My Son is a Stalker

My son is officially stalking a JUCO baseball player. His name is Conrad Flynn. He is a right handed pitcher for Grayson County College. Not only does he have the same name as him, but they both have the number 15 on their baseball jerseys. How cool is that? Apparently, it is a lot cooler if you are a 9 year old who plays baseball. He tracked him down and got his signature, last night, as he was arriving for the game. He didn't have anyone else sign that baseball and he is going to put it on his dresser in his Grandad's baseball glove. Do not fear, he didn't want any other players to feel left out, and he has gotten most of their signatures on 3 different baseballs, a hat, and a baseball flag. He probably has gotten a couple of their signatures twice. My seven year-old daughter not to be out done has gotten her fair share of signatures.

We moved up to #2 in the US Housing Market Index

The US Housing Housing Market Index, from Office of Federal Housing Enterprise Oversight, has Ranked Grand Junction Colorado at #2 for Home appreciation in the last year. Our homes went up by 9.08% this year. We did come in behind Thibodaux, Louisiana, they had a whopping 11.22% for home appreciation this year. Coming in the top 6 were #3-Wenatchee, WA, #4-Austin-Round Rock, TX, #5 Billings, MT, and #6 Provo, UT. As a whole, the state of Colorado came in at #23 with 2.29% increase this year, 1% this quarter, and 18.22% over the last 5 years. The big picture for Grand Junction real estate looks like this, .14% increase this quarter, and over the last 5 years a 64.42% increase. Grand Junction was listed as #3 last quarter.
Our office has been watching this closely. We had a slower winter than we have had the last couple of years, but we knew our housing market was still doing fine. Now we have the statistics to prove it. I think that the one thing this proves is that real estate is still a good investment in Colorado. You would have trouble getting those returns on any other type of investment.

Calling All Baseball Fans, JUCO Baseball is Here!!!

Every year, since I was seven, come Memorial Weekend I knew where I was going to be, at the JUCO National World Series Baseball Tournament. This tournament goes all week long with the championship game on Saturday. I enjoy watching good baseball, in fact, when I was in high school, I would ditch school just to go watch the games. I wasn't the only kid there either. Once I had my drivers license, if my younger siblings found out I was going they would beg me to pick them up form school. It got to the point that my mom would just write a note so our absences were excused. The school district eventually changed the school schedule so that schools get out the week before JUCO starts. I don't know if it had anything to do with the missing students, but I'm sure there are less kids missing their finals. Now I have a 9 year-old boy, who loves to go to JUCO and it is so much fun to watch him get into the tournament and cheer for his favorite team. If you are going to be in the Grand Junction area, I would encourage you to try to take in a game. The evening games are the most fun to attend and I would recommend getting there at least a half hour early in order to get a decent seat. The first game will be at 9:00am this Saturday, May 24th. By the way, you can't beat the price. A tournament pass(19 games) is $25 for the entire week for adults and children are $20. You can get more information on the tournament including the teams who will be playing this year, the tournament bracket, and you can listen to the games live at http://www.jucogj.org/index.php. If you happen to go, look for me I'm usually sitting on the third base line.

The Swans Neck Broke

There is an old wives tale about the Swan's neck. The saying goes that once the Swan's Neck has broke it is safe to plant your garden, because there won't be another freeze. The Swan's neck is part of a swan shape that forms once it has snowed on the Grand Mesa. The Grand Mesa is to the east of Grand Junction, it takes about 45 minutes drive there, is known as the world's largest flat top mountain, and the elevation is 10,000-11,000 feet. You can read more about the Grand Mesa at http://www.sunset.com/sunset/travel/article/0,20633,700970,00.html . From Grand Junction looking at the Mesa, the swan sits close to the top on the right hand side of the mountain. During the winter it is very easy to spot. Due to an above average snow fall and the colder temperatures we had, it has taken the swans neck longer than usual to break this year. Although some of the snow has melted you can still spot the swan if you look closely.

Grand Junction Real Estate Statistics For April 2008

The following graphs will shine some light on the Grand Junction Real Estate Market. As you can see we are not having the slump that you keep hearing about on the news.

Adventures in Real Estate

This is what happens when you are a real estate agent showing land and the following conversation takes place. As we are driving down dirt road on the property, since they have a truck and the terrain is a bit rough they offer to drive so I hop in the back seat and the adventure begins...

The wife says "Hey what is over there? I want to look over there"
Husband says "I can't get over there."
Wife says "We are in the truck can't you just go through there?"
Realtor(that would be me) says "Or we could stay on the road"
Wife says "Can't you just go through there?"
Husband says "Fine!"

Just for the record when this happened and they were apologizing. I simply stated, "This is soooo going on my blog." I did get their permission. Sorry the pictures and video aren't the best quality, I shot them on my cell phone.

Top Ten: Home Features Desired by All Home Buyers

The National Association of Realtors did a survey and they found the following items as the top 10 features desired by all home buyers. Most of the items weren't very suprising, except for numbers 5 and 6. I find that these items are usually already in the home. I, also, found it ironic that if you buy a newer home you usually get the rest of the features.

1. Central Air Conditioning
2. Garage (2 or more spaces)
3. Walk-in closet in master bedroom
4. Backyard/play area
5. Cable/Satellite TV-ready
6. High-speed Internet Access
7. Separate shower enclosure in master/main bath
8. Patio
9. Fencing
10.Home less than 10 years old
Source: NAR 2007 Profile of Buyer's Home Feature Preferences