Erie, CO

As a follow up to last years success, Becky Coet and myself decided to continue with the tradition of giving back to our community! As members of Keller Williams-The Red Door Group, we always want to be agents constantly give back to the communities we service.

We have teamed up with the Erie Food Bank this year and are looking forward to delivering over 800lbs of food and other food bank items. With our community continually growing, we know we can exceed last year's donations and look forward to increasing what we can collect from the community each year!

This is such a feel good activity for us and we look forward to doing this each year!!

We will be delivering bags donated by local grocers by Friday, October 16th to have residents of our community fill them up with items from their pantry. We will then head out by 9am on Thursday, October 22nd to pick up the bags to deliver to the food bank. It's such an easy way for our community to contribute to such a great facility.

If you'd like to participate or have any questions, we would love to hear from you!

Email at: heidi@thereddoorgroup.com if you'd like to participate with us!

Last week was a very strange week. I was on my way back from working with a client in Aurora when I noticed a large animal near the bridge on Erie Parkway. I looked over and low and behold...

A MOOSE!!!

Not a deer, or an elk, or a large dog, an actual MOOSE! (yes, these are animals that people thought I may have seen instead)

Now, I consider myself an outdoorsy girl and pride myself on my knowledge of the outdoors, but never in my life have I come across a live moose...I was so excited I ran inside and told my husband and he thought i was kidding too.

Now I know its a long drive from Aurora but why would I dream up a story about seeing a moose as a way to start a conversation?

So the next day I was constantly looking out my dining room window and staring into the field waiting to see another sighting. I was being doubted so much that I was actually starting to doubt my own eyes and think "did I really see a moose in Erie or am I seeing thing?"

Sure enough, the Erie Police Department and the Division of Wildlife (DOW) were out combing the area by Coal Creek because they got a call that morning from two men that were working nearby.

Both myself and my hubby went out with phones and cameras waiting to catch a glimpse of the magical moose that I SWEAR I saw!

A few hours later, a lot of waiting and a few Nutrigrain Bars donated to the Erie PD officers and the moose, my moose, emerged from the creek. By this time, the DOW had a horse trailer, a vet, and a tranquilizer gun to safely move her from our little town back into the mountains where she rightly belonged.

I got some great pictures and sent them into 9NEWS and sure enough, it made the 4, 5, 6, 9, and 10 o'clock news that night...I was so proud. The DOW and the police department were so kind to all of us spectators and allowed the adults and kids to get up close to our rare visitor.

So...not only does Erie provide a fantastic community, it also provides a taste of wildlife!!

Have A Great Day!!

Heids :)

On July 29th the Mayor and the Trustees of Erie held a State of the Town meeting open to the public and it was a great turnout. Attendees were informed of the bright future in store for the town and what a great bunch of people working diligently to truly make Erie the next place to call home!

Topics that were discussed at this meeting ranged from the Erie Airport to new Urban Level Development followed by a Q and A session that nearly every attendee chimed in on.

As a resident of Erie and an active member in the community, I felt it was truly necessary to know what the future holds for the town. Growing up in a small town, its difficult to see too many changes that can make that small town, bigger, and often times less desirable to the residents, but I have to commend the Mayor and the Trustees for their diligent efforts to make Erie a hub for residents as well as commercial growth as well as maintaining a "small town" feel and community.

Some notes that I took are as follows:

Community Park Update: Currently under construction and will run to the adjacent areas to the East and North of the Erie Community Center. This is the last capital improvement before the next elections and the park is scheduled to be completed in the Spring of 2010.

Public Relations: Numerous Surveys were conducted by the Ayers PR firm to study the perceptions of the town and how to better understand and target those misconceptions (if applicable). The Town of Erie wants to see how others perceive Erie and use those results to create a marketing campaign about the town.

Trails Systems: This topic was a hot button for many active, outdoors lovers. The trails systems surrounding Erie are expanding and the town is working on getting many communities connected to the town itself.

Trustees are working hard to get more transportation to and from Erie from the Northern Colorado area. This will include changes to I-25 and Hwy 287. $733,000 of stimulus funds are being used to complete bike lanes from the heart of Erie out to I-25 to eventually allow for less commuter car traffic and allow residents to bus and/or lightrail from Erie to Denver. For more information click here to see the town's progress.

Urban Development has also been a highly discussed topic around town. The location for this is tentatively South of Thomas Reservoir. At this current time, it has been accepted but it's just a matter of when the housing market will allow for construction to commence.

I look forward to hearing about all the updates on these matters and hope that this was a resource for those of you looking at Erie as your new community!

Erie has just started a Farmer's Market and it runs each Saturday from 8am to 12noon.

There are local vendors and this is a great place to get to know your community!

It's located off Briggs in the parking lot of the Blackjack Pizza.

Come on down and meet some of the vendors!

Heidi

PAY ATTENTION, SOME THINGS HAVE CHANGED.

Effective July 1, 2009 House Bill 1091 goes into effect. This bill mandates the installation of carbon monoxide detectors in residential properties. The bill applies to all properties - single family, multi-family, mobile homes, owner-occupied, rental, and homes for sale. In other words if someone lives in it, there needs to be a carbon monoxide detector.

Besides things changing minute by minute in the mortgage industry, things are also changing among appraisers. In the "olden days", your lender had a list of appraisers that they found to be efficient, trust-worthy, and accurate. Appraisals for conventional loans could be done very quickly and you could have your results in about a week depending on the time of the order. Unfortunately, there were some individuals who just didn't play by the rules. That resulted in over-inflated values on some properties. We Americans seem to have difficulty in trying to reach a median point, we are either all the way to the left or to the extreme right. That pendulum has swung again and here are the new rules.

We now have a new compliance code called the Home Valuation Code of Conduct. This code prohibits mortgage brokers and bankers from having any direct contact with an appraiser. Appraisals for properties using conventional financing must now be ordered through an Appraisal Management Company (gee, we just created a new business giving someone else a job!). Sometimes an appraisal needs clarification on an item but the lenders cannot have any contact with the appraiser even if the underwriter of the loan needs something changed or has a question about a comp that was used, or correcting a legal description, etc. Let's see how this scenario plays out.

1. The lender orders the appraisal from an AMC.
2. The AMC orders the appraisal from one of the appraisers on its approved list.
3. The AMC waits to hear back from the appraiser to see if they want to do the appraisal (hours, days, etc.).
4. The appraiser is busy or cannot do the appraisal so they notify the AMC.
5. The AMC orders the appraisal from someone else on their list.
6. They do this process until someone accepts the job.
7. The appraiser completes the job.
8. The final report is sent to the AMC.
9. The AMC sends the report to the lender.
10. The lender sends the appraisal to the underwriter.
11. Questions? They go from the underwriter to the lender, to the AMC, to the appraiser.
12. The appraiser makes an required correction and sends the updated appraisal to the AMC.
13. The AMC forwards the updated appraisal to the lender.
14. The lender sends it on to the underwriter.

All communication is accomplished on-line, no phone conversations are conducted. Be prepared to see a rise in the cost of appraisals as we have added another entity to the pot. The AMC will also have to be paid for their work. Realtors® takes note: this is going to slow the process down. Be aware and make the proper adjustments when preparing those contracts. By the way, these new rules do not apply to FHA, VA or Rural Housing Loans.

Just when you thought you had everything figured out, here's another new item. "Walls-In" insurance. You must have insurance to cover everything (cabinets, appliances, personal items, etc.). Check with your favorite lenders to keep up to date with changes in occupancy requirements for condo buyers.

Two of my favorites are Chris Thomas, cthomas@mtgsupportservices.com, 303-345-3683 and Elsa Wohlford, ewohlford@pmglending.com, 303-302-3916. They both contributed information for this blog. They always keep me "in the loop".