Perhaps one of the greatest inventions in the history of real estate is the Multiple Listing Service (MLS). As soon as I post a listing onto the MLS, it is aggregated to literally thousands of OTHER web sites, where virtually every buyer in the world can instantly see details, pictures, neighborhood statistics, sales history and all kinds of other information about this property. It’s great for sellers, who can put their properties in front of every interested buyer at once. It’s great for buyers, who can be notified in real time whenever a property that fits their criteria hits the market.

It is the system that keeps the real estate market moving, a system that liquidates houses much more quickly than could possibly happen otherwise.

How could we possibly top such an amazing system? What new development could be even better?

Well, one real estate brokerage thinks they have the secret:

“How about we not put your listing in the MLS?”

It’s been a big month for roofs. At least in my world.

Four weeks ago, I had two listings go onto the market the same weekend. Both had a lot of showings. In fact, one had 136 showings!! Both had multiple offers. In fact, one had 27 offers!!

And, as we discovered in inspection, both had extensive hail damage and needed new roofs. So we swung into action.

In both cases, we called the sellers’ insurance agent. On House #1, we discovered that the damage happened earlier, when the sellers were insured with a different carrier. No problem. An adjuster was there the next day. Four days later, the house had a lovely new roof. And four days after that, we closed.

House #2 was a different story . . .

When I bought my first house, back in the Dark Ages, a friend told me “This is a great time to buy. Rates are down to 8%!” 

And I thought “cool.” I knew nothing about interest rates. If they said 8% was a great rate, I believed them. So when I secured a seven year balloon mortgage at 6.75%, I felt like I was stealing money.c

I hope your New Year is going splendidly. I know several of you have been laid out with the crazy Omicron variant. For you, I hope it's mild and resolves quickly. And as I wrote that, I thought "If the 'me' of two years ago could see that sentence, she would wonder what the heck it even meant." How quickly life has changed!!!

My year started on a nice note when I was perusing Facebook recently, and saw that my office had posted the Top 20 Agents for 2021. I looked, just to see who of my friends had made the list. I seriously did not expect to see my own name. And yet, there is was!

It’s the classic dilemma, isn’t it? You want to move to a different house. But you have no idea how to make it work. You need the money from your current house to buy the new house. But you don’t want to sell your house before you know there’s a new house out there that you love — and can win in a bidding war. So you find a house that you love, but you can’t buy it because you need the money from your current house, which you still own because you didn’t want to sell it before you found a home that you love. And so the circle goes.

This, my friends, is one of the reasons we have no inventory in Denver. Homeowners are afraid — justifiably — to part with their current homes and try their luck in what they keep hearing is an insane seller’s market. And so, they remain trapped in houses that are too big/small/old/new/far out/close in for them, despairing of ever getting out.

Does this describe you, or someone you know? Never fear, relief is here!

Well, it’s been a long, cold, lonely winter, hasn’t it? If you had told me a year ago what the next twelve months would hold, I would have asked you if your coffee was spiked. I don’t think I have ever in my LIFE been more ready for spring!