What the Fed Wants Buyers to Do
September 24th, 2009 categories: Real Estate News
The Federal Reserve kept the Fed Funds Rate low again yesterday in their monthly meeting. This rate is used for banks as a benchmark for their overnight lending to each other, and is a short-term rate.
Mortgage rates track with the bond market, and not the Fed Funds Rate, however, conventional wisdom suggests that the Federal Reserve governors feel that inflation isn’t yet a risk, and that rates should remain low to keep the recovery moving forward.
With rates low for, “an extended period,” there should be no doubt in buyers’ minds that now is a good time to buy. When rates begin to rise, which may be as early as the beginning of next year, they will probably rise rapidly.
Your buying power will be quickly eroded if the rates go up even 1% and they will likely end up quite a bit higher than they are today. I remember buying my first house and assuming a 9% loan - we thought that was great relative to where rates had been!
Get into you lender’s office soon and find out what you could pre-qualify for. You may be surprised, and this is a great opportunity to take advantage of low housing prices.
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Gretchen Faber Named 2009 REALTOR of the Year at the Denver Board of REALTORS
September 14th, 2009 categories: Real Estate News
DENVER – Gretchen Faber, managing broker of The Kentwood Company at Cherry Creek, has garnered the prestigious “Realtor of the Year” award from the Denver Board of Realtors (DBR). Faber was honored during the DBR’s 121st Annual Inaugural Celebration held September 11th at Coors Field. The recipient of the coveted award must exemplify sincere dedication to the real estate profession, possess strong leadership skills that are reflected in his or her business achievements, be actively involved in civic endeavors, and show a sincere devotion to local, state, and national Realtor associations.
Gretchen Faber earned her real estate license in 1996 and was among the original brokers at The Kentwood Company at Cherry Creek in 1998. She has served in numerous positions with the DBR, including chairman of the organization’s International Roundtable, and member of the India Ambassador Trade Missions planning committee, grievance committee, and board of directors. Faber is a Certified International Property Specialist, a trustee of the Metro Denver Realtor Foundation, a member of the National Association of Realtors’ (NAR) board of directors, and she is a Colorado Association of Realtors and NAR approved course instructor.
“Gretchen is much more than a top-producing broker and outstanding manager,” said Peter Niederman, chief operating officer of The Kentwood Companies. “She is one of the most ethical, professional and seasoned brokers in the industry. Gretchen is among the most trusted and admired real estate agents in metro Denver and her accomplishments are impressive by any standard. We are extremely proud of her and there is no one more deserving of the Realtor of the Year honor. We are fortunate to have her as a member of the Kentwood family. On behalf of our owners, managers, staff, and broker associates, I wish to extend a sincere ‘congratulations’ to a very deserving award recipient and friend.”
Faber’s community involvement is extensive. She is a sponsor and participant in Camp Experience, a member of Women for Women International, and has served on the silent auction committee for the Children’s Hospital Foundation. Past activities have included membership in World Trade Center Denver, chairman of Kentwood’s Adopt-a-Family committee, Center for Hearing, Speech and Language fundraising committee, and the Junior League of Denver.
Faber became managing broker of Kentwood’s Cherry Creek office in 2006. She is responsible for recruiting, supervising new and current broker associates, and directing a staff of seven while providing support for nearly 70 top-producing broker associates. Faber earned her B.A. and MBA degrees from the University of Denver and has served as adjunct instructor at the Community College of Denver. She is known for her expertise in relocation, international real estate, foreign national clients, and Denver’s most desirable and historic neighborhoods. Faber has traveled with broker associate Julie Hummel to India to learn and to assist Indian colleagues as they struggled to build a real estate profession based on the prototype of the NAR.
The DBR’s 121st Inaugural Celebration was hosted by Vic Lombardi of CBS4 Sports. The “Baseball Formal Event” included dinner and cocktails, a live performance by Robert Johnson of the 17th Street All-Stars, installation of new DBR president Mark Trenka, and much more.
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Denver Colorado Real Estate | August 2009 Market Statistics
September 9th, 2009 categories: Market Trends, Real Estate News
When looking at trends in anything, you want to take in the big picture, and then boil it down as necessary.
Real Estate in Denver is certainly showing a definite trend in the amount of inventory available. Month after month this year, we’ve experienced a depletion in homes for sale. In August, we’re at a low we haven’t seen since at least 2004, (my reporting doesn’t go back any further than 1/05.) There are only 3 months in these past 5 years where our inventory was less than today’s 20,225 and that was December 2008 with 19,600 available properties, Jan’09 with 19,748 and February ‘09 20,059. I would call that a normal seasonal adjustment, as well as an adjustment to the immediate economic cliff we’d just fallen off.
Today’s low inventory is more than just a seasonal slow-down for the winter. It’s still 90 degrees here, and I had 45 people through an open house last weekend.
And look how many condos went under contract this past month! Up nearly 5% from July. That’s a reflection of most condos’ price-points being lower than single family, and condos are great starter homes for many people.
We have a number of contributing factors:
- Pent-up demand. Buyers are off the fence.
- Rates are still at historical lows.
- Great looking and well-priced houses are selling pretty quickly (average days-on-market is only 3 months.)
- Denver’s economy is beginning to pick up steam. The City and County of Denver has to balance a difficult budget, as does the state, but overall in-migration is on an upswing.
- Investors are swooping in and buying up property.
While our average price is down from this year’s high in June of $258,000, it’s the mix of properties that are selling which is skewing this number low. Homes priced from $100,000 to $300,000 are getting multiple bids, making it increasingly difficult for first-time home buyers to compete. Homes priced from $300,000 to $500,000 are taking a little longer, but are still in that sweet spot of a likely sale. Homes above $500,000 and especially over $1,000,000 are taking much longer and homes in the very high-end are competing against several years’ worth of inventory.
The take-away this month? If you’re thinking about buying a home soon, better get looking right away. Not only is the first-time home buyer tax credit set to expire at the end of November, but with fall and winter upon us soon, we’ll probably not see inventory (and your choice of houses) increase until after the first of the year.
Sellers? Your take-away is to continue to react to what the market is telling you. If you’ve been on the market more than 30 days and/or 30 showings then you need to adjust. What’s your feedback telling you? How do you compare with the houses currently on the market and most-importantly with the homes that sold while yours has been on the market? If you’re not willing to remodel the kitchen, replace the carpet or finish the basement then you need to adjust the price. If you’re in a compromised location like a busy street, you haven’t quantified that enough yet. And if you’re not getting any showings and no feedback, then you need to drastically reduce the price until feet begin walking through the door. If you aren’t willing or able to, then your house isn’t really on the market yet so consider taking it off (if you can) and waiting a little longer for better timing.
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Denver’s Dog Love Affair
September 7th, 2009 categories: Life In Denver
My sister often says, “you can’t live in Denver without owning a dog!”
She’s only half exaggerating. Her two passed away a few years ago, and with a traveling job and two young children, she’s decided to hold off on adopting another.
I married a cat person, and since my dogs were also long departed, it made no sense to add more chaos into our blended family. Actually, my husband is an animal person in general, he just so happened to have cats when we met.
Last year, I was taking my son to the sporting goods store for a few things, and we noticed a doggie adoption clinic going on next door in the parking lot. It was the weekend of Hurricane Ike, and most of the dogs had been brought up from Texas. I told Joe that we could go say hi and give the dogs some love, but we wouldn’t be taking one home.
One took us home.
Duke was the cutest, and saddest dog I’ve ever seen. He reeked of depression and desperation. He looked up at us with his big brown eyes and said, “Get me the hell out of here.” The other dogs were doing flips and handstands to get the attention of anyone willing to take a chance on them. Duke was laying in his cage with his back to it all and didn’t move a muscle, even with flies crawling on his face. Joe said, “Mom, I like this one!” So did I.
I called my husband and he said, “Where are you and what’s all that noise?” I asked him to come see if he liked this dog named Duke who needed a home immediately. He declined coming over, suggesting that if he came we’d be taking them all home. His only questions was, “Does he look like he can run with me?”
Duke has been in our family for one year now, and I think my husband loves him more than he does me! We all love Duke, he gets loads of attention, lots of exercise and he’s totally come out of his shell. He’s truly the best dog we’ve ever had. He walks off leash and would never run, he stays in our yard, he listens, he plays well with all other dogs and never tries to get into a pecking order battle and he gets protective when he needs to.
We’ve entered Duke into the Cutest Dog Competition as a way to bring attention to rescue dogs. While I love full-bred dogs, for sure, I think this mutt is king. We had him DNA tested and he turns out to be a Golden Retriever/Shar Pei mix.
Please go to Duke Faber’s site for the cutest dog and vote for him every day this week. The voting started yesterday and ends on Saturday 9/12. There’s another dog way ahead, so we need to get out the vote! You can vote once per day for the same dog, and they’ll ask you to register first with your email so they can tell that the voting is fair.
So help out needy animals and vote for Duke!
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Mortgage Caution - Delays in Closings Will Happen!
September 3rd, 2009 categories: Real Estate News, Relocation Tips
A broker in my office came to me yesterday with some questions about a seller’s recourse if the loan doesn’t fund at closing.
Colorado is a “table closing” state, and our contract expressly states that the buyer must attend the closing with all moneys and documents. This means that if a closing is at 4 p.m. on a Wednesday, as this broker’s closing was, the buyer and the buyer’s lender must perform under the terms of the contract at 4 p.m.
This lender had a lackadaisical attitude, ignored the new HERA/HOEPA regulations and essentially didn’t do his job. He was told on August 23rd that there was a slight change in the final figures, but he failed to disclose the change to the buyer.
Under the new regulations, any change upward to the buyer’s APR (over 1/8%) must be disclosed in writing to that buyer and the closing can’t happen until 3 days after the disclosure is made.
The loan broker did not disclose the resulting change in APR to the buyer until yesterday, the day of the closing. Actually, it was the second date for the closing, since this lender also didn’t order the appraisal on time (another story.)
Real Estate Buyers - Caution!
You are at risk to lose your earnest money in Colorado if you aren’t prepared to close at the date and time the closing is scheduled in the contract. In this case, the earnest money was $8,000. You lender and your real estate broker must be watching out for you and advising you. How could you possibly keep up with the changes in our industry? It’s obvious that many lenders and real estate brokers aren’t even keeping up. If the real estate broker in this instance had been on top of her game, she would have hounded the loan broker to get his disclosures out.
Her managing broker is helping her out, and using this as a “teaching moment” by paying the sellers’ damages. This equates to their loan per diem until the closing and various other pro-rations and charges. He’s a good broker and stepped up to the plate immediately because he understood that we must not stand in the way of a buyer and seller finalizing the transaction, or risk our clients’ earnest money. I’m sure he’ll also go after that lender for leaving him hanging in the wind like that.
This added level of complexity makes it more essential than ever that you hire a professional and seasoned real estate broker and that you listen when they tell you what to look for in your lender.
Don’t leave your earnest money to chance.
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