Look to sell your home faster? What colors should you choose for exterior/interior paint?

Interesting Article...

When painting your home for resale, choosing the right colors can make a huge difference in your paycheck at closing. For instance, did you know that the exterior color of houses selling most quickly is a certain shade of yellow, but that choosing the wrong shade of yellow can kill a sale?

You'll find many brochures in paint stores, showing various combinations of exterior paint colors. But most people don't realize that most of those combinations actually include three colors, and not just two. Limiting your exterior paint scheme to just two colors also limits your income potential.

For a fast sale, think fun colors and go for a third, or even a fourth, exterior color. Think "Disneyland Main Street," where every shop is painted in glorious multi-colors. Adding more colors will also add definition to the various architectural details of your home. Use gloss or semi-gloss paint on wood trim.

The Psychology of Exterior Colors

When choosing exterior colors, take the sales price of your home into account. Certain colors, especially muted, complex shades, attract wealthy or highly-educated buyers, whereas buyers with less income or less education generally prefer simpler colors. A complex color contains tints of gray or brown, and usually requires more than one word to describe, such as "sage green," as opposed to "green."

On the other hand, simple colors are straightforward and pure. Generally, houses in the lower price range sell faster and for higher prices when painted in simple colors like yellow or tan, accented by white, blue, or green trim.

The Psychology of Interior Colors

Using colored, rather than bland, white walls will increase your profit potential. Lynette Jennings tested the perception of room size and color, and discovered that a room painted white appeared only appeared larger to a few people when compared to an identical room painted in color – and the perceived difference was only about six inches! Most people also look better when surrounded by color, and feel happier, and since buyers pick houses that make them feel happy, that knowledge can put dollars in your pocket at closing!

Entryways should bring the exterior colors into the house. Repeating shades of the exterior throughout your home will make the entire home seem to be in harmony. Living and family rooms painted in a slightly lighter shade of the exterior color will ensure that you've picked a color your buyers like, because if they didn't like your exterior colors, they wouldn't have bothered to look inside. If they loved the exterior colors, they'll love the interior, too.

When choosing interior colors, consider the use of each room. For instance, kitchen and dining areas that are painted in “food colors,” such as coffee browns, celery greens, and scrambled egg yellows, feel natural.

Since, deeper shades of color imply intimacy and serenity, I like to paint master bedrooms a medium shade of green or blue for warm selling seasons, and rouge red for cooler weather. Other bedrooms can be painted in creamy tones of green, blue, or a pale shell pink. (See the chapter on the Psychology of Color in my book "Joy to the Home: Secrets of Interior Design Psychology" for further information.)

Selling Season

Always consider your selling season (the time of year you'll be marketing your home) and climate when choosing colors. Estimate the amount of time you'll need to get your home ready for sale, and then add on extra days for unexpected delays. Use cool colors, such as blues, greens, and grays, to sell during spring and summer, and warm colors, such as yellows, reds, and maroons, when selling in the fall and winter.

Color Intensity

My husband and I usually use lighter colors when painting the exteriors of our investment dollhouses, because it makes them appear larger. On the other hand, our cabin in the woods looks richer when painted a darker color. When we decided to have it painted, I considered the usual cabin colors of dark brown and barn red, but fell in love with Olympic’s gorgeous "Gooseberry" plum color.

When getting ready to paint your house, look at the colors of neighboring houses and choose colors that harmonize, yet stand out from the crowd. Colors that clash badly with other houses will detract from the overall neighborhood.

At the beginning of the article, I told you that homes with yellow exteriors sell the quickest. But which shade of yellow sells best? First, the yellows to avoid: yellows with green undertones look sickly to most buyers, and yellows with orange undertones give buyers an impression of cheapness.

The best-selling yellow exterior color is actually a pale, sunny yellow, especially when complimented with one or more carefully-chosen accent colors. For instance, a semi-gloss white trim will give your home a clean and fresh look, and adding a third color, such as green, can make your home even more attractive to prospective buyers.

Colors affect human beings in many ways, and by using the principles of Color Psychology, you can make your home stand out from the competition, sell more quickly, and at a higher price.

Boulder Couple Promotes 133 Square Foot House

Interesting Denver Post Article.....

HARTSEL — Some homeowners prefer the sprawl of suburban McMansions. Others opt for cozy old bungalows near city centers.  Not too many opt for a 133-square-foot home — you read that correctly — that on first glance looks not much larger than a Great Dane's doghouse.  But Christopher Smith and Merete Mueller did just that. The Boulder couple built a 7-by-19-foot wooden house whose foundation is a two-axle trailer bed. Last week, they towed it to a 5-acre patch of isolated hillside 20 minutes outside this town, which sits on South Park's eastern edge.

Smith and Mueller are part of the "tiny house" movement, a coterie of urban and ex-urban thinkers experimenting with super-scaled-down living. While the couple will use the pint-sized house as a getaway cabin for now, thanks to jobs in Boulder, living in it full-time is a future possibility.  "People ask us why we didn't buy a single-wide trailer, but we wanted something that really felt like a home," Mueller said on a recent afternoon at the house. "It made us really pay attention to good design, the use of space and how it sets the mood of a place."  Smith, 30, who grew up around Washington, D.C., is a graphic designer and programmer who does video projects on the side. Mueller, 27, and a Boston native, has a background in writing and business management.  The impetus for building the house came last spring. Smith was set to graduate with a master's degree from the University of Colorado-Denver and his 30th birthday loomed.  "I wasn't so much freaking out as figuring out what to do after grad school," Smith said. "It felt like time to do a bucket list. I always wanted a cabin in the mountains. Why should I work all my life and wait to do it when I'm retired?"  He began doing Google searches for cheap Colorado land. Hartsel always came up. The couple found the lot and swung a deal.   Construction began in May.  Smith and Mueller brought little in the way of contractor skills to the project. So plenty of Internet consultation and talks with people who had done similar projects ensued.  "And we spent a lot of time at Home Depot," Mueller said.

The result is a charmer, a good thing in a small package, even if its size would make Laura Ingalls Wilder feel that her little house on the prairie was Windsor Palace.

The house's interior and exterior walls are made from beetle-kill pine. The flooring is recycled timber, and it's insulated by soy-based spray-foam insulation. Seven windows afford a 360-degree view. You can see the gleaming, corrugated steel roof from miles away as you wend your way across the valley to the house.

There is a sofa and bookshelves, and a sleeping loft accessed by a ladder. The loft is snug: Sit bolt upright in bed at 3 a.m., you'll see stars on a cloudy night, guaranteed.

The house, supplied with electricity from solar panels, features a composting toilet. They have to truck in water by the jug, since the land has no well yet. A two-burner alcohol stove serves the kitchen. A propane-fueled stove, the kind found on sailboats, provides heat. Bathing will be done under a sun-heated camp-style shower.  "It's meant to be kind of Spartan," Smith said. "We will really have to pay atttention to how much water we need and how much waste we generate.   "But building it makes me want to live in it full-time."  The tiny-house movement arose several years ago, fueled by the confluence of interest in "greener" living and the economic crash. There are perhaps 1,000 such houses in the country, all under 150 square feet in space.  Jay Shafer, who heads the Tumbleweed Tiny House Co., is a movement leader. He built his first such house in Iowa in 1999 — it was 89 square feet — and sells plans for several styles of design-and-build homes. His YouTube following is vigorous, thanks to his blog and virtual tours.

Some tiny-house owners seek to live off the grid, or at least lightly. Others, often younger and footloose, are lured by the novelty. All are drawn by the low cost, although cheapness isn't reflected in square-footage costs.  Smith reckons they spent between $20,000 and $25,000 on the house, with the trailer/foundation accounting for $5,000 of that. Even if you factor in the 50-square-foot sleeping loft, the house cost roughly $110 to $138 per square foot to build. Industry averages for standard homes run $80-$110.  "You don't get an economy of scale in a tiny house," Smith said.  There are obvious limits to living in such spaces. Many towns regulate how small a domicile can be. Park County, home to Hartsel, requires a 600-square-foot minimum for a home. But a temporary structure on land, essentially an encampment, is exempt. So a house on a trailer qualifies.  While Smith and Mueller support the simplicity aesthetic, they aren't waving a "be like us" banner. Tiny homes, for example, pretty much preclude couples with children. Or claustrophobes.  But Smith and Mueller were driven by the urge to have a cabin in the great outdoors. Now they do.  The house is perched on the faint slope of a windblown hill east of Hartsel, off a minor maze of dirt roads. Sitting on its front porch, you gaze out at the Tarryall Mountains rising 10 miles to the north. Squint hard, and you might be able to glimpse the back of beyond. Save for a handful of neighbors scattered around the valley, it's a study in isolation.  "The point of building this was to spend time on the land," Mueller said. "Being from the East Coast, this landscape still blows me away."  The couple is also making a documentary on the tiny-house movement, with their own in a starring role. "We've talked about holding an open house," Mueller said. "Everyone can come up here and stay in tents."

5 Things to Consider Before Renting Your Home

good article from a fellow professional...

If you're considering renting your home, here are five things to think about:

1. Current Condition. If you've just spent money renovating, you might not want to risk having a tenant trash those new upgrades. If you go ahead anyway, collect a healthy deposit and a rent that protects your investment. On the other hand, if your home needs fixing, rent it the way it is, then upgrade to sell it.

2. Homework. Talk to rental agents and property managers to see what your rental rate would be. Then calculate how that income would cover your monthly obligations–mortgage, property taxes, insurance, maintenance, management costs. Ask the experts if there are any rent- or eviction-control ordinances. These laws can sometimes make it very expensive to evict even non-paying tenants.

3. Screen Tenants. If you decide to rent, consider hiring a rental agent or property manager with a strict tenant screening process. Network with everyone you know. Renting to a friend or a friend-of-a-friend can boost your chances of a good experience.

4. Tenant-Proof. Minimize the cost of tenant damage by replacing carpet with tile, nice lighting fixtures and window treatments with more ordinary options and high-end appliances with bargains from Craigslist. Of course, if you're renting a luxury home at a premium, you'll have to keep those high-end features tenants expect.

5. Think About a Lease-Option. Today, a lease with an option to buy can be great for everyone. You might get more money, and the tenant gets time to decide. And lease-option tenants tend to take better care of your home.

The Top High Schools in Colorado

List of the Top High Schools in Colorado

Denver offering mortgage tax credits

good Denver Business Journal Article....

Denver offering mortgage tax credits

Denver Business Journal by Heather Draper, Reporter                                           

Date: Tuesday, May 1, 2012, 1:21pm MDT

The City and County of Denver has launched a new Mortgage Credit Certificate program that enables qualified borrowers to get up to $2,000 a year in annual federal income tax credit.
The program enables qualifying borrowers to receive an annual federal income tax credit equal to 30 percent of the annual interest paid on their mortgage loan, up to $2,000 annually, the city announced Tuesday.
“For many families, home ownership is a primary method of asset building and saving for the future,” Denver Mayor Michael Hancock said in a press release. “We’re providing a financial boost to individuals and families while increasing home ownership opportunities and the overall strength and vitality of Denver neighborhoods.”
A Mortgage Credit Certificate is a tool to reduce the amount of federal income tax a borrower must pay by providing an annual federal income tax credit. Lenders can use the estimated amount of the credit on a monthly basis as additional income to help a potential borrower qualify for a loan, the city said.
The program is available to qualifying borrowers purchasing a residence in the City and County of Denver if their annual family income doesn’t exceed $79,300 for one or two persons and $91,195 for three or more. The maximum home cost is $370,252, although higher income and purchase price limits are available in targeted areas.
Participants cannot have owned a home in the past three years, except in targeted areas and for qualifying veterans.
The following lenders are approved to participate in Denver’s Mortgage Credit Certificate program: Air Academy Federal Credit Union, American Liberty Mortgage, Bank of America, Citywide Home Loans, Cornerstone Mortgage, Summit Mortgage Co., The Mortgage Network, Universal Lending Corp., Uptown Mortgage, Starkey Mortgage and Wells Fargo Home Mortgage.
Additional lenders can sign up to participate in the program by emailing Stacy Houston at Stacy.Houston@morgankeegan.com.
Denver used $30 million of a Private Activity Bond allocation to create the mortgage credit program. The program is available through Dec. 31, 2014, or while funds remain.

Denver apartment rents post largest spike in 10 years

Interesting post article from today on rentals....

Denver apartment rents post largest spike in 10 years
Denver Post Article
5/1/2012

The average rent for an apartment in metro Denver rose 4.5 percent from the first quarter of last year to the same period this year, according to the Apartment Association of Metro Denver and the Colorado Division of Housing.
According to today's report, the first quarter's year-over-year growth rate of 4.5 percent was the largest rate of growth reported during any quarter over the past 10 years.
During the first quarter of this year, the average rent in metro Denver rose to $952 from last year's first quarter average rent of $911 .
The report said the average rent has not grown by more than 4.5 percent, year-over-year, since the third quarter of 2001 when it grew by 8.7 percent.
Ron Throupe, professor of Real Estate at the Burns School of Real Estate and Construction Management at the University of Denver, said rents tend to moderate during the first quarter, but in 2012, the "rent rose to an all-time high instead."
"Rents continue to increase as demand grows faster than the production of units," said Throupe, author of the report.
The average rent rose in all counties measured, with the largest increases found in Denver County and in the Boulder/Broomfield area where the rent grew year-over-year by 6.3 percent and 6.7 percent, respectively.
The highest average rents were in Douglas and the Boulder/Boomfield counties where the average rents were $1,109 and $1,070, respectively.
Jefferson County reported the lowest average rent at $897.
The apartment vacancy rate in the Denver metro area fell to 4.9 percent in the first quarter of 2012, falling from 2011's first quarter rate of 5.5 percent, and dropping to the second-lowest vacancy rate recorded in any quarter since 2001.
"Vacancies are falling both metro-wide and in most neighborhoods we surveyed," said Ryan McMaken, spokesman for the Colorado Division of Housing. "We find some high vacancy rates out in eastern and southeastern parts of the metro area, but everywhere else we're looking at rates in the three to four-percent range, which is low."