Lisa VonBargen Estes Park Real Estate Expert

Greetings!

Yesterday, my real estate company sponsored two groups of school kids in a Christmas visit to the retirees at Good Samaritan Village in Estes Park. My 5th grade son's class, with the efforts and support of his art teacher, Valerie Bowles and his home room teacher, Caroline Evans, made ornaments in art class to pass out to the seniors.

The Middle School group that sang Christmas songs to the seniors is called "Friends of Rachel" and was started by the friends of one of the Columbine shooting victims in Denver. The concept of the group is to create happiness for others and inspire them to do the same, creating a widening circle of goodwill. Nice.

My son promised the 50 kids that I would provide lunch, so I ordered 13 pizzas from our local favorite, Village Pizza, and the kids snarfed them ALL before their lunchtime performance in the Good Sam dining room. (I was hoping for at least one leftover pizza so I wouldn't have to worry about dinner....)

The event will be in the local papers with the cute kid photos...it was a great way to promote my business, allow 50 kids to volunteer and bring handmade gifts and music to senior citizens. That was a win/win!

The photo is of my son, Zachary, with one of the Good Sam residents...Happy Holidays from Lisa and The Yellow Mailbox Real Estate Services!

Greetings!

Our Estes Park Board of Realtors sold report came out yesterday for November. We experience seasonal slowness in our market during the winter...Estes Park is the location where Stephen King came up with the idea for "The Shining" during his stay at The Stanley Hotel, just as they were getting ready to close up for the season way back when! In spite of our off-season, properties are still moving in all categories. 9 Single Family Residential properties sold, along with 7 condos, 2 vacant land properties, and one commercial. So, in spite of how cold it is outside, our market isn't in the deep freeze!

Happy Holidays, Lisa

Greetings!

Our Arctic blast rolled in on schedule, with the fahrenheit hovering around zero. Unfortunately, not enough snow for a snow day from school...

We are lucky here in Estes to have a lot of local talent, and they are all very generous with their gifts during the holiday season. Last night, the Estes Park Jazz Band and Village Concert Band had their annual Christmas concerts. Tonight is the Estes Park High School concert, and tomorrow the Middle School Band will wrap up the school performances. The audiences are appreciative and enthusiastic, even if it is freezing outside!

Have a great week, Lisa

Greetings from Estes Park!

They say that elk are not the most intelligent of creatures...however, they do seem to be smart enough to hang out on the golf course when there are hunters around! Yesterday, on the way to school, the elk were crossing the highway on their way back to the golf course for the day, and there was an "elk-jam" on HWY 7 for a mile! (you can't use elk as an excuse for being tardy just anywhere...)

I took this photo just before it started snowing, we are expecting an arctic blast this weekend and the elk herd will be hiding in the trees.

Have a great weekend! Lisa

We woke up this morning to a sunrise that had the entire Estes Valley lit up with bright orange and pink "alpenglow" (that's the technical term for sunrise hitting the mountain tops while the valley is still in shade)

Estes Park is such a wonderful place to live...or to visit! If anyone would like a referral for a great place to stay or a fantastic local restaurant, just send me an e-mail and I'll be happy to help.

Lisa