JJ Hannah

How has the Fort Collins Real Estate market remained so strong during this economic down turn? Well, here are five more reasons that the NRDC, (National Resource Defense Council) has awarded Fort Collins.
For Medium sized Cities, Fort Collins was ranked 2nd for Green building, 2nd for Environmental Standards and Participation, 3rd for Transportation, 2nd for Energy Production and Conservation (www.fortzed.com and www.univercityconnections.org) and 8th for Water Quality, (which I was a little shocked to see us that low, considering the Cache La Poudre is the only Wild & Scenic designated river in the great state of Colorado and New Belgium and Odell's breweries have taken great strides to enhance the water quality here). Not to complain, because the other Cities are doing great things too. So the overall ranking was 3rd as a Smart City. That is awesome. We actually have the green award wining Merten home for sale right now in Old Town north. If you would like more information on this article go to http://smartercities.nrdc.org/cities/fort-collins-co

I wrote about this on my blog as well at www.fortcollinsre.com

Call me at 970-212-2435 if you have any questions.

Here in Fort Collins, one of our beloved breweries, Odell's has used the power of Twitter to help gain followers of their craft brews but to also help them create a new beer. The use of Twitter helped to gain insight as to what type of beer, what to call the beer and the label.

I have not found a way to incorporate this type of twitter mania into my real estate business, but I thought I would share the success of another business for all to enjoy.

Here is a link to Denver's CBS4 and their news video:

http://www.cbs4denver.com/video/?id=57722@kcnc.dayport.com

JJ Hannah

Keller Williams Downtown

Fort Collins, CO 80524

970-212-2435

www.fortcollinsre.com

If you live within Larimer County in Colorado or have family or past clients that live here and you need help understanding how to protest the newly assessed value of your home, I can help.

This assesment is done through June 30, 2008 and can go back 60 months prior to this date.

There are tools that home owners can use to get sales data if they so choose or they can rely upon their Realtor to help them get that information prepared. This information needs to be submitted by June 1st with the proper real-property protest form completed and post marked.

you can search properties at www.fortcollinsre.com

Thank you,

JJ Hannah

There was an article published today in our local paper. http://www.coloradoan.com/article/20090505/UPDATES03/90505017/1002/rss

It discussed a report done by the Everitt Real Estate School at CSU and talked about how some neighborhoods were still appreciating and some were down right awful.

Now, I am all about bringing some good news to the table, but isn't this obvious. Isn't this the case in your City? I would imagine there are pockets everywhere you look where people are still going to want to live. I am wrong? Please tell me if you don't have any neighborhoods that are still desirable to move to.

Guess where these neighborhoods are? That's right, location, location, location. The number one rule in real estate. These neighborhoods are in Old Town, close to CSU and Downtown Fort Collins. The houses in these areas are still where people want to be. People will always want to be where the action is. Luckily for me and my partners we have been investing and selling in this area for over 10 years now and know the area very well.

So call me if you need any information on a area that continues to appreciate.

JJ

So we have been talking in our office about first time home buyers who are looking at trying to pick up a property and the appraisal issues that keep surfacing. It seems that recently, there have been more issues with the appraisal values coming in than inspection issues. So do you help protect your first time home buyer by pushing the inspection back after the appraisal, so they don't spend $750-$1,000.00 and not even close?

For instance, buyers put a house under contract for $180,000.00 and have the normal dates and deadlines associated with a contract. They pay for the inspection and get through that with no major issues, but spend $350.00, they also must do a survey which is required by the Title CO. $250. They then find out two weeks later that the appraisal comes in $15,000.00 under value ($3500. The Sellers don't have the equity, so now there is no deal, or they have to wait for a short sale approval. Now these first time home buyers could wait to go through that painful process with no definitive closing opportunity or walk away and lose the money they have already spent.

I would like to protect the buyers in the future and minimize their financial exposure, so should we be moving the appraisal deadline up and the inspection back?

Any comments or similar experiences?