How to make your house Feng Shui, Part 1

Lately, I've been showing houses in the Prescott area to a women who is into the art of Feng Shui.  I have to admit, I know nothing about it and in all honesty, didn't really care.  However, the more Kathleen taught me about how energy flows around a room, the more I wanted to know.  I asked her to write for my blog on what makes a house more or less Feng Shui.  Without any further comment...

I’ve been house-hunting lately, and I take all the principles of Feng-Shui into consideration whenever I look at a house.  Feng-Shui is the ancient Chinese art of placement.  It’s based on thousands of years of observation of how energy or “chi,” sometimes translated as “universal life force” flows in nature. 

When these observations are put into practice in your home or business, harmony, balance, and prosperity are said to follow.  Feng-Shui uses something called a ba-gua (basically an octagonal shaped map) to help understand where and how energy flows in various areas in your home or business.  It can even be applied to your desk or cubicle at work. 

A flow of good, positive chi in and throughout your home will depend on many factors.  Primary of these is that there should be no missing corners in your home.  The ideal Feng-Shui configuration for a home is usually a square or rectangle.  If a corner is lacking in a home, for example in an “L” shaped layout, the corresponding energy for the missing corner will also be absent.  This can affect your finances, relationships, health, and other critical areas of your life. 

The ba-gua is used to determine which areas of your home correspond to each aspiration.  Clockwise from the top side of the ba-gua, the eight areas affected are Fame, Relationships/Marriage, Children/Creativity, Helpful People/Travel, Career, Knowledge/Spirituality, Family, and Wealth.  The map of the ba-gua is superimposed on a drawing of the home’s floor plan (based on the orientation of the home’s front door) to find any areas that may be lacking or need assistance in manifesting the correct energies desired.  The Career area of the ba-gua is always placed at the front door of the home.  So then the wealth corner, for example, is in the far left corner of the home, and the Relationship/Marriage corner is the far right corner of the home.

(diagram courtesy of www.thespiritualfengshui.com)

I once visited an office that was missing the Wealth corner.  I knew that business was not going to last long, and sure enough, it did close about two months after I was there.  Another client I worked with owned a business that was always suffering financially.  The business itself looked fine energetically, but when I asked the owner about what he had at home in his wealth corner, he admitted he had a desk in that corner that was piled with clutter.  Clutter is a big no-no in Feng-Shui, because it blocks the chi from circulating.  I advised him to clear out the clutter and keep the desk area neat and organized, and as soon as he did this, his customer traffic immediately picked up.

So if your home is lacking one of the key corners, don’t despair!  In Feng-Shui there are fixes (otherwise known as cures) for everything.  Next time, we’ll find out about the basic cures and how to apply them.

Kathleen is available for private consultations in the Prescott area, for your home or business, at kathleenagraham@gmail.com.

Jason Maneely, SFR              
Keller Williams Check Realty
The Stephanie Woods Team
928-925-6050
jpmaneely@kw.com

Funny Things We Tell Our Kids

I know that there are many things that we all tell our kids when we are out and about.  I know that mine are always asking questions and some of them I just don't know the answer.  Some I don't want them to know the true answer, so I make something up, like, 'Daddy, what does(insert and four letter word) mean'?  Lately, I've been preview Prescott luxury houses on Sunday afternoons after church with my wife, and by default, the kids.  Not always the most fun to bring to houses, but I like them to know what I do for a career, my 'bring the kids to work day'.
Recently, we were out in Williamson Valley and driving through a community called 'Hootenanny Holler' and driving down a street call 'corn squeezing lane'.   My daughter piped up from the back asking, 'Daddy, what does Hootenanny mean', immediately followed by my sons inquiry of 'what does Holler mean'.   Fortunately, my youngest doesn't talk yet!!  My mind went to work immediately on something funny to say and here's what came...

'Many years ago, there was a lady that lived out here on her ranch and her name was Annie and she was rough, tough and liked to ride bareback.   When she was trying to break her wild horses, she would be hootin and a hollering. When the other ranchers would come by, they would say, there's hootin Annie again hollering down on the ranch, hence, Hootenanny Holler.'  Now you know when your out driving around Prescott or Williamson Valley, and people ask about Hootenanny Holler, you'll know why it's named the way it is.  Then they asked about 'corn squeezing lane' and I had nothing.  Can anybody help me out!!

Jason Maneely, SFR              
Keller Williams Check Realty
The Stephanie Woods Team
928-925-6050
jpmaneely@kw.com

Investment of the Week(1/30/12)

Here we have a great deal for Prescott.  It's not very often that a apartment at this price comes around in Prescott.  Even in Prescott Valley, you'd have a hard time finding a duplex for this price.  This is a fourplex that in super close to downtown, shopping, parks.  This is a foreclosure, but is in very good condition.  If you do the math, this apartment has a 11.5% CAP before debt servicing.  If you include debt payment with a 25% down payment and a 5% interest, the payment is approx $531.  The would give you a net cap rate of almost 8%, which is great for a Prescott apartment.  As for the details, it is 2771sqft built in 1996 on 0.21 acres.  Each apartment is 2 bedrooms and 1 bath and rent for $550/month


If this is a apartment that your interested in, please give me a call, I would enjoy helping you increase your real estate portfolio.

Jason Maneely, SFR              
Keller Williams Check Realty
The Stephanie Woods Team
928-925-6050
jpmaneely@kw.com

Funny Things We Tell Our Kids, Part 1

I know that there are many things that we all tell our kids when we are out and about.  I know that mine are always asking questions and some of them I just don't know the answer.  Some I don't want them to know the true answer, so I make something up, like, 'Daddy, what does(insert and four letter word) mean'?  Lately, I've been preview Prescott luxury houses on Sunday afternoons after church with my wife, and by default, the kids.  Not always the most fun to bring to houses, but I like them to know what I do for a career, my 'bring the kids to work day'.
Recently, we were out in Williamson Valley and driving through a community called 'Hootenanny Holler' and driving down a street call 'corn squeezing lane'.   My daughter piped up from the back asking, 'Daddy, what does Hootenanny mean', immediately followed by my sons inquiry of 'what does Holler mean'.   Fortunately, my youngest doesn't talk yet!!  My mind went to work immediately on something funny to say and here's what came...

'Many years ago, there was a lady that lived out here on her ranch and her name was Annie and she was rough, tough and liked to ride bareback.   When she was trying to break her wild horses, she would be hootin and a hollering. When the other ranchers would come by, they would say, there's hootin Annie again hollering down on the ranch, hence, Hootenanny Holler.'  Now you know when your out driving around Prescott or Williamson Valley, and people ask about Hootenanny Holler, you'll know why it's named the way it is.  Then they asked about 'corn squeezing lane' and I had nothing.  Can anybody help me out!!

Luxury House - How the other half lives!!

Occasionally, I like to look at houses that there is no way I can afford.  They are most peoples dream homes, the house when all the kids are gone and I've made my fortune house.  Well, if I continue to live in Prescott, this would be high on the list, maybe first.  It's great because it is located close to everything.  Someday I would like to own a big ranch, but if you do that you have to live so far from all the restaurants and other entertainment.  This place is 10/15 minutes from downtown Prescott.  Also, its got a infinity edge pool that over looks Prescott.  I could only imagine swimming in that at night with all the downtown lights, awesome.  I could go on and on about this estate, check it out and make your own decision.  What do you like, let me know, and if I can pre-qualify you for the house, we'll go look at it!!  If there is something else that you want to sell or buy, let me know and I can help you with that as well.  You can call or text at 928-925-6050 or email me at jpmaneely@kw.com.


Hassaympa Stunner

Investor Deal of the Week

I know it's kind of ugly, but that doesn't mean it won't rent and make you money, and you'll own a iconic piece of early Prescott Valley.  Seriously, where can you find cool architecture like that around here.  According to the owner, and I think it is accurate, that this will rent easily at $450/month.  If that's the case, it will make approx $10,800/year.  Take 25% off for maintenance, property tax, insurance, and other cost, and you'll clear $8100/year.  That over an 11% CAP rate.  A capitalization(CAP) rate is calculated by divided your income by the purchase price, in this case, $8,100/$71,500.  And that is if you pay full price.  It's been on the market over a month, and it the foreclosure world, that's old.  Here is a link for more details,

http://www.paarmls.org/prs/maildoc/5384_1323733237-Dec-12-2011-6_40_37pm.html

As always, if you have any interest in this or any other real estate, buying or selling, I would really appreciate having the opportunity to earn you business and confidence.  Call or text me at 928-925-6050, or  email at jpmaneely@kw.com.

Big Mama Headed South for the Winter

Now that the weather is getting miserably cold here in Prescott, it's time to head south.  Most of the time I go to the Black Canyon Trail, partly because it is less than an hour drive.  Occasionally I will go to South Mtn.  It has good trails with some technical terrain.  This most recent ride, I was told about the Phoenix Sonoran Preserve.  For those of you who don't know where it is, it's located to the south of Carefree Hwy, North of Deer Valley Rd and east of the I-17 freeway.  It's a small strip of small mountains near the Nortera Development.  Rick Brazil told me to try them out over the Thanksgiving weekend.  

Looking South over Deer Valley

   Since they were close to my inlaws, I thought I would give them a whirl.  I parked near 14th St and Carefree Hwy.

This was definitely the wrong place to start.  Take a look at the MAP, which I rarely do, and you can see they have a multiple places to start, which doesn't include this one.

The only reason I chose this was because, again, it was close.  Starting here forced me hop the fence and ride 4 miles through flat desert and open construction areas that had been abandoned due to the recession.  That whole time, I could see the mountains and trails, but had no good idea on how to get there.  The roads where like spaghetti on a map, they kept crisscrossing but never seemed to get me where  I wanted to be.  One minute I'd be on a  nice 2 track making good time, the next it would stop and turn into bare desert.
Finally I found the trail that I wanted to be on.

Nice and groomed, relatively gentle slope, nothing that couldn't be handle by the amateur mountain biker.  The Bobcat trail meandered up for a short while until I hit the intersection of the Western Vista Trail.  Now the picture here doesn't do it justice.  The trail went from fun and easy to straight up.  I didn't have to take the trail, it did go anywhere but to the top of a hill.  And as all men know, if there is a hill to climb, you can't let the challenge go.  Fortunately it was only a 3rd of a mile long.

Big Mama on top!!

The trail was steep enough that I had a hard time keeping my front tire on the ground. My new rear tire, the Maxxis Ardent, was great, never slipped and kept me moving forward.  This trail was the only hill that was a challenge in the area that I rode.  Everything in the Preserve was well groom and non technical.  Trails were wide enough so that passing, or in my case, being passed by the Swiss American Bike Team,  was easily done without making anybody angry or forcing them of the side.
The trails continue around small peaks, through washes, around lots of cactus, and before long, I had been riding for 2 hours.  I don't know if it was because of the Thanksgiving weekend or what, but this area had very little use being that it was surrounded by houses.  If you are in the area and have a little time to kill, this is a fun ride, I would recommend it to all levels of riders.  Downhillers are the only ones I can see not enjoying the trail I rode.  I ended up ride about 10 miles of trails inside the preserve and another 10 out side in my desert wanderings.  If you want to add more distance, try starting in the Cave Butte Recreation Area, I think that is where I will start next time.  I when I do, I'll fill you in on the continuing adventures of Big Mama.