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Happy school kids, Agents for Home Buyers, Boulder, CO

Communities and Schools

Finding the Right School for Your Family

Finding the Right School for Your Family By Claudia Lewis Great Schools in our Area Many of our buyer clients list good schools as one of their reasons for selecting Boulder Valley as the place they want to live. In some cases, parents have already targeted the one school they would like their children to attend. However, if you limit your choice of neighborhoods this severely, it can be a recipe for frustration and possibly failure. Agents Cannot Offer Opinions Under Colorado Division of Real Estate rules, agents are prohibited from offering opinions about local schools to home buyers. Much

May 23, 2018 No Comments

Multi-racial family, Agents for Home Buyers, Boulder, CO

Buyer Agency

Why Hire a Real Estate Professional in a DIY World? – Part 2

Why Hire a Real Estate Professional in a DIY World? In an earlier post, I talked about the disastrous home buying and selling experience my husband and I had the first time we bought a house. We did many things wrong and nearly lost our shirts. Ever since, I have been true believer in the value of a good buyer’s agent instead of going it alone. Here’s why. Why Not DIY? Today, you can find homes for sale and look up many things you need to know online. With all of the internet tools available today, there’s a lot of

April 16, 2018 No Comments

Ranch home, street view, after, Agents for Home Buyers, Boulder, CO

Home Improvement

Top 5 Strategies When Flipping a House

Top 5 Strategies When Flipping a House By Shannon Weissleder Flipping houses has been a passion of mine for over a decade. I’ve been fortunate enough to purchase and sell 13 properties during that time. Each property needs its own special kind of attention and love. Here are my Top 5 bits of advice if you are itching to flip. #1: Creating curb appeal is essential A home without curb appeal is going to have trouble getting buyers interested in what is inside. Some properties need more work than others to become enticing to potential buyers. The exterior of this

April 13, 2018 No Comments

Housing News

Can low-cost 3D printing solve housing shortages?

Can low-cost 3D printing solve housing shortages? by Claudia Lewis Download and Print a Home? It’s a somber reality that 1.2 billion people worldwide live without adequate housing. For the past several years, New Story, a housing charity based in San Francisco, has built over 150 homes in El Salvador, where tarps and scrap metal shelters abound. New Story has been working to provide houses that have proper roofs and floors but it’s slow, painstaking work in a country where nearly a third of the population is without shelter. They needed a better approach. Last year, New Story may have

April 6, 2018 No Comments

Confused couple, Agents for Home Buyers, Boulder, CO

Buyer Agency

Why Hire a Real Estate Professional in a DIY World?

Why Hire a Real Estate Professional in a DIY World? This may be stating the obvious, but I am a real estate agent. It may also be obvious that I feel strongly that you should hire a real estate professional when you’re ready to buy a home. I became an agent in part because my first home buying and selling experience was such a disaster! My motivation for going to real estate school was to do whatever I could to prevent other folks from making the same mistakes my husband and I did. When You Don’t Know What You Don’t

April 3, 2018 No Comments

Pick Your Best Investment as a Residential Buyer

Pick Your Best Investment as a Residential Buyer By Norris Minick In a recent post, we presented some data on a gap that opened up between 2002 and 2010 between condo/townhome prices and prices for small single family homes. Then we noted that this gap narrowed substantially in most local communities over the past few years. This raises a question: If buyers see a price gap opening up, does it made sense to buy a condo or townhome, rather than a single family home, to maximize the potential of their investment? How do you pick your best investment as a

August 30, 2016 No Comments

It’s a Good Time to Purchase an Investment Property

It’s a Good Time to Purchase an Investment Property Millennials are Waiting Longer to Buy In July 2016, U.S. homeownership rates hit their lowest percentage on record at 62.9%. What is the major cause of this trend? The dip in homeownership is most likely due to millennials waiting longer than ever to purchase their first home. Factors that influence the home buying decisions of the younger demographic are increased student debt, delayed marriage, and waiting to have children. As a natural result, this has impacted rent and vacancy numbers across the state. According to the Colorado Department of Local Affairs,

August 24, 2016 No Comments

Lindsey Buys a Fixer-Upper: Part 8 – Move-in

Lindsey Buys a Fixer-Upper: Part 8 – Move-in By Lindsey Wolf Lunney Last May, my husband and I unintentionally bought a major fixer-upper. In earlier posts, I talked about some of the problems we uncovered during our routine and not-so-routine inspections of the home. I hope my story will make the process easier for others who are thinking of taking on a big project like this one. The Move In Months later, we finally moved into our new house. We still have a stair rail that needs to be built and the back splash to install, happening soon. I have

October 3, 2014 No Comments

Lindsey Buys a Fixer-Upper: Part 7 – Electrical

Lindsey Buys a Fixer-Upper: Part 7 – Electrical By Lindsey Wolf Lunney Last May, my husband and I unintentionally bought a major fixer-upper. In earlier posts, I talked about some of the problems we uncovered during our routine and not-so-routine inspections of the home. I hope my story will make the process easier for others who are thinking of taking on a big project like this one. Electrical Issues Most of the outlets in our house (except for the basement) were the original 1966 outlets. Since we needed to rebuild and upgrade the electrical panel, we also replaced all the

September 30, 2014 No Comments

The Fascinating World of Dryer Lint

The Fascinating World of Dryer Lint It’s not unusual for home inspectors to find dryer ducts packed with lint in the course of an inspection. When they do, they strongly recommend dryer duct cleaning. This is not a trivial issue because the lint is potentially combustible and a somewhat common source of house fires. Do Your Clothes Take Forever to Dry? But with that knowledge, it still didn’t occur to Norris to have the dryer vents cleaned at his home or the rental condo he owns. Shortly after a new tenant moved into his condo last year, they called to

September 17, 2014 No Comments

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