Jim Smith, Broker

Jeffco Sheriff Warns About Sharp Increase in Scams Against the Elderly

Posted on the Jeffco Sheriff’s “Behind the Badge” blog on May 15, 2023

In the last 60 days, we have taken 24 reports of elder fraud, involving victims age 70 or older. This is a 41% increase from the previous 60 days. Our victims are not numbers, however; they’re real people. People like Susan, who was victimized on April 21st, and whose name we have changed to tell her story.

Susan, 76, got a call from a man claiming to work for an Internet provider. He told her that while he was checking her Internet speed, he noticed she had a $500 credit on her account for services she was entitled to but did not use. He instructed her to get on her computer and when she did, a page was already open that she did not recall opening. The caller told Susan she had accidentally hit a button that selected a refund of $5,000 instead of $500. The caller then told Susan he would lose his job if he didn’t get the extra $4,500 back.

The caller instructed Susan to withdraw $4,500 from her bank and purchase nine $500 gift cards. He stayed on the phone with Susan while she went to the bank and two separate stores to purchase the gifts cards. During the call, Susan asked him several times if he was scamming her. He said no. Once she had the gift cards, the caller instructed her to tell him the gift card numbers and security codes. Susan did. After the call ended, Susan tried calling his phone number back but the number was disconnected.

Unfortunately Susan was scammed for $4,500.00. Could the same happen to your parents? Your grandparents? Even you?

Please talk to your loved ones about scams. Think of how many scam calls, emails or texts you get in a week, and you may not even be targeted like older adults are. Elder fraud is one of the more common and frustrating financial crimes. Oftentimes, victims are not able to recover their hard-earned money. And oftentimes, we are not able to identify suspects who hide behind layers of fake identities and cloned phone numbers.

Scams come in many forms, but how we should respond to them is the same:

> Do not answer calls from unknown numbers. If it’s important, they’ll leave a message.

Do not provide personal information on the phone or in an email or text message to anyone you do not know. Personal information includes date of birth, social security number, credit card numbers, and bank account information.

> Do not withdraw money, send money, purchase gift cards, or make other financial transactions for someone you do not know.

> If you suspect it’s a scam, end all communication – hang up the phone or delete the email or text message.

> If you have been scammed or your personal information has been used without your knowledge or permission (for example, a new credit card arrives in your name), report it to local law enforcement immediately (and cancel the card!).

One of the best ways to help protect your older loved ones from being scammed is to talk to them about common scams and how to avoid them. For more information, visit https://www.jeffco.us/985/Scams.

Do Agents Inflate the Cost of Buying or Selling a Home with ‘Junk Fees’?

This week’s topic is inspired by an article I read on BusinessInsider.com last week with the catchy headline, “Real estate agents are tacking ludicrous ‘junk fees’ on to every home purchase.”

The article acknowledges that there are many legitimate fees — including title insurance, which is absolutely necessary to protect both the buyer and seller of a home. In Colorado, unlike some states, it’s common for title insurance (the second largest expense after agent commissions) to be deducted from the seller’s proceeds rather than added to the buyer’s costs.

Other necessary expenses paid at closing and not levied by the buyer’s or seller’s brokerage include, for the seller, the fee to record the release of lien for any paid-off mortgage, HOA transfer fees, escrow for the final water bill, half the settlement fee to the title company (typically $300-400), and property taxes for the current year pro-rated to the date of closing.

For the buyer, fees are levied for the buyer’s half of the settlement fee mentioned above, and for recording documents with the county clerk. If the buyer financed the purchase with a loan, there are fees levied by the lender, such as processing & document preparation fees, origination fee (“points”), pre-paid interest from the date of closing through the end of that month, and appraisal (if not paid earlier). In addition, the buyer will be debited at closing for their homeowner’s insurance policy plus 3 months’ escrow of same, and 3 months’ escrow of property taxes.

All of the above are not junk fees, but necessary fees to close on the sale or purchase of a home. It should be noted that the contract to buy and sell could include provisions moving some of these fees to one side or the other of the transaction. For example, the buyer might offer, in order to win a bidding war, to pay the HOA transfer fees, the full settlement fee, and/or the cost of title insurance. Once I saw a buyer offer to pay the property taxes for the full first year of ownership instead of the seller crediting the buyer with his/her pro-rated share.

So, if all those are necessary fees, what are those “junk fees” complained about in the BusinessLeader.com article? It’s a single fee which some agents began charging their clients years ago. It’s shown on the settlement statement as an “administrative fee.”

Basically, it’s a transaction fee which larger brokerages in particular began charging their agents to bolster their profits. It could be a flat fee like $300 or it could be a small percentage of the sale price. This fee is deducted from the agent’s share of the commission, but agents are allowed to pass that fee on to their clients, which many have chosen to do. That’s what the article was complaining about, not multiple “junk fees.”

Of course, buyers and sellers, upon signing a listing or buyer agency agreement with their agents, could negotiate not to pay this fee, just as they could negotiate a lower listing commission. But, as you can imagine, this fee slips through without most clients noticing or objecting to it. Myself, I never propose charging my clients for this fee. Call my broker associates or me if you don’t want to pay any junk fees for buying or selling a home. You can reach any of them on their cell phones by calling 303-302-3636.

Half-Duplex Overlooking Standley Lake with Mountain Views Just Listed by David Dlugasch

This half-duplex at 8581 Jellison Street is a patio home, requiring no exterior or grounds maintenance by owner. Snowfall over 2 inches is cleared by the HOA up to the covered porch and garage. On the top floor it has both a primary suite and guest suite, both with ensuite bathrooms and walk-in closets. In the basement is a third bedroom with egress window and ensuite bathroom. The interior was entirely repainted prior to listing, and all new carpeting was installed. This home is move-in ready, for sure! The exterior will be repainted this summer by the HOA. In addition to its awesome views of Standley Lake and the foothills (including Longs Peak), this home is adjacent to a pedestrian/bike path adjacent the Highline Canal. It also has the largest backyard (maintained by HOA) in the subdivision. You can view a narrated video tour below or at www.ArvadaHome.info, then come to David’s open house Sat., May 13th, 11am-1pm. Or call David at 303-908-4835 for a showing.

On the MLS, a Half-Duplex Is No Longer a ‘Single-Family Home’

The single-family home that David Dlugasch listed this week, a half-duplex, will not be found by buyers searching the MLS for single-family homes, thanks to a big change made in January 2020, when our MLS began conforming to a standardized set of property descriptors which all MLSs were expected to adopt.

Under the new system, a duplex must be listed under the “Multi-Family” Sub-Property type, with “Duplex” under Property Structure. This replaced the earlier system, which had “Single-Family Attached” as well as “Single-Family Detached” as property types.

You can search by address and find the listing, but most people searching for homes are unlikely to include “multi-family” in their search criteria, even though they would love this single-family home if they saw it.

Finalists Announced for Home Electrification Prize

The Department of Energy (DOE) has announced 6 finalists in its Equitable and Affordable Solutions to Electrification (EAS-E) Prize.

Although administered by the National Renewable Energy Laboratory (NREL) here in Jefferson County, none of the finalists were from Colorado. Two were from California, and one each from New York, Oregon, Ohio and Nevada.

Two of the finalists focused on solutions which eliminated the need to upgrade a home’s electrical panel. The New York finalist’s plan focused on allowing the occupant to remain in the home during the conversion process. The Ohio finalist focused on cold-weather conversions.

Click here to read the full article on probuilder.com.

Price Reduced on Applewood Tri-Level Backing to Lena Gulch

This well-maintained brick home at 13065 W. 15th Pl. is now listed at $725,000. Take the video tour by clicking on the thumbnail below or at ApplewoodHome.online, then call your agent or listing agent Jim Swanson at 303-929-2727 to see it in person.

Emissions from EVs Depends on the Source of Your Electricity

Before I bought my first electric vehicle in 2012, I told myself, “I don’t want to switch from burning gas to burning coal,” since coal at the time was the biggest portion of my electric utility’s fuel mix. I went ahead and bought my 2012 Chevy Volt, because I installed enough solar panels on my home to get all my electricity from the sun. Since then, I have bought three Teslas and sold one (my RWD 2014 Model S to friends in Arizona).

Then I learned why EVs have lower emissions than gas-powered cars, even if the fossil fuels represent 100% of the utility’s fuel mix. The reasoning is reflected in this graphic from http://www.FuelEconomy.gov:

The gist of the graphic is that only 16 to 25% of the energy in gasoline goes to propelling the vehicle. The rest is basically waste energy, 68% to 72% of it engine losses such as heat. By contrast, roughly 90% of the energy in electricity goes to move an EV.

That differential in fuel efficiency is at the heart of why EVs are more climate- and pollution-friendly than gas-powered vehicles can ever be.

IRC Standardizes Building Code for Tiny Homes

Cities, towns and counties typically base their building codes on the International Residential Code (IRC), which is collaborating with the Tiny Home Industry Association (THIA) to standardize the codes related to tiny homes used for permanent occupancy, whether on a foundation or on wheels.

Tiny homes are increasingly being adopted as an affordable means of housing the homeless, but have also grown in popularity among those who choose to “live lightly.” I have toured tiny homes in more than one “green homes tour” in Boulder and elsewhere.

The standards are included in the IRC as Appendix AQ. ICC/THIA Standard 1215 will complement existing tiny house resources developed by the Code Council, including the “International Tiny House Provisions,” “Model Legislation on Tiny Houses,” and a “Guide on Navigating Certification and Regulation of Tiny Houses.” All of these are available on the Code Council’s dedicated off-site construction webpage.

“This new standard will codify existing requirements for the design, construction, inspection, and certification of tiny houses into a single standard while also helping to address identified gaps in available requirements,” said Ryan Colker, Code Council vice president of innovation.

“This joint effort with the Code Council will go a long way in helping to clear the confusion within the regulatory and tiny home builder community,” said Brad Wiseman, CEO and Board Chairman of THIA.

This Week Property Owners Received Notices of Valuation From Their County Assessor

Note: This article is focused on the City and County of Denver. You can find three other versions focused on other counties — one for Jefferson County, one for Aurora/Adams County, and one for Douglas and Arapahoe Counties — in PDF form at www.JimSmithColumns.com.

During the first week of May in every odd numbered year, Colorado’s county assessors are required to inform every property owner of the full valuation that they have assigned to each property. Unless revised downward through the state-mandated appeal process, that valuation will be the basis of the property tax charged for this year and for 2024.

The valuation you received by letter is the assessor’s best guess as to what your property might have sold for on June 30th of the previous (even-numbered) year. That assumes, however, that the condition of your home is the same on Jan. 1st of this year and next year as it was on June 30th of last year. If your house is bigger or smaller on January 1st, that year’s valuation and therefore your property taxes must be adjusted accordingly.

The system actually depends on your participation in correcting the assessor’s valuation, which was the result of a computer-driven “mass appraisal” system, because there’s no way for the assessor’s staff of human appraisers to create a valuation of every home in the City & County of Denver. Those appraisers will, however, read or listen to your appeal of the valuation which their system generated for your home.

Bottom line, therefore, is that you owe it to yourself and to the county to help the assessor come up with the proper valuation for your home. So how do you do that?

For non-residential and commercial properties, which pay roughly four times the property tax per $100,000 valuation, a whole industry has arisen to help property owners (for a fee) to appeal their property tax valuation.

Residential taxes are so much lower in Colorado that there’s not enough profit for professionals to make, leaving residential homeowners to fight their own battle for lower valuations and therefore lower property taxes.

The county assessors are expected to make it easy for taxpayers to determine whether the assessor guessed correctly at their home’s value as of June 30, 2022. Your first step is to find your home at www.denvergov.org/property/. Note that after you enter your address, you may need to scroll down to see and click on your address. (I mistakenly thought the website was defective and not responding.)

Once you’re on your home’s web page you’ll see a tab “Neighborhood Sales” which lists all the qualified sales that occurred during the eligible period, which is the 24 months prior to June 30, 2022.

Don’t make the mistake of thinking that a home which sold after June 30, 2022 (not shown, by the way, under that tab), can be used in your appeal. You may only cite comps which sold during that 24-month period ending June 30, 2022.

To make the list of sales useful, click on the “Square Footage” header to find homes similar in size to yours. Once you find good comps to use in your appeal, you need to “time adjust” their sale prices.

Time adjustment is based on how much Denver homes increased in value during those 24 months. The Denver assessor has announced that the percentage increase in values from June 30, 2020, to June 30, 2022, for the City & County of Denver is 33%. Divide that by 24 months, and the increase in value for residential properties in Denver was 1.375% per month.

So, if a sale occurred six months prior to June 30, 2022, you need to increase its sale price by six times 1.375%, which computes to 8.25%. That “time adjusted” price is what you need to cite in your appeal.

Note: If, by chance, you bought your home on June 30, 2022, don’t assume that your purchase price will be the assessor’s valuation of your home, because, regardless of what you paid for your home on June 30, 2022, its valuation is based on what eligible comps indicate it should have sold for. Your home would be only one of several comps used by the assessor to value your home.

Using the procedure described above, if you find your home was overvalued, you need to protest using an online form that is under the “Assessment Protest” tab on your home’s web page, where you can log in as “Guest.”

Your appeal is due in the assessor’s office by June 8, 2023. You can mail or fax your protest, but I recommend an in-person meeting, which you can request by calling 720-913-4164. The assessor’s office is on the 4th floor of the Wellington Webb Municipal Building, 201 W. Colfax Ave., and is open from 8am to 3pm.

If your protest is rejected, the appeal options are explained well on the Notice of Valuation letter which you received in the mail.

Proposal to Reduce Property Taxes Shouldn’t Affect Effort to Obtain the Correct Valuation of Your Home

You may have read that the General Assembly will be putting a proposal on the November ballot which would reduce your property taxes by reducing the valuation of your home by $40,000.

If your home is valued by the assessor at $400,000, your tax will be based on a value of $360,000, resulting in a 10% reduction in your property tax burden. If your home is worth $4 million, that $40,000 reduction results in a 1% reduction in your tax burden. Last year that discount was set at $15,000.

There’s also talk of reducing the assessment rate, which is currently 6.765%. That means that a home with a $1 million value has an “assessed value” of $67,650, against which the mill levy is applied.

The typical Colorado mill levy is around 100 mills which means that before those two discounts, the tax on a million-dollar home would be $6,765. With the million dollar value already reduced by $15,000, the tax is lowered by $101.47. With the $40,000 discount, the tax would be lowered by an additional $169.13.

State Program Pays You $150 When You Replace a Gas-Powered Lawn Mower With an Electric One

Last week I promoted the idea of replacing your gas-powered lawn mower, trimmer and other garden tools with electric ones. A reader alerted me to a Colorado program that provides financial incentives for doing just that.

The program, which is detailed at www.MowDownPollution.org, provides for the following: a $75 voucher for any handheld electric yard tool when a gas version of that tool is recycled: a $75 voucher for an electric lawn mower without the requirement that a gas mower be recycled; and a $150 voucher for an electric lawn mower when you recycle a gas mower.

First you sign up for the program, and get a confirmation email. Then you have 21 days to recycle your lawn mower (for which they provide a list of local recyclers), then you get a voucher which you can redeem at selected Ace Hardware and Home Depot stores, also listed on that website. Only one voucher per household is allowed per year.

Before you can recycle a gas-powered tool, you must drain both the gas and oil. Denver residents can call the At Your Door Special Collection curbside pickup service at 800-449-7587 for an appointment to recycle that gas and oil. Jeffco residents need to take their gas and oil to the Rooney Road Recycling Center. Get a drop-off reservation by calling 303-316-6262. Adams County residents can go to Veolia Colorado Household Hazardous Waste Recycling Center, 9131 E. 96th Avenue in Henderson. Call 303-526-8155 for appointment. And both Douglas and Arapahoe County residents can call (720) 200-1592 to request a curbside pickup.