Author: Jim Smith, Broker

As a new Realtor in 2002, I thought experience wasn’t all that important. I had taken the required courses and passed the state licensing exam on my first attempt, and I benefited from the terrific “Fast Start” training at Coldwell Banker.  How complicated could it be, I figured, to help a client buy or sell their home?

Obviously, I didn’t know what I didn’t know, and, of course, that will always be the case. But it’s clear to me that I do know a lot more now than I knew in 2002!

I still learn from every transaction, and that’s the key.  The more transactions that an agent does, the more he or she learns. That’s why we have office meetings every Monday, so that we can keep learning and share what we learn with our fellow agents.

Golden Real Estate agents participated in 104 closings over the last 24 months.  With nine active agents during that time period, that comes to an average of 11.5 closings per agent, which translates into experience you don’t get from all agents.

I advise buyers and sellers to consider how many transactions an agent has completed rather than how many years they’ve been in business. That information is available at www.FindDenverRealtors.com.

When you decide to hire a broker you can’t know what that broker doesn’t know – and that could be a lot.  Still, you’ve made a wise decision because it’s a virtual lock that they know more than you do and can more effectively navigate the often tricky waters of real estate transactions than your neighbor who insisted on trying “for sale by owner.”

All brokers are required to take 36 hours of continuing education (CE) classes every three years, and I have taken more than required. However, I think of this newspaper column as my “personal continuing education classroom.” That’s because nearly every column I write requires me to research a particular aspect of real estate. Regardless of the topic, I need to learn more before I can write about it. My practice is to send a draft of each column to one or more known experts on that topic, as well as to my broker associates, for feedback before going to press.

As a result, I can’t recall embarrassing myself by publishing a column that was factually incorrect.

Continuing education is important, and you’ll find many agents who have certifications indicating they’ve completed additional training on one or more real estate specialties. Some popular certifications I look for in other agents when referring business to them include: ABR (Accredited Buyer’s Representative), CRS (Certified Residential Specialist), GRI (Graduate Realtor Institute) and SRES (Seniors Real Estate Specialist).  These certifications point to extra training which sets them apart from agents without those certifications. Having these certifications is particularly useful when the agent does not have a high number of transactions under his or her belt.

EcoBroker is another certification that most of the agents at Golden Real Estate have (and that the newer ones are pursuing), indicating special training in energy efficiency, sustainability and solar power, which we feel is so important nowadays, both to save money for the homeowner and to combat the effects of climate change.

Because a home purchase is typically the biggest one most of us ever make, it’s critical that you arm yourself with as much useful information as you can. When you sell your home, you want to make sure that you reap all the gains you deserve.

Toward that end, Golden Real Estate is holding another of its popular workshops, next Tuesday, September 5, from 5:30 to 6:30 p.m. in our South Golden Road office.  I’ll be the primary speaker and I’ll answer your questions pertaining to both buying and selling real estate. The fee is $10, and includes hors d’oeuvres and other refreshments. It also entitles you to a one-hour personal consultation at a later date with myself and/or another Golden Real Estate agent you might meet at the workshop.  It’s important that you register in advance. You may do that by calling me at 303-525-1851 or by sending an email to me at Jim@GoldenRealEstate.com. My promise to you is that you will leave empowered to get the best deal for yourself, whether buying or selling.

 I have been writing this weekly column for over a decade. The last 5 years are archived at http://www.  JimSmithColumns. com. Below are some of the topics I wrote about going back to December 2011, in case you’d like to look for any.  Each column has a link so you can download it.  I have highlighted in bold the more popular ones.

What’s a “Material Fact” That Needs to Be Disclosed by Sellers and Agents?

How Many Square Feet Is Your Home?It Depends on the Website

How to Avoid the Most Common Real Estate Mistakes

How Should You Respond to an Offer to Buy Your Home Without Listing It?

My Favorite Sustainable Practices and Home Improvements

Beware the Less Obvious Costs of Ownership When You Buy a Home

What Is Your Capital Gains Tax Liability When You Sell Your Home?

You’ve Heard About Geothermal Heating, But How Does It Work, Anyway?

Do You Have Tenant-Occupied Property? Here’s Advice for Selling It

Post-Closing Occupancy Agreements Can Work for Both Buyers and Sellers

How to Appeal the County Assessor’s Valuation of Your Home

Selling a Home on the 1st or 2nd Day (or Without Listing It) Just Isn’t Smart

First-Time Buyers & Veterans Buying a Home May Be Overlooking a Huge Tax Benefit

When the Fed Raises Interest Rate, Do Mortgage Rates Increase?

What You Need to Know About Buying a New Home from a Builder

How to Find the Right Mortgage Professional

How Do Credit Scores Affect Mortgage Interest Rates?

Dealing With Real Estate Can Be Overwhelming for Senior Citizens

Where Should Zillow Fit Into Your Home Search Process?

What’s the Difference Between a Condo and a Townhome?

The Trend Continues: Winter May Be the Easiest Time to Sell Your Home

Millennials Want to Buy, But They Think It’s Harder Than It Really Is

Some Measures You Can Take to Re-duce Your Winter Energy Bill

Should Sellers Wait for Spring to List Their Homes on the MLS?

HOAs Are Supposed to Serve Members, But Are Often Reviled

Is Your Neighborhood Literally Going to Pot?  Will It Only Get Worse?

For Homeowners Over 62, a Reverse Mortgage Could Make Sense

HOA Transfer Fees Can Be Excessive & They Benefit the Management Company, Not the HOA

Why Should Buyers Even Look for Homes When Inventory Is So Low?

Did You Know? The ‘Grace’ Period on Your Mortgage Payment Isn’t Free

Who Pays for What When You Buy or Sell Real Estate?  It’s All Negotiable

Metro Area Property Tax Rates Vary Much More Than You Might Realize

House Hunting? How Do You Find a Home That Fits Your Lifestyle?

‘High Performance’ Homes Go Far Beyond Energy Efficiency & Solar Power

What Are the Services You Can and Should Expect an Agent to Perform?

Thinking of Becoming a Realtor? You Might Think Twice Based on This Survey

Considering Solar? We Can Help You Sort Through the Financing Options

What Is a Buyer’s Recourse When the Seller Fails to Disclose a Known  Serious Defect?

Here Are Some of the Common Pricing Mistakes Made by Sellers and Their Listing Agents

What Is a “Variable Commission” and Why Should Sellers Demand It?

Whose Side Is Your “Agent” On?  What You Need to Know About Agency Laws in Colorado

Did Your Listing Agent Find Your Buyer?  He Might Have Been Acting in His Best Interest and Not Yours

Some Listing Agents Seem Confused About How to Handle Multiple Offers

Higher Property Values Mean Higher Property Taxes, But Doesn’t That Conflict With TABOR?

Why Sellers Should Want Multiple Offers and How to Get Them

Colorado’s Property Tax System Makes It Costly to Keep Vacant Land Vacant

Questions to Ask When Interviewing a  Realtor About Listing Your Home

Cheap Electricity From Renewables Is Revolutionizing the Utility Industry

Here’s Some Different Advice for Buyers and Sellers in the Current Market

Chart Demonstrates Our Seller’s Market — More Sales from Fewer Listings

As a Listing Agent, I Used to Think Buyer Agents Were Overpaid, But Not Anymore

Understanding the Resale Value of Roof-Top Solar Installations

Understanding Real Estate Property Taxes and Why They Vary So Much

Some Pros and Cons of Buying and Selling During the Holiday Season

Here’s Some of What I Learned at the Realtor Convention/Expo

Deciding When It’s Time to Downsize Is a Very Personal Decision

What Is the Value of Hiring a Realtor When You Can Sell Your Home Without One?

Is Your Denver Area Home Listed on the Right MLS?  Here’s What You Need to Know

It Can Be Quite Stressful to Buy a Home When You Have to Sell One First

Everyone Has a Friend or Relative in Real Estate, But Should You Use Him or Her?

In Our Internet-Connected Marketplace, What’s the Role of Realtors Now?

A Familiar Challenge: Mom & Dad Need to Go to Assisted Living

Social Media Can Supercharge the Marketing of Real Estate Listings

You’d Be Surprised How Many Agents Compete for Your Business

In Greening Your Home, Where Do You Get the Most Bang for Your Buck?

Realtor Association Says “Marginal Agents Threaten Industry”

What Is Marijuana’s Impact on the Real Estate Market

What Can You Do If You Don’t Have the Money for a Down Payment?

Here’s Your Guide to Appealing the Assessor’s Valuation of Your Home

What’s Your Home’s Value?  Assessor, Zillow & Others Differ Widely

A Seller’s Market Is the Worst Time to Try “For Sale by Owner”

How Should a Seller (and Listing Agent) Handle Multiple Competing Offers?

It Takes Courage (and a Good Realtor) to Sell One House & Buy Another

Fifty Shades of Green: Big & Small Ways for You to “Go Green”

Explaining the Inspection Objection and Resolution Process

Mortgage Lending Gets More Challenging All the Time; Here’s the Latest

The Senior Property Tax Exemption Explained

More Than Ever, Overpriced Homes Sell for Less Than Underpriced Ones

Realtor Association Moves to Increase Realtors’ Professionalism and Skills

Sellers Risk Losing Out If They Sell Without Putting Home on MLS

Buyers Often Pay More Than They Should (in fees) When Buying a Home

Did You Know? You Don’t Need a Roof to Benefit from Solar Power

Buying That First Home May Not Be as Impossible as You Might Believe

Negotiating Multiple Offers Can & Probably Should Resemble an Auction

How Much Does Landscaping Help to Sell a Home?

Pros & Cons of Listing Your Home for Sale During the Holiday Season

Have You Wondered Why Some Homes Don’t Sell, Even in a Seller’s Market?

The Press, With Limited Understanding of Real Estate, Is Easily Manipulated

Did You Have a Bad Real Estate Experience? Here Are Some Actions You Can Take

What Owners of Pre-1978 Homes Need to Know About Lead Based Paint

What You Can & Should Accomplish From Inspecting the Home You Buy

 The Top 5 Reasons Homes Don’t Sell, Even in Today’s Seller’s Market

Should You Remodel Your Home or Buy a New One?

“Why Isn’t My House Selling”  Consider Your Selection of Listing Agent

“All My Agent Did Was Put a Sign in the Ground and Wait for It to Sell.”

Buyers Can Now Get Email Alerts About New Listings Within 15 Minutes

Fear of Homelessness Continues to Keep Sellers From Listing Their Homes

Sellers Often Ignore Their Own Self-Interest in Selecting a Listing Agent

Remodeling? Let Habitat for Humanity Do the Demolition

Here Are Some Ways Real Estate Agents Can Save Money — at Your Expense

HDR Imaging—Raising the Bar on Real Estate’s #1 Tool, Photography

Sellers Ask Themselves: Should I Sell Now, or Wait for the “Selling Season”?

Sure, You Can Sell Your Current Home, But Can You Find a New One?

Do Pocket Listings Make Sense in the Current Real Estate Market?

Your Home’s Under Contract — Now What Should Your Do & Expect?

‘Credit Repair’ Services Can Actually Lower Your Credit Score, Not Raise It

18 Questions to Ask When Interviewing an Agent to List Your Home

New to Colorado? Most Real Estate Transactions Here Are Lawyer-Free

Trulia & Zillow Are Great, But Not for Finding Homes Actually for Sale

Metropolitan Tax Districts Add Hidden Cost to the Price of Many Homes

Here Are Some Questions That Buyers and Sellers Have About Closings

Think Real Estate Agents Are Overpaid? Much of the Time We Work for Free

You Can’t Underprice a Home, But You Can Still Overprice It in This Market

Mold – The Hidden Danger in Homes and What You Need to Know About It

How Buyers Can Make Their Offers More Attractive Than Competing Offers

An Unwary Buyer Could Be Blindsided at Closing and Lose Earnest Money

The #1 Mistake of Sellers: Not Checking Their Home’s Online Presence

Homeowner Associations: Good or Bad? Here Are Some Points to Ponder

What Are the Buyer & Seller Costs Associated With Buying or Selling a Home?

What Happens at a Real Estate Closing? Answers to Common Questions

Here Are My Favorite Easy Improvements When Moving Into a New Home

Look at How Much the Cost of Installing Solar PV on Your Home Has Dropped

Here’s My Take on Radon Gas in Your Home, Its Risks, and Its Mitigation

How to Respond to Agents Who Send You Letters or Ring Your Doorbell

National Press Reports Continue to Mislead & Confuse Local Buyers & Sellers

Yes, Virginia, You Can Buy a Home with Less Than 20% Down Payment

     San Juan Capistrano – America’s Top 35 real estate firms based on service excellence are being honored for exceptional customer service satisfaction with an industry first, a Q_E Award (pronounced “Quie”) “that measures and independently verifies excellence in the delivery of the highest levels of customer satisfaction and service quality in real estate in North America,” according to Quality Service Certification, Inc. (QSC), creators of the award.

The 2017 Q_E Award recognizes the Top 5 Large Companies, the Top 10 Midsize Companies and the Top 20 Small Companies, spanning 22 states, from Florida to California and Minnesota to Texas, and includes some of the most respected independent and well-known national and regional brand names.

The 2017 Q_E Award is based upon the results of an independent survey limited solely to buyers and sellers who were in a real estate transaction that actually closed with participating real estate companies from January through December 2016. Quality Service Certification, Inc. and Leading Research Corporation administer the survey process to ensure that every past customer is surveyed, preventing agents or the company from interference or influence in any way.

Golden Real Estate, Inc. was named one of the top 20 small companies — one of only four in the state of Colorado.

“At a time when consumers seek transparency, greater accountability, and trusted information to help them make better, more informed decisions and choices, tens of thousands of service professionals are electing to participate in service assessment and feedback following every transaction, which is setting a better standard for excellence,” said Kevin C. Romito, President, Quality Service Certification, Inc.

Nowadays, you can learn a lot about an individual real estate professional simply by Googling his or her name, but one thing you may not know how to do is to check out their level of success. How many active listings do they have, and how many homes have they sold as either listing or buyer’s agent?

Well, I have made it a little easier for you by creating a shortcut to that information on Denver’s MLS, REcolorado.

Go to www.FindDenverRealtors.com, where you can enter the agent’s first and last name. Remember, the first name may be a nickname. For instance, I’m “Jim” on the REcolorado, but I’m “James” on my Colorado real estate license. You only need to enter their name, then “Enter.” The search defaults to agents who are Realtors (that is, members of the National Association of Realtors), but you can change it to search for “All Agents.”

Once you find your agent, you can click on “View My Listings.”  If that doesn’t appear, then the agent has no listings, either active or sold.

It defaults to active and under contract listings, but you can click on “Properties I’ve Sold” which is a great way of seeing how experienced that agent is.

Then click on “Map View” so see the geographic distribution of that agent’s transactions. Have they sold any in your area?

How many of their transactions were their own listings, and how many were buyer sides? Each sale displays the listing brokerage.  If the name of the brokerage is not the same as the agent’s brokerage, you know that agent was representing the buyer in that transaction.

Lastly, be sure to click on “View My Profile,” too. You may learn a lot about the agent and their background. If there is no profile, that tells you something, too — that he or she isn’t diligent in managing their online presence.

Perhaps you were surprised, as I was, following the May 8th hail storm, to discover that your deductible for hail damage was higher than in the past. The last time I had a claim, the same insurance deductible ($1,000) was applied to all losses, but now I’m finding that a different deductible applies to hail claims.  My insurer is Liberty Mutual, and the deductible for hail is calculated at 0.5% of the replacement value of my home, capped at $2,500. Other insurers have even higher deductibles for hail.

For example, Belmar Commons, a community of 45 townhomes, has a master policy with a 2% deductible for hail losses, and the HOA had to impose a special “loss assessment” of over $5,600 per unit to cover their quarter-million-dollar insurance deductible. (Note: If you live in a condo or townhome community with a master insurance policy and purchase a “condo” policy, consider paying for a rider that covers such loss assessments — with its own deductible, of course!)

I’m told that “split deductibles” have been introduced over the past several years, with some companies applying different fixed deductibles for wind/hail losses vs. other losses, and others applying deductibles of up to 5% of the home’s valuation on such claims. If you’ve been with the same company for over 10 years, you probably have a policy without a higher deductible for hail, but if you change insurers thinking you’ll save on insurance, you may end up losing more than you save if you suffer a wind or hail loss in the future.

Many Coloradans saw an increase in their insurance premiums following the 2013 floods and the more recent wildfires, and we’ll quite likely see more increases because of this hail storm and other severe weather events, both past and projected.

It’s the nature of the insurance industry that the risk and cost of weather-related losses is spread out among all policy holders. So, just because you were not affected directly by the May 8th hail storm does not mean that you won’t pay a price for it and for other weather-related losses when your policy renews.

This should be a wake-up call for homeowners regarding the impact of climate change, and that impact goes beyond increases in insurance premiums. Earlier this month the Union of Concerned Scientists released a study concluding that within 20 years almost 200 coastal American cities may become unlivable due to chronic flooding caused by rising sea levels. Chronic flooding is defined as 26 or more flooding events per year — or one every two weeks.  When that becomes the norm, people start thinking about moving to higher, safer ground.

Climate change is also responsible for the increase in severe weather events such as tornadoes. I watch national news programs each night and am struck by how places like New England are now experiencing tornadoes and other weather events which I don’t recall happening when I lived there.

Yes, the premiums on homeowner’s insurance will increase, but consider for a moment the possible impact of more people moving to Colorado from cities which experience more flooding or other severe weather. People looking to move out of areas impacted by flooding, tornadoes or other weather-related catastrophes will be looking at the map for states with less flooding and severe weather. Fortunately, Colorado is blessed — for now — with fewer severe weather events than many other areas of the country.

I’ve always wondered why insurance companies “gave” us a new roof after a hail storm, even if the roof was already quite old.  This is different, say, from car insurance, where an insurer will “total” a car when the cost to repair the car exceeds a certain percentage of the book value of the car.

Insurers are already “depreciating” the value of wood shake roofs, meaning that they assign a certain “life span” to a wood shake roof — say, 15 years. If that roof is totaled, they will allow only its depreciated value instead of applying a deductible to the total cost of replacing it. If the roof is 15 years old, you might get very little — even though you’ve been paying a premium for having a roof that is considered a fire hazard.

Liberty Mutual paid an additional $7,000 to remove and reinstall the solar panels on my roof, even though I don’t pay a higher premium for those panels.  I hesitate to say it, but I wouldn’t be surprised to see insurance companies begin charging more for homes with solar panels to cover that cost.

We’ll be diving deeper into this subject on the “Golden Real Estate” show this Saturday at 3pm on AM 630 KHOW.  All our shows are streamed on Facebook Live, where they are also archived. Find them at Facebook.com/GoldenRealEstate1.

We’ll have insurance experts as guests and will also take your phone calls.

Because of the low inventory of homes for sale, it’s not unusual for homeowners to receive offers to buy their home without putting it on the market. Sometimes it’s from a real estate broker, but other times it might be from an investor or an unrepresented buyer offering to save you the cost of paying a real estate commission.

Or perhaps you saw a sign like the one below offering to buy your home for cash.

Here’s some advice on handling these types of offers.

First, the real estate broker: It could be a ploy for getting a listing. Don’t fall for it! If interested, offer to allow a showing and pay only 2.8% commission, which is the typical co-op commission offered to buyer’s agents. If the agent produces a buyer and submits an offer, call me or another broker to ask our help. I can’t speak for other brokers, but I will give you a free opinion about the offered price and whether you might do better paying for your own representation. If you still want to accept the offer without listing your home, talk to me about helping you with the transaction for a reduced fee.

Second, the investor: Whether the investor approaches you or you respond to his sign, just remember that he (or she) is not going to offer you market value. They’re in this business to make a profit — a big profit! On average they’re going to pay you 65% of what they expect to get when they “flip” your home with little or no improvement. Again, I’m available to help you determine the true market value of your home..

Third: the unrepresented buyer: This is a buyer who might actually be willing to pay fair market value or higher, but has been frustrated by the lack of inventory and is taking direct action to find a good home in a neighborhood they like. They are also thinking they can pay less for your home by saving you the expense of listing your home with an agent. Nevertheless, you do need professional representation. Real estate transactions are not as simple as you may think, with the state-mandated contract heavily weighted in favor of the buyer, not you. An agent can negotiate not only the price, but also inspection issues, appraisal issues, and more. My approach is to treat any offer to buy your home as the “opening bid” for your home. Even if you’re happy with the offered price, wouldn’t you like to get more?  If I can show you that you can net more by listing your home, I can, based on an analysis of comparable sales, help you counter that one buyer. If they don’t come up to what you and I agree is a reasonable offer, I might then suggest listing your home on the MLS using their offer as the listing price. If doing so doesn’t net you more money, you can then proceed with the original buyer’s best offer and I won’t charge you the higher commission for having put it on the MLS.

Although I have described how I personally might serve you in such scenarios, I suspect that a preferred broker, including one of our broker associates, would agree to similar arrangements with you.  Ask!

As a Realtor and resident of Jefferson County, I wince when I see a listing that’s many miles outside the City of Golden advertised as being “in Golden.” It may have a Golden address, but it’s in unincorporated Jefferson County.

Another example of this confusion is Evergreen. Evergreen is not a city or town, it’s just a postal address with its own ZIP code, 80439, serving 177 square miles of unincorporated Jefferson County — and a portion of Clear Creek County. Residents could use “Upper Bear Creek CO 80439” (or similar) in their address if they wanted, because the ZIP code is what matters to the Postal Service, but that’s not common. It doesn’t make your neighborhood a “city,” either.

It’s understandable that the Post Office wants to use a city name for every address, no matter how remote. After all, what’s the alternative?  All mail has to go through post offices with city addresses, but that doesn’t mean the address is within city limits.

Littleton is another example. Although Littleton is Arapahoe County’s county seat, much of south Jeffco has Littleton addresses.  Littleton 80127 and 80128 cover 70 sq. miles and 30,000 homes, all of them in Jeffco and virtually none of them in the City of Littleton!

As we all know, Littleton’s reputation was damaged by the 1999 mass shooting at Columbine High School, when in fact that school is a mile from the city limits of Littleton and is part of Jeffco Public Schools.  Such is the power of postal addresses!

Above is a graphic from Jefferson County’s website showing the incorporated and unincorporated areas of Jefferson County.

It may surprise you to know that Golden’s two ZIP codes – 80401 and 80403 — cover more square miles than the entire City and County of Denver. The City of Golden itself,  covers only about 10 square miles – about 5% of the area and just one-third of the homes which have been assigned Golden addresses.

Golden addresses span 187 square miles compared to Denver’s 155 square miles.. If you exclude the airport, Denver, with its 41 ZIP codes, covers only 101 square miles – about half the size of “Golden” with its two ZIP codes, and smaller, too, than “Evergreen” with its one ZIP code.

Because ZIP codes with large rural components are so big, statistics about individual neighborhoods are not generally available, and statistics for the ZIP codes as a whole are meaningless. Some marketing companies, including Zillow, promulgate statistical reports by ZIP code as if they were neighborhoods, which works fine when the ZIP code is one square mile, but not when it’s 20, 50, 100, or 150 square miles! As I was writing this article, I got an email with the following meaningless information about my ZIP code:

Fortunately, REcolorado.com, which is our local MLS, allows real estate professionals like me to draw boundaries around actual neighborhoods when generating statistics or searching listings. I do that a lot.

There are pros and cons of being in unincorporated vs. incorporated areas of the county.  The county has no sales tax, but many of the cities do.  At the Golden King Soopers, you pay 3% city sales tax on groceries which you don’t pay in other King Soopers.

Property tax is another matter. In unincorporated areas you have separate mill levies for law enforcement, fire protection, and other taxing jurisdictions.  Golden, as one example, provides all those services for a single mill levy that is much lower than those combined levies.

The short answer is “yes,” of course.  But let’s talk about a how much a listing agent can and should do to promote your home.

First, there’s a lot more to entering a home on the MLS than you might realize. Not all MLS fields are mandatory, and too many agents enter only the mandatory fields. Some of the optional fields are really important to promoting your home.

For example, in addition to the “public remarks” describing your home, the listing agent can enter a description about each individual room. This is an opportunity to describe the kitchen appliances, the bathroom flooring, or the view out the master bedroom window, etc. — all great selling points for a home.  Yet, a quick analysis of 50 random listings just now shows that roughly half the listings in the MLS have little or no description of the individual rooms, or even their measurements, which are also not mandatory.  Here’s an example from one of my listings, which went under contract in five days:

The following is from another agent’s listing of a similarly priced listing in the same ZIP code, which is still not under contract after 129 days on the market despite a $35,000 reduction in listing price.

Not only are there no room dimensions and descriptions, but the agent only listed the bedrooms and bathrooms, because if he hadn’t, the MLS would show 0 bedrooms and 0 bathrooms.

I’ve mentioned before that there are both “public remarks” and “broker remarks,” and sellers can’t see what their listing agents have entered under broker remarks, which are seen only by other agents.  The broker remarks might say that any offers received after 6 pm won’t be presented until the next business day, or that no deadlines should be on a Sunday.  How would you, as a seller, feel knowing that your listing agent isn’t checking his inbox (or answering his phone) after 5 pm or on weekends?  Here’s an example from the same ZIP code:

We all know that pictures are critical to the marketing of a listing.  Before you list with any agent, try searching for that agent on the MLS (http://www.recolorado.com/pages/find-real-estate-professionals) where you can view his or her listings (if any), not only to see how complete their data entry is, but also to view their pictures. Are the windows in each room a white blur, and are the dark and light elements of each picture properly exposed and visible?  By using High Dynamic Range (HDR) technology, the view out the windows is perfect, as is the exposure of the room’s interior.  Choose agents who have great pictures on their listings.  Here is an example of an HDR photograph from one of my listings:

Remember, the best predictor of how an agent will market your home is how they have marketed other homes.

At Golden Real Estate, we see great value in doing narrated video tours of our listings, because they simulate an actual listing, which is helpful to out-of-town buyers.  We add aerial video tours using a drone, too. Click on the “virtual tour” link of an agent’s listing to see if it’s merely a slideshow with music.  Video tours should be uploaded to YouTube (with full sales pitch there, too), because that adds additional exposure to your listing.

Below is a flyer describing other things which Golden Real Estate does to promote its listings.

     Call this “Short Attention Span” writing… There are numerous topics I’ve been wanting to write about that keep accumulating because I can’t fashion them into a full-sized column. So, this week, lacking a “big topic” that comes to mind, I’m going to clear the deck of these “tiny topics.” Maybe some of them will resonate with you!

Sixth Grade Classes Are Being Moved to the Middle Schools

Educators and many parents have concluded that sixth graders would do better in a school with 7th and 8th graders, and the Jeffco School Board has already begun to make that change. What you may not know is that if your 6th grader is still assigned to the elementary school, you can “choice” that student into the middle school. That’s the official term for it — I find it interesting that our educators have decided that “choice” can be a verb, not just a noun…

You May Want to Put Your Home in a Trust Instead of in Your Name

Experts recommend that you not put your home in your own name, but in a living trust. Why? Because people die, trusts don’t. When you die with a home in your name, a court has to decide who gets your house, even if you have a will. If it’s in a trust, you decide who the successor trustee is, and you can change the trustees over time.

I like what Linda Sommers, the estate law lawyer whose “Linda Leaving a Legacy” appears in YourHub, likes to say: “Everyone has an estate plan; if you don’t have one of your own, the state has one for you.”

VA Loans, Even Up to $1.5 Million, Can Make Sense for Veterans

      Plain vanilla VA loans — with no down payment up to $493,350 in the Denver metro area — are a great veteran’s benefit, but they do carry a “VA Funding Fee” of 2.15% of the loan amount. That fee drops to 1.5% if you put down 5% or more and to 1.25% if you put down 10% or more of the purchase price.  (These rates are higher on a veteran’s second home and if the veteran is a Reservist.) On a $400,000 loan, that fee can total $8,600. But if you’re a veteran with a service-connected disability, the fee is waived.

A lot of veterans don’t realize that they can buy homes well above the VA loan limit mentioned above. They can borrow 100% up to that loan limit and 75% of any amount over that limit. Thus, you could buy a $1 million home using a VA loan with a down payment of $126,662.50, or about 12.7%. Generally speaking, you need a 620 credit score to get a VA loan, but the VA doesn’t mandate a minimum credit score. Another advantage of VA loans is that even loans with zero down payment are not charged mortgage insurance.

Sellers Deserve to Receive Quality Feedback on Showings of Their Home

One of the most valuable features of using a professional showing service is the automated request for feedback which is sent to the showing agent by email right after each showing.

When you interview a listing agent, be sure to ask (1) whether they use a showing service (we recommend Centralized Showing Service, which dominates that industry), and (2) how many and what kind of feedback requests will be emailed to agents after the showing.

CSS offers two kinds of emails — one with multiple choice survey questions which the agent (with your input) can write; or the non-survey kind which asks for feedback and provides the agent with an open text field.

Because you can’t predict the feedback you will receive, I recommend you request the non-survey, open-ended kind of email request, so you get the most useful possible feedback from buyers.

Tiny Houses Are a Trend, Not a Passing Fad, Denver Business Journal Reports

On April 3, the Denver Business Journal had a headline that read, “Tiny Houses Are Big Business,” and described the Sprout Tiny Homes factory in LaJunta, Colorado. The company makes five models up to 14.5 feet wide by 34 feet long and up to 760 square feet — less than the size of a 4-car garage.

A tiny house was on Boulder’s Green Homes Tour last year, and the owners raved about it. Visitors, including me, liked what they saw, and it’s clear to me that tiny homes are going to continue to catch on.  In Denver, tiny homes are being built as a partial solution to the homeless problem. Smart!

Why Are Auto Manufacturers Still Building Petroleum Fueled Cars?

I recently read a report (by the German newspaper Der Spiegel) that half the cost of building a conventional gas-powered automobile is related to the gasoline engine — everything from the cooling system to the transmission to the exhaust system.  An electric car has just a battery and an electric motor, with only wires connecting them. Not even a transmission!

Even without a further decline in the cost of the batteries — and Bloomberg predicts a 77% additional decline in battery cost by 2030 — building an electric vehicle is easier and less resource consuming, and is better for the environment.  Volkswagen says it will produce 30 new models of battery electric cars across its 12 marques (which include Audi, and Porsche) by 2020. Consumers can help accelerate this conversion in manufacturing by declining to purchase cars which, I believe, are already obsolete.

Invite Me to Deliver My 30-Minute Presentation on Sustainability

Perhaps you’ve seen my presentation on EV’s at www.GasCarsAreObsolete.info. I recently created a presentation on the broader topic of sustainability.  You can see my PowerPoint slides at  www.SustainabilityPresentation.info.

Bonuses Paid to Buyers’ Agents Could Pose a Serious Ethical Question

Sometimes the “broker remarks” in an MLS listing will offer a cash bonus to the buyer if he brings an offer by a particular date or for full price.  At Golden Real Estate, we do not condone this practice because of its questionable ethics.

Agents are supposed to work in their clients’ best interest. “Broker remarks” are not visible to buyers, and there’s the possibility that an agent might steer his buyer to purchase a home solely because it earns him a higher commission, which would be unethical, in our opinion. We believe that any financial incentive should be offered to the buyer, not the agent.

Published June 22, 2017, in the Denver Post’s YourHub section and in four Jefferson County weekly newspapers.

When you buy a home, your lender will factor in several obvious costs of your purchase when approving your loan, but there are other less obvious costs which the lender doesn’t consider, but which you should definitely investigate.

The costs your lender considers are your projected mortgage payments (consisting of Principal, Interest, property Taxes and Insurance, or “PITI”) plus Mortgage Insurance Premium (“MIP”) and HOA fees.

Let’s look at those obvious costs first.

Regarding property taxes, don’t make the mistake of assuming that unincorporated areas have lower property taxes than incorporated cities. The City of Golden, for example, has the lowest mill levy I’ve found anywhere in Jefferson County, and many newer subdivisions, such as Candelas, have mill levies that can be twice that of Golden. (See my Dec. 17, 2015, and July 21, 2016, columns about Metropolitan Tax Districts at www.JimSmithColumns.com.)

Regarding insurance costs, shop around! I have observed substantial variation among insurers. Use an independent insurance broker to get competitive quotes from different carriers, or, if you get quotes from “captive” insurance agents, get quotes from three or more different carriers. If the home is in a flood zone, flood insurance can be another major expense.

Regarding mortgage insurance premiums, don’t assume that you must pay MIP if you have less than 20% down payment. We can refer you to lenders who offer work-arounds regarding MIP with much less than a 20% down payment.

Regarding HOA fees, some HOA’s require “working capital contributions,” “document fees” and “move in fees” that may take you by surprise.  Ask about these.

Now let’s look at some other, less obvious costs of home ownership.

What about energy costs? These can vary substantially from one house to another. Find out what the current owner is paying for gas and electricity each month, and factor in whether the number of members in your household will vary from the seller’s when projecting what your energy costs will be.

Once you’re under contract, you’ll be hiring a home inspector to evaluate that home. Make sure it’s an inspector who is qualified to assess the home’s energy efficiency as part of his inspection (at no extra cost). We can recommend such an inspector.

Your inspector can also assess how much deferred maintenance there is on the house you buy. Get his advice on how much you might need to budget in coming years for maintenance and repairs, which can vary greatly from one home to another.

Water consumption is big cost to consider, especially if the home has a lot of Kentucky bluegrass, which requires lots of water.

Here’s a hidden expense you may not have thought of — health expenses due to bad indoor air quality. You recognize the smell of new carpeting, right? It’s not as innocuous as you might think. You might well be smelling VOC’s — volatile organic compounds. Some paint also contains VOC’s, and they’re less expensive than paint labeled “low in VOCs.” Ask your inspector to assess how many VOC’s might be in the air that could literally make you sick. Mold is another sickness-causing consideration. Your inspector will tell you whether a separate mold inspection is called for. He (or we) can recommend mold inspectors. Radon tests, costing $100-150, are also a good idea, since naturally occurring radon gas is a known carcinogen.

Older homes have clay sewer lines that are prone to root intrusion and collapse, which is the homeowner’s responsibility. A $100 sewer scope could identify the need for a 4-figure repair that you might be able to get the seller to absorb, saving you that expense later.

Published June 15, 2017, in the Denver Post’s YourHub section and in four Jefferson County weekly newspapers.