"No buyer in their right mind pays their own closing costs. The seller will do that." That's what one of my buyers was recently told at a "first time homebuyers seminar." It didn't strike me as particularly useful information. But it did make me realize that a lot of buyers don't fully understand the concept of "closing costs", whose costs are whose, what those costs go toward, and who's responsible for paying them. I think a lot of buyers lump all ... Read More

"I'm sorry. That house just went under contract." "Please submit your offer, but know that we've already received two other offers on that property." We haven't hear talk like that too often in the past couple of years, but I'm certainly hearing it now. Over the past several weeks, I have faced the following scenarios: I take buyers to look at a house that's been on the market for three days. While we're there two other potential buyers come through with their ... Read More

When I'm wearing my "buyer's agent" hat, I work with a lot of first-time homebuyers. I love my first-time homebuyers. They're open, eager to learn and very excited about the prospect of owning their own home. Every single one of them has been smart, reasonable and a lot of fun to work with. It's other realtors' first-time homebuyers who are getting on my nerves lately. I'm hearing more and more about a trend among first time homebuyers making offers ... Read More

I'm annoyed. I've been eating at The Blue Parrot in Louisville (a very cute little town north of Denver that is rapidly becoming a suburb) since I was a little kid. Other peoples' little kids have been eating there since 1919, when Michael and Emira Colacci decided to open a restaurant to serve spaghetti to their fellow Italian coal miners. Their family runs the place to this day. My grandfather, being Italian, a former coal miner and a former bar ... Read More