I find myself all to often brainstorming with clients about how we can effectively sell their property in a sluggish market. The normal outcome of these sessions  usually has an aroma of marketing, networking, pricing, repairs, clean-up, landscaping, home staging  or buyer incentives...until now.   Introducing St. Joseph the Patron Saint of Carpentry! Upon entering my office a few days ago, I find a Fed-Ex box on my desk. I am a self admitted horrible multi-tasker (my wife will back me on this) and at the time I was talking on my cell phone, so it was my natural response to set this box aside, and focus on whatever it was I was into at the moment. When I did get around to opening the box, I noticed the sender is a client of mine, so I eagerly ripped apart the seals to find not one bu... 01/14/2008

I am not sure that the general public understands the way in by which REALTORS® get their business and are paid. I don't mean that as an insult to anyone. Before I bought my first house or obtained my real estate license I was definitely in that category. I often get sideways looks when during conversation someone finds out that I am not a salaried employee of my broker, and that I indeed do not get a paycheck until I successfully help someone buy or sell real estate. Additionally, there is a lack of understanding when it comes to who pays who upon the closing of a property, or there are a lot of people out there who simply don't care. During the Christmas break I ran into one such confused couple.    While entering a Mexican restaurant/Sports bar/Karaoke club (got to love small town co... 01/07/2008

The much anticipated Pagosa Mountain Hospital Critical Access facility is having it's Grand Opening on Saturday, January 5th 2008. The ribbon cutting at 2:00 PM will kick start the opening of the new facility to Pagosa area residents.The hospital has been completed earlier than scheduled, on budget and with no increase in mill levy thanks to generous private and community donations and fund-raising efforts.   Beginning Monday January 7th,  there will be 24/7 Emergency Room services, 11 private inpatient hospital rooms for routine nursing care, a full-time laboratory, CT digitized scanning, radiology, EKG and EEG services, and much more.  Future services will be added in an effort to continue to enhance and grow the features and services that the hospital will provide.This is a wonderful... 01/04/2008

How much money have investors in real estate lost due to the bust in the housing market? I hear talk about "investment  loss"  and (with the voice in my head) wonder on what these discussions are founded. Maybe we put a little too much stock in media sensationalism instead of taking a look at the the facts.    Examining a short time back into history will give us  more perspective on this subject. An investor who bought a property five years ago in Miami, FL would be ahead by $200,000 today. The gain would be $150,000 in Las Vegas, NV. In our town, you would see a gain of $84,000 on an average home in the Pagosa Lakes area if you chose to liquidate now after having owned it since 2003. Take a look at my article last week, Real Estate Comparison for 2007, to see similar comparisons.  Acc... 12/17/2007

Well, we finally got snow on the mountain.  Last weekend’s storm brought in about four feet, which was much more than anywhere else in the state.  We got a second dumping over the past several days, which brought an additional 5 feet.  It is odd to say, but getting too much snow can be bad for Pagosa business.  We need to have enough snow to ski on, but not too much in surrounding areas like Durango, Santa Fe, and Taos.  A marginal snow season elsewhere brings many out-of-town skiers to Wolf Creek, where we usually have the most snow in the whole state! This is the height of the shopping season.  I did a fair amount of shopping downtown last weekend.  My goal is to shop locally as much as possible, but of course, there are certain items which are not available locally.  Online shopping,... 12/10/2007

As the end of another wonderful year in Pagosa Springs comes to an end, my thoughts begin turning toward a little reflection. I tend to do this in all parts of my life. Reflection of my faith and what I have been taught this year, a review of relationships good and bad and business practices with an eye toward improvement.   For my on-line readership I thought I would give a snapshot of our Real Estate market, a year end comparison of sorts. I have compiled the SOLD  data from our local MLS system in order to see a general trend for the past 5 years. I have broken down the numbers into two major categories, Residential and Vacant Land. Residential is comprised of all stick-framed homes and sub-categorized by acerage  or partial acreage size. The Vacant Land can simply be understood as d... 12/10/2007

There’s a neat event coming up in Pagosa Springs that I thought I’d let everyone know about.  This Friday and Saturday (Nov. 30th and Dec 1st) the Pagosa Chamber of Commerce is sponsoring a “Parade of Stores,” with dozens of local merchants participating. At participating stores, shoppers will pay no sales tax for the two days of the event.  This is a great opportunity for all of us to support our local businesses and save some money as well. In addition to making tax-free purchases, local shoppers can obtain a special booklet from any participating store.  By getting these booklets stamped at each store they visit, shoppers can enter drawings for prizes.  The prizes have been donated by participants in the “Parade of Stores.”I look forward to seeing you around town at this fun event.  ... 11/26/2007

This is a time of adjustment in Pagosa Springs, Colorado. The real estate market continues to be soft, and from all indications, I do not expect it to change in the near future.  I constantly monitor market statistics, and this is typically the time of the year when there is a reduction in available property for sale.  True to form, Pagosa saw an 8% drop in available homes and condos between Oct 1st and Nov 1st.  This looks like an improvement on the supply side of things, but this is misleading. The truth is that Sellers are just pulling their homes off the market for the winter.  Some are disenchanted with the lack of interest from Buyers.  Others don’t want to move during the winter.  Many are removing their properties from the market just to keep them from getting stale.  Most will... 11/19/2007

The national media is going strong, letting us all know on a daily basis the troubles of  the housing market. "Foreclosure" seems to be the hottest buzzword being splashed on for an instant headline anchor. There is a lot of truth being seasoned with fear and speculation. Five of the states that truly are being hammered with foreclosures are Florida, California, Arizona, Michigan, Ohio. The Midwestern states are reeling from the job losses due to the automobile manufacturing decline. Truth be known, these state may be in a similar circumstance whether there was a housing slow down or not. The coastal extremes have surely set themselves up for a correction due to record breaking appreciation rates. Areas like Arizona were simply overbuilt. This is the position that many areas of the coun... 11/18/2007

Over the years the state of Colorado has developed a very buyer protective type of real estate sales contract. In a conversation with another broker a few weeks ago the topic of failed purchase contracts came up. He was astonished at the number of contracts that he had written that have fallen through and not gone to closing in 2007. After discussing some of the reasons for these failures I made a kind of mental inventory of a few of the major things that we as real estate professionals have to pay very close attention to when it comes to drafting and creating a successful sales contract.  I thought it may be of benefit to many of my selling readers to list a few of the major terms to be aware of when participating in a real estate sale.The closing date.  Make sure that the date the buy... 11/13/2007

Hello!  My name is Lee Riley, and this my first-ever blog post! Though I've been serving Pagosa Springs since 1989, I have never had a blog until today.  I intend for this to be a place where you can come to get timely and interesting information about beautiful Pagosa Springs, CO.  My main focus will be Real Estate and the current market, but I expect that I'll touch on many other local issues and happenings. I'm still feeling things out for now, but watch for my November newsletter within the next week or so. For now, you can visit my website at ISellPagosa.com   11/13/2007

I just completed an on-line quiz to determine my level of competency when it comes to predicting and understanding on average what home-buyers are looking for. This test ,created by the National Association of REALTORS, is based on a survey aimed at understanding the ever-changing trends of our market. While every consumer has individual preferences, we live in a culture that thrives on a sense of uniformity. I wanted to take a closer look at these trends so that I may equip myself to better understand the mindset of the buyer.     This week while looking through a home, the couple pointed out in dissapointment the tiny little master bedroom closets. I realized that this home must have been built in the 60's  due to the closets and a few other aspects of the house. It's hard to understa... 10/28/2007

Many times when I mention blogging or social networking to the general public I get an eye roll. "What do you mean social networking, is that like MySpace?" Well partially I explain....and you know the rest of the story. It seems that unless you are on board with the march of the 2.0 , you really don't get it. Sometimes to explain in the super-macro overview style I will give a little discourse that goes something like this-Once upon a time word of mouth was THE avenue for marketing your goods or services. Six Gun Sam would ride into town and ask where he could board his horses and he got his answers via ...a referral networkof sorts. Everything was done word of mouth and by pure reputation a business succeeded or failed. It was personal. There is NO DOUBT that this is still the best fo... 10/25/2007

Fall-my favorite time of year. I don't know why it strikes me so strongly. I think maybe it is from boyhood memories of growing up in the South. The autumn temperature drop was accompanied  with an acute degrading of moisture content in the air. This was a very welcomed change. Along with the Fall change came the preperation for hunting season, a ritual that I still participate in though I live in a different place and time.   As I paid my dues in the forest this year, my mind wandered to the disciplines involved in this endeavor known as big game hunting. Remarkably they are very applicable to many things in life. One of which is real estate investing.So as my "Tribute to the hunt" (and my nod to the myriad of southern license plates affixed to an army of camoflaged 4×4's) here are  3 ... 10/15/2007

Every year a percentage of home sellers decide to throw caution to the wind and brave the market alone without the help of a real estate professional - by selling their homes "For Sale By Owner" also known as FSBO.This diminishing group of FSBO's (pronounced fizz-bows) venture bravely into the land of marketing, screening, qualifying, scheduling, showing, relentless calling, emailing  and paperwork. All for the common goal...to save money in their home selling transaction. It's often an experience found a little less than rewarding.The numbers gathered by NAR  (The National Association Of Realtors) tell the story.  In 2006 12% of home sellers in the United States chose to go this route. This is down from 20% in 1987. More telling than this decline is the fact that 40% sold their home to... 10/10/2007

   The  Pagosa Springs market is showing small pockets of improvement, but overall can still be called a buyer's market and classified as relatively flat.    I have compiled the market report for September of 2007. The % change is taken from a month to month basis. This is the % of change since August of 2007.   I hope you find this information helpful.  Pagosa Area Real Estate Sep 07# Sold% CHNGEMED. PRICE% CHNGECUR. INVENTORY% CHNGEHomes170.00%309,0002.91%4593.27%Condos728.57%281,0003.95%1356.67%Land <.5 70.00%53,00010.38%4582.62%Land .51-2.99837.50%53,5002.80%2431.23%Land 3-9.99540.00%169,00017.75%2030.49%Land 34-4520.00%365,000NA     912.20%  10/02/2007

 Last week I encountered a situation that is too funny not to share with my readers. The story begins about a year and a half ago in the spring of 2006 when I helped a young couple find a parcel of land that they would soon prepare for construction. They took every precaution to get the perfect piece of real estate, one that they could build a home on that they were proud of. After about 6 weeks of looking we finally found it. I spoke to them two times after closing, and as things go, we all got busy with our lives.  Fast forward to July of 2007. The gentlemen of the former mentioned couple walks into my office at about 6:30 one evening. We'll call him Jody. After exchanging pleasantries and catching up a bit he tells me that he would like to try and purchase the property adjacent to hi... 09/23/2007

Market Report for August 07 Real Estate Monthly Market Report Greetings!Happy September to you! I have compiled the sales numbers from August of 2007 below. The % change is taken from a month to month basis. This is the % of change since July of 2007. I hope you find this information helpful. Pagosa Area Real Estate Aug 07 Number Sold % Change Median Sold Price % Change Current Inventory % Change Homes 17 13.33% $300,000 8% 474 5% Condos 5 66.67% $269,900 5% 144 7% Land < .5 Acres 7 -41.67% $47,500 7% 470 -1% Land .51 to 2.99 Acres 11 57.14% $55,000 -52% 240 4% Land 3 to 9.99 acres 3 -25.00% $139,000 -18% 202 2% Land 34.99 to 45 Acres 2 100.00% $1,274,500 240% 93 9% Quick Links My WebsiteCurrent Listings My Blog Search Pagosa MLS 09/04/2007

There is a lot of negative press around the country right now concerning the real estate market. I know that human nature desires to hear the extreme news, so that's what the media is going to provide. I personally am a little tired of hearing about it, so I am choosing to spread a little "thumbs up cheer" about the whole situation. Fortunately for me , I have the opportunity to help people purchase and sell real estate in a wonderful place that has numerous positive aspects, so that makes it easy. Here are a few reasons that I know Pagosa Springs Colorado is a good real estate investment: The national economy is in really good shape:Interest rates are at incredible lows and are moving downward. The 30 year fixed rate is at 6.45% and the 15 year comes in at 6.12%. National job growth is... 09/03/2007

When market pressures are on for us Real Estate professionals, it is not a good time to throw money at every advertising hook that comes along. Let's face it. EVERYONE wants to sell us something!If you had $1000 to advertise with, what would you do with it?This $1,000 number is an arbitrary one. It has no real significance other that it works well in a headline. The point is how do you make your advertising dollar stretch? Kind of like "If you were stranded on an Island and could only choose one food, what would it be". When put in that light it makes the decision pretty important. That's how I feel right now, during this market about my time, money, energy and general networking mojo.It is EXTREMELY URGENT that the best decisions be made in order to be successful. This probably was not... 08/30/2007