Keller Williams Realty of Northern Colorado

A good credit score makes all the difference when applying for a home loan. On May 22, 2009, the Credit Card Accountability, Responsibility, and Disclosure (CARD) Act of 2009 was signed into law, marking a turning point for American consumers and ending the days of unfair rate hikes and hidden fees. While the new law offers significant safeguards for consumers, there are new practices designed to skirt the law that consumers need to protect themselves against.

Stay as informed as possible, read your statement, report any irregularities immediately, and watch out for these tricks:

SHORTENED BILLING CYCLE
The CARD Act requires companies to allow a window of at least 21 days from when a statement is mailed and when payment is due. Cardholders are reporting being shortchanged on billing cycle time and then being assessed late-payment fees.

ADVICE: Watch out for shortened payment dates.

SUNDAY DUE DATES
The CARD Act stipulates if a creditor does not receive or accept payments on weekends or holidays, then the date is extended and late-payment fees shouldn’t be triggered. However, some banks say they’re open for business even when there’s no mail delivery.

ADVICE: Don’t assume you are safe.

LOW-LIMIT CARDS
The CARD Act says a card’s total annual fees can’t exceed 25% of a borrower’s credit line. However, some issuers may be evading the fee restrictions by charging an up-front processing fee that doesn’t fall under the 25% cap.

ADVICE: Watch out for processing and other fees.

FALSE INACTIVE FEES
Issuers will no longer be able to charge inactivity fees or extra charges for people who don’t spend a certain amount each year, effective August 22. However, some issuers are charging an annual fee that’s waived if cardholders reach a certain spending threshold.

ADVICE: Watch out for conditional annual fees.

REBATE OFFERS
Some credit cards offer refunds on finance charges when customers pay on time. However, rebate offers aren’t governed by the CARD Act, and such offers can be revoked suddenly and for any reason, leaving cardholders stuck with higher charges.

ADVICE: Rebates may translate to real savings in finance charges.

Source: Keller Williams Realty, Inc., “This Month in Real Estate”, released 8/7/2010.

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Posted By: Keller Williams Realty of Northern Colorado - Fort Collins Real Estate Agents,
specializing in Fort Collins Real Estate and Northern Colorado Real Estate
Pictures of Fort Collins

970.377.3700

Home ownership is as much a part of the American Dream as baseball and apple pie. While a key component of financial success, homes do come with a cost. If we have learned anything in recent years, it is that saving and planning ahead can make all the difference.

Personal finance experts recommend setting aside at least 1% of your home price each year in a separate account for maintenance and repair costs. Setting aside funds can be a challenge for households. One idea is to automatically deduct the funds from your paycheck or automatically transfer the funds between accounts each month.

Your home maintenance expenditures will vary greatly year to year. Some years you may just need to repair a pipe, however, when the unexpected happens or big tag items come to calling you will be prepared. Using reserves to replace a roof or sewer line is less stressful and you can rest assured that one of your most important financial assets is taken care of.

Source: Keller Williams Realty, Inc, “This Month in Real Estate” released 1/5/10.

Thanks for reading our Fort Collins Real Estate Blog!
Posted By: Keller Williams Realty of Northern Colorado - Fort Collins Real Estate Agents,
specializing in Fort Collins Real Estate and Northern Colorado Real Estate
Pictures of Fort Collins

970.377.3700

In March, Keller Williams Realty will be releasing the most recent KW Research Home Seller’s Survey. Below is a sneak peak of some of the great information that will be made available in the full report!

Pricing Research
Sellers who listed their home at the price originally recommended by their agent sold their home:

• 38 days faster: This would save a mortgage payment and taxes and insurance, for example: For a $200,000 home with a 20% down payment and 6.5% interest rate, the principal and interest alone would be $1,101*

• For 2.25% higher: 2.25% of $200,000 is $4,500*

• With 1 less price reduction: The average price reduction was $11,042.

* Averages based on national survey data. Actual dollar amounts are for example only.

Set the Stage
Is it worth it to stage your home for buyers?

The Keller Williams Realty Getting The Home Sold study found it typically took between 2-6 hours to stage a home and cost an average of $523, including the cost of a staging professional and items purchased or rented. So what is the benefit? The study found the average increase in list-to-sell in staged homes was 1.08%. For a $200,000 home, that translates to a net profit of $1,637 from staging. Well worth it!

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Source: Keller Williams Realty Research Getting the Home Sold, pulled 2/18/2010.

Thanks for reading our Fort Collins Real Estate Blog!
Posted By: Keller Williams Realty of Northern Colorado - Fort Collins CO Realtor,
specializing in Fort Collins CO Real Estate and Northern Colorado Real Estate
Pictures of Fort Collins

970.377.3700

Due to recent federal changes to their short sale guidelines, “short sales” may start living up more to their name.

A short sale occurs when a lender accepts less than a borrower owes on a loan. As part of the Foreclosure-Prevention Program, the government modified their short sale guidelines to make short sales more attractive alternatives to foreclosures. Short sales can frequently produce higher sales prices for distressed homes and are less harmful to communities than foreclosures. To-date, however, short sales have been cumbersome and difficult to complete.

The changes in guidelines are aimed to help distressed homeowners who are eligible for the loan modification program, but:
Read the rest of this entry»

The Miliken Institute/Greenstreet Real Estate Partners recently released their 2009 Best-Performing Cities Index and the Fort Collins-Loveland area came in at #22. The ranking is based on the institutes evaluation of 200 large metro areas around the country. Each area was evaluated in the following categories: job, wage, salary and technology growth.

One of the major forces driving Fort Collins-Loveland area’s success is the Northern Colorado Economic Development Corporation (NCEDC), which took shape in 2001. The NCEDC is a  501(C)(6) non-for-profit corporation driven by their mission to create primary jobs and promote economic growth in Larimer County. The corporation has been involved in creating over 3,163 primary jobs in the area since 2004, injecting the economy with $215.17 million in wages. To learn more, you can visit the NCEDC website at: http://www.ncedc.com.

Fort Collins-Loveland was not the only Colorado area to make the list. Greeley came in ahead at #20 and Boulder at #44. You can see the complete list at:  http://bestcities.milkeninstitute.org/bestcities2009.taf.

Source: Miliken Institute, “2009 Best Performing Cities,” data pulled 11/25/2009

For the last couple of years, many home owners have been waiting on the sidelines to see if the market will shift. Well the data shows that the trends are pointing up. And while the inventory of homes for sale is down right now, closings are on pace with those of 2 years ago. Many believe that there are so many homes for sale that to put your home on the market you would have to give it away. This may be what is reported on the nightly news but it is not what is happening locally. In fact, with the inventory currently out there at $300K and below we are by definition in a seller’s market.

Now Home Seller’s can take advantage of the benefits of the expanded Tax Credit. There is a wealth of information at Sellers Tax Credit that will begin to inform you about how you can take advantage of this brief opportunity.

Now is the time to speak with you Real Estate Professional,

Regards,
David A. Timm, GRI

Two critical measures of a real estate market are the Month’s Supply of Inventory (MSI) and Days On Market (DOM). The MSI is an estimate of how long it will take for all the homes in a market area to be sold, or absorbed, based on the number of homes currently on the market and the rate that homes have sold in the past. The lower the better for sellers. DOM is the average number of days it has taken homes to sell in a market in a given time period. Again, the lower the better for sellers.

The graph below shows the change in MSI for Loveland, Greeley and Fort Collins from 9/1/2007-9/30/2009:

While DOM has not dropped for all three cities, the MSI has lowered significantly across the board and points to a more balanced real estate market.
Source: Brokers Metrics, “Months Supply of Inventory (MSI) 9/1/2007-9/30/2009” for Fort Collins, Loveland and Greeley.

Thanks for reading our Fort Collins Real Estate Blog!
Posted By: Keller Williams Realty of Northern Colorado - Fort Collins Real Estate Agents,
specializing in Fort Collins Real Estate and Northern Colorado Real Estate
Pictures of Fort Collins

970.377.3700

In late August, the federal government announced half a billion dollars in grants to help develop wind-energy projects. This is good news for northern Colorado ranch and farm owners that have land ripe for wind farm development. Some wind farms, such as the Cedar Creek Wind Farm located east of Grover, have already taken shape. The Cedar Creek farm has 274 turbines making it one of the largest wind-powered facilities in the country. Colorado State University has their own project in the works called the Green Power Project. This development, just north of Fort Collins on I-25, has the potential to produce four gigawatts of wind energy.

The rise of the wind energy market has naturally led to a change in property appraisals for some properties. On some appraisals you will see a new line item: “Annual turbine lease revenues on top of crop revenue yield per acre.” These are properties that have wind speeds of 11-13 miles per hour and are ideally in the general vicinity of existing high-power electrical transmission lines and not too remote from population centers.

Source: Realty Times, “Investor Report: Wind Energy” by Kenneth R. Harney, 9/4/09; http://realtytimes.com/rtpages/20090904_investorreport.htm; Source: Coloradoan, “Wind farms gaining speed in Northern Colorado” by Bobby Magill, 9/14/09; http://www.coloradoan.com/article/20090914/LOVELAND01/90914003?GID=m1C3TdIF0zBOI6pDbtcAj5KvzHtkaNI

Since the beginning of the government foreclosure prevention program, Making Home Affordable, there have been several amendments extending its reach to increasing numbers of struggling homeowners. The latest development now extends the program’s arm to welcome not only mortgages held by Fannie Mae or Freddie Mac but also FHA.

Preventing foreclosures remains just as important to economic and housing stability as it was when the program first began in March, especially as the most telling indicator of foreclosure levels, the unemployment rate, is likely to remain high into 2010. Helping troubled homeowners avoid foreclosure remains a key component to continued firm footing for the housing market and economy. This is a good sign with positive implications for home buyers and sellers.

Source: Keller Williams Realty, “This Month in Real Estate,” released 8/18/09.

Where to Retire Magazine ranked Greeley number one on their recently released “eight terrific home buys with great lifestyles” list. The magazine, published six times a year, seeks to identify the best retirement regions, towns and master-planned communities. The selection was based on Greeley’s affordable cost of living combined with residents easy access to Rocky Mountain National Park, city parks and recreation, quality health care and a thriving Senior Center. In addition, the area is enriched by higher education as it is home to the University of Northern Colorado and Aims Community College. For more information about the great things going on in Greeley, you can visit the official city website at http://www.greeleygov.com.

Source: Greeley Tribune, “Greeley ranked as 1 of top 8 places for retirees” by Nate A. Miller, 8/5/09
http://www.greeleytribune.com/article/2009908049963