ForeclosureA Builder’s Success StoryTuesday, July 6th, 2010Tamrick Homes is a small builder that did not know if they would survive the real estate crash. In 2006, they started a development that was planned for 120 homes in Dacono, Colorado which is a southern Weld County about 20 minutes from downtown Denver and just south of Longmont. At that time, many builders – large and small, had the cities of Dacono, Firestone, and Frederick on their radar. People were moving there en mass because of larger lots, larger homes, wide open spaces and really affordable prices. Tamrick jumped into the mix and had just cleared phase one of the development. Infrastructure was in place and they started building homes. The plan was simple develop and build the first 40 or so lots in Phase One then start on Phases Two, Three and Four. The problem was that the economy had other plans. After selling the first half dozen homes they built it was pretty quiet in Eagle Meadow Estates. They tried everything to entice and attract buyers, but there were none. In fact, there were some pretty dark days where Tamrick thought they would be another builder casualty from the great crash of ‘08 and ‘09. Credit the banks that held the notes on Eagle Meadow Estates. They worked with Tamrick Homes to keep the project alive and keep it out of foreclosure. Tamrick did their part and came up with a new game plan to startmarketing a product line of homes that appealed to a wider audience at a more affordable price. They did creative financing and at the beginning of this year, there was some light at the end of the tunnel. The banks saw that the economy was coming around and buyers were showing some interest in the homes there. Lo and behold, the banks offered Tamrick money to build their first spec home in 18 months. Fast forward to today and Tamrick is busy building homes every month in Eagle Meadow Estates and all are under contract. This is a fine example of a bank and a builder working together to get through the tough economic times. Tamrick is going to be fine and will make it through, but many builders, even the big, ones did not. I would like to say that banks have gotten the message on the need to work with people and companies to find solutions, but I am going to reserve those comments for now until I hear or see more stories like Eagle Meadow Estates. Dan Polimino is a Realtor with Fuller Sotheby’s International Realty. He can be reached atDPolimino@fullerproperties.com and www.coloradodreamhouse.com/denverpost
Interest Rates May Be The Best Reason To BuyMonday, February 8th, 2010As realtors, we are always telling people why “today or now is a good time to buy” and many times we have good reason for that. The prices are down and there are a number of foreclosures available, buyer incentives, etc, etc. Maybe the best reason of all right now to buy is the interest rate. I know mortgage lenders are always talking about this and advertising this, but we hear it so much that we forget to pay attention to it. If you really stop and think about it, interest rates may be the biggest influence on whether we can buy or not. Let’s face it, the vast majority of the population buy based on what they can afford in a monthly mortgage payment. Nothing affects that more or greater than the interest rate. Let’s take a look at a snap shot of a few figures to see the real impact when interest rates rise and what that does to your monthly payments. According to Metrolist, at the end of 2009 the average price for a single family home was $281K. For this example, let’s call it an even $280,000 and let’s also base all of our calculations on a 30-year-fixed. We’ll take a look at a 5% loan, a 6%, and a 7%. We are also all in agreement that it’s unlikely that interest rates will go lower and the reality is that they are only going high from here.
Just the jump from 5% to 6% almost added $200 a month to your payment and we still haven’t added in taxes and insurance yet. If you have to add mortgage insurance, you could be easily looking at $2000 a month. It adds up quickly and that’s why interest rate is such an important factor. It’s also the main reason why I tell people who are on the fence about buying now or waiting not to wait any longer. Dan Polimino is a Realtor with Fuller Sotheby’s International Realty. He can be reached at DPolimino@fullerproperties.com and www.coloradodreamhouse.com/denverpost
The Highs and Lows of Real Estate in 2009Monday, December 28th, 2009“It was the best of times, it was the worst of times; it was the age of wisdom, it was the age of foolishness; it was the epoch of belief, it was the epoch of incredulity; it was the season of light, it was the season of darkness; it was the spring of hope, it was the winter of despair; we had everything before us, we had nothing before us; we were all going directly to Heaven, we were all going the other way.” Charles Dickens. This is easily my favorite quote of all time and it accurately describes how many of us felt during the course of 2009. Some of you may even be thinking, “were there any high points in real estate this year?” Yes there were, and while I only have limited space I’ll try to recap the top five in each category. The Lowlights:
The Highlights:
Later this week is the start of 2010. Happy New Year Everyone and let’s pray that we have more to write about in the highlights column. Dan Polimino is a Realtor with Fuller Sotheby’s International Realty. He can be reached at DPolimino@fullerproperties.com and www.coloradodreamhouse.com/denverpost
|
