By Mark Samuelson

Anybody who has ever tried to sell a house knows that you’re nuts to try and do it without a real estate agent’s help. But how about if you’re BUYING a house? How about if you already know what you want…have done your own research on neighborhoods…and you know how much you can afford? Do you still need to pay an agent a full buyer’s commission (generally 2.8% of the closing price) to help, if all you really need is somebody to manage the paperwork?

Slice Realty’s Tommy Lorden on Boulder’s Pearl Street Mall. Slice serves the Denver metro area, but can usually assist with a purchase anywhere in Colorado.

Jeremy Long and his wife were exactly those kinds of buyers; he writes computer code for a living and with his skills, would need very little help in any internet search. Using the ‘net, he also found licensed broker Tommy Lorden, founder of Buyer’s Slice Realty, who specializes in what agents consider to be the ‘easy ones’ – buyers that do most of the work for themselves, and are likely to purchase without a lot of unexpected problems. more »

With inventories of both condos and single-family homes falling to much lower levels over the past year, market analyst Jack O’Connor, broker/owner of The Denver 100 Real Estate, is making some significant predictions about the year ahead.

Jack O’Connor.

“We’re going to see price increases of from four-to-six percent in the market for homes at $250,000 and under,” O’Connor told readers when he released a 2012 Denver Residential Real Estate Annual Report, including a set of “2012 Predictions for Denver Real Estate.” more »

Broker Joan Rogliano is showing a mountain main-floor master, four beds/baths on a piney 1.8-acre site with a view across Evergreen – but in the back of her brain swirl the unusually pressing demands of her client practice, one specialized around the “D” word.

Realtor Joan Rogliano of Rogliano Real Estate Group divides time between listings, including this home at $489,000, and the foundation she created to help divorcees.

Six years ago in a better market, Rogliano found that divorcees were gravitating toward her highly personalized services. She reorganized the practice around divorce, adding contacts for various counseling options; then as the market worsened, she set up Wildflower Women’s Foundation, a counterpart not-for-profit that offers scholarships to the newly divorced to get them back to jobs, or school, or beyond other financial crises. more »