Colorado

Are you wondering what do do this weekend in Colorado Springs?

COLORADO SPRINGS: 32nd Annual Colorado Balloon Classic (Memorial Park)

MANITOU SPRINGS: 34th Annual Fine Arts & Crafts Festival - Commonwheel Artists' Co-Op

CANON CITY: Royal Gorge Bridge and Park's Mountain Man Rendezvous

PUEBLO: Colorado State Fair

DENVER: Festival of Mountain and Plain: A Taste of Colorado (Downtown)

COLORADO SPRINGS: 23rd Annual Quilts and Fine Woodworking Exhibition (Pioneer Museum)

KAT, A Colorado Springs Real Estate Agent You Can Trust

Selling Real Estate in El Paso & Douglas County; including Colorado Springs, Monument, Fountain, Larkspur, Pueblo, Castle Rock, Woodland Park, Palmer Lake www.Kathytorline.com

Colorado Springs Real Estate

Historic homes are the most rewarding property you could possibly renovate. Have you ever watched This Old House, and drooled at the final result when the house was finished? Did you fantasize over finding hidden gold in a 1800's oldie goldie? I did! I bought our first renovation without my husband seeing it. He thought I was crazy and I was throwing away our money! Our first home was a Cracker Cabin in the pan handle of Florida. It was on 40 acres. We put lots of sweat equity in that place. We pushed down an old out building and paneled the kitchen with the barn wood. We fixed and painted and we learned everything the hard way. It was a very difficult for two inexperienced city slickers to figure things out but we did. It was hard work but we doubled our money!

After the cabin our second renovation was a snap. We bought a rundown condo with a gorgeous lake and mountain views. We did the simple things, clean, paint, re-tile and bought new appliances. Our work started a slew of other renovations in the building and since we started first we had a quick, easy and profitable sale. Six(total renovations) later and very good profit, we swore,no more renovations. We had a Historic House relapse and bought another 1905 Victorian but someone else did most of the hard work. I promised my husband no more fixers. To those buyers who want a fixer.....let me find you one and then YOU buy it. My husband will love that! Historic homes are still my passion but a promise is a promise and I keep my Promises.

It's the end of the month ALREADY! Oh my!!

Here are the highlights of the posts done this month with easy access to find the info for reference in the future.

1st Time Homebuyer Credit

FHA Changes to Down Payment

Down Payment Assistance

Short Sale as Bad as Foreclosure

FHA Mortgage Insurance Premiums

ALSO - here is an important link when you want to be reminded of what the maximum loan amount is for an FHA loan is for a specific county: FHA MAX LOAN.

Next week I'll give you a preview of the upcoming FHA Mortgage Insurance Premiums... and more!

The Happy Sumo in Westminster Colorado sucks!

We decided to try the new Happy Sumo that opened at The Orchard in Westminster at 144th Avenue this last Friday evening.  It was somewhat busy and we had four people with us including my wife and two kids.  After being informed by the hostess in an icy tone that it would be a 30 minute wait, we took our pager and waited, and waited, and waited while I watched other four tops , three tops, two tops and even one larger party who had come after us be called for their tables.  After 55 minutes I asked one of the four giggling hostesses (all fashionably dressed in black) when they thought we would be called.

She looked at her seating list (and I got a glimpse as well), I could see that we had been passed over by about 6-7 parties, and then said in an icy tone that it would be another 10 minutes.  At this point we decided that we would be better off dining somewhere that actually gave a rip about our business and customer service, I handed the pager back to the hostess an said no thank you we would be leaving.  Her only response was her best 'runway model' sarcastic sneer 'sorry'.

We wound up stopping by a Good Times burger place on the way home and had great service actually with a smile! 

Thank God I didn't have business clients with me or it wasn't an important lunch or business dinner as is normally the case.  This time we only had an evening meal ruined and dissapointed and hungry kids.

I guess the problem is that Happy Sumo is the only sushi restaurant up north in this area.  Hopefully that will change soon as the dinner market is in desperate need of a sushi place that actually has service, good prices and good food!

On Wednesday August 28 I was invited to go to Sunfest, held in Denver at the Coors Field parking lot. I was a guest of Allied Building Supply, thanks Pam Simmons, Craig Chostner and Jake Walker.

This solar event was the place to meet like minded people, visit with company representatives and enjoy the day. Despite the fact that the DNC was nominating Barack Obama the traffic inside the event was good and the traffic on the roads was also good. I went around passing out my business cards and explaining to the people I met why they should have an Ecobroker on speed dial. Much to my surprise approx ½ of the people I spoke to had heard of Realtors who were also Ecobrokers. One had even attended the Ecobroker event this summer at the Colorado Convention Center.

Some of the vendors at Sunfest:

• Solargreen and Jim Paulson
• Metro Solar Inc and Dave Woycio
• Starfire Energy and Joe Abeach
• Capitol Solar Energy, llc and Laurent Meillon
• Coseia (Colorado Solar Energy Industries Association) Beth Hart
• Independent Power Systems and Craig Konz
• Golden Solar and Mark Romano
• Standard Renewable Energy and Eric Van Orden