When fruit tress are blooming around Denver every spring, there really isn't anything prettier.  They provide great shade during the summer and come late summer, early fall, you only have to reach your arm up to get some of the best fruit you will ever taste.  But what do you do with all the fruit left at the top of your tree after you have had your fill, given away all you can and have canned and dried more fruit than you have shelve space for?  Most people will just let if fall, who blames them, and then have to deal with picking it out of their lawn or letting it rot over the winter.

As an alternative, how about this year, give Yard Harvest a try?  Never hear of Yard Harvest, neither had I.  According to their website, every year in Denver

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Now that summer is officially here, how is the Denver Real Estate market doing and what should we expect going forward?  It is a great question and I wish I had a crystal ball to tell you exactly how it is doing and what will happen in the future.  Unfortunately, no crystal ball in sight but I can give you insight from my own personal experience as a Realtor, what I am hearing in my office which is often the best barometer of of the market, and also plenty of statistics to back it all up.

In my own experience, I am definitely feeling the push of a market I feel is firmly on the up-slope and getting better.  In the past two weeks, I have listed four homes.  I have asked all four sellers why they decided now is the time to sell and the answers have

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Do you need a new toilet, clothes washer, or sprinklers?  Then you are in luck.  If you buy qualified models of each, then you are eligible for significant rebates from Denver Water.  How big of rebates you ask?  How about $100 off clothes washers, $75 off high-efficiency toilets and $100 off various sprinkler parts and add-ons?  It is a great way to upgrade, save some money and most importantly, save water.  A win win situation for all involved, as long as you are serviced by Denver Water. 

So if you have been thinking about replacing that pretty pink toilet in your bathroom or dinosaur washer that bounces across the laundry room every time you run it, might as well take advantage of these great rebates and offers.  For the full list and

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I was leafing through some old newsletters the other day, and came across a couple of articles I had written awhile back. They encouraged buyers to take advantage of the great tax credits that were available to first-time home buyers in 2008, and a year or so later for move up or repeat home buyers. Seems like ancient history now. It’s pretty amazing that most of those credits expired just a year ago.

So why talk about them in May of 2011?  Who cares?  Well, if you claimed one of those great tax credits from Uncle Sam, and are now thinking of selling, pay attention. You might be feelin’ good about the real estate market and are thinking the great prices and good interest rates currently available make this a good time to sell that perfect house you…

What is the racial and ethnic makeup of this neighborhood?  As a Realtor, it is a question I get asked a lot by potential buyers as they explore different neighborhoods and parts of a town, especially if they are relocating.  It is also a question that as a member of my local Board of Realtors, I am not allowed to answer.  According to the Standard of Practice 10-1, as a Realtor, I "shall not volunteer information regarding the racial, religious or ethnic composition of any neighborhood."  So while I am not allowed to give information on the composition of a neighborhood, I can certainly point buyers in the right direction where they can find all the information they are searching for.

One place I would point a buyer is toward this great site found

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Is it required to get an alarm permit for your home or business alarm system if you live in Denver?  The answer is yes and if you don't have a permit and your alarm goes off, guess what, the police won't respond as your alarm wakes the neighborhood.  If you think about it, it makes sense.  With so many false alarms, it delays the response time of police officers for real emergencies so that is one goal of the permitting process. 

The other is to prevent "fly-by-night" alarm companies that sell an alarm system to unknowing home owners and don't provide follow up service and monitoring.  Only certified alarm companies are registered with the city so make sure any company you sign up with is registered and approved by the city so you can get a

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How long do you have to wait after a foreclosure, short sale or bankruptcy to be able to buy a home again?  It is a question I hope to never get, but unfortunately, in this day and age, it does get asked.  To find out how long the process takes, I turned to an expert and consulted Tracey McVicker with SWBC Mortgage.  Tracey outlined the time frames below.  For more specific questions about the time period and process, feel free to contact Tracey directly by clicking here.  Hopefully you will never have to face this situation. But if it looks like you might, make sure to contact me as soon as possible to see if we can get your home sold and an alternative worked out so you don't have to wait so long to get back into a home again.

Foreclosure -

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It can be a frustrating decision...when is the right time to drop the price on your Denver area home?

 

Some people like to go purely by the numbers... I have heard Real Estate agents say that if the home has been on the market for 1 month, then it is time to drop the price. I have heard others say their rule is 20 showings with no offers, then a lower price is needed.

I think that you have to look at every case individually. I like to pull a CMA (Comparative Market Analysis) on my listings each week to get a feel for what the hyper-local area is doing... Have new listings appeared in the neighborhood? Has anything gone Under Contract or Sold? These are definitely factors that have to be considered if you are going to lower the price of your

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I keep hearing about it, so what is a walk score?  The simplest answer is that a Walk Score is a number between 0 and 100 that measures the walk-ability of any address.  The higher the number, the higher the chance you don't even need to own a car for everyday living.  Walkable neighborhoods offer surprising benefits to the environment, our health, our finances, and our communities.  And they are starting to have a significant impact on resale value of many urban homes and neighborhoods. 

 On our website we now have a page dedicated exclusively to Walk Scores.  And it's just as easy to find the Walk Score of any property on our site. Simply click on the Walk Score tab at the top right corner of every listings detail page.  Below is some more info

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How long are these great interest rates going to stay so low?  Unfortunately, not very much longer.  The average mortgage rate in Denver right now is 4.75%, which is terrific.  But according to Wells Fargo Securities chief economist John Silvia, interests rates will start climbing higher at the end of the June when the Federal Reserve will end its program of purchasing U.S. Treasurys.  Silvia predicts that Treasury rates could rise by one - half to a full percentage point when this program ends.

So what does this mean to the average consumer?  A lot actually.  While an interest rate of 5.25% to 5.75% is still fantastic and unheard of in a historical perspective, it still makes a very large difference not only in monthly payments rising but also

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