Introducing The Gals Guide to Steamboat Springs

Stealing and adapting off of Dale Chumbley’s now-famous 365 Things to Do in Vancouver Washington, where he highlights 365 things to do in his home town, I’m embarking here on a similar venture with my Gals Guide to Steamboat Springs. I must admit that the thought of coming up with 365 new somethings, one each day, for the next year, is a bit too daunting a task for me to undertake. I don’t do well under a lot of stress, and find that the days disappear too fast as it is, especially when I have clients in town or am writing up offers or just plain need to get out of town, up to the slopes, or home to cook dinner. So, I am assigning no number although I do hereby pledge at least – drum roll please - one entry a week (I was not just struck by lightening so, so far so good).

I wondered when I should begin this undertaking. January 1st of course makes the most sense but I don’t want to wait that long. And besides, the date of January 1st has never done much for me personally as far as feeling like new beginnings. Heck January 1st is still dab in the middle of cold and darkness. Not much in the way of changes in that.

But September, now that’s a different story. September is when school starts (and I’m still a school girl at heart). September is also when I got engaged to be married, when my son was born, when my mom died,  my father-in-law died, we moved to Steamboat…You get the picture. September is a time of changes, and not for just the leaves on the trees around here, or the nip in the air which I’ve started to feel.

Thus I unite, with the leaves and the air, with my personal history and the school calendar, in launching, oh-so-bravely, the start of The Gals Guide to Steamboat Springs in September of 2010.

And what do gals love to do? Shop of course (among other things, like skiing and biking and walking the dogs). So it is by a fortuitous coincidence that I begin this new episode of my life and my blog and my relationship with Steamboat, with a look at the Labor Day Weekend Sidewalk Sale in Downtown Steamboat Springs, which is going on outside my door as we speak.

Go ahead. Sit with Abe Lincoln on Lincoln. Sip a margarita at the Cantina. Or ask Erica to pick out a good read for you at Epilogue, for all I care. Heck, you might even try on some fancy cowboy boots at the store by the horse, or spin on your stool while slurping an old-fashioned malt at Lyon’s soda fountain. Whatever you do, just get downtown. It’s Fall in the Rockies, and everything is just about to change.

Including the fact that construction starts up again on Lincoln Avenue come Tuesday.

Victorian near Steamboat wins my heart

Traipsing  around on the weekly Realtor MLS tour every Tuesday morning, I regularly stumble upon the good, the bad and the ugly. And being that we live in a gorgeous, and typically not very shabby, world-class ski resort town, I often stumble upon the very good, the exceptional, and the knock-your-socks-off WOW homes. 

The latter typically come with finishes worthy of an Architectural Digest entry, and outdoor living spaces that make me want to stay a long, long while – hammocks alongside waterfalls dropping into pools with coi fish and lily pads, outdoor covered fireplaces, plumbed in grills, pathways through aspens and wildflowers. You get the picture. They are beautiful and they are also expensive to buy, to run and to maintain. And at 5000 square feet in size, I persoanlly would feel like I was rambling about in a showcase.

There are other homes I come upon which I personally want to buy on the spot.

Take this Victorian in Yampa. At 1906 square feet, it’s just right. And although it was built in the era of very drafty houses (1899), the present owners took it down to the studs and made it very enery efficient. And what beautiful finishes inside while keeping the antique Victorian charm!

I would add a garage and an extra bathroom upstairs, but both would be easy to do. I’d have a huge garden and my husband would build a shop. It sits on half an acre after all; plenty of room to do my own pond and water feature. And I like the price: $259,000.

Yes it’s about a 45 minute drive from Steamboat (and the 1-70 corridor in the other direction), but it’s only a few minutes to the Flat Top Mountains, and it’s quiet.

I take a video while I’m there. It’s the closest I’ll come to owning it I’m afraid. My heart bounces. I want to run up the staircase again and hear it creak, and rush outside and start digging.

Buying a Steamboat Short Sale: 3 Ways to Beat my Odds

What are the chances?

I have tried to help two clients buy condos in Steamboat which were listed as Short Sales. (Short sales can be thought of as pre-foreclosure sales in that the owner’s mortgage lender gets involved because the asking price will not be enough to repay the mortgage; it will be “short” the amount due). Both times our offers were met with offers by other buyers and both times my clients’ bids were rejected.

As an agent of course I hate to go through all that work, for both myself and my client, only to loose the deal. (Yes, deals can be lost after putting in even a lot more work than that; like when my buyer’s financing falls through at the last minute right before closing, but still… ) But what I hate the most is that my clients lost the chance of getting the condos they wanted.

Here’s what I think went wrong, and how I think you can beat my odds:

1. Lowballing an already low asking price.

If your agent has run a CMA (Comparative Market Analysis), looking at all the similar properties which have sold recently, and comes up with X as the market value for the property, consider making an offer at 10-15% below market value and hope they will counter. But when the asking price is already below market value, going an extra 10-15% below that is treading dangerously.

If the asking price is below market value, and the property is in excellent shape and desirable, you are not the only person that is going to have noticed. It’s one thing to be low-balling when you are the only one at the table, it’s another thing to be doing it when a crowd is being attracted. This often can happen right after a price drop. What was a borderline attractive price with a price drop can suddenly become a very attractive and affordable price to more people than just you. 

2. Fear of being taken advantage of.

Yes, buying and selling real estate can be scary, especially in our current market where it’s natural to wonder if you are buying something just before the price plummets even more? But what about mistrusting the agents, the seller, and the whole process? Is someone going to trick you out of your money? When I told my clients on both occasions that the listing agent said they were expecting another offer that same day, the response was “Yeah right. They are lying to get me to raise my price.” As an Exclusive Buyer Agent I have a legal duty to my client. I don’t want them to pay more than they have to. But I also don’t want them to lose a home that would be perfect for them, because of a fear of being taken advantage of.

Yes the listing agent could have been lying (although I doubt it and in these two cases felt them not to be). And my clients didn’t want to risk being tricked. But what about risking the possibility that it wasn’t a trick? That there was another offer and that it could be a better one? Why not take the opportunity to decide exactly how much the property is worth to you and make that offer? Is $5000.00 going to make much difference in your mortgage payments (especially at these rates)? Is $10,000.00? Is $20,000.00? If you can afford it, if you were expecting to go up that much anyway during negotiations, if it still gets you the perfect home, and if it still does so for under market value, why not? No one is asking you to offer more than you can afford or want to pay. Sometimes you just have to show your hand if you even want a chance.

3. Asking for too many contingencies.

Short sales are odd in that you are dealing with both a seller and a bank in order to buy a home. It’s understood that most sellers are willing to negotiate various things (fixing the broken faucet) and that most banks aren’t (typically it is sold “as is” with only ten days to conduct and approve your inspection findings). Because there is a normal seller involved it’s easy to think that you can ask for the normal stuff. But you have to remember that it’s not a normal deal. The seller has to be thinking about what the lender will approve of, because it will be up to the lender to allow the deal to close.

And what does the lender want? Besides the highest price they can get (remember, they are losing money on a short sale as it is, and so they want to lose the very least), they want to be assured the buyer is going to close on the deal in the end. Thus they want as few opportunities for the deal to fall through, meaning as few contingencies to the contract as possible. They’d like it to be a cash deal, or at least with as much cash down as possible to enhance the chances of financing going through for the new buyers. They’d like it to be sold “as is”, so there won’t be negotiations over repairs which could derail the deal.

I don’t like short sales. When a seller lists a price or a bank lists a price, you can be pretty sure that i you give them everything they are asking for that they will sell the home to you. You also can generally get an answer back in a couple of days to whether they will accept a lesser price or terms. But with a short sale, all you know is that the asking price will not pay the mortgage off. The seller is willing to accept the price but hasn’t a clue whether the lender will or not. And it could take months to find out. Oftentimes the asking price is just a lure to capture a mandatory Offer which the seller has to submit to the bank with their short sale request package. All to get the lender to agree to a short sale and to show their hand in what they will and will not accept for a price.

Yep, my clients and I have struck out twice in  buying a short sale property. The first buyers so far have not come back to the table. The second set left on vacation, with plans to keep looking when they return. Will they look at other short sales? The third time’s the charm, right? I’ll let you know here in this post how well we do! And please, you let me know how well you do too! Maybe together we can get it all figured out!

The Skinny on Steamboat Springs Condo Special Assessments

A prospective client of mine was doing his homework and closely studying the detailed property sheets of some ski in/ski out condos for sale in Steamboat Springs, CO, which I had sent him off of the Steamboat Springs Multiple Listing Service (MLS). One detail caught his eye and he shot me off this question:

MLS 126967 mentions a special assessment.  Can you provide any details?

And just as quickly, I sent him my answer. Here’s the skinny:

How Special Assessments Work

A Special Assessment is a Home Owner’s Association (HOA)-approved one-time fee charged each property owner, to go towards paying for a special improvement project. Sometimes the fee is spread out over several payments, but nevertheless it is not an ongoing fee. In the case of MLS 126967,  it was to cover the cost of the exterior remodel of this particular Storm Meadows building. The MLS sheet stated that the condo owner already paid the assessment, so it won’t be a debt transfered to the future owner. This specific Special Assessment amount was $28,000.

As part of each annual HOA fee a certain amount is put into Capital Reserves for future improvements. But sometimes an HOA will vote to do an improvement even if they don’t have enough in the capital reserves fund. They will also vote to divide the shortfall due on the project amongst the owners as a one-time special assessment. Some HOAs have very healthy Capital Reserves and seldom have to do a Special Assessment. Other HOAs have voted to keep their annual HOA dues (of which the Capital Reserves portion are a part) as low as possible, and thus end up seeing more Special Assessments come their way as major improvements are needed. Some HOAs keep thier developments up nicely, while others vote both for low Capital Reserves and against  Special Assessments, and their complex falls into disrepair.

How We Protect Buyers

One of the contingencies we always write into an offer is your right to cancel the contract (without loss of Earnest Money) if upon review of the Homeowner’s Association documents (bylaws, declarations, budgets and financials) and past two-year’s Annual Meeting Minutes, you find something that will not work for you. You should get a good feel for how well the condition of a property matches your personal expectations of how you’d like to see the property maintained just be strolling around the premises.

Many of the Homeowner’s Associations in Steamboat are run by professional management companies. Two big ones in Steamboat are Steamboat Resorts and Mountain Resorts. They have the staff to keep track of all financials, do repairs, maintenance, snow remeoval and landscaping. Anything they can’t do, the can interview and get bids from contractors and oversee the work. There is a particular management person assigned to each development they run. This person often goes by the title of Owner’s Representative. They typically run the Board of Directors Meetings and the Annual Homeowner’s  meetings, if requested by the Board of Directors. And are the go-to person for all the home owners of that condominium development.

We encourage all of our prospective buyers to speak with the Owner’s Rep, and maybe also the President of the Board of Directors (another homeowner elected by the HOA), to get a feel for how compatible your wishes will be with the board, and to answer all your questions. All of this can be done either before or after you get under contract to buy.

But back to your main question about a Special Assessment on a specific unit. Typically the MLS sheet states whether there is a current Special Assessment and whose responsibility it will be to pay it. Then even if it states the new owner will need to pay it, it is something that can be negotiated with the offer.

Ben Cartwright, Where Are You?

Recently I went on a Ranch Tour which featured seven properties for sale around Steamboat Springs, CO.

There was a bank-owned property within 15 miles of the ski area and minutes from the airport. The Mountain Plains Farm Credit guy who is holding the note said they are super willing to be flexible with financing a new owner. The 108-acres, 4,700 s.f. home, and huge barn has an asking price of $1,495,000. It seems like a good deal, though the house is a bit funky inside, and I’m guessing they’d take less.

We saw acreage, some with great water rights (which is a commodity in the west – 20th century Gold, it’s called) and great fishing as you can imagine. One had multiple lots, great views and paved access near town. And another overlooked Steamboat Lake in the heart of snowmobiling mecca.

But my personal favorite felt like something out of a Gunsmoke western dream. I wanted a horse with reins I could lash to the fence post. To hear cowboys throwing hay bales in the hay loft or mucking out the 2,376 square foot barn, and to watch Elk in the pastures alongside the 1/2 mile of the Little Elk River. My husband would be chopping wood, my son strolling out of the caretaker’s cabin with a future young son of his own on his shoulders. With its conservation easement this place will be unchanged for generations to come. Log home, windows and rock, solid. All that’s missing is Ben and Hoss Cartwright.

Asking price: $2,000,000.00.
Location: 180 acres, ten miles north of Steamboat Springs, Colorado.
Ability to win your heart and imagination: Gigantic.

5 Tips for Surviving a Fannie Mae Deal

Fannie Mae-owned homes are like their own country. They may twist and turn the playing field, toot their horns and puff their chest. But in the end, they abide by the laws just like we do. I helped my vacation home buyers recently purchase a Fannie Mae-owned condo in Steamboat Springs, Colorado. But wherever you are, here are 5 tips to keep you sanely in the game.

1. Negotiate first. Submit contract later.

Fannie Mae didn’t want to look at a Contract until after we’d verbally negotiated terms; me on behalf of my buyers and the listing agent on behalf of Fannie. They just wanted to know the names of the buyers, the price being offered and the Closing Date. We went back and forth a couple of times, but once we agreed on the price we put it in writing in the form of a Contract.

2. Ready Set Go. The clock starts ticking.

Along with the standard state contract which we produced, we were given an Addendum by Fannie Mae, which overrides anything in the standard Contract. Read it very carefully. And then read it again with a pencil so you can take notes. Then sleep on it. But even while you are trying to figure out what the thing says so you can explain it to your client, the clock has started ticking and most importantly with regards to your inspection timeline. Forget what dates you put in the standard contract regarding the inspection. The Addendum (yes, bow to Her Majesty) allows you ten days from when Fannie Mae first agreed to your terms, to object to the inspection. Did you read that correctly? Ten days from when Fannie first agreed to your Buyer’s terms, is the deadline by which you can object to the inspection. Which means you need to have gotten the inspection done and have a report in your hands and reviewed it and written your objections, etc., by the tenth day after acceptance of the terms. Which was probably yesterday.

3. You don’t really have to give up your first born.

After reading the first paragraph of the Addendum, which sent you immediately to the phone to schedule the inspection, your eyes might glaze over from mining the legaleze, your blood preasure might start rising and you may be tempted to throw the thing away. But after calming down and reading it for the third time through, you’ll see that most of it is just Fannie saying, “Hay, when this deal is over, it’s over – don’t come running back to us with any issues.” And I don’t blame them – they want those those properties off their books for good.

4. They may huff and may puff, but don’t let them scare ya.

Yes, Her Majesty the Addendum says on the first page that the Buyer can choose the Title Company and the Closing Company. Yes, there is no place in the Addendum that counters Colorado’s standard Contract’s requirement that the Seller pay for the Owner’s Title Policy. And there is no place that says the Seller doesn’t have to pay if the Buyer chooses the Title Company. No matter what they say. No matter what they threaten. The Contract is the Contract. And if they can’t prove something to you by showing you exactly where it says what they say it says, then by all means don’t let them bully you. Her Majesty Fannie, does have to follow the rules. But she will huff and she will puff.

5. Hurry up and wait…all the way to the end.

You hurry up. And you wait. And you do it again. You hurry up. And you wait…We waited six weeks for Fannie to sign the Contract. So yes, we passed several deadline dates including of course the inspection, before we even had a signed contract we could submit to the lender. Over at Fannie it seemed like the left foot had no idea it was even meant to wear a shoe, little alone what the right hand was doing. Humor came in handy around that time, as well as several stiff drinks. But that’s another blog post. And why should Fannie change their pace at the very end? Disbursement of commission checks takes place a few days after Closing.

What a sense of accomplishment though, I must say! To have closed the deal on time! To have only broken down crying once! To have stood up to Her Majesty’s bluff and won! And to have helped my Buyers get a really good deal! I wish you luck. I wish you fortitude. Let me know how I can help.

149 Steamboat Condos w/ 2+BR for under $400K

I’ve got clients coming into town this week from Texas and we’re trying to pare down what they are going to look at during their two-day stay. It’s not easy.

With a requirement of a minimum of 2 bedrooms, for under $400,000.00…well that gives them 149 choices.

Do they want the hassle (and/or opportunity) of dealing with a bank-owned property, because there are 5 of those? Or the even more nebulous affair of undertaking an attempt at a short-sale purchase? There are 13 of those babies to gnash your teeth on.

3-bedroom with one-car garage

A Garage, Anyone?

How about a garage, or even two? You’d think in this land of  lots and lots of snow, and where minus 30 degree temperatures are not unheard of, that garages would be mandatory for the sake of our cars. Not to mention a place to store the snowblower, the garbage cans that otherwise attract bears, the skis, the bikes, the golf clubs, the river tube, the backpacks, the fishing waders, the rock climbing ropes and the jogging stroller. But NOOOO. How many of these 149 condos offer a garage? Fifty-three. A little more than a third.

How about bedrooms? They want a minimum of two. But how about four? There are three of them, all in the Eaglepoint Subdivision, between the ski mountain area and hopping downtown. And these even have a garage. Three-bedroom units? There are eighteen to choose from, with the remaining 128 units all having two bedrooms.

And low HOA’s please

My clients are buying the condo for their own use, not to have it as a nightly rental unit with a management company to make income, so they don’t need the fancy amenities that attract nightly rental users like pools, hot tubs and shuttle service. they want to keep their HOA dues down. If I cut the field of 149 condos down to only those that have annual HOA dues less than $5000.00, I’m left with 85 condos for them to choose from. 

Of these 85 condos with low HOA fees, only 33 have garages, and only 3 of these have two-car garages.
Of those with one-car garages, what’s the least expensive:

1. Four-bedroom condo? $369,000.00
2. Three-bedroom condo? $289,000.00
3. Two-bedroom condo? $264,900. 00

Three bedrooms and two-car garage

Of the three with two-car garages, two have three bedrooms, and one has tw0 bedrooms. And two of these are short sales (boo-hiss; they are such a nightmare!).

The one that’s not? I think for sure I’ll suggest my clients look at that one, although it’s not as close to the ski mountain as the one with only the one-car garage. And, since they are only using it as a vacation home, they don’t need the two-car garage as much as a local family would. But that’s up to them.

We’ll need our flying shoes

Regardless, I think we are going to be pretty busy the few days they are in town. I’d better get my running shoes on. Oh, yeah, except that in Steamboat most homes require shoes to be left at the door (you know- part of the whole snow and mud season thing), so slip-ons are the shoes of choice for house viewing. We might as well have hummingbird wings to flit from place to place. Okay, I’ll settle for flying shoes…