Articles from or about The Denver Post.

Ever wonder what to do or what’s going on around town? Me too. That’s why I’ve created this easy cheat sheet for Denver Events running from July through October. You’ll find arts and culture, music and barbecues, pet-friendly gatherings and social soirees at your fingertips. Print it out, save it to your phone, grab your sunscreen, a blanket, a friend (furry or not), pack up the family or head out alone to any and all of these great events. They’ll remind you what makes living in Denver so spectacular!
Oh, and if you’d like to beat the heat looking at houses in Denver’s hot real estate market, we can do that too! I’m air-conditioned.

Denver Events July-Oct 2016 - TShaffer [219493]

my christmas childWith the past month’s headlines full of unspeakable violence, how do we talk to the children? In her Denver Post article, For families, conversation is evolving (12/09/2015), journalist Jenn Fields explores how parents are navigating the daily violence and the effect on their children. I find it particularly poignant as we head into the holiday season when the conversation would (or could) naturally turn to things like peace on earth or goodwill toward men. Okay, that may be a little optimistic in our current Trumped-up culture, but the juxtaposition of love and fear are certainly in need of discussion. I got a call from Jenn to be part of this interview, and because I’ve always had a pretty open topic policy with my children, I gladly obliged.

August was 4 years old when Columbine happened. Gabe, the younger of two boys, was a toddler on Sept. 11, 2001.
So for Tracy Shaffer, of Denver’s Park Hill neighborhood, ruminating over how to have conversations with her boys about senseless violence is nothing new.
“I’ve spent 20 years thinking about, how am I going to talk to my kids about this?” she said.
It’s an evolving conversation for parents; as kids turn into teens, they’re exposed to more information, more media coverage about violence than what Mom and Dad allow on the living room television. And in the wake of the Paris attacks, and the shootings at a Planned Parenthood clinic in Colorado Springs and a holiday party in San Bernardino, Calif., it’s also an ongoing conversation about fear, safety and, ultimately, positivity. The recent back-to-back high-profile shootings are scary for kids, Shaffer said. “And they’re aware of that. It’s just a lot harder right now. The last couple of weeks, the month we’ve had, it’s just a lot harder to tell them that the odds are in their favor, that nothing’s going to happen.
“But it’s still true.”
Judith Fox, director of the international disaster psychology program at the University of Denver, said there’s an emotional toll for everyone after mass shootings.
“The events in and of themselves, I think, are frightening and really rock everyone’s sense of safety and security,” Fox said. “But that’s going to be particularly true for children and teens, who don’t have the larger context with which to understand what’s going on.”
Shaffer’s 17-year-old had an extra scare last week. She was on her way to East High School to pick him up Thursday when he called to say something was going on.
“I’m thinking it’s a hair-pulling, back-of-the-school fight like we did in the ’70s,” Shaffer said. “And I get there, and there are about 18 cop cars.”
East was on lockdown after reports of an armed person at the school. But Gabe was outside when it happened. So she picked him up and they left.
As he called to check on friends, she noticed: “After each phone call, he said at least once, “I love you, take care of yourself, I love you.’ ” It struck her. He knew what was important.
“If they can stay in that place of the sweetness and the compassion for one another — ‘I was concerned for you,’ ‘I was scared for my school’ — and not getting into the blaming and the bickering, then we may gain control in the long run.”
At the clinic at DU, Fox said, “Inevitably people are coming in with their kids feeling more anxious.”
Between lockdowns — real or drills — at school, what kids hear from other kids and the slew of media coverage, parents might feel like it’s an uphill battle to dial down talk of the shootings.
Having an open line of communication with your kids is essential, Fox said.
“You really want to be in a connected position to have an impact on how they think about things, and what they do. Children and teens, you want to watch what they watch, as much as you can. You want to be there, you want to limit the exposure, but that gives you the power to understand what they’re feeling and thinking and correct misunderstandings and help lessen confusion.”
With teens who are using social media, she said, talk to them about what they’re seeing there, and remind them that it’s easy to spread unrealistic rumors on social media.
Since her 12-year-old started middle school, Heidi Schmutz of Longmont said her family has been trying to balance out the information her daughter is bringing home from school.
“It’s an interesting age, because they are getting some information about current events at school, so we want to make sure we’re having a conversation about it at home so we can give her some context,” Schmutz said.
At school, her daughter watches CNN Student News, which is “designed for use in middle and high school classrooms,” according to the site. When their daughter comes home and tells them about it, Schmutz and her husband then open a conversation about what she learned.
However, she said, “there’s a point, especially at this age, where too much is too much.” As parents, they want to give information that’s age-appropriate, she said, and let the kid be a kid.
Kirsten Anderson, division director of child and family outpatient services and disaster coordinator at Aurora Mental Health Center, has another tip for parents: “Parents need to take care of themselves so they can take care of their own kids.”
It’s best for parents to minimize exposure to news coverage of these events — and keep in mind that images and sounds “tend to stick with us more than the words do,” she said.
Little ones don’t need to see any of this, she said, and teens don’t need to see it over and over again.
At Shaffer’s house, her teen self-regulated their television viewing after the most recent shootings.
“Gabe will go, ‘I don’t want to watch this,’ and so we’ll turn it to something really stupid,” she said.
If you’re the parent trying to steer the focus, aim for positive imagery instead, Fox said, “like, how are people helping each other? Noticing that side of things is really important. I think that was a very effective technique on 9/11, (and) it clearly happened around the support systems that developed post-school shootings, where people really band together and help each other.”
You’re not going to control everything kids see and hear — certainly not with teens, Fox said.
“I assume my kids are seeing absolutely everything,” said Shaffer, whose boys are now 17 and 21. “I can’t keep you from it, I can’t shield you from it. I can give you context. That’s the role of parents now, I think, is to give them context.”

Jenn Fields: 303-954-1599, jfields@denverpost.com   or @jennfields

Let me know what you think and how you may be having this conversation in your household.

sunriseThere’s a lot of talk in Denver about this “crazy new real estate market”, how “everything’s different than it used to be”, and after six years of heartbreak, I say “thank god”. For those interested in real estate, and for those who might be considering buying or selling a property, understanding the big picture is critical. So here’s where it stands.
Most people think this tremendous seller’s market and that the super low inventory is something new, or that the market’s going to suddenly erupt overnight. Neither is true. Here’s the truth: we are FOUR YEARS PAST THE BOTTOM of our last real estate cycle. Just because the Denver Post is suddenly aware of the real estate market, or Zillow writes screeching articles about the tight market in order to sell ad space don’t be fooled. It’s not new. It is a logical continuation of a market that is reacting strongly to the over-selling we saw between 2007 and 2009 (which finally bottomed out in 2009). It’s doing exactly what real estate market cycles do. They rise and fall over long periods of time, but historically (and I mean over the past 40 years) residential real estate appreciation has averaged 6 percent per year and there is no reason to think that is going to change over the next 40 years.
We tend to think of market cycles in short-terms, spiking and crashing over short periods of time, but a quick look at the last market cycle clearly shows this is not how real estate works. Real estate cycles tend to move in much broader periods, 7-10 years are typical over the past 40 years. This is why predicting short-term market movements can be very difficult, whereas assuming the market will move in 7-10 cycles is a pretty good guess. During these past four years, as we continue the rise from our low, we have seen more of a seller’s market. Plummeting inventory and rising prices drove nervous buyers into multiple offer competitions with happy sellers getting the price they want. In fact, look at Chart Y and you’ll get a great perspective of how strong our market is. You see that the metro Denver 2013 Closed Dollar Volume of all residential sales hit a new high which translates into a record amount of money in the pockets of sellers. Good times for sellers!
Many of my buyers are understandably nervous. Rents are skyrocketing (up 8% this year) but news articles and TV reports claim the market is teetering on the brink of a crash, creating a “Fear of Buying”.
So let me be clear: no one can predict the real estate market with 100% accuracy. I can’t, the Federal Reserve can’t, the banks with all the money can’t (obviously!), no one can. But, understanding how market cycles work, and recognizing how low our current inventory is, I can say with confidence I do not see any impending weakness in the market over the next couple of years. We are four years into what will probably be a typical 7-10 year cycle of low inventory and rising prices. I can’t tell you what the Dow Jones will finish at next Monday. I can’t tell you if the Rockies will win their fifth game of the season. I can’t tell you what the weather will be on April 3rd. But I can say with confidence that real estate tends to move over predictable long-term trends, and this market cycle has a long way to go.

Rona BarrettThe Starz Denver Film Festival, now in its 36th year, opens this week with an impressive array of cinematic treats. More than 250 features, shorts, music videos and student films will be screened over the eleven day festival with plenty of pre-show parties, post-film panels, Red Carpet Galas and whispers in the Late Night Lounge. We’ll roll out the Kleig lights for those soon-to-be-Hollywood-blockbusters; Labor Day, Nebraska, August: Osage County, At Middleton and the Red Carpet Galas that put the “festive” in the Festival, but it’s the lesser known films that are often are the most memorable. I’ll be scouring and screening, sorting out the skinny and bringing you the news and interviews (Hello Joyce Maynard!) via my THE HUFFINGTON POST blog, but the really hot dish heats up here. I’m goin’ all Rona Barrett on you as I put the Gal in Gala, the life into the party and bring it all to you in (sur)real time and living color.
Pick-your-enemies-carefully-or-you'll-never-make-it-in-Los-Angeles.
All the little last minute details… Right now we don’t know which version LA is sending for The Centerpiece screening of August: Osage County. Will it be director John Wells’ cut or will producer Harvey Weinstein have his way with us?
All the ruffled feathers… One local filmmaker is upset by the content of the Denver Actor Project… something about “Audition tapes” was overheard. Ironically the genesis of the Denver Actor Project was intended to bring Denver filmmakers together to reflect our talent pool and beautiful city, a’la Paris Je T’aime, which Nebraska director Alexander Payne was a part of. The love letter to Denver was too ambitious to do in the available time frame so director, Brad Stabio marched to his own one-man-band pulling together six Denver actors (Jordan Leigh, Chris Grundy, Paul Page, Amie MacKenzie, Jeff Kosloski and me), shooting six individual films and a story to tie these short films together. Running 1-3 minutes each of these six short pieces reveal a part of the whole. I am one of the six, with my part screening before “The Truth About Emmanuel” on Sunday and Monday.
I plan on seeing everything my fellow thespians are in, including Katharyn Grant’s award-winning Indie, The One Who Loves You. Grant, a Colorado actor/filmmaker, directs herself in this love story, set in the 1970s about a failed singer who falls for the grifter who helps her believe in herself. Shot in and around Denver, the cast of The One Who Loves You features some of Denver’s most familiar faces including Rhonda Brown, donnie l betts, Martha Harmon Pardee, Candy Brown, Judy Phelan-Hill, Elizabeth Rose, Laura Norman and Jordan Leigh. The One Who Loves You screens Monday, November 11 at 4:45 and Tuesday the 12th at 9:00.
Stay tuned, comment, converse, share, ask and FOLLOW THIS BLOG or jump in on Twitter @tracetime, @DenverFilm, #SDFF36 And don’t forget to BUY YOUR TICKETS!

Paint FanOne of my favorite things about being in real estate is looking at houses. I’m mad about architecture, color, design, shape and style. I love staging that brings out the best features in the home while keeping it homey. Watching home improvement shows, HGTV, and all that real estate porn… I must admit, excites me. And when January rolls around and the color wizards announce the nominees, I feel as dizzy as an ingenue on Oscar morning.
On any given power-shopping Saturday, I can take buyers to look at five to fifteen properties. After house number 10, you’re beginning to feel a sense of overwhelm and the ‘buyer’s blur’, as each house starts to blend into the next. As the day progresses, the copious notes you started out taking become chicken scratches or a simple “NO!” until you get to my favorite place… walk in, walk out.
At the beginning of a house hunt, we feel the need to take the time to visualize ourselves in the home, our colors on the wall and grandma’s hutch in the dining room. Once you get the “Blur” it’s like triage, you identify what’s wrong quickly and assess if you can fix it or if you have to move on.
So sellers, what is it that buyers are responding to? First off I’d say CLEAN. And I mean clean to the point that a team of pros came in and scrubbed every corner with a toothbrush! Even an old house will look new when it’s sparkling clean. It inspires trust, helps us believe you’ve taken good care of your home. And by all means DECLUTTER. I know you’ve heard this before, from me and a thousand other HGTV Realtors, because we’re right. We’re the ones in the house when you’ve left for the showing and we hear EVERYTHING. When I say declutter, I don’t mean get rid of those things you’ve been planning to take to the Goodwill, I mean take all that to the Goodwill and then come home and pack up half of what you own!
Now comes the good part; UPDATE! The new 2013 colors are out and they are sensational. Spend some time browsing around to see if there’s something that speaks to you. If you’re prepping to sell (and right now you should be), look at the new neutrals, look at the latest accent colors and see if there’s something you can do to make your home feel au currant. You’re going to have to break out the paint brush, may as well add some pop! A word of caution though, if you’re not comfortable taking the lead on this bring in a color consultant or a stager for a professional eye. It can make a big difference in how much your home sells for and how quickly it sells.
The Denver market has changed. Home prices are up a stout 7% but that doesn’t mean you can just plant a sign in the yard and ask top dollar. If you want the most for your home, put the most into it. I guarantee you, that’s what your neighbor’s doing.
So… I guess it’s time to start moving on moving.

rsz_football-big-thumbIt’s Friday night. The Broncos are in the playoffs and the Mile Hi City is tickled…orange. In Denver, we take our football seriously. Denizens will brave tomorrow’s freezing temps to celebrate at pre-game tailgate parties and freeze their own tails in the stands, while the taste of beer, brats and a Broncos victory creates an excitement that is palpable. It hasn’t been easy for fans the past few years; roster changes, close calls and heartaches have sent tears streaming over many a blue and orange painted cheek.
So does it take to push yourself over the goal line when your adversaries are strong and your opponents worthy? Sometimes it’s a matter of luck and game. He who wants it the most wins, and as Annette Bening famously shows us in American Beauty… The same goes for real estate.

Hopefully we’re not in character Carolyn Burnham‘s situation, but we can relate to her state of mind. I know I can. It’s not been an easy ride on housing market roller coaster, but now Denver has plenty to be excited about. The real estate market is one of the strongest in the nation, leading the way through the recovery. Home prices up 6.87 percent over a year ago according to the latest Case Schiller report, and mortgage interest rates are looking to remain low through 2013.
There have been times over the past few years when I wondered if it would change and how long it would take. Seeing people suffer has been difficult, helping them through it, gratifying, and somehow… on a wing and a prayer, by luck, pluck, with great cheerleaders and sheer force of will, we’ve made it…just like the Broncos.
It’s coming on game time. GO TEAM.


I am (where real estate is involved) lucky in love. I’m not talking about the beach house I got in the last divorce *winks* but how often I find Cupid at the closing table. It takes work to find a house with everything on your buyers’ wish list, but it’s nothing short of kismet when the brother and sister selling their father’s home meet the mother and the two kids who’ll soon be hanging out in the tree house their father built. Every home has a tale to tell, and when that love story moves from one chapter to the next as gracefully as a Jane Hamilton novel, you know you’ve made a “love connection”.
Manufacturing love stories between buyers and sellers… that can be a tricky matter.
Perhaps it’s the rise of social media, where everything is suddenly shared, or the result of Denver’s revived real estate market where the multiple-offer situation has made a comeback, but the latest accessory to go with an offer is not an earnest money check, it’s… The Love Letter.
I had a few of these cross my desk when the market was struggling. Sellers, desperate to sell and worn down by the reality of their diminished property values, were thrilled to hear those four little words, “We have an offer”. Until the contract hit my inbox, followed by a “We really, really love you house, we just don’t want to pay much for it” letter, which usually left a sour taste in and brought a few choice words out of the sellers’ mouths. I’d say it was the real estate equivalent of Fifty Shades of Grey; lousy writing and you know someone’s about to get screwed.
Enter the hero. The market shifted, and so did the tone of this tome. With multiple offers a common occurrence, buyers (or their agents) believe if they add a bit of folksy insight into who they are— Their years in Seminary, how he fell in love with the garage, she with the garden and how the shed is perfect for their chickens— that flattery will give them an edge.
Now everybody’s got a gimmick, I get that. The homeless bear signs—“Homeless Vet” “Dog-lover”, “God Bless” (complete with Ichthus), or “Will Work for Beer” aiming at their niche market, their tribe. Buyers try and create some commonality with the stranger who currently occupies their dream home, or perhaps they’ve lost the past three offers and are looking for something other than raising their price to cinch the deal. Call me old fashioned, but isn’t that the Realtor’s job? I consider it my job— make that my sacred duty— to not only find my clients the right house, but to put together a fair and decent offer and present it to the seller’s agent, along with a persuasive argument on behalf of my buyer. That is the opening move in a strong negotiation. If I’m worth my salt, of course my clients will be over-the-moon with excitement at finding their dream home, but once we bring the personal into an already emotional business transaction, I fear the salt/wound proximity increases.
This idea of including a buyer’s note is circling around my office like a chain letter, and I don’t care if the world will end in ten days or killer bees will take over the Volvo, I’m here to break it. There are plenty of opportunities for good real estate agents to share your passion and exchange drawings of the chicken coop. To a seller the passion you feel is reflected, not through an effusive statement that your Goldens must have come from the same litter, but by strength of your offer.

How many mornings must we wake up to senseless violence? Today I am deeply saddened, I am stunned. I am ready to write but all of my energy goes to the victims, the families, my community and my country in this time of tragedy. Love someone today, and love them out loud.

From Senator Mark Udall, some helpful resources for Coloradans affected by the Aurora shooting:

– For questions regarding friends or family involved, please call the Medical Center of Aurora at 303-873-5292.
– Evacuation/Reunification Center: Gateway High School, 1300 S Sable Blvd, Aurora.
– Blood Donations – All six Denver metro donor centers are open today until 7 p.m. and there are also mobile drives open to the public. Those interested should call 303-366-2000 or visit www.bonfils.org to schedule an appointment. Bonfils is particularly in need of O-, A- and platelets. No walk-ins please.
– Tip Line for people with information regarding the Aurora event – 303-739-1637.
Colorado Organization for Victim Assistance (COVA) has many resources to help process this tragedy. Click the link for a list of resources. If you are looking to connect with one of the victims, call 303-861-1160.

Every little thing is a big thing these days. Working our way out of the greatest economic downturn in recent history, combined with election year histrionics tend to create some confusing headlines. It’s like seeing a fire ant on the sidewalk, taking a magnifying glass to it and finding you’ve blown the damn thing up!
CNNMoney ran an article late June featuring the ant and the magnifying glass, but buried the picnic basket. If you read only

Home sales slowed slightly in May, as the housing market continues on its bumpy road to recovery.Sales of existing homes in May slipped 1.5% versus the month prior, the National Association of Realtors said Thursday…

well that sounds kinda bad. Until you read the next line “to an annualized rate of 4.55 million.”
And now the picnic basket the ant is presumably heading toward.

The May sales figures are still a big improvement versus last year, up 9.6% compared with the annualized sales rate of 4.15 million in May of 2011, the NAR said. The median existing home price in the U.S. rose 7.9% over the same period, according to the report.

Now I’d like to lay out the checkered table cloth… (bold type mine)

Analysts say that demand among potential homebuyers remains solid, with many having put off purchases during the downturn in the past few years. Home prices remain affordable and mortgage rates are at record lows, but limited access to credit and high down payment requirements are holding back sales.

The last part about the credit scores and down payments? It’s true that lenders and underwriters being more diligent, as they should be, but there are also a wide variety of mortgage products and down payment programs available. The dramatic ending, “holding back sales” may be doing just that.

Read the article in its entirety and tell me what you think.

Well, look who’s coming back around. With all due respect for the “Respected Media”, it looks as if they finally got the memo. Though real estate, like the weather, is hyper-local the mainstream types reporting on the national outlook finally figured out that the housing market is growing again.
Both The Wall Street Journal and the New York Times said this week that “it would appear that housing is making a comeback”. Of course, REAL Trends has reported eight consecutive months of increased housing sales and three months of increasing housing prices, while NAR reports increased unit sales during the same time frame and that prices are firming.
Until Case Shiller said that prices were turning around, neither of these news organizations would report such a thing; perhaps that’s just as well. It took them 12 months to report that housing was headed downward. In fact, they still report the downturn as occurring in the spring/summer of 2006 when in reality the beginning of the slide was in fall 2005. That is when unit sales began to slump on an annual basis. Yes, I’m being picky…
The media may not always be fair or accurate in their reporting on the housing market. Recent years of staff cutbacks across the nation’s newspapers have left researchers and reporters without the time or (perhaps the inclination) to really research any sources that don’t fit their preconceptions.
Overreliance on Case Shiller tend to mask a real turnaround in most housing markets. Thanks to consumers and investors alike, housing is starting the long road back to health. Those of us “on the ground” have witnessed six months of solid grown in the Denver housing market, with homes selling quickly at or above asking price.
Though I’m not ready to start the parade (my calves are still sore from today’s Independence festivities) or predict a huge breakout of double digit appreciation, the evidence is overwhelming that housing is on the way back. Could it be time to strike up the band?