Colorado Springs Area Real Estate Podcast with Tiffany Lachnidt

The latest market numbers spell great things for 2019.  Looking to sell your Home? Get a FREE home value report Looking to buy a Home? Search all homes for sale January’s numbers are finally in, so today we’ll be taking a look at the latest happenings in our Colorado Springs housing market. We currently have over 1,614 active listings on the market. 902 homes were sold in January 2019, a decrease of 3.4% from the same time last year. Pending sales are currently at 1,460, so I don’t anticipate seeing a decline in sale numbers in February or March. “2019 is shaping up to be a great year for real estate. Home values are up 3.4%, currently sitting at about $344,000. While interest rates rose a bit in January, they’ve since come back down to between 4.25% to 4.5% for conventional loans.  These numbers mean 2019 is shaping up to be a great year for real estate. We’re seeing more homes being listed, and the market is still strong for sellers. So if you’re looking to buy or sell a home, feel free to reach out to us. We look forward to hearing from you soon.

Our area’s been hit hard by hail storms recently, so I’ve brought in a professional roofer to offer some expert advice for anyone whose homes have been damaged. Looking to sell your Home? Get a FREE home value report Looking to buy a Home? Search all homes for sale Our area has experienced some difficult hailstorms and windstorms over the past couple weeks, so today I’ve brought in Chris Higbee of On Top Roofing & Restoration to talk about roof repair and what you need to do if your home’s roof has incurred any serious damage.   If you live in Colorado Springs, you’ve probably gotten a knock on your door from a roofer offering a roof inspection or at least seen one of their business cards left at your doorstep. When your roof gets damaged and you have an insurance claim for, say, $30,000, you probably shouldn’t just hand over a contract like that to one of these roofers. Before you hire a roofer, do your due diligence, research their company’s history, and check the reviews from people who work with them on a regular basis. If you’re going to do business with them, you need to make sure you’re taken care of.  Roof work isn’t as difficult as plumbing or electrical work, but if it isn’t done correctly, it can cause problems for home sellers. Sometimes we work with sellers who’ve just gotten a new roof installed on their home, but the roofer didn’t pull their permits correctly. Or, they pulled the permits correctly but didn’t clear them, in which case we have to chase that paperwork down after the fact. We also see the vents on roofs get missed sometimes, which can cause mold. “If you have hailstones sitting in your living room, you’re better off calling your insurance company first. If your home gets damaged by hail, your first step should be to take advantage of the free inspections one of the many local contractors in our area offer. On Top Roofing also offers video inspections to ensure their clients get a clear idea of what they find. How quickly you can get an inspection done on your roof depends on a couple factors, but they can typically send someone out to your property within one or two days.  Chris recently saw extensive damage done to homes in Fountain, with hailstones as big as three inches penetrating all the way through people’s roofs. If you have hailstones sitting in your living room, you’re better off calling your insurance company before you call a roofer. Otherwise, always call a roofer before calling your insurance company so they can give you their opinion on whether you actually need to file a claim. That’s another advantage of working with Chris—he actually works with the adjuster to calculate the amount you need to get covered.  As roofs age, their shingles typically deteriorate and crack, and this is something Chris has seen a lot of lately. He’s also seeing the boots around pipe jacks crack and deteriorate, which can let water in and cause a whole list of problems. In our climate, the age span of a roof is usually between 25 and 50 years, depending on the type of shingles you use.  If you have any more questions for Chris or you’d like them to do an inspection on your roof, you can call their office at (719) 896-2533 or visit their website at www.ontoproof.com.  As always, if you have any other questions for me or you need other types of roof repair, you can call or email me anytime. I’d be happy to help you.

How is our Colorado Springs market looking now that summer is halfway over with? We’re still in a strong seller’s market, but the outlook is better for buyers. Looking to sell your Home? Get a FREE home value report Looking to buy a Home? Search all homes for sale I recently sat down for a Facebook Live interview where I discussed the current conditions of our Colorado Springs market and how things are affecting buyers and sellers.  Below I’ve provided timestamped segments of the discussion in the video so that you can jump ahead to the points that are most relevant to you: 0:50 - Why, although we are seeing some price corrections, we are not necessarily shifting into a buyer’s market.  2:06 - How sellers can make themselves stand out from the competition. 3:28 - What kind of market activity we’re seeing in certain price points in Colorado Springs.  4:55 - How weather has been affecting the home sale process for buyers and sellers in our area. 6:08 - Why now is a good time for buyers and sellers to jump into the market and how you can get started if you’re thinking of buying or selling.  If you have any questions about our Colorado Springs market or are thinking of buying or selling a home, please feel free to call or email me anytime. I would be happy to help you.

Lack of inventory continues to be the story for our market. As you’ll see, whether you’re buying or selling, the time to act is now. Looking to sell your Home? Get a FREE home value report Looking to buy a Home? Search all homes for sale Welcome to our first real estate market update of 2017! 2016 was a phenomenal year for us in Colorado Springs. Overall sales were up about 12%, and our sales price for December rose about 7.9% compared to December of 2015. The good news is if you did not get your home sold last year, you are in great shape to sell it this year, and you will probably see an improvement in your home value. As far as market statistics go, if you’ve been following my blog the last couple of years, you know that the story has been all about our lack of inventory. That number has not changed much lately. We’re down again about 28% for active inventory and have about 1,500 active listings currently on the market. We sold 1,200 last month, and we have 1,700 that are currently pending. If you do the math on that, we don’t have enough active listings to keep up with the sales volume that we’ve been experiencing in the last couple of years. Pending inventory is at 0.8%, and that’s another indication of our lack of overall inventory. “ If you did not get your home sold last year, you are in great shape to sell it this year. ” How long will this trend last? When are we going to see things slow down? The truth is, I don’t think we will until we see interest rates rise. I do believe that this is the year we will see a rate hike, but what happened in the past and should happen again after a rate hike is that some of our first-time home buyers get forced out of the market. This segment of buyers creates a trickle-up effect because the homes that they’re buying are from move-up buyers who are moving into more expensive homes. If you are interested in selling your home, I wouldn’t wait until spring. We’re seeing the same trend this year that we’ve seen the last few years, with really heavy volume happening in January, February, and March. In fact, just yesterday, we saw a six-offer situation involving a home in the upper $200,000 price point, and we’re seeing the same effect in the higher price points, as well. If you’re a buyer, you shouldn’t wait to jump into the game either. Interest rates are still hovering around 4%, which is phenomenal. While home values are up, your overall purchase power will be much stronger than next year after the expected rate hike. If you have any questions about our market or have a topic in mind you’d like to see me discuss in a future video, please don’t hesitate to reach out to me. I look forward to hearing from you!

A home usually fails to sell either because of its price, condition, or marketing. Most agents will emphasize price and condition, but marketing is equally as important. Looking to sell your Home? Get a FREE home value report Looking to buy a Home? Search all homes for sale So you listed your home and it failed to sell. What happened? It can be frustrating hearing about how hot the market is and watching your own home sit idly on the MLS. The good news is, you’re not alone—close to 50% of homes that are listed fail to sell the first time around. The answer to why it failed to sell comes down to one of three things: price, condition, and marketing. Many agents will tell their sellers that it’s price and condition, and it often is. But it’s important to also look at the marketing to make sure that your home is being shown in the best possible light. A great example of this is a home we listed two weeks ago. This home had been on the market about six months, through the height of the spring and summer selling seasons, and it failed to sell. The sellers reported that they had a few showings, but no offers. When we visited the home, we discovered that it needed some staging. It was in excellent condition and showed well, but some of the rooms were not utilized as well as they could have been with staging. We restaged the home, then, and because it had such a unique layout, we used a new marketing tool called Matterport. This takes a full video of the home so that buyers can take a walking tour from behind their computer screen and get a first-person view of what each room looks like. “ Don’t forget about marketing when selling your home. ” Within two weeks, the house was scheduled to close by the end of the month. What this tells me is that because the buyers were closing so quickly, they were probably in the market when the home was marketed originally. We did make a price reduction, but only at 2%. I believe, therefore, that the house was not being shown well enough to draw in the buyer activity it needed. This constitutes a very happy ending for the sellers, and we would like to do the same thing for you. The fall and winter months are great times to be on the market. Inventory is down, but that means less competition and buyers are still out there. If you’re interested in buying or selling, please give us a call or send us an email. We look forward to hearing from you!