3 Ways to Interview Your Buyer Agent

July 22, 2010Choosing your buyer’s agent is like hiring someone to work for you. You have several opportunities to determine whether the agent is a good fit before you sign your buyer agency agreement. Take advantage of these interview opportunities. There is a great list of questions to ask your agent before working with them. In addition to these questions, here are a few other “tests.” 1) How...

How to Choose a Buyers Agent

July 21, 2010Buying a home is probably the biggest investment I’ll ever make, and that’s true for most people. This is not something to take lightly. I hate to say it, but I will- there are some bad agents out there. Agents with good intentions and little experience, agents with bad intentions and lots of experience, and probably even some agents with bad intentions and no experience. But,...

The Home Search: Experience vs. Online Tools

July 18, 2010I was just sitting down to write about why online home searches can give an incomplete picture. Since I haven’t been home searching in a while, I went back to my old friend Zillow to look at the home we almost purchased. One feature I really loved on Zillow is that it gives the transaction history from public record, so you can see how much the current owners bought it for, etc. This...

5 Colorado Cities Rank in CNN Money’s Top 100 Small Cities to Live

July 15, 2010I have lived now in Boulder, Evergreen, Denver, and Lakewood. I loved living in each of these cities in Colorado, and I have to admit that my pride was a little bit bruised when none of the cities I lived in, none of My Cities were ranked in this list. But, just goes to show you, Colorado is amazing, and I feel a great sense of pride to see my neighbors on these quality of life lists. Colorado...

Top Three Reasons It is a Great Time to Buy . . . For Me

July 9, 2010I was going to write a blog explaining why it is a great time to buy, in general. But, given the times we are in, it is a little bit difficult to make blanket statements like that. I think we all might have a new appreciation for the complexities of real estate, and the good old value of the dollar. I don’t think many people are in the business of spending money on a whim right now,...

How Our Buyer’s Agent Saved us Money.

July 5, 2010Does working with an experienced buyer’s agent pay off? For us it did. Our agent’s experience and knowledge steered us away from buying a home that was not at a good value. We also saw the negative impact that the seller’s agent may have had on the seller. Timely responses are critical. We had made an offer on a home that was listed for $220,000 of $205,000. The seller’s agent did...

What Are Buyer Agent Responsibilities?

July 2, 2010In Colorado, we have an Exclusive Right-to-Buy Contract approved by the Colorado Real Estate Commission that defines the basic buyer agent responsibilities. In other words, this document was not written by your agent and it is a legal contract. In general, the buyer agent is responsible for helping you and protecting your interests from house hunting to closing day. Here are the...