February 2023 – The "Prescott Pickle Lady"

Utilties & Our Free Concierge Service

People are always asking us about utilities, so we thought we would do an update on the cost (and availability!) of water, power, gas... and all the rest.

Also, we are delighted to announce a new, full-service, human-powered concierge service we offer to our clients for getting utilities disconnected where you're coming from and reconnected where you're going to... all completely free.

Previous Episode: Typical Utility Costs - Month by Month

Video Transcript

hello hello hello hello peeps excuse me I got a little tickled excuse me welcome welcome this is Diane and Randall we’re in Prescott Arizona coming to you live recording recording live we’re recording everyone records live yeah that’s pretty much because that’s redundant to say because yeah yeah it’s always live it’s a recording it’s not a recording we are here we get a lot of questions about this to our new folks who are buying and moving in yeah all about utilities here utilities so a couple things I want to say before we get into some of the the meat of this utilities here because a lot of people question especially coming out from California water is very reasonable electricity is very reasonable gas is very reasonable so you’re not going to be paying the high high utilities some of the bills that you see maybe in other areas of the country so we get a lot of concerned about that will there be enough water is there water rationing I just want to say real quick before we get into the other stuff no no we don’t have any water restrictions there are no water issues here they’re not predicting any water issues here any major development that goes in has to prove it has a 100 Year water plan and if they can’t they’re not building yeah they have to find another area so also not a big agricultural place here uh you know everything is zeriescape so as they say so people aren’t watering their lawns and all that so never think I had more water restrictions in Texas oh yeah we had water restrictions pretty pretty regular all the time I don’t run your water from this to this doesn’t have never happened so anyway and I just want to let you know utilities are not Uber expensive here never happen and don’t predict that they will be in the future a while ago I put together a schedule of our utilities month by month which is on our relocation Center if you go to our website prescottpicklelady.com you look for the relocation Center or you can go to Prescott relocationcenter.com and look up utilities um you’ll find our schedule there so don’t worry about that and of course ours is a little higher because I run it cold in the summer yeah yeah um but if you’re a person yeah and our house is a little over 3 000 square feet yeah so it’s a lot to AC it’s smaller so yeah so but I mean if you’re like most normal people who run their air on 75 you’ll be just fine don’t so don’t look at us as the best example the worst case I mean we’ll give you the worst case but something we were excited about and this will tie in now to utilities when you’re moving here and signing up we have a program through our brokerage that allows you just to go online and enter in your home that you’re in now and the new home that you’re going in and it will hook you up and disconnect so you don’t have to get on the phone like I did for 30 minutes and give all the information and this that and the other it makes it a lot easier yeah so the the program is called utility connect uh and it’s it’s driven by a very sophisticated technology called a human being something you contact them and they will assign you a human being who will do all that stuff for you uh the service is free yes uh they will help you schedule the disconnect of where you’re coming from and they will help you schedule the the connection on where you’re going to uh now some utility companies do not play with the utility connect people yeah uh well you know whether it’s in Prescott or you know maybe your utility company may not do that either if that’s the case then the concierge person uh will give you the contact information and tell you what you need to do so they’ll say hey whatever they won’t play with us but I’m going to give you the information and then you’ll have to do it the old-fashioned way but um it sure is nice to have them help you with the disconnection yeah on the other end as well it’s a great great product and we’re really excited and we’ve had a couple of clients use it and say wow it was so much easier yeah and faster now we have all the utility numbers to call here in Prescott obviously we won’t have the numbers where you’re coming from uh those numbers can do it all we can’t do it all uh the but the utility connected will yeah um the numbers change we try to keep them up to date but that information changes and it’s different depending on what area you’re moving into the utility connect people will help you negotiate all that stuff make it as easy as they possibly can absolutely they’ll also do um your your phone your mail uh they’ll do uh I like the mail that’s good too yeah your internet connections and stuff like that that can do all that stuff for you so it’s a pretty cool product cool product yeah so anyway if you call us and we find you the home of your dreams we’re going to connect you to utility connect that’s right and uh just make one more piece of this move easy for you that’s right and that’s what we are all about as your real estate team of Prescott yeah that’s us that’s us the pickle lady oh so that’s our tip of the day tip of the tips good place to go is pickle411.com whether you are a buyer seller somewhere in between there is something there waiting for you that will amaze and Astound you yes whether it’s real to stay places to eat things to do uh it’s all there it’s all fun and it’s all amen hallelujah brother amen good job yeah okay okay hope to see you soon give us a call bye bye

Vacation Buddies & Splitter (Splittr)

One of the joys of retirement is travel, and there's no place you'll find more fun people to travel with than Prescott.  

In this episode, we share stories of the great trips we've recently made with our buddy groups... plus a cool app that makes paying bills for large groups a snap.

Video Transcript

Gemma Bell Randall this is Diana Randall bro here in Prescott Arizona we are your local hopefully favorite Realtors yes we sure have a lot of fun yeah we do meeting everybody new and old and uh having friendships after we sell we’ve met some great people but uh in fact some of these people have become such good friends we are now traveling yeah so traveling groups is a big thing here yeah people make friends they end up forming little groups the groups get bigger yep uh so uh we’re we’re about to head out uh on a little jaunt yes uh with eight of our friends including us so six of our friends yes yeah uh we just got back from uh another one early in December we went to Key West yeah another eight people for 10 days yeah so it’s real big here I guess because most folks are retired unlike us but that’s okay yeah we try to schlep in there anyway get in there and have fun with all the retired folk but uh so yeah they’ll reach out and say hey I’d like to get a couple of airbnbs nearby who wants to join us I want to get a condo I want to get this I want to go I want we want to go on a cruise does anybody want to join us and we’ve been invited to several of those so much fun yeah now we haven’t been on vacations before friends family and honestly um it’s a mixed bag you know if you don’t quite gel with the other people on the trip you know it’s gonna it’s gonna keep nagging you the whole time we’ve had really good luck we’ve had a great time yeah everyone seems to be of the same mind and uh we we’ve had really good luck with with uh with our vacations with our friend groups absolutely and you know once you have one you know they kind of roll over then you do another trip yeah you know you kind of have the uh the draft you know where one one couple gets traded off to the other and you get you can’t quite make it but you have somebody else that’s in the group that could fill the Slime substitute absolutely yeah but we all get along great yeah um and so we went to Costa Rica we’ve done Key West we’re going to do New Orleans I mean it just gets more and more fun yeah and we’ve just had the time of our lives that’s all I can say and so when you come to Prescott and you make some of these great friendships you know you’ll see a lot of this going on people love to travel together and I guess you know it’s fun because you don’t have the baggage Family or all your friends you know you can just go with you know everybody’s kind of new to the game here so maybe we’re all on best behavior I don’t know the best behavior well yeah we do yeah we do hit it hard yeah we do hit it hard but uh it’s it’s been uh one of the nice perks about living here is meeting people especially we’re you know we haven’t really traveled too too much but these folks have so they can set it all up yeah they can tell you oh this is great this is great we’re gonna do this and I just tag along and I have the time of my life yeah so the the mechanics of this thing is you plan a trip you’re going to plan it you know months in advance uh you know you have a group that wants to get together generally you’ll have you know some dinner meetings where you talk about where you want to go what do you want to do once you pick the place who’s in you know who’s definitely in and then once that’s settled out you have another meeting all with drinks so that’s also part of the fun it’s part of the function yeah so here are all the excursions that are available who wants to do this who wants to do that and then you go on your on your launch day you know and it’s uh so that’s one of the beautiful things about living in Prescott is it is a retirement kind of community and so people are free and available to you know make these great trips yeah and if you’re lucky enough and they include you you say yes and you go and then you have a great time yeah that’s kind of one of the perks about living in a retirement kind of town it’s it’s lovely the other great thing we discovered and well shout out to Charlie bomberger and Bob swelgin you know who you are good friends uh it’s a little program that they introduced this to called Splitter Splitter so this is our other tip to you guys yeah so it’s split like splitter but but no e it’s special s-p-l-i-t-t-r yeah splitter it’s a German app you can put it on your phone so your your credit card may not like it at first so you might have to uh tell them oh yeah it’s it’s uh it’s a validate it’s not very much uh well I think it’s free it is a free app you can get it you can get the premium version but we did not we did not Yeah so basically it’s about splitting costs of things yeah so when you’re with a group of people or your family yeah every time you say I’ll pick up for the whole group it goes on to the splitter app and at the end of the year at the end of the trip I should say it splits up what everyone paid what everyone owed and tells you who owes whom what yeah and it’s a lot of fun it kind of becomes a competition yeah uh oh I’m ahead of the game so you know somebody else needs to and and everybody starts buying a vine to pay for the meal yeah and so at the end everybody basically pays the you know it it it washes out it all washes out what’s really cool about the app I mean obviously if it’s just splitting everything four ways let’s say uh the arithmetic on that is pretty straightforward but uh like when we were in uh Key West I uh I uh paid for a few Ubers but not everyone could fit in the car so I’m thinking well I’m just gonna I’m just gonna pay for the Ubers and I will put it through splitter because not everyone was in the car oh no you can you can make a subgroup and say okay I paid for an Uber and this couple and this couple were the only ones in the car and it will just divide that expense among those two couples so it’s really nice it’s really really cool yeah so you can you know divide it up any way you need to yeah you go to a big meal and you’ve got a table of eight little bills for each single person some restaurants won’t allow you to do that well somebody picks it up and then you put it on splitter yeah and then you know it washes out somebody else will pick up another meal so it’s uh it’s kind of fun and it kind of became a little competition I got it I got it I got this bill I got this bill it’s a lot of fun especially if you know if you’re if you’re drinking it because yeah yeah really quite funny well you know I always kind of think that when you do things that everyone’s kind of splitting things and taking terms of Spain that you end up being pretty even and you do uh you know but the splitter’s nice because it makes sure that everything’s Fair yeah nice and clean super clean and easy you don’t have to do the addition subtraction yeah it does it for you so anyway that was a lot of fun to learn on our last trip so we had a lot of fun with that and we will continue to use splitter in the future for sure absolutely so if you’re looking uh you’re thinking about Prescott get on over here oh my gosh there’s so many great people to meet and then maybe you can take future trips yeah and you can get the splitter app yeah one day we might be on splitter we might be yeah we might be splitting bills with you on Twitter we hope so that might be fun anyway so that’s just our tip of the day and we just were talking about our past vacation we just took and how much fun it was and how nice it was to just go with a new group of friends and just have the time of our lives and isn’t that what it’s about no it is exactly getting ready to retire get on over here and have some fun with all the other retired folks that’s it all right that’s our tip of the day if you’re in the tips the place to go it’s pickle411.com that is our free information site whether you are a buy or seller or somewhere in between there is something atrocious and wonderful not atrocious not atrocious entertaining yeah formative all free all right so give us a call we’d love to show you around our beautiful town and look at some great houses and help you get over here as soon as you can all right take care have a great evening bye

Love is in the Air

Since Valentine's Day is upon us, we thought we would talk about what the world needs most right now: Love.  We discuss the kind of people you are likely to run into and the relationships you can look forward to once you move to our little town. 

All heartfelt.  In fact, tears may have been shed.

Video Transcript

hello hello hello hello peeps and this is Randall and Diane bro here in Prescott and we wanted to wish everybody out there a very Happy Valentine’s Day Happy Valentine’s Day Valentine’s Day you can give me a kiss yes nothing what kind of accent is that I know it’s kind of my Texas code oh no Ikeas Texas has two syllables yes he is yeah yeah so uh we’re going to talk about love is in the air Love Is in the Air I was in the air and I put on my pretty little pink jacket to kind of commemorate day and uh the Valentine Vibe one wanted to kind of give out the Valentine vibe to everybody out there so we wanted to talk about something that I have found which is um unusual I haven’t really experienced this in all the other areas I’ve lived in which have been a lot but when we moved to Prescott most people here are already retired established they’re just enjoying life enjoying the good life and what I found is I’ve really made some very deep friendships here people here are very open to forming long-lasting good friendships they have your back here they really do I I think maybe in the real world in the real life when you’re struggling to make your living and saving up for your retirement there’s a lot of competition and right you know there’s keeping up with the Joneses and um that’s life in America I guess um it could be just Prescott it could be just retirement but what we have found is that people reach a certain age and they come to a certain place and they relax everybody’s chill here everyone’s chill here super chill there’s no uh competition there’s no everybody’s just very laid back and very accepting of each other we’ve all had different life experiences we’ve all walked different paths um but now everybody’s like you know what we’re done we’re good and they just enjoy who you are for what you are yeah there isn’t any judgment there isn’t any so we have a little bit too much to drink and we’re dancing a little crazy we’re all embraced everybody’s just having a good time there isn’t oh can you see this can you see that oh she has this and I don’t have there’s none of that all of that is over and it’s really very refreshing yeah very refreshing yeah everybody’s just like you know I accept you for who you are I love it I have made more friends here I’ve lived I’ve had good friends in other areas but it’s just all I mean most of the people I meet here and spend time with we’ve become good friends absolutely no Frenemies no friends we have a lot of clients that have become quite dear friends as well and we love that so the circle just keeps growing and growing and growing and it’s it’s really deep nice friendships these are people any one of them I could call whenever middle of the night and say I’ve got a problem and they would be there they have your back yeah and I don’t know if it’s a symptom of life in Prescott because we’re so chill and laid back I don’t know all I know is I love it yeah I think it’s so nice it’s just nice to hang with people who are who were great to have your back they have your back you reach a certain age too you you have uh you know health issues or yeah or or this and that and if you do you’ll find that people here will be there for you yeah they’ll help you out and can I take you to the doctor yeah can I bring you a meal um it’s lovely there isn’t the hustle and bustle of you know life and running from job to job we are good friends and they are here for you we’re here for each other yeah and it’s it’s lovely plus we just have a good time yeah uh they’re a lot of fun yeah and um lots of things to learn everybody’s had a different experience so you know maybe you’re talking about adult children this that and the other it’s just nice to have sound you know people that you can bounce things off of and get some good advice yeah absolutely business-wise too right this wise too yeah lots of smart folks here lots and lots of smart people accomplished very well accomplished but I think the other favorite thing that I love here which I’ve never had and at first it kind of took my breath away or kind of made me feel wait what but people here a lot of our friends end with okay sure do love you have a good day love you and they always you know just on a basic phone call hey okay good to hear from you okay all right I’ll talk to you soon love you and I I love when people say that I think it’s great yeah everybody’s like okay love you they have other areas of the country that we’ve lived in spend time in no people from and unless you were you know you were born there and you know your grandparents were born there uh you’re not part of the community you’re not going to be in the fold and that’s just not the case here every now for the most part is uh from someplace else they’ve moved here to retire there are natives here obviously but a lot of the people you meet they are coming here just like you would be uh and don’t know anyone so they bond yeah wait yeah that’s a good word we all Bond we’re all our own little family and uh honestly it’s kind of nice to have somebody say love you you know especially as we get older you know moms and dads are gone so it’s kind of nice to hear it from somebody you know what I mean and um it’s sweet yeah it’s really sweet and uh it’s nice to have these really good bonds yeah so if you’re thinking about Prescott you’re worried about how well I make friends how like everybody here is pretty open to Friendship yeah and uh you’ll make good food and good friends good people they have your back so to all of our friends out there you know who you are we’re selling we love you yeah we’re selling them I’m not going to give you their names because they’re I don’t want to share them all no but that’s not true we’re glad to introduce you to people absolutely we’ve got some really good people here and you can meet them too so don’t be afraid about making new friends here you’ll meet some good quality people and we’re very lucky to have our friends in our lives and we thank you guys I’m not going to tear up I’m going to keep it together so the the tip of luck the the today’s love this is a tip of Love tip of love if you want if that could be a different country that’s a different show yeah we’re going to keep this PG so uh if you’re looking for more tips a place to go just pickle411.com whether you’re a buyer seller somewhere between there is something there waiting for you that will entertain Amaze astound and tickle you absolutely and so to everybody out there Happy Valentine’s Day Valentine’s Day cheers to you Happy Valentine’s Day yeah tell people you love that you love them absolutely that’s what the day is for that’s what the day’s for bye folks go out with love bye

Jewelry Repair & Sales

Goldmine Jewelers – (928) 442-9167

Clever Low-Pressure Tactic

Buying and selling real estate can be one of the highest stress situations you'll ever face... or you can turn the tables and make it downright enjoyable.

In this episode, we reveal a little-known low-pressure trick that lowers your stress and gives you the edge in negotiating.

Video Transcript

hello this is Diana Randall bro here coming to you live from Prescott Arizona we’re happy to talk to you about if you’re thinking about moving and you’re like wow I gotta sell first I don’t know what a drag I can’t get my time frame to line up so we wanted to talk to you about buy first then sell yeah it’s a new program it’s designed to help you out one of the things we observed is that when we have buyer we have buyers that are um full of cash a lot of times what they’ll do is they’ll just buy a house right they’ll buy a house they’ll move their stuff in and then they sell it really reduces the uh the pressure associated with the whole deal uh it doesn’t force them into a house really quick so they have the time to find exactly what they want and when they’re negotiating on the buy side they’re not under time pressure they usually negotiate better deals and on the sell side same thing they’re not in a hurry and so they can negotiate a better deal uh not a lot of people fall in that category and unfortunately they can’t um enjoy those benefits but now there’s a new program that’ll do that and it’s called buy then sell so buy themselves yeah it’s great so we have a number of contacts that we can connect you with where you can get a bridge loan but it’s not the bridge loans of yesteryear this is a really great product uh you can identify a home here in Prescott that you absolutely love you don’t have to worry about losing out because you’re under a contingency and perhaps your home didn’t sell in time so you can identify it put the offer in if you qualify if you qualify depending on your credit of course if you’ve got great credit you get cash up front from the company they give you the cash up front for you to buy the home that you’ve identified here in Prescott you then can negotiate better right because you quote have a cash deal yeah from the from the seller’s point of view your offer is a cash offer it’s considered a cash offer which always gets priority always a cash is King cash will win out on any kind of bidding war that you may be in so you will win that you’ll get the home you’ll get to move in you’ll you’ll get to slowly but surely move in without all the pressure of oh my gosh I’ve got to sell my house and now I got to get the house packed up and I got to get out of here this lets you have some Breathing Room it lets you identify the home you love you won’t lose it you can buy it you know it’s there it’s safe it’s sound it’s waiting for you you can slowly start to move in yeah then you can stage your existing home that you want to sell and and not have to worry about being there and Fielding calls for showings and all that you pack up you move here to Prescott you let it sit there yeah you let it sit there while it’s selling and it’s a lot less pressure it’s a lot less trouble yeah uh you don’t have to keep your house picked up and cleaned while you’re waiting for the next showing you don’t have to sit there and be like I have 10 days to get this sold otherwise I’m going to lose my house in Prescott yes all that foolishness goes out of the window yes the good thing is there are fees associated with getting the buy then sell program but here’s the thing the amount of money that you pay is offset by the extra money you’ll get by being able to negotiate better deals on your buy side and your sales side that’s true and honestly we’ve done this a couple of times and it’s almost a wash I mean it really ends up being very cost effective yeah and when you just think about the the reduction in pressure dealing with the movers the moving right and the state the logistics the logistics yeah it’s just kind of a no-brainer kind of a no-brainer the other good thing is I think a lot of people think oh if I get a bridge loan I’m then paying two mortgages I’m paying the mortgage on my existing home and I’m paying the mortgage on no you have up to a year to get your existing homes sold yes you do not have to pay any not even interest during that time frame now the interest is accrue yeah it’s a crew but it’s not like you will have an additional house payment or interest payment to make during that year process it won’t take you a year to sell you might accrue a little interest for two or three months yeah that’s it then you sell you pay off the bridge loan yeah boom comes out of your comes out of yourself it’s a beautiful thing if you have amazing credit uh and you qualify we highly suggest it because sometimes we get people who come in they absolutely fall in love with a house and they’re heartbroken because they know I don’t even have my house on the market yet right there’s no way I can get this together I can get this sold to purchase this one right and it’s very upsetting you know to leave a home you love that you’ve you really want so we think it’s a great product we’ve had enough friends uh it’s a great idea use it and I love it if you think about it you the pressure is okay so let’s say you sell your home first well now you got to find a home really quick and you don’t want to that’s a lot of pressure you gotta hustle down here and yeah I gotta find it got it and you’re gonna settle for something maybe that’s not on the market right because maybe that perfect one isn’t quite there it isn’t there so you’ll be like well this one is okay I mean you’ll you end up settling we hate when our clients we want you to be happy we don’t want you to settle we want you to be happy and excited or you find the perfect home and you put an offer in it’ll it’ll have to be a contingency yeah so you’re going to have to pay top dollar yep and then you’re going to have to Discount your home wherever you live now to get it to move as fast as possible hustle it’s just it’s you’re behind the eight ball this gets you out from behind me so if you are fortunate enough to be in a position that you could qualify for this bridge loan product hey it’s something to really consider if you really had enough and you want to get out of Dodge where you are yeah there’s other options available to you yes that will help you get that done faster and quicker now we have no vested interest in this at all oh absolutely no actually we’re not allowed to have any vested interest in the lenders that we we recommend to you just to be clear yes and if you want to do it the hard way you know we’ll help you that’s what we do absolutely do it well uh but this is another option for you so something we just thought we’d throw that out there to you folks out there and um who are still thinking of the bridge loan as the olden days when you had to pay all this extra payments every month just wanted to give you a little heads up the product has changed it’s very effective it’s easy and it’s well worth it if you are ready to really make the change and you don’t want to wait another six months absolutely so that’s our tip of the day tip of the day if you’re in the tips the place to go is pickle411.com that is our free information site whether you’re a buyer seller or somewhere in between there is something waiting for you there will Amaze astound and entertain you and tickle your funny bone heavily hopefully all free all three all right thank you for listening we appreciate your time and have a great day bye

Prescott by the Numbers – January 2023

Are Prescott home prices finally tumbling? How is Prescott Valley doing?

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