Real Estate News

5 Surprising Reasons to Love Southwestern Colorado

There are plenty of great reasons to move to Southwestern Colorado. The most obvious is that this is one of the most beautiful places in the world. You can see that for yourself in real time on web cams set up in Montrose, Ouray, and Ridgway. The area is also known for its arts and culture, especially for music and film festivals. Still, there are more, lesser-known reasons to love living in the San Juan Mountains. Imagine doing all of this in your own hometown:

1. Have fun on ice. We know how to celebrate winter here. Colorado’s high altitude and variety of rock features makes it a Mecca for rock climbers around the world, but in the winter, when the toughest climbers switch to climbing ice, Ouray, in particular, is the place to be. Every year, the Ouray Ice Festival draws climbers from around the world to compete, network, and see exhibits from gear manufacturers. Non-climbers can enjoy the festival, too, by watching the competitions, enjoying art sales, riding zip lines, and taking beginners’ climbing lessons. There are plenty of activities for kids, too, so the whole family can get in on the festivities.

2. Walk through a Wild West movie set… John Wayne fans, rejoice! One of his greatest films, True Grit, was shot right here, in Ouray County. Parts of other great Western movies were filmed in this region, too, including How the West Was Won and Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid. You can search out the sites on your own, or take a guided tour.

3. …or an Ayn Rand novel setting. Filmmakers aren’t the only artists who find this region inspiring. In Ayn Rand’s novel, Atlas Shrugged, the best and brightest people in the world walk out on modern civilization and build their own utopian community in the most beautiful place they can find. That settlement, Galt’s Gulch, is entirely fictional, but Rand was picturing the area around Ouray when she created it. Objectivists, the followers of Rand’s philosophy, often hold meetings and tours here, so they can see and feel the perfection of Galt’s Gulch in real life.

4. See wildlife that is incredibly rare… The San Juan Mountains are home to a wide variety of animals and plants, many of which are extremely rare, and some of which live nowhere else in the world. For example, the Uncompahgre fritillary butterfly, a beautiful species that can survive only at very high altitudes, has only been found in this region. Some endangered species, including the lynx, have been re-introduced to this area and are growing in numbers.

5. …or may be just a legend. Do you believe in Bigfoot? If he exists, you just might find him here. This video clip, taken by hikers in the San Juan Mountains, shows a large, hairy, very human-like figure walking and squatting near a river. The producers of Animal Planet’s show, Finding Bigfoot, have investigated and declared that the video  is authentic, meaning that it shows no sign fakery, but what is the creature? Southwestern Colorado may have its own Sasquatch.

Tips for Moving into Your First Home

If you’ve just bought your first house, congratulations! You may be moving from an apartment to a house, or moving a rental house to one that’s all yours to decorate and remodel as you see fit. You’ll have a lot to decide as you move in and make the house your own, and that can feel both exciting and daunting. Here are some first home buyers tips to help you through the transition:

Budget for things you’ll need to buy to make a house a home. You’ve surely planned for all of the obvious costs of owning your own home, including closing costs, insurance, monthly mortgage payments, and utility bills. There are a few more things you’ll need to add, though. Many first home buyers are surprised to discover how many items they need to own as a homeowners, but never thought of when they were renting—especially those moving from an apartment complex to a house with a yard and driveway and front walk of its own. You’ll need a snow shovel or snowblower, a lawn mower and trimmer,  window coverings, tools for home repairs, and more. This post from the Home Buying/Selling Channel on About.com walks you through the basic items you’ll need to budget for. Beyond these, of course, you’ll also want to plan for any remodeling you’d like to do, plus any new furniture you’ll want to buy.

Before you move, simplify your belongings. There’s no need to buy all of these items before you move in. In fact, your move will be easier the less you own on the day of the move. Start planning the move as early as you can. Give away, sell, or throw away anything that you won’t want to keep in your new house. These first home buyer tips from Mayflower Transit will help you plan what to toss and what to pack.

Pack a survival kit for your first few days in your new house. When you’re packing for your move, keep the essentials for your first few days close at hand. In your first load, bring clearly labeled, easy-to-unpack boxes packed survival items like keys, flashlights, cups, plates, basic food, bedding, cleaning supplies…well, you’ll need quite a few items to keep yourself and your family comfortable while you unpack, and if this is your first move of this size, you’ll need a guide to keep you from overlooking something. This post from the Simple Mom blog is that guide. If you keep these essentials handy, you’ll be more relaxed about unpacking everything else.

Take your time deciding on major purchases. Once you’re moved in, HGTV’s post, “6 Tips for Decorating Your First Home” will help you personalize your new home with new furniture and décor. Their best suggestion is this: Take your time deciding what to add to your first house. Live in your home for at least two months before making major furniture, appliance, and decorating purchases. This way, you’ll be able to furnish your home for the way you actually live, not just what you’d imagined before you moved in. Let your home grow around you over time.

The Staff at San Juan Realty, Inc.

Cheap, Safe, Green House Cleaning Supplies

There are many reasons why you might want to switch to natural, non-toxic cleaning supplies for your home: Maybe you’re selling your home, and want to make sure that every potential buyer, even those with chemical sensitivities, feels comfortable when they come by for a showing. Maybe you or a family member is sensitive, or you’d like to be extra careful what you use around your children or pets. Maybe you’re concerned about the effect your house cleaning has on the environment. While buying ready-made natural cleaners will probably cost a bit more than buying standard synthetic ones, going green can even save you money if you make your own. Here are some simple ways to get started:

Inexpensive, Easy Recipes Online

To learn how to go green in any aspect of your life, Greenpeace is a great place to start. This post on their web site gives very simple solutions for cleaning, polishing, disinfecting, and deodorizing most of your house using easy-to-find ingredients, including lemon juice, vinegar, baking soda, table salt, and old-fashioned, basic soap.

• Real Simple magazine shows “66 All-Natural Cleaning Solutions” using lemons, essential oils, liquid Castile soap, cooking oils, borax, vinegar, table salt, baking and washing soda, and whatever toothpaste you have on hand. Most of these ingredients are available at supermarkets, though you may have to go to a health food store for essential oils and Castile soap.
• For an in-depth introduction to safe, green, homemade house cleaning supplies, visit the web site of Mother Earth News for the article, “Green Cleaners,” which originally appeared in their July/August 1990 issue. Here, author Ann Larkin-Hanson tells how to gradually replace your regular house cleaning standbys with green supplies. She gives deeper explanations of how and why baking soda, washing soda, soap flakes, oil soap (such as Murphy’s Oil), vinegar, borax, and ammonia can clean up almost any mess. Her best bit of advice: When in doubt about how to get clean and green, ask someone who’s been cleaning house since before World War II. Back then, simpler, cheaper, natural cleaners were all that was available.

Books Full of Ideas

If you’d like more ways to make your house cleaning supplies safer, greener, and cheaper with ingredients you control, check out these books:

• The Naturally Clean Home: 150 Super-Easy Herbal Formulas for Green Cleaning by Karyn Siegel-Maier will tell you how to make specialty cleaning products, including wicker cleaner, soap for automatic dishwashers, and insect repellant, all boosted and beautifully scented with herbs. Siegel-Maier promises that, even with the herbal extras, these cleaners will still cost you far less than commercial cleaners would.
• Better Basics for the Home: Simple Solutions for Less Toxic Living by Annie Berthold-Bond offers recipes for natural house cleaning supplies, then goes above and beyond that to explain how you can make green, inexpensive, homemade face and body care items, wood stain, house paint, and more.

5 Tips for Selling a Home While Living in It

If you’re selling your home, you’ve surely heard the most common home staging tips: declutter, decorate beautifully, and keep your home sparkling clean. When you’re still living in your home, though, keeping it in perfect showcase condition is easier said than done. Here are guidelines for balancing home showings with your family’s everyday life:

1. Make your home available to show as often as possible. Keeping your home ready to show is a challenge, so keep the payoff in mind: The more often your home is available for buyers to see, the faster it will sell. Broker Christine Donovan explains, “If your house for sale is not available when the buyer wants to see it, they probably won’t see it!” She goes on to explain the importance of lockboxes: An easy-to-show house, with a lockbox for quick and simple key delivery, gets shown more often. To sell faster, say “yes” to the lockbox, and keep your home in tidy, showable condition when you leave for work each day.

2. Organize the items you use. You’ve heard about the importance of decluttering, packing up everything you don’t use regularly and storing it until your home is sold. For the items you have left, the ones you regularly use, set up organizational systems. Invest in bins, drawers, and whatever else you need to make sure every object has its place. Make it as easy as possible for your family to keep your home tidy and ready to show.

3. During showings, get out of the house, or at least be unobtrusive. As broker Sandra Halliday points out in this blog post, potential buyers are less comfortable looking over and talking about a home in front of the owners. If you can’t get away during a showing, introduce yourself politely, then stand back and stay as low-key as possible. Give your buyers space to look through rooms and closets, ask their broker questions, and imagine themselves living in the home.

4. If you have kids, keep just a few of their creations on the fridge. Opinions vary about whether you should keep anything personal (such as family photos, kids’ art projects, family schedules, and so on) in a home while it’s being shown. Too much information about your family makes it difficult for buyers to imagine themselves in the home, and it can be a safety issue—these are strangers in your home, after all. This blog post suggests a happy medium: Pick one art project other achievement from each child, and display it in a nice frame. Potential buyers will see that this is a great place to raise children, your kids will know you’re still proud of them, but your home won’t be cluttered or sharing too much information.

5. Be realistic, and let yourself (and your family) live. With this tongue-in-cheek post, the blog Taming Insanity points out how difficult (if not impossible) it is too keep a home in pristine showing condition while a real family with small children lives there. For a perfect house, it suggests, “Do not let the toddler into their room,” “Make the toddler wear mittens,” and “Stop eating.” Don’t worry about keeping your home perfect. It’s still your home. Keep it as tidy and available as you reasonably can, but don’t be afraid to enjoy your everyday life. Buyers will know that real people can and do live in your home.

The Staff at San Juan Realty, Inc.

Inherited a House? What to Do Now

When you inherit a house, you’ll have a lot to do, but also a lot of options. Fortunately, there is a lot of helpful advice available online, including this post from the National Association of Realtors’ Houselogic site, this article from The Learning Channel’s series on dealing with inheritances, and this post from Realty Times. You can consult those articles for more information and resources, but to help you get started, here are the four major steps you’ll need to follow:

1. Work with the other heirs and family members. The greatest danger in dealing with a house inheritance is that it can cause major rifts in your family. You may have inherited the house in common with other heirs—usually your siblings, if you’ve inherited your parents’ house, or your cousins if you’ve inherited from a grandparent, aunt, or uncle. Everyone will have their own opinion on what to do with the house, and everyone should have a say in the final decision. It is possible to legally force the sale of the house if the heirs can’t agree, but this can cause lifelong hurt feelings. Work together if you can. Also remember that other family members may have fond memories and strong feelings attached to this house. Ultimately, it’s up to the heirs to decide what to do, but let the whole family know that you’ve carefully considered their feelings, too.

2. Get professional tax and legal advice. Each of the articles listed above mentions current estate tax law at the moment the post was written, but tax law changes fast. You’ll need to find out how to legally transfer ownership of the home to you (and any other heirs), pay estate taxes, and deal with any other financial and legal issues. If the house has a mortgage, reverse mortgage, or liens on it, you’ll need to make a new deal with the creditors before you can take ownership. If the debts surrounding the house are big enough, the entire house may go to the debtors, and not to the heirs at all. There are many legal and financial variables to sort through, and your house’s situation is unique. Get help to sort all of this out.

3. Deal with the house’s financial needs. Beyond estate tax and debts, there are a few other financial considerations to know about before you make your final decision. It’s important to keep up the homeowner’s insurance policy in case anything should happen to the house while you’re sorting through the red tape. This post from Insure.com will walk you through the steps to keep the house insured. Once insurance is taken care of, your house will likely need some repairs before it’s ready to for you to sell, rent out, or move into. If you’re thinking about selling the house or renting it out, consult a real estate agent to find out what you’d need to repair and update. Get your tax advisor involved in these decisions, too. Improvements you make after inheriting may affect the amount of capital gains tax you’ll have to pay.

4. Sell it, rent it out, or move in. Once the house is yours, you’ve got all of the information you need, and you’ve consulted with other heirs and comforted the rest of the family, it’s time to make your decision. Your situation is unique. Do what’s best for you and your family.

The Staff at San Juan Realty, Inc.