Buyers' Slice Realty

Walter Mossberg reports in today’s Wall Street Journal that the new HomeSnap App opens a new door for the increasing amount of home buyers who prefer to search for real estate on their own (without relying on a real estate agent for everything).    Among other things, HomeSnap allows you to get information on a certain property that you might be standing in front of simply by taking a picture of it!     Searching for real estate has never been easier, and I suspect more and more Colorado home buyers will be using their phones to facilitate their search in the future.   Who would ever think that if you were driving around Broomfield, Golden, Louisville, Denver, Highlands Ranch, or Boulder that you could just whip out your phone and take a picture of a home to find out how many bedrooms it has and what it might be worth.

Ann Montgomery from Nabewise.com was recently interviewed about one of their surveys and found that only 25% of respondents used real estate agents to find neighborhood information. When asked why, “people said they felt that agents were biased, and they just wanted to sell them a house.” Ouch. Good thing there are some great independent websites out there for consumers to get more and/or better information. How the world has changed. Has your Colorado neighborhood real estate agent caught on?

For the second time this year I have had a listing agent offer a commission rebate to a buyer who had told them they were considering using me…and in one case the buyer took the bait, fearing their offer wouldn’t get the same consideration (which unfortunately isn’t true).

In the other case, not only did the buyer think it might not work out so well having the listing agent morph into a transaction broker (capable of assisting both parties), but the listing agent ended up calling me and said trying to earn both sides of the commission wasn’t as easy or wise as she thought, so she’d appreciate me stepping in.

Last year, I had another client bite on the same pitch….only to call me after a couple weeks, saying it wasn’t working out and they wanted me to call the listing agent to see if we could unwind it (which we did).

Bottom-line, if a listing agent out there selling a home tries to talk you into working with them, it’s not as easy or prudent as it might appear. And if you can’t think of the right issues or questions to explore with them, feel free to ask me.

Trulia.com is reporting that year over year, the number of real estate sales in Golden is up 8.4%…which one would think would put upward pressure on sales prices, but it hasn’t: they are reporting a median sales price of $325,000 in Golden, which is down -2.5% versus last year. With all this talk about a bottom, especially from some real estate agents…remember, you always have to check the numbers.

The foreclosure process in Colorado is different than many other states because here, the governor appoints a “Public Trustee” for each county in the state. The trustee must act as an impartial party when handling a sale foreclosure with this “non-judicial” power.

The process begins when the attorney representing the lender files the appropriate documents with the Office of the Public Trustee in the county where the property is located. The Public Trustee then files a “Notice of Election and Demand” with the county clerk and the recorder. Once recorded, the notice must be published in a newspaper of general circulation within the county where the property is located for five weeks in a row.

The owner of the property may stop the foreclosure proceedings by filing an “Intent to Cure” with the Public Trustee’s office at least fifteen days prior to the foreclosure sale and then paying the necessary amount to bring the loan current by noon the day before the foreclosure sale is scheduled.

The foreclosure sale must take place between 45 and 60 days after the recording of the election and demand for sale with the county clerk and recorder.    The lender has the option to file a suit for deficiency in Colorado and the borrower has up to 75 days after the sale to redeem the property by paying the foreclosure sale amount, plus interest.

Nationwide home prices fell to new lows in December…after a six YEAR downturn. This according to Standard & Poors index that tracks 20 metro areas. Not that Denver area home buyers have to lose sleep over national real estate trends, it is still an interesting time to be a home buyer!

An $8 chocolate bar.   Yes, it is true.   And you thought Boulder real estate was expensive.  One of those “only in Boulder, Colorado” moments.

http://www.denverpost.com/realestate/ci_19927340

I worked with an awesome couple buying a great house in Loveland last fall, and this is what John had to say recently: ” I originally found you on Craigslist and I was a little worried that this was an internet scam. I think your website does a good job addressing those concerns, but if you ever have a potential customer that isn’t convinced I would be happy to tell them about my experience.”