If you are looking to purchase in the $1m plus market, click the picture below and contact me for a private tour
Tuesday, November 17, 2015
Looking for a luxury home in Denver ??
Looking for a luxury home in Denver? The average selling price for homes over $1m held at $1.58M in October, demonstrating a 1% increase from September, and an increase of 15% year-over-year (Source Denver Post).
If you are looking to purchase in the $1m plus market, click the picture below and contact me for a private tour
If you are looking to purchase in the $1m plus market, click the picture below and contact me for a private tour
More homes are avaliable in Denver Metro
The real estate market in metro Denver continued its now familiar patterns in October according to data just released. Prices are up. More homes are changing hands.
As reported last month, the inventory of homes available for purchase is also showing some improvement. That trend continued in October. There were 41% more homes on the market at the end of October this year versus the number available at the end of October in 2014. Rising inventory is good news for buyers.
Here’s the summary of current market conditions with just two months left in 2015:
The numbers above are for homes handled by real estate agents through the metro Denver MLS system. We lump all of the single family and multi-family homes sales together to give you a feel for the overall market. We also do 12-month averages for certain stats as it helps show true market trends.
You can see a more extensive breakout between the single family and multi-family segments of the market by clicking on the links at the end of this post.
If you like the look of those reports, we can produce one for you that is specific to your zip code and property type. The market is not uniform. Your part of town may be doing better or worse than the metro-wide averages.
While the trend is undoubtedly upwards, the actual numbers just might give you a little adrenaline rush.
Source - Mike Cooke @ Colorado Home Realty
Tuesday, October 13, 2015
RADON – BIG DEAL OR NO BIG DEAL?
Radon. It’s colorless, odorless, deadly … and easily addressed.
What Is Radon? It’s a naturally occurring gas. It’s given off by the decay of trace amounts of radioactive materials in almost all soils. You can’t see it, taste it or smell it.
Is Radon a Health Hazard? Yes and no. In outdoor spaces, the gas dissipates just as fast as it is produced and has almost no impact on us as we wander around the great outdoors of Colorful Colorado.
Indoors, the issue is different. As the gas builds up under the foundation of your house, it finds its way in through crawl spaces, sump pump pits and through joints and cracks in basement slabs and sub-floors. Your furnace and central AC (if you have one) tend to cause the build up to be worse as they actually create a bit of suction that draws radon out of the soil into the lowest level of your residence.
Radon can accumulate to the point that it poses an increased risk for lung cancer. It is the second leading cause of lung cancer behind smoking.
How Much Is Too Much Radon? The Environmental Protection Agency has set limits for radon in dwellings and the limit is expressed in “picocuries per liter.”
What is a picocurie?
We have no idea. But those folks at the EPA think that you should have less than four of them in every liter of volume in your house. At 10 picocuries per liter, your risk of developing lung cancer over your lifetime is about the same as a person smoking a pack of cigarettes a day.
How Is Radon Detected? You can easily test for radon. Do-It-Yourself testing kits can be obtained at Home Depot or Lowes for $10 to $30. You let the tester sit for at least 48 hours and send it in to a lab that will report back to you on the radon levels in your place. This works great if you are testing a home you already own.
If you are buying a property, you’ll want a more sophisticated testing method that assures no tampering. The DIY test kits can be fooled but home inspectors use a machine that has hidden, tamper-proof mechanisms to make sure the seller is not fudging the results. Those tests run $125 to $150. A bit of good news with the testing machines is that they give results on the spot as soon as the 48-hour test period is over.
How Do You Get Rid Of Radon? Radon is easy to mitigate and the mitigation methods are not expensive. Costs can run from $200 up to $1500, with $800 to $1000 being an average cost. The systems themselves are simple and reliable and require almost no maintenance. Depending on market conditions, you might be able to get the seller to pay the costs of mitigation when you are buying a home. It’s tougher to do so in our current seller’s market.
What Action Should You Take? Check out the “Home Buyer’s and Seller’s Guide to Radon.” It has a wealth of additional information from the EPA.
And, if you’ve never tested your house, consider getting a DIY test kit from your local big box home supplier and test your house following the instructions that come with the test kit.
Compliments : Mike Cooke, Colorado Home Realty
Tuesday, April 21, 2015
Up, Up and Away .....
The 1967 song entitled Up, Up and Away is a good summary of the Denver real estate market.
The fact that the singing group, The 5th Dimension recorded it makes it even more appropriate. Denver real estate has definitely entered another dimension. It is a new and uncharted realm.
Prices? Yep - they're up. Average sale price in March was $355,462 and that is a 14.79% increase from the average sale price in March of last year. As we always say, the 12-month moving average is a better measure of true price appreciation and it indicates an 8.38% rise in prices over the last year.
Closed Transactions? Yeah - there are more of them. We had 4,522 deals close in March versus 4,077 closed in March of 2014. That is an increase of almost 11%.
Inventory? Even it is up a bit from the previous month. There were 5,288 properties on the market at the end of March, which is a tad higher than the 4,910 that were on the market at the end of February.
What does it all mean? Prices are moving up nicely. Plus, lots of buyers are being successful at finding the place they want despite the relatively low inventory.
Click on the links below for more details on market trends for both:
Want a report like this for your little corner of Denver?Give me a call and we can send you a report with detailed stats on the market in your zip code.
Julie Reddington
720 226 4168
(c) Mike Cooke, Colorado Home Realty
Monday, April 20, 2015
How to successfully get moved in the current Denver Real Estate Market
Julie Reddington - 720 226 4168
Friday, April 17, 2015
STUNNING HOME IN WEATHERSTONE, HIGHLANDS RANCH
CALL ME FOR A PRIVATE TOUR OF THIS HOME - 720 226 4168
Stunning semi custom home in absolutely immaculate condition in the sub-division of Weatherstone.
The interior has been tastefully decorated throughout - you can just move straight in! The home has had many upgrades including Wainscoting in formal living room and dining room, skipped trowel throughout the home, antique lighting, hardwood floors, and built in cherry cabinets.
Fabulous gourmet kitchen with granite and stainless steel appliances.
4 upstairs bedrooms plus loft. The master has a fireplace and his and her closets. All closets have either antique or canned recess lighting.
Finished walk out basement offering family/games room, kitchenette with refrigerator, dishwasher and microwave, bedroom (with its own heat source), bathroom plus fitness room.
The yard has a firepit, children's playset, trampoline and basketball hoop.
Thursday, March 12, 2015
THE DENVER POST NEEDS A BIT OF CHEERING UP OVER LOW INVENTORY
The Denver Post had an article recently about the low inventory in the metro Denver real estate market: "Metro Denver Struggles with a Record Low Supply of Homes for Sale", dated February 13, 2015.
They are feeling a bit "gloomy" about the whole matter.
If you are a regular reader of the CHR Buzz, the news of low inventory comes as no surprise to you.
The Denver Post was accurate about the historically low inventory. However, they failed to comment on the cause. The cause is not a DECREASE IN SUPPLY. In fact, about 3% more properties have changed hands in the first 45 days of this year versus the same period last year.
The cause of the low inventory is a significant INCREASE IN DEMAND, which causes the slightly increased supply to get sucked up as soon as it comes on the market.
There is good news in these supply & demand patterns!
The increased demand is a sign of a healthy economy. In addition, agents are finding ways for buyers to be successful in spite of the low inventory challenge as evidenced by more sales actually occurring so far this year.
We don't want you to be depressed!
Courtesy of Mike Cooke, Colorado Home Realty (c)
They are feeling a bit "gloomy" about the whole matter.
If you are a regular reader of the CHR Buzz, the news of low inventory comes as no surprise to you.
The Denver Post was accurate about the historically low inventory. However, they failed to comment on the cause. The cause is not a DECREASE IN SUPPLY. In fact, about 3% more properties have changed hands in the first 45 days of this year versus the same period last year.
The cause of the low inventory is a significant INCREASE IN DEMAND, which causes the slightly increased supply to get sucked up as soon as it comes on the market.
There is good news in these supply & demand patterns!
The increased demand is a sign of a healthy economy. In addition, agents are finding ways for buyers to be successful in spite of the low inventory challenge as evidenced by more sales actually occurring so far this year.
We don't want you to be depressed!
Courtesy of Mike Cooke, Colorado Home Realty (c)
Tuesday, December 30, 2014
Wrap Up And Welcome 2015!
Its certainly going to be a chilly one, but a trip to Denver this New Year's Eve will not leave you cold! From the zoo, to parties and balls, to spectacular fireworks, Denver covers every member of the family.
http://www.denver.org/things-to-do/denver-holiday-events/denver-new-years-eve/
I wish you a fun and safe New Year's Eve and a very Happy New Year!
http://www.denver.org/things-to-do/denver-holiday-events/denver-new-years-eve/
I wish you a fun and safe New Year's Eve and a very Happy New Year!
Saturday, December 27, 2014
The Myth Of The Winter Slump
Here is a piece of conventional wisdom about real estate: It is slow in the winter. The holidays are busy. People are preoccupied with other things. No one is thinking about real estate.
Not so fast.
The stats tell a different story. If we look at the winter months of late December thru late March, it is not uncommon for 20% of the yearly sales to occur during this season versus the spring, summer and fall periods.
The supposed winter lull in real estate activity turns out to be more myth than reality. The truth is that each season of the year offers both opportunities and challenges. There is no perfect time to buy or sell and there is no time that is horrible either.
All of this is good news if you need to sell or buy a home in the next three months. You can be successful at wrapping up a winter real estate deal.
Let’s think about the situation for buyers first. While there are a lot of closings that happen during the winter selling season, it is true that there are fewer properties on the market during this time frame. It makes finding the place you want a little more problematic.
What can be different and favorable for buyers is that winter sellers tend to be serious and motivated. We don’t have a lot of discretionary sellers during the winter. Some sellers who have been overpriced make price adjustments and get very serious about consummating a sale. All things being equal, you can negotiate more aggressively.
The situation for sellers is not all that dissimilar. There are fewer buyers floating around but also fewer sellers with whom you must compete. In addition, the buyers that are active at this time of year are often people with deadlines. Something is driving them to take time during a busy season of the year to get out there and find a home. It is a good time of year for sellers to reevaluate just a bit and make a small price adjustment that will attract the attention of the serious buyers.
Myths die hard. The winter IS as good a time for doing real estate as any other time of year.
(c) Colorado Home Realty
Monday, December 22, 2014
Get The "LED" Out!
No. That’s not a typo. Everyone knows that LEAD is bad for the environment, which is why we got it out of gasoline. Did you know, however, that an LED (lightbulb) is good for both the environment and your pocket book? You want to get LEDs out of the store and into your light fixtures.
LED stands for “light emitting diode”. LED technology has evolved to be a viable alternative to regular incandescent light bulbs. They can save you money and can save the planet, so they are “green” in multiple senses of the term. We’ve been told for a few years now that our light bulbs are killing the planet due to their inefficient energy use. We have been urged to switch to the “compact fluorescent light” bulb. Known as “CFL’s”, these curly shaped tubes of glass use less energy.
However, CFLs are are pretty dull until they have spent a few minutes warming up when first switched on. They also contain mercury, making many wonder how they could be better for the environment. If you break one in your house, your property becomes an EPA superfund clean up site – a slight exaggeration, but certainly a broken CFL requires careful clean up. When CFLs burn out, you can’t just throw them in the trash but should take them to special reclamation facilities – and you know everyone is doing that!
LED’s do not suffer any of these problems. The come on instantly. They contain no toxic materials. They typically don’t break when dropped. In addition, they now produce a soft white light comparable to regular bulbs and the light diffuses in all directions instead of being focused in a beam like original LEDs. They use less energy than a CFL and only 16% of the energy of regular light bulbs. Almost all the energy gets turned into light instead of heat, so your house stays cooler and requires less AC in summer. Heck, they probably make you look younger and skinnier too!
So here is the math on the green (money) front. Assume a bulb is on for three hours a day, which is the national average for lights in frequently used rooms like kitchens, dining rooms, family rooms, living rooms and bedrooms. You install the traditional 60-watt bulb on January 1st and it will cost you $7.63 in electrical use for the year. The bulb will burn out on December 31st. Add the 50 cent cost of the bulb, and it has cost you $8.13 for it’s 12-month life.
The comparable LED bulb will only use $1.08 in electricity over the one-year period. With a purchase cost of $7.00, it has cost you $8.08 for the year (we’ve seen 60-watt LED bulbs for as little as $4 at Home Depot recently, but we’ll not use that lower number in our analysis) No big deal, right? You’ve only saved 5 cents. The important difference is that the LED bulb has a remaining useful life of 21.8 years! For some of us, those bulbs will still be working when our kids are settling our estate! So in year number two, you will NOT have to buy a new LED bulb and it will only cost you about a buck in electricity to run it. You’d incur over $8 in cost in the second year to replace the regular bulb and pay its electrical usage cost.
If you’re keeping score, that’s a savings of about $7 per year per bulb for the LED once you get to the second year. Since the average home has around 40 bulbs, you are saving approximately $280 a year by using the LED bulbs over the regular bulbs.
The equation is a bit different if you are comparing 100-watt bulbs or the 65-watt can lights common in many homes. The payback period of these is about 18 months instead of 12 months. Still, they quickly get to the point of saving you money.
If you are more motivated by being “green” in the environmental sense, here are the numbers. Producing the electricity to power a traditional 60-watt incandescent bulb for a year will cause about 300 pounds of C02 to be emitted. The comparable LED bulb will result in less than 50 pounds of carbon dioxide being released to the environment. So whether you are focused on fiscal responsibility OR you’re concerned about climate change, the LED light bulb can bring you joy and satisfaction.
Courtesy of Mike Cooke, Colorado Home Realty (c)
LED stands for “light emitting diode”. LED technology has evolved to be a viable alternative to regular incandescent light bulbs. They can save you money and can save the planet, so they are “green” in multiple senses of the term. We’ve been told for a few years now that our light bulbs are killing the planet due to their inefficient energy use. We have been urged to switch to the “compact fluorescent light” bulb. Known as “CFL’s”, these curly shaped tubes of glass use less energy.
However, CFLs are are pretty dull until they have spent a few minutes warming up when first switched on. They also contain mercury, making many wonder how they could be better for the environment. If you break one in your house, your property becomes an EPA superfund clean up site – a slight exaggeration, but certainly a broken CFL requires careful clean up. When CFLs burn out, you can’t just throw them in the trash but should take them to special reclamation facilities – and you know everyone is doing that!
LED’s do not suffer any of these problems. The come on instantly. They contain no toxic materials. They typically don’t break when dropped. In addition, they now produce a soft white light comparable to regular bulbs and the light diffuses in all directions instead of being focused in a beam like original LEDs. They use less energy than a CFL and only 16% of the energy of regular light bulbs. Almost all the energy gets turned into light instead of heat, so your house stays cooler and requires less AC in summer. Heck, they probably make you look younger and skinnier too!
So here is the math on the green (money) front. Assume a bulb is on for three hours a day, which is the national average for lights in frequently used rooms like kitchens, dining rooms, family rooms, living rooms and bedrooms. You install the traditional 60-watt bulb on January 1st and it will cost you $7.63 in electrical use for the year. The bulb will burn out on December 31st. Add the 50 cent cost of the bulb, and it has cost you $8.13 for it’s 12-month life.
The comparable LED bulb will only use $1.08 in electricity over the one-year period. With a purchase cost of $7.00, it has cost you $8.08 for the year (we’ve seen 60-watt LED bulbs for as little as $4 at Home Depot recently, but we’ll not use that lower number in our analysis) No big deal, right? You’ve only saved 5 cents. The important difference is that the LED bulb has a remaining useful life of 21.8 years! For some of us, those bulbs will still be working when our kids are settling our estate! So in year number two, you will NOT have to buy a new LED bulb and it will only cost you about a buck in electricity to run it. You’d incur over $8 in cost in the second year to replace the regular bulb and pay its electrical usage cost.
If you’re keeping score, that’s a savings of about $7 per year per bulb for the LED once you get to the second year. Since the average home has around 40 bulbs, you are saving approximately $280 a year by using the LED bulbs over the regular bulbs.
The equation is a bit different if you are comparing 100-watt bulbs or the 65-watt can lights common in many homes. The payback period of these is about 18 months instead of 12 months. Still, they quickly get to the point of saving you money.
If you are more motivated by being “green” in the environmental sense, here are the numbers. Producing the electricity to power a traditional 60-watt incandescent bulb for a year will cause about 300 pounds of C02 to be emitted. The comparable LED bulb will result in less than 50 pounds of carbon dioxide being released to the environment. So whether you are focused on fiscal responsibility OR you’re concerned about climate change, the LED light bulb can bring you joy and satisfaction.
Courtesy of Mike Cooke, Colorado Home Realty (c)
Sunday, December 14, 2014
Enjoy The Sparkle Of The Holidays!
Many of us are donning the outside of our homes and our yards with pretty lights to celebrate this holiday season. The Botanic Gardens is no exception! Enjoy a magical evening at Blossoms of Lights at York Street, and Trail of Lights at Chatfield this year.
http://www.botanicgardens.org/events/special-events/all-is-bright
They are sure to bring a sparkle to your holidays!
Thursday, December 11, 2014
Should You "For Sale By Owner"?
The article, "5 Reasons You Shouldn't For Sale by Owner,"
makes some interesting points about the disadvantages that arise when an owner sells a house without the help of an agent. However, a couple comments are in order.
Like most articles we see on this topic, the author cites studies that show that houses sold directly by an owner typically sell for substantially less money -- exactly 20% less in this case. The study that allegedly shows this is not referenced.
While it is true that For-Sale-by-Owner (FSBO) houses sell for less money than those with an agent involved, the differential is not nearly that large. Our own in-house studies show that For Sales By Owner properties in metro Denver typically sell for prices that are 4% to 6% less than the sale prices of houses sold where an agent is involved.
This differential is substantial and significant. Most agents charge sellers a fee in that range. Bottom-line: It turns out that most owners that sell without an agent end up doing all the work themselves, but don't put any more money in their pocket for their effort. They are out their time and don't have any more money to show for it.
One of the reasons that By Owner properties sell for less money is because of Items #2 and #3 in the article. Through Multiple Listing Services, networking with other agents and internet agreements, real estate agents get much more exposure for a given property. Increased exposure means greater likelihood of finding a better and more motivated buyer than is found with limited exposure as a For-Sale-by-Owner seller.
Be sure to read Item #1 in the article. It makes an excellent point that many By Owner property owners do not consider.
Monday, December 8, 2014
The Holidays Are Here!
Wrap up warm and enjoy some great events in Highlands Ranch this Holiday Season!
December 12th - Showtime at Southridge, Holiday Concert - The Highlands Ranch Swing Shift Band will have you tapping your feet in no time!
December 13th - Bring the little ones and have ‘Breakfast with Santa’ at Eastridge Recreation Center. The morning includes a pancake breakfast and a visit with Santa!
December 13th and 14th - Enjoy the Winter Market at Town Center North. This is a free event for all. Its great for choosing some unique holiday gifts and tasting delicious holiday fayre!
December 14th - The Hanukkah Celebrations at Northridge include singing, dancing, face painting, prizes, etc. A great family afternoon!
December 20th - Don’t miss the Giant Menorah Lighting ceremony at Eastridge! There will be Hanukkah gifts, latkes, children’s entertainment and much more!
….and there are always the Custom Holiday Sleigh Rides, through the Backcountry Wilderness, with roasted marshmallows en-route!
For further details please see HRCA’s 2014 Holiday Happenings, http://hrcaonline.org/ProgramsEvents/CommunityEvents/HRCAHolidayHappenings.aspx
HAPPY HOLIDAYS!
Tuesday, November 25, 2014
A Buyer's Market for Luxury Homes?
“Inman Connect” is a semi-annual national conference for real estate agents. At the most recent gathering in June of this year, held in the beautiful city by the bay (San Francisco), we heard a lot of discussion about the luxury home market.
What is a luxury home? Are different strategies required when you are buying and selling in this market segment? Is it a good time to make a move into or out of this part of the market?
A common definition of “luxury” is that it is the top 10% of any market. It got us wondering about what that looks like in Denver. What is your guess – what is the home price that puts you in the top 10% of the market?
You’ll find the answer below, but make your guess first.
Don’t peek!
Do you have your answer?
The answer for metro Denver is $525,000. Ten percent of the residential properties in metro Denver that sold from October 2013 through September 2014 had an asking price that was above $525,000.
Does that surprise you? It surprised us. We thought the number would be higher.
Here are some additional facts. The cutoff for the top 5% is $600,000. Move up to $1,001,000 and you are in the top 2%. If you lay your head down at night in a place that has a price tag of $1.5 million, then 99% of the properties in the metro area are less expensive than yours.
The supply and demand pattern is different also. While houses with a price at $525,000 or above make up only 10% of the closed transactions over the last 12 months, they represent 37% of the currently available inventory.
In other words, almost 2 out of every 5 houses on the market right now have an asking price over $525,000. This represents 7.8 months of supply, meaning that it would take 7.8 months to sell all these homes if no more came on the market. In contrast, there is only 1.5 months of supply for homes under that price point.
Traditional wisdom says that inventory of less than 3 months indicates a seller’s market while inventory greater than 6 months indicates a buyer’s market.
We see the effect of this large inventory in the time it takes to sell upper end homes, which is 80 days on average. In contrast, half of the homes under $525,000 that come on the market will find a buyer within 11 days.
What does it all mean if you are in that “luxury” market of $525,000 and above? If you are a seller, you are in a buyer’s market. You have to be more accurate with pricing and you’re very unlikely to have the multiple offer feeding frenzy you hear so much about these days.
If you are a buyer … well, it is a buyer’s market. It is an excellent time to make a move up into this range, especially if the house you have to sell is in that heart of the market at $350,000 and below. You get to sell in a seller’s market and buy in a buyer’s market. In other words – it’s pretty much real estate heaven.
Courtesy of Mike Cooke of Colorado Home Realty (c)
Monday, November 24, 2014
Landscaping "Gifts" As Winter Sets In
Everyone knows to winterize sprinkler systems when cold temperatures arrive.
However, did you know that your landscaping could benefit also from some winterization and tender loving care during the winter?
It is worth spending some time and effort on your landscaping. We did a recent blog post about the fact that landscaping can contribute greatly to your property value – you can check it out here: Landscaping Improvements Protect Property Values.
Since landscaping can be an important feature in both the value and enjoyment you get from your home, we interviewed retired Master Gardner Jackie Burghardt to get some tips. She gave us some great tips on how to take special care of your landscaping during the winter season.
Here is the list:
Rake leaves from lawns and out of plant and shrub beds. Leaves left on the grass promote mold growth. Letting leaves remain in planting beds give a place for plant pests to over-winter. When spring comes, they attack your budding and blooming plants with a vengeance.
Do any of your trees need attention by a tree trimming company? Get it done during the winter. Prices are cheaper as winter begins because the arborists are not as busy as they are in the spring, summer and fall.
Think about planting bulbs. The beginning of winter is the time to plant tulip, hyacinth, crocus and daffodil bulbs if you want these plants to be part of your spring and summer landscaping in 2015.
Conversely, think about digging up bulbs. Dig up canna lily and dahlia bulbs after the first freeze, when the leaves turn black. Put them in sphagnum moss in a bag in the garage. The bulbs of these species won’t survive the winter in the ground but they will survive when stored properly in the garage. Replant them when spring arrives.
If we have two to three weeks with no moisture and the daytime high gets up to 42 degrees or more, give plants and trees some water. Use a soaker at a low flow rate so that is can soak into the cold ground.
Water lawns once or twice during the winter using a garden hose when temps are in the 40s. It will help them come back faster in the spring.
Follow these simple recommendations and your landscaping will reward you with health and color when spring arrives. It will increase your enjoyment of your property and will reward you financially if you are thinking about putting your house on the market next year.
Courtesy of Mike Cooke of Colorado Home Realty. (c)
However, did you know that your landscaping could benefit also from some winterization and tender loving care during the winter?
It is worth spending some time and effort on your landscaping. We did a recent blog post about the fact that landscaping can contribute greatly to your property value – you can check it out here: Landscaping Improvements Protect Property Values.
Since landscaping can be an important feature in both the value and enjoyment you get from your home, we interviewed retired Master Gardner Jackie Burghardt to get some tips. She gave us some great tips on how to take special care of your landscaping during the winter season.
Here is the list:
Rake leaves from lawns and out of plant and shrub beds. Leaves left on the grass promote mold growth. Letting leaves remain in planting beds give a place for plant pests to over-winter. When spring comes, they attack your budding and blooming plants with a vengeance.
Do any of your trees need attention by a tree trimming company? Get it done during the winter. Prices are cheaper as winter begins because the arborists are not as busy as they are in the spring, summer and fall.
Think about planting bulbs. The beginning of winter is the time to plant tulip, hyacinth, crocus and daffodil bulbs if you want these plants to be part of your spring and summer landscaping in 2015.
Conversely, think about digging up bulbs. Dig up canna lily and dahlia bulbs after the first freeze, when the leaves turn black. Put them in sphagnum moss in a bag in the garage. The bulbs of these species won’t survive the winter in the ground but they will survive when stored properly in the garage. Replant them when spring arrives.
If we have two to three weeks with no moisture and the daytime high gets up to 42 degrees or more, give plants and trees some water. Use a soaker at a low flow rate so that is can soak into the cold ground.
Water lawns once or twice during the winter using a garden hose when temps are in the 40s. It will help them come back faster in the spring.
Follow these simple recommendations and your landscaping will reward you with health and color when spring arrives. It will increase your enjoyment of your property and will reward you financially if you are thinking about putting your house on the market next year.
Courtesy of Mike Cooke of Colorado Home Realty. (c)
Monday, November 3, 2014
DON'T GET BURNED BY SOLAR
Solar energy is HOT, pun intended. It's getting
lots of attention these days.
Solar is also COOL! A bit of a
status symbol & statement to
the world that you are "going
green".
We're big fans of solar, in theory.
We're sure that 100 years from now the
world will largely run on solar power. It's the wave of the future.
However, it may not be the wave of the immediate future. We
are having some issues when it comes to selling houses with
leased solar power installations. Here's a summary:
Issue No. 1: You are not going to get more money for the
house due to the solar installation when you sell it.
There is a big solar leasing company telling people that solar
increases the value of their home by 15%. We're pretty sure the
researchers that came up with that figure were taking advantage
of Colorado's new liberalized marijuana laws at the time they
were completing their evaluation.
A valid comparison involves looking at homes with solar
compared to nearby homes without solar. Let's look at one
example:
The property at 16437 East Hialeah Drive is a 2,021 square foot
2-story home with unfinished basement. It had solar and it sold
for $316,000 in September 2014. The house next door is also a
2-story home with 2,347 square feet and partly finished
basement. Being a little bigger and with some basement finish,
you'd expect it to sell for $10,000 to $15,000 more - and it did
just that with a sale price of $329,000 in July 2014. The solar on
the first house did not create any increased value for it.
We've done this for a number of paired home sales around metro
Denver and pretty much find the same result -- almost no value
can be attributed to the solar installation.
Issue No. 2: You've got to get the buyer of your house to
assume the lease when you sell it. No big deal, right?
Actually, it can be a big deal. First of all, the buyer has to qualify
to assume the lease. The buyer must also want to assume the
lease. This can be an issue due to the lease buyout provisions.
Every time the house changes hands, the seller risks paying a
huge buyout cost if the buyer will not agree to take over the
lease. The buyouts often run $10,000 to $25,000. We've seen
one where the buyout was over $30k!
Many buyers balk at taking on this liability. Even though the
buyout cost decreases with time, the leases run for 20 years and
buyout costs remain high during the first 10 years or more. Many
buyers are concerned about what will happen when they go to
sell the house. They wonder if their buyer will want the solar or
will they get left holding the bag. This leads right into Issue No.
3.
Issue No. 3: We're pretty sure that solar technology is going to
change and evolve rapidly. We worry that the solar cells being
used in today's products will be out of date in a few years.
After all, how much can you get for your five year old computer
compared to what you paid for? Probably nothing and you may
even have to pay to dispose of it since you can't just dump
electronics in your trash can.
We can imagine that the same may be true of today's solar
panels. They may be close to worthless in five years and yet
you'll still have a huge lease buyout cost. This should make you
and any subsequent buyer think twice about the advisability of
solar.
Conclusion: We are sure there is much more to solar than just
the three items listed here. We have not done extensive
research. However, we wanted you to be aware of some issues
that have come up.
Courtesy of Mike Cooke, Colorado Home Realty (c)
lots of attention these days.
Solar is also COOL! A bit of a
status symbol & statement to
the world that you are "going
green".
We're big fans of solar, in theory.
We're sure that 100 years from now the
world will largely run on solar power. It's the wave of the future.
However, it may not be the wave of the immediate future. We
are having some issues when it comes to selling houses with
leased solar power installations. Here's a summary:
Issue No. 1: You are not going to get more money for the
house due to the solar installation when you sell it.
There is a big solar leasing company telling people that solar
increases the value of their home by 15%. We're pretty sure the
researchers that came up with that figure were taking advantage
of Colorado's new liberalized marijuana laws at the time they
were completing their evaluation.
A valid comparison involves looking at homes with solar
compared to nearby homes without solar. Let's look at one
example:
The property at 16437 East Hialeah Drive is a 2,021 square foot
2-story home with unfinished basement. It had solar and it sold
for $316,000 in September 2014. The house next door is also a
2-story home with 2,347 square feet and partly finished
basement. Being a little bigger and with some basement finish,
you'd expect it to sell for $10,000 to $15,000 more - and it did
just that with a sale price of $329,000 in July 2014. The solar on
the first house did not create any increased value for it.
We've done this for a number of paired home sales around metro
Denver and pretty much find the same result -- almost no value
can be attributed to the solar installation.
Issue No. 2: You've got to get the buyer of your house to
assume the lease when you sell it. No big deal, right?
Actually, it can be a big deal. First of all, the buyer has to qualify
to assume the lease. The buyer must also want to assume the
lease. This can be an issue due to the lease buyout provisions.
Every time the house changes hands, the seller risks paying a
huge buyout cost if the buyer will not agree to take over the
lease. The buyouts often run $10,000 to $25,000. We've seen
one where the buyout was over $30k!
Many buyers balk at taking on this liability. Even though the
buyout cost decreases with time, the leases run for 20 years and
buyout costs remain high during the first 10 years or more. Many
buyers are concerned about what will happen when they go to
sell the house. They wonder if their buyer will want the solar or
will they get left holding the bag. This leads right into Issue No.
3.
Issue No. 3: We're pretty sure that solar technology is going to
change and evolve rapidly. We worry that the solar cells being
used in today's products will be out of date in a few years.
After all, how much can you get for your five year old computer
compared to what you paid for? Probably nothing and you may
even have to pay to dispose of it since you can't just dump
electronics in your trash can.
We can imagine that the same may be true of today's solar
panels. They may be close to worthless in five years and yet
you'll still have a huge lease buyout cost. This should make you
and any subsequent buyer think twice about the advisability of
solar.
Conclusion: We are sure there is much more to solar than just
the three items listed here. We have not done extensive
research. However, we wanted you to be aware of some issues
that have come up.
Courtesy of Mike Cooke, Colorado Home Realty (c)
Thursday, October 30, 2014
Home Buyers And Sellers Deserve More Than A Salesperson
Why does the public think of real estate agents as salespeople? Why does the industry think of itself that way?
I suppose it is because we imagine that real estate agents sell houses in the same way that car dealers sell cars. In contrast, we don’t think of lawyers or doctors or accountants as salespeople. Why?
When it comes right down to it, isn’t every business a “sales” business? Trial lawyers need plaintiffs. Oncologists need cancer victims. Accountants need confused taxpayers (no trouble finding those).
Nothing happens in any business until someone is convinced to buy whatever that business is selling, be it a product or a service.
The real distinction comes when the sale is made. In a product business, the sale is the culmination of a process. You buy. You leave. You’re done.
In contrast, the sale is the beginning of a relationship in a service business. The trial lawyer files the case. The oncologist wheels you into surgery. The account starts finding deductions.
Now when I really stopped to think about it, years ago I realized that good real estate agents know that they are more than salespeople. They don’t sell houses, per se. Homebuilders sell houses! Homebuilders sell houses just like car dealers sell cars.
In contrast, real estate agents provide a service — more like the accountant and the lawyer. The process of buying and selling a house is complicated and most consumers need help. Agents are the people that have the specialized expertise. They can guide buyers and sellers through the maze of pricing, staging, marketing, financing, negotiating, inspecting and all the other aspects of a real estate transaction.
A real estate agent “sells” people on using her services and that is when the relationship begins. And if she is any good, she then becomes a consultant, helping people make good decisions about acquiring and disposing of their real estate. That is what the client really needs.
Of course, she does end up “selling” houses because some clients need to dispose of properties they own. However, she ends up helping other clients acquire property. In either case, her goal is helping people make great decisions about their real estate holdings and not to just make a “sale”. This builds a long term relationship of repeat and referral business rather than just creating a single transaction.
This is our focus at Colorado Home Realty. We are constantly rethinking the real estate business. Part of that rethinking is to shift from a sales mentality to a consulting mentality – from being in a product/sales business to being in a service/consulting business.
One of my strategies for success is to be more than a salesperson — to truly be your trusted real estate adviser for all your real estate needs.
Courtesy of Mike Cooke of Colorado Home Realty (c)
I suppose it is because we imagine that real estate agents sell houses in the same way that car dealers sell cars. In contrast, we don’t think of lawyers or doctors or accountants as salespeople. Why?
When it comes right down to it, isn’t every business a “sales” business? Trial lawyers need plaintiffs. Oncologists need cancer victims. Accountants need confused taxpayers (no trouble finding those).
Nothing happens in any business until someone is convinced to buy whatever that business is selling, be it a product or a service.
The real distinction comes when the sale is made. In a product business, the sale is the culmination of a process. You buy. You leave. You’re done.
In contrast, the sale is the beginning of a relationship in a service business. The trial lawyer files the case. The oncologist wheels you into surgery. The account starts finding deductions.
Now when I really stopped to think about it, years ago I realized that good real estate agents know that they are more than salespeople. They don’t sell houses, per se. Homebuilders sell houses! Homebuilders sell houses just like car dealers sell cars.
In contrast, real estate agents provide a service — more like the accountant and the lawyer. The process of buying and selling a house is complicated and most consumers need help. Agents are the people that have the specialized expertise. They can guide buyers and sellers through the maze of pricing, staging, marketing, financing, negotiating, inspecting and all the other aspects of a real estate transaction.
A real estate agent “sells” people on using her services and that is when the relationship begins. And if she is any good, she then becomes a consultant, helping people make good decisions about acquiring and disposing of their real estate. That is what the client really needs.
Of course, she does end up “selling” houses because some clients need to dispose of properties they own. However, she ends up helping other clients acquire property. In either case, her goal is helping people make great decisions about their real estate holdings and not to just make a “sale”. This builds a long term relationship of repeat and referral business rather than just creating a single transaction.
This is our focus at Colorado Home Realty. We are constantly rethinking the real estate business. Part of that rethinking is to shift from a sales mentality to a consulting mentality – from being in a product/sales business to being in a service/consulting business.
One of my strategies for success is to be more than a salesperson — to truly be your trusted real estate adviser for all your real estate needs.
Courtesy of Mike Cooke of Colorado Home Realty (c)
Wednesday, October 22, 2014
DISINTERMEDIATION & Your Friendly Real Estate Agent
What Does a Good Agent Do For You?
You've probably never heard of "disintermediation" unless (1) You're an economist, (2) A complete nerd or (3) You attended the big Inman real estate agent convention in San Francisco earlier this year. We learned about it through option 3 with maybe a dash of option 2 thrown in.
Disintermediation is when intermediaries are cut out of a supply chain. More simply, it's when you "cut out the middleman".
The Internet has created a lot of disintermediation. The travel agent business is a good example. People can go to any number of websites to get much of the info they use to get from a travel agent. So there aren't as many travel agents these days.
The discussion at the Inman conference was whether this same thing would happen to the real estate brokerage business. Do websites like Zillow and Trulia create a situation where buyers and sellers just get together directly, eliminating the need for an agent? Is the agent a middleman, providing little value?
The most definitive answer is "NO" and it comes from a surprising source - from Spencer Rascoff, the CEO of Zillow - the 800-pound gorilla of real estate websites. He also created Hotwire, the popular travel-booking site. He was asked earlier this year why Zillow partners with real estate agents instead of trying to replace them like he did to travel agents.
Rascoff, insightfully and accurately explained the differences between booking an airline flight and buying or selling real estate when he said:
"There will always be a real estate agent in the transaction because, for most consumers, it's just too important and too expensive and too infrequent and complex to screw up, so they need an agent."
We agree. Rascoff's conclusion is supported by the most recent survey of homebuyers and sellers nationwide. Over the 12-month period studied, 89% of buyers reported using the Internet to search for homes, but this did not eliminate their need for an agent - 89% of those buyers also used a real estate agent. For sellers, 90% used a real estate agent.
Rascoff went on to say he believes the Internet is changing the role of the agent from information gatekeeper to skilled transactional guide with expertise in marketing, negotiating and local market knowledge. We disagree.
In our opinion, the role of a good agent has always been to be much more than an information gatekeeper. Rascoff forgot to mention skilled pricing analyst, exceptional stager, financing guru and savvy legal-beagle when it comes to contract preparation.
An agent we heard recently tell a compelling story of his first home buying experience before he was an agent and long before the Internet existed. This agent was buying his first home and wanted a ranch style, single-family property with 2 bedrooms and a basement in a certain area. He explained all this to the lady he selected to be his agent.
His agent showed him what he wanted to see but also showed him a duplex in an area he had never considered. It had everything he wanted plus hardwood floors that complimented his furniture and a renter next door that paid the lion's share of the mortgage. She negotiated a great deal on it and skillfully guided him through the whole process. He says it is the best real estate he ever owned and the best real estate experience he had as a consumer.
As an agent with CHR, we share this vision for the role of a real estate agent. At CHR, we are skilled advocates that bring our expertise in pricing, staging, marketing, financing, negotiation and contract preparation to bear in helping home buyers and sellers.
And for agents in this industry that aren't passionate about this expansive role, we are happy for them to be disintermediated.
Courtesy of Mike Cooke at Colorado Home Realty (c)
You've probably never heard of "disintermediation" unless (1) You're an economist, (2) A complete nerd or (3) You attended the big Inman real estate agent convention in San Francisco earlier this year. We learned about it through option 3 with maybe a dash of option 2 thrown in.
Disintermediation is when intermediaries are cut out of a supply chain. More simply, it's when you "cut out the middleman".
The Internet has created a lot of disintermediation. The travel agent business is a good example. People can go to any number of websites to get much of the info they use to get from a travel agent. So there aren't as many travel agents these days.
The discussion at the Inman conference was whether this same thing would happen to the real estate brokerage business. Do websites like Zillow and Trulia create a situation where buyers and sellers just get together directly, eliminating the need for an agent? Is the agent a middleman, providing little value?
The most definitive answer is "NO" and it comes from a surprising source - from Spencer Rascoff, the CEO of Zillow - the 800-pound gorilla of real estate websites. He also created Hotwire, the popular travel-booking site. He was asked earlier this year why Zillow partners with real estate agents instead of trying to replace them like he did to travel agents.
Rascoff, insightfully and accurately explained the differences between booking an airline flight and buying or selling real estate when he said:
"There will always be a real estate agent in the transaction because, for most consumers, it's just too important and too expensive and too infrequent and complex to screw up, so they need an agent."
We agree. Rascoff's conclusion is supported by the most recent survey of homebuyers and sellers nationwide. Over the 12-month period studied, 89% of buyers reported using the Internet to search for homes, but this did not eliminate their need for an agent - 89% of those buyers also used a real estate agent. For sellers, 90% used a real estate agent.
Rascoff went on to say he believes the Internet is changing the role of the agent from information gatekeeper to skilled transactional guide with expertise in marketing, negotiating and local market knowledge. We disagree.
In our opinion, the role of a good agent has always been to be much more than an information gatekeeper. Rascoff forgot to mention skilled pricing analyst, exceptional stager, financing guru and savvy legal-beagle when it comes to contract preparation.
An agent we heard recently tell a compelling story of his first home buying experience before he was an agent and long before the Internet existed. This agent was buying his first home and wanted a ranch style, single-family property with 2 bedrooms and a basement in a certain area. He explained all this to the lady he selected to be his agent.
His agent showed him what he wanted to see but also showed him a duplex in an area he had never considered. It had everything he wanted plus hardwood floors that complimented his furniture and a renter next door that paid the lion's share of the mortgage. She negotiated a great deal on it and skillfully guided him through the whole process. He says it is the best real estate he ever owned and the best real estate experience he had as a consumer.
As an agent with CHR, we share this vision for the role of a real estate agent. At CHR, we are skilled advocates that bring our expertise in pricing, staging, marketing, financing, negotiation and contract preparation to bear in helping home buyers and sellers.
And for agents in this industry that aren't passionate about this expansive role, we are happy for them to be disintermediated.
Courtesy of Mike Cooke at Colorado Home Realty (c)
Friday, October 17, 2014
A Buyer's market in the Denver Luxury Home Market
"Inman Connect" is a semi-annual, national conference for real estate agents. At the most recent gathering in June of this year, held in the beautiful city by the bay (San Francisco), we heard a lot of discussion of the luxury home market.
What is a luxury home? Are different strategies required when you are buying and selling in this market segment?
A common definition of "luxury" is that it is the top 10% of any market. It got us wondering about what that looks like in Denver. What is your guess - what is the home price that puts you in the top 10% of the market?
You'll find the answer below, but make your guess first.
Really.
Guess.
Stop.
Don't peak!
Do you have your answer?
The answer for metro Denver is $525,000. Ten percent of the residential properties in metro Denver that sold over the last 12 months had an asking price that was above $525,000.
Does that surprise you? It surprised us. We thought the number would be higher.
Here are some additional facts. The cutoff for the top 5% is only $600,000. Move up to $1,001,000 and you are in the top 2%. If the digs you come home to every night has a price tag of $1.5 million, then 99% of the properties in the metro area are less expensive than yours.
The supply and demand pattern is different also. While houses with a price at $525,000 or above make up only 10% of the sales over the last 12 months, they currently represent 37% of the available inventory.
In other words, almost four out of every ten houses on the market right now has an asking price over $525k. This represents 7.8 months of supply - it would take 7.8 months to sell all these homes if no more came on the market. In contrast, there is only 1.5 months of supply for homes under that price point.
Traditional wisdom says that inventory of less than three months is a seller's market while inventory greater than 6 months is a buyer's market.
We see the effect of this large inventory in the time it takes to sell upper end homes. Half of the homes under $525,000 that come on the market will find a buyer within 11 days. Above $525,000, it is taking 80 days on average to find a buyer.
What does it all mean if you are in that "luxury" market of $525,000 and above? If you are a seller, you are in a bit of a buyer's market. You have to be more accurate with pricing and your are very unlikely to have that multiple offer feeding frenzy that you hear so much about these days.
If you are a buyer, ditto. It is a bit of a buyer's market. It is an excellent time to make a move up into this range, especially if the house you have to sell is in that heart of the market at $350,000 and below. You get to sell in a seller's market and buy in a buyer's market. In other words - it is pretty much real estate heaven.
Courtesy of Mike Cooke at Colorado Home Realty (c)
- See more at: http://juliereddingtonrealestate.com/a-buyers-market-for-luxury-homes/#sthash.tziA2fJQ.dpuf
Saturday, October 11, 2014
Home in The Backcountry, Highlands Ranch
A fantastic upgraded and immaculately finished home in the prestigious community of the BackCountry, in Highlands Ranch
Hardwood floors.
Gorgeous kitchen with beautiful granite countertops, pantry, large gas cook top and stainless steel appliances.
4 upstairs bedrooms with upper laundry and views, views, views!
Low maintenance yard fire pit, with sand pit, practice sport court, area for trampoline.
Surround sound system, mud room.
Check out the community of Backcountry featuring the Sundial House, miles of open space and trails, parks, resort style outdoor swimming pool, Peaks Pub, fitness and movement rooms and an outdoor amphitheater. Check out website for more information http://backcountryco3.reachlocal.net/community-of-the-year/
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