News: "5 Real Estate Trends to Watch For"

Most people have been keeping a close eye on the real estate market waiting for the right time to buy/sell their home but the market has been shaky and with this roller coaster ride  for the past couple of years and we have all been thinking "maybe next year."  For those of you still undecided, here are some interesting market projections from some of Real Estate's most trusted advisors.

5 Real Estate Trends to Watch:
-Short term slump:  Yes, the market is down and it will not correct itself right away.  Do not expect prices to shoot back up, but they WILL move up.
-Overdevelopment:  Urban Sprawl is a big reason for the bust.  People kept building homes with the idea that demand will be there.  Thanks to the laws of supply and demand, Houses > People = lower home values.
-Jobs:  keep an eye on the unemployment rate in your area.  If it continues to drop you will notice that larger companies are moving out and into more stable cities.
-Lifestyle:  People are moving now more than ever to seek better opportunity, however, people move to places not only with better markets but better weather, leisure, or cost of living, which usually turns out to be the better markets.
-Government Regulation:  We have seen the government try to step in and fix the economy and there is legislation in place to help people forestall foreclosures, reduce mortgage debt, and help refinance to get back on their feet.


These are simple trends to note in a recession and if you play it right you can be successful in the housing market.

-Bill Allen
RE/MAX of Boulder
ballen@boulderco.com
303.570.9814

News: "Boulder to Receive Stimulus from HUD"

The Boulder County Business Report says that Boulder is to receive a grant from the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development (HUD).  The county is expected to receive $240,000 to put toward public housing, primarily for the elderly and people with disabilities to support their independent living.  The money will also help people obtain jobs in the workforce.

"The grant is part of a $31 million awarded nationally to public housing authorities, residential associations and nonprofit organizations across the US" -Doug Storum

For the entire article read HERE.

Matt

News: "Denver Home Prices Steady"

Inmnan news reports a steady value for homes in the Denver Metro area.  The numbers support the claim.  Good Information. Read the entire article HERE!

Denver "has never had the highs or the lows as the other markets have had. It always has been consistent," said Hank Bauer, an independent real estate broker who analyzes local housing statistics. -Gilbert Mohtes-Chan

...is this a good news or bad news?  Thoughts?


Matt

News: "Home Resales Slide 3.8%"

The Wall Street Journal reports that home sales for May dropped 3.8%.  The housing slump will only be fixed, and see growth, when buyers start trading up instead of tradding down.  As people continue to be weary about the market they continue to seek lower home prices and instead of "stimulating" the economy by purchasing a home, they are hurting the recovery for everytime someone buys down in home value it brings down the value of homes.  So instead of trading down, homebuyers need to trade up to stimulate growth. 

To read more about home sales follow the link: <http://online.wsj.com/article/SB10001424052702304070104576399481575600692.html?mod=WSJ_RealEstate_LeftTopNews>

News: What Real Estate Website draws the most hits?

InmanNews just posted an article analyzing the MOST visited Real Estate sites out there.  Yahoo Real Estate was ranked #1...follow this link to see the rest:  http://www.inman.com/news/2011/06/22/10-most-popular-real-estate-websites-in-may

News: "Go Green. Bike to Work Day in Boulder"

Did you bike to work today? 

More than 4,000 Bolderites, sign up for "bike to work day."  The event was founded in 1977, and is now part of a Bike Month that takes place all of June.  Register for the bike events or for more information go to http://www.communitycycles.org/.

News: "Walkscore.com Offers Advertising Space for Realtors"

Walkscore.com, a website dedicated to providing a "walkscore" for any location in the country.  A Walkscore is a rating that a LOCATION receives for its ability to walk to restaurants, coffee shops, shopping, schools, etc.  The higher your walk score the more likely you are able to walk to these places, in relation to people in surrounding areas.

But now, Walkscore.com is offering up advertising space to Realtors to give brief descriptions of a neighborhood for a low fee of $5.  This may become a growing trend, as young people stumble on this site often when they migrate, they look for as much information about a city and neighborhoods as they can.  If a 25 year old looks up Silver Creek on Walkscore.com and you bought the advertising space your picture, contact info, and description of the neighborhood would pop up on their seach...potential? You decide.




Any questions are welcome


Matt Ullrich
matthew.ullrich@colorado.edu

Quote of the Day, enjoy

"If you have nine dumb friends, you're bound to be the tenth one"
-Terrence Battle Jr.

Update: Been on Vacation

Dear Followers,

Sorry for the span of no posts, I have been out of town visiting family in St. Louis.  But my absence on Monday also stems from something else.  As of yesterday I have been put in charge of the entire social platform for RE/MAX of Boulder.  I guess my new title is "Head Social Media Director" or something like that.  My new responsibilities are include "playing" & "socializing" on all the major social platforms to spread the word of RE/MAX and how great we are.  So if you notice that I am always on Facebook and LinkedIn and Twitter, etc.  it is not because I have no life, but because I'm working.  This is a teenage girl's dream job!

*Keep following, I will post the links on this blog to all of the RE/MAX social media websites.


Matt

News: "Savvy Buyers Know Value When They See It"

Nice read for anyone looking to buy a home... <http://realtytimes.com/rtpages/20110614_savvy.htm>

Summary:  RealtyTimes, PJ Wade, has a nice article with some advice for anyone looking to buy a home.  PJ makes the point that you should be prepared when you are off "shopping" for homes with your agent.  Be sure to ask all the questions and do not hesitate because it is the job of your agent to answer any of your questions and know all the ins and outs of the property.

News: "Economists Revise Forecasts For Real Estate Recovery"

Inman Real Estate News reports:  Our nations economists have once again "trimmed" their annual forecast for the year and now project the housing recovery to start in 2012.


Forecasts at the beginning of the year expected the recovery to come near the end of 2011, but due to a slow start the "EXPERTS" are now lowering their expectations for the recovery. While some experts think the recovery will next year, some believe that we will see large growth in 2012, compared to the past few years.  The chart below shows 5 Industry Experts forecasts for the market, provided by InMan.com. 

	2010 Starts	2011 Forecast	Gain	2012 Forecast	Gain
NAHB	585,000	597,000	2%	800,000	34%
Freddie Mac	590,000	630,000	7%	900,000	43%
Wells Fargo	590,000	620,000	5%	830,000	34%
Moody's	590,000	700,000	19%	1,000,000	49%
Global Insight	587,000	589,000	2%	838,000	42%

"Once consumer confidence comes back, there should be some movement to regain the lost household formations and delayed moves."


My Opinion:  This is good news for the industry and the entire country.  Good in the sense that there are expectations for LARGE GROWTH, which we probably will not reach, but that means there will be GROWTH.  Maybe it's just because I started working for RE/MAX in June and it the summer time tends to have an increase in home sales, but I have witnessed no shortage in buyers and sellers.  Bill and I set up and had three open houses today, 1 planned and two because people called the office and WANT to look for a new place.

*Read the full article:  <http://www.inman.com/opinion/guest-perspective/2011/06/15/economists-revise-forecasts-real-estate-recovery>

If you have any questions, i'd love to answer them:  314.706.0304, matthew.ullrich@colorado.edu

Quote of the Day

"There can't be a crisis next week. My schedule is already full"
-Henry A. Kissinger

News: "Construction Begins on Controverial Boulder Project"

Washington Elementary School.  Boulder, CO

Boulder, CO:  Boulder County Business Report, Michael Davidson, reports that construction has begun on the once controversial Washington Village project in north Boulder.  For those of you who are unaware, this project is going to be built around the historic Washington Elementary School off of Broadway and Cedar.
Washington Village is planned to be developed into 33 residence community:  "The first phase of the project consists of flats, carriage homes and six single-family homes around a planned park. It incorporates the Washington Elementary School and is designed to be a park like campus featuring shared public areas, according to the developers"(Davidson)

The development plans to keep the historical school up while tearing down the not-historical additions.  The proposed project sits on 3+acres of land and was privately bought in 2008 for $4.1 million dollars.

<http://www.bcbr.com/article.asp?id=58115>

Quote

"Avoiding danger is not safer in the long run than outright exposure. Life is either a daring adventure, or nothing."   

-Helen Keller

*I'm going to try to keep a quote of the day on the blog...hope you enjoy

Age Old Question: Rent or Own?

In these tough times in the housing market a lot of people ask the question, should I rent or own?  Even through these past few years AHS Newsletters.com gives 7 solid reasons in favor of owning a home vs renting.  Most of the reasons circulate around the fact that it is a sound investment and appreciates in value over time, but it is a pretty driving video if you are on the fence about RENTING vs OWNING.

Check it the 3minute video!  <http://www.ahsnewsletters.com/realtor/2011/february/ahs/reasonsToOwnHome.html?utm_campaign=TT_AHS_June11&utm_medium=email&utm_source=AHSemail&utm_content=shareWithClients_text>

News: For my St. Louis followers

News:  "St. Louis Sees Rise in Home Values"  For my St. Louis followers, here is some good news about your housing market.  In the last quarter St. Louis has seen a 2.2% increase in home prices, that's second in the nation behind Washington DC at 4.5%, and the third place is at a steady 1.6% growth. GO STL!

Read the article on Realtor.org...http://www.realtor.org/RMODaily.nsf/pages/News2011061301?OpenDocument

News: "Sarah Palin's New Arizona House"

Since working at RE/MAX a lot of people use Arizona as the epitome of the current market slump and often joke about it.  But if the market in Arizona is so bad, then why did Sarah Palin just purchase a $1.7 million dollar property in Scottsdale? <http://money.cnn.com/galleries/2011/real_estate/1105/gallery.sarah_palin_home/index.html>

But I do not understand why people talk about how poor Arizona is doing when this past year RE/MAX Fine Properties in Scottsdale AZ was second, only to RE/MAX of Boulder, for sales volume by ANY REAL ESTATE office in the country.  And following up AZ was Keller Williams at number four from Anchorage, AK.

Update & Advice

I hope you all had a good weekend.  I had some family in town to take in some of this beautiful Colorado weather, unfortunately when we went on a four hour hike one of the girls didn't put sun screen on and spent the entire weekend in doors and in pain.  -And the Rockies lost yesterday to the Dodgers (I am no longer tolerant of LA fans, GOONS!)

Advice for Real Estate Brokers and Businessmen everywhere:  This morning when I came into work I read the hotsheets of all of the Real Estate news in the country and one particular article just jumped out at me and I thought I should share with everyone...

><http://www.inman.com/news/2011/06/10/your-facebook-business-page-worthless

InMan.com reports:  "Your Facebook Business Page is Worthless"  This article comes from an InMan News follower who wrote in to the site about her recent speaking appearance at a Realtor conference in Atlanta.  The title of her speech was "Your Facebook Business Page is Worthless."  

My Opinion:  I wanted to post this article because just this past week a recent hire at my office who is working on RE/MAX's social platform was showing me what she had been working on, and the focuse of her work was on the RE/MAX of Boulder Facebook page.  I was a little surprised, because I don't see people flocking to Facebook to look for homes or agents.  This might bode well for RE/MAX itself but for the benefit of the individual agents of the company, having the presence of a Facebook business page is very very unlikely to draw business to you.  1)because people do not use Facebook to find PROFESSIONALS and 2)If they do stumble on your FB businsess page, it is usually incomplete/outdated/unhelpful 3) It could prove useful if you utilize all aspects of a social platform, meaning having a COMPLETE and UPDATED Facebook page, twitter, LinkendIn, and Blog.  

*In order for social media to work, you MUST utilize the entire SOCIAL PLATFORM!

Advice for Facebook Use:  It is a great way to connect to family and friends and to keep up-to-date with what is going on in your friend's lives.  Facebook business pages:  they can not hurt your presence in social media but I do not see it creating any new leads for you, however, if you choose to create such a page, make sure you make it very easy to follow and make it POP!  -You need to utilize all social media to spread your name.

News: "Why its time to BUY"

I will leave you into the weekend with this nice article from the Wall Street Journal

<http://online.wsj.com/article/SB10001424052702304563104576361522020024248.html>

*There is a lot of GREAT information in this article, I know its long but the content is gold*


SUMMARY:

• Mortgage rates are at a 50yr low
• Homes are more affordable today than in past years
• Ratio of home prices to income is lower than 2010 (this is good)
• Long-term benefits of owning a home are still intact

enjoy the weekend

News: "Owning A Home Essential To The American Dream"

*this is a nice little article that I found that makes a large case for people to have/buy a home.  It's the AMERICAN DREAM!

RISMedia reports:  "Owning a Home Essential to the American Dream, Survey Shows" 

<http://rismedia.com/2011-06-09/owning-a-home-essential-to-the-american-dream-survey-shows/>

Summary:  The National Association of Home Builders (NAHB) has taken a survey around the country to gauge how the general public feels about owning a home.  Survey says, "...that Americans see beyond the immediate housing market to the enduring value of homeownership,"(Nielson).  The survey conducted reported that over 75% of people polled said "...owning a home is worth the risk of the fluctuations of the market, and 95% of of the homeowners said they were happy with their decision to own a home."(Nielson)

My Opinion:  Aside from market conditions around the country, people still see the value of owning a home and many young people starting out WANT to own a home.  This drive from younger people will hopefully correct the market in the near future.  Here is a few more facts from Nielson's article:

Among the other survey results: (MAY 2011)
• Homeownership and a retirement savings program are considered by voters to be their best investments.
• 80 percent of home owners would advise a close friend or family member just starting out to buy a home.
• Saving for a downpayment and closing costs is the biggest barrier to homeownership.
• Americans believe that owning their own home is as important as being successful at their job or being able to pay for a family member’s education

News: "Selling A Home? 3 Easy Tips..."

RealtorMag.org reports:  Are you trying to sell your home?  Here are a few easy tricks to help make the selling process move more easily:

1)  Price your home Competitively from the beginning 

• It is important to list your home competitively in today's current market.  Most buyers are weary of even buying a home right now, so it is very unlikely that you will receive a higher value for YOUR home over the value of comparable homes.  (comparable homes:  houses with the same location, size, #of bedrooms, etc).  The more competitively priced your home is the more hits/interest you will see in your home.

2)  Consider Sweetening the Deal

• This is by far the easiest way to attract people to your home.  Most people, when selling a home take all of their appliances with them, BUT you can sweeten the deal of your home by including in the selling price your TOP-OF-THE-LINE washer and dryer or that very nice 50in TV in the living room.  These little incentives may be the deciding factor for buyers to look at your home over competitors.

3)  Make Sure your Home is Show-ready and in Move-in Condition

• This is huge for ATTRACTING people into your home.  People looking to buy a home are looking for something CLEAN and NEAT that they feel comfortable in and would have no problem moving into today!  With that said, when presenting your home make sure that the house is spick and span as if your in-laws were coming to town.  Put all of the kids toys away and all of the clutter out of view.  Make sure the cob webs in the corner are dusted and if there are some dirty walls, scrub them down or give it a new coat of paint.   -The more presentable your home is the more likely buyers will be attracted.

<http://www.realtor.org/RMODaily.nsf/pages/News2011060904?OpenDocument&WT.cg_n=RMO&WT.cg_s=RSSDaily>

News: "Mortgage Rates Move Lower Following Weak Jobs Report"

RealtyTimes.com reports:  Mortgage Rates continue to fall, making it a good time to buy a new home.  This drop in mortgage rate is the lowest rate since November 2010 (8 months) and they do not show a sign of rising.  The current rate on a 30yr fixed mortgage is 4.49% and 15yr mortgage is averaging 3.68%.  EXCELLENT RATES.

<http://realtytimes.com/rtpages/20110610_rates.htm>

My Thoughts:  If you are currently thinking about buying a home but are in tangles about what is happening in the market in terms of the price of homes or financing your new home, do not be stressed.  If you are on the edge of wanting to buy a home, these are the lowest interest rates you are going to get so I would pull the trigger and lock in these rates, buy now.  If you are not on the edge but are thinking about buying, continue to follow the mortgage and market reports and follow the trends and gather a good amount of information before you decide to buy.

News: "HUD Brings Families Back Together"

RISMedia:  "HUD Provides $15 Million in Rental Assistance to Help Nearly 2,000 Families Stay Together"

<http://rismedia.com/rrein/5160/85606/2335471/24278>
In '09 423,000+ children were taken from their families because their parents could not afford a home.  But due to new actions under taken by the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development (HUD), they have announced a new program to help public housing authorities reunite foster children with their parents.  HUD's budget is about $15million to help reunite these families.

The program has been started to both help families rent properties and get back on their feet, while helping out the public housing sector of the government by moving more kids out of the foster system.  The system to a cost-benefit-analysis (CBA) approach to making this program possible.  Those smart government workers found that it costs the federal government about $58,892 a year per family to place children into foster care.  So instead of spending that money for the government to hold on to the displaced kids that they took, they will now donate that money through the new program to help these families get back on their feet.  Good thinking.

"Networking"

My task for today was to build a database with everyone I know and send them an email with what i'm doing.  If you follow me, the you most likely received an email or Facebook message from me saying something like "I recently was hired by RE/MAX of Boulder and currently studying to be a real estate broker/agent to buy and sell property in Colorado." 

The point of this email/fb message was to start to build my clientele list for the start of my "business".  I quoted business because a broker is functionally self-employed, for they do not have a set wage or tasks for the day but instead must drive their own work.  This is where the clientele list comes in.  In order to get work a broker must make and maintain a large clientele basis for which he can be referred by.  The lifeblood of a good agent a good clientele basis for which they refer their friends to.  It seems to be a successful method, because I have already, in the past 1-2hours, have had multiple people respond and say they will help me get established by passing along my information.

So, to anyone who I did not already contact, please keep me in mind and/or pass along my information to your friends and family to help me be successful, thankyou.

News: "Catfish Recovery"

Reported by RISMedia:  This article suggests that current times represent a "catfish recovery"  houses are being more moderately priced and like catfish they sit on the bottom and bob up and down over time.  This is very accurate to what i have noticed in Boulder's market.  A lot of homeowner's believe their home is worth "X", which may be right, but if you want your home sold you need to take a second look at WHO is buying your home and understanding that buyers are cautious right now, so you need to head the advice of your Real Estate Broker and trust him/her to get you the best price for you home.

<http://rismedia.com/2011-06-07/catfish-recovery-out-swims-case-shiller/>

*Seller's: look at your home as a trade-off when you sell your home.  If the market is poor and your Real Estate Agent tells you your price is high, the odds are the home your are purchasing is in the same boat, they are selling below what they believe as well so the deal comes out even in the end.

News: "Home Values Increase"

RISMedia (a trusted source for Real Estate Information):  reports that home values across the nation, collectively, have risen.  "Index Reports National Price Breakthrough"

<http://rismedia.com/rrein/5154/85606/2335471/24251>

This is a good sign for the value of homes across the country, and even thought the current rise in value is small it is a move in the right direction.  But for those of you living in Boulder County, you do not have to worry about your homes steady rise in value, most homes in Boulder are not adversely affected by the economy and the value of homes here continue to rise.


*if you have any questions about the value of your home, please email or call me and we could set up a free Comparative Market Analysis of your home.

Phone:  314.706.0304
Email:  matthew.ullrich18@gmail.com
                     OR
           matthew.ullrich@colorado.edu

News: Sharing Traffic on the Web

From Techcruch.com, "Share This Study:  Facebook accounts for 38% of Sharing Traffic On the Web"

<http://techcrunch.com/2011/06/06/sharethis-facebook-38-percent-traffic/>

This article is just a nice emphasis on why I was hired to work on the social media aspect of marketing the agents at RE/MAX.  The article shows that between Facebook and Twitter, alone, they account for over 50% of all sharing traffic on the web.  -If Real Estate agents can build an effective blog, twitter, or linkedIn account and create a good following, it could prove to be an EXTREMELY successful tool to use to retain and even find new clientel.


BLOG!

Real Estate News

Along with this blog, i will also be posting periodically (as much as i can find), Real Estate articles, posts, news, and turn this blog into a more user friendly source for up-to-date market information.

A New Day

My girlfriend Bre flew to Spain yesterday for the summer so i took the day off of work.  So today is my Monday.  I was told to come in at 8, expecting Bill to be there, he was not.  I was a little ticked that he didn't show up until about 8:30, but was happy that he acknowledged the fact that I showed up when he had asked and had all ready gotten some work done and brought in a dry-erase board with a list of things to get done today.  We started off the day with getting set up in the office then we headed down stairs for the weekly "staff meeting."  I quoted that because it was not a staff meeting but more of a re-boot for the employees and show of listings that they like or are having troubles moving and present their property to the entire staff for potential leads.  -Thats a nice thing that I have picked up around this office, the people here really like to help each other and really value the teamwork which i am extremely happy to hear and i think it will help my transition from an assistant to a broker a lot easier.

After the meeting we toured some of the properties, kind of like an open house and about 10-12 brokers visited some of the properties together to give tips and advice to the listing broker to help them move the property.  Teamwork.

After that i have just been slaving over the computer working on the social media.  Luckily we had a potential client come in for a meeting and Bill and i were able to help her out a lot.  -She is a nice lady from Vermont, who is looking for a house under $400,000 and near Boulder.  I used RE/MAX's MLS system and wasn't able to find anything in Boulder for her, so i asked if she had any interested in living in the surrounding communities?  She was interested so i changed my search for Louisville, which after looking at the large drop in price for the home she wanted, she became very interested.  She was in a hurry so we only got to briefly talked, but we emailed her the homes that we found that she may like and set her up with a buddy in the office who does the mortgage side and hopefully we here back from her soon and find her nice home in Louisville.

The First few Days...

Last week, June 2, was my first day on the job.  I was a little under-prepaired for work because i had not signed any contracts yet and Bill just kind of told me to show up at the office at 8 to go do some stuff, i was unaware that i would be getting started and be in the office until 2-3 that day.

June 2...day 1.  On my first day I was lucky enough to get out in the field and shadow Bill.  We went to a property out in Louisville in a new subdivision and did a final walk through with Bill's client.  He show me a few things about the property during the walk through to pick up on and the important pieces that MUST be finished on the property before closing.  Everything looked good.  From there we met an appraiser at the clients current home that she is looking to sell.  -The property was looked to sell about $350,000, which coming from St. Louis I was like NO EFFING WAY that house is more than $120,000, that was my first lesson.  I quickly learned the value of property in a Mountain town.  A small Ranch home with 3 bedrooms on a 1/4 acre are more than double the value here in Boulder than where i'm from.

After meeting the appraiser at the house we met up with the client at a Title company to sign the final paperwork and close the deal. Little did I know that it takes about an hour to go through all the documents and sign everything, i almost fell asleep in a chair in the corner.  But honestly, it was a really cool experience the first day on the job.

June 3...day 2.  I wasn't really sure what to do today, since yesterday was a full day i was expecting to work all day but i really didn't know what I was going to do that day.  It was a little more boring because we didn't get to leave the office but i was able to start learning about Bill and his current social media presence.  I was pretty surprised that he has an account for every social media thing you can think of but just when i was impressed, i logged on the each one and it hasn't been updated in a month.  Bill!  But fortunately i've been playing around with that stuff for him and we should have his newly redesigned webpage and social platforms all up to date and ready to be utilized.

June 5...day 3.  This was a Sunday, and Bill asked me to help him show an open house, being the new guy I couldn't say no.  So from 1-3 on a warm summer afternoon, while the Cardinals were on TV playing the cubs i was stuck sweeping some dudes house and host an open house.  The open house was a flop and to top it off the homeowner's did not have a TV so we couldn't even watch the game as i stared at the floor for two hours.  It was not a total failure, Bill and i got to spend some time together and learn about each other and teach me more about the life of an agent.  -I accredit to flop to be from an overpriced home for the size and presentation of the home.  The homeowner's are asking for way to much even though its close to $200,000 above what they had originally paid for it 5 years ago.  But Bill has been working on this property for a long time and it seems like the owners are sitting on a high horse and think their tiny little ranch home, because its in Boulder, will sell for as high as they think.  If they want it sold this year, they better knock down the price.

My Interview Process

-It's pretty exciting to start up.  Over the weeks prior, I have been bombarding real estate companies and agents all over Boulder looking for a position and through those emails I was turned to Irene Shaffer at RE/MAX of Boulder who sat me down for an interview.  I wasn't sure what to expect at the interview, but the meat of the interview focused around my knowledge of social media and how can i incorporate it into the position.  Needless to say, it caught me off guard because i was expecting to get drilled about my Real Estate knowledge and not about how much time i spend on Facebook everyday.  But through the interview Irene found that I could be utilized in the office.  In return for my "street" knowledge of social media i was paired up a senior member, Bill Allen, and would be trained in the mysterious art of being a Real Estate Agent.

Currently Bill and i are working together, i'm setting up and managing all of his online media (facebook, linkedin, website) in exchange to shadowing him on his day-to-day doings.