Grand Junction is Grand

It's been a while since I talked about Grand Junction. It's a great place to visit, and if you're thinking about it you can check out the Visit Grand Junction site to see ideas for places to stay, places to eat, and lots of activities to do. We have lots of outdoor recreation, and in the summer our local fruit is delicious!

Grand Junction is also a great place to live. (I might be biased, I admit.) We're the largest city between Salt Lake City, Utah, and Denver, Colorado. Which means we have the benefits of a regional hub without too large a size, so if you want a hometown that's not too big and not too small, Grand Junction might be just right for you. The City of Grand Junction site is one place to look for resources about life here. And if you're looking for a home, Bray Real Estate is a fantastic resource!

Blue Angels!

I was meeting with clients Thursday afternoon at the site where they are having a house built. The Blue Angels are doing an air show this weekend. They were practicing above us & I got this shot. Amazing how tight the formation is!!

News from My Week

This week I met with two title companies. I met with Land Title Guarantee Company and Fidelity National Title Company. Both companies are great and the people are awesome.

And on Friday, February 25th, Bray Real Estate had a luncheon to celebrate its 65th year. That was amazing. W.R. Bray, the son of Sherman and Roxie Bray, was there. His parents started Bray and Company in 1946. Robert, their grandson, presided over the 2010 Sales Achievement Awards, which were also a part of the luncheon.

I'm happy to be affiliated with Bray Real Estate. Our mission statement is: "To be the premier provider of comprehensive real estate services on the Western slope. Our success will be measured in the achievement of our customers' and clients' objectives, satisfaction and continued trust." Impressive, isn't it? It's great to be settling in at Bray.

What Do Real Estate Appraisers Do?

Hello again. Along with lots of studying, this week I have been doing some fun things, too. On Tuesday night I went to the Grand Junction Symphony Orchestra's performance. It was great as usual. On Monday night I went to Pantuso's Ristorante at their new location. They invited people to dine before they officially opened in order to get the wait staff some experience and to see what needed to be improved.

On the real estate front, I wanted to share some information about appraisals. Lenders usually require an appraisal done before financing is approved. That is done to make sure that the lender is not authorizing more money than the property is worth. There is an organization, the Appraisal Foundation, which establishes national qualifications and standards for practicing appraisers. Then each state has its own requirements. If you want to find a licensed appraiser on your own, you can go to the Appraisal Institute. You can enter your zip code and find a list of appraisers who are members of the institute. You can also find out about those initials after the appraiser's names, like MAI, SRA, and SRPA.

But what do appraisers do? Remember last time when we talked about picking a listing price for your house. We talked about finding recently sold properties, currently listed properties, and properties that were taken off the market without selling. Appraisers look at recently sold properties, but they also look at so much more. They look at the national, regional, and even neighborhood trends. They look at the physical conditions of the property. When they compare the property to other properties, they are usually looking at market value.

What if you have updated your house yourself and kept all your receipts? You may be wondering if you can just add that to the original cost of your house. Or what if you read on the internet that the cost of houses in your city is increasing by so much per year - can't you just do the math yourself?

I wish it was that easy. Although all the hard labor you put into your house is very valuable to you, it may not mean as much to someone considering the purchase of your house. Buyers pay attention to market value, not the value that you have put into your house. Market value is what a motivated buyer is willing to spend on your house, but, in order to be accurate, the buyer must not be emotionally involved in your hard work. The buyer is emotionally involved in seeing themselves in your house, instead. Their tastes might be different from you and they probably care about different things than you do. Sellers and buyers definitely look at the same house differently.

This is why selling a house is hard work for the seller. It means letting go of memories and trusting that someone else will make new memories with their house.

Once an appraiser has done the market research of your house, the neighborhood, and real estate trends, the appraiser analyzes the information usually using three approaches. They are the sales or market approach (comparing it with other properties sold), the cost approach (how much would it cost to rebuild it at today's prices), and income approach (how much money, like rent, could be gotten from the property). He or she picks the "highest and best use." If your house is in a residential neighborhood, its highest and best use is usually to be used as a residential property. He or she reconciles the estimated values to get the final estimate. Then he or she prepares a report with all of that information.

The most important thing to remember is that the appraiser doesn't create the value of the property. He or she does research and then verifies the value with the appraising tools.

Career and Job Changes are Common

I'm back after a great weekend. I really enjoyed seeing "The Drowsy Chaperone" performed by the Mesa State College Theatre Department. The actors were funny and the audience was wild. The theatre was full of students and everyone had a good time. I also enjoyed going up to the Grand Mesa and seeing all the colorful trees. Some of the leaves had fallen off, but there were still enough swatches of color to be impressive. I really love it here. Today's weather was great, too. Not too hot, but it was pretty nice for October.

Today I'd like to talk about my background and my future. My career recently has been in computer software tutoring, and now of course I'm becoming a Grand Junction real estate broker. This isn't as big a change as you might think: I have a Bachelor's degree in Finance, so real estate is not that far off. And changing careers or jobs is more common than most people know.

The U.S. Bureau of Labor & Statistics has some information on their National Longitudinal Surveys at the Frequently Asked Questions page. They have never tried to measure how many times people change careers over their lifetime, stating: "The reason we have not produced such estimates is that no consensus has emerged on what constitutes a career change."

However, the Bureau had a news release last month, September 2010, about tracking people born 1957-1964 and how many jobs they held from age 18 to age 44. They stated: "These younger baby boomers held an average of 11 jobs from ages 18 to 44." So people my age change jobs and may be changing career fields more than society thinks. And I am one of them.

I got my books! (Day 2)

I opened the box from the real estate online class, and inside I found two big, 2" binders, one 1 ½" binder, and two books. There also was some information from the school, including a paper fingerprint card. You may be wondering why I received a fingerprint card; I'll explain.

There is a great website with information about the Colorado legal requirements for getting real estate broker license. It is the Colorado Division of Real Estate. When applying for a new real estate broker's license, there is an application form that has lots of information.

On that form, it states: "Before submitting an application for a real estate broker license, each applicant shall submit a set of fingerprints to the Colorado Bureau of Investigation for the purpose of conducting a state and national fingerprint-based criminal history record."

So I'll be submitting a set of fingerprints, being sure to turn them in so that Colorado Bureau of Investigation, or CBI, has enough time to process them.

My class starts Monday, October 4th. I'm looking forward to it. In the meantime, it's a beautiful fall. Time to go up to the Grand Mesa and look at the leaves changing color.

I got my books!

I've been busy lately - I had a great time at the radio station, fundraising for KAFM, and today along with dishes, washing clothes and exercise I got three errands accomplished. I got groceries at City Market, which was opened by the Prinster brothers as a small grocery store in the 1920s.

I got tickets for "The Drowsy Chaperone" which is being performed by the Mesa State College Theatre Department. I will see it in the William S. Robinson Theatre, which is in the Moss Performing Arts Center. I've never been in there, so that should be exciting. They're opening tonight.

And on my third errand, to Grand Junction's main post office, I got a big box addressed from the real estate online class. That's why I'm so excited. I haven't opened the box yet, but I'm guessing that it is the books I need to succeed in the online real estate class.

I'll be back soon to tell you if I was right!

First Steps

I have been answering phones at KAFM for their 2010 Fall Pledge Drive today. They had another open slot tomorrow, so I'm going back to answer phones again. KAFM is a wonderfully unique community radio station, one I'm glad to support.

I also want to support people in the processes of buying and selling their homes, although I really won't know how effective I'll be until I start doing it. I have been in a service industry, tutoring people about computers for many years in Oregon, but I don't know how my tutoring skills will transfer to real estate.

I think the thing that is going to make the difference is that I am lucky enough to be part of a mentoring program. In "Mentors and Mentoring: What is a mentor?" by F. John Reh, from the About.com Guide, it mentions: "The original Mentor is a character in Homer's epic poem The Odyssey. When Odysseus, King of Ithaca went to fight in the Trojan War, he entrusted the care of his kingdom to Mentor. Mentor served as the teacher and overseer of Odysseus's son, Telemachus."

In Merriam-Webster Online, a mentor is defined as a trusted counselor, guide, tutor, or coach. No matter the origin or meaning, I like having someone with experience and the ability to do a reality check that will keep me headed in the right direction.

I'm now signed up for my online real estate class; as soon as my materials arrive, I'll be able to begin.

Introductions

Hello. My name is Davienne Jacobson. I'm named after my dad, Davie, and my name is pronounced "day-veen."

My husband and I moved to Grand Junction in May 2010, just four months ago. I love it here and I have a lot of faith that Grand Junction is going to continue to grow. After all, the U.S. Census Bureau that tracks "Metropolitan and micropolitan statistical area population and estimated components of change: April 1, 2000 to July 1, 2009" put this area's population at 146,093 in 2009. That's 15,000 more people since the year 2005. And if you go to Sperling's Best Places, choose Grand Junction Metro area, click on the economy section and scroll to the bottom, it says: "Future job growth over the next ten years is predicted to be 19.42%." That's all quite encouraging for Grand Junction, and for my future career as a Colorado real estate broker.
The next thing for me to do is to sign up online at a Colorado real estate institute that offers a class on how to get my associate broker license. Eventually I'll be a Grand Junction Broker, just as the title of this blog suggests.