The Mountain Metro Association of Realtors Governmental affairs Committee serves Realtors and the mountain communities by seeking out information, educating and advocating for those who represent property owners.
Septic Use Permits:
Jefferson County requires a continued use permit to ensure environmental and public safety due to potentially faulty or under functioning septic systems. Occasionally this is not achieved. The results range from some systems remaining unchecked to lawsuits from new homeowners. Through conversations with Jefferson County, MMAR’s governmental affairs committee has learned that Jefferson County was one of Colorado’s first Counties to have a Septic use permit policy with many Counties following suit. Boulder and Larimer are some of the stricter and more demanding counties and Clear Creek is expected to follow with a policy of their own. Jefferson County Public Health is considering a change to their use permit regulations; a new provision that if a use permit was not issued prior to the sale of a property, the new owner would be required to obtain one within 30 days after being notified by the Department. MMAR’s Realtor membership was polled with the resulting concerns and opinions forwarded. Please contact a Realtor regarding this policy as it develops.
Fire Red Zones:
Our Governor’s office has formed a task force to address local and state wildfire risks and the insurability of homes. Some exciting legislation is being considered, ranging from property tax credits for mitigation to resources supporting fire equipment and personnel. The House Bills that are being considered would enact these proposals. The Colorado Association of Realtors is concerned with potential “Red Zone Areas” affecting many parts of the state. The effects on homeowners could be a financial hardship.
The talk and rumors have not yet materialized but state real estate lobbies are keenly aware and are watching for the beginning of any legislative action. Conversations with the Government Affairs Director and chief lobbyist for the Colorado Association of Realtors, Ted Leightly, prefer long term planning rather than expensive time of sale solutions.
“Policy proposals that are focused on educating property owners and incentivizing activities that reduce the risk of wildfire are more likely to have a long term impact. Educating homeowners about the risk of wildfires and providing resources to help them properly prepare are the best means by which to mitigate the risk and it is critical to changing behavior over the long term.”
Home Owners Associations:
Current and future home owner’s feelings on HOAs are as varied as the paint samples at our local home improvement stores. For some it is not even on their radar to consider a home purchase but for others it is of primary concern. In the foothills like the rest of the country, associations can range from loosely organized neighbors around pot luck dinners having discussions about road sharing agreements, architectural committee issues to very well organized and involved groups that take the rules and standards of their community very seriously and govern with consequence. Most HOA’s maintain documents that must be disclosed per the Colorado Division of Real Estate Contract to Buy and Sell Real-Estate and frequently a fee is charged by these HOA’s to provide these documents. These fees are often significant and may include additional transfer fees. As of August 7, 2013 all HOA’s have at least one thing in common, HB 13-1134. The Colorado Department of Regulatory Agencies requires annual registration of HOA’s. The Annual Commission Update states “Every unit owners association shall register annually with the director of the Division of Real Estate and a failure to register or the expiration of annual registration suspends an association’s right to impose or enforce a lien for assessments or pursue an enforcement action, until the association validity registers.” MMAR nor its Government affairs committee have a position or opinion regarding HOA’s but odds are that you do or someday will. MMAR wants you to be informed when buying and selling real estate. We recommend 6 points to consider as you proceed.
Consult a Realtor, not every licensed agent is a Realtor.
Take advantage of the Colorado Division of Real Estate promulgated electronic contracts. The contracts along with disclosures for existing bylaws, recent minutes and other HOA documentscan be found on the Department of Regulatory Agencies website under real estate.
Work with a title company along with your Realtor toany lingering and unresolved community guidelines.
Consult DORA (Department of Regulatory Agencies) to see if the HOA is registered.
Consider getting involved in your HOA to make sure the new guidelines are being met.
Consult an attorney, interpretation or lack of awareness of the law may lead to legal difficulties.Your MMAR Realtor can help educate you when it comes to: Use Permits, fire red zones, HOA’s and real estate matters. Your MMAR Realtor can be invaluable, they have state and national support through the Colorado Association of Realtors and The National Association of Realtors. Not every licensee is a Realtor; please consider their ethical commitment, education and professionalism when choosing representation in real estate matters.
“The Five Star Real Estate Agent Program is designed to identify and showcase real estate agents in a local market who score highest in overall satisfaction. Look for the results in the September edition of 5280 Magazine.
As part of an in-depth research process real estate agents are evaluated by consumers based on customer service, integrity, market knowledge, communication and negotiation skills, closing preparation, helping you find the right home, marketing the home being sold, and overall satisfaction.
10,000 to 50,000 recent homebuyers (all area residents who purchased a home over $100,000 – $200,000 within a 12-36 month period depending on the market size) are asked to name and evaluate real estate agents with whom they have had direct, personal experience with. Recent homebuyers can evaluate up to two agents. Both positive and negative responses regarding each agent are accepted. In addition to the survey results, other criteria such as acceptable disciplinary action is incorporated into the overall evaluation process.
The final list of Five Star Real Estate Agents includes the real estate agents, of those evaluated, in the local market that scored highest in overall satisfaction. This list represents less than 7% of the real estate agents in the local market.”
1. Do you require a potential listing broker who has the networking reach and technological expertise to best market your home? Yes, you should absolutely expect your broker to have great networking reach. Locally it is important that the broker’s phone rings often and with calls from other brokers to inquire about upcoming listings or inquiries asking “what’s new on the market?”. This happens with time in the industry, and importantly, generous actions and kindness given towards other industry professionals. We work often and well with brokers from outside of our firm, it just so happens that most top producers are in our firm. We are well respected within the industry for market and area knowledge demonstrated by our reports, news articles, inventory, pool of business and expertise that other brokers don’t have in their day to day real estate activities. Construction knowledge, horse property and marketing expertise are some of our stand outs. Negotiating contracts is another major reason our phone rings. Regionally networking may be even more important. 70 % of Front Range buyers come from out of town; they often switch areas of focus once looking in Colorado and have already built a relationship with other brokers. We are the go to for many in the industry being quick to answer our phones for them and appraisers as well. The results are sales leads that come from unexpected avenues on a regular basis. We also socialize, attend and present at companywide meetings and events within FSIR to ensure we constantly stay in front of the 200 + Realtors Fuller Sotheby’s has to offer. Nationally our brand and its management successfully cultivate an in-house referral and networking culture. This includes the tried and effective E-Gallery. All of this has been very useful and inspiring to us. We are very excited to be attending the 2013 Sotheby’s International Global Networking event this June. Technology,
This is one of today’s nonstarters if your broker’s not embracing it. If you’re reading this you’re probably reading a blog directed from a search engine or by print media. When Fuller Sotheby’s International Realty interviewed us we were honored but we also interviewed them. We needed a brokerage that could keep up with our technological acumen and needs and they exclusively have it in spades and continue to evolve. Web site syndication is probably our best example of technology working to market your home.
Heather Baird Graham and Sean Endsley have their own web site at www.PerformanceBrokerCO.com and have the ability to create a site exclusive to your property. In addition we push out to more than 200 sites including
Zillow.com, Trulia.com, James list,NYTimes.com & WSJ.com to name a few.
Sothebys.com averaging 630,000 visitors per month,
FullerSothebys.com averaging 15,000 visitors per month
Realtor.com is the highest real-estate website in the country. As showcase members we post additional photos, verbiage and virtual tours bringing your property to the top of search results pages guaranteeing an overall higher visibility when compared to other competing properties on the site.
2. Is your potential broker backed by a brokerage with the weight and credibility to offer the resources and accountability you deserve? Yes, our brokerage is arguably the most respected, well run and iconic brokerages in the land and you deserve this level of credibility. our brokerage is arguably the most respected, well run and iconic brokerages in the land and you deserve this level of credibility. The leadership at Sotheby’s International Realty and Fuller Sotheby’s International Realty are committed to providing the best possible exposure, representation and customer service our real-estate industry has to offer. Sotheby’s International Realty or SIR maintains over 611 offices around the world with FSIR or Fuller Sotheby’s International Realty being the fourth largest franchise. Our hands on and dedicated leader of the FSIR brand also owns additional offices in Utah and California. The requirements of the brand and the conviction of our local leadership, support staff and management ensure our customers and clients a brokerage available to aid us in supporting our clients. In a diverse and complicated industry we can say that we (Our team and our clients) can always reach deeper and then deeper still to take full advantage of the resources and people made available to us.
3. Are you looking for relentless representation only available from a full time broker or team? Yes, Heather Baird Graham and Sean Endsley work as a team so that we may be at two places at once on a regular basis. Between us we provide 7 day week coverage with someone constantly available to pick up a phone or respond to “time is of the essence” matters. It is also our goal to be present for the showing of our listings. With this level of commitment we can sell your home rather than merely placing it on the MLS and hoping for a bite. Real time on site representation gives you peace of mind and reduces seller’s fatigue. With our experience and background we are particularly adept at handling real estate issues as they arise, counseling clients when advice is required. Heather Graham-Baird 720 201 4187
Sean Endsley 303 895 4663
Try us, We pick up the phone
4. Would you feel proud to display your marketing collateral to friends and family? Yes, , our marketing material at the minimum exceeds the high Sotheby’s standard for signage, images, resolution, cardstock and verbiage required by our in-house marketing department to meet the consistency level Sotheby’s is known for. But we go further. We work with you to understand your home. We are experts at marketing property and you are the hands down expert of your home. We work with you as a team to learn what attracted you to your home in the first place. By understanding where the best window is, what you love about your home, what you will miss about your home, etc. We can build a marketing theme to best showcase your home.
5. Does your broker manage property inquiries well and to their fullest extent?
Yes, , we manage our leads well and to exhaustive efforts. Before your property is shown we visit with the buyer’s broker, we get a sense of who the buyer is and enter the data into our database and the “Showing Desk” database. We then communicate what we know to you. If a lead calls the FSIR office we have a full time concierge who manages the in house call center and is personally responsible to ensure all leads are documented in a professional manner and alerts us within 15 minutes of the phone call. This 12 hour a day, 7 days a week full time manager manages online inquires as well and tends to these leads with the same immediacy and care as he does the phone Center. Give Todd Webber a try, he’s very good. After that we make regular phone calls and emails to keep apprised of where those buyers are at regarding timelines or changing needs.
Odds are that we may even have leads for your property before we ever meet
6. Do you believe a picture is worth at least a thousand words?
Yes, this is perhaps one of the most important components we utilize when bringing your home to market. To bring the true feel of your home to a buyer we need the best available representation that grabs prospects by the collar and standout as the only ad on the page whether that page be a postcard, publication or on the internet. Buyers will be glossing over an untold number of images and it’s up to us to be in the right place at the right time with a wow factor. We also want prospects to have a full visual understanding of your home before they ever come out. We want quality showings. We have a significant tool box to achieve these results. To start Heather and or Sean will be present with the photographer to make sure we capture what is required by our high standards. Our exclusive partnership with Spotlight Home Tours and relationship with other videographers and photographers allow us to create high resolution images and virtual tours offering twilight and elevated photography as well to be presented online for those out of town prospective buyers in the form of website and links to fold in with other real-estate sites and our E- Gallery. E – Galleries are located in all SIR offices and our exclusive presence at Cherry Creek Mall, the largest tourist destination for the State of Colorado.
7. Do you desire expertise and customer service that are available to you consistently?
Yes, you should. Time spent wondering equals stress. We don’t think stress is good for you and we don’t want it for our friends and clients. We answer our phones and there are two of us. Even if we are elbow deep with something else we will get a response about our next availability ASAP. Try us and see what happens.
Sean Endsley (C) 303 895 4663, Heather Graham (C) 720 201 4187 or ask a friend if they’ve ever had to wait.
8. Could specific real time market knowledge be useful if used to your benefit? Yes, trust us on this one it does. The knowledge of real time market conditions and what your neighbor’s home sold for yesterday directly affects your decision process of whether or not to list your home, and if you’re already on the market, what strategic choices you may want to consider. We make it our job to stay current with transactions accruing in our market but here are some tools we use and can bring to you automatically.
Altos Research Report you can call, email or sign up on our site for a weekly report for your zip code regarding days on market, average price per square foot, median prices and trends by our unbiased third party consultant with your contact data safe and secure from others.
MLS real time data is fast by just clicking your MLS area for data and trends relevant to you from our site.
Sotheby’s Micro Report is yet another tool made available to us by Fuller Sotheby’s International Realty. This report is a great neighborhood by neighborhood shake down of what’s going on in your neighborhood or the one you may be considering.
CMA or Comparative Market Analysis is still the most customized and effective look at your home’s value when done by the right broker. Contact us to request one.
9. Is area expertise important to you? Yes, we have that for you. Community involvement and the daily showing of homes and land is a good start. Living here and studying market data helps a great deal also. But there is no substitute for growing up here, attending local schools and churches and cultivating relationships with land owners, developers and area governing authorities. Heather was born an Evergreen resident and we drink in our market with unparalleled thirst.
10. Do you expect a broker to have in-depth knowledge of negotiating variables and skills?
Yes, you most probably should. Over 95% of our accepted contracts move to fruition benefitting our sellers. This again comes from time and experience in the industry. The sheer number of successfully negotiated contracts for both buyers and sellers is invaluable. Heathers years of working in real-estate legal offices is another asset that there is no substitute for. The larger variable is we love this part of real-estate. We rush towards educational opportunities of this genre and read on the subject with enjoyment of every new piece of data or insight to be learned.
