Boulder County’s Septic Smart Program is an important piece of information for home-sellers to know. Am I really writing a blog piece about poop? Yup. It’s important for homeowners in Boulder County to familiarize themselves with this County website and the requirements for sale of their property.
Homeowners can enter their property address and search county records, as well as follow the 4-step process towards becoming “Septic Smart”.
These requirements went into effect back in September of 2008, so if you have a home for sale in Boulder County and you have a septic system then you should get your system inspected right away.
You don’t necessarily have to wait until you get an offer on your property, but if you have waited until that time then don’t worry. From my experience you still have plenty of time to get your Septic Smarts taken care of if you have a typical, 30-day contract time frame. The folks at the Boulder County Septic Smart Program are very helpful and accommodating.
Wow, 2009 is certainly going out with a bang. Lots and lots of contract action in the Denver/Boulder region right now in what is traditionally a very SLOW time of year.
It’s possibly a reaction to the 8k tax credit from Uncle Sam, but I don’t think so. It seems like buyers are snatching up bargain properties once they hit the magical correct list price.
It just proves that when it comes to pricing, it’s better to SET the market than to CHASE the market. Yes, it’s honestly better to be a just slightly low and to get a quick sale and/or multiple offers than it is to be over priced and to linger on the market.
The reasoning behind this is many-fold. But if you simply factor in your carrying costs, you’ll see that holding on to your property for 6 months while it lingers on the market has costs associated with it. It can easily cost a seller thousands of dollars a month, for 6 or more months, to sit on a slightly over priced property. We’re talking 10’s of thousands of dollars. Why not just drop the price to begin with and generate multiple offers over a very brief time frame (with low or no carrying costs), the result of which could be a bidding war (higher sales than list price) as well as a quick closing?
Not to mention that properties which sit on the market tend to attract low-ball offers as buyers seem to sense blood in the water.
Email bob@realasave.com for any questions about the Boulder or Denver real estate market, or if you’re interested in getting 50% of our paycheck via our Buyer Rebate Program.
ConocoPhillips is our big, new neighbor up the Denver/Boulder corridor just off of Hwy 36. You probably know that they purchased a 400++ acre campus from Storage Tec a while back, and there’s been lots of news and some considerable speculation as to what their plans are.
Well, it appears as if they’re going to use the site as the research and development center on renewable energy. Good news for this area. Even better news that over the next 20 years or so they’ll ramp things up to around 7,000 employees or more. Very nice for the real estate market, and wonderful to have this type of company in the area.
I hope this acts as a draw for other renewable energy companies in the same way that Sun Microsystems and IBM have helped give us a good foundation and big draw in the technology department.
Won’t you be my….neighbor.
Shoot me an email at bob@realasave.com if you have any Denver or Boulder real estate questions, or if you want some more info about our Colorado commission rebate program where we give you 50% of our paycheck.
Should the $8,000 tax credit be extended? Should everyone just calm down already and stop writing and talking so much about the tax credit. Yes, and yes. I’ve written about it previously, and this likely won’t be the last time.
Why?
Well, in a world of bad real estate news free money! always cheers people up. Is it the right thing to do? I’m really not sure. I know that I’ve come out in favor of it in earlier posts and I still do like the idea because I can see the effect it has had on some “on-the-fence-buyers”. Enough to get them off the fence and writing on a home.
But honestly, if an $8,000 tax credit is your only reason for buying a home,then…maybe it’s not the best idea for you right now. Home ownership is an expensive commitment, and you had better have more reason than Uncle Sam’s 8k to jump in.
I recently wrote a bit about the new Boulder house size regulations and how an organization called Leave My Home Alone has formed to oppose the recently enacted rule.
I do hope this organization has some luck in their endeavors. That said, I wanted to acknowledge the spirit of the rule in regards to keeping so called “McMansions” from sprouting up all over Boulder. I understand the good intentions of the rule. I do. And even though I don’t agree with it, I do think that the City Council had good intentions when drafting it.
The main issue I have with the rule is that it was enacted by a small group of 5 City Councilmen, and was not put to a vote to Boulder residents. Boulder is home to some pretty bright folks, and I’m certain they have the brain power to digest the details and decide for themselves.
In the land of the broke, the one-nickle man is king. Let me start by stating the obvious: I may be wrong. My opinion doesn’t really mean anything. It’s just my opinion. And I’m not brilliant, just average intelligence at best. But it seems painfully obvious to me that if you encourage a new round of first-time home buyers to jump in to the real estate game when they don’t even have enough for a down payment, then you’re just asking for trouble.
This is pretty much what the current administration is doing by creating this “fake” bond market. I’ve mentioned earlier how the housing collapse took this bond market with it. It just disappeared…there was no longer a bond market where investors bought and sold mortgage-backed securities. Makes sense, right? If those securities are worthless, then who is going to buy them. Well, you are. And me. We are buying them.
The Federal Government is jumping back into the mortgage security game and plans on buying up Fannie and Freddie assets backed by state bonds in order to finance loans to first time home buyers. Part of program also helps people with BAD loans get refinancing. I’m not opposed to that at all, in fact that seems like a good idea to me. If you can take someone from an arm loan that adjusted to 12% to a fixed loan at 5% and they can avoid foreclosure, then great! I’m all for it.
My problem with this program is that it appears that we haven’t learned anything from our recent mistakes. Wouldn’t it be great if everyone could afford a home? Sure, that sounds really nice. Maybe even Utopian. But is that that case? Should we be messing around like this and continuing to encourage home ownership to people who just can’t afford it? What’s wrong with renting and saving for a down payment? I’m NOT talking about saving for a 20% down payment, no. The current FHA minimum down payment is only 3.5%. Just three and a half percent. That’s $7,000 down for a $200,000 home. Doesn’t it seem reasonable to expect a potential home owner to come up with 3.5%? And if they can’t, then that’s ok. It doesn’t mean your a bad person if you need to rent for a while in order to SAVE up that 3.5%. I’ve rented for more of my adult life than I’ve owned a home. I’m a decent guy, not some sort of miscreant.
Rent does not equal Bad. Ownership does not equal good. Let your reality dictate whether you rent or own. RESPONSIBLE home ownership is a great thing. Responsible renting is also a good thing, especially if it affords you the opportunity to SAVE some money.
One of the big debates in the City of Boulder has to do with the proposed “pops and scrapes” ordinance which will limit structure size in Boulder. This issue has been debated and detailed in many other blogs and news sites around town, so I won’t bore you with all the details. But basically, City Council wants to limit what Boulder homeowners can do with their own property. It’s not known as The People’s Republic of Boulder for no reason…
Now, in theory, this sounds fine. Who wants to wake up one morning and as Councilman Macon Cowles says, “find the Queen Mary parked next to their house?”. But the problem is that there are only about 100 6,000+ square foot homes in Boulder. And the council is aiming its actions at “preserving” neighborhoods/structures in the 1200-2000 square foot range. Those are they guys they’re protecting. But…
Listen to this interview on CPR Colorado Matters between homeowner Warren Hultquist and councilman Macon Cowles. In it, Hultquist points out that he simply wants to make an addition in order to access his basement square footage, and that his home is in the neighborhood of the 1200-2000 square foot range mentioned above. But this new ordinance would prohibit him from making such modest additions.
The part that just rubs me the wrong way about Macon Cowles’ championing of the new size limit ordinance is this: councilman Cowles lives in a 4,800 square foot home. That’s a huge home for Boulder. A huge home. Does anything about this rub you the wrong way?
Furthermore, the City Council is opposed to the idea of putting any such ordinance to a general vote because, as council member Macon Cowles says in the attached interview, the issue is too complex for laypeople to understand. Hmmmm…
I’d encourage Boulder residents to visit the website Leave My Home Alone when they have a moment. This is taken from the LMHA position statement on their website:
“The Proposed Regulations are Anti-Family and Unfair
The proposed regulations are anti-family and would unfairly restrict the right of Boulder citizens to build additions to or remodel their homes and unfairly decrease property values, thereby effectively snuffing out the hopes, plans, and dreams of people living and working in Boulder. The proposed regulations are a “one-size fits all” approach that goes too far and would prohibit many types of appropriate additions and remodels. The proposed regulations would have a disproportionate impact on relatively modest neighborhoods like Martin Acres, Aurora 7, West Highlands and Columbine. If families can’t grow in their homes, they will move elsewhere, thereby exacerbating the loss of families with children in Boulder and the declining enrollment in Boulder’s schools.”
Fair warning to all Boulder residents: you need to inform yourselves and voice your concerns to your City Council!
Uncle Sam is indicating that he’d like to use a few of our tax dollars to finance billions in loans. Great. Now, I’m all for the current $8,000.00 tax credit as I’ve seen first hand benefits for buyers I’ve been working with in the Denver and Boulder markets. But this is a much different creature.
The program I’m referring to is the one announced today by the Obama Administration whereby the Federal Government will become the new buyer in the previously evaporated mortgage-backed security market, thus allowing state agencies to fund millions of mortgages. What? Basically, when the economy and housing market imploded last year the bond market for mortgage backed securities disappeared. This caused various HFA’s (housing finance agencies) to cease giving loans or raise rates considerably. So now Uncle Sam is Subprime Sammy!, your mortgage backed security expert and buyer extraordinaire.
All kidding aside- how is the potential of this program any different than what subprime lenders did over the last decade or so to “encourage” first time buyers to jump into the market? Aren’t we currently living through the aftermath of the collapse of just such a program?
Part of this program would allow first-time buyers to use the future $8,000 tax credit as part of their down payment. Another bad idea. This means that this new round of buyers will have the same amount of skin in the game as the subprime borrowers who got 100% financing in 2003. None. So there is no incentive to stay in the game, and we might as well look forward to another massive wave of foreclosures 3-5 years from now when some of these new homeowners realize that this is not their cup of tea.
I’m all for helping first-time buyers…we do it all the time at Real-a-Save. But if a potential buyer has ZERO dollars, then maybe, just maybe, they’re NOT a potential buyer after all. FHA loans require 3.5% down right now. That’s a pretty darn good deal. Why are we looking for ways to require zero down? Isn’t that exactly what got us here in the first place?
Email bob@realasave.com if you have any real estate questions, or if you would like to know about our Colorado commission rebate program. And no, you cannot use a commission rebate towards your down payment;-)
We’re looking for some new agents in the Fort Collins, Colorado area. If you or one of your friends or family members would like to join the Real-a-Save team then please email us at bob@realasave.com, or simply call 303-415-2541.
Experience: you’ll close a higher volume of deals, and will gain more experience, thus becoming a better agent. Period. There’s really no faking experience.
Best technology and tools: maybe you’re an agent who is not up to date on things like digital signatures, blogging, social media, electronic contracts, virtual offices. We’ll show you how to use these tools in ways that your clients will love and you’ll appreciate.
A place on our site: you’ll get your own agent page on our website, giving your clients access to the best Colorado map search around. Try it, you’ll like it!
Systems: we’ll train you on the best client management systems, blogging, work-flow, and advertising.
Real-a-Save is a great company- sure, I’m biased because I own the company, but I really believe in what I’m doing. I love coming in to work- which is much more than I can say about my time in a traditional real estate company. The traditional company is set up to benefit the Brokerage. That’s it. The brokerage employs as many Broker Associates as possible (reminiscent of “Boiler Room“) and hopes that a few of them will pan out. They charge lopsided splits of up to 50% or more. Then there’s the whole “administrative fee”…but I’ve already written about that one and it’s a total joke. Not here. You’ll keep at least 90% of what you earn, and there’s no “administrative fee”.
So pass along this post if you’ve got a friend who works the Fort Collins real estate market, or just tell them to email me at bob@realasave.com. And remember that we’ve got the best Colorado rebate program around where home buyers receive 50% of our commission, see www.realasave.com for more details.
Yes, the sky has fallen. Agreed, the real estate market has been rocked over the past year and a half. Yes, the economy sucks. Yes, it’s completely annoying to hear another tool-box Realtor telling you how GREAT! everything is and WHAT A WONDERFUL TIME IT IS TO BUY!. I’m embarrassed by some of my esteemed colleagues, and completely annoyed by the NAR advertising campaign telling us how GREAT! things are. Puke.
The truth is wrapped in an old cliche: all real estate is local. Maybe it is a great time to buy. Maybe it’s an awful time to buy and you should just keep renting. It all depends on where you live and where you’re looking to buy. Sounds obvious, right?
Colorado has been hit hard, really hard, by the real estate downturn. But there are areas of relative strength. Louisville, Colorado is one of them. It doesn’t hurt that Louisville keeps getting mentioned by Money Magazine as the best place to live. It also doesn’t hurt that it’s a great little town with a lot going for it. But there are a lot of great little towns with a lot going for them that are AWFUL places to buy right now. What sets this one apart?
Conoco Phillips just purchased an office campus a few minutes from Louisville in the Northwest corridor between Denver and Boulder. There are future jobs. They’re building an office tower. Future jobs. IBM, Sun Microsystems,WhiteWave Foods, and Amgen (just to name a few) are some of the big companies just a stone’s throw from Louisville.
But really, the proof is in the pudding. There were 21 sales in Louisville in the last 30 days where the sellers got almost 98% of list price. Anecdotal point: every time we represent a buyer in Louisville it seems that we’re in a competing offer situation; the last home we sold in Louisville was on the market for one weekend before we had 2 offers. Louisville is a good place to buy. Period. Great lifestyle, Boulder Valley Schools, lots of technology jobs.
No kidding.
Check out all the Louisville, Colorado homes for sale on this map search link. And email bob@realasave.com if you have any Denver, Boulder, or Louisville, real estate questions. And remember that we rebate 50% of our commission back to you in our Colorado rebate program.
