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Stuart Dobson

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Adams County CO - one of the best places to live according to Forbes

12-04-08
Stuart Dobson
Adams County Colorado rated one of the ten best places to live!

According to the Nov. 12th Forbes web site, Adams County has been rated as the #3 county in the country to 'weather this economic downturn'.  Job growth, diversified economy, low property taxes and inexpensive housing were the primary reasons cited.  I would also like to add, quality schools, quick DIA access, executive level housing, and arterial roads that allow for a fairly quick trip to anywhere in the Denver metro region also make much of the county a great place to live.  But then again, I'm biased as we chose to live here because we saw the intrisic value a few years ago too.

Apparently Adams County is bringing in more jobs and is still one of the faster growing counties in Colorado according to Alice Nichol of the Board of County Commissioners.  Especially in this housing downturn, economic realities will be the appreciation drivers.  With good jobs, low cost housing (on average), and good schools, it's about time for Adams County to have some decent home price appreciation.



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Homestead Hills Park update

10-25-08
Stuart Dobson
Homestead Hills Park update

The City of Thornton is finally beginning construction on the Homestead Hills park project.  The project was supposed to be done in 2007 but now is planned to be finished in the summer of 2009. 

The project includes the construction of a neighborhood park with a playground, pavilion, picnic tables, benches and a trail system with a small parking area.  Approximately 12 acres of the park land is planned to remain as natural vegetation.  This should be the final park to be completed in the Homestead Hills subdivision.  Since Morrison Taylor is coming close to being done with building new homes, the subdivision should be complete hopefully by the end of next year.

Obviously in this current market condition that is a big plus for the residents and current homeowners.  The HOA should be fully funded and their shouldn't be any vacant lot or house issues.  For additional info on Hometead Hills, please contact Stuart Dobson directly 303.919.0309.

Update: For a current list of Homestead Hills Thornton Colorado homes for Sale this will give you an interactive map of the community.

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Foreclosures decrease in Colorado

10-24-08
Stuart Dobson
Foreclosures decrease in Colorado

In yet another sign of what I've been saying for the last six months.  Colorado has passed the peak in foreclosures, at least with houses priced less than $250k.  The numbers were released yesterday to very little fanfare or even acknowledgement.  But, as investors who have been trying to buy these properties know, it is very difficult to get a good deal on a foreclosure home right now.

The foreclosure numbers:

Foreclosure filings in Colorado fell 6.2 percent mont to month and a staggering 31 percent year over year in September according to RealtyTrac.

Again, this is something that is eveident to all of here in Denver, CO; We missed out on the huge run up with pricing, and were early in the foreclosure cycle relative to the rest of the country, now if the economy just doesn't completely go into depression, we may see the groundswell of housing demand in a similar scenario like the '91 recession.  Healthy recoveries always start from the lower priced homes and filter upward as move up buyers sell and purchase more expensive homes.  We are seeing that again now.

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Denver home price improvement

10-21-08
Stuart Dobson
Denver's home prices ready to increase

According to a new story coming out in the November SmartMoney magazine, Denver is one of the top seven cities where home prices look stable and may even increase.  This information (picked up from Yahoo) was also confirmed by an article in this morning's Denver Post newspaper that basically stated that homes priced at $150k and under are moving very quickly in this market, most of the time with multiple offers.

The demand for homes falls as the price increases with a 'normal' market of six months supply of homes beginning to be available right around the $350k price point.  Of course this depends on where in the Denver metro area the home is located.

The SmartMoney article references the Cherry Creek area as the ritzy are in Denver where prices have increased 16% over the last year.  This has been apparent to most real estate brokers in the area for some time...it just takes the media a while to catch up.

With decent employment, declining foreclosures, positive net in-migration, and a lack of overbuilding compared to other areas of the country, the Denver home market is finally poised to make some price improvement. 

As Realtors, we are seeing the change daily.  Now if only the mortgage rates will stay low...

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Shouting does not make you a great negotiator

10-20-08
Stuart Dobson
Shouting, Hysteria and Insults do not make you a good negotiator!

Recently with some very well qualified buyers we have been submitting offers on homes.  It seems that the only way the listing agents for these properties know how to response is with shouting, insulting the buyers or near hysterical epithets about the houses value, the sellers situation, why we should cover their losses, etc.

    A few tips
  • Neither my buyers nor I care about how the sellers got into their current financial situation, we only care what the house is worth to us.
  • She who shouts louder does not 'win' the negotiation, in fact, if you can't be professional I don't want to do ANY business with you!
  • Just because the buyers are well qualified does not mean they should overpay for your listing.


Negotiation isn't always about getting the lowest price, sometimes it's about getting to a price that everybody can live with.  By achieving that, it is much more likely that the deal will not fall apart at the closing table over the equivalent of something like curtain rods because one side or the other has beaten the other side up so much.  It is an art as well as science (see debate 101).  There are specific techniques to be applied, but the skill with which they are applied usually makes the difference.


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