Denver real estate & relocationThe warm velvety feeling of spring is in the air. The best part of all, my telephone is ringing. It's ringing off the hook.  Well actually not really, as it doesn't have a hook, it's a cell phone...but I don't know better analogy, you get the picture, right?Conversations about relocation are a common part of my day.  Strangers find a part of my long tail on the Internet, pick up the phone to chat.Some folks know they are coming for sure, they have jobs to start, homes to sell or have sold and they are on their way.  They call me to talk about the Denver metro area, real estate, neighborhoods and all the other things that make life fun living in Colorado.These are great calls, the heart of my business.  Most of the time I can help solve people's problems on... 03/17/2007

Yesterday I met with a client to re-check whether or not repairs had actually been done as agreed to in the Inspection Resolution.  Our inspector charged $75 to come back out and check, not a bad deal when most of the repairs were to the roof, and neither my buyer nor I were we willing to climb up on the roof ourselves.  When we arrived the homeowner let us in and gushed about how it was a good thing we had asked to have the roof repaired, and that if they hadn't sold their house they could have been in for a lot of water damage, because their roofer told them it had reached a dangerous state.  The homeowner was horrified to think they had maintained their home to perfection, but hadn't even thought to look at the roof!  This was a ten-year-old house that they had lived in for the last ... 03/15/2007

When I am not busy selling Denver Real Estate, there is nothing I like better than finding new things to do with my family in Denver.  I am quite excited about this upcoming one.  The Denver Botanic Gardens is one of my favorite places in the mile-high city and the spring exhibit is going to be just fabulous. The last week of March kicks off this grand event with David Rogers' Big Bug Exhibit.  Rogers sculptures are card form wood and look fantastic.  In Denver we will have a spider carved of black walnut, a 17 foot long Dragonfly from red cedar and many more.  Its more than just carvings though, it's a exhibit that is educational, showing just how important insects are to plant life and the ecosystem as a whole.  Some guided tours will be available but you can just walk through the exh... 03/15/2007

 There is a lot of talk on the street about "sustainability."  Looking it up in the Wikipedia I discovered it is really a simple goal with a very complicated agenda."Sustainability - The ability to meet present needs without compromising those of future generations."Planning for the future means setting standards for today.  Who better than to set standards for green living than the zoo? Historically zoos have been looked upon as the enemy to animals.  The zoo was the animal equivalent of the human prison.Well, the times sure have changed!  Now at the forefront of animal conservation we find the zoo.  In fact Denver Zoo is in the process of building an Asian Tropics exhibit that will offer the animals five unique habitats in which they will rotate.  These habitats are designed to provid... 03/14/2007

The Denver real estate market for February is beginning to show the results of too many houses on the market.  Denver still ranks right up there as having the nation's number one inventory of foreclosures, which is making it difficult to sell homes without having to lower the price from a seller's initial hopes.Sales were down from January nearly 13%.  Some of that may be due to Denver's December through February snow, which this year was considerably more than any average year in the Denver area.  Streets stayed nearly unpassable for weeks waiting for warmer weather to set in and melt the icy ruts.  Buyers did tend to stay home and wait till the streets were less of an obstacle course.Prices dropped only slightly, but values can't keep pace with rising inflation.  If you have to sell a... 03/11/2007

No more getting lost in suburbia!  No more scrambling with maps and looking incompetent in front of clients!   Wow!  I spent half a day researching various GPS models and I am glad I listened to the fellow at GPSDiscount.com. This Garmin NUVI 660 screen is so sharp, you can load jpegs into the unit, listen to MP3's and a host of other features, I am now discovering.  And the best part, it has a 8 hour battery and you can slip it into your coat pocket when you want to take it to another car.  You can also upload a CSV file from excel with all of the houses you plan to show.  I plan to use the jpeg feature to show new clients 'visual testimonials' of all of my pics I take at my client's closings or at their new house. It also won PC Magazines' Editor Choice GPS in 2006.It is pricey (retai... 03/08/2007

Funny thing happened yesterday.  I began working with a new client named "Phil."  Yesterday Phil called me to confirm a future date to look at homes.  Since I hadn't added him to my TREO, I went to do so.Now perhaps I'm not the only one around that has trouble with last names.  I never committed Phil's name to my memory banks, but I knew it was short.What came up was Phil Leeto.  Over and over in my mind I'm thinking this guy is Phil Leeto.  I repeated it, all the while thinking it wasn't right.  So I input the name into my TREO, making a mental note that my new client may or may not be Phil Leto.I was right. He was not.Phil Leeto is a Denver Lender an Active Rainer who has been communicating with me via e-mail.  He stops by my blog and I visit his.  We say "hi" but have never meet.Well... 03/03/2007

 As a dream destination for many, Colorado offers beautiful scenery with majestic Rocky Mountains and their ever-changing classical beauty.  People who opt to  move to Colorado find spare time is filled with a variety of destinations, day trips to the close-by attractions that dot the state. Living in Colorado comes with a guarantee, your friends and relatives will come to visit.  Most likely they will come on a regular basis, you will find it necessary to know all the attractions so you can properly entertain them during their vacation.  With a little planning and some luck on your part, you may be able to go with them. Why not; it's another Colorado amenity.Here's a sample week of activities for you to ponder:Day 1:  Optimize your Colorado trip with a drive to Colorado Springs to visi... 02/25/2007

It is time to talk real estate.Relocation to Denver or any other place can be exciting and/or scary.  Some people embrace change, taking it on like a new suit. They study and analyze it, pondering over every minute aspect until it becomes a natural for them.Others approach moving to the new location with trepidation and fear. They analyze it to the nth degree only to find the only decision they can make is not to make a decision.Oh my.Either situation is very familiar to me.  Each month I work with customers who have decided or are in the process of making the decision to move.One thing I find is universal, the steps are the same, but the route is different...every time. Guaranteed.Why is this might you ask? The answer is simple, everyone is different.  Each person has a personal hierar... 02/21/2007

And the Record StandsSteve ScheerDenver Area Real Estate Its no secret that December and January were crazy here in Denver and we had record setting snow fall.  I had several customers throughout those weeks looking at Denver real estate from out of state that were weary and nervous that this amount of snow is normal here.  And it really isn't.  The weeks surrounding the storms were much colder than it can generally be here in Colorado and typically our snow will melt much faster than it has this winter.      But as February turned into the more milder winter that Coloradans are used to, the big question was, would the record for the most snow cover in Denver be broken?    Well yesterday, as we teetered close to the record books, that question was answered, NO!  Many local media outlets... 02/21/2007

The quality of life in the Denver area is great and here is one more reason why. According to a survey conducted by Men's Health magazine that was released this week, Denver has the cleanest tap water in the country.The magazine looked at several indicators of water quality including levels of arsenic, lead, halo-acetic acids, trihalomethanes (which are linked to cancer) and coliform bacteria.  It also looked at the number of EPA water-system violations from 1995 to 2005. Men's Health tested water from 100 cities and all of the water came in below the EPA's maximum contaminant levels for 2005, but Denver's was much father below the levels than other cities, earning it the No. 1 spot. For more information, visit http://www.menshealth.com/cda/article.do?site=MensHealth&channel=health&cate... 02/16/2007

Denver Restaurant WeekSteve ScheerDenver Real Estate So often I will have a Denver real estate client that relocates to Denver and will ask me many questions about the local area.  Steve, Where does your wife get her hair cut?  Who cleans your carpets?  And where do you go to eat?  Well, its no secret that Denver restaurants have claimed a voice of their own & we have attracted some of the top chefs in the country to open shop in Denver.     So, how do you decide where to go when there are so many to choose from.  There are the old time favorites and many new restaurants popping up all the time.  Well, here's a perfect way.  The Denver Metro Convention & Visitors Bureau announces that February 24 - March 2 is Denver Restaurant Week 2007.  Hundreds of local eateries open up with their cu... 02/15/2007

It's only January 3rd and buyers are ready to buy.  Between blizzards one of my first-time buyers bought a great home they'd had their eye on for some time.  It's in a great neighborhood, and has a great start on remodeling.  It's close to our new light rail, Whole Foods, and all the amenities of urban living.  The sellers had been at it since July and had come down from their original listing price 4.2%.  By the time we made our offer we were able to come down another 5.5% which the sellers accepted.  I wish there were ten more just like it in the neighborhood.  Several of my clients are looking in the same price range and are willing to do a little work to bring their chosen home up to speed.I have a number of clients right now who are looking for bargains, and we're finding them.  Bu... 01/03/2007

just wanted to wish everyone a very Happy Holidays and a Happy New Year. It is hard to believe that 2007 is just around the corner. Where did the year go? 12/24/2006

Earlier this week I showed houses to clients relocating from warmer climates.  They're still here.  I wonder what they thought of the Holiday Blizzard yesterday which dumped 20 to 30 inches of powdery snow in the Denver metro area.Our weather is normally very temperate.  Averages are around 45 degrees for the winter months.  When snow falls, it's usually gone in a few days (the sun shines intensely here).  It's a great place for a person from Minnesota (me) to move to.  But I'm not too sure Floridians would find it enticing. When you come from a place where blizzards are routine, a Denver blizzard is great.  You can expect the sun to come out later today, which will start to melt the snow.  I won't be able to get out of my driveway, though, till Saturday or Sunday.  My clients are likel... 12/21/2006

Hello,Welcome to my new blog! This is my first post ever so please excuse me if it isn't perfect. I had to start with something.The Denver real estate market has been soft for the last year and a half. All you have to do is read the newspaper and they will wiill be happy to tell you all the negative news about the housing "bubble". Here's a different perspective. Sales have not been the problem. They are down now only about 3% year in year over year statistics. The problem has been the number of homes on the marketd has risen dramatically. They increased from only 20,000 to almost 32,000 for a high this last summer.But, the last two months of statistics report by "Metrolist", our multilist system, show a decliine of over 12% in the number of homes on the market. See the full story on my... 12/15/2006

I've always been a math geek. As a kid I remember asking my mom to take out the math flash cards as opposed to the other cards. Addition, subtraction, multiplication, or division, it didn't matter. As I got older I was always in the advanced math classes. I even joined the Math team competing against other math geeks.  When I hit college, as the math got more difficult - calculus 1 through 3 and differential equations, I continued to excel. Then I took statistics, not the easy statistics either, and my perception of math changed. Statistics confounded every joy I derived from math as it made math confusing. My professor once wrote on the board, NUMBERS DON'T LIE, PEOPLE DO. Then crossed out people with STATISTICS.If you read the newspaper's here in Denver, the Denver market is flat. The... 12/13/2006

The election in Denver was a fiasco this month.  New computer voting at centers not precincts led to EXTREMELY long lines, hot tempers and not nearly enough apologies.  Worse yet the dedicated voters who toughed out the wait returned to their cars to find PARKING Tickets for their trouble.Turn the clock back a few years.  Remember John Hickenlooper before he was Mayor of Denver?  Recall his charmingly different political commercials with him on a Moped.  Or him putting a quarter into the parking meter?He won the election because of the parking meters...kind of.Well last week Mayor Hickenlooper made the National  News, MSNBC, FOX News, and NPR recognized and praised Mayor Hickenlooper.  Why?Because for all the voters who received parking tickets on election day, The Mayor is taking respo... 11/22/2006

Thursday Nov 02, 2006 | Today's Denver Listings UpdateThere were 120 properties newly listed in Denver on Thursday November 02, 2006. View new listings Minimum price: $45,000 Median price: $210,250 Average price: $280,297 Maximum price: $1,500,000 A few examples of newly listed properties: See all$424,000 $119,900 $119,900 $134,900 $134,900  There were 70 properties with reductions in price in Denver on Thursday November 02, 2006. View reduced listings Minimum price: $48,000 Median price: $172,500 Average price: $210,956 Maximum price: $899,900 A few examples of reduced price properties: See all$169,900 $269,900 $48,000 $195,000 $59,900 11/02/2006

Blackmail is a nasty little game some people play on each other.  Blackmail though it exists is not a nice game to play, further more, it is not really what this post is about.Art is the theme of my post.  Blackmail is just art, at least in Denver.Yesterday I was doing my normal Sunday walk around having fun shooting my Canon.  I came across 3 black mail boxes with different sayings on them.  The sayings are:"I told you  never to call me here someone will find out""I have evidence of your secret life""I'll send the negatives to the police if you don't send money"The sayings on the black mailboxes were amusing, I clicked a shot, not really thinking about it.  Later last night while downloading the pics, it came to me....black mail boxes....BLACKMAIL!Art...sometimes it's takes awhile to u... 10/30/2006