Colorado Springs Vintage Homes Blog
719.287.1049
Limited Service Listing
Can a Colorado Springs For Sale By Owner put their property in the MLS if they don’t have a Realtor?
Search for Colorado Springs Homes
Related Articles
- 9 reasons to use a buyer’s agent to help you find a house
- 6 things to add to your budget when buying a house
- 10 questions to ask the Neighbors
- How accurate are real estate listings on the Internet?
- Embracing Technology
Home owners who have decided not to use a Realtor to sell their Colorado Springs Home used to be able to pay a small fee to some Limited Service real estate companies and list their home on the Pikes Peak MLS. Due to some recent commission statements by the Colorado Springs Real Estate Commission, this is no longer an option.
The Colorado Real Estate Commission, periodically issues Commission Statements to clarify their positions on certain topics.
CP-36 is a Commission Statement on Minimum Service Requirements of a Realtor. My understanding is that the statement came as a result of complaints that had been received by the 
Real Estate Commission about the minimum services a Realtor must provide
The statements details the minimum requirements which are exactly the same as the requirements a Realtor uses in the Exclusive Right to Buy document and the Exclusive Right to List document. The statements goes onto to say “A broker is not allowed to solely perform “additional” services which require a real estate broker’s license, i.e. offering the real property of another for sale through advertisements, without providing the minimum duties required by single agency or transaction brokerage.
Essentially a home seller can ask a Realtor to “just list their property in the MLS’ and the homeowner will take care of everything else, including negotiating the contract and receiving the Earnest Money. If a Realtor does this, they are in direct violation of CP-36.
I’m not completely sure why this commission statement was instituted, but in my opinion every Colorado Realtor by terms of their license is held to minimum duties required to be performed by a real estate broker; and if the only thing a Realtor is doing for a seller is putting the home in the MLS, the Realtor is not performing the minimum duties required. Some of the duties required are:
- Presenting all offers to and from the seller or landlord in a timely manner regardless of whether the property is subject to a contract for sale or a lease or letter of intent to lease;
- Accounting in a timely manner for all money and property received
- Counseling the seller or landlord as to any material benefits or risks of a transaction which are actually known by the broker; Advising the seller or landlord to obtain expert advice
- Seeking a price and terms which are acceptable to the buyer or tenant; except that the broker shall not be obligated to seek other properties while the buyer is a party to a contract to purchase property or while the tenant is a party to a lease or letter of intent to lease;
If you enjoyed reading this article, why not Subscribe to be notified of the next one?
To find out more information about buying a home or an investment property in Colorado Springs area, call ….
Kathy (719-287-1049) KTorline@msn.com
Don’t Assume anything in Real Estate Series, #1
I’ve decided to start a new Series, Don’t Assume Anything in Real Estate.
This series is really just a bunch of random articles about the many assumptions buyers and sellers make when selling, leasing, or purchasing a home.
Search for homes in Colorado Springs
Related Articles
- 9 reasons to use a buyer’s agent to help you find a house
- 6 things to add to your budget when buying a house
- 10 questions to ask the Neighbors
- It’s taking longer
- 7 tips to be a good Real Estate buyer
You aren’t under contract yet!
Some buyers are under the mistaken impressions that once they write an offer on their dream home, or their first investment property, they are under contract to purchase the home. This 
is definitely not correct.
After they put together their offer, their Buyer’s Agent submits the offer to a Listing Agent, and the offer is then presented to the seller. The seller has many options on how they respond.
- They can reject the offer and not respond.
- They can counter the offer
- Or they can accept the offer.
THE MOST IMPORTANT THING Read the rest of this entry »
7 tips to be a good Real Estate buyer
How To Be A Good Real Estate Buyer
Search for Colorado Springs Homes
Related Articles
- 9 reasons to use a buyer’s agent to help you find a house
- 6 things to add to your budget when buying a house
- 10 questions to ask the Neighbors
- It’s taking longer
Real Estate buyers in Colorado Springs come in many varieties, each with their own special requests and their wish lists. Some want a home
for their retirement, others their first home, some are looking to relocate, some want to downsize, and yet others are looking for a second home It’s important for all buyers to understand how to be a good real estate buyer. Here’s my tips:
(1) Do your research. The more you understand the housing market, real estate terms, and the buying process; the better you can make an informed decision. Remember, not everything you read on the internet is correct and the real estate process is very different on a state by state basis. Research, research, and then research some more.
(2) Be Realistic. Yes, it is a Buyer’s market and yes prices are down, but that doesn’t mean every seller will accept an offer of 20 to 30% less than their asking price. Your Realtor can provide you comps for most any neighborhood you are interested in which will help you access the asking price and what you would like to offer. Also, it’s important to be realistic about bank-owned properties, banks will not give away their properties.
(3) Get pre-qualified by a reputable lender. If you are really serious about looking at homes; make sure and know what you are qualified for. If you are a cash buyer, be prepared to have access to your funds. If you are only qualified for a $200,000 house; don’t look at $300,000 homes.
(4) Be prepared for other costs. Once you get under contract, be prepared for inspection costs. Never ever scrimp on inspections.
(5) Be Honest. If you are not prepared to buy for 6 months or a year, tell your agent. If you don’t have the down payment yet, tell your agent. If you are going to use multiple Realtors, be honest, tell all the agents you are working with that you haven’t committed to one agent yet.
(6) Know what type of property you want. If you want a bank-owned property, ask your agent to explain the process and the good and the bad. If you want to buy a short sale, understand the process.
(7) Remember real estate is local. It doesn’t make any difference what the national news says or what the national web sites say; conditions vary locally and also vary neighborhood by neighborhood.
If you enjoyed reading this article, why not Subscribe to be notified of the next one?
To find out more information about buying a home or an investment property in Colorado Springs area, call ….
Kathy (719-287-1049) KTorline@msn.com
Embracing Technology
Technology is an important tool for Buyer’s Agents
Search for Colorado Springs Homes
Related Articles
- 9 reasons to use a buyer’s agent to help you find a house
- 6 things to add to your budget when buying a house
- 10 questions to ask the Neighbors
- How accurate are real estate listings on the Internet?
If you are looking for a Colorado Springs Buyer’s Agent; you may want to ask them how they utilize technology to help assist you in looking for a home. If you are from out-of-state or out of the county, a Buyer’s Agent who embraces technology can be a huge assistance to you. They need to be your eyes and ears on the ground.
Here’s some questions to ask a Buyer’s Agent
** Can they preview homes for you? If so, can they take additional photos of homes and get them sent to you? Do they have the ability to take videos of potential properties and neighborhoods and email them to you? Or could they post all of the photos and videos online and send you the link to look at them?
** If you want to know about crime statistics and school information, do they know where to get the data? Or can they direct you to places on the web that you can get the data?
** Are they proficient in your preferred mode of communication? Essentially if you text, you want an agent that texts. If you are out of the country and you use Skype, then you want an agent who uses Skype. Make sure you can communicate quickly and efficiently.
** How do they write their real estate contracts? Many Colorado Springs Realtors use E Contracts, which is an online software system that creates Colorado Real Estate Contracts and it makes it very easy to send the link to the legal documents. Buyers can actually just sign online with their mouse and it’s considered a legally binding contract.
If you enjoyed reading this article, why not Subscribe to be notified of the next one?
To find out more information about buying a home or an investment property in Colorado Springs area, call ….
Kathy (719-287-1049) KTorline@msn.com
How accurate are real estate listings on the Internet?
It’s on the Internet, it must be correct
Search for Colorado Springs Homes
Related Articles
- 9 reasons to use a buyer’s agent to help you find a house
- 6 things to add to your budget when buying a house
- 10 questions to ask the Neighbors
As a Buyer’s Agent in Colorado Springs, I work with many buyers from all parts of the world looking to relocate to Colorado Springs. The Internet is a wonderful tool for buyers, as they can find out so much information about the Colorado Springs area as well as check for 
potential homes. BUT, not every home listing they find on the Internet is correct.
Each Realtor is typically responsible for inputting their home listings in the local MLS system, which is called PPAR in the Colorado Springs area. Many Realtors have office administrators or assistants that input the data for them; but the Realtor is ultimately responsible for the the information. Even though most Realtors strive to have the information correct, it’s extremely easy to get something wrong. I’m guessing that the average listing has 100 to 150 fields of data that need to be filled in; which leaves alot of room for error.
But even more important than the initial input of all of the data about a home, is all of the places the information gets distributed to line. Every web site has a different way they get their information and different ways their information gets updated. As an example, as a member of PPAR, my listings get distributed to Zillow and Trulia and Realtor.com. But there are many, many other web sites out there; and some of them get updated more often than others. According to a recent quote in the Wall Street Journal, “21% of the data agents individually submit for posting on real estate websites isn’t updated when changes are made to the price or when the property is sold, according to a report released last month by listing web sites, Trulia.com”
Remember, just because it is online doesn’t make it accurate
If you enjoyed reading this article, why not Subscribe to be notified of the next one?
To find out more information about buying a home or an investment property in Colorado Springs area, call ….
Kathy (719-287-1049) KTorline@msn.com
Who is Representing YOU?
The following information is the first in a series of Buyer Tips to provide tips for both the first-time homebuyer and 
the most experienced homebuyer. The goal is to help the consumer to become better educated about purchasing real estate in Colorado Springs and the surrounding area.
For a FREE Buyer’s Guide, Email KTorline@msn.com
Tip #1
Who’s working for you?
A Buyer’s Agent represents the buyer in a real estate transaction. The Colorado Springs real estate agent becomes the Buyer’s Agent by entering into an agreement to represent the buyer, usually through a written buyer representation agreement. Under this agreement, the Buyer’s Agent owes his fiduciary responsibilities to the buyer. According to the Colorado Buyer’s agency agreement, a Buyer’s Agent has the following additional duties: Promoting the interests of Buyer with the utmost good faith, loyalty and fidelity, Seeking a price and terms that are acceptable to Buyer, and Counseling Buyer as to any material benefits or risks of a transaction that are actually known by Broker.
The State of Colorado has a form called Definitions of Working Relationships, which does 
Read the rest of this entry »
8 biggest mistakes made by home buyers
Search for Homes in Colorado Springs
Biggest mistakes that home buyers make
Must Read Posts:
- It’s against the law
- Who is Representing YOU?
- Shop for a Lender like you shop for a house
- Research who you are working with
(1) Home Buyers don’t think about resale before they buy. Every house will be resold at some time in the future.
(2) Home Buyers base their decisions on what they hear in the national news. They need to remember that real estate is local; not national. Read the local Colorado Springs newspaper and watch the local news, hire a local Realtor.
(3) Home Buyers only talk to one lender. They need to shop for a loan, just like they shop for a house. Ask your Colorado Springs Realtor for some referrals.
(4) Home Buyers don’t understand the benefits of using a Buyer’s Agent. They should interview an agent who represents them, and make sure they specialize in buyer representation.
(5) Home Buyers don’t read and Read the rest of this entry »
