In its most recent September issue, Denver’s 5280 Magazine announced the 2011 Five Star Professional Awards for Denver Real Estate Agents and I was one of the fortunate agents selected! The elite group of award winning agents represents less than 7% of Real Estate agents in the Denver metro area, so to be recognized by peers and clients is a true honor. Many thanks to my wonderful buyers and sellers-you are the reason I was chosen and my goal is to continue to provide future clients with the same degree of quality service for which I have become known!
Patsy Brown
If you are a first-time home buyer there are some wonderful financial and educational programs that may be available to you or someone you know. Even if you don’t need or want to qualify for the financial assistance programs, consider utilizing the educational resources and attend free home-buying classes.
Financial Resources:
The Denver United Way has a matched savings program, the Individual Development Account (IDA) , that matches $4 for every $1 saved, up to $1000 participant contribution. That means a total of $5000 available for the qualified participant! The program and funds are for Education, Business or Real Estate (First-Time Home Buyers only). This program educates participants on personal finance and encourages savings. There are income qualifications as well as specific program requirements. This is a wonderful opportunity for a financial boost to those who qualify.
Take Root Denver is another great resource for programs to support Denver Neighborhood home ownership.
U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development (HUD) has a list of Home Ownership Assistance for Colorado that includes program by County, City and State Wide Programs.
The Colorado Housing and Finance Authority (CHFA) offers:
Workshops are conducted monthy by NEWSED’s Housing Counselor. Learn how to strategically buy their first home. Workshops are held every 3rd Saturday of the month from 10:00a.m. to 3:00p.m. If you are interested in attending you must RSVP to Cecilia Cervantes at 303-534-8342 x 107 or Mercedes Fuentes at 303-534-8342 x 124.
Community Resources and Housing Development Corporation
Neighborhood Stabilization Program round 2 (NSP2) focuses on the North Denver Metro areas of Thornton, Northglenn, Westminster, Arvada and unincorporated Adams County and the San Luis Valley: South Alamosa, Monte Vista, Del Norte, Walsenburg, and Hayden; as well as portions of Costilla, Saguache and Conejos counties.
NSP2 Home Buyer Assistance Loan offers a forgivable loan to qualified borrowers set at a minimum five thousand dollars ($5,000.00) and up to twenty-five percent (25%) of the homes appraised value, depending on need, with the maximum amount of assistance capped at fifty thousand dollars ($50,000). The loan is recorded as a second mortgage lien with a fifteen (15) year forgivable affordability period.
Calling Denver Developers:
There are low interest loans available to create and/or maintain housing affordable to lower-income persons. Funds can be used to acquire land/property and to construct or rehabilitate rental or for-sale units. Bridge loans are also available. Get more information here
Last Thursday, the City of Denver Office of Economic Development posted a Request for Proposal (RFP) for the Neighborhood Stabilization Program 3 (NSP3) Request for Proposals (RFP) for Single-Family Homebuyer Housing Development affecting (Tier 1) Globeville and West Colfax and (Tier 2) Elyria Swansea and Villa Park.
This is great news so stay tuned for more opportunities to support home ownership in these neighborhoods.
Please pass the word to anyone you know who would benefit from these great programs. If you know of a program that helps our low income residents experience the benefits of home ownership please post a comment with relevant links.
I had the privilege of being asked to attend the open night of Opera Colorado’s Cinderella recently and it was truly enchanting from start to finish! La Cenerentola (Cinderella) was Rossini’s highly comical rendition of the classic fairytale. If you have a chance, do not miss this presentation, you won’t be disappointed!
According to a recent article in the Denver Business Journal, Generation Y’s are poised to come to the rescue of a weak real estate market; these children of Baby Boomers are bringing their strength in numbers-some 70- 80 million of them- to the forefront of the real estate market and there is little doubt they will have an impact. So who are these buyers and what kinds of properties are they looking for? Gen Y born after 1980, is the largest generation since the Baby Boomers to hit the streets…they grew up with technology and use it advantageously.
“They always have a phone in their hand. They’re always using tech. They have no learning curve with it because they’ve grown up with it,” said Mitch Levinson, managing partner of mRelevance LLC in Arlington Heights.
Gen Y is already generating a huge pool of first time home buyers… “Gen Y is buying homes at an earlier age than the preceding Gen X, and tends to spend more on their first home,” said Steven Lewkowitz, director of professional services for the home building and real estate group at Atlanta-based CDC Software. So how do these buyers go about finding a home-?…they put their technological skills to work and do online research using the web and social networks. They expect the same level of service from their realtors-instant information that is correct and understandable. According to Brian Buffini, agents who do not keep up with the technological aspect of their business most likely will not be able to take advantage of this pool of home buyers.
April 1st marks the beginning of a lot of things:
- April Fools Day
- the beginning of the second quarter of the year
- the monthly First Friday Art Walk on Santa Fe
- the Colorado Rockies Season Opener at Coors Field against the Arizona Diamondbacks, and
-
the beginning of Denver’s street sweeping season
From April through November, Denver residents need to be aware of their street sweeping schedule. Signs are posted near both ends of the block. It’s a minor inconvenience but it’s just one among many of the contributing factors to Denver being such a gorgeous city. Here are some helpful tips:
Take a picture of the sign on your street, keep it in your cell phone (create a contact for “parking”)
Enter the no-parking dates on your calendar and set a notification reminder
Follow this link to the Denver Street Sweeping notification and sign up for reminder emails
Even if you have the luxury of parking in a garage, you want to be aware of these dates. Give guests and service providers a head’s up if they are coming to your home on street sweeping day.
Realtors: be aware of street sweeping dates for all your properties. Providing this information to the Buying Agents showing the property you are representing is an added touch they will appreciate.
Hopefully, by being aware of the street sweeping season, you can avoid getting a citation. In the unfortunate event you get a parking ticket, you can pay it online 24/7 through the City of Denver’s OnLine Service Center.
Getting a parking ticket on April Fools Day… or anytime… is no joking matter.
Denver’s 49th Annual St. Patrick’s Day Parade will be this Saturday, March 12th starting at 10:00 a.m. with the theme “Forever Green” and the LoDo and Downtown streets will be alive in green celebration!!
The first official parade in 1962 was a one vehicle float, about 500 participants, and a few spectators but it was the spontaneous wee parade of three men, Marranzino, Fenwick and Eakins and a pocket size American Flag in 1961 that kicked off the tradition that has grown to what we now enjoy as the parade lasting over three hours long, winding through Denver’s downtown streets and enjoyed by over 200,000 spectators. (source)
Get the details: The parade route will start off from Coors Field at 27th and Blake… then Blake west to 17th… 17th to Wynkoop … Wynkoop back to Coors Field. Click HERE for parade map, street closures and additional parade details. Do your part in going Green to Forever Green and take the light rail or RTD.. not only will you save yourself the hassle of traffic and parking, you can enjoy the festivities and imbibe without worries of DUI (nobody needs that!)
Enjoy some music:
The Indulgers will be playing at Fado Irish Pub on Saturday March 12th. You can catch them at various locations throughout the month (click on their “shows” tab in the widget above.
Congratulations to the Grand Marshal, Roz Brown and Queen Colleen, Keriayn O’Donnell. Keriayn is a senior at CSU majoring in Animal Science. She will be going to Ireland to compete in the Rose of Tralee International Festival. Take a glimpse of Roz Brown performing on the Autoharp below. You can still catch him at the Buckhorn Exchange from Thursday through Saturday where he’s been performing for over 30 years.
Visit the Denver St. Patrick’s Day Parade website for more information on Denver’s parade, slideshows of past parades and more.
“a reprieve from lent“….
Looking for some Irish Pubs and Restaurants? Here is a list of local pubs within “crawling” distance of each other (in alphabetical order)
Casey’s 7301 E 29th St. (720) 974-7350
Celtic Tavern 1801 Blake St. (303) 306-1795
Dougherty’s 5 E. Ellsworth (303) 777-5210
Fado Irish Pub 725 19th St. (303) 297-0066
Irish Snug 1201 East Colfax Ave. (303) 839-1394. They’re having the 8th Annual Capitol Hill Hooley from Friday, March 11th – Thursday, March 17th with Irish Bands, Step Dancers and Pipe Bands (full schedule details and $5 admission)
Irish Rover 54 S. Broadway (303) 282-4643
Katie Mullen’s 16th Street Mall (Sheraton) (303) 573-0336
Nallen’s 15th & Market St. (303) 572-0667 Denver’s oldest pub!
Scruffy Murphy’s 2030 Larimer St. (303) 291-6992
An Irish Blessing:
May your day be touched
by a bit of Irish luck,
brightened by a song in your heart,
and warmed by the smiles
of the people you love.
Be Safe and Have Fun!
Happy St. Patrick’s Day
Feb 192011
About 2-1/2 years ago a friend of mine (not in Real Estate) happened to mention that she had a terrific assistant and if I was interested, she would share her contact information. The timing was really good for me- I had an active website that I was constantly trying to keep updated and had taken on some extra duties in an organization that was requiring more of my time- in addition to the usual realtor related showings, advertising and marketing needs as well as working with as many buyers & sellers as possible in a challenging market.
So began a wonderful working relationship with Pam Tanino, my Virtual Assistant. Pam didn’t begin as a virtual assistant, she began by coming to my house to work a few mornings a week. Having no previous experience in the world of real estate, Pam enthusiastically tackled learning the language and nuances of the business. She caught on extraordinarily fast and in no time, was in total control of my website. She was a wealth of IT information and a whiz at Excel Spreadsheets. With the advent of better technology, we decided she could work just as well from her home after the first year.
Pam now knows Sharper Agent, Virtual Office from Hillside Software, Advanced Access for websites, our company Kentwood sites and a variety of blog sites. She does Craigs List, Trulia, Active Rain and Word Press, Realtor.com, Tour Factory, Obeo, and Denver’s Metrolist.
If I spring a new site on her, she has it mastered in a matter of hours where it would take me days or even weeks to figure out!
She is creative and always looking for ways to increase my SEO or coming up with new marketing ideas for the website or properties. It was Pam who told me a year ago I needed to change to a blog-based website and was way ahead of the game introducing me to QR Codes.
So if you haven’t tried using a Virtual Assistant, I would really recommend looking into it…as agents we need to be spending more time getting in front of our clients rather than our computers and a good Virtual Assistant will allow you to do that!
My New Year’s resolution this year was to make time to ski every Monday…I dutifully put it on my calendar and bought a Winter Park ski pass. I had gotten a really fine pair of K2 Free Love skis at the end of last season so I was all set- or so I thought! When it came time to put on my 10 year old boots, my feet rebelled-it took me a full 10 minutes of painful stuffing and hopping around to get my feet in the boots. Rats! this would never do…I went to a local ski shop and tried on several pairs of boots-none felt very good and it was still a struggle to get them on…sigh… I knew it was time to pay a visit to Jacques Thomas at Le Feet Lab in Winter Park.
Jacques is the quintessential professional when it comes to fitting boots- he’s been doing it at Winter Park for over 30 years so he got right to work: first making a custom orthotic for both feet while heating up the boots. Next he put the orthotics in the boots had me stand up and simply said, “pull the tag in the back of the boot and slide your foot in.” I’m thinking, “yea, right”…but lo and behold! My foot effortlessly slipped into the boot- I felt just like Cinderella. Jacques told me to walk around in both boots and flex…no problem, I told him I could dance in those boots they fit so well and were so comfortable!
If the boots need to be tweaked, Jacques will do so at no cost. Are they more expensive than regular boots- yes, of course- you are getting custom fitted boots and orthotics but is it worth it? Yes, oh yes and these boots will last me a long, long time!
To paraphrase Charles Dickens, it was the best of closings and the worst of closings as I started the New Year off this January. My first closing was with First American Title Co. I was the listing agent so got to choose the title company. I had never used First American before but had been very impressed with their title rep, Tom Martinez and their closer,Patti Vanbuskirk over the course of several meetings. Both checked in with me frequently during the course of the transaction and all paperwork was delivered in a very timely and efficient manner. The day before the closing Tom called and asked if there was anything he could do to make the closing better for me and my sellers. I told him I would love to have some champagne to celebrate once all the papers were signed. I had also requested that the closing take place at ourKentwood Cherry Creek office since that was more convenient for all the parties involved. The big day arrived, we had a flawless, very professional closing with all parties relaxed and enjoying themselves. When Tom brought out the champagne to top it all off, there were oohs and ahhs of appreciation! The last impression my sellers had was a most positive one and they have repeatedly said they would recommend me to all their friends and family.
The second closing was so different in every aspect from start to finish: I was the selling agent representing the buyers so did not choose the title company. My clients and I arrived early for the late morning closing along with the sellers, their agent and an interpreter. We waited almost a full 30 minutes for the closer to make her appearance even though she was in the building. Her first order of business was to prop herself up on the seat with one leg tucked under and make whoopee cushion noises for no one’s entertainment but her own. She continually tried to talk over both the sellers and the buyers to the listing agent at the far end of the table to inquire about other properties. When my buyer had some questions, she would cut her off and make her feel bad for asking the question saying that she was a seasoned closer and knew what she was doing. It was by far the most unprofessional closing I have ever witnessed. My buyers were equally appalled and being from out of state, not terribly impressed with their first Colorado closing!
So question answered- you bet the Title Company is important…your title company will determine what your client’s last impression is of you and your company. Even more importantly, if they don’t cross their “T”s and dot their “I”s you and your company could pay the price. Your goal as a realtor is to provide your client with the best services possible from start to finish and that includes choosing a well respected and reputable title company.
Oct 092010
Late last week I closed on a home of some good friends who were moving out of state, so when I took the listing in an upscale neighborhood I knew it had to sell quickly. These sellers were awesome, they did all the right things to get their home sold quickly: they painted, de cluttered and kept the house in top showing condition. But probably the most important step they took was to get an appraisal prior to putting their home on the market.
It’s certainly no secret that buyers no longer determine market value- lenders and appraisers do- so it made sense to have that input. When the appraisal came back around $25,000 less than what the sellers were expecting, they were not happy. When I told them they needed to price the home under the appraisal, they REALLY were not happy! I explained that in today’s market, buyers not only want, but expect to get a deal…pricing a property under the appraised value is a sure way to get that point across.
Long story short, the home went Under Contract in 11 days with a cash buyer. My sellers were thrilled and at closing said the peace of mind they had was literally priceless. It allowed them to concentrate on their new jobs and explore a new part of the country. Any doubts they may have had in the beginning were long gone as they said goodbye to their neighbors and the 30+ unsold homes in their area.
