Are You Seeing Everything There is to See?

Most people begin their real estate search online these days. It makes sense that people would want easy tools that could give them facts about their home or other properties right away with no commitment. Information is plentiful, but separating the wheat from the chaff can be more challenging. No, I'm not going to rant about any public real estate sites. They are here to stay, though it's important that we understand their place in the real estate firmament. If you would like to see my more expanded opinion, you can check out this post.

You probably know that the local MLSs feed information to other public real estate websites, sometimes very quickly, sometimes not. You may not know that sellers on the MLS can choose for their homes NOT to be listed on some of these properties, for a variety of reasons. This means you can't always be sure that you are seeing all of the homes for sale unless you have access to the MLS directly.

Another snag - the Boulder MLS and Denver MLS haven't been playing very nicely together. Due to a failed buyout attempt, they have decided not to share information with each other. This means that real estate agents have to set up property searches for their clients twice. And because there is overlap in the service areas for both MLSs and some of us agents belong to both, clients are often getting duplicate emails and properties. Frustrating and time wasting for everyone, and it doesn't look like it's going to get resolved anytime soon.

Staufer Team to the rescue! In order to provide the best customer service we can, we have purchased a website that combines all of the listings from both MLSs. Even better, our clients can login, look for houses, and save properties searches themselves. They can mark their favorites, make notes and request showings directly through the site. One stop shop.

How do you find this dream come true? Login to robbin.viewboulderareahomes.com. Despite the name, it'll show you properties from Julesburg to Durango. It's never too early to get to know the market, and I won't bug you (too much) ;)

Image: J i J y
  

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I would love to help you with your real estate journey. 

Please contact me at 303-917-7143 or robbin@stauferteam.com

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Buyers, Don't Stress!

Buying a home is a big decision, but that doesn’t mean it has to terrify you! When you’re ready, let’s meet up and put some of those home buying fears to rest. I am an Accredited Buyer’s Representative (ABR®), and love working with first time homebuyers.

https://homebuying.realtor/content/terrified-buy-home-put-your-biggest-fears-rest?om_rid=AABel6&om_mid=_BZqIbmB9fseWK2&om_ntype=REBACWeekly

I look forward to hearing from you!
  

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I would love to help you with your real estate journey. 

Please contact me at 303-917-7143 or robbin@stauferteam.com

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Fracking Updates

The anti-fracking movement recently suffered a disappointment when measures failed to make the fall Colorado ballot. Not enough signatures were collected, and some are alleging forgery for many that were collected. The proposals included increased setbacks for new oil and gas facilities from homes and other buildings, as well as more power for local governments to control or restrict the process.

All of the action taken against fracking the past few years has been an uphill battle. The bottom line is this: most of us, especially those in city or suburban areas, do not own the mineral and oil rights under our properties. Typically, those subsurface rights were severed from the properties years ago and sold to oil and gas companies who reserve the right to explore and remove anything they may find worth removing. Both the surface and subsurface owners have an equal right to "enjoy" their interest. In other words, homeowners cannot prevent oil and gas companies from extracting minerals and oil from under their properties. 


The most that can be done is to govern how and when it is mined, since having subsurface rights does not allow that owner to interfere or devalue the rights of those on the surface. Moratoriums on drilling wells have had some success in delaying new facilities from operating, giving cities time to more closely examine the effects of fracking on the environment and residents. These measures have been extremely controversial and have resulted in several lawsuits from the Colorado Oil and Gas Association as well as Colorado's Supreme Court striking down some cities' ordinances. The court ruling does leave opportunities for home rule municipalities to regulate some aspects of oil and gas operations in the future.

Colorado oil and gas permits, courtesy of the Colorado Oil and Gas Conservation Commission.

 
Current developments for gas and oil development in the Denver metro area can be found here:

• Boulder County
• City of Brighton 
• City and County of Broomfield
• Town of Erie
• City of Fort Collins
• City of Lafayette 
• City of Longmont  
• City of Thornton

 
image: WildEarth Guardians

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I would love to help you with your real estate journey. 

Please contact me at 303-917-7143 or robbin@stauferteam.com

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