See the numbers below and my opinion at the bottom of this article.

Lower home Sales

 

It’s a great time to buy a home in Stonegate. It looks like the REO and short sale market has finally pulled values down in the Stonegate Village neighborhood in Parker, Colorado. I see that the number of sales is down a little too from 2010 but that might have something to do with the lower inventory levels across the board.

The average price per sqft for 2011 is now at $132 per sqft versus a high of $143 in 2007. Ouch! We are all feeling the pain.

Take note Stonegate home sellers! Buyers are looking for quality homes with upgrades and well maintained interior and exteriors. I just posted an article about what buyers are looking for and why they are over looking Stonegate and buying elsewhere. I suggest all potential home sellers read this article. Best Tips to Sell Your Parker Home Fast.

While the numbers don’t lie and they are painful it isn’t the end of the world. We knew we were going to get hit by this at some point. We are not immune to the real estate market around the world even though we have been somewhat insulated from it for several years. Stonegate has not been hit nearly as bad as many other neighborhoods around Parker and the Denver Metro area.

Stonegate residents. Update your homes. Remodel them. Our neighborhood on the South side is getting older and we need to keep this neighborhood as a prime spot for all potential home buyers in the Parker area. The amenities in Stonegate, our location as well as the BEST school in Douglas County all help us stay on top of the competition. Let’s keep it that way.

Here is a list of every home currently for sale in Stonegate.

Find out what your Stonegate home is worth right now.

Total Sales by Year: (2007 was obviously the down year for home sales in Stonegate.)

2007 = 79

2008 = 173  

2009 = 121

2010 = 131

2011 = 113

Average Total Days on Market:

2007 = 70

2008 = 82  

2009 = 82

2010 = 76

2011 = 105

Average NET Sold Price: (7.7% decrease in Value from high to low year.)

2007 = $329,191

2008 = $308,770

2009 = $308,292

2010 = $308,938

2011 – $303-853

Total Volume of NET Sales By Year in Stonegate: (Two years of consistent sales volume show a market that may have leveled out)

2007 = $26,006,053

2008 = $53,417,205

2009 = $37,303,358

2010 = $40,470,934

2011 = $34,335,375

Average NET $ or Price per sqft Sold:

2007 = $143

2008 = $138

2009 = $135

2010 = $138

2011 = $132

My opinion is that 2012 will bring even less home sales as inventory decreases. This could be a great thing for house values in Stonegate and Parker in general. Lower inventory brings higher prices…USUALLY. Buyers are looking for quality and some homes in Stonegate are not updated. Every updated home I put on the market this year was sold in days not weeks. So take the time to make changes and improvements.

Douglas and Elbert Counties are on the verge of an oil boom. If oil starts flowing East of town this will bring huge amounts of workers into our area. This will be great initially for the rental market and then to the home sales market. Jobs are what we need and it looks like it might happen.

Parker Colorado has Four Blackeyes

Home for Sale in Stonegate

This home was undercontract in 4 days from the listing date. 10668 Stone Creek Ct, Parker CO 80134

Steven Beam is a top local Realtor in Parker Colorado and really knows how to showcase your home to the maximum audience and gain the most exposure for your property.

Video is the most effective way to market your property on the web. Period.

I’ve been doing video for years and was certainly the first in the Denver Metro area to use it on a regular basis so I have a very good knowledge of what works and what doesn’t. Call me if you would like your home marketed professionally and properly.

In this market it takes a heck of a lot more than a sign in the yard and putting it in the MLS to get a home sold. Call me for details. Steve Beam 303-941-4663. Or Email Steven Beam

You decide!

Watch the video below and hear the options.

There is a meeting to decide this tomorrow night August 23rd at 7:00 PM at Chaparral HS. See you there.

August 17, 2011 – 5pm
Chaparral High School – in auditorium
15655 Brookstone Drive
Parker, CO

Stonegate Neighbors,

Last week Parker voted 4-1 to move ahead with the Stonegate inclusion election. Tomorrow night Stonegate’s board will vote to either support the inclusion or to stop the process. This weekend in the Denver Post there was an article on the WISE renewable water project. This is a partnership between the South Metro Water providers and Denver & Aurora. This project has the backing of the governor, the county commissioners, and now the Bureau of Reclamation and the project is potentially eligible for federal funding. Stonegate is currently participating in this project and Parker is not. Don’t let Parker jeopardize your future. Tell your Stonegate Board of Directors to vote to stop the Parker inclusion process. Please attend the meeting tomorrow night @ 5:00 pm at the Chaparral High School Auditorium

Please forward this email/notice to anyone we may have missed that lives in Stonegate.

Stonegate Neighborhood Garage Sale 2011

The Annual Stonegate Neighborhood Garage Sale

Friday and Saturday June, 3rd and 4th.

From 8:00 AM to 2:00PM

Directions: Stonegate is 3 miles East of I-25 and Lincoln in Douglas County Colorado in the town of Parker. Stonegate is on the North and South sides of Lincoln at the intersection of Lincoln and Jordan Roads.

We all know that many people setup much earlier than 8AM and leave their stuff out later than 2:00PM.

It’s that time of year again. The Stonegate Neighborhood Garage Sale is always a huge draw for garage sale enthusiasts.   There will be minor traffic jams and loads of loot being hauled out of this neighborhood during the two day event. I’ve seen college kids fully deck out their soon to be dorm rooms with great items they picked up for cheap at this sale. It seriously is one of the largest neighborhood garage sales I’ve ever seen. Many neighborhoods try to copy this event with little success. I think the main reason is that so many homes participate. Good Luck.

Here’s a few tips.

• Prep early. Have your items priced and ready to display the night before.
• Get plenty of $1 and change from the bank the day before.
• Use masking tape to price your items. It’s easy to tear it off and reprice the item if you realize that $25 for that velvet picture of the dogs playing poker isn’t attracting attention.
• Start early. The real garage sale enthusiasts are out early. There will be people out shopping at 7:15 trust me.
• If you can have your items on tables inside the garage ready to be carried out to the driveway when you wake up it makes it a lot easier. It also helps if there is a wind or rain storm. you can easily pull the tables back into the garage.
• Price low. Remember that used items should really be price at least 50% of original value to even get people to look. Lower will usually get the buyer to act.
• Don’t freak out when someone asks you to take .50 cents for an item you have priced at .75 cents. No crap it really happened to me. She saved a quarter and I have this stupid story to tell you.
• Be prepared to help buyers load heavy items.
• Be prepared for large car loads of people that come up and distract you while the others are filling their pockets with your goods. It happened to my wife. True story.
• Be prepared to have people ask you to use your restroom. Small kids are welcome. Adults…you need to go before you come out. You should know better.
• Be prepared to take whatever you don’t sell to Goodwill for the tax deduction.
• Stonegate is full of kids. Watch your kids, your neighbor’s kids and any kid within eye shot. It’s a fun day for the kids so they usually like to participate. Did I say that? I mean get in the way. Anyway there will be lots of traffic. Kids are used to running around Stonegate knowing that they are relatively safe. We all know where the kids on our streets live so we are ready for them to come darting out at any moment.  There will be a lot of people from outside our neighborhood here and they may not be watching our kids they way we would so be careful.
• If you have little ones a great way to keep them happy and let them sell stuff too is get a group of kids in your area to setup a lemonade stand or their own little shop to sell their toys.
• Throw a pizza party or cook out with your neighbors after the days event to chill out, relax and compare crazy stories from the day.
• Most of all get out and ride around and meet some of your neighbors. It’s a great time to catch up and meet new friends in our great neighborhood of Stonegate.

Be a Voyeur in Your Neighborhood

Painted Kitchen Cabinets

More Photos of the painted cabinets below.

Stonegate Neighborhood Home Updated with Painted Cabinets. Falcon built, Victoria Model.

We have all seen them. The dreaded orange kitchen cabinets. (Pictured below)  My wife and I call them orange but the builder called them “natural” when they sold them to all of us. I guess in the mid 1990’s there wasn’t a staining technique that allowed for a neutral color stain to stay neutral on oak kitchen cabinets and floors.  Over time they all turn a very ugly color of orange especially if exposed to direct sunlight.

The typical scenario of kitchen cabinets being painted.

I’ve had more people than I can count say they painted their cabinets and that I needed to come see them because it looks awesome. Typically as soon as I walk in the door I can instantly see what happen.  They dropped the kids at school, called over their girl friends and after a Starbucks and a round of gossip they all started painting…with brushes.  There are only a very few pro painters I know personally that can paint a cabinet with a brush and make it look good. From a distance the job they did was nice but up close the bad brush strokes and missed or forgotten interior is exposed. Ouch. It looks horrendous.

Faded Orange Oak Cabinets

So what do you do?

Call a pro. Like I mentioned above there are only a few pro painters good enough to do this with a brush and most of the ones that can do it advise against it. The best way that I have seen is to have is sprayed. No don’t ask hubby to go rent a sprayer at Home Depot or Lowes. Hire a pro painter that has done kitchen cabinets and preferably a pro painter with references and cabinets that you can go see with your own eyes.

Most of the painters I’ve talked with that can do this and have done it will spray the inside of the cabinets too. This looks best in my opinion. When you open a freshly painted cabinet and the inside is a totally different color it just ruins the effect.

Tips for getting your kitchen cabinets painted.

• Call a pro painter or at least someone with references that has done it before.
• Buy some nice trim molding for the tops of the cabinets since you are going to all this trouble and have the painter cut, install and paint it too.
• Don’t pick a wild color. No buyer is ever going to want to see blue or red cabinets in your house.
• Have them sprayed unless you are going for some old world kitchen look. The old world kitchen look really can only be pulled off  properly in larger homes with huge kitchens and several different counter top textures. At least that is my opinion.
• Call Sergio 303-901-9109. He is the painter that did the work in these photos. These cabinets were completely painted properly for under $1000.

Be a Voyeur in Your Neighborhood

School Kids

Parker Parent Looking for the TOTAL Package in a School!

Please comment below if you have an opinion on this subject and I am certainly open for advice and other good options if you have a system that is working for your family. Please let me know. I would love to pass on the information. I don’t think there is a right or wrong answer to this problem it would be whatever works best for you and your family.

If you are a working family that does not have a Mom or Dad that stays home you may be in for a rude awakening when you go to enroll you kids into top pre school and kindergarten programs in Douglas County Colorado. I’m not only talking about Douglas County Schools but also privately owned schools and faith based schools.

Fact: Did you know Douglas County Schools is now the 3rd largest school system in the State of Colorado?

Opinion: I would also argue that it is also probably one of the wealthiest as well. Douglas County has a large tax base of high income earners.

What I have found personally and through many conversations with other parents is that we are blessed to have many great choices for schools and pre-schools.

The Problem:

Many of the great pre-school and kindergarten programs that we have found are very limited in offering only very short programs and many don’t offer 5 day a week classes.

We recently found a top local school that offers 2 or 3 day a week pre-school programs from 8:30 to 11:45 or 12:45 to 3:30. So if you work how could you possibly manage that? No 5 day a week program. No possible way to only send your kid or kids to school for only 3 hours a day 2-3 days a week. It’s a system that caters to the stay at home Mom or Dad. It’s unfair. To their credit they told us that if there was enough interest they “might” consider offering full day. Well I know a lot of parents that are interested.

We also have great schools that offer 5 day programs but close at 3:00 sharp. So drop off is 8-8:45 and pick up is 3:00. School is from basically 9:00 to 1:00 or 2:00 depending on the age of the student so you pay extra for after care from 1:00 or 2:00 until they close at 3:00.

My question is how many companies let you off at 2:30 so you can go pick up your kids and take them home for the day?

Options:

There are day cares that will come pick up your kids and bus them to their site for an afternoon session. I know a lot of people that do that and it seems to work for them but many express sadness in having to have their kids carted around during the day.

I also know that here in Parker there is a place specifically setup for after school care, drop off and recreation activities. I don’t know a lot about it but when we priced it out it was very expensive. Add that to already expensive pre-school and kindergarten.

We have now hired a Nanny to pick up our kids, bring them home and take care of them from 3:00 to 5:00. It works! I can feel comfortable knowing that they are home safe and sound. Some people cannot do this and I know we are lucky to be able to have this option. So, what do people do that are not as fortunate? They are stuck sending their kids to schools that may not be as good or may not be the type of school they want for their kids.

I do know that many of the neighborhood PUBLIC schools offer after school “Enrichment” programs at the kindergarten level. It seems to me that there is about a 50/50 split with parents on this option. Some feel their kids get super bored in these programs since class time ends around lunch and the kids sit around a play most of the afternoon. I hear some even have video games in the classes for the kids to play during the “a. I’m not sure I want my kids playing video games at school to keep them entertained until I pick them up.

Expense:

Two years ago we were paying $26,000 a year for two kids to go to school. Ages 4 & 2. My neighbor has a child at CSU and he was shocked at what we were paying but I told him I was happy to pay it if it provided what our family needed and at the time it was a SUPER fit for our kids. There are many families in Parker and Douglas County that feel the same way. I hear the discussions at sports practices, gymnastics etc…

Solution:

The best possible solution would be to have top ranked schools offer full day & week programs so all of us could participate. If you offer a great service people will use it. I for one would be happy to pay for such a service and I know a lot of people that feel the same way.

The one group that I have not mentioned:

The single parent! GOD I do not know how you guys do it. I praise you 1000 times because I could not imagine raising children all on my own. Neither could my wife. It’s beyond my comprehension how you work, pay the bills, and shuttle kids around with only YOU. I admire you for what you are doing.

Good Schools that you may want to consider.

Cozy Pine Montessori

Parker Landing

Parker Montessori

Core Knowledge

North Star

What do you think? Leave a comment below. Like I said I’m looking for options not just for my family but for our friends and neighbors too. If you don’t want to leave a comment call me 303-941-4663 Steven Beam

My next article will be about waiting lists at these schools and why do we have to have waiting lists? Why can’t all the schools be this good?

Be a Voyeur in Your Neighborhood

New Stonegate Neighborhood Clubhouse

“Have we hit bottom?”  This is the question I and most Realtors get on a daily basis.

How about a 6.35% value reduction in Stonegate home prices from 2007 to 2010.  See below.

The ANSWER IS YES we have BUT it also depends…on what your bottom is and what happens going forward with interest rates.

The only way I can show this is through actual real estate sales data from a specific neighborhood here in Parker Colorado. The data I will show you is from actual home sales in the Stonegate Neighborhood in Parker Colorado. I sell a lot of homes here, live here and know the neighborhood is one of the areas that many Parker Colorado Home Buyers will look in and want to live in.

Stonegate is a larger neighborhood in Parker CO that has a long history of steady sales. It isn’t a new neighborhood. It was started in the 1980’s and has homes as new as 2005. There are about 3000 homes in Stonegate.

You can see from the data below that the market has settled down and seems to have stabilized for the past two years. Over the past 3 years we can see a definite trend of steady sales prices and a more predictable market.

Stonegate home sellers make sure you price your homes reasonably within the market or you may be in for a long road before you sell.

Total Sales by Year: (2007 was obviously the down year for home sales in Stonegate.)

2007 = 79

2008 = 173   

2009 = 121

2010 = 131

Average Total Days on Market: (No real difference)

2007 = 70

2008 = 82   

2009 = 82

2010 = 76

Average NET Sold Price: (6.35% decrease in Value from high to low year.)

2007 = $329,191

2008 = $308,770   

2009 = $308,292

2010 = $308,938

This is so true because I was completing a market analysis earlier this week and basically told the seller of a Stonegate home that their home was worth about $23,000 less than they paid for it in 2006.

Total Volume of NET Sales By Year in Stonegate: (Two years of consistent sales volume show a market that may have leveled out)

2007 = $26,006,053

2008 = $53,417,205

2009 = $37,303,358

2010 = $40,470,934

Average NET $ or Price per sqft Sold: (Seems to have settled around the mid $130 per sqft mark)

2007 = $143

2008 = $138

2009 = $135

2010  = $138

Parker Colorado has Four Blackeyes

Home for Sale in Stonegate

Be a Voyeur in Your Neighborhood

Bedrooms 4

Bathrooms 3

Parker Colorado neighborhood Info

Here is an excellent way to monitor ACTIVE and SOLD homes in very specific areas and neighborhoods. The Market Snapshot. This report is easily setup by me or by you that automatically emails you monthly or bi-monthly all the homes sold and active in a specific area or neighborhood.

(Sample Report Here)

As a Buyer: You can track a neighborhood that you want to move into and see exactly what is active and sold in that neighborhood.

As a Seller: Be a voyeur and see what your neighbor’s house really sold for or watch the market if you are contemplating selling in the near future.

Not only does it show you very detailed real estate stats it will also give you detailed map information about:

• Schools and locations
• Shopping
• Fire Protection
• Police
• Bars and Restaurants
• Recreation Locations (Parks)
• Houses of Worship

If you are interested in the Free service go ahead and use the link above to set it up or shoot me an email and I will set it up for you.

Yours truly,

Steven Beam