Go Tubing or Sledding



There are 3 amazing tubing hills in Summit County! If you’ve never gone, you’ve got to try it. Take a ride up the magic carpet lift with your tube and then zip down one of the lanes while you twist, turn, jump and giggle. 

~Keystone Resort offers tubing at Adventure Point at the top of Dercum Mountain. Ride the gondola to the top and walk on over to Adventure Point. On your way, stop at Kidtopia Snowfort and let your inner child out. Keystone’s Tubing Hill opens 11/27/13 for the season.

~At Copper Mountain, you can access tubing from the base of East Village: “You’ve tried the rest, now try the best! Since 1997 Copper Mountain’s Tubing Hill has been thrilling Summit County residents and visitors as the county’s original Tubing venue. After a day on the slopes, kick off those ski boots and gather the whole family for a great time! Head to the East Village, sign your waivers, hand-pick the perfect tube, and head to The Stinger Surface Lift. It’s all downhill from there!” They also have “Critterland”, a place where the smaller adventurers can have fun too! Copper’s tubing hill opens 11/29/13 for the season.

~The Town of Frisco opened their tubing hill just a few years ago and it’s already a huge hit! Located at the Frisco Adventure Park right of highway 9, the tubing hill features lengthy 1200-foot tubing lanes with lift service up the hill for tubing day or night under the lights. After you’re done tubing, head to the Day Lodge and enjoy some Hot Chocolate, coffee and snacks while you laugh about the tubing fun you just experienced! Tubing at the Adventure Park in Frisco opens Thanksgiving Day, 11/28/13. 

If traditional sledding is more your thing, there are lots of options up here in the mountains. Carter Park in Breckenridge has a long, steep hill to go tearing down on your red flyer sled! There is a hill just off the Frisco Adventure Park leading to the disc golf course and on your way to Keystone, from Dillon, there’s a great hill to your right just before Summerwood (across from the cemetary).

Either way, there are lots of great ways on the hill without having to strap on skis or a snowboard. Enjoy 

5 Real Estate Resolutions for 2013



At the end of every December, people make all kinds of resolutions for the coming year. Typically, these are things they want to improve about themselves, ways to make their day-to-day personal or work life better or ideas to put them on track for a change. Many times these surface as a result of mistakes made in the past 12 months.
When it comes to real estate, resolutions don’t necessarily apply as it’s unlikely that you do a real estate transaction each year.  Furthermore, you can’t actually resolve to buy your neighbor’s house or sell your $350,000 home for $1 million. Well, you could, but you’d probably be setting yourself up for disappointment right from the start.
Some things are simply out of a would-be buyer or seller’s control. But, as a would-be buyer or seller, you can learn from and make resolutions based on those who have gone before you. There exists a former buyer who, if he could, would resolve to have done more legwork before buying. Conversely there’s a current seller who resolves to take the next under-asking-price offer from a buyer more seriously.
Whether you plan to buy or sell, there are some real estate resolutions that buyers and sellers can — and should — make. Here are five to get you started.
Buyers: Resolve to get your financial house in order
Planning a home purchase takes time and effort, so you should consider meeting with a mortgageprofessional early in the year. Know your credit score and understand what your financial situation looks like from a lender‘s perspective. If you have credit issues, identify what they are and the necessary steps to correct them. Sometimes, it can take six months to see your FICO score move up the much-needed 20 points to get you a better mortgage rate. A good real estate agent can recommend an experienced, local mortgage processional. Local is always important, because many real estate deals are made on relationships, and being able to meet face-to-face with your mortgage professional can be a big plus.
Sellers: Resolve to think of your home as a product
When it comes time to sell, your home becomes another product on the market. Buyers will compare it and its price to competing properties. You must put your best foot forward, because the properties that are priced right and show well sell the quickest. Pricing will get worked out once you’re ready to list, but showing well can start way in advance. A home that shows well is free of clutter, clean and as up-to-date as possible.
Start clearing out old stuff now. If there are things deep in your closets that you don’t think you’ll use between January and the time you move, consider a storage locker or making space in the garage. Does your real estate agent suggest that the basement needs a paint job? Get some painting bids now. Have you always hated how the bathroom vanity takes up so much space? Consider changing it now so buyers will perceive your bathroom as bigger. This will also help you spread out the costs of home repairs and changes over several months.
Buyers: Resolve to start feeling out the market early
You may think you only need to go to open houses once you’re ready to buy. But in reality, a buyer needs a couple of months learning the marketing, understanding home values, the prices per neighborhood and the market in general. Going to open houses in the neighborhoods where you want to buy will allow you to start feeling out the market. It may also be the best way to meet your future real estate agent. Many agent/buyer relationships are forged at open houses.
Once you engage an agent, you may make several offers before you get into your dream home. Having your agent along for the ride will allow you to compare and contrast homes you’ve visited to the home you eventually buy. The homes you see and your experience feeling out the market will serve as the building blocks toward becoming an informed buyer and making your best offer.
Sellers: Resolve to understand your timing and exit strategy
One of the biggest stresses on a seller is trying to plan a purchase and a sale at the same time. Can you afford to close on the new home before selling? If so, for how long? Do you need to sell the property first? If so, will the potential sale price support a home purchase in the neighborhood you want to be in? If not, what other areas should you be looking in? Selling and buying at the same time brings up all kinds of financial, emotional and physical stress.
Uprooting yourself from your home is not easy. What if you have to go into short-term housing? How will you get that set up and how long would you need to commit for? If you can afford to purchase and then sell, do they need to happen quickly? Are there things you can be doing in your current home so that once your new home closes, you’ll be ready to list? It’s a lot to think about and plan for, and it helps to have a strategy in place well before you have to take action.
Buyers and sellers: Resolve to engage a real estate agent now
Planning a home purchase or sale takes time. Engaging a real estate agent early in the process will allow you to have an expert on hand as you start to put the pieces together. A good real estate agent doesn’t just show and sell homes: They can be your strategic adviser, even well in advance of any actual transaction.
On the seller side, if you pulled a permit to install some new windows or replace some dry rot in 2005, likely the contractor issued a permit. But did he close it out? A good agent will figure that out and clean it up before it becomes a transaction issue. You should use your agent to literally get your house and listing in order.
For buyers, having an agent with you from the start is like having an experienced, second set of eyes and ears. Having so many transactions under the belt and years of market knowledge in their head, a real estate agent’s opinions, thoughts and ideas can save you a lot of time and money. What’s more, they can keep you on the right path toward identifying the best home, and they’ll see you through the process all the way to the closing.
Related:

Please follow Century 21 Gold-The Smits Team on FacebookTwitter and Google Plus. Visit our website to search for homes in Summit County, Colorado. Do you want to know the value of your home. Let us help you by creating a Comparative Market Analysis



*Brendon DeSimone is a Realtor, a regular HGTV contributor and one of the nation’s leading real estate experts. He has collaborated on multiple real estate books and his expert advice is regularly sought out by print, online and television media outlets like FOX News, CNBC and Forbes. An avid investor, Brendon owns real estate around the US and abroad and is licensed to sell in both California and New York. You can find Brendon online or follow him on Twitter.
Note: The views and opinions expressed in this article are those of the author and do not necessarily reflect the opinion or position of Zillow or Century 21 Gold-The Smits Team.

Should You List Your Home During the Holidays?



Courtesy of Zillow.com

With the holidays approaching, sellers often wonder if they should keep their properties on the market or take them off? Or if they haven’t listed their homes yet, should they wait until after the first of the year? Maybe hold off until spring?
Conventional wisdom used to be that you shouldn’t even try to sell your home during the busy holiday season. Potential home buyers were too preoccupied with attending parties, cooking meals, buying presents or planning vacations. With all that going on, there just wasn’t time to ride around with a real estate agent, looking at properties.
But with the Internet, smartphones, tablets and our always-on lifestyle, that conventional wisdom isn’t relevant anymore. The reality is, the home buying season is now year-round.
Here’s why you should consider listing your home during the holidays, or even in January.

Today’s buyers never stop looking online

Today, serious buyers are always looking — and the holidays are no exception. They may check out the latest listings in a Zillow Mobile app before bed or while waiting for the kids’ school holiday show to start.
Our hectic lifestyles also play a role. Many serious buyers today work hard. They don’t shift into holiday mode until the last minute. Even during the holiday break, they’re still squeezing in work. There’s no such thing for them as “going off the grid.” So why not continue to monitor real estate listings, too?

The inventory — and the competition — is usually lighter

Despite our always-on lifestyles, many sellers still believe buyers can’t be bothered to look for a home between, say, Thanksgiving and Valentine’s Day. At the same time, sellers who’ve had their homes on the market often take them off during the holidays.
The net effect is that the inventory for good homes often tightens this time of year. So there’s less competition for sellers, at a time when motivated buyers are out there looking — and no doubt wishing there were more properties to see.
If you’ve been considering selling, are motivated, are flexible on timing and have a home that truly sparkles, consider listing right after Thanksgiving. There’s still a window of several weeks to get buyers into your home before the end of the year. And those buyers flipping through listings at their kids’ basketball game will be excited to see something new and awesome hit the market — especially if there’s a lack of good inventory in their area. These buyers will be motivated to see your home, regardless of what the calendar says.

Home not selling? Now’s the time to lower the price or change your strategy

If your property has been on the market for months, most buyers and their agents will see it as stale or overpriced and disregard it no matter how great it is or how light the competition is.
In that case, it’s time to take action, and the year-end holidays can be a great opportunity to shift course. Dramatically reducing the price or overcoming some major obstacle that’s been preventing the sale might be what’s needed to sell your home. If you received lower offers early on but weren’t ready to accept them, or you keep hearing there are issues with how your property shows, this is a good time to show the market you’re listening and are serious about selling. The motivated buyers, desperate for good inventory, will notice you and take a look.
You might even get a sale closed before the end of the year. Before you make any big changes, talk it over with your real estate agent, as always.

Don’t want to be bothered during the holidays? List in January

Admittedly, the thought of keeping the house clean, holding open houses and vacating to accommodate last-minute showings during the holidays is a deal killer for some would-be sellers.
If so, consider listing your property after New Year’s Day. Traditionally, not much inventory comes onto the market in January. It’s cold in most places, the leaves are off the trees and landscaping is dead. Many sellers wait until the spring instead, a more conventional time to sell.
January inventory is still very tight. And yet, each January, buyers call up agents, wanting to get into the market. Often, new buyers — with their fresh New Year’s resolutions to stop wasting money on rent and buy a home — are ready to jump into the market as soon as possible. Some buyers are motivated to search for a home in January because of year-end tax planning.
Whatever the buyers’ motivation, for sellers it means one thing: Demand for homes can increase at a time when inventory is traditionally low. And that means if you’re ready to sell, you’ll have an even more “captive” audience during the holidays, all the way through January.
Related:

Please follow Century 21 Gold-The Smits Team on Facebook, Twitter and Google Plus. Visit our website to search for homes in Summit County, Colorado. Do you want to know the value of your home. Let us help you by creating a Comparative Market Analysis
Brendon DeSimone is a Realtor and a real estate expert.  His practical advice is regularly sought out by print, online and television media outlets including FOX News, CNBC, USA Today, Bloomberg, FOX Business and Forbes. An active investor himself, Brendon owns real estate around the U.S. and abroad and is licensed to sell in California and New York. You can find Brendon on Facebook or follow him on Twitter or Google Plus.

Note: The views and opinions expressed in this article are those of the author and do not necessarily reflect the opinion or position of Zillow or Century 21 Gold-The Smits Team.

Despite inventory shortages, homebuyers looking for bargains this winter



Courtesy of: Inman News

Prospective homebuyers hoping to buy a home in the next four months say the lack of inventory is their biggest challenge, but many believe winter is a good time to buy because sellers are motivated to sell and more willing to negotiate.

That’s according to a survey of more than 1,300 visitors to realtor.com conducted from Nov. 7-16, which found 45 percent of buyers in the market said there’s not enough inventory in their price range. 

The survey also found that a surprising number of prospective homebuyers — 19 percent — are planning to do all-cash deals.

Of those planning to buy without taking out a mortgage:
29 percent said they are downsizing to a smaller or less expensive home.
26 percent are relocation buyers.
11 percent are moving up to a bigger or more expensive home.
11 percent are buying a vacation home.

But most of those surveyed said they’ll need a mortgage to finance their home purchase. Among that group, most did not have the 20 percent down payment that would allow them to qualify them for a conventional loan backed by Fannie Mae or Freddie Mac without having to also purchase mortgage insurance.

More than 1 in 10 of those surveyed (13 percent) said they were planning to put just 3.5 percent down (the minimum down payment on FHA-guaranteed loans). Only 22 percent said they’d be able to make a down payment of more than 20 percent, which would allow them to avoid purchasing mortgage insurance. -

See more at: http://www.inman.com/2013/11/20/despite-inventory-shortages-homebuyers-looking-for-bargains-this-winter/#sthash.WvSA0E2F.dpuf

JUST SOLD- 55 SPYGLASS LANE #55, SILVERTHORNE, CO

Lovely 3 story condo on the

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55 SPYGLASS LANE #55
SILVERTHORNE, CO 80498
Bedrooms: 3
Bathrooms : 3 ( 3 full )
List Price: $325,000
Living Area Approx : 1532
Lovely 3 story condo on the bus route with new tile floors and wood trim. Vaulted ceilings in the living room right off the kitchen lead out to a spacious deck with grill and views of Buffalo Mountain. Brand new stainless steel appliances in kitchen and plenty of natural light with windows on every level!

Feature List:

MLS#: S383660
PropertyType: Residential
PropertySubtype: Townhouse
Lot Size: 0
Appliances: Dishwasher, Garbage Disposer, Microwave, Refrigerator
ArchitectureStyle: Other
HeatingSystems: Radiant
IsNewConstruction: No
ParkingTypes: Garage

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3-level Townhome close to Main Street Frisco, CO- 124 Creekside Drive #E, Frisco, CO

124 Creekside Drive #E, Frisco, CO
3 level Townhome close to Main Street
Bedrooms: 3
Bathrooms: 2 full, 1 half
Living Area Approx: 1823
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With views to the South of Mount Royal and Ten Mile Range & North vistas to Buffalo & the Gore this 3 level townhome will excite your Frisco buyers! Three level townhome property with multiple decks and a patio. Open kitchen & living area with powder room & wood burning fireplace, two additional bedrooms and master on upper level & third bed/bath suite walks out to lawn. Offered furnished.
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Remodeled! 21650 HWY 6, #2096, KEYSTONE, CO, 80435

21650 HWY 6 HIGHWAY #2096, KEYSTONE, CO
THIS PERFECTLY REMODELED CONDO IS JUST
Bedrooms: 1
Bathrooms: 1 full
Living Area Approx: 675
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THIS PERFECTLY REMODELED CONDO IS JUST MINUTES AWAY FROM THE SLOPES IN KEYSTONE AND SLEEPS 6! ENJOY THE NEW KITCHEN, NEW HARDWOOD FLOORS, NEW FURNITURE, FAUX PAINTING, AND THE FIREPLACE SURROUNDED BY NATURAL RUSTIC SLATE! AFTER A GREAT DAY ON THESLOPES ENJOY THE CLUBHOUSE WITH A POOL AND HOTTUB.
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