Tis the season of travel, and that means that you might be swiping that credit card in different states or pulling out cash from ATMs you’ve never used before. This also means that you could be opening yourself up to virtual threats you would either-wise not encounter. Barbara was recently traveling and when she got home, she found several charges on her credit card that did not belong to her. They started off small and rather innocuous- most likely waiting to see if she would notice and gearing up for a bigger purchase down the road. This frustrating incident for Barbara got us thinking… how can you protect yourself and your assets while traveling? Here are a few ideas we’d like to share:

Throughout her 42 years of working in the real estate industry, Barbara Harris has seen, worked with, and helped LOTS of different types of people. From first time home buyers to those buying multiple investment properties, home buyers and their needs are as unique as the houses they look at and buy. However, there is one area of real estate that Barbara holds near and dear to her heart. That is because she is an SRES agent.

So, you’ve decided to take the plunge and purchase a home of your own. Congratulations! But first, we want to make sure you understand that the market here in Colorado Springs is TIGHT. Inventory is moving fast and buyers are putting in multiple offers. Because of this, you will want to ensure that your offer is airtight and stands out from the others. How do you achieve this? See our five tips below on setting your bid apart and helping you to (hopefully!) be the winning offer. 

Let’s take a deeper look at what is a HUD home and what purposes they serve.

We want to share a few things you can do now to help prepare your Colorado home for the warmer days ahead.

There are lots of businesses that tout superior customer service as part of their brand. I don’t know about you but most of the time I am disappointed when I have the opportunity to experience their “superior customer service”. What the upper echelon of management believes as their mantra doesn’t seem to filter down to the employees that their customers interact with. So it is my pleasure to share with you an account of superb customer service that I encountered recently at the local Kuni Lexus automobile dealership. 

Simple affordable do-it-yourself projects can make your home more sellable in a competitive real estate market. If you are considering listing your home for sale or have had your home on the market but haven’t received an offer, here are some simple tips to make your home stand out.
 

All of us wish to turn a house into a home, but what exactly does “home” mean to each of us? Does it describe a place that we return to at the end of the day? Is it the place we feel most comfortable in?  Must this place have a certain amount of personal memories in order to be called our “home”? As Realtors, we work closely with a buyer to help them find a ‘house’ that meets their needs. When does that ‘house’ become a ‘home’?

Homeownership is still the American dream. Recent polls show that nearly 9 out of 10 Americans still believe owning a home is important. And why not? With interest rates at historical lows and current local housing prices still affordable, it doesn’t make sense to sit on the sidelines anymore. 

I don’t know if you have tried renting a home lately in Colorado Springs but not only is it a mad rush to get one but landlords are raising rents because there is so much demand. If I was a renter today, I would seriously think about buying.  Take for example, the home I have listed at 1314 Lewis Lane: 4 Bedrooms, 2 full baths, a one car garage and almost 2100 square feet of living space with a beautiful park like back yard with a newer furnace and central air conditioning.   Listed at $159,900, if a first time buyer purchased the home with El Paso Bond money with 3% down payment assistance, the total payment would approximately be $695.00. If they were to rent the home it would probably rent for $900-950 a month so buying would save the buyers approximately $255 a month or over $3000 a year.

Many buyers have heard that it is difficult to get financing but there are lenders today that will look at FICO scores as low as 530 with interest rates still below 5%. Yes, you need to have stable employment of at least 2 years on the job, you need to make sufficient income to cover the monthly mortgage payment and living expenses, and if you don’t take advantage of the first time homebuyer’s programs that are available that offer down payment assistance, you will need to have approximately 3.5% saved for your down payment if you are purchasing with an FHA loan. 

Why continue to throw money away when you can be one of the 9 Americans that can obtain the dream of owning a home. This bubble of opportunity will not last forever.   Now is the time to make your move!

Real Estate Tip: Don’t be afraid to ask the Seller to pay your closing costs and pre-paids. If you are purchasing with a first time homebuyer loan, you could virtually buy a home with less than $1000 of your own money. That’s less than putting down a security deposit with prorated rent! 

We live in an age of technology and any Real Estate Broker that wants to succeed today needs to embrace the changes technology brings with it. In the almost 32 years that I have been a real estate professional, I have seen many changes in the industry.
I will never forget one of the first changes I experienced. When I first entered the real estate profession in 1979, we searched for homes using a catalog type book filled with pages of photos and information on homes. I kept track of my clients with a recipe box filled with index cards that had handwritten notes on them. Lo and behold, one day it was announced that we would soon be able to search for homes using a computer! The time a home went on the market until every REALTOR in Colorado Springs knew it was available was shortened from one week to one day. Amazing!

It wasn’t long before Realtors improved communication with their clients by installing phones in their cars. No longer did we have to search for a convenience store or a pay phone so we could quickly make a call to arrange a last minute showing. Along came the fax machine that allowed for a quicker response time for contracts. The 80’s brought the cell phones that no longer had to be installed in the car in order to work, and contact software for computers that did away with the handwritten file cards that held all the client information.

The 90’s and the 21st century brought smaller cell phones and computerized contracts. Computers seemed to get faster yearly and it wasn’t long before we saw contracts that were internet-based with “mouse” signatures and phones that could access the internet. Everyone began to embrace communicating via email until email became to slow and texting became the faster more efficient way to communicate. Twitter and Facebook not only connected you with people all over the world but they also became new ways to advertise homes for sale. These days, you can show a buyer homes via videos and photos on the internet, write a contract on the internet, obtain the signatures via the internet and conduct all the negotiations and the entire transaction without ever meeting either client.

Wow, you might think, this is so efficient and after all time is money isn’t it? The problem with today’s real estate transactions is that we are losing a vitally important ingredient. That ingredient is the relationship. Consumers don’t get to know us and we don’t really get to know them. It makes it more difficult to negotiate when you may have only communicated by email or texting. Why didn’t that Seller accept that offer on the home after it had been on the market only 10 days- it was a “no brainer”. Maybe if you had stopped by to sit down with the Seller, you might have found out that they were nervous that the sale was happening too quickly and that they might not be able to get out on time. Just being there to reassure them of the process or to perhaps offer to tweak the dates a bit to make the Seller feel more at ease could have made that sale happen.

Technology is great but it doesn’t take the place of the face to face meeting and the bond that can be formed into a long lasting relationship. Relationships do matter and those REALTORS that blend technology with the good old fashioned connection of the face to face meeting will see their success rates soar.