Merry Christmas and Happy New Year

Merry Christmas!

We hope you and your family have a wonderful holiday. 

We just wanted to take a moment to thank you for your continued support throughout the years. We wouldn’t be where we are today without your help! 

It truly brings us joy to help you make your real estate dreams a reality. If you have any questions, please don’t hesitate to reach out to us. We am here to help you in any way we can. 

In the meantime, have a very merry Christmas!

Do You Need to Sell Before You Buy in Our Denver Market?

Our team has a step-by-step process we use to help our clients buy and sell a home at the same time.

Buying a home? Click here to perform a full home search

Selling your home? Click here for a FREE Home Price Evaluation 

Call me at 303-974-9471 for a FREE home buying or selling consultation to answer any of your real estate questions.

If you’re looking to move, how can you sell your current home and buy a new one at the same time? How can you find the right house with so little inventory and so much competition among other buyers?

This situation pops up all the time, so relax—it’s doable. Here’s the step-by-step process we typically use with our clients to buy and sell a home simultaneously. 

First, put your current house on the market. Second, get it under contract. Third, make sure your buyer is flexible with your schedule, will allow you to close quickly (within 30 days or less), and will let you stay in the property for an extended period of time while you look for your next home. 

Another option is to do a bridge loan, but that’s typically harder to finance. 

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We specialize in finding properties that aren’t on the market yet.

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How do you find that next property in our market? That’s where we come in. We specialize in finding properties that aren’t on the market yet. We have people on the phones every day cold-calling and circle-prospecting everyone from previous homeowners in the area you’re interested in, other Realtors, friends, family, and everyone else in our sphere. We find needle-in-a-haystack homes and put you in front of their owners. Whether it came on the market through the MLS or we found it first, we can find the exact right property for you. 

If you have any other questions about this or any other real estate topic or you’re thinking of buying or selling a home in the Denver market, don’t hesitate to reach out to us. We’d be glad to help you. 

Announcing the Big Winners of Our Thanksgiving Party Contests

Thank you all for coming out to our Thanksgiving pie party. We’re here to announce the winners of our trivia and counting contests.

Buying a home? Click here to perform a full home search

Selling your home? Click here for a FREE Home Price Evaluation 

Call me at 303-974-9471 for a FREE home buying or selling consultation to answer any of your real estate questions.

We had such a great time with all of you at our Thanksgiving pie party. It was by far the best event we’ve ever had. We gave away a ton of apple and pumpkin pies, and we hope you had as much fun with our contests as we did. Today we are excited to announce the winners of a few of those contests, but first I wanted to express my gratitude to you.

When you’re a client of ours, you become part of our family for life. It was so great being able to see so many of you and catch up. One of the best parts of my job is seeing lives like yours changed over time. Thank you all so much for your continued support over the years, and thanks for joining us at our party! We had a blast.

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Thank you so much for your support.

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Without further ado, let’s get to the contest winners. The first one we’ll announce is the winner of the Skittles jar contest. The actual number of Skittles in the jar was 4,393 and a lot of you got really close. The closest guess (and first place winner) was Alfredo Martinez! Congratulations! In second place, we had George Hafke, and in third place, we had L.C. Evans. We’ve got some awesome prizes coming your way, including some awesome meals at Del Frisco, movie tickets, and Denveropoly. 

Now, let’s take a look at the Thanksgiving trivia contest. Before we announce the winners, we wanted to share an interesting fact that we didn’t put on the contest but wanted to tell you about. Swanson’s revolutionary invention of the frozen T.V. dinner was actually brought about because of an overabundance of turkeys after the holidays. Keep that fact in mind for next year.

The winner of our trivia contest was Jay Mainwaring, who will be receiving a Home Depot gift card. Todd Dozeman came in second place and Carolyn Woven came in third. Congratulations to you all!

I hope everybody had as great a time as we did. If you have any questions for us in the meantime, don’t hesitate to reach out. We’re always here to help, and we look forward to hearing from you soon.

Our Annual Thanksgiving Pie Party Is Back and You're Invited

Thanksgiving is just around the corner, and my team and I want to invite you to our annual Thanksgiving Pie Party. 

RSVP HERE>>> pieparty2017.com

It’s that time of year again. Thanksgiving is just around the corner, and my team and I want to invite you to our annual Thanksgiving Pie Party coming up on Tuesday, November 21. There will be a photo booth, pies, contests, drawings, and lots of fun for the whole family. This is just our way of letting you know that appreciate your support.

Is the Denver Market in a Bubble?

I’m answering some important questions today about the future of the Denver real estate market. Stay tuned to see them for yourself.

Buying a home? Click here to perform a full home search

Selling your home? Click here for a FREE Home Price Evaluation 

Call me at 303-974-9471 for a FREE home buying or selling consultation to answer any of your real estate questions.

We’re entering the final quarter of 2017 and so far it’s been an amazing year for Denver. However, I’m still hearing a lot of different questions from people out there, such as: “Are we in a bubble that’s going to burst? Is Amazon coming to Denver? Will the housing crisis flood the market with new properties? What’s going to happen?”

My answers are simple. Interest rates are still hovering around 4%, so it’s a great time to lock in a 30-year mortgage. Secondly, jobs continue to grow in Denver. We will know by the first quarter of 2018 if Amazon chooses to make Denver the site of one of its main headquarters. If they do, it will add 50,000 jobs to the area.

As for inventory, we don’t have a lot of it so it continues to drive demand. As more and more people decide that now is the time to sell, it doesn’t mean everything will flatten out. I like to think of this market as kind of a false mountaintop. Just when you think you’ve hit the peak, there’s another gradual incline of 500 feet or so to go. We’ve hit the steepest part of the incline in our market, and the next few years will see much more gradual growth. 

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Inventory is continuing to drive demand.

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So, are we in a bubble? The answer is no. It’s still a great time to buy, sell, and invest in Denver real estate. Historically, property values double every two years. Just something to keep in mind.

If you have any questions for me in the meantime or need any help with buying or selling a home in the Denver area, don’t hesitate to give me a call or send me an email. I would love to hear from you soon.

How We Help Families Come Together Through Real Estate

Our goal as a team is to advance as many people’s lives as possible, and we do that by serving them the best we can.

Buying a home? Click here to perform a full home search

Selling your home? Click here for a FREE Home Price Evaluation 

Call me at 303-974-9471 for a FREE home buying or selling consultation to answer any of your real estate questions.

On our team, real estate is like a ministry. 

By that, we mean it allows us to touch people’s lives and let them know that they matter to us and that they’re loved. We get a chance to show them that they’re loved by serving them and listening to them. Seeing families come together and watching their dreams come true is the best part of this business. 

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Seeing families come together and watching their dreams come true is the best part of this business.

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How do we make people’s dreams come true?

It starts every Tuesday with our team huddle, which is our weekly gathering to organize our buyers, listings, and future clients. From there, we figure out how to take the next step forward and advance our clients’ goals. Our goal as a team is to advance as many lives as possible and help at least 100 families a year. 

In our business, our first job when working with a client is that of a matchmaker. Once you get under contract, you’re more like a wedding planner. When you’re with people going through that process, it’s an amazing experience. Some people find the home buying process stressful, but we devote ourselves to making sure they feel it’s the most pleasant experience they’ve ever had. 

We have two testimonials to share with you as an example of the mission we preach—one from a buyer and one from a seller.  

The first comes from Malcolm and Jean Wentling. Malcolm and Jean have lived in Heritage Eagle Bend for about 13 years. They love the area, but once they decided to sell their home, they chose us. 

“I’m so happy we chose Ryan to sell our home,” Malcolm says. “The marketing has been fantastic, from start to finish—beautiful.” 

Over the course of a single weekend with the Wentling’s home, we had nine showings and three offers. 

The second comes from David and Tricia Godfrey. David was a little concerned about going with a big real estate firm, but we felt that we really had his interest. 

"He worked for us non-stop, and we were out of state, so that was even more of a challenge for us,” Tricia says. 

Our team was diligent and nothing was left to chance. Many Realtors David previously worked with preferred to just show him houses and let him pick them up, but we took the extra effort and extra step to find out what they were looking for. 

“They understood us. They dug into what we liked—not what they liked,” David says. 

If you have any questions about how we serve our clients or you’re thinking about buying or selling a home in the Denver area, don’t hesitate to reach out to us. We’d love to help you.

Fannie Mae Loosens Their Mortgage Guidelines

Today I’ve got some exciting news to share with you about the recent changes to the Fannie Mae mortgage guidelines.

Buying a home? Click here to perform a full home search

Selling your home? Click here for a FREE Home Price Evaluation 

Call me at 303-974-9471 for a FREE home buying or selling consultation to answer any of your real estate questions.

Fannie Mae has made four important changes to the mortgage guidelines that will definitely impact homebuyers. 

First, they’ve loosened up the debt-to-income ratio. It used to be that only 45% of your income per month could go toward debt of any kind, including car payments, mortgage, or other payments. They’ve now upped that number to 50%, giving you a little more room to find the right home and still be able to afford it.

The second thing is that loan-to-value is now going to be in the same range for adjustable rate mortgages and fixed rate mortgages. It used to be that these weren’t equal or similar in value due to the debt-to-income ratio, but that has changed.

Self-employment documentation used to be far more complicated, with the requirement being that you needed to have two years of verifiable self-employment income in order to get a loan. Fannie Mae has now reduced that requirement to just one year of verifiable self-employment income, making it easier for anyone who is self-employed to get a home loan.

Finally, we’re seeing some changes to how Fannie Mae treats relocations. It used to be that anyone who needed to relocate for a new job needed to provide one or two months of income from the new employment before they could get a loan. It would slow the entire process down and make it difficult to relocate.

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We’re seeing some changes to how Fannie Mae treats relocations.

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Fannie Mae is now accepting a letter of employment from your new employer as proof of your relocation and will be able to approve a loan faster. This means that you can get the loan before you even start the job and finish your relocation on a faster timetable.

It’s great news to see these changes with the mortgage guidelines, as it helps people enter the market and finally get the home of their dreams. If you have any questions about this topic or you’re looking to buy or sell a home, please give me a call. I’d be happy to help!

How We Can Find a Match for Your House

As real estate agents, one of our specialties is playing matchmaker for home sellers who don’t want to put their home on the market.

Buying a home? Click here to perform a full home search

Selling your home? Click here for a FREE Home Price Evaluation 

Call me at 303-974-9471 for a FREE home buying or selling consultation to answer any of your real estate questions.

“Matchmaker, matchmaker, make me a match.”

That’s a famous line from the movie “Fiddler on the Roof,” and it’s the life we Realtors live. Our job is to play matchmaker. Once we find a match, we then become like wedding planners. It’s a fun circle of life we live in, and being a matchmaker is something you can take advantage of. 

If you have a house you want to sell but don’t want to put on the market or have it be known that it’s for sale, you can let us know so we can find a buyer for that house. Part of the joy of having so many clients and being in the business for so many years is having a healthy reserve of buyers possibly looking to buy homes in your neighborhood. 

I’d love to play matchmaker for you, so if you have a house you want to sell and you’d like to see if I can find a buyer for that house, give me a call and we’ll put your house on our “pocket listings” list. When we find new buyers, we’ll match the house, cross reference it, and see if there’s someone we can play matchmaker with. 

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I’d love to play matchmaker for you.

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If you have any other questions, please don’t hesitate to reach out to me. I’d be happy to help you.

How the Fed’s Recent Rate Hike Impacts Our Market

Dear Friends & Clients, On June 14th, the Federal Reserve increased its federal funds interest rate by a quarter of a percent. They are also widely expected to raise rates once or twice more over the course of 2017. While any action by the Fed always garners a lot of attention, I believe these increases will not have any significant impact on the real estate market. Here's why… Fed Rate Increase Means GOOD News For The Housing Market! 1) Mortgage rates stay low & may drop. 2) Economy continues to thrive. 3) Rate increase introduces economic balance and may act as a stimulant. First, mortgage rates have actually trended lower in the wake of the Fed's recent announcement. The 30-year mortgage rate recently hit 3.9%, the lowest level in 2017. In fact, it's a common pattern for the mortgage rate and the Fed rate to move in opposite directions, and the same thing has happened the last two times the Fed raised rates. Second, the economy continues to do well. The Fed decided to increase its rate because unemployment and inflation are low, household spending is picking up, and we've seen steady growth for the past nine years. This is all good news for the real estate market. And, as expected, we continue to see strong demand and a corresponding increase in home prices. Third, while the Fed's rate increase is normally meant to cool off the economy, it might actually stimulate it in this case. Because interest rates were so low for such a long time, experts believe the recent increases might ease pressure on the financial system and encourage lending. Here's a key statistic that supports this view. Since the Fed started raising its rate in December 2016, total mortgages are up 2.5% year over year. In conclusion, while any move by the Fed is likely to lead to a lot of hand wringing, I believe the real estate market will not be affected, and will continue on its own healthy course. Nonetheless, it is clear that right now is a uniquely good moment for everyone in the real estate market. Today’s low mortgage rates are good for homebuyers because they make homes more affordable. If you are considering a new home, check out the many great homes that have recently come on the Denver market: Click Here for all available Denver homes for sale At the same time, if you are thinking of selling, then the current price levels and tight supply mean you will be able to sell quickly and for top dollar. If you want get an idea of what your home is worth in the current market, simply fill out this form: Click Here & Enter your street address to find out what your home is worth And if you have any questions about the Denver Real Estate Market, whether you're buying or selling, give me a call at 303-523-4364. We will provide excellence in customer service and market acumen & strategy. We are Industry Experts in Denver Metro Real Estate and deliver Uncompromised RESULTS!

How Can You Use Your IRA or 401(k) to Invest in Real Estate?

By using your IRA or 401(k) to invest in real estate, you can increase its annual 
growth by a considerable margin.

Buying a home? Click here to perform a full home search

Selling your home? Click here for a FREE Home Price Evaluation 

Call me at 303-974-9471 for a FREE home buying or selling consultation to answer any of your real estate questions.

Have you ever heard of a self-directed IRA or 401(k)?

Like many of us, you probably have a healthy 401(k) or IRA that’s been built up over the years and you’re now letting the market go to work on it. That’s totally fine, but here’s the exciting part: you can direct that money into a self-directed plan and use it to buy investment properties. 

Think of that IRA or 401(k) money as funds to be used for investments. There are some restrictions, but if that money is producing a return for you, you can use it for any vehicle.

How would this benefit you?

Imagine you had $200,000 in an IRA or 401(k) and you wanted to use that to buy a $200,000 condo. You’d be able to buy that condo free and clear, and then rent it out and start collecting rents checks. If you charged $2,000 a month, that’s $24,000 per year that would go back into your IRA or 401(k). 

As that investment appreciates over time, you could sell it down the road for—say—$400,000. That’s on top of the $24,000 you’ve been collecting on a yearly basis from your renter(s). Additionally, you’re allowed to contribute to your IRA or 401(k) every year. Some allow as little as $5,000, but some allow a contribution as high as $55,000. 

This way, you can almost quadruple the growth of your IRA or 401(k) instead of just letting it sit on the market. 

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You can quadruple the growth of your IRA or 401(k).

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If you’d like to learn more about using your IRA or 401(k) to invest in real estate or you have any other questions, please don’t hesitate to give me a call. We’d be happy to help.

How a Waterfall Can Add Value to Your Home

A waterfall may seem like a luxury purchase, but they can actually add a lot of value 

to your home.

Buying a home? Click here to perform a full home search

Selling your home? Click here for a FREE Home Price Evaluation 

Call me at 303-974-9471 for a FREE home buying or selling consultation to answer any of your real estate questions.

Back in 2010, I bought a new house with a beautiful backyard. It was full of Juniper trees at the time, but I had visions of a big, gorgeous waterfall. 

I spent a lot of time and money on this project, but I was very happy with the end result. As you walk out onto our back deck, the waterfall is a beautiful sight. You can admire it from afar or get up close and let the cascading waves refresh you on a hot day. It was such a great thing for my family, but did it add value to my house?

In order for a waterfall to add value to your home, it has to check three different boxes. It has to be useful, it has to be beautiful, and it has to be safe. Don’t just add a waterfall because you want to block a sight or as just an accessory. If you make it eye-catching, useful, and safe for children, you’re going to get a return.

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Waterfalls can add a lot of value if constructed properly.

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Whether you get a dollar for dollar return depends on the situation. You might even get more than that for it because if it’s done right, it creates an easy-to-maintain oasis.

If you have any questions about adding a waterfall to your home or anything else relating to real estate, give me a call or send me an email. I would love to hear from you.

How Do We Know When We’re at the Market Peak?

Are we at the peak of the market? Not yet, but we won’t know we were at it until it’s behind us.

Buying a home? Click here to perform a full home search

Selling your home? Click here for a FREE Home Price Evaluation 

Call me at 303-974-9471 for a FREE home buying or selling consultation to answer any of your real estate questions.

Have you ever been hiking and when you think you’re finally at the peak, you’re actually just at a false summit and there is a bit more to climb? If you’re an avid hiker, you know what I mean. Once you’re at that plateau, all you’ve got is a bit more of an incline to get to the top. You’ve done the hard, steep climbing already. That’s what the market is like right now in Denver.

We’ve taken our biggest vertical ascent already and are now at the point where we are inching up until we get to the peak. I think it will be another four or five years before we get there, but we won’t see that sharp appreciation that we’ve been seeing for the last few years.

This makes now a great time to consider selling. In my opinion, we don’t have too much more room for growth. The properties that are coming on the market right now are the properties that sellers have been meticulously preparing as they wait for this moment. These are properties with the best locations and best upgrades, and those sellers are listing now. If your home has an amazing location and tons of upgrades, now is a perfect time to sell high and buy low.

You’ll never know that you’re at the peak of the market while you’re in the moment, but you certainly will know when you’re off of it and you don’t want to be behind it. I believe in my heart that we are past the biggest jumps in appreciation in this market and from here on out, appreciation will be much slower. 

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You don’t want to be behind the peak.

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If you’d like to discuss this topic further or if you are interested in taking advantage of the market, give me a call or send me an email. I would love to hear from you.

Photography Mistakes That Can Ruin a Home Sale

Selling your home requires a lot of attention to detail. One area that often gets overlooked is photography, but it’s essential to selling for the most money possible.

Buying a home? Click here to perform a full home search

Selling your home? Click here for a FREE Home Price Evaluation 

Call me at 303-974-9471 for a FREE home buying or selling consultation to answer any of your real estate questions.

The market continues to be hot in Denver. With so many people out there trying to sell their home for top dollar, I wanted to give you some advice on how you can better accomplish your goals in this market. 

One of the biggest areas we see mistakes from sellers in is with the pictures they put on their home’s online listing. I was recently listening to a Tim Ferriss podcast where he was talking about how the No. 1 thing you need to do as an author is have a good book cover. 

That lesson translates to real estate through online photos. Your home’s sale isn’t all based on its location and features. When it comes down to it, those are going to be the most important factors, but its online photos play a role as well.

Here are some things you should most certainly avoid when choosing and taking your home’s online photographs: 

1. A lack of photos of the neighborhood and surrounding area
2. Lack of a photo of the front of the house
3. Lack of a photo of the backyard or area directly behind the home
4. Photos that aren’t in chronological order (front door, entryway, kitchen, bedrooms, basement)
5. Photos that are too dark
6. Photos that are too bright
7. Photos that are too low of quality
8. Dirty, messy, or cluttered rooms

A big takeaway here is that the more you leave out, the more buyers are going to wonder if you are hiding something. Don’t hide anything and make sure you get good, high-quality, well-lit photos of every area of your home.

The key is to eliminate the negatives above and transform your house into a presentable home that can be looked at quickly and easily by buyers when they are browsing through listings. Video is a new frontier, but an increasingly important part of this process as well. 

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The more showings you get, the more offers you will receive.

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The deal killers can start early on if the photos of your home online aren’t attractive enough to buyers. The more buyers you can attract, the more showings you will get. The more showings you get, the more offers you will receive.

If you have any questions for us or need a recommendation for a good home photographer, give us a call or send us an email. We look forward to hearing from you.

Don't Let Your Listing Go Cold

The number of days your home spends on the market is more important than you might think. I’ll go over why you should avoid letting your listing go cold today.

Buying a home? Click here to perform a full home search

Selling your home? Click here for a FREE Home Price Evaluation 

Call me at 303-974-9471 for a FREE home buying or selling consultation to answer any of your real estate questions.

When you’re selling your house or buying a new one, why do days on market even matter?

Just like food at a restaurant, you don’t want a house sitting around too long. The first 24 hours of a house listing are the most important. In fact, if you don’t get any showings within 72 hours, something has caused buyers to overlook your property. 

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The first 24 hours of a house listing are the most important.

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There are exceptions, such as a home that is further out or more expensive. However, if you have a home in the average price range in Denver, about $500,000, and you’re on the market for more than three days without any showings, something went wrong and you’re listing has gone cold. 

Days on market matter for the same reason the time it takes to get your food at a restaurant matter. If it get’s cold, you don’t want it. 

In order to sell your home successfully you need to price it correctly, show it properly, and market it aggressively. In fact, I suggest you price your home a little under market value, creating a buzz and a demand for your home. 

At the end of the day, people will think something is wrong with your house if it sits on the market for too long and goes through a bunch of price reductions. 

If you have any other questions, please feel free to give me a call or send me an email. I look forward to hearing from you!