Also, our town is a big hit! In 2011 Durango was once again in the national spotlight! Here is a summary of what the Durango Herald published about us: Click Here for the Article
* Best Places to Live 2011 and Best Place to Put Your OutdoorLife First – Men’s Journal
* Top Micropolitan Area in the US – Politicom
* Top Ten Western Towns – True West Magazine
* Top 200 Town in the US – Outdoor Life Magazine
* Top 10 “Life is Better Here” Town and “Next Big Thing” – Outside Magazine
* Colorado’s Secret Stashes – Ski Magazine
* Durango selected as the start of the prestigious US Pro Cycling Challenge - Click Here for the Article
What sold this past week?
17 properties sold in Durango, Colorado and area over the last week, that’s 5 more than last week. Some really good deals – check it out.
New Durango Real Estate Listings this week:
There are 38 new listings this week. That’s 6 more than last week!
Bankowned Listings (REO):
Due to continuing interest we are including REO property, which means “Real Estate Owned” in bank-lingo, in other words, bankowned properties, or foreclosed properties after the foreclosure process is completed. The bank/lender now owns the property. They are typically sold at a discount, hence the popularity! Please follow this link to our foreclosure page on our website. It shows all active bankowned and foreclosure listings in the area and is continually updated. Bookmark it and visit it often! Or email us, info@blueribbondurango.com to get set up for automatic email notifications on new bankowned listings!
Click here for Foreclosures & Bankowned Homes in the Durango & Surrounding Areas
And Back by Popular demand – the Market Snapshot – Free and Instant Home Valuations! A cool map based comparable report that shows new listings and sales comparables to your house, for sellers or buyers. Sign up by clicking here. Or go to Durangohousevalues.com. You’ll love it!
If you’d like to see any listings or statistics that we are not covering please don’t hesitate to send an email or post a comment. Maybe you’d like to be alerted to new listings in a specific price range or type. Let us know, we’re here to help.
NEW – We now offer full service property management and property maintenance to ensure maximum cash flow for your investments. If you own a rental property let us help you maximize your profit. If you are looking for homes for rent, check in with us as well. Sign up with us by January 1, 2012 to manage your rental, and get FREE set up ($150.00 cash value). Click here for our Property Management Page.
Sign up to receive automatic emails of new listings by sending me a quick email and letting me know what you’d like to see, claudia@blueribbondurango.com.
Have a great weekend! Feel free to call or email me if you’d like to talk about real estate or go to look at properties!
___
Claudia Williams
Owner/Ecobroker/Exchangor
Blue Ribbon Properties, 835 Main Ave #214, Durango, CO 81301
970 247 8388 (office), 970 749 3555 (cell), 970 247 8360 (fax), claudia@blueribbondurango.com
Connect with Claudia on facebook, Buzztown Durango, twitter and my blog articles
Be sure to LIKE Blue Ribbon Properties on Facebook!
Get the current market situation and find out what your home is worth. Sign up for the market snapshot here
Disclaimer – these links and information are based on the Durango local multi listing service. While all information is deemed accurate there are no guarantees. Does not include for sale by owners or foreclosure properties that are not listed on the MLS.
]]>Book Review: ‘The Smartest Money Book You’ll Ever Read: Everything You Need to Know About Growing, Spending and Enjoying Your Money’ Author: Daniel R. Solin
Today’s post-recession, pro-consumer, anti-bank zeitgeist reflects a dramatic sea change in the world of personal finance advice. Gone are the days when the cable TV pundits whose eyes bulge as they holler hysterics about what, when and whether to buy, sell or hold are taken seriously as anything but entertainment.
All the rules of thumb (e.g., owning a home is good) have been revised and nuanced (e.g., owning a home is good if X, Y and Z, but renting makes more sense if A, B and C).
And there’s also been a sea change in how this advice is delivered. Instead of a once-weekly column in the local paper by a financial writer, these days there is a steady stream — flood, even — of advice-blog posts written by actual financial advisers and delivered in short, simple chunks right-sized for today’s shrunken attention spans.
Daniel R. Solin is one such expert/blogger, and uses the same pithy style, linking to complementary online resources as he does in his advice columns on HuffingtonPost.com and USNews.com in his new book, “The Smartest Money Book You’ll Ever Read: Everything You Need to Know About Growing, Spending and Enjoying Your Money.”
Here are four of Solin’s smartest financial do’s and don’ts:
1. Don’t try to play the market. Solin practically pleads with readers not to base their housing or stock market investment decisions on their guesses as to whether the market will rise or fall, and when.
On real estate, Solin says to get aggressive about building equity by making conservative mortgage decisions and extra payments, when possible, rather than trying to sell at the top of the market and buy at the bottom.
And when it comes to the stock market, Solin exhorts readers: “Don’t just do something — stand there!” Solin repeatedly cites historical evidence that simply getting and staying in the market yields better results in the long term than what he calls “hyperactive” investing.
2. Do consider other options to a reverse mortgage to access fast cash in retirement. “Smartest” offers loads of Solin’s advice for retirees whose portfolios, plans and bottom lines have been adversely affected by the recession.
Rather than seeing a costly, legacy-draining reverse mortgage as their first resort for access to large amounts of cash, Solin first cautions retirees to get serious about whether anything but health, food and shelter are truly needs vs. wants (note: helping your children is not a need, in his book) and lists a number of more attractive, but less commonly considered options for accessing cash, including a “regular” home refinance or loan against a 401(k) or cash value life insurance policy.
3. Don’t confuse salespeople for financial advisers. Calling the investment industry “friend and foe,” Solin points out the sobering truth that 95 percent of actively managed funds fail to equal or beat their market indexes, yet the fees for investing in actively managed funds tend to be several times more expensive than for index funds, eroding whatever returns investors in active funds do attain.
Solin urges readers to be aware of the difference between an investment broker, who he says is more accurately described as a salesperson; and a financial adviser, who can take a look at your life and your money and help you set goals, pick low-fee investments, rebalance your portfolio, manage your tax exposure and manage your emotions.
Solin recommends that readers put together a trusted team including an estate planning attorney, a certified public accountant (CPA), and fee-only (i.e., not commission-based) investment and insurance advisers.
4. Do shop around. Solin likens our monthly income and expenses to our body’s metabolism. In the same way we gain weight over the years by consuming calories on autopilot, we can lose cash by having our insurance, investment and other expenses auto-debited, making it highly unlikely that we’ll notice when fees and bills rise.
Solin advises checking in on these items at regular intervals, and shopping around to see whether we can find a better deal.
“Smartest” makes a great effort to be comprehensive in terms of covering every area of financial life, but it doesn’t actually go deep enough to be the only book you need. Rather, it is a great start at giving you the rationale for getting motivated to grow up and get serious about your finances, and provides you with a primer and a road map for the work ahead of you.
With 40-plus chapters averaging a couple of pages in length each, “Smartest” feels rather like a collection of Solin’s blog posts; this will leave some readers hungry for more depth and detail, but will certainly appeal to many others who cringe at the density of a more traditional personal finance title.
To its credit, “Smartest” also does a good job of pointing out where you can find tools to execute Solin’s recommendations or learn more about a given subject online, mostly on the wildly popular and free, do-it-yourself money management platform Mint.com.
Generally, “Smartest” is written in plain English — though its approach is a tad bit imbalanced, getting a little bit in the weeds and detailed in the sections of his particular expertise and borderline vague and oversimplified in others.
However, if you are looking to start your proactive financial planning up again, after the trauma of the recession, or if you are just taking control of your finances for the first time, “Smartest” is a smart choice for the starter book you need to put your own personal money train in motion.
Click Here for the Daily Real Estate News Article
By Tara-Nicholle Nelson
Inman News®
–
Claudia Williams
Owner/Ecobroker/Exchangor
Blue Ribbon Properties, 835 Main Ave #214, Durango, CO 81301
970 247 8388 (office), 970 749 3555 (cell), 970 247 8360 (fax), blueribbondurango.com
Connect with Claudia on facebook, buzztown, twitter, linked in and my blog articles
Be sure to LIKE Blue Ribbon Properties on Facebook!
Check out the New Market Snapshot to monitor the value of your home and get current local market conditions
]]>
Here’s your Durango Real Estate Statistics and Weekly Update! Great deals, new listings, foreclosures and sold comparables.
What sold this past week?
9 properties sold in Durango, Colorado and area over the last week. Some really good deals – check it out.
New Durango Real Estate Listings this week:
There are 27 new listings this week. That’s one less than last week!
Bankowned Listings (REO):
Due to continuing interest we are including REO property, which means “Real Estate Owned” in bank-lingo, in other words, bankowned properties, or foreclosed properties after the foreclosure process is completed. The bank/lender now owns the property. They are typically sold at a discount, hence the popularity! Please follow this link to our foreclosure page on our website. It shows all active bankowned and foreclosure listings in the area and is continually updated. Bookmark it and visit it often! Or email us, info@blueribbondurango.com to get set up for automatic email notifications on new bankowned listings!
Click here for Foreclosures & Bankowned Homes in the Durango & Surrounding Areas
And Back by Popular demand – the Market Snapshot – Free and Instant Home Valuations! A cool map based comparable report that shows new listings and sales comparables to your house, for sellers or buyers. Sign up by clicking here. Or go to Durangohousevalues.com. You’ll love it!
If you’d like to see any listings or statistics that we are not covering please don’t hesitate to send an email or post a comment. Maybe you’d like to be alerted to new listings in a specific price range or type. Let us know, we’re here to help.
NEW – We now offer full service property management and property maintenance to ensure maximum cash flow for your investments. If you own a rental property let us help you maximize your profit. If you are looking for homes for rent, check in with us as well. Sign up with us by January 1, 2012 to manage your rental, and get FREE set up ($150.00 cash value). Click here for our Property Management Page.
Sign up to receive automatic emails of new listings by sending me a quick email and letting me know what you’d like to see, claudia@blueribbondurango.com.
Have a great weekend! Feel free to call or email me if you’d like to talk about real estate or go to look at properties!
___
Claudia Williams
Owner/Ecobroker/Exchangor
Blue Ribbon Properties, 835 Main Ave #214, Durango, CO 81301
970 247 8388 (office), 970 749 3555 (cell), 970 247 8360 (fax), claudia@blueribbondurango.com
Connect with Claudia on facebook, Buzztown Durango, twitter and my blog articles
Be sure to LIKE Blue Ribbon Properties on Facebook!
Get the current market situation and find out what your home is worth. Sign up for the market snapshot here
Disclaimer – these links and information are based on the Durango local multi listing service. While all information is deemed accurate there are no guarantees. Does not include for sale by owners or foreclosure properties that are not listed on the MLS.
]]>
December 23rd, 2011 – Hope you have a Merry Christmas!
Here’s your Durango Real Estate Statistics and Weekly Update! Great deals, new listings, foreclosures and sold comparables.
What sold this past week?
17 properties sold in Durango, Colorado and area over the last week. Some really good deals – check it out.
New Durango Real Estate Listings this week:
There are 26 new listings this week, click here for new listings.
Bankowned Listings (REO):
Due to continuing interest we are including REO property, which means “Real Estate Owned” in bank-lingo, in other words, bankowned properties, or foreclosed properties after the foreclosure process is completed. The bank/lender now owns the property. They are typically sold at a discount, hence the popularity! Please follow this link to our foreclosure page on our website. It shows all active bankowned and foreclosure listings in the area and is continually updated. Bookmark it and visit it often! Or email us, info@blueribbondurango.com to get set up for automatic email notifications on new bankowned listings!
Click here for Foreclosures & Bankowned Homes in the Durango & Surrounding Areas
And Back by Popular demand – the Market Snapshot – Free and Instant Home Valuations! A cool map based comparable report that shows new listings and sales comparables to your house, for sellers or buyers. Sign up by clicking here. Or go to Durangohousevalues.com. You’ll love it!
If you’d like to see any listings or statistics that we are not covering please don’t hesitate to send an email or post a comment. Maybe you’d like to be alerted to new listings in a specific price range or type. Let us know, we’re here to help.
NEW – We now offer full service property management and property maintenance to ensure maximum cash flow for your investments. If you own a rental property let us help you maximize your profit. If you are looking for homes for rent, check in with us as well. Sign up with us by January 1, 2012 to manage your rental, and get FREE set up ($150.00 cash value). Click here for our Property Management Page.
Sign up to receive automatic emails of new listings by sending me a quick email and letting me know what you’d like to see, claudia@blueribbondurango.com.
Have a great weekend! Feel free to call or email me if you’d like to talk about real estate or go to look at properties!
___
Claudia Williams
Owner/Ecobroker/Exchangor
Blue Ribbon Properties, 835 Main Ave #214, Durango, CO 81301
970 247 8388 (office), 970 749 3555 (cell), 970 247 8360 (fax), claudia@blueribbondurango.com
Connect with Claudia on facebook, Buzztown Durango, twitter and my blog articles
Be sure to LIKE Blue Ribbon Properties on Facebook!
Get the current market situation and find out what your home is worth. Sign up for the market snapshot here
Disclaimer – these links and information are based on the Durango local multi listing service. While all information is deemed accurate there are no guarantees. Does not include for sale by owners or foreclosure properties that are not listed on the MLS.
]]>
This year has brought expansion to Blue Ribbon Properties, we added three new agents welcoming Terry Sadler, Don Ferris and Bill Powell. We’ve expanded into property management in Bayfield, Durango and Farmington area in addition to our continuing premium real estate sales services in Colorado and New Mexico. Sales volume is up and that’s a tentatively strong signal for the upcoming year!
What a turbulent year 2011 has been, another year marked with dramatic changes and challenges. Several of you took advantage of the opportunities in this market, refinanced at historically low interest rates or bought real estate at reduced prices. Others are still waiting in the wings for the right deal to come along, or maybe you are getting frustrated trying to sell your property in a tough market.
Regardless of your position in the real estate market, we continue to see that your need for accurate and up to date information is greater than ever. We continue to pride ourselves on having established our blog as one of Durango’s best sources for real estate statistics! Every Friday we post an update of sales and new listings and we are proud to say that our number of subscribers is steadily increasing.
If you haven’t subscribed to our blog articles, we would like to encourage you to do so at BlueRibbonDurango.com or follow us on Facebook at fb.com/blueribbonproperties.
Overall, the recent activity, coupled with the pent up demand of potential home buyers who haven’t bought in the past few years, leads me to continue to forecast a healthy albeit slow market recovery.
Being the optimist that I am, I can’t help but point out the positive news and real estate market headlines over the past few weeks:
“The U.S. Economy – Finally, Some Positive News”, The Economist, Nov 26, 2011
“an improved outlook for at least the near future is now showing up all over the economic data.“
“Housing in 2012: Things are looking up”, Money Magazine, Dec 2011
“The outlook: Most of the country will see the housing market stabilize, just don’t bet on a big increase in prices.”
“Housing looking better …”, Durango Herald, Nov 20, 2011
“We’ve recently had some OK local economic news. Real estate appears to be recovering. Builders are feeling confident enough to start spec homes for would-be buyers, and between September and October, foreclosures fell 15 percent. New home permits are trending upward nationally and in Colorado. The National Association of Home Builders reports new home sales rose 5.7 percent last month. Nationwide, home inventory has fallen to about six months, a far cry from the 12-month surplus in 2009. And some believe the pent-up demand of people waiting for a more robust economy, living with family and friends, is about to be unleashed..”
As another year comes to a close we are reminded of just how fortunate we are to have wonderful families and friends, steady business and last but not least we get to live in beautiful Durango and enjoy all the wonderful activities around us. We know that it is the people in our lives that bring real joy and happiness. Together we can overcome anything!
We sincerely value your business and are here to help you with all your real estate needs. If you know anyone who may be thinking about buying, selling or renting, or simply could use information on real estate please do refer them our way. We promise to take excellent care of you and them!
Have a Happy New Year! Here’s to an awesome 2012!
Claudia Williams and the Blue Ribbon Team
Claudia Williams
Owner/Ecobroker/Exchangor
Blue Ribbon Properties, 835 Main Ave #214, Durango, CO 81301
970 247 8388 (office), 970 749 3555 (cell), 970 247 8360 (fax), claudia@blueribbondurango.com
Connect with Claudia on facebook, Buzztown Durango, twitter and my blog articles
Be sure to LIKE Blue Ribbon Properties on Facebook!
Get the current market situation and find out what your home is worth. Sign up for the market snapshot here
]]>
What sold this past week?
20 properties sold in Durango, Colorado and area over the last week. That’s 7 more than last week! Some really good deals – check it out.
New Durango Real Estate Listings this week:
There are 22 new listings this week, click here for new listings.
Bankowned Listings (REO):
Due to continuing interest we are including REO property, which means “Real Estate Owned” in bank-lingo, in other words, bankowned properties, or foreclosed properties after the foreclosure process is completed. The bank/lender now owns the property. They are typically sold at a discount, hence the popularity! Please follow this link to our foreclosure page on our website. It shows all active bankowned and foreclosure listings in the area and is continually updated. Bookmark it and visit it often! Or email us, info@blueribbondurango.com to get set up for automatic email notifications on new bankowned listings!
Click here for Foreclosures & Bankowned Homes in the Durango & Surrounding Areas
And Back by Popular demand – the Market Snapshot – Free and Instant Home Valuations! A cool map based comparable report that shows new listings and sales comparables to your house, for sellers or buyers. Sign up by clicking here. Or go to Durangohousevalues.com. You’ll love it!
If you’d like to see any listings or statistics that we are not covering please don’t hesitate to send an email or post a comment. Maybe you’d like to be alerted to new listings in a specific price range or type. Let us know, we’re here to help.
NEW – We now offer full service property management and property maintenance to ensure maximum cash flow for your investments. If you own a rental property let us help you maximize your profit. If you are looking for homes for rent, check in with us as well. Sign up with us by January 1, 2012 to manage your rental, and get FREE set up ($150.00 cash value). Click here for our Property Management Page.
Sign up to receive automatic emails of new listings by sending me a quick email and letting me know what you’d like to see, claudia@blueribbondurango.com.
Have a great weekend! Feel free to call or email me if you’d like to talk about real estate or go to look at properties!
___
Claudia Williams
Owner/Ecobroker/Exchangor
Blue Ribbon Properties, 835 Main Ave #214, Durango, CO 81301
970 247 8388 (office), 970 749 3555 (cell), 970 247 8360 (fax), claudia@blueribbondurango.com
Connect with Claudia on facebook, Buzztown Durango, twitter and my blog articles
Be sure to LIKE Blue Ribbon Properties on Facebook!
Get the current market situation and find out what your home is worth. Sign up for the market snapshot here
Disclaimer – these links and information are based on the Durango local multi listing service. While all information is deemed accurate there are no guarantees. Does not include for sale by owners or foreclosure properties that are not listed on the MLS.
]]>Here’s your Durango Real Estate Statistics and Weekly Update! Great deals, new listings, foreclosures and sold comparables.
What sold this past week?
13 properties sold in Durango, Colorado and area over the last week. Some really good deals – check it out.
New Durango Real Estate Listings this week:
There are 30 new listings this week, click here for new listings.
Bankowned Listings (REO):
Due to continuing interest I am including REO property, that means “Real Estate Owned” in bank-lingo, in other words, bankowned properties, or foreclosed properties after the foreclosure process is completed. The bank/lender now owns the property. They are typically sold at a discount, hence the popularity!
There are 3 new REO listings this week!
Click Here for Repo-Bank Owned Listings
And Back by Popular demand – the Market Snapshot – Free and Instant Home Valuations! A cool map based comparable report that shows new listings and sales comparables to your house, for sellers or buyers. Sign up by clicking here. Or go to Durangohousevalues.com. You’ll love it!
If you’d like to see any listings or statistics that we are not covering please don’t hesitate to send an email or post a comment. Maybe you’d like to be alerted to new listings in a specific price range or type. Let us know, we’re here to help.
NEW – We now offer full service property management and property maintenance to ensure maximum cash flow for your investments. If you own a rental property let us help you maximize your profit. If you are looking for homes for rent, check in with us as well. Sign up with us by January 1, 2012 to manage your rental, and get FREE set up ($150.00 cash value). Click here for our Property Management Page.
Sign up to receive automatic emails of new listings by sending me a quick email and letting me know what you’d like to see, claudia@blueribbondurango.com.
Have a great weekend! Feel free to call or email me if you’d like to talk about real estate or go to look at properties!
___
Claudia Williams
Owner/Ecobroker/Exchangor
Blue Ribbon Properties, 835 Main Ave #214, Durango, CO 81301
970 247 8388 (office), 970 749 3555 (cell), 970 247 8360 (fax), claudia@blueribbondurango.com
Connect with Claudia on facebook, Buzztown Durango, twitter and my blog articles
Be sure to LIKE Blue Ribbon Properties on Facebook!
Get the current market situation and find out what your home is worth. Sign up for the market snapshot here
Disclaimer – these links and information are based on the Durango local multi listing service. While all information is deemed accurate there are no guarantees. Does not include for sale by owners or foreclosure properties that are not listed on the MLS.
]]>Well, there’s at least one big Wall Street banker that’s betting on the United States becoming a “rentership” society: Morgan Stanley.
The company released a report just a few weeks ago saying now is a great time for institutional investors to snap up distressed single-family homes and turn them into long-term rental units. The company says the properties don’t compete with the classic apartment rental property, so investors don’t have to worry about cannibalizing their multifamily rental investment portfolios to take advantage of the huge opportunities in single-family rental property ownership. What’s more, Morgan Stanley doesn’t see this shift to rentership as a temporary waypoint while the country sorts out its housing problems; it sees this as a fundamental shift in how the United States will define itself into the future.
“America is moving away from a home ownership society and towards a rentership society,” the company says in its report.
To emphasize the point, one of the report’s authors, Oliver Chang of Morgan Stanley’s Housing and Securitized Products Strategy division, said in a video interview (above, after a 30-second commercial), “This is really the first time in history where there’s an opportunity for institutions to own single-family rental properties as part of a larger asset allocation strategy.”
The reason for the shift to rentals, according to the company?
- Home price declines: not only are millions of homes available to investors at deeply discounted pricing but the low prices are changing consumer attitudes on housing as an investment
- Hurdles to buying: down payment requirements, higher FICO score thresholds, and income verification are making it harder for households to even consider buying
- Costs of ownership: without home price inflation, costs like property taxes, home owner association dues, maintenance and repair make ownership less attractive
- Demographic effects: Gen Y growth is heading up while baby boomer households are downsizing
- Unemployment, labor insecurity and mobility: long unemployment durations make labor mobility (and thus renting) more important
Morgan Stanley says the U.S. home ownership rate, which has fallen to about 64 percent from close to 68 percent at its peak, is really closer to 60 percent when you factor in home owners who’ve stopped paying on their mortgage and only remain in their house because the bank hasn’t finished processing their foreclosure yet. Once these cases make it through the system, they’ll move to the renter side of the equation.
When they do move to the other side of the equation, they’ll become renters of single-family houses, not of multifamily apartment units. That’s because these households, which tend to be a little older and often with children, want a single-family house in the suburbs, not a unit in an apartment building in the city. So, these households will be providing a big share of the demand for single-family rental houses into the future without necessarily adding demand to apartment rentals in the city.
To be sure, many of these households might like to buy again rather than rent given the historically low interest rates and deeply discounted home prices, but the reality is that many of these households simply can’t pass the credit score threshold. Financing is hard to get for the most creditworthy households today, so for credit-impaired households, renting is the only option.
Morgan Stanley projects some 7.5 million more foreclosures over the next five years, what it calls “liquidated” houses, providing a golden opportunity for institutional investors to snap up properties for their portfolio and get into the long-term single-family rental business.
If the company is right, then this is a great opportunity if you work with institutional buyers of real estate, whether on the buying, selling, or property management side. You have tons of inventory coming onto the market to sell to big buyers who will turn these into long-term rentals.
But you might also challenge the company’s basic premise. Is the American Dream really transitioning into a “New Pragmatism,” as the company calls it, under which rental housing is the way of the future?
The fact is, if lenders simply dialed back their underwriting requirements to the sound policies they used before the housing boom, home sales would pick up, inventories would shrink, prices would start heading up in more than a few markets, and that 7.5 million in foreclosed houses Morgan Stanley predicts over the next five years will be a smaller number. And those that want to rent can rent and those that want to buy can buy rather than having to rethink their priorities in a new rentership society.
In any case, a survey that just came out today from Meredith Corp., one of the biggest magazine publishers in the country, finds that home ownership remains all-important to most households. Some of its findings:
- 86 % of homeowners polled still feel owning a home was a good investment.
- 85 % say they feel, “owning a home is one of their proudest accomplishments.”
- Of Americans that don’t currently own a home, 69 % agree, “No matter what happens in the U.S. housing market, owning a home is still an important goal in my life.”
Go to that Meredith home ownership survey now.
The Morgan Stanley report is called “Housing 2.0: The New Rental Paradigm,” and it’s dated Oct. 27, 2011. If you can’t find the report or a summary, you can hear Oliver Chang talking about it in the video above although you have to watch a 30-second commercial before the video comes on.
Article by By Robert Freedman, Senior Editor, REALTOR® Magazine – click here for his blog
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For info on Durango area Real Estate or for help turning your property into a cash cow as always, call Blue Ribbon Properties – 970 247 8388 or email info@blueribbondurango.com.
Moab Business Park - Arches National Park - Delicate Arch, Claudia and David Williams
I spent Tuesday/Wednesday in Moab, Utah, checking on the Moab Business Park, where we own several units and going for a beautiful sunset hike in the “Arches National Park” with my husband David.
Arches is possibly my very favorite National Park of all! If you haven’t been, definitely make it a point to go. It’s only a couple of hours from Durango.
As for the Moab Business Park – these units are a great deal starting at only $130,000 for 1700 SF unit, the possilities are endless. Use them as Vacation Homes, Man cave with super shop space, base camp, park your motorhome, work on your jeep, commercial rental, you name it. For more info go to www.moabbusinessparkonline.com , click on blueribbondurango.com or just call me to discuss – Claudia – 970 749 3555.
Virtual Tour: http://www.tourfactory.com/745045
]]>Just too bad they are not giving away homes in Durango, I’d take one! Seriously though, while it would be nice to have free homes, let’s be grateful that the Durango real estate market is holding up well and home values are comparatively stong. Here’s the scoop:
Marcie Geffner from Bankrate.com reports:
Have too many foreclosed properties?
Why not give them away?
That’s what Bank of America plans to do with as many as 150 vacant and abandoned properties in and around Chicago through a new “collaboration” with the city that’s intended to address the problem of abandoned properties.
“Unfortunately,” BofA said in a statement, “many homeowners faced with unemployment, underemployment and other economic hardships have transitioned to alternative housing situations, and in many cases, have walked away from their homes, leaving behind vacant and deteriorating properties that can cause neighborhood blight.”
As part of the new effort, BofA plans to:
Register properties with the city when the mortgage is delinquent and the property has been identified as vacant and abandoned.
Identify up to 150 properties that will be referred to a new Cook County vacant and abandoned building court call in an effort to speed up the foreclosure process and return the properties to stable, productive use. The foreclosure timeline for vacant and abandoned properties in the area currently averages 18 months, the bank said.
Contribute funds toward the city’s costs of demolishing deteriorating buildings on the donated properties.
Donate foreclosed and vacant condominiums to the nonprofit Community Investment Corp. as part of an initiative to upgrade, preserve and stabilize management of affordable rental housing.
BofA also recently held a mortgage modification outreach event and opened a new full-time customer assistance center in Chicago.
These and other initiatives “provide convenient opportunities for customers who are having difficulty making their mortgage and other credit account payments to receive face-to-face counseling, on-site processing and underwriting of mortgage modification requests and other assistance,” the bank explained.
Bank of America presently has 12 full-time customer assistance centers. Twenty-eight more are scheduled to open in the next few months. Seven will be located in California. Others will be in Atlanta, Baltimore/Washington, D.C., Denver, Detroit, Houston, Miami, Milwaukee, New Orleans, Philadelphia, San Antonio, St. Louis and other major cities.
Read more: BofA to give away houses | Bankrate.com
To search Colorado and Durango area homes for sale and foreclosure listings click here or email me and I’ll email you new bankowned properties for sale as they come up!
Every Friday we post Durango Real Estate Market Statistics, including sales and new listings as well as a link to new bankowned listings. Sign up for the RSS feed or email feed in the upper left hand corner of the www.blueribbondurango.com site.
Claudia Williams, Broker, Realtor, Blue Ribbon Properties, 835 Main Ave #214, Durango, CO 81301, 970 247 8388
Check out our blog at www.blueribbondurango.com/blog
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