Dear Folks,

Just a bit of housekeeping. I will be out the next couple of weeks as I am going to Cooperstown New York. My son is playing in the Hall of Fame National baseball tournament. It’s an exciting chance to play the same week as our own Goose Gossage is being inducted into the Baseball Hall of Fame. I expect to have a great time.

Real Estate here in Colorado Springs is doing fine. We have sold 88 homes year to date and are having a great year. Interest rates have risen in the last week to the 6 ½% range. I expect the trends to continue through the election.

Foreclosures will continue to dominate the news and the market. There have been over 3000 foreclosure filings in El Paso County. About 1000 of them are on the market as short sale or foreclosed properties.

Elections? Who are you voting for both locally and nationally? Will any of the candidates make a difference? Obama and McCain have good and bad points depending who you are and your situation. Neither of them are responsible for our economics. For that matter, neither is Bush. Our Congress is responsible. They are the ones that have the majority vote.

I hope you have a good rest of summer. School starts soon for all the Colorado Springs districts.

Take Care,
Brian

What is a pre-inspection? A pre-inspection is generally an inspection that a seller does to make their home certifiable and sellable. Here at The Maecker Team we recommend home inspections to all our sellers.

A pre-inspection can save a seller hundreds of dollars. A pre-inspection is the same as a regular inspection. The ASHI certified inspector looks through the home from top to bottom. They inspect roofs, sprinklers, windows, electric, plumbing and all systems in a home. They also inspect appliances, fireplaces and attics. If the home gets a clean bill of health, it becomes certifiable. It then is very saleable to any buyer coming through.

In negotiating, it will save you hundreds. You will have fixed items already and you know your costs. There will be no surprises. We had a client, through an inspection, find a cracked heat exchanger in the furnace. The seller fixed it for $2000. In our negotiations with a buyer the seller held onto that $2000. Imagine if they negotiated that away and then got that $2000 surprise.

All sellers should get inspections on their homes. It saves them money and aggravation. For both sellers and buyers, it makes easier negotiations and eliminates surprises.
Please call Brian at The Maecker Team. He will answer all your questions.

Thanks,
Brian

Happy 4th of July. I am glad to be an American. I am free to enjoy all that life gives me. I hope all of you feel the same way.

Look around at all the freedoms we enjoy. We can go to any church and practice any religion. We can travel anywhere we want. We can love any person we want, we can drink, we can smoke and we can live any way we want.

What a country!! I believe in the United States and what our country fights for.++ Yes I wish our troops were home, but based on first hand stories we’re doing a good thing there.

I hope all of you take a minute to think why you love the United States. I hope when you are griping about gas cost, recession and other hassles, you also realize it could be a lot worse!

Have a Happy 4th of July

Thanks,
Brian

What the heck is Colorado Springs doing? How did they let H.P. go? Why do you let a company like Hewlett Packard leave without a fight? Did Colorado Springs economic development council think that because H.P. owned the buildings they wouldn’t leave? Look at Intel. They own the buildings and they left. Why didn’t Colorado Springs learn a lesson there?

Colorado Springs is a wonderful place to live, but the city powers need to do something to keep this city healthy. We have lost airlines, military and technology jobs. All that’s left besides military is insurance. Hopefully they don’t leave. Did the city council spend all their energy on the Olympic Committee. I’m glad they took the time to talk to them but they let another couple big fish go.

Why can’t Colorado Springs see the benefit of giving big companies tax benefits, Albuquerque got H.P. by giving them no taxes on land. We could have done that. The benefit is the jobs and the commerce generated from those jobs. Instead we said “NO” and now Garden of the Gods corridor will be a ghost town. Not only that, it will add 500-600 homes to and already tough real estate market. Instead of recovery coming in 2009, this may take several more years to recover from.

People, we all need to voice our thoughts. Maybe someone will listen.

Thanks,
Brian