All of my listings of houses for sale in Castle Rock, CO become featured properties on the front page of every Trulia search – All 30,000+ per month.  What better way to sell your house than having an additional 30,000 clicks who may view your home through internet marketing.

According to The National Association of Realtors (NAR), Profile of Buyers and Sellers, Buyers locating the property they purchase will more than likely exceed “Realtor Suggested” properties in 2012.  Yard signs – Dead Last (Under 10%).

Consider my home for sale listing at 200 S Lincoln St this week.  On the first day of listing, we had several offers.  This house will be under contract with a well qualified Buyer by the end of the week at a price above our list price.

If you would like to discuss Buying or Selling a home in Castle Rock or Castle Pines, please give me a call.

Jim Garcia

Your Castle Real Estate

720-385-4497

jim.garcia@netzero.com

www.castlepines-realestate.com

                                                   Average Days on Market

Castle Rock Sales    Price < $300k          Price $300k-$1.0m             # of Homes

April 2011                            117                             163                                   87

April 2012                              71                             110                                    105

In short it takes about 7 weeks less to sell a home in Castle Rock, CO  and Castle Pines today than one year ago AND more homes are selling now than last year.

IT IS A GREAT TIME TO SELL YOUR HOME.

If you are looking for a Broker to help sell your home, consider the following.  I have 20+ years experience as a CEO of 4 high growth companies, real estate, construction, rehabs, property management, real estate investing, fix & holds/flips, and contract negotiations.

If you are not currently working with a Broker and would like to discuss selling your home, please let me know.  My contact information is listed below or you can CLICK HERE for more information.

Jim Garcia

Your Castle Real Estate

720-385-4497

www.CastlePines-RealEstate.com

http://www.linkedin.com/in/garciajim

                                                   Average Days on Market

Castle Rock Sales    Price Under $300k             Price $300k-$1.0m

April 2011                            117                                         163

April 2012                              71                                         110

• It takes about 7 weeks less to sell a home today than at this time last year

If you are looking for a Broker to help sell your home in Castle Rock, Castle Pines or Castle Pines Village, consider the following.  I have 20+ years experience as a CEO of 4 high growth companies, real estate, construction, rehabs, fix & holds/flips, and contract negotiations.

I can guarantee your home will receive the most exposure on the internet than from any other Broker in Castle Rock and Castle Pines. In addition to traditional marketing, my efforts include an extensive internet presence plus owning 100% of the local market share for Trulia in the iPad and mobile wireless arena, and 95% market share in the internet arena.  If we partner together in selling your home, your home will be listed on the top front page of virtually every home search for Castle Rock & Castle Pines with Trulia.  That is up to 10,000 additional clicks/views per month at NO ADDITIONAL FEE in addition to all other traditional marketing methods.  I am the ONLY Real Estate Agent who can offer you this additional exposure when marketing your home!

Check it out:    http://www.trulia.com/CO/Castle_Rock/

If you are not currently working with a Broker and would like to discuss selling your home, please let me know.  My contact information is listed below along with my professional resume for your review.  If you know someone who is looking to Buy or Sell their home in our area, please feel free to forward this e-mail to them.

Sincerely,

Jim Garcia

Your Castle Real Estate

720-385-4497

www.CastlePines-RealEstate.com

http://www.linkedin.com/in/garciajim

Your Castle Real Estate Agency
558 Castle Pines Parkway
#B-4320
Castle Pines, CO 80108

A full service real estate agency servicing Castle Rock, Castle Pines North, Castle Pines Village, and Parker in Douglas County, Colorado – Broker, Agent, Consultant, Buyer Agent, Seller Agent, Transaction Broker.

Jim Garcia 720 385 4497

Your Castle Real Estate

jim.garcia@netzero.com

www.castlepines-realestate.com

1897 Candleglow St. Castle Rock, 80109 MLS# 1073839 $425,000, 4-4-3 VERY OPEN FLOOR PLAN, KITCHEN AND MASTER BED/BATH ARE STUNNING!!!! BEAUTIFUL UPGRADES & FINISHES THROUGH OUT – QUARTZ COUNTERTOPS, CHERRY CABINETS, PRIVATE DECK OFF THE MASTER BEDROOM, GORGEOUS BUILT-INS, STAINLESS APPLIANCES, PLUSH CARPETING, 5″ HARDWOOD PLANKS, HUGE LOFT/PLAY AREA(~500 SF), DUAL A/C & HEAT UNITS, MOUNTAIN VIEWS, LARGE WALK-IN KITCHEN PANTRY, WALK-IN CLOSETS IN ALL BEDROOMS, OPENS TO A GREENBELT WALKWAY, WALKING DISTANCE TO ELEMENTARY SCHOOL, LOW TAXES.

Click Here – If you would like to see video pictures of this home on our home page website www.castlepines-realestate.com

If you are interested in this Home For Sale in Castle Rock, Colorado, please contact Jim Garcia, Your Castle Real Estate, 720 385 4497, jim.garcia@netzero.com, www.castlepines-realestate.com

If you would like more real estate information concerning homes houses or land for sale in Castle Rock, Castle Pines North and Castle Pines Village, please let us know.

Your Castle Real Estate Agency
558 Castle Pines Parkway
#B4-320
Castle Pines, CO 80108

Thanks,

Jim Garcia
jim.garcia@netzero.com
www.castlepines-realestate.com

With our Castle Pines North and/or Castle Pines Village Real Estate Market report, you will find useful information about the local real estate market in Castle Pines CO, Castle Pines North and Castle Pines Village, Colorado. On this website we have provided information on a number of topics like Homes for sale in Castle Rock, Real Estate for sale in the various Castle Rock Sub Divisions, Realty by Zip Code, the Outlets at Castle Rock, Douglas County School information, events in Colorado, events in Douglas county, and events in castle Rock. Find useful tips for choosing where to live, schools, or locate hospitals, utility companies all over the local area.

Request a real estate market report by filling in this form. Tell us a little about what’s important to you. Neighborhoods, new job location, schools requirements and anything else that will help me better understand your needs.

Jim Garcia

Your Castle Real Estate Agency

720-385-4497

9085 E. Mineral Ave. #360

Centennial, CO 80112

www.castlepines-realestate.com

In the market below $300k where 80% of the homes are sold it’s a blistering seller’s market. You heard it right, a seller’s market! There are only three months of inventory sitting on the market right now, where six months is considered a normal, balanced market. There are simply more buyers than sellers right now and this is translating into multiple offers on listings, sales prices often well above asking prices, and marketing times plummeting.

Particularly hot is the market below $225k, which has only two months of inventory. It’s not uncommon for a listing to have 10 showings and a full price offer in the first week. There are a number of factors that have caused this dynamic, one of which is the dramatic reduction in the number of bank-owned and short sale properties on the market. This reduction in distressed inventory has left regular home sellers in a great position and contributed to the sizzling seller’s market.

Ok, so we know it’s a seller’s market. Then, how can it also be a fantastic buyer’s market at the same time? It is, because according to the National Association of Realtors the Home Affordability Index is at its highest recording ever. Just like it sounds, the HAI is a measure of how affordable homes are in a given area. It’s calculated by comparing the median price of a home in the Metro Denver market to the median worker’s income level, taking into account the current interest rate for a 30-year fixed rate loan. What this means is that the median income earner can buy more house today than ever before. Why? Because home prices, while rising quickly, are still well below their peak prices of 5-6 years ago and interest rates are at never-before-seen historic lows. Take it all together and the average home on the market HAS NEVER BEEN MORE AFFORDABLE.

So, while it seems like a paradox that it can be both a great time to sell and a great time to buy, it’s actually quite true. Call me and I’d be happy to explain more how we got to this state in the market and how you can take advantage of it.

Buyers

It seems strange but it was only a year or so ago when we had a strong buyer’s market and we felt like we ruled the roost. I would take my buyers out and we would look at a lot properties without any sense of urgency because there was so much inventory in the past 4-5 years. It was such a complete buyer’s market we could negotiate very hard with sellers on price and terms because there was always another property available, always another home coming on the market.

Not anymore. My buyers under $300k are finding a serious lack of inventory and prices rising every month. We have been in a number of multiple offer situations recently, where this was unheard of just a few years ago. With the sophisticated tools I have at my disposal I’m looking harder than ever for just the right property that meets my buyers’ needs, whereas in the recent past there were so many to choose from it was like shooting fish in a barrel.

One of the results of this new market dynamic has been a re-education of my buyers. While we always negotiate strongly, the days of the 80 cents-on-the-dollar offers are fast waning. In today’s market, buyers have to be smart, savvy, quick to act, decisive, and competitive. The great news though is that because the Home Affordability Index is at its highest recording ever, homes are more affordable for the average buyer than they have ever been. By all appearances we are well past the bottom in the housing market and my folks who are purchasing now and locking in sub 4% 30-year fixed rates are buying at the perfect moment in history. Call me and I’ll show you why.

Sellers

Blistering. Sizzling. Red hot. These are the words that describe our housing market under $300k. We haven’t seen a market like this in years. Multiple offers are the order of the day. There’s simply too little inventory to meet buyer demand so sellers are pushing prices back up to pre-crash levels. The laws of supply and demand are very much in effect. Look at the inventory levels in Metro Denver for the past 10 Februaries:

2012 – 10,086

2011 – 17,358

2010 – 18,869

2009 – 20,059

2008 – 25,037

2007 – 24,838

2006 – 25,484

2005 – 21,730

2004 – 23,212

2003 – 22,989

This is what a recovery is supposed to look like: a dramatic drop in inventory followed by rising prices. If you’ve been considering a move, call me so I can do an analysis of the inventory and price movement in your neighborhood. After many years stuck in a buyer’s market, now might be the time to put your house up for sale and take advantage of the great seller’s market.

Investors

The sudden, dramatic rise in prices has been a boon for our fix and flip investors. High quality, fixed-up properties are selling at a premium right now because there are so few of them. An investor colleague sent this email a couple of days ago:

“I’ve been answering the phone “Multiple offers on Ash – if you’re interested in submitting a contract you need to have highest and best tonight and be over list price NET!”  I didn’t get a single low-ball and since I answered my phone that way – they knew I wasn’t bluffing! I had three written offers and two other verbals that were going to write but couldn’t compete.”

Consequently, investors are scrambling to get their properties on the market to take full advantage of this hot seller’s market. This in turn means they’re buying properties as quickly as they can, further reducing the available inventory and ironically pushing up prices even further. Tracking this dynamic serves as a great lesson on the real estate market. Everything is always interconnected: home prices, inventory, vacancy rates, interest rates, unemployment, and more.

This article was taken from the March 2012 YCRE monthly newsletter and reflects data for the entire Denver metro area. While it is very indicative of Castle Rock and Castle Pines Colorado, some of the data will be different due to the different markets.

If you would like more information, please contact your local Real Estate Broker/Agent.

Jim Garcia

Your Castle Real Estate

Castle Pines North, CO 80108

Castle Rock, CO 80108

720-385-497

jim.garcia@netzero.com

www.castlepines-realestate.com

BY KEN HARNEY, TUESDAY, MARCH 13, 2012.

For home sellers, buyers and real estate brokers hoping for breakthroughs on simplifying short-sale transaction and timelines, this may not be the proverbial silver bullet, but it’s definitely positive news: The agency that controls Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac has a serious effort under way to remove or minimize some of the major hurdles and to put those changes in the field as soon as this fall.

Officials at the Federal Housing Finance Agency — the folks who now make the rules governing millions of mortgage transactions at both companies — told me last week that they are actively seeking input from lenders, servicers, Realtors, investors and housing counselors about how to speed up short sales on loans connected with Fannie and Freddie.

National Association of Realtors officials, who have already met with the agency’s special short-sale task force, confirm that the effort is for real and promise potentially significant reforms. FHFA officials say their deadline to wrap up their review of short-sale obstacles is June 30, and they plan to announce detailed improvements to the process no later than Sept. 30.

Given the sheer size of the companies’ portfolios — plus the estimated 1.7 million additional loans expected on the foreclosure conveyor belt at Fannie and Freddie in the coming several years — any substantive improvements could have wide-ranging benefits for everybody involved.

What’s the agency looking at?

High on the list:

1. Second liens. Banks that hold second mortgages and equity credit lines on underwater houses often drag out the short-sale process by refusing to recognize hard economic realities: The collateral that once secured their loan no longer exists.

They stand to be zeroed out in the event of either a foreclosure or short sale, and they will have to report that loss to auditors, investors and regulators. As a result, they dither and delay deals by demanding too much for their consent to sale terms, or they simply hold out until buyers give up and the transaction collapses.

FHFA officials leading the short-sale reform effort believe that Fannie and Freddie have sufficient pressure points on banks that they can bring to bear — mainly related to servicing rules and penalties — but they decline to discuss what they might entail. For their part, servicing experts in the private sector say better standardized rules between the two companies on second liens in short sales, plus fixed ceilings on what banks can expect out of transactions in advance, could reduce much of the current friction.

Travis Hamel Olsen, chief operating officer of Loan Resolution Corp., a Scottsdale, Ariz.-based firm that assists major lenders in troubled mortgage workouts, says FHFA should enforce a non-negotiable 10 percent ceiling on what second lien holders can obtain from short sales.

That is higher than the 6 percent or $6,000 ceiling allowable under the federal government’s HAFA (Home Affordable Foreclosure Alternatives) ceiling, but attractive enough to bring most major banks who deal with Fannie and Freddie to the table faster.

2. Mortgage insurers. The FHFA task force expects to come up with rules that eliminate or reduce mortgage insurance companies’ current ability to prolong negotiations indefinitely over claims in short sales, and thus contribute to the breakdown of transactions.

3. Mandatory timelines. Though FHFA is nowhere close to deciding on hard and fast timelines for participants to meet in short sales involving Fannie and Freddie, they are a top priority in the current effort. Six months from start to finish “is way too long,” said one official, who declined to suggest what would be a more acceptable limit.

Legislation pending in Congress and supported by NAR (House bill H.R. 1498) would nail down one key time segment — it would require servicers to respond within 45 days to any fully executed short-sale offer.

4. Valuation issues. FHFA expects to produce better guidance on the steps servicers and other participants in short sales should follow to arrive at acceptable property valuations. That, in turn, should help limit negotiations over what lenders and buyers expect from transactions and the methodologies used to get to the final numbers.

In its recent meeting with FHFA officials, NAR pushed hard for Fannie and Freddie to tell brokers and other interested parties early in the process what minimum price they will accept in any given short sale.

5. Staffing. Though the biggest banks and servicers have muscled up their loss-modification and foreclosure alternatives staffing since the start of the mortgage bust, FHFA believes that greater responsiveness to short-sale participants — sellers, buyers, realty agents — is needed. Since both Fannie and Freddie have “servicer performance evaluation” standards, FHFA has a variety of administrative carrots and sticks available to prod lenders and servicers to push through short sales faster.

So what does this all add up to? Just another bureaucratic exercise? Or could FHFA’s new push for short-sale efficiency really mean something on the front lines? My guess is that it just might. FHFA, which is tasked to “conserve” Fannie’s and Freddie’s assets and achieve the best possible financial resolutions of their troubled loan portfolios in the taxpayers’ interest, appears to be genuinely seeking to cut timelines and red tape in short sales. They also know the hard facts: Short sales yield Fannie, Freddie and investors much more at the bottom line — they cost taxpayers a lot less on average — than foreclosures.

Remember these deadline dates — June 30 and Sept. 30. We’ll check back and see how much actual streamlining comes out of the FHFA’s latest high-priority project.

Ken Harney writes an award-winning, nationally syndicated column, “The Nation’s Housing,” and is the author of two books on real estate and mortgage finance.

For a $200k loan the increase will be about an additional $25 per month.

Jim Garcia

Your Castle Real Estate

720-385-4497

www.castlepines-realestate.com