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

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:

• Single Family Homes March 2015
• Multi Family Homes March 2015

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

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)

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!

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

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)

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!

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)

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)

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)

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)

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)

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

Your Top 10 Guide to Buying a Home

1. Do Expect to Kiss a few Frogs

This whole process is a bit like dating. You will kiss a few frogs, have your heart broken on a deal that goes south, and then just when you think there are no more fish in the sea, Mr/Mrs Right House will be just around the corner

2. Pick your favorite SHORT list

It is recommended when you go out and look at houses, stick to around 6. After this number, they will all start blending into one! It can also be quite exhausting. If you have a lot of house you want to look at, schedule for another day when you will be refreshed. The average buyer will look at around 12 houses before deciding.

3. Do Take lots of notes, pictures, video tours on your phone

This will help you remember the properties trust me, you might not forget the neon paint, but you might forget the payout, where the washing machine was etc.

4. Do Listen to your Gut

I truly believe that a house can pick you as much as you pick a house. Your instinct can be powerful

5. Do Allow Enough Time

Don't buy in haste, repent at leisure. Make sure you allow lots of time on your house hunt, and arrange a second viewing on any potentials. Follow the rule of thumb your first visit with your heart, the second is with your head.

6. Don't have a Extra Large Coffee before you start your tour

It is not always the polite thing to us everyones facilities. Plus, some vacant homes may have the water turned off. You don't want to be caught short.

7. Do wear practical shoes

Some homeowners may request that you remove your shoes, and especially in when the weather is inclement. Wear shoes that are easy to take on and off, not lots of laces, and wear your best socks.

8. Do Find a babysitter for the children

Especially until you narrow down the possible house. Children find the whole process VERY exciting. So rather than worry about if they have knocked over the Sellers best china, find care for them, and bring them in when you have a short list.

9. Don't be a Wall Flower

Do be very vocal. As your Realtor, I have many gifts, the power of reading exactly what the mind is thinking is not one of them. This is not my house I am showing, so you will not offend me. And it will truly help me understand what you are wanting in your Dream Home.

10.   Do be Prepared to Compromise

Just like dating, you might be looking for your Dream Partner, but not everyone or everything is perfect. Create a Wish List and if you are buying as a couple, compare your lists so that you are on the same page. Also discuss your big no-no's. And be prepared, you probably won't find everything on your list so be prepared to compromise on this.

(c) Julie Reddington Real Estate

Buy a home today for maximum purchasing power

Those thinking of buying a home may want to get that done as soon as possible. Rising home prices along with rising interest rates are the two factors that are creating this urgency.According to most recently published statistics for the Metro Denver real estate market, residential mortgage rates have risen by approximately 1% on a 30 year fixed loan in the last 12 months and homes have appreciated in value by approximately 12%.

This means that a buyer purchasing a $300,000 home 12 months ago, would be paying $336,000 for the same home today and the interest rate at closing would be 1% higher.  The corresponding monthly payment will have increased by $146 per month, the buyer would have needed $7,200 extra in down payment and the additional amount of interest paid over the life of the loan is $73,535.

If the same trend continues, 12 months from now the same home will cost $376,320, the monthly payment will have increased $493 per month and the additional interest paid over the life of the loan will have increased to $166,342.

* Based on 12% appreciation rate** Total interest paid over 30 years

Colorado Home Realty (c)

Should you sell your home to a neighbor/friend thinking you are saving money?

Many homes are getting sold prior to officially going on the market these days. It can happen for a variety of reasons. Some are outright sinister and unethical. Even when done innocently and naively, it is a strategy that often causes you to put less money in your pocket than you otherwise would.

Here is a scenario that happened recently. Names have been changed for privacy.

John and Jane Smith called Shirley, an agent/realtor in my office. They wanted to sell their house. Jane had an associate at work (Peter) who was interested in buying the house. John and Jane wanted to know if Shirley could just “do the paperwork” to sell the house to Peter.

Shirley explained that they might be short changing themselves because Peter might not be the best buyer. True, there would be much less commission expense if Peter purchased the property without Shirley listing it. However, other and more motivated buyers might actually give John and Jane a higher net price.

John and Jane saw the wisdom of Shirley’s advice to list the house and have the friend from work see it the first day it came on the market. If Peter bought it, the fee due to Shirley would be fairly modest but Shirley would earn a full commission if another buyer purchased the home.

Peter saw the house on Saturday and made an offer on Sunday. Another buyer working with an agent also made an offer on Sunday.

The offer from this other buyer was much higher and provided John and Jane with more money in their pocket even after paying higher commissions! Additionally, this alternative buyer did not have a house to sell, while Peter needed to get his house sold before he could complete the transaction.

We know this is counter intuitive. However, as a general rule, you are always likely to get the very highest net price by fully exposing your home to the broadest possible market rather than having it viewed by only a selected buyer that you happen to know.

There can be very legitimate reasons why you’d want me to pre-promote your property and show it to some limited number of buyers prior to it officially hitting the market. However, for the most part, this is likely to be a technique we avoid except in special circumstances.

- See more at: http://juliereddingtonrealestate.com/short-circuited-promotion/#sthash.fZWNzkMt.dpuf

Over Pricing Your home - will I make more ??

One of the first things I was told when I started working as a real estate agent is that I had a solemn moral and ethical obligation to scare the #@%*^ (daylights) out of sellers about the dangers of over pricing their homes.

Grizzled veterans explained that over pricing a home leads to many bad things: fewer showings, longer time on the market and ultimately getting less than full market value for the property. 

It is conventional wisdom in the industry that over priced homes eventually sell for less than full market value.

Sellers are often shown this chart from data published from the National Association of Realtors to confirm this fact. Some sellers priced right and sold in less than 30 days for about 2% under asking price. Other sellers priced too high, sat on the market more than 90 days and were punished by having to take 10% less than asking price.

Well … not so fast. Here is another chart. This is research done on a suburban area including parts of Littleton, Englewood and Centennial in the metro Denver area. It covered almost 500 two-story homes with 2000 to 2800 square feet that sold over a six-month period in 2011.

Pretty startling! Regardless of days on market, these homes were selling between $341,000 and $345,000. The houses that took more than 90 days to sell got 10% less than their inflated asking price but still ended up selling for the fair market value in the low $340s.

So the real estate industry is just flat wrong about over pricing. All things being equal, over pricing is not going to hurt you financially as a seller.

On the other hand, over pricing does not help either! On average, the people that started with higher asking prices did not accomplish anything by doing so. They eventually had to come down to the market price range to get their places sold.  Plus you have the longer inconvenience of showing your home, making sure your pants are in place everyday!

Rethinking the conventional wisdom in real estate is one of our passions at Colorado Home Realty. We ask continually if the old rules of thumb are really true. By doing so, we are discovering that some traditional approaches are wrong and we are innovating new approaches that make your transaction faster, safer, more enjoyable … and more profitable

(c) Colorado Home Realty

compliments Mike Cooke

Fabulous Town Home for Sale in Lone Tree

Are you buying a home or a pair of jeans ??

You shop around for a pair of jeans to fit. You might be lucky and strike gold in the first shop you go in, it may take you a few fits to find the dream pair. So what has this go to do with buying a house? Well how do you shop for an agent to help you?

You probably spend more time looking for a pair of trousers than you do finding someone help you with the the biggest purchase or sale of your life. Here are a few thoughts …


* 'Try a few pairs on'
I don’t mean waste a lot of people’s time, but speak to a few until you find someone you have a good rapport with. The next few weeks are going to be fun, stressful, challenging but with (hopeful) huge rewards. You want to work with someone who will make it a ‘comfortable fit’      
                                                                                                                                                  

* Make sure you are getting quality
Just like applicant for a job, ask why you should ‘employ’ them. Ask to see their testimonies

* Are they following the latest trends
Pick a style that suits you? The ‘old school’ style might be perfect, or you might want a trendier approach. Remember, one fit isn’t always better over the other, as long as they fit you right

* Are they practical for your lifestyle?
Make sure ‘the fit’ understands your lifestyle.

The chances are we will all own a few pairs of jeans in our lives. Make sure you like (love) them and they have the durability to last the process. And always recommend the brand to your friends and family … they want to be stylist too.

Jeans will probably always be around, and you may try many fits, but you want the brand that will always be there for you.

(c) copyright

Julie Reddington Realtor ® ABR®

MOBILE PHONE 720 226 4168

Proactive Approach Overcomes Potential Appraisal Hurdles

The world of appraising has changed dramatically over the last few years. It has called for new tactics to deal with this aspect of a real estate transaction so that it does not become an obstacle to a successful closing.

When the real estate market took a nose dive, lenders in general and appraisers in particular were blamed for much of the problem. Most of this blame was misplaced (a subject for another time) but the result has been new rules on how appraisers and lenders interact. Lenders have to give appraisal assignments to a pool of appraisers in a random, red-robin fashion and the quality of appraising and responsiveness of appraisers has suffered as a result.

In Denver, we have another complicating factor. Prices have risen over the last year by about 10% on average. Appraisers, having been recently blamed for being too generous with their estimates of values for properties, are understandably reluctant to reflect this trend too quickly.

The combination has created situations where it is hard to get some houses to appraise for prices that buyers are more than willing to pay and which the market seems to support. New tactics are needed.

It is much more important now for appraisers to receive marketing information on a property. The flyers and other marketing materials we use when finding a buyer for a home have many details about the improvements and benefits that a property offers. Getting this in the appraisers hands helps to make sure that he/she has a complete picture of the property.

It also helps to give the appraiser a summary of how the market reacted to a particular property. This is especially helpful when there are a lot of showings in a short period of time and multiple offers on the home – a situation that has not been uncommon over the last year.

Finally, in some situations, it even makes sense for agents to meet the appraiser at the property. Handing them the information described above and answering any questions the appraiser may have can help to get the appraiser to see the true value of the property.

Something is always changing in the real estate realm that presents a new challenge. Appraising is just one example of one of the latest. Proactively responding to the new situations is one way to stay ahead of the game to ensuring success for clients.

(c) Colorado Home Realty