March 12th, 2008 Bob
The fun continues in the Denver real estate market short sale and foreclosure sub-market.
Tales from the front lines include waiting upwards of 4 months for a response from lenders regarding short sale contracts, continued “Wild-West” tactics from short sale listing agents which include giving out inaccurate estimates of response time, complete lack of communication between lender and listing office regarding list price, as well as lenders relying on BPO’s. BPO’s are “Broker Pricing Opinions” and lenders pay a random broker $50 to drive by a property and give them an opinion of price. They rely on these, more so that the LISTING AGENT’s opinion! Makes for fun with pricing. Lenders are once again creating havoc in the industry.
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March 11th, 2008 Bob
It’s been a crazy month for our Denver real estate offices. It seems that even when the news is quite bleak for real estate in general, that people still like saving money. And our services continue to save buyers and sellers thousands of dollars on the purchase and sale of homes.
We’re about to launch a new “Polygon” search feature on our website that will add the ability to draw an area on a map to search for properties. It should give our users even more control when searching for homes.
More to come very soon….
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February 5th, 2008 Bob
Two local MLS providers, IRES and Metrolist, are moving towards streamlining their Denver real estate and Boulder real estate listings data. Officially allowing Brokers like myself an “MLS of choice”. Why does this matter? It means that companies like mine that work across multiple MLS zones can now choose to give our business to the MLS provider who (now get this) provides us with the best service. Can you imagine such a thing. It sounds…fair.
Maybe this difficult market will force certain overdue changes in this crazy business.
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February 4th, 2008 Bob
We’re doing more and more shortsale and foreclosure properties. The Denver real estate market is ripe with these types of deals. Too bad that it still seems like the Wild West in regards to the “process” of submitting offers and these types of properties. Seems like every lender has their own set of rules…and they take their own sweet time when responding.
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January 30th, 2008 Bob
Golden is one of those towns that everyone seems to love. But it’s more than just a beautiful, old-fashioned downtown. Golden is quite expansive- extending up into the foothills quite a ways.
Our Denver real estate spotlight property of the week is 22204 Forest Hills Drive in Golden. This 4 bedroom, 4 bathroom beauty is in the lovely neighborhood of Riva Chase. You’ve probably looked right at this neighborhood a thousand times. Every time you drive some friends up to the mountains for skiing and you point out “The Woody Allen house” from Sleeper (you know, the one that looks like a flying saucer on a post) then you are looking at and over Riva Chase. Bet you didn’t realize you were looking into Golden, did you?
And remember, if you use Real-a-Save as your buyer’s agent to purchase Forest Hills Drive then you’d receive a case rebate of around $17,000.00. For more information on our cash rebate programs just visit our website.
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January 29th, 2008 Bob
If you’ve spent any time investing in the stock market then you know what an emotional sell-off looks like. It’s also easy to see what a protracted market down-turn looks like. What do these two markets have in common? The fact that there are still people making money in them.
Experienced investors who’ve made lots of money consistently in the stock market will buy when everyone else is selling. Everyone THINKS they can or will do this, but the fact is that most investors sell when everyone else is selling and buy when everyone else is buying.
The Denver real estate market is in a confirmed buyer’s market. Prices and inventory continue to drop and climb respectively. So nobody is buying, right? Of course people are buying. People continue to buy homes as a place to live and raise a family. But there is another type of buyer out there right now: the investor. Bad time for them to be buying? Does it say anything about their track records if they’re using cash to purchase multiple properties? Makes me think that I’m seeing smart investors who’ve already made money buy in a market where few investors are brave enough to pull the trigger. Remains to be seen if they’re making a wise choice.
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Posted in Colorado Real Estate, Denver, CO | 2 Comments »
January 28th, 2008 Bob
The CBS News Magazine did a piece last night on the foreclosure debacle in this country. Much of the segment focused on Stockton, California. The Denver real estate market was not mentioned.
I think we’re all getting accustomed to hearing about the sub-prime mortgage mess, but what I found interesting about last night’s report was the financial analyst who explained why this crisis is NOT simply an American crisis. These sub-prime mortgages were packaged into mortgaged backed security packages and then sold (as part of a complex basket of securities) to financial institutions all around the world including unions, pension funds, national banks, etc. Yes, national banks. Meaning foreign countries are currently holding large chunks of this mess. Meaning that if we head into a recession there is the real possibility that other countries may follow us to the extent that they hold these security packages sold to them by the big investment houses on Wall Street. A frightening prospect indeed.
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January 25th, 2008 Bob
News this morning of BuySide Realty’s sister company Iggy’s House withdrawing its IPO.
Iggy’s House is a company that allows home sellers to put their home on the MLS for free. The problem with that model is that it is so bare bones that it leaves way too much to chance. I would not even classify Iggy’s House as a discount shop, I’d classify them as a fringe concept. Lots of home sellers resent Realtors for the fat paychecks they get for selling a home. Iggy seems like an attempt to capitalize on that feeling and offer sellers something of perceived value for nothing.
Our Denver real estate company is a discounter. Real-a-Save proudly offers discounted fees. But we don’t discount our service. On the buyer’s side we’ll take our clients on as many home tours as they need. We handle all the paperwork as well.
On the sellers side about the only thing that we don’t offer is open houses. Open houses are a great way to let your neighbors satisfy their curiosity and see what’s in your closet. They’re also a great way for rookie agents to TRY to pick up buyer clients. Have you ever walked into an open house and been accosted by the agent? Asked aggressively for your contact info, then hounded to let them show you some other homes in the area. Me too. That’s why we don’t do them.
The take away here is that you can come up with great sounding concepts but to be successful you have to get your hands dirty and spend time with your clients making sure each one is treated like royalty. Concepts alone don’t make money.
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January 22nd, 2008 Bob
Boasting an historic downtown and 3,000 acres of parks and trails, Arvada is a popular city offering Metro Denver real estate shoppers some fantastic choices.
Arvada mixes old, farm-like homes with beautiful new construction seamlessly. And you’ll be surprised at how easily you can forget you are just s few miles from Denver when you drive through neighborhoods surrounded by open space, and lazy country roads that take you back in time.
This lovely town has something for everyone: from terrific investment opportunities, to mid-range family living, to gracious retirement. You won’t be disappointed with the sheer physical beauty, and incredible housing choices that Arvada has to offer.
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January 21st, 2008 Bob
Imagine walking into your favorite restaurant and ordering your favorite meal. Then, the waitress smiles at you and says, “Sure, no problem. I’ll ask the chef. He’ll let you know tomorrow if he thinks he can make your order.”
Well, that is exactly the situation when you deal with short sale properties and foreclosures. The bank has decided to sell a home. They put a sign out. They list it on the MLS. You make a reasonable offer. Now they make you wait for a month or more for a response.
Is that hard to believe? The Denver real estate market is saturated with short sales and foreclosures right now. It seems like we always have a few of these deals pending. And each and every time I will warn my clients that they are in for a long wait. But each and every time it still shocks me that it takes more than a month to look at a number and say yes or no. We’re currently well into our second month of waiting on a couple of deals we’re doing.
This is one area where the government actually has a more efficient model than the private sector. If you put an offer in on a HUD owned property, then you can expect an answer in about a day. Private bank? You’re gonna wait 3-6 weeks for a response.
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