Christopher Shearer Get Inside the Mind of the Consumer: Websites Every REALTOR® Needs to Know   Studies indicate that over 80% of today's home buyers visit the Internet long before seeking the professional assistance of a REALTOR®. This means that, thanks to popular realty-themed websites that compete for your business, your clients are already armed with more information than ever before. That's why today's savviest real estate agents must change their perspective and fight back. And the best way to do this is to visit and become familiar with these kinds of sites and the features they offer. This data will not only prepare you to answer any questions your clients might have, it will allow you to provide a more complete service that your clients will want to recommend to all of their ... 03/12/2009

Christopher Shearer       How to Buy U. S. Government-owned Homes Start Searching for Homes   Housing Counseling   HUD Homes   USDA/Rural Development Homes   VA Homes   Housing Counseling   Anyone interested in buying a home for sale by the U.S. Government, particularly first-time homebuyers, should seek assistance from a housing counseling agency approved by the Department of Housing and Urban Development (HUD). HUD supports a network of approved housing counseling agencies that provide counseling services across the nation. For a complete list of HUD approved agencies in your area, call the HUD housing counseling referral line toll-free at 1-800-569-4287 or visit the HUD website at www.hud.gov/offices/hsg/sfh/hcc/hcc_home.cfm.   HUD Homes   After you find a HUD Home on homesales.gov t... 03/04/2009

Prices in the Aspen Real Estate Luxury Market   The world over, Aspen is known as a "must-own" town for the ultra wealthy. When you see a 6,000 square foot lot listed in town for $3,250,00, you can not but be reminded of the tried and true real estate axiom; location, location, location!   So how have prices been holding up in the face of this global economic crisis? Well, it is certainly true that sales have fallen significantly - down 40% from 2007. But in terms of prices, somewhat surprisingly, there has not been a significant change. This is perhaps explained by the extraordinary power of the Aspen name. Celebrities, Intellectuals, Business magnates, political leaders and power brokers the world over are drawn to Aspen.   Aspen is a place where, once people visit, they dream of owni... 01/29/2009

From an article written by the Aspen Daily News on December 3, 2008, 'Aspen-Style' Real Estate Deals Appear An idyllic estate for sale east of Aspen on Independence Pass has seen its listing price drop from $25 million to $14.5 million. Motivated seller in distress? The first wave of price meltdowns that are sure to hit Aspen’s market? A complete fluke not indicative of anything? Could be any or all of the above. The 11,500-square-foot home on 5 acres is owned by Alan Potamkin, who along with his brother Robert heads a billion-dollar chain of more than 50 car dealerships, including Manhattan’s largest dealership, a seven-story midtown structure selling Chevrolets, Cadillacs, Hummers, GMCs, Saabs and other makes of cars. Reports out Tuesday revealed that General Motors sales slipped 41 p... 12/15/2008

From an article written in the Aspen Daily News earlier this week, the Aspen real estate market is down nearly 47% October saw the lowest monthly volume of real-estate sales in Aspen since December 2004 and sales this year through October are down 47 percent compared to 2007. “It is slow,” said Ryan Anslyn, a broker with Land + Shelter Real Estate and a director at the Aspen Board of Realtors. “People are just really skittish about doing anything, even people not necessarily affected by the stock market.” In October, all property transactions in Pitkin County added up to $86.5 million. Sales in September were $100 million and sales in August were $160 million, which was the high water mark for the year. The sales figures are collected and distributed by Land Title Guarantee Company of A... 11/25/2008

To say that I am excited is an understatement! I didn't know who our next President would be until I woke up this morning at 4:30 am. Our voices were heard and yes, I did vote with my head. I watched everything there was to watch on both candidates. When I went to vote yesterday I still did not know which way I would go, I filled out the rest of the ballot and had to come back to who I wanted to vote for for President. I, for one, am ready for change. I believe that Barack Obama will make a great President. I believe that our economy will now make a turn towards the positive. Real estate will begin to sell again, people will start to spend their money again and we will be fine. We needed this change! 11/04/2008

Is this a good time to buy Aspen/Snowmass real estate? How is Aspen's real estate market compared to the rest of the country? The real estate market started to decline in Aspen about 12 months ago. Since then we have seen a 28% decline in our number of transactions and a 41% in the total sales volume from the previous 12 months. In addition, the average price and the median price of a property sale in the past 12 months are 18.7% and 41.6%, respectively. They are below the average and median price of a sale in the previous 12 months. These statistics do not mean that Aspen's real estate prices have dropped dramatically. Although the total number of transactions has declined by 28%, the number of sales over $10,000,000 has declined by 61%. The decline in sales over $10 million has brough... 11/04/2008

So, you want commercial property in Aspen? There isn't much and never is. The prices are high and inventory is low. Currently in the central core of Aspen there are six properties for sale. One is under contract, it's a block outside the central core and is currently a dentist office with a couple of offices upstairs that house and attorney and a structural engineer. It was listed at $5,900,000 and I understand they are going to turn it into a bank. I guess we need another bank here. Two properties right on the Hyman Avenue mall that are right next to each other are for sale. They are the Billabong and New York Pizza and the T shirt shop. These have had the same tenants for years and are for sale for $5,000,000 and $5,500,000, These would both be a great investment for someone looking t... 10/31/2008

Currently there are 89 listings for vacant land in Aspen and the outskirts of Aspen. There are a couple of really nice 25 acre parcels not very far up Castle Creek that are priced at $4,500,000 and $5,500,000. These would be a wonderful place to build your special home and still be close to town. As usual, there are only a handful in the town of Aspen but there seem to be more than usual. The prices range from $3,500,000 up to $14,500,000. Many of the listings for vacant land include a house which is usually a tear down. There are a couple that are listed on Red Mountain, look to spend about $10,000,000 for an acre or so up there. Vacant land is tough to find in the town itself but there are a couple. It's very difficult to build in Aspen, there is so much you have to go through to get ... 10/31/2008

What a difference two years can make ! Two years ago there was not much inventory for sale in Aspen and there were tons of buyers looking to buy. Today there are 124 condos, townhomes and duplexes listed in the central core of Aspen. There are currently 6 duplexes priced between $2,150,000 and $5,200,000, 101 condos priced between $229,000 and $32,000,000 with 85 of those being priced between $750,000 and $4,500,000. Wow, what a selection! There are 13 townhomes priced between $1,625,000 and $10,900,000. All of these range from studios to 5 bedrooms. The average price per square foot is still running about $2000 but there are some great deals out there. There are currently 192 single family homes for sale in the Aspen area, not counting Snowmass or Woody Creek. There are a few good deal... 10/31/2008

I don't think real estate in Aspen, Colorado can get much slower. This is the slowest I have seen for at least 15 years! There are tons of new listings, the prices are still really high and nothing is moving. It'll be great for someone looking for new listings in about a year when all of these expire! There hasn't been any action for months now and I predict things will change after the election. I do have a new listing, it's a fractional ownership. It is a one bedroom/ one bath, 700 square feet in the newly construction Innsbruck in the central core of Aspen. It offers all the amenities including twice a day housekeeping, on site management, shuttle service, pool, hot tub, steam shower in the bathroom along with a jetted tub, full kitchen, washer/dryer in the unit, sleeper sofa for gue... 10/08/2008

After months of careful consideration, I have made the move! I resigned from Remax yesterday and am now back out on my own. The name of my company is Blue Moon Realty, LLC. I have my MRE and ABR designations and my e-Pro certification. I also have my Managing Broker license but I think that I will work by myself for awhile. I like the represent Buyers as a Buyer agent but I was not able to do that in the office I was in. Now that I am back on my own, I can represent Buyer's and Seller's as their agent, I am very excited! I don't have my website back up yet but very soon, I'll let you know when it's back. I will still be selling real estate in Aspen, Snowmass, Basalt, El Jebel, Carbondale and Glenwood Springs. I can go further if I need to, Newcastle and Silt are still doing well with re... 05/12/2008

An article in our local newspaper this morning about Aspen's real estate market was not very positive. According to a local title company, our sales have dropped 68% in Pitkin county since this time last year. In March 2008, we only had 48 total transactions, a large majority of those were fractional ownership sales. I had a few of those closings, not much money but anything is better than nothing, which is what alot of realtors in the area are making. Our biggest year ever so far was 2006 when the year end sales topped $2.6 billion. In 2004 we saw $1.6 billion in sales, last year we saw $2.5 billion in sales, they say that this year may be more like 2004. I am hoping for a speedy recovery in the real estate market, for now I am finishing my book and should have it printed in the next m... 04/25/2008

My apologies on the spelling of Florida, I didn't proof read before I posted! Thanks and does anybody know how to edit these posts without having to erase everything to get to the part you need to fix? 04/18/2008

I have a comment on Heloc's and this new mortgage accelerator program that I spoke of a couple of days ago. I read, with interest, the comments that were made from the mortgage company in Floriday, Mike, I think it was. I've been doing some research on the program and based on my findings, I think that this is actually a good thing for people. The traditional way of paying off your mortgage early is by adding an extra amount of money each month that will go towards the principal. These days, with 3.7 million homes going into foreclosure, most people don't have extra money each month to add to their payment. The mortgage accelerator program is a financial dashboard for people to see where they are going and how to get there and also educates the homebuyer as to what the consequences of t... 04/18/2008

Hi Everybody,I have a two bedroom, three bath, 1120 square foot residence located at The Innsbruck in Aspen, Colorado. The Innsbruck is a newly built, beautiful, fractional ownership residence located at 233 West Main Street. It is only 7 blocks to the downtown shopping mall where everything happens. With this fractional ownership you will get 4 weeks per year, 3 of those weeks are guaranteed to be in prime season. Our prime season runs from November 21st through April 15th and from June 14th through October 2nd. There are two off seasons which are the times between the prime seasons. This is a rotating priority system where you are given a priority number which will always be yours. There are groups of A through L, each group has 10. So A would be A1 through A10, B11 through B20, and s... 04/18/2008

I was talking with a friend the other day and she told me that she had just gotten involved with a new program that allows people to do a Heloc through this software program. She said that it would take a 30 year mortgage and reduce it to about 8 years. She didn't explain very well so I am still confused. Does anybody out there know of this program and how it works? If you can take out a Heloc based on the equity of your home, how can you reduce you mortgage from 30 years to 8 years? And does it really work? Is this something new or has it been around for awhile? Since most of my clients pay cash, I am not up to speed on all the different programs out there but I do have lots of friends that have 30 year mortgages. If this is something that really works, I need to learn about it because... 04/15/2008

You can really tell that it is officially off season here in Aspen, Colorado. Once the ski mountains close, everybody that is here to ski, goes home and the town becomes as it once was, a very quiet, little mountain town. I actually love it when it gets quiet like this, it feels like we have our town back again. You can walk down the street and know almost everybody that is out and about enjoying the spring weather. We have had a really long winter this year, it started to snow in October, I think we are almost out of the freezer box now. There are lots of new listings this year already. Last year at this time we had a very limited supply of inventory. Since sales have been very slow this last year, some of the listings that are out there have been around the whole year. I had lots of p... 04/15/2008

Vacant land is a hot commodity in Aspen, Colorado. Because there is a no growth policy here, if one wants to build a new home in Aspen, most of the time, they must be something that has an existing structure on it or wait, sometimes years, for a piece of land to come on the market. I was so excited this morning, a new listing for vacant land within 5 minutes to downtown Aspen was listed. There are actually two parcels, one is 25 acres for $5 million and the other is 31 acres for $6 million. I don't know how big they can build yet, Pitkin county has a maximum limit on building now, that is 5750 square feet. You can build bigger but you have to have TDR's - Transferable Development Rights, to do so. TDR's come from a different property that has extra or does not ever plan on building. I h... 04/07/2008

The average price of a home in Aspen is around $5 million, the average price of a condo in Aspen is around $1.8 million. So what do "normal" people do that want to own in Aspen? Yes, there are lots of people that come to Aspen to visit but they aren't millionaires or billionaires, can they afford to buy a piece of paradise? The answer is yes! My office is located on the Hyman Avenue mall, in Aspen. We have, by far, the largest walk through traffic of all the offices in Aspen. Quite often, I have potential buyers coming in and asking what can they buy for $500,000. There aren't many whole ownerships in Aspen for $500,000, there are a few studios, maybe a one bedroom but they are either in horrible condition and/or in the basement with no windows. I am told, "We love Aspen and have been c... 04/02/2008