Here Are Golden Real Estate’s Value Add’s for Clients

[Published Oct. 22, 2015, in most Jeffco editions of the Denver Post's YourHub section and in three Jefferson County weekly newspapers]

At Golden Real Estate, we’re always on the lookout for new and helpful benefits we can provide to our clients — both sellers and buyers.

A good example of that is our free moving truck, which has now logged over 103,000 miles — mostly for buyers and sellers but also for churches and other non-profits. Since U-Haul charges nearly a dollar per mile in addition to their daily rentals, you can easily see that we have saved our clients over $100,000 by providing free use of this truck. It also comes with blankets, dollies, free moving boxes and packing paper/bubble wrap. 

Another added value for sellers is that we promote all our company listings in this page 3 advertisement, which has a circulation of 135,000 in eight different newspapers, including all Jeffco editions of the Denver Post’s YourHub section.

We shoot state-of-the-art HDR photographs for all listings.  This process produces pictures with perfect lighting for all elements of the photograph, including the views out the windows.  This is the kind of photos you see in the glossy magazines.

Here's an example of the same picture with and without HDR processing:

We shoot narrated video tours of all our listings and post the videos on our own website, on YouTube, the MLS, Zillow, Trulia, etc.

We purchase distinctive URL web addresses for each listing, such as for the listing at left. That helps buyers find the listing’s website more easily.

We provide a free staging consultation to help our listings show their best. Our stager is also available at an affordable rate to help the seller pack and organize their belongings.

We install attractive wooden yard sign posts and install solar lighting fixtures on them so buyers can see the signs after dark.

We promote our listings using highly targeted Facebook advertising. We find it’s very effective!

We reduce our listing commission when we sell a listing ourselves and don’t have to share the commission with a buyer’s agent.  Other agents will do this if asked, but they hope you won’t ask!

 

Golden’s City Council Needs New Members Who Listen

[Published Oct. 22, 2015, in the Golden edition of the Denver Post's YourHub section and in the Golden Transcript]

It’s time for fresh, independent thinking on the Golden City Council, and that’s why I am voting for a new Mayor and new Councilor. 

Don’t get me wrong — I’m quite proud of our City government over the past couple decades, especially how it weathered the recession through sound fiscal management.

However, the Council and Mayor have demonstrated excessive confidence in Dan Hartman’s Public Works Department and the City’s Sustainability Committee, rubber-stamping some bad proposals while ignoring the facts and citizen input.

The construction of traffic calming islands on an unpopulated stretch of Eagle Ridge Drive while telling neighborhoods without sidewalks that they’d have to wait a decade or more for funding is a prime example. That block, Hartman reported, had never had an accident, but its average speed of 40+ mph was “not appropriate for a residential neighborhood.”  Shortly after the islands were installed, there was a rollover accident, and countless residents have experienced hundreds or even thousands of dollars in damage to their cars’ suspension from collisions with the islands. “It’s been great for business,” the manager of an auto repair shop told me.

The hundreds of thousands of dollars spent on those measures could have built miles of sidewalks where they don't now exist.

Another mindless decision, recommended by the Sustainability Committee, was to not renew the City’s contract with Waste Management — one of our best corporate citizens, which even has an executive serving on the Golden Chamber of Commerce’s Board of Directors — because another carrier said they’re “open” to recycling Styrofoam and other materials.  

Don't get me wrong here, either.  I love the idea that the City's new vendor might sometime in the future accept Styrofoam (polystyrene) for recycling.  We have been accepting it at Golden Real Estate for over 5 years, taking a truckload of the material each month to a polystyrene factory for reprocessing.  If trash haulers started collecting the stuff, it would be a great relief to my company!

The Council is currently trying — again at the behest of the Sustainability Committee — to force HOAs which have their own highly effective trash/recycling contracts to join the city's Pay As You Throw program at double the cost.

These decisions have all been made despite much thoughtful citizen input by me and others. That’s why I urge you to join me in voting for Chris Darr for Mayor and Paul Haseman for City Council. They will think for themselves and listen to citizens.

 

Of Course: Recall the Jeffco School Board Majority

[Published Oct. 15, 2015, in the Jeffco editions of the Denver Post's YourHub section and in four Jefferson County weekly newspapers]

It was a shock and disappointment in 2013 when the block of three conservatives seized control of the Jeffco School Board, caused the resignation of Superintendent Cindy Stevenson, and paid more for a newbie with none of Cindy’s experience and expertise. The conservative majority has displayed its “Tea Party” stripes time and again, and I’m so glad that a citizen group was able to get their recall on the ballot and found five excellent candidates to replace them. One of them I know — Brad Rupert, who has worked side by side with me for many years supporting an interfaith coalition that has raised funds to build 15 Habitat for Humanity homes. (Our biggest fundraiser is our pumpkin patches at 68th & Wadsworth and Garrison & Alameda — come buy your pumpkins so we can build our 16th Habitat for Humanity home!)

 

I’m proud of the effort made to reverse that 2013 take-over and hope you’ll join me in voting for the recall and those candidates.  More info at www.JeffcoUnitedforAction.com