Brooke Shepherd

My family has gone to The Festival of Lights for years. Festival of Lights is a parade to celebrate the December holiday season. The parade is December 5, 2009 at 5:50pm in downtown Colorado Springs.

The Festival of Lights Parade has choosen the Empty Stocking Fund as its charity. You may help us Mission Statement: Festival of Lights, Inc. is a series of events to celebrate the December holiday season, highlighted by the Festival of Lights Parade. The events include cultural and artistic programs, performances and other festivities for the enjoyment and education of the general public.help them by clicking on this link and make your donation or bring a dollar to the parade and give it to the collection elves. Every dollar you give will be doubled. Start your holiday season and your holiday giving in the same nite. http://emptystocking.coloradosprings.com

To get more information go to: http://www.coloradospringsfestivaloflights.org/

I hope to see you there. Bring your coats, gloves and blankets. OH and don't forget your Starbucks!!

See you there!
Brooke

Apparently during the big home boom from 2001-2007 drywall manufactures imported drywall from China because there was such a high demand for it. Little did they know that the drywall was highly toxic.

If you have experienced numerous air condition coil failures, your copper electrical ground wire have turned black, and you are suffering from upper respiratory issues, nose bleeds, unexplained rashes, or severe allergy type symptoms, your house may contain toxic imported Chinese Drywall. This means if your house was built or remodeled during that time.

You can go to the links below to get more information.

http://chinesedrywallcomplaintcenter.com/index.html

or

http://www.injurylawcolorado.com/legal-news/general/toxic-chinese-drywall-possible-in-colorado-16.htm#comment-113

How awesome is that! Forbes magazine wrote the article stating that Colorado Springs is ranked #3 for housing recovery!! Sales activity is up 14% in Colorado Springs. Now 20% of sales were foreclosures. But my thoughts are that atleast they are getting sold! It could be worse and not even those were selling. They do feel that even though sales are up, that doesn't mean pricing of homes is up. However if you look at the statistics, provided by PPMLS. You will see a drop of almost $20,000 from last year. However in March of 2009, the average sale price started to go back up, after plummeting from last year. So that is another good indication for Colorado Springs.

Some will say that it is because of the all the military coming in and I say, "you betcha". They are helping give our economy a boost that we have needed! Another reason to be thankful and appreciative of our military! We can thank our military for not only defending our Country but also helping our economy here in Colorado Springs.

God Bless you men, woman and your families!!

Brooke Shepherd

RE/MAX Properties

Jeff Ryder Team

719-432-8485

brookeshepherd@msn.com

Well I was working as a buyer's agent with a young sweet couple. We found them a townhome to buy in the first 5 homes we looked at. We put in an offer and did $1000 earnest money. Offer accepted. About a week after earnest money was turned in, the couple asked me if I knew if it had cleared yet. I told them it will the title company has it. Everything went smoothly thru closing. We went over the HUD the earnest money was credited back to the buyers, good to go.

So two days later I get a call from the selling agent. He calls me frantic because they took $1000 out of his commission. I had delivered the earnest money check to him, per his request. He then sent it to the the title company which was about 1 hour away from us, via mail. They were telling him they never recieved it and so they took it from him. He called me to see if my clients could see if it cleared. I called them and it hadn't. So they were concerned because they thought it was all said and done, hadn't paid attention if it had cleared. They were buying stuff for the house.

I called my managing broker and this is where it would have stood.

My clients signed a contract saying they were giving the $1000 earnest money. They delivered their part. Ethically speaking they should void the first check and give the seller's agent the 2nd one.

But, if they no longer have the money or feel that they closed, HUD reflected they paid it, then legally it isn't their responsibility. Then the title company and seller's agent have to figure it out.

However, a day later the title company ended up finding the check. We called my clients they said it was clear to be deposited and it was all taken care of.

It was a good experience and lessoned learned.

I came across this great map for people that are wanting to know the ratings of schools in Colorado Springs, CO.

http://schoolperformancemaps.com/co/#38.879274%2C-104.734726%2C11%2C1%2C2%2C3

It can be so frustrating at times as a realtor to not be able to tell people what the academic reputation of a school is. But you just can't. Here you can send them to a great tool so they decide for themselves. I was so excited to come across this! Genius!!

Brooke