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Erika

Top 7 Winter DIY Projects in Gunnison Valley

By | Crested Butte Real Estate, Do It Yourself Tips, Gunnison Real Estate, Gunnison Valley, Home Gardening, Real Estate Advice | No Comments

Top 7 Winter DIY Projects in Gunnison Valley

Winter months bring cold days and long nights. We know it is a great time to get outside and enjoy the winter activities in Gunnison Valley, it is also a great time to look at improving your home. While you wait for the weather to warm up so you can get out into the garden, there are still plenty of great DIY projects to tackle, even in the winter. Here are 7 terrific ideas for the Do it Yourselfer in you.

 

  1. Paint Your Walls–Paint an accent wall or an entire room with a fresh color.
  2. Declutter–Sure this sounds like a fancy name for house cleaning,but decluttering is more than that. Remove excess furnishings to make your rooms seem larger and more inviting.
  3. Update Your Kitchen–A new backsplash or cabinet pulls can quickly change the look and feel of your kitchen.
  4. Add Insulation–This will provide instant satisfaction as those cold,drafty rooms feel warm and cozy. If you have some real skill, you can include changing out old windows or doors as well.
  5. Smarten Up–This is a great time to automate your home with Smart devices.  Add security cameras, a smart thermostat or smart lights and plugs.
  6. Build Something–For the handy, winter months are a great time to add cabinets, a TV hutch or bookshelves to your home.
  7. Re-Grout Your Tile–From kitchen counters to floors, re-grouting can freshen up the room.

As always if you are looking for any tips or tricks to get your home sold quickly, feel free to call us or stop by either office location in Gunnison or Crested Butte.

save money in gunnison county

3 Ways to Save $100 a Month

By | Crested Butte Real Estate, Gunnison Real Estate | No Comments

3 Ways to Save $100 a Month

If you’re like most people, you find it hard to save money. Maybe you’re trying to put aside a nest egg so you can make a down payment on a chunk of Gunnison County Real Estate, but you find there’s just, to use the time-worn expression, too much month left at the end of the money.

save money in gunnison countyIf you’d like to save a hundred dollars or more each month, there are three areas to work on.

Groceries

This is the biggest area where you can save money, and there are ways to trim your grocery bill that are so easy you won’t even notice you’re doing it. And no, you don’t have to clip coupons. Forget the tired old idea that you’ll save by planning menus ahead. It’s better to shop the sales, and build your menus day by day according to what you’ve been able to buy cheaply. When you can, stock up – and don’t be a weenie about it. All stores offer what they call “loss leaders,” which are items they actually lose money on in order to entice you into the store. If there’s a staple, like rice or pasta, on for half price, don’t just buy a few bags – buy a few cases. And don’t miss daily markdowns – items that are getting a little old but still perfectly good to eat.

Credit Cards

It goes without saying that you should pay down your highest-interest cards first. If you can, you might also consider getting a loan to consolidate your credit card debt at a lower rate. If you do this, though, get rid of the cards – it’s too easy to charge them up again.

Change

The word on change is, don’t spend it. When you get change back, put the coins in a jar and count them up at the end of the month. You won’t even have missed not using them, and you’ll be amazed at how much you’ve saved.

These three suggestions are bound to save you money – at least $100 a month and maybe more. Start saving today!

Sources:

http://www.echoesoflaughter.ca/2012/01/10-best-ways-to-save-money-on-groceries.html

http://consumerist.com/2013/11/18/save-money-without-thinking-about-it-dont-spend-dollar-bills/

http://www.nomoredebts.org/debt-help/getting-of-debt/solving-debt-problems-tips-for-paying-off-credit-card-debt.html

Why Should Your Realtor Do An Open House?

By | Crested Butte Real Estate, Gunnison Real Estate, Mt. Crested Butte, Open Houses In Gunnison County | No Comments

Why Should Your Realtor Do An Open House?

Some realtors don’t want to do open houses. They may consider it a waste of time, or they may have heard the horror stories, or maybe they don’t think they produce results. 

If your realtor doesn’t want to do an open house, you may have to push a little, because an open house is definitely to your benefit.

You might share your realtor’s concern about the safety issues surrounding open houses. Perhaps you’re uncomfortable having total strangers wander about your house. Or maybe you’d just rather not have curious neighbors wandering over trying to find out how you live.

However, there are times when open houses do make sense. If your little piece of Gunnison County real estate really is too amazing to describe in an online listing, an open house is the way to get potential buyers to see what’s special about what you’re offering. You’ll want to make sure, though, that your house is well-staged – meaning that you’ve removed everything that is personal and left an essentially blank canvas on which a potential buyer can project their hopes and dreams.

Additionally, if your home is listed in an area where the market is suppressed, a good look around could make all the difference in the world to someone who is looking to buy a home. As a seller in a buyer’s market, you’ll need to take advantage of every possible way in which you can convey the advantages of your particular home – in other words, you’ll have to insist that your real estate agent arranges an open house, whether they like it or not.

Sometimes, too, a photo just doesn’t do a home justice. You want to attract a home buyer who will fall in love with what you have to offer. If safety and security are a concern, bring along your 400-pound cousin Bubba. Tell him to bring his friend Louis. Short for Louisville Slugger. But get that open house in the works.

Sources:

http://realestate.msn.com/article.aspx?cp-documentid=13108451

http://www.lotuslandrealestate.com/benefits-of-a-real-estate-open-house/

Crested Butte Mountain Resort Purchased by Vail

Vail Resorts Buys Crested Butte Mountain Resort

By | Crested Butte Real Estate, Gunnison Real Estate, Gunnison Valley, Mt. Crested Butte, Vail Resorts | No Comments

When the news broke that Vail Resorts purchased Crested Butte Mountain Resort, we must say the excitement and shock all came at once.  This is a great move for business and will certainly bring additional eyes on our little town.

Crested Butte Mountain Resort Purchased by VailAs a leading Real Estate firm in Crested Butte, we immediately started having the conversations with our clients about what this will mean to the market and how to best use this to their advantage.  For our sellers, hold the price and being firm is important as the value of our little piece of heaven is going to go up.  When talking with buyers, we try to impress on them the importance of making an offer right away.  What you see today will not be here tomorrow, don’t get stuck out in the cold!  This article has a lot of information about the purchase and what to expect going forward.

https://www.bizjournals.com/denver/news/2018/06/04/vail-resorts-in-buying-spree-acquiring-crested.html

As always stay tuned to our blog and social media outlets for all the latest Crested Butte, Gunnison, Almont and Colorado news.  Our realtors are working hard to keep up with market conditions, emerging information and of course what’s going on around our beautiful valley.

To view current homes for sale in Gunnison Click Here

To view current homes for sale in Crested Butte Click Here

To view all homes for sale in the Gunnison Valley Click Here

What Should You Plant in Your Garden This Year?

By | Crested Butte Real Estate, Gunnison Real Estate, Home Gardening | No Comments

What Should You Plant in Your Garden This Year?

It’s late spring early summer, and you’re getting seed catalogs in the mail. You’re pondering whether to dig up a bit of land and add a vegetable garden to your very own sweet piece of Gunnison County real estate. But what to plant?

Well, it really depends on what you want. That sounds simplistic, but think about it. What do you want from your vegetable garden? Are you looking to supplement your diet? Do you just adore crunchy, fresh veggies and want to have them as close as your doorstep? Or are you a wannabe farmer who just loves the idea of telling your local grocery store to stuff it; you’ll do just fine on your own, thank you very much?

If it’s freshness as near as your back yard that you want, you might do well with a simple salad garden augmented by a few snow peas, some string beans and tomatoes. With salad greens and peas, you can start early, as soon as the frost starts to come out of the ground. Tomatoes are less tolerant and need to be put in when the ground is warm. With just a few seeds and a small area of tilled soil (enhanced with a quality fertilizer), you can get growing quickly and enjoy fresh produce well into early fall.

Perhaps you’re horrified at the price you have to pay for veggies at the supermarket, and you’d like to store a bit for the winter. Beans, peas, squash and tomatoes all lend themselves well to canning or freezing, and you can save a bundle on your grocery bill during the winter.

Whatever your purpose, the main thing to remember is, if you don’t like it, don’t plant it. Spinach, for example, will grow like crazy and just a few plants will feed you all summer long and leave you plenty left over to freeze or can. But if you’re not all that fond of spinach, it won’t do you much good if you just leave it in the garden to bolt and go to seed.

Gardens are great fun, so feel free to experiment. Oh, and if you live in an apartment, all is not lost – many nice little kitchen gardens have been grown in containers.

Sources:

http://www.moneycrashers.com/how-to-save-money-with-a-home-garden/

http://www.eatingwell.com/food_news_origins/seasonal_local/gardening/13_easy_to_grow_vegetables_and_herbs

Home decor mistakes

Home Decor Mistakes Anyone Can Make

By | Crested Butte Real Estate, Summer | No Comments

Home Decor Mistakes Anyone Can (But Shouldn’t) Make

So, you’ve got yourself a Gunnison County real estate gem, and you’re thinking about decorating. Like most people, you’re planning on doing it yourself, with maybe some ideas from magazines – no decorator. Your enthusiasm is commendable, but we know you don’t want to make mistakes. With that in mind, here are some of the more common home decor mistakes anyone can make, and how to avoid them.

The Furniture Doesn’t Fit: This is the most common decorating mistake. Furniture displays in stores are set up to sell you the maximum amount of pieces. The extra night table won’t do you much good if you don’t have room for it. Measure the room, and determine how much furniture you can handle. Oh, and while you’re at it, measure the width of the door – you don’t want pieces that are going to require you to take out a wall.

Too Many Colors: Contrary to past belief, it’s perfectly OK to mix florals, plaids and stripes as long as they’re in the same color family. That said, too many patterns can also be overkill. Resist the temptation, though, to play it safe and be all “matchy-matchy” – you don’t want the room to look as if you opened up a catalog, picked up the phone and said “Send me page 47.”

But Mom Insisted: Family heirlooms are fine, but realistically, you can end up with too much of “You’ll want this; it was your grandmother’s.” Kindly but firmly tell Mom that you just don’t have room for everything, and graciously accept a few accent pieces.

Hang Your Art Properly: Nothing says “I don’t know what I’m doing” quite like paintings hung so high you have to crane your neck to look at them. Art is meant to be viewed at eye level.

We have covered just a few common home decor mistakes that are easily avoided. Now you know – have fun decorating! If you have questions about how to properly stage your home for sale contact us here

Sources:

http://interiordec.about.com/od/articlesonbasics/a/topdecornonos.htm

http://idiva.com/news-work-life/6-common-home-decorating-mistakes/1800