Snow Mold... how to cure it.

With all the snow we received in Denver, we have something unique this year... snow mold. It is brown rings in your grass. This is a virus that can cause some serious damage to your lawn if you don't treat it soon.
Simply use a leaf rake to collect the dead-infected areas. Gather them up and dispose of them.
For more info, check out one of these websites:
http://www.nutrilawn.com/snowmold.htm
http://www.uri.edu/ce/factsheets/prints/snowmoldsprint.html

Bigger home... not so fast.

Lenders are closing their doors, and new lenders are not popping up as fast. Why? Because the government has finally stepped in to monitor lenders. The lenders are now required to be licensed and have background checks. Buying a house can still be painless, but getting in over your head will be harder.
The government is tired of the foreclosures and homeowners are too. Now, the buyer will be getting into a loan they can afford today and will still be able to afford two or three years from now.
FHA loans will be popular again in the future and the adjustable rate mortgages will be disappearing. This is a good thing. We surely don’t ever want to get someone into a house they can’t afford today or tomorrow.

7 Mortgage plans to choice from.

Here is a breakdown of 7 different types of mortgages and there payments based on a $240,000 loan. 30 year Fixed Rate: Currently a 6.7% interest rate, and your payment would be $1,544. 30 year Interest Only: Currently 7.5% interest rate, and your payment would be $1,350. 15 year Fixed Rate: Currently a 6.22% interest rate, and your payments would be $2,052. 1 Year ARM: Currently a 5.71% interest rate, and your payments would be $1,387. 3 Year Hybrid ARM: Currently a 6.31% interest rate, and your payments would be $1,476. Option ARM: Currently a 1% interest rate, and your payments would be $772. 50 year Loan: Currently a 7% interest rate, and your payments would be $1,402. If you want to discuss these loans more, please contact us at 720.373.2669.

Spring Cleaning

The spring cleaning time is a good time to do a lot of house matenience around the home. It allows you to keep you home up, which is important two ways. One, if and when you put your home on the market, having those little things done around the house will make your home show so much better and will make it easier to get an offer. A dirty home, worn out home does not show as well and makes it harder to sell. Another nice thing, if you do the spring cleaning you will be able to enjoy those nice things about your home instead of the new buyer only enjoying them.

Over 29,000 homes to choose from!

Last year at this time there were 24,360 homes on the market. This month there are 29,045 homes on the Denver Metro Real Estate market. What does this mean? There is A LOT of competition. This is good for a buyer, where one owner might not take your offer, but the guy next door might. As a seller, it is not so good. You will see lower offers from buyers and you might not get as much as you were hoping for.

higher interest rates still good

Yes, interest rates are going up. Yes, they are higher than they have been in the past 4 years. But rates are still good. They are not where they were 6 years ago or even back in the 1980's. Can you imagine if you had a 11% interest rate from 1980's? At 7% on a $250,000 loan, your payment would be $1,663. With a 11% interest rate that payment would be $2,381!!! So if you are thinking about buying, don't hesitate. Do it now before the rates get higher.

Marketing your home... WEBSITES?

In today's real estate market, the best Realtors are seeing the light and are beginning to use tomorrow's technology. This means websites, blackberries, wireless laptops, digital phones, etc. etc. etc. With these new things, people are getting away from print material. Jen and I use over 22 websites to market our homes. This includes Google, Realtor.com, Craigslist and many others top websites. We have 6 of our own websites and are working on 2 more as we speak. In New York City, agents that are not up on today's technology are getting fired. If they can't give a client information right then on the spot with the latest means, the buyer/seller moves on to someone who can.