The Historic Hotel Colorado in Glenwood Springs was the site of a meeting this past week between several top ski resort real estate brokers and Bank of America executives and loan officers to discuss better ways to help buyers and sellers of second homes and vacation mountain properties assimilate real estate information via the internet; as well as, the importance of locallized Realtor and loan officers communication.

Real estate purchases in the mountains compete directly with your time to enjoy yourself and be on vacation doing the things you love to do.  You would prefer not to look at every neighborhood in the Vail Valley, Aspen and Telluride and are looking for someone who knows and understands these markets collectively; you obviously want someone you can trust like family; and someone that does more than just show property.  You also want to do alot of the research and analysis yourself on the internet prior to visiting Colorado.  Conversly, you Sellers, especially in the down real estate market want to make sure you have maximum exposure on the Internet and locally for your property; and, that ALL capable buyers see your property before they buy.

In the past four or five years with the advent of Web 2.0, real estate search portals like Trulia, Realtor.com and Zillow have become the popular way to search for property, especially resort and luxury property on the internet.  Nationally, online real estate search prior to the purchase has reached an all time high in 2010; 93% up from 74% just three years prior - in a very depressed market.  With resort real estate, the percentage for second home buyer search prior to purchase could be closer to a perfect 100%.

What we found to be true per our round table discussions was that hyper-intense local knowledge of real estate and comprehensive property pairing abilities are imperative to Sellers and Buyers.  The reason, for all of the good honest information on the Internet comes much more mis-information and persuasion about these sophisticated world class Rocky Mountain resort destinations.  For small boutique ski communities with world class amenities, things like Zestimates, zip code searches and one-off property hype just do not compute.

SO, in conclusion, our advice to you is if you are considering purchasing a home in the mountains or if you already own a property and want to trade or sell, get to know a local Realtor months before the property purchase, a real estate broker that has internet sophistication, long time local knowledge and provides you with good statistics and newly listed properties that fit your criteria on a regular and timely basis.

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Travel and Leisure Magazine has ranked the Sonnenalp Hotel and Resort No. 69 in the 2010 Worlds Best Hotels in the annual Worlds Best Awards.  The property is also recognized by the T&L publisher as the best hotel in the state of Colorado.

The Sonnenalp has been owned and managed directly for generations by Vail Valley's very own Johannes Fessler; a fourth generation proprietor who's family also owns and runs the famed Sonnenalp Hotel and Resort in Bavaria.  As a Vail Valley resident, I can attest that Johannes is a constant presence at the hotel and has a tireless smile when greeting hotel guests....and, it's a big hotel now; a hundred and fifteen suites and twelve hotel rooms.

Here's the history from Johannes Fessler's bio:

"The Sonnenalp concept dates back to 1919, when Fässler’s great grandparents, Eleanor and Adolf, opened a simple ranch house in Bavaria. Over the next 50 years, two more generations continued to build the Sonnenalp into a first-class European vacation resort. In 1979, Fässler’s parents, Karl and Gretl, purchased the Wedel Inn Motel in Vail, Colorado and following a major renovation, opened as the Sonnenalp Hotel in Vail with 38 rooms on the site that is now the Austria Haus."

The Austria Haus has now been converted and mostly sold as interval ownership with rights to use the Sonnenalp amenities.  There are a few five week vacation ownerships currently available starting at just over $200,000.  If you are interested you can find a link at the bottom of this post with more details.

The Sonnenalp Hotel has also recently been recognized on the Expedia Insiders Select List.  These are extraordinary accolades for this family run self managed hotel located in the heart of Vail Village.

In addition to the Vail Village Sonnenalp resort, the Sonnenalp also owns and directly manages one of the most successful and playable private golf course country clubs of the Vail Valley located in Edwards, Colorado, just 13 miles away.  In fact, Sonnenalp Golf Club hosted the Colorado Open for three consecutive years in the early 2000's.  Golf tee times and discounted rates are avaialable when you stay at the Sonnenalp Resort.

Come see why everyone is talking about the "New Vail".  It can now be said quite certainly that Vail Mountain has become a world class resort that rivals the most exotic and far reaching destinations on the planet.  You can book your reservations directly at the Sonnenalp Resort below.

John Helmering has been a Vail real estate broker since 1989.  In the 90's, he worked for Prudential at the base of Vail Mountain in Lionshead.  During the past decade, Helmering has helped to establish a myriad of real estate offices and new luxury developments throughout the Vail Valley.  John's experience includes ski in ski out property negotiations, multi-million dollar property sales, land and ranch representation, new development, and resort sales management.  He starts his latest real estate brokerage chapter this week with the opening of the new Gateway Land and Development office in Vail Village.

John Helmering's dedication to professionalism, resort product knowledge and marketing innovations have made him a pronounced success locally as well as nationally within his field.  John is a Certified Residential Specialist, CRS and a Graduate, Real Estate Institute, GRI. He has served locally as an elected director of the Vail Board of Realtors and is a founding member of the Worldwide Recreational and Resort Sales Council.  John Helmering's ski resort market insights appear regularly in the Denver Post and other national publications and he has even recently appeared on the PBS Newshour.

John's world class experience in Vail real estate and ski resort markets make him a perfect choice when marketing, selling or buying your second home.  John Helmering can be reached at 970-331-1110 or john@resortmarkets.com

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