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Thinning The Herd

November 14, 2008 By

It’s a lot more expensive to be a real estate broker in Colorado than it was,  just last week.

Following an unexpected 60 percent drop in the number of new license applications, The Colorado Division of Real Estate is increasing licensing fees.  Erin Toll, director of the division, in a memo said that the division is increasing fees to fund $4.1 million in costs.

“The division is cash-funded, meaning licensing fees pay for the program,” Toll wrote in the memo. The division is increasing licensing and renewal fees for real estate brokers, subdivision applicants beginning Monday.

Toll also noted that the division does not receive any subsidy or other appropriation form the state’s General Funds.”In Colorado, all real estate programs are 100 percent cash-funded,” she said.

She called the increases “significant,” and said they needed to be boosted because fee levels have been too low for the past several years to cover program costs. it is unknown how these substantial price increases will attenuate a 60 per cent drop in license applications, but beginning Monday the Broker Original Application Fees were doubled, from $250 to $500. The Original Subdivision registration Fee was raised, from $1000 to $4000. A three hundred per cent increase. And to change the name of a real estate company, typically as a limited liability corporation (LLC), the cost has risen from $200 to $1000. New corporation, and partnership names also  fall under this heading.

Director Toll went on to say, “This year, fees are only covering 65 percent of the program costs, and fees had been raised gradually to match necessary revenues, but changing trends require immediate further adjustment at this time.” Indeed.

In addition to fee increases, the division is managing program costs by such things as reducing printing and copying, permitting telecommuting by staff members, restricting office supplies, foregoing performance pay salary increases in fiscal year 2009 to 2010, and adhering to the state hiring freezes. At this time, the division is not filing several vacant positions.

Despite the agency’s belief that the number of bad guys out there has no relation to the number of brokers, Toll  noted that the division is receiving an “ever-increasing number of complaints, due in large part to the housing boom and subsequent credit crisis.” She said the division has dramatically reduced the turn around time for investigations.

“Two years ago, the case back log for real estate brokers was 54 percent,” she said in the memo. “Today, the backlog is only 9 percent. To continue the division’s consumer protection mission in a timely and efficient manner, the program must be adequately funded.”

THe Colorado Association of Realtors, on its website, said it was concerned about the timing of the price increases, since “housing is at the center of our economic crisis.”

But several local brokers think the price increases are a good thing, and that the number of agents who “sell real estate on the weekends” will decline,  creating opportunity for those who have truely adopted the profession.
Toll agrees.

“I think the silver lining might be that it will convince some part-timers, who might only have licenses to help family or friends to leave the industry,” Toll said. “That might mean that we only have people who are serious about selling real estate, and improve the overall professionalism. That’s good for the industry and good for consumers.”

Filed Under: Denver Real Estate Tagged With: , , , , , ,

Countdown to the Holidays

November 12, 2008 By
Countdown to the Holidays

New Year’s Eve
What are the options? An expensive dinner out, at-home entertaining or something in between? Going out doesn’t necessarily mean going all-out…make reservations for an early simple entrée out, followed by a spectacular dessert and champagne at home en famille or surrounded by friends. Or stay in but put on a party mood. Drape your dining table with simple, yet dramatic white table linens. Sprinkle with fake snow and apply Styrofoam snowballs as tabletop decor. Power up the romance; illuminate your setting with an overload of white candles from Cherry Creek North. Take-out simplifies too…and Whole Foods can meet your every culinary whim.

Snow Etiquette, the New Rules

Countdown to the Holidays When the weather outside is frightful, conditions call for special forms of etiquette

Imagine Miss Manners in UGG boots. Would she have worn them through dinner? Likely not. And neither should you. Ladies, it is fashionista-appropriate to wear your heavy-duty snow boots with formal eveningwear. Just park them at the coat-check where you can discretely slip on your Manalos.

Stamp your boots/shoes clean outside the boutique or restaurant NOT inside. Who wants a puddle at the entry door?

Gentlemen: Unlike any other time of year, it is perfectly acceptable in deep snow season to drop your lady friend off at the door of your destination, circumventing her having to wade through a snowdrift. Meet her where she is waiting inside the warm entrance and then, kind sir, please do the same closing out the evening.

Drivers: Clean the frost and snow from ALL the windows of your car, not just a swath across the driver’s front window. Peripheral vision is the new Lasik. And pedestrians will thank you.

Pet owners: Check your pet’s paws for salt if you’ve walked them on sidewalks covered in it. Salt can irritate their paws and ruin your BFFF….that’s Best Friend Forever’s Floors

Shop Until, Well, the 25th and then Shop the Sales

Countdown to the Holidays Thanks for the Swarkovski Crystal Collar. . . WOOF!

Whatever the economy brings, our four-legged friends are never short-tailed on holiday gift lists. A manager at CB Paws, between 2nd and 3rd Avenues on Fillmore, says a common store mantra is “We’ve cut back on ourselves, but no, not on our pets.” Crystal collars fly out the door. Anything breed-specific sells. Treat Bowser to yogurt-covered snowmen or gingerbread mailmen from this bakery bonanza. If you’re a cat person, the catnip candy canes will send kitty into convulsions of joy.
Countdown to the Holidays HOLD THE SLEIGH! Last-Minute Gift-Giving: $25 and Under One stop at the venerable Artisan Center on Third Ave. at Detroit solves all your last-minute gift quandaries with items from $10 to $200. Fused glass angels by a New Mexico artist start at only $16. For the guys on your list: An Oregon-based company is producing key chains ($8.50), bottle openers ($12) and picture frames ($39) crafted from recycled bicycle chains. Free gift wrapping with every purchase adds Manager Julie Hayward.
Countdown to the Holidays Hey! It’s Mom’s Turn At The Wizards’s Chest, on Fillmore between 2nd and 3rd Avenues, general manager Cliff Jackson says families are overwhelmingly opting for board games (that the entire family can play) versus video games that only a solitary player can use at one time. Besides the quality time spent together, board games can “be played more than once,” notes Jackson. Settlers of Catan from Germany ($42) is a hot European strategy game for kids and adults. Stuff the stocking of the person on your list who’s big on do-overs with collectible $1 Iweko erasers from Japan shaped like French fries or a slice of cake.
Countdown to the Holidays Stow Your Bag Safely

Pinecones’ best-selling stocking stuffer: the $24 “purse holder,” a device that safely clips your handbag to the arm of your chair. Use it at restaurants or at meetings to safeguard your bag from being lifted. They’ll call you “Moneybags” when theirs go missing and yours doesn’t. Also at Pinecones on Third Avenue between Fillmore and Detroit, dual-duty outerwear—the season’s hit. Jan Berge, owner, reports that reversible jackets–fur on one side, suede on the other–deliver 2:1value. The little black skirt that coordinates with 10 different tops is selling better than single-service clothing.
Countdown to the Holidays

 Ta-Ta to Taffeta Ribbon: Creative Gift Wrapping So what if the $10/yard silk ribbon that your mother-in-law prefers her gifts be swaddled in is a little out of reach this year? Top off her gift organically using natural pine cones, branches and dried leaves (avoid berries, which can be toxic). For kiddos, wrap gifts with the Sunday funny pages and forgo the expensive bow in lieu of tying on an inexpensive stuffed animal. Innovation turns a skein of worsted yarn into “ribbon” that will go around every package on your list. Recycle your home projects leftovers using fabric in lieu of wrapping paper or tucking the gift into a basket or tin. Who said wrap had to be paper?
Countdown to the Holidays The Gift that Gives Twice Ten Thousand Villages, located on Third Avenue between Columbine and Clayton, is the Cherry Creek North store where every gift gives twice: Once to the person to whom it is given and again to the person – usually halfway across the world – who created it. “People definitely shop here because they know their money is going to a good cause,” says Assistant Manager Charlotte Otto. Ten Thousand Villages is a fair-trade store, staffed by only three paid employees plus 50 volunteers. This year, along with ornaments and native jewelry, food preparation packets made by The Women’s Bean Project, a local group from The Gathering Place, top the best-seller list.
Countdown to the Holidays Junior at the Wheel

Forget the big-screen TV. This year many dads are shopping for the ultimate baby stroller, complete with the best shock absorbing system money can buy. “It’s their little car,” says Janci Lowry Frisby, co-owner of Belly at 3rd and Milwaukee. Dads kick the tires of the stroller wheels as seriously as they do when making a real auto purchase. Baby daddies are also porting their offspring around in designer slings of reversible fabric: bright prints on one side (for mom), solids on the other (for him). Slings have been the preferred method of baby transport for hundreds of years in Africa, albeit they’ve only been introduced to U.S. parents recently. Parents are dressing their youngsters in green (and we don’t mean the color) fabrics such as bamboo. Gift of choice: Diaper bags. “Parents may not be spending on themselves this year,” Frisby says, “but they still dote on their children.”
Countdown to the Holidays Shoot for the moon “Bigger than ever,” is how Kim Walker, owner of outdoor DIVAS, describes women’s Moonboots, available in assorted colors starting at $129. Another trend: wider skis, a big seller already. For stocking stuffers, reusable Baggu Bags ($8.95), and water bottles. “Looking good while staying fit is what our clients want,” says Walker, whose store is on Third Ave. between Clayton and Detroit.

Banner photo by pbo31, available under a Creative Commons Attribution-Noncommercial license.

Filed Under: Business & Finance

The Art of Shaving

November 12, 2008 By

Before it became an art, there was a history to shaving that would take us back into the Stone Age.

Early man had discovered several ways to remove hairs from his face, but most widely known is that he simply plucked them out using two seashells as tweezers. In fact, tweezers have taken their place in history as the most popular grooming tool ever invented. Used by both “civilized” and uncivilized men to painfully remove body and facial hair. More recently shaving had become one of those glorious male traditions, to be passed down from father to son. But somewhere along the line, shaving became just another mindless morning exercise in Stone Age dignity. But things have changed.

Tucked away on the second level of the Cherry Creek Mall is the “The Art of Shaving”. Developed in 1995, it’s a classic tale of boy meets girl, and both quickly step to the forefront of what would become a revolution in Men’s Grooming. You can read their story here.

Located in the Cherry Creek Mall, at 3000 East First Ave. in Denver, “The Art of Shaving” combines traditional barber services with 21st century aromatherapy solutions and skin treatments. The shops themselves represent as the classic barber-shop, but with service and products that bring together the luxury and care a man used to expect from his favorite barber.  Expertly trained technicians use quality botanical ingredients and pure essential oils to raise shaving to an art, once again.

Now the line between looking your very best, and insufferable vanity is of course razor-thin.  And so, if during their famous Royal Shave, or as the scented lotions are gently massaged into your temples, you start feeling a little too precious,  just think of seashells, and maybe ask for another beer.

Banner photo by pbo31, available under a Creative Commons Attribution-Noncommercial license.

Filed Under: Shopping Tagged With: , , , ,

Up The Corporate Lattice

November 11, 2008 By

When it comes to building a career these days, a good many of us still labor under the mistaken impression that success will be measured by how high we’re able to climb the corporate ladder. The “ladder” model has been the standard of personal success in the corporate world ever since the first organizational flowchart was drawn. This traditional idea about work, and the workplace took root at the start of the Industrial Age, when structure was everything, and work was the only thing.

A good many of us can remember when a vast majority of American households were the traditional kind.He went off to work each day, and she stayed home to raise the children.You don’t have to look far to see that things have changed.

Today, only about 15 per cent of households enjoy the Ward and June Clever lifestyle. That leaves 85 per cent of the population on the sidelines when it comes to tradition in the workplace.The simple fact of more women and aging boomers in the work force has blurred the relationship between work and life and redefined what it means to build a career. In short, a saw has been taken to the “Corporate Ladder”.

Perhaps a more accurate depiction, than a ladder, of how today’s careers are built and talent is developed, might be a “Corporate Lattice”, where growth and the climb, are visible along many paths. This approach can be found everywhere. Executives who’ve climbed the ladder for years, but now insist on more family time. Working mothers who’ve been away for a while, and decide to return. Younger generations of workers who change jobs regularly, and hold few if any loyalties. The modern work force is complex, and born of nuance.

Today’s challenge is to fit work into life, and life into work, where maybe you reach a comfort level of responsibility and compensation, and stay in that position for a while, to balance work and life’s demands. Then begin the climb again, or not. This use to be known as a “lateral” career move, and not exactly a glowing description of your climbing skills in the corporate world. But today the term is more descriptive of the way things really are, as the desire to balance work and family has transformed the traditional career path, and reshaped the structure that was once the only path to success.

Filed Under: Business & Finance Tagged With: , , , ,

Visit Denver Zoo Lights

November 10, 2008 By

For many families, it is a seasonal tradition to cruise local neighborhoods in the weeks following Thanksgiving to enjoy the holiday lights that decorate the homes and properties of Denver’s many area neighborhoods.

This year though, you may want to make Denver’s Zoo Lights one of your stops. Visitors to “Zoo Lights” at the Denver will be entranced by millions of sparkling lights, featuring trees that glitter, and animated animal light sculptures. Numerous zoo animals will be available for viewing during this special evening events, Dec.12-Jan.4, 5-9p.m.

Holiday entertainment by local schools and choir groups will undoubtedly add to the merriment.

Here’s a 12-Days-of-Christmas-sing-along music video of some of the light displays at Denver Zoo Lights!

Filed Under: Arts & Entertainment Tagged With: , , , , ,

Dinosaurs Alive!

November 10, 2008 By

The Denver Museum of Nature & Science is the Rocky Mountain region’s leading resource for informal science education. Now, newly discovered dinosaurs and familiar favorites roar onto the big screen through advanced computer animation, in Dinosaurs Alive! now playing at the IMAX Theater. In this stunning new film narrated by Michael Douglas, audiences travel with some of the world’s leading paleontologists as they uncover fascinating evidence that the descendants of dinosaurs still walk and  fly among us. Or at least it’ll seem like it.

Here’s the Trailer.

Playing Now at the Phipps IMAX Theatre, on Level 2, through February 12, 2009

Showtimes:

Monday: 10:30 a.m., 11:30 a.m., 2:00 p.m., 3:00 p.m., 5:00 p.m.
Tuesday:

10:30 a.m., 11:30 a.m., 2:00 p.m., 3:00 p.m., 5:00 p.m.

Wednesday: 10:30 a.m., 11:30 a.m., 2:00 p.m., 3:00 p.m., 5:00 p.m.
Thursday: 10:30 a.m., 11:30 a.m., 2:00 p.m., 3:00 p.m., 5:00 p.m.
Friday: 10:30 a.m., 11:30 a.m., 2:00 p.m., 3:00 p.m., 5:00 p.m., 7:00 p.m.
Saturday: 10:30 a.m., 11:30 a.m., 2:00 p.m., 3:00 p.m., 5:00 p.m., 7:00 p.m.

Sunday: 10:30 a.m., 11:30 a.m., 2:00 p.m., 3:00 p.m., 5:00 p.m.

Filed Under: Arts & Entertainment Tagged With: , , , ,

Cherry Creek Marching Brand

November 9, 2008 By

The Cherry Creek High School Marching Band will be out of town November 28 thru December 2nd.

The Bruins will be in Los Angeles again this year to help mark the beginning of holiday celebrations at Anaheim California’s Disneyland theme park. But the band will return to Denver in time to offer another stellar performance in Denver’s annual Parade of Lights festivities on Dec. 5 and 6.

“It’s an honor to be selected for either of these performances,” said Band Director Tim Libby. “I’m very proud of our students and the incredible dedication they’ve displayed all year long.”

These final parade appearances will bring to a close what has been an outstanding marching season.

The Cherry Creek HS Marching Band made the finals in the Colorado Marching Band Championships, last month at Invesco Field.

It’s been a busy year for members of the band. In addition to the Marching Band Championships, they also competed in the Arapahoe, Douglas County and Pomona Invitational Marching Festivals, they’ve performed at Cherry Creek High School’s Spirit Day, Homecoming Pep Rallies, of course home football games.

“We set our goals high,” said senior Drum Major Sebastian Adams, “but the most important thing is that we walk off the field knowing we had a good show and a good season

At Cherry Creek High School, marching band is an extracurricular activity – a club, not a class – which is different from many metro area high schools. Band Director Tim Libby says that’s why the Creek band is so strong musically.

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We certainly wish them well, and look forward to next season.

Filed Under: Arts & Entertainment Tagged With: , , , , , ,

Suites For The Suite

November 8, 2008 By

The Boardroom at Cherry Creek has signed on for a 10-year extension to its renewal agreement for office space, in the Ptarmigan at Cherry Creek building in Cherry Creek. Located near the intersection of Cherry Creek North Drive and Colorado Blvd, Ptarmigan at Cherry Creek is a 400,000 + square foot class-A office complex.

The Boardroom at Cherry Creek, a privately owned executive suite/office business center will now continue to occupy its more than 14 thousand square feet of Ptarmigan space, offering dedicated office spaces, meeting rooms, and virtual office services for businesses  both large and small.

First established in Denver in 1990 by Charles & Carol Jansch, The Boardroom at Cherry Creek is a privately owned executive suite offering a sophisticated office atmosphere for industry professionals to conduct day-to-day operations.  Additionally, more than100 other businesses utilize their virtual office and conference room services enhancing their corporate efficiency and profitability.

In today’s tight economy, and a market place that’s as competitive as ever, a small business just may not be able to shell out for new office space, and the tools needed to get it up and running. But by offering an array of first-class services and amenities, including furnished and unfurnished professional offices; virtual office services; conference room rentals; free visitor parking and underground garage parking for monthly clients; telecommunications, like fiber optic Internet service, and dedicated telephone lines; live call answering; and administrative support, The Boardroom at Cherry Creek helps take a lot of the pain out of the process.

Read the details of their re-commitment to the Cherry Creek Community, here.

Filed Under: Business & Finance Tagged With: , , , , , ,

Back To Basics

November 8, 2008 By

Cherry Creek restaurateur Jim Sullivan has closed the doors on his last two Denver restaurant interests, after 11 years. Ocean, located at 201 Columbine St., and Nine75, located at 975 Lincoln St., both were shut down at the end of September.

Sullivan had opened Ocean a couple years back as a replacement for the ill-fated Mao, which failed to capture the attention of Denver’s fine dining denizens. Nine75 went the way of its Westminster predecessor, which also closed earlier this year.

Sullivan expects to spend time in other pursuits for the time being. “People just don’t have the money they once did,” said Sullivan, listing “fine dining” as one of the first luxuries to go, when hard times come.

Filed Under: Fine Dining Tagged With: , , , ,

On Being Well Connected

November 8, 2008 By

Broadband Internet service is no longer a luxury. It is has become a necessity for most people over the past decade. And more and more it’s become a significant factor when it comes to making real-estate decisions.  Areas with better and faster broadband have become more attractive to potential buyers than areas with slow access. Or no access.

It seems a trend has developed where potential deals fall through once the buyer discovers a home doesn’t have broadband Internet access. Roughly 55 percent of Americans have broadband connections in their homes, according to the Pew Internet and American Life Project. However, many more have service available to them and choose not to buy it.

But the growth of broadband is slowing, and providing broadband connections to the remaining 10 percent of homes still without it will be expensive, since these homes are located more typically in small communities, or remote locations. Even in developed areas, broadband has become an important factor for many people in deciding where to live, particularly if they work from home.

Wireless broadband services and coverage from cellular carriers is growing, but still major roads and population centers take precedent. The standard in luxury apartment buildings is to have at least two options for broadband Internet access, said Henry Pye, director of resident services and technology at JPI Partners LLC, which owns buildings throughout the United States. Pye’s job is to ensure the buildings have broadband connectivity, “because you can’t rent out apartments without it”, he says. “It might as well be water,” he told the Associated Press.

Filed Under: Denver Real Estate Tagged With: , , , , , ,
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