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. | 
