Denver Real Estate Blog

There are so many things to love about this home - where do I start?

The front yard?  Beautifully landscaped with a 3-car garage, wide driveway and enough room for a basketball hoop, a walkway that leads up to the welcoming front porch and covered entry…come on in!

The foyer?  Large but not too formal, with plenty of space for guests to hang their coats and kids to dump their backpacks, with inset archways perfect for a large mirror or special artwork. 

The study? Light and bright with large windows that look out onto the front porch, shut the door and get some work done, or keep it open and keep an eye on the kiddos in the great room!

Main floor powder room?  Conveniently placed near the entry, but set back down a short hallway, with a pedestal sink and neutral paint, roomy enough for a small table or cabinet.

Dining room?  Windows on two sides allow plenty of natural light in this intimate setting, large enough to seat 12 comfortably, or a larger group who likes to get cozy.

Great room?  Wall of windows with panoramic views of the entire Front Range and Tabletop Mountain, as well as the neighborhood lake and adjacent Open Space below - patio doors open onto the upper deck, and the kitchen island, large-screen TV nook and gas fireplace make entertaining or just hanging out at home a complete pleasure.  Large chef’s kitchen with 6-burner gas cooktop, island with sink and dishwasher, and seating around allow the host to interact easily with guests or watch the kids play in the yard while making dinner. 

Heading upstairs, to 4 bedrooms and 3 en-suite baths…

The Master Bedroom? Huge, light and bright with floor to ceiling windows offering spectacular views.  The Master Bath features an extra-long and extra-deep soaking tub  surrounded by windows with custom up-down blinds for privacy, double sinks, large shower with bench, and double walk-in closets!

The Second Bedroom?  Large window, en-suite full bath, cheery and bright!

The Third and Fourth bedrooms are connected by a jack and jill bath, and pocket doors create extra space, and each bedroom has a large closet!

Additional features….

Walk-in pantry, main-floor laundry room with built in counters and cabinets, hickory hardwood floors, maple cabinets, walk out basement ready for an additional bedroom and full bathroom, professional landscaping featuring low-water foliage…the list goes on an on…contact me for more info or a private tour!

Eat Local

The National Resources Defense Council has created a new website, SmarterCities.nrdc.org that is a treasure trove of information about American cities and their level of sustainability.  Categories include Air Quality, Energy Production and Conservation, Environmental Standards and Participation, Green Building, Green Space, Recycling, Transportation, Standard of Living, and Water Quality and Conservation.  They also have a great feature that helps you figure out what is in season so that you can eat local.

It’s super interesting to check out the different rankings - and good to know that Denver is up there - #9 Overall.  Also #2 for Energy Production and Conservation, and #2 for Water Quality.

There is a TON of information on the site, check it out here.

I also thought that this was really interesting - I have driven by this site several times but wasn’t sure what they were up to - now I know:

Arvada is constructing solar energy capacity at its water treatment plant in partnership with SunEdison, and will be the first city in Colorado to have a system of this size run on solar power. Solar power from 3,300 panels is expected to provide 88 percent of the plant’s energy needs, which are currently supplied almost entirely by coal. The solar system, which will be owned and operated by SunEdison, will eliminate 39.5 million pounds of carbon dioxide emissions over 20 years and will save $10,000 to $15,000 the first year. The upfront costs will be paid back through a combination of rates paid by the city, federal tax credits and renewable energy credits from the utility, Xcel Energy.

1.  The first-time homebuyer tax credit has pulled renters off the fence in a big way - $8,000 is a great incentive to make a commitment to a property, and, especially in the $100,000 range as well as the $200-250,000 range, there isn’t anything left to show them!  Do you have a cute little condo that you are tired of renting out?  Are you outgrowing your home or your neighborhood?  Are you just ready to move on up the property ladder?  Now is the time, because that tax credit is expiring soon….properties have to CLOSE by December 1st to qualify.  So get it ready and get it on the market, already!  I think you will regret it if you don’t.

2.  Everything is so darn green and lovely right now.  I am loving showing homes with gorgeous green grass, blooming gardens, and luscious looking trees - these things sell houses, folks.  Don’t wait til September, when the kids are heading back to school and everything’s all brown and dry looking.

3.  Inventory is low, low, low.  In most of Denver’s urban and sububurban hoods, properties that are ready to go and priced right are receiving multiple offers straight away.  Isn’t that the market you want to sell your place in?  In December, you might sit on the market for quite a while, and then end up lowering your price several times, before you finally get a bite.

Listen, no one knows where the market is headed, but I can tell you this - I have been unlocking doors non-stop for the last month.  I am busier that I have ever been.  It’s because there are loads of buyers out there, looking for a house to call home!

In between an inspection and a closing this afternoon, we decided to stop by an Open House tour in one of Denver’s premiere neighborhoods - as two real estate agents who LOVE real estate, this is always a fun way to spend an afternoon, especially when the homes on the tour are around the $1 million mark. 

We were super surprised to find that the tour did not meet our expectations.  Out of the 6 homes that we visited, only one was in Open House ready condition.  Some were not staged, some were not tidy, and a few just looked downright run-down.  The one that presented well was hosted by the listing agent, who recently took over the listing, although it has been on the market for over a year.  She was nervous but excited and asked in-depth, smart questions about our opinion of the property:

 How did it show?  Was there anything she could do to improve the first impression?  How was the price?

The worst of the bunch wasn’t even staged, and the hosting agent barely even looked up as we came through the door.  She kept typing on her laptop, which was sitting on a folding card table,  the whole time we were in the property.  She didn’t ask for feedback, and she hadn’t bothered to sweep the floors or give the windows a quick cleaning.  The lawn was overgrown, there were no fresh flowers or hint of Febreze, nothing that made me want to show the house to a potential buyer, much less buy it myself. 

I had to wonder if the seller has any idea how the listing is being treated!  In any price range, it takes work to sell a home.  Especially in today’s unpredictable market, you can’t just hang up a sign and wait for offers to come rolling in.  Listing agents have to do a lot of leg work - marketing with a combination of both traditional and out-of-the-box tools - from postcards to print ads, to Facebook and Twitter - the game has changed.  Don’t you want a listing agent who knows the new rules?

In recent weeks, we have listed several properties - we have also cleaned, landscaped, staged, painted, and maintained those properties - because sometimes getting something right means doing it yourself - and the best agents understand this.  And I can tell you this: if you walk into an Open House hosted by one of us, you will not be ignored.  We will ask you what you think. We will thank you for taking the time to stop in.  And we will blog about it later. 

These are the new rules - get in the game.

NEW CARBON MONOXIDE DETECTOR LAW  HB1091:  This law was signed into effect on March 24, 2009 and will require that after July 1, 2009 all NEW OR SOLD properties in the state with a fuel fired heater or appliance, or an attached garage must have carbon monoxide detectors installed.  AT THIS TIME ALL RENTAL PROPERTIES MUST ALSO HAVE CARBON MONOXIDE DETECTORS INSTALLED.  There must be a detector on each occupied level and there must be a detector within 15 feet of the entrance of any area designated for sleeping. 

This townhome has all of the updates you’ve been craving - and the mortgage will probably be less than you are paying for rent.  Contact me to see it while it’s still available!  It’s the only unit currently available in Trailside!

We have a new listing that will go on the market tomorrow - with two Master Suites, brand new furnace and air conditioning, updated kitchen and bathrooms, and a bonus room in the basement, it’s a sweet little deal at $155,000.  Backs to greenbelt and trails to parks, library, open space and Standley Lake.  Private backyard with large trex deck, perfect for a container garden.  Community pool and hot tub being built as I write this, and slated to open just in time for summer fun.

I will post pics as soon as they are taken tomorrow.  If you would like information before then, please contact me!

We’re working with several people right now who have their homes listed for not much more than they owe.  We’re OK with that.  Why?  THE MATH!  They’re movin’ on up…to a house in Highland they can actually afford…to a big suburban ranch where the kids will have room to roam…to a loft in the city…and they are all letting go of the home they aren’t all that happy in so that they can do it.  So, even though they might not get as much for their current digs as they would have 2 years ago, or 5 years from now, they are still making the move on up at the right time, because they are getting such good deals on their new properties.

Here’s an article from MSNBC that lays it all out:

After two years of married life in a 680-square-foot, one-bedroom Seattle condo, Lori and Chris Kirsten were ready to spread out in a real house with room for a home theater and a yard where the Labrador retriever they had always wanted could roam.

The Kirstens prepared to list their condo for sale and go house-hunting, banking on equity in the unit, which Lori had brought in 2003 for $130,000, to help with the transition to a larger place. Seattle’s hot real estate market had pushed the condo’s value to $215,000 or more at its peak in 2007.

But their home search lost some steam when their agent told them Western Washington real estate prices, although not in the freefall experienced elsewhere, had still declined to the point that their unit might now fetch $25,000 or $30,000 less than two years ago. When they saw condos comparable to theirs selling for as little as $170,000, “I thought, ‘I just can’t do it,’” Lori recalled.

Their mood brightened when they began shopping in the spacious neighborhoods of this suburb northeast of Seattle and found a 3,000-square-foot, four-bedroom split-level on a half-acre of towering fir trees that they wound up buying for $425,000. That’s $86,000 less than the $511,000 peak value placed on the home by real estate Web site Zillow.com, $64,000 below the original asking price of $489,000 and even well below the final asking price of $438,000.

Read the rest.

We’re feeling the recovery every day around here - downtown, in NW Denver, and even in Golden, Arvada, and Wheatridge, among other Metro areas.  Low inventory, low prices, low rates and rising demand are all helping to jump-start movement in D-town, and it’s even starting to feel like FLIPPING will pay off big time if done right!

Check out this article from BUILDER magazine:

John Burns always seems to be step ahead of the pack when it comes to forecasting the housing market, especially local demand. Among the first analysts to write that a major price correction was necessary before the market would rebound, Burns has since developed a local market forecasting tool.

Dubbed Housing Cycle GPA, the analytical model considers 29 years of history to determine a local market’s health. The primary drivers are local demand, supply, and affordability, along with what’s happening in the national economy. When two of the three local fundamentals rise, that usually means price appreciation is likely to occur, sometimes immediately, in other cases, over several years.

We asked the analysts at John Burns Associates to use the model to determine which five major home building markets might recover first. They produced a list that includes some metro areas with strong job formation, others where home builder competition is almost nil, and still others where price declines have made homes quite affordable.

1.

Washington, DC. Burns’ bullishness on this market boils down to a single word—jobs. “If a sector will be hiring, it will be the Federal government,” he says. D.C. was also among the first markets to have a price correction. “Within a reasonable commute of the Capitol, homes have become very affordable and supply is constrained.”

2.San Diego, Calif. “Most of the home builders and speculators have left town, and left a very supply-constrained market behind. The biotechnology sector is likely to lead an economic recovery that will be characterized by great affordability (by San Diego standards) and a lack of supply.”

3.Sacramento, Calif. “Although we expect housing demand in Sacramento to remain low due to state fiscal issues, much of the excess supply in both new and resale homes has been cleared out, and affordability is fantastic.”

4. Dallas, Texas. “Assuming mortgage rates remain low and GSE lending doesn’t change, Dallas’ housing market should stabilize due to increased demand from people relocating from the west to one of the most affordable markets in the country. North Dallas should recover long before South Dallas.”

5. Denver, Colo. “One of the best places to live in the country, Denver was just recovering from the telecom bust when it got hit by the national economic downturn as well. Housing is extremely affordable and foreclosure activity, which used to lead the country, is now much lower than most other areas of the country.”

Read the rest of the article.

Can you believe it’s March already?!  I like to call this St. Patrick’s Day month…and stretch the celebration out as long as possible…

St. Patrick’s Day Parade - March 14th - 10 am

Come join us for the largest St. Patrick’s Day Parade west of the Mississippi where the only thing better than being of Irish descent is living in Colorado!  More than 200 entries, including floats, clowns, pipe bands, high school marching bands, Irish step dancers, and El Jebel Shriners, 10,000 marchers will wow the crowd by celebrating St. Patrick’s Day Denver-style.  

Parade Route
South on Blake Street to 17th Street;
Turn west to Union Station;
Turn north on Wynkoop;
End behind Coors Field. 

 Visit www.denver.org or http://www.countingpix.com/id1.html for a map of the parade route and more information.

 Running of the Green - March 15th10:15 AM at 17th and Wazee 

 The 21st annual Running of the Green - benefits the Volunteers of America to help the very young, the homebound elderly and for women and children that are victims of domestic violence.

Get Lucky Open House Tour Hosted by LIVE Urban Real Estate - March 14th and 15th

Visit one of LIVE Urban’s Open Houses this weekend for free refreshments, homebuyer information, and the chance to win a FLIP digital video camera!

For more info, visit www.liveurbandenver.com or contact me!