Mike Henderson 303-949-5848 Genius Ventures

The way I attract potential clients in the Denver, CO real estate market is with free classes that I teach. I believe that education is extremely important and I practice what I preach. I also believe in giving back to the community. One of the challenges in this environment is snow.

This is the picture out my front door at midnight October 28th, 2009. You notice that you can see no snow on the driveway. We might get a foot of snow between now Thursday evening. Makes me want to go skiing not teach a class social media and real estate.

I'm teaching the class with Josh Dorkin the President and Founder of Bigger Pockets.com. I like the site as much as Active Rain and they are where I spend almost all my Internet time. I don't get point like here on AR for you guys signing up, but I would appreciate if you would use the link. Josh is doing me a favor by teaching this class with me. You are going to hear him not what I say.

It will stink if we get a ton of snow and it keeps people from showing up. One of the advantages is that it is held at the Jefferson County Association of Realtors. It's location is 10th and Wadsworth. It is near major higways so those will at least have the snow crews working on them. Because of the way the classes are run (no registration required, I don't know who is coming. We post it online and to multiple email databases through constant contact. I said I was going to bed by 1:00, dangit no more links. So people will show up. I can get there by driving Santa Fe, I-25, 6th Ave, and about three blocks on Wadsworth.

Here is what the weather looked like mere two days ago. You notice how my Boxer looks suspicious that she knows bad weather is coming. It is karma from sometime last winter. Bigger Pockets was having one of its IRL meeting in Denver. I was given the honor of being given five minutes to talk about the Denver Real Estate market. It was great because most of Bigger Pockets members are investors. I'm a real estate agent who specializes in investors in the Denver, Colorado market. I was going to speak! There was a ton of snow. Down where I lived we got 18 inches, trust me I had to shovel it. There was no way I could make it.

Why I like Bigger Pockets.com so much. Active Rain is mostly targeted at the real estate agent community. I know there are tons of other great people on here from lenders to stagers, etc., but agents are the core. I would guess that by breaking down the numbers. There is certainly content on AR about investing, but it can't hold a candle to Bigger Pockets.com for investing. Since they did away with stated income programs I focused my efforts more on becoming a real estate agent. It's been almost a year now and I feel it's finally time that I start talking more. I'm fourth in AR in Arapahoe, CO for real estate. How big is Arapahoe County it's ginormous!

Here is the class description if you are in Denver and interested in coming.

10/29/09

Thursday 06:00 PM–08:00 PM

Social Media and Real Estate

Wondering what all the buzz is about? Confused about web 2.0? Learn how this evolving new medium can be used to increase your real estate business. Whether you are an agent looking for clients or an investor looking for properties learn how these powerful tools can be used. An overview of blogging, twitter, Linked in, Facebook and other powerful tools will be used. This class is not focused on the basics of setting up accounts, but more of the why and how to communicate with this new medium. Josh Dorkin is CEO and founder of www.biggerpockets.com He is one of the leading experts of using social media, especially as to how it relates to real estate. He created one of the largest social media sites focused on real estate with over 40,000 members. Mike Henderson is a licensed residential mortgage broker and real estate agent in Colorado. He has a strong background in Internet marketing and telecommunications and is a former stand-up comedian. Presenter: Mike Henderson & Josh Dorkin Location: JCAR - 950 Wadsworth Blvd., Lakewood

Did I scoop the Denver Post, Westword, and the Rocky Mountain News with the most current data on the real estate market. I don't know if I did. I'm pretty sure I beat the news (lol) I'm to busy recreating the data. The single family home (hint this is where you want to live) market has 15,302 active listings. This is a 3.34 drop from the prior month, The decrease year over year was 19.67%. The solds were a total of 3,066 this is a decreae of 12 percent from the prior month. The year over year is 14.8%.

Avg sold price 273,972

The current absorbtion rate is 4.99 months.

What does this mean.

It means this news hit my blog before the Denverpost.com

YES! Time to twitter it. I had my alarm set after two hours sleep. Sorry for the lousy formating.

I'm teaching a real estate class in Denver, Colorado at the Jefferson County Association of Realtors. I love teaching classes. I've taught five classes in the past and this will be my sixth. I believe that the best thing you can do as a real estate agent is to educate; the client, the public, and the investors. Other real estate agents like to send you recipes, movie tickets, and magnets. I believe that the best way to give value to someone is to make them smarter about the subject. Tell them what you can do for them.

My next class is, "How real estate agents and investors can work together - Can they?" I've had a good look at this issue from both sides of the isle. Here is the class description. In this class we will examine the traditional adversarial relationship between agents and investors. We will discuss the partnership from the beginning from how we started and tips and tricks that made the process smoother. We will go over multiple deals that we either; acquired, passed on, or fell apart and why. We will discuss the due diligence necessary to evaluate a deal and how we did it. All types of investing will be covered, but the primary focus will be on traditional buy and hold residential deals.

(I need to learn to wrap text, another thing on the to do list)

Investors should attend - Learn how typical agents view you. Learn how to make your time more productive with your agent. Learn how to make offers faster and follow up better.

Realtors in the Denver, Colorado metro area should attend. Can you get your investors to sign a buyers agency agreement? Learn how to train your investors to not waste your time. Learn to screen your investor clients better.

About the speakers. Jon Holdman - is an active "buy and hold" residential investor in the Denver area. He is also a hard money lender for residential property. Jon is also a leading moderator on the largest social networking site dedicated to investors and has made over 5,000 posts helping "newbie" and experienced investors alike. Mike Henderson - Is a licensed residential mortgage broker and real estate agent in Colorado. He has a strong background in Internet marketing and telecommunications. He is an accomplished public speaker and former stand-up comedian.

COST: This class is free to all who register at http://yourcastle.org/events.cfm if you do not register the cost is $20 at the door. Presenter: Mike Henderson & Jon Holdman Location: Jefferson County Association of Realtors - 950 Wadsworth Blvd., Lakewood

If you mention you saw this on Active Rain you get a free piece of cake.

There are a lot of psychological reasons to get your homesellers to have a garage sale. Notice the four green glasses on the table I got several comments from people about how they had glasses just like this in the 1970's. My wife and I have been married almost five years. Here's a hint, if you are getting married and register for glasses you will likely get every single one you registered for. I don't think I've drank out of those glasses for over 15 years. Yet I've moved them at least four times. ENOUGH ALREADY!

Agents always talk about the need for homeowners to psychologically distance themselves from their house when they are trying to sell it. This is a great way to do it. Most of the stuff on the table has no psychological attachment to me. However, the mask you can see has a ton of memories and meeting. I attended Mardi Gras four years in a row. Those trips could make a movie, it would definately be rated "R". By selling that item it has less attachment to me. It's a part of my past and time to move on. The fewer items in the home that have less psychological attachment the less psychological attachment to the home.

Homeowners need to have a detached view of their home and be ready for lowball offers. If you want to get used to haggling and insulting offers a garage sale is a perfect place to try it out. I had a lowball offer on a laptop computer. It was what we used 5 years ago. We upgraded three years ago, because I was going to be in Vegas for a month. My wife was studying to be a court reporter and I turned it over to her. This computer has not been used since then. It was old and slow, but it did run Windows XP. I wanted $50. Some guy showed interest one of the few, he wanted it for the parts. He only offered $20. I didn't even counter. I wanted it gone. I took my wife out for a double deckeroni at Old Chicago that night with our bounty. Be ready for low and insulting offers. If people want to haggle for a dollar one a blouse that cost $50 in a store and are only willing to pay 50 cents. It helps break the expectations for the offers on their house.

It helps to deal with the drive by and the lookers. This was the toughest part of when my wife and I tried to sell our home last spring. You do all of that work. For a garage sale we spent over a week literally going through every single thing in our house. Storing it temporarily in the storage room. The night before we were up until midnight getting our stuff set out in the garage and making signs. We got up at six o'clock in the morning to finish setting thing up and hang signs all around the neighborhood. This is very equivelant to getting your home ready for a showing. We typically spent 30 minutes to an hour to get ready. It means putting all of the stuff away and dusting, vacuming, etc. You got to all this work and for a two hour showing window. It frequently messes up your day, you can't schedule plans for that day either. You do all this work and then the buyer either doesn't show up at all or they do the drive up to your house, slow down, don't get out of their car and keep on driving. This is incredibly frustrating.

The final reason to get your homesellers psychologically ready is if you do your job and sell their home they will have to move. This really gets you ready to move, your client will see how much stuff the have to move. The extra cash helps as well. If I client isin't ready to do this will they be ready to actually accept a reasonable offer on their house? I'm curious as to your opinion

If you are going to sell your house in Colorado, or anywhere for that matter, have a garage sale first. I'm a relatively new agent and have read a ton of marketing material here on Active Rain and other places, but I don't see this mentioned that often, if ever. It is prudent advice for anyone looking to sell a home.

If you are serious about selling your house one of the first things that should be looked at is how you stage or present your home to potential buyers. Some agents will suggest you higher a professional stager or some will hire one for you. A good agent will also be able to help you out with tips or recommend a professional stager. I take the route of offering my advice and opinion for free on the initial listing appointment. I don't want to degrade professional stagers, but they will all say two things. Declutter and depersonalize. You want your home to look as big as possible, decluttering. You want your potential buyer to visualize themselves in your home, depersonalize.

Having a garage is a great way to depersonalize and declutter your home. It forces you to go through everything you own and decide if you need to keep it or what the items place in your home is. My personal belief is by decluttering your life you will be a happier person. Having a garage sale before you sell your home is a great way to accomplish this stuff and get a little bit of extra cash in your pocket.

There are other psychological reasons to have a gargage sale, and various tricks to have it productive as possible. Stay tuned for part two and three. Here is a picture of our recent garage sale this past weekend.