Selling a house in Colorado Springs, CO

Selling a house in Colorado Springs, CO can be daunting, but with the right preparation and guidance, it can be a smooth and successful process. Here are the key steps to selling a house in Colorado Springs, CO:

Get the most amount of money in the least amount of time.

1. Determine the Market Value of Your Home

The first step in selling your home is to determine its market value. This can be done by getting a professional appraisal or by comparing recent sales of similar properties in your area. Knowing the market value of your home will help you set a realistic price and make informed decisions throughout the selling process. Do NOT rely on Zillow to accurately give the true value of the home. So many additional factors play here, and oftentimes, sellers are disappointed when they don't get what Zillow valued the home at. These are bots and algorithms that have never seen the inside of your home.

2. Make Necessary Repairs and Improvements

Once you have a clear idea of the market value of your home, it’s time to make any necessary repairs and improvements. This may include fixing leaks, repainting, and updating old fixtures. By making your home as presentable as possible, you can increase its appeal to potential buyers and potentially sell it for a higher price, beating all the competition.

3. Hire a Real Estate Agent or List for Sale by Owner

Once your home is ready for sale, it’s time to choose a listing method. You can either hire a real estate agent or list the property for sale by owner (FSBO). Both options have pros and cons, so it’s important to weigh them carefully and choose the best suits your needs.

4. Prepare the Property for Sale

The next step is to prepare the property for sale. This includes staging the home to appeal to potential buyers. Staging your home can include things like decluttering, rearranging furniture, and making the home look as spacious and inviting as possible.

5. Advertise the Property

Once the property is prepared for sale, it’s time to advertise it. The most common method for advertising a property is by listing it on the Multiple Listing Service (MLS) and other online platforms. This will give your property maximum exposure to potential buyers. Additionally, it’s important to hold open houses and other showings to give potential buyers a chance to see the property in person. If you are selling on your own without an agent, make sure you do not skip out on neighborhood features, and great marketing photos. Buyers love virtual tours and high-quality photos from a professional photographer who knows marketing.

6. Review Offers and Negotiate

Once you start receiving offers, it’s time to review them and start negotiating with buyers. This process can be complex and it’s important to work with a real estate agent or attorney who can guide you through the process and help you make the best decision. Not all offers are created equal. Some offers may be higher, but you have to consider appraisals, types of loans, and other contingencies in this lengthy contract to buy and sell.

7. Sign a Purchase Agreement

Once an agreement has been reached, it’s time to sign a purchase agreement. Before signing, it’s important to have the agreement reviewed by a real estate agent or an attorney to ensure that all the terms are fair and that the agreement protects your interests. To access this real estate commission-approved contract, click here.

8. Close on the Sale

The final step in the process is to close on the sale. This usually involves transferring ownership of the property, paying off any outstanding mortgages, and disbursing the proceeds of the sale. This process can be complex and it’s important to work with an attorney or real estate agent who can guide you through the process. You want to make sure you have a clean transfer of ownership to make sure nothing comes back to haunt you in the future.

The Keys 🗝️

Selling a house in Colorado Springs can be a complex process, but with the right preparation and guidance, it can be a smooth and successful experience. If you are considering selling your home, it’s important to seek professional advice from a real estate agent or attorney who can guide you through the process and help you make the best decisions. Feel free to reach out at any time!

IRIS BURTON | REALTOR®

RE/MAX PROPERTIES, INC.

102 SOUTH TEJON STREET

COLORADO SPRINGS, CO 80903

719.315.5016

IRISBURTON.COM

LIVINGTHESPRINGS@GMAIL.COM

BOOK A CHAT

The Colorado Springs Housing Market Just Got Worse for 2022

The Colorado Springs housing market for 2022 just got worse now that interest rates have gone up. Now that prices are overinflated, we're adding a few hundred dollars more per month on that monthly mortgage payment. The frenzy might be over.

Colorado Springs Foreclosure New Starts

The graph above goes over foreclosure new starts going back to the last five years, so back to 2017. And when you look at the stats in 2017, back when we had a little bit more of a healthier market. As far as being on the market, I remember when people were saying that we weren't able to ask for concessions back in 2017. I was floored, like, you know, I was offended by that. That was before appraisal gaps and before people offering tens of thousands over the list price to be competitive. I would say a most normal market was probably before 2016. But the graph above is from the El Paso County Assessor's-all public information, you can pull it up yourself.

The highest number in 2017 was108 for new starts. In April of this year we had 119; a considerable jump when comparing to last year. But, that was because we had the forbearance program, the government stepped in and helped out with those mortgages to help people from going into default. People had all this time shortly after the pandemic to kind of, buy time, take their payments and put them on hold or wrap them on the back end of the loan. With some banks, you didn't incur additional interest. It was a nice thing to take advantage of - the 18 months of no mortgage payments.

Will Housing Prices go Down in Colorado Springs?

Foreclosures could take up to about a year to come to fruition, this could be the start of something really bad, a lot of houses are going to come back on the market and that could reduce the prices, but then with the interest rates going up another 2% could cause a problem.

Is Housing Affordable in Colorado Springs?

What about your middle-class buyers, people that can no longer afford a house. And so that's kind of the new dilemma that has come into the picture. You know, with that middle-class situation, the monthly payments are going to be way too high, and the housing prices are already super inflated.

In this graph, you're going to see the average days on market. We've got pretty had ten days on the market on average back in May of 2021. We went all the way down to seven in July. Of course, it's a popular month to be selling your house. Lots of buyers come out after school is out. They want to move in the summertime before August when kids go back to school, and then we shoot up longer days on market over the months from there peaking at 14 in December.

That's why they say the best time to buy is over the holidays. You're going to get the best deal when you're buying a house during these months because most people don't want to move. First of all, it's wintertime. Second, no one wants to move over the holidays. I bought my house on Christmas one time and walked into 20k in equity by closing. As January hits, you get those days a little bit longer and then in May of this year 2022 we're at 11 days on market.

Overvalued Homes in Colorado.

I wanted to share this video of the day of reckoning coming.

This was an article written by the Denver Post, talking about the over inflation, specifically Denver home prices being way higher than they would be with the absence of the pandemic.

That has escalated the rising house prices, mass exoduses, leaving these major cities wanting to go somewhere that wasn't as strict as some of these larger cities such as California. Denver ranks 37 out of the 100 largest metros in April. Home values soaring just over 30.5% of what would have been expected based on long-term trends.

This would not have occurred, had the pandemic not hit creating this wave of the expected value for Denver based on trends and Zillow. Now, we know that Zillow went under with their i-buyer program because of their faulty algorithms. So, I take this with a grain of salt. But more importantly, is the Colorado Springs gap, which was reported at 45.9%, depending on which report you read. I go by the Pikes Peak Association of Realtors' data.

Nonetheless, that's a huge difference. That's almost double inflation. So what Denver Post is saying is home values tend to cycle between periods of over-inflation and undervaluation. So you can read this article in-depth, but just saying that we have a very high premium here in Colorado Springs.

I don't know how much it's going to change. I'm not an economist, I'm a real estate agent, and I use the data that I see, and share that with you. As I've said before, home buying has been tough. Now with interest rates, potential foreclosures coming on the market, it's making a lot of agents nervous with that higher monthly payment for buyers.

Colorado Springs Housing Market Summary

Here is the monthly summary report. This is where we get my average sales price. If you follow me on Instagram, I'm always posting the average home price, but let's look at the median home price.

If you're looking for a house, that's probably where you're going to land to get your average three-bedroom, two-bath home. That median price went up about half a percent. We're down on the average sales price, comparing May of 2022 to April of 2022. But still, year over year, we're looking at 13.2% increase.

So I will be staying on top of these numbers so we can see whether we're heading for a crash.

Homes For Sale from in Colorado Springs from May 2021 to May 2022

If you look back at the history, we didn't have a ton of homes available for sale in Colorado Springs last year in May. 1,184 was a good month for us. 1,360 in May and people are worried about that. Back in 2008, the new number of listings was 5,000 to 6,000, and even over 7,000 at one point. Even if we hit 2,000 new homes for sale on the market - to me, that is the market balancing. That's not a crash to me.

Have questions about the housing market? Feel free to reach out.

IRIS BURTON | REALTOR® | COLORADO SPRINGS

PROSPERITY GROUP BY EXP REALTY

3361 NORTH ACADEMY BLVD

COLORADO SPRINGS, CO 80917

719.315.5016

IRISBURTON.COM

IRISJBURTON@GMAIL.COM

Book a Call

What do you think? Will there be a crash?

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  0%Absolutely
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  0%Don't think so
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  0%Who knows?

Should I Sell My House in Colorado Springs in 2022?

Welcome back! We are going to be talking about whether or not you should sell your Colorado Springs home in this current 2022 market. You may have been thinking, should I sell my house right now? I know a lot of agents would say yes, you got to sell your house. This is the best time to sell a house historically. You can get the most amount of money that you'll probably ever get for a very long time. Inflation has gone up very high. We have a limited amount of homes available for sale and a lot of demand. There's a lot of buyers and not enough homes to go around. So really everything is just over inflated. People are offering on average between four and six percent above the list price, full cash, full appraisal gap. Most agents are going to tell you that you should sell your house. I'm going to give you my honest opinion on whether you should sell your house in 2022 or not.

Why I’m Not Selling My House Right Now

I own my own house and I would honestly not sell it because I plan on staying here for a long time. Hopefully this house will be an investment retirement plan for us down the road. Now, each situation is different so you really have to think about whether you're going to be living here or not. Do you have to sell your house? Are you sick of living in Colorado Springs? There's all these different factors that would make your answer either a yes or no for you. Let's talk about those things.

Why You Should Sell in 2022

Here are just a few questions that you should ask yourself: Do you have to sell? Do you have to move? Are you going to be relocated? Are you downsizing? Are you needing to be closer to a specific part of town? Maybe you've got a different job and the drive is just killing you. Or maybe you have some debt that you want to clear up. Maybe you can't afford your house anymore. Perhaps you're tired of living in Colorado Springs because you feel like the city has gotten too big. You really miss the hometown feel and you'd rather live somewhere where it's a little quieter, where there's less going on, less traffic. You may want to be somewhere where it might be easier to find a job. If any of these are the case for you then you might want to consider selling your house. These are reasons why I would say yes, you should sell your house in 2022.

Moving Up

If you want to sell your house in Colorado Springs, you can probably afford twice as much house for half the amount of money if you move to certain areas. If you need a list of smaller, less expensive towns, shoot me an email. But, it's kind of like what Californians did to us. They sold their homes and were able to get a much nicer and larger property in Colorado. That could be a reason for you to sell and move. Maybe you want to start a new life. Maybe you need a change of scenery. You can work from home, or you don't really have to work. Maybe you just want to get out of dodge so to speak. Then I would say yes, definitely sell your house in 2022.

Cashing Out Your Equity

Now the other part of that is perhaps you have a lot of equity. Maybe the whole mortgage is paid off. Say you have your home paid off, you're living in a neighborhood with no HOA dues, and all you're really paying is property taxes. That house you bought maybe 20 or 30 years ago may sell for $300,000 or $400,000. All of that would be profit. You can take that money and buy something new. But, this would only be beneficial if you were going to be downsizing or moving to a less expensive area. Maybe you're tired of walking up and down the stairs. Maybe you have a yard and you're tired of watering grass, pulling weeds, taking care of gutters, and cleaning it up. I'm so grateful my husband does all that! It's a lot of work taking care of a house. Some people are just tired of doing it all. Maybe you want to downsize and get a townhouse where the HOA takes care of all of that. A lot of those things you're going to want to consider. Because if you were to take that profit from selling to buy something else, you're not going to really be upsizing a lot. You're probably going to be finding another house that is very similar. You may need something bigger. Maybe your family is growing. Maybe you have people coming to live with you or want to get roommates to make a little more income. A lot of people are adding rental spaces into their properties. If you are wanting to get something bigger you're going to need a lot more money, just keep that in mind. You're probably going to end up with a mortgage again. If you decide to sell and take the proceeds to buy something bigger, you're likely going to have competition. The supply/demand issue. The houses are so expensive and are going for way over asking price.

If it's not going to be that much bigger of a space, you're probably going to want to ask yourself if you still like your house and if it will do for now. A lot of people are comfortable with their mortgage rate and payment. Maybe you don't like your house and you don't mind paying a mortgage again or making a higher mortgage payment for something nicer. Maybe something closer to the mountains so you can have those views that everybody wants. It might make sense to make that move if that’s the case. Really sit down and figure this out. Figure out the math, how much it's going to cost. What kind of house can you get and afford in this new inflated market. Just get all of that dialed in before you make this decision. Now if you want to cash in on your equity as soon as possible I do feel like yes, you should sell now. Who knows what's going to happen?

Is A Recession or Housing Crash Coming?

A lot of people are predicting a market crash because we can't keep going on this route, right? People need affordable housing. It’s going to have to come full circle and all of the signs are there for a recession. Read this article on Business Insider. The only difference is, when it comes to housing we are at an all-time low for foreclosures. Historically speaking, we've never had this low of foreclosure inventory because it's so easy to sell a house and make a ton of money. As long as there’s a supply and demand issue, there is going to be this housing crisis. A lot of people are buying second and third homes. Investors are coming in, and when I say investor I mean someone who already has a home and they're using the second property for rental income. I had a rental in the past. It's not all these big corporations that are buying up houses. Some people own three or four houses at a time. That doesn't leave enough homes for other people investing in property. It’s one of the easiest and best ways to build wealth for yourself. People are realizing that and taking advantage of those opportunities. Especially in a city like Colorado Springs.

We have all these signs of recession. We have inflation, we've got fuel prices going up, we've got housing costs rising. Now the Feds are hiking up interest rates in an effort to balance the market. Now it's gotten even worse. All that to say, we don't know what the market is going to look like in a year. We don't know if you're going to be able to get as much as you would today, right now in 2022 as you would in 2023. Experts are predicting that housing is going to remain steady at least through the end of 2022. Like I said, we don't know if there's going to be an actual market crash. We don't know if there's a bubble. Previous information shows the housing crash and housing bubble were a result of poor lending practices. Adjustable rate mortgages were big. People were cashing in on their equity, refinancing and pulling cash out. Taking second mortgages to fund their trips and lifestyles. That caused a huge financial crisis. A lot of people lost their jobs and could no longer afford their lifestyles, couldn’t afford to pay back the second mortgage they took out. There's a lot of different factors when it comes to this in our current situation. It's kind of this weird perfect storm of different things going on. Wars, disease, inflation, what the heck?!

Long story short; depending on your personal situation, if you don't need to move, you plan on making your home a retirement plan or an investment, you don't need to sell. If you're happy where you are, you love your neighborhood and your home then of course you don't need to sell. Finding a new one is going to be very challenging right now. I am a real estate agent. I do make money when people sell their homes. For me, I feel like I’m not going to sell my home because I won’t be able to find something bigger or nicer. I'd rather just hang on to it for a while. That’s just my personal opinion about whether you should sell your house now in 2022.

Sell Your House in Colorado Springs

If you do need or want to sell your house give me a call or send me a text or email. I'll help you get the most amount of money in the least amount of time. I have a great marketing packet that I put together for you. I don't do sales like anyone else. I don't just slap photos on the MLS and call it a day. You get excellent marketing. Professional photos, Facebook ads, my YouTube channel, and so on. You want to get a lot more eyes on your property because buying a house is different now. 95 percent of people start their home search online through Zillow, Craigslist, and Realtor.com.

Your house needs to look great online as well, not just in person. Some people still aren't going out because of health concerns. They’re not going to open houses and walk through showings. I'd rather do a virtual tour first to see if I like the layout and overall how the home looks. Then I decide if I have enough interest to actually want to go see it in person. I do everything online, all my shopping is done online. I post properties on Facebook because Facebook knows how to target home buyers. You have a better chance of getting the highest and best offer, significantly over the list price. Anybody that tells you you don't need good marketing in this market is lying to you. You want to draw a lot of attention and interest to your home to ensure you get the most amount of money with terms that you want. You can leverage and negotiate based on what your needs are and that all boils down to a good marketing strategy. If marketing wasn't important we wouldn't have these great commercials at the Super Bowl or ads at the grocery store or while you're scrolling on Facebook.

IRIS BURTON

PROSPERITY GROUP

BROKERED BY EXP REALTY LLC

3361 N Academy Blvd

Colorado Springs, CO

irisburton.com

irisjburton@gmail.com

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