J. Markinson's (curthilty) Blog

When it's in Vail, of course.  Today Vail Resorts announced plans to build what they call the largest Green resort village in North America.Where will they find the land, you ask? Why, West Vail.......errrr......Ever Vail (as the new resort area will be dubbed) of course. Ever Vail will be 1 Mill...

This week Freddie Mac announced that it will no longer purchase common subprime mortgages, becoming the first major secondary market player to stop putting subprime into its portfolio. The announcement this week should be no surprise to those who follow Freddie's anti-predatory lending practices....

The good folks on the CAR event staff have gotten all the presentation materials uploaded onto their website for you to download if desired. I've seen many of these, and while there is good information there sometimes the presentation is valuable as well, and you may have missed that.Follow the l...

The Colorado Association of REALTORS® and Van Education Center (VanEd.com) have launched a combined effort aimed at assisting Colorado's classroom teachers. The REALTORS® for Education Foundation is a non-profit program designed at making direct grant donations to classroom teachers in need of fu...

In reading through the current influx of daily email news items, I'm struck by a couple of recent ones that might indicate that perhaps some of the foreclosure market is still waiting to show up on our doorstep.Realtor Magazine online posted "Trouble Ahead for Subprime Borrowers" which has a focu...

With the announcement last week of a major Foreclosure Task Force created by the Denver City Council, the question is Will it help?The task force has been created to try to find some solutions to problems such as abandoned property and quality of life. My presumption would be that the best soluti...

Some recent article headlines from various sources;Regional Spotlight: Greater Nashville, More Homes Sold in 2006 Than In Any Other Year'Good year' Ahead for U.S. Economy, Kohn SaysHome Sales to Rise Gradually into 2008A steady improvement in existing-home sales will support price appreciation mo...

RISMedia just posted an article that says that what the FBI calls "Air Loans" are the Ultimate Mortgage Fraud. You can check out the article using this link;http://www.rismedia.com/wp/2007-01-07/fbi-names-air-loans-as-type-of-mortgage-fraud/Here is how it works; the perpetrator creates a non-exis...

The Denver Business Journal reported that Governor-Elect Bill Ritter recently announced that Rico Munn was his appointment as the Executive Director for the Department of Regulator Agencies in Colorado. Mr. Munn takes over as the head of DORA at a time when the Division of Real Estate is in the m...

Over the past couple of days, I've been working on a new course and as part of that the question of what information to include always comes up. For me, trying to create a quality course starts not with an outline but with an idea. What would I want to learn from this course if I signed up to tak...