http://www.articletrader.com/ Articles at ArticleTrader en-us http://www.articletrader.com/travel/vacations/winter-activities-in-the-wider-aspen-colorado.html http://www.articletrader.com/travel/vacations/winter-activities-in-the-wider-aspen-colorado.html Fri, 15 Feb 2008 00:00:00 -0600
Aspen Area Facilities
The philanthropic efforts of locals combines with a city awash with money have enabled the creation of world-class recreational facilities. At the forefront of sportive entertainment is the
The Aspen Recreation Center, known as ARC. This is where young and old come together for a fun time at the ice skating rink. It also features an expansive indoor pool and a 3 story fully equipped climbing wall for all ages.

A further attraction is the Red Brick Recreation Center. Conveniently located right in the hear of Aspen. It offer activities like indoor rock climbing, fitness classes, youth sports, adult sports, yoga and pilates, gymnastics and a whole set of varying activities.

The Aspen Golf & Tennis Club. Located a stones throw from down town Aspen it features groomed cross-country trails in the winter. There is no better way to take in the magnificent scenery then on a stroll through winter wonderland on skies.

The Treehouse Kids Adventure Center, a brand new 25,000 square foot facility just for kids. Located in the new Snowmass Base Village. They young ones will be entertained for hours while you have fun on the slopes. A six-chair lift is just out the door. If you are accompanied by older children sign them up at the Aspen Youth Center. Fun activities, youths interact with kids their same age in a variety of programs and activities. Mainly for youngsters from 4th to 12th grade.
To explore your creative side why not check out the Anderson Ranch Arts Center, a non-profits art organization offering hand-on experience in the arts. The ranch also offers some children programs.
For those that enjoy exclusive dining at the top of Aspen Mountain amongst other things the Aspen Mountain Club might just be the right thing. Dining in a private setting atop of Aspen Mountain, 15,000 bottle wine cellar, private parties, ski lockers at the Little Nell and more… Currently there is a 2 year or so waiting list to become a member.

Winter Activities
First and foremost there is downhill skiing. With four world-class mountains between Aspen and Snowmass there is something for everyone. From the mellow slopes at Buttermilk Mountain to the chutes in Aspen Highlands, whatever your skill level you will not get bored with skiing any time soon. If you want to heighten your skills try out the excellent ski schools.
Snowmobile tours are an excellent way to get to know the backcountry with an experienced guide. Effortless propelling you through glittering pristine snow there are hundreds of square miles to explore. And for those who would rather be quietly enjoying the scenery there are always guided dog sled rides through untouched corners of the Aspen area. If you are set on an outdoor work out, snowshoeing is a fun way to experience the quite solitude of winter while taking in the fresh air under clear blue skies.
For those of you that rather watch others perform in exciting sports Aspen offers a whole plethora of activities disbursed over the winter calendar. In early winter there is the annual FIS Women’s ski races. The mostly Europe centered ski world cup visits for a few enthralling days of slalom and downhill races. Snow polo also has a home in Aspen with the exotic sport griping locals and visitors alike. And then there are the exciting events of the winter X-games. The annual gathering of ski- and snowboarders from around the world to compete for glory have found an ideal venue on Buttermilk Mountain and a young crowd is discovering Aspen in a whole new light.

This really is just the start of discovering the Aspen and Snowmass area in winter. There are other activities too numerous to mention. Come see for yourself!



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After a 10 year career in derivatives trading Toby Munk relocated to Colorado to pursue a career in Aspen Real Estate. Explore more information on listings at the Aspen MLS search.

Source: http://www.articletrader.com ]]> http://www.articletrader.com/finance/real-estate/resort-real-estate-why-their-prices-behave-differently.html http://www.articletrader.com/finance/real-estate/resort-real-estate-why-their-prices-behave-differently.html Fri, 15 Feb 2008 00:00:00 -0600
Aspen real estate is a prime example of a luxury resort market. Aspen is home to four exceptional ski mountains with a lively winter tourism industry and summers offer mild temperatures to enjoy the plentiful outdoors. The majority of homes owned in the Aspen or Snowmass market are second homes. The typical vacation home in the Roaring Fork Valley is utilized less than 30 days per year on average.

Average single-family homes in Aspen start at about $5 million, Snowmass homes come in a little lower at around $3.5 million on average. So it is clear that real estate in this mountain resort falls into the luxury homes category. But the Colorado Mountains and its ski resort towns like Vail, Beaver Creek and Breckenridge are by no means the only resorts with a luxury designation. Resort towns span coast to coast. From the Florida Keys or the Carolina cost line to the mountains of Utah and California.

One thing all these resorts have in common is that their real estate markets are not following the same rules as suburbia.

Real Estate Finances
1) People that can afford to buy second homes must by definition be somewhat successful to get to that stage. It seems therefore less likely that they would fall for obscure financing products.
2) Lending criteria on second homes are and have been tighter than for primary residences. It is not uncommon for lenders to ask 20% down on these types of deals. Therefore it is harder to get upside down on your mortgage.
3) In luxury resorts like Aspen or Snowmass 60%-70% of all real estate transactions are cash transactions. No financing involved. Negative cash flow is therefore not an issue in these situations.
4) Rental income from properties not used for most of the year can soften the negative cash flow if a mortgage is involved.

Real Estate Desirability and Liquidity
1) Resorts by definition are something special. They have something that people desire. This could be mountains, lakes, the ocean, a special climate or island setting. Really anything, but it must be special.
2) Resort real estate is a luxury good. It is not essential to own. This in turn makes it easier for people to divest of luxury real estate holdings. Properties owned in any of the desirable luxury destinations are a more liquid asset. The security that properties are more fungible helps property owners divest of them more quickly if need be.
3) In most cases resorts offer limited availability. As with most things desirable they are not available in unlimited quantities. There is only so much land in a mountain valley and there is only that much beachfront property, there are only so many skiable mountains, you get the drift.

Overall it can be said that resort second homes will be the first asset that will be sold when people are in financial distress. On the other hand it is less likely that owners of resort property like Aspen real estate would have overextended themselves in the first place. This combined with the tighter lending criteria for second homes makes it less likely that the general mortgage troubles spell over to the second home market. As long as the economy only experiences a moderate downturn the luxury real estate segment might actually profit. It is not uncommon to find a re-allocation of wealth from stocks and bonds into real estate in times of uncertainties. Therefore the top end of the market will weather the storms much better than most people expect.



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After a 10 year career in derivatives trading Toby Munk relocated to Colorado to pursue a career in Aspen Real Estate. Explore more information on listings at the Aspen MLS search.

Source: http://www.articletrader.com ]]> http://www.articletrader.com/internet/seo/real-estate-seo-for-the-web-novice.html http://www.articletrader.com/internet/seo/real-estate-seo-for-the-web-novice.html Fri, 15 Feb 2008 00:00:00 -0600
Independent of price level there will always be buying and selling of homes going on. But the way people search for and find homes is in the middle of a dramatic change. The Internet is the great equalizer but also the great differentiator.

People searching online are not aware of your achievements, everybody is equal at first. If your website does not offer the design and services people appreciate they will not stay long enough to find out. This is where you can differentiate yourself.

But design and functionality are a secondary issue to the problem of how to get found in the first place. Use the analogy of websites being online business cards. New business cards are deposited not at the top of the pile but at the very bottom. Customers are picking up business cards from the top of the pile. SEO or search engine optimization deals with efforts to move ones business cards further up the pile so that customers can find one’s site through popular search engines.

So you have a new website. So you basically just had your business cards printed but nobody knows how to find them. Or even more dramatic you don’t even know if somebody is picking up your business cards and you don’t know if your business cards are in the big pile yet.

I would define SEO as the efforts to purposefully move ones website to be placed higher on the results page in response to a search query at a range of search engines.

But there are thousands of search engines out there. True. But all but 3 are irrelevant to your optimization efforts. Google, Yahoo and MSN control about 98% of all searches performed on the Internet. Focus on the three big search engines and the rest will take care of itself.

What is there to optimize? The aim is to be found by people searching for things that you offer on your website. When people search they do this textually by querying a search term or phrase. For you to optimize your site you first have to understand for which keywords or key phrases you want to be found. As I am practicing real estate in Aspen, Colorado and appropriate search term could be “Aspen Real Estate”.

Make sure you repeat your keywords and phrases on your homepage. Make the most important key phrase a headline and type it in a bold font.

It is important to understand that search engines are automated computer systems programmed by humans to evaluate the webs content without human interference. This means that search results are based on what is called a computer algorithm. This is basically a set of instructions for the computer on how to evaluate certain criteria and translate the results into a sequence of importance. Most important website first, least important website last.

The art and science of Search Engine Optimization is to try to understand what the search engines are looking for in a good site and then giving the search engine just that. The google search engine algorithm probably looks at hundreds of different criteria. It is so complex that not even the engineers inside google know the whole picture. Well you might say, how should none google employees then know what to do?

Basically the most important fundamentals of what makes a good websites are known. Google for example uses a patented mathematical concept they called “Page Rank” at the root of their systems. Links are seen as votes. The more links are pointing to one website the more important that website must be. The more important the website is that votes for another website the more weight that vote caries.

So, try to get people to link to your website. It is important to know that links from website that have the same topic as your website seem to be more important than links from website that do not fit the subject. Links from other real estate related website are more important to my website then links from websites promoting toys.

Search engines like content rich websites. The more pages with useful content the better. Blogs are a great way to accumulate great on-topic content over a period of time. This is all the more important as search engines like website that have fresh content on a regular basis.

DMOZ.org is a human compiled directory of websites. Read their instructions carefully and submit your website to a relevant category. Yahoo and Google use this directory and it helps to be listed.

Generate a site map and place the xml file on your web server. A site map is basically a long list containing all your web pages in a format that is readable by computer programs employed by search engines to browse the web. These programs are called “bots” or “spiders”. This will help the search engines to find all the pages on your website. Remember, the more web pages the search engine knows about the better for you.

Search engines cannot read certain content. Graphical content is one such thing. If your site consists of mainly pictures the search engine will not understand what your site is about and therefore will not offer it as a result for a search. Make sure your site is text rich.

Real Estate website can have pages for the different subdivisions in the area serviced. Write a Blog on the property of the week. Incorporate a section of “Frequently Asked Questions”. Write about yourself and give people a bio on you. Explain the buying and selling process. Offer sales statistics. The list goes on.

Get a program Like “Advanced Web Ranking” to search the search engines for search results containing your keywords. Optimization is fun when you start to see results. But manually looking for your website in search results is labor intensive and a good job for an automated program.

Read web forums and a couple of books on SEO once you are past the basics. The field is constantly evolving and there us tons more to learn.



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After a 10 year career in derivatives trading Toby Munk relocated to Colorado to pursue a career in Aspen Real Estate. Explore more on Aspen MLS search.

Source: http://www.articletrader.com ]]> http://www.articletrader.com/finance/real-estate/moving-to-a-luxury-resort-to-buy-or-to-rent.html http://www.articletrader.com/finance/real-estate/moving-to-a-luxury-resort-to-buy-or-to-rent.html Fri, 15 Feb 2008 00:00:00 -0600
This conundrum is best explained with the help of a few examples. Take a luxury resort town like Aspen, world famous playground of the rich and famous, add a little bit of normalcy to it (you) and shake well.

You will find that even in high priced towns like Aspen or Snowmass the economics of the free markets still play out even under the distorting influence of the super wealthy. Lets use an off the shelve two bedroom condo with 2 baths in a nice central core Aspen location. In the current market condition it is not unreasonable to expect to pay about $1,5 million for a 1,000 square foot apartment. Ok relax, take a deep breath. You said LUXURY resort, didn’t you?

Once you regained your composure just have a look at what it will take to rent the same place. Believe it or not it takes a mere $4,500 per month plus utilities to call the same condo your home. Sounds more manageable, doesn’t it?

The mathematical skilled will argue that this is a no-brainer. At a current interest-only mortgage rate of about 6.0% the purchaser would have to fork over $7,500 per month in interest alone. This does not take into account property takes and monthly HOA fees that can easily add up to another $500 per month or more. So on paper it looks twice as expensive to buy than to rent.

This is correct would it not be for the tiny little oversight of APPRECIATION. Only the property owner will gain from an increase in the value of the asset. It happens to be that Aspen has seen steady value increases over the last half century with intermittent calm periods of steady prices.

Since the rent represents about a 3.5% return on investment and the mortgage rate and taxes add up to about 6.5% of the purchase price, the difference is what it will take in appreciation to break-even. In this example, if the market sees more value increase than 3% annually it would be better to buy in the long run. If the value increases by less it is better to rent.

All of this only holds true with at least a 3-year time horizon since transaction costs and compounding effects are neglected in this analysis. We also do not take into account that owned real estate can be improved with a little elbow grease and disproportionate gains can be achieved through this. The above considerations are applicable to any market. The decision process hangs on the future expectation of market movements, which are hard to guess. But sometimes it helps to let the past be guidance for the future.



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After a 10 year career in derivatives trading Toby Munk relocated to Colorado to pursue a career in Aspen Real Estate. Explore more on Aspen MLS search.

Source: http://www.articletrader.com ]]> http://www.articletrader.com/finance/investing/investment-property-basics.html http://www.articletrader.com/finance/investing/investment-property-basics.html Fri, 15 Feb 2008 00:00:00 -0600
Real Estate Finance:
It is all in the numbers. Real Estate can behave like a bond once it is rented long term. Look at it this way. You invest in a property, which is like buying a bond, and the monthly rental check is similar to a bond coupon. Now the ratio of the price you paid for the property and the rent you receive annually is equal to your yield. If the property cost you $200,000 and you receive a total of $12,000 in rent you would be yielding a 6.00% return.

If you could borrow the who purchase amount at an interest rate lower than your yield you would have money in your pocket at the end of the year. The property would yield a positive cash flow. Likewise if the mortgage rate was higher than the rental yield you would have to chuck in some of your own money to pay the mortgage.

It is important to understand that in this example we assumed an interest only mortgage. In real life the mortgage lender would most likely require a repayment of the principal over 15 or 30 years. As repayment is like savings it changes your cash flow but does not alter the yield.

Investment Goal:
There are two fundamental goals in real estate investing. Firstly the property you are buying should have an acceptable rental yield and secondly it should appreciate over time.

The first objective depends on the rent you can ask and the ability to keep the investment property rented. The second objective depends on external market conditions and the area and type of property you invest in.

Expected Rental Yield:
In times of falling interest rates the rental yield tends to increase making it more attractive to purchase investment property. But often falling interest rates coincide with uncertain economic conditions. So it is important to ensure a property will rent long term otherwise your investment yield is in danger. In markets with rapidly increasing real estate prices the rental rates often lag behind. This is equivalent to lower yields, which makes investing less attractive and should slow down the property price appreciation until rental rates have increased or property prices have devalued.

Picking the right area:
Think of real estate as a commodity. Would you rather own something that is rare and precious or something that is available in abundance? Look for the diamonds for your real estate investing. Find areas that are confined and do not offer much more development potential. For example beach front property has to a certain extend only limited availability. Once the front row beach homes are developed there is just no more supply. Or explore investing in mountain resort communities. Simply by their restricted valley locations they are confined to a small area.

What you want to avoid is suburban areas that offer plenty of undeveloped space. The outlet of ever-increasing inventory will greatly limit your appreciation potential.

One last tip: If you are serious about investing in real estate talk to a lot of local real estate experts. Find a knowledgeable real estate agent. Search for that person and do not blindly accept to find the right expert in the first Realtor you meet.



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After a 10 year career in derivatives trading Toby Munk relocated to Colorado to pursue a career in Aspen Real Estate. Explore more on Aspen MLS search.

Source: http://www.articletrader.com ]]> http://www.articletrader.com/finance/real-estate/buying-real-estate-the-money-is-made-when-you-buy-not-when-you-sell.html http://www.articletrader.com/finance/real-estate/buying-real-estate-the-money-is-made-when-you-buy-not-when-you-sell.html Fri, 15 Feb 2008 00:00:00 -0600
Let look closer at a sale. One has to assume that the market as a whole is well informed and has professional assistance in form of real estate professionals. The best deals in the market tend to sell first and overpriced offerings will not sell until the market has moved up. A seller therefore can expect to obtain market value for his property. It is very unlikely that by some fluke he will stumble upon a buyer willing to overpay for a property.

Now lets have a closer look at the buying process. When buying you are negotiating with one individual, the seller. He might or might not be completely informed about the market value of his property. The seller might be facing special circumstances that might make him more motivated to sell at a below market value. You might be in a position to close quickly and therefore a motivated seller might be willing to come down on his price. When buying property you are competing with the market for a property but you can always beat the market by being first to learn about a new listing.

It is during the buying process that you can find the pearls amongst the plethora of offerings. Make lots of offers on property where you see potential. Find the seller that is most motivated. Do not get hung up on a particular property just because you have fallen in love with it. Once you found the person and the property that meet all your criteria negotiate hard and make the deal happen.

It is at the time of buying when you set yourself up for future profits. But the profit potential that you control is 100% related to your buying decision. Not only in terms of the price you paid but also in regards to all other variable factors like location, desirability of structure, condition of the dwelling, rental potential and so on.

So when buying your next property keep in mind that it is the key to your success. Selling just represents the completion of a wise buying decision. You can expect to sell a property at market rates, but you can find and buy property at below market rates.



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After a 10 year career in derivatives trading Toby Munk relocated to Colorado to pursue a career in Aspen Real Estate. Explore more on Aspen MLS search.

Source: http://www.articletrader.com ]]>