Colorado Springs Real Estate Video Blog with Donny Coram

The Latest, Greatest Technology in Real Estate

Interested in buying a home? GO HERE to perform a Full Home Search, or if you're considering selling, CLICK HERE to receive a Free Home Value Report. For any other questions, please reach out to me at (719) 299-5778, or email me at Donny@IntegrityTeam.net.

We pride ourselves on being on the cutting edge of technology when it comes to marketing and selling homes. Today we are excited to discuss a technology with you that just hit the market, and will revolutionize the way homes are sold.

We are talking about the 3D Matterport Camera, which allows potential buyers to walk through your home anytime, digitally. The buyer gets to control the action and see the entire home from a first-person perspective.

We have found, on average, our tours are being viewed 200 times per property listing. This means that 200 extra buyers are able to walk through your home, without ever having to step foot inside. You are going to love this technology, just check out the example in the video above. It’s pretty incredible.

This technology could mean the difference between you getting top dollar and your home sitting on the market. By utilizing this tech to sell your home, we want to help you sell for top dollar in a shorter period of time.

If you want to use this technology to work for you in selling your property, give us a call or send us an email. We would love to talk to you more about it.

Why Winter Is a Good Time to Sell in Colorado Springs

Today, we'll go over selling your property in the winter season. The conventional wisdom is that you shouldn't sell your home in the winter because no one wants to buy a home and move during the holidays. However, we've seen that winter is one of the best times to sell and get top dollar.

Why? It's a simple matter of supply and demand. Due to the conventional wisdom out there, many people opt to wait and sell in spring or even take their homes off the market during the fourth quarter. This leads to a shortage of inventory.

No one wants to move during the holiday season. Those that move during winter do so because they have to. Maybe they are a military family. Perhaps, they've been transferred by their employer and need to move in by the end of the fiscal year, which is December 31st. These buyers are highly motivated. Since there aren't as many homes available for sale, you can get the most amount of motivated buyers with the least amount of competition!

In the winter, you will most likely spend fewer days on the market, and your overall sales price can go up because of the highly motivated buyers. If you're thinking of selling your home or if you have any other questions for us, give us a call or send us an email. We look forward to hearing from you!

How Can You and Your Family Stay Safe and Warm This Winter?

We've had an amazing summer here in Colorado, but now that the fall is in full swing, there's no better time to start preparing your home for the cold winter months!

The first thing to look at is your outside lighting. It's starting to get dark a whole lot earlier, so now is a great time to get outside and replace bulbs and fixtures as needed. You don't want to wait until there is snow on the ground to do these things! You're really going to enjoy the fact that your lights are working when you arrive home after work and it's pitch-dark out!

It's been so warm here lately that there's obviously been no need to use the furnace. A bad thing about an unused furnace is that it collects dust, which is bad for your heating system and, more importantly, your health. Now is a great time to pull out the filter and clean it (or replace it altogether)!

Next, you should take advantage of the remaining nice weather days to clean your gutters. This is important: as ice and snow accumulates, it will build up in your gutters if it has nowhere else to go. Leaves and brush block the drainage system on your roof, and this is dangerous because once the ice and snow melts, it will not drain properly and could cause harm to your home and your family.

Lastly, take a look at your water spigots and your hose and make sure that no water is left in the lines. The biggest problem we have with sudden freezes in Colorado is flooded basements. If you're going to be leaving your house for an extended period of time, you need to leave your thermostat in the 60s to prevent freezing. However, even this can be risky; I suggest unscrewing your hose from the water spigot, which will allow water to flow from the hose and should prevent breakages in the system.

If you want to stay dry and warm this winter, we highly recommend taking these tips to heart! Give us a call or shoot us an email if you have any questions for us or if you need real estate assistance of any kind. We're always here to help!

Why Are First-Time Buyers Waiting Longer?

One thing we know for certain about the real estate market is that it is never going to stay the same for long. Today we want to talk about an interesting trend we’ve noticed in real estate: millennials are waiting longer to purchase their first homes than their parents did.

The typical first-time buyer now rents for an average of 6 years before buying a home, which is up from 2.6 years in the early 1970’s, according to Zillow.

We came across this great video from CNBC. I will give you my three biggest takeaways from the article.

1. Down payments are a huge factor

Renters in today’s market are struggling to save for down payments and qualify for mortgages. Most first-time buyers still depend on personal savings for at least some of their down payments, but rising rental prices have complicated the task of socking away money for a down payment.

2. Rising rental rates are complicating things as well

Rental rates are causing 46% of renters aged 25-354, to spend more than 30 percent of their incomes on rent, up from 40 percent a decade earlier.

3. Job security is important to millennial buyers

The Money Source, a mortgage lender, examined applications from 5,404 millennial buyers and found that these buyers averaged nearly 4.5 years in their field of work and had held their current job for slightly more than three years. Those figures point to how critical career stability is to a younger generation.

Thanks for joining me today. If you want to read the full article, click above. Otherwise, give me a call or send me an email if you have any questions. Talk to you soon!

How Can You Stage on a Budget?

If you are looking to sell your home, your goal is to get the most money possible in the shortest amount of time. One of the best ways to add value and appeal to your home is through home staging. You have a lot of options for how you want to go about it. You could hire a professional staging company, but that comes with a hefty price tag. Most of the time, a few simple fixes is all it takes to transform a living room.

Today we are going to go through some of our most favorite, inexpensive home staging tips or you. We hope these will help you save both time and money when it comes time to sell your home.

A fresh coat of paint is always a good idea. Neutral, warm colors work best for highlighting the natural light in your home. This will make it easier to punch up the room with some colorful accessories and pull everything together.

A common design problem facing many homeowners is that they have no real entry way, as their front door opens up to the living room. To fix this, you can add a table, some lighting, and a rug to "fake a foyer" and make it feel like the living room and entryway are two different spaces.

A patterned rug, some pillows, or bright curtains add a ton of texture and an eclectic layer to the space, which is essential to a well-designed room.

In some cases, a "make-under" is just what you need. In the case of most fireplaces, taking some accessories and clutter away enhances the look and feel of the room greatly.

You could spend well over a few thousand dollars with a staging company, or you could do these fixes yourself for around $500. That's a small investment considering the value that you add to your home by adding those pieces.

If you have any questions for us about staging your home or anything else real estate related, give us a call or send over a quick email. We are always here to help, and would love to hear from you!

We Want to Sell Your Fountain Valley Ranch Home!

We are looking for more homes to sell in the Fountain Valley Ranch area here in The Springs.

We recently sold a home at 5578 Kingsboro Dr. This five-bedroom, 2.5-bath ranch home sold in just 22 days!

What's even better is that this property sold for 99% of its asking price! We generated a ton of interest in the Fountain Valley Ranch area, and now we simply have too many buyers looking for homes in this area.

Please contact me soon if you're looking to sell in that area. We have buyers waiting for you!

Should You Sell or Rent Your Colorado Springs Home?

Today, I want to discuss a topic I come across a lot: whether you should sell your home or keep it and rent it out.

There are a lot of things you want to take into account before making the decision to sell or rent your home. The very first thing to consider is your ability to be a landlord. Can you stomach dealing with tenants who trash your property or who make it difficult to collect rent? While these things shouldn't be taken lightly, they are extreme situations - they don't happen as often as you might think.

The next thing you want to do is have a market analysis done so you can determine how much you can get for rent. We will help you find out how much you can get for rent, so you can compare it against your monthly mortgage payment and see if being a landlord is right for you!

Really, there is no right answer when it comes to selling or renting. The pros and cons vary on a case-by-case basis. The best thing you can do is sit down with us for a free, no-obligation consultation, where we'll assess your particular situation.

We would love to be your consultant, so that you make informed, and ultimately profitable, decisions in our marketplace. Give us a call or shoot us a quick email to chat about your options, or if you need real estate assistance of any kind. We're always here to help!

How Can You Find a Reliable Colorado Springs Real Estate Agent?

One question I'm often asked is how to go about finding a reliable real estate professional.

It would be easy to tell you that I'm the best real estate agent in the Colorado Springs area. However, most people would rather hear it from a neutral source, and there are many places you can go in order to learn more about real estate professionals in your area. Zillow, Trulia, and Realtor.com are all valuable resources when looking for an agent to represent you!

One thing you want to take a look at is how much real estate an agent has sold. Many people don't realize that the average agent in Colorado Springs only sold 5 houses in 2014. Can you be sure an agent who only sells a handful of homes a year is truly looking out for your best interest? More likely, they are simply worried about paying their bills that month.

The reality is volume sells. My team did just over 100 transactions last year, which indicates that we are focused on providing the best level of service to YOU. Because I sell a large volume of homes, I'm only interested in getting you the most money when you sell and the best value when you buy.

If you decide not to work with me, make sure you're working with an agent with a wealth of experience and great online reviews. If you have worked with my team in the past and felt we did a good job, I would truly appreciate it if you could leave an online review for our team. We work hard to ensure you have the best possible experience in real estate, and would love to hear your feedback if we were able to do that.

As always, for real estate assistance of any kind, give us a call or shoot us a quick email. The Integrity Team is always here to help!

How to Juggle Buying and Selling in Colorado Springs

I'm often asked the question, "Is it best to sell a house before you've moved out or after?" This question comes up quite frequently with both buyers and sellers, so I'm going to answer it for you today.

The answer to the above questions is... it depends. There are several factors that come into play when selling your home. One of these is the size of your home vs. the size of your things. A small house with big furniture may seem smaller still, so we might factor that in when deciding whether you should vacate the home first.

However, it's much easier for a client to visualize living in a home if your stuff is not there, so that could be a factor as well. I would love the chance to come see your property face-to-face, look at your things, and evaluate the situation together so we can determine your best path of action. Depending on your situation, it may be best for you to move before you buy, or vice versa.

If you have any questions, give me a call when you have a moment and I'd be happy to help you out. I look forward to hearing from you soon!

How Will Your Appraisal Help You Price Your Home?

Hey everybody, we are here today to discuss home valuation, a topic near and dear to my heart. As a local appraiser here in Colorado Springs, I learned how to and am licensed to provide valuations of homes. I also learned there is a big difference between the market price of a home and the appraisal price.

When I'm evaluating your home to sell, we are going to take into accounts a ton of its features, including floor plan, square footage, and comparable sales in your neighborhood. By taking into account all of these features, I can help you find the best price to list your home.

By pricing accurately, we can prevent you from getting pushed out of the market by being either under or overpriced. I'd love to put my valuation skills to work for you to help you list and sell your home, and get you the most amount of money for your home in the shortest amount of time possible.

If you have any questions, feel free to give me a call or send me an email. I'd like to put my expertise to work for you and make sure your home doesn't sit on the market too long. I can't wait to hear from you!

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Why work with us?

The Coram Real Estate Group is in Colorado Springs, and is a Colorado-based real estate firm that features high-producing agents whose only focus is to help you succeed at finding real estate that fits your needs, desires, and budget. When you're buying or selling a home, you can trust our team of agents to deliver results and exceed your expectations. Our Team of Realtors know the local communities and are committed to customer service and ongoing success in their field.

Our team of local real estate professionals have carefully researched and written the most comprehensive guide to Colorado Springs neighborhoods. Use our Colorado Springs Homes Guide for instant overview, or check out our Colorado Springs Real Estate Neighborhood Guide for detailed insight including descriptions, photos, videos, and school information to find the best neighborhoods for your family. Whether it's a suburban style home, a Downtown Colorado Springs Victorian, or a ranch with horse property and a great Pikes Peak View, your home is one of the largest investments you will ever make. We will listen to your needs and wants, and then negotiate the purchase of your home to get you the best deal possible.

Come and discover why so many consider The Coram Real Estate Group the best in the Colorado Springs real estate market. Our team of professional agents are ready to help you!

Donny Coram
Integrity Team
RE/MAX Real Estate Group
12265 Oracle Blvd, Suite 105
Colorado Springs, CO 80921
(719) 649-2500
Donny@IntegrityTeam.net

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