Outstanding Neighborhood

This wonderfully comfortable home is situated in a fantastic neighborhood sheltered from the wind. Soaring ceilings in the living room create a spacious yet comfortable living space where a wall of windows take full advantage of the mountain views. The moss rock double sided fireplace anchors the great room on one side and adds an elevated level of intimacy in the dining room on the opposite side. The deck on the back side of the house blends into the rock outcroppings creating the perfect transition from enjoying the outdoors to experiencing nature. An impressive 5 piece master bath includes double sinks, a soaking tub and stand-up shower. The hobby room adjacent to the dining room could be converted back into a hot tub room or converted into a 4th bedroom.

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Hard times have fallen on this home located in a great neighborhood within walking distance to downtown

Over 2,200 square feet, 3 bedrooms, 3 baths, and attached 2 car garage. Private bath in master bedroom. Updated stainless steel appliances in the kitchen. Lower level features a huge partially finished family room, 3/4 bath, office, and storage. Extremely motivated seller. Help this homeowner avoid foreclosure! Short sale approval required by bank. Call for special instructions.

Update – This home sold on 8/15/2011 for $259,000. Congratulations to the sellers and the new owners! If you are interested in a similar home contact Sam.

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Update August 15, 2011 – This home sold on August 15th for $259,000. Congratulations to the sellers and the new owners! If you are interested in a similar home contact Sam.

Continuing in my series talking about vacation home rentals in Estes Park, here are 5 things to focus on to generate the most amount of income from your rentals:

• Professional photos – This is the most important factor in deciding whether your property will do well as a short term rental. You need to have pictures that will grab the imagination of the potential renter. You need the “ooh and ahhh” factor.
• Marketing – Some online locations are better than others. Be sure to check out VRBO.com, Homeaway.com, Craigslist, and build your own web site. Property Management companies will have an edge here on individual home marketing campaigns.
• Tell a story – In your property write-up, be sure to capture the emotions of how it feels to vacation at your home. Make it easy for people to imagine taking their vacation at your property.
• Furniture – Wood and log furniture with a mountain rustic decorating also attract the most renters.
• Smart Marketing – Be creative in your advertising and marketing. Don’t forget to market to past renters and ask for referrals.

Are there any property managers out there who would like to add to this list?

For the last couple of days, we have been talking about how to buy a successful vacation home rental income property in Estes Park that will generate the most amount of income possible.

Here are 4 common mistakes buyers make in the process of buying a vacation home rental property:

1. They Forget the Cost of furniture. - The cost to furnish the property after you buy it can be expensive. Be careful you don’t buy a lot of furniture on credit while you are trying to qualify for a mortgage. An easy way around this is to look for properties that include furniture in the sale.
2. They underestimate the work necessary to operate a successful rental property. - There is a lot of work involved in managing a property including cleaning, marketing, answering rental inquiries, and more.
3. They don’t check the Covenants, Rules and Regulations. - Double check the association documentation and meeting minutes for restrictions on rentals. Some single family neighborhoods and condominium developments do not allow short term rentals.
4. They don’t know about the Municipal Code Restrictions regarding vacation homes. - Any vacation home rental property within the Estes Valley Zoning district is subject to the municipal code restrictions. Highlights of the code include needing to buy a business license and restrictions on the total number of people that can rent out a property at one time. For more information, here is the municipal code specifying the rules and regulations regarding vacation rental properties (downloaded November 2010).

Are there any experienced vacation home buyer’s out there who would like to share a mistake they made that I might have missed?

Yesterday, I brought up the subject of how to have someone else pay for your vacation home in the mountains by utilizing vacation home rental income. Sounds great, right? So how do you go about finding the best homes with the most potential to generate income?

Here are a few things to look for:

• Location - The best locations have big views, river front views or complete privacy in the woods.
• Outdoor spaces - Properties where it is easy to enjoy the outdoors are in high demand (even with condos). This is most likely why the renter wants to come to Estes Park in the first place!
• Recent construction - New and flashy trumps history and character when looking strictly at income.
• Privacy - Nobody wants to go on vacation and be right on top of the neighbors. Be extra careful with this when considering condominiums especially with outdoor spaces.
• Bedroom bath ratio - The best case scenario is a bathroom for every bath.
• Multiple bedrooms - More bedrooms equals higher income per night.

The best way to evaluate whether a specific home has what it takes to be a successful vacation home rental is to ask yourself “Would I want to stay here while on vacation?”

Can you think of any major features I missed on this list?

Buying a vacation home in a small town in the mountains like Estes Park, Colorado is a dream shared by many people. The problem is, real estate in the mountains has a tendency to be expensive. Utilizing vacation home rental income can make that dream easier to achieve. Why not take advantage of the millions of people (yes, millions) who come through Estes Park every year on their way to Rocky Mountain National Park? Many property owners in Estes Park are already catering to these tourists by offering their homes for rent on a short term basis. The rental income generated helps pay the mortgage or provide extra income if you aren’t planning on having a mortgage. You may also choose to buy a more expensive house than you were originally planning because of the extra income. The best part about vacation home rental income is it still allows you to use the property from time to time!

While vacation home rentals don’t typically generate enough income to pay for themselves, they can come close if you do your homework ahead of time.

Over the next few days, I’ll be posting more information regarding how to make short term rentals work for you. Stay tuned to hear more about:

• What makes a successful vacation home rental property in Estes Park?
• 4 biggest mistakes buyers make when buying a vacation home rental property
• 5 Tips to maximize vacation home rental income
• Comparing management options for vacation home rentals in Estes Park
• What is the best method to search for a home that will rent out well?

Do you have any questions regarding vacation home rentals for sale in Estes Park?

Are you thinking of relocating to Estes Park, Colorado? You are probably in research mode trying to find out more information about our little town in the Rocky Mountains. Let me point you in the direction of some helpful resources to help get you more acquainted with what Estes Park has to offer.

First, I would start with a video that the Town of Estes Park put together called “Estes Park: A Great Place to Visit, A Great Place to Live.” It highlights many of the reasons people come to Estes Park and throws in a little history in the process. You can find the video here: http://www.estes.org/pressreleases/epvideo/

The town also puts out a town profile and updates it every year. This includes a ton of demographic information and helpful numbers regarding a wide range of topics: http://www.estesnet.com/CommunityInfo/CommunityProfile.pdf.

Two local newspapers serve the area. The Estes Park News is a free paper and they have an online version at http://www.estesparknews.com. The Estes Park Trail Gazette also has an online version at http://www.eptrail.com. I would recommend visiting the newspapers often for town events, classified ads (including job postings) and news about the local area.

School information can be found on the Estes Park School District web site at http://psdr3.k12.co.us/

Most other local businesses can be found on the Convention and Visitors Bureau web site at http://www.estesparkcvb.com.

Home and Apartment rentals can be found in the newspaper classified ads or on craigslist. I recommend using the Fort Collins Craigslist site at http://fortcollins.craigslist.org/ as this typically has the most Estes Park postings. There is one company in town that is a full time long term (more than 30 days) property management company and that is Range Property Management which can be found online at http://www.rangeprop.com/.

When you are ready to start looking for real estate for sale in Estes Park, there are several sites that I would recommend. First, my web site at http://www.HomesInEstes.com has an easy to use map based search with all the properties for sale. Be sure to also check out the blog for updates on the local market statistics, plus tips and tricks to buying and selling real estate in Estes Park.

Over the last week, the amount of inventory (real estate available for sale in Estes Park, Colorado) has been brought up in conversation several times. Each time, the common feeling with people I talk to is that available homes and condos for sale seem to be climbing at an alarming rate.

I would recommend caution in saying that inventory is up across the board especially at this time of year. During the spring of the year, Estes Park typically sees many properties come available for sale in anticipation of the busy summer tourism season.

The best thing we can do is test the level of inventory is look at the stats. Unfortunately, our local Multiple Listing Service does not allow us to look back at a certain date and calculate how many properties were “active” on the market at that time. Personally I have been tracking Actives for almost 2 years now. Therefore, I am finally able to compare the amount of active inventory from one year to another and from month to month.

Currently, in the 80517 zip code, we have 196 homes, 105 condos, and 103 pieces of vacant land available for sale. At this time last year, we had 180 homes available, 116 condos, and 93 vacant land available. In summary, there are 404 active listings in Estes Park compared with 389 at this time last year. This translates into a 3.9% increase in inventory. In my opinion, a 3.9% deviation in a real estate market as small as Estes Park is hardly a reason to be worried.

For those of you who follow this blog regularly, you already know that I post all sorts of statistics each month on my real estate blog. You can check out my real estate market statistics page (best viewed in Firefox) for all sorts of graphs and charts or you can view an archive of my monthly statistics blog posts for additional commentary each month.

For those of you are more visual, above is a chart showing the inventory levels of real estate in Estes Park over the past 2 years.

In my opinion as a real estate agent, Zillow.com can be a helpful tool for consumers for ball-park property valuation but should not be relied upon to provide exact opinions of value. Read the small print on Zillow.com and they will tell you the same thing. Check out their FAQ page.

The reason zillow is unreliable for property valuation is that no algorithms or mathematical formula can accurately predict a property’s value especially in a mountain community such as Estes Park where properties can vary tremendously. For instance, it is impossible to compensate consistently for many factors that influence property value including quality of construction, quality of materials used, views, privacy, neighbor quality, neighbors pets, nieghbors recreation habits, paint color, sun exposure, bright or dark interiors, smells, future events, room flow, landscaping, pests, and more.

Zillow.com discloses these variances on their website in specific markets. Unfortunately, they do not disclose the variance for communities as small as Estes Park, Colorado. In Denver, in a location where the majority of homes are in subdivisions with consistent values, the zestimate (zillow’s estimate of value) was off more than 10% of the actual selling price more than 55% of the time. Over all, zestimates have a history of having an 11.6% margin of error in Denver. See this page on zillow.com talking about accuracy.

As a real estate agent, I wouldn’t be in business very long if I estimated property values with an 11.6 percent average margin of error. Do yourself a favor and get the opinion of a local real estate agent or appraiser to establish market value. Otherwise, you run the risk of making very important decisions based on inaccurate data.

The environment surrounding the national, regional and local real estate markets is converging into a perfect storm of buying signals for people who are looking to buy real estate in Estes Park. You’ve heard it before from real estate agents from time to time across the country that “now is the time to buy” without much to back up that statement. Right now, I believe that now is the right time to buy and here are several reasons why you should be looking to buy Estes Park real estate in the next few months.

Low Interest Rates

In March the Federal Reserve will stop buying mortgage-backed securities which was a part of the stimulus programs congress passed several months ago. The Fed has essentially been buying down mortgage rates to make real estate more affordable. Without the Fed buying mortgage-backed securities, rates will rise until they are attractive to investors once again. Where they will end up has been speculated to be between 5.5% to over 7%, depending on who you talk to.

A rise in interest rates is bad for people who need to rely on a mortgage to purchase a home. For example, if you were to buy a $300,000 home and had 20% as a down payment, an increase from 5% rate to a 6% rate would increase your monthly payment from $1,288.37 to $1,438.92 (an 11.7% increase) excluding taxes and insurance.

High Inventory

“Absorption rates” is a real estate industry term that describes the relative health of the real estate market. The absorption rate describes how fast the current inventory levels are projected to sell based on how many sales actually happen per month. Nationally, it is considered a buyer’s market if you have more than 6 months of inventory. Right now, we have over 13 months of inventory available in the Estes Park real estate market. Here is another post I wrote about absorption rates in Estes Park.

Being in a “buyer’s market” makes it easier to be a buyer. Basically, buyers are in more control during negotiations because of the increased inventory to choose from and less competition from other buyers. Therefore sellers are more likely to be more flexible.

Home Buyer Tax Credits

Both the first time home buyers tax and the existing homeowner tax credit will be expiring in the next few months. First time buyers can get $8,000 and existing homeowners can get $6,500 if they follow the rules correctly. If you are a first time home buyer, you must not have owned a home in the past 3 years and must be under contract to purchase a home by May 1st in order to qualify. Existing home buyers need to purchase a new primary residence and have to have owned your previous home for 5 years. You can buy a smaller home or a larger one as long as the new home will be your primary residence.

While it is my opinion that these tax credits should not be the ONLY reason you make a move, if you were already thinking about moving, then why not take advantage of the free money? If you are looking for more information on the tax credits, here is a great blog post by Jay Thompson filled with more information on taking advantage of the tax credit.

Bounce in Median Sale Statistics

I reported in my most recent monthly stat report that the median price of homes sold in Estes Park has increased in each of the past two months. While I’m not guaranteeing this was the bottom of the market, I will say it is a very solid step in the right direction for homeowners in Estes Park. If you are a buyer sitting on the sidelines waiting for our prices to bottom out, this might have been it.

Great Deals Available RIGHT NOW

• Half finished cabin and separate lot for $150,000 in Glen Haven
• Luxury home on 10 acres has reduced its price over $500,000
• 2600 square foot home with views in a great neighborhood for under $300,000
• Brand new 4 bedroom condo with 2200 square feet for $429,000

These aren’t the only deals out there. If none of these trip your trigger, contact me with what your ideal property is and we can see what deals are available.

Increased Buyer Activity

Since the beginning of the year, our office has seen a flurry of activity including several offers and excellent showing activity on all of our listings . January numbers were very solid with single family homes selling twice as many this year as sold last January.
Also, all of the sale prices in January were higher than the median value of homes sold in the last 12 months in Estes Park. That is very good news for anyone trying to sell a home in Estes Park; it’s even better news for those trying to sell a luxury home in the area.

Pent Up Demand

I hear plenty of talk about “pent up demand” in our market place. Personally, I know several clients who are waiting for the market to show a solid and unmistakable rebound before they will be ready to purchase real estate. Other potential buyers are waiting for the stock market to get back to where it was before the “recession.” The problem with waiting is that the first-movers are the only ones that will get the best deal. Everyone else will be buying after prices have already appreciated some.

Summer Weather is Just Around the Corner

Longs Peak and Mount Meeker from Lily LakeClick for Full Size

Summer is coming, and you know you want to be in Estes Park during the summer. Let’s face it; summer in Estes Park is why everyone wants to live here. Highs in the low eighties, plenty of sunshine, beautiful snow-capped peaks, a gentle breeze. Just thinking about it makes me sad that there is still snow on the ground. If you buy now, you’ll have plenty of time to get the property ready so you can sit back and relax as soon as summer gets here.

Purchasing Real estate needs to be a long term, focused decision. The days of massive short term appreciation are long gone. Looking back at the history of Estes Park real estate values, we are known for long term steady growth without major downswings or upswings. In light of the recent volatility in real estate across the country, long term steady growth rates sound very appealing. Are you going to let this perfect storm pass you by?

***Thanks to millicent_bystander for the Estes Park storm photo via Flickr.