Travel

I have been blessed and fortunate to have traveled extensively in my almost 42 years on this earth.  It's something that I love to do (who doesn't).  It was always important to my Mom growing up to try and have a family vacation every few years.  We didn't have a lot of money, but she always found a way to create a memorable trip, either by car or by air, to somewhere within the US or even oversees. 

Both of my parents were born in Europe so my sister and I are both first generation Americans.  Our first family trip was back to Hungary and Germany to visit relatives when I was four and my sister was seven years of age.  I actually remember quite a bit from that trip.  Over the course of my childhood, we also visited Washington DC and Virginia, the Boston Area and Cape Cod, Hawaii, Florida a couple times, Niagara Falls, NY, and Toronto, Canada. 

When I went away to college, I continued my travels to Florida and the Bahamas for several spring break expeditions, Chicago, Minneapolis, another month long journey to Europe to visit relatives in Germany and Hungary, but also visited, Austria, Italy, and Switzerland on that same trip, and one unforgettable road trip around the central/western US with a fraternity brother of mine where were covered 5000 miles in a week. 

As a result of that and other trips, I have been to 45 of the 50 states.  I have also been to Mexico several times, several Caribbean Islands including the Caymens and Roatan, Honduras, as well as Spain, Greece, Croatia, Turkey, and France.

It is a beautiful and amazing world out there...memories of each of the trips and destinations I mentioned evoke significant emotion.  I have to say it again...I feel so blessed and fortunate to have traveled like I have.  I recommend to anyone that has not had the opportunity or has not taken the time or opportunity to travel somewhere at sometime, please, make every effort to do so before it is too late.  Visiting other places and cultures opens your eyes to so much and has so many intangible positive affects. 

I plan to share more details about some of my travels in future posts, so please check back from time to time.

Andrew Ament, Realtor, Certified Residential Appraiser
www.thescottsdalerealestateguy.com
www.andrewament.com
www.thebestperspectiveteam.com
www.censeovaluation.com

480.540.5151
andrewament@cox.net

Phoenix Home Values decline slightly...

According to the S&P/Case-Shiller Home Price Index, which released its most recent housing data yesterday, March 25, 2014, the Phoenix Metro area's existing-home prices increased by 13.8% between January 2013 and January 2014.  Conversely though, on a month-over-month analysis, the area is showing a decrease in home values as it is further reported by the same index that values in the metro area declined .21% from December 2013 to January 2014. 

What does this mean?  It means the local housing market is cooling off very slightly, normalizing, and becoming more stable.  I believe we will see this trend continue for some time here in the valley.  Gone for now are the days of rapid increases (and hopefully) decreases in value - which is a good thing.  Stabilization brews confidence and is a better environment in which to operate in terms of the housing market.


Andrew Ament, Realtor, Certified Residential Appraiser
www.andrewamentsellsaz.com
www.andrewament.com
www.thebestperspectiveteam.com
www.censeovaluation.com
www.thescottsdalerealestateguy.com (coming soon!)

http://us.spindices.com/index-family/real-estate/sp-case-shiller

Gotta love a good coffee shop...

I travel around the Phoenix/Scottsdale Metro area quite a bit for work.  As a result, I tend to have opportunities to explore new places.  One such place that I found years ago in Tempe is called Xtreme Bean Coffee Company http://www.xtremebeancoffee.com .  Its convenient for me as I live in Scottsdale and my son goes to school in Tempe so when I drop him off in the morning, and if I don't have any immediate morning appointments, I can avoid the remainder of rush hour traffic by stopping into Xtreme Bean to get some work done before heading back out on the road.  Its a cool and casual place.  Free WiFi, decent coffee, good breakfast options.  They have a drive-thru for those on the go.  Inside there is plenty of seating, tables, couches, and chairs to chill out with friends or plug in and get some work done.  There is usually some good funky music playing in the background as well.

So if your in the hunt for an alternative to a national breakfast or coffee spot and like to support small, local businesses, I suggest giving Xtreme Bean a try.


Andrew Ament, Realtor, Certified Residential Appraiser
www.andrewamentsellsaz.com
www.andrewament.com
www.thebestperspectiveteam.com
www.censeovaluation.com
www.thescottsdalerealestateguy.com (coming soon!)

How to easily fix your computer after getting a pop-up virus...

Twice in the past week I had people that work with me get a similar virus on their computers that virtually made them inoperable.  In both cases, the virus was inadvertently downloaded from what appeared to be a windows update from Microsoft.  The link, however, proceeded to download numerous programs that reeked havoc with their machines, slowing them down significantly with numerous pop-ups jumping around the screen.  Very frustrating indeed - but there is a simply solution to fix this particular type of problem.

Follow these steps in order:

1. Go to START

2. Then CONTROL PANEL

3. Then to PROGRAMS

4. Then to UNINSTALL PROGRAMS or ADD/REMOVE PROGRAMS

This will bring up all of the software programs installed on your machine.  At the top, sort these programs by their 'Installed' date, with the most recent dates on top.

You will likely see a multitude of programs that you do not recognize that were all installed on the same day you 'downloaded' the so-called 'update'.  There can be as many as 8-12 different programs.

Simply go down and uninstall each of them one by one.  If your not sure whether you should uninstall one or several of them, you can always google the name of the program to get more information, but if you have the virus I described, it is likely that you will need to uninstall all of those programs that were installed on your computer on that same (and recent) day.

Once finished, restart your computer and everything should be working properly.  If there are still some pop-ups, go back and repeat the above steps to make sure you did not miss any of the garbage programs that were installed.



Andrew Ament, Realtor, Certified Residential Appraiser
www.andrewamentsellsaz.com
www.thebestperspectiveteam.com
www.censeovaluation.com
www.thescottsdalerealestateguy.com (coming soon!)

March Madness

It's fascinating to me what happens each March...it seems many, all of a sudden, become college basketball fans.  We all have our NCAA tournament brackets filled out and begin following all of the games on ESPN, FOX, and other sports networks.  Why is that?  What is the allure?  Are we simply a society that thrives on something new to gamble on with a chance to win money or is it just for the fun of the competition and to see how well we can do or are we so competitive and obsessed with winning and winners. 

There is something very pure about college athletics.  The perception exists that because the athletes are not paid that they are truly playing their hearts out for the love of the game and for pride in their respective universities. 

Nonetheless it is fun and exciting.  There are many surveys out there claiming that worker productivity goes down significantly during this time...its March Madness, call it spring fever, or whatever you like.  It's a unique and fascinating time of the year for sports fans and non-sports fan's alike - filled with hope and disappointment. 

Ok, gotta go and check my brackets now.

Andrew Ament, Realtor, Certified Residential Appraiser
www.andrewamentsellsaz.com
www.andrewament.com
www.thebestperspectiveteam.com
www.censeovaluation.com
www.thescottsdalerealestateguy.com (coming soon!)

480.540.5151
andrewament@cox.net

Youth Baseball in Scottsdale

My son has been wanting to play baseball for a long time.  His first choice however has always been football.  He's been playing football for 5 years.  We always played both fall and winter football which always ended up conflicting with baseball.  Finally this past year we decided to do only fall football, and then sign up for baseball in the winter.  

As I write this blog, I am sitting at my son's baseball practice.  I searched the internet for Scottsdale youth baseball and found this great league called Old Scottsdale Youth Baseball.  Great people and coaches and a good league to start out even if your kid has never played baseball before.  My son loves it!  He's blessed with athletic skills - it has been interesting to see him apply his athletic skills, and intelligence, to a new sport.  He has always thrived in football, being the top scorer, rusher, tackler, etc.  So its fun to see him now play a new sport.  The coaches could not believe that he had never played baseball before...that was cool to hear.  I'm one proud father :)

Andrew Ament, Realtor, Certified Residential Appraiser
www.thebestperspectiveteam.com
www.censeovaluation.com
www.thescottsdalerealestateguy.com