Steamboat Real Estate Home Search and Blog

Steamboat real estate sign

If a Steamboat condo buyer is thinking they are going to take a drive and look for condos or townhomes for sale, they will be out of gas before they find one.  Why?  The Steamboat sign ordinance has cracked down on signs in front of properties.

I’m not sure exactly why signs aren’t allowed, but some of the reasons I’ve heard are:  They are “unsightly”.  People will think there is an excess of properties for sale.  (Um, there is an excess of properties for sale.  Could it be due to the lack of signs?)  The hodge-podge of different brokerage signs looks messy.  I could go on and on.

One of the most effective ways to get a Steamboat property sold is to have a real estate sign out front announcing it is for sale.  In fact, 28% of all sales can be attributed to lawn signs.

I have a listing for a bank-owned Cascades Townhome which is listed almost $200,000 less than a similar unit in the same building.  It is obviously a deal.  (So buy it, somebody!)  I mistakenly put a sign on the deck so people driving by would see it and know it was for sale.  (Weekends bring lots of people to Steamboat, and more than a few of them are driving around thinking about buying Steamboat real estate.)

Within a day, the Colorado Group Realty office manager got a call from the lady who owns the townhome priced almost $200,000 higher.  She was demanding I take down the sign that said Bank Owned or she would do it herself.

Well, she must have done it herself, because it wasn’t there a few hours later.

The irony is that having the bank-owned townhome in the Steamboat MLS hurts her ability to sell her place.  Once the bank-owned townhome is sold, the neighborhood can go back to selling at market rate.

Colorado Group Realty Sign

All I can figure is that she doesn’t want to live in a neighborhood where those types of properties (read:  foreclosures) are located.  It’s a sign of the times—for various reasons, sellers are unable to keep up with the mortgage payments and are allowing properties to go back to the bank.  It happens.

So how do you find a Steamboat property for sale if there are no signs?  You can get on the internet and search, or you can call a Realtor.  (970.819.6372.  Ask for Eliese.)  A Realtor is one of the few people who can tell you exactly what is for sale and what other similar properties are for sale.

The sign code isn’t going to go away, and the neighborhood watchdogs aren’t either.  So if you want to purchase a Steamboat condo or townhome (single family homes aren’t affected), please contact us.

Oh, and let me know if you see a stray Colorado Group yard sign.