Complete Buyer's Guide
to Real Estate in Aspen and the Roaring Fork Valley.

Refining your vision. When you want to begin looking for real estate in the Roaring Fork Valley, all you need is a map, a daydream, and time for a quick get-together with one of our brokers who’ll listen to your plans and interests. We’ll ask whether you’re looking for a home, condominium, building site. We’ll want to know your vision: a house in a town, a country escape, a ski-in retreat. We’ll talk some rough numbers, give your thought process some direction.

Where to look. You can easily preview, ahead of time, all listed property in the Roaring Fork Valley, by just accessing our real estate section on our website. Or, if you prefer, let us do the homework for you. We’ll review all the properties that fit your criteria and select the best. Thanks to the Multiple Listing Service (MLS) of the Aspen Board of Realtors, we can arrange a showing of anything on the market, no matter who has it listed. We may even include a few “pocket” listings that haven’t yet been formally put on the market, but we definitely won’t waste your time showing you homes that just don’t suit you.

Working together. In the past, most real estate agents in Colorado worked for the sellers. Today, there’s a wider variety of brokerage relationships you can choose to have with us:

Transaction Broker. This is the most common form of brokerage relationship. As a transaction broker, we assist you through the transaction without being an agent or advocate for you or the seller. You are not legally responsible for our actions, and a written contract with us is not required. As a transaction broker, we disclose to you, among other things, any adverse material facts we know about the property. In addition, we will not disclose to the seller that you may be willing to pay more than what you offered.

Buyer’s Agent. Buyers sometimes ask us to represent them exclusively. This requires a separate buyer agency agreement that you and we sign. It identifies the kind of property you want, the extent of our fiduciary responsibilities, and an expiration date for the relationship.

Seller’s Agent. This is the relationship the brokers at BJ Adams and Company have with the owners of each of their listings. A seller’s agent works solely on behalf of the seller. Almost all of our listing agreements have Transaction-Broker addendums that allow us, as individual agents, to “default” to that relationship with the seller and the buyer when we are working with both parties.

When you come in to meet us, we’ll discuss brokerage relationships in more detail with you and mutually select the alliance that makes the most sense. Then, we’ll sign a statement acknowledging our discussion and your choice. This is not a contract. This disclosure statement does not bind you to BJ Adams and Company in any way—it just acknowledges the particular relationship we’ve established. We keep it on file, as required by the Colorado Real Estate Commission.

Take your time. Our schedule is your schedule. Some of our clients have found homes they love in a couple of days, or even less. Others take a more leisurely approach. Our objective, always, is to direct you to property you’ll fall in love with relatively quickly. But if it takes days and miles, that’s no problem. Our cars are comfortable, and a well-stocked picnic basket is always in the trunk.

If you’re still searching and have to leave the valley, we’ll birddog the project for you, pursuing every possible avenue. In the meantime, if you see an ad or a sign for a property that looks interesting, call us, and we’ll secure further information and photos.

Use your heart and our head. When you find a property you wish to purchase, BJ Adams and Company will help you prepare your offer. We use Colorado Real Estate Commission-approved forms with modifications and addenda specific to this area, as well as additional provisions tailored for you.

How to buy as well as possible. When you’re ready to make an offer, this is what we suggest:

• Make your offer as clean as possible, with minimal contingencies.

• Seek diamonds in the rough. Many buyers (even brokers) can’t visualize “potential”… if you can, that may be an opportunity to buy well and/or to add value to what you acquire.

• If you want to finance your purchase, get pre-qualified with a local lender and submit that approval with your offer, so the sellers won’t worry about that particular contingency.

• Compose a letter to the sellers telling them about you and your family, explaining why you love their property. We’ll submit it along with the offer to purchase. Making yourself real to the sellers can have enormous impact.

Securing your offer. Your offer to purchase is normally presented with a 5% to 10% deposit, often wire-transferred to a local title company within two days of agreement. This “earnest money” is commonly put in an interest-bearing account for your benefit, then turned over to the seller at closing.

Local negotiating customs. You have every right to negotiate your purchase, but if the seller rejects your offer, don’t be discouraged. We will help you figure out the next step to take, whether to pursue the original property, or to move on to another.

Recognize that prices in the Roaring Fork Valley are high, compared to the rest of the country, but so is the value—and, they are generally firm, with most properties selling within 5% or less, of their list price. While there are always exceptions, of course, it’s unrealistic to expect to find many “steals” or foreclosure opportunities. Demand in the valley continues to be strong in virtually every neighborhood, giving most sellers a fair amount of leverage. 

We’ll help you with the homework. If the seller accepts your offer, you can expect the closing to take place within 30 to 60 days, depending upon your due diligence requirements and financing. It is common in our contracts for buyers to have contingencies which give them adequate time to review title work and surveys, to secure an appraisal and mortgage, and to have their property inspected. The brokers at BJ Adams and Company will assist you with all these arrangements and keep all the parties involved on track.

Financing Options. The majority of Aspen and Snowmass buyers secure financing through valley-based mortgage brokers, and there are many alternatives. Mortgage money is plentiful. Most homes and condominiums valued under $1 million can be financed up to 75% of the purchase price. Terms for loans over $1 million are negotiated individually, as are loans for vacant land and construction. Processing takes about 30 to 45 days. Be prepared to provide three years of tax returns and thorough financial information.

Closing costs. In Aspen and Snowmass, buyers pay a transfer tax at closing. In Snowmass, the tax is 1% of the purchase price, and these revenues help fund parks and the free shuttle bus system. Aspen has two transfer taxes, one that funds the Wheeler Opera House (1/2% of the purchase price) and a second affordable housing tax (which is 1% of the purchase price over $100,000). There are presently no transfer taxes in Pitkin County, outside of these two towns, nor do they exist in Basalt or Carbondale.

In Colorado, surveys and title insurance (your guarantee the seller will convey clear title to you) are typically paid by the sellers. Settlement fees for each party usually amount to less than $250. Your lender will review financing costs (points, appraisal and credit report fees, tax reserves, etc) with you.

 Upon sale, Colorado requires that 2% of the proceeds be withheld from a non-resident seller by the closing agent in order to be certain the seller files a tax return in Colorado reporting the gain the following year. Any excess withheld is returned.

Closing long distance. These days, we handle most closings without either party back in town for the event, thanks to overnight delivery and the wire-transfer system. BJ Adams and Company will handle all the countless little details of the
transaction along the way to the closing, such as:

• Ordering the appropriate inspections

• Working with your lender and the appraiser to be certain your loan is approved in time

• Conferring with the title company about the closing and the preparation of your settlement statement

• Transferring utilities into your name

• Making sure you receive a recorded deed and title policy

• Remaining your primary source of information and assistance, months and years after closing

Trusting your broker. We won’t sell you any property that we’re not comfortable with, or that we don’t believe in. The reason? We want you to do business with us again and to refer us to your friends.

Our crystal ball and recent trends. Our brokers are loaded with first-hand, up-to-date research on the local market that they are happy to share with you. What we’re noticing presently:

• Roaring Fork Valley activity is very brisk. As 2005 came to a close, the upper valley was producing record numbers of transactions and dollar volume. Final volume for the year was well over $1 billion.

• As sales increase and the available inventory shrinks, we are seeing a widespread increase in appreciation throughout the valley, particularly among core properties in Aspen (within walking distance of the gondola), condominiums under $2M and homes under $3M in Snowmass, and vacant land in the county, the amount of which is rapidly decreasing as a result of tight growth controls.

• There aren’t many distress sales, but the availability of quality product is improving as sellers, who had previously kept their properties off a market that had been less than stellar, now see the possibility of a greater return.

• All eyes are on Snowmass in 2006, as the new Base Village gets underway with construction. Expect a surge of activity in this community, in all neighborhoods, as a result of the international attention Base Village will generate and all its many amenities, including a gondola.

• The midvalley area, where there has been considerably more new development over the last few years, still offers the most opportunities for buyers. With fine restaurants and retail shops, plus four new golf courses and great fly-fishing, Basalt and
Carbondale are increasingly attractive to second-home buyers.

Start looking! Explore these pages and see what fires your imagination. Then grab that map and contact us to begin tracking down your dreams.