My brokerage, HomeSmart Real Estate, with 1,700 agents acquired Dan Schwartz Realty with 1,600 agents last week giving HomeSmart Real Estate 3,300 agents and making it by far the largest real estate brokerage in Arizona, the largest in the Southwest, and one of the largest in the United States.
HomeSmart Real Estate was created by Matt Widdows in 2000. Matt has always excelled at providing the latest technology to his agents and clients. That’s why I joined HomeSmart when I first got my real estate license 5 years ago.
Matt’s a good guy… and a tech geek.
Last spring while he was expanding the Scottsdale office I popped in to check the progress and Matt himself was up on a ladder with a hammer after everyone else had left for the day.
In 2005 and 2006 I would catch Matt himself fixing the printer in the Scottsdale HomeSmart office. I think he likes that stuff. It also shows how important it is to Matt to have technology that works. (Matt eventually hired a firm to take care of all that stuff.)
And the guy is young too as you can see in the video linked to above.
Congratulations Matt!
John Wake
Born in Phoenix, trained as an economist and now a licensed Realtor, John uses hard data from the real estate market to help his clients -- buyers and sellers of residential real estate -- uncover their best choices for finding the right home or finding a buyer for their current home.
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"I think the median Phoenix home price could quickly pop up to $144,000+ again. If not in the second half of this year, then certainly in the first half of 2012."
Metro Phoenix median home price rose from $116,050 in August 2011 when the post was written to $153,500 in May 2012.
- John Wake, Arizona Real Estate Notebook, August 11, 2011
See full post - Phoenix foreclosures as percentage of homes sold continues to decline.

