John Wake Bio

John Wake

Mostly Retired Real Estate Agent
Associate Broker, Real Estate Agent, M.S. in Ag Econ
HomeSmart
(480) 600-0947
John@JohnWake.com

About John

Mostly Retired Real Estate Agent & Associate Broker and Realtor, HomeSmart, Scottsdale, Arizona

John was one of the first experts to accurately call the bottom in metro Phoenix home prices in 2011. Almost everyone else at the time was convinced a huge “shadow inventory” of homes was going to crush home prices further.

John’s latest project is Real Estate Decoded which helps U.S. home buyers and sellers learn how real estate really works so they can be prepared before they buy or sell a home.

Biography

Real Estate Agent 2003-present; Associate Broker since 2006
Real Estate Decoded, Founder and Publisher since 2015
Arizona Real Estate Notebook, Founder and Publisher since 2006
Home Sale News, Founder and Publisher, 2001-2011
Arizona Department of Agriculture, Marketing Director. As its first director, John created the department’s marketing programs
U.S. Embassy, Paris, Agricultural Attache. John participated in negotiations between the U.S. Secretary of Agriculture and the French Minister of Agriculture
U.S. Department of Agriculture, Foreign Agricultural Service, Washington D.C., International Economist. John developed a computer program to access Dun and Bradstreet data that the agency used for many years to market their services.
University of Florida, Master of Science, Agricultural Economics. Thesis title, “The Cost of Learning By Doing Effect on Technology Adoption”
Arizona State University, Bachelor of Science, Ag-Industry. John paid his way through college by working the summers on forest fire fighting crews for the U.S. Forest Service and Bureau of Land Management in Globe, Big Springs, Tusayan and Kingman, Arizona. The last summer he worked on a helicopter fire crew.
As a young man, John once hitchhiked from Miami to Phoenix.
Graduated from Gerard Catholic High School in Phoenix where John paid his own tuition by working in a children’s shoe store after school and on Saturdays.
John was born and raised in Phoenix, Arizona and is one of nine children.

Professional Focus

John is a full-time real estate agent representing both home buyers and house sellers.

John has been creating cutting edge online real estate content for over 10 years.

John’s website Home Sale News (2002 version!) (2001-2011), for example, had the largest network of email newsletters about Arizona real estate for many years with over 15,000 weekly subscribers. John taught himself HTML, Perl and how to run an email server to create the network of 124 email newsletters, one for each zip code in metro Phoenix.

Then in 2006 John created Arizona Real Estate Notebook which continues to be one of the most popular real estate websites in Arizona with thousands of visitors each week.

In 2015, John created the nationally focused website, Real Estate Decoded, to provide cutting edge, online education to home buyers and sellers.

In The News

Radio

John was interviewed on NPR “Talk of the Nation” about the housing market in Phoenix and several times on KJZZ.

Phoenix Newspapers

National Newspapers

John was quoted in an Associated Press article about the Arizona real estate market that was printed in The Arizona Republic, The Arizona Daily Star, The Washington Post, The International Herald Tribune, FOXNews.com, MSNBC, ABC News and many other publications.

Funny stories: The article was also printed in The Des Moines Register where one glorious morning John’s mother-in-law stumbled upon John’s name in print in her hometown newspaper! About 20 years later I was being interviewed on KJZZ and my son, who always listens to KJZZ, was surprised, “That sounds like my dad!”

Professional Committees

Arizona Association of Realtors, Business Services and Technology Committee, 2010-2014

Volunteering

Scottsdale Healthcare Osborn Medical Center, Volunteer, 2003-2014
Scottsdale Healthcare Auxiliary Board of Directors (the volunteers’ board) 2010 to 2014, Treasurer 2012-2014

Personal

Married to Liz Wake for over 30 years and they have two adult sons and a pretty Papillion, Abby. John was one of nine children and he is still close to his brothers and sisters.