What are the financial benefits of having a home near a body of water?

The mere presence of water within 300 feet increases a home's value by 22 percent.

The Best Season to Sell Your Home—and Why

a great article on timing the home selling market....from realtor.com Timing really is everything when it comes to home sales. Getting your asking price, and even attracting multiple buyers, can simply be a factor of the time of year when the home is sold. Spring and Summer Spring brings rain and flowers—and possibly extra green in the final sales price of your home. Families like to move during the summer when there’s a break in the school calendar so they don’t have to pull their children from class, and so they are well-settled before the new school year. Plus, it’s often easier to move in the warm spring and summer months than during winter snows. REALTORS® say 50% of homes are sold during the summer. Fall and Winter Maybe your employer notified you of a job relocation in the fall and you missed the peak selling season for your home. Don’t despair. If you are selling your home in the fall, you can stage your open house with the warmth of the turning season to add to the appeal. Accentuating your landscaping with seasonal decorations, such as pumpkins and gourds, will appeal to the potential homebuyers. The winter season isn’t a favorite for homebuyers to view homes, but holiday ornaments add charm and help homes sell during the winter season. Owners who put their home on the market during the winter may be more eager to move, and so might close faster. Prices may also dip compared to the busy summer market, since there’s less demand. And you might find it easier to schedule time with experts, such as home inspectors; or have a faster turnaround on services, such as lawyer reviews, during the slower time of year. Geography, Geography, Geography Selling a home quickly may not only be contingent on a season. The geography of your home may be a contributing factor to when the home should be sold. Florida’s large snowbird population makes winter months attractive due to the warm weather. The heat and humidity of Florida summers can make that season less than ideal for selling. For all of those reasons, evaluate your location and weather before planning to present a new home to the real estate market. Have a Plan Sometimes personal situations prevent selling a home during the prime season. A REALTOR® can help you sell a home in any season.

Bring on the Home Bidding War! You Can Win!

helpful article in today's market from realtor.com... If you are buying a home at the height of a citywide seller’s market or simply want a sought-after house in a neighborhood with limited turnover, you may find yourself in the midst of a real estate bidding war. Competing against faceless prospective buyers may bring out the warrior in you but, before you decide to go all out in your battle, you need to step back and decide how much you really want that particular home. Should You Compete in a Bidding War? In the thick of competition you may forget your end goal is a home that you love and can afford to own. If your offers have been turned down by several sellers because of competing buyers, then you may feel pushed to make an aggressive offer for the next home you like. You should stop yourself from competing just because you think the time is right to become a homeowner or to move up into a new place. Instead, think about whether you really want that particular house enough to fight for it. To guard against making an emotion-fueled offer for a house, take a hard look at your finances. While it may feel good at first to beat out other buyers and to purchase a property, it won’t feel so great in a year or two when you’re struggling to make the payments on a house that’s beyond your means. Know your limits before you begin to bid. Prep for Battle Your first step before entering a bidding war should be to consult with a lender to understand the maximum amount you can borrow, and to evaluate how much cash you have to spend while keeping enough money in a reserve fund. Next, make sure you hire an experienced REALTOR® who can share information about local market conditions and communicate with the seller’s agent. You should rely on your REALTOR® for advice about how to handle a bidding war, but be sure to do your own research: Visit a lot of homes in the area where you want to buy so that you understand the value of various properties before you make an offer. Bidding War Strategies Your REALTOR® should work with you to craft an attractive offer based on the list price for the home, a comparative market analysis of similar homes, and knowledge gained from the sellers’ agent about the sellers’ motivations and preferences. In a bidding war it’s important to work with a REALTOR® who will move quickly to present your offer and any counteroffer, and who is easy to communicate with during the transaction. While you may assume that money is the motivator that steers sellers to one buyer over another, there are other ways to make your offer attractive, such as: ◾Solid financing: You may be competing against cash buyers, so make sure that your loan preapproval is in place and that you have completed all required documentation other than identifying a specific property. ◾Eliminate contingencies—carefully: If you own a home now, you may want to offer to buy another home without making your contract contingent on the sale of your current home. You take the risk of carrying two mortgages for awhile, so make sure you can safely handle the payments. You can also decide to have an “information only” home inspection rather than making your offer contingent on the outcome of the inspection. ◾Make the settlement date convenient for the sellers: Rather than negotiating on a closing date that’s convenient to all sides, you can tell the sellers you’ll work with their schedule or rent back the property to them after the closing. ◾Offer to pay all closing costs: You can reduce the sellers’ out-of-pocket expenses by offering to pay their share of the settlement fees, but before you do this get an accurate estimate of what those costs will be and make sure you have the funds available to pay them. ◾Personalize the transaction: Sometimes the tipping point for sellers who receive multiple offers is something emotional rather than financial. A personal letter describing your love of their home may tilt the scale in your favor. ◾Try an escalation clause: Money talks, too, so you can add an escalation clause to your offer that increases your bid by a certain amount above other offers. Just make sure you sent a limit on how high your offer will go. ◾Control yourself: Remember that any offer is subject to an appraisal (unless you waive that contingency, but that’s not recommended unless you have plenty of cash), so be careful not to bid above the market value of any property.

Shipping Container Houses

Some amazing homes that people build with shipping containers...

Zoning change would facilitate caretaker dwellings

interesting Canyon Courier article about zoning affecting construction options.... Aging adults who would like to stay in their homes rather than move to retirement communities may need assistance from a caretaker who lives on the premises. To make it easier to build an accessory dwelling unit for a care provider, a revision to current regulations is being proposed by the Jeffco Planning and Zoning Division. Instead of requiring a Board of Adjustment hearing for an accessory dwelling unit, a decision would be made by planning staff. The zoning change also would remove the requirement that a family member live in the unit, allowing a caretaker, nanny or renter. However, the property owner would need to live on site in either the primary residence or the accessory unit. The intention of the zoning change is to make accessory dwelling units more flexible for seniors, while also creating affordable housing, said Heather Gutherless, a Jeffco planner. As long as the property owner lives in one of the units on the property, the other can be rented to anyone, she said. “It isn’t something we’re restricting to seniors.” The draft of the zoning change also limits the size of a dwelling unit. For a unit attached to the primary residence, the maximum unit size is 40 percent of the main home, or 1,200 square feet. Detached units, and those built above a garage, can be built on a maximum of 1 acre and have a maximum size of 1,200 square feet — or 40 percent of the main residence. Maximum height restrictions are already in the zoning code, Gutherless said. A building permit for the accessory unit must be obtained from the county, along with additional ones for water and sewer taps, if necessary. In general, if someone builds an accessory unit that is attached to the primary house, existing water and sewer taps could be used, Gutherless said. However, a detached unit may require separate taps, she said. Before building, residents need to check with the water district in which they live, Gutherless advised. “That’s probably going to be a big hurdle,” she said. Residents who have private wells and septic systems also need to determine if they have adequate capacity for an additional unit, Gutherless added. The state Division of Water Resources oversees well permits and usage. Another possible issue to consider before building an accessory unit is restrictions by homeowner associations, said Gutherless. County zoning regulations do not supersede homeowner association covenants, she said. During recent community meetings on accessory dwelling units, Gutherless said, some residents expressed concerns about ensuring that a property owner is living on site. “I’ve also heard concerns about parking,” she said. The zoning regulations require that one parking space be provided for the accessory dwelling, Gutherless noted. Gutherless said she also has explained to residents at recent meetings that new regulations would not affect the senior homestead exemption for property taxes. The county intern who studied proposed zoning changes found that property values were not adversely impacted by accessory dwelling units, she added. The idea for the zoning changes for accessory dwelling units originated from the Aging Well work group of Jefferson County, which is managed by Susan Franklin. “The whole concept is very cool,” Franklin said. “For so many years, we have put our seniors in facilities.” The proposal for zoning changes will be considered by the Jeffco Planning Commission and then sent to the county commissioners for a final vote.

Buying New Home Construction from Builders

a great snippet from about.com...on why it's in your best interest to hire an agent that only works for you... New home buyers don't want a used house when only a new home will do. They don't want to inherit somebody else's worn carpeting, personal taste in kitchen appliances or look at some kid's initials scrawled into once-wet cement that they didn't put there. The home must be brand spankin' new, fresh and clean without so much as a finger print on the walls. If this describes you, and you have always fantasized about buying a brand new home of your dreams, here are a few tips that can help you to protect yourself -- to make the process a pleasant experience. Hire Your Own Agent •The builder's sales agents are paid to represent the builder, regardless of what they may tell you. Many will use high pressure tactics to persuade you to sign the contract. Due to the high volume nature of brand new home sales, lots of builder's agents are paid less than a traditional commission; some earn a salary plus incentives, so turnover is important to their livelihood. •Hire a Buyer's Agent to represent you. Most of the time, your agent will be paid by the seller, but sometimes the responsibility for the agent's fee is open for discussion. Even if you have to directly pay your agent, you can probably add that fee to the sales price, and it would be worth it because a good negotiating buyer's agent can save you thousands more than the commission. •Your own agent will represent you, be your fiduciary and is required to disclose the positives as well as the negatives about the transaction. Builder's agents don't discuss drawbacks. •If your contract contains a contingency to sell your existing home before buying, again, hire your own seller's agent to list your home. Be aware that buying before selling is not always in your best interest because hard bargaining goes out the window when you've emotionally moved out of your home.

In a sellers' market: 3 ways for buyers to win a bidding war

Great information in today's seller's market...from Sun-Times Media..applicable to the Denver Market as well... Barely 12 months ago, buyers could confidently peruse piles of listing sheets before making a lowball offer and getting a nice discount off the list price. Not anymore. Last month, there were about 44% fewer homes on the market in Chicago than in February of last year, according to Midwest Real Estate Data. The city had only a 3.8-month supply of housing units, compared to an 8.9-month supply a year ago. Surprise: it's a seller's market. And that means many homebuyers are likely to find themselves in a bidding war. I've seen it more than a few times over the last year. You hunt and you search and you think you've found a winner. You and your agent pour over comps and market stats. You figure out what the seller paid for the home and what they owe on it. Your agent grills the listing agent to find seller hot buttons. You construct the perfect negotiation strategy, and submit your offer, ready to get the deal of a lifetime. Then you get the call, and hear the crushing news that more buyers are hearing these days: "We have received multiple offers. Please submit your highest and best offer by tomorrow at 5 p.m." So now what? A good listing agent won't tell you much about the other offer. It could be $20,000 less than yours or $20,000 higher. There could be one other offer or four. You're going to have to put your best foot forward. Here are three tips to help you fight for your new home and win: #1 Remember: It's not all about money Sometimes it is about timing. Pick a closing date advantageous to the sellers. Can you close quickly, saving the sellers money? Or can you close later, giving them time to find a new home? Find out what matters to them. Have your agent select a brief (five days or less) attorney review and inspection period. This will minimize the amount of market time a seller could potentially lose if you were to back out of the contract as a result of something found during the inspection. It will also give the seller more time to confidently search for a new home. Important: This requires you to have your act together. Who's your inspector? Who's your attorney? Call both of them before you put the contract in so you still have time to do your due diligence. Finally, make a large earnest money deposit - say 5 to 10 percent of price - to show the sellers you're serious. They know a buyer with some skin in the game is less likely to jerk them around and then bail on a contract. #2 Make the seller like you An offer with a well-written cover letter stands out, and it never hurts to try to relate to a seller. Are you newlyweds buying your first condo? Are the sellers moving out because they just had their first child and need more space? Great. Play up the nostalgia. Have your agent tell the sellers a bit about yourself and why you like their property. When evaluating multiple offers as a listing agent, I find this is a nice touch. Agents often fire off contracts with no cover letter and little presentation. This gives the impression that their clients aren't as committed to buying the property, and I'm likely to convey that to a seller. Then, go back to #1 and make sure your agent emphasizes those points in the cover letter. Tell them what you do for a living and how thoroughly your lender has pre-qualified you (Tip: get thoroughly pre-qualified). Sellers should get the impression that you are a buyer with no potential financing issues who is committed to buying their property. #3 Pay what the property is worth to you This one should go without saying, but sometimes buyers get caught up in the emotions of the process. Overpaying for a property isn't winning, and neither is stubbornly sticking to a lowball offer. Have your agent put together a detailed comparative market analysis to determine the fair market value of the property. From there, as I always say: "add love, subtract fear." It's okay to pay a touch more if you really love the place, especially if you've been looking for awhile. But keep in mind, the property will need to appraise for this price if you're getting financing. And it's okay to bid a bit less if you feel you have other strong options. I took a buyer to see three condos that each had been on the market for three months. That was a Thursday. My buyer left for the weekend to go skiing. When he came home, all three had offers in on them, and two of them had multiple offers. That's the residential housing market in Chicago right now. My final word of advice: "buyer be ready." Get all your homework done before you make that offer. If you want to survive in this sellers' market, you have to be ready.