Your Trusted Real Estate Advisor

Click on the link to see a fun and informative video on avoiding 10 Mistakes Sellers Make.

Today I spent 3 hours in a class taught by an attorney going through the newly revised real estate purchase contract.  It's something I've had to do just about every year for the past couple of decades.

The 2009 contract is eleven letter-size pages.  The first Colorado purchase contract I signed (in 1978) was one legal-size page.

The difference in the size of the contracts is lawsuits--everything that has been added in the past 30 years is the result of lawsuits.  The Colorado Real Estate Commission (CREC) is charged with protecting consumers: making the playing field as close to level for both buyer and seller; and protecting both buyer and seller in their relationships with brokers and other entities involved in a real estate transaction.

In Colorado, a real estate broker is given permission by the Colorado Supreme Court to, in essence, practice law without a license.  Among other restrictions, we must use "standard forms": that is, contract forms prepared by the CREC. 

Those forms are regularly revised, usually by adding language to cover some new problem uncovered in a lawsuit between buyer and seller or consumer and broker.  That's how the contract grew to eleven pages.

Whenever I go to one of these classes, I wonder why anyone who only buys or sells a home every 5-10 years would not want an agent representing them. If, after 23 years in the business, I need a class to make sure I understand how to keep my clients out of a courtroom, how can inexperienced and untrained consumers know enough to protect themselves?

It's serious enough when buying a resale home. The question gets more serious when someone wants to buy a new home from a builder.  Builders don't have to use the CREC-approved forms.  Their attorneys prepare their contracts, primarily to protect the builder. 

So, whether you are thinking about buying a resale home or a new one from a builder, it's smart to ask a Realtor to be your agent--to represent you in the transaction.  Why go it alone when there is so much at stake?

To learn more, call me at 303-284-3609 or email me at rudyantle@msn.com.

Metro housing holding its value --New report could spur investment in local real estate

(This article by John Rebchook in the 1/15/09 edition of The Rocky Mountain News)

Home prices in the Denver-Aurora metropolitan area have less than a 1 percent chance of declining in value during the next two years, according to a national report released Wednesday.

The report by PMI Mortgage Insurance Co. could help accelerate an expected surge of real estate investments by savvy buyers looking for bargains, said one local expert. 

[Click on this link to read the entire article]

Related Links

• LINK: PMI report on future home price declines
  (This report dramatically shows the good situation Denver is in compared to many other cities’ risk of decline in housing values: # 41 in a list of top 50 Metropolitan Statistical Areas.)
• Foreclosures in metro Denver decline 11.8 percent

A similar article was published yesterday:

Denver Business Journal--Report: Denver home prices likely to be stable through mid-2010

Have you noticed the recent trend? There is more good news about Denver area real estate than bad news.

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Colorado Real Estate Commission's top 10 points:

TOP TEN POINTS

1. The best time to refinance is when there is an overall tangible net benefit to the borrower from refinancing. That simply means that the best time is when the benefits to refinancing outweigh the costs. Is it in your best interest?

See all 10 points: click here.

Can you believe interest rates are now under 5%?  I just checked with a lender who does a lot of FHA loans (and other kinds, too) for the current rates.  Money is available, and FHA loans only require 3.5% down payment.

Today you can get an FHA 30-year fixed loan for 4.875%.  That's amazing.  Whether you want to refinance or get a new home, now is the time to buy.  Here's why.

A year ago rates were strolling somewhere around 6%: sometimes above and sometimes below that figure. 

Comparing costs on a $250,000 home (somewhere close to the average in the Denver area), with an FHA loan at 6% ($241,250 after 3.5% down payment), the monthly payment would be $1,446,42 (principal and interest only).

That same loan ($241,250 principal) at 4.875% would be $1,276.71.  Or you could get a 15-year loan at 4.75% for only $1,258.47 a month.  In other words, you get a new home and pay it off in 15 years for the same amount that a 30-year loan would have cost a year ago.

A different way to look at it is, for the same amount per month that it would have cost you to buy a $250,000 home a year ago, you can now get a home worth more than $280,000. 

Combine that with the lower cost of homes right now, and you would be amazed at what you can buy. 

To see what kind of home you could buy now, email me at rudyantle@msn.com or call 303-284-3609.