PorchLight Group | Denver’s Top Listing Real Estate Agents

If you’re looking for the best listing agents in the Denver Metro area, look no further than PorchLight Real Estate Group. Our agents are top of the line professionals who take their client’s wants and needs very seriously. At PorchLight we have over 75 agents at your service, and all of them have the tools that will help make selling your home a breeze. If you’re looking elsewhere for an amazing listing agent, here are our suggested traits to look for:

Someone who loves their Broker – Real estate is a fascinating industry, since agents are generally free to come and go as they please. This means the agent is actually their own business, and the broker is really just the support system. Make sure your agent speaks fondly of their broker, since it’s completely within their control of being there. If they appreciate and value their broker, that means they’ve taken the time to carefully research their options and they know that they’re getting the best support where they are. This may sound like an odd characteristic to look for in an agent or broker’s associate, but you can sure bet that they’ll put the same kind of dedication into selling your home as they did finding their perfect broker.

They value your time – Listing a home is very different from buying one, and the work involved is also quite different from buying. Great listing agents will help you feel safe and secure with your home being on the market and will take extra steps to schedule showings when you can be at work or out to dinner, so you don’t feel like you’re being invaded on. Unfortunately, some agents put all of their effort into getting the listing, and then they slap a lockbox on your home and list the information in the MLS and don’t set any kinds of boundaries for showings. Part of being a great listing agent is understand the seller’s needs and working around your lifestyle with as little interference as possible.

If you are living in the Denver, Cherry Creek, Aurora, Baker or Berkeley area, you will want to consider our PorchLight Denver Real Estate Agents to list your home because of just a few of our great offerings:

We allow each homeowner to consult with a Professional Designer about your home and how to prepare it for sale

We stage all vacant listings and accessorize all listings to help sell your home as quickly as possible

We can provide a light cleaning to prepare your home for market

We offer each seller access to a professional photographer to photograph your home and publish a virtual tour

We offer extensive internet advertising in realtor.com, google, craigslist

We create a pProfessional Brochure for both the inside of outside of the home

These are just a few of the perks of listing with PorchLight. If you’d like to know more about listing your Denver area home, please contact us today!

About PorchLight Real Estate: PorchLight Real Estate Group has the most experienced and knowledgeable Denver real estate agents in Colorado. For more information about homes for sale in Denver CO or specific neighborhood homes please visit www.porchlightgroup.com.

Part II : Real Estate Issues (and Why you Need an Agent’s Help)

Negotiating – If you’re not a natural negotiator, you will want a real estate agent by your side, plain and simple. Even if you know the ins and outs of real estate–you may understand the price/square foot of every neighborhood in town, or even watch the markets on a daily basis–you may still know nothing when it comes to getting the best price for your home. Sometimes you can even be too good of a negotiator and want to work directly with the other party’s agent, which can scare buyers and sellers away. Real estate is both an exciting and terriflying industry, since it can literally be a person’s entire life savings that is being invested. Don’t you think it’s a smart move to have the best representation possible in this situation? A situation where a real estate agent can make or break a sale, or just one wrong negotiation could cost you $10,000 or more? Don’t get us wrong, you definitely have the final say in all negotiations, but can you think quick on your toes like an agent? Can you close a seller when they’re stuck in their pricing ways? Will you have any credibility as a buyer who know the market, or will they just think you’re trying to squeeze every last penny out of them?

Inspection – Denver real estate agents come in handy when it comes to the inspection, since they do these on a regular basis. Not only do they know the good from the bad inspectors, but they know how to handle the post-inspection, when you will most likely need to re-negotiate on some of your conditions. See, your original offer on a home is made with the contingency that all goes well through the inspection. This seems like a very open-ended contingency, and it really is. It is made to protect the buyer from purchasing a home that they can’t afford to maintain or fix up. This is why the post-inspection negotiation is just as important as the initial negotiation–since it will be your final chance to feel like you’re paying fair market value for the home, now that you understand it’s current state.

Closing – Title companies can usually help walk you through the closing process, or even an attorney, but having an agent by your side who has been to hundreds of closings will help you feel assured that you have someone on your side. Often times the HUD and mortgage paperwork have numbers in the thousands and even hundreds of thousands, and just one decimal or coma off could mean a major mistake. It’s nice to have your agent by your side to help double check all of your numbers and to be your voice in the event of an issue.

About PorchLight Real Estate: PorchLight Real Estate Group has the most experienced and knowledgeable Denver real estate agents in Colorado. For more information about homes for sale in Denver CO or specific neighborhood homes please visit www.porchlightgroup.com.

Part I: Denver Real Estate Issues (and Why you Need an Agent’s Help)

Buying and selling real estate may look like a simple process; TV shows have glamorized it time and time again. You look at a few houses, pick your favorite, place an offer, then close on your home. Oh yeah, and your greedy agent walks away with 3% commission for doing close to nothing. In reality if you’ve ever bought or sold a piece of property you understand just how much that agent earns his commission. There are scheduling errors, negotiations, inspection issues, clouds on title, financing issues…..and don’t even get us started on short sales!

It may look like a big chunk of money going into the agent’s pocket, but many times when an agent works out the hours spent on a sale from start to finish, they have invested double or triple the time they may have at a regular job. The reason they are in the real estate business, (especially in the beginning) is because they love it.

So, now that we’ve covered your agent’s worth, now we’ll look at where they really come into play. Here are just some of the issues you can find yourself running into when trying to buy or sell your home:

Scheduling Showings – Unfortunately, if you’re a buyer looking to set up showings on your own, you may find that agents don’t have the time or energy to assist you. It’s crazy, we know, since a buyer without representation especially becomes the listing agent’s client (and commission). This would make any buyer assume that an agent would be at their beckon call; ready to show their property and ready to help make a deal. The reality of the situation, though, is that many times listing agents rather spend their free time finding and listing new properties and just let the buyer’s agent handle all of the showings. This is really the main function of the MLS (something only Realtors have access to) is for Realtors to list their Denver real estate for sale for the eyes of other licensed agents only. Since each Realtor is given a unique login and ID when they join the National and local board of Realtors, they are held accountable for every home they are given access to. This is what makes Realtors and homeowners feel safe in listing their lockbox information on the MLS. Without a buyer’s agent and access to the MLS, you will need to contact each individual homeowner or seller, which is much harder than it sounds.

About PorchLight Real Estate: PorchLight Real Estate Group has the most experienced and knowledgeable Denver real estate agents in Colorado. For more information about homes for sale in Denver CO or specific neighborhood homes please visit www.porchlightgroup.com.

Part I: Real Estate Ettiqutte

Real estate is a fascinating and interesting world that many outsiders don’t quite understand. Some buyers and sellers watch home improvement shows that feature agents making tens of thousands of dollars in a few hours of work and they assume that their agent is rolling in the money. Luckily, most people understand that these reality shows are not the average real estate agent and that deals of all difficulties and commissions can fall through easily, clients can be hard to find, and that the average real estate agent can be struggling to make a living at any point in their career. Clients that understand these facts about real estate tend to be more considerate of their agent’s time. Clients that don’t understand these things, however, can be a downright displeasure to work with, and many times an agent may even feel the need to walk away. If you want to learn the wrong from right when it comes to Denver real estate for sale, here are some basic real estate etiquette tips:

Know that you’re ready to buy – Knowing when to buy is incredibly important; there are typically ups and downs in any real estate market and making sure those coincide with your personal ups and downs in life is highly important. Sometimes the time to buy is perfect, but you may have just gotten married or are feeling uncertain about your current job and don’t know what you should be looking to add another expense. Looking at homes may be free to you, but to your real estate agent each minute they spend is a minute they could be using towards real money-making activities. Your agent is not only wasting their time driving you around from home to home when you have no intention of buying, but they are also spending gas money and putting unnecessary wear on their car. Knowing for certain that you’re going to buy a home is incredibly important because your agent feels like their hard work is going to pay off. If you feel like you want to start slowly by looking at only a few houses a month, just be honest with your agent about the pace you’d like to look at. Many agents will want you to sign an exclusive contract stating that you are, in fact, their client and that you will go through them for any of your real estate needs.

About PorchLight Real Estate: PorchLight Real Estate Group has the most experienced and knowledgeable Denver real estate agents in Colorado. For more information about homes for sale in Denver CO or specific neighborhood homes please visit www.porchlightgroup.com.

Part II: New Homebuyer’s Denver Real Estate Guide

Pre-Approved – This term has sadly been thrown about in the credit industry. Have you ever gotten a piece of mail saying you’re pre-approved for a card when you’ve never given your information to the company? Many times they’re junk mail pieces, or everyone is “pre-approved,” but your interest rate will be astronomical instead of ever being denied. The mortgage industry, however, does not play games. At least they don’t anymore. When you’re pre-approved for a loan, it means you need to submit your proof of income, reports of your finances and they will most certainly be running your credit score. Being pre-approved should also not be mistaken with being “pre-qualified,” since pre-qualifying is an incredibly quick and easy process that simply gives you a price range that you may be able to qualify for. Many times you simply tell the mortgage broker how much you make and any major debts you have and they calculate a number based on those numbers alone—no proof is required. It’s important to know the difference between pre-approval and being pre-qualified since being pre-qualified for a loan can help strengthen your offer, since sellers know you’ve already done half the work to obtain your loan (and that there haven’t been any glaring red flags so far that would keep you from being fully qualified).

Earnest Money Deposit – An earnest money deposit is just that; money to show that you are serious about the property. Often times people just refer to earnest money deposits as a deposit, but they are typically a 1-3% deposit on the price of the Denver Colorado homes for sale that shows that you plan on buying the property. This money is refundable if the property is not purchased and the reason is covered by a contingency in the contract. If the buyer decides to back out at the last minute, however, this deposit is given to the seller for their time wasted in the ordeal.

Addendums – Addendums are additions to a completed written document. These proposed changes to the contract need to be signed and agreed upon separately and overrule the original contract. These addenda can be anything from which items will be included in the sale of the home, the terms of financing by the seller (if they plan on financing the deal), disclosures, and anything else that adds legal stipulations to the contract.

About PorchLight Real Estate: PorchLight Real Estate Group has the most experienced and knowledgeable Denver real estate agents in Colorado. For more information about homes for sale in Denver CO or specific neighborhood homes please visit www.porchlightgroup.com.

Real Estate Tools for Agents

As a new real estate agent, you may not know what kinds of tools you will need to ensure your success in the field. Even older agents who have had a hard time keeping up with the ever-changing technology may overlook the importance of certain tools in their real estate businesses.

Tools were made to make our lives easier; whether they be kitchen utensils, computer softwares or power tools, every tool has a purpose and should be able to make your life easier. If you buy and use the right real estate tools, you can easily save yourself time and make your processes more efficient. If you’ve been looking for real estate tools that can help make your life easier, try just a few of these:

Leads Organizer – Keeping track of every prospective lead you’ve met, every business card you’ve been handed and every phone call you’ve received can be entirely overwhelming, yet these are your potential clients and you should cherish their contact information as if it were the $500-$5,000 you may be making off of them in the near future. We know it sounds bad to think of people as money, but real estate is a people business; you learn to make people happy and you’re rewarded with a commission. Make sure to get yourself a leads organizer to keep track of all your potential paychecks (ahem, we mean clients) and you’ll be thanking us later.

Propagating Forms – Filling out form after form with the same information can be beyond frustrating and time-consuming. Find forms that propagate the information from a key source, like a database of yours, or even the MLS. The MLS is an incredibly interactive software that can make your life easier. Find forms, websites and marketing tools that link directly to your MLS information on your Denver Colorado homes for sale, and you can save yourself hundreds of hours of time.

E-Sign – In real estate, your signature is like gold. No one can forge it, and it’s important to have it on many legal documents. Sometimes, however, it can be an incredible pain to print off forms, sign them, scan them back in and get them to the requester in a matter of minutes. This is where an electronic signature comes in handy. You can sign without ever printing and manually writing your name! This tool is great because you are the only one with access to your account and almost every state recognizes these signatures as authentic and will hold up in the court of law.

About PorchLight Real Estate: PorchLight Real Estate Group has the most experienced and knowledgeable Denver real estate agents in Colorado. For more information about homes for sale in Denver CO or specific neighborhood homes please visit www.porchlightgroup.com.

Sell Your Home Like an Agent

Putting your home up for sale can be an intimidating process if you’re new to the real estate world, but if you’re bound and determined to complete your first “FSBO” sale, we will offer you as much advice as possible. Why would we give away our trade secrets? We love real estate. We love helping people buy and sell homes, whether there’s a commission check involved or not. So take notes because this is how to sell your home like an agent:

Become a Networking Master – Real estate professionals work for years to gain a network of influence in the real estate world. The more people you know, the more potential sales you can make. Real estate is a numbers game. Don’t underestimate your own network of friends and family though. If you have a social butterfly that seems to know half the city, let them know that your homes for sale in Denver CO. Invite them over, let them brag about your place to potential buyers. This is why outgoing people make great real estate agents, since sales are a people business.

Market, market, market – Most social people understand the value of word of mouth marketing, but in this competitive market you may need to put your money where your mouth is! Don’t worry though, there are plenty of free and cheap ways to market yourself, and all you need to invest is a few hours once a week. Marketing is about getting yourself in front of people as much as possible. Free websites, cheap yard signs and paper flyers can help boost your visibility in this market.

Offer a Buyer’s Agent Commission – A real estate agent can list your home in the MLS, which is the biggest advantage of using an agent, since every licensed agent has access to the multi-listing service. Agents tend to avoid “FSBO” properties for fear of losing the commission they’ve been working for months to earn. If you want to open yourself back up to agents, make sure you offer a buyer’s agent commission (of typically 2-3% of the final sale price). You may think you’re giving away money, but in reality, those agents will avoid your home like the plague if they’ve been working with their buyers for a long time and they’re considering your home or a home they would receive commission on.

About PorchLight Real Estate: PorchLight Real Estate Group has the most experienced and knowledgeable Denver real estate agents in Colorado. For more information about homes for sale in Denver CO or specific neighborhood homes please visit www.porchlightgroup.com.

Part II: Be Prepared to Show Properties

Pre-qualifying your buyers is a great idea because first of all they will know for sure how much they can buy. Secondly, and this can be incredibly frustrating, buyers will know if they are even eligible to purchase the home. Lenders have tightened up on their home buying criteria and unfortunately some home buyers are just not great candidates for owning a home. It may be that they have thousands of dollars in medical bills, tarnished credit, or an unsteady income. While you want to be sympathetic to homebuyers who realize their dream isn’t going to be a reality quite yet, you also need to know as soon as possible so you’re not wasting your precious (and unpaid) time on a dead lead.

Property Information – Your buyers may or may not know much about the properties you’re taking them to. Maybe you want to e-mail them a brief packet of pictures or print out the MLS sheet, but you should never walk into the home empty handed. The listing agent attaches all kinds of paperwork and disclosures to paint the best picture of the situation, and it’s your job as the buyer’s agent to make a buyer aware of these circumstances. For instance, if your buyer has expressed that they absolutely don’t want a fixer upper, and a listing agent has deemed a property as an “As Is” property then you need to let your buyers know before showing them and getting their hopes up.

Be Ready to Make an Offer – When you’re showing a great property you want to be ready to get an offer in as soon as possible. Bring a contract with you to the home in case the property is new on the market or just had a price reduction. Being prepared to make an offer quick is your responsibility as a buyer’s agent and it can be the difference between helping your buyer get the property of their dreams or having to walk away frustrated and discouraged.

Being prepared to show a listing is quite simple; it just takes a few practice runs and some guidance. If you’re brand new to the Denver real estate for sale world try to shadow another agent or sit with your broker and create checklists and reminders. Also, bring a legal pad to write on to remind yourself of things you may have forgotten. Real estate is a learning process, so make sure to forgive yourself on the first few mistakes.

About PorchLight Real Estate: PorchLight Real Estate Group has the most experienced and knowledgeable Denver real estate agents in Colorado. For more information about homes for sale in Denver CO or specific neighborhood homes please visit www.porchlightgroup.com.

Part I: Be Prepared to Show Properties

Showing properties can be an exciting and fun way to meet clients, to earn a living and to really learn as much as possible about real estate and the various neighborhoods in your area. Most agents will start off as buyer’s agents, since there is a bit more work involved, and young “hungry” agents will want to make as many contacts as possible and impress as many people as possible in the first few years in order to gain referrals and grow their business. Showing properties does require a bit more work though than signing a listing agreement and slapping a lockbox on a property. If you want to be a great buyer’s agent, you’ll need to be incredibly prepared. Here are just a few ways to do that:

Search Criteria – Knowing what your buyers want is one of the most important first steps to showing homes. Of course a new buyer may not even know what they want to begin with, but the first two or three houses should give you a good idea. If your buyer isn’t very talkative or critical, make sure you ask them leading questions when you’re in a home. For instance, if a home has a big lawn, ask them, “how do you feel about the lawn size? Do you have a dog or are you needing space for children to play, or maybe want a deck or garden?” Maybe they’ve always wanted to put a pool in the backyard, or maybe they hate mowing the lawn and want the smallest space possible. These are things you just won’t know until you finally ask. Usually when you first meet up with a buyer you should know their criteria. Are they wanting a 2 bedroom home? A 4,000 square foot home? How much can they afford? Are there any “deal breakers” or “musts” they need in a home? Knowing these answers will save you hours of time and will keep your clients happy.

Pre-Qualified Buyers – One of the biggest questions for criteria will be “how much house can you afford?” and this can be a difficult question for younger or newer buyers. Most buyers have slightly unrealistic expectations of their first home, and can assume they can borrow much more than they really can. It’s your job as one of the most qualified Denver real estate agents to make sure they get pre-qualified for a loan, and even pre-approved if they can.

About PorchLight Real Estate: PorchLight Real Estate Group has the most experienced and knowledgeable Denver real estate agents in Colorado. For more information about homes for sale in Denver CO or specific neighborhood homes please visit www.porchlightgroup.com.

Part II: Why Didn’t My House Sell?

Appearance – The appearance of the home is the second reason you’re not receiving offers. This can be anything from a messy kitchen to a disheveled backyard. An unsightly appearance of a home shows that there wasn’t much care put into the property. Many buyers will assume this lack of care carried through to more serious pieces of the property, like the roof, A/C or plumbing. If your property looks like a tiny tornado stormed through it, don’t expect to receive a single offer. This is also why staging and keeping your home “show ready” is so important. If your home is regularly fairly clean, but you receive a request for a showing when you’ve just hosted a party, just had company over, or had a long week, try to hold off until you can grab the vacuum and windex.

Negotiating Style – Your negotiation tactics as a seller could actually send a buyer running. If a buyer has finally deemed your property a reasonable price and decided to view it, then found it visually acceptable and placed an offer, then you could literally be scaring away potential buyers. This is actually a mistake that many homeowners make; they feel that they’ve compromised with the listing agent on a lower asking price than they deserve, so they decide that everything from that point forward is not negotiable. Let’s say your home is worth $315,000 in a fair market, but you’ve always thought you could get $330,000. Since you finally let your agent list it at $320,000 you’ve decided that’s all you’re going to give. An offer coming in a $310,000 won’t even be entertained or countered, or even a full price offer asking you to share the closing costs will be laughed right out of your house. Sellers need to understand that if they want to sell quickly, and to a qualified buyer, they’ll need to “sweeten the pot,” or else they’re falling back into the collection of homes for sale in Denver CO that are overpriced and overlooked.

Condition – The inspection may be the final factor that’s getting in the way of selling your home. If you home needs $2,000-5,000 of work that you’re not willing to pay for, many young homeowners will quickly run. Most young and new homeowners are completely overwhelmed with the idea of owning a new home, as exciting as it is, it can also be terrifying. They’ve heard it for years from family, friends and coworkers and they don’t want to feel like they’re already walking into a money pit.

About PorchLight Real Estate: PorchLight Real Estate Group has the most experienced and knowledgeable Denver real estate agents in Colorado. For more information about homes for sale in Denver CO or specific neighborhood homes please visit www.porchlightgroup.com.