This is an ‘off’ year for property tax assessments. The Larimer County Tax Assessor is required to provide a Notice of Value (NOV) for all properties every two years and the last one was issued in May of 2007 setting the value for the 2007 and 2008 tax years. This last NOV used four years of transaction data ending June 30, 2006.

In the off year only those properties with a change of ownership or an increase in value due to property improvements will receive a Notice of Value. This notice was mailed the first week of May and covers approximately 10%, or 15,000, of all the properties in Larimer County. Most of these notices will not show any increase in value unless there were improvements, for example a permit for basement finish or tenant finish. If you received an increase in the NOV for a property you own and you wish to protest this increase, you may do so by completing the protest form and presenting it in person or by faxing or mailing it to the Assessors office. This year for the first time you also have the option of filing the protest on line at www.larimer.org/assessor/protest.

For senior citizens who turned 65 prior to January 1, 2008 and qualify for the senior citizen tax exemption and have not filed the application form, you need to complete this and submit it prior to the July 15, 2008 deadline. Note that there is no make up provision if you miss filing by the deadline.

The next NOV for all property owners will be mailed in May of 2009 and the data used will be for the five year period prior to June 2008. This value will be used for the 2009 and 2010 tax years. Collecting this data is a full time job for the County Assessors office and their records are updated on a regular basis.

All of this information is available to you at the web site www.larimer.org/assessor. This web site has a wealth of detail including a ‘Property Explorer’ feature. You can search for individual properties by parcel number, address, owner, etc. and then you can find comparable residential sales by subdivision or neighborhood. The lists show the most recent sales date and price, a ‘time adjusted sales price’, style of home, square feet of home above grade, below grade, garage, lot size, year built and the most recent valuation. The data can be sorted by sales date, sales price, address, etc. and the results can by printed or exported to Excel. You can determine the ownership, assessed value and property tax bill for any property in the county, in addition to the sales price history and each buyer and seller. There is a Yahoo map link showing the location as well as a color aerial map to locate any property and a ‘Frequently Asked Questions’ which provides detailed information on many subjects. If you are looking for information, doing research, just killing time or want to play ‘Big Brother’ it is all there on this site.

There is also a link to the House Price Index as calculated by the Office of Federal Housing Enterprise Oversight (OFHEO) which we report quarterly. And finally there is a link to Zillow.com which tracks housing prices on a local basis. This site appears to be more and more accurate and is one of the tools used by our County Tax Assessor in setting property values.

Congratulations to Steve Miller, the Larimer County Assessor and his staff for an excellent web site and a very user friendly presentation of information. The availability should be very helpful and eliminate much of the confusion come property tax assessment protest time.

We have been upbeat throughout this real estate downturn proclaiming that “the sky is not falling” and better times are just around the corner but some of the air is beginning to leak out of the balloon. Local home sales were down again in April, a streak that has now reached eight months with a total decline of 15.8% over that period of time. More importantly, April also brought the largest average selling price drop that we can find going back in thirty years of records. It was only 4.6% and we still have a modest 1.7% increase compared to the first four months of last year but the median price also declined 4.8% and now shows a drop of 1.8% for the year to date. Without being to maudlin about it, these are historic numbers. The biggest year to year decrease in home sales ever was 21% in 1982 and only twice since then have we even had a 7% drop (2003 and 2006). On top of that we have never experienced a year to year decline in average selling price. But with some pretty heavy sales numbers that were recorded during the May to September period last year, it now seems like it will be a tall order to match those sales and prices. This means we could head into the fall with a double digit decrease in sales and perhaps even a decrease in average selling price.

In the last three years, the average selling price in Fort Collins is up just 5.2% and the median price is up3.2%. This is razor thin and given these averages there have to be lots of homes that have actually declined in value. And it is much worse in our neighboring communities. The median selling price in Loveland and south Larimer County is down 8.2% compared to last year and while they show a very slight 1.0% improvement in the average selling price since 2005, the median price has declined 6.9%. In Greeley and Weld County, the average selling price is down 5.9% for the year to date and has dropped 7.1% since 2005. The median price shows a similar drop of 6.8%.

And now for the good news - at least for home sellers! Marketing times are shorter. Homes sold in April averaged 113 days on the market compared to 137 days last year. For the year to date, the average is 120 days, down from 136 last year. The inventory of homes for sale continues well below last year with 2,044 active listings at the end of April, down 12.1% from last year and up just 3.8% from the end of March. Based on sales over the last twelve months this is equivalent to a 7.1 month supply, close to a balanced market of supply and demand.

For sellers, if you are motivated – and we have to assume that you are if you have your home on the market at this time – be assured that there are qualified buyers – who are looking for homes that are competitively priced and in move in condition. They will not look at homes deemed to be overpriced or homes that are in poor showing condition or with deferred maintenance. If they do you can expect an offering price that could be discounted 10% or more from your asking price.

For buyers, you have the best of all worlds. Flat selling prices that have increased just 1% to 2% per year for the last few years, a good selection of homes offered by motivated sellers and mortgage interest rates that are about as low as they have ever been. If you are an investor or a speculator, you might have reason to be nervous about the direction of the market and the sidelines would seem to be a good place to be, but if you intend to live in your home for a few years, now is the time to buy and start enjoying it.

You’ve heard the expression “Sell the sizzle, not the steak.” Selling a home is just like marketing any other product. The more effort you put into the marketing, the more results you are likely to see in terms of activity and offers.

The first thing to realize is that whatever condition your home is in, it probably is not in “show” condition. There are items we learn to live with to the point that we forget the little eyesores and honey-do’s that never got done. Over the years, clutter accumulates. Our eyes adjust to that low light and that fading paint color. We love the home as it is, and fail to see what the home is like compared to others. Other homes – your competition - may be in show condition. If yours isn’t, it will look tired by comparison.

Second, your buyer is going to view your home with the opposite attitude from yours. You are presenting something you are proud of - the buyer is going to do his/her best to find as much wrong with it as possible. If they find too much wrong with it, they’ll walk. If they like the house, they will try to find enough wrong with it to make a lower offer. The reason they do that is to get you to lower the price. Remember the buyer and the seller have opposite goals. You are trying to sell the home for the most money - the buyer is trying to buy it for the least.

Your best strategy to stick to your goal is to disarm the buyer before they even get through the door. Make them want the house so much from the time they drive up in front that they are willing to come up in price to get it.

That’s called curb appeal.

What makes curb appeal? Curb appeal is an intangible, subjective quality - but it is the one thing that can really sell a house. It is that quality that makes the buyer start thinking emotionally instead of practically. It builds desire, the desire to own and to live a certain lifestyle that the exterior of the home appears to advertise. It can take you back to your childhood to when you had a home just like this one with the flowers in the front and the winding walkway to the door, and a beautiful brass doorknocker on the front door. It is the quality that makes you want to go inside.

That is why if you have a limited budget to spend on marketing your home, you want to put the majority of it toward sprucing up the front entrance to your home. And a lot of improvement you can do with a little elbow grease. Here are a few ideas.

* Clear away anything dead - dead leaves, dead flowers. Trim the trees, clean up the flower beds.

* Tune up the grass – make it as green or greener than your neighbors. Clean up any winter kill.

* It’s spring time so plant some blooming flowers for color. Add some potted plant containers.

* Paint the front door, trim, fence and anything else that needs painting. Try to choose a neutral color that goes with the brick, roof or trim of your home.

* Open the front curtains. Clean the windows. Turn on the lights.

* Put out a clean, new welcome mat.

* Check out your gutters and downspouts.

* Consider repairing or redoing the concrete flatwork if it is severely cracked or dangerous.

* Polish the brass doorknocker, the mailbox, light fixtures, and address numbers.

* If you have a front porch, keep it swept clean.

* Take the hose and wash down the front of your home removing the winter dirt and grime. And while you are at it, you may as well do the rear and the patio.

* Keep the garage door closed. Make sure it is clean. Put bikes, tricycles and children’s toys out of the way.

* Safely lock away pets. If you have a pet that remains in the back yard, let the showing agent know in advance. If your dog is a barker, overly protective, or otherwise ill mannered, arrange to board it or take it with you during showings.

What your buyer sees from the street is the first impression they will have of your home. You want it to be a good one, especially if there is a home down the street for sale that may be a little bit prettier, a little bit bigger, or a little bit less money or something more. Don’t worry, you aren’t out of the running yet.

Remember that your buyer’s first impression of the exterior of the home is important because it sets the tone for the rest of the buyer’s walk through. If the buyer has fallen in love with the exterior, they will look more favorably on what they find inside.

Ask your real estate professional to critique your home and offer suggestions for developing curb appeal. And then, get started inside!

The real estate sales figures that we report each month are calculated from information received from IRES which is the multi-list service owned by the Realtor brokerage firms in northern Colorado. The Fort Collins figures are ‘Area 9’ as reported by IRES and includes all of northern Larimer County from CR 32 north to the Wyoming border. In addition to Fort Collins, this includes areas like La Porte, Bellevue, Livermore, Red Feather and Wellington. It also includes areas on the east side of I-25 like Ptarmigan but it does not include Highland Meadows or any of the areas to the south of the border line. These home sales are reported in the Area 8 sales which include Loveland, Berthoud and all the areas in south Larimer County.

Homes with a Fort Collins mailing address account for 85 to 90% of the sales in Area 9. The home sales reported are actually a total of all residential sales, as opposed to commercial, investment and farm properties. There are four sub categories of residential sales: single family detached homes both new and resale and attached homes new and resale. The largest category is single family resale homes which make up about 70% of the total sales and total resale including detached and attached are 85% of total sales. New home sales make up the balance.

The sales for the first three months of 2008 compared to 2007 are shown on the chart. March is the seventh month in a row with a double digit decrease in sales but we have now rung up five consecutive months with an increase in the average selling price.

By sub category, sales of single family resale homes are down 13.8% for the first quarter and the average selling price is up 7.9% to $272,790. Resale attached homes are exactly even with a year ago and the average selling price is up 5.9% to $150,059. New home sales are down 25.3% and the average price is up 0.7% to $350,892 and new attached sales are down 31% with an average price of $236,686, an increase of 13.8%.

One reader has questioned whether the local market has actually experienced an increase in the average selling price, calling into question the statistics with the old line: “there are lies, damn lies and statistics”. Naturally with the very narrow average price increases we have experienced over the last few years; like a total of 3.4% since 2005 and less than 20% compounded since 2002, there are going to be examples of some homes which have not benefited by appreciation. With the choices that buyers have today, any home that does not show well, has not been sufficiently maintained or is in the ‘wrong’ location, is going to be a challenge to sell in this highly competitive environment. And given the costs to sell a home it is certain that some sellers have taken less than what they might have invested in their home.

But the local average price increase seems to be supported by the quarterly reports issued by the Office of Federal Housing Enterprise Oversight (OFHEO). They prepare a ‘purchase only’ house price index (HPI) from data reported on mortgage financings on same home sales. In other words, they are not using average or median prices but they are tracking the change in value on the same home over a period of time whenever that home sells. Their most recent report covering the fourth quarter of 2007 showed a 1.8% one year increase in the Fort Collins – Loveland metropolitan district. This is exactly the same as the 1.8% increase in average price that we reported for Area 9. For the last five years OFHEO calculated a 12.3% increase which is somewhat less than the average price increase of 19.2% reported using IRES figures. This difference however is not out of range statistically, averaging just more than 1.0% per annum.

As we have repeated many times, the bad news is we never got to participate in the double digit annual home price increases experienced in many areas of the country over the last few years but the good news is, we are not facing a depressed market with declining home prices.

Pam & Dave Pettigrew, Real Estate Brokers and Certified Residential Specialists are available to answer your questions on real estate. Write to them at Prudential Rocky Mountain, REALTORS, 2700 S. College, Fort Collins, 80525, call them directly at (970) 282-9305 or email FCRealtor@msn.com. For an archive of past columns and market information visit their award winning web site at www.FortCollinsRelocation.com

Supply and demand is the driving force behind the pricing and marketing of most commodities. If the supply is increased without a corresponding increase in demand, prices tend to decrease. Alternatively, if there is an increase in demand without an increase in supply, prices tend to increase.

Real estate is no exception. Our local real estate market has been helped by a reduction in supply which in turn has helped to maintain selling prices. A balanced real estate market is considered to be a six-month supply of homes. One of the problems on the national scene is that the inventory of homes for sale has increased from a 4 month supply to a 9 month supply over the last couple of years. The inventory or supply is the actual number of listings for sale at any one time. The demand is usually calculated based on the last twelve months of sales.

As shown on the graph, the current inventory of active listings in the Fort Collins area is 2,028 homes. The sales over the last twelve months have totaled 3,550 homes so the demand is 296 per month. The inventory therefore equates to a 6.9 month supply based on demand over the last year. This is in the buyer’s market territory but supply / demand / days on market vary significantly by price range as shown in the table.

In the price range up to $300,000 there is a fairly balanced market but it certainly turns into a buyers market in the higher price ranges. Homes priced above $400,000 are in the top 10% of the market with just 31 sales per month. The current inventory of 448 homes is equivalent to a 14 month supply. The top 5% of the market is homes priced above $500,000 and the demand for just 16 homes per month gives us a 19 month supply. Based on sales, there is a two to three year supply of homes priced above $750,000.

We have to remember that these are averages and in almost any price range there will be a home that sells in a matter of days and there will be another home that will languish on the market and be passed over again and again because it is not in the same condition or does not have the same appeal of other similarly priced properties. As a seller you need to remember that your home is in competition with a lot of other homes in the same price range and the more homes that are available the tougher the competition. As a buyer, you are also in competition with other buyers looking in the same price range for the same features you want. If there are more homes for sale than the current demand can support, you may have the luxury of time, but the home that represents the best value can still sell quickly.

Both sellers and buyers need to discuss strategy and have a plan in place prior to beginning the process of buying or selling. For assistance in this planning you should rely on the services of a real estate professional.

Pam & Dave Pettigrew, Real Estate Brokers and Certified Residential Specialists are available to answer your questions on real estate. Write to them at Prudential Rocky Mountain, REALTORS, 2700 S. College, Fort Collins, 80525, call them directly at (970) 282-9305 or email FCRealtor@msn.com. For an archive of past columns and market information visit their award winning web site at www.FortCollinsRelocation.com

Spring is the time of new beginnings; for many it is graduation and the beginning of a new career, for others it is marriage and the beginning of a family. It is an exciting time of year, a time for growth and renewal. It is also when many people shop for a home, whether it is their first home, a bigger home, a smaller home, a newer home or just a change of location or scenery.

For those of you who are considering the purchase of their first home, the doubts are sometimes considerable, particularly now given the current headlines screaming about mortgage problems and home price declines. Questions like Can I afford a home? Will I qualify for financing? Where do I get a mortgage? How will I find a home that fits my needs? What will it cost? And much more!

For those of you that are renting, there are many reasons you should become home owners but here are ten we think are important.

Consider these benefits of homeownership.

1. Pride of Ownership
   Owning your own home adds to your sense of self-esteem and personal pride. The satisfaction that comes from feeling connected to the land you own and the home in which you live is ages-old.
2. Security of Tenancy
   With homeownership comes stability. When renting, you never know when you may have to move because of new ownership, rent increases, deterioration of the property or other changes. As a homeowner, you decide when and if you want to move.
3. Privacy
   While there are usually some limits on the access landlords have to property, almost all landlords can access your property for necessary inspections and maintenance. For many renters, this lack of privacy is a significant discomfort. Homeowners on the other hand generally have much stronger property rights.
4. Decorating
   Homeowners are free to decorate, remodel and accessorize a home any way they want. Not only do you have the right to make improvements, but the value of those improvements becomes yours as well. Having your living space just the way you want it can significantly increase your satisfaction with your living environment.
5. Financial Predictability
   When you buy a home with a fixed-rate mortgage, most of your monthly housing payment is fixed. Financial planning and credit are more easily managed with cost certainty.
6. Building Equity
   When you own your own home, you pay rent to yourself instead of a landlord. Most homeowners pay for their purchase by obtaining a mortgage. As you pay off that mortgage, your equity builds and you gain an increasingly larger share in a valuable asset. Over time, that asset can work for you in many ways, such as home equity lines of credit which can be used for education, home improvements, medical emergencies or much more.
7. Investment Appreciation
   There are certainly no guarantees of property value appreciation but in the long-term real estate valuations almost always increase. In fact, in Fort Collins, there has never been a decline in the year to year average selling price in the records we have that go back to 1976. In the last thirty years the average price has increased $200,000 and in the last ten years it has gone up $100,000. When you decide to sell your home this appreciation is usually tax-free. You can reinvest that appreciation in a bigger home, in real estate or other investments or you may wish to downsize and keep the ‘profit’ for retirement or other purposes.
8. Tax Benefits
   The cost of home mortgage interest and property taxes are usually tax-deductible. Depending on your circumstances, thousands of dollars in taxes can be saved each year resulting in more take home pay.
9. Interest Rates
   Mortgage interest rates remain at historically low levels. This can save you a significant amount on your monthly payment and / or allow you to qualify for a bigger mortgage.
10. Supply
    At the present time, there is a good selection of all types of homes on the market, most properties are competitively priced and sellers are motivated.

If you still have doubts, please contact a mortgage lender or a real estate professional. They can answer questions and perhaps alleviate any concerns you may have about homeownership and explain the buying process to you. Make “Purchasing A Home” a new beginning for you.

Pam & Dave Pettigrew, Real Estate Brokers and Certified Residential Specialists are available to answer your questions on real estate. Write to them at Prudential Rocky Mountain, REALTORS, 2700 S. College, Fort Collins, 80525, call them directly at (970) 282-9305 or email FCRealtor@msn.com. For an archive of past columns and market information visit their award winning web site at www.FortCollinsRelocation.com

REAL ESTATE COLUMN FOR SUNDAY MARCH 16, 2008

Same old! Same old! Another double digit decline in home sales in February and a significant improvement in the average selling price. Since this slide began in September last year sales are down 17% and the average price is up 1.9%. For the first two months of the year, sales are down 16.7% and the average price is up 8.5%. Obviously those buyers who are undecided are letting opportunity pass by because it is evident that we are not going to have any major price decline in this market.

At the end of last year, the average selling price received a boost from new home sales but in the first two months of this year, the largest category, resale single family homes are leading the way. Comparing the first two months of 2007 with the first two months of 2008, the average selling price is up 10.6% to $275,701 for this category of homes while the average selling price of new construction is down 9.5% to $301,292.

The number of homes for sale increased to 1,813 at the end of February compared to 1,690 at the end of January but is still 8.4% below last year. Based on the last six month sales, this is a nine month supply but with increased sales expected over the next six months the current inventory is equal to just a five month supply. Obviously an increase in sales will bring an increase in supply but, for sellers, the lower inventory is an advantage. The average number of days on market for the February closed home sales was 138, a big jump from the 108 in January but also an improvement from the 151 DOM last year.

Our neighbors in Weld County continue to suffer through both sales and price declines with year to date sales down 22.7% and the average price down 12.2% to $180,413. Windsor is particularly hard hit with year to date sales down 36.1% and the average price down 15.4% to $214,624. There is a current inventory of 422 homes for sale and with just 150 sales in the last six months this is a seventeen month supply – a big road block to any improvement. Home sales in the Loveland and southern Larimer County area are down just 1.1% but the average selling price is off 4.4% to $255,769.

The Denver metro area is focusing more on homes placed under contract (rather than closed sales) and they report a 4.9% increase for the year to date. The average selling price for single family homes is down 5.0% to $280,039 and for multi-family homes down 0.7% to $168,719.

The national sales figures for February won’t be available until next week but in January existing home sales were down 23.4% from a year earlier and the median price was down 4.6% to $201,100. The housing inventory increased to a 10.3 month supply, up from a 9.7 month supply at the end of December.

So the message remains the same. If you are a home seller, make sure your home is properly priced, in very good showing condition and ‘hang in there’! If you are a home buyer, it’s not going to get any better - go buy a home!

Pam & Dave Pettigrew, Real Estate Brokers and Certified Residential Specialists are available to answer your questions on real estate. Write to them at Prudential Rocky Mountain, REALTORS, 2700 S. College, Fort Collins, 80525, call them directly at (970) 282-9305 or email FCRealtor@msn.com. For an archive of past columns and market information visit their award winning web site at www.FortCollinsRelocation.com

REAL ESTATE COLUMN FOR SUNDAY MARCH 9, 2008

It has now been a full year since the news first broke about the problems with sub prime mortgage lending and the real estate news on the national scene just seems to be getting worse with the latest headline screaming “Collapsing Housing Market”; an overly dramatic headline but just one of the many discouraging reports about the current state of the housing industry. The full year of negative publicity is almost self fulfilling and there are a lot of potential buyers who are on the fence, concerned about paying too much or wondering about their ability to qualify for a mortgage. On the other side of the fence, there are many motivated home sellers, or would be home sellers, who are concerned about going through the hassle of putting their home on the market at a fair price and waiting months for an acceptable offer.

We have to continue to emphasize that real estate is local and while we are not insulated from the national news, a lot of areas, including our local area, are in much better shape. We ended 2007 with a small 2.6% decrease in housing sales and a respectable 1.8% increase in the average price. We have experienced double digit sales decreases for the last few months but prices have held up very well.

And the 2007 fourth quarter report just released by the Office of Federal Housing Enterprise Oversight (OFHEO) certainly points to the stability of our local market. For the fourth quarter, U. S. home prices were up 0.1% compared to the third quarter and ended the year with a 0.8% price increase. Colorado was above the national average for the second quarter in a row, after years of being on the other side of the line. The state showed a 1.4% price increase but is still way behind the activity in the rest of the Mountain Region. Utah remained at #1 in the country with a one year increase of 9.3% followed by Wyoming #2 at 8.3%, Montana #4 at 6.9%, New Mexico #7 at 5.4% and Idaho #12 at 4.6%. The other Mountain Region states were Arizona #46 at -2.4% and Nevada #50 at -5.9%, obviously going through a bit of a price correction from their lofty increases of the last couple of years.

The Fort Collins – Loveland area continues to move up the charts, from a ranking of 226 out of 291 areas in the first quarter to 206 in the second quarter to 197 in the third quarter and to a 145 ranking in the fourth quarter with an increase of 1.8%. Interestingly, this 1.8% calculated by OFHEO is the same 1.8% that we show using the change in average selling price. The seven Colorado MSA’s one year increase and national ranking are as follows:

It is evident that our modest price increases have provided a very stable market and our one year increase of 1.8% has moved our home price increase in one year from the bottom 25% in the nation to the current ranking in the top 50% of the 291 MSA districts. Still, when compared to what is happening in most of the rest of the Mountain Region, where the five year price increase stands at 53.9%, our 12.3% increase as calculated by OFHEO has to make our current housing prices very attractive. With a good selection of homes and mortgage interest rates below 6%, this has to be the right time to be a home buyer.

Pam & Dave Pettigrew, Real Estate Brokers and Certified Residential Specialists are available to answer your questions on real estate. Write to them at Prudential Rocky Mountain, REALTORS, 2700 S. College, Fort Collins, 80525, call them directly at (970) 282-9305 or email FCRealtor@msn.com. For an archive of past columns and market information visit their award winning web site at www.FortCollinsRelocation.com

When we originally reported 2007 Fort Collins home sales, the total was 3,611. A few additional sales have been reported since then with the final total now at 3,615. The month by month comparison for the last three years is in the table following. The last four months of home sales declined 17.2% from the previous year and took us from a 3.3% increase to a 2.6% decrease for the year. In spite of the low sales, prices held up and the year ended with a slight 1.8% price increase.

We have tracked home sales and average selling price since 1976 and these two graphs show the trends for the past thirty two years.

Note that the three year period from 2005 to 2007 is just the second time that there has been a three year decline in home sales. The other period was from 1993 to 1995 and the next year showed a 10% increase in sales. We are not forecasting anything near a 10% recovery for 2008 but expect sales to start improving in the second quarter of the year on the way to a 2 – 3% sales increase for the year. Nevertheless, the ‘boom’ of a double digit increase in sales has to be somewhere just down the road.

The average selling price begins at $37,804 in 1976 and there has been an unbroken string of price increases right through to the $253,545 in 2007. Since the last double digit increases experienced in 1999 and 2000 the average selling price has increased just 29% in the last seven years. We experienced a similar seven year period from 1986 to 1992 when the average price increased 27%. This was followed by 33% two year price increase. A four year ‘flat’ period from 1995 to 1998 was followed by a 22% jump in the next two years. So the only question to be answered is when the slump will end and the jump begins. We don’t expect it this year and are forecasting a further 2 – 3% increase in the average selling price for 2008 but there should be no doubt that as the recovery takes hold we can look for a double digit price increase sometime in the foreseeable future.

So don’t believe all the doomsayers. Our local real estate market is healthy and due to get better!

08/04/2007

Finding and purchasing a newly constructed home is a completely different experience that looking for a resale home. In the case of the resale home a potential buyer may have difficulty looking past the clutter and condition and picturing them living in the home. Many resale homes do not show well, particularly when compared to builder model homes which may be loaded with upgrades, features and options and are professionally designed, decorated and furnished to show at their best.

Another difference is that interested buyers will normally have to be accompanied by a real estate agent to look at resale homes while a visit to a new home builder model can be undertaken like visiting an open house, with even more convenient hours.

It is wise to remember however, that, just like a professional real estate agent can assist you with researching and finding the right resale home and helping you with the offer and working through the myriad of details as you proceed to closing, they can also play an important role in helping you find and purchase a newly constructed home. It might not seem necessary to involve a real estate professional in a transaction where a buyer can deal directly with a builder. However, by using a real estate professional, you have someone to protect your interests and guide you along the right path. Here are 10 advantages to using a real estate professional when buying a newly constructed home.

Just as a real estate professional calls on experience and knowledge of an area to help buyers locate pre-owned homes in a community, he or she can also direct buyers interested in newly-built homes to developments and communities that match client specifications.

A sales professional can suggest builders with reputations for delivering a high-quality product, responding quickly to issues, and being financially sound.

A sales professional may be familiar with how a builder prices his products and where there may be room to negotiate price or upgrades.

Without representation, you are one buyer purchasing only one home. But a sales professional can significantly impact a builder’s bottom line by providing a steady supply of customers. This leverage may work in your favor at the negotiating table.

The lender approval process may go smoother if a sales professional schedules visits, accompanies you to lenders, and helps expedite required documents.

What may seem like a simple transaction can grow legally complex and risky. On signing a contract you may receive literally hundreds of sheets of papers and documents, covering not only the purchase contract but soils information, builder warranty and other disclosures, home owner association documents, covenants, conditions and restrictions, lists of options and upgrades, title and closing information and much more. A sales professional is familiar with these documents and with the complexities and risks inherent in the home buying process. They can explain the process to you and when questions arise, they can steer you to the right advisors and services you may require.

When relocating to a new area, sales professionals can be particularly valuable resources. In addition to providing local area information regarding schools, day care or elder care services, public transportation, proposed development, and so on. Once construction is under way, they can periodically stop by the work site, supply you with progress reports, and photograph or videotape phases of the construction.

A sales professional can assist you as you face hundreds of design choices and consider which upgrades could potentially add value to the home when it comes time to sell.

A sales professional can accompany you at the site while you okay the plumbing and electrical locations prior to dry walling, as well as on the walk-through or builder orientation.

Lastly, most often the builder pays your sales professional’s commission. You enjoy individual attention and support at no cost to you.

The most important thing to remember is that if you decide to utilize the services of a Realtor to assist you in finding and purchasing a home from a builder, you need to select that person at the beginning of the process. Most builders require you to be accompanied by your agent when you first visit their model home or, at the very least, to register the name of the agent you will be using should you decide to purchase from that builder. This requirement is usually posted at the sales office / model home, if not be sure to ask about the registration procedure prior to signing in at any builder model home development.

• Building Your Dream Home
• Building Your Own Personal Custom Dream Home