by neil kearney | Apr 12, 2007 | For Buyers, For Sellers
Condition at Closing
or How to Avoid a Mess at Closing
One of the greatest sources of letdown and conflict in a real estate transaction is the condition of the house after the Sellers 
move out. Provisions in the purchase contract allow for the buyer to do a walk through inspection prior to closing. I advise my buyers to do this walkthrough as late as possible so as to see the true condition of the property as it will be left. What to look for in a walkthrough could be its own topic but in summary; we are checking to make sure that the inspection items were completed as agreed upon, the inclusions are still at the house, that there has not been any recent damage to the house and finally to check the cleanliness of the house. The first three items are fairly “cut and dry”, either the refrigerator is in the kitchen or it’s not. I have found that cleanliness is very subjective. What may be very clean to one hurried, harried seller may be “filthy” to the buyer. I try to mitigate this by talking about this subjective divide as we write the agreement and make the language in the contract as plain and literal as possible. Instead of saying carpet cleaning (sellers picture the Bissell in their closet, buyers picture the $500 top of the line pro), I would make it clear that the carpets are to be cleaned by a professional with the receipt provided.
No matter what you try to plan for it is an issue. Sometimes it becomes an outlet for buyer frustration after a particularly tough set of negotiations. Sometimes it is a seller with good intentions but not enough time. Sometimes it is a professional hired who does a less than professional job. All I know is that I have hired cleaners, pitched in with the sellers as we did a last minute shine or have cleaned cupboards and closets myself. Small important details in making the closing day go smoothly and making my clients happy.
So some parting advice:
To Sellers:
- Plan in advance. Closing and moving is a very hectic time and it is not always easy to complete all of those little last minute tasks.
- Bring in help. Hire a cleaning company or better yet family. It is always very hard to go back to the old house to clean while all of your stuff is at the new house.
To Buyers:
- Get it in writing. If you are worried about the condition of the house, set forth your expectations in writing.
- Be realistic. Maybe you have to tidy up a bit when you move in to bring it up to “your” standards. Don’t let it ruin your day.
by neil kearney | Apr 9, 2007 | Colorado Lifestyle
Easter Weekend
March is said to “come in like and lion and out like a lamb”. This past weekend felt more like March and less like April. On Friday we had a very uncharacteristic sleet episode that left people scraping their windshields and left ice on everything that wasn’t touching the ground. The weather left my family with a bunch of cancelled 
activities, golf tournament (me), baseball practice (Jake), soccer game (Ben). What it left was a unexpected quiet, relaxing weekend. I spent Saturday afternoon trying to install Quickbooks 2007 (a forced upgrade, Aargh) onto the PC at church were I am the treasurer. The computer is about two years old and works great. Hardly ever used, hardly ever connected to the Internet and nothing ever installed on it other than Microsoft Office and Quickbooks 2004. I am always amazed how fast it boots and loads and wish I could uninstall most of what I have on my laptop. But I digress. After an error I was not able to fix I decided to look into it while enjoying the atmosphere at the Bookend Cafe which is attached to the Boulder Bookstore on the Pearl Street Mall. I obviously was not the only one to have that idea as the cafe was crowded. After waiting in quite a line for my free coffee (compliments of the bookstore, thank you) I found a great table right at the window where I could watch the characters of Boulder go by. It was a great way to spend a grey afternoon and something I rarely make time for.
It snowed much of Easter Sunday. After church my family headed to Arvada to spend the afternoon at Kristy’s sisters house. We had a fun afternoon, kids playing, moms cooking and dads watching The Masters on TV (I love underdogs!). As the afternoon wore on the snow slowed, then stopped and by the time we left there was blue sky. It was fun seeing the ice fall off of the trees and fences as we drove home. The Western half of the trees were green and the Eastern half were still white. The Flatirons were just peeking out of the clouds. A beautiful drive. Today it is over 60 degrees and beautiful. Such is springtime in the Rockies! A great place to live and work.
Note the bee frozen to the flower I found a few years ago after an ice stom.
by neil kearney | Apr 6, 2007 | Boulder County Housing Trends, Statistics
WHAT IS HOT AND WHAT IS NOT The talk around the water cooler is that the market is spotty. Movin' along in some areas and 
slow as molasses in others. However, it is hard to say what areas are hot and which are cold without some hard facts. Today I'd like to present just that, some facts about the market which compare the relative strength of some market areas. Here are the results:
Single Family Homes
Boulder 21%
Louisville 35%
Longmont 12%
Lafayette 17%
Boulder County 17%
Weld County 10%
Attached Dwellings
Boulder 26%
Louisville 11%
Longmont 9%
Lafayette 16%
Boulder County 19%
Weld County 8%
To accomplish this I compared the number of houses under contract (accepting backups, pending and first right of refusal contracts) to the total number of active listings in a particular market.
I have highlighted the top performing (green) and worst performing (red) area in each category. For single family homes, Louisville has 35% of active homes under contract. Louisville has consistently outperformed the rest of the county over the past few years. I think this has to do with a combination of no new construction and a median price below $300,000, all within 8 miles of Boulder. The slowest markets seem to be Weld County and Longmont with a 10% and 12% ratio respectively.
Attached dwellings show the City of Boulder as the hottest market while Weld County and Longmont again bring up the rear.
Market activity is picking up but it is still a competitive buyers market out there. Homes need to be priced well and show well in order to attract buyers.
by neil kearney | Apr 3, 2007 | Statistics
Sales in March Lower in 2007
The sales of single family homes in Boulder County for March were down 23% when compared to March 2006. This is the continuation of a larger trend that has become more pronounced in the past few months. 
On a more postitive note showing have picked up significantly. For the most recent two weeks 3,504 showings were set up using the IRES showing system. Compare this to 2,919 showings set up during the first two weeks in March. The chart below better represents the larger trends.
by neil kearney | Mar 20, 2007 | For Sellers
Electronic Lockboxes — Take 2
Take 1
Back in the late 1990’s almost all of the local Realtors met at a local hotel to trade in the old manual lockboxes for the new electronic version. The adoption was fairly quick but I’m afraid it didn’t stick. You see, I do business on the edge. The edge of two MLS areas, that is. We are included in the Northern Colorado MLS called IRES. The Denver Metro area uses Metrolist. As a result I belong to and use both MLS systems. No problem to find the property but it became a hassle to have our listings shown. All subscribers to the new electronic lockboxes were given an electronic key pad to plug into each box. Without the key pad you were not able to open the lockboxes. Agents as close as Broomfield were not able to show our listings without us having to meet them at the property, a definite hassle and time warp back to the days way before computers. So what happened is that we began buying back manual lockboxes and placing two lockboxes on each property. This was not efficient at all and the new electronic lockboxes went out of favor. There were also other problems such as freezing in the winter and an annoying pause between giving your code and the box opening. The old boxes definitely made us Realtors more religious. Please let the box open, please let the box open! As an aside there is about a 95% adoption rate of these electronic boxes in Ft. Collins and many other parts of the country.
Take 2
This month IRES’s contract with Supra, our old lockbox provider expired. Instead of renewing with Supra they contracted with Sentrilock, a company owned by the National Association of 
Realtors. This new box looks pretty slick and I picked up my three boxes and a smart card last week at the board office. The box is enabled to give out secure, one-time codes to those who do not have a smart card. This, if it works well will solve our main problem with the old boxes. They will provide more safety, better reporting and allow all agents to show the property. So far it looks like a slower adoption. Many people picked up the boxes and the cards but as of yet I haven’t placed a box on one of my listings or had to use the smart card to show a property yet. We’ll see how it goes this time. It seems like a no brainer to track the access to a sellers house.
