Dec 04

How to not get screwed in Real Estate.

Denver Real Estate, General Interest, Marketing, Realtor, commissions No Comments »

  Long term success in real estate is built on trust and referrals.  With this in mind, it’s a shame that some fly-by-night agents are abusing their position at the expense of an industry’s reputation.  A recent article in REALTORâ„¢ Magazine discussed the problem of loan fraud. 
   I know there are many naysayers that are highly critical of the National Association of Realtors and would expect the article to be more of a ‘how to’ than a critical condemnation of the practice.  The truth is Realtors as an organization have high standards designed to protect the public and the reputations of Realtors.   If you truly believe you benefit yourself by working without one, I highly encourage you to take on the process of buying or selling a home yourself.  If you get sick of the experience, try it with a Realtor and you’ll begin to appreciate the whole idea of specializing in a practice.  That being said, I was once a naysayer too. 
         Realtors have a Code of Ethics.  If they violate the code or the law, they can be fined, have their license stripped from them, and be publicly humiliated. (All decisions and judgements are published in a newsletter.) One lapse of judgement and they may be barred from working in real estate all together.

  One of the best things people can do to protect themselves in real estate transactions is to keep in mind the following: Read the rest of this entry »

Dec 02

MTV “The Real World: Denver” Home to become upscale bar

Denver Real Estate, General Interest No Comments »

Real World Home

The Denver Post Article announces that the home of the reality show “The Real World: Denver”, was recently sold for $3.3 million.  The show features the usual cast of upstanding examples of what showering your child with love and attention can accomplish.  The cast members’ jaunts around town to various clubs and bars shed light on the side of Denver that you may not have known to exist.  Much of the action though takes place in the 21,000 SF building.  The new owners plan to cash in on the buzz revolving around the show.  The sold price was only 500k more than before MTV accepted the lease and made it over for the show.   The developers plan to try to reverse the fortunes of the location as the last bar, B-52’s, went out of business with the owners in foreclosure.

 I hope the developers have a ‘plan B’ as this ill fated venture seems destined to fail.  The novelty will wear off within 6 months of its opening.  The bar is going to have to stand well on its own.  Perhaps a good happy hour.  $2 ’You call its’ and girls in tight black t-shirts that say “The Tequila made me do it.”  When you’re bored of looking at the Jeep Wrangler bar or wandering around with a black light to see what glows in the dark followed by the inevitable question….”Hmmmm, how’d that get there?”…. you’re going to move on to one of those trendy places with an ice bar and fancy color changing LED lights. 

Technorati Tags: , , , , ,

Nov 30

Money Magazine - Bad Advice for Buyers

Denver Real Estate, General Interest 2 Comments »

I spent some timing being a good little consumer down at Barnes and Noble catching up on all the magazines I can’t afford to have delivered to my door. 

My eye was drawn to the Best Ideas of 2007 Article in Money Magazine.  The section with advice for buyers could not have been more inaccurate.  While I’m not in the habit of writing long winded letters to editors.  I couldn’t help myself.  Below is my email to the editor…I deleted the name of the Broker in question in the interest of not ‘throwing him under the bus’ directly. Follow the link to see who it was and we’ll see if there is a correction in an upcoming magazine.  For now, we’ll call him Uncle Frank.  We all know that you have an Uncle Frank that has a tendency to exaggerate. 

Written at 1 in the morning, this is probably not my best work and wrought with error but you’ll get the point.

To whom it may concern,
        

I wanted to let you know that I really appreciated this months Money Magazine article for best ideas of 2007.  For the most part I found it very accurate especially the advice for Sellers.  The advice for buyers section struck me as rather off base from my experience as a Realtor and so I decided to do a little research.
        

There is no way UNCLE FRANK is getting 15% below the list price for his clients.
    As a Denver Realtor, I have access to the local MLS statistics that I check regularly with religious fervor.  Knowing what is going on in the market is extremely important.  Among the things I check on a regular basis for each area is the separation between what a house is finally offered at on the MLS and what the ‘net to seller’ offer is.  As a general rule for most areas of Denver, the net offer price is within 1-5% of the listing price.  So needless to say,  the claim that he was getting his clients 15% has to raise an eye brow. 
       

    Metrolist that runs the primary MLS for Denver requires that statistics be recorded for property sales.  Usually the agent the is representing the buyer is recorded along with this.  As a rule, Realtors should not openly criticize other Realtors.  So, for the record, I imagine the 15% was a typo.
        

UNCLE FRANK is showing 7 purchases between 235K and 340K over the last 365 days.  The average Sold price to List Price is only 98.18%.  The net price to list price is 97.13%.  So his clients on average were getting about 1% in concessions (some got none) and the offer was usually within 2% of the final list price. The only thing approaching 10% was the net sold price to the original list price.  That was showing as 91% of the list price. Read the rest of this entry »

Nov 30

Refinance your Adjustable Rate Mortgage (ARM) now!

Denver Real Estate, General Interest No Comments »

You’ll Be Sooorrrryyy. 

Nothing sells something faster than striking fear into the consumers hearts. 

They’ll make fun of you at school wearing that.

Your compact car isn’t safe as long as SUV’s are on the road.

Your computer will not be able to run the new Windows Vista Operating system.

The many media outlets love to make you shiver with the cold thought that you are unattractive, unprepared, undereducated, and about to lose all your money. 

What you say?…”Shouldn’t I fear losing my money?”

Of course you should but let’s be reasonable.  First of all, don’t believe the hype.  I got a letter from my lender today letting me know that rates are going sky high and I should lock in to a fixed rate now.  Assuming my lender has my best interest at heart, I should move forward with this quickly.  But I ask myself,  “Self?, Remember when the lender was charging you all those silly little fees to process your loan just so they could lend you their money which they charge you interest on?” 

Come to think of it, why would a lender be trying to convice you that your ARM was going up.  I understand why the starving mortgage brokers out there would do this but not lenders.  Unless of course the lenders themselves felt rates were going to go down and wanted to lock me in now to a fixed rate.   Hmm..

Nov 28

Thanks to Blogs

General Interest, Personal No Comments »

I have a new respect for blogs and the resources available for them.  In setting up my blog on my 1and1 host, I found that I knew very little about how it all worked.  Of course, I started searching the internet for solutions to each little problem.  I found the answers in the form of blogs & forums of user generated content strewn across the internet and buried in blogs.  I suppose I should be thanking Google and Yahoo for finding it, but they didn’t write those tasty little help tidbits.

 And of course, I have to thank the creators and contributers of the Wordpress movement.

Nov 28

Why Blog?

General Interest No Comments »

It appears that everyone has indeed found their voice.  Every person with access to the internet can speak freely without fear.  Their thoughts put to screen ready to be immortalized in the memory banks of a thousand servers.  With this amazing growth of free speech comes the thought that not all of it is worth spending your valuable free time browsing the internet for.  This site is intended to begin sorting thru the clutter coming from the internet soapbox and place it into pleasant easy to swallow, twice a day tablets. 

If anyone wishes to become a contributer to the site.  Please feel free to contact me. In the mean time, I’ll start discussing the what’s and why’s of all the little things you missed from the best blogs, TV, Video, and news sources around.    Oh, and feel free to comment on anything you see here. 

Next Entries