Looking at CO again - Area Considerations (Windsor, Fruita: loans, brokers)

[80skeys]

For mild winters, you're gonna want something away from the Front Range and the mountains, which leaves the Plains or the western slope. I don't know anything about Plains towns. As for the western slope, you've got Rangely, Rifle, Grand Junction, Montrose. These are all small desert towns, isolated, I don't know whether that's your cup of tea or not.

[treedonkey]

Originally Posted by David Aguilar

Perspective, perspective.

For someone moving from Southern CA (like the OP), any sort of snow/cold won't be considered mild right off the bat. The coldest it ever gets where he's from is the low 40's, at night. Wait til he's out when it's below zero, or even worse, when it's snowing, methinks he won't be thinking it's so mild.

Yes, Colorado has mild winters compared to the Upper Midwest and parts of the Northeast. Compared to Southern CA, not so much. I'm a 3rd generation CA native living in Denver.

I wouldn't want to fool someone from a warmer clime into thinking that the winters here are mild, their definition of mild may be a bit different from ours.

(agreeing with David...)
Dear Knuckleheads,

"Mild" is a relative, NON-SCIENTIFIC, term, so it's pointless to debate over just what 'mild' is, as if it could be proven one way or antoher. Our winters are harsh in comparison to San Diego, CA but mild in comparison to Buffalo, NY.

Sincerely,
Donkey in a Tree

[rjlowe]

Yes, but in the limiting context of Colorado itself, I'd say Grand Junction and Pueblo are probably the most "mild" towns in comparison to other Colorado towns... Maybe even Cortez, but they're pretty small compared to the other two. Just my take on the whole "mild" thing.

[CosmicWizard]

Based on living here for 3.5 years, I don't know how Grand Junction got a reputation as "mild". In the winters I've been here, Grand Junction has generally been one of the colder spots in the state, and in the summers it is usually one of the hotter spots in the stae. Maybe it was different prior to my arrival in July '06.

Mild winters compared to Buffalo and Minneapolis perhaps, but pretty harsh compared to LA. Mild summers compared to Phoenix and Las Vegas, but pretty harsh compared to San Francisco. "Mild" is truly a relative condition.

[rjlowe]

Because while GJ may be cold, they don't get very much snow compared to East Slope.

[Shock976]

Originally Posted by jazzlover

Good luck competing with the thousands of unemployed real estate people in Colorado. You could stand anywhere in the state and swing your fist around and hit one. Like the old joke,"What do you call a real estate professional in Colorado?" "Waiter."

Can I ask why everyone doubts the real estate business? I live in CA where thousands of agents are unemployed, or struggling. Not to say that I am not struggling here, but I cannot complain as I am making a living still. I am one of the few who got into this business when the market went south, I missed the boom and had to and continue to fight my way through the pack. I refuse to quit, and plan to be in the business for many years. I feel that if you are determined and have good support, you can make it in any field you have a passion for. You might not get rich, but you will make a living doing what you love right!

[Shock976]

Originally Posted by DOUBLE H

It's ironic and quite true that Jazz says "Waiter". A guy I know who was a substitute teacher for many years in the Denver area moved to the Grand Junction area a few years ago. And went to work waiting tables at the Golden Corral here in Junction. One day around July of 2008 he hands me a business card and says, "I don't know if this is going to work out or not". He had passed his real estate exams and got hired at Bray and Co. Real Estate. I think of him from time to time.

Interesting story, is he still in the business?

From what i am hearing about real estate agents in Colorado, it sounds like Actors in Los Angeles, every actor is a waitor right...

[Shuffler]

Originally Posted by Shock976

Can I ask why everyone doubts the real estate business? I live in CA where thousands of agents are unemployed, or struggling. Not to say that I am not struggling here, but I cannot complain as I am making a living still. I am one of the few who got into this business when the market went south, I missed the boom and had to and continue to fight my way through the pack. I refuse to quit, and plan to be in the business for many years. I feel that if you are determined and have good support, you can make it in any field you have a passion for. You might not get rich, but you will make a living doing what you love right!

Some would say the real estate biz is what has ruined Colorado with speculative growth and urban sprawl, and driven up the cost of living for a lot of people.

The way the country and Colorado are being financially wrecked, I doubt you'll have the droves of starry-eyed equity lemmings flocking in with gobs of money to throw at overpriced houses and condos.

You might think about a job other than real estate...like Jazz said, you'll have plenty of hungry realtors to compete with.

[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 . . .

[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. As a result inversion has set in and 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).