Self Promotion (Don't be afraid!)

Talk about a taboo topic! I think that so many times people are afraid to self promote so we overcompensate by telling everybody how great everybody else is. Well, while that might be true, nobody is in business to not do business. We spent so much time building others up with the hope that they will reciprocate that we lose sight of the fact that we should be proud  of what we have accomplished and where we are taking our business.

 Now, don’t get me wrong. I’m not saying that bad mouthing the competition is the right course of action. I’m simply saying that if you do something well, you have every right to be proud of it. And if you promote other people in that same light, then you can accomplish two things at the same time. First off, you can continue to promote others in a very positive light. But in that same context, you are  you are able to also promote yourself and make yourself a resource. 

Krista and I have worked very diligently with our team in creating our Simonson Team brand to help promote our business through our relationships with our business partners. If any of our clients, friends, family, or even other business partners need a referral or a source for a certain item, we like to be the single point of contact for them.  We have become the “go to experts“ for all of your real estate and non-real estate needs. Below is an example of what we do and how we portray it!

Whether you were thinking about buying or selling in the near future or down the road, looking for investment property or referring a friend, or just want to know what’s happening in your neighborhood, give us a call at 303–229–6026.  And if you just need a referral for an electrician, plumber, a roofer, a painter, or anything else, don’t hesitate to call! 

The Simonson Team can be reached at 303–229–6026 or at info@simonsonteam.com. Remember: Let our family help move yours!

Building Online Relationships

An online presence is vital for any type of business, whether for-profit or nonprofit. The idea is to ultimately build up to a call to action. But before a call to action can be seized upon, two other vital steps need to be taken. The first step is listening.

Listening sounds like an easy task, but really is much more demanding than you may think. It involves taking information and not only seeing what words are said, but also the meaning behind those words. Once you are listening effectively, you'll begin hearing certain patterns of thoughts as they come forth. You'll hear people began talking about themselves and what they find important and what they feel is needed to be successful or to accomplish whatever goals they are trying to accomplish individually. You can then take that information and start forming ideas on how to go to the next step: Mutual engagement.

Mutual engagement is interesting in that it starts creating a dialogue for people to become involved. Everybody wants people to listen to them, but many times they don't know how to engage properly to make that happen. What's the person feels that they have a audience that is focused on what they find to be important, people start developing a conversation. A conversation usually begins with people talking about themselves which is more common than any other way to continue any given conversation, whether personal or business. Many people prefer to give a very short resume of why their thoughts are important and how they've come to their conclusions. As effective as the stuff is, it leads to the one that actually has the biggest impact: a call to action.

A call to action is what motivates people to actually do something. When looking at nonprofits, the call to action usually ends up being a call to donate time or money or sundry items. But a call to action is much more effective when the first two steps of been followed. Listening shows interest in engagement. Mutual engagement shows development of dialogue and allows for people to become connected with an idea or a cause. And finally the call to action gives them a directed outlet that is beneficial to all parties involved.

Why Use Social Media?

I am sometimes asked what type of social media do we use to help promote our team, sell our real estate, and help our friends and clients achieve everything that they want to achieve. The truth of the matter is that without social media in today's society, most communication would come to a screeching halt. Sure, we use email and text messaging and smart phones, but ultimately most large mass messages are passed through social media. Without social media we would not get the updates on day-to-day life or the important notifications that tend to shape not only our days, but our weeks, months, and even our futures.

What type of social media is important to you? As far as we here at the Simonson team are concerned, using such standards as Facebook and Twitter and even Instagram help drive business to our website and to our phones to create conversations for clientele. These are just three of the social media outlets that we use and do not even include the likes of LinkedIn and active rain, both of which are more professional bass as opposed to social-based. When we post on Facebook a new listing that we may have or a buyers need, we are truly reaching out not just to the people we know but also the people that they know and it becomes multiple layers of information being transferred through a lot of different sources almost immediately. We are able to track down help for roofing issues or electrical issues or whatever else may come about. We're able to let people know nationwide if not worldwide about a fabulous new property in the Denver metro area. These are all vitally important to keep you, the consumer, informed and updated!

Another new source that we are using this year is called BombBomb. It is a video email/video blog that we have started using to truly keep in contact with each and everyone of our clientele so that we can pass along information that is pertinent as quickly as possible. We are still learning the ins and outs on that, but are very excited for the potential that it brings to our real estate experience.

While some people feel that too much social media can be a detriment, we find that keeping in touch with people on many levels and not just a business side, but a personal side as well helps truly let people know that we do care about what is going on in their lives and it's not just us presenting information to them. I always want to know what you are up to and what trips you've taken and what issues you may be running into and how we can help or root for you or just send kind words. Always looking to start a conversation, social media allows for a continual flow of ideas that are beneficial across the board.

In 2017 we are looking to reach out and be in contact with each and everyone of you! If you know of another great source for staying in contact, we are always looking for better ways to keep in touch. Let us know, and we will investigate it and use it as best we can!

Holiday Tips For Decorating And Selling Your Home!

The holiday season from November through January is often considered the worst time to put a home on the market. While the thought of selling your home during the winter months may dampen your holiday spirit, the season does have its advantages: holiday buyers tend to be more serious and competition is less fierce with fewer homes being actively marketed. First, decide if you really need to sell. Really. Once you've committed to the challenge, don your gay apparel and follow these tips from FrontDoor.

1. Deck the halls, but don’t go overboard.
   Homes often look their best during the holidays, but sellers should be careful not to overdo it on the decor. Adornments that are too large or too many can crowd your home and distract buyers. Also, avoid offending buyers by opting for general fall and winter decorations rather than items with religious themes.
   
2. Hire a reliable real estate agent.
   That means someone who will work hard for you and won't disappear during Thanksgiving, Christmas or New Year's. Ask your friends and family if they can recommend a listing agent who will go above and beyond to get your home sold. This will ease your stress and give you more time to enjoy the season. (The Simonson Team! 303-229-6026)
   
3. Seek out motivated buyers.
   Anyone house hunting during the holidays must have a good reason for doing so. Work with your agent to target buyers on a deadline, including people relocating for jobs in your area, investors on tax deadlines, college students and staff, and military personnel, if you live near a military base.
   
4. Price it to sell.
   No matter what time of year, a home that’s priced low for the market will make buyers feel merry. Rather than gradually making small price reductions, many real estate agents advise sellers to slash their prices before putting a home on the market.
   
5. Make curb appeal a top priority.
   When autumn rolls around and the trees start to lose their leaves, maintaining the exterior of your home becomes even more important. Bare trees equal a more exposed home, so touch up the paint, clean the gutters and spruce up the yard. Keep buyers’ safety in mind as well by making sure stairs and walkways are free of snow, ice and leaves.
   
6. Take top-notch real estate photos.
   When the weather outside is frightful, homebuyers are likely to start their house hunt from the comfort of their homes by browsing listings on the Internet. Make a good first impression by offering lots of flattering, high-quality photos of your home. If possible, have a summer or spring photo of your home available so buyers can see how it looks year-round.
   
7. Create a video tour for the Web.
   You'll get less foot traffic during the holidays thanks to inclement weather and vacation plans. But shooting a video tour and posting it on the Web may attract house hunters who don't have time to physically see your home or would rather not drive in a snowstorm.
   
8. Give house hunters a place to escape from the cold.
   Make your home feel cozy and inviting during showings by cranking up the heat, playing soft classical music and offering homemade holiday treats. When you encourage buyers to spend more time in your home, you also give them more time to admire its best features.
   
9. Offer holiday cheer in the form of financing.
   Bah, humbug! Lenders are scrooges these days, but if you've got the means, then why not offer a home loan to a serious buyer? You could get a good rate of return on your money.
   
10. Relax — the new year is just around the corner.
    The holidays are stressful enough with gifts to buy, dinners to prepare and relatives to entertain. Take a moment to remind yourself that if you don't sell now, there's always next year, which, luckily, is only a few days away.

The Simonson Team is here to help you with this entire process!  We have photographers, stagers, even cookies for the "fresh baked" smell!  Call us today at 303-229-6026 so we can help you sell during the happiest time of the year!

Denver Real Estate Trends --- Is "Market Shift" A Bad Word?

The Fall Of Mankind Is Nigh!

It's the end of the known universe.  Prices aren't increasing by 10% a month and there are over 9,000 homes available to choose from.  Or, we are finally seeing the "shift" that brings buyers and sellers in to a balanced market?  Buyers aren't just accepting any old thing and overpaying for it and sellers can't just put a sign in the yard, be sold by dark and not be expected to do health and safety repairs.  This just might be the thing that saves us from another 2008 bubble bursting.  DMAR put out this interesting article and graphic showing trends and addressing the coming of balanced concerns:

"Buyers feel relief with price improvements and an abundance of listings. In July, for the entire residential market (single family and condos), there were decreases in nearly every category, including new listings, homes sold, average and median sold prices and overall sales volume. The only category showing an increase was active listings, up 9.89 percent compared to the month prior. 

It is important to note, however, that although overall inventory is up month-over-month, this was the lowest July on record for active listings, down slightly (0.03 percent) from the previous record set in July of last year. The record high average active listings for the month of July, and also the all-time record high, was set in 2006 with a whopping 31,989 listings.

By the numbers month over month, for the entire residential market, 6,814 new listings came on the market (down 10.52 percent), 5,436 homes were placed under contract (down 2.70 percent), and 5,016 homes sold and closed (down 10.79 percent). July closed out with 7,468 active listings, representing a 9.89 percent increase in inventory over the previous month. Average and median sold home prices both slowed down from the previous month, with appreciation slipping 1.88 percent to $412,312 and 3.01 percent to $354,000 respectively. Days on market closed the month at 25.
For the single-family home market, new listings dropped to 4,988 (down 12.61 percent) over the previous month. Average and median sold prices slipped month over month with decreases of 0.87 percent to $460,623 and 1.34 percent to $389,900 respectively. Year over year, single-family home prices are still up an average of 12 percent. The condo market showed the supply of new listings fall by 4.25 percent over the previous month to 1,826 units. The average and median sold prices decreased 2.32 percent to $285,531 and 2.80 percent to $243,000 respectively. Average sold prices for condos are still doing very well with appreciation of 12.02 percent year-over-year. Across the board, total sales volume was $12.4 billion year to date (up 5.70 percent compared to 2015).
Our monthly report also includes statistics and analyses in its supplemental “Luxury Market Report” (properties sold for $1 million or greater), “Signature Market Report” (properties sold between $750,000 and $999,999) and “Premier Market Report” (properties sold between $500,000 and $749,999). In July, 127 single-family homes sold and closed for $1 million or greater – down 15.89 percent from the previous month and up 17.59 percent year over year. The closed dollar volume in July for single-family homes in the luxury segment was $193,359,405 down 13.74 percent from the previous month, and up 14.17 percent year over year.

The highest priced single-family home sold in July was $5,600,000 representing seven bedrooms, 11 bathrooms and 12,044 above ground square feet in Denver Country Club. The highest priced condo sold was $1,450,000 representing two bedrooms, three bathrooms and 2,202 above ground square feet in Denver. Both the listing and selling agents for the two transactions are DMAR members.
From June to July, there was a 15.89 percent decrease in the number of single-family homes sold over $1,000,000. Year to date, there was a 20.32 percent increase compared to last year and a 49.35 percent increase compared to 2014. Price per square foot continues to increase as well, with the average total price per square foot (all floors including basements) at $263 year to date for single-family homes, which is 4.37 percent higher than in July of 2014. The average price per square foot for condos was $551, which is 13.61 percent more than two years ago."

The DMAR Trends Committee spends a lot of time reviewing and building these reports and they ultimately do help all of us in making good decisions for our clients and our continued livelihood.

If you have questions on where things are going, call today at 303-229-6026.  Ride the Shift!

Interest Rate VS APR -- What's The Difference?

I get asked this all the time:  What's the difference between interest rate and APR (Annual Percentage Rate)?  Explanations that I have heard over the years have ranged and varied from the most complex analysis to just plain wrong.  When buying a home, you should know since it affects your total mortgage obligation and give you an idea as to whether you're getting the most "bang for your buck".

The people at Bankrate.com are some of the best at explaining in layman's terms the differences between these two.  Here's what Michael Estrin had to say on the subject:

Understanding the difference between annual percentage rate, or APR, and interest rate could save you thousands of dollars on your mortgage. But if you're like most homebuyers, you probably don't know that the interest rate and the APR measure 2 important, but different, costs associated with your home loan.

"I regularly work with clients who don't understand the APR," says Todd Huettner of Huettner Capital in Denver. "If they don't have questions about the APR or the Truth in Lending disclosure, where the APR is calculated, I know they simply didn't read it."
SEARCH RATES: View today's lowest mortgage rates.

Interest rate and APR

The interest rate is the cost of borrowing the principal loan amount. It can be variable or fixed, but it's always expressed as a percentage.
The APR is a broader measure of the cost of your mortgage because it reflects the interest rate, as well as other costs such as broker fees, discount points and some closing costs. The APR is also expressed as a percentage.

Why have both?

"The main difference is that the interest rate calculates what your actual monthly payment will be," says Sean O. McGeehan, a mortgage sales manager in Chicago. "The APR calculates the total cost of the loan. A consumer can use one or both to make apples-to-apples comparisons when shopping for loans."
For example, a loan with a 4% rate will have a lower monthly payment than a loan with a 6% rate, assuming both are fixed for the same term. Likewise, the total cost of a loan with a 4% APR will be less than one with a 6% APR.

Where it gets tricky

Separately, the interest rate and the APR have their limits. But together, borrowers should be able to use both figures to determine their monthly payments, as well as their total costs. The trick, says McGeehan, is to understand the interplay between the 2 figures.
"If a consumer is only focused on getting the lowest monthly payment, they should focus on the interest rate," says McGeehan. "But if the consumer is focused on the total cost of the loan, then they can use the APR as a tool to compare the total cost of 2 loans."

---

This chart shows the interest rate, APR and total costs over time for a $200,000 mortgage in which 1.5 discount points cut the interest rate by one-quarter of a percentage point, and another 1.5 discount points cut the interest rate by a further quarter of a percentage point.

3 loans, same amounts, 3 APRs

Interest rate	4.5%	4.25%	4%
Discount points	0	1.5	3
Points and fees	$2,800	$5,800	$8,800
APR	4.619%	4.492%	4.36%
Monthly payment	$1,013	$984	$955
All costs, 3 years	$39,281	$41,220	$43,174
All costs, 10 years	$124,404	$123,866	$123,380
All costs, 30 years	$367,613	$354,197	$343,739

Remember that the greater differentiation between your interest rate and your APR, the more fees you are paying.

Contact the Simonson Team today at 303-229-6026 for all your real estate needs!

Email: Forgetting Something?

        

We live and die by our computers, smart phones, and tablets.  We bank and conduct thousands of dollars of business every day online.  We connect via Bluetooth to our cars and wireless speakers and headphones.  We are on Snapchat, LinkedIn, Facebook, Instagram, Musicly, and a bunch of other sites 24/7, but it’s time to revisit a basic basic --- email.  I personally receive over 200 emails a day regularly, but it wasn’t until I got hacked (this morning!) that I finally changed my password after almost 2 years. 

How long has it been for you?  I would bet most people haven’t changed in over a year on their email alone!  Here are some basic tips for safer email as suggested by Deborah Gales of Red Earth Software, Inc. along with, of course, changing your password on a regular basis!

1. Stop Spam & Phishing Emails

Spam is not only a nuisance; it can also pose security risks. Phishing emails entice recipients to click on malicious links and provide credentials or confidential information, which can result in security breaches.

2. Use a Multi-Antivirus Scanner

With new threats being introduced daily, it is important to use multiple antivirus engines in order to increase the rate of detection and reduce the window of vulnerability. Since email is one of the main sources of malware, it is advisable to use a fast performance multi-antivirus scanner to scan incoming email attachments for email-borne threats. Read more about why multi-scanning is essential for email security.

3. Check for Confidential Content

Make sure that no confidential content is sent via email by checking emails and attachments for sensitive information such as social security numbers and credit card data.

4. Prevent Targeted Attacks

Zero-day and targeted attacks can go undetected by anti-malware engines, since they are only sent out to specific groups and individuals. In order to protect against these unknown threats, email attachments should be "sanitized" by converting to a different file format and removing any possible embedded threats. For instance, by converting a Word file to PDF, any potentially harmful scripts can be removed.

5. Check Internal Emails

Malware is usually found in emails coming from external sources, but if an employee's machine gets infected, malicious emails can be sent via internal email. Employees are also more likely to click on an infected email attachment if it is from a co-worker. For this reason, it is important to ensure that your email security solution also scans internally sent emails.

6. Train Employees

Train your employees not to click on links or open attachments from unknown senders. Even if the email is from a known sender but somehow looks out of the ordinary, teach your employees to be cautious. In addition, have an email policy in place that lists the dos and don'ts of email use. Read more about how to create an email policy and download a sample policy.

7. Block Emails with Many Recipients

Instead of using an email marketing tool, some employees might decide to send one email and include all recipients in the To:, Cc:, or Bcc: field, for instance to inform customers about a new promotion. This can result in unintended exposure of valuable client contacts, damage to reputation, and privacy breach claims. Emails with more than 15 recipients should therefore be blocked at the server level before they can do any damage.

8. Block Large Email Attachments

Emails should not contain attachments that are larger than 10 MB. An email that's bigger than 10 MB will most probably not arrive, and the recipient might not even get an undeliverable message back. In the worst case, a large email attachment can bring a whole network to a halt. To prevent this from happening, set an email policy to block large emails and notify the sender, providing alternate methods for sending large files.

9. Archive Emails

Make sure that you keep a backup of your emails, so that if a disaster should occur, you can still revert to your backup. In addition to using backup tapes, check if your email security solution also provides mail backup functionality.

10. Add Legal Footer

To comply with regulations, make sure that each email that is sent out includes the necessary legal footer.

Remember that your internet safety is just that --- yours! 

The Simonson Team is always here to help give you great advice, whether for internet safety or buying or selling your dream home.  Call us today for a fast and simple evaluation to help you with your real estate needs! 303-229-6026!