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.

Your 7-year-old kid could come up with a better short sale process than the ones currently being implemented by some of the largest banks in the country.  Any kid who ever traded baseball cards knows what it’s like to have a hot commodity.   Ask your kid which of these strategies he’d use if he had a baseball card that 4 of his friends wanted: would he a) ask one friend at a time what they’d trade him for without checking what the other friends would be willing to trade, or would he  b) ask all of his friends what they’d like to pay/trade, gather all the bids and THEN make his decision.

The answer is obvious.  What good does it do to have a hot commodity if you don’t allow the bidders to feel the heat?  But banks are currently employing strategy “a” from the stupid example above.  No kidding.  I was dealing with a bank today, let’s call them Schmank of  Unmerica, and the short sale property in Denver had 3 interested parties.  But the bank would only CONSIDER one offer at a time.  And they go all the way with that offer.  Meaning, it takes weeks/months for that single offer to make it through to someone in negotiations/review and then they make a decision on that single offer without considering any of the waiting offers.   And if that offer does not work, well, then our genius bank moves on to offer #2…and ONLY offer #2.  And maybe that one works out.

Why wouldn’t a bank simply go back to all 4 interested bidders and ask for their best and highest by 4pm tomorrow?  And then go with the best offer?  Isn’t that the best thing for their bottom line?

Short sales are the monster just below the surface of our economy.   These monsters are having an awful impact on property values, and are accounting for substantial losses at banks.  Losses that our government has shown it’s willing to use our tax dollars to rectify.

Email bob@realasave.com if you have any short sale questions, or if you just want to discuss Denver/Boulder real estate.

But if you are looking for a place that is slightly more removed from the congestion of downtown Denver, then you may want to consider Broomfield.

Take a look at our spotlight property of the week: 14143 Fairway Ln, Broomfield presented by Real Estate of the Rockies.  Five bedrooms and five baths spread out over 5,200 square feet all for only $899,000.

If this is not your style, then just check out all of the other active listings in Broomfield.

You can also search many other Metro Denver cities and towns on our new information pages.

• Custom home-search feature
• Detailed neighborhood pages
• Easier navigation
• Comparable sales information
• Home-valuation tool information
• Saved search feature
• Emailed update feature- allows you to receive the most recent listings every morning

We’ll be adding to the website on a daily basis. A couple items that we’ll be bringing to you in the very near future include:

• MLS listings for Summit County and Colorado Springs. Soon thereafter we will have coverage of the entire state of Colorado.
• Detailed schools information

We hope you enjoy the new site. Feel free to contact us with any feedback at info@realasave.com

Most people who decide on new construction go directly to the builder and talk to one of their sales reps. That’s just fine, and most builder sales reps are very honest people. If you take a representative with you to help in negotiations you might be surprised at how helpful it can be.

When you work in real estate for a living you get accustomed to asking for concessions and being a stickler for price–in essence you become a negotiator. The key to successful negotiations is not to simply ask for the moon and then settle for something much less, but rather it is a combination of attitude and experience, which results in a win-win for both parties.

Our culture is not a negotiating culture. We don’t go to the market and haggle with the folks at Safeway over the price of apples. We simply pay the asking price. So most Americans don’t have experience starting at one asking price and then working their way down. Or, throwing in various concessions that ultimately net a lower price. Real estate professionals do this for a living. We’re constantly engaged in some sort of back and forth with buyer and seller representatives. Now, it’s not as if we’re seated in a dark, smoky room for hours on end making offers and counter offers…that’s just not how negotiations work. But we rely on our experience (what sort of incredible bargains has this builder given in the past? Have we used building concessions, mechanical concessions, or financing incentives in the past with this builder?) to guide us in advising our clients in structuring an aggressive offer that the builder may accept.

So if you are considering buying new construction we’d advise bringing a negotiator with you. You might be surprised at what a bargain you get.

just loves the place. Camp Bow Wow isn’t just another kennel. The dogs hang out together all day, and dog owners can check in from time to time throughout the day via their webcam.

Worried about your dog?

Don’t. Camp Bow Wow puts each new “camper” through an interview of sorts that usually lasts several hours. They won’t just take any old dog- they make sure that the dog is properly social and non-violent. Once they complete the interview, the dog gets his diploma and is welcome to come back for a half-day, full-day, or overnight.

For more information about Camp Bow Wow visit their website or call 1-877-700-BARK.

My wife was recently running on a trail in Broomfield with our dog George. She looked back to see George surrounded by 3 coyotes not a few inches away. Dog and wife started running (maybe not the best choice) away, and believe it or not the coyotes pursued for about 30 seconds. It took some serious screaming on Michelle’s part to get them to stop the chase.

Now our dog is not the brightest bulb in the chandelier, so he may have approached the coyotes as potential playmates, and they may have been protecting their young. But to actually chase after someone for that amount of time seems a bit unusual.

Fair warning: keep an eye out for coyotes in Broomfield! Sometimes we get reminders that we share colorful Colorado with lots of wildlife.

The Arista lofts pictured below from their website:

And one of Denver’s hottest night spots will be coming to Arista as well: The Purple Martini will open in 2007.

The sharks must have smelled blood when I contacted my first real estate agent. This guy was a complete nightmare. Once he’d established that I knew nothing of how the typical transaction worked he made sure that I understood that it was normal for the client drive to the agent’s house to deliver paperwork, sign documents, and plan our outings.

This knucklehead’s dog bit me a couple of times (just scratches, but still…) and he tried to blame me for “looking scared”.

This gem actually called me his “no balls client” once while we were looking at homes in a particularly nasty neighborhood. I expressed my reluctance to purchase a fixer in this area and he (jokingly) referred to me as his (see above) client.

He took a two-week vacation one week before my closing and didn’t tell me.

He once called me to complain about his “high-maintenance first time buyer” who was driving him crazy. The problem was that he thought he’d dialed the mortgage broker’s number when he’d mistakenly dialed mine, so he was complaining to me about me.

I reached my breaking point and demanded that another agent at his offic work with me, so he quickly referenced our contract and said that if I wanted to buy a house within the next six months, then it would have to be with him.

There is a happy ending (how Hollywood!) because the Realtor whom he sent to attend the closing while he was on vacation ending up becoming a good friend of mine and is one of the reasons I got into real estate in the first place.

My nightmare experience as a first time home buyer continues to inspire me to take extra good care of the folks who have no clue about how real estate works. Even if they don’t list or buy with me I always try to arm them with a little knowledge so they’ll never be treated the way I was.