prices. On the other hand, if you've been thinking of selling, this might mean that it’s time to act. Listing your home now would give you the best odds of achieving a top price before the change in the market occurs. Remember that all real estate is local. There are big differences even within the (area) area, and prices can change from block to block. If you want more specific information about the Phoenix market, or you're mulling over the idea of buying or selling a home, give me a call or send me an email. I'm here to help.

How TheaterWorks Is Supporting and Enriching Our Community

TheaterWorks continues to do amazing things in the Phoenix community. Here’s what they’ve been up to lately.

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I was delighted to be joined recently by Cate Hinkle, managing director of TheaterWorks at the Peoria Center for the Performing Arts. We had a great conversation about her nonprofit theatre company and everything that they’re up to. You can listen to our full conversation in the video above, but I also wanted to break down our discussion with timestamps so you can peruse at your leisure. Here’s what we talked about: :35- Why TheaterWorks is more than just live entertainment. 1:20- Cate discusses her background in theatre, growing up in the performing arts scene here in Phoenix, and what brought her to TheaterWorks. 2:15- A brief history of the origin of TheaterWorks and The Peoria Center for the Performing Arts. 5:20- Exciting news from Cate about the upcoming theatre season that includes 14 different productions, including “The Little Mermaid” in July.  

There are 14 productions slated to open this year.

7:30- The impact that theatre can have on the youth and a few exciting children’s shows that are coming up this season. 9:15- How to get in touch with TheaterWorks or get all the necessary info for the upcoming season. 10:00- Good news for those of you in Prescott this weekend. If you have any questions for us in the meantime or any real estate needs we can assist with, don’t hesitate to reach out and give us a call or send us an email. We look forward to hearing from you.

How the Phoenix Community Toolbank Can Help You

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 FREE Home Price Evaluation so you know what buyers will pay for your home in today's market. You may also call me at 602-252-4191 for a FREE home buying or selling consultation to answer any of your real estate questions.

Today we're here with Jana Smith, the Executive Director of the Phoenix Community Toolbank. This is a great organization that lends tools to other charitable organizations, schools, non-profits, or neighborhood associations for mission-related impact.

The Phoenix Community Toolbank is part of a national Toolbank organization. The concept of Toolbanks has been around for 25 years. A group of churches in Atlanta had folks get together and put their tools in a shared space so more people had access to them. In 2008, a parent company formed with the goal to replicate Toolbanks throughout the United States. 

An interesting aspect of the Toolbank model is that Toolbank will not open in a city that doesn't want or support it. First we gauge if there is interest and support in a community. We first started looking at Phoenix in 2011, and when it was determined that there was a community need, we started fundraising to open one in 2013.

At the Phoenix Community Toolbank, we have a 10,000 square foot warehouse filled with everything from power tools to rakes. To qualify to borrow tools from Toolbank, you simply need charitable intent. If you are out there doing good work, Toolbank will work with you so you can use their tools.

Toolbank is located at 3801 East Alioney Street. Although their business hours are 8:00 am to 5:00 pm Monday through Friday, Jana says they will work with organizations who need to pick up tools on the weekend. If you have any questions, you can contact Toolbank at (602) 692-2473, or visit http://www.phoenixtoolbank.org/ for more information.

As always, if you have any real estate questions, please do not hesitate to give me a call or send me an email. I look forward to hearing from you!

Heroes for Students Is What Our Kids Need

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 FREE Home Price Evaluation so you know what buyers will pay for your home in today's market. You may also call me at 602-252-4191 for a FREE home buying or selling consultation to answer any of your real estate questions.

Today we are joined by Richie Ressel, the co-founder of Heroes for Students, a local non-profit organization working to inspire and empower children in Phoenix. First we’ll tell you a little about Richie and his background, and how his organization is working to brighten our future.

Richie has been in education for 5 years and was a teacher in the classroom for three of them while pursuing his master’s degree in elementary education. He noticed a big divide between the community and his classroom, so he wanted to bridge that gap. He saw his students weren’t benefitting from the community, so that’s when he decided to start bringing in guest speakers to his classroom. 

One particular guest speaker he brought in was a bi-lingual female doctor. Richie recalls a young girl being so inspired by this speaker and her message, that she ended up raising over $1000 for children with cancer.

Seeing this kind of inspiration occur while continuing to see the gap between the students and the community widen, Richie and his co-founder decided to put together an organization that would have a database of guest speakers for people who want to rally around their local schools. So far, they have been able to get over 100 guest speakers in classrooms, impacting over 500 students.

In addition to working on bringing more guest speakers into the classroom, they are also planning some community events as well. Richie wants to close that gap between the high-performing and low-performing schools by inspiring and empowering his students to take advantage of the opportunities presented to them. It’s not just about what they learn in the classroom, it’s about what they learn outside of it as well.

If you have any questions for Richie about Heroes for Students, feel free to give him a call at (760)703-3404 or visit the organization’s website online here. If you have any real estate questions, you can obviously contact us and we will be with you shortly.

Introducing the Foundation for Senior Living

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 FREE Home Price Evaluation so you know what buyers will pay for your home in today's market. You may also call me at 602-252-4191 for a FREE home buying or selling consultation to answer any of your real estate questions.

Today we're here with Tom Egan from the Foundation for Senior Living. Tom has been in non-profit management for about 20 years and recently started working with this 40-year-old establishment.

The Foundation for Senior Living provides a continuum of services for seniors, adults with disabilities, and caregivers. There are multiple facilities: 21 different affordable housing complexes, 17 group homes, and 3 adult day health centers. The Foundation offers assistance to people in their own homes in order to help aging Baby Boomers maintain their independence.

Tom and his team work with you to identify the correct service for your situation. Home care is a service that generally helps someone maintain their independence by providing housekeeping services. Home health also provides medical assistance to people living in their own homes.

The adult day health centers offer the caregivers a respite, the person gets a change of environment, and there is medical support staff to assist them.

It's important to keep in mind that while it's called the Foundation for Senior Living, they also assist adults with disabilities.

The Foundation for Senior Living's main offices is located at 1201 E Thomas Rd, Phoenix, AZ 85014. If you have any questions for Tom or are interested in their services, you can call 602-285-1800, or visit their website, www.fsl.org.

As always, if you have any questions for me, give me a call or send me an email. We'd be happy to help you!