Real Estate Zealot

The Perfect Storm in Real Estate

3 ways to win in real estate... Buy now! Sell now! Invest Now!  Interest rates are at all-time lows, there is no better time to get into the market! 

Metro Broker Virginia Clair can help you navigate the real estate process. Call her at Urban Mountain Associates at 303-229-2450 or get more information online at www.VirginiaClair.com.

Interviewer: Welcome to Metro Brokers TV. Today in the studio I have Virginia Clair with Urban Mountain Associates. Welcome Virginia.

Virginia Clair: Thanks, Kari.

Interviewer: So what makes you different from other realtors?

Virginia Clair: Well, let me tell you - it's really the breath and depth of my experience, I've been licensed for over 21 years now and that was after a very successful career as a diamond broker, so I've been brokering for a while. And my early experience was quite diverse. I started at a time when we were working through the savings and loan fiasco, so a lot of my projects were fairly varied in that I did a shopping center in Colorado Springs, a ranch in Larkspur, I actually had a golf course in La Veta, Colorado as well as several executive homes that were a result of that whole fiasco.

So my business now is really in and around residential as well as short sales. I have a tendency to really want to be available to people in their time of need, especially when it does come to properties that are a little bit complicated and need a little extra help.

Interviewer: Wonderful. Now you're very involved in the real estate community, correct?

Virginia Clair: I am.

Interviewer: Tell me a little bit about that.

Virginia Clair: Well I happen to be the current president of the local chapter of the Mile High Women's Council of Realtors and incoming president for the state. And this is an organization that's part of the National Association of Realtors, so we're very much in tune with consumer issues and lobbying and making sure that our members are empowered in their leadership and their education.

Interviewer: What advice can you offer to buyers and sellers and investors?

Virginia Clair: Buy now, sell now. It's a perfect storm.

Interviewer: Really!

Virginia Clair: Yeah. The interest rates are low, historically low. Our inventory is short, so for sellers that have been sitting wondering whether they should make a move or not, now is the time.

Interviewer: That's great to hear. Where can people learn more about you?

Virginia Clair: Give me a call directly at (303) 229-2450 or on my website which is www.VirginiaClair.com.

Interviewer: Great, Virginia. Thank you so much for taking the time to come and talk to me today.

Virginia Clair: It was my pleasure. Thanks for having me.

Interviewer: Again that was Virginia Clair with Urban Mountain Associates. Thank you for watching Metro Brokers TV.

Sell Your Home Quickly in Northern Colorado

Whether you are a buyer or a seller, learn what options you have from Bev West with MetroBrokers West Realty, an experienced real estate agent. Call Bev at (970) 631-7111 or visit BevWestInGreeley.com.

Interviewer: Welcome to MetroBrokers TV. Today in the studio we have Bev West with MetroBrokers West Realty. Welcome Bev.

Bev: Thank you Kari, it's great to be here today.

Interviewer: It's nice to have you, so what areas do you focus on?

Bev: Kari, we focus along the entire Front Range, but our main area is Northern Colorado and Northeastern Colorado, and we also help our clients and customers when they're relocating out of the State of Colorado to help them find a realtor in another area.

Interviewer: Great. So what value do you give to your buyers and sellers?

Bev: You know, for our sellers, we do a statistical pricing system that includes about four different ways that we come up with a price that we feel that, you know, we'll value their home at the right price to get it sold quickly, and in doing this, we average on about a 98% list to sale price ratio and also, this helps in the negotiating when we do get an offer on their house. The other thing, I am an accredited stager and I help our sellers stage their home and this also helps to get their home sold quickly, and by doing that, we average about a 90 days or less days on the market. For our buyers, we do an initial consultation with them, you know, go through a lot of questions so that we get an in-depth feel for what their expectations are.

We also, for our buyers, we do a listing alert, we set them up on that so that as soon as the home that comes on the market, we can give them an alert via their cell phone or email so that they're aware of what's coming on right away and, you know, for both the buyers and sellers, we are very proactive in our communication and we also explain to them the working relationships that they have available to them in working with their agent. This can be a buyer's agent, a seller's agent, transaction broker, or they can be a customer and we feel that, you know, it's very important that they understand those differences.

Interviewer: So, how long have you been in real estate and are you affiliated with any special groups?

Bev: You know, my husband and I work together as a team and we've both been in the business about 11 years, and we're both members of the National Association of Realtors, the Colorado Association of Realtors, plus the Greeley Board of Realtors, and I am currently the president of the Milliken Housing Authority.

Interviewer: Well, yeah, that's great. How can clients reach you?

Bev: The best way is my cell phone which is (970) 631-7111 and my email address is bev@BevWestInGreeley.com.

Interviewer: Great. Well, Bev, thank you so much for joining us in the studio today.

Bev: Thank you very much Kari, it's been a pleasure to be here.

Interviewer: Thank you for watching MetroBrokersTV.com.

Find the Right Investment Property and Tenant

A Denver native and second-generation real estate broker, Kyle Surplus with Liberty Associates can help you find that perfect family home or investment property. Call Kyle at 303-909-2323 or visit KyleSurplusRealty.com.

Interviewer: Welcome to Metro Brokers TV, today in our studio we have Kyle Surplus with Liberty Associates, welcome Kyle.

Kyle Surplus: Thank you Kari, its a pleasure to be here.

Interviewer: Tell me a little bit about your background?

Kyle Surplus: Absolutely, well Kari, I'm a second-generation realtor so you could say real estates in my blood. I've grown up here in Colorado from like growing just for over 45 years literally going to school from kindergarten through college, so you know growing up here you could say I've got a real good knowledge of Denver and the surrounding areas, I have come from a professionals, most of my adult life I've been in professional sales background, so it was the perfect training ground and segue into real estate, working large financial technical transactions has really prepared me to help my clients in buying and selling of real estate.

Interviewer: What would you say is your area of expertise?

Kyle Surplus: Well Kari helping clients from literally Castle Rock to Fort Collins and everything between, some of the areas that I specialize in are South Aurora, Centennial, Parker, Highlands Ranch and Castle Rock.

Interviewer: Wonderful, now you also manage rental properties as well, is that correct?

Kyle Surplus: Correct, I manage my own investment properties and from all stages, from acquiring, kind of understanding the best neighborhoods, you know which ones are appreciating where well get the highest rents, all the way through to marketing for tenants, qualifying them and retaining good solid tenants, so I think it brings real solid knowledge to my clients to be able to have that real world experience in you know quite honestly managing rental properties, there's really no substitute for experience and I can provide that to my clients.

Interviewer: Thats wonderful, how would you say the real estate market is currently?

Kyle Surplus: Great question, I would say its hot, quite honestly there's three factors that have contributed to that. About a year ago in March of 2012, inventory across Denver in the metropolitan areas shrank by 52%.

Interviewer: Wow.

Kyle Surplus: So that instantly created a supply and demand issue, you couple that with historically low interest rates a couple of months ago they were the lowest on record, as well as a lot of you know this economy has really been hard on in Colorado families you know as well and I think a lot of people are staying in their houses and fixing them up, so you dont have a lot of new inventory coming up, so its really creating a sellers market which is fantastic for sellers and challenging for buyers, so in my opinion its a ideal time to be represented by a seasoned and experienced realtor.

Interviewer: Wonderful, so how can clients reach you?

Kyle Surplus: Well I encourage them to go to my website, kylesurplusrealty.com and learn a little bit more about me, I also have some neat search engines on that where they can put in some criteria, kind of look into some neighborhoods theyve been thinking about, find out the value of their home all that you know on their time and you know utilize those tools at their discretion and then if they need to contact me, they can email me directly from my website as well as call me on my cell phone which in 303-909-2323.

Interviewer: Wonderful, well Kyle thank you so much for taking the time out on your day to come talk to me today.

Kyle Surplus: Well thank you very much for having me.

Interviewer: For more real estate related videos please go to metrobrokerstv.com.

Save Time Searching for Properties

Searching for the perfect home can be very time consuming. With New Dawn Realty, you have the freedom to spend your time with family and friends instead of pouring over the internet searching for homes. We do the work for you! It's what we do best!

Sign up for email alerts at NewDawnRealEstate.com and let us help you find that perfect home or property. Call Dawna Hetzler, today at 303-883-3070.

Interviewer: Welcome to Metro Brokers TV, today in our studio we have Dawna Hetzler with New Dawn Realty, thank you Dawna for joining us here today.

Interviewee: Thank you it's great to be here Kari.

Interviewer: So tell us a little bit about your journey into real estate.

Interviewee: Sure, my journey began in 1988, I was just leaving high school, starting college and I got my real estate license and was very successful. I transferred to Colorado in 1993 and then around 2005, I joined Metro Brokers which is a phenomenal company and I started New Dawn Realty in 2010.

Interviewer: Great, what areas do you focus on?

Interviewee: Parker, Castle Rock, Franktown, rural areas. When I moved here my first purchase was a home on 5 acres in Parker and I just fell in love with country living. so there are some people who can't live on the outskirts and obviously have to work from the Tech Center and Downtown Denver and so they, some people don't want to be in the country, so of course I focus on the whole front range area, but I love to focus on rural properties.

Interviewer: What technology do you offer your clients?

Interviewee: Kari, that is a great question because, as you know, technology is ever-changing and so what I'm seeing is that a lot of buyers and sellers are spending their time on the internet and there's a sense of discouragement there. What I mean is that basically you are spending time there that you are never going to get back, technology was supposed to give us more time and in essence its robbed us of our time. So New Dawn Realty gives you your time back; it's what we do. So, I might have a client who is new and sends me a bunch of properties and has spent all this time researching and pouring over the internet and what we see is that they get very discouraged because these properties tend to be under contract or pending.

And so what New Dawn Realty does for you is get you your time back that precious time that you don't have. You can go to NewDawnRealEstate.com and you can sign up for email alerts and what that does is you can put in your search criteria and it shoots you an email each and everyday with the newest, latest and greatest listings that come up and so it does it gives you more time, more freedom to spend with your family and your friends and the things that are important to you in life, helps you to find your life rhythm.

And another thing that New Dawn Realty does is we help promote during the process what is under contract, whether you are buying or selling a home. We collaborate together and we figure out a process to meet all those dates and deadlines that are so important with title commitments and you know loan conditions, deadlines and all these things and the process can seem daunting and so we give you that time back and make it simple and just streamline it for you.

Interviewer: Great, well how can clients reach you?

Interviewee: They can reach me directly at 303-883-3070 or visit my website at NewDawnRealEstate.com

Interviewer: Wonderful, Dawna thank you so much for joining us today.

Interviewee: Sure thanks for having me.

Interviewer: For more real estate related videos please join us online at MetroBrokersTV.com.

Luxury Living in Downtown Denver

Discover luxury living in Downtown Denver.

Looking for that one of a kind property? Dirk Freeman of Metro Brokers Freeman & Associates can help you find the right location for your lifestyle. Contact Dirk at 303-268-6006 or email him at Dirk@DirkFreeman.com

Interviewer: Today in our studio we have Dirk Freeman of MB Freeman & Associates, Welcome Dirk.

Dirk Freeman: Thank you for having me.

Interviewer: So how long have you been doing real estate?

Dirk Freeman: I think I got my license back in 2005 and I have been practicing ever since.

Interviewer: Great. And what areas of town do you focus on?

Dirk Freeman: You know, Denver is such a great town because I get to work all over town, so I could be showing horse property out around say Saddle Rock or I might be up showing a condo or a single family home up in Arvada, I work really all over! Like, my neighborhood here in Platt Park, but I have recently rediscovered Downtown.

Interviewer: Downtown, so tell me a little bit about that.

Dirk Freeman: Oh there's so many exiting projects going on downtown, from the SPIRE which a lot of people have talked about and of course the lofts in Lodo. One of the things that I've just discovered is the Ritz-Carlton Hotel; they have the Elway's restaurant, they have that fantastic health and fitness club but they also have something called Residence XXV which are just spectacular units! You walk in through a private entrance, you go through a private elevator, you have a lounge area which is just spectacular and then these units that just you walk-in and your jaw hits the floor. They are just spectacular with Wolf ranges... and high-end treatments. Of course it has its own underground parking. It's, by far, one of the most beautiful buildings that I have seen in a long time.

Interviewer: Wow, they sound beautiful. Now are these listed by you?

Dirk Freeman: No they are not listed by me, I just recently discovered them for a client, we're actually closing on a unit right now but I mentioned to the listing agent that I was going to talk about them because it just - when I walked in I said, 'wow, I'm home' and it takes a lot to really wow me and these units truly do wow you when you walk in. There are only twenty five of these residences inside the Ritz Carlton Hotel in Denver and they truly are just remarkable, astounding, fabulous properties.

Interviewer: They sound amazing.

Dirk Freeman: They truly are.

Interviewer: So now how can clients get a hold of you?

Dirk Freeman: Well you know the internet, we are out there at DirkFreeman.com and there you can find my phone number and email address or just email Dirk@DirkFreeman.com.

Interviewer: Great. Well Dirk, thank you so much for joining me today, it was great talking to you.

Dirk Freeman: Well thanks for having me in.

Interviewer: For more real estate related videos, please join us online at MetroBrokersTV.com.

Sellers Guarantee

Metro Broker Will Hamm has the experience to help you sell or buy a home. Aspen Lane Real Estate guarantees their services. So call Will at (303) 358-1147 or his business partner Belinda Spillman at (303) 884-2026.

Interviewer: Today in the studio we have Will Hamm with Aspen Lane Real Estate, Will thanks for joining me.

Will Hamm: Hi, thanks for having me on.

Interviewer: So tell me a little bit about your business?

Will Hamm: Well I've been in business since 1996 in the Denver area and I work with a business partner her name is Belinda Spillman with Aspen Lane Real Estate.

Interviewer: Great. And you pride yourself on your communication skills, correct, tell me about that?

Will Hamm: Well I leaned a long time ago that people, they want to know what's going on with their house, say if whether its being sold you know what's going on, so because of that every Monday I make it a point to call all my clients tell them the good, the bad, the ugly what happened the last seven days and what we're doing the next seven days to get the house sold, because you know so many they're in the dark and they're really concerned.

Interviewer: Yeah I'm sure they really appreciate that, so you offer a guarantee to your sellers, is that correct?

Will Hamm: Well I learned a long time ago being in the restaurant business with my parents, that my dad always said to go ahead and give the people what they want and then give them a little bit more. And if you don't give them that, if they are not happy, then give them their money back. So because of that experience, we do the same thing, we promise that we will do certain items and if we do not do it tell us what it is, give us 24 hours to correct the situation and if not we'll let them out of the contract.

Interviewer: Tell me a little bit about your areas of expertise.

Will Hamm: Well, my expertise comes down to being in the business so long. We have learned a lot of experience, taken a lot of seminars and I always say you learn from the best, so we take a lot of seminars from some of the best educators out there and because of that you know it gives us a little bit different marketing program than what the other agents have.

Interviewer: Great. And how can clients reach you?

Will Hamm: They can reach us at, me at (303) 358-1147 or they can call my business partner Belinda Spillman at (303) 884-2026. Or visit our website online at Aspen Lane Real Estate.

Interviewer: Wonderful. Well thank you so much for joining me today, it was great talking to you.

Interviewer: For more real estate related videos, please go online to MetroBrokersTV.com.

We Work Twice as Hard

At Aspen Lane Real Estate, you get two full-time REALTORS® working for you! Belinda Spillman and Will Hamm are partners in real estate, offering double the service and double the coverage for your real estate needs. Call Belinda at 303-884-2026 or visit her online at Aspen Lane Real Estate.

Interviewer: Today in the studio we have Belinda Spillman with Aspen Lane Real Estate. Belinda thanks for joining us today.

Belinda Spillman: Hi Kari thanks for having me.

Interviewer: So tell me a little bit about your business.

Belinda Spillman: Well I have been with Metro Brokers since 1996 when I first got my real estate license and this past December we opened up our own company called Aspen Lane Real Estate, I'm the managing broker and Will Hamm is my business partner.

Interviewer: Great. So what would you say are your areas of expertise?

Belinda Spillman: Well, I love new construction, for the past four years I have been working closely with Lennar Homes helping them to market their new construction and I've also started working with Pulte Homes a couple of years ago. Pulte decided to pull out of Colorado altogether this past fall so now we have all of the Pulte inventory listed and marketing for them.

Interviewer: And how do you go about marketing your homes?

Belinda Spillman: Well 95% of all buyers look on the internet before they call a realtor, so it's important to be very high tech and I consider myself pretty hi-tech. I market our homes on a lot of different real estate websites to include RealBird, Zillow, Trulia, Realtor.com and I'm also a very active blogger on platforms like ActiveRain, Google's Blogger and WordPress.

Interviewer: Great. What areas of town do you focus on?

Belinda Spillman: Well I work in all of the Denver metro area, but I like to focus in South East Aurora. I live in Saddle Rock Golf Course Community, but I focus in the neighborhoods of Beacon Point and South Shore in southeast Aurora.

Interviewer: And you mentioned you have a partner, so tell me a little bit about that.

Belinda Spillman: Yes, my business partner is Will Hamm, we've been working as a team for about the past three years now and by doing that we give our clients double the coverage, double the service, it's very rare that someone can't get a hold of us.

Interviewer: So you work together with all of your clients?

Belinda Spillman: Correct. And if we get so busy that we have to split up, we have that luxury because there is two of us.

Interviewer: So how can clients reach you?

Belinda Spillman: They can reach me on my cell at (303) 884-2026 or you can visit my web site at AspenLaneRealEstate.com.

Interviewer: Wonderful. Belinda, thank you so much for joining me today.

Belinda Spillman: Thank you Kari.

Interviewer: For more real estate related videos please join us at MetroBrokersTV.com.

Customer Service is Our Priority

Rick Watkins of Rick Watkins Realty understands that the client is Number One. Whether you are buying your first home or trading up or downsizing, call Rick Watkins to help you get the home you really want. Call him at 303-880-0739 or find him online at RickWatkins.com.

Interviewer: Today in our studio we have Rick Watkins with Rick Watkins Realty, Welcome Rick.

Rick Watkins: Thank you Kari for having me here.

Interviewer: Well thanks for coming. So tell me a little bit about your business.

Rick Watkins: Well I am a real estate broker in the State of Colorado, I've been selling homes here since 1986 and actually I grew up in a real estate family, and in high school I actually did some of the driving around work putting signs in, in the yards and delivering keys and I've actually been licensed here since 1986.

Interviewer: Wonderful

Rick Watkins: Yeah.

Interviewer: So now you pride yourself on really putting the client first, tell me about that?

Rick Watkins: Well I do, I really believe that the client is number one and I really live on repeat business, so I always treat my clients best and do the best I can for then and make sure that the home or the condo or you know whichever property they are looking for, they are getting what they really want and that it's done, the transaction is done in a competent manner, so.

Interviewer: What would you say are your areas of expertise?

Rick Watkins: Areas of expertise, well as far as you know there's different areas of expertise, there is location and I go all around Denver, whether its Denver metro or Littleton or out to Aurora, or north of Brighton or Roxborough or Castle Rock, so I go everywhere. I also help a lot of people in their first home, you know a lot of people are getting their first home right now, it's kind of fun because now I'm selling my clients' kids houses.

Interviewer: Oh fun.

Rick Watkins: Which is really kind of cool and, but you know first time home buyers you know with the economy there are the short sales and the foreclosures and I do some of that, I'm hoping that goes away soon but I do some of that business but you know mostly its helping people in their first home and also you know the trade up homes and you know the different...

Interviewer: The whole gamut?

Rick Watkins...the whole gamut, yeah.

Interviewer: So are you involved in any organizations?

Rick Watkins: I am involved in you know the real estate organizations, SMDRA, which is the South Metro Realtor Association; The National Association of Realtors and also I do a little bit of volunteer work with, during the winter time with Arapahoe County's Santa Claus Shop, which is for people who are in need to get their kids toys and food boxes and stuff like that, so I do that a lot, during the end of the year when they have a little bit more time.

Interviewer: How can clients reach you?

Rick Watkins: They can call me at, my phone number is (303) 880-0739 or my website is simple enough and it's RickWatkins.com.

Interviewer: Great. Well Rick thank you so much for joining us today.

Rick Watkins: Thank you Kari.

Interviewer: For more real estate related videos, please go online to MetroBrokersTV.com.

Honest to a Fault to Sell it Quickly

An experienced real estate professional offers the knowledge necessary to get the job done. Call Greg Howard with Metro Real Estate Group to help you buy or sell property in Colorado Springs and South metro Denver. He's always available by cell phone at 719-445-9515.

Interviewer: Thanks for joining us with Metro Brokers TV; I'm here with Greg Howard with Metro Real Estate Group. Greg thanks for joining us today.

Greg Howard: Nice to meet you.

Interviewer: So tell us a little about what an experienced agent, like yourself, does for their clients?

Greg Howard: Let's talk about the sellers at first. One of the things that we need to do is number one we need to get a listing with them to make sure that they are happy with what we are going to provide.

Then we need to start looking at all their documentation- "What does the buyer want?" Ultimately when a buyer comes and wants to make an offer on the property. We might look at surveys; we want to make sure that survey matches the property. We would look at appraisals to make sure everything is, zoning, to the taxes. We've gotten in several situations where we've actually received offers, actually made offers on property where the zoning didn't match, so therefore the appraisal didn't match and it was a long lengthy process.

Some of the other things that we want to do is may be talk about pre-inspections, maybe a pre-appraisal so that they have higher expectations and they see the worth of the property, so we can make a realistic price.

Interviewer: Definitely, well what would you say are some of the other things that you do upfront to make sure that, that things go well, go smoothly?

Greg Howard: We have the tough conversations. And the tough conversation is what it takes to sell a house- it's the right price. The aesthetic value of the property and being able to communicate to them that their $500,000 house expectation may be only $450,000... and that the wallpaper is pretty ugly and the colors don't match and the brass fixtures aren't really what a buyer is looking for.

So those conversations have to take place, as well as, when you're setting the price you need to give them a very clear idea of how price can affect the bottom-line. For instance if you're asking $110,000 for a $100,000 home, you're probably not going to get it, not in the beginning anyway. And if you do get it, it's going to be after a reduction to $105,000 and then it's going to be a reduction to $100,000 and then at that point somebody is going to say, it's been three and a half months on the market, they are desperate, let's offer $95,000. Whereas, if they'd started at $100,000 in the beginning or somewhere in that neighborhood, they are more likely to cut the time down and increase their bottom-line.

The other thing is, is when they are making the price adjustment. Let's say they do on a $110,000 for their home, why do they want that and is there a way for us to get to that, that may be the time when we have to bring in a stager to have a tough conversation to say, I know the carpet is only 25 years old, but it needs to be replaced, and for a $1500 maybe we can get a return of $2500. It may be that eventually get you up to the $110,000 range. So the tough conversations are about price and the aesthetic value of the home.

Interviewer: So do you think those are the most difficult things to communicate to a seller?

Greg Howard: Absolutely, I mean there are not many agents- I need to be careful of saying that... Let's just say that it's a very hard conversation for an agent to have when somebody says my house is worth $150,000 and you're looking at it and you know deep inside that it's only worth a $125,000 and you can't commit to the conversation that says... it's really not. It's not in their best interest for you to hold back.

If I have a fault it's going to be the honesty. I'm honest to a fault on being able to get these things done, if we go six months on a listing because I wasn't able to come to the table and tell them the truth, they are going to be frustrated, they are going to be mad, they are not going to refer me, and then the next agent has a huge foot up because they are going to come in and they would have already heard the story at least once, now it's the second time, and they'll make the adjustments and sell the house...and they won't be happy with me.

Interviewer: Now you work with buyers too right?

Greg Howard: I do, buyers are a whole different ball game. You basically have to protect the buyer and you need to make sure that the documentation that they have is worthy and the key for them is protecting them at all costs, I want to see their (pre-approved) loan docs, I want to make sure that the loan is the same, you can get a 3.5% loan, with one guy and a 3.5% loan with another guy- but they are not the same loan. They might be... but they are not and there's ways to evaluate that. Look at appraisals and things like that to make sure they are in the right area, and school districts, just listen to them.

Interviewer: So, Greg how can customers reach you?

Greg Howard: I'm on my cell all the time- it's 719-445-9515. My website is GregHowardRealtor.com. I sell homes both in Colorado Springs and the south side of the Denver metro area.

Interviewer: Thank you so much for joining us today, for more real estate related videos please join us online at Metro Brokers TV.

Is a Short Sale Right for You?

Is a short sale the right thing for you? Matt Tolooee of Metro Real Estate Group knows how to handle short sales in Colorado Springs. Call Matt at 719-310-5185.

Interviewer: Hi, this is Metro Brokers TV; I'm here today with Matt Tolooee with Metro Real Estate Group. Matt, tell us a little bit about short sales?

Matt Tolooee: It's good to be here.

Short sales, as many years as they've been around and we've been having to deal with them, a lot of people don't know what short sales are.

In a nutshell, a short sale is a transaction by which the bank takes less money than is owed on the property. So, if you owe $150,000 and, due to market conditions, the property is worth $100,000; the bank is willing to take a $50,000 deficiency.

You have to qualify for a short sale. There has to be a financial hardship- a divorce or something. There is a list of them, and the bank has to approve and there are different kinds of short sales.

In a best case scenario, you can do the short sale, the deficiency is forgiven, and you get some sort of relocation assistance at the time of closing. But, the worst case scenario is that they don't approve you for a short sale.

Interviewer: Right.

Matt Tolooee: But yeah, there are options out there for people who are upside down with their homes and they've gone through a financial distress.

Interviewer: Well tell us then a little bit about the foreclosure process.

Matt Tolooee: The foreclosure process really is, after about a month or two or typically about three months of a property owner missing payments, the bank starts conversations- in the State of Colorado we are a trustee sale- so they begin talking with a public trustee who begins public notification putting the home owner on notice that if they don't come clean and take care of their back dues within four months, (they have about 120 days from the time the notice goes out) that the property goes through foreclosure.

So the foreclosure process takes about three months at the beginning and another four months; that's about seven months total. The key thing in here is, if people are doing a short sale, with most banks, their short sale department and their foreclosure departments don't talk to each other much. But 99% of the time if there's a short sale in progress, the short sale department communicates with the foreclosure department to delay the auction.

But it's really nerve-racking for the home-owners as they are going through the process and they say, "Why they are foreclosing on me, I got a short sale" but that's because how the banks are structured.

Interviewer: Now are you working with a lot of second home buyers right now?

Matt Tolooee: Yeah, it's been interesting, over time banks have really come to terms that, you know, it's not just the primary home owners, majority of the short sales are for owner occupied properties, but there are some cases, I've done several, where the second home owner, the second home for these home owners they were able to do a short sale. Most of the banks if you really think about it, if you give them a compelling reason that you are where you are and there were some good reasons; health reasons that you had to move to another property at a higher elevation for example and now you need to sell this one, they work with you. So Bank of America was one of the pioneers in this area and I've worked with Bank of America and CHFA (Colorado Housing & Finance Authority) and a number of other banks.

Interviewer: How would you describe the current housing market, at this time?

Matt Tolooee: The housing market is looking really good; especially at $250,000 and below. The interest rates are helping tremendously. We've got situations where banks are offering as low as 2.75% interest to 3.25%, so it's almost free money. And people with good credit, $250,000 to $300,000 and below, they are looking at those options; they are saying,"Hey this is much better than renting!"

So as far as buyers, there are still some good deals out there in the $300,000 range and below. And as far as sellers, we're seeing some price appreciation because there's a large demand due to the short interest rates. In the $400 to $500 million range, I think there's still room for them to adjust and correct.

Interviewer: Well Matt, tell us how customers can reach you.

Matt Tolooee: Matt Tolooee in Colorado Springs, Colorado. My phone number is 719-310-5185, and my website is www.Metro-RealEstateGroup.com.

Interviewer: Wonderful. Well, thank you so much for joining us today.

Matt Tolooee: Thank you.

Interviewer: For more real estate related videos please join us online at Metro Brokers TV.