Momentum Builds for Having 5 Jeffco Commissioners, Not Just 3

[Published August 8, 2013, in the Jeffco editions of the Denver Post's YourHub section and in five Jefferson County weekly newspapers]

In today’s world, everything comes down to politics, and this is as true for real estate issues as anything else. It’s the Board of County Commissioners (“BCC”) that has the ultimate say on all land use issues in the unincorporated areas of the county.  Urban sprawl? It’s the county commissioners who can control it.  Transit oriented development? Completing the beltway?  Buying (or selling) open space parcels? These are all decisions made by just three county commissioners.

Many voters are surprised to learn that Colorado’s most populous county is run by only 3 commissioners who theoretically represent three districts but all of whom are elected at large. You probably don’t even know which of the three districts you are in or which commissioner represents that district. 

When the county was formed, it was a rural area and three commissioners were elected to run the county. When the population reached 70,000, the board of commissioners could be enlarged to five.  Today, there are 540,000 residents of Jeffco — about the population of Wyoming — and we are still represented by three commissioners, all of them elected county-wide.

A group of Jeffco citizens, mostly from the northern part of the county, have organized under the name Jeffco5 and meet regularly to press for enlarging the BCC and — more importantly — having the commissioners elected by district instead of at large.

Why is this important?  It has to do with us citizens having a voice.  The electoral process is what gives us our voice.  If a commissioner has a district of 100,000 citizens, but is elected by 500,000 citizens, he or she doesn’t have to worry so much about responding to the interests of those 100,000 citizens.

Not surprisingly, the current commissioners (except Casey Tighe) oppose such a change, but their reasons for doing so are specious and cover up their real concern which is making it easier for persons to run against them. Currently, if you want to run for  one of the commissioner seats, you have to convince a plurality of all voters in the county, not just the voters in your district.  It’s little wonder that no one ran against one of the commissioners (Faye Griffin) last year. 

The Jeffco5 group has a website, www.Jeffco5.com, which explains the issues and allows you to be added to their email/newsletter list.  They are hoping to get supporters in every ZIP code of the county, and since this column appears in every ZIP code, I offered to publicize their worthy efforts.

This is not a partisan (Democrat vs. Republican) issue or effort. Members of both parties have joined the Jeffco5 group and see the value of making the BCC more accountable to all sections of the county. 

It doesn’t matter where in the county you live.  There is little reason for “your” commissioner to cater to your local needs and concerns, because you are such a small part of their electorate.  Wouldn’t it be great, for example, if there were one commissioner accountable to your fifth of the electorate?  That accountability only comes with the kind of change which the Jeffco5 group is promoting.

 

Just Listed: Westminster Townhome in Park-Like Setting

[Published Aug. 1, 2013, in the Jeffco editions of the Denver Post's YourHub section and in five Jefferson County weekly newspapers]

 

990 W. 133rd Circle #E

Westminster CO 80234

 

Quail Crossing is a subdivision of attached homes located within a mile of the 136th Ave. exit of I-25. This 3-bed-room half-duplex is a real bargain at just $119 per square foot. Built in 1981, these homes are in a park-like setting, with lots of grassy areas — which you don’t have to mow or irrigate! And you only need to cross 134th Avenue to enjoy a public park, which has a playground and bike path.  If interested, you might want to act quickly.  The units which sold in the last year went under contract in an average of 13 days — two-thirds of them in five days or less!  (Listed yesterday -- MLS #1215853) 

 



New MLS for Denver Is About to Be Rolled Out

[Published Aug. 1, 2013, in the Jeffco editions of the Denver Post's YourHub section and in five Jefferson County weekly newspapers]

Metrolist, Denver’s MLS, has until now created and maintained its own software platform for local agents to use in marketing and finding homes for sale. Meanwhile, MLS’s elsewhere have taken the smarter route of licensing software from a company specializing in that service.  (We Realtors do the same for our websites — it would be crazy and costly to build a custom site.)

Long overdue, Metrolist will complete the transition shortly to a more functional site hosted by CoreLogic.

There’s So Much More to Buying Or Selling a Home Than Getting Under Contract

[Published Aug. 1, 2013, in the Jeffco editions of the Denver Post's YourHub section and in five Jefferson County weekly newspapers]

We all know by now that it’s easier to sell a home now than it was, say, two years ago, and some sellers think they don’t need to hire a real estate professional to market their home.

What this overlooks, however, is that marketing and getting the home under contract is only the beginning of the work that we do.

In my own practice, I have noticed that our job has gotten much more difficult this year, despite the shorter time it takes to get a home under contract.  Negotiating inspection and appraisal issues and coordinating the purchase of a replacement home so that the seller has a place to move have become more complicated, in part because of the hotter market.

I don’t envy the seller who thinks he can take on the tasks that we agents are used to performing every day. And for what?  Statistics show that nearly all sellers end up offering a “co-op” commission of 2.8% to the buyer’s agent. This buys the seller the unenviable position of being the only party in the transaction without professional representation! 

The seller thinks that he is saving 3.2% by only paying 2.8% to the buyer’s agent, but this assumes a standard listing commission of 6%.  The average listing commission now, according to NAR, is closer to 5%, and it is common for agents (including at my company) to reduce that fee by 1% if they sell the home without having to pay a buyer’s agent and by another 1% if the seller uses them to purchase their replacement home.  

Some agents have even listed homes for “free” (2.8% to pay the buyer’s broker) in return for being able to earn 2.8% on the purchase of a higher-priced replacement home.

If sellers really understood (1) the negotiability of listing commissions and (2) the value of professional representation beyond merely getting under contract, the whole  for-sale-by-owner concept would lose favor completely

Featured Listing: Wheelchair Accessible Mountain Ridge Home

[Published July 25, 2013, in the Jeffco editions of the Denver Post's YourHub section and in five Jefferson County weekly newspapers]
 

It’s hard to find a wheel-chair accessible home, but here’s one at 1538 Meadowlark Lane in Golden’s premiere subdivision, the Village at Mountain Ridge!  The ramps can be removed, of course, if you don’t have a need for them. The main floor has two master suites plus a third bedroom. The basement has a huge family room (28’ x 29’) plus a third master suite and a kitchenette. The laundry is on the main floor. The home is “coming soon” as extensive improvements are made, including a new roof, new carpeting and new paint. Look for showings to begin next week, or call me now for a sneak peek!  You’ll find more info on its website (above).

 

Come Visit Us This Weekend at Buffalo Bill Days

A highlight of every summer is Golden’s 3-day party known as Buffalo Bill Days. It features more activities than I can name here — from simulated shoot-outs on Washington Avenue to mutton-busting for the kids — but the two things our real estate brokerage participates in is the “Best of the West” parade on Saturday morning, and having a booth all weekend in Parfet Park. I’ll be there with my parrot, Flower, who is always a big hit. Come say “Howdy!”

New to Colorado? Most Real Estate Transactions Here Are Lawyer-Free

[Published July 25, 2013, in the Jeffco editions of the Denver Post's YourHub section and in five Jefferson County weekly newspapers]

We Coloradans have come to take it for granted that you don’t have to hire a lawyer to buy or sell real estate. Our contracts all have a clause advising the client to consult a lawyer (and a tax advisor), but ever since a court decision called Conway Bogue made it legal for real estate licensees to complete (and explain) state approved contracts or forms, clients usually make an informed decision not to expend money on consulting a lawyer. I’ve never seen a lawyer attend any of my closings (except when my clients were themselves lawyers).

This is quite different from other states. In New York, it is common for every party in every transaction to have their own lawyer.

What we can’t do is to interpret and explain to buyers those contracts which sellers — notably new home builders — have their own lawyers prepare. If you buy a new home, you can expect your agent to advise you to have a lawyer review the contract for you, because we would be practicing law if we did that.

Our license does not allow us to write addenda or additional provisions to insert in the state approved forms, so many brokerages pay a flat fee to a prominent Colorado law firm for their library of lawyer-composed clauses and forms.  (Money well spent!)

That doesn’t mean that we can’t write simple additional provisions for contracts such as “Seller shall have roof replaced” or that we can’t insert the list of demands to put in an inspection objection notice.  In that case, however, it’s a good practice to have the client dictate what he or she wants included so that the agent can say he merely inserted them in the form and did not compose them himself.

I’ve been told that “a lot of attorneys” don’t accept that real estate licensees should have the authority granted under Conway Bogue, but it is certainly an established fact that lawyers have little role in the typical Colorado real estate transaction.

Trulia & Zillow Are Great, But Not for Finding Homes Actually for Sale

[Published July 18, 2013, in the Jeffco editions of the Denver Post's YourHub section and in five Jefferson County weekly newspapers]

It happens every day. A buyer will call me about a home they found on Trulia.com or Zillow.com. These websites are becoming more popular with buyers because of the additional information they provide, such as sales history, comparable sales, school info, etc.

The problem is that the house these buyers found is often either under contract or sold long ago.

This happens so often that I thought it would be useful to publish here the advice which I give to such buyers.

These websites have great information, but they are not connected to the MLS and often don’t have current information.  If you want to find only homes that are actually for sale, you need to search websites that are updated daily or hourly by the MLS.

Here in the Denver Metro area, the consumer portal of our MLS is www.recolorado.com.  If a listing is “active” on that website, it is actually for sale. 

Nationally, www.realtor.com is updated by every MLS as often as every 15 minutes. If it’s on realtor.com, it’s actually for sale.

Lastly, you will find a consumer version of the MLS on every real estate company website, such as our own website, www.GoldenRealEstate.com.  These websites receive updates from the MLS every 30 minutes or so.

Only after you have identified a home for sale on these MLS-connected websites should you go to Trulia and Zillow to get the extra information which they provide.  Consulting them last is the only way to avoid the frustration of falling in love with a house only to find that someone else bought it last week or last month.

 

Metropolitan Tax Districts Add Hidden Cost to the Price of Many Homes

[Published July 11, 2013, in the Jeffco editions of the Denver Post's YourHub section and in five Jefferson County weekly newspapers]

Everyone loves new homes — indeed, I love new homes! Everything’s new and better, it seems.  And the prices of new homes often compare favorably to the price of existing homes. 

But there’s often a hidden cost — higher property taxes.

County Assessor Jim Everson explained the history and use of “Metropolitan Tax Districts” to me, and here’s what I learned from him.

Back in the 1970’s there was a surge of anti-growth sentiment, typified by the Poundstone Amendment, which prevented any further annexation by Denver. Until then, developers would get cities like Denver to annex land for new developments and build the infrastructure — water, sewer, streets, etc. — knowing that future property taxes would cover that investment.

Once annexation ended, developers started creating tax districts which would issue 20- to 30-year bonds (which the developer would often purchase) to pay for this infrastructure work.

These bonds would be paid off by an increased mill levy for the life of the bonds. There are already 86 such tax districts in Jefferson County and more are being created every year. Thirty-five have levies over 30 mills. The highest five have levies of 75, 70, 62, 60 and 55.78 mills.  When you realize that the total mill levy in the City of Golden is under 88 mills (and Denver is under 70 mills), such mill levies are a huge additional and hidden cost of purchasing a home in such a tax district.

There’s an irony in the explosion of such tax districts. They resulted from the anti-growth sentiment of the 1970’s, but nothing has done more to stimulate development in all those unincorporated areas.

 

Buyer Activity & Competing Offers Continue to Decline, But Still Quite High

[Published July 4, 2013, in the Jeffco editions of the Denver Post's YourHub section and in five Jefferson County weekly newspapers]

In 2011 Golden Real Estate developed a new index for measuring buyer activity. What we’ve done now for 20 straight months is to compute the percentage of unsold MLS listings by area and price range that are under contract’.

The chart below shows how the percentage of inventory under contract peaked this spring and is on the decline — but still very high, and still much higher than the same month last year. The three lines at bottom right of this chart show that, unlike in the past, buyers are no longer snapping up new listings faster than they can be put on the MLS — the main reason that the inventory of active listings kept declining month after month.

 

The following chart, limited to Jeffco and Denver, shows how those percentages varied by price range:

 

 



Some Typical Questions That Buyers and Sellers Have About Closings

[Published June 27, 2013, in the Jeffco editions of the Denver Post's YourHub section and in five Jefferson County weekly newspapers]

What do I bring to closing? Because some documents need to be notarized, both parties have to bring photo IDs. If either party needs to bring money to the closing, it should be a cashier’s check payable to him or herself, to be endorsed over to the closing/title company. Both parties will get a draft settlement statement a day or two prior to the closing, so that any mistakes can be identified, explained and/or corrected.

Should I contact the utilities? Yes, you should contact all the utilities except water & sewer, which will be handled by the closing company. The water utility will take a reading on the day of closing and send the final bill to the closing company, which will at closing withhold some of seller’s proceeds — about twice the expected bill amount — for the purpose of paying this bill.  The excess will then be refunded to the seller. This is done because an unpaid water bill can become a lien against the property, and the title company, which insures all liens are paid, can not let a final water bill go unpaid. This is not true of other utilities.

Will gas & electricity be turned off?  No, the seller’s final reading will become the beginning reading for the buyer when he gets around to identifying himself.

Why am I being charged for property taxes when I just paid them?  The taxes you paid were for last year.  This year’s property taxes aren’t due until next April, so sellers are debited at closing for this year’s taxes, pro-rated to the date of closing. This money is credited to the buyer, who will pay the full year’s taxes next April. After closing, seller’s lender will refund money they escrowed.

 

Think Real Estate Agents Are Overpaid? Much of the Time, We Work for Free

[Published June 20, 2013, in the Jeffco editions of the Denver Post's YourHub section and in five Jefferson County weekly newspapers]

Most professionals I know get paid for the work they perform. Some even charge for estimates, and others charge even when they fail at what they were hired to do.

Real estate is different. Most of the time we are giving our services away to customers with only a vague hope of a payday down the road.

Sometimes we invest a great deal of money marketing properties that never sell, only to have the seller list the home at a lower price with another agent who gets paid handsomely.  (Trainers advise agents to be the second listing agent on a property — let the first agent take the listing while it’s overpriced.)

I had about 30 closings last year, and I drove 15,000 miles. Do you think I drove 500 miles for each successful closing?  No, I drove maybe half those miles related to successful transactions and the rest for buyers and sellers who received my services for free without any compensation for my time and travel.

This is okay with me. I love real estate. When it produces a payday, I know that it makes up for the uncompensated efforts I expended.

Occasionally I have a buyer who has me take him to the exact house he wants to buy, and I handle the transaction — one showing, no driving around, one contract written, one inspection handled, one closing attended — and a $10,000 payday. The buyer, seeing how easy it was, might reasonably suggest a rebate of my commission. But what about those times I showed a buyer 100 different homes, wrote one or two unsuccessful contracts, only to have that buyer rent instead of buy — or the buyer goes to an open house and cuts me out of earning a commission.  (My fault — I didn’t get a signed buyer agency agreement.)

Recently, I was considering listing 5 acres of vacant land 30 miles up a canyon for $125,000, but the seller was so uncooperative that I ultimately declined the listing — but not before I had made three trips to the property and on one of those trips did $1,000 damage to my car’s underbody on his jagged culvert!

Such is the life of a real estate agent. We may seem overpaid when we are paid five-figure commissions on a given transaction, and you may think that’s unfair, but if we didn’t have those closings to make up for all the times we work for free — or spend without reimbursement — then it might be hard to justify going into this business.  As it is, the average member of the National Association of Realtors earns only $36,000 in gross commission income per year — and that's before subtracting car, phone, MLS, computer and other expenses.

New Listing: 1937 Foothills Road, Beverly Heights

[Published June 13, 2013, in the Jeffco editions of the Denver Post's YourHub section and in five Jefferson County weekly newspapers]

 

1937 Foothills Road, Golden

$485,000

This 4-bedroom, 3-bath home with 2,083 sq. ft. of living space is right in the middle of Golden’s Beverly Heights neighborhood on the slope of Lookout Mountain.  Immaculate is the only way to describe its condition. The home has high-end Champion windows and sliding door and 2 gas fireplaces. Standing on the 300-sq.-ft. cedar deck with retractable awning, you’ll enjoy the unobstructed view of South Table Mountain as well the oversized and professionally landscaped backyard with apple trees and garden.

 

Take a video tour at www.Beverly HeightsHome.com

 

 

You Can’t Underprice a Home, But You Can Still Overprice It in This Market

[Published June 13, 2013, in the Jeffco editions of the Denver Post's YourHub section and in five Jefferson County weekly newspapers]

As much as I like to “talk” real estate — whether with my mouth or my fingers — I know it’s just as important to listen.  I can always learn something new, no matter how much I know about a topic.  I’m among the first to sign up for classes in areas where I’m already knowledgeable enough to teach the class.

That was the case recently when I accepted the invitation of Lon Welsh, the successful founder of Your Castle Real Estate, to attend one of his “mastermind” groups — an example, by the way, of why Lon has been so successful with that company.

The group was brainstorming about how to price a home in this seller’s market, and Lon said, “You can’t underprice a home in this market.”

I have enough examples of my own to support his statement. For example, one of my broker associates priced a 1950’s bungalow at $185,000, when I thought it could sell for $200,000.  He got 71 showings and 28 offers in 2 days, and it’s under contract for $240,000 cash with no inspection or appraisal contingencies.  If he had listed it for $240,000, it could have sat on the market and sold for less with no competing offers.

I remember another agent with a listing which became stale at $1.2 million. After a long time on the market, she got the seller’s approval to lower the price to the $600’s, and it was bid up to $1.1 million.  That takes nerve!

Twice now I have lost listings to colleagues who suggested a higher listing price than I did. The seller of the first one literally apologized for doing so after they sold it near the price I had suggested. The second listing?  It’s still available.

 

Two Updated Properties Just Listed by Golden Real Estate

[Published June 6, 2013, in the Jeffco editions of the Denver Post's YourHub section and in five Jefferson County weekly newspapers]

Five bedrooms for this price? In Golden? This home is in Apple Meadows, a 1970’s subdivision north of 58th Ave., just east of Highway 93. It has been beautifully updated, with new roof, gutters, deck, siding, and triple-pane windows, and transferrable warranties on the windows & siding. There’s a living room on the main floor and a family room in the lower level. In back is the full-width wood deck in great condition with a built-in children’s playhouse. The yard feels oversized and has a garden area,. Take a narrated tour at www.AppleMeadowsHome.com.

Enter this 1933 home and prepare to be surprised at the updates! The kitchen, open to the living room, is fabulous, and who would expect such a great basement? The detached garage, with 220-Volt power, is heated. It’s just one surprise after another! It goes on the MLS today and is easy to show.  Open this Saturday 1-4.  Video tour at www.LakewoodHome.info.

Buyer Activity Slows Down Slightly — Except for Listings Over $600,000

[Published June 6, 2013, in the Jeffco editions of the Denver Post's YourHub section and in five Jefferson County weekly newspapers]

I just completed my monthly statistical analysis measuring buyer activity by calculating the percentage of listings that are under contract.

The numbers are still amazingly high — up 20% over a year ago across the Front Range  as a whole.  The number of unsold homes (both active and pending) is up 16.7% from two months ago, but the number of homes under contract is also up 15.9% from two months ago, so the increase in homes available to purchase is up 17.5% overall. 

Yes, I know statistics can be confusing and sometimes misleading. But they can also be useful is assessing the amount of buyer activity.  The chart below shows that buyer activity has leveled off or declined slightly in the lower price ranges, but, interestingly, increased somewhat in the higher price ranges — above $600,000.

 

And here's a chart showing buyer activity by area and county:

 

 

If you have any questions about these statistics please call or email me.