Sellers Beware! This very boring post is what your home looked like to my very Qualified buyers, if it even showed up at all!: I have spoken on this topic numerous times in the past, and every single time I see a listing like this, it drives me nuts. In a day and age when we have so much technology at our fingertips how can any "professional agent" list a home without a photo?  I work primarily as a buyers agent, meaning the majority of clients I work with are buyers (I will also list homes but I am very selective on only listing homes for sellers that are willing to do everything I suggest to get their home sold fast and for top dollar). The one common denominator with every single buyer I work with is this- Major mistake number one- If a home does not have pictures when it goes on th... 03/18/2012

Feedback is critical- From everyone's perspective - I just filled out a feedback request from an agent, I had sent feedback the day after showing the home, but it was for one of those automated feedback request forms that really does not get the true feedback, I am including the actual follow up request as well as the conversation, I really believe that having feedback helps the listing agent (my wife Jennifer is the buyers agent): Jennifer, could you please take a moment and think back to Saturday?  You showed our property and I'd love to know how that went.  What can you tell me?  Is there anything we can do to improve our impact?  What did your client think of the house?  What did YOU think of the house and how it came across?  Did you do any investigation of the price?  Any suggesti... 02/16/2012

Buy Low- Sell High- How many times have you heard this and wished you had listened? When do the rich get richer? When everyone else is getting poorer, or in real estate, when the market is at the bottom. When does the majority of the public decide it is a good time to buy or sell? Long after the wave of great opportuniites have come and gone. Let me ask you, are you buying gold right now? Are you seeing all of the commercials and ads for people buying gold and paying top dollar, it may be the ideal time to sell gold, but it is not an ideal time to buy it. When everyone jumps on board you can bet you have missed the boat.  So guess who is buying all the real estate right now, cash buyers! They are buying up all the low end housing they can get their hands on because they know we are at t... 02/13/2012

If you are waiting for the bottom, YOU MISSED IT! - Real estate is as local as the temperature. When the general public sees reports about the overall industry they need to consult with an experienced agent in their local market just as they would watch the local weather to see what is really happening in their area. If the average temperature in the country is 58 degrees, you had better believe the temperature at your house is completely different. I typically work with more buyers than sellers and many over the past year have been sitting on the fence trying to time the market. Locally, and I mean very locally, the south metro Denver market prices have started to appreciate again and this has been going on for the past 4-5 months in the under $250K price range. The really nice homes i... 02/11/2012

A survey to those that Know me, Like me, trust me, but did/no not use me! - Over the years I have been very fortunate to create a business that allows me to spend time with my family, help others through the emotional process of buying and selling a home and meet many new friends. I have always asked after the process when working with clients, how I may have improved my services, how were the vendors that I referred to you (this is a critical question to ask your clients, because this is the number one biggest reflection on you). Now in the never ending journey to create the best possible real estate company for my clients, past present and future, I need to know how to improve and I need to know directly from the horses mouth. Over those same years I have also seen several friends, ne... 02/05/2012

A Picture is worth a thousand words or You only have one shot at making a first impression! - I see this over and over and over again and I still do not understand it, everyone knows that you only get one shot at making that first impression, and yet agents continue to list a home, go on and on describing in great detail how fabulous the home is and yet they do not upload any photos when they activate the listing. Apparently they are not really working in their clients best interest. I primarily work with buyers and I see this every single day. Let's walk through the eyes of a buyer that is getting homes emailed to them every day, especially when they first come on the market. The first thing they do is look at the picture, guess what? If there is no picture they just go on to the next ... 02/04/2012

The 4 and 1/2 Holidays that effect real estate - As we all know every day can be a productive day in real estate, you can show houses every day of the week, list homes every day of the week. Work 24/7 at your office on all sorts of different time consuming projects, but. There are 4.5 holidays every year that bring most of the industry to a screeching halt. The first three are very well known and should be a time for everyone to take a break regardless of where you are in your business, they are Easter, Thanksgiving, and Christmas. The other 1.5 Holidays are not official holidays but they do make a major impact on activity, ironically both are happening this weekend in Denver. The Super Bowl has become as big a non-functioning real estate day as the other three mentioned above, I rarely... 02/03/2012

Do you offer EASY EXIT listing agreements? - I do, and I would not list a home without one. I highly recommend that all sellers ask their agents if they offer this type of "escape" clause with their listings. My reasons are simple, many times a seller realizes they have made a mistake with their agent, or the agent is not living up to the agreed upon verbal commitment. But the number one reason I have seen for this to be asked for is for listings that are improperly listed and the sellers do not have an out, or at least they do not think they have an out. I implemented this very simple one page document several years ago when my mentor told me it is the best thing you can ever do for your clients, "let them know that they have rights and can fire you if you do not perform"! I have had s... 01/30/2012

Is your listing agent only exposing your home to half of the potential buyers? And of those half are they the least likely to purchase at full price or even afford to purchase your home at full price. Follow me on this and it will be very evident to you if your agent is really an "expert" or an idiot. if your home is valued at lets say $300K, your "expert" agent, who probably was working in retail (nothing wrong with retail) before getting their license tells you that "the fair market value of your home is $300K, so I suggest a listing price of $299,950.00" Now this sounds reasonable, its listed at fair market and should expect a fair offer, or is it. I would like to suggest a listed price of $300,000.00, here is the reasoning, first of all does $299,950.00 really sound cheaper than $30... 01/14/2012

Friday the 13th: My Lucky Day! :-) - 23 years ago today Friday the 13th of January 1989 was my Lucky Day! It was a typical cold January night, I went out with the usual crowd to a new bar in southwest Denver called Shout. I loved the bar mostly because they had the best happy hour in town, 2 for 1 beers from 4-7 and all the bar food you could eat for free! As the night went on I saw an old friend who introduced me to one of his new friends, who almost immediately, in a very good natured but challenging way made the comment “you’re really cocky, you think you are something don’t you, you think you can pick up any girl in this bar, don’t you?” I told him I was not cocky, just confident! As the night progressed I danced with a couple girls and had a couple come up to me and ask for a hug b... 01/13/2012

Young Rockers putting on encore Charity performance - The band, The Fairgrounds, consists of four young rock and rollers form Littleton and Centennial Colorado. One year ago this week they performed there very first concert, a charity benefit for an orphanage in Ghana. They raised over $1000.00 for the orphanage and decided they want to make this an annual concert. So tonight starting at 6:30 PM at the Littleton Church of Christ one block north of Arapahoe Road on Colorado Blvd, The Fairgrounds and a couple other young bands will put on their second annual charity concert. This band has played at various venues around Denver since their initial show a year ago, including The Gothic Theater, The Bluebird, The Marquis as well as a few others. They have sold out several of their concerts a... 12/30/2011

December 2011 31 Day Challenge Day 23- December 23rd, I met a lender I connected with on Linkedin and a Title rep that he has known for a long time for lunch. We brainstormed on ideas to help each of us improve our business for the coming year and came up with some great ideas. I am always amazed at how brainstorming sessions can help unplug bottlenecks in a persons business and personal life. The power of one, is simply that, "one", but when you put two minds together you have actually added a third combined mind that is twice as powerful as each individually, and when you add a third you have multiplied it again, creating the equivalent of 6 minds. I have found that 5-6 minds working to help each other can be the most valuable, once you get beyond that number you tend to lose producti... 12/24/2011

December 31 Day Challenge - Yesterday, December 11th was a good day to recover and watch some football. Our annual Christmas party the night before is an all day affair and Sunday was to be our day of rest, then I took this crazy challenge and realized I needed to make an effort every day. Being the Bronco fan that I am, I was born the same year as the Broncos and I am a native of the Denver area, so naturally I love the Broncos, and there is more excitement around here than we have seen in a while. Watching the team rally around Tebow and never give up is a great model for anyone to follow, and at the end of the game (as well as after every score) Tebow raises his hands and gives thanks...AHA... I can be giving thanks as well as I sit here and watch some games. So that is precisely wha... 12/12/2011

Day 9 & 10 December 2011 Challenge- December 9th and 10 were very productive days to meet the challenge, we have had a listing under contract and walking on egg shells to get to the closing table for a few weeks now, at 2:00 PM on Friday the 9th we get a call from the lender that all is set to close and we need all parties to meet at 4:30 at the lenders office, after a couple more hiccups we got the home closed around 6:30 and everyone was happy. December 10th, we had over 100 guests attend our annual Christmas party, friends, neighbors, current and former clients. We were very pleased to have two new agents that will be joining us in the next week or so also attend the party and get acquainted with our "family". We also collected two very large boxes of non-perishable foods that were g... 12/11/2011

I came home from my mens group this morning and my 16 year old son was playing Imagine on the piano, wearing his John Lennon "Give Peace a Chance" T-shirt, he was very sad. He is a musician and performs in a rock band that has played 11 concerts this year and has been incredibly inspired by all of the Beatles music for the past few years. He asked me why would anyone want to kill John Lennon and it took me right back to college when I heard the news, it seems like that was the most asked question at the time as well. I just shook my head and said "I have no idea what would go through the mind of someone that believes they have the power and the authority to take another mans life".  Thank you John Lennon for being an inspiration to millions, not the least of which is my youngest son.       12/08/2011

I can see clearly now the rain is gone.... well actually the cataracts are gone. Today at noon I will be having a cataract procedure so that I can regain the vision of a newborn. I have had issues with my eyes since the third grade. Near sighted and wearing the old    ugly black framed glasses until I could start wearing contact lenses as a senior in High School, so 9 years of hell, or at least my own little version of it. My vision stabilized for a few years in my 20's and then it started getting worse again, it got to the point where I was legally blind in both eyes and a stronger prescription would require that I go back to wearing glasses again, and not just any glasses but incredibly thick glasses.    A good friend told me about a new procedure that was being used on a trial basis ... 11/08/2011

The Centennial Youth Commission in Centennial, Colorado is partnering with the Smoky Hill High School for the 24th Annual Thanksgiving SHARE Basket Project. The project is currently running and will keep on accepting non-perishable foods through to Wednesday, November 9th. Please bring food to the Centennial Civic Center at 13133 E Arapahoe Road and place it in the blue bin located there. All food you donated will be shared with the following locations: SafeHouse Battered Women’s Shelter, Developmental Pathways, Denver Indian Family Resource Center, Colorado Coalition for the Homeless, Outpatient Cancer Clinic at University Hospital, National Kidney Foundation, local houses of worship, needy families with children in the Smoky Hill community, and the Food Bank of the Rockies On Sunday,... 11/02/2011

QR Code Corn Maze- Ok maybe next year, but for now we have the reality of an Austin TX company that will put a QR code on your rooftop so that when google or other satellite photos are being taken and placed on maps, the QR Codes will be scannable so people can learn more about the company.  This could be a great marketing strategy for commercial properties, think of all those people using google earth to search for not only homes, but ideal locations, and if you are in a high air traffic location, just imagine how many thousands of people are flying over every single day. I will be honest, I am behind on this technology, I do not have it on my business card, brochures or even my blog yet, but I am thinking of re-roofing my home, so maybe we can come up with something. I always love uni... 10/28/2011

80 on Monday, 8" snow on Wednesday, Golf on Friday, you gotta love Denver- I woke this morning to crisp blue skies and fresh snow covered trees, the rocky mountains off in the distance turned white overnight and received up to 2 feet of snow, typical Halloween weather in the Rocky Mountains. Mondays high temperature reached 80 degrees, and by Wednesday morning the snow had started accumulating, when all was said and done we had received about 8 inches at my house. I am fortunate that most of the leaves on my trees had fallen over the previous weekend, many others around Denver were not so fortunate. Lots of broken trees and power outages due to the snapped power lines. Only in Colorado can you use the heater and the AC in your car in the same day in the same zip code. Here is a link to ... 10/27/2011

Why New Construction? Why Now? There are several reasons to take a look at new construction during October. The number one reason would be the incentives offered, especially from the national builders that want to get inventory off their books during the last quarter of their fiscal year. Many builders are taking price reductions as well as offering bonus incentives to close within 45 days. It is pretty simple to use some of the incentive money to buy down the interest rate and getting a much more comfortable monthly payment, couple that with the energy $$$ savings of a new home and you can afford more than you might have thought.   Some more great reasons to take a look at new construction is that they are being built with superior energy efficiency and advanced building technology, th... 10/13/2011