Looking at CO again - Area Considerations (Denver, Colorado Springs: sales, foreclosure)

[80skeys]

Originally Posted by Shock976

Can I ask why everyone doubts the real estate business?

Because they participated in and contributed to the downfall of the economy.

Because they provide a service that - let's be frank here - is unnecessary. Everyone would be perfectly capable of buying and selling their own home on their own if realtors did not monopolize the market and brainwash everyone into thinking it's the only way.

[Shuffler]

Originally Posted by DOUBLE H

Cosmic is right! Here is a stat for ya that is simple as pie. Nine inches of snow piled up at my house near Fruita on December 9th. Thirty five days later it hasn't melted one iota. This barfbag air has been sitting over the valley for weeks! Yuck-o! In yesterday's Daily Sentinel there was a story about how various businesses are coping with(basically chiseling away) the ice that hasn't budged at all on the streets and sidewalks. In fact, I saw several kids around the Dairy Queen on North avenue chopping up the ice this morning. As I met with friends for breakfast up the ways at the Raintree restaurant, there was a sheriff's department van overseeing prison detail at the Mesa county general services building It's right next door to the restaurant, and it is where the bulk food is for people on ss, disability, etc. Did they show up because of yesterday's newspaper story? Nope. Those kids have been chopping the ice for days all over the area, they can only cover so much ground in one day. We have had one 32 degree day in 6 weeks, and we won't see 40 on a daily basis for another 2 weeks.

Mild winters? In the immortal words of British comic Monty Python, "That is a putrid pile of parrot droppings."

(fell on my can scraping the windshield this morning, hence the rant).

Bummer, dude! Small price to pay for living in paradise...Spring can't come soon enough, eh?

[DOUBLE H]

Originally Posted by Shuffler

Bummer, dude! Small price to pay for living in paradise...Spring can't come soon enough, eh?

A quick word on my coordination this morning; let's see, hmm, um, OH YEA-----

[Shock976]

Originally Posted by jazzlover

I deal with a lot of real estate people in my work--unfortunately. I will be blunt about it--there are a few very talented, honest, competent people in the profession. Most of the rest run that gamut from complete slimeballs to incompetent fools to near-starving ne-er do wells that have failed at most every other career they have tried. If there is any blessing in the developing real estate crash across this great land, it will be that a lot of the idiots in the real estate business are going to get washed out of the profession, and maybe it will regain some respectability--but we're not there yet. By the way, most of those competent real estate people I know hold the same low opinion of their incompetent, crooked cohorts that I do--the sooner that the fools and crooks are gone, the better for the profession.

All of that said, in Colorado these days, even the decent, knowledgeable real estate people are having trouble making a living . . .

I agree with you that there are slimeballs, and incompetent fools in the business, and it is unfortunate that these people can make a living in a profession such as ours. Real Estate in my eyes and the way I practice is to help people, I am not your stereotypical agent and truely care about people's livelyhood.

[Shock976]

Originally Posted by 80skeys

Because they participated in and contributed to the downfall of the economy.

Because they provide a service that - let's be frank here - is unnecessary. Everyone would be perfectly capable of buying and selling their own home on their own if realtors did not monopolize the market and brainwash everyone into thinking it's the only way.

The Real Estate Profession although some may feel is not needed, others feel the opposite. Yes, everyone could buy and sell a home on their own, however there is something to be said about understanding the contracts, and documents, reports, neighborhoods, and to offer guidance of the transaction. Not to mention that it is time consuming to buy or sell a home and many people don't have the "Free" time to do so.

The people that feel the Real Estate Profession is unneeded typically are the ones who end up doing it themselves, and while some succeed, many realize that everything involved is much more work than they expected. And thus a Professional Realtor is there to assist. You could say the same for many professions.

And when I say professional, I mean professional. You do have crooks, and dishonest people that are in the business for themselves, and for these people, you will notice that they are out of the business or create a name for themselves quickly. On the flip side, there are professionals, that truely care about families, and their well being, therefore not using pressure tactics, etc to gain business. Although few and far between, they are out there.

Anyhow, I think all these responses answer my question about Realtors. So I would like to get off that subject and on with recommendations of where to live.

[Shock976]

Originally Posted by 80skeys

Because they participated in and contributed to the downfall of the economy.

Because they provide a service that - let's be frank here - is unnecessary. Everyone would be perfectly capable of buying and selling their own home on their own if realtors did not monopolize the market and brainwash everyone into thinking it's the only way.

I'd like to quickly add that, Banks, and Appraisers, primarily banks were the ones that led to the rise and fall of real estate to this severity. Without banks implementing loan programs that were so loose and giving the brokers these programs to utilize on borrowers, brokers would have have been able to assemble the loans they did, and borrowers would not have rushed out to buy homes like they did. Lastly, without appraisers working with banks to appraise the homes at values that were unrealistic, none of this would have happened anywhere.

[Shock976]

How about some cities to live, based on my criteria can I get maybe 3-5 recommendations? I need some direction so that when I come out to look at the state I know where to go and what to look for. Otherwise, I will just be going in blind with nothing to expect.

[DOUBLE H]

Originally Posted by jazzlover

Oh, come on. Tornadoes may not be frequent in Colorado, but try to tell the people in Windsor that there is no danger from tornadoes in Colorado. Thr Front Range can get tornadoes, and occasionally ones up in the F3 range have occurred. Periodic severe hailstorms are not a possibility along the Front Range, they are an absolute certainty.

By the way, I've only been studying Colorado weather and climate for nearly a half-century now.

Eastern Colorado definitely gets them as well. Speaking of F-3 tornado's, about a year before the Windsor tornadoes, the town of Holly, Colorado got socked with one. Google in Holly, Colorado tornado and quite a bit of items are on there. One person killed, many injuries, and dozens of homes were destroyed. This one went right through town and Holly is not a sizable area by any stretch of the imagination.

Reports are the tornadoes path was as wide as two football fields. Holly doesn't have lots of new development, both residential and commercial, like Windsor does. It is a small town of not much more than 1,000 people Those homes that got mowed down were decades old.

[Count David]

Originally Posted by DOUBLE H

Eastern Colorado definitely gets them as well. Speaking of F-3 tornado's, about a year before the Windsor tornadoes, the town of Holly, Colorado got socked with one. Google in Holly, Colorado tornado and quite a bit of items are on there. One person killed, many injuries, and dozens of homes were destroyed. This one went right through town and Holly is not a sizable area by any stretch of the imagination.

Reports are the tornadoes path was as wide as two football fields. Holly doesn't have lots of new development, both residential and commercial, like Windsor does. It is a small town of not much more than 1,000 people Those homes that got mowed down were decades old.

Re: the bold,

That statement right there would tell somebody the likelihood of any one spot of earth getting hit by a tornado. If a tornado is mowing down old houses, then those houses have managed to grow old and not get hit by tornadoes throughout the duration of their lifespans.

[DOUBLE H]

Very true. I thought about deleting that last sentence, but decided to leave it up. If someone who thinks that a tornado in that part of the state is just a fluke, well they're in for an education if they want to keep going east on that highway about another two hours east of Holly, I'm guessing 160 miles or so. I have been on that road several times, but not in the last few years.

Maybe a month or so after the Holly tornado came a tornado barreling in on the small town of Greensburg, Kansas. I would have to look up how fast an F-3 is, but I know what they classify an F-5. I classify it as total destruction. I remember watching national news, cable news, the Weather Channel, etc. Greensburg was basically taken off the map except for a few buildings. There has been some news coverage since on the network "news magazine" type programs such as 20/20, Prime Time Live, etc., showing how the area is rebuilding. More importantly, is how the community has banded together in a situation that most of us could not even comprehend. Yea, I know it's Kansas. But that town is not that far away from Holly.

Holly is just inside the state line on hwy 50. The news reports state that it came in so fast, most people didn't know what hit them. According to the channel 7 story, there were real nasty weather systems developing over the Nebraska panhandle to the Texas panhandle, resulting in nearly 50 tornadoes spotted in a four state area. Also that story stated that tornadoes have touched down in Colorado 9 months out of the year. I've been in a few of them in this state, Kansas, and Texas, and they're downright ugly.