Archive for the 'Buyer Info' Category
Thinking About Living in Highlands Ranch? Good Thinking!
Some reasons to consider making Highlands Ranch your home
It’s not a secret what my opinion is when it comes to living in Highlands Ranch; it’s a great move! There are plenty of reasons for my opinion on the matter; great schools, great community, safe and secure environment, open spaces, gorgeous homes, proximity to Denver, proximity to the mountains, and, of course, the best neighbors in the state! While I think that everyone should be OK with simply taking my word for it, I realize that for some, my word alone isn’t enough. That’s why in today’s post I’m going to bring in some third party opinions which I think solidify my belief that if you are thinking about living in Highlands Ranch, well, that’s good thinking!
CNN Money
In 2010 CNN Money rated Highlands Ranch as the 12th best place to live in the nation, and the second best in Colorado! CNN cites the town’s 8,100 acres of undeveloped land, 22 recreational parks, activities such as hiking, biking and golfing, as well as a strong school district and consistent home prices all as reasons for this impressive ranking. According to CNN, one of the World’s most trusted news sources, if you are considering living in Highlands Ranch, there are a ton of good reasons why.
GreatSchools.org
As one of the premier school rating sites on the web, greatschools.org lists over 200,000 public and private schools across the country, and uses reviews from over 800,000 parents, as well as other performance-based indicators (test scores, faculty ratings, etc) to rank each school system in the country. Needless to say, they are a high quality source for finding the nation’s top educational systems, and they rate Highlands Ranch schools a 9 out of 10! If you want the best possible education for your children (and what parent wouldn’t?) you simply can’t go wrong choosing Highlands Ranch.
Bestplaces.net
This site has a lot of great information pertaining to quality of life standards of towns and cities across the United States. They rank Highlands Ranch the “number 3 City on the Edge of Greatness”, citing the relatively low unemployment, the great school system, and the steady population growth as indicators of it’s greatness.
So, there you have it. You no longer have to just take my word for it when I say that living in Highlands Ranch is a great decision. If you are interested in finding out what Highlands Ranch has to offer you and your family, please give me a call today, and let The Kuchar Team help you get into the perfect Highlands Ranch home for you.
Highlands Ranch Short Sales
Short Sales in Highlands Ranch
A Short Sale is the sale of a home where the owner owes the bank more than the property is worth. The bank is forced to either foreclose on the property or take less than is owed on t
he mortgage creating a “shortage”. Usually a person applying for a short sale has some sort of hardship that is causing them to no longer afford the home that they once qualified for. The most common reasons for owners to consider a short sale is a loss of income due to unemployment or increase in expenses due to illness. Another cause of short sales I come across is divorce. When a divorce happens and the couple can no longer live together the remaining spouse is unable to afford the property with one income and they are forced to sell the home via short sale.
Falling Home Values Cause Short Sales
When I started selling homes in 1991 there weren’t any short sales. Throughout the 90′s and into the mid 2000′s there weren’t many foreclosures so a short sale wasn’t really considered. In most cases values were steadily increasing and people Read the rest of this entry »
Highlands Ranch Foreclosures
Foreclosures in Highlands Ranch
As a real estate agent in Highlands Ranch I get asked about foreclosures and bank owned properties all of the time. The perception is that by purchasing a bank repossession you are automatically getting a great deal thousands of dollars below market value. There are definitely opportunities to be had in buying these homes but much of it depends on what type of buyer that you are ( owner/occupant or investor ) and what type of bank is selling the property.
Investor vs. Owner Occupant
In recent years with the government involvement with Freddie Mac and Fannie Mae, the selling of these bank assets has changed. Very similar to HUD Homes ( HUD Homes are FHA loans that have been foreclosed upon ) both Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac Read the rest of this entry »
Highlands Ranch Mountain View Homes
Many people want to see the mountains from their home
When my wife and I began our home search here in Highlands Ranch, we began as most people do with a wish list. There were the criteria that the property had to have and then the list of what would be nice to have. With our size family, we had to have at least four bedrooms and 2,400 square feet. We wanted a large basement as a place for the kids to enjoy when we entertained guests. The other must have was a view of the mountains. When we moved to Highlands Ranch, we rented for the first year to give us time to find the house that we really wanted and the rental was backing to open space with a wide open view of the front range. Waking up to see the mountains every day was enough to get us hooked and mountain views were added to the must have list when we bought our home.
Mountain Views add value in Highlands Ranch
We quickly realized as most people do that we would have to pay extra to get a decent view of the mountains. The builders and developers Read the rest of this entry »
Websites That Highlands Ranch Realtors Do Not Want You To Know About
Best Websites To Get Real Estate Information in Highlands Ranch
I am not afraid to share some of the best places on the web to get real estate information with you. Some of these sites you probably already know about and others will be a surprise. I will share with you where the sites are at and what each of them does well. Ultimately you will need to contact a Real Estate Agent in order to see them and write and offer. Hopefully my willingness to share with you some great research tools will create enough interest to warrant and interview for the job of representing you in the purchase of your next home.
When it comes to Home Prices and Home Values in Highlands Ranch as well as Real Estate trends, Zillow.com is probably the best site to look at. It is best to look at the data over a two year time frame so that you can compare for adjusted seasonality. For example it is important to know that home sales slow down in the winter here in Colorado. That way when there is a 6% drop in sales from November to December, you understand that it happens every year and is normal.
Home Foreclosure Information in Highlands Ranch
The best site to find information about home foreclosures and foreclosure trends would be Read the rest of this entry »
