As I tell my staff, this is the time of year that we “plant the crops” in the real estate business which we will harvest in the summer and fall. By this, I mean that now is the time we find a good portion of our listings for the year. The harvest comes later in the year when things get busy and properties start selling. As part of this year’s planting, I’m starting a couple of new projects. I was one of the very first Realtors in Pagosa to have a website, but I’ve never been on Facebook until this month. I’m pretty excited about it. You can see me at Facebook.com/ISellPagosaLeeRiley. I am also going to put more effort into my blog, which you can visit at ISellPagosa.com/blog. I’ve been neglecting the blog recently, but look for new content there soon.
I want people to “like” my brand new Facebook page, so I’m offering some incentives-
If you are a current client, LIKE my page to:
- Get your property highlighted in a post
- Get free use of my moving truck for any reason (within Pagosa area)
- Expand advertising for your listing to buyers all over the country
If you are a prospective buyer, LIKE my page to:
- Get my deal of the week and local real estate news
- Get interest rate updates
- Get free use of my moving truck for any reason (within Pagosa area)
I am also excited to announce that I’ve got a new addition to the wonderful team in my office – my daughter, Heather. Many of you already know my “right hand gal,” Jody, who is my full-time assistant. This place literally couldn’t run without her. Probably fewer of you know my “computer guru,” Jarrett, as he tends to stay behind the scenes keeping all the computer bits and bytes in their places. (I used to call Jarrett my computer nerd, but he’s recently been upgraded to guru!) Now, we are all very lucky to have Heather joining the team. Heather will be focusing her efforts on a very important group of people – my past clients. If you have bought or sold with me recently, expect to hear Heather’s voice soon. Heather will also be heading my new efforts on Facebook and my blog. She’s already doing great and has youth on her side.
Weather wise, things have taken a turn for the better in recent weeks. We had a very long stretch of clear, dry weather around New Years. It was certainly enjoyable to be out and about in all that sunshine, but folks around here start to get nervous when the snowpack is low headed into February. Fortunately, a series of storms blew in, and we are now up to 90% of average snowpack for this time of year. Not a record-breaker, for sure, but it’s probably enough to keep the grass green and the flowers blooming in the high country next summer. Up at Wolf Creek, they’ve got an 89-inch base. With many of the big ski resorts up north in the 30-inch range, we feel pretty fortunate. After all, we’ve got “The Most Snow In Colorado!”
Turning to the stats, I’ll make the same disclaimer that I always make this time of year. We are now working with numbers from just one month, and it’s one of the slowest months of the year. This is a very small sample size, so don’t be surprised to see some crazy percentages in the stats. (Commercial up 200%! Vacant land down 73%!) We’re talking about just a dozen or so sales at this point, so don’t read too much into the percentage changes.
That being said, I think there a couple things we can glean from the numbers this month. The home inventory under $300,000 is getting thinner. As the flow of bank repo inventory continues to dry up, there are fewer homes on the market in this price range. The pending numbers are also an interesting data point. Pending sales are about 15% higher than they were last year at this time. Perhaps that will help us catch up with a relatively slow January start.
I noticed some interesting things when I was preparing the bank repo list for this week. Although there are still around 100 bank repos on the market, the inventory continues to shift away form residential properties. Only 27 out of the 100 bank repos are homes. Half of those are under contract. I looked at the numbers for one of our “core” real estate markets: stick-built homes in the Pagosa Lakes area. There are only 6 bank repos available! The very low repo inventory is a great foundation for the market this year. I’m excited to see how the year shapes up.
GRI, CRS
2011 & 2014 Realtor of the Year
Phone (970) 731-4065
Fax (970) 731-4068
Cell (970) 946-3856
Email: [email protected]
