Own a Piece of Heritage Square in Golden!

from 9news.com



GOLDEN - Now, those who wanted to help save Heritage Square can. By buying a piece of it for themselves.

The quaint theme park in the foothills near Golden is undergoing a major redevelopment after the owners announced they would be closing much of the area last February.

RELATED: Heritage Square to close at year's end

Part of those plans call for removing and relocating several of the buildings on the property.

As a compromise with several historical societies in the area, the owners have offered the public a chance to save some of the nostalgic Victorian-style buildings so many people love.

But, it's not cheap.

It's estimated moving each building will cost about 50 thousand dollars.

The new owners will also have to pay for the permits, inspections, transportation, and putting the building back together in its new location.

If you are interested, Heritage Square wants to hear from you by the end of January with removal complete by the end of February.

You can e-mail manager@heritagesquare.info or call 720-354-3967.

The Accuracy of Real Estate Websites

interesting snippets of article from redfin.com study on real estate websites...

The Accuracy of Real Estate Websites

When home buyers search for homes for sale online, are they seeing all the homes for sale? Do new listings show up in a timely manner? Are all the homes they are seeing actually still for sale?

To answer these important questions, we analyzed a sample of 6,401 home listings in 33 zip codes from 11 metro areas. The listings analyzed were from three local brokerage sites and two highly trafficked national real estate portals.

The results of this analysis are that the local brokerage sites are considerably more complete, more accurate, and timelier than the national portals.

In each U.S. city or area, all real estate brokerages contribute and share listing data. Only real estate brokers can be members of a local MLS. In contrast, national portals, such as Zillow and Trulia, mostly rely on individual agents and real estate brokerages to re-post their listings on the portal websites, or the portals aggregate data from syndicators of real estate information.

Brokerage Sites Show 100% of the Agent-Listed Homes for Sale

Each of the local real estate brokerage websites analyzed contained 100% of the homes listed for sale in the MLS. Portal sites contained just 79% to 81% of these listings – a fifth of the homes for sale did not appear on portal sites.

The results varied by market, with one or both of the portal sites showing at least 85% of the listings in five markets: Boston (Trulia at 91%), Denver (Zillow at 86%), Philadelphia (Trulia at 93%, Zillow at 86%), San Diego (Trulia at 94%, Zillow at 88%), and Washington DC (Trulia at 86%).

Trulia was missing the most listings in Seattle, where only 63% of the homes for sale appeared on the site. Zillow was missing the most listings in Phoenix, where only 65% of the homes for sale appeared on the site.

Brokerage Sites Show Newly-Listed Homes 7 to 9 Days Faster

Local brokerage sites get home listings from direct feeds provided by the local MLS. In most cases these feeds are updated every 15 to 30 minutes, which allows homes to appear on local brokerage sites as soon as they are listed by an agent. Portal sites obtain their listings from a variety of sources: individual brokerage feeds, third-party listing aggregators, and direct entry by agents. Occasionally portal sites gain access to MLS data, but even when this happens, that access is only partial. The median delay between when a home was listed on the MLS and when it appeared on the portal sites was nine days for Trulia and seven days for Zillow

Brokerage Sites Correctly Remove Homes No Longer for Sale

Since local brokerages update the data on their sites with new information from the MLS as often as every 15 minutes, when a home buyer searches a local brokerage site, there are little to no results that are outdated and no longer for sale. On portal sites, over a third of the results are not really for sale.

Conclusion

MLS-powered local brokerage sites enjoy three major advantages over portal sites:
Brokerage sites show 100% of the agent-listed homes for sale, compared to only 80% on portal sites.
Brokerage sites show new homes for sale seven to nine days earlier than portal sites.
36% of home listings that appear as active on portal sites are no longer for sale.

Frustrated Home Buyers & Sellers Finding Problems With Accuracy On Zillow

great topic and article that still applies from cbs.local.com that is good food for thought for buyers and sellers in the Denver Metro area....

CONIFER, Colo. (CBS4) – For people who are buying homes along the Front Range the search is now even more difficult because one of the biggest home listing sites no longer has the most up-to-date information.

In a hot real estate market like this one, accuracy and timeliness are essential for buyers and sellers to make a good decision. Those two things are in question with one of the largest advertising platforms in real estate, Zillow, and some sellers say it’s causing a problem for them.

Kurt Fehlhauer is trying to sell his Conifer home but noticed a problem with his listing price.

“Originally I based the price on the Zestimate that Zillow puts out, and that was pretty high,” Fehlhauer said.

He dropped his price but says Zillow did not update the change. Zillow also owns Trulia. Both are top real estate advertising websites. Zillow had a third party company that would upload MLS (multiple listing system) listings to their site but the contract recently expired.

“Zillow has had data accuracy problems for years, long before the termination of their agreement,” said Kirby Slunaker, REColorado CEO.

REColorado is the state’s MLS listing. Slunaker says they’re working on a data licensing agreement with Zillow but says they want the company to be more accurate on prices and sold statuses, among other things, for brokers, sellers and buyers.

“They go out, they fall in love with a house, it’s really not for sale. That adds probably more frustration than anything,” Slunaker said. “Then I think them finding out there are houses for sale that aren’t on Zillow probably is just an extension of the frustration.”

Zillow says they gather their data through algorithms and pull the information from public records. They say that information doesn’t always reflect changes and upgrades. That’s why Fehlhauer encourages homeowners to take matters into their own hands with what Zillow is currently listing about their property.

“Basically get that data up there, get the old listings removed so my current realtor can actually push the new data up there,” he said.

Zillow gave CBS4 a link to a website for information on how sellers can edit the information on their site about their home, or if the home has been sold.

Statement From Zillow

We are currently in conversations with REcolorado and hope to come to an agreement as soon as possible that benefits REcolorado’s members and the home sellers they represent. Sending a direct feed of listings benefits everyone, from home sellers and buyers to agents and brokers. By establishing a free direct feed with Zillow, REcolorado will ensure that home shoppers see the most accurate and timely listings possible, and will also help make other data on Zillow, like Zestimates, more accurate.

Denver expected to top nation in home price appreciation again in 2016

more great news from Denver Business Journal

Denver's 2016 appreciation rate compares with the 11.7 percent annual growth seen in 2015, which was also the highest in the nation.

Although prices are expected to slow down from last year, Denver's expected to top the nation again in home price appreciation in 2016.

That's according to Clear Capital's Home Data Index (HDI) forecast for the nation, which predicts Denver-Aurora-area home prices to appreciate 7.7 percent during the course of the upcoming year, which would be the highest appreciation rate in the country.

Denver's 2016 appreciation rate compares with the 11.7 percent annual growth seen in 2015, which was also the highest in the nation.

Nationally, Clear Capital expects home prices to appreciate between 1 and 3 percent by January 2017, lower than the 5.1 percent appreciation seen in 2015.

"While we would love to sugarcoat the HDI data and declare that 2016 merely will be a normalization of the housing market to historical averages not seen since the late 1990s, several factors indicate that it could be another volatile year leading to ongoing uncertainty about the future of American housing," Clear Capital said in a statement.

4 Issues That Will Impact the 2016 Real Estate Market

an interesting article from 5280.com

After a record-breaking 2015, local experts look ahead to tell us what to watch for in Denver's real estate market this year.

The Denver real estate market posted a record-breaking 2015, with $20.16 billion in home sales for the year—an increase of 14.5 percent over 2014, according to a report from the Denver Metro Association of Realtors. “The Denver metro area continues to be the number one real estate market in the country,” says Anthony Rael, chairman of the Denver Metro Association of Realtors’ Market Trends committee.

With 55,509 total homes sold for the year, the median home price increased 14 percent to $314,000. Inventory grew slightly to 65,872 new listings, a six percent increase over 2014, although that number still isn’t enough to satisfy demand in the region. “Inventory was the big story in 2015,” says Rael. “A balanced market needs five to seven months of inventory, and in Denver, we’re looking at just a few weeks.”

Looking ahead to 2016, local real estate agents don’t expect a dramatic shift in the white-hot market. That said, the city sees movement toward a more balanced landscape. Here are four issues that are sure to come into play in 2016:

Inventory

Supply of homes didn’t come close to market demands in 2015, especially in the city’s older neighborhoods. That meant homes were getting snapped up very quickly, often above asking price. In Denver, the luxury market—anything above $1 million—is especially tight, says Jill Schafer, a Denver-based real estate agent specializing in the luxury market and a member of the Denver Metro Association of Realtors’ Market Trends committee. “There are just not a lot of choices," Schafer says. "It’s definitely a seller’s market unless you are willing to go to the suburbs.”

Interest Rates

The Federal Reserve has already signaled that interest rates could increase—again—in 2016. Steve Blank, managing broker of LIV Sotheby’s International Realty's downtown office, says this will impact the market in two ways: First, when the rates start inching upwards, both buyers and sellers are motivated to take action. “People are afraid of timing the market wrong,” Blank says. “When the rates start to go up, they realize, ‘OK, now it’s really time to make a move.’” Blank believes the rate increase will spur consumer confidence, which took a hit during the recession, and encourage those sitting on the sidelines to take action (which could increase both supply and demand). That said, as rates increase, so will mortgage payments, which will certainly impact prices.

Construction Defect Laws

The legislation regulating the responsibility builders have to homeowners is currently in flux. Rael says this has discouraged new building development—especially in the condo market—further straining inventory levels. “Condos are very important to the market as a whole,” Rael says. “Young people can’t jump into single-home ownership, and right now there’s very little inventory in the starter condo market.” With the lack of statewide action on this complicated issue, many municipalities are moving forward with their own regulations for builders. Look for this issue to make headlines in 2016.

Appraisal Requirements

Licensing requirements have dramatically changed for appraisers, resulting in a shortage of the professionals. Closing timelines are impacted by the challenge of getting appraisers on-site. The result? Buyers are scheduling appraisals before inspections, which means paying for appraisals on deals that might not go forward. Schafer expects these types of professional hassles to impact the sales pipelines and advises buyers to prepare for bumps in the road.

Although our experts don’t expect major market shifts in 2016, the picture will become clearer once the buying season begins in late March. “Of course every market will change; the only constant is change,” Blank says. “But I see 2016 as a move toward a balanced, healthy market. The interest rates are a wild card, but we have nice job growth and a diversified economy, and we continue to attract millennials with college educations. That’s all good for the market.”